Stuff Parents Need

Easing the chaos in the nest, one find at a time.

Yoga for Children: Easier Than You Think (With a Little Help!)

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Tim and I put a rather unusual thing on our baby registry when we were expecting: a child-size yoga mat. Are we yoga maniacs? Not by a long-shot. We really wish we did yoga more than we do now. We used to do yoga together most every morning, and it was an amazing way to start the day. While our discipline stinks at the moment, our heart is definitely in the right place, and we are prepared with a mat for little D so that she can join us!

When Darah was an infant I did a little bit of yoga with her, especially moves that would help with her digestion. But as she has become a toddler, I’ve been completely floundering about how to introduce some basic moves to her.

Yoga for Children

Fortunately, there’s a wonderful woman out there who anticipated my confusion at this stage (and the confusion of thousands of other parents with similar desires). Abbie Davies has created a book called My First Yoga.

yoga post for children

From the site, “This award winning book uses kid friendly vocabulary and vibrant illustrations to lead readers through a series of easy to follow yoga poses. Learn to become a strong dog, quiet turtle and proud lion – stretching mind and body to improve focus, balance and concentration.”

My review can be summed up in one word, “HOORAY!” This book is absolutely PERFECT! Darah likes to look through the book and talk about the sounds that each animal makes, and she has been working on a few of the poses, because she likes to imitate what she sees the children in the book doing. While there are a few poses that she isn’t going to be able to do for a little while, there are several in there that she can try out now, at just 16 months old. Her very favorite, at the moment, is the butterfly.

yoga for toddlers
This also provides a terrific activity for the two of us to do together. And while Darah is trying out the different poses, I’m getting a good stretch or two in there for myself. BLISS!

Abbie has a great video of one of her classes on Youtube, if you’d like to check it out. It shows just how interested young kids are in yoga, and how much fun they can have learning different poses!

I’m absolutely thrilled to have this book, and now my dream is coming true of having yoga be something that I share with my daughter on a daily basis. I know it is good for her, and it is also so good for me. She seems to really enjoy the challenge of the poses and also has a lot of fun whenever we do our poses. She laughs and smiles, and also really concentrates from time to time. It’s awesome to watch!

In addition to this wonderful book, Abbie also offers Activity Blasts that can come straight to your inbox with poses and activity ideas for you to do with your child. I just signed up, and can’t wait to get those emails!

Buy it!: My First Yoga is available at many different places online, including Amazon.com for $11.69 and is worth every penny!

Edit: this giveaway is now closed.  
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of the book for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own. This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you. 


Piggy Paint Review and Giveaway!

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Today I’ve got a fun post for you: it’s a throw-back to a year ago, when I reviewed Piggy Paint nail polish. Since that time, Darah and I have developed a ritual every Friday where we both get our toes painted (she especially likes having her toes painted while she sits on her potty. Ha!). I purchased Dragon Tears for her and put it in her stocking this year; it is going to be so cute on her little piggy toes! Since I last posted they have added a Project Earth collection, with bold colors that will especially delight tweens! Check them out!

So without further ado, here’s my original review as well as a giveaway!

I have been looking forward to painting my baby girl’s toes pretty much since I found out I was having a girl. My mom would frequently paint my toes when I was little, and it was good bonding time for us. And of course, I always had the cutest toes of anyone my age. I was really eager to get my hands on my baby’s little piggy toes and turn them pink. Thankfully, I had the sense to pause before breaking out my own nail polish to find out if it would be safe for her. Turns out…not so much. Nail polish and nail polish remover are actually rather toxic, and can contain formaldehyde, acetone, toulene, ethyl acetate and other crazy stuff that I can’t even pronounce. While Darah isn’t putting her toes in her mouth just yet, it is only a matter of time before that is happening, and I don’t want her ingesting any of those chemicals.

