Pound & Roll Tower

www.melissaanddoug.com

There are a few toys that every kid needs. One of them is a shape sorter like I talked about here and another is some kind of pounding-with-a-hammer toy. There are tons to choose from but for the pounding toy I would highly recommend the Pound & Roll Tower from Melissa & Doug. The tower says that it’s for ages 2+ but we gave it to Little Moxie when she was 13 months and she took right to it. Sometimes we help her by pushing the balls down a bit so that it doesn’t take as many whacks but she certainly picked up the idea of beating the heck out of them until they fall down the tower. I was afraid that because of the age suggestion this would have to go back in the closet for a while, but it has been great and tons of fun. From the look of other reviews I think that most people would agree that most kids don’t need to be two in order to catch on.

Pound on!
I like toys that do more than one thing. Not all toys are going to be all that educational, I get that, but if you can add education to the toys and have them still be loads of fun so that the kido doesn’t know that there’s learning involved, that’s ideal. The Pound & Roll Tower by Melissa & Doug accomplishes lots of fun while simultaneously facilitating learning. Each side of the tower is a different color; red, green, yellow and blue. There is a corresponding ball for each side so when putting the balls back up we can talk about matching the colors, love that. Then when a ball gets hit down it clacks down the tower creating an auditory association with the visual falling of the ball. As soon as the clacking starts she looks for it to come out of the side at the bottom. Of course the hammering of the balls is great for hand-eye coordination (you have to get them ready for video games somehow right!) Really though, it is very good to begin to teach them how to connect the front of the hammer with the ball that they are aiming for and they are rewarded by the ball falling, clacking and coming out the side. You can also have them aim for a certain color which helps with following directives. The toy is made of wood and coated in paint and a coating. The safety conformity report can be found online stating that all of their materials for this toy comply with all required safety standards. Lastly, the hammer will indent the top of the toy, but all it does is add character and show how loved the toy is!

You can find purchase this toy directly from Melissa & Doug or from Amazon at: Pound and Roll Tower by Melissa & Doug

Nature's Baby Organics Shampoo and Body Wash

www.naturesbabyorganics.com

Yes I have taken a small hiatus… I blame the crazy heat that we’re having here, I feel like it’s baking my brain. I’m back now. The heat certainly hasn’t subsided, but I’m slowly regaining neural function. So here I am writing about Nature’s Baby Organics. This is the first Nature’s Baby Organics product review but I can assure you that it won’t be the last. I seriously love this company!

What’s so great? Baby shampoo is baby shampoo right? Wrong. Not all baby shampoos are created equal, just like not all adult shampoos are created equal. Since Little Moxie was born I have been on a quest for the right shampoo, and everything we used was just okay. Nothing stood out as great, some better than others for sure, but still not great. Recently we were nearing the end of the bottle of the latest brand and I had no intention of re-buying what I had. After using the soothing stick and diaper cream with such great success (I probably should have written about those first huh? Oops. Anyhow…) I looked to Nature’s Baby Organics once again. I was looking for three main things:
1. Not too much scent
2. It had to be a 0-2 on the Skin Deep scale (more on that in a minute)
3. It had to work (duh.)

To say that Little Moxie is not a fan of hair wash time would be the understatement of the century. While I wouldn’t say that this shampoo cured that, it does seem better. It makes me wonder if it is less irritating to her head. As an added bonus, even though it doesn’t claim to be tear-free, it seems to be. I know that some of it has made it into her eyes (tilt your head back already!) and it definitely hasn’t irritated them. It has her seal of approval, even if it does mean that she has to get her hair washed.

How it measured up
1.    We have the Vanilla-Tangerine and the scent is heavenly! It is mild but sweet. When it’s cuddle time you can certainly smell it on her, but it is not overpowering or distracting. I am allergic to lavender (it makes it so hard to get natural products, ugh) so I haven’s smelled that scent but the Vanilla-Tangerine is fabulous and I would totally use it on a boy too, it’s not just a girly scent. Some of the products out there have so much fragrance that it is overpowering and annoying. It also seemed like the more scent there was on her body the worse she slept. It seems like her little nose is extra sensitive and I want sleep. This stuff is so nice it makes me wish I could do “scratch-n-sniff” on the screen because words don’t do it justice.
2.    The Skin Deep Cosmetic Database is a great resource for checking out the toxicity of pretty much any cosmetic product. They rate each product based on its ingredients and explain exactly why the product received the rating it did, ingredient by ingredient. Nature’s Baby Organics shampoos received a 2 on their scale, meaning that they pose a very low hazard to humans. For comparison other baby shampoos have gotten 5s signifying a moderate hazard. Many adult shampoos are in the 7s and 8s, so (my opinion) pretty much poison on your head. Good times.
3.    It works!!! It lathers up and you only need a tiny bit (depending on hair length of course) It gets out the catsup, pudding, peanut butter, blueberries… all the kid basics. Most shampoos do, I suppose, but this one seems to do it so effortlessly. I like it, can you tell.

