Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Little Mommas

As you can imagine, being home with three kids under 5 all day leaves me very little time to do...anything, haha. So things like showering often have to wait until Terry is home, the older two are in bed, and the baby is fed and content. That means mommy doesn't usually get to shower until around 11 PM most of the time. But the other day I decided it just couldn't be put off any longer...mommy needed to shower!

So I fed the baby, changed her diaper, and put her in her bouncy seat. The older girls were in the toy room playing so I had them go into their bedroom because it's closer to the bathroom. I carefully explained to them that I was going to shower VERY quickly and that I needed them to keep an eye on Leilah until I was finished. I gave Audrie the binky and told her to give it to Leilah if she cried and showed her how to GENTLY bounce the seat and made it clear to Adasyn that she couldn't try to pick the baby up, ect... I'm sure I spent longer "instructing" them than I spent in the shower...haha. Ady kept asking if she could change the baby's butt so I had to make it extremely clear that if she tried to do that she would be in more trouble than she had ever been in before. I made them verify everything I had said then I quickly got ready and hopped in!

I scrubbed and washed and rinsed as fast as humanly possible, shut the water off, grabbed my towel and dashed across the hall to make sure all was well. And what do I find?

Audrie bouncing Leilah's seat, Ady singing her a song, and Leilah staring lovingly at her big sisters :)

I figured since they were doing so well I'd blow dry my hair and get dressed real quick too! So I'm telling Audrie, "Mommy will be in her room getting dressed and then I'm going to go back in the bathroom and dry my hair. If you need anything or the baby starts crying come get me!" And Audrie replies, "Yeah mom I know, I got this. You can even do your make up if you want!"

They are such good little mama's =)

Sunday, June 20, 2010

WINNER!

Ashley R. was the winner of our EcoMom giveaway! Congrats Ashley! Thank you to everyone who entered!

=)

Monday, June 7, 2010

Eco Mom Revolution Foods Reveiw & Giveaway!!!

As a mom to some very picky eaters, I cannot stress enough just how difficult it can be to get toddlers and preschoolers to eat healthy. I'm always on the hunt for healthy snacks that my kids will actually WANT to eat. So when I found EcoMom's website and saw they had a "Healthy Eating" section, I was pumped!

EcoMom features organic foods, snacks, and drinks for everyone from nursing moms to baby just starting finger foods to kids packing school lunches. They stock products made by Plum Organics and Revolution Foods. For babies they carry organic baby food purees. Toddlers can enjoy organic training meals, with small pieces easy for little fingers to grab, freeze-dried fruit pieces, and "fiddlesticks", stick-shaped easy to eat hand-held snacks. They also have "Mashups" which are fruit puree drinks in a cool pouch that have a cap that you can reseal! And they make organic "PopAlongs" that are whole and multi-grain chips for kids. Another great product of theirs, and possibly my favorite of the ones I tested out, are their little sandwich "bars." They have classic pb&j flavored ones, and different yogurt and graham flavors too!

EcoMom sent me a box of some of these snacks to test out for them, so here's my review!

Audrie, Adasyn, and myself spent the day testing out Organic Mashups Squeezable Fruit in Strawberry Banana, Tropical, and Berry, Organic Jammy Sammy Snack Size Sandwich Bars in Strawberry Jam & Peanut Butter and Organic Grape Jelly & Peanut Butter, and Organic Grammy Sammy Yogurt Filled Sandwich Bars in Honey Graham & Strawberry Yogurt.


The Mashups are verrrry tastey! Audrie, who hasn't met a new food she didn't make an icky face at, sucked down the Tropical flavored one in a matter of minutes for her morning snack. Once she caught her breath (she DEVOURED that thing!) she declared "Wow mom that was good!" and then tried to drink Adasyn's Strawberry Banana one! Ady took a minute to decide how she felt about hers, but after a few sips she raised her eyebrows, smiled, and said "Good!" and promptly finished it! Now, these are two kids that have maybe 20 foods in their list of things they'll eat without being forced/threatened. For them to even TRY something new is like pulling teeth, forget actually FINISHING something new. This is monumental. You can bet your butt I'll be ordering several of these! I tried the Berry flavor, and man that thing rocked! It tasted like summer, pureed. The taste of fresh berries is a wonderful thing!


As for the Jammy Sammy's, my girls both like the grape jelly ones over the strawberry jam ones, but neither of them really like strawberry jam on a regular pb&j anyway. I gave each of them half of a strawberry one and half of a grape one for their afternoon snacks. Audrie took one bite of her strawberry one and said "Uhm, mom, this has strawberry jelly...I don't like that..." and handed it back. She did finish her half of the grape one though, and then asked for more! Ady ate both the strawberry and the grape pretty quick, but when I asked which she preferred she said the grape one. I'm more of a strawberry jam person, so that was my fave, but both were pretty tastey!


Now the Grammy Sammy's...well let's just say the experience ended in tears, but for a good reason! I gave each girl one of the Honey Graham & Strawberry Yogurt filled Grammy Sammy's for a late-afternoon snack and all I had to do was mention that they had yogurt in them and they were gone in seconds! The girls both love yogurt and coincidentally will eat anything that has yogurt in it. Once they were gone though, they both wanted another one, and I didn't have anymore! I did however get to sneak a bite before I gave them to the girls, and they were excellent! It was a perfect balance between graham outer and strawberry yogurt inner! I really don't like snacks like this that have too much graham on the outside and it makes your mouth dry or too much filling on the inside and it's too sweet. This one was a great balance. :)


Overall these were great products and I plan on ordering more soon for the girls (ok, and me too ;) ) to have for healthy snacks!


