Tots and Me... Growing Up Together

Monday, March 5, 2012

Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up- March 6, 2012

Welcome to Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up with your hosts Aimee @ Classified: Mom & Karen @ Tots and Me & Alicia @ McCrenshaw's Newest Thoughts!

This link up will be posted Monday at 7 PM est. and run all week long! Make sure you stop in as often as you can to list your latest giveaways.

Here is how to use the Giveaway Link Up

1. Post your reviews and/or giveaways, as many as you have, be sure to add the end date (family friendly please)

2. Help spread the word about the giveaway link up by grabbing our button, Tweeting or posting on Facebook. (Not mandatory- but it helps get more exposure to your giveaways as well!)

3. Take a moment to enter any giveaway that strikes an interest to you!

If you would like to follow the three hostesses, we will gladly follow you back! Simply leave us a message to do so.

Thank you for linking up with Aimee @ Classified: Mom & Karen @ Tots and Me & Alicia @ McCrenshaw's Newest Thoughts!

Muffin Tin Monday: The start of our color muffin tins: Red

I decided to focus on the colors of the rainbow again this year on our way to St. Patrick's Day. We did this last year and enjoyed it. The older girls already know their colors, but I told them they are going to help Hannah learn them. And I think they still like the idea of muffin tins of just one color. So we are starting with RED.

Pepperoni

Red pepper

strawberries

craisins

strawberry yogurt

strawberry Jello

peanut butter and jam

Monday Blog Hopping: March 5, 2012

It's the start of another week. If you would like to do some blog hopping today head on over to my "Blog Hops" page to see the Monday Blog Hops I have found. Also the new Linky Follower Party Hop is still open. I just found this one recently (this is a great one to join if you are looking for something to replace GFC).

If you are visiting from a blog hop, welcome! I am glad you are here. Take a look around. I'd love it if you would follow me via GFC and subscribe to my emails. I also have a Facebook page and a Twitter you can follow. And because of all the changes I also have a Google+ page also that I would love for you to follow.

And on Friday night I invite you back to link up to my new Lovin' the Weekend blog hops (you can also link up giveaways).

Speaking of giveaways, have you checked out mine recently.
I have joined with Dnbuster and 21 other bloggers to bring you this giveaway for a $50 Amazon Gift Card

ends 3/13

And I am joining in with some different bloggers to bring you a giveaway for My Wonderful Walls
{value $177}

ends 3/11

And check it out, my Baby Shower Celebration has begun. I will be bringing you reviews and giveaways for some great baby/mommy products.

Enter to win:

A Hat of Your Choice from Taylor Joelle Designs

ends 3/17

Woombie/Beanie Hat Gift Set

ends 3/17

And stay tuned for more fabulous Baby Shower Celebration giveaways throughout the month of March!!

Muffin Tin Monday: Our Dr. Seuss Muffin Tin

I'm sure most of you know it was Dr. Seuss's birthday on Friday. I couldn't let the day go by with out making a special lunch. And of course, I had to make it a muffin tin. The girls were happily surprised. It is not often that I do a muffin tin on a different day of the week.

They had:

Green Eggs and Ham

A right foot peanut butter and jelly sandwich

Red pepper and White cheese kabobs

1 Fish 2 Fish Swedish Fish

Red Strawberry and White Banana Kabobs

Left Foot Cinnamon Sugar Toast

Little Debbie Strawberry Roll

Oh, and to add the Red Fish, Blue Fish I gave them the Finding Nemo gummies for them to hunt for the correct colors themselves.

Also linking up to:

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Scavenger Hunt Sunday: March 4, 2012

Scavenger Hunt Sunday items: Routine, Music, Technology, Show Me Your Style and Mismatch
Routine

Our morning routine starts off with a breakfast of healthy cereal

prayer

and then I brush their hair while they eat.

Music

I have decided the girls are going to start learning a hymn a week. We listen to it on Youtube and sing along during Bible Time.

Technology

Our wireless router that helps me be able to get on the internet, yay. Thought it sort of looked like alien technology.

Show Me Your Style

I wear dresses or skirts all the time.

Mismatch

My sock bag of mismatched socks.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Baby Shower Celebration: Woombie Swaddle Review and Gift Set Giveaway

A couple of weeks ago I shared a little bit about the Woombie

You can find the post here.

I have had a couple of weeks to use our Woombie with Baby Harold. When I first brought him home I tried swaddling him with a receiving blanket. He was waking up quite a lot at night. I completely understand that that is to be expected with a newborn. It was the one reason I debated staying a little longer in the hospital (I had the option to stay an extra night because of the c-section), I could have the nurses take the baby to the nursery so I could sleep. However, I opted to go home, to my family and my comfortable bed. After a few nights of no sleep, which wasn't helping my nasty headache, I decided to see if the Woombie would make a difference.

