Nappy Codes?

Huggies v Pampers

So you've been buying nappies and noticing that they have a sticker on the inside with a code you can redeem for prizes, with the flyer being able to win a years supply of nappies and wipes, how awesome!

Well not exactly...but you've nothing to lose by trying.

Once you've set up a user profile at both sites, you can plug your codes in. Pampers certainly make this a lot easier to do, as you can add more than one code at a time and if you're anything like me, I just keep them in a draw and do a bunch at a time when bored some evening, and gives you a chance to check out other prizes being offered.

Huggies, you have to enter and submit a code each time and also select a store where you bought them from a drop down menu, which is more hassle.

On the other hand, to enter the year supply of nappy and wipes with Huggies, it only costs you 5 points per draw and you can enter as often as you want. Pampers cost you 20 points to enter their monthly competition.

They both offer many other prizes that you can enter for. Huggies have a instant win thing where the prizes are smaller and use less points, but you find out straight away and they also have small monthly prizes such as a box of nappies that you can enter and wait till they draw a winner. Pampers allow you to spend the points on products, toilet seats, toys, that kind of thing as well.

One nice thing about Pampers, they have a chart showing how many points you'll likely earn for each product, because different type of nappies, sizes and number count get different points ranging from 10 for wipes or a small packet to 180 for a large box for instance. Huggies doesn't appear to do this and the points ranged from 4 I'm guessing for the wipes, to 25 for a packet of nappies.

At the end of the day, you've got nothing to lose by keeping the codes and doing the programs, but they probably aren't worth the extra cost over getting a store branded box of nappies, especially if they had a coupon you could use.

Free Discovery Museum Fridays

This is great for anyone living in the burbs or fancying a bit of a change.

The Children's Discovery Museum in Acton.

Every Friday till the end of August, between 4:30 and 8:30pm both the Children's Museum and the Science Museum portions at the place are free.

The Children's portion is fantastic for little kids, ideally from say 2.5 up till around 6 or so as they get to play with a fake train, water tables and a giant human bubble maker as well as a diner, a jungle themed room, a boat themed room, a theatre and a host of other fun little things for kids to play around with and explore.

Then over to the Science portion, aimed at slightly older kids, but 3 year olds will still love this. There are plenty of things for all ages, especially the musical instrument and noise making activities and water based activities.

Spending the evening here is very easy to do and a lot of fun. Not as crazy busy as the time they were doing the Free Friday event for the Highland Street people, so very easy to get in, park and play. The garden area is a great spot to have a picnic if you arrive early, or just play in the huge sandpit outside if the weather is nice.

Mark Binder - Author and Entertainer

Mark Binder

An author of children's books. He bills himself more as a story teller though and if you get a chance to catch him doing a book session, you really should!

He has read at a lot of libraries and it was there that I managed to catch a show, which went on for 45 minutes, stories and a little bit of music, just enough to entertain and keep little minds in tune for.

Binder, has a collection of around 6 traditionally printed books, of which "It ate my sister" and "The bedtime story book" are particularly good collection of stories. He also has a collection of audio books and e-books. The audio books would be great to collect as he has such enthusiasm and energy in his story telling. Of which, is't a strict reading of his books, but a collection of age appropriate stories, some of which are based on the written tales but many being based off of stories you might recognise, that have either been updated or merged with similar stories, all with great amusement and audience participation.

At the end of the reading session, he did have a collection of audio CD's and books you could buy, offering them for $10 each instead of the regular $15, and if you bought two, you could get a third for free. These were all signed and personalised. He accepted cash, cheque and credit card, so you don't have to worry about being caught short if you wanted to buy a book after a showing.

For a list of his free readings, of which seem to be mostly in MA and RI can be found here.

Aqueduck Bathroom Faucet Extender - Review

Aqueduck Bathroom Faucet Extender

This product is made by Peachy LLC

For anyone with toddlers who are potty trained or getting that way, this is a really useful product!

You've got a toddler up on their stool, trying to wash their hands and they just can't reach and you don't want to be lifting them up every time, especially when they're starting to get a little heavy.

This is a simple, plastic piece that has a rubber attachment on one end which holds this onto the sink faucet and the plastic folds up creating a tube. Easily attaches to a variety of sink faucets.

Simple, easy to use product that'll help your kids out.

Best place to buy this seems to be on Amazon for $13

Strawberry Fest Review

Strawberry Festival

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As mentioned last week, this happened last Saturday.

It's definitely a great event to be marked into your calendar for next year as it was a lovely, family event.

The strawberries were superb and the pick your own plentiful, as well as being very well priced at $3 a pound.

