Before becoming a mom, I didn't think much about the products I used. It wasn't until I was pregnant and then had my children that I really gave more of my time to research the ingredients in different shampoos, lotions, etc. I want to give my kids the very best start in life, and to do that I've made it my goal to buy eco-friendly household and personal care products whenever I can. That's why I'm a big fan of Seventh Generation!

 

Seventh Generation is the nation's leading brand of eco-friendly household and personal care products. They help protect human health and the environment. They have a new baby product line called Wee Generation which I was happy to learn more about and couldn't have been more excited to learn we were going to have the opportunity to review it as part of TheMotherhood!

This new baby product line includes baby shampoo and wash, sunscreen, lotion, diaper cream and bubble bath. They are all are free from things like parabens, phthalates and synthetic fragrances and are made from plant-based ingredients. This is the first complete line of USDA Certified Biobased Baby Care Products which is something I greatly appreciate being available to parents!

We received the product line to test out, and as expected I've been thrilled with each one. One thing I love about each one, is that they are safe to use on my kids' sensitive skin. I love finding safe, eco-friendly, gentle products and these definitely are!

Each of these Wee Generation products are gluten-free. This is great for families who live a gluten-free lifestyle, or have children with wheat allergies. Babies often tend to get bubbles in their mouths, so for children with gluten sensitivities this is a great thing to have in baby care products!

This line is made of a non-toxic, biodegradable formula. There are also no synthetic fragrances, phthalates, or parabens (all ingredients that would be of concern). These are specific ingredients I avoid in the products I use on my kids, as two of them have very sensitive skin. I love that this whole line has none of these in them, not to mention that EVERY ingredient is listed on the label. Parents can even go on the website to learn more about each of the ingredients such as where they come from and why they're used in the baby care product!

A must with baby products in my opinion, these are tear free which is great. I don't have to worry about it hurting my kids' eyes! YAY!

As you can tell, one of my favorite parts about the new Wee Generation product line is that they are made with natural ingredients that come from plants and minerals. I love have gentle, natural products to use on my kids that won't hurt their eyes, skin or little bodies.

I've really enjoyed using these products on Kaelyn, Kaden and Caysen. They have a nice scent, and the extra-virgin olive oil in them really seem to help moisturize and protect their skin. We have had no problems with the kids reacting to these, and that comes as no surprise since they are natural and non-toxic.

I had the opportunity to sit in on a briefing thanks to Seventh Generation and TheMotherhood which opened my eyes even more to the ingredients in products and what to look for. There are many products that have ingredients they aren't required to list including preservatives, processing aids, etc. And, what I learned is that some ingredients actually undergo reactions in the bottle which release ingredients not listed. These can be formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen for example. Yikes!

I appreciate that I don't have to worry about Seventh Generation natural baby products and their ingredients. I have peace of mind knowing that all ingredients are listed and that they're safe to use on my kids.

During the briefing we also got to hear from Baby Massage expert Tina Allen about the best in baby massage techniques!  I have always heard great things about Baby Massage, but didn't know much about it. I found the things Tina had to share very interesting.

It's a fact that all babies need touch, and that it continues to be the primary means of learning about the world throughout childhood. It's critical for their growth, development and health. It also has a lot of benefits I never really thought of including easing baby's tummy troubles and teething discomforts. It also can help soothe a baby to sleep.

When it comes to baby massage these were five important tips shared with us that I thought were very important and useful to remember.

1. Choosing the best time and place. Finding a familiar place that is warm and quiet with few distractions is best. It's also good to find a time when baby is awake, healthy and happy.

2. Being comfortable. Position yourself so that you are comfortable. Be sure baby is safe and placed on a soft area where he/she can be comfortable as well.

3. Choosing Massage Oil. This can help make it more enjoyable for some babies. We've found with Caysen that the Seventh Generation baby lotion works great as it contains olive oil as a main ingredient.

4. Ask permission. It's a wonderful tool for bonding and increasing communication, but it's not something we do to our baby, but rather with them. Babies will give you the signals to let you know she is enjoying the massage, or when he/she is done for now.

5. Know when not to massage. Never provide a massage without permission of your baby (when they're sleeping, crying, etc). It's also best not to do it if they're ill or have a fever.

I've enjoyed doing more baby massage with Caysen since sitting in on this briefing. He seems to really enjoy it too!

Fore more info on baby massage, you can visit LiddleKidz.com and watch this great video on baby massage!


I was thrilled to be asked to be a part of this campaign and briefing. I've learned so much and couldn't wait to share it with all of you. We absolutely love the Seventh Generation line of products!

Win It: Seventh Generation would like to offer two lucky winners a Seventh Generation Baby product basket like the one we received (an approximate retail value of $50)! To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter giveaway below. If you don't see the form, click here.

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This giveaway will end 11/21 and is open to the US Only. 

