Babies Gotta Have It

So who are you really sleeping with?  You  may think you’re only sleeping with your partner and your pets…maybe a child thrown into the mix every now and again.  Oh yeah and that box of Girl Scout cookies you have been nursing for the last week while you watch late night TV.

But if you are also sleeping with your beloved pillow…the one you’ve had since you got married, let me clue you in on what and who else you’re sleeping with.  In a small sample taken from a typical five year old pillow, analysts found: 180,000 skin cells, 1,200 pollen spores and 700 fungus spores.   Gross.  But oh yeah, there’s grosser on the way.

If you’re sleeping with the beloved pillow you’ve had since high school…in a very small sample from a 30 year old pillow, analysts find 170,000 skin cells, 9,800 pollen spores, and 8,200 fungal mold spores.  Per sample!  And wanna know why the skin cell count actually goes down? Trust me, you don’t,  But I’m gonna tell you anyway.  Because the dust mites eat them.

Oh yeah, you’re sleeping with them too.

But, let’s talk about ME.  I recently went to meet Dr. Clifford Bassett, an allergy specialist here in New York, and the lovely people behind Aller-Ease products, and I (gulp) gave them one of my pillows.  That had been on my bed until that very day.  In the small sample they took from it, they found: 130,000 skin cells, cladosporium (a fungus that causes, among other things, tomato leaf mold) pithomyces (a mold often involved with eczema in sheep!) as well as what appears to be an herbal tea mix of pollens: birch, elm, grass, pine and sycamore!  Then, under the mold category, there also is simply “other brown.”  I can only assume that this is the dust mite poop which apparently can double the weight of your mattress in ten years!  Let me say, I have had horrid tomato disease on my tomatoes the last few summers, and I have also recently developed equally horrid eczema on my hands.  Is my pillow to blame for this?  If so, it should be severely punished.  Which I guess it was when it was eviscerated and studied in a lab.  So there.

So this is allergy season.  Ahhh April and May…the lovely months when it’s finally warm enough to throw open the windows, go jog in the park, and smell the flowers…only to wake up the next morning with itchy red eyes and a nasty runny nose.  And don’t you dare mow the lawn without a level three containment suit and a mask.  Allergies are weird.  According to Dr. Bassett,  most people become less allergic as they go through life.  But it’s not uncommon for allergies to recur in adulthood, or even worsen, and no one really knows why.  What they do know is that our homes are full of nasty little particles that can trigger these allergies.  So the more we can do to contain and eliminate them all year round, the better off we will be.

So what about our kids?  Two interesting things.  First of all, there seems to be a genetic component to all of this.  If you have asthma, hay fever or eczema and/or your husband does, your children are at higher risk of developing allergies.  Also, Dr. Bassett also filled me in on a pretty interesting phenomenon called “The Allergy March.”  I do not pretend to be an expert on this, and if you suspect your child is developing allergies, you should definitley talk to your doctor.  But there seems to be a phenomenon in which the evidence of eczema in infancy can trend toward rhinitis (ie runny noses) and then to asthma in children.  And I have learned that eczema, like runny noses, can be triggered by allergens.  My baby has been diagnosed with mild eczema.  My husband had childhood asthma. I have recently developed the nastiest hand mange eczema (more on that in a later post)…

Okay, dust mites, you have my attention.

Now just to confuse us more, there’s also evidence that the presence of some allergens in the home via dog and cat dander, can help prevent allergies.  So that’s just another wrench to throw into this whole debate.  But it’s complicated and there’s still a lot to learn, that’s for sure.

But I think we can agree that pillows and mattresses filled with dust mite poop and funguses that induce sheep eczema are a bad idea.  So Aller-Ease has created a line of really nice products from pillow and mattress covers, to pillows themselves, designed to keep the nice fluffy comfy stuff in your pillows and the nasty cooties out.  I have tried them.  They are excellent.  The cool thing that Aller-Ease has done is to make the covers primarily out of cotton!  These covers are not plastic.  They are not vinyly and wrinkly and crackly.  They are cool, soft and quiet and honestly, I have completely forgotten that I put them on our pillows.  Which I pretty much think is the deal. They’re like the non-flashy silent superheroes whom no one notices when they are doing their jobs exterminating monsters.

