Going Reviews: Stop the Splatter with Spray Pal

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We’ve been a cloth diapering family since Avery was only a few weeks old, and we don’t plan on “changing” until she’s done with diapers for good. It was intimidating at first, but now the whole process is second-nature and is comforting to know it’s better for the environment and our wallets. Plus, what baby wouldn’t want to be surrounded by colorful cloth they poop and pee in?

Avery at 4 months helping me "organize" clean diapers.
Avery at 4 months helping me “organize” clean diapers.

As a stay-at-home parent, I do most of the washing, and after a short learning curve, it hasn’t been a problem. We were only feeding Avery breast milk to give her the best (and free!) nutrition available which made her poop, though messy and stinky, never having much substance that required spraying. Then we started solids; “Crap.”

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And “Crap” was right; it got bigger and more substantial! That wasn’t the last time we saw those carrots on the tray; nope, they were there waiting for us after her next “movement.” Now we had poopy diapers that needed the poo removed before going in the bin.

But there was a light at the end of our dirty diaper conundrum; Spray Pal, the splatter shield for cloth diapers! Man was I ever so grateful that the kind husband and wife behind Spray Pal recently agreed to send one for review so we had one ready to be used!

Jen and her husband David are both elementary school teachers with 2 kids. Their first is a little girl, and their youngest is a boy who was born 3.5 months premature. Now, their son is over 2 years old, but he has to be on an oxygen feeding tube and is visually impaired and profoundly deaf. Despite this, they are a happy, close-knit family who are extremely caring.

I love seeing small, family-owned businesses like Spray Pal, and it just feels good doing business with them as opposed to some large corporation. Think buying produce from Wal-Mart vs. going to a local farm and purchasing directly from a farmer who will use your money to grow more food. Jen and David are “farmers” who use the proceeds from Spray Pal to go directly towards their son’s medical expenses after operating costs are met.

I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather give my dollar to farmers of the world who are personable and have a story to share. And what you get in return is their Spray Pal Splatter Shield that keeps your bathroom floors and walls free from poop splatter. Need I say more? Okay, well,I will anyway.

The Spray Pal is a high quality sheet of BPA-Free plastic with a tri-fold and a heavy duty clip in the center to securely hold those dirty diapers.

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It’s nice to see a baby item that doesn’t look as complicated as Pandora’s Box!

After Avery gave us our first test sample, I made use of our newly installed diaper sprayer and the Spray Pal.

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Getting a dirty diaper on the clip was tricky at first because you’re trying to avoid floor “plops” while simultaneously working to keep from touching the poo. But after a few uses (you’ll get plenty), it’s not so cumbersome and just like cloth diapering, becomes a matter of course.

What’s great about the Spray Pal is that you can spray at full pressure and not worry about splattering anything around you; just right in the toilet. Of course, test your sprayer first and make sure you have the Spray Pal past the toilet rim; otherwise, you’ll have a wet floor. I might know from experience….maybe.

After spraying, you can use the Spray Pal to squeeze out the excess water and carry the diaper to the pail.

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If you’re squeamish, don’t look at the toilet water. What? Too late? Sorry.

We used to have the dirty diaper bin in the nursery next to the changing table, but now we moved it into the bathroom to avoid any nasties dripping on the floor.

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Spray Pal sells different bundles to get you everything you need to tackle dirty diapers with the most basic one including their Spray Pal Shield and a Jaq Jaq Bird Wet Bag. We don’t have the wet bag, even though I know it would be useful; instead we place the shield in a plastic trash container on the side of the toilet.

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This works just fine for us and we haven’t had an issue yet.

Now that we have a hang of it, I couldn’t imagine trying to spray a diaper without the Spray Pal, especially with the shallow toilet we have! I am happy we have the Spray Pal to save us from a splattery mess, and now we use it for every big poop! It will take getting used to, but so would cleaning poop off your wall, so pick your battle! 😉

If you are a cloth diapering family or thinking of becoming one, the Spray Pal is almost a very necessary item to include. I highly recommend! Check out this video on how to use the Spray Pal and give you a sense of how simple it really is.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14trK_HU06E&w=560&h=315]

Show some Spray Pal love and like/follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. They are Going Dad and Going Mom approved, so what are you waiting for?

Disclosure: Spray Pal provided their product to me free of charge in exchange for review. I was not compensated for this post and all views are my own.

Fresh Raspberries You Can’t Eat?

You can’t even pick them or find them on store shelves, but you might find them in stores.

