Brothers All Nartural Fruit Snacks

Up for today is Brothers Brand all natural freeze dried fruit crisps!

 

 

These Fruit crisps come in a variety of flavors including the basics of apple, peach, pear, strawberry and banana, but also mixed fruit which includes pineapples and mango! The Mixed fruit was my favorite!

 

 

 

These fruit crisps are Gluten Free and Peanut Free which I was very happy to see especially since one of my little ones has a severe peanut allergy and is also allergic to wheat gluten. This made for a perfect snack for her, the packages can be tossed in a diaper bag or purse and taken right with you anywhere! It is a fantastic, healthy snack on the go. Did I mention that the bags are resealable?? Something very important for Moms like me!

 

The packets come in a few different package types including the plain fruit package, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters, which was a major hit with both of my children, Disney princess and Pixars Cars. Strawberry Banana was my sons favorite! Apple was my daughters favorite!

 

 

They were even kind enough to share a coupon code for you to use on their website. please go to The Brothers all Natural website and when you place your order use the code "sampler2013" for 10% off of your order!

 

Not only did my kids enjoy these snacks, but I also really like them, I love the convenience of them, they are just the right size package, it was a great quick snack to keep in our diaper bag for when we are out running errands or going to appointments. I would say if you like dried fruits, you should certainly try out this brand, they were delicious!!

 

 

**a special thank you to Brothers All Natural for providing this item for review, I was not compensated in any way for this review and all of the thoughts and statements are true nad my own**

 

I'd love to hear from others who really enjoy this product! Leave a message on my blog and watch for our very first GIVEAWAY!!!!

Congenital Ptosis

I wanted to take a minute to share some information with my readers about something called Congenital Ptosis. Our 1 year old son was born with congenital ptosis (in some cases it can be corrected by strengthening the muscle by patching the normal eye to force use of the other one, which we did try for about 6 months)  at 8 months old he had surgery to repair it, unfortunatley the surgery didn't work and yesterday he had the surgery done for a second time.

Congenital Ptosis is a condition in which a drooping eyelid is present,it is called ptosis or blepharoptosis. In ptosis, the upper eyelid falls to a position that is lower than normal. In severe cases of ptosis, the drooping eyelid can cover part or all of the pupil and interfere with vision, resulting in amblyopia. If surgery is not performed early in life for a patient with severe congenital ptosis, the brain will shut down the area that should be recieving visual stimuli for that eye, and the child will become blind in that eye. Our sons case was very severe and they noticed it right at birth, after a few months of monitoring we were reffered to a specialist, and then to an eye surgeon who has done this surgery on thousands of patients.

What exactly is ptosis??
The eyelids are elevated by the contraction of the levator palpebrae superioris.
In most cases of congenital ptosis, a droopy eyelid results from a localized myogenic dysgenesis. Rather than normal muscle fibers, fibrous and adipose tissues are present in the muscle belly, diminishing the ability of the levator to contract and relax. Therefore, the condition is commonly called congenital myogenic ptosis.
Congenital ptosis can also occur when the innervation to the levator is interrupted through neurologic or neuromuscular junction dysfunction

The surgery our son had to fix his ptosis is described below it is a link from Medscape:

Frontalis suspension procedure

This procedure is designed to augment the patient's lid elevation through brow elevation. Frontalis suspension procedures produce lagophthalmos in most cases. Some surgeons prefer to perform a bilateral suspension procedure for severe unilateral congenital ptosis to obtain symmetry.
The procedure is indicated when the levator function is less than 4 mm.
Relative contraindications are poor Bell phenomenon (limited elevation of the eye), reduced corneal sensitivity, or poor tear production, which can produce exposure keratopathy. If surgery is still indicated, these patients need close postoperative follow-up care to avoid corneal exposure, infection, corneal ulcer and amblyopia.
Several materials are available to secure the lids to the frontalis muscles.^{[10, 11, 12, 13]} These materials include the following:

• Autogenous fascia lata: Autogenous fascia lata can be obtained from the leg of patients older than 3 years.
• Preserved (tissue bank) fascia lata
• Nonabsorbable suture material (eg, 2-0 Prolene, Nylon (Supramid) or Mersilene)
• Silicone bands, silicone rods
• ePTFE (expanded Poly Tetra Fluoro Ethylene), Gore-Tex
• Autogenous materials used less frequently include palmaris longus tendon and temporalis fascia.

