Tag Archives: Amazon

Product Review: MamaRoo

I’m completely convinced GOD invented this machine.

No, I’m dead serious! This thing is made from unicorn tears and possesses PURE MAGIC! What on earth am I babbling on about? The mamaRoo by 4Moms!

Yey! This calls for a product review!

Originally I purchased a little bouncer seat that vibrated on Amazon by Fisher- Price (Bumblebee only has used once now). It all started when my sweet cousin in-law threw me a virtual baby shower due to our geographical separation…. We were all discussing what purchases we made for the baby when my other cousin in-law (thank you Meghan) a registered nurse working in labor and delivery stated we HAD to pick up the mamaRoo by 4Moms….she too said this thing possessed magical powers, the babies absolutely loved them and the nursery was tricked out with them. This of course sparked my husband’s interest and I saw him immediately in the background researching online.

Then I heard our credit card scream…. He made the purchase on Amazon here just like that.. hook, line and sinker. Eek! The price had me a bit concerned, because I’m pretty conservative. After the babyshower we discussed everything that made him make the purchase, watched the 4mom website product video, read a few customer reviews and then I understood why.

When the mamaRoo was delivered, Mr. B was giddy and immediately pulled it out of the box and put it together. The assembly was a breeze right out of the box!

Our first thoughts were wow… This thing is pretty cool. As I read through the manual on the features, Mr. B already had his iPhone plugged into the MP3 attachment and was playing his techno music as he selected the various soothing movements to go with the music beat. He was sold and wanted to write to 4moms and ask if they could fabricate one in adult size for his office. I Yi Yi… Lol! I on the other hand thought all we need is this baby to actually see if she likes it, but I did have to admit it was rather cool.

A few weeks later when our bumblebee arrived I was finally able to put the mamaRoo to the test…..We are now going on a little over two months with almost daily usage, we call it bumblebees “roo time”. I feel like we really have a good grasp on this product and can confidently give you our newbie parent review of pros and cons. (In no particular order)

The Pros:

EASY to use when you are zombified parents
Buttons are very intuitive are have a nice lite display

Blowouts and spit-up, let’s face it, it just happens….Thankfully the mamaRoo is easy to clean! Just unzip and pop the seat cover into the washing machine

It features 5 swing movements – The car ride, kangaroo, tree swing, rock-a-bye, and the wave. (Bumblebee loves the rock-a-bye setting) 5 different speeds to choose from
Multiple seating positions that range from sitting upright to laying down; very easy for parents to adjust during any meltdowns

It has Bluetooth connectivity – control it from your smartphone 4moms app…. Yep we’re lazy. Kidding… It’s great when you forget to switch off and you are trapped on the couch, or different room

Entire machine is lightweight at only 19lbs. Even I can easily pick up and move it from our kitchen to living room as needed
Overall size of the machine is small and helps maintain our baby clutter in our space – 33″L x 19.5″W x 25.5″H
It has built-in soothing sounds outside of the MP3 aux option – rain, fan, ocean and heart
A dangling attached mobile that features plush balls -one side is vibrantly colored with different patterns and the other side is black and white, again with different patterns love that feature as bumblebees vision and focus are changing and growing

Dual voltage – for us an ABSOLUTE must! (Hip-hip hooray no transformer needed!)
Option to order the newborn insert – you could literally bring your little one home from hospital and place directly into the chair if you had to
Five different color seat color options -if your into that sort of thing- black classic, silver plush, multi-plush, designer plush, and grey classic (we snagged grey classic thinking it would look cleaner; it has lived up to our expectations too)

Weight limit is 25lbs; or if baby attempts an escape -with that limit your baby will get a great amount of usage and before hitting that limit we assume she will be down crawling and exploring
Incredibly safe! So much so that if the blanket falls down while in motion and is caught in the chairs movement the obstruction error will display and all machine movement will seise
Comes with a 1 year warranty (WHEW)
If needed, there is the option to purchase replacement parts, such as seat cover, MP3 cord, mobile with plush balls, and outlet adapter
It is very quiet when turned on and in use….listen for yourself

It gives us a bit of hands free time when we need it

The Cons:

The price factor…. I guess you can look on the bright side, you do get what you pay for (GOLD). A side note, around Mother’s Day 4moms website had 20% off…something to keep in mind
On top of price, you DO have to purchase the newborn insert separately if you want to use upfront
It doesn’t operate on batteries
Some friends also purchased the mamaRoo and their little one HATE it….this no guarantee. We have to remember we all have our own preferences and babies are no exception to this rule
We’d like to see bluetooth technology, or USB capability that allows you to stream your music without plugging MP3 or smartphone in, or even load MP3 playlist like a small 8GB flash drive
The speakers could use an upgrade, they are not the best quality for the overall price paid
The wall plugin adapter could be longer for the option to keep away from walls and furniture if needed

So there you have it, our entire review of the mamaRoo. If you have the ability to pre-test out with your babe before taking the plunge, we recommend you do it. Another suggestion, add to your baby shower list -a group could go in on the purchase. Obviously we didn’t have those options, but certainly would offer a try the roo out to any of our friends located around us wherever we may be at the time.

