AppleCheeks Cloth Diapers

Baby is due in less than 2 weeks :-) and I have to admit, the thing I had the most fun getting ready was his cloth diaper stash.

After discussion with my good friend Nicole at www.cocobabyboutique.com who has been cloth diapering forever (even with her daycare kiddies!) we decided on AppleCheeks.

▌♥ ▌Proudly Canadian, these diapers won us over because they can be used as either a pocket/envelope diaper or as a cover & liner. The colour choices are amazing and we ended up buying our stash from a mom who over-bought for her first baby and never used them! We're all set to go with 13 covers and almost 70 different kinds of inserts, boosters and stay-dry liners - all for $250! Not a bad investment considering the inserts and liners can grow with baby and all we'll need to do is buy bigger covers!

Learn more about AppleCheeks here: http://www.applecheeks.com/

Visit these great links below for more cloth diaper reviews:

Our baby will be green!

So, other than a growing business, our lives have been bless by a growing baby! March 2010 can't come soon enough and while we await his/her arrival, we will be busy getting things ready. Luckily, we have the shelves of Baby Be Green at our fingertips and we can't wait to use these fabulous, safe products on our little one.

Starting in the nursery. We will be lining the crib with a colourful bamboo crib sheet by Bamboosa. These incredible sheets are soft like cashmere and continue to soften then more they are laundered. We're just not sure which colour to choose - Tahiti Blue, Sprout Green, Purely Natural, Chicky Yellow or Pale Pink?

Next onto feeding! Once our little one is eating real foods, I plan on making my own baby food. (Side note: I always get a warning from other moms that I can plan ALL I want, but things are just going to happen however they're going to happen and most times, your plans go OUT the window!)

Nonetheless, I'll need to eat all the ice cream before then to make room for stacks of BPA-free Baby Cubes. I may even start using them now and whip up a batch of pesto to freeze in these little containers for quick, homemade meals.

My all time favourite product from the shop would have to be the natural rubber pacifiers by Natursutten. What could be more safe? Free of BPA, artificial colours, chemicals, glues, parabens, PVC, or phtalates. Plus they're biodegradable (!!!!) so they can be composted.

Long time, no post!

We've had a busy summer here at Baby Be Green. We're a home-based business and we recently moved so most of July and August was spent packing and unpacking, moving, painting, renovating, building, more painting - you get the idea! But the new office is coming along nicely and our shelves are still stocked...so happy shopping!

1st birthday!!

One year ago this month, Baby Be Green was born after months of planning.

We want to thank you all for your support over the past year and we hope you continue to visit our on-line store to learn how you can help your baby be green.

Remember, "we don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."

As a thank you to our customers, please visit our site and SAVE until June 30th.

Homemade Baby Food

A perfect summer meal for baby - try this Garden Vegetable Combo from www.wholesomebabyfood.com

Ingredients:

fresh or frozen green beans, peas, summer squash, zucchini, thinly sliced pieces of potato, and small pieces of chopped carrots

Directions:

1. Combine fresh or frozen green beans and peas, summer and/or zucchini squash and thinly sliced pieces of potato, and small pieces of chopped carrots.

2. Add enough water to just cover the vegetables.

3. Cook until tender, reserving water.

4. Puree vegetables in blender or food processor.

5. Adding reserved water from the vegetables until mixture is of the desired consistency.

6. Once cool, spoon into Baby Cubes and freeze.

Here is are some recommended freezer storage times from the manufacturers of Baby Cubes - a Baby Be Green *favourite*:

Vegetables = 6 months
Fruit = 6 months
Puree's with milk = 4-6 weeks
Fish = 10 weeks
Meat & Chicken = 10 weeks

The truth about Kleenex

Did you know that it takes 90 years to grow a box of Kleenex?

That's right, every time you use a Kleenex tissue, you are blowing away ancient forests. And every time you use Scott or Cottonelle toilet paper, you’re flushing old growth trees down the toilet. That's because Kimberly-Clark, maker of these products, all but refuses to use recycled paper in its products.

The Kenoggami Forest is a Northern Ontario boreal forest, east of Lake Nipigon, almost 1.9 million hectares (4.9 million acres) in size. Kimberly-Clark (K-C) directly managed and logged the forest for nearly 70 years, until it sold Kenogami operations in 2004. Since K-C began logging there, 71 percent of the Kenogami has been fragmented and woodland caribou have been driven from 67 percent of the forest. If current logging rates continue, caribou are expected to die off in 95 percent of the Kenogami in the next 20 years. A government taskforce classified over 80 percent of the Kenogami of the forest as inadequately protected and 78 percent of the forest as high priority for conservation.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Ashley Perry, a 12-year-old from Massachusetts, has taken to activism and campaigning at an early age. Ashley is running her own Kleercut campaign at her school to teach her classmates about the dangers of cutting down old growth forests. The North American Boreal forest is one of the largest intact ancient forests. In addition to being an important area for First Nations and indigenous communities, the Boreal forest is also home to caribou, lynx, songbirds and wolves. As one of the largest storehouses of carbon on the planet, it is essential in the fight against global warming.

Ashley has taken her campaign on the road as well; she refuses to use Kleenex at her friends’ houses! She has distributed flyers that talk about switching to a more environmentally friendly tissue brand in her neighbours’ mailboxes and handed them out to spectators at the local baseball field.


"If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito." (African Proverb)

Did you use a Kleenex today? Thank an Ontario tree

We are well into cold and flu season, meaning lots of tissues are being used every day. We all choose our battles and while i'm warming to the idea of using reusable handkerchiefs like my grandpa did, I'm not there yet.

But what I have committed to is to learn more about clear cutting and its impact on Ontario forests.

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DID YOU KNOW THAT...

...Kleenex brand tissues are manufactured by Kimberly-Clark? (A Texas-based company)

...Kimberly-Clark also manufactures Huggies, Kotex, Scott, Viva and Cottonelle brands?

...Kimberly-Clark has been clear cutting the ancient Kenogami Forest in Northern Ontario for almost 70 years?

Read more about this on the www.babybegreen.ca blog.



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Wall*E + Kleenex = Iron*E

For the past few years, Greenpeace has been running their Kleercut Campaign to pressure Kimberly-Clark to stop devastating ancient forests. They created an animated short featuring a new character called Kleer*E who gobbles up forests and spits out boxes of Kleenex.

Watch the video on the www.babybegreen.ca website.



Kleer*E is a precursor to Wall*E, who spends his days cleaning up a world where all the forests (and animals and people) are gone, a world where nothing is left but trash and empty boxes. Like Kleer*E, Kimberly-Clark is working to bring you that world, one box of Kleenex — and one forest — at a time.

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ALL TISSUE IS NOT CREATED EQUAL

Visit Greenpeace's website to consult the Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide (just follow the "Look Inside" link on the right-hand).

Many eco-friendly alternatives to tissue products made from ancient forests exist today, like those made from 100 percent recycled paper. These are of equal quality and similar price and can be bought at most major grocery stores.

Want some suggestions? Just ask! We're always here to chat about eco-friendly alternatives for your home and your family. We hope that you will enjoy browsing the site and learning how you can help your baby be green.