Thursday, December 9, 2010

Christmas Town USA

Being Mason's first Christmas Season, I've been so excited to create our own new traditions this year that we can enjoy as a family for years to come. One thing I had been hoping to do this year was for Landon and I to take Mason to Mcadenville (Christmas Town USA) to see the beautiful lights. Landon had never been and it has been many years since I last visited Mcadenville at Christmas time. After begging Landon for weeks to go, our good friends, Maclaren and Erica, invited us to go along with them on Tuesday night and I was thrilled. It was really so much fun to go along with them and their sweet little girl Riley. I got such a kick out of watching Mason and Riley riding in their little car seats side by side and looking in amazement at the beautiful lights and houses! They are just too cute together, I hope they will grow to be great friends as they get older! We had such a wonderful time and it was so nice to get to spend it with our good friends! Mason has really enjoyed all the beautiful lights, trees, and decorations that we've seen this Christmas season!! It is so great to see the excitement and joy through his eyes, he finds beauty and excitement in the smallest details, things I hardly even notice immediately catch his eye and he is completely fascinated!
We took our Christmas photos with our great photographer friend Kim last Friday and we got to see a sneak peak at 2 of our photos so here they are! Unfortunately Landon couldn't be there for our Christmas pics so I still have to figure out what to do about a family pic for our Christmas cards, which I need to get ordered soon, but i am waiting on the rest of our Christmas pics before i decide on anything! And last Saturday we took Mason to see Santa Claus for the first time. We went to the mall to see him and waited in line for nearly 2 hours, it was ridiculous and Mason was totally over it by the time we got up there to see Santa. He waved in delight and was smiling and happy, he didn't even mind Santa holding him, until i walked away for them to take his picture. As i turned my back to him, he totally freaked and started crying, I quickly took him his paci and everything seemed all better but unfortunately his little eyes were still red in the picture and the ugly paci was in the pics too. We also got a group shot of him with his cousins Madison and Molly! I leave you with the pics!


Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Thankful

Last week we celebrated our first thanksgiving as a family!
The night before mason decided to show his daddy and i his amazing walking skills
we were impressed
we were extremely impressed
he went from being a little boy who would take a few wobbly steps here or there
to being a little boy who was brave and walking back and forth from mom to dad on his own
he was so proud
we were so very proud
it was amazing and i was thankful for that moment
as long as i live i will never forget that moment and i don't think Landon will either
it was perfect.
mason was perfect.
Speaking of perfect, Mason's first thanksgiving was pretty close to it
Mason loved it, he loved seeing his cousins and getting to play.
He loved going to his grandma Lisa's house to eat,
he loved visiting and showing off for his Aunt and Uncle and his great grandmother Stegall.
he loved eating mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli cheese casserole, and cream corn
he loved exploring the house, walking from table to table, person to person
not one nap was had the entire day
we also ventured on to visit his great grandma & great grandpa Greene's for dinner
we enjoyed having them all to ourselves since everyone was else was out of town this year
yep, you heard correctly
Masons grandparents randy and Annette were at the beach with his great grandma Hinson,
uncle Ben was in Florida with his band,
Tammy, Bob, Carson, Wayne, and Mandy were in the mountains on vacation
But we did get to see aunt Beth
Aunt Beth has been gone out of state for her FBI training
but she was back in town for the holiday
and just as we were getting ready to go home
she came over to great grandma and grandpa Greene's
she came over just to see little mason
she played on the floor with him
they laughed and crawled and played hide and seek
she tickled him and talked to him
and he ate it up
he loved every second of the attention
i see them having a lot of fun together in the future
then after a long day of food, laughter, smiles, and lots of talking
we finally made our way home
home to bed,
well mason and daddy went to bed
momma and grandma Lisa went shopping
yep, we were out from 10 pm to 5 am
we tried to snag us some great Christmas deals
it was exhausting.
but we had a great thanksgiving weekend
there were lots of surprises (more on that another time)
there was lots of food
and there was a whole lot to be thankful for this thanksgiving
like all the holidays we have had this year
all of which are masons first
i find myself lost in thought
thoughts of last year
last year before mason was here with us
i think of how different things are
and how much has changed
and thinking of the changes makes me look ahead
i find myself thinking about next year
and all the changes that life has in store for us.
I wonder what our thanksgiving will be like next year
it's hard to imagine my baby boy growing up
i can really only picture him the way he is now
but i know next year i will be looking back wondering where the time went.
and marveling at how much he has grown and how different things are after just one year!
We are really looking forward to masons first Christmas
followed soon after by his first birthday
but i am trying not to get ahead of myself
I'm maybe even dragging my heels a little
in hopes of holding on a little longer
slowing down time just a little
I'm trying to enjoy this moment
this Christmas season
this special time with my little boy and my wonderful husband!
life is wonderful right now, I'm truly at a happy place
and even though there are always improvements that can be made
i am blissfully in love with my darling son and my amazing husband!
God has truly blessed us and we are so thankful!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

