The EcoChic

The answer SHOULD be YES!  As I began planning for my #BlogHer10 experience I had originally planned on bringing the entire family along with me.  I researched NYC diaper services and had set up a batch of diapers to be delivered right to our hotel.

Over the past month our plans changed.  We were still planning our family trip to Disney (before our annual passes expired) but then the family was going in many different directions.

We packed up last weekend and headed to Orlando – complete with our stash of cloth diapers.  My first trip to Disney with the baby we packed disposables, hybrids, and cloth because I really didn’t know HOW to travel with cloth diapers.  I found out quickly that it’s NOT much different than at home.  This trip to Disney I only packed the fluff!  The only time it was a little less than pleasant was the 3rd day (when my DD had held her bowl movements for 3 whole days) when she decided to poo while at the water park.  Thankfully cloth holds in the solids BUT the water parks are NOT known for having great changing stations.  In fact they down right SUCK! So on a small bench in the changing room I changed a gross, nasty, 3 day poop that had just been mushed in by a baby sitting in the pool!  Anyways – as gross as it sounds it was actually quite painless – after I changed her we walked across the room to the toilet and dumped the evidence!  FLUSH!  Stuff the cover in the wetbag and then back in the locker – now back to playing.

After our Disney adventure it was time to leave the DD at Camp Grandma/Grandpa.  I even left my mom the bag of dirty diapers – which she called to tell me were all clean again.  I’m sure like last time she won’t be able to figure out which insert goes with which diaper but that’s not really too important.  And like last time the snaps will sit in the bag unused while Grandma prefers the velcros!  The point is that Grandma does cloth diapers and is just as proud as I am about it.

Really – traveling with cloth diapers isn’t much different than at home.  But if you aren’t lucky enough to have a Grandma to do your diaper laundry check out these great tips for the Real Diaper Association’s (RDA) Travel Tip Sheet.  The RDA is still fundraising for their $3500 in 35 Days campaign to keep their Executive Director.  For more information on the RDA please visit them at www.realdiaperassociation.org.  If you like their tip sheet or any of their other work please consider donating to the $3500 in 35 Days campaign so they can continue to advocate for cloth diapers on every baby – all the time!  And if you join the RDA (as low as $25) you will receive a quarterly newsletter and a great button to show your support!  I’ll be wearing my button this week while at #BlogHer10!  If you see me don’t be afraid to “Ask me about cloth diapers!”

Why is it that you appreciate the comforts of home so much more when you are away?  We’ve been out of town for 5 days now and I miss my bed, my pillow, my cat! 

Luckily the family and I got to visit Disney again on Sat/Sun before I had to attend a training class in Orlando this week.  They came back home Monday and I got home tonight.  This trip was a little different than normal…

We traveled with our cloth diapers!!!  That’s right, we took our stash with us to a hotel for more than a day!  Here is what I had planned (followed by how it worked out!):  1) Friday night I washed our stash and put Lil’ B in her GroBaby diaper with BioSoaker, and 2) packed a combination of BioSoakers and Bum Genius.  I was hoping to make it easier on my husband so he wouldn’t have to do a ton of wash as soon as he got home on Monday. 

Unfortunately my plan didn’t work out as planned BUT it worked…Lil’ B pooped in her GroBaby Friday night and got some debris on the cover so I couldn’t take the only GroBaby cover I had with us!!!  But I wanted to try the BioSoakers in other diaper covers to see how well they worked so I wasn’t too scared.  I packed about 15 Bum Genius too; just in case something went wrong!  (Old faithful has never done me wrong!)  

We drove to Orlando and spent the first part of the day watching our GA Bulldawgs play football at a local sports bar then we went to check in to the hotel.  Since Lil’ B was in red I put her in her Happy Heiny which is red along with a BioSoaker and the system worked well.  Unfortunately after the second change the BioSoaker has bunched up and the HH cover was damp.  I didn’t really care too much since I had plenty of BG covers and we were headed to the Magic Kingdom anyways (change in clothes was needed to stay warm!).

I packed my diaper bag with a few of each…a few BioSoakers and a few BGs…you never know what’s going to happen, right?  At the first diaper change I noticed a slight problem…the BioSoaker sticky pad was not removing from the BG cover!  OMG…my precious BGs!!  Not only were they not removing from the BGs the fecula backing split open and the inside of the diaper was exposed…luckily it didn’t make a huge mess.  Since I already ‘messed’ with this BG cover I stuck another BioSoaker on it for the next few hours.  The damage was already done at that point.  This continued the rest of the evening until we got back to the hotel again. 

