Santa Claus is coming to town... via email.

Santa has an email address. 

I know this because I made it for him.

Last year, due to overenthusiastic eggnog consumption by the elves in the Wii making department, Santa had to write Aria an I.O.U. (until tax return time... not sure why) for the gaming console she so desperately wanted.  He emailed it to us.

Why did he email us? Because yours truly overslept Christmas morning.  That is also why Santa left all the presents in momma's room. 

My major parenting fail last Christmas had two good outcomes.
 
1.  I have definitely stepped up my holiday mythical archetype game.  The Easter Bunny managed to deliver the goods while we were in the basement (for a period of about five minutes) looking at something or another.  Now Aria refers to the Bunny as "totally, really a ninja!"

2.  Santa has come into the technology age with email capabilities.

With a quick flick of my carpal tunnely wrists, kriskringlex@gmail.com was born.  (Santa likes his online presence on the emo side.)  My daughter is very excited to email Santa her wishlist this year.  I am excited to not only have her wishlist in actual list form, but also to be able to look back on her wishlists a few years from now when the big jolly guy has lost his magic.

Thankfully I have another child to lie to for several years. :)

PETA Reveals New Holiday Themed Breastfeeding Billboard.

PETA has unveiled this new ad just in time for the holidays.  

Below is an excerpt from a piece mlive.com posted about the new billboards--->

(click the link to read their full article)

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"""PETA officials said they are in negotiations with outdoor advertisers in Paw Paw to bring the “holiday-themed, head-turning billboard” within close proximity to the Van Buren County Courthouse.

PETA officials said they hope the billboard will “serve as a reminder that breast milk is healthier for infants than dairy formula and that dairy products in any form are cruel to mother cows and their calves.”

The incident that has caught PETA's attention occurred Nov. 8 in District Judge Robert Hentchel's courtroom. Natalie Hegedus, 32, of Mattawan, said she was discreetly feeding her 5-month-old son in the back of the courtroom when Hentchel called her out and asked her if she thought what she was doing was appropriate.

Hegedus, who said she was in court that day for a hearing on a contempt of court charge, contends that was embarrassed by Hentchel's comments and that she did nothing wrong by feeding her son, who was hungry and sick."""

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I'm a vegetarian and PETA supporter myself (though I still eat dairy products- and my daughter was formula fed), and I really love this new billboard ad.  While I definitely believe formula has its place, it is widely accepted that Breast Is Best.  Breastfeeding in public is an issue that I'm very passionate about, and I'm glad that this incident has caught national attention.  Women should feel comfortable breastfeeding wherever they need to.  Just because it's legal almost everywhere, doesn't mean it isn't still looked down on.  

We need to stand up and fight for the normalization of breastfeeding!

What do you think?  Feel free to share your opinions in the comments below.

Lush Aromarant Deodorant Review

My first video for the Crunchy Moms YouTube channel is a review of Aromarant Deodorant by Lush.

They just said my son's name on television. (aka I love BONES)

I love the TV show Bones.  I love it so much that I named my son after one of the shows characters.  Granted, Parker is a minor character (He's the son of David Boreanaz's character, Booth, for those of you who don't follow it.  He's only been in a handful of episodes.), but I love the name and I love the show.

I'm currently watching an episode of Bones on Hulu right now.  They were talking about a particular toy and Booth said, "Parker loves those," and I was confused for a moment.

It's so weird hearing my sons name said on television.  Even though I named him after a character on this exact show.

It happens a lot with my daughter too, "Aria" tends to get said a lot, especially in movies or shows referring to opera.  But this is the first time it happened with my son's name.

Have you ever been weirded out for a minute when hearing your child's name on television or in a movie?  Feel free to share in the comments below.

This One...

Inspired This One.

An (Unwanted) Break From Cloth Diapers (why I'll never go back to disposables)

Disposable diapers smell like pee.

All.   The.  Time.

I never really noticed until today.  All of our cloth was in the wash (due to the Great Cloth Diaper Stink Experiment) so we pulled out the 'sposies.  So gross.  We've been using cloth for a while now and we've gotten used to super absorbent, pee-smell-free diapers.

I also didn't realize how much we have cut down on actual diaper changes since switching to cloth.  Parker goes for 2-3 hours or so in a cloth diaper.  In a disposable he lasts about an hour before the pee smell sets in and he needs to be changed.

Needless to say, I will not be trading in my Subaby and Bum Genius diapers for Pampers or Huggies any time soon.

I prefer my son to smell like baby, not like pee.

The Great Cloth Diaper Stink Experiment & Laundry Detergent Giveaway {Part Three}

Welcome to part {{THREE}} of The Great Cloth Diaper Stink Experiment!

This installment includes diaper drama, bubbly badness, and a daring feat called "The Sniff Test".

After my initial assessments of the three laundry detergents, I dove right in and got started.  I divided my diapers and liners into three groups and paired each group with one of the three detergents.

Pink and Purple Diapers and Plain Liners

+

Thirsties Super Wash

Blue and Green Diapers and Wonderfulls Liners

+

Rockin' Green Classic Rock

Red, Yellow, and Orange Diapers and Liners with Buttons

+

Charlie's Soap Laundry Powder

After the first rinse, there were tons of bubbles from my previous detergent (all small and mighty free and clear).  I always rinse at least three times after the wash cycle so I was kind of surprised to find this much residue coming out.  Look at all those bubbles!

Gross right?  

I decided to judge the detergents based on the results of a these different tests:

The Sniff Test 

(after washing is complete)

The Second Sniff Test 

(after drying is complete)

The Pee Test 

(Does the diaper stink as soon as anything wet hits it?)

The Softness Test

(how the diaper feels after being washed)

The Absorbency Test

(Does the diaper/liner soak up wetness or repel it?)

Check Back Soon to find out how each detergent did when put up against my strict standards and super hero sense of smell!

And don't forget to check out Part One to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a package of the winning detergent!

The trio of cloth cleansers donated to the cause by All Things Diapers

The Great Cloth Diaper Stink Experiment

Part One

Part Two

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Download Drama (aka my daughter charged $40 worth of fishbucks to our phone bill on the Android Market to play TapFish)

Do you have a fish tank on your Android phone? A farm on Facebook? Have you become a little addicted to Angry Birds?

I'm sure there are a lot of you raising your hands or hiding behind your computer screens right now.  Apps are fun and best of all, most of them are free.  Of course they have the option to buy extra credits or coins or fishbucks, but they really aren't necessary to play.
Would someone please tell that to my four year old?

Miss Aria was playing TapFish on my beautiful Android phone (I love this phone almost as much as I love my cats), when she decided she wanted to buy a mermaid.  We didn't have enough FishBucks to buy the mermaid so she so thoughtfully got us some more. 

Forty dollars worth to be exact. Charged to our phone bill.

Yipee!

At least I got the mermaid though.