Juvenile Solutions Baby Top Booster Seat

I have been looking for a way to be able to take my son to restaurants and to friends houses and not have to worry about him needing a place to eat or sit. I did not want something big and bulky to have to lug around from the house to the car. I searched the Juvenile Solutions website for a solution to my needs.When I found the Baby Top Booster Seat it was a good find. It attaches to a chair in many different combination so it can accommodate different types of chairs. It also can be used without a chair as its own little toddler chair. It is very light weight and folds compact to travel with.

My boy loves Happy Baby Puffs!

 My son fit in it well and enjoyed the cute face on the food tray. The only improvement I could see was that when in the free standing position as the chair the legs did not lock enough for my wild one. Maybe there needs to be a stabilizer bar or something to make it lock better.  He would rock a bit in the chair and the legs would fold. As a solution I just had him sit in the chair with the legs tucked under. He loves sitting in it when he holds hit favorite cat or watches his shows. He thinks he is a big boy when he is in it. He looks cute! The chair also came with a plastic bib that has a little food catching part on the bottom. My son will not let me put bibs on him but this one he thought was funny so he wore it. I called it his elf bib, he just liked putting snacks into it and eating out of the food catch. He cracks me up!

Alternative arrangement of seat

Folds up compact for travel

The compact fold and light weight design would make this a good second chair to have for traveling or for little guest that come over. Last time my husbands cousin brought his little one over there was no place other than a bouncy chair for him to sit. An extra feeding chair would have been great for his baby to sit in.
Juvenile Solutions carries many products on their site. I liked the Aqua Baby Bath Ring and the Dipe and Go. The Dipe and Go is now available at Babies R Us.

To find out more about Juvenile Solutions and their products you can follow the on twitter and facebook. They often have sales info and discounts listed there.

** I was not paid or compensated for this post. The opinions in this post are 100% mine and may vary from other opinions. I was provided for free the item in this post for review purposes.

We need a play date and fast...

Now that I have left the work place I am finding that the social interaction that I love and crave is getting harder and harder to find. I am also learning that not only am I craving it but so is my 4 year old. I am in the process of finding him a preschool that he can attend 1-2 days a week for a few hours so that he can get that fulfillment that he used to have being in daycare. I do believe that when your child has never been to daycare or preschool they may not know what is out there and are content with their lives but once they have seen what is out there they know...haha Well my son was in childcare for almost 2 years (he started at 2 years old) and he asks me about his school and friends all the time, he love to socialize.

Now that I am only working 1 day a week not only can we not afford to put him full time care but I didn't "quit" my job for him to be watched by someone else all day. Ok back to finding the preschool, we are working on it and I have seen a few places but they are expensive or just not what we are looking for. So in the mean time I have been finding fun and creative ways to spice up the day on a low budget. I have this one girlfriend and she is the main gal that I go to for play dates. Not only do we laugh and get each other and talking to her is awesome, but we have the same parenting philosophies (that is so important) and I adore her children. It seems like no matter what we do with the children we ALL have fun! Sure I do things with the kids that I may not enjoy as much as they do, it is part of being a Mom. But I love it when the kids are having fun and so are the Mom's.

I am new to the SAHM gig and my girlfriend just moved back to the area (they are military) so we are finding fun and inexpensive things to together. It is nice to go out and "do" something and meet somewhere but we also love just hanging out at each others houses. The children can play, be loud, eat and are happy just to be together. My girlfriend and I can chat and laugh without as much stress that is involved in a planned activity. We know that they are safe and happy in the house. Also I live in Seattle where the weather is not always outdoor ready so we have to try to find indoor games a lot of the time. But when we do "get out" some of my favorite free and or cheap things to do are go to the play place at the mall, go to story time at the local library, walk around the park or go to the McDonald's play place.

We are also finding there are many ways on line to find cheap and local things to do on a budget. My girlfriend did a little research online and tomorrow we are off to a new place that offers an indoor play place and activities for the children as well as lattes and a little sitting area for the Mom's. They boast you can see the children play while you can sit at the little pub area enjoying your favorite coffee or beverage of choice. It is only $7 per child and $4.50 for each additional child. Under 1 is free and so are the adults. My littlest is 8 months old so we are all over a fun day for only $7 (plus a vanilla latte for me)! There are free, cheap and fun things to do out there but it takes some research.

