Smartypants Review and Ecomom Giveaway

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So the lovely ladies over at Ecomom {Eco-Friendly Baby Products- EcoMom} recently sent me some Smartypants gummy vitamins to review and rate...rather, chew and rate :)

Note that I may insert here....I popped flinstone vitamins during my pregnancy, so this is a perfect product for me to review. Wait, they wanted bitty's opinion? Good thing i've been sharing!

First of all, Smartypants is a childrens {er, adults?} multivitamin and mineral supplement. They are made with and eco-friendly non-tuna sourced DHA Omega 3's and meet 100% of the US RDI of Vitamin D and includes 13 other nutrients. They are also GMP-Certified, Gluten and Casein free, and contain NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. They are made from all natural flavors and colors from natural sources.
Along with being gluten free, they are also free of yeast, wheat, milk, eggs, soy, peanuts, shellfish, artificial colors, artificial flavors, and salicylates.
Now to the ultimate taste teste.....they are better then the sunkist gels candy! Have you ever had those? I personally like them, but pretty sure they have no nutritional value. Smartypants are great tasting with NO icky vitamin aftertaste. Me and the bitty take them regularly at dinner. We have no chance of forgetting to take them because bitty reminds me about 20 times a day.

Ecomom carries a variety of products ranging from baby food to eco clothing and are all eco-mom approved, meaning they've done the research so I don't have to. I can buy from them knowing I am getting a healthy, safe, and environmentally friendly product.
                                                                     
                                                                      DISCOUNTS:
Ecomom also has this great program called the EcoPass. For a $99 annual membership, you will always get a 15% discount on every order, as well as free shipping! (no minimum requirement). EcoPass pays for itself in as little as 4 orders and is only $8.25 per month.

In addition, Ecomom has offered to give you all a 15% discount on your first order! Just enter the discount code SBBL601 at the checkout. (offer will expire Oct. 31, 2010)

GIVEAWAY:

One lucky duck reader is going to score a $15 gift card to use at Ecomom!

ENTRIES:

[email address must be present in at least one comment]

 MANDATORY:

1.Visit Ecomom and tell me what you would purchase if you win (must also be a public follower)

BONUS: {Make sure and enter a comment for each entry you are eligible, for example +2 = 2 comments}

1. Become a fan of Ecomom on facebook. +1

2. Become a fan of The Bri Hive on facebook. +1

3. Follow Ecomom on Twitter. +1

4. Grab my button and put it on your page or blog, then leave me the link. +2

5. Sign up for the Ecomom newsletter. +2

 ***Dont forget to use the discount code SBBL601 if you purchase from Ecomom!***

**This giveaway is open to US & Canada residents only. This giveaway will end on October 5, 2010 at 11:59 pm MST. Winner will randomly be selected using random.org. Winner will be contacted via e-mail and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will have to be chosen.

DISCLAIMER: While I recieved this product from Ecomom I was not compensated for reviewing it. All opinions are 100%honest and 100% my own.

Wordless Wednesday

Recent dabblings

I say dabble because I usually get a hankering to do some project, try it, finish it {if i'm lucky} and then never do it again.
Ha.
This time I broke out the ol' Singer and dusted her off.
Then I had to READ the instruction manual to remember how to work the darn thing.
It all came back to me slowly, but I must have remembered a little.

I started out by making bitty #2 the tag blanket, because I thought I had lost the one we had. There was a huge learning curve being the first project back with  good ol' gertrude {my sewing maching silly}. Then jealousy reared its ugle head and of course bitty #2 wanted one. I figured I didn't want her going off to college with a tag blanket so I decided to make her a pillowcase instead. But not for a regular pillow, that would be too easy. No, she chose her round moshi pillow. (this was after I nixed the heart-shaped one...could you imagine?) So it was difficult for me to wrap my vacationed mommy brain around the idea of how to sew a round pillowcase. However, I figured it out!! Both the bittys seem to love their handmade with love {and a few curse words} gifts.
I think they both turned out cute, what do you think?

Happy 5th Monthday!

I can't believe bitty #2 is already 5 months. What in the world?! I feel so fortunate to have been able to stay at home with my girls so far.

Here are her stats:

16lbs there abouts this was on my scale, not the doctors!

At her age, I was 17 lbs 9 oz WHAT IN THE WORLD I WAS HUGE!!!!

At her age, bitty #1 was UNDOCUMENTED...{yeah, I rock at this mom stuff}

She is getting quite an attitude at times, and its neat to see her personality developing (except when i'm in the check out at the grocery store and she is exercising her lungs and downright yelling at me to hurry up)

She is now wearing pretty much all 6-9 month with a few 3-6 month stragglers and is starting into straight 9 mos clothing.
She rolls from front to back and from back to front
Sits up supported {although this elicits lots of yelling as well for some reason}
Still sleeping 10-12 hours @ night
Sleeping 3-4 hours during the day between 2 naps
Laughs and giggles, especially at her sister and funny looking mom first thing in the morning :)
Watches people and tracks them across the room
Still chewing like a champ (no teeth)
Loves her overhead play gym and is starting to rip the toys off of it!
Introduced rice cereal and a few 1st foods....not a hit at the moment...again elicits more yelling
Talks and cuddles when she wakes up LOVING THIS

Some pics:

 While taking bitty #2's monthday pictures, bitty #1 was quite jealous...this is what I had to put up with. Finally I asked her to stop and she preceded to "hrmph" her way to her room in a tizzy. Following the photo shoot, I had to spend some quality time with her in the rocking chair. I explained to her that babies change and grow so fast we have to take pictures often!! When you get to be 4, you don't grow as fast. And then when you get to be mommy's age, who takes your pictures??  Anyone? Nope. Why doesn't any one take mommys picture?

