Storage Solutions

When I first started cloth diapering I obviously had a limited amount of diapers. So finding a place to put them wasn't really an issue. Even though we had 2 in diapers only one was in cloth. We wanted to make sure it was the right choice for us before we invested a lot of money into it. Since our baby was only 1 month old we still had him in our room. We set up his diapers on our dresser and made it into a little changing station. We had mainly prefolds and covers for him and a couple of Thirsties Duos. These all fit perfectly into a small weaved basket. We also had wipes tubs with the following: 1-butt cream, and other baby care items, 2- wipes, 3- changing pads, 4-wash clothes. This worked great for us.


Then we decided to start cloth diapering our at the time, 1 1/2 year old son as well. We had this wooden shelf my parents had given us that they no longer used and we were using it for diapering items so this worked great for the cloth. We have it next to the changing table and it was easily accessible. We started out our older son in prefolds and covers mainly and some AIO's and pockets. There is also a lot of left over sposies!Traveling with cloth was quite different than disposables. They do take up more room so you can't just throw a huge pile in. You have to pack what you need with a little extra for the just in case moments. I have a JJ Cole Mode bag and I love it! It is skinny and deep. Now, I will say this...my diaper bag does not look this organized every time! This was probably for a half a day outing so I didn't need to many diapers. I lined them all up on the bottom of the bag which allowed me to keep extra clothes and burp rags on top of them. In the side pockets I kept wipes, creams and baggies. I was also nursing so I didn't need any bottles, formula containers, etc. so that save space as well. I know find myself going out of the house with at least 2 bags each time. One with diapering supplies, bottles and formula and baby food and a second with extra clothes.

Then my stash got attacked by other diapers and it grew and grew and grew and well you get the picture...I now have so many diapers its crazy, but awesome! Please keep in mind I am still cloth diapering two children. Also, did not contain all my diapers at the time and I now have probably at least 10-15 more than when this was taken. Above my washing machine I have a ribbon hanging up with clothes pins...wonderful for rainy days and winter months.
So now you are probably wondering what in the world I do with all my diapers! Well, my 1 month old (from the beginning of the post) I mentioned is now 8 months old and shares a room with his big brother. So that means I have to share the changing table space. Here is the changing table as we have it set up. We no longer use the tall skinny shelf for diapers, it is full of books. I have 3 baskets on the top shelf and two bigger baskets on the bottom. The basket on the top shelf on the right contains our night time diapers for both boys.

The middle basket on the top shelf contains diapers I use every day. We have quite the variety of diapers and I love them!
The basket on the top shelf left side contains all my BG 3.0's and 4.0's. These are the diapers that fit both of the boys with out any adjusting...so daddy friendly! Most of the diapers in the other basket on this shelf will fit both boys as well but this one is guaranteed to fit. This makes the hubs happy.

On the bottoms shelf I have a basket with a variety of items. This is mostly filled with my baby prefolds and medium, large and size 2 duo covers, fitteds and a couple of out grown diapers. Every now and again ( like today) I get in a mode where I just want to do the prefolds/fitted. They were my original diapering system and I can't give up on them!
The large basket on the bottom shelf holds all of my infant prefolds, small covers, size 1 duo covers, and all the small diapers that baby out grew. :( They are so little and when I look at them it makes me want another right now! lol I also keep all my extra inserts in this basket. This comes in handy for when I need to improvise and stuff extra inserts into a diaper for nap time or bed time.

This is how I store all my diapers. Its what works best for me and every now and again I change it up because of more diapers or I find a diaper I like better than another or some simply get out grown. I have seen some other great diaper storage solutions where people use the three tiered shelf with the plastic bins of bight colors for their diapers and they are all organized by size, style, inserts, prefolds etc. Pretty neat! People have also used wooden shelves with a bunch of cubes in them for storing diapers.

What do you use to store your diapers? Share below and feel free to post a picture on our FB page wall! I love to see all the different options out there.

Pancakes anyone?

My son loves to eat pancakes. He asks for them almost every morning. Last week I forgot to buy some more. I get the frozen ones that you just pop into the microwave. So last night I decided to make some of my own and freeze them. I was able to get 8 free containers of the Fast Shake pancake mixes pictured below by using coupons! All you do is mix in some water and cook them up. This is something fun you can do with your little ones. I added in the water and let my son shake it up. He liked that a lot!

I just poured a little on to a pan and made about 1 1/2 - 2 in pancakes like the ones I would have bought from the store.

