So Annabelle has graduated to a sippy cup. Of course she’ll continue with nursing, but Virginia’s hot temperatures are making for a very sweaty little baby, and I realized that water is good for babies too. Plus, I think the What to Expect the First Year book recommends introducing sippy cups around 5 or 6 months.

Meanwhile, Annabelle’s gDiapers have been out of stock all over Northern Virginia–how do I know this? Well, I signed up for the gDiapers list-serve and parents all over the metro community are a tiny bit upset that gDiapers distributors have been holding out. Okay, why is this important?

Well, we placed orders for the gDiaper inserts at Wegman’s and multiple Whole Foods. Whole Foods called up this past Tuesday and informed us that our long sought after g-inserts had arrived. But alas, upon our arrival, I noticed that the entire case was the wrong size. So rather than make waste of our drive out to Fairfax, I mosied on over to the baby aisle to check out their sippy cups. After eying the Avent and Born Free BPA-Free cups, I chose the more attractive looking Born Free cup and made a forgivable impulse buy. Well, once I returned home, it occurred to me to research baby sippy cups, how the plastics versus metals measure up, and which cups don’t leak all over the place. Fortunately, I remembered this post that my friend Eli forwarded to me a few weeks ago. Here’s what I found out.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with our Born Free sippy cup, and more importantly, Annabelle loves it. I think we’ll try the Sigg Kids cup for a plastic alternative.

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Another green thank you gift from Danny Seo’s Simply Green Giving.  Since my neighbor Paula introduced me to sewing and helped me update my curbside patio furniture, I purchased her favorite wine and dressed the bottle up using newspaper and polka dotted ribbon.  It feels good to give and it is a lot of fun to put the gift together too!

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Going green means more than switching to eco friendly cleaning products and recycling plastics and metal cans.  Going green can be artsy and fun!  As part of my regular shopping routine, I swing by several thrift and consignment shops each month and search for items needed around the house or for the body.   On one shopping trip noticed the purple lamp base pictured above, some ties for my husband, and baskets for organizing towels in my linen closet.  Later on in the month, the leaf lamp shade popped out at me, while this little bag below was tucked behind children’s clothing.  All in all, thrifting is a great way to find little gems–sometimes in the rough–at much lower prices and that didn’t need to be newly produced for its buyer.   Later this week I’ll post more about my thrift finds out in Leesburg, Virginia, where I met two cheerful women running a cute shop out of a historic home.

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Curbside finds. Okay, well not the baby. Last week I spotted this patio chair among others on the curbside with a makeshift FREE sign. So I pulled over and loaded her up. Later in the week I found the little wicker table in our condo’s garbage shed. With a little bit of paint and elbow grease, my husband and I updated these patio pieces. The cushion needed love too so we purchased outdoor fabric and I learned how to sew a new cover from my neighbor’s sister Laura. We’re so pleased with our trash to treasures patio furniture. Now I can enjoy a little tropical oasis with Annabelle and only have to go as far as my front patio. Yay!

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While cleaning out my jewelry box I came across several buttons that belonged to new pants my husband and I have purchased over the past three years.   For a while I wondered what I might make from these buttons–all in soft browns and one in a cool turquoise–and then I found this tutorial on Creative Kismet.   The instructions are easy enough to follow, and little Annabelle sat on my lap while I pieced the buttons into the above bracelet.  I love it, baby loves it, so it’s a win.

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Last week I decided to invest in a much needed pair of running shoes, and I came across this item on Danny Seo.   As Danny recommended, I boxed up and recycled my old New Balance sneakers in the box that my new sneakers came in, and using a paper bag as packing paper, I wrapped them up, and wrote this address on the box:

Nike Recycling Center
c/o Reuse-A-Shoe
26755 SW 95th Ave.
Wilsonville, OR 97070

Then, Annabelle and I drove over to the post office and shipped my old sneakers away.   It just warms my heart to know that some kid that falls down at the playground just might have a softer fall since my old sneakers’ rubber will be part of the astrturf.

