Tag: children

Family Fridays: Why blog about family when I can go to the beach with them?

Today I took my two boys to the beach part of Lynch Park. Yesterday we went to the playground part of it. SO MUCH FUN. So… no actual blogging on this Family Friday. Just happy memories and tired bodies from time well spent outside together.

Tonight’s theological questions at dinner from the 4-year-old

There were two:

Does Jesus make people do stuff?

and

What does “crucified” mean?

My answer to the first question (after a long pause): “Jesus can make people do stuff. Jesus can do anything he wants to. But he usually doesn’t make people do stuff. He lets them decide.” Some will disagree with this. But I think it has pretty good Scriptural warrant. I’m sure this question will come up again. And I thought the sex question was hard!

The second question I answered as specifically and succinctly as I could. I actually got a little teary-eyed as I described crucifixion to him. His response to my answer was appropriate, I thought: “Why did they do that?”

My 4-year-old son reviews his first book, Alpha Oops! The Day Z Went First

Following on the heels of a great guest post from Timothy Dean Roth Wednesday, I’ve invited another guest to post at Words on the Word, this time for Family Friday: my four-year-old son. Here is his review of a book he particularly enjoys, Alpha Oops! The Day Z Went First. I’ve typed it up, but the words are all his.

A always goes first, but Z wants to go, and Z and Zebra are sick of the “last in line stuff.” W sits on a whale spout. Z has a zebra jumping. “O is for owl,” “N is for night,” and everyone else thinks it’s not H’s turn, but it really is… right? (Yeah.) He goes right where he goes, because that’s just how the alphabet goes.

I like that Z goes first. A goes last and the alphabet goes backwards. B is “bouncing on… a brisk breeze.”

I didn’t like “D is for dragon and damsel in distress,” because she might get hurt. (I don’t really want to get hurt.)

Our new neighbors would like this book. We could give it to someone else, and then tell everyone in the world to give it to someone else, after they read it.

Alpha Oops! is available at Amazon, or, I’m sure, at your local library.

Back in cloth for baby Junia

Not long ago I was weighing the costs and benefits of cloth diapering, asking if the whole thing was just a needless waste of time. Ultimately the comfort (for baby) and better hold-poop-in-ness of cloth diapers have pushed us back over the edge. Junia‘s now in cloth! Getting some really cute diaper covers and all-in-ones like the one above didn’t hurt, either. Now to get the 2-year-old back in cloth… or on the potty!

Is cloth diapering a waste of time?

It’s Family Friday here at Words on the Word. And nothing says “family” to me like diapers! We have two children in diapers right now, and our third has been fully potty-trained for just about a year or so. We know poop.

Cloth diapering has long been a value for us (here‘s a great place to get them). My wife and I just couldn’t stand the idea of throwing away so many disposable diapers to take up space in a landfill. As one site I read said, we don’t throw away our clothes (or dishes for that matter)… why would we throw away our children’s diapers?

There are other concerns, too, that led us to cloth diapers. Have you ever changed a diaper and all those little absorbent gel capsules had gotten loose and were all over your child’s nether-regions? Not cool, Pampers. And cloth, I’m convinced, just feels much better on a baby’s bum.  Further, cloth holds things in much better. The large majority of “leakages” I’ve encountered have been from so-called super-absorbent disposables.

But it was primarily a desire to do our part as responsible inhabitants of God’s creation that led us to cloth.

However.

What about the amount of water that we have to use to wash all that cloth? We like to line-dry whenever we can, but that’s tough to do in the winter or if it’s raining. What about all the energy used by running the dryer multiple times a week on cloth? Is cloth diapering just as eco-unfriendly as disposables, albeit in a different way?

I’m not sure how you compare different kinds of environmental impact–is it better to fill up landfills or use lots of water?

I’ve wondered about this for about five years worth of child-rearing now. For us, the other added benefits of cloth diapering (less chemicals, more absorbent, more comfortable, save money in the long run) seal the deal for us in our decision to keep using cloth.

But here‘s an article (with links to studies) that makes the assertion that either method is basically just as good. (!) More here, too.

So what’s a parent to do?