It wasn’t long ago when mornings at our house started off with baby cereal, oatmeal, or fresh fruits. Then, the picky stage hit. All my life I’ve been a big cereal eater, but I never considered giving it to my child. Not because I knew there was a lot of sugar in some cereals, but just because of everything I’ve heard. Yeah, that’s right. I hadn’t actually looked on the side of most boxes of cereal in a long time. That is, until I started dieting. Once I started educating myself a little more I realized something. Most of those cereals I thought had too much sugar for my son or myself, actually had tons of fiber, vitamins, and less sugar than I a lot of things I eat. You know what I also realized? That “special” cereal I was eating was filled with more sugar and calories than some of my favorite cereals that I had given up.

That’s when I started taking a closer look at the labels on cereal boxes. Soon after that I was buying various boxes of some of my old time favorites and sharing them with my son, who guess what? surprise surprise, ate them! Yes, he’s still picky and I have to switch his cereal up on a regular basis but at least he eats breakfast.. and it’s not the kind of breakfast that comes in a can, masquerading as kids snacks meant for breakfast. There’s fiber, vitamins, and plenty of nutrition in each and every bite.  That’s why I was very happy to hear about General Mills commitment. Which you can read about below.

The following information was provided by General Mills through My Blog Spark.

General Mills has announced a commitment to further reduce sugar in cereals advertised to kids under 12 to single digit grams of sugar per serving. The company has already been reducing sugar in cereals while increasing key nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin D, and providing whole grain.

Did you know that ready-to-eat cereal eaters consume less fat, less cholesterol and more fiber than non-cereal eaters? Cereals also deliver important vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients, making cereal a top source of key nutrients in children’s diets.

Other cereal benefits:

• Ready-to-eat cereals, including presweetened cereals, account for only 5% of sugar in children’s diets.
• Ready-to-eat cereal is the No. 1 source of whole grains in a child’s diet today.
• More frequent cereal eaters tend to have healthier body weights and lower Body Mass Index measures.

Studies also demonstrate the benefits of eating breakfast. A 1998 study showed that children who eat breakfast tend to perform better at school. Compared to children who skip breakfast, children who eat breakfast score higher on tests, are less likely to miss class or be tardy, have fewer reported discipline problems, and make fewer trips to the office.

For more information about kids and cereals, please visit Cereal Health and Wellness.

Disclaimer: I was provided with free coupons & information from General Mills through Myblogspark for sharing this with you.

Everyone has an opinion on the right way to roll – over or under – and both points-of-view have been argued in households for ages. This January, Cottonelle brand sets out to settle this Great Debate once and for all.

So how do I roll? Over of course! Ever since I worked for a very popular luxury hotel chain I’ve never even considered rolling under. Nope, the proper way for me is over and with a little triangle. Only the best for my house. lol.

Cottonelle wants to know how YOU roll but before you head to their site and take the poll, let me know how you’re going to vote. Are you on Team Over or Team Under?

If you leave a comment here you will be entered to win 1 of 10 Cottonelle gift baskets randomly chosen on January 29, 2010 from all entries.

Disclosure: This post was inspired by Mom Bloggers Club and as a member is my entry to win a month’s worth of Cottonelle toilet paper. Because hey..we all use toilet paper, right? right??? (please tell me you do)

Now go check out what the rest of the world thinks on the Cottonelle site and while you’re there, vote!

Earlier this year the American Heart Association (AHA) issued new guidelines in regards to sugar consumption, specifically added dietary sugars. This means any sugar that is added to foods, drinks, and even condiments either in the process of making them or that you have added yourself. The AHA’s new guidelines do not include sugar found naturally in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, or milk.

According to the AHA “Most American women should eat or drink no more than 100 calories per day from added sugars, and most American men should eat or drink no more than 150 calories per day from added sugars.”  So that 12 oz can of cola you just consumed? It probably just put you over your daily limit.

From a personal stand point I agree with the new guidelines but I will be completely honest when I say that I don’t always follow them.  Growing up in a society where sugar-laden products are everywhere you look, it’s hard.  But there are steps you can take to put yourself on the right track.

How Many Calories Are You DRINKING Every Day?

One of the first steps you can take is reducing your processed beverage intake. By that I mean sweet-tea, soda, and juices with unnecessary amounts of added sugar. When I did this I was able to lose 20lbs in a matter of months. Of course there were lots of other steps involved but this was probably the biggest one.

