Every morning at 7:00, Curious George, comes on PBS right was Rakicy and I are rushing around trying to get ready, so it has become the 1 television show that Capone gets to watch regularly.  And while he rarely sits and actually watches, this morning he did not want to get up and Rakicy had to leave for work early, and Capone was not in the best mood.  So while I packed his daycare bag, he sat on the couch and watched.

As I’m stuffing cloth diapers, I hear him start yelling and beating on the entertainment center and I rush to see what happened.  PBS intersperses Curious George with clips of real children talking about the character and drawing pictures and this morning there was a little girl on the show talking about “George the Monkey”  and everything monkeys could do that humans couldn’t.  Capone was mad.  He was furious.  And while he kept yelling at the little girl on the tv every time she said the word monkey, he was signing “dog” over and over again becoming slightly more animated each time.  When he saw me he babbled some string of what I can only assume was an angry rant at the little girl’s mistake and as the cartoon came back on he kept pointing at Curious George and then looking at me and telling me “dog”  even adding “please” occasionally.

So why would Capone insist that Curious George is a dog?  Because he’s missing a monkey tail.  This morning’s argument with PBS was more animated than I had ever seen, but it was not the first time we have had the monkey v. dog conversation at our house.  Several weeks ago, he started telling me that Curious George was a dog and while I thought he was just using dog because he didn’t know what a monkey was, it became clear when he would take my arms and push them down every time I signed monkey that he was fairly certain that the cartoon character in question was anything but a monkey.  In the last several weeks he has developed quite the animals signs and sounds vocabulary (dog, mouse, cow, goat, monkey, chicken, turtle, snail, cat, horse, bird, etc).  And between Signing Time and numerous animal books, he can identify if not sign numerous animals.

So while George is called a monkey repeatedly on the show, Capone has discovered a error.  Curious George cannot be a monkey because he doesn’t have a tail.  He is, therefore, by default he is most likely a chimpanzee which is classified as an ape.  (For more differences between monkeys and apes click here).  And Capone seems to be a fan of the tail rule, which I will admit I was not even aware of until several weeks ago when this all started.

In the mean time, however, I think we may refrain from using the word monkey in our house.

This past weekend we took Capone to the Day of the Dozer. It’s a fundraiser for the local community cancer center and give kids a chance to see lots of different construction equipment up close and even ride on the bulldozer, excavators, dump trucks and other equipment. We knew that Capone would be a little young for some of the activities, but decided to give it a try. He had a blast.

At least until it was time to actually ride on an excavator.  Then the combination of the heat, impending naptime, and being handed over to strangers led to about 30 seconds of riding and crying.  By the time we got out of the parking lot he was already asleep.

We’ve also had some other terrain changing news.   About a week ago, Capone finally decided he was ready to walk on his own.  He’s been walking while holding on to hands or walls for quite some time, but he just wouldn’t let go.  Then last Saturday, he let go and in the span of 5 minutes went from 2 steps to 5 steps to 10+ steps.

He’s gotten much faster and steadier in the course of the last week, but here’s some video of his first steps.

Now he walks as a default unless he’s trying to escape quickly.  Once he discovered that he could walk and drink at the same time, he was sold on the idea.  He now officially hangs with the big kids (i.e. 3 and 4 year olds) at daycare now.  No more crawling.  No more morning naps.  And he got transferred to a cot like this for naptime because he outgrew his Pack n Play.  All of those things have been exciting, but the transitions have gone very smoothly.   The biggest issues have been trying to find shoes that a) actually fit him and b) he’ll wear for more than 5 minutes so he can walk when we’re out and about.  I haven’t even started to tackle the challenge of devising some sort of travel sleeping arrangement for a toddler who’s too big for a pack n’ play, but not ready for for a toddler bed either. We may just end up staying home until that transition is complete.

And in the midst of all of Capone’s new milestones, I’m undertaking a earth moving change as well.  Last fall I officially decided to take a leave of absence from the university.  There were many factors involved and it was a decision that I had been contemplating for a long time, but ultimately I decided that I needed some time to rethink some priorities and explore other options.  So for the first time since Kindergarten a school years started without me as a teacher or a student.  It was a very bittersweet moment, but also very exciting.  As friends and colleagues headed back, I was weighing job offers one of which would have taken me back to the classroom albeit a classroom 45 minutes away.  After a summer of applications and interviews and weighing job offers and career paths, I have officially accepted a job.  Ironically it just 4 floors above Rakicy, so we’ll be driving together.  It’s by no means my dream job and is a complete shift away from teaching, but after considering all my options, it hopefully will be the best fit.  I consider myself very blessed to have had choices especially given the current economy.