Friends, did you purchase/test the mamaroo with your little one, or perhaps gifted to another’s little one? What were your overall thoughts? We look forward to your comments!

Click, Ship & treat yourself…or in this case the bébé !

Co sleeping and a product review

Welcome back to another mommy Monday! Just from the title I might have already lost a few blog followers… Why? Just saying that word “co-sleeping” out loud is so controversial in our culture. Or, perhaps you just have no desire to read my thoughts on it (that’s okay too).. Whatever the case, if I’ve still got you, thanks!

In Korea I’ve discussed co-sleeping with many newbie moms like myself, as well as the more seasoned. Co-sleeping and attached-parenting is something the Asian culture practices as the norm. The differences to the western culture are that some Korean families all sleep together in their bedroom on a heated floor with a sleep mat.

Trust me when I say, we get it. Yes, we were the couple, kidless mind you, making that judgement from the outside swearing we’d never co-sleep and have our baby in bed with us. Hahaha…. Let’s fast forward shall we?

Enter our little bumblebee into our crazy life equation. The first few nights we had her in our room, but in a bassinet near our bed. It was working out…eh…okay. There were a lot of up and downs for feeding, as expected, but also separate up and downs for comforting, soothing and rocking. There were some nights I was so exhausted that I’d feed bumblebee while I’d lay in our bed, begin to burp her and we’d both pass out. I’d awake startled to realize what I’d done, only to find her still on my chest sound asleep and peaceful as could be. We continued to have this pattern a few nights and were both waking in the morning much more rested. ((Praise the lord!))

It wasn’t until I was researching some other baby products and doing some browsing on Amazon when the light upstairs finally popped on. She’s most comforted by us holding her and feels more safe and secure in our arms. Just my luck I came across an item, Snuggle Me Co-sleeping Cushion
, that claimed to replicated that sort of secureness, among other benefits, all the while keeping your little one safe in a co-sleeping environment.

Eek… Co-sleeping…I was conflicted. However as I started to really think about the past few nights, that’s essentially just what we were doing….

I was intrigued and decided to discuss the Snuggle Me with the Mr. before hitting that handy one click ship button on Amazon. We both were in agreement to try it out and decision that this was a safer way to co-sleep.

Let’s product review the Snuggle Me co-sleeper and lounge cushion. (No specific order)

This is a product designed for little ones aged 0-6 months.

The design and shape of the cushion not only hugs and comforts, but also helps to prevent and protect your little one from turning and rolling over, keeping them safely on their backside.

The cushion is made in the USA!! When does that ever happen?! Woot-woot! We strive to do our part and support those businesses, even while living abroad!

We have a King size bed so there is plenty of room to stretch out to begin with, however even if we didn’t have a King the Snuggle Me co-sleeper doesn’t take up that much room and should be ideal for other size beds as well.

The one we specifically purchased is made from 100% organic cotton, twill and fleece with a hypoallergenic fill. Also a very important note to mention is, the products are all free of lead flame retardant latex and phthalate bpa.

The cushion comes with a muslin travel bag! How handy! It easily can fold up, bend, basically act like a pillow in your weekend or luggage bags. Check plus! We absolutely plan to use and take it with us on scuba weekend trips and any future country hopping trips.

The Snuggle Me is all the listed above versatility plus the fact that it’s great for tummy time, infant massage and helping with ideal positioning in cases of acid reflux relief.

Our bumblebee now usually falls right asleep in the evening and we concluded it’s one of her favorite places to sleep, so much so that she almost sleeps through the entire night! Need I say more?? We’re incredibly pleased with the purchase and absolutely recommend to any soon to be parents! Get it added to those babyshower lists!

What are your thoughts on co-sleeping? Did you and your family do it? Did you use anything special to make the co-sleeping situation safer and comfortable for all? Would you try the Snuggle Me co-sleeper?
Love to hear from you!

Click, Ship & treat yourself…or in this case the bébé !