Thanks to some other bloggers, though, I learned about Piggy Paint, a company that creates non-toxic polishes and polish removers with our little girls (and their safety) in mind. It is made in the USA and invented by a genius stay-at-home mom (doesn’t it seem like the very best products are created by moms?!) I was given the opportunity to try out Girls Rule on Darah. I actually gave my mother the honors of painting her toes first when they came for a visit a few weeks ago. I have to say, applying polish to squirmy baby toes is tough, but Darah and Grammy both had a really good time together during the process! I used the nail polish remover that they sent to wipe off those smears; easy peasy. The polish remover didn’t have that nasty chemical smell that you typically find in polish removers, which was really nice. The next time I put polish on Darah’s toes I will have a hair dryer on hand to help expedite the drying process. It isn’t that Piggy Paint takes any longer to dry than other polishes, but rather that Darah is a baby on the move! The women at the daycare center noticed her polished toes the day after they were done and raved about how cute she was. I’m not gonna lie, I beamed with pride at my little cutie that day!

I also brought the polish with me to California, because all of the cousins on my husband’s side of the family were together for the first time ever. I simply could not wait to get to paint my nieces’ toes! I was only able to paint the toes of the 3 year old, Anna, but she was very eager to get her toes painted. She sat very still throughout the process, and even helped me blow on her toes to help them dry. She showed off her pretty pink toenails to everyone in the house that day. Getting to paint her nails is a precious memory that I will keep with me forever.

The polish does require touch ups every few days, but that just provides you with another opportunity to have quiet, quality time with your little one!

 

Buy It: If you have a little girl and you want to paint her toes, please don’t go to your polish collection. Get her something that you can be confident won’t hurt her. Piggy Paint is the perfect choice, and the color selection is very nice. Now through February 28th, you can score 10% off your purchase by using the coupon code STUFF10L at checkout. You can even put that towards sale items! Also, if you spend $35 or more, domestic shipping is FREE!

Win It: One very lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to score a $15 credit to Piggy Paint! This contest will run until January 6th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected via random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the winning notification email before a new winner will be selected. Open to residents of the United States.

How to Enter:
Mandatory Entry: Visit Piggy Paint and tell me your very favorite color polish.

Additional Entries:
1. Sponsor love: “Like” Piggy Paint on Facebook and post on their wall that Stuff Parents Need sent you!
2. Blogger love: “Like” Stuff Parents Need on Facebook

rare bonus entry option: If you are a blogger, add my button to your blog roll for 2 more entries! (be sure to leave the link so I can see it!)

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my home page!

Merry Christmas!

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We are with my family in Alabama and I feel like a young child all over again; I can’t wait for Santa to arrive! I can’t believe that I’m in charge of the Christmas memories for my own little girl, now. This is so awesome!

I want to wish all of my readers , “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!” Be sure to get in a reading of The Night Before Christmas! 🙂

Gratitude for My Husband

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Tim and I met when we were freshmen in college. We were part of the same service-based scholarship program. During our first week in the program, we had a pool party with some local children who rarely (if ever) got to go to a pool. Most of them didn’t know how to swim. But that didn’t mean that they weren’t ready to get wet!

That day, Tim saved a 5 or 6 year old boy who jumped into the deep end. When he jumped, his life vest came right off. The lifeguard on duty happened to be screening the shallow end at the moment it happened. You can imagine what a crazy/scary moment this was, but Tim was a complete sea of calm and just got into the pool in the blink of an eye and came back out with this child, who was scared, but ok. After he got the child back to his mother, he came right back over the the picnic table where he was before the incident, sat back down, and resumed eating his meal. He felt no need to re-hash the experience or in any way to brag. I remember saying to him, “Um, I think you just saved a little boy’s life.” His response was a simple shrug. His humility completely amazed me.

Tim and I often joke about what the moment was for each of us when we knew we had found our life partner. I have a thousand of those moments, but that was the very first one. I don’t remember specifically thinking, “I will marry this guy,” but I do remember thinking that I MUST get to know him. And so I did.

