Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale!

35% off at www.glowbaby.ca with code CYBER 35!  Deal ends at midnight on November 26th.



Disney On Ice: Worlds of Fantasy - Giveaway!!!

It's that time of year again!  Disney on Ice is coming to town and this year's show is Worlds of Fantasy!  We are giving away 4 tickets to this show so keep reading for instructions on how to enter.

Come experience a magical Disney fantasy on ice!
Rev up for non-stop fun with four of your favorite Disney stories at Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy. Thrill to high-speed stunts as Lightning McQueen, Mater and the crew of Disney/Pixar's Cars race across the ice. Dive into The Little Mermaid's enchanting undersea kingdom and enter the mystical world of Pixie Hollow with Tinker Bell and the Disney Fairies as they reveal the magic that lies within! The toys are back in town with heroic action when Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Jessie, and the Toy Story gang escape from the rambunctious tots of Sunnyside Daycare and race for home, in their most daring adventure ever! From wheels to waves, playtime to pixie dust, your family's favorite Disney moments come to life at Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy with dazzling skating, special effects and beloved characters certain to create a lifetime of memories.

If you want to purchase tickets click here.

Mom Blogger Program Discount - 4 tickets for $44 on Weekdays and $4 off per ticket on Weekends with code MUM444. *

*Excludes Front Row, Rinkside, and VIP tickets. No double discounts. Additional Fees May Apply. Weekday is defined as Monday thru Thursday and Friday Matinee. Weekend is defined as Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday

 

***GIVEAWAY***

We are giving away 4 tickets to the Toronto show.  To enter you must follow this blog. Each task will gain one entry to the giveaway.

1.  Follow our blog and post in comment section that you have done so or are already subscribed.
2.  Let us know which characters your child/children would be most excited to see.
3.  Tweet about the giveaway (this can be done every day and will earn 1 entry each day) - Tweet "Enter to win 4 tickets Disney on Ice: Worlds of Fantasy http://ow.ly/eBFk9   Giveaway by @lindsayGlowbaby @disney_on_ice"
4. Like Glow Baby on Facebook and comment here that you have done so
5. Like Disney on Ice on Facebook and comment here that you have done so
6. Share Giveaway on Facebook (be sure to share off our Glow Baby's facebook page so we can track your share

This giveaway will run until 8pm November 2nd.  The winner will be announced on our blog on November 3rd.

Good luck!

Lindsay

Glow Baby Included in Parentables Calendar Feature

I am excited to announce that our Organized Family Calendar was included in Parentables' article on 5 Efficient and Useful Calendars.  Of course our calendar was the prettiest :) 



The Organized Family Calendar

You can read the whole story here.

Glow Baby Featured by The Giggle Guide

I was pretty excited to find out that Glow Baby was recently featured by The Giggle Guide! 

The Giggle Guide™ is the ultimate online destination for information related to today’s children’s marketplace.  The Giggle Guide makes it easy for retailers, buyers and consumers to find information on the latest children’s products and services.  So I was super thrilled that they noticed me!



The Giggle Guide

The feature can be viewed here:  http://thegiggleguide.com/grapevine/2012-08/glow-baby-helps-families-stay-track

I'm a Mom on the Street - The Family Groove

I was pretty excited to be able to share my Fall plans for Glow Baby with The Family Groove.

Check out my plans here:

http://www.thefamilygroove.com/sep12_MomStreet.htm


Excited to share our next steps.

Best,

Lindsay

When will things slow down?

I finally have a moment to sit down and write a bit about what's going on at home and on the business front. It has been a VERY busy few weeks! Especially with a few major things happening.

1. We have been searching for a new house for 6 months. It has been an extremely emotional and frustrating search. For those of you who are NOT familiar with the Toronto market, please believe me when I say that It. Is. Insane. I'm not sure if you've check out my new favourite blogger http://fmlistings.tumblr.com/rss but her blog is all about the market here and she is excellent at describing the insanity. Anyways, after putting in three offers that were rejected (one was lost by only $1000) we finally won!!! So after months of taking time each week to view house after house, the agony of waiting for the offer date, multiple trips to the bank we finally have our weekend back!! Only to realise that we now have to sell our house...

2. It's time to sell. So for the past week and a half we have been cleaning, organizing and purging like mad getting our house ready to list on Monday! When you have two children whose goal in life is to make a mess, this is definitely the easier way. So in this sense, the timing couldn't be better because we are going away on Monday for two weeks. However, at the same time we are packing up the house and getting it showing ready, we also have to plan and get everything ready for our trip. There is no time to be excited about the trip right now. All we can focus on is getting the house ready.

3. And of course, we now have a new house that needs a lot of work! It is a 1960's backsplit and was sold by the original owners. Enough said. There is a kitchen to gut, bathrooms to plan, wallpaper to hopefully steam off, and wood panelling to get rid of. So to add to all that is going on, we now need to figure out what we can do on our budget, find a contractor, source materials and try to get our house move in ready by the time we close on our current house.