Do you realize just how many calories or how much sugar you consume in beverages alone? If you really start keeping track you’re going to be amazed. I know I was.  Whether dieting or not, consuming huge amounts of processed sugar is not good for anyone.

Old Orchard Healthy Balance

I have always been a big fan of Old Orchard but it wasn’t until very recently that I realized they are a local Michigan company. Because I love their product and I am from Michigan I am more than happy to support them by introducing you to their line of Healthy Balance Juice.

“Healthy Balance is Old Orchard’s line of reduced-sugar juice cocktails. Sweetened with Splenda® brand no-calorie sweetener, these products contain 75% less sugar, calories, and carbohydrates than traditional juice cocktails, but contain 100% of the flavor. With no added preservatives, artificial colors, or flavors.”

Variety Is The Key To Keeping Your Goals On Track

You know how they say variety is the spice of life? Well, you find out how true that is when you’re dieting or trying to change your eating habits. You may like to say that you’re brand loyal but when you’ve drank or ate the same things over and over for months you start to change your mind. Some companies have a very limited variety of products and in the end you get burned out and if you’re not careful you start reverting back to your old habits.  I’m glad to say that Healthy Balance comes in a large variety of flavors. From classic Apple, Grape, or Cranberry to Pomegranate Blueberry Acai. Check out the site to see all the flavors they offer: Healthy Balance

What’s Your New Years Resolution?

I suppose you can guess what at least one of my New Years resolutions is. It’s to continue losing weight, and to get healthier in general. And I will have that in mind when New Years Eve rolls around. I don’t drink much these days but occasionally I make an exception. Old Orchard have some great low calorie drink recipes on their site that they’d like to share with you. Why not check them out. Click Here.  You’ll even find recipes for virgin cocktails that you can make for the kids, coupons and plenty of other useful information to help you get started on your New Years resolution.

Here are a few cocktails I’m considering

Old Orchard Low-Sugar Cosmo Cocktail

2 oz citron flavored vodka

1 oz Cointreau

1 oz Old Orchard Healthy Balance Cranberry fruit juice cocktail

Mix contents with ice and strain into glass. Garnish with a lime.

Old Orchard Pomegranate Cosmo

2 oz citron flavored vodka

1 oz Cointreau

1½ oz Old Orchard 100% Pomegranate juice

Mix contents with ice and strain into glass. Garnish with a lime.

Old Orchard Raspberry Vodka Martini

2 oz raspberry flavored vodka

1 oz Cointreau

1 oz Old Orchard Organic 100% Raspberry juice

Mix contents with ice and strain into glass. Garnish with a lime.

Disclaimer: Old Orchard provided coupons for my review and giveaway. I was not compensated in any other way and the opinion here is just that. My opinion. Thank you for reading.

_________________________________________________________

Giveaway

Old Orchard have graciously provided me with coupons to give to you, my readers. 15 of you will receive 1 coupon good for a 64oz bottle of Healthy Balance Juice. This coupon has no expiration date, so if you can’t find Healthy Balance now, you may be able to later. You can always check their store finder.

I’m going to keep this giveaway simple so you only have a few ways to get extra entries this time. Please pay attention.

You must answer the required question in order for any of your entries to count.

Required: What is your New Years resolution?

Earn Extra Entries

1 Extra Entry -

* Follow @OldOrchardJuice on Twitter
* Follow me on Twitter @detroitmommy and then Press the Green Retweet button at the top of this post or you can RT from twitter.  Leave me a comment with a link to your tweet.
* Follow me on Google Friend Connect (Look to your right)

(Make sure you come back here and leave a separate comment for each of the extra entries you have done – each comment is an entry)

(Don’t know how to show me you RT’d? Just place your mouse directly under your tweet where it says “1 minute ago from web” and click to get the URL of your status update.

Giveaway is open to residents of the U.S., 18 yrs of age or older. Any posts not including the requested information will be deleted. This giveaway ends: Monday December 28, 2009 12am EST. Winners will be contacted immediately. If you want your coupon in time for New Years you have to respond as soon as possible.  In the event the winner does not respond to email within 3 days I will choose another random winner. If that is the case, unfortunately you will not get your coupon on time for New Years but hey, you’re still a winner! I will be using random.org to choose recipients.

Thank you to everyone who participated and congrats to the winners!

