Monday, January 16, 2012

Good golly, Miss Molly

Today I took Molly to her 18 month check-up (a little late...) And while walking back to the room, her nurse says, "Now Molly's just about 20 months, right?" And I said, "well, in a little while.... wait! In FOUR days!?" And the nurse said, "time flies...."


Ummmm DUH.


Her stats at {almost} 20 months

Height: 32 3/4 inches - 70%

Weight: 22 lbs 7 oz - 15%


She is shocking me more and more each day with things she does/says/learns. Maybe it's shocking me because I still feel like she's my little baby, and she shouldn't be doing certain things yet. But no, she's right on track... maybe I should jump on that track too!



She is such a funny little girl. She really knows how to tease Cohen, and get him all riled up! :) They are quickly becoming very good friends, which is so fun to watch. It seems like everyday she has a new word she says. My favorite thing she says is "gup" which is yep, or yes. And she recently has taken an interest in potty training! I'm not pushing it, but I'll ask her if she wants to go periodically, and she says, "gup", and walks to the bathroom. She's only 'gone' a couple times, but she seems to enjoy the thought of it!

She loves to dance, sing, play with her tea set, play with cars/trucks/trains, she loves to wear jewelery, and she's now helping me bake! :)

We love this little girl so much. She is constantly making us laugh. We're so grateful she's OUR little Mollykins!



{doing what she does best -- dancing}

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Homemade laundry detergent

Well I've had these items in my closet for the past... oh maybe a year... I've read and heard from a lot of people about making your own laundry soap. It always intrigued me. Knowing it's more natural than regular detergent, without any chemicals, and also the fact that it's insanely cheap to do! So I bought everything to make it, but never did, cause I guess I was little weary of it. So finally, the other day I did it! I made SIX batches of this stuff! Let me break it down:


1 box of Arm & Hammer - $3.18

1 box of Borax - 3.49

5 Fels-Naptha bars - .98 each - 4.90

$11.57


I read on a website that each batch is about 40 loads.


1 cup each of the washing soda, and borax. One bar of the Fels-Naptha (shredded in a cheese grader) per batch


1 tbsp per small load

2 tbsp per regular load

3 per extra large load


6 batches = about 240 loads for $11.57?????? YES PLEASE!


AND it works!





A lot of people I talked to were concerned about the smell. The smell of the detergent itself smells sooo good, very citrus. Once you run it through the dryer, the clothes don't have any smell. But I usually run the dryer with a dryer sheet, so it just comes out smelling like that.


All in all it washed my clothes (kids clothes, towels, my clothes, jeans, anything...) just the same as any other detergent I've ever used. If I have a deep stain, I still have to tend to it like usual. I'm definitely never buying regular detergent again.


p.s. I read on several different blogs different ratios of the bar of soap to the washing powder. All of them said 1 cup of the powder... but some said a full bar of the bar of soap, some 2/3 bar. So that's why I only did 5 bars to 6 cups of everything else. I didn't think I'd be able to get 6 batched out of all that. And I still have a 1/4 of the box left of borax!