Stuff Parents Need

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

Get That Curly Hair Tamed Without the Tears: KRLY Kids!

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If you have a child with Shirley Temple curls, then you are tremendously blessed. Such hair is absolutely GORGEOUS!

You are also cursed, because you, as the parent of a young curly-haired child, have the job of keeping those lovely locks clean and under control. While I don’t have this situation in my own house, it is my understanding that many parents feel that they pay a steep price for their kids’ twirly tresses!

There are some great products on the market that I want to make sure you know about. They are from the Ouidad company, which makes salon quality products for adults. They have introduced the KRLY Kids line, and it is extremely gentle, moisturizing and easy to use.

The three products in this line are as follows:

1. No Time for Tears Shampoo ($12.00, 8.5 oz)

  • proteins and amino acids create luxurious curls

2. No More Knots 2-in-1 Conditioner ($14.00, 8.5 oz)

  • detangling rinse and leave-in conditioner prevent split ends and also leaves a slip in the curls so a comb will glide through with ease!
3. Pump n’ Go Styling Spray Gel ($15.00, 8.5 oz)
  • special wheat proteins define curls and protect against humidity with a soft hold
I can’t speak from experience about how these products worth, but they sound absolutely fantastic. If you’ve ever used these products, please leave a comment below and let others know about your experience!
Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review, though I did pass them along to a friend with a curly-haired child! All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own. 

CoCaLo Reusable Cloth Diaper: The Perfect Bum!

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You’ve no doubt heard before about the economic and environmental reasons to switch from disposable diapers to cloth. But today I want to focus on another reason:

THE CUTE FACTOR

cocalo diapers

Cloth diapered tushies are the cutest thing EVER, and they put every single disposable diaper on the market to absolute and complete shame. They come in a rainbow of delightful colors and patterns, not to mention the fact that their material can be downright luxurious. Tell me, would you prefer your underwear to be made of material eerily close to paper, or of organic cotton? Yeah, your baby feels that way, too.

CoCaLo Diapers

Today I’m featuring a well-known baby company, CoCaLo, who has just released their first cloth diaper. And they went all out when it comes to respecting the fashion aspect of cloth diapering! All of their CoCaLo cloth diapers in the line are made with super fashionable patterns (look at the denim cuteness!), and the fashion sets, which I had the chance to review, come with matching t-shirts, too!
cocalo diaper inside While I haven’t had the opportunity to put this diaper to the test, yet, I do really like the look of it. It comes with a tri-fold insert that looks highly absorbent. This is the type of diaper where you can simply pull out the soiled insert and put another insert in and then go on about your day, meaning that you won’t be changing your baby out of this super cute diaper cover after just one potty session. Love that! Check out the inside of the diaper for yourself. See how deep the insert holder is? I’ve got a feeling that it is designed to hold up really well against leaks!  These diapers are called Perfect Bum,  and isn’t that the truth? I found that in the winter months, cute cloth diapers like these meant that bloomers weren’t necessary with dresses at all. In fall and spring, I’d just pair something like this with a pair of babylegs an be good to go!

The Perfect Bum is available now at Babies R Us and other specialty stores throughout the country. The fashion set I reviewed retails for $29.99, or you can pick up the diaper with a liner for just $16.99. Edit: They are now REALLY cheap on Amazon! Hurry!

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to win a Perfect Bum fashion set just like the one I received!

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Fun, Affordable Fashion from Mybabyclothes.com! (GIVEAWAY!!!)

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I love being a customer at Mybabyclothes.com. from baby hats to tutus, this site has it all. It’s all photo-session worthy in cuteness, and also worthy of much excitement due to their reasonable prices!

Last week we received this unbelievably cute twirly dress from the site. It is from Bonnie Jean, a company that we have previously reviewed and loved. Darah asked to wear it IMMEDIATELY, and then proceeded to wear it all day, every day, for THREE FULL DAYS. Yes, indeed! I finally had to point out the dirt that had accumulated on the dress and tell her that it must be washed. As I type this, it is line drying (went through the wash on the gentle cycle like a champ, I’m pleased to report). I have absolutely no doubts that Darah will ask for a status update on the dress when she gets home from school today, in the hopes that it is dry enough to wear again.

This dress looks to me like something from an upscale boutique, but minus the upscale pricing. It’s just $26.99, and considering how much Darah loves it and how cute it is, I’d say that price is a steal! Mybabyclothes.com really is a great destination for baby clothes. Consider shopping there before your next baby shower or for an upcoming birthday for a toddler in your life. Right now they are having a big sale, with prices up to 60% off. Squeal!!!

