Monday, March 7, 2011

Making a Cake in the Oven

In Chinese, we have a saying, "Did you make a cake?" which actually means did you just make a cake (take a dump) in your kitchen (in the bathroom). When my brother and I were growing up and our cousins lived with us for a few years, I recall us using that phrase a lot, especially if someone would disappear for a while or come out of the bathroom with a look of pure relief and satisfaction and one whiff of the now open door would convey something poopy had happened (we had not yet discovered the magic of matches). Hehe. Get it? The poop you accumulate is supposed to be like a big chocolate cake - imagine that!

What's funny about that is when I learned the concept of a diaper cake, it made perfect sense in the Chinese sense.... cuz diapers are for poop so a diaper cake is for your poop and - yeah, don't make me go on.

I'm not sure why this amuses me so, but it's like the diaper game that many play at baby showers where you melt different chocolates, caramel, or nuts, even some marshmallows and put it in different diapers for the guests to smell and guess what it really is. Gross right? But all too funny and a great photo op - until you have to deal with the real thing.

Poop fascinates me in the sense that I want to know what each type of poop means - am I eating something bad, am I eating too many greens (when I get green poop, and I googled it - it's not because I drink purple Gatorade folks, it's because I just eat a lot of greens!), have I not been eating a well balanced diet, am I dehydrated? In fact, Oprah once did an entire segment on poop and at work a few weeks later, one of my senior managers was enthralled and updated us on this which he had learned from his wife.

Just recently, I read that you should know what kind of poops to be on the look out for as it applies to your baby. The different smells, textures and consistency of each poop can say a lot about your baby's diet and diarrhea in a baby is something you definitely want to avoid! They say breast fed babies have better smelling poop, the formula babies have funky tan poops that are quite stinky, but what I'm even more scared of, is that somehow my baby boy might be a hyper toddler who goes after his own poop and smears it all over the walls or eats it! Hey, it happens - I've heard true life stories of this and I'm not laughing yet - because it may very well be me.

Oh diapers - they will soon become such a staple part of my life. Today, I had to email my sister-in-law to ask her about the different diaper sizes I should stock up on because at long last, the Costco coupons this month are featuring not only the Kirkland diapers, but the baby wipes too! (Cha-ching, double bonus for us!!) In order to smooth our costs over the course of our baby's pooping lifetime, we have already begun to purchase some baby wipes (not at the coupon price though... what a bummer, I had to take a risk though and start stocking up) and I am anticipating our next trip to Costco for these discounted goods! Only problem is, I couldn't recall her advice - which size to purchase, how much to get, etc. I did recall that she advised against the Huggies brand but since I have about half a package leftover from a diaper cake I made for a co-worker (oodles of fun, so easy and festive!), I couldn't avoid having some leftover inventory of Huggies diapers. But to complicate things more, another co-worker told me she did a cost analysis that proved the Up brand from Target was actually cheaper per diaper compared to the Costco discounts (though I'd have to go back and ask her if this was at the coupon applied price or the original retail Costco price). So much to think about.

Next on my list of baby stuff to do - the baby creams, baby shampoo, baby wash, baby powder, baby lotion, baby detergent, baby safety kit, baby medications, baby house-proofing kit, baby bottles, baby pacifiers, baby bibs, baby spoons, baby food, I'm pretty pooped just thinking about it but also, oddly, very excited for all the things I can create a checklist for and cross off my list.

For today... diapers.... check! For now, I leave you with my first ever diaper cake! Next time, I will go with cuter ribbon and color combos (maybe some polka dots?!), and maybe some felt 3-D tag alongs for the ribbon instead of the mini baby items that I had to glue gun an extended paper clip for (you have to improvise when you get to the office and your cake is not finalized!). And, I wasn't a fan of the stuffed bunny but at 7 AM, not a lot of stores are open for your last minute diaper toppings, so CVS's selection was not that great.


It's diaperlicious. Diaperrific. Diaperendous!

14 comments:

Jenny said...

Amazon.com has the cheapest diapers and they deliver in two days with free shipping. I recently bought a box of 204 count pampers for $12!!!!! Look for 20% off diapers in parenting magazines or eBay. And remember to stack those 20% off coupons!

SupaFlowaPowa said...

That's what I've heard too, wasn't sure if it was reliable but now I know it is. 204 for $12 dollars, that's a steal! Babies are so expensive, *sigh - but it's worth it right?!

Kimberly Bluestocking said...

Huggies diapers are fine - we've used them for years. They're probably not the best deal, though, so I really should try some of the cheaper brands.

steven said...

Hi Daisy! I was looking for your blog earlier, but just found it tonight :) You crack me up!!