Hug A Monkey Baby Sling Giveaway

HugaMonkey Baby Slings

For most moms having a baby sling can be more than just a convenience its a must have! Especially when you have more than 1 little one a good carrier can allow you to safely keep the smallest of your children close to you while you tend to the other ones. Even for me with only one child this would have came in handy so many times when he wanted to be held but I still needed free hands to do something.

The Hug A Monkey baby sling was founded by parents who understand the need for a carrier. They designed it to be easy to use, comfy for you and your baby and simple enough to take anywhere.  I laughed when I read that one of their sons gets mistaken for a girl, it happens to my son at least once a day!

Picture from the Hug A Monkey website

 Their slings are cute and very affordable. You can get one for yourself for only $29.99! These would be great for mom to have and affordable to get one for a gift too. The baby slings come in Brown (my favorite color), Stone, Aqua, Black and Organic. The Organic sling is unbleached 100% certified organic cotton.

The website is full of useful information on how to use their carrier and care instructions for your baby carrier.
In addition to the Hug A Monkey baby sling the site carries great items from other manufacturers for baby gear and baby apparel. 

GIVEAWAY:

For our Moms Leaving the Workforce event Hug A Monkey has generously offered one of our lucky readers the chance to win a stylish and durable baby sling.

To Enter This Giveaway:
Mandatory entry is to visit the Hug A Monkey site and tell me what color you would pick if you won.
*Leave a comment telling me your color choice and be sure to leave your email address*

Extra Entries can be done after you leave a comment for the mandatory entry:
If the extra entry says 1 extra entry leave 1 comment and 2 extra entries leave me 2 comments and so on.

-Visit the Hug A Monkey site and leave a comment about another item you would like to have. +1
-Follow Hug A Monkey on Twitter +1
-Like Hug A Monkey on Facebook +1
-Follow The Coupon Queen Bee on Twitter +1
-Like The Coupon Queen Bee on Facebook +1
-Leave a comment on my The First Years Brand Car Seat review +2
-Enter any of the  giveaways during the Moms Leaving the Workforce event +2 for each you have entered.
-Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link to the post +5

*Limited to US residents; 18 years old and above. Giveaway starts March 15 , 2011 and ends on March 31, 2011 at midnight PST.  Winner will be emailed and has 48 hours to respond before another winner is selected. I was not paid for this giveaway or post. Hug A Monkey will provide one baby sling to the winner.

The First Years True Fit Car Seat Review

Our family has been a huge fan of The First Years brand since my son was born. As a new mom I had trouble trying to find the "right" brands for me. There had been recalls and warnings on a lot of brands that I read about and other moms told me about. But one brand stood out to me as good quality at a reasonable price, The First Years Brand! We have a feeding chair, stroller and now a car seat made by the company. I have to say they are all very durable and we are rough on our stuff.

I love the colors that their products come in. I like having dark colors for items my son will use a lot to hide the messes but also I just enjoy darker colors. That is why I loved the Misty Morning car seat I reviewed. It is shades of dark with a splash of baby boy blue! The colors match my shoes I wear most of the time exactly! I know its odd but I really love that lol.

The colors are not the only thing that I LOVE about this car seat. With safety items the rating and ease of use are very important to me. I was a bit worried about turning around my sons car seat to have him front facing. I read so many things about how he was best in rear facing as long as I could have him that way. We had him rear facing until he was just about 15 months old. He could not take his legs being bent and not being able to see what was going on. He screamed and would throw his binkie when I put him in his old car seat. As soon as he went for his first ride in his First Years True Fit car seat he was a happy boy!! He looked like such a big boy sitting in it and he has not been mad about car rides since the switch.

Detailed labeling made it super easy to install!

