Cloth Wipes

 When I decided to cloth diaper I figured it would be easier to just use cloth wipes as well, but I didn't receive any from my registry at my baby shower.  Even though I had the nursery print flannel to make my own with, with all of the projects I was working on and preparing to fly to Uganda to meet my son it was low on my priority list.  I figured I would get to it at some point before I left.  After all, it would be a pretty quick project and my favorite projects are quick ones! 

I was wrong!  After we got home from Africa I dove into cloth diapering, but I felt silly and counterproductive using cloth diapers and disposable wipes.  So finally one day I used a nap time to create the cloth wipes I had meant to create months ago before we brought baby home.

 Before we left for Africa, I found this pile of things to transform at a thrift shop and decided to use the brand new yardage of nursery print flannel for my wipes.  You can read about the transformation of this pile here.

 I was pretty excited about transforming the picture frames for a family wall I was doing and spray painting the basket for the baby's room.  But the thought of sewing a bunch of cloth wipes for cleaning a baby's hiney just didn't seem nearly as fun as the rest of the projects on my list!  Which is probably why it never got done.  But now that I needed them it was suddenly a priority :o)  Funny how that works....

 I was glad when I finally devoted that afternoon nap making the wipes though.  I had some green terry fabric that I used to back about half of them and when I ran out I just sewed 2 layers of flannel together, print side out.

The terry cloth side is good for scrubbing, but I have discovered that I usually prefer just the double layer flannel.  I have a small spray bottle I keep with the wipes that I fill with warm water, a squirt of baby wash and 3 drops of tea tree oil.  The tea tree oil is naturally anti-bacterial keeps the water fresh and smelling good and I refill the bottle every 3ish days when it runs out.  It is so much easier to just spray a wipe and finish up the job than use regular wipes and have to dispose of the wipes in a separate place from the rest of the diapers in the diaper pail.

Day 10 - Hiking Diamond Head and Home

On our last day in Hawaii we got up early to hike Diamond Head.  We have hiked it once before and it is a good workout with an amazing view at the top.  Here is a view of the mountain from our sailing trip the day before...........

Day 9 - Sailing!

Waiting by the sail boat for our early morning sail.....

Day 8 - Lost Beach Camp

 The next morning in Oahu we decided to rent another kayak, so we went to a concierge desk.  She called several companies, but none of them would rent to us because there aren't rivers so they take the kayaks on the open ocean.  It sounded really fun because they kayak out to this little island to explore scenic beaches and picnic.  Finally one place said that they would let us rent the next day, but it was like 3 times the price of the kayaking place we rented from in Kaua'i, so we passed and booked a sailing trip for the morning instead which was cheaper than renting a kayak.  Partly because we have sailed with then 5 times and they know us and give us a good deal :)  After that we hit up Starbucks before going to the LOST beach camp to see if there was anything left...........

Day 6 & 7 - Kayaking to Secret Falls

 

 Jeremiah in the kayak.  We wanted to kayak the river up to Secret Falls.  But we had a baby.  But we wanted to kayak.  So we decided to not let having a baby get in the way or our fun!  We had to rent a kayak and go it alone because none of the guided groups allowed babies, but it worked out for the better because we got to explore much more on our own.  It was quite the kayaking trip upstream while Mike did most of the paddling and I paddled sometimes and entertained the baby sometimes.  Jeremiah did a GREAT job and we would totally do it again!!  Once we finally got to the place where land your kayak we tumbled out and began the hike to the falls.  It was actually the perfect day to be in a river and then be sprayed by a waterfall because it rained.  All day.  We were drenched!!  Jeremiah was a really good sport about being wet........

Kaua'i - Day 5 - Kipu Falls

Kipu falls was a place I really wanted to see, but our guidebook didn't give directions because the locals she talked to asked her not to so they could keep it more private and not over run with tourists............

Kaua'i - Day 4 - Lydgate Beach

I have my rashgaurd and my spf hat on and my bottle.  I am ready for the day!!!

We hung around the condo for a while relaxing this morning, so we got a later start to the day.  We loaded Jeremiah in the car and drove a short way to downtown Kapa'a to browse the unique shops.  It was fun and we stopped at Bubba's burgers for lunch.  Jeremiah was totally sacked out in his stroller the whole time...........

Kauai - Day 3 - The North Shore

Jeremiah had been waking up at 5am every morning because it was 8am at home.  Mike took baby duty the morning before, so this morning I got up with the annoying little early riser and we went out to watch the sun rise at the beach.

 Me and the little guy watching the sunrise.

Kauai - Day 2 - Waimea Canyon

 On our first full day in Kauai we decided to go see the Waimea Canyon, the Grand Canyon of Hawaii.  You drive drive all the way around the island toward Waimea almost until the road ends in that direction, then go up a mountain.
There is a river that snakes through at the bottom.  This is the view from one of the pull-outs on the way up.

Kauai - Day 1

I absolutely loved Kauai!!  We left our house at 4:30 in the morning and we had to take 2 connecting flights.  The lame part was that Alaska Air made us stop in Portland.  Apparently the only direct flights to Honolulu are in the late afternoon and we wanted to fly in the morning.  Then we had to get on an island hopper to Kauai.  With all of that, because of the time change we still made it to Kauai before noon!
Our first order of business after checking in to our condo was checking out the beach!  The complex was on a beautiful stretch of Pacific, but sadly there was not much beach.

That did not stop us from enjoying it though!