10 month update



10 month old Mason is keeping Landon and I on our toes every minute. He is doing so many new things these days and is busting with personality and charisma! Mason has totally mastered waving and for the last several weeks he is constantly waving at everyone and everything. He will wave at most anyone and even wave at buildings, lights, figurines, the TV, and anything else that looks interesting. He will still occasionally say bye-bye and it has gotten very clear and understandable, it's so adorable to hear his sweet little voice! In addition to mam, dada. gaga, and geh he has started saying "hey" (it's his own little version of hey, but Landon and i know that is what he is saying because he will say it back to you when you say hey and he will say it while waving. He has also learned to turn his wave into a knock. And he loves to knock on his toys, walls, windows doors, and even other kids and people. Yes, Mason crawled right up to one of his favorite story time pals at the library and waved at him then knocked on his head a couple times. It was one of the funniest things and all i could do was apologize to the boys mom, but she thought it was humorous too!! Mason has really turned into quite a character lately, well he has always been a character but his personality is really coming into his own as of late. He really loves to be around other people and truly lights up with the most magnificent smile when someone pays him attention. He is such a delightful little fella and just truly the happiest baby you will ever meet! Mason is getting so close to walking, everyday he takes a few steps on his own and Landon and i are on the edge of our seats waiting for him to take off on his own. He will walk all over the house holding onto one of our fingers and loves to push his pushcart all over the house but he often runs into the furniture and the walls and docent know how to get around it so he will just plop down and play with the wheels. He LOVES wheels!! He seems to know what trucks are and he will turn over anything that has wheels on it and spin the wheels. He still LOVES his sesame street table and will bang on it while watching TV. He tries to mimic the "la,la,la-lala-lahhh" and has also started mimicking a lot of the words and sounds that Landon and i say. He seems to really understand a lot of things we tell him or say to him. He also likes to "sing along" while you sing. And just today i caught him wiggling and bouncing while the "toot & puddle" song came on, it was so adorable and my heart melted to see him wiggle his little booty. I hope that he will have a love for music and dancing, like his dad and I! He is eating a lot more table foods, he can eat cheerios, chopped spaghetti, little pieces of ground beef or turkey, mashed potatoes, soft cooked veggies like pieces of cooked carrots and peas, he can eat rice and loves to have anything we will give him off of our plates while we are eating. he can feed his self a lot of things that you put on his tray for him to pick up. He really enjoys feeding himself and loves to eat his food at the table along with everyone else. He is also drinking nearly all of his formula out of his sippy cups. He LOVES his bath time and we have a lot of fun at bath time now because he is big enough to sit up in his tub and play and splash with his toys. Landon and I both love to sit and watch him play during his bath time and he is always in such a great mood after his baths! At his last Doctors visited he weighed a little over 19 lbs. He is going to bed around 8pm and loves getting his teeth brushed before bed, he has to have his glow worm or light-up elephant to get to sleep at night time and nap time. I have been sneaking into his room occasionally to see him sleeping with his face down, knees tucked under, rump in the air and head under the blanket. When you see how he sleeps in his crib it is the most adorable thing. He wakes on his own somewhere between 6:30 and 9:00 with no explanation for the 2 and a half hour difference. i love the 9 am mornings and hate the 6:30 mornings. he loves to play with Ling and will grab up one of her toys and tug back and forth with her while giggling the whole time. He has a mighty grip and he loves to get ling's attention. he is quickly outgrowing his clothes because he is so long, he is wearing 6 and 9 month onesies and pants in the waist but he is so long he needs 12 months for the length. We have started planning mason's first birthday because it is just around the corner!! And we are looking forward to the upcoming holidays!! This week will be celebrating Mason's first thanksgiving and i know that we have so very much to be thankful for this year!! I can't wait for Mason to get his first taste of homemade thanksgiving dinner!!