 {don't mind bitty #2's mop of a hair do...she had just come in from the sprinkler....85 degrees here today!)

I guess its true, I really am 5 months old today!

I'm taking the plunge

Literally.

Into the depths of poo and pee and washing cloth diapers.
We {me} have been at it for about 2 months now.

Ha. My husband laughed when I told him I wanted to give it a try. Or maybe it was more like..."Really?!! I think your crazy." Either way, not too long ago I would have said the same thing. Wait, I probably did. But then there were friends. Silly friends who were cloth diapering and said it wasn't that bad. So what the heck, if I can relieve bittys sensitive skin (1st priority) and save dough (2nd priority) while helping the environment at the same time (bonus), i'll give it a try. So try is what I did. I went online and researched and researched some more. (thanks to some great blogs it made it nice and easy{ier}). I bought a trial package with appx 12 diapers to try, and after 21 days I could send it all back for only a cost of $10. I've spent that on a coffee...

I didn't know the first thing about CD and so it seemed all very foreign. Plus I am still learning. But here's how I broke it down.

Prefolds + Covers
Fitteds + Covers
Pocket Diapers
All-in-ones
All-in-twos
Hybrids

Prefolds are the basic cloth diapers and what I had horrid visions of when anyone mentioned cloth diapering. Ha. They still are horrid if you ask me. They require a fastener and a waterproof cover.

Fitteds are a fitted diaper that look like a traditional disposable and also require a waterproof cover. For example, kissaluvs fitted diapers with a thirsties cover.

Pocket diapers are also made like a traditional disposable with either snaps or velcro, and a pocket to place inserts. Some of my favorite brands include fuzzibunz & bumgenius.

All-in-ones are just like they sound. An all in one diaper. You can add extra inserts by laying them inside or stuffing for extra absorbancy as well. Most popular is bumgenius, and my personal favorite grovia AIO. These are great for night-time and naps. The only downside is a long drying time for the bumgenius and monkeydoodlez. The Grovia has a snap in insert which is removed for washing and decreases drying time. {thus another reason why it is my fav}

Bitty's bum!

Then there are some hybrid diapers where you have a cover with a removable insert for stuffing which when soiled only requires that you change the insert, and the shell can be reused and changed as needed. Grovia also makes a this, as well as my personal favorite and my most frequently used daytime diaper, Gdiapers. Along with cloth inserts, they carry disposable inserts which make it the ultimate go-to diaper for out and about. {both GroVia and Gdiapers make disposable inserts for their hybrid diaper}

more of bitty's fluffy bum!

To confuse you even more, most types of diapers come sized, as well as some having an option for a one size. The great thing obviously about a one size diaper is that you only have to buy one size as opposed to 2-3 over the course of diapering. Fuzzibunz and bumgenius both carry these in their pocket diapers.

SO. My personal preferences are a good pocket diaper such as fuzzibunz or bumgenius or the bumgenius AIO for nighttime wear. For daytime wear I like gdiapers or any other pocket diaper. Gdiapers aren't absorbant enough for night-time wetting, but do hold up for naps.

So far my stash consists of:

 2 happy heiny pocket velcro closure

2 diaperchangediaper pocket diapers snap closure

3 gdiaper shells w/6 cloth liners and disposables as needed (all size medium)

2 bumgenius AIO  velcro closure(1 small, 1 medium)

1 bumgenius one size pocket diaper velcro closure

2 fuzzibunz pocket diaper snap closure ( 1 small, 1 medium)

1 fuzzibunz one-size pocket diaper snap closure

1 grovia AIO snap closure

1 monkeydoodlez AIO velcro closure

I am slowly expanding my stash but am still researching and looking for great diapers! Currently I wash every other day, not always because I need to but because my OCD. I can't let the diapers sit any longer!

For storage I currently use a medium sized planet wise wet bag for wet diapers. I keep this in bittys room. For poo-soiled diapers I rinse them in my laundry sink and leave them in a bucket, or a garbage bag lined trash can. On the go I carry a small planet wise wet bag.

This is just a little about my experiences and knowledge (um if you can call it that?) about CD. I plan to post more as I learn more!!

Here are some sites that I have found useful and reliable when researching or ordering CD:

http://www.nickisdiapers.com/

http://www.thegreennursery.com/

http://www.jilliansdrawers.com/

Sorry for the hiatus

Life gets busy right? Just call me traveling mama. It seems all I do is pack to go somewhere, come home, unpack, do laundry rinse and repeat!
I guess I am trying to get it all in before I am tied down with a job....maybe? Someday? lol. The job search is realllly stressful and currently to no avail.
But I am loving the time spent with the bittys. I know I will never regret that! Bitty #2 is teething, and somedays that really turns her into a monster. Bitty #1 is chomping at the bit to be in school, and i'm no teacher, so I fall pretty short of meeting her needs!
However, today was library day which also means chick-fil-a day. We got several new books and movies to include some "I can read" that hopefully bitty #1 will be able to start reading! So excited. The favorite of the day was Fancy Nancy.
Well I am working on my cloth diaper post, I promise, its coming!
Until then,

Last Days of Summer

Man. I don't know where this summer went. In the record books I suppose.
Yesterday was a picture perfect day. 80+ degrees and little to no wind which is a real rarity around here.
Both the bittys enjoyed the sunshine!

Who knew expired saline syringes were so much fun?

With her catapiller {who is sleeping in the dirt}

Bitty #2 soaking up the rays

lunch break!

In other news, I moved the bassinet out of our room, I think it is safe to say that bitty has officiallly outgrown it. What do you think?

She is also sad to see it go...

I can't believe it. Where has my baby gone? ::huge crocodile tear rolls down cheek::

Shadow fun.

Have a great day!