Can you believe that Christmas is almost here? Black Friday ads everywhere announce it proudly and Christmas trees were up in chain stores before the Halloween costumes had even been removed. Soon, the throngs of happy—or maybe just stressed—people will fill the stores and jam-pack the lines with baskets full of gifts for everyone they know. They will buy things they don’t need (and some that they do) and most of them won’t give a second thought to the environment or to their friends’ and families’ wallets. Of course, with the recession, many of us have managed to protect our own wallets by tightening our Christmas belts, doing things such as shortening our gift list, minimizing our spending limits, or even hand making our gifts.

The BabyKicks videos just keep getting better. Here's the latest one, parodying those "German engineering" commercials for cars. I wouldn't recommend putting a baby through any of the stuff they do here, but it's nice to know a cloth diaper can withstand a Beckham-like "kick":

If you have been following Natali Morris's adventures in cloth diapering,which she has pledged to do for 30 days after the, ah, encouragement of some cloth moms, you may not realize her husband has a video podcast on parenting as well, looking at things from Dad's point of view. We only recently discovered it ourselves. Looking at Episode 14 of Daddy on Board, though, it seems the dads aren't taking cloth as seriously.

The folks at BabyKicks put together another awesome video for cloth diapers. Check it out!

I'm a twice-a-year cleaner - fall and spring. I have to admit, I'm pretty bad for the six months preceding the big purge. I tend to leave dishes stacked in the drainer, laundry stays in the baskets and deep cupboards might as well be a black hole. Once it goes it in, it won't come out again. Last week, I celebrated some recent weight loss with a closet cleaning (peace out size 14). This weekend, armed with new gloves and a steely resolve for what I might discover lurking in the shadows, I went on a raid of my kitchen cupboards. I am loathe to admit I found a bottle of Jimmy Neutron vitamins circa 2003 (flashback) and sunscreen that appears to have had separated. I also found a potato that had grown antlers and vacuum bags for a vacuum we sold 4 years ago.

I couldn't tell you how many times I've heard, Yes, I'd use cloth diapers if I knew they'd come out clean in the wash, or some variant of this wish. In this blog, we've discussed many tips for proper laundering of cloth diapers, everything from the dunk method in the toilet to remove excess waste, to a pre-soak with a diaper sprayer before running a load in the washing machine. While these first steps are helpful in getting rid of the worst of the stains and solids, it's the detergent used that determines how well and how clean the covers and insert come out.