Those natural parenting experts warned me about this...

My daughter has a birthday coming up and family member's have been asking me what she wants for a present. She's certainly old enough now to voice her wants, so I've started asking her what she'd like for a gift. She knows that birthdays equal cake so she wants a special cake.  Sometimes it's a princess cake. Sometimes it's an astronaut cake.  Sometimes it's a veterinarian cake.  Other times it's a princess-astronaut cake.

But, for presents, she doesn't say much.  Though we're not as "screen free" as I'd like at this point (I admit to letting her watch classic Sesame Street episodes from the '80's) she is not exposed to commercials.  In particular, she's not exposed to commercials targeting children.  She doesn't know she "needs" the latest plastic toy from China.  There isn't a screen telling her she needs it.  In her world, she's pretty content to play with her "spice people" (jars of spices in the pantry that come out to play and have parties while I'm cooking) and the toys she already has. 

Nonetheless, I let her browse through a few natural toy catalogs and asked her what toys she wanted for her birthday.  Wouldn't you know, she opened the Palumba catalog and saw two boys playing on the first pages. She cried out excitedly, "Oh, Momma!  I want a brother for my birthday!"  She held up the catalog and pointed to the models in the picture. Having totally missed my attempts to push consumerism on her, she surprised me with what I was warned about by the likes of Kim John Payne and other natural parenting experts.  These kiddos tend to be more people-oriented vs. stuff-oriented and don't place a lot of value in materialism.  I have to admit, I'm so thankful that she hasn't started the "Mommy-I-want-this-toy" whining yet.  I'm relieved that she's showing evidence of a commercial-free childhood.  That was one of the goals I had when we first started out with her and one that I pray will continue. 

Going with FuzziBunz

This second pregnancy of mine has just flown by.  With only seven more weeks to go, I've only begun to chip away at my "to-do" and "to-get" lists.  One of my major decisions was deciding on a cloth diapering system since we won't be using disposables (except for a package right at the beginning).  I started cloth diapering with my first child and made a lot of mistakes...it was such a learning process. Wanting to keep things simple this time-- and use my newfound knowledge-- I ordered some new FuzziBunz Elite One Size Pocket Diapers in neutral colors.  I discovered this diaper after my first baby turned a year old and discovered how to undo the velcro on her BumGenius's...in the middle of the grocery store!  From that point on, a FuzziBunz with snaps carried her through until she completely potty trained.

I did order a whole package of BumGenius one size pocket diapers with the first baby only to discover that she couldn't fit into them until she was about four months old.  Yes, they're advertised as being all you'll ever need from birth to potty training, but I found that not to be true.  For us, it was four months to when-they-figure-out-how-to-unfasten-the-velcro.  Like many other moms, I was disappointed with the velcro closures losing their sticky-ness after a year of use and I'm not willing to sew on one of the refresher kits sold by the company to replace them.  However, with the FuzziBunz I was happy with the snaps and adjustable hidden elastic.  I had fewer problems with leaks, too. Not to mention, I'm able to adjust it to a much smaller size than the BumGenius ones. I've seen online reviews with moms using these for newborns and I'm hoping I can start using them within the first month of the baby's life.