a really cute green shop

I just found this site while playing online this morning. It's super cute and has a great selection of natural/green products! Hmm.... what should I order?

What would you order?

www.gogreenbabyshop.com

return used bpa bottles to babies r us

I have heard throught the grapevine for the last few weeks that you can return your Avent and Dr. Brown's bottles that contain BPA to Babies R Us for a credit. I haven't tried this yet, not can I find a true article online stating this, but I wanted to post it anyway because if it's true, this could turn out to be a great deal! It's totally worth a quick call to my local BRU to confirm whether or not I should drive up there. I will post an update when I find out if my local BRU is taking back used bottles or not.

Have any of you tried this? If so, let us in on the dirt! Share what you know!

grow a garden

Now that summer has officially started for us, I'm going ahead and apologizing if my posts are not quite as frequent. Preschool is over and summer fun has started!

About a week ago I took Charlie to the store to pick out some plants and start a small garden in our backyard. We planted some parsley and mint. We also planted, organic greenbeans, cucumbers, squash, and roma tomatoes. We are having some much fun watching everything sprout up and get tall. It will be even more exciting when we actually have some fresh veggies to pick from our garden.

I am by no means a green thumb, but I have really loved watching my child learn from getting his hands in the dirt, and seeing his excitement each morning as he peeks out to see if his veggies are growing! Hopefully, growing his own will encourage him to eat a little more.

By far the funniest part of this experiment was when we opened the bags of organic top soil to put in our garden. Organic = stinky.... there are only so many ways to rename poop....in the end it still smells like poop!

Do you have a garden? If so, share some tips with me!

chemical free beauty??

I am trying to eliminate as many chemicals in my house as possible. I have already tackled our cleaning products and we are chemical free there now, so next project is health and beauty products. It's ridiculous the amount of chemicals we tend to put on our skin and scalp a day. When you start to think about it, no wonder the cancer rates soar (ps...this is my opinion, with no scientific data backing it up!).

This site: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/, can help you sort through it all. You can search by type of product or type in your favorite and see where it ranks safety wise. It's amazing! I am truly amazed (and some what disgusted), how many products that are deemed "natural", are anything but! I will definitely be making some different purchases over the next few months as I do our personal product overhaul!

If you have a favorite natural or organic health and beauty product, please share it with us in our comments!

teething bling = brillant!

Have you ever heard of Teething Bling? This idea is genius! You know how your baby always is pulling at your necklace or bracelet and putting it in her mouth. Well, Teething Bling is jewelry that is made of silicone and totally safe for your little one to chew on.
"Smart Mom Jewelry is non-toxic, phthalate, BPA and PVC free and all pendants come with a breakaway clasp. CE marking approved."- www.smartmomjewelery.com

My friend Amber at Heavenly Hold just started carrying this line on her website and I was fortunate enough to get to go and look at it in person over the weekend. Now I can wait to get my hands on some! It's so cute!

Go check it out at www.heavenlyhold.com and help me decide what color necklace and bangle I should get. Leave me a comment letting me know what you think! Oh and if you want to get some Bling for yourself, use the code "WEARME" and get 10% off your order!

bye bye teflon

I know the verdict is still out on Teflon and whether or not it poses any health dangers to those of us who cook with it. I wasn't really freaking out about it until the other day when I went to boil some pasta and saw some Teflon floating in the water. Surely that can't be good for us to eat. So, my sweetest husband added a huge purchase to my Mother's Day, but purchasing the above Calphalon Tri Ply Stainless Steel Cookware set for me. So far I am loving it! I especially love the pasta insert for the large pot! And I love that the handles are cool touch, so you don't need a hot pad to remove them from the stove.

What do you think about Teflon??

zap root.... some great info

ZapRoot 036 | An Ode to Fast Food

happy mother's day to me - an ode to my steam mop

My sweet husband had our children all day Saturday while I was running to a baby shower and then a bridal shower. He, being braver the I, took the kids out shopping and made two great purchases for me for no reason, but I have told them that I am happy to accept them as my Mother's Day gifts. (Aren't I nice to let him off the hook so easily!!)