I haven’t even gotten to the body wash part of the equation and it’s already such a long review. Well I’ll sum it up quickly. It’s genius. Basically all the benefits that I mentioned apply to it being used on the body. Even when it’s used all over the smell is still pleasantly mild and it works very well without drying out her skin but still getting that stickiness off her that comes from our sweltering, unrelenting and downright ridiculous heat (did I mention that it's hot around here?)

Buy this stuff, you will not be disappointed. I tried the 8oz. to start but will be getting the 16oz. next time! You can buy it directly from the company website or at Amazon: Nature's Baby Organics Shampoo & Body Wash (Vanilla/Tangerine)-16 oz.

Rainmaker

This is such a cool toy. We actually bought this for Little Moxie’s one year birthday. We got some interesting reactions from guests who simply couldn’t believe that we would be the ones to get the noisemaker. That is traditionally reserved for “well-meaning” friends and relatives apparently. My attitude is that as long as she’s happy and occupied I don’t really care how loud it is. I may change my tune if we have another one who needs to be sleeping, but for now it really doesn’t matter, and I find this toy WAY less annoying than most of her battery operated gizmos. It does, however, remind me that I live in a desert where there is never much hope of actual rain. Sigh.

Great Replica
If you know what a regular rainmaker is, then you have a pretty good idea of what this toy is too. It’s a very good replication of the traditional rainmaker. If you don’t know… well it’s basically a lot of beads falling down a tube, hitting plastic as they flow and making a noise that is reminiscent of a downpour. This toy has good sound and just the right amount of beads. It can get pretty loud if the little ones get to shaking the heck out of it, but it seems to crack them up so that’s fine. Seeing what makes the sound is the really cool part. It helps to teach the kids that what they see with the balls is what is actually making the sound; cause and effect. It connects visual and auditory; loudest at the beginning when all the beads are moving and quieter as fewer beads are left to fall. For music appreciation type lessons this is fabulous and not an everyday find (I challenge you to find one friend with this toy.) The quality is terrific and I feel safe giving her a tube of potential choking hazards because of how well it’s made. Hohner Kids also had the safety report for all their toys on their website. The Rainmaker was tested with the “most stringent use and abuse tests” and passed everything that they check for. Click HERE for the full report. I really respect a company that puts these reports online.

Like I mentioned, this toy is a little hard to find, but you can get it directly from their website at www.hohnerkids.com. I think Little Moxie may have to try some of their other cool instruments too!

Fresh Baby Food Trays

www.freshbaby.com

I have to be honest; jars of baby food kinda freak me out. Deep down I know that it’s just pureed food with some water and then canned basically. I know this, yet I sort of cringe. So of course I made ALL of my own baby food right? Not by a long shot, but I did try really hard! I made as much as I could, but my Little Moxie has never been a champion eater, so I got very frustrated in the beginning especially. I tried to make my own cereal, spent the time and energy and dishes, but when she only begrudgingly ate one bite, maybe two, I gave up. Boxed cereal to the rescue, and I got the healthiest whole grain cereal that I could, so I felt a little better. Of course meat has always been another toughie. How do you puree meat? I never mastered it. It was never soft enough, never moist enough, or too moist, and basically it never got eaten. Hello jarred meat! So out were cereal and meat, but what I could do was fruit and vegetables (well all but peas, I just never got those right.) Sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrot, peaches, blueberries, split pea soup, asparagus, pears, butternut and acorn squash, etc. etc. I was on a roll with the fruit and veggies. One of the things that made making my own food so much easier were the Fresh Baby Food Trays. I have four of these little guys and I only wish I had more! Just pour in your freshly pureed treasure, snap on the lid and pop them in the freezer. When the cubes are frozen, take them out and put them in a storage bag so that they trays are available for your next batch. Seriously easy! I still use these even though I don’t need to puree her foods anymore. Soups, fruit and vegetable pieces, left over sauces and broth all get frozen in these beauties.

