The new bumGenius Elemental

My cloth diaper friends who know us well know that we love our bumGenius diapers. We use the 4.0 pocket diapers as our daycare and daddy diapers, as well as for sitters and family members. I think we have around 25 of them in almost all of the colors and prints (except for the old artist and new genius series). 

Also in our stash are two bumGenius Freetime all-in-ones and one bumGenius Elemental all-in-one. I got those just to try out and keep part of our "at-home" stash. The main difference in these two all-in-one styles are the fabric. The Freetime has microfiber inserts with a polyester lining and the Elemental is made of organic cotton. I think the Freetime was designed so there would be a faster line drying time because it takes forever it seems for the cotton Elemental to dry!

Recently bumGenius came out with a new version of the Elemental that eliminated the cotton lining on the bottom of the diaper. Instead, it was more like a Flip cover with the cotton insert (same as oldstyle Elemental) but nothing underneath except PUL unlike the oldstyle with cotton underneath. 

I decided to take some comparison pictures of the new and old styles of the Elemental with my pocket. I forgot to include the Freetime but that's irrelevant to my post. I wanted to compare the different styles of Elemental and how it compares to our everyday use of the pockets. 

Main differences between new and old Elementals:

1. New style is trimmer all around on the bum (even trimmer than the 4.0)
2. New style is wider in the crotch area, more like a 4.0
3. New style fits on RaeRae very similar to how the 4.0 fits on her (the old style must be opened to the largest setting while the new style goes on the medium setting like in the 4.0s and Freetimes)
4. Old style Elemental has a cotton layer underneath the sewn insert while the new style does not (all PUL)
5. Cost of new Elemental is the same as the old one (which I do not understand because it has less cotton fabric it seems overall? I honestly think it should be at least 2 dollar less, but that's my opinion).

See pictures below:

Old style elemental on top of new elemental

4.0 pocket on top of new elemental

Left to right: new Elemental, 4.0 pocket, older Elemental

4.0 next to new Elemental

New Elemental next to old style Elemental

Left to right: 4.0, newer Elemental, old style Elemental

Sticker mania

Lately RaeRae has been absolutely intrigued with stickers! She will actually sit at the table or on the floor and place stickers on paper for an hour! I loved stickers while growing up and love how she loves it too! In fact, I still do love stickers so it is more fun to see her enjoying them. 

I remember when I would peel each sticker off for her and gradually showed her how to take them off herself. She figured out how to take them off about a month ago and is very proud of this skill! It takes some focus and fine motor skills to peel them off and paste them on a sheet of paper. Before she would get stuck on pasting them because of the sticky part still on her finger. Now she is a pro. 

I have this sticker box that I've had over the past 10-15 years and still had some stickers in from when I was a kid. Well, about a week ago, RaeRae completely emptied that box out! We have a "house" in the living room made from the box her carseat came in. She likes to decorate her "house" with stickers as well. I've also seen stickers on the feet of her dolls and on the back of the chairs. She hasn't hit the walls...yet. She's put stickers on both me and PJ at times, and on her hands and feet. I don't know what's up with the feet. Perhaps she is pretend-playing they are band-aids. 

Today I went to Joann's to look at fabric for a diaper I am getting soon. I thought I would look at stickers while I was there since we were out, or just very low since I got a sheet of "Easter" stickers at the Dollar Tree store recently. I used my teacher discount and some coupons on a mobile app and scored about eight dollars worth of stickers for just $4.54! 

I cut them up in halves so they would fit into the box. She spent a good half hour to almost 45 minutes decorating paper with the stickers. I just love that she loves this activity! I plan to make a book of all the sheets she makes and call it something like "RaeRae's Sticker Art."

Time for a relaunch

Let's see...it's been about 6 months since my last blog post. I keep meaning to write but my writing has been put on the backburner because of working full time and of course being mama to RaeRae. And also due to my laziness and lack of motivation.

So with spring around the corner, I decided it's time for a relaunch of my blog. Lots of changes since my last post. I am now working in second grade at my school as a contracted teacher until June instead of a long-term substitute teacher in fifth grade. I am loving it. There are challenges but at the end of the day, I truly love working with my coworkers and my students. I love the environment of my school where everyone is signing. 
I feel that my opportunity to teach at this school is my second chance for being deprived of such an environment while growing up. I just hope my job becomes a permanent one someday. That is my dream. 

RaeRae

RaeRae is now two years old! She turned two last month on February 6th! We had a big birthday party for her and her friends and some family on February 10th at Super Franks. It was a lot of fun. Which reminds me, I gotta get those thank you cards out. :-) 

RaeRae is cutting her two year old molars right now, which are giving us some rough nights and less sleep. She runs around everywhere, outgrowing her 18 month clothing (in shirts; but still in 18 months for pants), so much vocabulary (I've lost track...too many words to count), loves to pretend-play in her kitchen and going "bye bye," obsessed with Nemo but slowly branching out to new favorites such as owls and tigers, thoroughly enjoys stickers, and also enjoys playing with her friends at daycare. 
We still cosleep with her for some of the night and wake up in the morning to her giving us hugs and kisses. 

We recently got some portraits done by our friend Clare Cassidy. She is a superb photographer and helped to make RaeRae feel more comfortable in the outdoor photo session. See some of my favorites below.

My hubby

Hubby and I will be celebrating our anniversary(ies) next month! 5 years of marriage, but 11 years of being together. He is at the point in his life where he is reevaluating what he wants to do for his future career. For those of you who don't really know him, he's a brilliant writer.  That is his dream and I am hoping his writing will be shared with more readers in the near future. I can't believe how much time has flown by since we first met during high school. I sure got lucky with him. 

So now here's the question...how often should I post? What is my personal goal? I want to keep writing for own personal growth and sanity--twice a week? Once a week? Let's start with once a week and go from there. 

Thanks for reading.