Playing in the office while mom works




At the Southern Christmas Show


Excited for my bath, watching my tub fill up!


Waiting with bath toy in hand

The holidays are upon us!!

It's that time of year already, the holidays are quickly approaching!! And even though it may seem early I've already started preparing for the holiday season, i've been pulling out my decorations, planning where the tree is going to go, scheduling family pictures, and i have also started planning our holiday greeting cards for this Christmas season. I'm very excited to be using shutterfly this year for our holiday photo cards. I have never ordered cards through them in the past but i have heard amazing things from friends and famly who have used them and who loved them! This year will be our first year as a family and our first year with Mason included in our gretting cards, so I am very excited to send our cards out to all of our family friends! I've been looking through all the beautiful cards and shutterfly and really like the classic styles and the cards that have multiple pictures because it is always hard to narrow it down to just one picture, so i am loving the fact that there are so many styles that have room to put in all your favorite pics onto your card! I'm loving all the great designs on shutterfly but i am particularly liking this card and I also love this photo card. What do you all think? You can check out ALL of their photo Christmas cards Here!! And if you are interested in recieving 50 free cards you can go HERE!! I hope everyone will take advantage of this great offer and be sure to check out all the beautiful cards and invitations on Shutterfly!!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Pajama Man

Mason is 10 months old today and it makes me excited for the future but scared at how quickly he is growing up and how fast time is slipping away!! As of a few days ago Mason has a new tooth poking through on the top next to his front left tooth. That will be 5 total. He is so close to walking but just won't commit to it. You will catch him taking a few steps on his own but as soon as he realizes it he will plop down and crawl. Here's a video i took this week of Mason pushing his toy around the kitchen, it also shows his new waving skills and a little crawling! I've got to get better about taking some videos of him!!
Isn't he just too cute in his little PJ's?

