Monday, November 23, 2009

Evenflo Triumph Advance Convertible Carseat- Review and Giveaway! Baby Bliss Celebration Day 8


Most states currently require car seats for children up to six years and sixty pounds, and rear-facing car seats for infants under 20 pounds. Hospitals do not allow newborn babies to be brought home unless a car seat has been properly installed to safely transport this new little person. Unfortunately, as the baby outgrows their infant carseat, parents are not all buying carseats for their children one and over. A 2007 study showed that the risk of fatality for children over one involved in car accidents was 0.7% for children in car seats vs. 7.2% for children who are not in car seats (this does not even include the rate of non-fatal injuries). That means that parents who don't use carseats for their children over the age of one and are involved in a car accident risk their child being fatally hurt by greater than ten times.

Needless to say, the importance of properly installing and using a carseat has been firmly established. Using front-facing carseats for children up to age six of age has shown a dramatic decrease in fatalities and injuries by 60%. I was contacted by Evenflo to review their Triumph Advance Premier Convertible Carseat, which was recently rated #1 by Consumer Reports for price and performance. I was very happy to review this carseat, because the entire line of Triumph Advance Convertible Carseats have been thoroughly side-impact tested and rate very well, which is extremely important as the majority of fatalities among infants and tots (even those in carseats) are overwhelmingly the result of side-impact car accidents. The Triumph Advance Carseat can be used to seat and protect your baby from birth (5 to 35 pounds rear-facing) until 50 pounds or 50 inches (forward-facing), so once you buy this carseat for your newborn, you have a carseat for the next several years.

Great Features of the Evenflo Triumph Advance Convertible Carseat:

* Safety features, including extensive side-impact testing and a five-point safety harness that adjusts for your growing child to up to 50 pounds
* Very sturdy build and overall great quality
* Multiple levels of recline in the base and padding (with memory foam) throughout the whole seat keep your child comfortable
* Easy to install (with a quick connector LATCH system), and easy to adjust the base recline
* Very easy to adjust the harness height and harness tightness, with easy to access and maneuver tabs and knobs
* Convenient features such as removable padding for easy washing and a cup-holder within easy reach of your child
* Many attractive, quality fabric options

We were sent the Evenflo Triumph Advance Premier Convertible Carseat in Charleston to review. My husband tried installing this carseat (rear-facing, for our little bunchkin) with the LATCH system and had no problems. We both found it to be a very sturdy, well-built carseat that is well-padded for comfort. The fabric is beautiful, and the seat was well padded on the sides too, which we appreciated because after shopping around quite a bit, we find most carseats tend to be rather thinly cushioned in the seat (and the hard plastic underneath is not very comfortable). This carseat also comes with removable support pillows for the head and body for extra cushioning (I imagine this will come in very handy for the long car rides my husband likes to take us on).


The 5-point safety harness is super easy to adjust. There are red tabs that slide up and down until you get the right fit, so you don't have to take the straps apart in order to adjust them. There is a knob on the side that you turn to adjust the tightness of the harness so your little one is nice and snug. These features alone earn lots of points for this carseat; having to struggle with straps and trying to position them correctly while at the same time getting a good fit can be a hassle with many carseats. The padding and fabric come off with ease and are machine-washable, and there is a little cup holder on the left for your child to easily reach a bottle or sippy cup.

We love the convenience of convertible carseats because they can accomodate a child from birth, so there is no need for a separate infant carrier. The Evenflo Triumph Advance usually retails for about $139.99. Considering its safety rating, sturdiness, and how comfortable it is, this carseat is worth taking a look at when you are shopping for your own family or as a gift for someone you know who is having a baby. Competing convertible carseats with comparable safety and convenience features tend to cost about twice or three times as much. Evenflo is one of the nation's leading manufacturers of high quality baby/children products, and has been developing innovative and safe products for infants for over 85 years that are affordable and rate well in satisfaction among parents for price, quality, and convenience.

Buy it! Evenflo's Triumph Advance Convertible Carseat is available at major chains everywhere, including Target, Amazon.com, Buy Buy Baby, and Babies "R" Us.

Win it! Sarah from Evenflo has very kindly offered a follower of Penelope's Oasis the chance to win an Evenflo Triumph Advance Convertible Carseat of their own! To win one of these fabulous carseats, visit Evenflo to read about this great carseat, then come back here and let me know which fabric you would choose.

Extra Entries:

Follow on twitter and tweet: Enter to Win an Evenflo Triumph Advance Convertible Carseat @ Penelope's Oasis! http://bit.ly/6qrafp #Giveaway, blog about this giveaway and leave a link to the blog post, or vote for me on Top Baby Blogs for one extra entry and let me know you did.