80 – Jessica
121 – Laura
116 -Nancy S.
79 – Karen G
131 – Dan V
130 – Jmarie
49 – Benita G.
102 – Dagmara
61 – Judy P
141 – Kimberly
150 – SharonAnne
112 – Storm
123 – Sheila Hickmon
134 – Susan
58 -  Cindy

Please check your email.

For around 3 years now I have been suffering from what I’m told is tendonitis. It first started when I fell onto my leg. Having no health insurance I dealt with the pain and assumed eventually it would go away.  Well, in 2007 I became pregnant and after the first trimester the pain started getting worse. I was tested to see if I had a blood clot, which thankfully I didn’t. Due to the pregnancy I could only get an x-ray below the knee. They found nothing. Of course below the knee is not where the pain was! By the time I got to the end of my pregnancy I had gained over 50lbs and was suffering more than just leg pain. Crippling and debilitating back, leg, bone, you name it. I could barely get out of the bed or even put on my socks. The pain was so bad that it felt like it was in my bones. I felt like a 90yr old woman with osteoporosis.

Then came the day I gave birth…. to a 10lb baby. There was no diabetes involved, I just gave birth to a giant is all.  Aha you say, no wonder you were in severe pain.  Well, I won’t get into all the gory details but I’ll tell you this, my epidural didn’t work properly and on top of all of that while the Dr. was trying to insert the epidural I was informed that it was more than likely I have spinal stenosis. Add another thing to the list, right?

How Can I Recover from Birthing A 10lb Baby But Not Tendonitis?

It took me 3 months to heal from giving birth. 3 months of not being able to sit properly, walk, or do barely any activity. Miraculously I did heal and it’s almost like it never happened. Except for those 20 extra lbs I’m still carrying and that gnawing tendonitis. My back pain is currently under a bit more control due to finding out I have a Vitamin D insufficiency and taking 50,000 units of it each week.

Chronic Pain Is No Fun

When my tendonitis started acting up again recently I thought I was a pro at handling pain. Over the course of my years I’ve had 3 major surgeries and I’ve worked as a home health care aide, not to mention giving birth to that 10lb baby. I’ve felt pain, I’ve seen pain. Unfortunately there is nothing worse than a gnawing, aching, down to the bone chronic pain that doesn’t go away. I can tell you from experience that it can cause serious depression and sometimes even take away your will to live. If you have no insurance you’re out of luck. You deal with it any way you can. If you do have insurance your battle with them can add to your stress. You’ll probably be prescribed narcotics, muscle relaxers, sleep aids. You name it and a lot of the times they don’t work, or eventually stop working.

Medication Is Not Always The Answer

Being a stay at home mom these days, and simply seeing first hand the damage narcotics and even regular pain relievers in large doses can do to ones body, taking them, for me, is not really an option. At least not on a long term basis. Whatever I can do that doesn’t involve medication in order to help heal myself I am all for.

And Then Came The Medlight

Not long ago I was sitting on Twitter of all places, lamenting about my problems with my tendonitis, when I discovered the Medlight. Arrangements were made and I had the Medlight at my door within a few days. I was incredibly impressed by the packaging and contents. The Medlight even comes with a cord you can plug into your car’s lighter. So if you’re a trucker or someone who works in their car all day you can strap it to your body and let it do it’s thing while you drive or on your break.

How Can The Medlight Help And What Is It?

The Medlight630Pro is a medical device that aids in the temporary relief of pain from such things as tendonitis, arthritis, stiff-muscles and muscle spasms.  It uses the pain relieving power of light emitting diodes, also known as LED’s.

The Medlight630Pro uses technology that was originally developed by NASA.

“Pain emanates from nerve sensors in soft tissue where the cells are electrically charged: however, when the cells are damaged they lose that charge. The Photo Light energy delivered by the Medlight re-energizes the affected cells, reduces the inflammation and increases local blood circulation, resulting in the temporary relief of pain.” (From the Medlight site)

You Do The Research

I debated on what information to include about the Medlight here and I’ve come to the conclusion that I will let you research it yourself.  I think that it’s important you actually go to the Medlight site and read about it.  Chances are that if you are reading this you are suffering from some type of pain or you know someone who is. When you’re done come back here, finish reading my story and if you feel that you could really use the Medlight, or know someone who could, enter my giveaway to win one!

