potty training a boy before 2

About a month ago, I was kicking a bag of dirty diapers around the bathroom when I realized that I just don't want to be doing diaper laundry any more. It had started to feel like it was never-ending because dipes have to be washed every 3-ish days, and between the washing and the air-drying and the re-stuffing, diaper laundry almost never ended.

These days, most folks don't even think about trying to potty train until the child is at least 2. Well...surprise surprise, I decided to buck convention in this regard, too. For about three weeks now, Gabriel has been diaper-free at home, with mixed-but-increasingly-more-successful results. He's made consistent progress, just not what I would call super-duper rapidly. That said, we went from peeing all the time everywhere, to peeing occasionally in corners, within a couple of days.

I am more or less following the advice of John Rosemond in his book, Toilet Training without Tantrums*. The very basic idea is what Rosemond calls N75, short for "naked and $75." N75 basically says that when it's time to train (and the sooner, the better), let your child go naked (or wear briefs if a boy) around the house and then when training is over, spend $75 on getting your carpets cleaned. I think it might be more like N100 these days, but since I have all hardwoods I just rolled up my carpets and we're good to go.

I started him off naked during all waking hours, partly because I am cheap and didn't want to buy underwear, and partly because I thought it would be easier logistically since G doesn't know how to take his pants on and off yet. But when I realized that he was having tremendous fun watching the "arc" if you know what I mean, I put him in teeny, tiny tighty-whities. These things are really freaking cute, to the extent that underwear can be cute. No more arc. So that seemed to help a lot with the progress.

He's also been staying dry during naps since we began this little experiment in parenting and socialization, which is admittedly very exciting but only to a small audience, namely ME.

We aren't quite there yet, but he's come a long way and has built up what seems to be a pretty good awareness of his body at this point. Now it's just a matter of getting him to remember to get to the potty, and not just be happy about identifying "go-time." We're about 75% there.

I'm not sure what will come next, but at some point I'll have to get him used to the deal while dressed, and while not at home. All in due time. In the meantime, I think I'm gonna go do the dance of joy.



*Not an affiliate link.

how i crunch (and how i don't)

While I wouldn't classify myself as a "hippie" by any stretch, there are some pretty "crunchy" things I do, and that's no secret. I tend to be unconventional, if not counter-cultural. Part of it is a frugal/savings thing, part of it is an "it's just better this way" thing, and part of it is borne out of an appreciation for simplicity and tradition. In the crunchy/frugal/simple/traditional circles, there are lots of sacred cows of things you ABSOLUTELY MUST do if you're going to have a legit club membership. Some of these things, I do. Some of them, I don't. For me, it all boils down to whether the savings/value is worth the effort of doing it the unconventional way.

Here are a few things I do that might qualify me for a granola card:

1. Cloth diapers. Gabriel wears cloth diapers, it's true. For how much longer, we'll see! Potty training is on the horizon!

2. Taco seasoning from scratch. This is one of those things that may or may not be "cheaper" (I never priced it) but is definitely, in my opinion, tastier. It takes hardly any time and I know exactly what's in there. Most of the store-bought taco seasoning I've looked at has a huge amount of filler. No, thanks.

3. Soap. Yes, I make my own soap. Yes, it is awesome.

4. Laundry detergent. Yes, I still make my own laundry detergent. Using the aforementioned soap. And yes, it is still awesome.

5. Oil cleansing method. I wash my face with a mixture of olive oil and castor oil. Say what???

6. Coconut oil as moisturizer/lotion. My primary facial moisturizer actually comes from the aforementioned face washing method, but on those days when I need a little extra help, a touch of coconut oil does the trick. Additionally, I gave away most of my bottles of store-bought lotion. I've got two more remnant bottles I'm working my way through, and then it'll be 100% coconut oil for me! (A bonus: I rub coconut oil on my neck and shoulders when I dress up -- it gives this really nice shimmer.)

7. Raw honey. I have just started buying raw honey. Y'all, this stuff is good. In other news: I no longer use honey for baking (very often) because geesh, this stuff is expensive!

8. Chicken stock (though currently cheating). Usually, I make my own chicken stock. And that stuff is mad tasty and so good for you. These days, I've been cheating a lot with some store-bought organic stuff. But whenever I do cook chicken, I will make some stock. I keep telling myself that once I get a leeeetle more traction in my days, I will be back in the kitchen with gusto, and one of the first things I'll do is crank the chicken stock machine.