If you’re looking for waterproof mattress and pillow covers, they have them too.  They are not cotton (cuz let’s face it, cotton is never going to be waterproof no matter how tightly you weave it), but they are a microfiber made from polyester and they are still soft and quiet. I’m definitely getting the waterproof mattress cover for  my baby when she moves into a big girl bed.

So we can re-cover our pillows and mattresses to prevent us from inhaling these nasty things all night, but what else can we do to prevent allergies? Here are a few other suggestions:

• Don’t line dry your laundry in the Spring.  (I know it totally stinks because that smell is so awesome, but if you’re really allergic, you’re just coating your sheets in pollen.  Try a drying rack in the laundry room instead.)
• Wash your kids’ stuffed animals or  (and I so love this) put your kids stuffed toys into those giant ziploc bags and stick them in the freezer for 3 - 5 hours.  Bye bye dust mites.
• Make sure your vaccuum has a HEPA filter.
• No smoking in the house!  (duh)
• Avoid strong odors and fumes in your home.
• Ged rid of roaches - a lot of people are allergic to roach poop too.
• Pull up that wall-to-wall carpeting.
• Wash your curtains (I know my grandmother did this regularly and I so never do).

That’s a start, anyway.  And to get you on the road to an allergen-free good night’s sleep, the people at Aller-Ease have given me two Aller-Ease Cotton Zippered Pillow protectors that I’m giving away to you!

Also, cuz I know you have more than two pillows in your home, the Aller-Ease website is now up and the first 50 people who visit that site each day from March 30th - April 5th will win a free pillow cover. Click HERE for more info and to win!

To Enter the Aller-Ease Giveaway:

• Just leave a comment on this post.  Yup, that’s it.  Entering is that easy!

***Want extra chances to win? Do anything listed below and leave me additional comments for each one letting me know what you did! Make sure you include your email address with your entry. Maximum of three entries per person.

• Follow me on twitter (click the birdy button on the left to do so easily)
• Blog this giveaway (send me the url so I can enjoy your post!)
• Twitter this giveaway (I’ve even made it easy for you, just cut and paste): @BabiesGottaHavT is giving away 2 Aller-Ease Allergy Preventing Pillow Covers! http://tinyurl.com/dkxy3p
• Subscribe to my blog using the button on the left
• Email a friend about the giveaway and cc me in the message at babiesgottahaveit@gmail.com (I promise I will not spam you or your friends - cross my heart)

Giveaway only open to those with U.S. addresses. Giveaway begins on Tuesday March 31st and ends on Tuesday April 14th  at 11:59 Eastern Standard Time. On Wednesday April 15th  Random.org will select a winner, and I’ll give someone some nice news on tax day. After my baby called Larry the Cable guy the last time she did a drawing, we have decided to take a little vacation from her choosing the winner. Random.org is in no way as cute and unpredictable as my baby, but it is much more efficient and does not use any pieces of paper, even recycled ones. I am sure you will understand. Thanks for entering!

UPDATE: And the winner, as selected by random.org, is:

Result: 29

Congratulations Playground for Parents!  Hope you rest easier from now on!

Because three months is really quite long enough to store the tricycle in the living room, get yourself a Stroll Away stroller hook from Metro Tots and make more room in the entry hallway!  Watch the video, you’ll see what I mean.

Seriously…why didn’t someone think of this sooner.

Here’s the lowdown: this stroller storage hook mounts on the door without drilling any holes, it comes with a spacer to adjust to various door sizes, the arms adjust to accommodate most stroller models (up to 35 pounds), and it folds flush against the door when you’re not using it.  They are coming out with a wall mount model for garages and a multi-stroller rack system soon so keep checking their site.

The road to home organization just got a little bit clearer.  Aaaahhhhhhhhhh.

No funny titles.  No sarcastic wisecracks. This is a serious post. Seriously….AWESOME!

