Wee Gallery: Art Cards for Baby

G’s first introduction to Wee Gallery’s Art Cards was through Citrus Lane, I have a few reviews for Citrus Lane that you can find in my archive, and we received the Faraway Friends Collection. Art Cards are high contrast black and white images for babies from 0-12 months. You get 6 images that were created from hand-painted originals and they are printed using non-toxic ink on extremely sturdy and recycled board book material. One side has a black background with a white image and the other side is the opposite, a white background with a black image.

The Faraway Friends Collection contains a Koi Fish from Japan, a Camel from Africa, a Walrus from the Antarctic, a Tiger from India, a Yak from Tibet and a Kangaroo from Australia. These are Baby G’s favorite to play with. If I lay down a box mixed with toys and books, he first pick is always his Art Cards. He loves to roll around on the floor looking at the images and play as 7 month babies do. If he can, G will spend the majority of his play time doing something with his cards. We also use them as a goal when we are working with him on his crawling. These cards can do no wrong in our eyes!

All of the collections identify the animal and the Farm collection shows what type of sound the animal makes. There are multiple ways for the baby to learn about different animals, which is great for the stage that G is currently in. He loves hearing farm animal noises. If we hold up two of the animals from the Faraway Collection and ask him where a specific animal is, he can now select the correct animal.

We are traveling for the holidays and I just purchased two more collections for our flights. I picked out the Farm and Woodlands collection. The Farm comes with a Bee, Cow, Hen, Horse, Pig and a Sheep. The Woodlands comes with a Deer, Fox, Hedgehog, Mouse, Raccoon and a Woodpecker.

We absolutely love our Wee Gallery Art Cards and look forward to adding the other collections as well!

There are seven collections in all and you can purchase them for $12.95 at www.weegallery.com.

BALM! Baby

Through the various mommy blogs that I read, I discovered BALM! Baby. This is a family owned company located in the warm and sunny state of Hawaii. Earlier this year, I was having issues with G’s teething while nursing and was looking for some serious nipple care and a possible teething tincture. By this time, I was already using and loving BALM! Baby’s PITS! Natural Deodorant. In general, I love natural and wonderfully smelling products. Anything that is artificially scented is very difficult for my nose to process and I only find heaven when smelling scents such as essential oils and other organic ingredients. PITS! is made with the following organic ingredients: Shea Butter, Olive Oil infused with Calendula & Chamomile, Macadamia Nut Oil, Coconut Oil, Baking Soda, Arrow Root, Essential Oils: Tea Tree, Lavender, Orange.

Smell that?! Ahhh, it’s my armpit and it smells prey-ty good. While some would agree that they would prefer their armpits to not smell at all, I prefer to smell like a sweet, sweet garden (growing off of the shores of Hawaii) than an armpit that smells like chemically-enhanced-could-be-what-a-bouqet-of-flowers-might-smell-like armpit. That’s just me.

As I mentioned above, I do have a baby and showering every day is considered a luxury. When I use my PITS!, I am actually pretty confident the next day. So much so, at Kindermusic I lift my baby as high as I can possibly reach and secretly hope the other moms catch a whiff of my delightful Hawaii garden.

So, back to my search of a nipple soother that could get me through G’s teething episode, which I will point out was during his two month pacifier boycott. I contacted BALM! Baby through Facebook and Malena, the founder of BALM! Baby replied back to me immediately. She answered my questions and steered me towards the right products.

Hear that?! Ahhh, it’s my boobs saying THANK YOU! and you know what else? They also smell pret-ty good too! Nipple Soother! is a natural and organic treatment for your nipples while nursing. It is also safe for baby, which means baby can latch on without any cleaning prior. Nipple Soother! is made with: Olive Oil infused Calendula & Chamomile, Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter and Candelilla Wax. My husband saw me use it the other day, grabbed the jar, took a huge sniff and said, “YUM.” Now imagine him doing that with Lansinoh. Won’t happen.

Malena also sent me a sample of their  BALM! Baby Diaper Balm. I’m sure you can guess what I am going to say next: Smells wonderful and it treated my baby’s cloth bum amazingly! We received this right when were testing G with solids and when he started to have a red bum, we realized he wasn’t quite ready. BALM! Baby’s Diaper Balm helped him get back to his normal chubby pink cheeks and quickly.

I can’t wait to order more and if we run into any more issues with G’s teething, we will for sure try out their teething tincture! BALM! Baby’s customer service is quick and they are willing to help you out with any questions that you may have. This is a great family owned company who truly pays attention to their company’s needs and their products are found throughout the US. Win, win in my book.

You can find all of their products at: www.thincskin.com or you can find them on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/BALMBaby

Wolbybug Cover Review

For a cover, this works great, but as we continue to travel further along our cloth diapering path, we have made one simple conclusion. No Snaps. We don’t like snaps, anything with snaps usually fits Grey all wonky and it just doesn’t seem worth it.