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win a $25 gift certifcate to My Baby Clothes Boutique!

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Maternity Monday: MAM Products Review and GIVEAWAY!!!

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As far as pacifiers go, we are EXTREMELY loyal to MAM in our house. Darah was horribly offended whenever we tried to offer her any other type of binky. It would promptly be spit out. So MAM it is around here, and the same will be true for our new baby.

MAM has actually just come out with a new pacifier that has really piqued my interest. It’s called the MAM Perfect Pacifier. What makes it so perfect? Well, the nipple is 60% thinner than a traditional pacifier, which means less pressure on baby’s jaw, reducing the risk of misaligned teeth. Great innovation, MAM! It is offered in sizes 0-6 months and 6+ months. Colors currently available are pink, blue and green. The ARV is $5.99 for this product.

MAM also makes some other amazing products, including an entire infant toothbrush line that I reviewed previously. Did you know that they also make bottles? Well, they do! And anyone who is currently expecting is going to want to check out the MAM Anti-Colic Bottle, for sure. It has a vented base that regulates air pressure. This is important because it means that the milk going to baby will have less air in it, which means less gas, which means less crying! Another excellent feature of the bottles is that they are designed to be quickly and easily sterilized in the microwave. No more waiting for the dishwasher to finish its cycle! These bottles come in 5 oz and 8 oz and retail for $6.99. That’s a great price for such a unique and useful bottle!

MAM products are available at major retailers all over the country.

Win it!: MAM is pleased to offer one lucky Stuff Parents Need reader the following prize pack worth $55!

  •  One triple pack of MAM Anti-Colic Bottle
  • An assortment of MAM Perfect Pacifiers in Blue, Green and Pink

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Getting Back Into Coupons and Leaving Scissors Behind: SavingStar

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When I was pregnant with Darah, I was a couponing DIVA!!! I stocked up on about a 6 month supply of diapers and wipes (that was before I became a cloth diaper fan) and each package I purchased was at least half off, if not more. We had enough toilet paper to last a year, and our pantry was overflowing with food (some great, some, admittedly, junk) that I routinely got at 50-75% off with my coupons. From the perspective of our budget, it was awesome!

So what happened? That little bundle of joy that came into our lives in August 2009 stole our hearts, as well as all of our energy. You know how that goes, probably! It’s a good thing I had such a stockpile, because I fell off the couponing wagon for about a year.

When I quit my job and we were down to one income, I knew that getting back into couponing was pretty much necessary. Our grocery budget just couldn’t be $350/month for a family of 3, anymore. So, I dipped my feet back in the waters, and while I never returned to my former couponing glory, I did start saving a good chunk of money each month and re-establishing some stockpiles of various products we go through quickly.

And then, on my 31st birthday, we found out that we were expecting. I was reeling with morning (who am I kidding? ALL DAY) sickness by the time I was 5 1/2 weeks along, and basically, anything that wasn’t necessary for my family’s survival went by the wayside. Coupons did not make the cut.

I’ll be honest, even though I’m feeling significantly better than I was for the first 3 months of the pregnancy, my coupon binder is still collecting dust. It can be so hard to get back into couponing when you don’t have a good supply of coupons on hand and have to re-build. Also, just taking the time to clip and sort coupons is a big ask when there are so many other things demanding your time. I have been wondering if all that work that goes into it really is worth it, or if I should just give up, altogether.

Then I learned about SavingStar, a site designed to help simplify the process of saving money on groceries. This site is full of PAPERLESS coupons. That means you don’t have to go buy a paper, print anything from your computer, or clip anything. Everything is digital!!! These coupons work at over 100 chains (that’s 24,000 stores) across the nation. The odds are pretty darn good that your favorite grocery store is one of them!

Basically, all you need to do is register your grocery and durgstore loyalty cards on SavingStar. That’s something you are already using at checkout, but now grocery coupons from SavingStar are loaded on your card, so if you purchased anything that has a coupon, you save money. That’s so easy!

What happens next is a bit different than using traditional coupons, though. Instead of the money you saved coming off your bill at the store, the savings you earned are added to your SavingStar account. That process can take between 2-30 days, just depending on when the store sends the purchase data to SavingStar. So you do have to wait a little bit for your savings, but they will come!

