" Why aren't there presents under the tree???"

(Emily) This is what I hear.....every. single. morning. Amidst sobbing, rubbing eyes and groggy voice. My response? "Mason...Christmas isn't today. Santa is still making presents and hasn't loaded his sleigh yet, you have to be patient."
The countdown is on...ans has been on, basically since after Halloween. we are all very excited for Christmas over here, mummy went a bit loony with shopping- I can't wait to have a completely overflowing bottom of the tree this year! Last year I was off work on maternity leave so I scaled us back.....a bit. But this year- I made sure I had a giant budget :-)

It's the most, wonderful time....of the year!

baking...at 3am

(Emily) So here I am, baking delicious ginger cookies [like the  Giant ones from  Starbucks...yummm] for Manning's birthday party / Christmas Party we're having tomorrow. I fell asleep with the kids tonight for a good 3hr nap, so I figure I'll finish the baking I need to do tonight, so that tomorrow I can focus on more important things- like savory recipes and getting my tables organized for when guests arrive. I'm starting to wonder if I really am insane with all that I am doing. [oh...and it's 4am over here] My throat is a bit sore though- so I was thinking I should get this all done now, before I feel like total garbage {which I'm really praying I don't!!!}

I will have to take some photos of all that I've baked to post here soon. I haven't uploaded pics in a while!

My little man is all grown up..... sorta

(Emily) big tears over here, my youngest little man hit the 1yr milestone today- and when I think back to where we were a year ago today, and what we've been through up to this day and it makes me proud to say- my little man was able to eat cake today.

Happy birthday 'Little Man'  xoxo

Maplebottoms.ca is ours

(Deana) Well we officaly own maplebottoms.ca.  Our IT guy will be doing a Splash page today and working hard on our site.  I always thought that develoing a website was simple a touch of a botton.  I was wrong there is so much to look at making sure we have our images and descriptions from our suppliers.  We have to organize the shipping and ordering boxes, order our stock etc.  WOW when I type it all out its is alot and I am probably leaving out alot.
But we are getting very excited and just can't wait to have everything up and running.

We are almost there....

(Deanna) Well we are almost there the launching of our website the excitment is building and we are getting everything in place so far we will be finilizing out logo hopefully this week.  Once this is done we will sit down with the designer and start getting our site ready.  There is just so much to so I never thought that this process would be so long I always pictured this process being easy but I was wrong.  We have to think of ideas and approve the logo, come up with a marketing place for one of the biggest suppliers, find boxs, find a company to ship our murchandise etc.......
I will be honest I have had my doughts not that me and Emily couldnt do it, but more could we be better then our compation, after looking at what might be our compatition it made me realize how much there is still to do on top of our regular days of kids, laundry,cooking and sleeping(haha).
I guess I am just excited I can't wait till everything falls into place.  Stay tuned for more updates not that the wheeels are turning.

Lions, and tigers, and.... Kids? oh my!

Well I went back into the daycare thing, full-swing! I have 3 daycare kiddies , on top of my 3 kids that are stuck with me for life [ha..ha..] and it's so much fun! So far, the new little ones are adjusting magically, and I haven't lost my mind yet. Funny thing is- my day only gets long, once my daycare hours are over! Go figure!

Blah!!!!!

(Deanna) Well it has been a bit since I last wrote the days seen to flying by these days.  I have my general routine in the morning ( get 8 year old off to school, make the beds, wash morning dishes, youngest some gets up feed him and change him, make coffee and have a bite to eat) seems simple, doable RIGHT!!
Well these last few days I don't know what it is but as soon as I get my oldest onto the bus I return home and find myself running to my bed for just 5 more mins.  My youngest sleeps till about 10 so I have a hour.  As soon as he gets up he is fed and changed and put into his day clothes we play and sing and then at noon he is down for the count agian and there's me running to my bed and I nap till 3 or so till my little man gets up and its not like I am getting up through the night I sleep so soundly that my fiance gets up with the baby.  So there is a few things wrong with this I am a bit of a neat freak and everything in our house has its place, so you could imagine how my house looks I was even to lazy last night to make a good meal I fed my famil Wacky Mac (a kosher version of KD).
While I was pregnant with my second I came down Gestational Diabetes since then I have been given a note to go get my blood tested to see of is gone its a 2 hr test so I cant bring the little one could you imagine.
So the timing is an issue but most of all I am scared to go.  Diabites is all over my family and doctors have said I have a great chance of getting it.  I know I know its better if I go incase something happens right.
Well here's to me going to get tested fingers crossed.

some photo brags :-)

 proud mama and her two cloth diapered babies [Emily, Madison and Manning]

 Mason, building with daddy [ a drill in the hands of a 4 yr old = heart attack for mummy]

my little chub , Manning

Wow it's been too long!