I’m sure you see where I’m going here; these are the kind of raspberries you blow making a”pbtpbtpbtpbt” sound along with a little or a lot of spit.

Avery has been giving us plenty of these fresh from her mouth each day. She blows them when she’s happy, she blows them when she’s mad, and hell, she blows them when she’s sleeping!

It’s been going on for a while now, but lately she’s making a point to show us how well she can make raspberries at all times of the day. Emphasis on “all”.

We’ve woken up to the sound of raspberries emanating through the baby monitor at night, and she blows them every time we change her. I get that babies love to do new things they learn, and it’s cute, but what’s not cute is that she has also found her high pitch voice.

Ugh, anytime she’s crying (which is a lot since she’s teething), it has to be in the highest pitch she can muster. My throat hurts just listening to it, and I have no clue how she carries on for so long. But you pick her up and you’d think nothing was ever wrong; she just goes back to raspberries and smiles.

Since she’s given us several pictures of her raspberry blowing in action, I want to share the photos with you today. Enjoy the pics, and please share any raspberry stories you may have. I’d love to see the pictures of your kids’ raspberries if you have them; just share them on Going Dad’s Facebook page please!

Raspberry Selfie
Raspberry Selfie
The "I'm not listening." raspberry.
The “I’m not listening.” raspberry.
The "Hey, my cheeks are huge!" raspberry
The “Hey, my cheeks are huge!” raspberry
The "Last one before bedtime." raspberry
The “Last one before bedtime.” raspberry
The "This is what I think about giant bows." raspberry
The “This is what I think about giant bows.” raspberry
The "I can do anything and still be cute." raspberry
The “I can do anything and still be cute.” raspberry
"I'm innocent" raspberry
“I’m innocent” raspberry

"Look at me" raspberry
“Look at me” raspberry

Co-Sleeping in the Crib and Learning to Crawl with Lasers

Would you believe I’m still not done covering my birthday weekend? I guess I am more wordy than I realize. Sorry but not sorry, if you know what I mean. 🙂

After opening my tasty gifts from Going Mom and Avery, we hung around the kitchen to have breakfast and more coffee (for me, at least). It had been a few hours since Avery was awake, and surprise, she started showing signs of sleepiness!

Face rubbing, ear scratching, constantly squirming, and let us not forget, fussing, were all happening with Avery. So, Kelley gathered our little fuss box and brought her in the nursery to attempt getting her to sleep. Avery went fairly easily and slept without much resistance.

And then she kept sleeping. Finally, we were ready to bring her out to the pool, so after almost  3 hours, it was time for us to wake her! But first, I had to try something…

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Co-sleeping in the crib! Sure, we did co-sleeping in our room when Avery was younger, but what about the crib? Besides the wood creaking in protest at a heavy adult climbing into it, Avery stayed asleep…..for 30 seconds.

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I’ve seen other pictures of dads doing this, so I had to give it a shot. I’ll call it a success, and I think Avery didn’t mind, she was just a little confused.

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Since she was finally awake, we gathered our pool gear (which is really nothing but swimsuits) and walked down to our neighborhood pool. Avery had been one time before this trip and enjoyed the water, so we expected the same again.

Our expectations were right on as she had a blast, and we even brought her in the big pool!

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Too cool for drool

She wears her shades with pride; just like her mommy!

After getting our fill of the water, we journeyed back home to spend the rest of my 30th relaxing. We’ve been laying a blanket out in our living room for Avery to roll and attempt to crawl around on, and we figured we would try and teach her to crawl. This meant laser pointer time!

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Yep, fun for Lou (the fat cat) and Avery! Abby, our Golden, wasn’t too impressed. We would hold the red dot in front of Avery and marvel at her raising both arms in the air as she lunged forward into crawl position.

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Each time, we’d hold our breath and think “This is it!”, but then she’d fall over or just sit back up.

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Oh well, we’ll keep trying because she is very close to figuring this out, and lasers will help get us there! As night drew near, Kelley and I shared one of the awesome beers she got for me and had a cheers to a great weekend.

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I was still feeling it from the day before at the brewery, so splitting this hefty beer was plenty.

Avery slept a little better that night and so did we. It’s never fun saying goodbye to the weekend, especially when it’s your birthday, but I had a wonderful time with my mom, Paul, Kelley, and Avery. Thank you all for the great 30th; love you!

How did/would you train your baby to crawl, or did they do it on their own?

Ever try sleeping in a crib?

An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.