Once you have at least $5 in your account (that doesn’t very long to accumulate when using coupons, I promise), you can cash out by having your savings deposited into your bank, sent via PayPal, or you can get an Amazon gift card or make a donation to American Forests.

New coupons are added each week. So instead of going out to get a paper and then clip and sort all those coupons, just log into SavingStar and click on the coupons that interest you. This makes using coupons super easy, and its something I feel confident I can do now, and continue to do even when we have our new little one in May and I’m SERIOUSLY strapped for time.

Check out SavingStar.com.  You’ve got nothing to lose and money to save!

Disclosure: I am receiving a gift card from the sponsor in exchange for sharing my honest opinion about their services, which I have provided.

Win a Vinyl Banner from Uprinting.com! GIVEAWAY!!!

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Do you own a small business? If so, this is a great giveaway for you! Uprinting.com has teamed up with Stuff Parents Need to provide the following giveaway:

2′ x 3′ Vinyl Banners for one winner
with or without 4 Grommets,
premium 15 mil Vinyl Banner
1 Business Days Turnaround time
Free US shipping only

Even if you don’t have a business you need to promote, you should consider banner printing for any number of possibilities, from birthday to retirement banners for special occasions, to welcome home signs for loved ones coming home from time away. We actually have a “Happy Birthday” banner that we put out for everyone’s birthday, and I absolutely love it! It’s a terrific way to quickly decorate for a special day.

 We’ve placed orders from Uprinting.com a few times before and have always been impressed with the quick turnaround and quality products we have received. If you haven’t become a customer of theirs yet, I highly recommend giving them a try!
 Win it!: As I stated early, one of you is going to get a 2×3 banner for your business or home. Woo hoo!

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A Fate Worse Than Frozen Pipes: How Being Eco-Smug Cost Me Dearly!

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Have you ever purchased a product that is eco-friendly or made a particular change to your home that was a good move for the environment? And have you ever felt REALLY smug about it? I’ll admit it, I’ve done a few things over the past few years that have made me feel quite impressed with myself. Today’s story is about a time when my feelings of superiority got the best of me and taught me a lesson.

When we got Hattie back in 2005 (she was a rescue from a shelter, which of course, made me feel smug and awesome), we didn’t know anything about cat litter. The shelter where we got her recommended a particular brand of litter that was VERY eco-friendly. In fact, it was so safe for the environment that you could flush it down the toilet! Sure, it cost a bit more than the stuff found in most stores, but just think of the benefits to the environment! Also, how wonderful would it be to just flush your litter instead of having to stink up your trash cans with it! We were sold. And we were better than everyone who bought Johnny Cat, for sure.

As we carried on with our eco-fabulous lives, we started taking full advantage of the wonderful, flushable litter. And it was great, it really was. Hattie’s litter box was kept pretty clean and our house didn’t smell like a litter box.

And then, it happened. The toilet that we used to flush her litter got stopped up. No big deal…it happens, right? We didn’t see the possible connection to the litter, at first. It’s just an old toilet with old pipes and blockages are just an occasional issue that everyone has to deal with. So we got our our plunger (Why on earth would we use something like Drain-o? Remember, we are eco-hipsters!). And the plunger did absolutely nothing.

Then we used some eco-friendly products to try to unclean it. Still, nothing. In a moment of desperation, we reached for the horrible chemical de-clogging agents (Shh! Our dirty little secret!). And still, nothing. Uh-oh.

So we reluctantly called a plumber. When he came out and got to work, he asked us what in the world we had been pouring down the toilet. We told him about our fabulous litter and he just laughed and laughed, and said it was a HORRIBLE idea to flush that stuff, because it had basically given us something worse even than frozen pipes. The fabulous “flushable” litter, you see, turned into something similar to cement in the pipes (it was made of wood, so it couldn’t really be cement-like, but you get the idea). It was a beast for him to get it unclogged, and it certainly set us back a pretty penny.

So we ditched that stuff like a bad habit and sought out different solutions. We certainly felt like idiots for believing that it was actually a good idea to flush litter down the toilet. Eco-friendly or not, toilets just aren’t designed to handle that kind of stuff! We did find some eco-friendly alternatives, but the truth is, it all smelled awful! Oh well, so much for being superior to everyone else on the cat litter front!
Have you ever been schooled when your head got a little bit big about something? Do tell!

Disclosure: I am participating in a blogger campaign for Bucks2Blog about frozen pipes
and was compensated. All thoughts, opinions and embarrassing stories expressed here are strictly my own.

