We started our homeschool today and so far I’ve only lost my patience a handful of times, sigh. A sign that I am still overwhelmed even with 2 kiddoes in school. On the bright side, I think I will be able to teach those 2 well and the baby and 3 year old are being fairly cooperative. Brandon is sticking to my side like glue during Dub’s lessons and I expect he will pick up quite a bit by listening in. (Ooh, did I tell my blog friends that I am sending 2 children to private church school this year? It was a terribly hard choice but the right one. I’m so happy about it and it’s fodder for a new post..with darling first day of school photos.)
Today I am also working on planning for our clothing needs for fall and winter. This is my favorite part of homemaking! (Besides cooking–and eating, lol.) I’m writing all of how we do frugal clothes in a brand new ebook complete with imbedded video (if all goes well) and hope to release it the week of Labor Day. There will be a special introductory sale the first day that you’ll want to take advantage of. Now…the pressure’s on for me to finish in time!
Clothing plannin is especially fun becuase we have a spring baby! That means that the older brother clothes are the wrong season for him during the baby months (though will work fine once he is in size 24 months.) And I get to hunt for baby bargains :). Our baby is also a pottying EC baby (EC=Elimination Communication.) Which means his clothing needs are slightly different than the average baby. Onesies don’t work well here since we leave him diaper cover free at home, and the flaps get damp if we have a miss (potty accident.) For summer, I just used a t-shirt and diaper with a hand knitted soaker cover when we slip out. I cut the flaps off a few onesies to extend his wardrobe, but didn’t love doing that.
I noticed Children’s Place has some non-onesie baby shirts starting in size 6-9 months. With the coupon code (A7E2011) good today only for 20% off plus free shipping, the shirts are only $4.80 each. I’m not into dressing my kiddoes like punk rockers or in clothing with skulls, so the choies were limited. I found 3 shirts that will work great and plan to sew some envelope top shirts from thermal knit (all stash) later. But since I’ll be drafting the pattern for these…I’m happy to order a few shirts to get by until I have time.
Though I’m using cloth diapers now, I’m ready to have underwear for the babe now since it is easier with pottying. I found this super cute pattern on etsy for underwear style training pants that come in wee babe sizes (starting at 6-9 months) and big boy sizes too (up to 12 years). By sewing these from stash fabrics, I’ll save $12-15 a pair! The pattern looks fantastic–very professional and easy to understand with some great tips. I was excited that all my boys said they’d wear underwear like that (the pattern has an optional soaker that can be left out for big boys or girls) if I used camo fabric, lol. This is not a paid endorsement of the pattern, just a happy customer. I’ll let you know more how I like it once I stitch a few pairs up.
Anyhoo, that’s my day today. I’m slapping myself that I haven’t put a newsletter out in 4 weeks. I need to write those ahead since the end of the week is always so busy!
When do you start EC? My baby is 2 months old and I think about this a lot since she doesn’t urinate until AFTER we take off her diaper.
Liz, I started it around 2 weeks old. When baby was awake enough to start signaling his needs. It’s not too late to start with your daughter, it sounds like she’s ready!
what would you think about starting an almost 6 month old? I used to think EC was crazy (how in the world would a mom of many have time) But I have a friend who is russian, born and raised there, and she said that’s what they do there. It’s just part of their life. My hubby said maybe i should consider it because of the hard times coming.
is it too late? we’ve had him in just a diaper, no cover because of the heat, but what aobut when it’s cold, seems like their legs will freeze
Staci, It’s worth a shot. The older they get the more used they are to ignoring their body warning them it’s time to potty. But the sooner you can remind them the better. For cold weather, we use hand knit wool pants (or sewn from a wool sweater) as their diaper cover. I know others use baby leg warmers, even for boys. I’ve also seen split crotch pants–but have no experience with them yet.
This takes a lot of attention from mom and everyone has potty misses several times a day. But it is better for baby to stay cleaner this way and to never lose the realization that he needs to potty.