First Family Shoot: Claiming Our Prize

We finally took advantage of our free photo shoot that we won thanks to Ashley Clark Photography and all our friends who voted for us. Again a very BIG THANK YOU! She was so patient in waiting for us to change outfits and when Mr Toby was not having the photos anymore. It was the first day of sunshine in a long time. We really lucked out! She did such a good job on editing our photos we are really impressed. The whole shoot went great these photos were taken at the park by Ichon station. It's a beautiful place with many play grounds, trails, and picnic areas many other families had the same idea to take advantage of the nice weather. It was a perfect shoot with my perfect little family.

 

 

 This last photo is my favorite, almost brings a tear to my eye. I love my men.

First Trip to eMart

Since it was finally a nice day and our husbands are working exercise for another week Lynisa and I packed up the kids and went for an afternoon adventure. We took the metro to iPark mall where eMart is located in the basement. It was easy to get to and quick; which I was thankful for because I decided to take Tobyn in his umbrella stroller. He did very well when we were on the move but when I would stop to shop he would want out.

eMart had some cool stuff! There was anything and everything you can imagine; it was very overwhelming. I found Tobyn this cute backpack and umbrella because in this country you never know when it's going to rain. It was perfect that this tiny umbrella fits inside the bag and hangs off his stroller without tipping over; a very common and annoying problem to have when you are trying to keep a baby under control. This backpack will also work for when he gets bigger and can walk, and then he can carry his own toys around.





eMart is just a smaller scale costco, there is retail, grocery, and food samples. They even had beer and wine samples! I will defiantly have to come back for any of my walmart type needs. Though most stuff is priced pretty cheep there were some items that were outrageously priced. Once you weed through Korean name brands you can get many items for a great price. 

Here is a video of us on the metro back home. I had let Tobyn out of the stroller but he was so overwhelmed by the whole day he was just happy to not be in the stroller any more. Hurley loves the train rides home.  All the boys were happy there were no tears shed today; just friends going out to enjoy the weather and be in good company of each other. What more could you ask for!

Oh and we went to Zoo Cafe and they make some bomb iced peach tea, it was delish! All in all a pretty wonderful Saturday in my book!

PPS the bakery has some fluffy cream filled balls, like doughnuts but lighter dough. They should be called crack balls, I would have taken a picture so everyone could see what they look like but i ate the whole bag... oops!

-Aly G

Tobyn's Big Boy Room

Tobyn loves playing in his transitional big boy room! We got a children's entertainment center with TV so that we have toy storage and we can reclaim our living room! It was getting so cluttered with so many toys that it always looks messy! Granted it's easier to keep an eye on him while I'm in the kitchen if he is in the living room but I can always bring a few toys out there and at the end of the day we put them away before bed.








It's such a perfect piece of furniture it's stores so much and under the tv there is a toy box; the lid opens up to a deep space for more storage. We did have to move the other dresser to the office and I've been rearranging his closet and finding places for his clothes. Luckily since wearing cloth diapers nothing fits any more cause of the bulk. His closet is very empty at the moment.









He loves his new play area and it's nice to keep the mess contained in one room instead of all over the house! I do have to go through the office and organize everything to fit in there, i need to reclaim my workout room as well!









My little man is getting better at playing by himself it's hard to teach him to play alone because he gets my attention all the time. It's cute he will come and look for me in all the rooms and then smile and laugh when he gets me. He is getting to be such a fast crawler. You can tell when he is coming to find you he slaps his hands on the floor very loudly. I think to myself "oh no, here comes trouble!" cute pants.

-Aly G

Conclusion to Cloth Diaper Trial

The trial was successful!! I have enjoyed using the cloth diapers; they are not that difficult to clean and maintain. It's just keeping up with it, but I have enough diapers that I can afford to launder every other day with no worries. The only issues I had with these diapers is more frequent changing; 8-10 in cloth and only 6-8 in huggies. Also now all the 12 month clothes I have don't fit because the cloth is more bulky. I need to get on shopping for him he gets bigger by the second!






Little man getting into everything now but he still looks cute in his diaper! I have been researching other brands and inserts. As of now he doesn't leak anymore at night but once he gets a little bigger I'm afraid that will change. I have bought a few double lined hemp night time inserts from Green Mountain Diapers. I can't wait to see how they work and of course I'll post my review! They have many great products! Simply Cloth is another site that sells their own brand of pocket diapers with many cute designs and minky. These will be my next investment as well down the line. There is just so many possibilities it's incredible.