Ooops, let the blog fall by the wayside. Hope our fellow Canadians had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their families and friends and that you're loving your fluffy little cloth bums! Tell us what your little one has on their bum!

Its finally official

(deanna) Well its finally official Emily and I are the proud owners of our business with the government of Canada. I finally hauled myself down to the big city to Revenue Canada to register our business, after weeks of trying to enroll online finally bit the bullet and called our fine government works and was told I had to go in person to register so I took their advice and woke up this morning packed my 4 month old up and his millions of things ( oh how I have forgotten how it is ti pack up for a baby) and I set off for Toronto. So I get to my destination and park well let me tell you when I say park I mean drive around
for 20 mins because for some reason every lot is full and its raining I may add, well I finally find a lot that I have no idea is how far from where I need to be. It turns out not far at all, I get to the office and am greeted by a not so nice lady who then tells me I need to go to a phone to have set up and follow the instructions so I do as I am told and get a very pleasant government work ( im not kidding he was great) so she tells me I didnt need to make this trek and that I could have phoned from home well you should have seen the look on my face :(

Daycare is full!

(Emily) As you will all start to realize, I like to pile my plate super high. So among other things going on right now, I've also got my home daycare up and running again after taking a year off to have my 3rd and final baby. I wasn't 100% sure if I was going to get back at it, but had a few requests back to back about daycare needs, so I decided to bite. I'm now completely full with adorable little babies who make wonderful playmates for my own little kidlets.

:-)

On our way

(deanna) Well I have neglected the blog for a bit but not by choice , I think I have sat down a few times and started to think and write but every time the phone would ring, the baby would start freaking out or my 8 year would start throwing a fit. Yes my 8 year old will still tests the waters with me and sometimes does it while his baby brother decides to give me a run for my money.
So here I am lying in bed sick with my iphone and It just came to me that I promised to write every other day :) sorry Em. So our website is on its way we are now in the creative phase of this long process and we are hoping to have the site launched by the end of November. I have never had a website nor had this ambition to run a site till Emily came into my life :) but here we are and I think I am just so excited to start to get out there and sell, sell, sell. My mother always said to take things slow but I can't lol!!!

Cherish those itty bitty moments

(Emily)
I love when I catch little moments during a chaotic day, where my kids are playing so sweetly together. Tonight my 4yr old and my 10month old were in hysterics with each other, playing their own little game. My 10 month old [Manning] was sitting on the table in his bumbo watching Mason [my 4yr old] , draw and create halloween arts and crafts, when Mason started holding up his pictures to show his baby brother, and then decided to play peek-a-boo. It was so adorable , I wish I had gotten a photo or even a video clip but it was such a sweet, sacred moment that I didn't want to mess with it with a little distraction!

It was amazing... and proved to me even more, that I am so blessed to have the three adorable children that I have, even if some days I might not always agree!

Rainy Day activities ?

What sort of rainy day activities do you do with your little ones? We are cooped up inside today, and they seem to have SO much energy! I'm hearing lots of whining when they don't get what they want, and my daughter likes to do this shrill scream to get whatever she wants. Instead of hitting or snatching or even pushing, she screams because it always guarentees her brother will drop what's in his hands to cover his ears. aaaaaack. We've done hours of colouring, some crafts and even built a fort....but it seems I still need more for my 4yr old.

What are your ideas? Put them in a comment and be entered to WIN!

Babies, Babies,and MORE BABIES!!!

NO- I am NOT pregnant and neither is Deanna! { that I know of ...hehehe jk jk jk} But I used to run a daycare before taking a leave to have my 3rd little man. So I've been off for about a year, and I'm sort of toying with the idea of getting back into it. So I put my ad out there, and got a few responses but none that really interested me...until now. I'm not sure if it's the challenge, or the absolute love of little babes ...or WHATEVER but I've agreed to accept an 8.5 month old as of as soon as next week { they are yanking him from his current location because they aren't happy with it} and the second starts in Dec for 5 days a month { at 15hrs a day} he will be 1 at the time. Wouldn't it be somethin' if I converted these little bums to cloth as well ! ;-) I'm not a pusher, just an advocate and educator!