Product Review: Purely Elizabeth Probiotic Granola

Good morning! Up and at em’ let’s kick it off with a product review of Purely Elizabeth’s Maple Walnut Probiotic Granola.

The flavor was great! The texture was great! Ohhh and the crunch was great too! Sweet but not too sweet, salty but not too salty, oaty… well you get the point. Everything I look for in granola I found! It was tasty just munching straight out of the bag, or getting a bit crazy like I did and throwing a serving on top with my Rice Krispy cereal, banana and Silk coconut milk this morning. MmmmmMmmm!

So why did I order THIS specific granola? I’m always on the hunt for healthy choices and this little granola claimed to foot the bill. It’s incredibly hard to find products that truly are healthier choices and not just claiming to be. You can pronounce and recognize basically all of the ingredients, again how rare is that?

For instance, instead of typical organic cane sugar, Purely Elizabeth contains organic coconut palm sugar, a considerably healthier sugar, as well as coconut oil too. I felt like the ingredients spoke volumes….take a look for yourself!

“Organic Gluten Free Oats, Organic Coconut Palm Sugar, Organic Virgin Coconut Oil, Walnuts, Organic Maple Syrup, Sunflower Seeds, Organic Puffed Amaranth, Organic Chia Seeds, Organic Quinoa Flakes, Organic Millet Flakes, Natural Flavor, Cinnamon, Sea Salt, Probiotic Cultures (Organic Inulin, Palm Oil, Bacillus ans GBI-30 6086).”

Since becoming pregnant I’m really mindful of what I’m putting into my body because I know what I’m ingesting essentially our bumblebee is too. Also, before moving to Korea, I had some serious stomach issues. All sorts of foods irritated my stomach to include some forms of dairy. I was pretty much plagued with an ongoing nightly upset stomach, sometimes even getting physically ill. Most of my issues have since gone, occasionally I do have an issue, however I really feel it was a change in my food and lifestyle. Korean food culture staples are fermented foods. Kimchi and other fermented foods have probiotic lactic acid bacteria (LAB), the good little gut fighters! So it wasn’t even a question adding a little extra help to my daily routine with my morning granola. Bring on those healthy probiotics!!

Oh…wait…did you catch that last statement? Probiotics! YES! This granola made with GanedenBC30. The site says, “It’s a Non-GMO, vegan strain of probiotics.” Why all the fuss? Well, “GanedenBC30 a strain of probiotic that survives the baking process, due to its protective spore. Once the probiotics hit your gut, where the moisture level and temperature are just right, the probiotics work their magic!” How awesome is that?!

Not keen on maple? Don’t worry! Other flavor options with probiotics are CHOCOLATE SEA SALT. I’m not really a chocolate person, (GASP), so I didn’t order. However, If you are not looking for probiotics, but just a great granola, they also have the following options available:

::GRAIN-FREE::
BANANA NUT BUTTER
ORIGINAL

::ANCIENT GRAIN GRANOLA::
ORIGINAL ANCIENT GRAIN
BLUEBERRY HEMP
PUMPKIN FIG
CRANBERRY PECAN

There were two downsides to the granola and Purely Elizabeth. One is the serving size. The bag list 1/3 cup at 130 calories as the recommended serving size. After topping off my breakfast bowl and realizing just how delicious the granola was, I wanted moreeeee! Hahaha! What can I say? Mommas gotta eat!!

The other downside was dealing direct with the company Purely Elizabeth. Typically we’re big fans of Amazon Prime because of our location, however the specific probiotic granola I was after wasn’t being sold via Amazon, just other Purely Elizabeth varieties. So I had to place an order from the company direct. I ended up having a hard time ordering because it listed my shipping state as an option initially, only to reject the order at the end. I had to send an email, as well as three follow-up emails to rectify and place the order. I’ll be fair and will mention that once I did finally get a response back and assistance to place the order, it was easy. However…I almost gave up. (Better step up your game Purely Elizabeth!)

Would I order the granola again? While I’m not sure if go directly to the company website and deal with that again…. I’d absolutely go the Amazon route! I’m thinking blueberry hemp and possibly the banana one are calling my name next.

Did you hear that noise in your kitchen? That’s the sound of your breakfast spoon clinking against your soon to be tasty breakfast bowl after you place your order on Amazon Purely Elizabeth Ancient Grain Granola Variety 3 Pack Original + Cranberry Pecan + Blueberry Hemp
, or take a gamble and deal with the site directly here. Stateside folks also can pop into a local Whole Foods store, or select Target and grab some up too (lucky ducks).