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Fall Fun with Mason


Mason turned 9 months nearly 4 weeks ago, and so began our fall. We have been enjoying this beautiful weather change as well as all the changes in the Greene house! Mason at 9 months became extremely mobile and even attempted a couple steps unassisted before plopping onto his bottom, but he is still not yet ready to walk. He started holding his arm out when you would tell him to say bye-bye and since then has really gotten the hang of waving at people. At 9 months he started saying bye-bye but would only say it occasionally depending on his mood and when he'd say bye, it was well after the moment had passed. Since his last update at 8 months he has gotten another tooth in that makes 3 on the bottom and one on top. We also took Mason on his first trip to the Zoo this past month on the 1st of October. Neither Landon or I have been since probably out middle school days to the best of our recollection. It was a celebration of our 3 year wedding anniversary and we couldn't think of anything better than a fun filled day at the Asheboro Zoo, just the 3 of us. Mason had the absolute best time, he has always had a love for animals and fish. He was so interested in all there was to see and I'd like to think he gets that fascination from both Landon and I. All 3 of us had a blast, the weather couldn't have been anymore perfect and it was by far one of the most enjoyable days i have ever had. Spending time with mason and Landon together is the greatest gift i could have ever asked for and the Zoo was just so much fun! Mason's 9 month old birthday started off kind of rocky after Mason had a night of crying and sleeplessness to which we woke up the next morning to find he had busted blood vessels all over his entire face. It was absolutely horrible looking and although he seemed to be feeling fine we thought it was best to have the doctor take a look at it. I took him to the doctor that morning and we were horrified to find out that she thought it could be a serious issue with his blood clotting properly, so she sent mason and i directly to Presbyterian children's hospital for blood work to be done. Mason and i waited for hours for someone to take his blood but when they finally drew his blood mason did amazingly well, he didn't even cry, just a little flinch while he sucked on his paci and played with his lucky green care bare that the hospital staff gave him. It was so nice to see such friendly and caring people concerned for my sweet boy. Mason seemed very pleased with his new care bear and it was really ironic that his care bear had a lucky clover on it! We were truly blessed with "luck" and were so relieved when masons test scores came back normal and the doctor told us the pitikia was just from mason straining during his crying fit. He was back at the Dr the next morning for his 9 month stats where he weighed 17 lbs 11 oz and measured 29 inches long. His doctor said it was time for Mason to start on more solid foods and that we should begin to introduce more table foods, textures, and a sippy cup. We started giving mason stage 3 foods and over the last month, he has began eating some soft table foods like mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and mashed bananas. He was not crazy over the new textures and would sometimes gag a little but has quickly come around and is now loving table foods and stage 3's. He also took right to his nubby sippy cup and now drinks all his formula from the sippy cup. We are basically bottle free at this point. Luckily Mason's face cleared up almost completely in 3 days which was just in time for our fall pictures. The month of October with Mason has been great! We have really enjoyed Mason's first fall and kicked off the month of October with fall pictures at the pumpkin patch in York. Mason was 9 months and 2 days old the day we visited the patch for pictures and fun! Mason loved the chickens and thought the pigs were funny at first until one pig nipped his hand which made him cry. We had a great time though and Kim took some amazing pics of us as a family and some of mason at the patch too. A couple days later my mom and i took mason to a cute little pumpkin stand near the house to look at their pumpkins. They gave us a cute little wagon for mason to ride in and we put him a blanket in it and pulled him around while we looked. he absolutely loved riding in the wagon, it was his first time riding in one and we took some adorable pics of him in the wagon and with all the beautiful pumpkins and mums. mom bought mason an adorable little mini pumpkin with a silly face painted on it and mason loved playing with it! The weekend before Halloween we took mason and his cousins to a boo bash festival where they dressed up and enjoyed painting pumpkins, eating cotton candy, and playing games. We also took the three of them to our church carnival the day before Halloween, where mason had a great time riding in his stroller while smiling and laughing at all the other kids at the carnival. The girls played lots of fun games and took home a bag full of candy they won. Mason really enjoyed watching his cousins ride the spinning swings, he thought that was very funny!! We wrapped up our Halloween with trick or treating on Sunday with me, Landon, my mom, brother, and sister in law, as well as my nieces molly and Madison!! it was a super fun night and i couldn't get over how much fun mason had trick or treating!! yes, mason did trick or treat, he loved it, he is such a social fella and loves to meet new people and smiling faces. when we weren't carrying him, he would ride in his stroller with his candy bucket clipped onto it and Landon would push him in his stroller up to the door with his cousins! Sometimes he would pick out his own candy out of the bowl and hold onto it for dear life. he wasn't sure what it was but he liked holding it and didn't want anyone to take it away!! He would laugh and squeal in delight and loved being pushed around in his stroller, kicking his legs and flailing his arms around in excitement!! He loved seeing all the other kids out trick or treating too!! We really had an amazing Halloween and i cant believe that this was the first of many more memorable Halloween's to come!! Now we are looking forward to Mason turning 10 months in less than a week and we are looking forward to our first thanksgiving with mason as a family!! We have so much to be thankful for this year!! I'm greatly looking forward to this holiday season!!

Here's Pics from the Zoo Mason is 8 mon. 2 weeks




Halloween Day Pics Mason is 9 months 2 weeks




HGBC Fall Fest Mason 9 months 2 wks with his grandma

Madison 7 years 10 months, Molly 4 years 11 months


Mason on his rocking horse 9 months 1 day


Pumpkin Stand with Grandma and Mom Mason is 9 months 3 days

Mason at the Pumpkin Patch in York with Mom & Dad
9 Months 2 days Pictures by Kimberly Wyatt