Daycare officially on Monday and I finished Capone’s new backpack in the nick of time.  It’s been a crazy summer and I’ll have more details on that soon, I promise.

Among the other milestones that the amateur child development specialists (friends, relatives, colleagues, random people at the grocery store) like to comment on is talking.  Does Capone talk in sentences?  Why doesn’t he say “no”?  Maybe he would talk more if you weren’t teaching him sign language, etc.

But Capone does “talk” in complex sentences.  He signs all done when he thinks the homily at mass has gone on long enough, but also when he’s finished eating or ready to get out of the tub.  I’ve realized in the last week or so that years of deciphering bad student handwriting  has paid off hugely in my ability to translate toddler speak. Capone talks A LOT but the average person who hasn’t spent years translating hand written reading quizzes and exams and emails that are written in some variation of text-speak isn’t really equipped to translate.

For example.

• Both frequently include long strings of words that run together and may or may not be about related ideas.
• These long strings of words are rarely punctuated.
• The answer may or may not be relevant to the question (Ex. Q: Can you point to your toes?  A: Moo!)
• Both rely heavily on context clues and “sounds like” to convey meaning.
• Both sometimes throw fits when you guess the meaning wrong.
• Even mundane observations/requests include excessive use of the exclamation point!!!!!!!!!!!!

Capone has very good receptive language skills.  He can identify and bring me objects from the word (book, shoe, block, hat, phone, etc) and he can point to several body parts when asked (head, nose, belly, toes), but he doesn’t say any of those words.  He can tell you that a cow says “Moooo” and that he wants to go “ownsars” (downstairs).   But people ask him questions like “Can you talk?” to which he stairs at them blankly (and sometimes signs “all done”)

There are days when I don’t have a clue what he is asking for or saying, but there has been more than student paper that I’ve picked up that I’ve read and reread and still not been able to decipher any meaning.

This past spring, I started researching area photographers to get Capone’s pictures taken for his first birthday.  We had opted to skip the semi-professional monthly baby photography packages and just taken lots of photos at home, but I really wanted a portrait for his birthday.  While I was looking for photographers, I stumbled across a photography contest to benefit the Baby Fold in Normal, IL.  The organization began in 1899 to care for children who had no where else to go and has grown to include adoption services , foster care, residential care , special education and family and community services.  Among other things, they have been a leader in adoption placements for children with special needs.

So, we decided to use the opportunity to both get a professional portrait for Capone’s first birthday and help raise money for the organization.  Jackie at Studio J Photography took gorgeous pictures of Capone.  He was featured in Round 2 of the contest and we contacted friends and family to donate.  Thanks to the generous support of many, Capone won Round 2 and is now in the finals. While we would love Capone to win the contest, we would really love to continue to help this wonderful organization one more time.

We would greatly appreciate it if you would take a minute to click on the links above and learn a little about the Baby Fold and consider donating a dollar or more.  Voting starts over (previous votes no longer count) and you have until 5 pm on June 28th to vote.   All donations are 100% tax deductible.   To vote, simply go to the contest website and click the button under the photo of the child you are voting for or call (309) 828-4200.
Thank you!

Tuesday I had a job interview.  It went great and then a few hours later, the interviewer called and said “we need you to come back in, your social security number came back as invalid.”  I flipped.  I have a mortgage in that name.  I’ve applied for credit cards and jobs in that name.  That’s the name on my son’s birth certificate and inportant documents and now mysteriously, that’s not my name.

So I call the Social Security people who boast that you can reach them anytime via this magic 800 number.  They, however, fail to disclose that you will spend forever on hold, and they can’t really discuss personal details due to security concerns.  So after an hour of:

Them: Can you please spell your name?

Me: G-E-N-E-V-I-E-V-E  Married Name

Them: I’m sorry that doesn’t match, can you try again?

Me: G-E-N-E-V-I-E-V-E  Maiden Name

Them: I’m sorry that doesn’t match, can you try again?

