Ddrops | Review & Giveaway

There is no question that as parents, our children's needs are always at the forefront of our minds. As a parent of a child with multiple food allergies supplementation is something I struggle with. I work hard to provide a nutritious, well-rounded, gluten/dairy/soy-free diet for the boy, but I can't help but worry that he is missing out nutritionally.

As you may know, I was fortunate enough to win tickets to Blissdom Canada from Ddrops Canada and I have also had the opportunity to try out the Vitamin D supplements. "Vitamin D is actually a building block involved in repair and maintenance of the body" and is therefore something anyone and everyone can benefit from.  Ddrops are available for Adults, Children and Infants; amazingly all three products require only a single tasteless drop to get maximum benefits.

As you may know, the traditional source of Vitamin D is exposure to the sun and although there are a few other sources of Vitamin D, supplementation is often recommended.  The biggest problem we've had with Ddrops at our house is remembering to take them, particularly given the 'mommy brain' that is currently my reality.

Ddrops are a fantastic product; I love that they are tasteless and thus can be dropped into an evening bottle, licked off a spoon or even the back of the hand.  There's nothing worse that trying to syringe liquids into an unwilling toddler's mouth.  With Ddrops I have confidence that despite sunscreen, sunhats, sunglasses and protective clothing our family is getting sufficient Vitamin D to fuel and heal our bodies.

Ddrops wants you to have that confidence too, so we are giving away all three of the Ddrops products I tested, to one lucky Momma Stuff Blog Reader.

Ddrops has also offered to send a free Dora/Diego Growth Chart to any Momma Stuff Blog readers who post a question or comment on the Ddrops Facebook Page regarding Ddrops or Vitamin D in general.

Enter to Win

Ddrops set including: 1 Baby Ddrops, 1 Kids Ddrops and 1 Ddrops

Open to Canada only

 

First Entry:
Visit http://www.ddrops.ca online and leave a comment sharing why you want to try out Ddrops!

Please make sure you include your email address if its not in your profile otherwise I won't be able to contact you if you win!

 
Additional Entries:

Please leave a comment for EACH additional entry

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I entered to #win Ddrops Vitamin D supplements for the whole family from @mommastuffblog & @babyddrops http://bit.ly/jFGQ8G

Giveaway closes Sunday July 10th, 2011 at 8pm (PST). Winner will be determined by a random number generator. Winner will be notified via email and the winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new name will be drawn and contacted.

Contest now closed. Congratulations to our Winner Comment #19 'Little Miss Kate'

boys will be boys

There are a lot of gender stereotypes in our society and before I was a parent I never realized that the need to play with cars or dolls is as intrinsic to a child as their need to colour or play with bubbles.  I used to think it was all about exposure, the toys available to a child would be the ones they learned to enjoy.

The boy went 'vroom vroom' with a toy car before I ever showed him and every single time I have given him a stuffed animal, hes thrown it on the ground and stomped on it.  The boy has a defiant streak and as he gets older, I find myself saying more and more often, 'he's a boy' with a shrug of my shoulders; when he wants to throw every toy in the house, knock down toy towers rather than build his own or when he feels the need to touch every item he can reach in the grocery store.  Based entirely on my limited experience as a parent, I've come to believe that our children's behaviours are at least partially related to gender; that there is some truth to the age old saying, 'boys will be boys'.

Case and point, I ran into another mom at the grocery store and she had her daughter, who is approximately one month older than the boy, with her.  She patiently stood next to her mom, eyeballing all of the items on the shelves around us, but not once did she grab or throw something, nor did she bolt causing her mom to run off and catch her.  On top of all of this picture perfect behaviour, her mom mentioned that she was 'jacked up on sugar' from a birthday party.  Seriously?

My jaw must have hit the floor, I don't take the boy to the grocery store unless I strap him in the shopping cart and have enough snacks to occupy him for the duration, this also requires that I never stop the cart close enough to the shelves that he can reach the groceries when I'm not looking.  If the boy behaved like this little girl in the grocery store, I swear he'd have to be practically comatose.

