I would have to say that this has been such a great weekend. Its always great to spend time with friends and family and this weekend for me was like a family reunion. Betsy emailed us a back in late march early april to see if we would like to come out for the 4th of july and all the pieces seemed to fall together pretty perfectly and Livi, Anne, Steph, Emily and I were able to spend a wonderful weekend hosted at Chez Mccallon.

Night one consisted of a wonderfull grilled dinner at the house followed by college photo albums. I was starting to fade but when those albums came out and we started reliving old happenings…. good times is all I can say.

Saturday, a scrumptious breakfast and the Argentina/Germany world cup game (dissapointing match up) followed by tooling around town followed by a bbq at a friends house. This was one of the few times I wished I could partake in the drinking parts of the merriment, but as it was even being sober and out with the ladies was highly amusing (honestly not an angle I get to see it from very often).

Today was a classicly slow morning filled with a recovery routine of tv then lounging at the pool. We had dinner and came home to wait for the fire works and while we were waiting the ladies threw me a baby shower! I was so surprised and felt so loved it was wonderful. This baby already has a set of aunties who love him.

We decided to watch the fire works from the balcony which was not the greatest of views, but I was happy being with friends (plus that meant we didn’t have to try and get anywhere and back). We later ended up watching the boston fireworks display on tv and I have to say, the consensus among the group was that boston had the superior light show. We has been able to see the dc show on tv as well so it was a fairly even comparison.

I would never have guessed 15 years ago when I went away to college who I would meet or what hijinks we would get up to but I am so glad everything went the way it did because I have a group of people with whom I share a very unique set of experiences with and who speak the same language I do, although they are far more poetic about it than I. I am glad college ended and more glad that the best part of the experience lives on in my relationships with the people who found me there.

Tomorrow I fly home, back to my house and hubby and puppy and kitty. It will be great to be home (I get to watch my sciency shows at home without the cruel mockery of my bffs which is why I love mario even more). It will be much cooler and I will carry with me memories of sophisticated conversations and civilized behaviours

Well yesterday I did my 4th half marathon.  When i had originally signed up this year I had signed up to run the full marathon, my first full marathon, but that of course was before we got pregnant.  When I found out I was pregnant I really still wanted to participate because the race is just so much fun.  So I decided to walk it with my aunt and her friend who had signed up to walk the half already (this of course made my mother sigh with relief when i told her that was my plan).

The morning was overcast but still a nice, and it warmed up a little as we walked.  As walkers we had estimated we would take close to 4 hours to finish so we were pretty much in the back of the line to get out of the start line, corral 37 of 39 (ugh).  So it was about 8am when we actually started.   Walking the half was VERY different from running/jogging the half.  when you are on the course, most of the spectators have seen their people and have left for the finish line.  You don’t get to see the kids waiting with their cute signs for mommy or daddy, and as you come in to down town, all the other racers are leaving and there was no one lined up along the streets.  As we walked through the water stations, because we were so far back they were always starting to clean up. And the portapotties.  OMG, looking at the stats of the race finishers there were 7000 some males, and 12000 some females.  Lets just say that when you are among the last group of people to get to the bathrooms after all those ladies there were many a toiletpaperless stall.  Luckily i was with seasoned walkers who always carry tissues with them.  And because of little Timmy in my belly, we spent a total of about 10 minutes at various pit stops.  At mile 10 I was fed up with stopping and vowed to make it to the end (thankfully I did.  walkers are much more chatty, and carry a lot more stuff!  Runners tend to have everything in their little hidden pockets, but walkers tend to carry back packs, and large fanny packs.

At the end of the day we went the exact same distance as the runners, but for me the sense of accomplishment was not quite the same.  Even last time at the whidbey Island half I ran a slower time than the last two, but I felt like I had a great race.  I never thought I would say this, but I think i like running long distances better than I like walking them. There is one really nice thing about walking instead of running though, and that is that your body does not hurt so much at the end of it all.  I do appreciate that.

This morning I had a little bit of post race blues. last year i took a few days to recover and then started training for a triathlon, but this year no such luck.  no more big races until next year.  I have my eye on some 5-10k races around seattle and would love to run them (assuming running still feels good).  At the moment I am about 22 weeks pregnant so I will just play it by ear.  I am certainly starting to feel the weight that I have put on but so far I haven’t had much in the way of pregnancy discomfort (lets hope it stays that way).  I may try to set up a schedule for myself of a leasurely triathlon type of training at the gym, but that would be more about getting in cross training in the event that the weather actually gets too warm around here or i start to not feel like running so much.

And of course now we have ALLLLLLLllll the baby stuff to get ready.  Those 30 diapers aren’t going to make themselves you know.

Anyway.

i will post some of the pictures that mario took of the race soon.

later.

So we have made the decision to use cloth diapers for our coming baby.  For my part I like the idea of cloth diapers because it reduces waste and they say that cloth diapers are better for the baby.  Mario came fully on board when I showed him the COST savings. When considering cloth diapers its important to remember that while there is a greater initial cost, buying the diapers, the amount of money you save over time is much greater.  So we are taking the long view.  And if/when we have another child we can probably use them again assuming this baby doesn’t destroy them somehow.

I had already started to look at the various types of reusable diapers that are out on the market.  One day I was looking at a pattern website, Jalie, and found that they had patterns to MAKE your own cloth diapers.  These are the All in one cloth diapers where the waterproof cover is a part of the diaper and for the most part they work like the disposables now days, NO PINS!

So I bought the pattern and bought some fabric last weekend to make a test diaper.  I had previously seen a couple of videos on youtube that show how the pattern is made (Part 1 Part 2) so when I finally mad one today the instructions made A LOT more sense.  Jalie is a french company and so their instructions are in pictures as well as english and french which you would think would make it alot easer to figure out, but not so much.

The cutting out of the pattern was easy, not to many moving parts.  THe constructing of the pattern went really well (when I was paying attention and actually sewing the velcro in the right place) and here are the results!

The pattern Front	first trial diaper ever. The outer fabric is called PUL fabric and is the water proof barrier. And don't worry they won't all be black
The diaper closes with velcro so its adjustable around the babys waist. The patterns are sized by weight, so this pattern is for babies 7-11 lbs. I will have to make more sets as baby gets bigger but after making 1 i don't think that will be an issue.	The inner fabric that goes closest to baby's skin is flannel. THere are other fabrics people use but for now I am just going to go with the flannel.
On the inside of each closure wing there is a small square of the soft half of the velcro. This is so that you can fold the velcro closures over like so in the wash and will keep the diapers from hanging on to one another.	The verision of the diaper that I am making has a removable inside. The soaker pad for this diaper I made out of a velour terry cloth which is 100% cotton. There is an opening along the back of the diaper where you can remove it. this way when washing everything you can take the parts out and they will wash and dry more effectively.
The soaker outside of the diaper. Should you need a bit more coverage for the over night there is also a supplement that you can make that sits next to the baby and makes for a slightly thicker more absorbent diaper

It took me a couple of hours to cut out the fabric and then put it together but I think if I were to do things in stages, like cut all the fabric, then sew all of one section, then the next and sort of assembly line it it will not take me as long per diaper.

After adding up the approximate costs of making  the cloth diapers I have come up with about $6 per diaper.  Now that may sound like a lot but when you compare that to the cost of buying them from a company, $12-$17 per diaper I am more than willing to put in my time.  Plus I like the idea of my baby having custom made diapers.    (nothing but the best for my boy!)