An escapade

So, the other day I went in to check on my "napping" baby. Instead I found this:

Yes, that is my child, standing on the floor between the bed and the dresser, banging on the wall.

Ummm... dude! You are supposed to be sleeping. Not giving mummy a heart attack because she walked in the room and saw an empty bed.

You should have seen the look he gave me. "Hi mummy! Look what I did!" He was sooo proud of himself. And what do I do? I grab the camera, of course!

What I want to know is how he circumnavigated the pillow mounds on either side of him, dismounted the bed and landed on his feet with out a sound.

Actually, no. I don't want to know. I really might have had a heart attack if I'd witnessed that.

We no longer have that bed. The stupid thing was like 3 feet high and I practically needed a step ladder to climb into it every night. I promptly sold it 10 hours after this escapade.

We now have this bed:

Thank you ikea!

yoga pose du jour

Bhujangasana
(aka Cobra!)

replacing the elastic in a fuzzi-bunz {a step-by-step tutorial}

It happens to all of us, sometime or other. The elastic in a diaper goes. It snaps or it wears out and isn't stretchy any more. And it sucks. Diapers aren't cheap. Thankfully, the fix is. For less than $1 worth of elastic and about 35 minutes of time, you can replace all the elastic from a cloth diaper. It's really easy and only needs a basic knowledge of sewing and a sewing machine.

So here is my (hopefully) easy tutorial on replacing the elastic in a Fuzzi-bunz pocket diaper.

What you will need for this project:
(1) a FB diaper with elastic that needs replacing (I bought 5 for $5!)
(2) elastic. I like to use 1/4" swimwear elastic because it stands up well to washing, but you can use elastin (the clear elastic) or any other type in 1/4"-3/8" width
(3) a seam ripper (very important!)
(4) measuring tape or ruler
(5) scissors
(6) a small safety pin
(7) your trusty sewing machine with polyester thread (to prevent wicking). Your thread can match the diaper or you can use white thread (like me)

As you can see, the elastics in the legs and back of this diaper are all stretched out.

I started with the back elastic, since it's the easiest.

You want to turn the diaper inside out and start unstitching the casing at one end. Be careful not to put any holes in your PUL. You only need to unstitch enough to be able to access the elastic.

See how the elastic is sewn into the seam between the PUL and the fleece of the diaper? There is no need to unstitch all off that.

Instead just trim the elastic close to the seam.

Repeat this to the other side and then pull the elastic out. Usually there isn't much life left in the elastic so you can just throw in away.

Cut a new piece of elastic. For a medium FB I made the back elastic 7".

On one side of the opening anchor the elastic by stitching back and forth a few times. I sewed the elastic in on a slight angle so that when I restitched the casing I sewed over the elastic again.

Attach a safety pin to the loose end of the elastic and thread it through the casing.


Pull it through to the other side and sew it down in place by stitching back and forth a few times. I also attached it on a slight angle here.

Turn your diaper right side out and restitch the casing, sewing back and forth at the start and the end. Pull the diaper taut when stitching. When you release the diaper is should gather nicely. This is really easy to do because you just follow the holes left from the stitching that you unpicked.

I restitch the entire casing even though I didn't need to. It was just easier. I also made sure to sew over the ends of the elastic again to give extra strength to the attachment points. Hopefully this will prevent the elastic from snapping later on!

Much better!

On to the legs.

Turn your diaper inside out again and look for the attachment point of the elastic for one of the legs. You should be able to see the end of the elastic on the PUL side of the diaper.

Unstitch the casing.

This is where you can do like you did for the back of the diaper. Unstitch just the ends of the casing. Leave the old elastic in the diaper (it is sewn in so you can't take it out unless you open up the whole casing) and thread a new elastic through. Stitch the other end down and then restitch the casing. This works just fine but it does make the legs a bit bulkier.

That's why I like to unstitch the whole casing. As you can see the elastic is sewn in very well. You need to unpick the stitching and remove the old elastic.

To sew the new elastic down, select the three-step zigzag or elastic stitch. A regular zigzag will work too but won't provide the same degree of stretchiness.

Cut your elastic. For a medium FB I chose to make the leg elastics 6.25" but I tend to like a more snug fit! If you are only replacing one leg then take the measurement from the "good" leg so that they match.

Anchor your elastic at one end by zigzagging back and forth.

Pull your elastic taut while you stitch. I hold the end of the elastic where I want it to end and use the other hand to help pull the diaper through the machine as I sew.

The diaper should be gathered after it is stitched.

Here is the new elastic sewn in. If you are doing the other leg as well, do it now. Or, turn the diaper right side out again.

The casing for the elastic needs to be restitched. You can see where the previous stitching was so you just want to follow this.

Start at one end and with a straight stitch sew the casing, pulling the diaper taut while you sew and making sure to sew back and forth at both ends.

Et voila!

I recommend that you wash and dry (yes, dry, in the dryer) the diaper before use. This will help to seal up any small holes in the PUL left from the sewing.

I hope that you've found this tutorial helpful!

