September 3rd, 2010

First Mistake: Del Monte Pears

I’m trying to go a month with out buying anything made in China and today (day 3), I made my first mistake. Rushing through the grocery store, I was trying to find things that were on sale. I was in an aisle that I don’t normally frequent that happened to have the fruit cups. These are something I don’t normally buy, because of the excess packaging and high sugar content, but pears were on sale and I thought Spencer might like them for a change of pace. So I grabbed them, tossed them in my cart and went on my way. I didn’t check to see if it was a Chinese made product because I assumed that Del Monte used American fruit. When I got home, I happened to look at the packaging and saw “Product of China.” Dammit. Lesson learned: I am going to need to be much more vigilant and check everything.

September 3rd, 2010

Bath Time Fun

I was a little traumatized when Spencer outgrew the infant tub. The regular tub seemed like such a hassle and too dangerous and used a bunch of water. The Hubs had the genius idea of using the big blue tub we had in the garage. Ok. Fine. I’ll admit it. I bathe my baby in a keg tub.

But in my defense, he loves it.

September 2nd, 2010

Diaper Drama

It is always something with cloth diapers. It could be stink, stains, leaks, rashes, the perpetual wash routine. Cloth diapering is an ongoing process. Don’t get me wrong, for the most part I love it, but every once in a while, I want to chuck all of my cloth diapers out the window.

I have been having some problems with stink and a diaper rash that looked like it was maybe caused by ammonia build-up. I soaked. I added extra rinses. I used more soap. I used less soap. I sunned. Finally after one more soak/sun combo, the stink was gone. Mostly. And then the leaks started. Diapers were lasted less than 2 hours. Diapers that could previously go as long as 4 hours. And night-time leaks too. I was not a happy cloth-diapering camper.

I took a little break and used disposables for the San Francisco trip and was loving the lack of leaks. This made me more determined than ever to fix the problems before my lazy self went back to disposables for good. And then a light bulb went off. Spencer is in the 95th percentile for height. I’ve been on the same rise setting for at least 6 months. I unsnapped the front and lo and behold, no more leaks. It was user error all along, but I am still going to blame the diapers.

September 1st, 2010

Shopping: Day 1

Day one of project not made in china was today and it went pretty well. Farmer’s market was easy because it is all local. I needed some make-up, but luckily Benefit is made in the US and the only thing we got at the mall was some groceries, all of which are US made. But then we got Starbucks. I’m not sure how far I want to take this. Do I need to know if the cups are made in china? I guess I could take my own cup and negate the issue. I think I am going to have to go with end product for now. I bought American applesauce, but I don’t know where the container is manufactured and I am ok with that. For now.

I’m also trying to decide how I feel about used items. I bought Spencer some shoes yesterday at a local consignment shop and got a great deal – $12 for barely worn Pedipeds. But, they are made in china. I bought them 8/31, so they technically don’t count for the month. Part of me thinks that used items are ok. It keeps things out of the landfill and doesn’t encourage more chinese production. Lots of things to ponder and it has only been one day. We got our new (Made in USA) dishwasher installed today too. Woo for clean dishes!