Diapers anyone?

Prior to the birth of our little girl, my wife and I had great expectations for saving the Earth. We thought, so long as we used cloth diapers on our LG we'd never have to take responsibility for the mountains of trash filling up our nations landfills or that weird ever-growing island of waste out in the Pacific Ocean. Yes, cloth diapers would be a way for us to look down on all of you disposable diaper users from our high horse and scoff at your complete disregard for our environment. And then, our baby girl arrived and our world was turned upside down.

So what happened to all of those cloth diapers and our big plans for saving the world? Well, nothing. Sure we spent a small mint on a diapering kit and special detergents, but in the end we just couldn't bring ourselves to use them. Things were very stressful in those first few weeks, first the jaundice then the acid reflux, it was just too much to add cloth diapers to the mix...So in order to save face we quickly rationalized using the disposables as a means to keep our sanity, and gained a full drawer of very soft and very absorbent burp cloths.

Hey but wait, it turns out all is not completely lost. As of this week we've turned the tides on pollution and have finally found the strength within ourselves to use our expensive cloth diapers. What made us do it? Simple, we're cheap. Yep, we did the math and all the convenience of those disposables does not make up for the amount of money we'll save over the first year of our LG's life. Don't believe me check this out.

I believe everything I read on the Interwebs so I take this little nifty calculator as gospel. If that thing is right I'll save about $600 dollars this year on those cloth wonders. It's not the environment I'm worried about here, it's my wallet. I mean, sure I worry about the environment, I recycle, I don't drink bottled water, I spurn plastic bags whenever possible, and I throw out other people's trash when time and hand sanitizer allows, but let's be real, in this economy it's all about the bottom line.

In the end, we're not sure how this cloth experiment is going to work, but since we've realized that everything about parenting is a challenge we figured why not tackle this one head on for a change, rather than getting blind sided by all those wonderful little surprises a new baby provides. If you're interested we're using Bummi's brand cloth diapering system that we got in a kit. And as for that special detergent, we're using Charlie's Soap when we wash the diapers. So far (even though I don't actually do the wash, god bless my beautiful wife!) I'm very pleased with it.

Photographer's Choice this week...

Peony, originally uploaded by RSCDoug.

Ok, I know the rules state I should be running around with my camera and getting new pictures for each challenge...I did the best I could here because I got my camera the day before our LG was born. So that means that the only new pics I have are all of her, and I'm not keen on posting those...So you get a couple of the shots I've taken during her naps!

My father-in-law is a flower farmer, and his field of awesome flowers happens to back up to my yard so I grabbed this shot of an uncut Peony before the end of the season.

Through the Trees, originally uploaded by RSCDoug.

This second shot is of a Japanese Maple in my neighbors yard that leans over the driveway. I though it was cool the way the sun was going through the leaves so I tried to capture it the best I could. I think it turn out OK...What do you think?

Do you want to play along in the You Capture activity? Click the at the bottom for rules and links to more great pictures.

Talk about you Tuesdays....

OK, so we've all got parenting blogs. We love to talk about our kids and all the great and interesting things they are doing, all the mess and the drool, and all the love and adventures. But, what about us? Occasionally, it's fun to talk about yourself. Selfish? Maybe, but it's your blog, you can write what you want. So I'm starting a new activity/carnival/Mr. Linky party...It's Talk about You Tuesdays.

Use your Tuesday blog space to tell us a story about you. It probably won't be completely void of your children, but instead of them being the soul focus take some time for you...Here I'll start us off with a story I was recently reminded of:

"The Day I Fell Out of the Boat"

Since we brought our daughter home, I find myself thinking about all the wacky things I got myself into growing up, and one of my misadventures came fluttering back to the surface and made me laugh.

I am an avid angler, and winter really puts a damper on my fishing. So every year when the lakes thaw I throw the boat in the back of the truck and head to the closest lake to see what's swimming around. In the winter of my 17th year, I didn't have a truck. I had my mom's car and a precarious system of knots that kept the boat firmly (or not-so-firmly attached).

The trip to the newly thawed lake was uneventful. Once I was unloaded and tooting around the lake with my electric trolling motor and more fishing rods than one person needs for a few hours on the water I was finally at peace. That is until I felt the 'call of nature.' Now I've been fishing with people who will readily answer 'nature's call' over the side of the boat, but I'm a little more modest. So I head for the closest shoreline.

I get the boat as close as possible to land, but this shoreline was far from suitable for exiting a boat in February. At this point I had no choice, I was running out of time and had to get out of the boat. So I did what any safe boater would. I threw my anchor up on shore, climbed to the front of the boat and grabbed a small tree that would aide in my exit. Unfortunately, the tree was too small and when I attempted to pull my self away from the boat, the tree bent. From here everything slowed down.

I felt the tree giving in to my weight and my balance fading...It continued to fade until I was in the water. The water was only about eight inches deep, but it was enough to soak me through. It was cold, very, very cold. At this point (thankfully), 'nature' stopped calling. I shot out of the water and over the side of the boat. I gunned my tiny motor back to the ramp at little more than a snails pace. Losing feeling in my hands and feeling my clothes starting to freeze I dragged the boat ashore and did my best to lash it to the car. Tying knots with no feeling in your hands is difficult but tying a good knot with no feeling in your hands and the weight of the lake in your frozen clothes is just about impossible.

When I finally got in the car I did what any pre-hypothermic angler would do I stripped to my underwear and drove home. Amazingly, the boat stayed on the car and I didn't get pulled over...Oh, and I guess it was good that I survived, too.

I hope I can teach my daughter to avoid the mistakes I've made. Sure she'll make her own, but if I teach her one thing it'll be to make sure she's uses the bathroom before she leaves the house because you never know what can happen when you close the door behind to leave.

Do you have a story? Add your link here:

OK for real this time...Father's Day.

OK, since I half celebrated Father's Day last week I should only get another half this week. This will be my first Father's day and I approach it with a mix of mostly shock and awe.

Shock- because while I am thirty this year, I still have the maturity level of an 18 year old. I still laugh at the same stupid things I did when I was a kid, I still like the same music, the same movies...The only thing different is that now I am a happily married father of one beautiful baby girl.

Awe- because everyone morning that I wake up (or get woken up by her little cries) I am awe-struck. I asked my wife just yesterday (and almost every other day) can you believe she's ours? It's mind blowing that I am a father. She's a bit too young to do a whole lot just yet, but I have got some big plans!

Back on the subject of how beautiful she is: I know everyone thinks that they have the cutest kid. That is sweet and really shows how much you care about your children, but you're wrong. Yep, I'm sorry, this Father's day I get to spend time with the MOST beautiful baby girl. I know, you're hurting a little, because deep down you know I'm right. It's OK, when you're around your friends you can still claim you have the cutest baby just so long as you and I know that mine is cuter.

My one simple request for this and every Father's day, NO TIES...If she's half as smart as she is cute she'll know better. Anyway, I look forward to my first Father's Day and I hope all of you look forward to spending Father's Day with your families!