Birthday Bonanza Giveaway

It's not too early to start thinking about Baby Bee's first birthday, is it? I was looking through my usual sites where I enter giveaways and saw the Birthday Bonanza Giveaway sponsored by Celebrate Express over at Minnesota Momma's Must Haves. I fell in love with the Sweet-As-Can-Bee theme so I decided to enter to try and win a party pack. Even if I don't win, I will definitely consider this party pack for Baby Bee's party; the prices are very reasonable and there are lots of options for adding on extra supplies.

Another Giveaway Win!

Here's my shout out to Diane at gobabygoshop.com
I just won a cloth diapering advocacy tshirt for Baby Bee. It says "Does this cloth diaper make my butt look green?" Can't wait for her to get to wear it. Thanks, Diane!

Product Review: Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium Kneeling Pad

Pleased

This pad is perfect for mommy or daddy knees while bathing baby. It has an anti-skid backing so that there's no slipping and sliding across the bathroom floor. It's just the right size and doesn't take up a lot of room. It's light weight enough to use the velcro strap on the back to hang from a towel bar or shower curtain rod in between uses.

Product Review: First Years Sure Comfort Bath Tub

Pleased

This tub is very practical. It is designed to sit on counter tops or straddle the kitchen sink. It doesn't fit our sink but that's not really a big deal to me. Now that Baby Bee is a bit older, I just set her tub in the bottom of our tub and kneel down on our kneeling pad. There is a compartment at the end of the tub large enough to keep shampoo/body wash bottles in during bath time.


This tub has a newborn sling that suspends baby above the tub making it easy to keep both hands free to bathe baby. The sling is netted so that water drips right through for rinsing purposes. After baby can balance a bit better, she promotes to the infant side (the taller back at the top of the picture). The angle of the hump in the middle of the tub elevates her legs slightly in order to help keep her leaning back. It would be nice if there were an anti-skid piece for under her bottom but I suppose one wasn't placed there in order to prevent any scratching on her delicate bum. The opposite end of the tub is for toddler use when baby can sit up on her own. We've yet to use that end but when we do, I'll update this review.


There are a couple of design elements I would change about this tub. First, where the legs are located, there are deep crevices on the inside floor of the tub but only on one end. Mildew loves those crevices from the trapped water after the tub is drained; they're narrow and difficult to clean. I don't understand why all four of the leg locations couldn't be flush to the inside bottom of the tub, or at least close to it, since two of them are. Secondly, the drain hole and plug sit a bit higher than the bottom of the tub making it difficult for all the water to drain out. I always have to flip the tub over to finish draining. Thirdly, I've not been able to hang this tub in between uses. With limited storage space, I had planned on hanging this on the wall in our laundry room alongside our laundry basket. The curved shape combined with the deep bottom makes it stand out away from the wall too far from the grasp of hooks.


Overall, this tub functions well and the couple of complaints I have are minor. Baby Bee is comfortable in it and really enjoys her bath time; I would recommend this tub to other moms.

Product Review: Prince Lionheart Warmies Cloth Wipes

Disappointed

I wanted to use cloth wipes since I was using cloth diapers anyway. It made sense to limit what we were throwing away and really, what was a few more things in the wash? I wish I had read the reviews on these first. I'm very glad that we only received one set instead of the two for which I had registered.

The first thing I noticed was that their care tag says to wash them on delicate. What? They're made to wipe up pee and poop and they're not sturdy enough for a regular wash cycle? I had planned to throw them in with the diapers so where's the convenience in having to do a separate load? These bamboo rayon wipes are very soft and seem to get softer with each wash. Unfortunately with each wash, they also seem to fall apart. Yep, even on the gentle cycle. So far, 3 of the 9 have come unraveled at the edges.

I found that the downside to them being so soft is that the fibers don't grab and trap the poop but rather just smear it around Baby Bee's bum. I quit using them on her bum and now just use them on her face for clean-ups between baths. I definitely would not recommend these wipes. See this blog entry for wipes we found that work well for us and our routine.

Being Debt Free is Coming Closer

I was filling in some information on our Dave Ramsey budgeting software and if we really squeeze every penny and pay each month what we did this month, it is possible that exactly one year from now, we can be debt free! Our goal is 15 months (January 2012) but how exciting it would be to finish early!

Lucky Streak

Well, I've been entering blog giveaways for about three weeks now and I've won three times.
Here's the list so far and my shout out to the ladies who make these giveaways possible:

GroVia Diaper
thanks to Nicki at nickisdiapers.com
Rockin Green Detergent
thanks to Kim at chubbycheeksthinks.com
Adiri Ultimate Nurser
thanks to Kim at chubbycheeksthinks.com