#3 Explaining How We'll Ask

I'd really like to encourage you to "shop outside of the box". I almost always buy: used clothes for myself (as does Rob), organic hygiene products, organic food, local when I can, and try to spend our money at companies that we feel are the most responsible socially and environmentally. We encourage you to do the same. Please do not get us gifts at WalMart or K-Mart, if it's something we need to return, we won't find anything else there that we want. Please try to find goods at locally owned stores and avoid the larger conglomerates - I think you know the ones I'm talking about, while I have less against them, I would like to support the little guy and "keep your money local". I am not trying to solicit gifts of cash, but I've already had one friend comment that this is a bit overwhelming. On myregistry.com, through the mail, and in person, are acceptable ways to pass such gift on to us if that would be easier for you. Any funds we have afterwards will be put into a college fund for Baby Love.

Next, let me rattle off a few things that I want you to keep in mind regarding the following: NO PLASTICS, NO BOTTLES, NO DISPOSABLE DIAPERS, NO BABY WIPES, NO RASH CREAMS, NO PACIFIERS (that falls in with plastics), NO CRIB, NO STROLLER, NO K-MART, NO WALMART. I will list items that we want that are alternatives to these items. There a slew of other things that we wont need and don't want, but I'm sure that we'll get to those.

I want to encourage folks to communicate with each other. If you want to contribute to something that you alone cannot afford, please leave a message to others regarding that item, hopefully, someone else will want to contribute to the same item and we'll be able to get a few items that we really need/want that are out of our price range without breaking our friends' banks, UP WITH COMMUNITARIAN-ISM!! You can also contact my go-to-girl, Tina @ tinagayle77@gmail.com. She'll help you out if you any questions.

I want to reiterate that I will try to list what we want, why we want it, and where you can find it, with a preferred color when appropriate. After the request, I might add a few notes.

REAL EXAMPLE: Cloth diapers (Please see blog 5), (hemp and/or organic if within your budget) we're using cloth to reduce our environmental impact and protect the health of our infant, as disposables have been linked to asthma and greater incident of diaper rash. I haven't worked with these in a long time, but I think that a number of Chinese prefolds or their fancier counterpart, the "contour diaper", are in order, along with some outer waterproof diaper covers. I'd like to try some pocket diapers as seen at the linked site (there are many sources feel free to browse) the Chinese prefolds can be used inside of them. I'm open to many of the new styles like the one size cloth diapers, hemp, wool, fleece, etc. We don't really have a preference yet as this is our first baby! Note: Since we're using cloth, we wont need one of those diaper genies, but we will need a diaper bin, color not important, but really happy with all aspects of the example at the linked site. Also, we'll be needing a large number of baby washcloths (please see blog 5) as we don't want to use disposable wipes either. While I'm at it, I may as well admit to hoping for a gift of 2-3 months of diaper service, here's the Tacoma Diaper service. It's totally a luxury, but a figure having a couple of months would allow me a little time to heal and get a little used to this whole parenting thing, before having to do extra loads of laundry to diaper my baby. For DIY cloth diapers, please see http://www.diapersewing.com/quick_dry_aio.htm

So, I hope I remember to do as I said. I am a little sorry that everyone can't just go to some oversized store, print out a list, and be done with it, but alas, I'm picky and my baby is worth it!