1 Month Later – Goodbye Tendonitis – I Won’t Miss You!

When I first started writing this review, more than a month ago I had only used the Medlight a couple of times.  Well guess what? A couple of times was all I needed.  Ok I am not making claims that this is some sort of miracle device because that would be outrageous, but it is MY opinion that the Medlight630Pro was exactly what I needed.  I don’t know if it was because I had poor circulation or not but the Medlight did seem to help in that area.  The funny thing is I didn’t use the Medlight every day.  If you have a toddler running around your house you’ll know that you don’t have a lot of time.  They recommend that you not look directly at the device when you are using it so I decided I would only use it after my toddler went to bed. Well, my toddler decided to develop sleeping issues and the only time I got to use the Medlight was on the weekend when my husband was home.  Each time I used it for only two sessions, which didn’t last long.  It comes with a strap so I was able to attach it to my leg, let it do it’s thing and watch TV while I was waiting. Pretty convenient.

I am now happy to report that as I write this I have absolutely NO pain in my leg. After 3 long years of constant annoyance, I am able to sit in my office chair and not have to get up every 5 minutes to stretch.  I can lay in my bed at night without crying and resorting to sleeping on the couch because I can’t sleep and don’t want to keep the whole house awake. No more taking night-time sleep medication to knock myself out.

The Medlight seemed like such a simple device when I first received it. I was really doubtful, mostly because after 3 yrs of pain you get a bit discouraged and start to wonder if you’ll ever feel better.  I am certainly not saying that I am “cured”, but I now know that if I start to feel that pain again I will immediately resort to the Medlight and not let it get out of control like I had.  I hope you will consider the Medlight if you are in the situation I was in. Sometimes what seems like the simplest step can actually be the most beneficial.

Buy Your Own Medlight630Pro and Get $200 Off Plus Free Shipping

The Medlight630Pro retails for $399.95 but you can get $200 off and free shipping until December 31, 2009. Just enter  “FTMDSC” in the coupon code field when you’re checking out.

I’d like to thank the makers of the Medlight630Pro for providing me with their device at my request. All information here is my own opinion after utilizing the Medlight for more than a 1 month period. Any information in quotes “” was taken directly from their website.

Giveaway

Medical Devices Inc. Inc have graciously offered to give away a Medlight630Pro to one of my readers (ARV $399.95). If you’re muscles are aching after all that holiday shopping, cooking, and decorating, this is perfect for you!

You have several ways of entering but you MUST do the required entry in order for any of the extra entries to count.  I will be checking.  Thank you!

Required:

Please go to the Medlight site and tell me something you learned about the Medlight or it’s technology, along with telling me who you’d like the Medlight for. Ie: yourself, grandma etc.

Earn Extra Entries

1 Extra Entry -
* Stumbleupon this post (Leave your acct name in a comment)
* Digg this post (Leave your acct name in a comment)
* Follow me publicly on Google friend connect (look to the right)
* Add this page or my blog to your Technorati favorites  (Leave your acct name)
*Follow @mdevicesinc on Twitter
*Leave a comment on one of my non-giveaway posts then come back here and simply say “I commented”  so you get the extra entry. I’ll know which post, don’t worry. (only allowed once because it’s so easy. I have very few posts lately)

You can Digg, Stumbleupon and fav on Technorati by clicking the “ShareThis” at the bottom of this post

5 Extra Entries -

* Blog about this giveaway and include a link to my page (Leave a link to your post)

1 Extra Entry Per Day -
* Follow me on Twitter @detroitmommy and then Press the Green Retweet button at the top of this post or you can RT from twitter.  Leave me a comment with a link to your tweet.  You can come back each day and retweet for 1 extra entry per day. Just make sure to leave a comment each day you do it!

(Don’t know how to show me you RT’d? Just place your mouse directly under your tweet where it says “1 minute ago from web” and click to get the URL of your status update.)

Good Luck!

Giveaway is open to residents of the U.S., 18 yrs of age or older. Any posts not including the requested information will be deleted. This giveaway ends: Sunday January 03, 2010 12am EST. Winner will be contacted and announced Monday January 04,2010. In the event the winner does not respond to email within 3 days I will choose another random winner. I will be using random.org to do this.

Congrats to:

#278 trishden

Thank-you to everyone who participated! I was saddened to see just how many people suffer from chronic pain.  I hope my review has given you hope that there are medication-free ways to relieve your aches and pains.  Most of all I wish you a pain-free and happy 2010.