So keep current, we may have a little welcome baby post for the fun insanity that will be starting up SOON!!!

Ladies Night Out

(Emily) Well I should do that more often! Last night I went out with some girlfriends of mine, and some mom friends from a moms social networking group. We went to a club in Richmond Hill and had a GREAT time! I say it's all in the company you keep, it wasn't a Toronto club that's for sure, but we had a great time. My favourite part about going out with the girls is getting all done up, hair staightened, nice outfit...SHAVED LEGS! haha

So I say to all women who are mothers or wives or both- GET OUT on the town with your friends once in a while, let loose, and let your hubby change those beautiful cloth bums and put beautiful babies to sleep! You will feel like a new woman, once you give yourself that break!

it's Official! We have a name!

That's right! Stay tuned for the launch of  Maple Bottoms Baby Boutique coming sometime this fall to a computer near you! Looking for cloth diapering info to tide you over until we open? Send us an email! emily.deanna@rocketmail.com

Busy mama!!!

(deanna)Well its been a few days since my last post and oh has it been a crazy week as we speak I am cooking dinner, taking care of my 7 year old and my 3 month old, working on my computer trying to register our business and oh the phone just rang and its my mom who feels the need to talk to me about a snowsuit she purchased in Montreal ahahah!
And the whole time I'm thinking if Emily can  multi task so can I she is my SUPER mom whenever I think I cant do this I think of her not to be so corney but I am blessed to have met her and am very happy that I have chosen her to embark on this new journey of our new business.
Last year at this time I had just found out i was going to have a baby and after 7 years from my first I was just not sure I could do this all again how would I manage yes it seems silly because of the large gap between ages of my little ones.
But then I started to talk to my fiance's best friends wife and at first I thought well this will probably be an occasional aquantance someone I see when my fiance says we have been invited to their home or vise versa but then something happened and we hung out more and more and found that we had things in commen, and she introduced me to cloth diapers and the rest is history.
So I guess you can say that the cloth diapers brought us together, so in my eyes cloth diapers have a meaning not only are they great and economical but they have also broght me to someone that I can see knowing for a life time. So thank cloth diapers and Emily.

I'm a Jk mama now!!

(Emily) Well , the day is finally here! My oldest starts Jk tomorrow... I can't believe it, I really can't! He's 4yrs old now and starting school at an actual educational institution!! He's been in preschool since January, which has been WONDERFUL and I miss it so much, and so does he , but this is a....SCHOOL! He's even riding the school bus, I think when that day comes , when he climbs on that bus for the first time and picks his seat to wave from the window...THAT'S when I might shed a tear or two....or five minutes worth.

But right now, I'm sitting here labelling all of his new clothes, bag, lunch bag, shoes.... getting him all ready to meet the teacher tomorrow!

Sleepy Baby

(Deanna) Well this blogging is easy I found myself thinking of what I was going to write about tonight so without jinxing myself it is day 4 and our little man has slept through the night yes that is what I said "sleep" both for baby and parents.  So the schedule goes like this up at 9am and awake pretty much the whole day with the odd 15 min nap here and there then at 5pm he's down till 7pm and then again at 9-10pm he is out for the count .I double up his cloth diaper and he is out till 5 or 6 am.  Wow this is great for all of us, mommy and daddy are now much nicer to each other because we can now sleep more than 3 hours.  But I find myself automatically getting up at about 3 am to check on him even though I have this awesome monitor thanks to Emily this thing is fantastic I can hear my little guy breath this monitor is so sensitive I have never had one so good. Well we'll see how the next while goes "hopefully we can keep this schedule"says my fiance but little does he know we are on baby's schedule not the other way around.

Cloth Trainers......

(Emily) So I'm thinking WAY ahead here...but I need to start looking into some cloth trainer diapers for my daughter, who just turned 2. She sometimes has interest in a potty but I'm not pushing anything yet. With my oldest, boy, I just put him in undies and away we went...but that turned into a little bit of a stressful situation for mummy because I was cleaning up a LOT of accidents..he would hide under tables, and hard to reach places, to do his business...not fun!