4. Our trip. We are going to Disney. The girls are super excited. I am looking forward to it but have to admit that I am more looking forward to our trip to Sanibel Island AFTER Disney. I really need a Vacation! Not the waiting in lines, crowed kind. I need the sit on the beech with a drink and soak up the sun kind.

Sigh......

5. So enough about our personal craziness...There are exciting things happening on the business front! I can't say too much yet, but we will hopefully be able to share our great news in the next couple of months! But for now, these exciting things are keeping me SUPER busy! Why is it that all things seem to hit at the same time?

PS. - Our Organized Family Calendar was in Better Homes and Gardens this month!!!

I'm Baaaackkk!!!

It's been two months since my last blog post. Sounds a bit like an AA confession. The Glow Baby blog has been sorely neglected due to a number of crazy happenings both as a business and as a family. The blog has taken a back seat to a busy life. But now that things are finally settling down (knock on wood), I am focusing once again on sharing my journey both as a business owner and as a mom.

Over the past two months, Glow Baby has grown and I have done amazing things that I never dreamed possible. I was the organizational expert in article about Back-To-School organization in both The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star! I attended my first trade show in Kentucky and had many other smaller but just as exciting accomplishments keeping me very busy.

On the homefront, Ainsley started JK!!! I can't believe that my baby is in real school now. It is amazing how much she is learning and everyday when she comes home she's learned a new letter or song that I can't wait to hear about. Juliet is almost three and in the process of dropping her nap (which had directly affected my work time). She is getting bigger and more vocal everyday and when we had her first playdate a few weeks ago, I felt that little tinge in my chest that made me a bit sad that my youngest is no longer a baby. I feel truly blessed that I am here to experience these moments with my girls even though some areas of my worklife have suffered.

I look forward to once again sharing my stories, ideas and tips. We've had a busy few months but this means I have LOTS to share.

Thanks for staying with us and get ready for some fun!

New: Spotlight Posts

One of the reasons behind creating Glow Baby was to help parents. With our products we are helping parents take control of their lives and get organized! With products firmly under our belt (and new products on the way) we have decided to also share our knowledge with you. Whether this is knowledge of other great products or fabulous businesses that provide a service to help you, we will be bringing our readers this information.

From Doulas to momsgroups, if we think they can help make being a parent easier, we will tell you about them! If you know of a business or product that helped you as a parent feel free to send us a note at info@glowbaby.ca and we will contact them for a possible Spotlight.

Look out for our Spotlight posts starting on Monday!

Activities, Playdates and More – Managing your Busy Family Life

Managing the many details of family life can often seem more difficult than being an air traffic controller! With my schedule, work, Brett’s schedule and the girls’ schedules to remember along with doctors appointment, dentist appointments and the list goes on; I have had to come up with a number of ways to deal with the inevitable chaos.

1.Menu Planning – By setting aside a small amount of time during the week to menu plan, you can save yourself the hassle of multiple trips to the grocery store by ensuring that all the food you need for the weeks meals and snacks are on hand. It can also save you money as you know what you need and don’t end up buying extra food that may go to waste. It can also help ensure that your family is eating healthy, well-balanced meals instead of choosing whatever is fastest at the last minute.

2.Family Calendar - The use of one master calendar for the whole family is very useful. By having all family members’ schedule in one place can avoid confusion and missed appointments. Your family calendar can not only be used for schedules but also for chores, To Do’s and for leaving notes for other family members. A Family Calendar is an easy way to keep everyone informed about what will be happening on a weekly and monthly basis.


3.Drop the unnecessary – Take a look at your schedule and see if there is anything on it that is not necessary. Is there anything that can be consolidated? A trip to the drugstore can be combined with a trip grocery shopping perhaps? Or perhaps, there is an activity that you have to convince your child to go to that can be eliminated. Are there any tasks that can be delegated to someone else? If you can cut corners with your chores and To Do’s than do it! Our family has invested in a cleaning service twice a month for those extra chores so that I can use this time more wisely on the girls or on work. It is definitely worth it!

4.Ask for HELP – There are a number of ways one can find help with the daily grind whether or not you have family around to help you. Some ways to do this is:
-Carpool/share drop offs pick ups – Find someone at your child’s school who can share pickup and drop off responsibilities. It may only save you 20 minutes at a time but this quickly adds up.
-Share caregiving – Another way to find help is to share caregiving with another parent as well. One day you can pick up their child and have them over for lunch and a playdate in the afternoon. Then you switch.
-Drop off centres – There a number of parent relief centres in Toronto run by the Ontario Early Years Centres. You can drop your child off with them for a few hours to get a break or have time to run errands. Do some research where you live to see if there are any options available to you. While the OEYC drops offs are free, there may also be paid options available as well.