I found them from this book: Raising Baby Green is has so many helpful tips on green living for anything you can think of! They have many great ideas that I'm going to have to try for myself.


All in all, I'm going to be using cloth 90% of the time. I know there will be few moments where huggies are needed but it will not cost nearly as much as if we used them constantly. I am very happy with my choice. I feel like I'm in a special club now, cloth Diapering bandits! Haha We hunt for great deals and great steals!

-Aly G

Cloth Diapering: Intro to Cloth Wipes

I am coming to love cloth diapers.  I feel good when I go it knowing I'm not contributing much waste. It's really not that hard at all.  I have timed me cleaning 1 pee and 1 poo diaper at the same time in 5 minutes. Though it's all thanks that my shower head reaches to the toilet; I set it to as hot as it will go wear my rubber gloves and BAM poo gone! I have also experienced my first time washing them.  The directions say to wash on cold but you can do warm; I chose warm because at least it's killing some bacteria than the cold setting.  Also they say to hang dry but in Korea it's so humid that they are not drying, so I did it in the dryer on lowest heat setting.  They came out perfectly clean and smelling fresh.

Here is a picture of all the diapers.  I have about a 3 days supply ready to go with inserts and snap to the proper settings. I have found a great picture oh the stages of fittings so I know how to change them as Tobyn get's older.

I'm getting pretty quick and snapping them and adjusting the inserts inside the diaper. The inserts have little snaps so they can fold over; I used this setting for night time when I put 2 inserts in his diaper.  The past 2 days there have been no leaks even in the morning! I'm so happy! The only draw back is that when I open the diaper to change it reeks of ammonia I have to wipe Tobyn down too, but the smell is gone after that.  Man is it potent!

What I started to use today is the cloth wipes. I want to have my mom who is a great seamstress make them for me out of flannel and terry cloth. I saw this example and then found more detailed instructions on  How to make cloth wipes. They seem really easy to make and for my baby's poop I use 2 wipes (he has massive poops) so I need to get more soon I only have a dozen or so. I have found too that I was just trying to use the wipe dry and it was not getting anything off his hiney. I googled how to fix the problem (I love the google machine) and found that you can make home made solutions. I didn't follow any one recipe I just went with what ingredients I had on hand.





 My solutions I made using a 12 oz ReNu contact solution bottle is:
1 cup water
1/4 cup baby soap or shampoo
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp Olive oil
8 drops tea tree oil (this oil is a natural fungus fighter so it's very useful for preventing mold)

I'm going to test this solutions out, a friend told me that to much soap would cause a rash. I'll keep an eye out and may adjust it over time. I would like to get some lavender oil so it would add a fresh sent to his bum which is always in need of it. We will see how it goes.  I can't believe I have not done this sooner but then again I have not tried to take cloth out in public yet.  It's so easy from home I'm kind of kicking myself for not starting it earlier. I feel that conquering cloth diapers I can do anything. I have been on a roll this weekend with cleaning out closets and organization. Cloth diapers just make me feel accomplished, I just hope the feeling last for 4 children!


-Aly G

Cloth Diapering: Day 1

An opportunity has presented itself were a friend of mine is no longer in need of her cloth diapers and willing to let me purchase them for a great price. She has 30 BubuBibi snap pocket diapers that were only used for a few months. They are still in excellent condition. What is even more awesome is I get a trial weekend to use them and see how Toby adjusts to them. At 8.5 months I don't think Mr Man cares so much about what he wears, it more of how mom adjusts to cleaning poop.



There are so many good reviews for cloth diapers and everyone swears by them, so I figure I'm going to give it my best shot. Luckily our shower head is a removable hand held sprayer that reaches the toilet so that makes the job very easy! There are so many benefits from cloth diapers and saving money is the big one! Though it does cause more laundry at least our utilities are included so we can wash as many times in one day and we will not have to pay. It will be nice if I start now and then when another baby comes along I will be a pro, and cloth diapering will just be natural. I have read that for each child, given they are potty trained by 2 years old, you will be spending $2,500 - $3,000 dollars in diapers. If we plan on having say 4 children that is a lot of money and I know not all of them will be potty trained by 2 years especially boys.  Granted I'm not going to be strictly cloth, if we have long travel days, on vacation, or laundry is out of order we will use disposables. Over time it will pay off.