So food for thought- what kind of cloth trainers do you like and which should I try? Will start my seach soon....I'm loving etsy   and will probably search there first.

Roll baby roll

(Deanna) well for my first blog ever I decided to share my experience with the first time my 3 month old decided yesterday was going to be the first time he rolled onto his back.
Being a second time mom I always thought for some reason I might not get so excited when the second child does something for the first time. I was so wrong! It was like being a new mom again when my little guy rolled over! It was so amazing there were happy screams that came from his dad and I. I guess it's because this is my fiances first child that made it so exciting. I found myself calling everyone I knew as well as posting it on facebook ( this is something that I expected his dad to do.)
I am very excited for what is to come with our new addition stay tuned for more to come.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Deanna!

(Emily) So I've given Deanna homework today, she HAS to post on the blog ...every other day. I'm putting this on here, because then everyone knows- so you can't NOT post D! haha.

So...lets welcome Deanna to the blogosphere, it can be a scary world if you've never been here before!

Cloth Mamaz in the news ....

That's right! Lets celebrate our natural roots! Check out Emily , with Bravado Designs!

Cupcake Overload

(Emily)  Here is one of my cloth baby bums, on a bit of a sugar high... and a really bad haircut. My mother decided it was ok to cut my daughter's bangs- which I've been growing for MONTHS. Luckily I suppose...my 4yr old decided to cut the rest of my daughter's hair last week, so now she's got an adorable bob that is actually even and looking nice! When I see this pic....yikes! I can REALLY see the hack job my mum did!!

a Somelier of Sprinkles...

(Emily) where's the frost?

No....seriously people...where is the frost?! I have enjoyed summer, for the most part- the disgusting heat, too high humidity and nasty bees/wasps...I have not enjoyed, but all the summer fun we've had as a family I've loved so much! But now it's ragweed season...which for some- means nothing. For me...it means runny nose, itchy skin, itchy red swollen eyes and all around discomfort. YUCK. no amount of allergy meds are helping, I'm using eye drops like they're just straight water, and I'm still suffering- but not in silence! So fall- anytime you want to grace us with your presence..I will welcome you with open arms!
On a happy note- I saw some maple trees turning red the other day!!! Fall is definitely on it's way, it's my absolute favourite time of year!

Thankfully the kids allergies haven't been acting up too badly, just their larger than life attitudes ;-)

Mum Down!

(Emily)
I'm sure you've heard the term " Man down!" ...well it's just not suiting for us here. The other day, I woke up with such pain in my shoulder , I was in tears trying not to wake the family. Stretching only made it worse, and Tylenol didn't do anything. OUCH! I had to drive the kids to an indoor playground thing, and I had to shift [I drive an automatic] from Park-Drive with my left hand, because it just hurt too much with my right. I did what any busy mum of 3 would do....I tried to forget about it. I pretended it didn't exist, all day- and I did a fairly good job at it until I was preparing dinner, and reached into the cupboard with my right hand, forgetting....OUCH! Almost dropped the pot onto my (bare) foot.
I went to sleep that night, trying to forget again, and that didn't happen. I managed to get to sleep, but over compensated- so woke up with a pain in the shoulder, and a stiff back. Long story short-
I went to an RMT (lucky to get in on a Friday night!) and she started feeling around my back, shoulders, neck. (rmt)" Wow! What did you say you did as a job?"     ... (me) uhm, I have 3 kids ages 4yrs and under...so..that? So I've messed up my rotator cuff, somehow- maybe by slinging my 2yr old over that shoulder (in my Hot Slings), with diaper bag, purse, and extra clothes bag slung over the other arm, and the carseat with our youngest still in it, in the other hand.
Oh the joys of being a supermum! So she advised me to take the weekend off...sit back, relax and let hubby manage the children, fold the laundry, and pick up anything heavy that needs to be picked up. Sounds like a perscription for a little slice of heaven. I'm sitting here now, with Manning [my 9month old] munching on a natural teething biscuit (he has milk and soy protein induced colitis, hyper active metabolic rate, AND gerd...) and I'm blogging...because I cannot sit and do nothing, ever. I still haven't been able to come up with a clever name for our boutique, that hasn't already been taken already. Deanna - maybe you've got better luck than me!