Celebrating Firsts With Pampers #SwaddlersFirsts

Disclosure: This review was made possible by Double Duty Divas and Pampers. I was provided the featured product free of charge to facilitate my review, but all opinions are 100% mine.

As parents, we all love the small little things that our children do during their first few years of life. We want to cherish those memories forever. Every little thing that your child learns or does is a first and should be recognized by us as parents.

I will never forget when my children came home from the hospital in their teeny little outfits that they swam in. Then as they developed, small little things happened that made me grin from ear to ear. They were all simple things too. A small smile, a first tooth, first pair of shoes, the first haircut, the first step, and even the first fall. 

Sometimes I wish I could relive the feelings of those events over and over. But there are ways to keep the memories a live a little longer, and keep your child comfortable too. With the launch of Pampers Swaddlers in sizes 4 and 5  Pampers Swaddlers are Pampers’ softest diaper ever, and while moms have always loved Swaddlers for their newborns, Swaddlers are now available through size 5! Which means, baby can stay in the diaper mom loves throughout her baby’s diapering years. 

From your baby’s first smile all the way through to their first step, Swaddlers can now be there for many more firsts to come! To celebrate the newest size Swaddlers, Pampers has 30 days of incredible giveaways and a grand prize of FREE Swaddlers diapers & wipes for a year. Join the celebration and enter our 30 days of sweeps on the Pampers Facebook page, where you can win daily prize bundles, or even the grand prize of free Swaddlers diapers and wipes for a year.

Pampers is also hosting a Twitter party for #SwaddlersFirsts. 

Prizes will include:

3- Celebrating Firsts Gift Packs, which include:

• Baby’s First Friend Plush Doll
• Baby’s First Tooth and First Curl Treasure Box
• Baby’s First Words Book
• Baby’s First Steps Push Toy
• $50 Shutterfly Gift Card to celebrate all “firsts” moments
• Baby’s First Bath Robe
• Pampers Swaddlers
• Grand Prize: Canon EOS Rebel T3 DSLR camera worth $450!!!!!!

#SwaddlersFirsts Twitter Party Information:

The Twitter Party will take place on Thursday, December 5th at 9pm EST.  Join us for a evening of fun and prizes. You can RSVP here

      

 Now for the good stuff!  As a Grammy2Kaiden reader, you have the chance to win a Swaddlers Firsts gift pack.
The prize pack will include:

Baby’s First Friend Plush Doll

Baby’s First Tooth and First Curl Treasure box

Baby’s First Words Book 

Baby’s First Steps Push Toy

Pampers Swaddlers

Enter using the Rafflecopter form below. Open to residents of the US that are 18 years old or older. All entries will be validated before a winner is notified. The giveaway will be open until 12/15/2013 at 11:59pm EST.

 



a Rafflecopter giveaway

App Developers Can Help Teach Children Important Skills

Disclosure: The post below is a sponsored post. Grammy2Kaiden may receive monetary compensation for the content in this post.

Kid's Academy, one of the most successful developers of apps for kids has released what might be their biggest app yet. 123 Tracing is an excellent educational app designed for younger students. This cute game helps kids trace numbers and get in the habit of writing and forming these letters that they will use the rest of their lives.

The free version of app is live and available to download via iTunes, Google Play and Amazon at:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kids-academy-123-tracing-free/id613055203?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.mobi.kidsacademy.gp.num.tracing.lite

http://www.amazon.com/123-Tracing-Free-Handwriting-Activities/dp/B00E1HH3HG/

Kid's Academy is all about helping children learn verbal, writing and math skills in an easy and fun manner. Apps such as 123 Tracing and Bingo ABC have been top-50 educational apps in the App Store, and Kid’s Academy has also brought the well-known stories and nursery rhymes The Three Little Pigs and Five Little Monkeys to life with interactive apps. The simple interfaces of the apps allow children to take the reins and play on their own, but the sing-a-longs and other activities are perfect for parent or teacher engagement, as well. Research has shown that singing along with nursery rhymes has cognitive and physical benefits for children. Not only are children learning new words and the context in which to use them, but strengthening tongue and mouth muscles at an early age will help with pronunciation skills.

About Kid’s Academy Company

Kids Academy is an early childhood education start-up specialized in development apps for major mobile markets: App Store, Google Play and Amazon. The rapidly growing company is bringing value through education for children aged 2 to 6 teaching kids numbers, upper- and lower- case letters, word-letter associations, phonics, and spelling, and brings them endless fun and excitement through play activities.  Founded in the end of 2011 with the first application released in July 2012, Kids Academy has six nice apps and recently reached 2 million downloads. The apps developed by Kids Academy received dozens of positive reviews and were top rated by Children’s Technology and Parent Reviews. Interactive ABC by Kids Academy was featured by The Guardian in mobile tech review.

For more information, please visit:

Website: http://www.kidsacademy.mobi/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KidsAcademyCompany

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kids__Academy

Dohmie by Marpac #serioussleep

Disclosure: I received the product described in this review in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own and may vary from your own.