Me: G-E-N-E-V-I-E-V-E  Hyphenated Name

Them: Is is possible that you got divorced and submitted a name change?

Me: No, I think I would have remembered getting divorced.

I finally learned that there were possibly some spelling errors in my account  and they must have been caused because I misspelled my own name when I applied for a name change OVER 5 YEARS AGO.  So the only option I had was to go to my local Social Security office.

So yesterday, I take my pre-marriage Social Security card (which thankfully I hadn’t shredded as instructed) and head to the local office.  They look at all of my documents and say.  We’ll since the DMV (in Missouri and then Illinois) hypenated your last name, it doesn’t matter that you have a home loan, several major credit cards, and master’s degree in your married name, we can’t fix it until the DMV fixes it first.   I did, however, learn that after I had submitted a spelling correction 4 years ago because they spell Genevieve like this: Genevieveve , they had also mysteriously changed my last name back and misspelled it at the same time.  All of this, of course, they claimed was my fault.  Clearly when I was filling out the form, I decided that I wanted to be called Genevieveve Misspelled Last Name.

So I drive all the way across town to the DMV and wait there for at least an hour before I had a wonderful conversation that ended up with “we can’t change anything without a corrected Social Security card or a court order.”

Exhausted, I come home for the evening.  This morning I headed back with the following in tow: driver’s license, old social security card, home loan paperwork, major credit cards, university picture id, Capone’s birth certificate, marriage license, car title, voter registration card, library card, paystubs, and the last 4 years of tax returns.  If  anybody had mugged me would have hit the gold mine of identity theft.

I get to the social security office, show the security officer my completed forms and small mountain of documentation, promise that I’m not carrying any concealed weapons and am allowed to take my number.  30-45 minutes later, it’s my turn.

I recap yesterday, plop down my info and tell her that the DMV won’t change my license (which has an unwanted hyphen in it) until they process the change first.  We go through the information and discover that not only is my name misspelled (both parts) and has the wrong last name, but that my address is wrong and I was born in Alaska not Arkansas.  She, of course, does not have the authority to fix all of these things because it essentially involves changing ALL of the information on record which the system thinks is creating a fraudulent person.

She calls her manager, who tries and doesn’t have authorization, but offers me an out if I will just agree to have a hyphenated name for the rest of my life.  I debated, but pushed on.  I’m sent back to the waiting room while they work on it.  They call another manager who realizes that they have to fix all of the errors in one sitting or I could possibly eat up my maximum number of change requests for the rest of my life (3 per year, to a maximum of 10 per lifetime).

I’m taken to a back room where they ask me 10,000 additional questions to verify my identity.  Mother’s maiden name, middle name.  City of birth.  Last 5 jobs.

They call a regional manager to see if they can fix the issues over the phone and avoid me having to drive to a larger office.  Finally success.

5 years and 13 days after I got married, I have a legal name which both not hyphenated (that’s a story for another time) and has includes all vowels.  I am also no longer a former resident of Alaska.

The scary thing is that in the last 5 years, not a single person before today has ever caught the mismatch on the social security card.  Not the mortgage company, bank, employer, IRS…  If I’d only known that I was a ghost for the last 5 years, I might have had more fun.

Between a stomach virus the week before last and spending last week at the beach (without cell service and questionable internet), we’ve been MIA lately.

We met my mom, dad, and sister at Dauphin Island, AL for vacation and despite the fact that the island is crawling with biologists, environmental scientists, clean up people, and Coast Guard, we had a wonderful vacation.

Capone settled into a daily routine of lounging at the beach/pool in the morning, living off of goldfish crackers, and daily wagon rides.

Rakicy and my dad went deep sea fishing with a friend.

We didn’t see any oil on the beach, although the west end of Dauphin Island was closed to visitors. Every morning we saw them bus in the BP Clean Up crew. The crew (of what looked like mostly college students) raked and bagged the hay and then spent the rest of the morning in tents “watching” for oil.

The hay bails, however, made nice seats right on the beach.

These pictures were all take last week (May 21-29) and sadly the oil spill reached Dauphin Island yesterday and there are now swimming advisories and fishing bans.