Grab my cute button for your sidebar, add me to your blogroll, or become a confirmed email subscriber of Penelope's Oasis (three each).

Contest open until December 28th at 8 AM EST to US only. Winner has 24 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.

Review and giveaway sponsored by Evenflo.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/2


Chicken Romano For Your Date Night!

Ingredients

4 thin sliced boneless chicken breasts

1 can (~14 oz) diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning

4 tbs grated Pecorino Romano cheese

2 tbs olive oil

3 tbs seasoned bread crumbs

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 tbs Kalamata olives, pitted and crushed

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

3 tbs basil leaves, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Mix breadcrumbs and cheese in a dish. Coat all four pieces of chicken breast on both sides with this mix. Heat olive oil in skillet over a medium heat. Cook chicken on both sides until cooked through (about 3 minutes on each side). Put chicken aside and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. Drain tomatoes and save about 1/3 cup of the liquid. Add the tomatoes, garlic, olives, vinegar and tomato liquid into the skillet and cook for two minutes, stirring until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and stir in basil. Spoon sauce over cutlets and serve.

Sides of rice and buttery broccoli makes for a very healthy and tasty dinner. Broccoli, and certain other vegetables, are believed to have anti-cancer properties, so I often try to add them to my meals. Cauliflower also falls into this deliciously healthy category (but brocolli goes better with this dish). This would make a great date-night at home meal (whenever you manage to have one...it's tough when the busy holiday season comes around).

Congratulations

blog giveaway

Congratulations to Alice, winner of our Crane Adorable Animal Humidifier! Your prize is on its way. Many thanks to Crane for sponsoring such a great giveaway!

Congratulations also to Heather, winner of the Crazy Dog Novelty Tee! Thank you Crazy Dog for sponsoring a giveaway for one of your great tees for our followers!

Our Baby Bliss Celebration is still going on, with more great giveaways, so don't forget to come back and enter other great giveaways. If followers can't visit often, please follow us on twitter for giveaway updates, or subscribe to Penelope's Oasis via email so posts and giveaways are delivered right to your inbox!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Beibi Baby Shoes- Review and Giveaway Baby Bliss Celebration Day 7

Beibi baby shoes are the adorable infant shoes offered from WeeSqueak, the makers of fun shoes for children. Beibi shoes are for infants age 0-24, and come in a terrific range of styles for both boys and girls. Here are just a few of the darling, sassy infant shoes offered from the Beibi line:

adorable baby shoes
cutest baby shoes
infant mary janes
WeeSqueak makes shoes for children that are fun to wear, because they actually squeak, encouraging little tots to want to walk. The shoes are comfortable, adorably stylish, and Weesqueak designs shoes year round for every season. The squeak in the shoes only works if the child steps heal to toe, so children are not only more excited to learn to walk (and hear the cute little squeak), but also learn to walk properly (not up on their toes). As an added bonus for parents, the soft squeaking noise is a reassurance that their child is nearby. The squeakers can be removed for times when quiet is necessary but you'd still like your child to sport a pair of their adorable mary janes, tennis shoes, boots or other styles.

Their Beibi line of shoes are specifically for infants (so these don't squeak), and I had the opportunity to review a pair of navy Crawford sneakers in size 0-6 for our little man. It was actually not easy to select a pair, because I really love so many of the shoes they offer, and kids do too...the designs of these shoes are just beautiful. Since we know our little one is a kicker, we picked sporty looking sneakers in preparation for his future as a soccer player :) I love these shoes...they are blue with a bit of silver in the stitching ~ stylish, sturdy, well-made, and they just look great:

infant sneakers

Here is the pair I plan to buy when my son is older (from the WeeSqueak line)~ a young boy in a little suit and these shoes, with his hair nicely combed, would just be the most darling thing on a Sunday morning at church:

WeeSqueak

Buy it! Visit their web-site to buy a pair of Beibi baby shoes or any of the children shoes offered by WeeSqueak. WeeSqueak donates 5% of their profits to Half the Sky and to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Win it! Cara from WeeSqueak is giving a follower of Penelope's Oasis the chance to win a pair of shoes from the Beibi line. To win, followers should visit WeeSqueak and come back here to tell me which pair of baby shoes from the Beibi line you'd choose, and the size (please choose carefully, as this will be the shoes and size you win).