As parents, we have all had those nights where our child just will not sleep. They fight going to sleep or they just keep waking up. If you have children, you know exactly what I am talking about. You also know the frustration that comes with these sleepless nights.

The Dohmie is a white noise machine that was created to help babies fall asleep and stay asleep.

When I received my Dohmie, it could not have come at a better time. My 6 month old daughter is teething and trying to adjust to the time change that just occurred. Her sleep patters are completely off and she has been fighting going to sleep at night.

 

Now instead of waiting to 11pm for her to fall asleep, I have been using the Dohmie. It is not perfect and does not "make" her fall asleep, but it definitely has cut the crying time down and keeps her asleep after she falls asleep. 

The Dohmie itself is what I would consider a medium size unit and does not weigh a lot. The actual unit does not require batteries which is a plus in my home. That does mean that you will need an open electrical outlet inside your child's room that is far enough away from where they sleep, or reach, to avoid injuries. 

The Dohmie is a white noise machine. That means that it makes a subtle noise to help eliminate silence in the room and provide comfort to your child. The actual noise that the Dohmie makes sounds a little like breathing. It is not loud, but it is noticeable from anywhere within the room that the unit is placed. 

After using the unit for several nights, I did notice that my daughter is sleeping longer through the night. I did also notice that the nights that she is not fighting falling asleep as long. To explain, before using the Dohmie, she would go anywhere from an hour to 2 hours crying as she fought the bedtime routine. Now with the use of the Dohmie, she spends about 30 minutes crying before falling asleep. 

The noise and volume of the machine is adjustable. With the turn of a button, you can control the level of noise. I am sure that adjusting the volume level to the perfect sound will vary from child to child. I live in a quiet town with very little outdoor noise, so I keep the volume fairly low. I can imagine that a family that lives in a large busy city or near a main street, may need to raise the volume a little more to drown out the exterior noises.

The Dohmie is designed to be portable, but I found that the size of the unit makes it a little inconvenient to take with me. The actual size of the unit is 2.4 pounds, 7.4 inches around, and about 4 inches tall. The size of the unit makes it difficult to toss in a diaper bag or just take with you on a trip.

For more information about Dohmie and getting serious sleep, please visit the Marpac website Here

You can also follow Marpac for more information on the Dohmie on the follwoing social media platforms:

Facebook

Twitter 

Pinterest

 

Lancôme DreamTone #bareselfie #DreamTone

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product from SheSpeaks/Lancôme to facilitate this review.

 

For the last several years, I have been searching for the perfect product for my face. I love some of the new advances, but I dislike others. 

First, let me start with a little bit about the product. "DreamTone is the next generation in dark spot correction. This customized skin tone correcting serum is so powerful, 72% of women dare to bare their skin.* The new DreamTone is 3 barely-tinted serums formulated to visibly correct dark spots, color imperfections and give you a more even-looking skin tone. It comes in 3 serums customized for your skin tone: 1- Fair, 2 – Medium, 3 – Dark." 

Okay, enough about the product description written by the professionals. Now for the simple and to the point review of a not so gracefully aging woman. 

I will start with what you will see first. The Bottle. The bottle is very elegant in shape, size and color. The easy to hold triangular sharp is very classy looking and I loved it. The part that threw me was the lid. Here I am expecting to unscrew a lid and when I twisted, the top of the lid area popped up. Whoa! That means I will not lose my lid. Woo Hoo! 

On a more serious note, the serum is the perfect thickness and highly concentrated. Yes, I said highly concentrated. It takes very little of the Lancôme DreamTone to cover your entire face. It glides on smoothly and has a light feminine scent. In fact, the scent is very refreshing.

#bareselfie

After two weeks of using Lancôme DreamTone serum twice a day, I am starting to see some results. I am getting dark spots as I age, but so far I can see some reduction in one of my dark spots. It is definitely not both dark spots and it is not drastic, but a start is not bad for two weeks of use.

I have noticed more even skin tone all over my face. I don't have blotchy skin that I feel the need to bury under gobs of make up. In fact, tucking the Dreamtone under my regular moisturizer and make-up, I feel that I need less make-up. I am looking forward to what the rest of the bottle will bring to me!

Children Learning Reading

Having a young child in my home with learning disabilities, learning to read has proven to be very difficult. I know that there are hundreds of programs out there to teach a child to read. Choosing the right one will vary from child to child and parent to parent. When I was given an opportunity to try the Children Learning Reading program in exchange for a review I was very excited.

I have always tried to be creative at hiding education in repetitious but fun activities. When I started to use the program, I was hoping for an easy program with step-by-step learning. That is exactly what I received. The program requires a lot of parental involvement, so do not think that your child will learn while you are off doing the dishes. You will need to sit down and take a little time each day.

After using the program for 30 to 45 minutes each night for the last 2 weeks, I have noticed a definite difference in my child's ability to recognize simple words. This is not a instant miracle cure, but you and your child will definitely benefit from the easy to follow steps if you put in a little effort each night.


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.

Smart Ones Oatmeal

Disclaimer: This post was created in partnership with Smart Ones®. All opinions are my own.