I hate to use this post for oil spill/clean up crew pictures, but click the thumbnails below if you want to see more oil spill impact/prevention pictures.

the tide would break apart the hay and scatter it all over the beach on Dauphin Island

oil boon off coast

Clean Up crew standing around

clean up crew would bag soiled hay

This post is part of the Real Diaper Facts carnival hosted by Real Diaper Events, the official blog of the Real Diaper Association. Participants were asked to write about diaper lies and real diaper facts. See the list at the bottom of this post to read the rest of the carnival entries.

In case you haven’t heard Pampers has a bit of a PR problem lately because many parents are claiming that their new disposable diapers are causing horrible, bleeding diaper rashes.  While the case is being investigated, Pampers has posted info on their website regarding “Myths and Facts about Sustainable Diapers.”  While I recognize that they are simply trying to sell a product, their comparison of cloth v disposable diapers is at best slanted and at worst complete lies.  You can see Pampers full comparison here and you can see the Real Diaper Association comparison here.  Since I personally, don’t believe that there is one correct way to diaper a baby that fits every family, I’m not going to dispute Pampers claims, I’ll just give you my scoop on cloth versus disposable diapers…

Do Cloth Diapers Really Save Money?

The short answer yes.  We own about 20 one-size diapers ranging in price from $18-24 each.  They are all one size and we plan on using them for more than 1 child.  But for a really conservative estimate, I assume that we’ll only use  them for Capone.  Our costs would look like this…

This chart assumes that all additional energy consumption since Capone was born has gone to cloth diapers and does not account for additional water for baths, dishes, food prep, and his regular laundry, so actual cost of energy usage would be much less if I had the information calculate it. It also figures cost of detergent based on the super concentrated cloth diaper friendly Planet detergent which I buy in bulk through Amazon’s Subscribe and Save Program because this is also our regular detergent.

If he were in disposable diapers, we would likely spend $.20-.25 per diaper.  Capone has sensitive skin, so when we do use disposable diapers, we buy the chlorine free kind.  Assuming he used on average 8 diapers a day for 2.5 years (7300 diapers) that would be about $1460-1825 dollars for each child.

The longer answer.  We have recently started expanding our cloth diaper stash beyond the 20 one-size pockets, because I’m a sucker for cute prints and colors.  We still do the same amount of laundry because there is a limit to how full you can let the cloth diaper pail get before you have to wash them to avoid smelling them.  You can cloth diaper for cheaper using prefolds and covers and you can cloth diaper for more if you go with bamboo or organic fitteds.  I could easily spend another $500 on cute cloth diapers, but I don’t need them in order to cloth diaper.

How Much More Laundry for Cloth Diapers vs. Disposables?

I wash diapers 2-3 times per week.  We dump the entire pail in the washer when we put Capone in the tub (last daytime diaper).  I wash on cold no detergent, then rewash on hot with 1.5 oz of detergent, then do an extra rinse on cold.   I throw everything in the drier when it’s cold, rainy, or we’re really busy, but during nice days I hang the diapers outside to dry.  Technically, this would mean that I do an extra 4-6 loads of laundry a week if you count the number of times I have to restart the washing machine.

But I don’t think that actually adds up to more laundry in our house.  When Capone was in disposable diapers, we had a lot more leaks.  Since he’s been in cloth diapers, I have had to change wet sheets exactly 3 times in the last year.  He has had 1 leak at daycare and that was because our 1-size diaper had accidentally gotten put on the large setting.   We’ve never had poop escape a cloth diaper, but have had escape several times in disposables.  My experience has been that I plan to wash cloth diapers is worth skipping the hassle of the spontaneously leaking/exploding disposable diaper.

Can I use Cloth Diapers in Daycare?

Yes.  We do and have since the very beginning.  We send 4-5 diapers and a small zippered wetbag.  When I first asked about cloth diapers at daycare, I got less than enthusiastic responses because everyone was envisioning prefolds, pins, and bleach water.  When I showed them our pre-stuffed pockets, we got much warmer receptions.

Many people have claimed that daycares wouldn’t or couldn’t take cloth diapers and required disposables for health regulations.  In Illinois, however, this is not true.  When Capone first started daycare Sarah at Pinstripes and Polkadots pointed me to the section on diapering for Illinois daycares.  The licensing requirements for daycares specifically provide instruction on how to care for cloth diapers (see Section 407.340 Diapering and Toileting Procedures).  They cannot wipe out covers, so we send pockets, but there is nothing preventing cloth diapers in daycare.  We also send flushable liners so that any poop gets dumped in the toilet and doesn’t wait until the end of the day or the next morning to get taken care of.