I have 12 years of stories about how amazing Tim is, and I’ll save some of those for another time. But what I want to say now is that Tim continues to amaze me with his grace under fire and his humble but life-saving gifts to me and Darah (for example: last night he got up with Darah no less than 7 times, and he’s going to work today). He is one of the most selfless people I know, and I’m so grateful to have him in my life.

5 giveaways with low entries…do yourself a favor and stop by

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Ok, folks, my holiday giveaways are winding down. I’ve got 5 left. They all rock. They all have fewer entries than they should. This is good news for my subscribers! Get those entries in now and you just might win a ‘lil something!

Ozone designer socks (ends 12/21)

AboutOne digital organization system (5 winners!!!) (ends 12/23) You may not realize that you want this, but trust me, you do!

$25 to My Baby Clothes Boutique (ends 12/24)

Board Book Photo Album (ends 12/26)

Skoy cloth reusable cloths (ends 12/27)

Gratitude for My Time at Home

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This year my family made some pretty huge life changes. I realized that I didn’t want to be away from Darah so much, we realized that we really weren’t happy living in Memphis and we decided to take a new job opportunity for Tim in a city neither one of us had ever even visited before this year. The cost of this decision was a high one, moving from two incomes to one and leaving a house that continues to sit on the market in Memphis. It has been for sale for 5 months and I believe only 4 different people have even come to see it. Oy… I have mentioned before how tight money is around here. Tight is really a bit of an understatement.

And yet, in some ways, I feel as though I won the lottery.

When we talk about winning the lottery and what we would do with the money, we see that money as a tool to enable us to have the kind of life we dream of. I honestly don’t dream of having a mansion. We used to live in a 2,100 square foot house with just the three of us, and is was WAY too big, and took FOREVER to clean. The thought of 5,000 square feet is seriously just unappealing, people.

Yes, of course I would indulge myself in some nice things (quality furniture, extended vacations, lengthy trips to see family) but what we would really try to get for ourselves is more time with each other.

And my friends, we already are getting lots of that! We chose to live super close to Tim’s job, which means his commute is 5 minutes by bike. He’s home every single day for lunch. He also has the type of job where he is not expected to come in early or stay late. We chose a neighborhood that is walkable and a city that is overflowing with free or cheap activities that are so much fun. We are getting much of that quality time that we long for and that we previously thought we’d have to be independently wealthy to obtain.

Kind of ironic, isn’t it, that at a time when money is so tight, we are so richly blessed in the ways that matter the very most? I’m so grateful!

Gratitude for My Readers!

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It’s now just 7 days until Christmas. I’m going to be taking a break from the reviews and giveaways until December 26th, when we’ll get started again. I thought I’d take this time to turn my own focus away from “stuff” and write some different material. I didn’t write about the things I’m thankful for leading up to Thanksgiving (wish I had!), so I think I’ll take this week to write a bit about my gratitude for all the gifts I have been given, particularly this past year.

As I look back on this year, wow has it been an adventure! Today I want to tell you how grateful I am for my readers. You are the inspiration behind the writing I do, and I’m so thankful for all of the growth this blog has seen this past year. The more, the merrier!

I’m so glad I changed the way I do my contest entries, as I’m getting to know you better, and have had some really wonderful conversations with many of you because of that change. You are an amazing group and I’m honored that you take the time out of your busy days to hang out with me for a few minutes. If you have been lurking, please don’t be shy! Step out and say hi; I’d so very much love to hear from you!

Blogs are amazing tools, put to their best use when they foster relationships and form communities. Thank you, to each and every one of you, for being part of this community!

What are you feeling grateful for today?