Then when they are done cooking you will need to let them cool completely other wise when you put them in the bag they will get moist and stick together. Which makes it hard to get them out.
Here are the frozen pancakes.
I have also done this before with waffles. He loves to eat these to except when you put these in the toaster they burn in the little squares where it is so thin.
If you like to save money or like to know what your kid is eating this is a great thing to do. I have in the past made jello and pudding and put them in small tupperware bowls then just keep them in the fridge. They make great lunch items and its way cheaper to make them than buy a 4 pack of pudding cups from the store.

Here is my sons breakfast from this morning!
What other items have you made and frozen or put in the fridge to eat?

Brushing Teeth

I seen in one of the comments for the Radius tooth brush giveaway a question about how to help encourage teeth brushing in young children who hate to brush. I guess I an pretty lucky in that my son loves to brush his teeth. We usually have to take the brush from him and take him out of the bathroom crying! But on to the question asked:
First I would like to say, I am by no means an expert. With that said, if you have a child who doesn't like to brush their teeth there are some different things you can try.
-Take your little one to the store and let them pick out a tooth brush of their own. I think that when they are able to pick something out by themselves they feel pretty proud and will be more likely to use it. Just make sure you have the right stage brush for your child.
-Make brushing fun. Allow your child to take lead. Let them play with, chew on, and explore the brush. Its a new thing, you move it all over in your mouth, it feels funny, what the craziness is that thing? I think it helps to let the child to explore what the item is. The more familiar they are the more comfortable they will be sticking it in their mouth.
-Teach them. Use your tooth brush and show them how you brush your teeth. Front circles, side circles, tops, bottoms, how ever you brush show them. Let them try it out too!

Here is my experience with my son:
We started brushing my sons teeth shortly after he got his first couple in. He was probably around 9 months. I think most people don't think to brush at that age because they are so little and because they only eat so much. I think this helped with my son liking to brush teeth.

Once E was old enough we let him have to own brush to explore. He was able to chew on it, brush with it, play with it so that it became more of a good item rather than an item that was considered bad. We still would help him with brushing by holding his hand, not the brush, and showing him how to move the brush around and on his teeth getting the spots needed.

Shortly before E turned 2 he started asking a lot of different times to brush. He would hear my husband turn the water on in the bathroom and would run in there asking to brush his teeth.

We would play a fun 'game' with him and ask him to brush in different spots, like the top, front, bottoms, sides etc and he would do it. We also do a copy game where we will brush our own teeth and he will watch and do the same motions.

E loves to brush and will sit on the counter for forever if we let him brushing his teeth. He is still only 2 though and still needs helping making sure he gets all his teeth clean. That is why we have 2-3 tooth brushes just for him. He picks out the brush he wants and uses it. After a minute or two we pick up a different brush of his and help him. He usually does a pretty good time opening his mouth but every now and again he will keep it closed a little bit, I think because it tickles.

We have his first dentist appointment coming up on the 6th. This should be a really interesting experience. He is such a strong willed child and when something is going on that he is unsure of he fights and screams and kicks and you usually have to sit on his legs or hold him in a super tight hug to get him to calm down. I hope that he does well but I doubt it. I might make my hubby take the afternoon off to go with.

We probably would have waited until E was 3 to take him into the dentist but on Dec. 23 he fell in the tub and hit his face on the side. This resulted in a chipped tooth, really badly bruised gums and I think the teeth got pushed up a little bit. Of couse nothing was open from when it happened until the 27th because of the holiday and we had a recheck for his ears on Tuesday so I asked the Pediatrician about it and she recommending taking him in to get it checked out. She also said that she recommends they start seeing a dentist around 2 - 2 1/2 years old. So off we go to the dentist! I will have to let you know what happens, they might need to sand down the chipped tooth to smooth it out.

I would love to hear about your children's experience with brushing their teeth at a young age. Did they love it, hate it? What did you do to help them have a good experience with brushing their teeth?

Radius Tooth Brush Review

I was contacted by Radius Tooth Brush to use and review a couple of their tooth brushes. I was able to pick out 2 brushes that I wanted to try out. So I picked the Intelligent Toothbrush and the Totz Toothbrush.

Here is some information about the design of the brushes:

"The design was revolutionary - nobody had ever thought of using very fine filaments or of using a large head to lower pressure on the gums. The idea of actually making a handle that responded to the right and left orientation of the world's population was regarded as scandalous. This design did not fit into one of those little slots that toothbrushes were sold from - that had been the main determinant

of the shape of a toothbrush for 50 years.

The head was an organic oval shape - the tufts of bristles arranged so that they did not line up in parallel - this meant that they did not repetitively track along the gum line and cause cervical erosion."