My biggest recommendation to anyone approaching a daycare with cloth diapers would be to take the diapers and the daycare requirements for your state with you when you have the conversation.  Offer to provide the wetbag or the separate pail or whatever they need to make the system work easily for them.   The term cloth diapers conjures up images of extra work but if you can present them as just as easy as disposable (which in my opinion they are), you will have a lot more success.

What about the poop?

This is the number 1 question I get asked about our cloth diapers.  Poop in cloth diapers is really no different than poop in disposable diapers.  In fact if you read the package of the disposable diapers carefully, the instructions say to flush the poop before throwing away the diaper.  Fecal matter in landfills should be a major concern for everyone regardless of which diapers they choose to use.

We never dealt with merconium in the cloth diapers because we didn’t switch until Capone was about 10 days old.  My mom was still staying with us and so we had help, but if you are planning on cloth diapering from the beginning, I would highly suggest allowing yourself to ease into the transition when you are ready to tackle something new.  Starting at 10 days-2 weeks meant that cloth diapering became as much a part of our daily routine as changing the sheets, putting the baby clothes away, breastfeeding, and all the other new parenting tasks we were integrating.

Newborn poop of exclusively breastfed babies is water solubile.  You throw the entire diaper, poop and all, into the washing machine.  It took me a while to really believe this, but it’s true.  Everything comes out.  What stains the washer doesn’t get out disappear after a few hours in the sun and washing is super easy.

Once solids or formula are introduced, poop gets slightly more interesting.  It can no longer be dumped in the washing machine.  Most pockets have a microfiber inner that the well formed poop can be gently shaken into the toliet.  We, however, were blessed with one of those children who eats so much fiber that we rarely see shakable poop. We started buying flushable liners for daycare purposes, but then liked them so much we use them at home as well. I’ve tried a lot of different brands and we prefer Imse Vimse Flushable Liners because the non-poopy ones can be washed and reused about 2-3 times.  There is no scraping or dunking or mess involved.  Just peel, flush, and toss the diaper in the pail to be washed.  The $30 or so dollars we spend on these a year is so worth escaping the poop question all together.

I could go on about other comparisons and will try to in future posts.  If you have a question about something I talked about here or something you wish I had, please leave me a comment and I’ll try to help you find answers.  Modern cloth diapers are not as complicated, messy, or time consuming as most people think.  So even if you think cloth diapers may not be right for you all the time, try 1, do it part time, do it on weekends, whatever works for your family.  Every disposable diaper we keep out of a landfill is better for the environment and your baby’s future planet.

*I refuse to use the word myth because it does not mean “false.”  The term actually refers to a folk narrative that often contains supernatural events and relays the history of a people/culture and their worldviews.

We’ve had LOTS of cake this week.  3 times to be exact and still have 1 more to come at the beach next week.

Day 1: Capone’s Favorite Books

Capone's favorite books winner...

The Single Mama tweeted about our giveaway and also said:

WE LOOOOVE SANDRA BOYNTON Well..okay..my son is 2 months old so really I LOVE HER.. Haha. I love her belly button book

Day 2: Overalls

overalls giveaway...

Rebecca said:

I would love to win them because my little guy does not have enough overalls, in fact, none right now that would fit him!

Day 3: Etsy

Custom tshirt/onsie winner...

Is Belinda P who said she like a shirt with a ladybug on it.

And the runner up Jody is getting a pair of infant/toddler legwarmers.

Day 4: Swim Diapers

Savannah B won the swim diaper tankini set for her Bunny.

And with the very last entry, Kendyl won the boys swim diaper for her little boy who loves the water.

Day 5: Cloth Diapers

And the winner of the Gumball Rumparooz Cloth Diaper:

Chelsea! Who said:

I would love to win this because I have never tried a Rumparooz and have wanted to try one forever! They are so cute, and I have heard nothing but good things about them!

Congrats to all the winners!  I’ll be contacting you shortly for contact information.  Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate Capone’s 1st birthday this week.