stonyfield farms blueberry yogurt recall

I just saw a release of a recall on Stonyfield's lowfat blueberry yogurt cups. Apparently small pieces of plastic or glass have been found in them. Click HERE for the recall information.

recycle your crocs

Unless you have been living under a rock, at least one person you live with or know owns a pair of Crocs. Well I discovered the coolest thing today! We were shopping at Learning Express this afternoon and when we were entering I noticed a sign on their door that said "Recycle your Crocs here!". I asked the girl at the register about it, and she said they donate them through a company called "Soles United". Well after reading Soles United's website, I am now even more excited to recycle my Crocs. Soles United not only recycles them, but turns them into shoes and donates them around the world! What a cool concept! They have already donated over a million pairs of Crocs! You can find a participating retailer near you by clicking here.

inexpensive organic layette

Tonight as I was zipping through Target to grab a few things, the end cap in the baby section caught my attention. Target has now started carrying organic cotton layette by Gerber. I was excited to see this because a three piece set will only run you are $12 which is extremely inexpensive for organic cotton. The sets were pretty cute and packaged very nicely. I am not sure if the layette sets are in Targets everywhere, or if we are just a test store, but I also found them online and they have free shipping on them right now. I would love to hear peoples opinions on the wash and wear of this layette, since unfortunately, no one in my household currently wears such tiny sizes! Click here to see the Gerber line and all of Target's other organic cotton layette lines!

last chance to win Kiwi Magazine for a year!

Enter to win a free Kiwi Magazine subscription!

I AM DRAWING THE WINNER ON THE 31st! IF YOU DON'T HAVE A BLOG, JUST EMAIL MY BLOG TO THREE PEOPLE!! GOOD LUCK!


My favorite "green" magazine has offered a free one year subscription to one of my lucky readers! Here is how you can win:

1. Click below and follow directions.

2. Leave me a comment and tell us your favorite green tip or one thing you are doing to be a little more green!

Click here and enter to win!

Good Luck! Winner will be announced March 31st!

another hit from annie's

The cereal aisle in the grocery store can be a very deceitful place when it comes to healthy eating. You find a cereal that sounds healthy and read the ingredients to find it full of junk like HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), artificial colors and who knows what else. Well we have found a new hit in our house. Both my kids adore Annie's Cinna Bunnies and Annie's Honey Bunnies. Charlie will eat bowlfuls in the morning and they both love to snack on them dry. I love companies like Annie's that make me feel good about the products I am buying.

baby signs

When Charlie was around nine months old I started researching this concept called Baby Signs. Baby signs is teaching babies basic signs for their basic needs before they can talk. Charlie picked up most of his signs around fourteen months. He signed words like, eat, more, please, thank you and all done. These basic signs eliminated a lot of crying in our house because he was able to communicate with us what he needed.

The Baby Signs program bases most of the signs on ASL (american sign language), but some signs are tweaked or simplified for babies. What is important to know is that what your baby uses as a sign is not as important as you knowing what it means. As long as you and your baby now what it means, that's all that matters!

Eventually I was trained by Gymboree to be a Baby Signs instructor. I loved teaching Baby Signs. One of the main concerns of parents was, would teaching baby signs delay the child's verbal skills. Actually, the research proved opposite. Research shows that baby signs babies excel in their verbal skills. I have seen this in my son, we constantly are hearing from others about how verbal he is (some times too verbal for us!). The analogy that I love for baby signs is that signing is to talking like crawling is to walking. Baby Signs bridges the gap between cooing and talking and really eliminates a lot of the frustration during those in between months.

All of this comes off the excitement we felt when Gracie mastered her first sign this weekend, please. She is all about "please" now!

If you have any questions or stories about Baby Signs leave us a comment!

I will leave you with some pictures of Charlie doing some baby signs when he was about 14 months old.

"please"

"night night"
"eat"

"more"

preparing for the big birthday

Gracie turns one on Wednesday. We are celebrating her birthday tomorrow with our family and a few close friends. I am trying to be as eco friendly as possible for the big day and make as much as I can as far as decorations and what not. I did find adorable packs of plastic reusable plates at Walmart for 94 cents a pack (four come in a pack). I got hot pink and spring green and my favorite part.... their divided plates (remember the weirdness about my food touching!!). I am making homemade cupcakes today and working on getting all the last details together, but I wanted to share with you all my real labor of love. Yesterday I spent several hours melting chocolate and making daisy lollipops to make the centerpieces for the table. I hope you like them!

yogurt- not always a healthy choice

When you walk down the yogurt aisle, its natural to assume that it has to be healthy for you and your child, but that is not always the case. Yogurt can disguise itself as a healthy food, when really it can be full of junk like high fructose corn syrup and gelatin. Why companies can't just "keep it simple stupid" I don't know, I am sure it comes down to the dollar. Wholesome baby food has a great article about healthy versus unhealthy yogurt that I highly recommend you checking out! Click here for that article! We pretty much stick to Stoneyfield Farm's Yogurt and Smoothies in our house, or carefully read labels before purchasing! Stoneyfield has several great yogurt lines like yo baby and yo kids!

win win wednesday! a year subscription to kiwi magazine!