Ok,  return to sober tone.

Money is tight.  Everywhere.  There appear to be a lot of very smart people whom I am inclined to trust, trying to solve this problem. But all of them are telling us that things are not going to improve overnight.  So until then (and in all likelihood for many years after), in many families, the buck stops with Mama. Big business seems finally hip to the fact that Mama makes the majority of the financial decisions, big and small.  Sure we are the ones researching and choosing Jayden and Maddy’s See Kai Run shoes, but we’re also the ones with the last word on vacation planning and automobile purchases.

Big purchases come along every once and a while, but every day we make little choices in the grocery store about what to put on our tables to feed our families.  Choices that affect not only our health but also our bank accounts.  It’s nice when we can make decisions that impact both in a positive way.

So maybe it’s time to take a second look at Ragu pasta sauces.  I have always preferred Ragu on my raviolis.  You can ask my mom. Ever since I was little raviolis have been my favorite food.  And I always liked the smooth texture and comforting flavor of Ragu with raviolis. Always.  As I wrote last week, I was recently invited to see Robin Miller of the Food Network’s popular show “Quick Fix Meals,” demo and shoot recipes created with Ragu’s new varieties of Old World Style sauce: Sweet Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce and Margherita Pasta Sauce. Tell me that they don’t sound good.  I got to interview Robin and ask her a few questions about cooking for toddlers (check out my post about raising adventurous eaters), and I also learned some kind of surprising things about Ragu that I’m going to share with you right now:

• Ragu red sauces contain more than a full serving of vegetables in every half cup of pasta sauce.
• Ragu red sauces are all natural and contain no artificial additives or preservatives.
• Ragu red sauces are a good source of Vitamins A and C, contain lycopene, and have no cholesterol or trans fat.
• Ragu pasta sauce is available at a suggested retail price of $2.34 for a 26 oz jar.  Probably more in New York. But that’s not Ragu’s fault.

Check out Ragu.com for budget-friendly recipes using Ragu and money-saving tips for eating well on a budget.

And thanks to the amazing people at Ragu, one Mama’s grocery shopping budget is going to get a little bit easier this year!  One lucky Babies Gotta Have It reader is going to win a Six Month Supply of Ragu Pasta Sauce and a copy of Robin Miller’s cookbook, “Robin to the Rescue: Quick and Simple Recipes for Delicious Home Cooking.” Like I said, seriously…AWESOME!

To Enter the Ragu Giveaway:

• Take a swing by Ragu.com and check out their recipes.  Then, leave a comment on the post letting me know which one you would try first if you won and WHY (Make sure you include the WHY part.  This prize is so awesome…I will be definitely reading comments to make sure that everyone has entered correctly).  Entering is that easy!

***Want extra chances to win? Do anything listed below and leave me additional comments for each one letting me know what you did! Make sure you include your email address with your entry. Maximum of three entries per person.

• Follow me on twitter (click the birdy button on the left to do so easily)
• Blog this giveaway (send me the url so I can enjoy your post!)
• Twitter this giveaway (I’ve even made it easy for you, just cut and paste): @BabiesGottaHavT is giving away a 6 month supply of Ragu! http://tinyurl.com/d35tgc
• Subscribe to my blog using the button on the left
• Email a friend about the giveaway and cc me in the message at babiesgottahaveit@gmail.com (I promise I will not spam you or your friends - cross my heart)

Giveaway only open to those with U.S. addresses. Giveaway begins on Thursday March 26th and ends on Sunday April 5th  at 11:59 Eastern Standard Time. On Monday April 6th Random.org will select a winner, and I’ll email you and announce it immediately. After my baby called Larry the Cable guy the last time she did a drawing, we have decided to take a little vacation from her choosing the winner. Random.org is in no way as cute and unpredictable as my baby, but it is much more efficient and does not use any pieces of paper, even recycled ones. I am sure you will understand. Thanks for entering!

UPDATE! Now you have two chances to win this great prize!  After you enter here…take a trip to Skimbaco the Lifestyle, meet the amazing Katja, and enter to win 6 months worth of Ragu there too!