Does the picture above make you hungry? It makes me hungry! When i recently went to the store to pick up my Smart Ones oatmeal, I struggled at which flavor to try.

So I picked up one of each! You cannot blame me. With flavors like Apple Cinnamon, Peaches and Cream, and Maple and Brown Sugar, you cannot just pick one! It can be found in the frozen aisle in heat and eat cups. Each serving is perfectly portioned for me and knowing that it is low calorie and not loaded with more sugar that any human needs is very exciting.

After getting home I needed to make the dreaded choice. Which one do I try first? I chose to try the Apple Cinnamon flavor first. Knowing that you can never go wrong with apples or cinnamon. Looking at the ingredients made me like the Smart Ones Oatmeal even more! The main ingredients are steel cut oats, oats, granola and walnuts. Really, most other oatmeal brands are sugar, sugar, and more sugar!

It turns out that not only do I really like the Smart one oatmeal, but so do my kids. If you are a busy mom, like I am, this is a great way to feed your family a healthy breakfast. It can even be great on the go!

 For a quick chance to win a coupon for a free package of Smart Ones Oatmeal, comment below with the flavor you would like to try the most!

Holiday Shopping the Best Buy Way

Disclaimer:  This is a sponsored post. I have been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

Best Buy is the authority and destination for all your technology and appliance product gifting needs this holiday and from December 1st, 2013 through January 15th, 2014 you can save 15% off on Health and Fitness products, Fisher Price and  Mattel Toys by using the code bloggers15off during checkout at Bestbuy or in store by printing the discount here. Or maybe you need Headphones, or Portable Speakers. You can click here for 10% off of Headphones, or  Portable Speakers (excludes Beats, Bose and Sony).
  That is a great way to save money while shopping for your favorite items!

The assortment is second to none:

• Feature more than 100 products sold only at Best Buy this Holiday
• Offer a market-leading selection of the hottest tablets, smartphones, gaming consoles and titles, wearable technology, health and fitness gear, mobile accessories and much more.

Blue Shirts and Geek Squad Agents are passionate, highly trained, knowledgeable and impartial so they can help ensure you get the perfect gifts for your family and friends…and yourself
They know price is important to us, and frankly it’s important to them too. Their Low Price Guarantee will ensure you’re getting the most competitive price possible.
The combination of bestbuy.com and their 1,400 stores offers the ultimate showroom to touch, test, try and buy the latest technology.
Technology is evolving quickly and becoming increasingly complex- Best Buy is here to help make it easy for your to choose the products and services that work best for you.

• Phones: At Best Buy you can see and try all of the phones, carriers, plans and accessories under one roof with industry-leading trade-in options
• Tablets: Best Buy is the only place in America where customers can see all of the latest and greatest tablets. 
• Computing: Best Buy features the best selection, advise, services and support in computing. They help set the market by working with the industry's tech leaders to develop a highly specialized and innovative assortment of laptops, many of which are only available at Best Buy.
• Mobile Accessories: Best Buy has one of the largest selections of accessories and wearables this holiday. Bluetooth speakers, smartwatches, health & fitness gear and headphones will truly rule holiday. If you have fitness buff friends the Misfit Shine Fitness tracker and the Fitbit Tracker are two of the items available.
• Home Theater: Best Buy offers the world's newest technology, best assortment and service in home theater.
• Appliances: Best Buy is better positioned than ever to bring the latest small appliances and special deals to you. We all know a big kid that would love new home appliances for the Holidays ;)
• Kids Games: Best Buy also carries the latest in games for your young kids. Maybe you need a FisherPrice Little People game or a BarbieMakeover for your young daughter. Best Buy has them.
• Gaming: Best Buy is THE destination for gaming this holiday. Not only dodo they have the latest Xbox and PlayStation consoles, but the hottest game releases and everything else you need for a great gaming experience.
• Music/Movies/Musical Instruments: Best Buy offers terrific deals on the best entertainment stocking stuffers.
• Digital Imaging: Best Buy features the newest selection of cameras, accessories and advise so you can find the perfect gift or capture your own holiday memories.
• Tech Services: Best Buy is home of the Geek Squad for help installing, repairing, troubleshooting, optimizing and offering all sorts of technical advice from every Best Buy store, in-home, online and by phone. 

Whether you are looking for items on your holiday list this year or items for your family Best Buy has the high tech items that are crabed. From a Barbie Makeover Kit, Fisher Price Little People, the Misfit Shine, Fitbit Flex Tracker, Jawbone Up, wireless headphones and portable speakers, and the amazing Logitech audio products! All of these great gifts can be purchased at Best Buy or bestbuy.com.


Don’t forget from December 1st, 2013 through January 15th, 2014 you can save 15% off on Health and Fitness products, Fisher Price and  Mattel Toys by using the code bloggers15off during checkout at Bestbuy or in store by printing the discount here. Or maybe you need Headphones, or Portable Speakers. You can click here for 10% off of Headphones, or Portable Speakers (excludes Beats, Bose and Sony).