*I received the Wee Generation Baby Product Line and a stipend from TheMotherhood and Seventh Generation for my participation. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of others.**

With three little ones, life is busy and it's proving more and more difficult to cook up healthy, home cooked meals every night. I do my best, but there are those times I'm wondering if I'm serving my kids the right foods and portions that their little bodies need to grow and thrive. I always welcome resources that help me make better decisions for my family and their health, which is why I was thankful when introduced to Serve It Up, a first ever book that offers meal plans and ideas for serving kid-friendly foods in a portion-controlled manner.

Here's an interesting and thought-provoking discussion, provided by author Laura De Simone, about the book and the benefits of portion control for children.

Can you feel it? I’m talking about the weight gain that started creeping onto your body last week and hasn’t seemed to have found its way back off yet. It starts with a mini snickers bar Halloween night, and over the next few months it will progress into mashed potatoes and pie overload until suddenly you wake up one day and you’re finding it harder to zip up your favorite jeans! But one thing many parents don’t stop to consider is that their children might possibly be gaining the same winter weight that they are.

It’s no big secret that childhood obesity is a growing problem in our country. It’s estimated by the CDC that 17 percent of children aged 2-17 are obese, and it continues to get worse every year. Being the owner of a fitness and wellness company in Northern Virginia, I learned that many of my parents were ill-informed about nutrition and felt overwhelmed about how to keep their children at an appropriate BMI (Body Mass Index). For example, does your 7 year old sedentary daughter need the same amount of calories as your 12 year old active son? The reality is no, but how much more food does your son need? Many people do not know the answer to this question, or for that matter, where to even begin in making sure children are receiving the calories they need.

I decided it was time to survey parents on what they were actually feeding their kids and then see if I could offer some guidance. What I learned from surveying more than 300 parents was that the same foods kept popping up over and over again, but many parents were clueless on how many calories their kids were actually receiving on a daily basis. What many parents don’t know is every five years, the USDA releases recommended calorie counts that every child should aim to eat daily. These calorie counts are determined by the child’s age, sex and activity level.

I decided to take those foods and write a book called Serve It Up, A Parent’s Guide to Kid-friendly Portions. Serve It Up uses the USDA Nutritional Guidelines and gives you 50 popular, kid-friendly meals and in the appropriate serving sizes.

Serve it Up is now available at Amazon.com and is the first-ever book that offers meal plans and ideas for serving kid-friendly foods in healthy portions. This book is designed to help adults feed their children popular kid foods by pairing foods in appropriate and beneficial ways. The ground-breaking idea is that children will be able to eat the foods they already eat, but do so by placing certain foods together so they are satisfying daily calories, protein, fat and carbohydrate recommendations.

Today, many homes have two working parents and it is harder to provide healthy, home-cooked meals than it was in the past. In addition, some children are reluctant to try new foods, and many parents feel guilty giving into fast and processed foods. I decided it was time to write a book that would look at commonly-served foods and give parents simple suggestions on how to serve those foods properly.

Serve it Up is the perfect book for the parent who does not have time to cook a homemade meal every night, but still wants to make sure their child stays in a healthy BMI range. Serve it Up makes it easy to determine exactly how much food to serve your child.

Please visit our website at www.serveitupfood.com and order your book today!

Sincerely,
Laura DeSimone
serveitupfood@gmail.com



I have had the opportunity to take a look at the book, and feel it's a very valuable resource for parents and caregivers. As a parent it can be difficult to find the time to make a healthy meal every night, or something that all the kids will eat and enjoy. What I like about this book is that it provides helpful meal plans, many of which are those that even the pickiest of eaters will like (including my kids)! As the following examples of a couple of the meal plans in the book show, it also gives you the ingredients as well (you can click the images to enlarge)!

As a busy parent of little ones whose health and well-being is of the utmost importance to me, I am thankful to have been introduced to this book!

Buy It: You can purchase Serve it Up on Amazon.com for $11.99.

Win It: One very lucky reader is going to win a copy of Serve it Up of their own! Simply enter the giveaway below. If you don't see the Rafflecopter form, please click here.

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This giveaway will end 11/21 and is open to the US Only.

**This was a compensated post and the giveaway item was provided for free. However, all opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way. 

 As a mom and former teacher, I love to do fun, educational activities and games with my kids.  Although they do enjoy sitting down and doing activities at the table, their favorite thing to do (like most young children), is to be active! That's why I was excited when introduced to a fun product from Educational Insights!

The more I experience the great products from Educational Insights, the more impressed I am!   The quality of their products are not only excellent quality, but best of all they offer both teachers and parents a variety of educational toys and games to use with children. That's why I was excited when I learned we were going to have the opportunity to review the Magic Moves Electronic Wand!

Features/Benefit:

• Promotes creative movement, gross motor skills, and physical activity
• Develops listening skills and ability to follow directions, enriches vocabularly
• Great for group activities
• Requires 3 AAA batteries (included)
• Designed for children ages 3+ (pre-k+)

When the Magic Moves Electronic Wand arrived, both Kaelyn and Kaden were very excited to check it out. So was I!

