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Favorite Baby Products, Places, and People from the Portland BabyFest NW Show: Stuff You Need Part Two 

8/25/2015

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There were just so many great vendors and products at the Portland BabyFest NW show that I simply couldn't pick a top 12. So here are the rest of the vendors and products that I loved!
  1. Bamboobies* - these darling breast pads (to stop breastmlk leaks for nursing mamas) are bright pink and heart shaped. #LOVE! Let's have fun with it! 
  2. Love reusable water bottles. I was lucky enough to score a free one in my VIP goodie bag! Yay! And I've loved (pun intended) using it - it is like a Grolsch beer bottle, which we used to save to use for water! Plastic water bottles are a pet peeve so I love to see a company making a great reusable bottle while doing good for the planet too!
  3. Blowout Blocker*: What an ingenious mommy invention! This clever cloth extender stops baby poop travelling up your baby's back and through their onesie (because getting a poopy onesie off over baby's head simply isn't fun!!!)
  4. Upscale Resale Boutique in Boring. Yes, you have to go shopping in Boring just so you can say you did ;) I haven't yet made it out to this resale boutique but I loved meeting the owner and chatting with her. One nice benefit here is you can take in gently used items for consignment and get an instant credit to spend at the store - no more having to wait and wait before you can buy the next size up! Closed Sunday and Monday. Open Tuesday through Saturday 9am-5pm at 28112 SW Hwy 212, Boring, OR 97009
  5. StopAt4: This was a sad but very educational booth about the dangers of kids falling from upper story windows. The mama who was talking to us had lost her child from a window fall and is now on a mission to prevent it  happening to others. It just about broke my heart, but it did put the fear of God into me and we rushed out and bought window locks* from Home Depot and Lowes (we cleared out Home Depot!) for our house and our rentals. 
  6. Oaks Park is one of my favorite places to take kids in Portland. It is a wonderful old fashioned type fair that operates March through September and has a Ferris Wheel and a fabulous old fashioned indoor roller skating rink with hardwood floors. I've been here many times so was super happy to get two free passes to indoor skating in my VIP bag!
  7. U. Konserve has great solutions for reusable lunch packaging including sandwich wraps and stainless bento boxes. I LOVE these for picnics (since we homeschool, no packed lunches here!). Use coupon HCHWKIT15 to get 15% off your next order! For sandwich wraps, I also LOVE these beeswax covered sandwich wraps at the Apothecary Shoppe!
  8. Junoblu Breast Pump Totes - Totally gorgeous bags, although I didn't have a chance to look at them super closely as this was towards the end of the show. I have checked our their website and these looks flash! I work from home with the twins, so have been super lucky to be able to breastfeed on demand and not need to pump, but if I had to pump on the go, I'd want one of these bags! Get a 15% discount off any order with the code MILKMOM3!
  9. Speaking of milk, if you are breastfeeding or pumping, you need cookies! And I LOVE these Milkmakers cookies! You can get them from Amazon* - I LOVE the mix :)
  10. Bona wood floor cleaners*. I love Bona and use it already on my hardwood floors.  We have about half hardwoods in our house and I would love to replace all our carpet with hardwoods as our oldest daughter has asthma and both her and I are allergic to dust! And I loved the brochure Bona shared at the show, which lays out your "Four Simple Steps to Healthy Floors for a Healthy Home"... 
  • Step 1: Daily Dust with microfiber* to reduce allergens; 
  • Step 2: Weekly Clean with pH-neutral, residue free and non toxic formulas like Bona*; 
  • Step 3: Quarterly Shine with a product like Bona polish*; 
  • Step 4: Long-term protection - Bona deep clean system or refresher a few times a year and refinishing with no- finishes every 5-7 years will keep your floors in tip top shape. 
But back to why this made me giggle... I had a flashback to my best calling me many years ago telling me she'd found a great microfiber mop "for my daily mop".... "It won't replace your heavy duty weekly mop" she went on. I snorted through my nose. "Daily mop??! What is this daily mop you speak of!" At the time my floors were lucky to get washed weekly! Now we do have a shoes off policy in the house so it was not quite as gross as it sounds, but it seems that she was already following the Bona system even then lol! And, with the twins now crawling around, I have been converted to a daily mopper! Sometimes I have to mop twice!!! 

That's it for the rest of my faves from the show. I know when I was on bedrest with the twins, I spent hours surfing for recommendation on baby supplies and to see what was new. I hope these tips are helpful for you and would love to hear what you liked! 


A disclaimer: I have not been sponsored to write this post. All opinions are my own. I purchased a VIP ticket to the BabyFestNW and received a VIP gift bag with some free items, others I purchased at the show. Some of the links in this blog (asterixed) are affiliate links - you pay the same when you click on them and it helps support my blog! Thank you! 
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Favorite Products Places and People from the Portland BabyFest Show: Stuff You Need & A Free Offer

8/24/2015

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PictureLoving that Nenu teether!!!
Boy, the twins keep me busy! So busy that I haven't had a chance to blog about the amazing vendors and fun we had at the NW BabyFest Shower Show, so figured better late than never! 

