That La Kid

wishin' an' hopin'!

Sep 12

i’ll take your 2 cents now.

by Wendy J. La

Alright… my washing machine just will not stop irritating me. I washed some baby clothes in the Ainsworth St. house (Gramma’s machine), and when I was folding them I was like, “dang – they smell so good.”  Washed new baby clothes today in the machine that came with Balenie Trace house and they either smell like nothing or they still smell new, like the store – you know… like they weren’t washed at all.  I just did the side by side comparison.  The older stuff still smells amazing.  Same fragrance/dye-free gentle detergent…  Who buys a KitchenAid washing machine…  Honestly…

How can I be sure that they’re getting cleaned at all?  Should I throw in more detergent?  Gramma’s machine used more detergent, but the KitchenAid Katastrophe is supposed to be more efficient, and it was a small load so I didn’t think I needed much detergent.  I filled the cap up to the line it told me to.  Should I put in a little of the regular detergent to make it smell nice?  Won’t that defeat the purpose of buying this Gentle/Free crap for baby’s sensitive skin?

We put the washer on the home warranty.  Should I get someone to come look at it?  Every other wash cycle it gives us some kooky error code.  But then runs fine, so I’m sure if someone comes out to look at it, we’ll give them $100 to tell us that it runs fine.  Should I just get rid of it and get a new-to-me one off of craigslist?  (Couldn’t be any worse than this one, right?)  Should I just make my Dad bring Gramma’s machine up to the laundry room?  I freakin’ love that thing.  They sure don’t make ’em like they used to.  I liked the idea of this bigger, front load guy so I can wash cloth diapers guilt-free.  I’m scared I’ll mess up Gramma’s machine with a load of thick, heavy, germy diapers every day.

Then again, it’s not doing anyone any good out in the garage.

What are your thoughts?

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Aug 27

asian time

by Wendy J. La

Tom has a tendency to run his life on something his best friend Nathan calls “Asian time.”  Basically, it means if he has to be someplace at 7 o’clock, he leaves the house at 7 o’clock.  I’m not sure if this actually has anything to do with being Asian.

I, on the other hand, cannot stand being late.  I think I was traumatized in my youth by choruses of, “well, look who finally decided to grace us with their presence” when we’d have to run from one family’s Christmas to the other.  I don’t know why – but we were always late to everything.  Fifteen minutes late to church, like clockwork – every week.  You’d think that we would have just started waking up 15 minutes earlier.  Nope.

I don’t like close calls!

I’m nervous the shower will fall into Asian time.  (Sounds so racist, we really should come up with another name for it.)

We have 2 weeks until the baby shower.  There is one weekend in between.  In those two weeks:

  • We need to buy bedroom furniture for the grandparents’ bedroom downstairs.
  • We need to have that room painted or paint it ourselves.
  • We need to unpack.
  • The Target registry is almost entirely online-only items.  So, do I wait until the shower to see what we get?  Shipping takes a while, so we’ll have to order what we don’t get and pray it gets delivered before our boy does.
  • I’ve got to buy some newborn size diapers.  (Cloth or otherwise.)
  • If I get newborn cloth diapers, I have to wash and dry them about 10 times BEFORE we put them on Jr.’s butt to increase the absorbency to full capacity.
  • My dad needs to hang my Mickey Mouse chandelier and move the light switch in the Bonus Room.  And we need to patch and paint the spot where the switch is now.
  • Tom’s Uncle Larry is coming to stay with us during the Democratic National Convention, the week leading up to the shower.
  • Pick out, figure out how to pay for, and purchase the most awesome rocking chair I can find.  (Special gift from my Baby-Daddy.)
  • Pack for a month in Charlottesville.

So, I.  AM.  PANICKED.

…to say the least.  I reckon I should go unpack instead of writing a whiny blog.

The planner in me is like, you can’t just do this on Asian time.  But… there is a little half-Asian boy inside me that is doing EVERYTHING on at least half-Asian time.

We are really doing this.  In about a month, I WILL HAVE A FREAKING BABY.

Hooooooooly cow.

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May 31

comparison shopping

by Wendy J. La

Just a quick note:

From http://www.diaperdecisions.com/pages/cost_of_cloth_diapers.php

Plus, we’re going with AIO OS, so we don’t need to buy 36 infant, 30 medium, and 24 large.  I will probably buy some infant diapers for the first couple of weeks, but after that (based on the sizes of my mom’s babies at birth) I assume the OS diapers will do the trick.

See also: Diapers.