In the picture below you see 4 brushes. The two on the left are toddler toothbrushes and the two on the right are adult toothbrushes.
The two that are made for toddlers are an Oral B stage 2 toothbrush which is designed for children 2-4 years old. The Totz Toothbrush is designed for children 18 months and up and is the purple one.
The two on the right are an Oral-B toothbrush and the Intelligent Radius toothbrush.
I took this picture to show the size difference between the different brands.

Below you will find pictures of the Intelligent toothbrush. This brush come with a button on the handle of the brush that you can push and it will set a timer for 2 minutes and will beep every 30 seconds while you brush. The second picture is a close up of the bristles. The head of this brush is quite large and has a lot of bristles in it. The head is replaceable.
Here are the Kids toothbrushes (Purple is the Radius). They are pretty similar in size to each other.
The size of the heads are pretty close, the Totz by Radius is a little wider but not to much. It also has a good amount of bristles on it.
My thoughts on the Radius Toothbrushes:

-I used the Intelligent toothbrush my self. The bristles were pretty soft. I had a hard time adjusting to the size of the head on this brush. I had to learn how to hold my mouth open to fit the head because it was about twice the width of my regular brush. The reasoning behind the wide head on the tooth brush is to help reduce the amount of pressure on the gums.
- I had a hard time figuring out the timer on this brush. I knew to push the button to set it and it would beep every 30 seconds for 22 minutes but on the package it said something about there being a green light on the brush that would show when you needed to change the head. They recommend changing the head every 3 months. I couldn't find a green light on my brush but I think I knew where it should have been coming from.
-One thing that is nice about these brushes is that different parts of the brush are made from recyclable items. They even use recycles money to make some of their brushes!
-My son used the totz brush. Its hard to get the opinion of a 2 year old but I liked to help him brush with this because it was a little wider. It makes it easier to get to the teeth in a 2 year olds mouth. I was able to get more spots brushed because of this.

Over all these are pretty nice brushes. The prices are about average for tooth brushes, maybe a little bit towards the top range of brushes depending on the kind you get.


Would you like to buy a Radius Toothbrush? Check out their site here:


**I was sent 2 toothbrushes to review free of charge. I was not paid to do this review. All opinions are my own and my experiences may differ from yours.

Little Nurslings Sniffles Balm Review

Etsy is so amazing. I confess that I am slightly addicted. I'll often go on, go to their color chart and see what it has to show me. More often than not, I love what it shows me and I browse a shop and drool a little. For one who hates shopping in an actual store, it's great! One day it showed me what I might like, and there was a maple teething ring from a shop, Little Nurslings. Browsing her shop, I found Sniffles Balm - I had to know more. I read that it was an organic alternative to other decongestant rubs that contain petrolatum. More from the description said:

"Eucalyptus essential oil is best known for it's ability to help relieve congestion and ease breathing in colds, also helps relieve coughing and is anti-inflammatory. Only a small amount is added into the balm so it is not too overpowering!

Lavender essential oil is calming and helps with rest and relaxation when your little one isn't feeling well. ♥

Recommended for babies over 6 months and small children to help with nasal and chest congestion due to colds and flu. Works great as a winter moisturizer for all ages!
Apply small amount to finger tip and rub under the nose, massage onto the chest and neck......"

Winter is hard on our kiddos (and my husband and myself) - seems someone always has a runny nose or some congestion from about October through March and I'm always on the look out for ways to keep the snots and coughs at bay! This sounded like it just might help!
My Sniffles Balm came in a forest green organza bag with a business card - simple and to the point. And my Sniffles Balm couldn't come soon enough, the next day, we awoke to our oldest having a touch of congestion, followed by our second child having the same symptoms the next day. I immediately broke out the Sniffles Balm. My oldest is very leery of new things - he let me put the Balm on his chest, but did not want it on his face. My second asked for it "all over" his face, but settled for under his nose, ha! I also put it on his chest at naptime, and on his feet with socks when a cough appeared on day 3.

I could definitely tell a difference with their congestion and the cold seemed to be shorter lived than previous colds (it did stick around longer with my oldest son, probably because he was not as willing to let me put the Balm on him).

I also love that I can pronounce all the ingredients in the Sniffles Balm (even better, I can count all the ingredients on one hand!):
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Castor Oil
Canadian Beeswax
Lavender Essential Oil
Eucalyptus Essential Oil
If you'd like to see other neat things for sale, visit the Little Nurslings Etsy shop!


Disclaimer: I was provided a 2oz tin of Sniffles Balm from Little Nurslings for free for review. I was not paid and all opinions are my own, you may have a different experience.