Some people have been reporting they can’t get the application to work and accept their vote. You just have to be patient and double-check and if you need my help you can @ me on twitter @detroitmommy

I love this little guy!

Unfortunately Vincent didn’t win.  He would have if the rules had been followed. (We followed them, someone else didn’t) Which I don’t want to get into right now.. but because of that this was the last photo contest I’ll be entering any of his photos into.  At least Facebook ones and to be quite honest I’m kind of relieved. When you enter things like this you have to remember to read the fine print and realize that you’re giving away rights to your photo. Not really something I like to do

Thank you everyone who voted! Love you all and you did a fantastic job of trying to help us out.

Just a few weeks ago I participated in the Lenox and Twittermoms Drinks of the Season Blogging Contest. Because my husband is from Norway I shared with everyone a recipe for Scandinavian Glogg. (check it out right here!). For being one of the first 50 participants I am  receiving a set of 4 O2xygen Balloon Wine Glasses from Lenox. Exciting! Can you believe I don’t even own a full set of wine glasses? and I’m 34 yrs old. I have 2, the ones that my husband and I received the day of our wedding but those are hidden away for safe keeping and I don’t bring them out for anything. So I’m excited and can’t wait to get my new wine glasses.

Win Your Own Set Of Wine Glasses From Lenox

I have good news for you as well.  Lenox has given me the opportunity to offer 1 of my readers the very same set of wine glasses.  Now normally I would wait until I actually had the chance to try my own out but I wanted to start this now so that there’s at least a possibility you may get them by Christmas.

Drinks Of The Season Twitter Party – November 17

I also wanted to let as many people know about the Twitter party that Lenox, Megan Calhoun from Twittermoms.com and Dawn from partyblueprintsblog are hosting, tonight! Yes I said tonight, November 17, 2009 – 8pm – 10pm EST. If you want to get in on the action you can read more about it on Twittermoms and on Dawn’s site Partyblueprintsblog for instructions.

Lenox will be rewarding participants that correctly answer entertaining trivia questions with Tuscany Pierced Pitchers.

Disclaimer: I was not reimbursed for this post in any way. Lenox is providing the product for this giveaway and will ship it directly to the winner.

___________________________________________________________

Giveaway

1 set of O2xygen Balloon Wine Glasses from Lenox like the ones in the above photo.

To enter:  Please complete the required task. If the required task is not completed then none of your entries will count.  After that you have several other ways of getting extra entries.  Make sure that for each one you do you leave a separate comment. Each comment counts as one entry. Please leave your correct email addy. If I have no way of contacting you, your entries will be deleted before I choose the winner.

Required

* Please take the time to visit the  http://www.Lenox.com/ site.  Browse around and tell me about one item (besides the above wine glasses) that you’d love to own.

Earn Extra Entries

1 Extra Entry -
* Stumbleupon this post (Leave your acct name in a comment)
* Digg this post (Leave your acct name in a comment)
* Blog about this giveaway (Leave a link to the blog post)
* Follow me publicly on Google friend connect (look to the right)
* Add this page or my blog to your Technorati favorites  (Leave your acct name)
*Follow @Lenox_Corp on Twitter

You can Digg, Stumbleupon and fav on Technorati by clicking the “ShareThis” at the bottom of this post

1 Extra Entry Per Day -
* Follow me on Twitter @detroitmommy and then Press the Green Retweet button at the top of this post. Leave me a comment with a link to your tweet.  You can come back each day and retweet for 1 extra entry per day. Just make sure to leave a comment each day you do it!

Good Luck!

Giveaway is open to residents of the U.S., 18 yrs of age or older. Any posts not including the requested information will be deleted. This giveaway ends: Tuesday December 01, 2009 12am EST. Winner will be contacted and announced Wednesday December 02, 2009. In the event the winner does not respond to email within 3 days I will choose another random winner. I will be using random.org to do this.

Congrats to Linsey K

@ http://www.lillepunkin.com

with lucky # 65

And as always, a big thank-you to everyone who entered!

In her latest book, sometimes controversial celebrity photographer Jill Greenberg has managed to capture various bears in a way that you’ve likely never seen.

Along with various quotes you’ll find incredibly thought-provoking images of all types of bears, ranging from cubs to mammoth sized grizzly bears. Some so expressive in their emotions they appear almost human in nature.