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I cannot sing enough praises to FreeCycle.  What is it?   Well, it’s a non-profit in Arizona that helps people give away perfectly good items that could end up in the garbage.  From their history page: “By giving freely with no strings attached, members of The Freecycle Network help instill a sense of generosity of spirit as they strengthen local community ties and promote environmental sustainability and reuse. People from all walks of life have joined together to turn trash into treasure.”  I learned about it from D.C. Urban Moms listserve, and since signing up, I’ve given away a host of items (cordless phone, standard pillows, old clothing, baby clothing, etc.), and we’ve been the recipients of so much baby clothing that I won’t need to buy Annabelle a single thread until she’s over 24 months.   In the picture above, she’s sporting an entirely FreeCycle-ed ensemble.

It’s actually become a verb around our house.  I ask my husband, can I freecycle that?

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versus

Last week at the grocery store, I proudly dropped a bottle of Burt’s Bees Baby Bee Buttermilk lotion into my cart. It’s label advertises Burt’s Bees as 98.47% all natural, with the explanation that a percent of its ingredients must be created in a lab (for example, Vitamin E doesn’t stay stable). Like most parents, I want what’s best for my kid–even when it comes to the lotion I rub on her bum each night; other mothers recommended Burt’s Bees lotion claiming it’s good for sensitive skin and frequent diaper rashes.

Annabelle turns 6 months next week and the entire time I’ve been caring for her, I had not given much thought to what ingredients were in her care products. I avoided overdoing lotion application and I never used powder on her (her pediatrician said it wasn’t necessary). Another mother mentioned that many baby products list petroleum as an ingredient, which can be allergenic.

With all the recommendations from local parents, and my own growing interest in natural care products, I learned about a cosmetic database, from my friend Jennifer, called Skin Deep, which investigates the safety of personal care products and identifies the product ingredients that are linked to cancer, birth defects, allergies, etc. I typed in “Burt’s Bees lotion” into the search bar and within seconds a list of Burt’s Bees products appeared on the screen. Click here to learn what ingredients Burt’s Bees Baby Bee Buttermilk lotion contains. It’s safety rating is a 4, so it’s a moderate hazard, and Burt’s Bees does not conduct animal testing nor does it have any violations, restrictions, or warnings. In addition, Burt’s Bees is not linked to cancer and is a signer of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics.

In comparison with Burt’s Bees, I typed in Johnson’s baby lotion into Skin Deep and this is what I learned. Also a moderate hazard, Johnson’s scored a 6, which is a greater hazard than Burt’s Bees Baby Bee lotion at a 4. Johnson’s will not sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics and Johnson’s conducts animal testing, is listed for violations, restrictions, and warnings.

I’m glad we switched our little girl’s personal care from Johnson’s to Burt’s Bees, although both products could improve since they both contain ingredients linked to developmental/reproductive toxicity.

Check out Skin Deep. I’m not even going to risk scaring you with what I learned about my Neutrogena SPF Moisturizer. But go ahead and read. Be sure to drink chamomile tea after reading this post.

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In another post, I rant about how our county doesn’t recycle #5 plastics. What they do recycle includes medication bottles, but what I hadn’t thought of until reading my morning Ideal Bite was that leftover pills often go into our garbage and end up in our water supply. Click here to visit Earth 911 and find out local drop off sites for your unused meds. A scary tidbit from Ideal Bite: “More than 80% of rivers recently sampled tested positive for meds like antibiotics, birth control hormones, and antidepressants.”

And a funny and scary factoid from Ideal Bite: ” The antidepressant drug clomipramine has been known to cause users to experience orgasms while yawning.”

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A few weeks ago, another green mama told me about an informative episode of Oprah that outlined different ways to go green at home.   On the episode, Oprah mentioned GreenDimes.com, an organization that helps rid our mailboxes of junk mail, and in addition, plants trees in multiple continents to offset the trees killed for unwanted advertisements and catalogs.  For my birthday, my gift to myself was a membership at GreenDimes which included my current name, my maiden name, and my husband’s name.  Fortunately, my daughter’s name hasn’t been bought yet and thus far, her only mail comes from grandparents in Connecticut.

Check it out.  They keep count of pounds of junk mail stopped for each second your visiting their site.  Pretty neat.

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