For example, sometimes Grey can be very ornery at night, which means very high and intense vocals. Otherwise known as screaming. Pair that with a very tired parent who wants to just finish up, so Grey can get picked up and loved leads to this:

“You finish, I can’t deal with all this snapping shit everywhere.”

So we are a velcro family

IMO, I also found the snapping to be quite cumbersome. The size of the shell was also very large, I felt, for a one size. Grey is almost 17 pounds and he was swimming in fabric and snaps on the smallest rise. Plus, we really enjoy double gussets, which this cover does not have.

I did love the color though. It was a rich olive tone, a nice break from the bursts of color on our other covers.

My final review would be that this cover would definitely fit larger babies with no problems, the color options are pretty good. If you love snaps, this is for you and you can’t beat the price point of $11.

Are You A Contortionist?

No…I’m just attempting to cut my baby’s nails while I nurse.

(I answer as I pick a nail out of Grey’s hair.)

I Remember Those Times…

When I use to spend $24 on mascara and now I spend $24 on a cloth diaper

Citrus Lane: July, Bon Voyage

Citrus Lane never ceases to surprise me. Maybe I’m looking at their boxes with a pretty relaxed opinion, but still…we always enjoy every box. This month’s theme was Bon Voyage and the products that we received actually fit some trips that we are taking before the end of the year. As new parents, this month’s box has also helped us figure out what we would and would not like to bring on these trips. We had some idea before, but this has solidified a few factors.

July’s Bon Voyage Box Included:

• Tiny Love Harry Hippo Stroller Toy ($7.99): This is a soft toy that when pulled it vibrates back to its original length. * Grey is 4 months and we use this on our stroller. He plays with it during our daily walks and always falls asleep with it in his hands. We pull it to make it vibrate, because he doesn’t seem to be strong enough to get that feature to work.
• Chewbeads Bangle ($14.50): 100% silicone this bangle is definitely wearable for the Mama’s for fashion and function. * Still a little too big for Grey, but he does enjoy wearing it on his arm.
• California Baby Travel Set ($7.50): These are toxin free skin products for baby. The set included the Super Sensitive Shampoo, Scent-Free lotion and Aromatherapy diaper rash cream. * I found all of these products at Target. I purchased a large bottle of the Super Sensitive Shampoo to use at home, 19oz for $17.50. This will last a very long time. We don’t use lotion, so I can comment on that and we also cloth diaper, so we can’t really use the rash cream. We might be able to use it for something though…We also received a 10% code if we wanted to purchase a Travel Caddy.
• On-the-Go Baby Laundry Detergent ($1.99): This products is free of parabens, soy and nut derivatives. These travel packets all you to clean a sink full of dirty baby clothes. * None of our trips include a hotel stay, but I am interested in trying this for sure.
• Me4Kidz Diaper Bag Buddy ($5.95): This kit includes band-aids, dirty diaper bags, hand sanitizer, hand wipes, baby wipes and diaper rash cream. Me4Kidz also supports the disabled community. *I definitely carry this in my purse when I don’t feel like carrying our larger diaper bag. Once items are used, I can see myself refilling it with small items that we already have and use. The case in itself is worth it.
• Ella’s Kitchen Organic Baby Food Stage 1 ($1.69): This packet contains 100% organic fruits and vegetables, with no additives or water. *We won’t be introducing solids until at least 6 months, so we have a little bit of time left. But other moms that I know, use these and they say they are pretty tasty. We received pumpkin, blueberries and sweet potato. I’m allergic to blueberries, which makes me a little nervous to give this to Grey. This included a $5 off coupon as well.
• Sincerely Inc – 10 Free Postagrams ($10.00): This free app allows you to personalize and send pictures from your phone as postcards. *I’m waiting to use this one.

All in all, this box was great for what it was. Sometimes, I read people’s comments about these boxes and they have such high expectations. I understand that looking at the cost for a year, it would seem as if we need to receive something absolutely spectacular every month. In my opinion, I believe Citrus Lane always hits the mark on items that we personally can enjoy and utilize in our daily routine at some point. As always, I can’t wait for August’s box to arrive!

Below is a picture of Grey wearing his Chewbeads Bangle

This Wolbybug Cover will be put to the test!

I am waiting for the arrival of our new Wolbybug Cover this week. We are going to Six Flags for my husbands company picnic and I figured this would be a wonderful opportunity to test it to the max. I am still debating as to whether I am going to start the day with it or wait until after G has his morning poo. Highly debatable, only because it could be a large amount and could possibly ruin my experiment for the day. But it is suppose to be a wipe able cover, so what to do? What to do?