I know that personality and environment all effect who our children become, but for some reason this particular grocery store encounter has really left me thinking about the differences between little boys and girls. I don't know much about little girls, but with a house full of boys I'm certainly going to get the chance to learn first-hand about male behaviour.

Do your children fit into gender stereotypes?  Do you believe that 'boys will be boys'?  I guess there's always the option of raising baby genderless, but personally, I just don't see it as a viable option.

I'm a homebody

My home is in the suburbs of the World's Most Livable City; here in Vancouver we have mild (albeit wet) weather, great shopping, tons of community events, a great urban centre and still mother nature is literally at our doorstep.  Despite all the wondrousness that is Vancouver, I rarely make it out to enjoy everything the city has to offer.  While my sister might spend the day at a local beach, I'm more than happy to hang out in the backyard or walk to the park with my boys.

 Before you chalk my behaviour up to parenthood, I have a confession; I am a homebody and I always have been.

When I was in University, while my friends were out at the bar drinking and dancing, I was at home in my jammies watching a movie by myself and drinking a steaming cup of decaf.  A girl at work recently told me that she was ecstatic that her three year old went to bed at 8pm because that meant she and her husband could easily go out after he was asleep; I laughed.  The boy goes to be at 7pm and we rarely, if ever, go out after he's in bed, we're pretty happy to watch a movie on a weekend evening. I like to stay home and I'm OK with that.

That being said, I'd like to start taking advantage of the plethora of family friendly events that my community has to offer, and we are definitely making some headway.  In celebration of public service week, our local works yard had a huge open house with opportunities to make birdfeeders, climb on all the 'mighty machines' the city has to offer and and there was even a play area in the middle of the works yard.

It was so great to get out as a family and enjoy some of the local community; I hope that we will continue to do more and more of these types of things and with summer just around the corner I'm confident we will.  Does your family get out a lot or do you tend to spend most of your time close to home?

Maude Baby Cloth Diapers | Review

It's no secret I'm a cloth diapering momma; we however have opted to use a cloth diaper service rather than washing our own.  This was in large part simply a compromise to the diaper debate that both my husband and I could agree on.  That being said, I have often wondered about the ease of cloth diapering in the traditional way.  I've wondered about the time spent rinsing, washing and potentially stuffing diapers and whether it truly is more economical when you factor in laundry costs and time.

I still can't answer most of those questions, however when Motherofasale.com presented me with a chance to try out a new Maude Baby cloth diaper, I couldn't resist.

Maude Baby pocket diapers fit children sized six to thirty-six pounds and include both a number of snaps and adjustable leg gussets to ensure an effective fit regardless of your childs size.  The adjustable gussets work much like the elastic in the back of childrens pants; adjustable buttons along an elastic.  I was worried that the button might come unhinged during washing, but I need not have worried, the diaper emerged completely intact and ready to wear.

At close to 36 pounds, Maude Baby diapers were snug on the boy, but they left no marks on his skin and he seemed extremely comfortable with their plush softness next to his skin.  I decided to put Maude Baby diapers to the  test right off the bat and stuffed both inserts into the diaper and put the boy to bed.  Keeping in mind that no disposable can handle the boys nighttime wetness and these days even our cloth diapers have been having trouble, the Maude Baby diapers were on par with our diaper service and definitely surpassed disposables with regard to wetness control.

Although cloth diapers often make baby bums look big, I personally find cloth diapers absolutley adorable and irresistible.  Maude Baby diapers are no exception, they aren't overly bulky and they come in four vibrant colours, Biscayne, Chili, Bubblegum and Lemon Lime.

Maude Baby diapers wash up beautifully, even after a pretty potent toddler poop; if I was going to consider buying and washing my own cloth diapers, Maude Baby cloth diapers would definitley make the list.  Maude Baby diapers are availabe on the Maude Baby Website; the price for a single diaper is $27.50 but the price drops to close to $16 per diaper when you buy the 8-pack combo.