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As promised, I want to touch base on how it’s going using the toddler alarm clock I bought for Owen. This is a totally unsponsored, unpaid post. I bought the clock myself out of desperation and sleep deprivation!
After we transitioned Owen into his new room and big boy bed, he managed to get the sleeping all night in there part down pat quickly. But since he now could climb out of bed on his own, as soon as he opened his eyes he was doing just that, opening the door and coming into our room. Every day between 5 and 5:30 a.m…WAY too early for his tired parents.
We tried bringing him back to bed and tucking him back in: FAIL. We tried letting him cozy with us in our bed, hoping he would go back to sleep: kick you in the stomach for a half hour FAIL. We tried to let him play on his own with toys in our room while we rested: drive toy trucks on your face for 5 minutes before demanding oatmeal FAIL.
So that’s how I found myself one VERY early morning combing the internet for a solution to our sleep problem. I came across a lot of chatter about toddler alarm clocks doing the trick and figured well, it certainly couldn’t make things worse. After reading some reviews, I decided on the Onaroo OK to Wake! Alarm Clock. I ordered it from Diapers.com because the price was comparable to other places, and since I was ordering it so early in the morning, it would be delivered the very next day.
The concept is simple: you set the time you want your child to wake up. When that time arrives, rather than the clock making noise, it glows green and displays a smiley face (see photo above), indicating to your child that it’s OK to wake up.
When the box arrived, I made a big deal about opening this special gift for Owen and explaining to him what it was for. I set the clock for a few minutes from then and showed him how it glowed. “When the light is off,” I told him, “it’s still night time. We stay in our bed. But when the light turns green, it’s time to WAKE UP! And come get Mommy!” He was SUPER excited about it and started repeating, “Light turn green! Come get Mommy!” over and over. I set it for 6 a.m. and crossed my fingers.
I’ll be honest with you: it has NOT been an overnight success. Not even close. While Owen completely understands the concept of the clock, (he talks about staying in bed until the light turns green all the time), we are still not on a consistent routine with it. I don’t think this is the fault of the clock, though, rather that he’s only just two and when he wakes up, well, he wants his mom. He is slowly getting better with it, though, and after two weeks of using it we have had some really good mornings. On occasion he will wake up so close to the time, so I will go back to bed with him and we wait quietly together until it turns on. I think that has helped him understand the concept better.
I have slowly been able to push the wake time up to 6:15 and today he came RUNNING into my room at 6:17 announcing the light turned green and was SO PROUD of himself. Beaming! Kissing! Dancing!
Well, I had to get up after that. I was so proud of him too! I am optimistic about this little clock. A lot of the positive reviews are written by people with toddlers closer to three years old who seem to get it right away, so I’m not worried about having continued success with it.
Some details:
- In terms of design, I don’t find this little guy all that obnoxious looking. It comes with two interchangeable face plates; a pink flower or a green “alien” (we are using the green). When it’s in clock mode it displays a digital time reading, and when it turns on it makes a smiley face. It makes no noise.
- It is battery powered, which I suppose could be a nuisance to some, but I like that I could position it anywhere in the room and that it’s portable for travel.
- You can set the alarm to stay on for up to 2 hours, so if your toddler happens to sleep through the wake time (yay!!), it will still be on when they do wake up. This way there’s no confusion about waiting for the light.
- There are also options to use the clock as a nap timer, but I haven’t used it, as Owen naps just fine without it.
- The control buttons are hidden under a panel that is flimsy. Some reviews I read said that they were disappointed their toddler broke or damaged the clock by dropping it. I kind of want to say, “well…duh” to those people, because of course your kid is going to want to play with it. To avoid this all together, I put the clock on top of Owen’s dresser facing the bed. He hasn’t asked to play with it, so that’s that.
Overall, I am really pleased with this clock and firmly believe it will only work better for us over time. At around $30 for a clock it is a little on the pricey side, but I don’t think you can put a price on sleep!
You know how some bloggers do these nifty holiday gift guides chock full of stuff you never knew you needed until you saw them compiled into a list? I tend to ooh and ahh over those but never real buy anything because they just don’t seem like things that will really benefit my ever day. So I decided to make a list for you of things that are ACTUALLY benefitting my every day, in the off chance that they might also benefit you. Because I like to be helpful.