Patients may not be able to close their eyelids during sleep from a few weeks to several months following surgery. Families must be warned of this outcome before the operation. The problem of open lids during sleep improves with time; however, aggressive lubrication is needed to avoid exposure keratopathy.

Thankfully, our son is resting now and should heal up pretty quickly. He looks pretty miserable with his eye swollen and black and blue but we are really hoping for great results this time and it is to save his vision. Unfortunately, his specialist is over an hour away and the surgeon is 3 hours away so for us this has meant a lot of time spent traveling to the doctors, and this will continue now that he had the second surgery. We are very thankful that it was discovered early on and that all of our son's doctors have been so willing to see him and make sure he is seeing the right doctors and getting him in for surgery quickly, both times.

Do you have experience with Congenital Ptosis? Other issues related to the eye? I'd love to hear your experiences! Please post a comment on my blog.

TheraPearl Contour Pack

Up for review today is the Therapearl Contour pack. This product is a very cool heat/ice pack that is reusable and shaped specifically for the knee, ankle, elbow or wrist. I have been using mine on my knee and I love the fact that it will literally contour to the shape of my knee, it has a velcro strap so that it is fully adjustable, it can be frozen or heated so you can use it for hot or cold therapy, and even frozen it is not so cold that it freezes your skin, I did not place a barrier between it and my knee. This item is great for on the go and will hold it's temperature for 20 minutes, I tested that as a frozen pack and it certainly did, it also did not "sweat" and leave my leg wet. Since the outer is an elastic piece with the plastic shell over the pearls it can be wiped clean with just a warm soapy cloth.

Please visit the TheraPearl website to view more information on this product and to check out all of their other great hot/cold therapy products. You can also "Like" them on Facebook, add them to you Twitter feed, follow them on Pinterest, and add them to your Google Plus Group.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Zaggora HotPants

Up for review today are the Zaggora Hotpants. A special thank you to Zaggora for providing me with this great item to review! I was not compensated for this review, the thoughts and commentations are my own.

A bit of information on Zaggora's products from their site: "  Our research shows that the use of a Zaggora top and bottom (“Zaggora Hotwear”) during exercise, at an appropriate level of intensity and while remaining well hydrated, may help to increase both body temperature generation and the rate of calorie burn. Celu-Lite Technology™ is a patent pending, multi-layer fabric technology harnessing the body’s natural heat during exercise to help you burn more calories "

I absolutely love that these products come in sizes ranging from small to xxl, so they fit me, a curvy woman who needed a larger size and has trouble finding workout wear. the xxl was a perfect fit for me, I was comfortable in them, I did not feel that they were too tight, it was comfortable at my waist (which is where I usually have trouble with fit), they are stylish and I would not be uncomfortable wearing them to the gym (which I did) without anything over them, which I would never do with your classic leggings-type work out pant.

I had the opportunity to test out the Zaggora HotPants 2.0, and I put them to the ultimate test. The first day I just wore them around the house while I did normal things like cleaning the house, doing the laundry, the usual mommy type housework. I could feel that my legs were getting warm as was my core, simply by doing housework while wearing these pants I broke a sweat! My second time wearing them, I wore them to the gym and did my typical workout consisting of 30 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes on the treadmill. I had a definite increase in overall body temperature, as was evident by the amount of sweat pouring off of me from a medium intensity workout. The final test I put these through was a cardio workout from Focus T25, this is a pretty intense cardio workout, even if you use the modified workouts, within minutes I was drenched in sweat and could feel my body temperature rising.

