How Does One Shop For A Pillow, Anyway?

I need a new pillow, because I don't like my pillow.  Problem is, I don't really know how to shop for a pillow since I don't know exactly what I want.  When I bought the pillow I have now, I thought it was what I wanted.  And before this one, I bought one of those flat (non-contoured) memory foam pillows, thinking that's what I wanted.  But it didn't really do anything for me, either.

The chiropractor I saw a while back wouldn't approve of ANY pillow bought at the store.  According to him, they are all bad for your neck and in turn bad for your back.  The pillow he recommended was like the one below, and you actually measure yourself for the right size so that it's at the right height to support your head while not hurting your neck.

I didn't order one.  They're pretty pricey at about $70.  But in retrospect, I guess for the amount I've spent on standard pillows over the years trying to find the "right fit", I could have bought one of these from the start.  Of course, I don't know if it's what I want/need, either!

So how does one shop for a pillow, anyway?  I get that it's easy if you know what you like.  You like a soft standard pillow?  Easy enough to pick out.  You like a firm feather pillow?  Just pick up the feather pillow that says "firm" on the package and go home.  But if you're not sure......what do you do?  I've tried laying my head on pillows on the shelf.  I've tried laying on them on the display beds.  Problem with that is that they all feel okay in the store.  I need to SLEEP with it to know if I like it. 

(My 13-year-old self just giggled.)

So my son has discovered his peepee, though he can't really see it due to his massive belly.  But now while in the bathtub he plays with it and pulls on it trying to check it out.  And my favorite part is when his hand shoots down to grab it when I'm changing his diaper.  Especially if his diaper is super nasty.  Fun times, people.  I try to tell him that there's no need to be groping at something he can't even see or understand right now, because he'll be spending a good portion of his lifetime playing with it and have AMPLE opportunities to check it out, but he doesn't care.  It's his peepee and he wants to play with it NOW.

Speaking of pee pee (the liquid kind now), for the first week of using the woolie diaper covers for overnight, we were still having occasional issues with leaks.  The woolie itself would be dry (because wool is crazy like that), but D's pajamas would still be wet.  Well, Lucas added a gdiaper cloth insert (which has hemp on one side and microfleece on the other) between D's cotton overnight diaper and the woolie cover and WHAM BAM not a leak since!  D's cotton overnight diaper and the added insert are always both soaked in the mornings as expected, but the woolie and his pajamas are now bone dry!  So I think (at least for now) we've finally found our perfect, successful overnight diaper combination!

I own a bunch of different diaper options and have more than I need, but HOLY COW.  The sad part is, I would be giddy knowing I had a closet full of that many options!

I found that pic above from a blog post called Signs of a Cloth Diaper Addict.  Pretty funny.  And obviously true for the person above.  Though I'm still jealous.

Something else Delano has been playing with lately is his imagination.  He stirs imaginary food in pots and his little kitchen dishes (granted, he's watched me do it so he's probably just imitating me and not really "stirring imaginary food") but what really made me smile yesterday was that all on his own he completely pretended that a block was a car, and he was "driving" it around and making car noises with it.  I didn't think that the imagination part of his brain......the part of pretending......came until much later.  He typically only associates items with exactly what he knows (or at least thinks) they are.  So I was pretty surprised to see him driving a block around.  But that's what we did right then - drove blocks around!

Finally - Delano has definitely decided I FEED MYSELF!  He still likes and wants pureed food along with table food, but he will FIGHT the spoon out of your hand to do it himself.  I always have to bring two spoons to the table now....one for him to use and another for me to use to scoop up all the food that drips off his chin to actually get it IN his mouth.  And sometimes he even wins the second spoon.  And just like any other kid learning to eat out there, he is MESSY.  At home, this isn't any big deal, because I just wipe down everything afterwards while he runs around and then either rinse him off in the sink or toss him in the tub (if it's more than the kitchen rag can handle).  But while we're out and about, it's a little more difficult.  I don't care that he drops/tosses food or gets messy.....I pick up his mess and am fine with him being dirty.  But I'd really rather not have pureed pears slung everywhere within a 5-foot radius at a restaurant, where strangers and furniture are likely targets.  And since I can't just take him out of the highchair and let him go while I clean up his mess, it's like trying to clean while holding an angry worm who wants DOWN.  Because now that he can walk, he always wants DOWN.  LET.  ME.  DOWN.

The picture does NO JUSTICE to show the amount of cereal that was everywhere, but he is covered in it from head to toe!