UPDATE #2!  We have a winner.
“Result:  61″

Congratulations Shirley! Enjoy your cookbook and Ragu Pasta Sauce!

And may I say, so many of you mentioned the Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe that I decided to check it out…and it’s delicious.  So simple and quick.  Cooking the meatballs in the sauce instead of in a frying pan in oil makes them so moist and delicious!  My toddler loves them and I highly recommend them!

New York is a strolling city.  The general public may not promenade like once it did here in the Biggest of Apples.  But for City Mamas, strolling  is a way of life. We don’t put our kids in car seats, drive to the Super Target, get them out, strap them into gigantic shopping carts with racecar kid seats, and then push them down aisles wide enough to fit two Volkswagen Beetles side by side. Nope. We stuff them in jackets, hats and gloves, wrangle them and their strollers down the stairs from our third floor walk-up, out the ten ton door, and then down the precipitous cement steps to the street.  But that’s just the beginning.  Then we stroll the ten blocks in the rain or snow to the grocery store, hope someone will hold the door open for us as we go in, and then make the treacherous trek to the cereal shelves, through aisles that barely accommodate us and our strollers.  Let alone more than one stroller or…heaven forbid…a stroller and an old lady cart.

Shopping in New York with a stroller is one hurdle short of an Olympic event.  And if your kid happens not to be smiling and cooing angelically during your trip, you’ll find yourself negotiating surly New Yorkers who glare and resentfully hold their baskets over their heads as you smush by. Oh, and then you’ll pay eleven dollars for a box of cereal.  Yeah the city is hoot.

As a result, however, our strollers rock.  They have to.  We need strollers that will turn on a dime, roll smoothly, negotiate uneven pavement without hurling our children into oncoming traffic, and take up as little precious real estate as possible.  Before we had our baby, my husband and I started keeping track of the strollers most New Yorkers were pushing around.  So here, in no particular order, are the three most commonly spotted strollers in New York City.  This list is in no way scientific or even all that thoroughly researched.  And for the record, it is also not sponsored or financed by any of these three companies.  It’s just the accumulated knowledge of my observation on the street, at playgroup, at music class, and in the grocery store.

The Maclaren- Did I say no particular order? Well, honestly, this is the stroller I see the most often of all.   Maclarens are everywhere.  We got a Maclaren Techno XT just like this photo for a baby gift (thanks Granny), and I honestly could not live without it.  It is rugged and utilitarian but it drives like a friggin’ Porche.  These are the most affordable of the top three NYC strollers.  That said, they still aren’t cheap.  But if you use your stroller every single day like I do, you need a good one.  And this is a good one.  The only slight bummer is that the guy at the Children’s Museum folded it up really ferociously once and the hood part at the top bent a bit.  Still works fine.  It’s small enough and light enough that you can fold it up and lug it on the bus or into the subway fairly easily. You won’t find the others on this list doing that so often. I can’t say enough about this stroller.

Bugaboo Frog Stroller - Over six hundred dollars for a stroller???  Are you flipping kidding me!??!  No.  I’m so not kidding you.  And let me just say that this is an incredibly commonly seen stroller. It is no bargain. But it is amazing. My friends who have these, love them.  They are also everywhere in New York and for good reason.  I don’t want to get into details about what exactly is in the big huge nasty crud-filmed puddles that line the curbs of New York City sidewalks.  No one wants to go there.  Especially not your precious tot.  Now take a look at the wheels on this baby. This stroller was made for city streets. If the Maclaren is a Porche, the Bugaboo is a Ferrari. It drives like a dream.  It has oodles of compatible accessories that all fit together beautifully (check out the footmuff stroller bunting) and if you’re looking for the best of the under a thousand strollers (oh, yeah, they go higher) and you’re not planning to haul it up and down loads of stairs, the Bugaboo is the way to go.