The farm also had a lovely marketstand type store where you could buy locally grown fruit and veg, which seemed to be very well priced as well. Plenty of lovely looking home made lunches boxes were available as well.

Because of the rain this time around, I don't think they had the pony rides which was a shame, but they did move the music and puppet shows into the greenhouse and there was plenty of room to enjoy them.

The one main consideration I think would be to arrive early, because even with the heavy morning rain, which had cleared out by the time this started at 11am, the place did get very busy by the time we arrived at lunchtime. There was quite a lot of parking available, but it was still a bit of a struggle to find a spot.

There also might be a bit of a struggle to use a pushchair if you had to as there might not much space to move it around easily when the shows get going and it's certainly very grassy outside.

The toilets inside were also very nice and clean and they had ample portaloos outside as well.

I'll get around to writing a review for the music and the puppet shows, which were both fantastic entertainment for everyone.

Awesome Bowl Protectors!

The Wrap by Boon

Check this product out here.

It's a rubberised wrap that protects your bowls, helps them stick to tables and makes them easier for kids to hold, so able to use your regular china which is lovely!

Pampers v Huggies Pull Up Nappy Review

Starting to potty train?

A look at a couple of the training pants, the Pull Ups.

Pampers v Huggies As the main two contenders, this is what I've found from using both for a while each.

Pampers - What I liked about these, they had plenty of blue "wet" indicators on the front of them and also they were slightly more roomy, so easier to actually pull up like a pair of pants. That was it and both of those had flaws to them.

The blue wet patch indicators never actually disappeared to show the nappy was wet, which they were supposed to do. Being a bit more roomy meant that the pants came off with the trousers very easily, which is not what you want if you've got a poop to deal with.

The biggest problem with Pampers though, the tear away sides didn't have a velcro like fixer to them, so if you had to change them in public it became a major hassle as you'd have to take the shoes and trousers off, you couldn't simply whip on a new pair like a regular nappy.

Huggies - The best thing about these were the velcro like sides, they came apart and stuck back together really firmly, making them very convenient to change when on the go.

Personal preference was the Disney characters as well, though that's no reflection on the quality of the nappy, but the wet indicators did actually work on these so you wouldn't find a bowling ball size nappy all of a sudden. These nappies were a little tighter than the Pampers, so were a little tougher for the little one to pull them up on her own, but it did mean they stayed up when you pulled the trousers down which was nice.

Over all, having loved Pampers for nappies in general and not liking Huggies, Huggies were the big winner this time, being much better product. The major flaw to both of them though, as they aren't nappies, they don't have proper side stickies to wrap the nappy up in case of a smelly poo disposal, which isn't quite so fun and also the gussets aren't quite as large as in regular nappies so they might spill a bit of baggage if the kid is moving around vigorously with a large load in their pants. You also do not get as many in a packet as you do for regular nappies, about 60 for $20.

Because of that I really do think they are a waste of time to use when your toddler is first starting out on the path to potty training and you might as well stick to regular nappies until they are well on their way to being able to use the potty or the toilet because once they start on these they probably won't want to go back to nappies either.

Toddler Birthday Party at the "My Gym"

My Gym

This is a nationwide kids gym franchise aimed at 6 weeks to 13 years of age.

They offer a whole range of activities for kids, from arts and crafts, to sporting activities and general play.

Membership can be a little expensive, so that's up to you, but the party service they offer was superb. We were invited to a friends toddler party, for mostly 2-3 year olds.

The whole party went really smoothly, from story time to running around using various equipment such as a ball filled pit, to jumping around various padded blocks, to swinging around on huge rocket shaped swings. The activities were great fun and even though the whole thing was very laid back, it was nicely structured, to get the kids doing something different very quickly leading up to singing before the cake, which they were great about preparing and serving. A great couple of hours entertainment for a huge number of kids.

Sing-a-ma-Jigs The Hot Toy?

The Sing-A-Ma-Jig

It is supposed to be the big hot toy this Christmas. Little furry plushie toys who sing and jibber when you squeeze them.

You will end up killing anyone who gives your kid one. They are insanely annoying and they're shit. You need a whole group of them to make any decent rhythmical tunes but unlike other toys who are meant to interact with each other like the Dino's, these chaps you have to press them each and every time and timing is what counts to make the tune sound anything but a drowning cat.

Not a fan and not sure why so many other parents seem to like them, but there you go.

Things to Do - The Ecotarium

The Ecotarium out in Worcester, MA

It's a great day out for kids, especially those 2-8 as they have a lot of activities for the kids to play around with, water toys, mini wind tunnels, music and light toys.

More than that, a collection of live animals, great collection of turtles, frogs and birds.