None of these companies are compensating me for writing loving things about their products, but hey, if they want to get in touch and shower me with gifts, I wouldn’t say no.
Anyway.
I recently purchased a hand held milk frother to make hot beverages at home and save some dough. It arrived yesterday and after today’s first use, I conclude it was a purchase well made. It not only frothed, it SUPER frothed.
The Aerolatte 20 Mooo Milk Frother is a tiny, quick little machine. It frothed up my milk to soft, high peaks and did it in seconds. The Aerolatte also comes in silver, but the cow print was on sale when I ordered and it makes it kitchy-cute. It also comes in a hard travel case, for all your frothing-on-the-go needs. (Does anyone have frothing-on-the-go needs? Well, if they do, you’re covered.)
Purchased on Amazon for $12.51.
Remember a ways back when I was asking about steam mops? After lots of positive feedback, I started doing some research on my own and after reading through Consumer Reports and tons of online reviews (the review that sold me was written by a woman who along with her friends in the neighborhood, bought basically every steam mop on the market and did a side-by-side comparison. This one won!), I settled on the Eureka Enviro Hard-Surface Floor Steamer. Fairly lightweight, easy to put together, simple instructions, and most importantly, a really clean floor. I’ve never gotten my kitchen linolium so clean without a lot of elbow grease. This mop did the job without making me crazy. It was so easy to use, in fact, that I did it with Owen strapped to my chest.
Purchased on Amazon (I love Amazon) for around $65.
While daily showers are always the goal, I’ve always been an every-other-day hair washer. It tends not to get oily until the end of the second day, and when I was coloring my hair, it helped the color to last longer. However, you know how sometimes, even if you didn’t really need to wash your hair, by mid-day it’s starting to look like maybe you should have?
I had heard about dry shampoo for a long time, but something about it just skeeved me out a little. I think because it sounded like you were using in instead of washing your hair, and that just didn’t sit right. In a sense, you are using it in lieu of washing, but you’re not using it to clean yourself, only extend the life of your last shampoo.
The Fresh Start Dry Shampoo by Tresemme comes in versions for curly and straight hair. I used the straight version. Simply spray it on, let it sit for a few minutes, and brush it out. For under $5, I think this this is a pretty good deal, especially when chasing after a nine-month old. Truth? I don’t LOVE the smell. It’s a little strong for me. But when I find myself in a situation when I need to run out and my hair is making me look a little less than put together, I like having it on hand to absorb any oil that snuck up on me. It’s also adds some body to my roots, which is nice since I have super fine hair that tends to fall flat.
Found at any drugstore.
So there you have it, some things making my life just a little easier. What can’t you live without right now? (Maybe I need it too!)
Warning (again): I have finished the series and now plan to discuss it. If you are still reading and/or do not want to know how it ends, come back tomorrow. It will be a Shoeru day. Read the rest of this entry »
During the wedding planning process I was fortunate enough to cross paths with some excellent vendors. Most of them I sought out myself, but one very important one came to me.
I was contacted by Canditto to see if I would be interested in their photo-sharing kiosk at my wedding. Intrigued, I asked for more details.
Here’s the scoop: Canditto is an unobtrusive small kiosk that looks similar to the photo machines at your local CVS. Guests simply insert their memory card and all photos they took in the last eight (or six…this feature is customizable) hours will be uploaded onto the machine. At the end of the night, your kind and handy kiosk attendant (I had one of the founders, Rush, and he was most awesome) hands you a USB with all of the uploaded images on it.
Michael and I walked away with almost 500 candids from the day. Talk about instant gratification! We spent a good portion of the following day reliving our wedding and couldn’t have been happier about it. Canditto is the reason I’ve been able to share so many pictures with you while waiting for our professional images.
Canditto is currently only available in New England, but come Spring 2009 they will have a version that can be sent via FedEx anywhere in the country.
Canditto isn’t just for weddings, either. They’d be great for birthday parties, graduations, office get togethers or any event you’d love to have pictures from immediately.