What are your favorite granola brands? Do you have any crazy concoctions you’d like to share with us?

Product Review: Bob Revolution Pro Stroller

Oh yeahhh… It’s time for a product review on a mommy Monday blog posting!! Wow… my last and one and only was back when I did a post on coconut butter. By the way that was delish!

Okay, okay enough with my magpieness. On with the review!

Gawdddd have you realized just how many strollers on the market there are?! It’s just insane! We are the couple that researches to death, this purchase wasn’t an exception.

As you could guess, being abroad, specifically in South Korea, is a bit of a challenge when it comes to purchases that you really should be checking out in person. A stroller is a purchase you want to touch, test out in the store aisle, judge height, check out the overall quality. Unfortunately that just wasn’t an option for us and we only want to pay for shipping once. Yes, you can purchase strollers in Korea, however baby products are extremely overpriced, even if you are looking for something simple.

Over our lunch breaks at work, we’d meet and watch YouTube video reviews on strollers for tall people, adjustable handlebars, all-terrain, comfort, ease of use, weight and storage capability, safety and overall quality and durability that would last and grow with our daughter. We watched and compared, watched and compared, and watched and compared some more. Finally we landed upon an agreed decision, the Bob Revolution Pro Stroller. We realized this purchase would be an investment not only for us, but for our little bumblebee.

We’re now just a little over the two month mark with our Bob and we’re loving it! It’s incredibly! To us it’s like we purchased a BMW or Mercedes, lol but for the Bebe.

As we sort of listed above, the features we love in no particular order are:

The ease of folding the BOB stroller up by pressing in the two pieces and just an easy flip like motion to unfold again. Oh and it’s fairly lightweight to lift in and out of our cars and you can easily remove all the wheels.

The suspension and shocks. No matter what the terrain, our infant bumblebee is riding around smoothly.

The plush padded handle bar that is not only incredibly functional, but also super comfortable on the hands. Calling all 6 foot parents and soon to be parents, this handle bar will adjust to a comfortable height for you. (Sooo nice!) No feet hitting the stroller and messing with your natural stride.

The stroller canopy is ginormous with peek-through window to see a toddler. We haven’t hit that stage just yet, but we have the Britax car seat attached (make sure you purchase the BOB Single Infant Car Seat Adapter for Britax to fit the car seat onto the stroller perhaps another product review later), however the canopy on the stroller does folds over the car seat and protect an infant from the elements if you use it that way.

There is a decent sized storage area underneath. We’ve fit a diaper bag and some vegetable/fruit purchases in it. Also on the backside of the stroller, think where your knees face when pushing, is a flat pocket area that will hold flat items like diapers, wipes or a light blanket.

I haven’t jogged just yet with the stroller, however all reviews from runners say that it’s excellent for exercise. I’m excited to give it a go!

We want to be completely honest and up front with this product review and list the cons/ dislikes to this stroller as well. Guess what? We haven’t really found any just yet…. We do find ourselves in a bit of a pickle when it comes to taking the stroller into Korean restaurants and coffee shops due to the tightness of tables and such. So you could say that the overall size is sometimes a con? However you could argue the fact that it easily folds up and if needed you could fold it up and stick it in the corner. Stay tuned we will update this post as we continue to use regularly.

We purchased our Bob on (you guessed it) Amazon. You can find the direct link below or BOB Revolution Pro Single Stroller, Black <here.

Do you own a Bob? If you are looking for a stroller, what features are you most interested in? We’d love to hear from you!

Click, Ship & treat yourself…or in this case the bébé !

<br /><br />

Her Room

So now that we’ve opened up this chapter of our lives on the blog, we’ve been asked to share our bumblebees nursery.

As you know, we live in Korea, in an apartment, so it’s a bit more challenging to style a space that you can’t really completely make your own. Even if you’re not living abroad, maybe you too can relate in the way that you rent, you’ve got to work your magic in your own way to make it that special space that you are envisioning.

Recently IKEA came to Korea! What a godsend! Haha! All the furniture in the nursery is all from you guessed it… IKEA! (Side note silly… Koreans pronounce Ikea, E-key-a.)

So why exactly is IKEA a godsend you ask? Isn’t it just like transitional furniture you ask? Well… Unfortunately most Korean furniture is made from partial board, yes, much like IKEA, however muchhhhh more expensive. Yeah…

We really just wanted to keep things simple and clean-looking. We decided upon gray, black and white as the primary colors, no real theme. Simple.