Reusable Paper Towels: Skoy Cloth Review

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Reusable Paper Towel: Skoy ClothYou probably already know that we rarely use paper towels in my home. I still think they have their place (cat hairballs, anyone?), but overall, I really don’t miss them. The few times each year that I actually purchase a roll of paper towels, I always cringe. Even though I use them only when I feel it is necessary, it still feels like such a waste of money and resources.

skoy cloth reusable paper towel We’ve been using the same set of reusable cloths for over a year now. Many of them are still going strong, but a few of them are ready to be replaced. I’ve heard talk on the blogosphere about the crazy awesome Skoy Cloth and now I’ve had the opportunity to see for myself exactly what all the fuss is about.

SKOY cloths are reusable, and are said to last longer than 15 rolls of paper towels. That’s pretty amazing! From their site, “This new approach to cleaning boasts a cloth that is 100% biodegradable, natural and re-usable. The SKOY cloth has an absorption factor of 15x its own weight, which makes it far superior than any other cloth on the market.”
I’ve found the SKOY cloth to work fabulously. It is much stronger than any paper towel I’ve ever used, and when I’m done with it, I can toss it in the washing machine OR the dishwasher! Love that!
Buy it! SKOY cloths come in packages of four and seem to run around $10. They are available at many different shops online, as well as a variety of brick and mortar stores nation-wide! Since these should do the same work as 60 rolls of paper towels, I’d say $10 is a steal!

Win it! One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to snag a 4 pack of SKOY cloths that I have on hand to give away. Woo hoo! The contest will run until 11:59pm EST on December 27th when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Tell me your approach to cleaning up messes. Paper towels all the way? Only cloth? A hybrid? If you use paper towels, why (and that is not a loaded/judging question, promise!)?

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: “Like” Skoy on Facebook
2. Blogger love: “Like” Stuff Parents Need on Facebook

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my home page.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Tomoson Product review & giveaway Disclosure. This post contains an affiliate link.


ERGO Vs. Boba: The Toddler Carrier We Chose!

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You may recall that a few weeks back I told you that were were getting a new carrier. Some of you may be scratching you head, thinking, “I know your child is no longer an infant, so why would you need a carrier?” My friends, we have a child who loves to be held, especially by her beloved daddy. When she fit in her Baby Bjorn, she was at her happiest in that thing! There are carriers that are made to carry toddlers, we just didn’t have the good fortune to own one.

Until now! And where did we get it? That fabulous place we all know and love:CSN Stores. If you aren’t familiar with CSN Stores, oh my word are you in for a treat. This is a collection of over 200 stores in the CSN family, and they sell, well, just about everything you can think of that you might need or want in your home, including furniture, decor, clothes, toys and yes, even baby carriers. I was more familiar with their toys and their furniture from my previous shopping experiences with CSN Stores, and was surprised to find an impressive selection of some of the top carriers out there.

Boba vs. ERGO carrier We diligently did out homework, and thought we wanted to get an ERGObaby carrier, since they get such rave reviews. Unfortunately, CSN was out of the ERGOS when we went to make our purchase. We thought about waiting until they came back in stock (you can sign up for email notification when a product you want is re-stocked), but then went back and did a bit more research on another brand I had heard was excellent: Boba. We actually found a great comparison post written by a mom who owned both carriers, and she came out a bit more in favor of the Boba.

Bottom line, I think we would have been extremely happy with the ERGObaby. But I can also tell you that we are thrilled with our Boba! CSN Stores had a nice selection of colors from which to choose, and we went with the Dusk carrier. It is absolutely beautiful! Darah is snug as a bug inside of it and it has certainly made going on walks MUCH easier.

CSN Stores offers free shipping on all of its Boba carriers, and you are notified when your package is sent out and can track it. While it would have been great if they could have had our first choice in stock, I’m so pleased that they also carried another brand that moms and dads seem to like just as well. I don’t think we compromised one bit when choosing our carrier, in the end!

Do you use a carrier? Do you have a favorite brand?

Disclosure: CSN Stores provided me with a $75 gift certificate in exchange for my honest review about shopping with them. I paid the difference between what the certificated covered and what the carrier cost. All opinions expressed here are strictly my own. This post contains affiliate links.