Thursday, September 22, 2011

Food, glorious food!

Today I want to direct your attention to The Muffin Myth, because I just came across it (thanks to Everything Mom) and once there spent a blissful half hour reading old posts. Beautiful, friendly writing and inspired recipes.

I made the Chickpea Salad from Katie's blog last night and we devoured it on bread with soup for dinner; now I'm gobbling it on crackers for lunch. So. Good.

ps try it on homemade crackers - I promise, they're so easy to make - and so yummy you'll want to make them often!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Today

In case anyone had the idea that life over here is perfect... This is my sweet, charming daughter today:
She would NOT nap no matter what I tried (really... I even did the vacuuming with her in a carrier. That's desperate.), until finally she basically collapsed from exhaustion at 2:30.

Yesterday was similar - first (and only) nap at 2:05 for an hour. Then she woke every hour from bedtime to 1:00 am (and was up at 3 for nursing and at 7:30 for the day). I am exhausted. She is exhausted. 

I'm guessing I have another 15 minutes to myself before she wakes. Guess I should try to eat/drink something and go pee.

AAAAAUUUUUUGHHHHHHH


Monday, September 19, 2011

The Stink. (and what to do about it)

I'm a big cloth diapers advocate (and proud of it!) but lately I've had a battle on my hands.

The Stink.  (bom-bom-boommmmmm!)

We had ammonia buildup and we had it bad. It's not just the solid foods poop that can cause stinky cloth diapers, ammonia can be a big stinky problem. I have a feeling - and I hate to blame Calgary* - but I have a feeling that the hard water we were washing diapers in at our apartment while we were there this summer was a big contributor to the problem.

So I tried all kinds of things:
  • different detergents (less, more, etc)
  • sunning the diapers and inserts (according to my husband, UV rays break down ammonia)
  • rocking a soak overnight with Rockin' Green (btw, the scent I have is Rage Against the Raspberry and I can't smell a darn thing. I'm not talking about after the wash is done because I get that the scent is not meant to stick around. I mean, the soap doesn't even smell like anything. Huh??)
nothing. worked.

Aughhhhh, stink!

Finally, I tried the Blue Dawn solution that I'd read about online. I was hesitant to put dish detergent in my HE front loader but I just couldn't take the stink any longer. I was desperate. In Canada - at least where I am in Canada - you can find the original Blue Dawn at Dollarama. A teaspoon in a front loader's detergent drawer, a hot wash and several rinses later (until there are no suds), and - no stink!

YAY. So don't bother with the other stuff if you come across this problem. Don't hesitate and muck around like I did. Head straight to the dollar store, spend a buck on a bottle of Blue Dawn and get the stink out.

Unfortunately, poop is still stinky and there's not a whole heck of a lot you can do about that. I'm aiming to toilet train the moment she hits 18 months and has sphincter control.  
Yes, I just talked about poop and sphincter control on my blog.  I have become that blogger.

*despite my weird things about Calgary I and II posts, I developed a soft spot for the city and totally miss my friends there!! I'm not sure I miss the creepy giant rabbits though. just sayin'.