And just for fun, here are some crunchy things I don't do, but probably "should." The ones with asterisks are ones that I'd really, really, really like to do someday (or start doing again).

1. Grow food*
2. Preserve food*
3. No 'poo (tried and rejected)
4. Backyard chickens*
5. Raw milk (tried and rejected)
6. Bread, tortillas, naan, other breads*
7. Deodorant (tried and rejected)
8. Hummus*

why I use cloth gift bags

I like to decorate for Christmas somewhere between the day after Thanksgiving and the first few days of December. My decorating isn't a huge to-do, but I do the must-haves. Something else I like to do is buy Christmas presents over the course of the year, and then finish my shopping on black Friday/cyber Monday with all the sales and whatnot. That usually translates into a huge pile of gifts that need to be wrapped.

A couple of years ago, to save myself time and money and also to exercise some budding creativity, I started making gift bags. I buy a couple of yards of Christmas fabric every year in mid-December when it goes on sale and add to my collection of bags. It paid off immediately, and it continues to pay off now both as a money savings and an efficiency thing.

The gift bags are very simple to make if you have a functioning sewing machine. I won't bother with a tutorial because there are about a billion already available. Mine are the extremely simple "cut a rectangle, fold it in half with the right sides together, sew along the two edges that share a corner with the folded edge, flip it inside out, and sew a ribbon about 1/3 down" variety, though I could easily get fancier with hemming and decorative edging and making the bottoms more box-shaped and drawstrings and blah blah blah. I don't have time for that nonsense.

And because I had this nifty stash of gift bags ready to go, I saved myself a lot of time and a LOT of trouble with gift-wrapping. I had a pile of presents to wrap, and I was able to get it done in about 10 minutes. Add another 10 minutes to account for time spent making new bags for the oddly shaped gifts, and I was done.

It was glorious.

File this under "do your single-mom-self a favor."

yes, i use cloth diapers on my baby

So I've got a three-month-old chunker (and I've got the back spasms to prove it). I decided not long after the second pink line appeared that I wanted to use cloth diapers on the baby instead of disposables. Here in Denver, people hear that choice and comment on the "green"ness or the benefit to the environment.

Here's the thing, though: I didn't choose cloth diapers for the sake of being green. I chose it because I am cheap. Do you have any idea how expensive diapers are? They are expensive. And we are on one income, people. I'll dish out $250 for a used cloth diaper stash and pocket my $2500 in money NOT spent on disposables.

Yes, it's a little bit more laundry, but seriously people, cloth diapering is not that bad. I do two extra loads of laundry a week, and I made up for it by doing jumbo loads when I used to only do large loads, so the number of laundry loads I do hasn't really changed. The water and power bills have not significantly increased, there are not ugly stained rags all over my house, I do not slave over a hot washing machine daily, and my boy has the cutest little giant butt in town.

The funny thing about babies is that they're always growing and changing shape. I'd noticed about a week ago that Gabriel had some red marks on his hip. I noticed around the same time that his diapers tended to leak from the same spot where the red marks are. I've figured out why they leak, but it wasn't until today that I figured out how to fix the problem. It's a good thing I figured it out, too, because what was a red mark a week ago has started to look almost like a callous on my poor baby's skin.

The culprit is a diaper that isn't fitting well because it's too small. It just didn't occur to me that I needed to go a size up, because doing so will mean he'll be wearing the diapers on the largest setting, and the boy's only 3 months old! But really, babies who aren't really mobile yet are super-duper fat, and once they start being able to roll around, they get a little less chunky in the thigh region. So he needs the large size to accommodate his large legs. That's my theory, anyway.

So much of this parenting thing is trial and error. I spend my days going from "what does this cry mean" to "why does his diaper pucker on the side" to "how many doggie licks to the face is too many" and back again. Next thing I know, he's been asleep for a while and I realize that it's past his bedtime and he zonked before I could even get a chance to try our bedtime routine again, and then I wonder if I'm setting him up for a lifelong habit of being able to fall asleep only if there's a tv on in the room. Oops.

At least babies grow up more slowly than dogs do. He's only three months old - I think there's still time to break the tv habit.