I then removed the BioSoakers from our rotation for the weekend and went back to regular BGs with the inserts (we use the 3.0 one size pockets).  The next day at Epcot I packed 4 BGs in the diaper bag and we were off.  I have to say it felt much more ‘normal’ to me to use the BGs as intended.  My bag was a little more full with the stash but so much easier.  Thankfully we didn’t have any poop-plosions while at Epcot to deal with though!!!!  That was my worst fear was having to carry that around all day with me! (UCK!!)

Hubby went home on Monday afternoon and had just enough BGs to make it home with.  Luckily I left a few behind so he has some at home to use too.  Then it happened…

My hubby had to wash his first load of cloth diapers EVER!  Now…my hubby is an awesome husband and father but I try to keep control over some aspects of cloth diapering so he won’t complain…one of those is the wash!  Not only do I not want to hear about all the water used for washing the diapers…I also don’t want anyone else to be responsible for washing our stash wrong.  Honestly you really can’t mess them up and he has heard me talk about the wash routine so much I don’t know what I was worried about.  I left him verbal directions and gave him a choice of detergents (RockinGreen Soap or EcoNuts…his choice!!).  He called me after he finished the wash to make sure he did it right…funny that he didn’t call me before though!  Everything sounded like it went well.  I got home a little while ago and the diapers are all neatly stacked in Lil’ Bs room, fully stuffed, ready to use again.  Thanks babe for all that you do…

In the morning I will inspect the BG that was potentially damaged in the BioSoaker incident and let you all know the outcome.  The worst case scenario is that the cover will have a sticky residue in two places…at least it’s only one cover and I can pass along the warning to all of you.  If you are going to be using the BioSoakers use them with the GroBaby shell only…or accept the outcome!  I love our GroBaby system and will write up my formal review tomorrow…the good and the bad! 

The other thing that was different this trip was the absence of my ancient Medela electric pump…which croaked last Thursday!  It’s seriously over 6 yrs old and I’m surprised it still works at all.  Because I didn’t want to play around with it and attempt to fix it I purchased a manual pump on Friday.  With Lil’ B being 9 months now I don’t really see the need for investing in another electric pump…this is my last baby and I don’t have much time left on our breastfeeding journey.  I only needed to use the pump Monday afternoon through this afternoon…a full 2 days…how bad could it be?

…did I really just ask that question?  It’s soooo NOT fun to use a manual pump!  I’m so spoiled with my electric pump that I was not ready to pump for 40 minutes and still not get all the milk out!  And think about it…all that pumping hurts your arms after a while…I guess that’s what it’s like to be a guy! (((LOL!)))  Anyways, today was the worst day because I didn’t want to pump at all since it was taking so long.  I got home around 7pm and I was about to explode!  Lil’ B ate a few small snacks but didn’t really empty the milk factory yet.  Is it wrong that I want to wake her up again when I’m done writing?  I guess tomorrow I will take apart Mr. Medela and see if I can’t fix the electric pump so I will stop cussing at this stupid manual pump! 

And on that note…I’m going to go check my email, Twitter, and Facebook one more time and log off for the evening.  Sleep tight!  (Of course most of you will be reading this until the morning so Good Morning!!!)

Yes, I’ve been on vacation!  My Twitter followers have followed my adventures with my family at Disney this past week but I wanted to share a few fun things with everyone. 

Cloth Diapers and Traveling:  We didn’t have a washer or dryer so we took disposables to Disney.  This made me very sad but it was very stress-free.  One day I’ll try to travel with my cloth but I have to be able to wash them. 

Breastfeeding:  In honor of World Breastfeeding Week…we have a long way to go to educate people about breastfeeding.  You would think at Disney World, a place for kids, breastfeeding would be easier than it was.  The parks have these great baby care centers where you can nurse but they are not always where you need them.  There is only one center per park and the parks are huge!  I ended up breastfeeding in some odd places and got quite a lot of different reactions…including the one mom who made her family leave the bench I was sitting on while breastfeeding (PS…I was not exposed in any way!).  The worst experience were the water parks.  There were NO baby care centers or air conditioned areas AT ALL!  With a 6 year old we are very active and the baby comes along to everything.  There aren’t many places she doesn’t go with us.  I’m not asking for nice cushy nursing areas everywhere I go…but a simple bench in some air conditioning would be helpful! 

Baby Wearing:  We took the stroller, our Dittany Baby pouch sling, and our Ergo Baby Carrier with us to Disney.  Which worked out the best?  All and None!  Honestly they all came in handy at one time or another.  The Ergo is great for Dad and it works well for me when carrying her for a long time.  It started to hurt my hips though after a while and it was H-O-T!!!  The Dittany pouch sling was lighter weight and great for short carries (waiting in lines).  The great thing about the Dittany pouch sling is that it also served as a nursing cover and a stroller blanket and it folded down very small!  The stroller was great for naps.  Like I said earlier…our life doesn’t slow down often so she just adapts and sleeps wherever we are. 