Introducing Dad and Musician Ben Bowen (Guest Post and GIVEAWAY!!!)

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My name’s Ben Bowen. I’m a husband, a father of two, and a musician. In February 2010 the opportunity came up to teach music to classes of preschool children. I try to approach risk with an attitude of “embracing failure,” so, not knowing quite what to expect, I grabbed my guitar and dove in headlong. The obvious first move was to turn to the music of my own childhood for inspiration: Raffi, Sharon Lois & Bram, The Goat with Bright Red Socks, but soon it became obvious that I needed to start sourcing new material and so, guided by friends’ recommendations and various parenting blogs, I started buying kids’ records.

   After a number of false starts I ended up stumbling across a veritable “Holy Grail” of kids’ and folk music, the Seegers. The first discovery was Pete Seeger’s Birds, Beasts, Bugs, and Little Fishes, a reissue of two LPs from 1955. My family and I we were immediately drawn in by his warm rich voice, his meticulous playing, and songs we’d never heard before but that somehow seemed to awaken a long-dormant part of ourselves. I also found a 94-track album called American Folk Songs for Children, recorded by Mike and Peggy Seeger in 1978 which was a companion to a book written by their mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger, in 1948. For reasons I couldn’t quite explain, these records had a profound effect on me, and the songs began to work their way into both our home life and my teaching.

   See, once upon a time, music was imbued with our collective story. We handed down traditional songs and tales from generation to generation, and even in the very act of that transmission we could sense the history of ourselves, of our ancestors, of old ways of life. More than that, though, folk was the sort of music you didn’t passively listen to on record but was instead the type you got together and sang with your friends and neighbours in your living rooms and kitchens, smiling into one another’s faces as voices blended together and social bonds were strengthened through shared song and common narrative.

Last year I started singing these songs in public in front of audiences. In September I opened for Fred Penner. Shortly thereafter, it seemed like a reasonable next step to try to record some of my favourites. In December, with my sister and brother-in-law in tow, I went into the studio and over the course of a single day recorded ten songs, five of which now appear on the Bumblebee EP.

These songs resonate in me like church bells, cutting through the din and complication of modern life with their simple beauty and often playful lyrics. This EP is the first of what I hope to be many recordings of this kind of music; I hope you find my love for it infectious, and that maybe it encourages you to go out and find more of these rich socio-cultural treasures yourself.

The Bumblebee EP is available on iTunes, CDBaby, and emusic, and can be previewed (so-to-speak) in its entirety at www.benbowen.ca/epk.htm.

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to score the entire album!

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Tropicana Trop50 Review and GIVEAWAY!!!

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I am a big fan of juice, and Darah has followed in my footsteps. We water down her juice (50/50) to cut back on the sugar and calories, though. But as for me, I can’t seem to stand to water down my juice more than about 80/20. What can I say….I have a real sweet tooth!

Fortunately, Tropicana has a line of products that are absolutely perfect for those of us who want less sugar but not less flavor. It’s called Trop50, and so far I’ve tried one flavor (pomegranate blueberry) and absolutely LOVED it.

Here’s what is so unique about Trop50 products. They contain 50 percent less sugar and calories than competing fruit juices. And….NO artificial sweeteners! What they use is a stevia-based sweetener, and it tastes wonderful, because it works to enhance the sweetness of the real fruit juice that’s in the product! All of their yummy varieties have 50 calories per 8 ounce glass and give you a full day’s supply of vitamin C. They are also a good source of vitamin E.

You can find Trop50 products right next to all the other cold orange and other fruit juices, and it comes in all the following varieties:

  • Orange (no pulp, some pulp, no pulp plus calcium and vitamin D)
  • Pomegranate Blueberry
  • Pineapple Mango (next on my list to try!)
  • Farmstand Apple
  • Lemonade
  • Raspberry Lemonade
I also thought you’d like to know about the Trop50 True Resolutions celebration happening on the Trop50 facebook page. If you share the real motivation behind your resolutions on their site, you’ll earn a $1 off coupon for Trop50 AND you’ll be able to send a .50 off coupon to up to 50 of your friends. Sweet! But wait, there’s more! While you are on the site, be sure to enter their sweepstakes…they are giving away a $1,000 gift card! I hope I win (just being honest), but if it isn’t me, I hope it’s you!

Win it!: I’ve got a great opportunity for one of my readers! You will win TWO free product coupons from Trop50! Woo hoo!

 

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