Great Kids Books - Clemency Pogue
Totally fun books for the Harry Potter set (and the author is my brother!):
Phil and Teds Stroller - Great for two kids
Even before my second baby was born, we were in a nanny share and had to get a stroller. We have a Maclaren single stroller so we got the double, but have been very disappointed. After 1.5 years, the Maclaren double has pretty much fallen apart. Its large, heavy and unwieldy - impossible on the Capitol Hill sidewalks and don’t even think about trying to talk on the phone or drink a cup of coffee.
My friend Perrin recommended the Phil and Teds stroller for carting 2 kids around and as silly as it seems, its changed my life. It rolls easily over rough terrain (brick sidewalks with roots underneath them), is narrow enough to fit into small shops and aisles, looks hips, the kids love it and I can push it with one hand. Downsides are there is not a lot of payload capacity, and it doesn’t fold up super small. We have a Honda Pilot and I wouldn’t want to try to fit it in a small trunk on a regular basis. Regardless, I highly recommend this stroller!
Anyone else have stroller recommendations? Drop me an email at advice@butterpies.com or fill out the form below and I’ll get them posted!
Cloth Diapers - Fuzzi Bunz
We use Fuzzi Bunz and totally love them. We got them from Cotton Babies and I’ve also had good luck buying from Green Mountain Diapers. We use the size large now and use the micro-fiber inserts that Cotton Babies give for free. They work great. For night time, we just use two inserts, which is a little bulky but she’s just in her pj’s so its okay. She’s definitly ready for a change in the morning but she makes it through the night without a leak.
We also use the cloth wipes (with just water on them, though you can make your own solution for them too) that all those sites sell and they work great too. Easier to just throw them in with the wash than throw away a wipe.
We have 24 diapers, 30 inserts, and about 36 cloth wipes. We use the diaper pail from Cotton Babies with the 2 X-Large cloth diaper bag from Bummis. Its definitly worth buying 2 of everything like the diaper bags - one to wash, one to use. The nice thing is that you just empty the bag into the washer, and then toss the bag in as well without even touching the dirty diapers. We recently bought two of the Medium size bags to keep in the bathroom for the poopy diapers and we have several of the Smalls for when we’re out and about.
We also just bought a sprayer that attaches to the toilet (who knew that I could excited about something like this, ugh) and it has made dealing with the dirty diapers even easier. You just spray off anything that sticks and that’s it. Amazingly, most doesn’t stick to Fuzzi Bunz fleece though there are times and I’m very glad of the sprayer then. 
The sprayers can be found here.
With 24 diapers, we end up doing wash about every 2 days or so now that the baby is not a newborn. We do a soak/rinse then do a hot wash with Costco brand no dyes, no perfume detergent. Then a warm dry. Then we put the inserts in each diaper and we’re done. I think you’re not supposed to bleach them. We have done the ’stripping’ thing once or twice when we accidentally washed them with hemp inserts we were trying (hemp you have to wash alone several times first to get off the water-resistant oils). Anyway, the Fuzzi Bunz site has the instructions but its easy, just some more washing cycles essentially.
So far, they’ve held up really well and I’m excited about being able to use them for the next one too. that’s when the cost-saving really come in I think The downside is that they are on the expensive side for cloth diapers, though there are other kinds that are more expensive.
One thing to think about, regardless of what system you end up using, is to use disposables for that first week until the meconium is all the way through. It can be hard to get out of cloth diapers.
I’ve only used these and the diaper service (the flat chinese prefolds with covers). They were fine, but we definitly had more leaks. Leaks still happen, but they’re rare with Fuzzi Bunz. We used the Bummi’s Super Whisper Wraps as the covers. I have friends that use the prefolds and covers though who love them. I think some of it depends on how your baby is shaped (which is hard since the only way to get these is online) Fuzzi Bunz have several snaps at the leg openings and at the waist to help with getting the right fit.