Thursday, November 19, 2009

Of diapers and wipes...

At my house, diapers can be a hot topic. Sounds exciting doesn't it? The talk usually boils down to two sides, 1) preference for one brand and 2) preference for something decent, but mainly preference for the price. I'm sure you can figure out who comes down on what side of this debate... What has recently entered into the discussion is also trying to be more conscious of the products we're using, and their effects on everything else. Add to this Karen and Annie being gone for the weekend a few weeks ago, and with way too much time on my hands... I set about trying to find some good deals that would not only satisfy me from a price consideration, Karen from a brand perspective and everyone from a 'are we doing what we can' perspective. Enter Amazon.

Oh Amazon... how I've loved you for finding me books to read, and introducing me to so many things that I didn't know existed until you suggested it. But Amazon also sells diapers and wipes, and anything else you can imagine. A friend of mine before had told me about buying diapers there, and so I figured I should give it a try. Most of the 'grocery' items Amazon sells you have to buy in bulk, which is fine because if there's something you don't want to run out of, it's diapers and wipes.

Normally we buy a value box of diapers from Costco for about $44. At Amazon, you can get the same box for about the same price, and they throw in free two-day shipping. But where you really save some cash, is if you 'subscribe' to the item, and have it delivered on a regular basis. If you do that, they will shave 15% off the price. Not too bad. With these cost savings, we were able to spring for the 7th Generation diapers and wipes. What's great about the 7th Gen diapers, is that they do not use chlorine to dye the wood pulp white during the making of their diapers. This is good because using chlorine releases chlorinated toxins during the pulp production process.

Costco doesn't sell 7th Generation diapers, so if we were to buy them somewhere else, they would cost about $52 for the same amount. With the 15% discount, we only paid $37, not too bad. And onto the wipes, we were even happier, because it's pretty hard to find wipes that do not contain alcohol. And when Annie has diaper rash, the alcohol in the wipes is brutal. But guess what wipes don't contain alcohol? That's right, 7th Generation. Picked those up from Amazon too, and same deal. Subscribe to the item and in addition to the free shipping you get 15% off, not too bad.

Now the wipes were pretty expensive relative to what we had been buying. Costco sells wipes under their brand name, and I'd say you get between 8 - 10 packages of 80 wipes/package, for about $20. That's cheap. Even with the discounts the 7th Generation wipes were still about $34 for 12 packs of 70 wipes. So, we saved some money and spent some more somewhere else... Sometimes a wash is the best you can do...

Monday, November 9, 2009

Karen and Annie take D.C.

Last weekend I was in class, so Karen and Annie set out to DC to visit her friend Stephanie. So since I wasn't there, and I'm writing this and not my "co-blogger," you'll just have to take my word for the way things went down.

Karen and Annie got there Friday night. Annie had somewhat of a meltdown in the terminal waiting for the flight, causing Karen to quickly pick her up off the floor and find the most remote part of the airport... Then after a banana Annie was all better and they had a nice flight to DC. Saturday they went out to breakfast, the first place they went was packed so they ended up at this French-organic place. Where everyone was super-snobby (and probably wearing berets, but I wasn't there). Then the three of them headed out to see the sights! Annie had a great walk along the reflecting pool. I've heard that Annie walked the whole way, but I don't know if I believe that. It is 2,029 feet long... Then they saw the Lincoln Memorial, and lots of other memorials.



Annie has two questions, 1) Can Sasha, Malia or Bo come out and play? And 2) Keep up the good work on health care! Ok, so really 1 question and 1 statement.



This is Annie out at (insert meal here). Actually looking very calm. I'm guessing either they just got there or the camera took about 50 pictures in a row and this was the one second where she wasn't doing anything. Annie has become quite the little handful when dining out. Two weekends ago we were out for breakfast, and there was this guy sitting at the table next to us, about two feet away. The entire meal Annie kept throwing things at this guy, who luckily had a great sense of humor and didn't mind the non-stop interruptions. Towards the end of the meal Karen and I are both getting embarrased, because everytime we look away she's tossing her toy, book, food, sippy cup... literally anything not bolted down was tossed at this guy and landed at his feet. And everytime he would nicely pick it up, say something funny to her, and then return to his meal.




Karen and Annie had a great trip, and I sure was glad when they came home!











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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Halloween photos







As promised, here are our Halloween photos! We had so much fun at the Korns... and as I mentioed earlier, Annie loved seeing all the other kids and their costumes. Annie is supposed to be a monkey, but I'm thinking in these photos she actually looks more like a bear. I'm not feeling very creative and don't really have too much else to share... so sorry for the lame post.












Sunday, November 1, 2009

Quick weekend recap

We had a great weekend, and Annie had lots of fun on Halloween! We
were originally supposed to go to BF for Halloween, but our plans
changed, so instead we went to Hingham. Our friends Scott and Jen
live there and it was a lot of fun to see them and help hand out
candy. Especially since we don't get any trick or treaters at our
house. Surprisingly enough we also forgot our camera, but Scott took
some good shots I'll post when I get them.

This video should help tide you over in the mean time... And Annie
isn't wearing a shirt because right now it's very warm in our apt
because Karen is in the process of cooking a turkey with all the
fixings!