Paci Fashion Featurette

So not to long ago I was in great search of some universal pacicifer clips that weren't going to cost a fortune for ONE clip! I use MAM Pacifiers and they can be some what difficult to find clips for that actually stay PUT! The ones MAM makes are great, but the plastic clip is super easy for my baby to pull off resulting in full on pacifier AND clip loss. Losing pacifiers in the house to the Mysterious Paci Eating Monster is one thing, losing them in public because my clip failed and there's no back ups in my bag is another.

I'd found one that I really liked at BabiesRUs that my Mum bought for us on one occassion and it was everything I was looking for. A metal clip that won't budge and a tie on end that made it compatible with everything. What I did not like was the PRICE! 10 dollars for ONE clip!? That's crazy talk!! But it worked so a few weeks later I went to buy more because I wanted to be able to interchange and color match etc, they were completely out.

Annoyed I went home and did an online search. The next I stumbled on was the ZDaisy Bungie Clip with a price point of $11.99. Are you kidding me!? It amazes me what companies can get away charging for things when they're either Baby or Wedding related. It's crazy to me! So on with the search. It didn't take me long to stumble upon Paci Fashion Q Luv It Designs. These had EVERYTHING I was looking for in a Paci!! A tie off end that wasn't just a piece of tiny ribbon I was afraid would break, a metal clip that meant my paci was going to STAY where I put it, and best of all ADORABLE DESIGNS!!!

Here's the metal clip I've been talking about. The top flips up to open and back down to secure it. So far the little rascal hasn't been able to yank these suckers off a bib yet!!

Fantastically enough these clips are removable from these Paci Straps so if you felt so inclined you can trade them out for other straps without having a clip for every strap!!

These are the kinds of tie offs I like. They're durable and not going to break. Thin itty bitty baby ribbon kinds make me feel like they would.

My son sporting my FAVOURITE clip! :) It has skulls on it, of course it's my favourite!!

An example of some of the fantastic prints and colours she has!!! The best part? A single clip cost $3.99. A two pack is $7.49 and Q Luv it Designs also has packages in sets of threes AND fives to save you more money! :) I think I spent a total of $25.00 on 7 clips! If I had bothered to get that many of the ZDaisy ones I would've been over $70 in the hole!

Apparently they're also fantastic to chew on!!!

Here's one more cool thing I have NEVER seen before!! Paci Tie Clips. Oh. My. Gosh!! I haven't bought one yet but I absolutely cannot WAIT to!! You can find them here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/qluvitdesigns?section_id=6570547 (Image borrowed from Q Luv It Designs Etsy!)

So all in all!! A wonderful clip in lots of super cute and fashionable designs at a really great steal of a price!!

RumpaRooz vs Blueberry Covers

Instantly the first time I put my new RumpaRooz cover on my son for night time I noticed something I didn't like. The fit. I have some what of a chunky boy, not very, but a little and fit is a huge problem for us with a lot of diaper sometimes. The RaR fit SMALL. I was disappointed. Where I can occasionally snap down my Blueberry cover to the medium setting depending on what prefold and doubler combinations I have going on under the diaper, there is NO WAY I could have done that with my RaR cover. I used my smallest bulk night time solution when I tried it the first time, very disappointing.

The following pictures are side by side (or on-top of) comparison pictures of a Giraffe Prints Blueberry Coverall and a Whale Tale RumpaRooz Cover.

Here you can see the RaR on-top of my Blueberry, it's a little smaller but there's more elastic in different areas than the Blueberry. While this is handy for keeping more messes in the front, it also means I have to stretch it against my son's tummy and back which means it'll cut in more when I try to get the right fit as opposed to my Blueberry cover where I snap and we're good to go without stretching.

Here is where I discovered it's very difficult to stretch two articles as far as they can while try to take a picture as well. I used the clip from my son's paci clip to hold them together, put my foot on one end, stretched with one hand and took the picture with my other. It was an amusing image I'm sure. Basically what I discovered though is that if you stretch the RaR ALL THE WAY it is the SAME SIZE along the front as the Blueberry cover!!

Leg gussets, they're bigger on the Blueberry. There's at least 1/3 more fabric to the 'height' of the Blueberry inner gusset as there is to the RaR one. You can also see in this picture that unstretched the Blueberry gussets are longer than the RaR. This circles back to my earlier comment that it's great when it stretches but if I have to stretch it sooo far to get the right fit on my son that it cuts INTO my son, we have a problem.

Side by side comparison of the Blueberry and RaR covers on the LARGEST setting next to each other.

And now on TOP of each other!!

Comparison of the smallest setting on top of each other. This is where the RaR could come in handy for an itty bitty baby. It would definitely be able to fit your trimmer or smaller baby better than the Blueberry.

Smallest setting side by side!