Friday, September 24, 2010

8 Months has come and gone


Another month has come and gone, and I find it all the more difficult to scratch up the time to update this blog on what's happening in our lives!! Mason is now 8 months & 11 days old, and he is doing so much these days!! His crawling skills have improved immensely and he is incredibly fast. You can set him down and as soon as you turn around, you will hear his little hands and feet slapping the tile as he chases you across the house!! He can go anywhere and get into anything, and he takes full advantage of this. He loves to stand up, he will grab anything he can get especially the backs of your pant legs to pull himself up. Now he has begun to let go and stand on his own for a few seconds before plopping onto his butt, or even better, lowering himself slowly to the floor. He has learned to control his sitting and will patiently lower his bottom down to the floor with his arms out in front for balance! He is creeping from one object/piece of furniture to the next. He gets into everything now, he loves to pull up on the recliner, couch, coffee table, fish tank, toilets, trash can and kitchen cabinets. He can also stand up using flat surfaces like the wall or window. He still likes his walker but is not so crazy over the bouncer anymore. He has a new fascination with his alphabet pal caterpillar, his sesame street activity table, and his push car, but other than those he mostly spends his time crawling & exploring every crack and crevice in our home, and standing up as much as possible. We have caught him in the kitchen opening the drawers and chewing on the handles, so we have started baby proofing the house over the last few days! We installed a baby gate across the doorway in his room and we also invested in a large living room carpet earlier this month. The rug was a great invetment because it gives him a huge area he can crawl and play on within the living room, and the adults have enjoyed it too because we can now sit on the floor as well. Other challenges have been keeping his and ling's toys separate, he loves her toys and she loves his, which is a bad combination because they both slobber all over their toys and they both put them into their mouths! I hate germs and I hate dog hair getting on mason and the thought of it going in his mouth, is too much for me!! We also are now dealing with the fact that mason understands food & eating and he will no longer let us sit through a meal peacefully without him having a bottle or food of his own. This has been tough because Landon and i are not on a 4 hour schedule like mason and we are still only feeding him organic foods with no added salt or sugar. Mason, along with everyone else, cannot understand why he cant have some of our foods, it's not just an issue over eating organic, everyone fails to consider the fact that Mason cannot handle textures yet and that we are trying to prevent food allergies. This is very frustrating and has caused some major "Mason Meltdowns" in several restaraunts! He can however snack on the puffs now and does try to pick them up between his fingers and feed himself, which he is successful at about 3 out of 10 times. It is pretty adorable to watch him feed himself. We don't have any height or weight stats yet because his next Dr appointment is not until next month, but he is still eating 6 oz bottles 4 times a day and is eating fruit and sometimes cereal for breakfast and a veggie and a fruit at night. He has started eating the puffs for babies and has done really well with them. He has also started drinking some juice, we finally found a flavor he likes... grape! He still doesn't want to drink out of the sippy cups, just plays with them and gets mad when they leak. He is about to outgrow his car seat, he is so long that his feet hangout and so heavy, hardly anyone can carry him in the car seat. Because of the hassle of the carseat, we have started using my cart covers that i made, and letting him ride in the grocery carts like a big kid. He also sits in the high chairs at restaurants now too with the cover. He says mama, dada, gaga, baba, luh, and the newest word "geh" which is egg. We gave him plastic eggs to play with the other day and he became all about the word "geh" "gig" and once in a while we actually heard "egg" but now, he mostly uses "geh". He loves to talk and babble, and has really started to hone in on his own little personality. He will give me kisses on the mouth, he hasn't yet gave them to anyone else except Madison once. He is still very much a mommas boy and wants me to hold him and play with him all the time! We have had some changes in our schedule since i started back to school, Mason now goes to Landon's cousin Lisa's house on Wednesdays while i am in school, and he loves it! He loves her little boy Logan,so much and i can tell he really loves being around other children! Landon keeps mason on Mondays while I'm in school and that works out great, because they get their own special time together, which is hard to get with Landon's busy work schedule. I love how well this has worked out this semester!! I feel completely comfortable leaving him on those two days a week and i never thought i would be able to do it, but it's totally working and i am so happy to be making strides towards graduating!! Another new activity that we have added to our schedule is story time at our local library on Tuesday mornings. Mason loves to play, crawl and interact with the other babies but has little interest in the books and songs! He seems way too independent to sit in my lap for half an hour when there is so much to explore in that great big room. Landon and i try to read to him from his books in is room and he enjoys the pictures and listening to us talk but gets frustrated when we don't let him rip the pages and eat the books. I'm sure it will improve as he gets older. I hope that mason will learn to have a love for books and reading!! As of today we have more exciting news, i just discovered Masons newest tooth, on the top in the front! That makes 3 all together now! We also have our 3 year wedding anniversary coming up on Wednesday the 29th. I was hoping for a family trip, just the 3 of us, to the mountains but I'm not sure yet if that will work out for us!! The time is slipping by and we have so much to look forward to, masons first Halloween is just around the corner, then thanksgiving, and Christmas, then Masons first birthday will be upon us!!
8 month pics




Playing with dada

Love Bath time



Raptor Center with Mom & Dad


Labor Day Parade with Ga-Ga at Matthews Alive



Playing with cousin Leah

Silly Boy Today!