As a special bonus, book your Canditto before Decemeber 31, 2008 and mention this post to receive 10% off.
Contact Canditto with any questions on their contact page.
JustMensRings.com’s mission is to be the largest retailer of men’s rings in the United States. I don’t know if they’ve reached that goal, but they certainly have a large selection.
I had the opportunity to review two of their choices (or should I say, Michael had the opportunity since he is the one who will be wearing the men’s ring, after all) and was pleasantly surprised.
First of all, the shipping was incredibly fast. Much faster than ordering from a jeweler. And when I saw the prices, at first I thought — how can this be? Under $100 for a ring?
But it’s true. Both rings that were sent to me a high-quality and super affordable.
The first ring is a men’s titanium wedding bandwith two lines ($54.99). I was surprised at first by how lightweight it was, but impressed with the simplicity of the band. One commenter on the site says it feels like he’s not even wearing one. Michael agreed.
The next band was a dual finish tungsten wedding band with a brushed finish in the middle ($99.99). Michael found this one to be much sturdier and remarked that he could tell this one would last a long time.
JustMensRings.com has a very wide selection, so finding a ring to suit your man’s taste is not a problem. My one caution would be to have your ring size measured professionally in order to minimize returns. Although at such low prices, you won’t be seeing red if an exchange is necessary. We did not end up ordering from this site, but only because we had already picked one from a jeweler. I highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for a band, though.
A few weeks ago I was contacted by the lovely people at SoleStruck.com who asked if I would be interested in a free pair of shoes on them. I think my answer was something along the lines of, “uh, DUH.”
After I agreed, the challenge began. Pick whatever shoe you want, they said. Really? OK! Jazzed, I headed to the website ready to shop.
And was faced with hundreds of choices. This actually being a good thing for a shoe store website, but not so great for my indecisive mind. They have so many great brands and lots of different price points. Did I want heels? What about flats? Or boots! Ooh sandals…
It took me two days to pick a shoe, but I finally did it and today they arrived!
Say hello to Flipped by Jeffrey Campbell. The leather is like buttah and the shoe fits me like a glove. Me-ow.
This was the first time I had heard about SoleStruck and I was really impressed with them. Starting with the friendly demeanor of their team to the packaging of my shoes. The shoes arrived within four business days of placing my order and come with an easy return/exchange policy.
As if that wasn’t enough, they also have a blog all about shoes! SoleVoice is really cute and fun and I like to pop over there to see what’s new in shoe land.
All in all, a big thumbs up from me. Once the bank account allows for shoe shopping again I will definitely be heading back to SoleStruck.
Wear Ease® is a company that designs and manufactures post-mastectomy lingerie for women to wear after breast or chest surgery. Their goal is to provide comfort, while still allowing women to feel feminine.
The Dawn Camisole by Wear Ease® is a cotton-blend camisole that offers elastic support for the healthy breast, as well as two drainage pouches in the front and back. My mother, a breast cancer survivor, tried on the camisole and said she wished she had one right after surgery. “The pockets would have held the drains comfortably,” she said. “Instead I had to awkwardly tuck them into my pants.”
Made of high grade cotton, breathable for all types of climates, with spandex, makes it easy to step into and easy to pull down for dressing changes and doctor exams.
And remember, just because October is over, doesn’t mean the fight for a cure for breast cancer is. Click here to continue to fund free mammograms.
As soon as the summer begins to fade away and air turns colder, my favorite thing to do is switch out our lightweight blanket for our winter comforter. I love the weight of a warm blanket around me as I sleep. And there’s nothing better than a down comforter. Unfortunately, they cost a fortune.
Plumeria Bay is the answer to my problem. Offering everything from down comforters to feather beds, they’re one stop shopping for a comfortable night’s sleep.
Each blanket is made to order in the United States with the finest European fabrics and Hungarian and Polish white goose down. And they’re so soft! Twenty minutes under my comforter and I was sleeping like a baby.
Comforters come in a variety of sizes and you can even pick your own warmth level! You’ll never have to worry about being too hot or too cold again.
The selections at Plumeria Bay make great gifts, or a perfect addition to your own home. Check them out today!