It was very easy to install. I read the directions and followed them with ease. The True Fit car seats have a 5 star rating for ease of use and I totally agree with it! Its labeled well in the seat to know how to install it and where to place the seat belts.  We have a two door SUV and I easily got it into the back seat and safely installed. The car seat is so snug there's not even a wiggle of the slightest. I know he is in there good!  The 5 point harness keeps him securely in the seat. The best part is the easy to adjust harness latch. Just one lift of the latch and I can adjust the straps. This makes it a million times easier for days he needs a thick coat to the days where he doesn't have one on. Our last car seat would drive me nuts trying to adjust the straps for when he was wearing different things.  I also love that the car seat is a convertible one and when we have another child the baby can use the seat in the rear facing position.

One of the best things is its very affordable! I have seen car seats over $300 that are not as highly rated as the True Fit First Years seats. You can get the True Fit car seats at Walmart, Target, Babies R Us and online at Amazon for less than $200! Its a great deal for a seat that you will use for many years. It can hold a child up to 65 lbs and 50 inches tall.

 

I am a facebook fan of The First Years Brand and a twitter follower and you can be one too! They have contest, discounts and info on new items. I was never a brand loyal kind of person until I had my son and had to realize the value of finding a great brand and sticking to it!

I made a little video but I guess I shot it in too high of a resolution because the uploader said it is too large! Not sure how to shrink it, if I do figure it our I will upload it!

** I was not paid or compensated for this post. The opinions in this post are 100% mine and may vary from other opinions. I was provided for free the item in this post for review purposes.

Moms Leaving the Workforce Event Summary

This months theme is Mom's Leaving the Workforce, this is so exciting for us and I want to explain why. I am a new SAHM of 2 young boys, 4 year old JJ and 8 month old Baby L. I have just recently become a member of this wonderful "club" of women and can't wait build relationships with not only my sons but with other women and mothers. I had been working out of the house at my job with the Government for over 7 years and just recently made the decision to stay at home with my babies. This has been a decision a long time in the making and it has not been easy (financial) to come to this decision but it has been the greatest decision I have made in a long time.

When I had my first born I thought I would just go back to work and everything would be back to normal, I now know that I was in denial. I did not prepare our family financially for me to be able to stay home, so I had to go back to work. I was an emotional mess and could not imagine going back to work and leaving my baby. I took my 3 months maternity leave and attempted to go back to work, when that didn't work I took off another few months and eased my way in part time eventually returning full time. My son stayed with my mother in law while I worked and at the time it was the best thing for us. When JJ turned 2 my mother in law was not a full time option anymore so he went into childcare. It is one of the hardest things we have ever done, my mother and my husband's mother were both SAHM's so we had zero experience with childcare facilities. JJ was 2 and loved the interaction with other children, he was pretty happy to be around his peers. My Mom guilt was in full swing, but I did what I had to do.

So this went on for another year and a half until we had Baby L. We took JJ out of childcare while I was on maternity leave and again fooled myself into thinking that I would just go back to work. But seriously what is wrong with me that I thought everything would work out this time? I thought, heck he is my second son I have done this all before right? Wrong again. After Baby L was in childcare for less than a month we came to the conclusion that my place was at home with these precious creatures. We looked over our finances and realized that if we really cut back our spending, paid off a few bills and truly focused on our end goal we could afford for me to stay home.

Once the decision was made everything changed. The stress in the house of always having to go go go and always having to be someplace and always feeling like I am never doing anything 100% has diminished. Now we have different stresses but unlike before when I was working 10-12 hour days, we can get through them together. I know that our lifestyle is changing already and sometimes it is hard. We don't go out to eat like we used to, I am always on the look out for things to do that are free or cheap and we had to cut back on the small luxuries in life but it is worth it. To see my boys get to wake up past 5:30 am, to make them breakfast lunch and dinner, to see them smile and play with each other is all worth it. I know that there are good days and bad days and that it is not always easy. I know that there are days when everyone wishes they could go to work or get away, but I have been on the other side and it is not easier or better.

I know this is what I was meant to be, a full time Mom. I truly believe that being a stay at home mom is the hardest yet the most rewarding job in the world. I am working daily on finding deals, cheap or free fun for the boys, and anyway to save a buck. Tune in for some great crafts, projects and fun things to do with your kids...

For reviews and giveaways for this event click here.