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!
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