Here are my favorite items and vendors from the show. 

  1. Play Boutique - in Lake Oswego and Beaverton - I am dying to try this place out! The gals at the show were so nice to chat with and when the babies get a bit older I'll definitely be heading here for some play dates!
  2. Connie Mintz Photography - totally darling infant photography here - great to pin for inspiration! I had my infant photos already done by Steffi K Photography and I adore them, but I did love the photos that Connie had on display at the show!
  3. Naturepedic Certified Organic Crib Mattresses: looked fabulous. We bought organic crib mattresses for the twins from Costco for just $99 each including delivery so I have to give them a shout out here and I also like the look of this eco friendly Sealy Serenity Soy foam Organic Crib Mattress* from Amazon - we have a soy foam mattress for our older daughter and she LOVES it!. Please don't use second hand mattresses for babies - it is not just second hand cigarette smoke but research has found that mold and fungus grows on the foam used in mattresses no matter how carefully they are stored. We didn't even reuse our old organic one! 
  4. Suki Moon Sound Sleep Crib Cushi's - an ingenious way to keep baby asleep in the center of the crib -  no more jammed up against the rails!  I couldn't afford two of these for the twins as they are kind of spend, and luckily the twins stayed pretty well in their cribs with just the occasional jammed leg or arm to deal with in the middle of the night. If I had one restless sleeper, I'd be getting one of these! The inventor was there at the show and was really passionate about her product - always great to see! 
  5. AsqOregon.com - free online questionnaire to check your child's development from birth to age five for parents, family members and caregivers... Receive confidential results, a copy of the questionnaire along with fun play activities and parenting tips - I love getting ideas for fun play activities that I can pull out when my personal creative well dries up!
  6. Enfamil - I am a breastfeeding mama, but if that doesn't work out for you, Enfamil offers tons of free samples - many hospitals no longer offer these (to encourage breastfeeding) but you can ask for a flyer with a code from the hospital or pediatrician and call the Enfamil Resource Center at 1-855-263-9267 with your code for a free case of formula to try.  They gave us these flyers with codes at the show. I like that they offer a supplementing formula for breastfeeding mamas*, which the twins liked when they tried it, but it is not organic, so in a pinch I also like Similac's Organic Formula*
  7. Nenu teether bugs and spoons*: These ingenious little things remain a firm favorite with the twins! It was fun to meet the inventors of these nifty teethers - I bought two of each of the teethers and spoons* at the show! The twins love the sticking out nubs - and the spoons - with built in spoon rest. Unfortunately the spoons did not fare well in the battle with the disposal (sigh) but the teethers are still going strong! I also love that the company donates to No Kid Hungry and Water for Life.  
  8. Healthy Child Healthy World provided a great little pocket guide with suggested brands that meet Healthy Child's "strict standards for safer non-toxic products". 
  9. Green Toys - My twins LOVE their bath time submarine* and tugboat* (which also act as a water pourer for washing hair!) and I LOVE that they are not bathing with BPA and other toxins! We were lucky enough to receive these as a gift and I hadn't realized just how cool they were until I read the info from the BabyFest Show!
  10. Plum Organics - organic snacks for babies, toddlers, and kids. For those times when I just don't have time to whip up a healthy option, or we're caught out and about at mealtime, I always have a couple of pouches in the diaper bag! Sign up for their club and get $50 in coupons and deals :) The twins favorites are the Blueberry Oats and Quinoa mishmash* and the Spinach Peas and Pear*
  11. Happy Baby brand foods - hello! My twins cannot get enough of the organic puffs and they are great to keep them occupied while I get the real food sorted out!
  12. Hyperbiotics Pro-Kids formula - probiotics just for kids! I purchased and used these when my little man had to take antibiotics after surgery to keep  his system healthy! If you would like to try a FREE BOTTLE (yes, you get a reward for making it to the end of this post, use the code BAYOU at checkout. This gives you $25 off (I think!) In August 2015, the company is also giving away a free immune booster with your order, so you get both for free.


That's all I have time to share today as the twins just woke up from their afternoon nap, but enjoy!!!! More to follow soon!!!

*Disclosure: I bought  VIP tickets for the show, so I did receive some free samples and coupons from some of these vendors - other products I purchased myself - any affiliate links are noted with an asterix (and thank you in advance for using them - when you use these links you pay exactly the same but amazon redirects a small amount of the purchase price to bloggers like me, which helps fund my blog :) All opinions are my own. And I'm pretty picky! 


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    Hi! I'm Erika and I'm an info addict! I love travel, vacation rentals, online education, primal and paleo living, crunchy (ish) parenting, holistic nutrition, lavender, bees, animals, technology, and sustainable living. This blog is a central space to pull together my research and writing on a wide variety of lifestyle topics! I hope you'll join me for a few minutes and share your thoughts in the comments :)

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