Swim Diapers

Cloth Swim Diapers are just a no-brainer, in my not-so-humble opinion.

According to diapers.com, Pampers sells a 10-pack of size 6 Splashers Swim Pants for $7.99. If you go to the pool every day, that's less than a week of swimming that goes straight into the trash! 79 cents per swimming episode! Let's say your child swims daily - whether in a wading pool in your backyard, the local pool, or the beach for June, July and August. 3 months of approximately 30 days each = 90 days. 90 x $0.79 = $71.91! And that's just for one kid who only uses one swim diaper a day. If your kid poops in his diaper, you still have to change it. That's one expensive summer of swimming!

OR.... you could buy 2 or 3 swim diapers for $14 each = $28-42 for the WHOLE SUMMER and maybe NEXT SUMMER!

So here's the thing with swim diapers. They're not supposed to be absorbant. If they were absorbant, they'd soak up the whole pool! So while some brands do have a small absorbant layer, it's really not necessary. The point of a swim diaper is to catch solid waste.

The only problem with the lack of absorbancy is if your baby is sitting on your lap waiting for swim lessons... Then you might have a problem. So my advice is if this is your situation, is to put a doubler or liner in until your child gets into the pool. But if you're in a bathing suit also, or you're at the beach, it really doesnt make a difference!

So these are the great swim diapers I've found:

Bummis makes these great Swimmis that look basically like a diaper cover (and basically are). They have a mesh lining and close with velcro. They come in adorable prints including: Sea Lions, Turtles, Fishies and Yellow Pizzazz.

Diaperaps are new to Soft and Cozy Baby this month! They make 2 great types of Swim diapers.

The first is a basic pull-on pant - great for older kids who want to pull on and off their own pants. And great for those babies who like to open the velcro and pull off their diapers! Choose from Kites, Butterfly, or Watermelon.

Diaperaps also makes adorable swim trunks! When I saw these I just had to get them! They are why I opened an account with Diaperaps at all! You all know how much I love the Training pants we carry, and these are just as good! You can't even tell there's a diaper inside! Choose from Blue Hawaii, Playful Fish, Blue Dolphin or Parrot.

With all these great choices, how can you pass this up? So it's not Elmo, but these are some adorable diapers!

TotSwap

I was a vendor at the Totswap in Gaithersburg this past weekend.
I think the Totswap idea is ingenious. It is a huge consignment sale. Hundreds of people bring their used baby and household products and offer it for sale. I mean this sale was huge. Thousands of clothes, hundreds of toys, bedding, nursing supplies, carseats, pack-n-plays, strollers, swings. You name it.

You get to choose your price and hope it sells. If it doesn't sell during the regular sale, you have the option of offering it half off on Sunday or then donating it to charity. Or you can come pick it up if it doesnt sell.

The first afternoon is for volunteers. Anyone who volunteers to help out during the sale, gets first dibs on the products offered. And there are some nice products and great bargains.

Then the first evening is for new moms. You have to have a ticket to get in. But there were hundreds of new moms there. (Some even came with kids - not sure how that worked...)

The rest of the sale is open to the public.

So I packed up my whole store and shlepped down to Gaithersburg and set up a table. It was a lot of fun. I did end up spending money buying stuff for my baby... Other vendors included booksellers, jewelry, tupperware, kids toys, Pampered chef, dinner services, you name it.

I got the word out about my store down there in Gaithersburg and even met a couple of familiar names and faces.

I will also be doing the Totswap in Timonium at the beginning of April. There's a new, 3rd Totswap this year in Howard County - but I won't be there.

For more info about Totswap, visit www.totswap.net. Pack up your old baby stuff and make some money! Come visit me in Timonium!

Computers and Passwords

Please don't mind me ranting and raving for a bit.
But I have a personal hatred for computers and passwords.

I'll start with passwords.
First of all - every website requires a password, usually with different specifications. Some need a capital letter or a number, a certain number of digits, or all of the above. Then there are those that require you to change your password every 90 days. How is one supposed to keep track of all these passwords?! So you end up writing them down. How is that safe??

Then, if you can't access a site because you forgot your password, you have to remember the clues you answered when you first signed up for access. How do I know what my favorite TV show was back then?

Plus, I recently tried to access a website and couldn't remember my password of course. So they said they'll send it to my email address. Well this is an email address that I used in college and of course don't remember the password to! So now I have to contact the IT desk at the college I used to go to in order to reactivate my email account and create a new password just so I can access the original website. Whew!

There's got to be an easier way.

And now for computers.
I think my computer is the slowest thing on the planet. I mean what is it doing exactly? Computers don't need to think or contemplate so they should be able to act on the commands you type into the keyboard. Or am I wrong? But my computer seems to have a vendeta against me. (Maybe it's because I can't remember my passwords. Or maybe it's because I let my baby bang on the keyboard and put it crazy commands it can't follow.) Regardless, the work I need to get done take 3-4 times the amount of time just because I am waiting for my computer to load the page.

There's got to be an easier way...

All comments and suggestions for curing my frustration are much appreciated.