 

Out of the package, I was happy to find that it in fact included the AAA batteries that are required to use it. There are many times we don't have batteries on hand, so getting a toy only to find out it doesn't include the batteries can be disappointing for the kids. That's why I appreciate that they were included with this toy!

Of course, we couldn't wait to play with it either. Pushing the green button, we were given different instructions on which movements to make. For instance "sneak like a tiger". They are really fun, creative movements with sounds and music that make it even more fun for the kids. I enjoyed watching the kids do each of the movements...we have had so many laughs. What a joy! There are 90 creative movements and 26 different musical tunes (each with its own colorful light show) so it really never gets boring for them.

This is an activity they love to pull out all times of the day. I enjoy it because it's something that both my 3 year old and 5 year old can enjoy doing together. It would also be great for a classroom setting, or one where there's a group of kids as well. My kids are already excited to be able to do this when their cousins come to visit in a couple of weeks.

 

Aside from the fun, it's also a great product for getting little ones up and moving, exercising their bodies, and getting creative. With winter around the corner it's not always easy to find a lot of gross motor type of activities, so this will be perfect for us! It also helps to develop listening skills and the ability to follow directions which has been great for both Kaelyn and Kaden as well.

I really have no complaints, we've been extremely happy with the Magic Moves Electronic Wand! It's a lot of fun for both children and adults alike and has such great educational value as well! I would definitely recommend it to other families who have young children, and believe it would make a terrific gift idea this Christmas as well!

 Buy It: You can purchase the Educational Insights Magic Moves Electronic Wand for $19.99.

Win It: One very lucky reader is going to win a Magic Moves Electronic Wand from Educational Insights! To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter giveaway below. If you don't see the form, click here.

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This giveaway will end 11/20 and is open to US and Canada

**The products for this review/giveaway were provided by Educational Insights, however all opinions are my own.

Not only did October pass in a blink, but Daylight Saving Time is just around the corner! Can you believe it?! This year the time change is on November 4th, which also marks the 25th anniversary of the annual Change Your Clock Change Your Battery program.

Energizer and the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) are once again working with local fire departments nationwide to help raise awareness on the importance of having working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors to help keep families safe in their homes. 38% of fatal fire injuries occur in homes with no smoke alarms, while 24% occur in homes which at least have one, but fails to operate (typically due to dead or missing batteries).

You all can Get involved now through November 4, by visiting the Energizer Bunny® Facebook page and clicking on the Fire Safety Info Tab. Here you will have the chance to enter a sweepstakes to win a Family Safety Kit. Energizer will be giving away one Family Safety Kit per day for 25 days. Contained in the kit, valued at more than $150, is: a reusable grocery tote, two Kidde Battery-Operated Combination Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Alarms, one package of Energizer Advanced Lithium batteries, One package of Energizer® MAX® Batteries (AA) with Power Seal Technology, two Energizer flashlights, two Energizer Flameless Wax Candles, and one Energizer Bunny Plush Bunny!

In addition you can also find fire safety tips, a home escape plan that you can download and draw your family’s home escape plan down on, as well as a coloring and activity sheet!

The Change Your Clock Change Your Battery® program is just one of the ways Energizer brings to life the company’s commitment to making a positive impact in communities across the country. That’s positivenergy™ For more information, be sure to visit energizer.com and facebook.com/energizerbunny.

When I first read about this year's campaign, I thought it was great! The timing couldn't have been more perfect either. Kaelyn had just talked about fire safety in school that week and she was eager to make sure we had all of our smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors working. Such a great reminder! I wanted to take this opportunity to help remind all of my readers about this important life-saving reminder as well - be sure and remember to change the batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors when you set your clocks back. It's a great way to remember to do it, and best of all...it could help save a life!

Energizer sent us a Family Safety Kit which included a reusable grocery tote contatining:

1. One 2-pack of Energizer MAX Batteries (9v) with Power Seal Technology offering dependable and powerful performance for devices that help keep your family safe

2. One Energizer Flameless Wax Candle to help us enjoy the realistic flicker of a scented wax candle without the worry and danger of an open flame

3. One Energizer Weateready Safety Light which is waterproof and powered by AA, AAA or C cell batteries (I love that it can take different types of batteries! Makes it easy to keep working as we usually have at least one of those types of batteries on hand!). It also includes a safety whistle and imprinted preparedness checklist.

4. One Kidde Battery-Operated Combination Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Alarm!! A must for every household in my opinion!

We are so thankful for this Family Safety Kit and are happy to have these things on hand to help keep our family safe. The total value of the Family Safety Kit is approximately $78! And the good news is...

Win It: Energizer is offering one lucky reader a Family Safety Kit valued at $78 as well!! To enter simply enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below. If you don't see the form, click here.

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This giveaway is open to the US Only and ends 11/16

**The products for this review/giveaway were provided by Energizer. All opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.