Bedding and mostly everything you see was ordered from Amazon, or gifted from sweet families and friends. It was overwhelming in an amazing way to realize just how blessed we are, our bumblebee is, with all this showering of love from all around the globe! (Thank you all again!!)

So there you have it! We hope you enjoyed another look into our lives while we’re living abroad and navigating this new adventure together.

Can you relate with decorating restrictions in your home? It can be a monetary restriction, or perhaps you rent too, how did you overcome and make the space your own? Looking forward to hearing from you.

What’s cooking?

We find ourselves together back here again at the end of the week. Can I get a Fri-YAY!?

While I know we observed MLK day and we had a shorten week compared to most, it just seemed to sort of drag on and on…what do you think? Perhaps it was the REALLY cold temperatures we’ve been experiencing as of late? Whatever the case, let’s get throw in another Fri-YAY! 😉

So what’s been cooking in your kitchen? Do share, we’d love to hear! In the meantime we will share just what’s been going on in ours…

Mr. B made a recipe from his grandparents cookbook dating back to 1949! Beef porcupines. Don’t worry there were no porcupines harmed in the making of the recipe haha! These little guys get their name from the way the rice pops out of the beef when they are done cooking.
Oh Lordy were they absolutely delicious! I know Mr. B made his grandpa proud that night!

^Google them!

Pizza night! Combination pizzas made with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust, 16-Ounce. Have you ever used any of the Bob’s Red Mill mixes? We’ve dabbled in quite a few and always end up pretty pleased.

We topped the pizza with mozzarella, tons of roasted veggies eggplant, yellow peppers, red peppers, red onions, mushrooms, homemade meatballs, cheese filled jalapeños and cracked an egg in the center because we’re crazy like that! Oh and a side of roasted jalapeños filled with melted cheese.

We even ventured into the land of homemade vegetable hummus too! (Hey it’s all about getting those veggies in, right?) Yeah…Green pea hummus to be exact. Pretty outstanding and will make many future appearances in this house. You can thank us for sharing later.

We whipped up vegetarian BBQ. It’s sort of old school family BBQ recipe we have from Ms. B’s grandmother, but with a modern twist of using veggie crumbles.

And of course we mentioned Iowa Girl Eats blog meal on our last post, grilled chicken with a barley-corn salad. Think of the taste of a BIG bread-less BLT (YUM!).

Alright folks, we will meet you back in our kitchen again soon!

#Therewillneverbeenoughtime

I’ll spend forever showing you how much you mean to me.

Vegan Rosemary chocolate chip cookies at 6am.
He adores them, and I adore him.

Click, Ship & treat yourself!

It’s Not To Early for A Bit Of Christmas

….Is it??

Typically we wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put up our tree, well except the past two years. Last year Mr. B got excited and insisted we purchase another tree because he had crossed the 5 year mark in Korea and I think he realized that the one we had sitting in storage wasn’t going to be making an appearance anytime soon in Korea. He also declared that he wanted to put it up before we had hosted our Friendsgiving. It was really sweet.

This year i’ve noticed many of our friends posting photos of their cozy homes all decked out with their Christmas swag. At first I thought ALREADY?! Then this past week it got me and sucked me right in. I’m guilty, i’ve had Charlie Brown’s Christmas music on and have changed out our pumpkins for red berries and greens.

After I decorated the first tree, I decided something needed to be filling the air with its Christmasy flair. I’m not talking about a candle, it needed to be homemade and baked for the right feel to go along with the good vibes.

As you know, I adore our cookbook collection and of course consulted my gal-pal Isa and whipped up an orange chocolate chip bundt cake. The cake uses orange zest and really added that hint of citrus spiciness you think of around the fall/winter holidays. Just enough to tickle the nostrils and stimulate your taste buds! Plus Mr. B is a huge fan of chocolate. Win-win!

You can find the link to her recipe here. I highly recommend you pick up her book, even if you check it out for a bit from your local library. I tweaked the recipe due to the availability of items in our kitchen. I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk, homemade vanilla extract, tangerines in the place of orange for the zest, used Ghirardelli Chocolate 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Chips in the place of semi-sweet, and I cut back on the sugar. I also didn’t end up adding in the ground flaxseed. Digging into the cake that evening was a treat! Next time I’m going to make sure I have oranges on hand just to taste the difference.

We are not skipping or discounting any part of Thanksgiving this year, but as i’ve seen and recently have felt, it’s never to early to get excited about something as important as Christmas! What are your feelings, or are you waiting until after Thanksgiving to get in the Christmas spirit?

Click, Ship & treat yourself!