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Mar 17

holy great bargain, batman!

by Wendy J. La

I found a great deal on All-In-Two (I think) cloth diapers on Totsy today.

Mom said that I should try out the cloth diapers and see how I feel about them.  I totally agree.  100%.  But part of me also thinks I should buy two-dozen right now because it’s such an incredible deal.

So, I compromised.  I bought 7 diapers and 6 extra liners (I’m hoping the 7 that I bought actually come with liners in them, but just in case they try to screw me, I have a back up plan.  Plus, I hear extra liners are good for overnight.)  The total retail price is about $100.  Cheap by cloth diapering standards.  These retail for $12.95 a piece, whereas the BumGenius AIOs (All-In-Ones) on my registry are about $20 a piece.  Of course, Totsy is a sale website.  They don’t sell at retail price.  So, the diapers are $8.75 a piece, with the exception of white and off white which are only $7.50!  (I spent the extra $1.25 for colors because they are so damn cute.  In hindsight, I should have just stocked up on white/off white.  It’s not like the kid’s not going to be wearing clothes over these adorable bright colors.  And either way it’s a poop sack.)

SO… the order subtotal is $77.25.

Because I have about 30 different email addresses, I signed up for Totsy and sent myself an invitation.  Once my second account made a purchase, the account that sent the invitation had a $15 credit.  Woot!  That took my diaper purchase from $77 to $62.  Sweet!

I never buy anything online without first visiting RetailMeNot.com and searching for coupons.  Wouldn’t you know it!  Found a coupon for $15 off a $60 purchase at Totsy using coupon code VIPMOM.  That’ll cover shipping and take my grand total down to $55.   Schweeeeeeet!

Just thought I’d spell out that whole procedure in case some future aunt or grandma would like to grab a couple as shower gifts or something.  They’re not as cute (or as high quality) as a BumGenius AIO, but they’re also less than half the price.  We all know that I’m all about the Benjamins.  (I guess if YOU buy them, I’m not spending the money anyway – so feel free to splurge on the diapers on my registry.)

If you sign up through http://www.totsy.com/join/woowedstiger, I think you get free shipping and I will get a $15 credit once your stuff ships.  (At that point it’ll be too late to buy more diapers, but there’s always some awesome deal over there.)  Don’t forget, promo code VIPMOM!

This whole thing has fired me up about the cloth diapers!

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Feb 17

ok here’s the thing about the diapers…

by Wendy J. La

I feel like I can feel people whispering about me, being a brand new mama, not knowing what the heck I’m doing with this whole cloth diapering thing.  “What?!  Is she crazy?!  Look how far technology has come with diapering!  She HATES germs and poop!  This is going to be a disaster!”

No, it’s not.  Here’s my reasoning:

1.  NUMERO UNO… Despite the added cost of doing laundry (detergent, water, electricity) and the fact that I’m going for one of the more expensive kinds of cloth diapers (All-In-Ones), cloth diapering costs 30-50% less than disposables.   I’m all about the Benjamins.  It’s all about saving money for getting out of debt, retirement, and now a college fund.

2.  The poop is coming either way.  I’m going to have to deal with it.  Instead of tossing it in the landfill like the rest of you irresponsible dirt-bags, we’re flushing it.  There’ll still be smelling poop, and wiping poop, and occasionally getting poop on me.  I hate it, but it’s happening either way.

3.  I’ve done a lot of research on research.  I’ve read story after story about impartial, objective investigators that wanted to see what the fuss was all about, tried cloth out and never went back to disposables.  Even when I Googled “why I switched to disposable diapers” I couldn’t find anyone who tried cloth, hated it and reverted back to their old ways.  If it’s happening, those people aren’t writing about it.  People who like cloth diapers LOVE cloth diapers.

4.  I’m not entering absorbancy contests.  I’m not trying to see how much crap the diaper can hold.  I hear disposables hold a lot, that modern technology has made them downright miraculous.  That not my M.O.  When that bad boy is dirty, I’m changing it.  Pee… poop… whatever.

5.  These aren’t your grandma’s fold and pin diapers.  They are actually really absorbent and really cool.  They work like disposables, that shape and everything.  They are freakin’ adorable.  I can’t lie, it does come into play.  BUT IT’S FIFTH ON MY LIST!

You know what’s not on my list?  Environmentalism – because I really don’t care about that.  FYI, it is much more eco-friendly… and if that’s a reason for you to pick up something from my diaper registry, awesome.  We both know you’re doing a good thing.  Good for you.  You’re a better person than I am.  I’m all about the Benjamins.

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