EcoMom also offers an amazing program called EcoPass. You purchase a $99 annual membership that gets you a 15% discount on every order and free shipping with no minimum order requirement! It's a great deal and an excellent way to get healthy organic food for your baby, toddler, or older child without leaving the house and with no shipping cost!


Ok, now for the fun part! The giveaway! EcoMom is offering a fantastic giveaway to the readers of my blog! And it's super easy to enter!!! Winner gets $20 worth of Plum Organics and/or Revolution Foods!


Each of these are good for one entry each (post a comment for each one you do, winner will be chosen from random.org so each entry needs it's own comment!):


1) Follow my blog!
2) Follow EcoMom on Twitter!
3) Become a fan of EcoMom on Facebook! 
4) Join the EcoMom newsletter!
5) Blog about this giveaway! (post a link in the comment box)
6) Post a link to this giveaway in your facebook status! (post a link to your profile in the comment box)


I'll pick a winner on Saturday, June 19th at 9 PM!


Also, EcoMom has provided me with an exclusive 15% off discount code for my readers, so you guys can try these great products out for yourself! The code is: SBBL396 and is good until June 30!


DISCLAIMER: I was in no way compensated for this product revue.  These words are my own and my honest opinion on this product! Though the products I tested were sent at no cost to me, the company has in no way provided compensation for my testing of their products.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Nappy Shoppe Knickernappies Giveaway!

Another great giveaway to jump on! The Nappy Shoppe, my person favorite cloth diaper shop, is giving away a Knickernappies one size pocket diaper! Now I have not yet tried Knickernappies diapers, but I've heard many fantastic revues and plan on adding at least one to my stash soon!

These diapers snap shut on the sides rather than in the front, so little hands have a harder time getting them off and the "wings" don't drop like on most front snapping diapers. They come with two microfiber and hemp inserts too!

It's SUPER easy to enter, so head over to Sharni's Blog (Sharni owns The Nappy Shoppe) to learn all about these diapers and how to win one!!!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Growing Green Bums Thirsites Giveaway!

 The fantastic and innovative cloth diaper website Growing Green Bums is having a giveaway featuring one of my most favorite cloth diaper companies...THIRSTIES!

Growing Green Bums in giving away a Thirsties Duo Diaper, which has become one of my favorite go-to night time diapers! They feature a double-ended pocket so you don't have to pull an icky insert out to wash, just toss the whole diaper in the machine and the insert comes out in the wash! They come in two sizes to fit your baby PERFECTLY from birth to potty training, are available in bunches of super cute colors and prints, and come with two inserts that snap together to easy washing and drying. And as with all Thirsties diapers, they have those amazing leg gussets to catch those messes!



Now that I've talked up the diaper, head over to Growing Green Bums Blog to enter for your chance to win one of these fabulous diapers! :)

Good to Know You've Got My Back ;)

Today was a beautiful day. Sunny. 75 degrees. Perfect park weather. So I packed up the girls and headed down the street...

I had Leilah in her Sleepy Wrap and we were sitting on a bench watching Audrie and Ady play. There was one other mom there with her two girls, who looked to be about 2 and 9. We'd been there about 15 minutes when Leilah got hungry. So I scooted her down in the wrap a little bit, pulled the front of my shirt down, un-clasped my nursing top, and started feeding her. I had pulled the side of the wrap over her head for COMPLETE coverage and modesty. You could barely tell I was nursing. Then the other mom came over...

"Can't you just give her a bottle?" I wasn't sure I heard her right, so I said "Excuse me?" She replied "I said why can't you just give her a bottle. You're at a public park for cryin' out loud." I'm thinking 'keep talking lady and you'll hear crying out loud!' but I keep my cool and simply say "Breasting feeding in public is perfectly legal, I'm fully covered, and not bothering anyone." By now Audrie had come over to see what was going on. Then the lady says "Well a bottle is just as good and no one had to see your chest that way." That's when Audrie chimes in...

"My mommy feeds our baby with her boobies 'cause that's what's good for her. God gave mommies boobies so they could feed their babies to make them grow. And Leilah don't even LIKE bottles she likes to drink milk from my mom's boobie!" I just smiled.

The mom took her two kids and left. Good, more room for my kids to play! It was nice to know Audrie had my back, and that she was listening when I explained why I breast feed Leilah. :)

Shortly after the other mom left Ady said she had to pee so I told the girls to head for the car to go home, so Audrie pushed Ady for making them have to leave. Most of the time she's such a cry baby, but sometimes, she's quite the tough cookie =)

Monday, May 31, 2010

She's My Breast Friend :)

Adasyn, my beautiful and...precocious...three year old has no qualms about speaking her mind. Ever. And having a brand new baby sister at home has given her PLENTY to talk about!

Adasyn is still having a bit of a difficult time accepting that baby Leilah doesn't drink bottles like other babies (Leilah is EBF). The first few times Ady saw me nursing Leilah she would simply ask "What's she doin'?" And I would reply that she was eating, and that was a sufficient answer for a while. But then Ady's curiosity got the better of her and she started asking "Why's she eatin' your boobies?" I would have to choke down my giggles and explain that mommies have boobies to make milk for their babies, that's what boobies are for. After a few of these conversations, Adasyn's curiosity was satisfied and the questions ceased (thankfully, because she'd ask EVERY time I nursed...every 3 hours!!!)

Then one morning, we were running late getting to preschool because Leilah decided to start eating an hour later than usual, Adasyn had the overwhelming urge to discuss the happenings of my chest...with her preschool teacher. We got to the preschool around 11...we're usually there between 9:30 and 10. The teacher said "Adasyn you're late! What took you so long?!" To which Ady replied (loudly), without missing a beat "Yea, Leilah was eating my mom's boobies."


Thanks Adasyn, thanks. :)