NB said...

that was actually NOT a comment by Steven, I was signed in under his name... lest you think we are weirdos--Nicole

Deidra Smith said...

I order diapers from amazon as well. Not only do they beat walmart (I don't have a costco) but when you sign up for regular deliveries, you get even more discounts and you get their free shipping on not only diapers, but anything else that is prime comes in two days, free! I don't know if they are cheaper if you are talking genereic, but for name brand, it's been a good deal. ( And I have to go name brand for my boys, they alwasy seem to leak out of generic. ) We do plain old Luvs for the day time-I've never had a problem wit them. and then we do huggies overnights for the boys, 'cuz they hold a ton!! and we never have leaks at night. I would also stock up on size 1 or 2, but not newborn. It's seems they are out of newborn way fast. (like a month) They sit in 1 for awhile and then seem to stay at 2 for a long time. at least that is how my kids have been. Good luck! Even though it is so expensive, it is a lot of fun to get ready for a baby -it really made it a reality to me to start getting everything ready.

Deidra Smith said...

oh, by the way, i would not suggest any of the diapers that talk too much about being more like real cotton. It seems like the baby always feels damp:( You almost need some of those rubber pants that they use with cloth diapers if you buy that kind.

SupaFlowaPowa said...

keep the suggestions coming - this is what I need - real life experiences shared with me.

Gena Hopper said...

1. Things make so much more sense now. Remeber our day out at the beach sophomore year? I thought those games were weird!


2. I think I'm going to throw up now!

Andy Phillips said...

why is no one else commenting on the poop? my wife just blogged about poop for like 3 paragraphs, and all people can talk about is diapers?

Dani said...

With John, cheap diapers = diaper rash. Also, I don't know if you saw that recently there was a Yahoo!News article about Amazon.com vs Costco. Costco turns out to be 17% cheaper overall (not including coupons, by the way), but apparently not diapers specifically (though the article mentioned diapers specifically). But would you opt to miss out on all the Costco fun and instead have stuff delivered? I couldn't do that to John.
And I can't speak for formula fed babies, but breast fed babies really don't have smelly poop (that one is for you, Andy). Also, Costco just has a fantastic return policy. If you buy too much of any particular size and don't open the extra boxes you can take them back and they don't ask questions. Gotta love Costco.

frugalmom said...

Okay, so babies poop. A lot. :-) And my experience is that breastfed babies poop way more often and it is usually not anywhere near solid...but the nice thing is that it does not smell nearly as bad as formula fed babies. :-)

We always used less expensive diapers for daytime use and then a more expensive , say Pampers, at nighttime...because they honestly do hold more liquid before they leak. And if you have a baby who is gonna grace you by sleeping all night or even for several hours at a time...you dont wanna *have* to get up to change the diaper....

I have this great thing tho that I did for wipes. I actually got a resealable plastic container and into it I mixed water(maybe like a cup or so, some baby wash, and some baby oil...I mixed it gently so as not to get a bunch of bubbles. Then I took a quality brand of paper towel...I always used Viva...cut the roll of paper towel in half so that you have two short rolls...pull the cardboard tube out of the middle and place the roll into the soapy water mix...the water will soak up into the paper towel roll and voila...you have your very own baby wipes. You can start pulling from the center of the roll and it will just pull that way from the middle and you can tear off wipes where the paper towel is perforated.

They are super great. I did find tho, that its still nice to have a few store bought ones on hand because sometimes they are easier for travel....

Sijbrich said...

I totally understand you, Andy. I was chuckling while reading about all the poop. I'm gonna have to start using the phrase "Did you make a cake?" I appreciate that you extrapolated about poop so unabashedly and you're not even changing diapers yet.
A friend told me that Target diapers were cheaper than Costco, but I'm fascinated by your other commenters that are talking about Amazon. I might have to check that out. We are slightly crazy and we've been using cloth diapers. Many people try them and don't like them, but they've been working well for us. At night we do use a disposable. Our daughter often pees so much that through a lot of trial and error, we found that the only thing that prevented leaks were additional diaper pads to help absorb the extra pee. Babies R Us is the only place I've been able to find them so far. So just store that little bit of info in the back of your brain in case you need it.
I get the sense that you like to be super prepared, but honestly, I wouldn't worry about baby food yet. He won't be eating anything until he's maybe 5-6 months, so you've got time. Also, I've heard of babies being really picky about bottles, so don't buy a bunch of one kind until you know he'll actually drink from it.
As you can see, people like to give lots of advice when it comes to babies (I guess myself included). You'll do great, I know it. You're super prepared, just be ready for whatever comes because I promise you some things will not go according to your plans. That I definitely learned from having a baby.

Ashley Arnold said...

This post made me laugh so hard!!