These pants target a few key areas that many women want to target including your thighs, bottom, hips and lower abdominal area ( a key target for me since I have had 2 kids and 2 C-sections leaving me with the lovely C-section pouch that I can't seem to get rid of!!) I love how lightweight these are, they weigh next to nothing but are made of a neoprene material that holds up really well while working out and the fit makes it so that they don't move or slip down while you work out. I am a firm believer in getting more bang for your workout buck and these pants certainly do just that! The only downfall for me was that the must be washed after each use and they have to be hand washed and air dried/hung to dry, but all things considered, this is only a minor drawback and I will get into a cleaning routine that will make me not even realize that they need special care.

Zaggora Has many other great hotwear products including shorts, bright capris, long pants, shirts and a really neat product called the coola bra which I would personally love to try out! Please check out their website to find all of their fantastic workout wear and learn more about the technology behind the hotpant.

Disclosure: I received a pair of Zaggora hotpants for review. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions stated are my own.

****Be on the lookout for a second part review of these Zaggora hotpants, after wearing these for a few workouts I have decided to take a 90 day challenge which will include these Zaggora hotpants, the beachbody T25 workout system and the Shakeology shakes in chocolate, I will post before and after pics and include measurements etc to show how they work out!!****

Review of "Hugo the Happy Starfish: The Secret to Happinesss" by Suzy Liebermann

A Special Thanks to Happy Language Kids Llc for providing me with free product to review on my blog.

First some information on just what exactly Hugo the Happy Starfish is...

"Hugo is a little starfish. He finds his life dull. Tired of feeling sad, one day he sets off to find happiness. After much searching, he discovers something that makes his heart do a somersault! Sharing with others is the only thing that makes him truly happy; all other things just made him feel better for a little while."

 

In this ebook, which we were able to read via the free kindle downloadable app, the main character Hugo is in search of happiness that will last. Hugo has a big heart and wants to find lasting happiness, he meets a manta ray who helps him figure out just how to find lasting happiness. First he finds short term happiness through friendships and conversations. In the end the secret to finding lasting happiness is sharing his heart, finding empathy and the ability to relate to others teaching kids that sharing their heart will make them happy. This book quickly caught the interest of my three year old and she asked to read it several times. I am however, not sure that she grasped the concept of what the book was trying to teach. The book is colorful and bright, a quick and easy read, and we found that using the ereader was a lot of fun for my daughter.

 

You can find more of the Hugo series at their website:

http://www.mystarfish.org/hugos-books 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Pinkalicious nad the Pink Drink

Today I am reviewing a book that my daughter got for her birthday (we purchased it at toys r us). She absolutely loves the color pink, and the character Pinkalicious, so we had a Pinkalicious Party for her!

The book she got was Pinkalicious and the Pink Drink,  (http://www.thinkpinkalicious.com/books)  for those that don't know who Pinkalicious is...She is a super cute little girl who loves all things PINK! Especially pink treats like cupcakes and in this book pink lemonade. In this book, Pinkalicious has the idea to set up a pink lemonade stand in the summer to make enough money to buy pink gumballs. She makes lemonade but it isn't pink, so she uses a few crazy items from the kitchen to make it pink, but it is not very good. Her mom helps her by making strawberry lemonade and then she makes enough money to buy pink gumballs. She shares them with her brother, an even amount split between the two.

The Pinkalicious series is very cute and this book in no exception. My daughter absolutely loves this book, it is the first Pinkalicious book she owns, and we have read it every night before bed. It is a quick read, with colorful pictures. It is just long enough that it keeps my 3 year olds attention, but isn't too long, tells a story and somewhat teaches a lesson (sharing of the gumballs, earning money to buy something special etc.) I am very interested to read more of the books, and I am sure my daughter would be happy to have them!

Looking for items to review/suggestions

OK everyone! I am looking for suggestions of things to review, do you know of a product that you have been dying to try or wanting to hear about? Something that I may already have or could possibly get my hands on? I am open to suggestions, looking mostly for products geared towards kids or moms, but am open to others let me know!
Some possible future reviews at this point include:
*Zaggora hot pants
*Happy Tot organic baby food/snacks
*Brother's brand freeze dried fruit snacks