These portraits were taken on-location in a studio like setting with backdrops. Because there are no background disturbances and her great use of lighting you are able to focus on the sheer beauty and raw emotion of the bear itself.

This book is a large 8×10 hard-cover with 104 pages. Near the back it features a small section with each bears name, weight, residence and appearance credits.

This is a great book for any animal or photography lover but most of all because it’s sure to provoke conversation, it would be the perfect coffee table book.

My family has enjoyed this book every time we’ve opened it up. My son especially. There is one bear in particular drinking from a bottle that even he can identify with! For me, being such a lover of photography, this book is a treasure to own and I’d like to thank The Product Review Place along with Hachette Book Group for providing it for review.

If you’d like to purchase this book you can find it right here on Amazon.com (just click the link)

Disclaimer: Hachette Book Group provided this book for my review due to my association with The Product Review Place. I was not compensated in any other way. The review here is my own personal opinion.

The WWO works with local communities in underdeveloped areas around the world to enrich the lives of orphans through diverse programs focusing on health, society and education.

How Erbaorganics Got It’s Start:

Erbaorganics was born out of a desire to make available the purest eco-friendly organic skincare to those who need it most: mothers-to-be and babies. Concerned over the chemicals used in traditional skincare, husband and wife Robin Brown and Anna Cirronis started making organic products when they had their first son.

Erbaorganics is based in Southern California, where the line is manufactured by a dedicated staff who take special care and pride every step of the way.

More Facts About erbaorganics:

• All products between 75% to 99% organic
• Other ingredients produced using green chemistry
• Uses recyclable packaging
• Donates 15% of sales on tagged products to WWO
• Endorsed by renowned pediatrician Dr. Jay Gordon
• Endorsed by cancer prevention specialist Dr. Samuel Epstein
• Endorsed by adoption pediatrician and founder of Worldwide Orphans Foundation Dr. Jane Aronson
• Endorsed by celebrities Naomi Watts & Mary-Louise Parker

If you’d like to educate yourself on what Organic really means you can find tons of information on the Organic Consumers Association Website, where you’ll also find erbaorganics listed.

The Review:

We were lucky enough to test out erbaorganics Baby Shampoo, which comes in a 6 oz recyclable bottle. It is certified 77% organic and contains an organic aloe base, which makes it perfect for moisturizing. My son, just like me has dry skin, which includes his scalp, so I have to be careful about what type of products we use.  We had no problems with dry scalp in the two weeks that we’ve been using erbaorganics Baby Shampoo.

On another note, I have noticed that a lot of organic baby products are either overwhelming when it comes to scent, or there’s barely any scent at all.  I don’t like strong perfumes but when it comes to shampoo’s and conditioners I do, simply because I love the scent of newly washed hair and I want it to last all day. However, seeing as most perfumes are alcohol based, the more perfume, the more dryness, at least that’s been my experience.

erbaorganics Baby Shampoo seems to have a good balance.  Besides aloe it also contains lavender, chamomile and mandarin orange peel oil.  The strongest scent that comes out is the lavender but you can definitely recognize the orange, which I love. My only complaint is that I wish it smelled a little more “orangey”. That’s a personal preference though.

erbaorganics have great products not just for baby but for moms and expecting moms as well and I hope you’ll consider supporting them.

Disclaimer: At my request erbaorganics provided me with their product for review and facts regarding their products. Information was also gathered from their site. The rest is my sole opinion.

_______________________________________________________

GIVEAWAY

The wonderful folks at erbaorganics have kindly offered to give one of my readers the same item I tried, the 6oz bottle of erbaorganics baby shampoo

To enter:  Please complete the required task. If the required task is not completed then none of your entries will count.  After that you have several other ways of getting extra entries.  Make sure that for each one you do you leave a separate comment. Each comment counts as one entry. Please leave your correct email addy. If I have no way of contacting you, your entries will be deleted before I choose the winner.

Required

* Please take the time to visit the  http://www.erbaorganics.com/ site.  Browse around and tell me about one item you’d love to try or give as a gift and why.