Enter to win a free Kiwi Magazine subscription!


*Reposting! Contest doesn't end until March 31st! If you don't have a blog, just email the contest to three friends!*

My favorite "green" magazine has offered a free one year subscription to one of my lucky readers! Here is how you can win:

1. Click below and follow directions.

2. Leave me a comment and tell us your favorite green tip or one thing you are doing to be a little more green!

Click here and enter to win!

Good Luck! Winner will be announced March 31st!

Magtastik and Magnetix Jr. Pre-school Magnetic Toys RECALLED!

Charlie received this awesome building set for his birthday this past year and than some more pieces for Christmas. While not a natural product I did love it because it didn't sing or dance and it really had him being creative while building, yet not frustrated because he could do it all by him self. I am sad to see that this product is being recalled due to the magnets having the potential of coming loose. Magnets that are swallowed can be deadly, so this is very serious being we have a one year old who mouths everything. Click here for all the details of the recall.

horray for organic coupons!!

Once you start shopping for organic food, you quickly come to the realization that organic/natural coupons are not easy to find. I do find some in Kiwi magazine, or sometimes on the back of foods we have already purchased, but they are definitely few and far between. Well I found a great resource this morning...... Mambo Sprouts! You can sign up for Mambo Sprouts quarterly mailer which will send you lots of natural coupons! Yippee!! Mambo Sprouts is also a great place to get healthy recipes and tons of green ideas. The resources provided by them are incredible. They have a blog and forums too. Like I mentioned, I just discovered this site this morning, so I haven't even had time to search it deeply yet, but I was so excited about it, I had to share it with you all right away! If you discover a cool feature on their site, please leave us a comment and share it with us all!

ps. You can find a local store that has the current coupon book here!

my favorite bib- the bibbity from kiddopotamus

Finding the perfect bib is not an easy task, but I think I might have done it. There are so many reasons I love this bib. First off, its the only one I have found that Houdini, um, I mean, Gracie, can't get off. Secondly, the pocket actually catches stuff, so well that Gracie has taught herself if there is no food on the table to check the pocket and she will just eat out of it! Now for the "green" reasons I love this bib, it is latex, Phthalate,PVC free and BPA free. It's also made in the USA. Oh and I forgot to mention that I love the fact that it wipes up very easily and rolls right up to not take up much space in the diaper bag!! Oh bibbity, how I love thee!

fluffy butt friday

For all of my readers that think I am insane for cloth diapering, these irresistible fluffy bottomed pictures are for you! For all my fellow cloth diapering friends, well who can resist seeing another fluffy bottomed baby!


Gracie's first fluff- 4 months old in a fuzzi bunz

Minky Fluff- Blueberry minky wrap


Pink Fluff- Bumkins AIO

What's a girl to do with all this fluff?!

win win wednesday- a free subscription to kiwi magazine

Enter to win a free Kiwi Magazine subscription!

My favorite "green" magazine has offered a free one year subscription to one of my lucky readers! Here is how you can win:

1. Click below and follow directions.

2. Leave me a comment and tell us your favorite green tip or one thing you are doing to be a little more green!

Click here and enter to win!

Good Luck! Winner will be announced March 31st!

a greener costco??

This weekend we hit the local Costco after church to pick up a few things. I was impressed by how they increased their organic selections. I found several products that I normally purchase at the grocery store in bulk and cheaper at Cosco. Here are some of my green finds!

Kashi Blueberry Waffles

A HUGE bag of frozen mixed organic berries


Strawberry "milkshakes" according to Charlie!
I also got the largest bag of frozen organic green beans that you have ever seen , four cartons of organic/free range chicken broth, organic poptarts and Charlie and Gracie's favorite purchase..... the gigantic tub of organic vanilla animal crackers that are shaped like Winnie the Pooh and Friends!

MeMe Monday

Amber tagged me and I am tagging Jennie and Laura.

1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) Post the rules.
3) Share six non-important things / habits / quirks about yourself.
4) Tag at least three people.
5) Be sure the people you tagged KNOW you tagged them by commenting what you did.

Here are my six things:

1. I don't like my food to touch. I am very funny about this, because this rules out things like smoothies. I do have an exemption clause to this rule. I will drink a smoothie if the fruits are similar, like orange/pineapple. They are both citrus fruits and similar in color so they can mix!