The first purchase he made is my new favorite cleaning too, um I mean my only favorite cleaning tool. He bought me the Shark Steam Mop because I am constantly freaking out about Gracie crawling all over our large, dirty kitchen floor. I hate mopping. I can't find a good way to do it with out feeling like I am dragging dirty water all over the floor. Well the Steam Mop has saved the day! This thing is AWESOME! You just put some water in the chamber and as you mop, you kind of pump the handle and tons of steam comes out and cleans your floor. It comes with two microfiber pads that detach and can be washed in the washing machine. You floor dries really quickly too! I was appalled by how dirty our floors really were! This thing is so easy to use, I mopped our entire kitchen this morning while my kids were at the table eating breakfast (if you have seen my kitchen before, than you understand that I have a lot of tile to mop!). It was done and dry before they were done eating! (Ha! Now I sound like an infomercial!).

Now, you may be wondering why this is a "green" product. Well, the reason I love this is there is no solution to put in the machine. Since it steam cleans, you are just cleaning your floor with super hot water, aka steam! I love that I don't have to worry about my 13 month old eating crumbs off a chemically cleaned floor (not that she would ever eat off the floor or anything....). I just used the second microfiber cover to mop my three bathrooms and they look great. Plus, since we try not to wear shoes in our house, I can really tell a difference walking barefoot on the floor. It feels so much cleaner, no residues.

Coming tomorrow.... my other Mother's Day present!

an organic electrolyte drink

This week Gracie had her first fever ever. I reached in my closet of medical supplies and pulled out a bottle of electrolyte drink for her. I was appalled at myself for giving this to my baby as it is full of artificial sweetners. Another friend of mine had the same concern and through her I discovered Baby's Only electrolyte drink.

Here is a comparision of the ingredients in Baby's Only and some other popular brands.

* both images are taken from naturesone.com

ETA: Thanks to our reader, Melissa, we now have access to two recipes on how to make your own electrolyte drink at home. Here are the links:

http://www.recipezaar.com/87266
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf792836.tip.html

organic coupon book at a grocery near you

I was shopping at Publix the other day and found a great book full of organic coupons in the Greenwise section. I was so excited because it is so hard to find organic coupons and there were a bunch of products in this book that I use on a regular basis! Some of my favorite brands were in there like Annies, Horizon and Stonyfield Farm.

At first I thought this would only benefit my readers that live in the south and have access to a Publix, but while searching the site, organicearthday.org, I discovered that several stores are giving away these great booklets. You can find a complete list here.

Make sure you check out their site, as there is a lot of useful information, recipes and activities for kids!

keep milk cold - foogo

Now that it is getting warmer, I am always afraid to take Gracie's milk with us when we go out because spoiled milk totally grosses me out! I discovered this great sippy that will be a must have for the hot summer months made by Thermos. The foogo sippy is stainless steel and can keep liquids cold for up to 6 hours!

Here are some more facts about the Foogo, taken from The Soft Landing website.

Foogo by Thermos Non-toxic Materials

The vacuum-insulated stainless steel interior and exterior is non-reactive to all food and beverages

The soft drinking spout is made from food contact safe Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE)

The valve plate and lid are made from polypropylene (PP#5)

All materials are FDA approved

All plastics used for Thermos Foogo are BPA, Phthalate and PVC free

win a carrier from heavenly hold!

Win a baby carrier from Heavenly Hold worth up to $100!! Entering is simple: visit Heavenly Hold and choose your top three carrier picks. Then email them to amber (at) heavenlyhold (dot) com with CONTEST in the subject line. Winners will be announced May 31st on Babywearing Buzz and be emailed as well. If you want a second entry, blog about the contest (feel free to use our graphic) and email Amber again with CONTEST BLOG LINK in the subject line and include your blog link in the email. Sorry, contest is only open to US residents.

If you want to buy a carrier now, (and still win one later!) use the coupon code: "WEARME" to take 10% off the carrier of your choice!