The very first cloth diaper I put on him was last night to see if he would stay dry.  He has peed through his size 4 diapers every night and that is way to much sheet washing and changing. Since I never know what time he pees through I hate thinking that he is rolling around in it all night. So I tried it with 2 liners and pretty tight to keep it in... boy was I wrong! IT WAS A POO BLOW OUT! I think I had the diaper too tight so there was no room for anything including his massive poo. It was everywhere so for my very first diaper I thought this cannot be how it works. I was cursing my friend as I was cleaning everything up, but I was told that you need time to find your kids settings for the diapers. Thank goodness I am getting a weekend trial run because if I were to judge my cloth diaper experience on that one blow out, my answer would be HELL NO!





All in all the first day was good, I had one small golf ball size leak in the evening but he was already in the diaper for over 2 hours; it's what to be expected for that long of time. I'm not giving up yet and am starting to like it, I feel like I'm doing something good for my son and for the environment; not to mention saving us money. This is only day one we will see what the rest of the week has in store...
-Aly G

Toy Story Junky

I'm turning my son into a Toy Story Junky! He can sit and watch it all day if I let him. I have started to limit the movies in the day time so he does play by himself. If I ever need to get anything done I turn it on and I have about 40 minutes of free time. Enough to do dishes or fold laundry it's very nice.


His mouth is always open when he watches it, he is quite serious. I think I may start transitioning his nursery into a "big boy" Toy Story room. We will see... :)

-Aly G

Family fun day

Had so much fun at the batting cages. We are starting tobyn early with the fast ball. It was fun but it felt like it was a million degrees in the cage area; It was outrageously hot and humid. Both the pictures of Nik and I there was sweat running down our backs. Poor Toby was getting sweated on by us most the time. I held him in front of the fan but it was not nearly strong enough.


Daddy had a fun time beating mommy in baseball, but mom kicks dads butt in hoops any day! Hehe Toby will have any sport to choose from!


I love my little all star!

-Aly G

Standing in the Tub

 Words cannot describe how cute this tushie is... the pictures say it all!

 He loves bath time with Dada!

  Hey, mom I'm having gun!

  I love my rubber duckie!

  Look at those shoulders, he is going to be a thick boy! Line backer in training!

  All done, I want out!

 Thanks dada I'm all clean and ready for bed!

Fun in the Sun

Finally a nice sunny day in Korea! It's about dang time that's all I have to say! It was incredibly hot out and humid; the baby pool turned into bath water. Tobyn had so much fun splashing and playing with friends. He even took a nap so mom got some time to soak up some sun and relax.

Did I say how much I love my BOB stroller it reclines so far back. Toby didn't nap long cause of all the children screaming in delight of the weather. But it was enough to come back and play. What a great day we had together enjoying the sun, makes me miss Hawaii so much more.






-Aly G

Playing with blocks

Love my naked boy!

-Aly G

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!!

So we ended up winning the contest and will be having our shoot this month. Tobyn will be 9 months when we do it so it's a great time for us to get pictures of him! I just hope the weather is nice!

Was debating on opening a picture account were we upload photos and any family members can pick the photos they want have pictures sent to them directly. It's hard to do that from Korea and plus you get to pick your own and the ones you like best of Toby. Just seeing what family wants to do!

Mom has no privacy!

New Poop Pose

Can't disturb a man in his moment of deep thinking! Haha he is too funny!

First Time at the Park with Daddy!

Daddy was home during the day and the sun had peek through the rain for today so we decided to hit the playground. Toby Always loves it outside.  Whenever he is fussy or cranky I talk him for a walk and he loves it.  Though I don't always feel like going out in the heat or rain I do it for him.  Daddy had so much fun with Toby.  We got the first slide action in dada lap on video.  I'm sure there will be many more play dates with daddy and the swings.

Splish Splash, I'm Taking a Bath!

 

 Daddy taught me how to slpash! Now bath time is so much more fun! Except when it goes up my nose!

 

  Now since I know how to slpash I can do it all the time! Even at the pool with mommy and splash all the other babies. He is too fun!

Funny Photo Contest!

Please help us win a free photography shoot for our family.  Since Toby has been born we have not had pictures together as a family and what a perfect opportunity to win it!

If you have a Facebook account please go to Ashley Clark Photography and "like" her page.

YOU MUST LIKE HER PAGE IN ORDER TO VOTE!

Once you have liked her page click on the funny photo contest, and then "like" the photo of Tobyn; OR here is a shortcut to the funny photo of Tobyn, but remember you must like her page first or the option to like his photo will not show up.

Thanks so much everyone! I have never won anything but lets hope that Tobyn has more luck than me.

This is the photo entered in the contest:

My funny little man Tobyn 7 months.