Extra Entries:

Follow on twitter and tweet: Enter to Win Your Choice of Beibi Baby Shoes! http://penelopesoasis.blogspot.com/2009/11/beibi-baby-shoes-review-and-giveaway.html, blog about this giveaway and leave a link to the blog post, or vote for me on Top Baby Blogs for one extra entry and let me know you did.

Grab my cute button for your sidebar, add me to your blogroll, or become a confirmed email subscriber of Penelope's Oasis for three entries each.

Contest open until December 14th at 8 AM EST to US only. Winner has 24 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.

Review and giveaway sponsored by WeeSqueak.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/2

Congratulations!

blog giveaway
Congratulations to our winners for the Waterpik Ultra Dental Water Jets Giveaway...Waterpik generously sponsored a giveaway of three of their awesome, top of the line Waterpiks, and the winners are~~~ Kalea Kane, Katherine, and Mimi~ Congratulations ladies, your prizes should be on their way!

Thanks to Waterpik for sponsoring such a great giveaway. A new giveaway for a great Waterpik showerhead will be starting in December, so don't forget to come back and enter, as well and enter our other great giveaways going on now for the Baby Bliss celebration. If followers can't visit often, please follow us on twitter for giveaway updates, or subscribe to Penelope's Oasis via email so posts and giveaways are delivered right to your inbox!

Secret Santa Update

Secret SantaThis week I bought the gifts for my Secret Santa Soiree gal. What is a SS recipient called? I know the person who received my name is my Secret Santa, but what is the person whose name I got called? Secret Santee?

In case you are visiting around and trying to guess who your SS is, here is the only hint you are getting :)~...They are deliciously fragrant, and made to entice three of your senses. I still have no clue who my Santa is, but there are so many participating this year, and it's hard to visit over 100 blogs a week looking for SSS posts, lol.

Monday, November 16, 2009

The Mommy Cover by Joia~ Review and Giveaway! Baby Bliss Celebration Day 6

Joia Mommy CoverI've been searching for a great nursing cover, and have tried several, but was not very happy with the options available. Most were basically fine (they covered me), but either I wasn't that crazy about the look (colors, patterns, fabric didn't suit me), or simply just felt like I was wearing a large, shapeless blanket over myself.

To be honest, I wasn't that sure I'd like the Joia Mommy Cover much better, but since I plan to breastfeed and am rather modest, and I liked the look of Joia's nursing covers and what I read about them on-line, I figured it was worth a try, and I contacted Joia and asked if I can review one of their (very pretty on-screen) nursing covers. I was mainly hoping to at least like it more than the others I've tried. I'm happy they agreed, because it turns out, I like this nursing cover a lot.

Nursing Covers
Fabulous Features of the Joia Mommy Cover:

* They come in great color options and patterns (I love polka dots, and they also have florals and camouflage). They are definately prettier than any others I've found.

* They have a slight rigidness to the neckline, which not only gives them a very nice shape, but allows you to peek down at your baby while feeding.

* The neckties are made of a soft, silky material that is very comfortable and has an adjustable buckle.

* They are reversible! There is a very different color and pattern on each side, so if you get one side dirty, or just want variety, flip it over.
Reversible Nursing Cover
* They are generously sized at 35" x 21" to offer full coverage.

* Each nursing cover has a build-in wire that stretches and retracts as you move, and attaches with a velcroed tab. This is fabulous, because it not only allows it to accomodate a variety of body sizes, but because it moves with you, it is always fitted and you are always well covered~ no worries about accidentally exposing yourself or your cover falling off while you are nursing.

* They are 100% cotton and made in the USA.

Here are two pictures of my pretty Joia Mommy Cover. I chose the pink with black polka dots pattern, which reverses to black with pink polka dots:



Buy it! To buy one of these attractive nursing covers, visit Joia's web-site. If you have a baby shower coming up and need a gift in a hurry, they offer gift-certificates by email, so it will reach the recipient promptly.

Win it! Charlie from Joia is generously giving a follower of Penelope's Oasis the Mommy Cover of their choice. To enter to win, please visit their site and come back and tell me which nursing cover pattern you would love. Don't forget to leave an e-mail address where you can be reached.

Extra Entries:

Follow on twitter and tweet: The Mommy Cover by Joia nursing cover #giveaway @Penelope's Oasis http://bit.ly/25sub9, blog about this giveaway and leave a link to the blog post, or vote for me on Top Baby Blogs for one extra entry and let me know you did.

Grab my cute button for your sidebar, add me to your blogroll, or become a confirmed email subscriber of Penelope's Oasis for three entries each.

Contest open until December 7th, 2009 at 8 AM EST to US only. Winner has 24 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.

Review and giveaway sponsored by Joia.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/2