Earn Extra Entries

1 Extra Entry -
* Stumbleupon this post (Leave your acct name in a comment)
* Digg this post (Leave your acct name in a comment)
* Blog about this giveaway (Leave a link to the blog post)
* Follow me publicly on Google friend connect (look to the right)
* Add this page or my blog to your Technorati favorites  (Leave your acct name)

You can Digg, Stumbleupon and fav on Technorati by clicking the “ShareThis” at the bottom of this post

1 Extra Entry Per Day -
* Follow me on Twitter @detroitmommy and then Press the Green Retweet button at the top of this post. Leave me a comment with a link to your tweet.  You can come back each day and retweet for 1 extra entry per day. Just make sure to leave a comment each day you do it!

Good Luck!

Giveaway is open to residents of the U.S., 18 yrs of age or older. Any posts not including the requested information will be deleted. This giveaway ends: Sunday November 29, 2009 12am EST. Winner will be contacted and announced Monday November 30, 2009. In the event the winner does not respond to email within 3 days I will choose another random winner. I will be using random.org to do this.

Congrats to Genevieve L.

@ http://mommyjen99.blogspot.com/

with lucky # 32

and as always, a big thank-you to everyone who entered!

eebee’s adventures focus on behaviors—what babies and toddlers can and want to do— while offering practical and playful insights and ideas for how and when parents can join the act.

My son and I recently had the chance to review a great new book from eebee’s adventures – Mix & Mash: Adventures in the Kitchen for Baby & You It’s just been released and is the first-ever cooking with your baby book!

Normally I would say you’ve probably read about all the problems I’ve had recently with my picky little eater but I’ve been spending so much time trying to resolve the situation that I haven’t even had time to blog about it.  Let alone blog about the fact that he wants to help me do EVERYTHING. Cook, clean, do laundry.  I have to admit that lately I had been getting a bit overwhelmed with all the help I was receiving.  So when the opportunity came to review the book I thought to myself “can this really work?”.  I let him help with everything else, why not in the kitchen as well?

The book features 6 baby-friendly recipes for children 6+ months, accompanied by a dvd that shows you just how to go about letting your baby get involved in the kitchen. Up until now letting him help in the kitchen isn’t something I had considered but these recipes are so simple that you’ll wonder why you hadn’t come up with them yourself.

After checking out the book to be honest I was still a little nervous about letting him help. That’s where the dvd comes in. When Vincent and I watched the dvd he loved eebee. He kept saying “baby baby”. I thought it was a bit strange how he knew she was a baby, but he did.  The dvd is sort of like a how-to guide and totally worked to reassure me that it wasn’t hard at all to get your child involved and have some fun while doing it!

It’s my opinion that this book would make a perfect gift for any parent who’s toddler is just getting to the 6+ month stage and beyond. My son is 18 months and these recipes were perfect for him. Even though he has a mouth full of teeth, these recipes are good for children with or without teeth.

The only complaint I have about the book is that it’s not big enough! I hope they’ll come out with more baby-parent cookbook’s in the future.

You can purchase eebee’s Mix & Mash: Adventures in the Kitchen for Baby & You directly from Amazon or on the eebee’s adventures website.

This book was provided for review by eebee’s adventures and Sterling Publishing.

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GIVEAWAY

Thanks to eebee’s adventures and Sterling Publishing one reader will win their own copy of eebee’s Mix & Mash: Adventures in the Kitchen for Baby & You

To enter:  Please complete the required task(s). If the required task(s) are not completed then none of your entries will count.  After that you have several other ways of getting extra entries.  Make sure that for each one you do you leave a separate comment. Each comment counts as one entry. Please leave your correct email addy. If I have no way of contacting you, your entries will be deleted before I choose the winner.

Required

* Please take the time to visit the Eebee Adventures shop (click here), browse around and tell me about one item you’d love to give to a child in your life. (I will be checking that you actually visited the page)

AND

* Please follow eebee’s adventures on Twitter @eebeebaby OR become a fan on Facebook
(Leave your twitter name in your comment)

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* Follow me on Twitter @detroitmommy and then Press the Green Retweet button at the top of this post. Leave me a comment with a link to your tweet.  You can come back each day and retweet for 1 extra entry per day. Just make sure to leave a comment each day you do it!

Good Luck!

Giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada, 18 yrs of age or older. Any posts not including the requested information will be deleted. This giveaway ends: Sunday November 29, 2009 12am EST. Winner will be contacted and announced Monday November 30, 2009. In the event the winner does not respond to email within 3 days I will choose another random winner. I will be using random.org to do this.

Congrats to Lauren

@ http://mommyisrocknroll.com/

with lucky  #2

and as always, thank-you to everyone who entered!