Not Your Average Ice Cube Tray
Most make-your-own baby food sources say to use ice cube trays, which I know for many people is just fine, and I'm not knocking them (much...) You may have noticed, however, that I don't really do "fine," I want great, near perfection at the very least. I personally don’t trust a lot of plastics, I just don’t, especially ones coming in contact with my baby's food. I do trust the Fresh Baby Food Trays though. They are BPA and phthalate free, so I know that they are way safer than "normal" ice cube trays (again, not knocking them exactly). You've probably heard a lot about products being free of those chemicals lately (especially BPA) but if you don't know what they are check out www.healthychild.org (http://healthychild.org/issues/chemical-pop/bisphenol_a/ and http://healthychild.org/issues/chemical-pop/phthalates/) It's good to be informed, but I digress... back to the trays. They have lids, very secure lids that are still easy to remove. Lids are genius! They stack well in the freezer, saving loads of space and the food doesn’t get little bits of who-knows-what floating in on top, yuck. Oh and no foil or plastic wrap frozen on top that I had to somehow pull out of the frozen cubes. It was also very nice to pull out one veggie cube and one fruit cube and know that she was getting two servings, about an ounce each (not that she usually ate it all, but at least I tried right!) None of my trays ever stained, nor did they collect any odd odors as many plastics are prone to do. Lastly they are dishwasher-safe, so clean up is easy. I have been using these trays for about 8 months and they show no signs of wear, leading me to believe that they should easily last though the next baby and most likely well beyond.

Check out the Fresh Baby blog at http://freshbaby.typepad.com/ where they share lots of great recipes and advice.

To buy the Fresh Baby Food Trays at Amazon click here: Fresh Baby So Easy Baby Food/Breast Milk Trays or order directly from Fresh Baby at http://freshbaby.com

KidCo Center Gateway Pressure Mount Gate

www.kidco.com

Wouldn’t it be great if the little ones just stayed in the exact areas that we want them to and never wandered where danger might lurk? Oh to dream. I would love it if my entire house was childproof and just fine for Little Moxie to run around in. Unfortunately that just isn’t the case. Some doors just can’t be shut all the time but I don’t want her jamming a Q-tip in her ear or inserting her water bottle into the computer while I’m over in the kitchen making yet another snack. So we have a couple of gates in the house to make things a little safer for her and to help me maintain my sanity. We’ve tried a few. One was used for about two minutes before it went directly back into the car to be returned. Others are only good for short-term use, but The KidCo Center Gateway Pressure Mount Gate is our absolute favorite for long term use. I can’t really think of anything that we don’t like about this gate.

On with it!
One of the very best features about this gate in particular is that it can be opened in either direction (in or out… does that make sense?) Some gates don’t have that option, which I have to say just annoys me, it’s one of those convenient things that once you get used to there’s no going back. The other wonderful thing is that it’s pressure mounted. I was a little afraid that it wouldn’t be very secure, but it really is tight; barring a natural disaster that thing is not moving. Of course this means that there are no holes in my wall, so in the future when/if the gate (ever) comes down, there is no evidence left behind. There is a nice lever on top of the gate which locks the gate closed. Unless the button is pushed the lever will not release, then as an added bonus the gate has to be picked up slightly to actually swing open. This may sound like a pain but really it takes two seconds (I just timed it to be sure) and it takes one hand and it makes it all that much more child-proof. As a bonus it also comes in white, black or platinum so you can choose the color that looks best with the rest of the bright colored toys décor in your house. Kidco also sells extensions so this gate will fit pretty much anywhere, well up to six feet wide. We have one extension and the gate is still super secure. Oh and did I mention that it's metal? So nice; no cheap plastic here.You may want to note that when the gate is opened you do have to step over a bit of metal (like an inch). Little Moxie stubbed her toe a couple of times in the beginning but she's used to it now and it's never been a problem for me or any other adult that has gone through it.

This is not an economy gate so it will set you back a little bit, but I can’t imagine needing to replace them anytime soon and we’ve been using them for about 7 months. For the safety and peace of mind, I think that it was well worth the investment and hey you get what you pay for right!

Here it is at Amazon: Kidco Pressure Mounted Center Gateway Safety Gate: White or KidCo Center Gateway - Platinum or Center Gateway By KidCo Colors: Black

You can also get it at one of my favorite online retailers: www.babyearth.com

Planet Ultra Laundry Detergent

www.planetinc.com

Seriously? A detergent on a baby stuff blog? Heck yeah! This stuff is genius. My baby has fairly sensitive skin, always has. From the beginning I was hoping to cloth diaper, of course I’m not a fan of laundry so there have been some challenges. Basically we’ve always been a little cloth and a little disposables. If her bum ever gets a little red, we pop her back into cloth and bingo bango the red usually goes away very quickly, no cream needed. To do cloth diapering right you have to get the right detergent. Regular old detergent has all kinds of nasties in them (seriously do some research and it’s kinda scary.) Then I read that if you are going to use a good natural detergent that really cleans, you have to use it for all your clothes otherwise if you just use it, say for your diapers, it will clean out your washer every time, thus depositing yucky stuff left from the other detergent on your diapers. Good times. So that meant a search for something that we could use for every thing. We found Planet, ordered it, loved it and the rest is history. Once we ran out and I used another mainstream brand in a pinch. Not wise. The redness on her bum got worse not better and while she didn’t break out, her clothes seemed to itch her too. We re-ordered Planet immediately, and while we have always used the liquid, I now also keep a box of the powdered for back-up. Not that the powdered is bad but the liquid is supposed to be better for hard water, which we definitely have. We also have a top-loading machine and use the Ultra Laundry Detergent, I have not tried the 2X Ultra for HE machines (you know, the one in the picture up there) but imagine it to work just as well.