Phil & Teds Double Stroller- Believe it or not, there are brave city parents who choose to have (dum dum dum) a second child. The old side by side double strollers have been nearly completely replaced by Phil and Teds double strollers, for obvious reasons.  You don’t come down the sidewalk like a Mack Truck, causing people to leap into traffic or flatten themselves against buildings to avoid you.  And you can actually make it through the door of the D’Agostinos.  This stroller is sleek and sexy and absolutely everywhere.

Now I can’t tell you how to spend your baby budget.  There’s a bunch to buy and put on your baby registry and only a limited pool of cash.  But if you’re a City Mama, or a City Mama-to-be, or if you just plan to get out there and walk a lot with your baby, I can’t think of a better way to spend your money than on a really good stroller. Your back will thank you.

Got a stroller you think can take on these giants and maybe not break the bank?  Leave me a comment and let us all know!

If my 19 month old were left by herself for two weeks in a fully stocked kitchen, I can tell you what she’d live on (assuming of course we removed the childproofing from the cabinets): yogurt, toast, cheerios and  juice.  That’s it.  Her favs. That’s not actually all she eats. Thanks to my friend Katie, she will also happily eat “chicken mush” (Katie’s creation, patent pending ,but if you want the recipe let me know) and thereby get a dose of meat-based protein and veggies. And we do okay with many kinds of fruits. Let me tell you, though, nothin’ green is going in that little Elmo-cracker-piehole without coming right back out again.

But I live in New York, and there are so many different kinds of foods to try in this big bad city of ours, that I am longing for my baby to develop the sense that eating is fun.  Of course, you don’t need to be in New York to find a wide variety of ethnic foods and rarer fruits and veggies.  Supermarkets across America now offer specialty foods that were once only available in urban areas.  So how can we get our kids not only eating, but enjoying foods that aren’t beige?

I have had the great fortune to chat with not one but two Food Network superstars in the last few weeks. I know, crazy, right? But true.  And I asked both of them this question.

I participated in an online Web Chat with Pim from chezpim.com (you may also know her as a guest judge on Iron Chef America) whose food blog is incredibly highly regarded a kick to read.  Her post on how to make your own Pop Tarts has been hugely popular and reflects Pim’s sense of fun and good taste.  Pim is on board promoting Rachel’s Wickedly Delicious new flavored cottage cheeses.  These sound awesome by the way.  We’re talking Pear  Mangosteen (no idea what mangosteen is but the description sounds amazing), Pomegranate Orange Cranberry, Sundried Tomato Pesto and more! Cottage cheese makes a great toddler food and as aforementioned, dairy does make it to the top of my baby’s chosen menu.

So I asked Pim, “How do I raise my baby to be an adventurous eater?”  And her answer was really interesting.  She actually said “Don’t make eating a big deal.”  Allow your children to try anything they want (that’s right, anything), and if they don’t  like it, don’t make them force it down.  Tasting new foods should be a fun and exciting adventure, not a scary ordeal that winds up in punishment.  She reminded me that children’s taste buds need time to develop.   Encourage this growth, but don’t force it.

I thought to myself, “how cool.”  Eating should be fun.  But I have overlayed it with all my dieting issues such that in many ways it’s become punishment for me too.  Huh.

I then followed up by asking her how we can encourage the grown-ups in our lives to eat more adventurously.  Pim encouraged me to mix new flavors with comfort food.  Don’t need to pull out the whole octopus at once.  Try a traditional casserole or pasta dish with a new ingredient.  Place flavor surprises inside familiar contexts to help ease picky eaters of any age into a new culinary experience!

Just a week or two later, I again found myself in the presence of Food Network royalty, but this time the meeting was real and not virtual. Robin Miller has been working with Ragu to create new recipes prepared with Ragu pasta sauces. She was here in NYC shooting video segments in which she demoed those recipes (look for them soon on Ragu.com).  Beth from Role Mommy, Katja from Skimbaco Lifestyle and Katja’s sweet daughter Isabella (who was celebrating her 9th birthday that day!) and I all got to watch Robin at work in the kitchen and then ask her a few questions.  Watch this short video to see what happened when little old me, Wendy from Babies Gotta Have It, asked Robin about raising adventurous eaters and cooking meals for families with toddlers!