2. I am neurotic about matching clothes, they have to feel like they go together. I have carried this trait on to my poor children. I am unable to be one of those mother's who is so secure in herself that her children can just throw on whatever tshirt and jeans. I have to coordinate outfits, down to the socks and shoes. I have recently started letting Charlie pick out his own socks, they never match the outfit....I'm taking babysteps....

3. I love grilled cheese sandwiches. Here's the quirky part.... I like to mix ketchup and mayo and dip my grilled cheese in it.

4. I am obsessed with the show Jon and Kate Plus 8. I don't wish sextuplets on myself or anything, but I love watching how she runs her home. I am totally inspired by them!

5. My guilty pleasures are McDonald's french fries and anything that involves peanut butter and chocolate.

6. I was born on New Year's Day and my siblings are 13 and 15 years older than me....can we say "oops!"

it's time to party!!

We're joining The Ultimate Blog Party, so grab a virtual cupcake and jump right in! Whether you are a blogger or a reader or both, you can come and party with us thanks to The Ultimate Blog Party hosted by 5 Minutes For Mom. Come and peruse the great list of blogs and if you have one, add your own! The party last all week and the best part about it is you don't even have to get out of your sweats! This is my first blog party, so I am new to this, but join along and let's learn together. Lots of fun new posts coming this week to go along with our blog party so check back often!

ETA: did you know the blog party offers prizes?! I just discovered this... if I was to win a prize I would love to win the Klean Kanteens from Non Toxic Tots. I have been dying to get my hands on some of those! I would also love to win the Burts Bees Natural Ageless skin care line that Geggie is giving away because, well now I am 30 and I love Burts Bees! And last but not least, I would love to win the BPA Free sippy set from non other than our friends at The Soft Landing!

ETA Again!! THERE IS A CONTEST NOW ON MY MAIN PAGE! CLICK THE HEADER TO SEE THE UPDATED POSTS!!!

beco butterfly recall

I just received this information and wanted to pass it on to all my readers that might own a Beco. All Becos sold from here on out should already have the problem fixed before you receive it. Here is the recall info:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2008

CPSC Consumer Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908
CPSC, Beco Baby Carrier Announce Recall to Repair “Beco Butterfly” Infant Carriers
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announces the following recall in voluntary cooperation with the firm below. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of product: Beco Baby Carrier, model Butterfly

Units: About 1,900

Manufacturer: Beco Baby Carrier, of Newport Beach, CA

Hazard: Buckles connecting top of carrier’s body with shoulder straps can suddenly release tension when shoulder straps held near by or by the buckles, causing carrier’s body to shift, posing a fall hazard to the baby.

Incidents/Injuries: The firm has received 10 reports of the webbing slipping thru the shoulder buckles causing carrier’s body to shift. No injuries have been reported.

Description: The recalled infant carriers were sold under brand name “Beco Baby Carrier Butterfly”. Carrier has black label with green logo “b” on left side and picture of butterfly on the right side.
Name of fabrics included in this recall: Mia, Pony Express, Carnival, Addison, Ethan, Sophia, Cameron, Ava, Joshua

Sold at: Specialty retail stores and internet sites from January 2008 through February 28, 2008 for about $130.

Manufactured in: USA and Dominican Republic

Remedy: Consumers should stop using the carrier immediately and contact Beco Baby Carrier for instructions on returning the carriers for repair. Firm will provide free retrofit of the buckles and reimburse involved postage.

Consumer Contact: visit the firm’s Web site at www.becobabycarrier.com

a safer sippy

By now I think we have pretty much all heard about the dangers of BPA (bisphenol A) in our plastics. But for some reason, I can never remember when I am on the sippy cup aisle what numbers are good, what numbers are bad. Which brands are safe and which of those safe cups will my little one actually take. Well I have found the site to help me sort it all out! The Soft Landing is a great online shopping resource that prides itself in feeding babies safely. They sell everything from sippys and bottles to bibs and utensils. They even sell great water bottles for adults so we can all quit throwing plastics away!

Be sure to also check out the "learn" section and the blog. There is tons of useful information about the safety of plastics listed there. Safe sipping to you all!

cloth diapers really do save money

A lot of people who are cloth curious are worried about the initial start up cost and whether or not they will really save money. My sweet friend just sent me a link to an awesome cloth diaper calculator. It allows you to put in your costs with disposables and figure out how much cloth will save you. There is one part that puts in the expense for diaper genie refills, but she said she substituted the cost of wipes there. Click the link above to access the calculator. The calculator is provided by a great resource site called The Diaper Pin.

The Diaper Pin provides reviews on cloth diapers, a wonderful FAQ section, forums to chat with other moms about diapers, and sales from different online vendors and so much more. Its definitely a site worth perusing.