I have a free one year subscription to Parents magazine to give away. So, I thought I’d hold a fun little contest and help get your creative juices flowing. Write me a Haiku about your current Parenting Problem. In the next several weeks I will address your concerns in other blog posts.

What is a Haiku? The traditional Haiku contains 17 on, (the Japanese word for syllables) in three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 on respectively.

For example:

Wearing diapers still
Will we ever get him out
No luck yet, he’s four

Please don’t bite your friend
Playgroup for two’s has gone wild
Should we just stay home

The winner will be picked by my husband on Saturday, November 22nd, 2008, and will win a year subscription to Parents magazine. Current subscribers will have a year added to their subscription renewal date. Happy Haikuing!

Please note that the Pirate Gold candy, as stated in my other post, was not imported into the U.S., only Canada received the Pirate Gold Candy. Although, as the saying goes, it is better to be safe than sorry.

**Also note: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning people not to consume White Rabbit Creamy Candy or Koala’s March Crème filled Cookies because they may contain melamine.

Malamine is the chemical that is responsible for the illness and deaths of many formula fed babies in China.

“Melamine is a synthetic chemical with a variety of industrial uses including the production of resins and foams, cleaning products, fertilizers and pesticides. It does not occur naturally in food.”–Centers for Disease Control

Here are some links for more information and to verify the facts:
FDA.gov on Melamine
Let’s Keep Our Kids Safe
Tainted Food Alert

As soon as you become a mother you find that other people have lots to say about you and your parenting. One comment that grates on me like nails on a chalk board is, “You’ve got your hands full!”

I used to just smile politely until I decided that I need to let them know how I feel about my life. So now I smile politley and reply, “If you think my hands are full, you should see my heart!”

What is the most annoying comment a stranger has said to you?

A Halloween candy recall has been put out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Sherwood brand Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate coins are being recalled due to the fact that they contain Melamine, the ingredient in milk products that caused many infant deaths in China. The candy was sold at Costco, as well as many bulk and dollar stores in Canada only; none were shipped to the US.

Please make sure to check your child’s halloween candy!

You can verify this on snopes: www.snopes.com

Tomorrow is my birthday. I will be 29 (again!)

Even though it is my birthday I wanted to give all of you a present! For two days only I will be selling Near Mama’s Heart, my children’s book about breastfeeding for HALF PRICE!!

This has never been done before and may never be done again so you won’t want to miss out!

Two Days Only!!
Buy Near Mama’s Heart for
Only $7.49!!

OR via PayPal here: Happy Birthday Half Price Promotion

Don’t forget that this promotion is for a limited time only!

Return to My Baby and More’s Blog Homepage

Many people tell me that time, or lack thereof, is one of their biggest challenges as a parent. As the holiday (read: buying) season approaches, many Moms and Dads are turning to the world wide web for their purchases in order to have more time to spend with their family. I’ve done almost my entire gift buying online for the last several years. For me, there is something special about getting a package in the mail.

Recently I had the opportunity to go one step further and order prescription glasses online. I found $ 8 Zenni Optical Rx Eyeglasses and have been very pleased. ZenniOptical.com sells trendy and fashionable prescription glasses and has an enormous selection of frames. They even have special options including single vision lens, sunsensor (potochromic) lens, tinted sunglasses’ lens, bifocal lens and progressive lens.

On their site they explain that the Secret to their low prices is that they “sell only their own manufactured frames direct to the customer, with no middlemen and virtually no advertising budget.” I honestly don’t care what their secret is; you can’t beat $8 prescription eyeglasses! With the price of gas these days, just leaving the house costs that much!

So, not only can you do your gift shopping online, you can also get prescription glasses. What tasks have you been completing online in order to save time and money?

This is a Sponsored Post.

On a recent trip we decided to rent a car for the day to do some sight seeing. We were given the opportunity to try the 2008 honda civic hybrid . The Civic Hybrid looks like any other car in the Civic line. It’s very different in that it gets 40-45 miles per gallon. With gas prices the way they are these days, that came as a huge relief.

The car rode smoothly and it was fairly easy to get our kid’s car seats in and out of it. There was plenty of room for all of the diaper bags, coolers and other family necessities and we didn’t feel like we were driving in a clown car (compared to our mini van).

We especially liked this specific car for our trip bcause of it’s extensive list of safety features. With front, front-side and side-curtain airbags, active head restraints and anti-lock brakes (ABS), this car was a good fit to carry our most precious cargo.

I wasn’t sure about a “Hybrid” at first. It seemed so foreign to me; but driving the Hybrid didn’t feel any different. I especially liked the fact that we didn’t have to sacrifice the luxuries such as power locks and windows remote keyless entry, steering-wheel audio controls, a 160-watt audio system and automatic climate control.

Overall, the Hybrid was an impressive car and if we didn’t need to fit so many car seats in our vehicle it would be a viable option for our next purchase.

Sponsored Post.

Thanks to The Natural Child Project for alerting me to Kaiser Permanente’s new study, recently published by th Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine in October 2008.

The study concludes that using a fan will lower a baby’s risk of SIDS by 72 percent. This is HUGE!! Read More . . .

What’s That Smell? By Accidental Mommies is hosting a Virtual Baby Shower Giveaway with some awesome prizes!

I’m joining in on the fun by giving away a copy of The Pregnancy Instruction Manual Essential Information, Troubleshooting Tips, and Advice for Parents-to-Be.

Published by Quirk Books and written by Sarah Jordan with David Ufberg, M.D. this book is an all-inclusive and cheeky guide to everything pregnancy. Each chapter brings you fun and informational tips and the illustrations are adorable.

To win here it’s easy . . . Just leave a comment below and susbscribe to my email updates (on the top right) and you will be eligible to win my giveaway! Contest ends Tuesday, Oct. 14th.

Good Luck and have fun!

And the winner is . . . Dawn! Look for an email from me for your address.