I had had my reservations about how snug fitting the Woombie appeared. I had even contacted Woombie before baby Harold was born as I wasn't sure how he would fit. I was reassured that there is quite a bit of "roominess" for the baby and a bigger size would "defeat the purpose of the swaddle." Even so, the first time I put him in the Woombie, Harold didn't seem to be comfortable. It seemed to me, from pictures on the site,

that his arms should be placed across his chest. I took the Woombie off of him and almost changed my mind about using it. Fortunately, I decided to give it another try. This time I placed his arms at his side and then zipped up the swaddle. He was much more comfortable and slept for 4 hours, letting mommy get some much needed sleep. When he awoke around 4:30 I fed him and put him back to sleep. He slept for several more hours. What a relief to this mommy. He was snug and secure in his Woombie and really seems to like it. The swaddle prevents him from startling, helping him to sleep soundly. And if he wakes up and starts crying, he will go back to sleep after a few minutes. The thing is, I have a couple of different blankets I need to review and I have had a hard time thinking about going without the Woombie.

Now, he hasn't slept perfectly every night. But I don't think that has anything to do with the Woombie. Some days we just neglected to wake him up enough during the day and evening, especially close to bedtime, and I paid for it with his waking up too much at night.

Doesn't he look so content?

I do still use a blanket over the top as it is quite cold in our room right now. As he is so secure in his Woombie, I do not see that he would be able to get the blanket up over his face, so I am not worried about suffocation.

A few notes of concern I would like to share:

I still was a little concerned about the tightness of the neck, so I have never fully zipped it up or used the snap. I leave the zipper down about one inch. Unfortunately this leaves the snap flap to get into his face unless I tuck it under and sometimes it doesn't stay put. Despite this, he still sleeps soundly.
That brings me to my other caution. One night he slept too well. I popped up all in a panic one morning because he had slept about 7 hours. Granted I got some well needed and deserved sleep, but I was so worried. And as a nursing mom I was also concerned because I didn't want my milk supply to suffer. One week old was a little too young to be sleeping so long. The Woombie had worked too well. He has not slept that long since, but my hubby and I thought it was a relevant concern to bring up.
I do take the Woombie off him when he wakes up at night to nurse, otherwise he falls asleep to soon. This is another reason I have found that he wakes up again too soon as he hadn't fully satisfied his hunger. So I take him completely out of the Woombie for nursing and then I put him back in when he is done, burped and changed. So, I have not had the need to use another great feature of the Woombie. There is a two-way zipper, it opens from the bottom as well as the top for ease of diaper changing.

All in all I have been thrilled with the Woombie. As I stated in my Sponsor Spotlight I have had 7 children now, and still have not gotten the hang of swaddling with a receiving blanket. How I wish I had discovered the Woombie sooner. I highly recommend the Woombie.

Head on over to the Woombie site to check out all the great products for yourself. They have several different designs now (original, organic, summer, winter, the Houdini and deluxe), plus some other great products, like hats and Mox Mittens to name a couple. You can also check them out on Facebook and Twitter. You can also check out their Youtube channel.

Woombie has graciously allowed me to offer my readers a chance to win their very own Woombie/Beanie Hat Gift Set. What a great gift to take to a baby shower, or to keep for yourself if you are expecting. Just fill in the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win. Though you do not have to fill in all the entries, doing so will give you a better chance of winning. I am still offering 5 extra entries for adding the Baby Shower Celebration button to your sidebar if you have not already done so. And you can earn 10 extra entries by playing my two baby shower games (5 extra entries each). You just need to check out these two posts (Wordless Wednesday Feb 22nd) and (Baby Shower Game post) for the information you need, then come back here to enter the information into the Rafflecopter form.

This giveaway is only open to residents of the United States, sorry.

Lovin' The Weekend Blog Hops Week 22- March 2-March4

Welcome to the twenty second weekend of Lovin' the Weekend Blog Hops.

Giveaway Linky is the bottom linky!

Here's how this blog hop works. I would appreciate it if you would follow me via GFC. And then, there are three different linkys you can link to. Whichever one you choose to link to, please grab that button and share it on your blog (the codes are on my sidebar). I'd love it if you could tweet or in some other way share about this blog hop, the more people who know about it, the more potential visitors and new followers of your blog. I'd love to meet some new friends this weekend.

I have noticed that some people are more interested in just increasing their numbers, while others really want people who appreciate their blog and want to keep up with their posts. So, I decided to create two separate linkys. The third linky is for you to link up your giveaways.

If you are interested in increasing the number of followers to your blog via GFC, Twitter, Facebook or Google+ link up here. If you have the new Linky Followers Tool feel free to put that in the link, I will follow you back if you follow me (just note which one you are linking to):