A new obsession has swept my house, and that is Disney Pixar’s Wall-E. Wall-E is an adorable little robot with the huge task of cleaning up Earth after it becomes covered in garbage. He is the last robot left of the “Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class” robots that were assigned 700 years ago to clean up the environmental mess left by man-kind. Even though Wall-E doesn’t say anything in the first 25 minutes of the movie, he has captured my son’s heart and we’ve watched the movie it at least a dozen times.

My son now wants to wear his Wall-E shirt to preschool, and also wants to take his plush to show-and-tell. He sleeps with his plush and carries him around the house, talking to him as if he were his best buddy. Disney has done a great job in marketing this new Pixar movie, by having a huge amount of Wall-E merchandise. You can get a Wall-E lunchbox, backpack, blanket, sheet set – the list goes on and on. And he is just so darn cute that it’s hard to resist!

So, if you and your kids haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it. But just be aware that they may be asking for a bunch of Wall-E stuff for Christmas or their birthdays!

Popularity: 26% [?]

With the environmental concerns of today and the trend toward “being green” in today’s society, cloth diapering has never been more popular among parents as it has been in recent years. I have cloth diapered both of my children early on in their lives, and absolutely loved it!  Some of my favorite cloth diapers which I used were Blueberry Diapers. Cloth diapers can come in all types of styles, shapes, and sizes, and from Blueberry, I was especially pleased with the One Size Deluxe Snap and the Stuffable AIO diapers.

The One Size Deluxe Snap diaper is a “pocket diaper” which consists of an outer layer of waterproof material and an inner layer of microfleece to help wick moisture away from your baby’s skin. A great feature of this diaper is that it is adjustable in both size and absorbency as your baby grows, ranging from 8-35 pounds. Included with the diaper is a microfiber/hemp insert which gets stuffed into the “pocket” of the diaper for absorbency. It’s easy to add another insert to increase absorbency, for example during overnight use. Pocket diapers are definitely a favorite of mine. Because the absorbent insert separates from the outer pocket, the diaper takes less time to dry then an All-In-One (AIO) diaper.

Howevers, AIOs have their own great features, and they tend to be a favorite of daycares, baby sitters, and grandparents due to their ease of use. The Blueberry Stuffable AIO is a 1-piece system that is put on your baby just like you would a disposable diaper, only you don’t throw it away. It is made with a waterproof outer layer, an inner fabric layer that wicks wetness away, and a sewn in 3-layer soaker pad made of high quality microfiber terry. This AIO, however, can also act like a pocket diaper since you can stuff an insert inside in order to increase the absorbency.

And in case you were wondering, washing cloth diapers isn’t as difficult as you might think. For a detailed introduction into how to wash cloth diapers check out Cloth Diaper Laundry – Cleaning How-To’s.

So, if you are considering cloth diapering or are already cloth diapering your little ones, definitely give Blueberry diapers a try – you’ll love them! To order Blueberry diapers, inserts, and accessories you can go to Blueberrydiapers.com or Swaddlebees.com.

Popularity: 33% [?]

I just got the news that Baby Gizmo is playing Santa Claus! I had reviewed their fantastic book The Baby Gizmo Buying Guide and now they are having 12 fun-filled days of Christmas giveaways of their most favorite items for mom and baby! There will be lucky winners, one each day between December 1st and December 12th, of amazing prizes including products from: Maclaren, Svan, Kelty, JJ Cole, Mutsy, pediped, Stokke, Fisher Price, Moonlight Slumber, Kushies, Skip Hop, & Baby Bjorn.

The best thing about these giveaways is that all you need to do is log in to be entered to win! So head on over to Babygizmo.com and log in everyday for your chance to win one of these fantastic prizes! Oh and don’t forget about the Santa Baby Photo Contest starting today where you can win a sassy Peg Perego Skate Stroller.

Popularity: 18% [?]