What I like
This stuff leaves no odor, really none. This is a good thing, no perfumes to irritate baby’s skin and you know that everything is really clean when all the smell is out, not just covered up with perfumes. Then there is the no-buildup thing. I have not had to strip any of my diapers even once in the last year that we’ve been using cloth. They absorb great and that’s because there's nothing getting stuck in them from the detergent. As for stains, Planet works well. Honestly I don’t care if my diapers get stained (which is good because they all are), and I don’t wash them quick enough to prevent stains no matter what detergent I use. For regular laundry however, Planet is very good at getting out stains (given you get it in the wash in a reasonable amount of time.) The bottom line is that Planet is great for our clothes and way way way better for Mother Earth too as it’s certified to be 100% biodegradable. It contains no enzymes, no fabric softener, no brightener, no scents and no dyes. Very pure. Very good.

Here are some recommendations from the company about which detergent to choose:

* Planet 2X Ultra Laundry Detergent, HE (for both High-Efficiency as well as conventional washing machines. It is concentrated so you use less.): Approved on many cloth-diapering websites. A powerful cleaner that is gentle on sensitive skin. This is the product that we most often recommend for cloth-diapering.

* Planet Ultra Liquid Laundry Detergent (the one I use): Approved on many cloth-diapering websites. A tried and true formula. Works great in conventional washing machines, a little too sudsy for the newer High Efficiency machines.

* Planet Ultra Powdered Laundry Detergent (I also have this one): Also approved on many cloth-diapering websites, this is a great cleaner. Make sure you rinse well, especially if you have a baby with sensitive skin, and especially if you have hard water. Powdered detergents can be more prone to residue issues than liquid detergents.

* Planet Delicate Laundry Wash: more often ordered online than found in stores, this is a fabulous cleaner for hand-washing your delicates like silk and wool in the sink. Can be used in conventional washing machines but too high-sudsing for the High Efficiency machines.

I did a lot of research before buying a detergent. I would always encourage you to do the same, hopefully that's why you're reading this review. You may want to check out this great chart put together by PinStripes and PolkaDots: http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/detergentchoices.htm

One more side note…. I order it from Amazon. They have a very good price. I shopped locally once and paid double… no joke. Planet Ultra Liquid Laundry Detergent, Case Pack, Four 100 Fluid-Ounce Bottles (400 Fluid-Ounces) or  Planet 2x HE Ultra Laundry Liquid Detergent, 32-Loads, 50-Ounces Bottle (Pack of 4)

Shake'n Match Shape Sorter

www.hape-international.ca

I could not be more excited to write about Hape International’s Shake’n Match Shape Sorter for my very first review. We love this toy! Pretty much every kid needs a shape sorter right? I mean it just seems to be one of those standard things that every toddler has. Many families that I know have two or three different ones even. I wonder if that’s in an attempt to get a good one? Hmmm. Anyhow, this honestly is the only one that we will have and it will last us through as many kids as we want.

Tell Me About the Toy Already!
This is a six-sided wooden toy. Each block shape is filled with little wooden balls that make it rattle, and seriously show me one kid out there who doesn’t like things that rattle. Anyone? I didn’t think so. Additionally each block shape is a different color, which is great because then not only are the kids looking for the triangle but also the color red, for example. It helps on both the color and the shape front; two birds, one stone, or block in this case. Once put in, the blocks are securely locked in the hexagonal box with elastic cording across the openings. Now, I can see how some people might not like that, after all it does make it hard for little hands to get out the shapes on their own. Here’s my pitch: I love it because it makes this a toy that we have to play with together. I like sitting down and talking about the shapes and the colors and watching her learn and get a little better each time. Little Moxie comes shaking her sorter down the hallway looking for someone to play with and hey she’s seeking me out for something fun (not a new diaper, not food or because of another booboo) so really who could turn that down. Obviously there are times when independent toys are needed (or am I the only one backed up on laundry and dishes?), but at least for now this is a mommy/daddy and baby toy, and we like it that way.

Truly a toy that is played with every single day without fail. I would recommend this toy to anyone. Of course keep in mind that it is geared for the child who is 12months+ and I would agree that in our case, before a year any shape sorter was frustrating. I should also mention that this company has great customer service and this toy is reasonably priced for the exceptional quality.

To order this from Amazon click here: Educo Shake'n Match Shape Sorter