Product tip: Sophie the Giraffe Leash by TutimNYC

We had stopped taking Sophie the Giraffe for walks because we were tired of picking her up and worse, we were afraid to lose her.  After all, my son absolutely adores this thing and Sophie is the only teething toy he really likes.  He attacks those legs with a vengeance and can now fit her entire face in his mouth.  It's a riot.  Oops... back to the point of the post.

Anyway, we are happy to report that a friend found the solution and Sophie is officially on the toy leash by TutimNYC.  They didn't post instructions on their site so here they are for our reader'ns pleasure.  Once you know  how to do it, it's pretty easy.  Thanks to the superheroes at Bambi Baby in Hoboken for teaching me how to leash Sophie!

Tip: I was using pacifier wipes to clean off Sophie when she was spending more time on the floor than in Lucas' little hands/mouth!  Oh, and we now own the paci clip as well.  Yes, we love that too.

Just in case you are wondering, we are NOT BEING PAID to ADVERTISE this product NOR was it received for FREE.

How to (pictures below):

1. Make sure the tag goes across Sophie's torso as shown

2. Pull the leash across Sophie's neck

3. Wrap it around, button and go!








Another battle against cleaning and bacterias has been won!

Resources:

http://tutimnyc.com/toy.htm

You can buy this product in Hoboken, NJ at Bambi: www.bambibaby.com/

Storing and Freezing Baby Food - BPA Free Trays

Finally!  After months of dealing with different methods of freezing food, I found what I was looking for.  These BPA-free Kidco baby food freezing trays have the key things that we were looking for:

1.  Safety.  BPA-free keeps baby food safe from contaminants.  More on why this is important in another entry.

2.  Cleanliness.  It's very important that we keep food covered.  Keeps out bacteria and freezer burn.

3.  Easy to label.  You can use dry erase markers to label the trays

4.  Price.  These are well priced (less than $9.00 for set 2) compared to others that can go as high as $20 each (Beaba silicone trays)

We bought seven boxes (14 trays) for a total of $59.43.  Each tray carries 7 , 1 oz. servings of food.  Our son is eating 5 oz. of food at each meal so I figured that was enough to get me through about 2o home-made meals!

What else did we try for freezing and storing frozen baby food?

- vs. Silicone:

I have to admit that though silicone trays make it easier to pop the food out (and they are environmentally friendlier) the price made it difficult to buy the volume I needed.  I found silicone trays at Bed, Bath & Beyond but not with covers.

- vs. Taking food out of trays and storing.

Tuperware (even BPA free ones) is bulky and was difficult to stack.  We have limited space and ended up taking up half the freezer.  This wasn't convenient towards the end of a food cycle (we make fresh food every 2 weeks) when we were only storing a few bits of frozen servings.  Additionally, the cubes of food were being touched and handled every time we opened the containers.  That was freaking me out!  If you are going in this direction, make sure that the covers are FLEXIBLE (Target has some nice ones) so that they are easy to close tightly when they have been frozen.  The stiff covers were either tearing or not closing all the way.

-  vs. Ice Cube Trays

No covers! Bacteria.  I was using Saran Wrap or moving it to Tuperware.  See point above.  Ugh.

Best Price found on Diapers.com

So in the end we found the best deal on Diapers.com.  I googled for a coupon, quickly found a 15% off coupon and NO SHIPPING FEES for an order over $50.  The difference between buying from them vs. Amazon or BuyBuyBaby was well over $20 in my pocket.  If you'd like to use my handy dandy new discount code from Diapers.com, see below.  And I also provide links to the different options on Amazon and direct link to Diapers.com below.

Thanks to the ladies at  HappyBaby.com for introducing me to the product at a recent food tasting!

Resources:

Amazon.com Search for Baby Food Freezing Trays (or just search those terms)

Diapers.com link to KidCo Food Freezing Trays (try diapers.com discount code MARC9420 if you are a first time buyer)

Hope this was helpful!