“Potty Training” – those two words can sometimes cause quite a bit of anxiety among parents. I know that I certainly had a lot of apprehension when it came to trying to train my oldest son. Right before my his second birthday, I thought I had a few more months to get myself prepared and ready for the challenge that lay ahead. However, my son had other plans – I knew the time had come since he starting removing his soiled diaper any chance he got. The first few months was tough. I certainly spent a lot of time cleaning my carpets and washing a lot of clothes, all the while searching for answers on how to make this process easier and more enjoyable for the both of us. In hindsight, I can only wish I had the Potty Tots Potty Training Program from the very beginning of our potty training adventure.

The Potty Tots is a unique and amazing potty training tool for toddlers, consisting of a diverse cast of preschool friendly characters that encourage. In the kit, parents will find everything they need for a fun, stress-free potty training experience. Included in the kit are:

• Potty Training Guide Book – A colorful story book which addresses the challenges of potty training.
• Illustrated Potty Training Chart – A step-by-step chart which goes over the six essential steps of potty training.
• Animated DVD – The animated story of the book featuring the Potty Tots characters and fun songs to learn.
• Progress Game – A positive-reinforcement game which allows your child to track their progress with potty training.

In addition to the kit, parents can access online community resources to help with the potty training process on PottyTots.com.

Although my son was already day-trained when I received the kit, we were still having issues with nighttime wetting and also with not wanting to poop in the potty. I decided to give Potty Tots a try in order to see if we could work on these two issues. Within, three days my son was waking up dry in the mornings and had his first real poop in the potty. He was still inconsistent with the pooping but by the time two weeks went by, he had successfully pooped four times in the potty without any intervention on my part. I now look forward to using the Potty Tots kit with my youngest son who is a few months away from tackling potty training. I know this is going to make the task so much easier for the both of us.

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POTTY TOTS Potty Training Kit GIVEAWAY!

The Wise Mommy, along with Potty Tots, is happy to host a giveaway for a Potty Tots Training Kit! We will be giving away two kits – one for boys and one for girls!

Take a look at the Potty Tots website and then just leave your thoughts about Potty Tots and whether you would need a boy’s kit or a girl’s kit! The giveaway will run until Nov. 24th 11:59pm EST. Two random winners (one for the boy’s kit and one for the girl’s kit) will be chosen on Nov. 25th and the winners will be notified by email. Good luck everyone!

Popularity: 19% [?]

My boys are the proud owners of a Fisher-Price Ford F150 Ultimate Terrain Power Wheel, and provided the weather cooperates they drive it daily! My son got this amazing gift on his 3rd birthday and was so excited to have a truck that looked just like “daddy’s truck”. He’s been driving that thing around ever since that day, with his 1 year old brother happily coming along for the ride.

Designed for children ages three to about six (65-pound maximum weight per passenger), the Power Wheels F150 is a two-seat life-like truck that steers, stops, and goes in reverse like the real thing. We really like the Power Wheels that Fisher-Price designed with the new Monster Traction system. Also called “Ultimate Terrain Traction”, this is a high-performance drive system that takes on the toughest backyard driving conditions. We live on 2 acres of land, mostly grass, and have a gravel driveway, and this Power Wheel commands it all. The truck drives in two speeds, 2.5 mph and 5 mph, with a safety lock-out for beginners so that they drive only at the slower speed until they become more experienced to drive at the higher speed. The truck also has several cool features, such as a real-working FM radio, lift-and-lower tailgate with truck bed for storage, pretend seat belts, built-in cup holders and a battery charge indicator. The battery is easy to charge and lasts about 30 minutes per charge, so I recommend getting a second battery if you plan to have your kids driving this often.

Fisher-Price has several other styles of vehicles with the new Monster Traction, including the Arctic Cat 650, Jeep Hurricane, Kawasaki KFX Ninja, and the A.T. Rex. Power Wheels are covered by a limited 1-year “Bumper-to-Bumper” warranty from the manufacturer.

Popularity: 32% [?]