Here's something else nifty I noticed!! The Blueberry's snaps (Of which there are 10 for waist and thigh as opposed to RaR's 8) are slightly off set between the two rows allowing more adjust-ability between thigh and waist. Someone at Blueberry got it right when they realized that thighs don't fall the same as the waist when they did it and I love that!! They designed it TO BE SET on different ones and even helped you out a little! :)

Here's an image where you can see both snap rows. It's difficult to tell due to angles and my not having 8 hands to take the pictures the way I'd REALLY like to, but the first and second row of snaps on the RaR cover line up where Blueberry's are slightly off.

Booty Elastic between these two diapers is almost identical! They have about the same amount of stretch to them when pulled. If there's a difference it's undetectable by me.

So my sum up of everything is that the Blueberry Cover, for me, is better. For a chunkier baby it works the best. RaR has something going for it with the belly elastic but personally I'm not a fan of it at all. Having to pull it along with everywhere else to get the fit I need makes putting it on my darling a little more difficult. Neither cover leaked at night, which I was very happy about, but all in all the RaR just isn't going to cut it. Maybe if Liam was younger or not quite so chunky we'd be good to go so this would be an excellent cover for someone with a petite and trim Little One, but I think I dislike it enough to include it in my next Destash. I need roomy and roomy it is not! :)

Things I Can't Do

I can't do sad songs or some very random things while my husband is deployed. The silliest things make me start to choke up. Daddy's with their kids out and about is a recent one. If someone is crying on TV I get teary. (I still don't know what's up with that one, that started while I was pregnant!) I can't do shows like Coming Home, I cried the entire preview commercial I saw for it. Yes it's a happy occasion for these people but for me it's just a reminder that our own homecoming is a long way off still and it's entirely a possibility that we won't have one.

I know it may sound pessimistic to those of you who aren't related to military in some way but to those of us who are it's more just a fact of life. You never really think you'll be 21 the first time you have to talk to your husband about what they'd like their funeral arrangements to be. I know for a fact 21 wasn't when my husband thought he'd be having to think about it either. I remember days before he left for the first deployment he went on having to cover this situation and all I could do was try to crack jokes. They were some morbid jokes to say the least, but it's the only way I could cope with the situation at the time.

I can't watch the news. It bothers me to hear about all the conflicts going on, not just in the area my husband is serving in but everywhere. It's a fact that you'll worry ten times more than you normally would too if you try to keep up with the current affairs in the area you're husband is in. Every little thing will have you wondering if they're ok. Needless to say I have NO idea what is going on in the News world while he's gone and whenever someone tries to ask me about something I'm usually clueless. What little news I do receive is via military communities and some of it is extremely heartbreaking.

There's sort of a fall of how certain things work though and how you feel about them. When you're Military, ANY branch of military, you're this giant family. You knock each other all the time, wrestle and argue, but when it's time to get down to business you have each other's backs. It's easy to have an instant camaraderie with someone once you find out you're both involved some way. The other branches are sort of like your cousins, you don't always have to like them but you've got to recognize that you're related. Your branch, it's like your more immediate family, aunts and uncles and the like, the people you have a close relationship to. Your job field and more specifically your unit, those are your brothers and sisters.

When something happens to the cousins you don't really know or talk to, you get upset. When something happens to your aunts and uncles you get heartbroken. And when something happens to your brothers and sisters you feel a great sense of loss.

The shootings that happened recently in Germany were a great example of these stages for me. Finding out that individuals from the US Military were involved was upsetting to me but not something I would necessarily dwell over. Just something I would accept with sadness. Finding out they were Air Force, 'my' branch, was heartbreaking because instantly the possibility of knowing those involved increases a little. Finding out they were from my husband's career field put me and many other wives I know on edge. Instantly you're waiting to see if your phone will ring, waiting for the names to be released, just to see if you know who anyone might be. The realization that that could have been your own husband there makes it worse. It makes it hit closer to home and it's like feeling the bullet whiz by without hitting you. My heart hurts for the wife and families of Senior Airman Nicholas J. Alden and Airman 1st Class Zachary R. Cuddeback.

And while this is how it feels with a situation I could easily call a 'near miss', I can't even begin to imagine how it would feel to be the one getting the bad news. I am terrified of men in Blues coming to my door. When I first got married and was living in base housing I was woken by the door one day by two people in ABUs, and while I had just gotten out of the bed my husband was still laying in I have to admit my heart stopped for a moment when I opened the door. It took me a moment to process that A) These people weren't in Blues and B) My husband was asleep in bed, but you can see how it sits with me. I've had some of my husband's co-worker pop by the house while in uniform and have seriously yelled at them for scaring me. They think it's hilarious, obviously me? Not so much.

But since I'm talking about all the things I can't do, I'll try to end this on a more positive note. There are a few things I can do: I can miss him with all my heart and love him with all my heart so that when he comes home it feels like the deployment wasn't as long as I thought and instantly just becomes a faded memory. I can cherish every phone call, letter, and email enough that it almost feels like he's not so far away. And I can love our children enough that they will lack for no love while he is gone.



Please say a prayer for SrA Alden and A1C Cuddeback's families tonight.


Defensor Fortis.