Last night my hubby took me to an amazing restaurant, Spice Market, for a belated birthday dinner. My birthday was January 3rd. Yeah, it was belated. As I dove into Beef Skewers with Thai Dipping Sauce, Spicy Chicken Samosas, Cod with Malaysian Chili Sauce Thai Basil, Onion and Chili Crusted Short Ribs with Egg Noodles and Pea Shoots, and finished my meal with Ceylon Cinnamon Creme Brulee with Roasted Quince and Orange Shortbread and Valrhona Chocolate and Pecan Tart with Spiced Pear Sorbet, I thought to myself that all these struggles to help my baby learn to eat are worth it.  Ultimately, an appreciation for and love of good, colorful, flavorful, stimulating food is a gift.  And that’s really something baby’s gotta have.

My baby got a lot of Baby Einstein DVDs as gifts. Honestly, she was never really crazy about the infant ones–the vids in which trains go in circles and sparkly things bounce around while tinkly versions of classical music play. She just didn’t dig them.  She did however, and I am so not just saying this, always like the “Baby Shakespeare” one.  It had words and puppets in addition to the music, and from the first viewing she really responded to  it. That said, my nieces and nephews were HUGE Baby Einstein fans and I have seen them sit happily in their bumbos for a nice long while watching marbles roll down chutes while their parents and I ate canapes.

Let me also say, that what I have written thus far is in no way about me being a TV snob or not liking my child to watch TV. I am a TV junkie (and if you are not watching the NBC show “Friday Night Lights” you should be).  I will go on record that I do let my baby watch some TV pretty much every day.  I am very selective about what she watches, and I did not start this until she was about nine months old. But The New York Times and Harvard recently said it’s okay for babies to watch some TV.  They claim, however, there are no particular benefits to the babies from watching “educational” TV.  They do acknowledge the benefits to moms from having babies watching a little bit of TV, and I definitely see eye to eye with them there. So I’m glad about that too.

All that said, I was definitely excited to see the newest offering from Baby Einstein: The World Music DVD.  Thanks to the lovely folks at Mom Central, my baby and I were able to get a sneak peek of this video and I gotta say, it was a hit.

I am pretty much on board with any CD or DVD that exposes our kids to music from around the world.  I believe fully that listening to music is an important part of babies’ development, and I love the idea that my child has access to instruments, melodies, and rhythms from other cultures.  She is growing up in a new world where the internet and availability of travel will make contact with other cultures increasingly easy and necessary. The world is far bigger than our little neighborhood. I think it’s wonderful for my child to become aware of that.

So we tried the DVD out!  One of the neat features of this Baby Einstein DVD is that it has several modes of play.  You can choose to “select-a-segment” and watch 5 - 10 minute chunks of your choice.  And you can also choose one of two viewing modes: either the standard mode or “Grow With Me” mode in which spoken words, printed words and additional content more appropriate for older babies are included in the viewing.  I chose this mode since my baby is 19 months old.  And she totally dug it.

Jane the monkey guides the viewer on this trek around the world through a series of puppet show segments (which my gal thought were a hoot and a half).   Jane travels the globe in her airplane and then interacts and plays the drum with a puppet friend from each continent.  Then, we see video from each location, accompanied by music of each culture.  The video features the landscape, animals and people of the continent, and in each continent we are introduced to a traditional instrument.  In the “Grow With Me Mode” that instrument is named and demonstrated.  Honestly, it’s pretty cool.

I was less impressed with the World Music CD.  In general, I’m not a big fan of the Baby Einstein versions of classical music.  I understand that they are making the music in some ways simpler to be more accessible and palatable to an infant’s ear.  But honestly I’d rather have my kid hear the actual composition.  This world music also feels a bit watered down.  But I’m no music expert and I can see that this music would work well to soothe your little tiny infants.  I don’t, however, think I’ll reach for this CD for my toddler outside of nap and quiet time.