On a good day, they have lots of trails outside which are lovely too, nice short walks around a pond, with places to observe the water life and bird life, those some of these paths aren't very easy to get around with a push chair while others were. The kids playground is also very nice and spacious.

Some of the attractions were closed such as the walking tree canopy, which I could see being fun in the summer, and also the polar bear wasn't on display. The train ride is though and that is very cool, but it is a shame that some of these attractions cost extra.

One big tip, get a library pass to this place, entrance is then only $5 for adults and kids under 3 are free and older kids are $3 instead of being $12 for adults and $8 for kids.

Toddlers and Toothpaste

So we've started to use some Toddler Training Tooth Paste by Orajel.

Seems to work a treat, doesn't have fluoride so safe for the little one is she swallows a little bit of the stuff.

Not sure about the flavours that they offer, we got the girly variety, which is "pink" flavoured, bit general and don't have a clue what they mean by that.

Best thing about this though, it gets rid of bad breath and after the amount of yoghurt and cheese our little one goes through, that's a really good thing!

Well worth checking this out, but look for Orajel coupons first because you can usually find quite a few online as well as in the usual newspaper flyouts etc.

Storing those Plush Toys!

Found the perfect answer on Think Geek - The Otto Plush Animal Bag

Store all your plush animal toys in this big blob plushy.

Baby Monitors

Here's a short review of a few baby monitors because we had to finally replace our original monitor because new neighbours below our apartment has caused some interference so we went for an upgrade.

Our original monitor was a Graco Respond which we managed to find at Big Lots for $10 and has been a fantastic bargain as well as a great product.

It is well built, very sturdy and can be thrown around lots without breaking. The receiver has a battery built in that can be charged up and gives you great usage which is handy when when you've got to run around the house as the range is also very good. The signal also is generally very good, except when placed around a phone or router.

Other features of this monitor include a recording option so that if your baby cries it can play your recording, or it can play a few nursery rhymes.

Very happy with this unit and give it 4/5

The replacement unit we got was a Graco iMonitor Digital Vibe - What we liked about this, it's very simple to work out of the box, comes with a built in battery for the receiver which charges from a cradle and the base monitor can use batteries as a backup, which aren't included but the power adapters were universal for both the base and receiver.

Also the receiver has a power socket so you don't need the cradle if you don't want. This is a nice mobile unit, small, well made, light and sturdy with a pretty good belt clip. The battery life on this isn't as good as other monitors but it is good enough to get you around a long nap time.

The range on this is advertised as 2000 ft, I haven't confirmed that, but it has been crystal clear through out our apartment which is lovely, and it really has been crystal clear with no static or interference, being a digital unit really does make a huge difference here over the older analogue systems. The receiver also has a vibrate function to let you know your baby is crying if you have the volume turned down which is a nice idea but not something I use.

We'll give this a 5/5 rating.

Before we got the above, we tried and then returned a couple other units, the first was:

Safety First Go and Glow Monitor - Looks great, quite cheap depending on where you get it, $25-35 and nice and sturdy design. The major problem we had with this unit was interference, it wouldn't work anywhere at all in our apartment, the receiver was just bleeping out static which was horrid. Other things that dinged this in our minds, the belt clip was rubbish and this didn't include any batteries. The base unit was nice and stable though and had a thermometer. Finally the nightlight feature didn't really light up, so was a bit pointless.

2/5

Fisher Price Sound's n Lights Monitor - Another cheap unit around the $25-35 price range, analogue and returned because it also suffered heavy interference, it was better than the above unit in that it would work if the receiver was placed close to the base unit or in certain parts of the apartment but not anywhere that was useful for us.

This does advertise itself as being "green" with the power supply, the irony being that it was least environmentally friendly in the packaging having the most disposable rubbish. The antenna is not built in on this either, which potentially means it could be unsafe as a large protrusion, certainly something easy for the baby to grab and throw. The base unit was very light and didn't feel sturdy, but it did have a nice night light feature, which wouldn't automatically shut down incidentally which is a shame. Also no built in batteries for this unit and if you wanted to place your own batteries, the compartment comes with screw fitted fixings which isn't very convenient, this is aimed at the parents and not the child after all.

A nice feature about this unit though, the light indicator is visible from both sides of the receiver and the belt clips is quite sturdy.

2/5

Other units we looked at but didn't try out, but you can read the reviews on Amazon, which came highly recommended were the:

Safety 1st High-Def Digital Monitor

Sony 900 MHz BabyCall Nursery Monitor

Cool Toddler Crockery

The Loopa Gyro Bowl - This thing is awesome, a gyroscopic bowl that will always face up, so hopefully reducing the chances of spilled food when your toddler is on the move.

Bed Bath & Beyond has it online for $8