Who we are

Hello to all of my new readers! This blog started out simply as me wanting to post a few things on cloth diapers (hoping it would help someone) to me actually being fortunate enough to post on all sorts of parenting things and even offering giveaways. I thought I'd give a bit of an introduction for us at this point so people have a bit of a background.

I'm Christine, and I'm the blogger in the family. I live in the states (mid-west), and I'm a full-time working mother to our wonderful toddler, Bobble. No, Bobble is not his real name. (Feel better, now? We weren't that mean!) I have "blog names" for the rest of my family on here. I'm certain you can all understand that! Okay, I actually didn't come up with any name for my hubby yet, but I will eventually! I was always "green" at heart, but I wasn't what you would call a "crunchy" mom..... at least, it didn't start out that way! I knew I wanted to cloth diaper our child(ren) because it was best for their skin (and our pocket book!). It did turn into quite the obsession, however, and that was our introduction to many more "green" things.

As I stated early, I had always been a bit "green" at heart. I wanted to save the Earth when I was a child, and was always reading something about recycling, what we can do to lessen pollution, etc. This, mind you, was in elementary school. Yes, it goes back a long time. Combine that love for "green" things with the cloth diaper obsession.... then throw in cloth wipes. Yes, wipes. Simple little thing, but why not save that much more money? That much less chemical against my baby's skin!

That introduced me to a world of people making their own wipes. Well, why stop at just wipes? They make their own paper towels, they use 'wipes' as tissues, they use mama cloth. Wait, what!? That's just gross! .... right? Well, maybe not. I look into that. I learned about mama cloth, then about reusable cups. I then learned about one product after another, and before you know it: POOF! I'm this crunchy mama who keeps striving to find more reusable products with no harmful things in them (like BPA) to make our whole family greener (and healthier!).

Most parents will tell you they want what's best for their child, and that's how we feel, too. I wanted what was best. I wanted Bobble to have organic foods. None of that GMO-laden stuff. None of that pesticide-covered stuff. Pure, good, organic food. Well, why should he get that and not us? We start buying more local food, we start buying organic whenever possible (although nearly ALWAYS for him).

Bobble is a character all his own. He has hit the terrible twos as of 2 months ago.... at an early 15 months. My sweet little angel is now a super-energetic whirlwind of destruction with adorable eyes. Yes, I had to include the eyes comment, as I'm certain that's a child's self defense mechanism. You can be fuming, but then they look at you with adorable eyes and start being all cute. You calm down, and they live to see another day! Okay, so nobody is actually *THAT* mad, but you get the point. We're learning how to live with his ridiculously clever antics. He is too smart for his age, though he doesn't really say anything. He signs a lot (American Sign Language), and that gets his point across most of the time.

We subscribe to Attachment Parenting (AP) styles more than not, and you will find us sleeping with our child, baby wearing, not spanking him, still breastfeeding, etc. Is this how I thought it was going to be? No, honestly it 's not. I didn't even know what AP was, but I find that I tend to agree with most of the AP solutions to things. My child cries for a reason, that reason shall be tended to. I don't plan on spanking my child, slapping my child's hand, screaming at him to get my point across, or anything like that.

My husband, is a stay-at-home-dad right now. This is also not how he planned things, but we have to take the hand we are dealt. He is a fantastic father, though Bobble tries his patience a lot these days. He has gone back to school, taking online classes the last year or so and attending on campus this coming school year. At that time, Bobble will start attending Montessori's toddler childcare program. This will be the first time he's ever had to be watched by someone else (save one time he was watched for a couple hours by grandma). My hubby would love for me to stay home and him work, but with the economy as it is, we are very fortunate that I have such a stable job. This does mean we have to postpone having more children until later than we originally wanted, but we definitely have our hands full with just Bobble for right now.

So, there you have it! A brief run-down of who we are. Please remember that this is *MY* blog, not yours. If you disagree with something I have said in a post, that is okay. EVERYONE is entitled to their own opinion. I will gladly accept notes stating opposing thoughts on my blog provided they are done tastefully and without profanity, bashing, or anything of that nature. Please respect everyone! With that being said, if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them for you. I also would love it if you would tell me what you hope to see in this blog in terms of post topics (or anything else)!