Keegan had his first full day in toddler today. Guess what? He *loved* it! And that is an understatement. Despite being a bit bewildered about being dropped off in the toddler room by Lyle this morning; he had a great time. I had numerous teachers at daycare stop me to tell me (again) how much he loves playing outside. He loves the new activities and is still taking a solid 2 hour nap on the cot. I think having all the kids nap at the same time is really helping with his naps.
When I went to pick him up he was trying to swing from the fence and had a lot of sand in his hair :-) The teacher told me he had a super fun time today. Keegan gave me a big grin and walked out of the playground without any fuss. I don't know what the deal was but Keegan was like a different boy. He was super happy, super talkative, and even more confident than normal. He listened to me really well, didn't seem over tired, and was just so happy. Usually his daycare days are hard because he comes home sort of tired and frustrated. Today was amazing! He was such a joy to be around all afternoon.
We are also noticing that sometimes when Keegan talks he is pronunciating very well and sounds, well, like a little boy. There have been a couple times when he says something in such a reasonable mature well-pronounced tone that we look around to see if someone else is there. Not to mention the talking in general; he is starting to "say" a lot of new sounds and he just never stops talking. I am thinking some of this might also be attributed to him being around a lot of kids that talk.
Okay onto my new favorite topic of the day. Soapnuts. My 7th generation fabric softener was sold out on amazon.com But these funny brown soapnuts kept popping up when I did eco-friendly fabric softener searches. So what are soapnuts? The are berries with a high amount of saporin; which is a natural surfactant. Saporin has some properties of lye (although gentler) and can also be used as a antibacterial or delouser. This is interesting news considering the latest reports that Triclosan (the antibaterial used in many soaps) is accumulating in water sources and could be possibly a bio-accumulating substance.
Supposedly you put some of these nuts in a little cloth baggie and throw them in the wash. You don't need to use fabric softener. You can use them with septic systems and with delicate materials like silk. Okay...as I read all of this I am thinking it is seriously a joke. I mean really if something like this was around why was I adding a cocktail of chemicals to my wash (besides the fact that it supports my career as a chemist)?
I mean on top of all the above they are super cheap; way cheaper than an eco-friendly detergent. So I did some research. Everyone who tries these little fruits seems to love them. I ran across three complaints: 1) They taste horrible (duh), 2) They don't work well if they can't agitate (so for big loads like a comforter), and 3) If you have super tough stains you should treat them with vinegar before washing with the soapnuts.
Here are some really interesting links that I found:
http://globalecoharvest.com/soapnuts/
If you scroll to the bottom of this one it has other soapnut uses...
http://www.helium.com/items/984369-recycle-plastic-shopping-using
Interesting review on soapnuts.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/590247/soap_nuts_soapnuts_a_natural_detergent.html?cat=5
Another interesting review full of information.
http://www.smartplanet.com/reviews/household/10000865/review/soapods.htm
One more review just for fun :-)
Okay so next the question comes to mind. Where do I get these things? Well amazon.com sells them and they qualify for free super saver shipping or for amazon Prime if you use that.
Next you are thinking harder about the ethics, right? Are these nuts harvested in sweatshops by under age people? So I read some about that. It sounds like people were actually suffering because they couldn't make a living off of their 80 year old soapnut trees; so they ended up starting to cut down the trees to sell for firewood. I mean that's kind of sad; wouldn't it be better to have a renewable product to sell? So, well I ordered my soapnuts and I guess we will see how it goes.
Just in case you don't already think I am off my rocker; I have to add to Lyle's comments about the bamboo towels. I have come to the conclusion that I love those towels. We only bought one set and are now using cotton towels again. Where the bamboo towels sucked the water right off of my skin and never smelled musty, the cotton towels take a lot more effort to dry off with and are smelling sour by the end of the week. True, it doesn't smell like wet bamboo in the bathroom after a bath, but the smell was kind of growing on me. Those bamboo towels are so soft too; it was like drying off with super absorbent silk. I want more of them but they are kind of pricey.
Okay one last eco-friendly thing. I am addicted to sugar scrub. When you buy it at the store it's super expensive usually $20-$30 for a little jar of it. So I found a recipe for it online.
3/4 cup oil
1 cup granulated white sugar or brown sugar
add fragrance of choice
This is slightly modified from the recipe I found at the link below. I like a little more oil in my scrub.
http://www.recipezaar.com/92027
I actually added some vanilla and some lavender essential oil. It smells super yummy and leaves my legs and arms very soft. Very cheap too. I actually used walnut oil because I had some sitting around. Any oil except for mineral oil (baby oil) should work great. Another great site that has additives you can put into homemade sugar scrub is listed here:
http://www.cancerlynx.com/bodyscrub.html
I like the above site because it takes a very formulation-like approach to the whole body scrub recipe. Right now I am putting the body scrub into Keegan's extra baby food bowls because they have nice lids. It's not glamorous but it works. I keep meaning to grab some nice non-breakable glass jars from work but have yet to actually remember.
Okay well there's your eco friendly Keegan update for the day!
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