Eco-Must-Haves:

1. To-Go-Ware sidekicks.  These small stainless steel food containers were perfect for the baby finger food snacks (those puffs) that kept Lil’ B happy while waiting in line! 
2. To-Go-Ware RePEaT utensil sets.  I wish I had 3 sets of these.  With all the eating out we did we went through a lot of disposable forks and spoons.  I did use mine a few times and it was much nicer than the cheap plastic stuff. 
3. Planet Wise Wet/Dry Bag.  Yep…even though we didn’t use cloth diapers I still took my wet bag with me!  I hate diaper bags with a passion…they are so BIG!  Instead I packed my wet/dry bag with diapers and wipes and off we went.  It fit nicely inside our small backpack and didn’t weigh us down.  It was great for the water parks too, the wet bathing suits went right down inside the large pocket and our backpack stayed dry!

Disney itself has made a great effort to go GREEN with their Enviromentality program.  There is recycling everywhere, even in the hotel rooms.  The best part is that they encourage guests to help them go GREEN by educating them on small steps they can do during their stay (like reusing towels and sheets). 

Now that I’m back I have a lot of catching up to do.  The Knicker Nappie OS diaper giveaway ends in just a few hours and I will be picking a winner tomorrow.  There are over 175 comments right now so it’s going to be quite exciting to pick a winner!  Thanks for all your comments, tweets, subscriptions and follows!

Coming up this next week I have LOTS of fun stuff!  I have another cloth diaper giveaway (GADbaby) and some Rocking Green Soap giveaway for those cloth diapers!  Not into cloth diapers?  No worries!  I have some great jewelry to review, e-cloth giveaways, Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil giveaway, and more!  Oh, and school is starting soon so I have some great waste free lunch solutions to share too!  

On a personal note…Lil’ B had a blast meeting all the Disney characters!  She squelled (literally) everytime a character came near!  It was priceless!  Her big bro still got excited too!  While we were gone she learned how to take a few short crawls across the floor!  LOOK OUT WORLD…here she comes!  To top it all off…her first tooth started to come it yesterday.  I think I need to look into some new teething toys!  

Have an eco-friendly product you would like to know more about?  Leave me a comment and I’ll try to do a review or giveaway on it!

This evening Big B and I had a ‘date’ to go see Earth!  I can’t remember the last time I was so emotional over a documentary.  Disney really did a great job with this one.  Before the movie even started I was excited for NEXT Earth Day when they bring out Ocean.  The animals they chose to follow in Earth were perfect; the polar bear family, the elephant family, and my favorite the humpback whale family. 

James Earl Jones did a fantastic job with the naration and the musical score was perfect.  There were so many times when Big B got emotional (happy, sad, fearful) just because of the music and what was about to happen next. 

I must warn parents though that if you have very young children (preschoolers especially) the movie does touch on some ‘Circle of Life’ issues…you know predator vs prey!  While Disney does a very good job not to show anything gruesome there were a few times when the youngsters in the theater broke out into tears.  Big B is six now and still got a little teary eyed over a few of the events.  With that being said I think it was delicately executed. 

It was wonderful to sit with my best little buddy and laugh, cry, and sigh over some of the most spectacular sites I’ve seen in years.  It was so cute, Big B was asking me great questions the whole time.  “Mommy, is the sun global warming?”  “Mommy, where does our water come from?”  and “Mommy, can I recycle this (trash from theater snacks)?” 

Today after school he was riding his bike around the block and came back with a bag full of litter.  I guess one house in the neighborhood had lost some of their trash and just left it blowing in the wind.  And while at the theater he wouldn’t let me leave my trash under the seat, he made me take everything to the exit.  Although he wasn’t too happy that they didn’t recycle the cardboard and plastic waste.  I wonder why movie theaters haven’t jumped on board with the green movement yet. 

Anyways, I would highly recommend Earth to you.  I’d love to hear what you thought about it, leave me a comment.  Don’t forget to read “This is the Day” post and learn how to win your own copy of the book.

This Earth Day it looks like Playhouse Disney is going green for our kids.  They are advertising for their website already on the tv so go check it out.  While there isn’t too much information on the site I think it is a great place to start with the younger kids in teaching them about the environment.  The printable tips and coloring pages are fun things for any kid.  I know my little one loves to color so I’ll take some of my old work papers and print these on the backside.  The Three-in-a-Row Earth Day Show game is really cute too.  You can play it with your child since it’s a 2 player game.  The questions are easy but it will reinforce why we do some of the green things we do everyday.  Go check it out with your child today.

Also on the site is a listing of the green themed shows they are playing on April 22nd for Earth Day.  It looks like they have environmentally themed shows from 6am until noon.  That’s great!  Guess I better set my DVR to record those while he’s at school that day.