Meet Landon. Diapered by Green Diaper Babies since April 2014.
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY!
Landon joined our family on May 14 in 2014. He’s a sweet and funny baby, very outgoing, and gets along well with our cat, Nigel. I am a professor in the MFA in Book and Paper at Interdisciplinary Arts, Columbia College Chicago, and Rene is a photo editor at Getty Images managing historical and Chicago organization archive acquisitions. In 2015 Melissa was on a sabbatical researching her artistic projects including her Fulbright to Sarajevo. Landon traveled with Melissa for part of the time, and we are excited about him experiencing a new culture. We are reading a Bosnian baby book for him which he loves. We are originally East Coasters, so our families are a bit far away, but they visit all the time.
AND TELL US ABOUT THE LITTLE ONE WHOSE WEARING CLOTH DIAPERS!
Landon’s great aunt, Maria was with us when GDB came to train us on diapering Landon, he was so mini then! He’s grown much since then, but still is incredibly good about being changed. We use the trifolds and covers and it works out really well and is the most economical choice for us while I was on sabbatical and reduced salary. It’s actually a nice ritual, since we change him so often. They’ve been very healthy for his skin and we both like keeping the creepy gels and chemicals in disposables away from him. We’ve done some Youtube research on folds—there are so many options, and different ones seem to work at different times. We’ve got a great fold now that makes getting them on a snap.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN REASONS YOU LIKE BEING A PART OF THE GREEN DIAPER BABIES FAMILY?
We are big believers in small business, and have really switched our ethic to buy less, but better. We support our local coffee shops, shoe repair store, family-owned restaurants as much as we can afford. Cloth diapering continues our commitment to doing it local. But the main reason for us is environmental. I know there has been debate about the amount of water and energy used to clean cloth diapers, but watching the amount of waste produced even with a weekend away is phenomenal. Diapers are heavy and take up a lot of bulk, can’t imagine the amount of landfill waste full time disposables create! So this issue of less landfill waste is very important to us. Landfills, sadly, are forever in today’s world.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE ACTIVIES TO DO AS A FAMILY?
We live in a rental in the South Loop in a huge one-bedroom apartment. We both walk to work, which gives us an awesome quality of life. We spend a lot of time at the museums, by the lake, and doing our shopping locally. We took Landon to the Shedd last weekend, when a huge shark went by, he was focused on a ceiling light! He’s still a little young to appreciate all the amazing things downtown Chicago will offer. Can’t wait for his first trip to Russian Tea Time, one of Chicago’s best landmarks. In the meantime, we stroll through the Art Institute and the Field on the weekends, and we think he likes Monet already!