Friday, August 20, 2010

Making the Switch to Cloth Diapers




Well our new cloth diapers finally arrived, the day before yesterday. I ordered them two weeks ago when we decided to try and make the switch from disposables to cloth. I decided to go with a pocket style diaper, which has the convenience of disposables, you simply stick an absorbent insert into a pocket within the diaper. Pocket diapers are nice because you can adjust the absorbency by using as many inserts as you need at night time or for naps or long trips. I have always been somewhat interested in cloth diapering for many reasons and when i would see some of the modern cloth diapers it looked appealing. During my pregnancy Landon and I discussed the option of using cloth diapers on our future baby but after watching an episode of "dirty jobs with mike row" where he worked for a cloth diaper laundry service, we were both a little grossed out to say the least. The final nail in the coffin came once we priced these modern marvels they call cloth diapers and we were blown away by the price. One diaper ranged between $18-$30, and i could no longer see how this was going to save us money, and even if it would in the long run it was going to cost us so much to get started that we just couldn't see a way to swing it. I have kept up my reading on cloth diapers and from time to time i still checkout others blogs and message board posts, and recently came across some reviews on sunbaby diapers. I read that they were an economical choice because they claimed to fit from birth to potty training by adjusting the rows of snaps.

They were also less than $5 per diaper including the inserts. So after much consideration and reading many different reviews on these diapers, Landon and i decided to give them a try. We ordered 10 diapers, which should be enough for one day along with the 3 other cloth diapers that we have owned as back up diapers and never really used. It has taken two full weeks for my diapers to come and in the mean time i have been doing tons of research on cloth diapers and I'm very excited to give this new adventure a try. Yesterday when my diapers arrived i prepped them by washing twice on a hot/cold cycle with Charlies Soap (a special laundry detergent recommended for cloth diapers) then i stripped the 3 older diapers we already had, because i had been washing them with regular detergent and didn't realize that i was causing detergent build up in the diapers that would cause absorbency issues. Regular detergent is not great for cloth diapers, there are brands that are better than others, and using about 1/4 the amount of detergent that you would normally use in your laundry can also help prevent problems. The Charlies detergent was $17 for a small 2.64 lbs bag, which made me apprehensive to buy it but it claims to do 80 washes and you only use a tablespoon per wash, so in that case it should last me about 5 months, since I'll be washing my diapers every other day.

We started out with 10 diapers just to give this brand a shot, but we are going to be purchasing 10 more soon so that we will have 23 diapers total and will only have to do laundry every other day. I will update more about our new experiences with the CD but so far we have had great success!! I'm excited that i don't have to worry about chemicals and carcinogens on my baby's butt anymore, that I'm not going to be contributing 6,000 diapers per child to the land fills, that he'll be more likely to potty train quicker, and that these diapers seem to fit masons legs better and so far have had fewer leaks. We typically leak out the legs of every disposable diaper multiple times a day and i am so tired of getting peed on!! lol! It's still early for us to tell how this is going to workout in the long term, but so far so good. A lot of people don't think they can handle the poo diapers, and that was honestly my biggest concern, but now that mason has started solids his poops really aren't that messy and it comes off of the diapers easily. I bought some heavy duty cleaning gloves just in case i need to use them, but so far i have just used a wipe to pick up the poop and bag it (then i put the bag in the diaper genie), some people shake it off into the toilet and some people buy a sprayer to spray it off into the toilet, any method works fine and then I have a separate laundry pail just for his diapers. As far as going out, i just pack the diapers in his diaper bag and i also take small plastic diaper bags from the dollar store and a small waterproof zippered pouch. When i change him i just roll up the dirty diaper and bag it in a small plastic bag, tie it shut, and toss it into the zippered pouch. When i get home in the evenings i take the zippered pouch to the bathroom, get rid of any poop, and throw all the diapers into the laundry pail. I plan to wash them every other day, it's only about 1/3 of a regular size load, and i use a half cup of white vinegar in the rinse cycle, the use of vinegar comes highly recommended by other cloth diaper moms to help with the smell, stains, and bacteria, and it keeps the diapers bright. We machine dry the inserts and hang the diaper shell to dry (because they dry quickly and we dont want the heat to damage the waterproof PUL lining) a lot of people machine dry both, but we dont want to take any chances so landon put this adorable octopus (from ikea) thing up over our dryer for me to clip the diaper covers on. Anyone else cloth diaper or plan to cloth diaper their babies?? I'll update more about our cloth diapering experiences soon!! Here are some pics of his super cute diapers, i love all the colors!!

our stack

you can see the white inserts on the machine and our drying octopus