So, baby’s bottom line? The Baby Einstein World Music DVD was a hit in my house.  I like the message. My baby liked the content.  The CD?  Not my fave, but again, for your teeny tiny infants it might be a nice choice.  Both together make a lovely baby gift or baby shower gift.  Thanks so much Baby Einstein and Mom Central!  We had a great time checking this product out!

Ok these guys make toys that light up…but have no batteries.  Your preschooler puts the little guy in the car, pushes him around the house thereby getting out some of that crazy bouncing kid energy, the little guy charges, and much to your child’s delight and amazement, the little guy glows.  It’s a toy and a science experiment all in one!  I saw one of these toys at this super cool little baby store in Los Angeles and have been in love with Sprig Toys ever since. When Sprig offered to send me toys to review, I nearly fell out of my desk chair in excitement.  Ok, I stalked them on Twitter.  But still, they offered.

My wee little bean loves playing with these absolutely unique toys.  She calls the bee and the butterfly her “guys.”  Watch the video to see.  It’s darned cute, if I do say so myself.

I had a moment in the video where I smelled the toys (as they instruct you to do on the box: “Made with recycled Sprigwood. Smell Me!”) and said “They smell like shop class.”  And then I thought, that might not be exactly the image that Sprig wants out there so I edited it out.  Even though I meant in the best, sawdusty, wood-filled sense of the description.  Then I saw that on the Sprig site, they themselves say “Smell the wood-shop scent” and I felt validated.

These visionary toy designers started Sprig toys out of the desire to change the negative impact most toy-making has on our environment, create toys that are safe for our children, and get kids out of their chairs, up on their feet and playing again. As far as I’m concerned, they have totally succeeded.

I could write a lot about this company, but I can’t say it better than they do.  Go to their website to read more.  Let me just say that Sprig Toys are made from “Sprigwood”, a child-safe material composed of reclaimed plastic and recycled wood, they contain NO decorative paint (NONE AT ALL!), they light up without the use of batteries, they come in very minimal cardboard packaging, and they are super cute and totally unique. Oh yeah, and they come with flower seeds.  IN the packages.  That your kids can plant with you. Watch the video above to see the Sprig Hollow Bee and Butterfly Set in action.  I love this company.

Now tell me you don’t want to try these toys…  Guess what?  You can!  Thanks to the amazing folks at Sprig Toys, one lucky Babies Gotta Have It reader is going to win the “Dunebug’s Sand Truck Playset” from the Sprig Hollow Collection.

To Enter the Sprig Toys Giveaway:

• Take a swing by Sprig Toys and check out their products.  Then, leave a comment on the post letting me know which one of their toys or toy sets (Aside from the Dunebug Set) is your favorite and what you love about it.  Entering is that easy!

***Want an extra chances to win? Do any of the below and leave me additional comments letting me know you did! Make sure you include your email address with your entry. Maximum of three entries per person!

• Follow me on twitter (click the birdy button on the left to do so easily)
• Blog this giveaway (send me the url so I can enjoy your post!)
• Twitter this giveaway (include @BabiesGottaHavT and this post’s link in your tweet)
• Subscribe to my blog using the button on the left
• Email a friend about the giveaway and cc me in the message at babiesgottahaveit@gmail.com (I promise I will not spam you or your friends - cross my heart)

Giveaway only open to those with U.S. addresses. Giveaway begins on Monday March 16th and ends on Tuesday March 24th  at 11:59 Eastern Standard Time. On Wednesday March 25th Random.org will select a winner, and I’ll email you and announce it immediately. After my baby called Larry the Cable guy last time during the drawing, we have decided to take a little vacation from her choosing the winner. Random.org is in no way as cute and unpredictable as my baby, but it is much more efficient and does not use any pieces of paper, even recycled ones. I am sure you will understand. Thanks for entering!

Update!  And the winner is:

Result: 49

Congratulations Mommy Daisy!  Check out her blog!  I’ll be emailing you immediately for your shipping address and I’ll get your Sprig Toys set out to you very soon.