Please use and share this tutorial, but don't claim it as your own. A simple link back to us will suffice, and a comment to let me know. Thanks!

Etsy envy

You know how sometimes you see something and it makes you go, "oh, I wish my baby was the other sex because I so want to buy that! It's awesome!" I can usually pass over the pretty, frilly dresses because I know I'd be tired of pink if I had a girl, but today I got stuck in Heidi and Finn's Etsy store and just couldn't seem to navigate away from it.

The colours were muted, the lines modern and the designs simple. It was everything we look to dress the sprout in, only for girls. They were all girl patterns. Yet I sat there clicking through all the patterns. I couldn't stop!

I first came across the pleat bottom pants. Such a cool idea. It just jazzes up a simple pair of pants. It's like frills only not over done. They are simple but make a statement. Like, I'm hip and modern but I'm not going to be in-your-face about it.

This little green pea coat is another one of my favorites. It's just clean and simple. And would make a perfect spring coat, you know, if the sprout was a girl.

Still, there are supposed to be some boy and unisex patterns in the works. I have made a request to be a pattern tester. No idea if anything will come of that, but hey, I like to sew and would love to have some great modern, simple patterns.

The sprout could be so stylish :)

choosing an edumacation

It's something the dude and I talk about a lot. How we want to educate the sprout. What we want him to get out of school. Do we want him to even go to school? Well, school in the traditional sense. Yes, of course we want him to be educated.

We have been going to a play group at Montessori school for the last month. For some reason I thought that the play group would be a lot more structured. But after we got there the first week and circle time was over, there were toys laid out and we were instructed just to have at it. It hit me then. Of course, this is Montessori. They encourage children to learn at their own pace, to choose what they want to do. As a student that excelled in grade school, I love this approach. If the sprout grasps something quickly he can move on sooner, and if he needs more time that's totally acceptable too.

They also use a lot of scaffolding. 3-6 year olds are in the same class and this helps the younger children. Children learn more from a child close in age but just above them in development than from an adult. I think it has to do with the way they are able to relate to each other. It's like new mums bonding after the birth of their babies. We've all been there and done that recently. We understand. Kids get it, and each other.

But, as much as I really like this way of learning, I am still not completely sold on Montessori. It feels a bit like a cult. They really believe that they are the best education. Like really believe it. And they want to tell you why.

Just like any alternative education, it's expensive too. Which doesn't help the cult thing. They want your $$$.

So much to think about...

when did you get so big?

I had the joy of meeting (and holding) a new little baby today. He had a tiny little body with legs and arms all still curled up. And like all new babies he had that desire to be close to a warm body. As he looked up at me with his big beautiful eyes I looked down at...

my behemoth baby playing on the floor.

I had to blink back tears.

When did you get so big, little sprout?

I mean, I know you've grown a bit since you were born. You don't exactly fit into those clothes any more. But I just never realized how much you've grown.

It is not insignificant, that's for sure.

Sniff sniff... you are growing up far too fast.

the stupid things we say

The other day the dude and I were discussing our parenting. Specifically, our natural parenting ways. And I said that we were pretty out there, even for natural parenting. That we were, like, "super" natural parenting.

"Supernatural parenting?" The dude looked at me quizzically.

"Yes." I said.

"So, we're channeling ghosts and spirits to help us parent?"

Har har.

for the love of science

I love science.

It's like this dirty little secret I have. Shhh... don't talk about the B.Sc I have in biology. Okay, it's actually biopharmaceutical science with an honours in genomics. But, shhh...

A few years ago when I went back to university to take some psychology courses for fun (yes, I said fun), I became fascinated by infant word learning. And the prof was pretty cool. So when I had my baby, I looked up his lab to see if we could participate in a study.

They called me last week to tell me the sprout was eligible! Yeah!!!

It was a study to see if the sprout could differentiate between 2 similar sounding vowels in French and in English. The sprout sat on my lap with a video screen in front of us. I got to wear massive headphones and listen to horrendous music while the sprout was tested to see if he could differentiate between the two vowel sounds.

A checkerboard pattern would appear on the screen while a disembodied voice would say the sound. The first time this happened the sprout looked around wildly trying to find the source of this new voice. Apparently a lot of babies due this :) Once he had habituated to the first sound, the experimenter switched it to a second similar sound to see if he could tell the difference.

It's like dessus and dessous (over and under in French). A native speaker (one that has learned French from birth) can differentiate between the two sounds, however slight that difference is. English or bilingual non-native speakers (aka anglo me over here) can't. The only reason I know these are supposed to sound different is because of all the ballet training I had. Glissade dessus and dessous. Still, as a baby learns language are they able to differentiate between the sounds at such an early age? Do they pay attention to that detail?

I'm seriously hopping up and down I am so excited that the sprout is helping to find the answer.

I am such. a. dork.

Nonetheless, the sprout gave a stellar performance. He made it to the end of both trials that we participated in (French and English). He was able to provided two whole data points for the research... for science... for the greater good! Well, okay, maybe that's going a little far.

But he did get a t-shirt!

I'd just like to give a huge shout out to the Language Development Lab. Yeah awesomeness!