Babies for Everyone!!

Children’s Claritin

My BzzKit came in the mail just in time: the wind has been kicking up the last few days and my kids allergies were threatening to turn them into itchy, sneezy snot balls. Fortunately for us, my BzzKit contained Children’s Chewable Claritin, enough for Jonathan and Hannah to use for 5 straight days. The first day, there wasn’t much difference, but by day 3, the allergy symptoms were virtually gone, and my kids were running around happily in the wind (although lots of the other playground kids were sneezing and hacking).

I’ve been a Claritin user since I was a teenager, and love that it not only works, but is safe to use while pregnant and breastfeeding. Now that they have a children’s version, I couldn’t be happier. Usually, I give my kids Benadryl when their allergies flare up, but that just puts them to sleep and (as much as I love that) I don’t want them to sleep their childhoods away! Children’s Claritin is non-drowsy, and I didn’t notice any side effects. They liked the grape flavor, and I was glad my BzzKit came with some coupons, because we’ll be using Children’s Chewable Claritin all summer!

Sweet pictures of Ponijao from the upcoming “Babies” movie!

Baby pictures are so awesome, and I love these photos of Ponijao of Namibia!

Ponijao lives in Namibia with her family, including her parents and eight older brothers and sisters. Ponijao’s family is part of the Himba tribe, and lives in a small village with other families, following traditions including speaking their own (Himba) language. The men in the Himba tribe are generally off looking after the cattle and searching for grass, so Ponijao is most often with her mother and other female relatives; she plays, eats, and is bathed through the traditional method of mixing concrete red ochre with oil. Ponijao’s favorite things to do are dance and play with other children in the tribe.

“Babies” movie

As a mom and a birth Doula, I get really excited about babies. As a BzzAgent, I get really excited about new product campaigns. So when my BzzAgent homepage featured a new film that is coming out titled “Babies”, I was through the roof!!  I’m so thrilled that someone is making this movie, about the first year of life for four different babies in four different parts of the world. From the clip, you can see the similarities in babies, even though their surroundings are very diverse.

SinuCleanse- Safe and Immediate Sinus Relief Naturally

When our three-month-old succumbed to the cold (thanks to our preschooler), I pulled out our trusty saline drops, knowing they had been effective in clearing the older kids’ noses. However, managing the bottle dropper, the wiggly/screaming/crying/snotty baby, and spraying the saline into his nose was a huge challenge.  Most of the time the baby ended up with salt water all over his face, but not enough in his nose to make any difference.  My next trip to the pharmacy, I discovered Kids Mist, by SinuCleanse.

SinuCleanse- Safe and Immediate Sinus Relief Naturally.

This nifty little contraption (which our family has dubbed the baby bong) looks crazy, but is easy to use. I love how the flexible dispenser can move to accommodate any position the baby is sitting in, and that there is no suck up back into the bottle.  I’m very pleased with this product, especially since my baby is feeling much better!

Aveeno Diaper Rash Cream

I love being a BzzAgent! Trying products that are beneficial to my family and then sharing my experience with others is just awesome!

The most recent BzzCampaign that I participated in was the Aveeno Baby campaign. I have two babies in diapers right now, and diaper rash cream is something I go through more frequently than I’d like to admit.

The active ingredient in Aveeno’s cream is zinc oxide, just like Desitin. However, Aveeno’s formula had a pleasant, natural scent and the product actually absorbed completely into the skin.  My biggest complaints with Desitin is that it smells weird and you really have to wipe hard to get the product off the skin with the next diaper change. Because Aveeno uses it’s signature skin-soothing base, my kids’ diaper area was soft and moisturized, and, most importantly, rash free.

I’d give you a sample, but I used them all! However, Aveeno’s website has lots of great promotions that you can sign up for, including coupons to take to your local store to buy some for yourself!

If you are interested, visit ChatThreads.com and enter conversation ID 101 282 443794 for a chance to win gift certificates!

Online Bible for Children

Online Bible for Children

I am constantly searching for ways to make my faith relevant to my children. One of the traditions my mom had was to read the Bible to us as kids while we ate breakfast. I can’t afford any of the kids Bibles in the store right now, but this website has several illustrated Bible stories that my kids can easily understand. The illustrations are not top notch, but for my kids, they are just excited that there ARE pictures! I’ve bookmarked this site and will be visiting it during our milk and cheerios hour!

SparkPeople.com

This morning I got a mailer from Weight Watchers, inviting me back to attend their weight loss meetings.  As an incentive, they sent me a card that would waive the usual registration fee, I would just have to pay for each meeting I attended.  Normally, at this time of year, I would jump at the chance to lose weight and save a few bucks, but this year, I have a better solution. How about I save all my money, and still lose weight?

Enter SparkPeople.com.

This all-in-one FREE website includes all the tools I need to lose weight: nutrition trackers, fitness trackers, weight and other measurement trackers. PLUS work out videos, print outs to take to the gym and motivational articles. PLUS there is an entire social networking community full of people who are at different stages of their weight-loss journey. I’ve joined a few different groups (one for parents, one for 20-somethings, one for Californians) and there are all kinds of great discussions and encouraging posts.

The nutrition tracker is awesome: I just type in what I ate and how much, and it can track my calories, fat, plus all the vitamins and minerals! My favorite feature of the nutrition tool is that you can set it to plan your meals for you, select how many people will be eating, and then it will give you a shopping list to print out and take to the grocery store. And that’s for everything: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks!  It takes all the guess-work out of menu planning. I can even customize it for our family (my kids have milk allergies) with just a click of a radio button.

I’ve been using SparkPeople.com since I was pregnant (their sister site is BabyFit.com), and love how easy it is to track my work outs.  I can print out a plan to take with me, or plug in the number of minutes I spent in an aerobics class, and the fitness tracker will calculate how many calories I’ve burned.  When I can’t make it to the gym, it isn’t really a big problem. I just log on to SparkPeople.com when the kids are down for naps and can use any of their videos to work up a good sweat.

My newest discovery is Boot Camp. This is a special group I joined within SparkPeople.com that will start at the beginning of January. The leader sets fitness goals and sends them out to members, and we all do the workouts together! As a very social person, I prefer to work out with my friends as much as possible.  This is the next best thing! Knowing that there will be a place to complain about my sore quads the day after a tough workout, and that the other people there will know exactly what I’m talking about makes me feel connected.

Losing weight is hard enough. Why should our bank account have to lose weight along with me? I’m so glad I discovered all the free tools at SparkPeople.com! Now, I can lose weight and keep money in the bank for more important things… like grocery shopping!

(I was not compensated to provide this review, I just really love this website!)

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