And for everyone who loves Sprig Toys…Sprig Toys is sponsoring a very special Earth Day Giveaway in which I’ll be giving away ELEVEN of their  new Sprig Hollow Toys!  So check back very soon!

So I was really bummed to discover that Karin Alexis’s website is currently under construction.  What’s a tutu lovin’ gal to do?

Then I remembered the beyond gorgeous tutus I saw in Los Angeles when I was there visiting Rebecca and Rebecca a few weeks ago.

The story: We were looking for a second string “Raff” lovey for the little Bean.  Rebecca and Rebecca got the original “Raff” (a.k.a. Douglas Cuddle Toy Giraffe) at this super-hip super-sweet little boutique in Los Angeles called La La Ling. Raff has become so essential to our lives that I fear if something happens to him, the world will cease to rotate on its axis. This is a familiar story to many of you, I’m sure.  So when I was in L.A. we went to La La Ling hoping to find Raff’s doppleganger.  Sadly, we were thwarted.  The only giraffe lovies available that day were white with yellow spots and Raff is all yellow.  I was at the checkout counter with the white spotted giraffe when I realized he wasn’t exactly the same as Raff.  Not good.  My niece has two absolutely identical elephant lovies.  The original is “Ellie.”  The back-up? “Sad Ellie.”  No kidding.  Had I returned with a completely different colored giraffe I can only imagine that he would have been called many worse things than “sad.”

However, as we were leaving La La Ling Raff-less, we spotted the Kaiya Eve Pettiskirts all piled up in a filmy column next to the door, and we stopped in our tracks.  They are beyond delicious–the softest, airiest, most cotton candy sweet tutu skirts you have ever seen.  No nasty tulle here.  Just mountains of cloudlike filmy fabric your gal will spin and flounce to her heart’s content.  These delectable beautifully-made skirts come in sizes 12 months to 6 youth and nine gorgeous colors.

Want to spoil your little princess beyond belief?  Get her a Kaiya Eve Pettiskirt for her birthday. It’s definitely a splurge. But you won’t regret it.

Congratulations Sharla! Check out her blog, The Mom Nerd!  Enjoy your Smartparts Digital Photo Keychain, Sharla!

And let me say, I had pretty much decided I wasn’t going to create new posts just with videos of the baby drawing the winning names in the giveaways.  They were really starting to become too much the same.  But this video is so ridiculous…I had to post it.  It seems fitting as I approach my one year bloggiversary (blirthday?) that the essential premise of my blog–my sweet agreeable baby and I doing video demonstrations of must-have baby products–is seriously threatened by that sweet baby growing into a toddler with her own ideas!  Can you believe it? How dar she.  More on this later.

Let me just end by saying when I started this blog I never intended to have Larry the Cable Guy do a cameo.  Enough said.

I am my mother’s daughter. Listen to Mary Lou: now is the time, my friends, to shop for next year’s winter gear. I know all you want to think about is daffodils and peeps. Me too.  But do yourself a favor.  Shop the sales, get a rubbermaid tub, and stuff it with the things your baby will need for next winter.  Your movie night and shoe budgets will both thank you.

When we bundle baby up to go out for roaster chickens and paper towels on a brisk March day, we make sure she’s wearing the following: a warm winter jacket, a hat with a velcro closure (no closure and it’s off in two seconds), and a stroller bunting.  My baby’s jacket is a hand-me-down from Old Navy (and honestly we’re still not sure who gave it to us but it’s so cute I wish she could wear it until Middle School), the hat is from the Children’s Place and my mom got it (thank you Granny), and bean’s stroller bunting is an JJ Cole Urban Toddler Bundle Me.  There are lots of super cool stroller buntings out there, but this is one of the least expensive and it works well for us.  We had a hand-me-down one in the infant sizelast year and I got this one this year and have been really happy with it…aside from the fact that she’s learned how to unzip it so if she wants out of her stroller while i’m wrestling the stroller through four inches of dirty slush, she just opens it and pushes it away so that the Urban Bundle Me drags through the Urban Nasty Sludge.

Wendy, signing off.  Eagerly awaiting “out like a lamb.”