As many of you know, Jeff and I are making strides at being as "green" a family as possible. Since giving birth to Lily, I have, of course, been very invested in doing what is best for her health and
well being and in turn many of those actions are also leading me in the green direction. Some of the green alternatives we have chosen actually cost us a little more green, but thankfully I have a very supportive husband. However, there are also areas in which we have been able to be green and save our greenbacks at the same time. Some of those money saving alternatives include Jeff riding his bike to work, our cloth diapering of Lily, and our attempt to reduce our energy use around the house as much as possible. I have really enjoyed researching and learning all the different things we can do in addition to the recycling that we have always done. It has now become somewhat of a passion for me, and I get very excited when I discover new things we can do around the house. I would eventually like to help make a larger impact, as well.
After reading the book
Garbageland:On the Secret Trail of Trash by Elizabeth
Royte, I started taking a serious look at the garbage we throw out on a daily basis. Luckily, most of what we discard we are able to recycle and the little trash we do create is mostly discarded food items like banana peels and strawberry tops. So once
again my very supportive husband has given me the go-ahead on investing in a
composter. Each day I challenge myself to try and make as little a footprint as possible. So hopefully, the
composter will really help me out there. I also enjoy the challenge of trying to find uses for things that we would otherwise discard. Melissa is going to teach me how to use a sewing machine because I want to make grocery shopping bags out of our old fun t-shirts, I re-use my
ziplock snack baggies, and I am so excited that I found out that
Avent bottle nipples and collars can actually fit on top of
Smuckers jelly jars. Luckily, I did keep a few of the
Avent collars and nipples around and I plan to use our empty jars as additional glass baby bottles.
While on the subject of baby, this is the area of our lives that we have probably changed the most. After reading about all the dangers of the chemicals used in diapers as well as their effect on the environment, we decided to meet with Sarah at Pinstripes and
Pokadots, our local cloth diaper lady, and talk about all the different options for cloth diapering and how it would work with our two-working-parents lifestyle. Thankfully, cloth diapers have come a long way and are just as easy to put on and use as disposables. We have now been using them for around 10 months and have had no problems. Our babysitters were very open to them as well and haven't seemed to mind using them at all either. After learning about the dangers of disposable diapers I started to look more closely at the products we use on a
daily basis with her that could also be hazardous to her health. Before Lily was born I registered for the most popular and best bottles on the
market (
Avent and Dr. Brown's). More recently there has been much controversy about the effects on humans from the plastic used to make these bottles. While these bottles were not used much with Lily and they were hand washed, we did decide to get rid of them all together and have been using glass
Evenflo bottles with her ever since. We did invest in two
Siliskins covers that help protect the bottles from breaking and Lily has put them to the test on a daily basis and not one has broken. Lily is still loving her
ba-ba, and while we have introduced the
sippy cup on many occasions she prefers to play with it rather than use it for its intended function. After the
BPA plastic scare, I of course did some research on
sippy cups as well. Lily has a
Klean Kanteen, which is a stainless steel alternative to using a plastic
sippy cup, and she has a
Born Free (
BPA free plastic)
sippy cup that was given to her as a gift from
Beni. I would give both good reviews on their functionality. Note: the
Klean Kanteen keeps liquids pretty cool for a long period of time! Mommy and Daddy also jumped on the plastic-free bandwagon and we both now have
SIGG aluminum water bottles. We have also given them to family members and friends as "green" gifts.
One of our major
influencers in our
eco-friendliness has been the guidance and support of the most
knowledgeable green family I know, the
Kawakitas. When Lily was first born we turned not only to the grandparents for those day-to-day baby questions, but we also relied a lot on
Beni and Chris for information since they had just been through the baby stage and were very good at researching. Now not only do we still rely on them to help us from their experiences with Olivia, but we also have learned a lot about the greenest, most natural, and healthiest ways to take care of our babies. We do a lot of organic grocery shopping, frequent the farmer's market, and try to find baby products that are organic and chemical-free. So far I have really liked the
California Baby products we have used. The diaper rash cream smells great and took care of her little rash in no time. We have also used the shampoo/
bodywash, and I have ordered their chemical free sunscreen as well. You can find some of these products at Target and Whole Foods, but unfortunately our Target does not carry the sunblock. So all in all, our little bundle(s) of joy's health and well being has been out top priority, but as an added bonus they have lead us to be much more environmentally aware and given me a new hobby as well!
This past weekend we took advantage of a few of the many great free attractions Bloomington-Normal has to offer. Early Saturday morning, Melissa, Keaton, Lily and I strolled around the Farmer's Market in downtown Bloomington. There were lots of puppies and people for Lily to observe while mommy purchased some local fresh and organic produce and an awesome cinnamon roll from Kelly's Bakery. Okay, so I guess that trip wasn't totally free, but it kept the kids entertained. Pictured below you will see photos from our trip to Miller Park's new and free splash park. Lily had a lot of fun chatting with the other kids and playing on the adjacent playground. We were really impressed with both the splash park and the playground area. Lily was more impressed with all the kids at the park and the puppy we ran into on the walk back to the car. Bloomington also has free plays this summer at Miller Park. They just finished up Charlotte's Web and will be performing Peter Pan in July. We missed Charlotte's Web, but hope to take Lily to see Peter Pan. In addition to the free attractions we have taken advantage of in Bloomington, there is also a plethora of fun, free family activities in Normal as well. The newest attraction is the Amphitheater that is located right near the Constitution Trail on Linden. This summer, in addition to the summer high school theater program, the amphitheater will show movies like The Incredibles and E.T. along with hosting concerts and story nights. With Lily's bedtime being a little later these days, this is the perfect place for our family to ride our bikes and burn off some energy before "nigh-night."
Jeff, Lily, and I returned home yesterday after 8 wonderful days in paradise. It was such a special trip for the three of us. Lily was so much fun and so good the whole trip. Thankfully, she even handled the plane rides with no problem. Each morning we woke up to a silly Lily "tapping" us on the side, back, ribs or face. It thrilled her to wake us up each morning. Then we would have a nice