5.Assign tasks to certain days – One of things I struggle with daily is the urge to procrastinate. To combat these urges I find that when faced with an overwhelming to do list (which I often have), it is helpful to assign one or two tasks to each day. For instance, I would assign Tuesday and Thursday to be laundry day. My main focus would be laundry for these days. By doing this, it helps me stay on track and focused and keeps me from being derailed by the enormity of all that must get done.


I welcome any tips you may have for juggling your busy weeks. Comments can be left on our blog post http://www.glowbabyfamily.blogspot.com

Oh! The Cute things they will do

Okay, so my title is a takeoff from the Dr. Seuss book Oh! The Places we will go, but this post is all about the adorable things children do when they are young so I thought it was fitting. My youngest, Juliet, is a character. She is a very social and happy child and makes me laugh. She has her quirks like most children and today I wanted to write about her latest which is where she sleeps.


Juliet decided in August while both Brett, my husband, and Ainsley were in England that she would no longer sleep in her crib. One night, she woke up in the middle of the night and I went in to comfort her and put her back to sleep she screamed bloody murder. She then tried to climb out. Hint #1 to mommy that the crib was getting old. So I laid her mattress on the floor and that’s where she spent the remainder of the night. I was hopeful that this was an anomaly as I was in no rush to lose the caged in qualities of the crib but at nap time, the same thing happened and I took the hint. The crib was passé.

Since moving into her toddler bed, Juliet has found other places to sleep. While she does sleep in her bed, she has been exploring other options. We started off not using a gate on her door as for the first few nights she stayed in her room. Then we found her sleeping on a box of diapers in the hallway (I kid you not). The gate went up.

Juliet’s favourite alternative to sleeping on her bed is her pottery barn chair (see picture). Not quite sure why but we often will find her asleep here and move her to her bed. The other night though, she found a new place. My husband was putting Juliet to bed while I put Ainsley down. I finished and realized about 20 minutes later that my husband was still in Juliet’s room. I peaked in and saw him asleep on the floor covered in a blanket, which after speaking with him realized Juliet had put on him. I looked around for Juliet, first searching the bed then the pottery barn chair and could not see her anywhere. I then noticed two little feet dangling off the end of the rocking chair. Juliet had climbed up into the chair and this is where she had fallen asleep after tucking her daddy in.



All in all, we think it’s hilarious that she can and will fall asleep in the oddest of places and we do wonder what will be next. Her closet? The carpet? On top of her toy box? Apparently she isn’t picky.
What adorable things do your kids do?

How to handle the influx of artwork coming home from school

Getting organized for the new school year is in full swing at our house. For a three and a half year old and a 20 month old (both are going to nursery school) this really only involves buying new clothes for the eldest and some for the youngest and labelling everything! While this is not the full back-to-school prep people of older children go through, there is something we all have in common once school starts and that is answering the question: What do we do with all the artwork?

I don’t know about your kids, but mine are mass producers of artwork. When we do art projects at home, the girls go through pages and pages of drawings and paintings before they are finished. Add to that what they bring home from school and we have a major clutter situation. Some of the artwork is easy to throw in the recycling bin but a lot of it is hard to throw out. Over the past few years of receiving art, I have come up with a few solutions:

1.Use art as art is intended: Frame it!

As we have small children and lots of expenses, when we started decorating our house we found that we had a lot of wall space and no money or inclination to purchase expensive ‘art’. When I was in Grade 4, my parents framed a pastel drawing I had done and to this day it still hangs on my wall. It’s a great keepsake and I am proud that my parents thought it was special enough to frame. When decorating Ainsley’s big girl room, I went through the pile of art we had accumulated and picked out three of her drawings and framed those using inexpensive Ikea frames. I love the look of them and Ainsley is very excited every time I remind her that she drew those pictures. I will do the same for Juliet once we have a collection to choose from. What a great way to boost self-esteem by showing them that what they have created is special.



2.Art as a Gift
To take the framing of art one step further, I have given framed pieces to my parents and in-laws. I find it very hard to shop for them as really, what do you get your parents let alone your in-laws? Whether they hang the art on their wall in the office or at home, it’s a really nice thoughtful gift that is an Original piece of artwork that is priceless. This is a great way to save the art that you don’t want to throw out but at the same time, make room in your house for new art.


3.Art as Fundraiser
This past year at Ainsley’s nursery school we did a fabulous fundraiser for the school using the children’s paintings. Both girls created a painting and it was sent to Acorn Custom Cards, a company which took the art and made cards and placemats. This was a great idea as it provided a fun art activity for the kids, earned money for the co-op school and parents were able to have cards made that showcased their child’s skills and again, the children would get a self-esteem boost by seeing their art used in a new way.



4.Art as wrapping paper and cards
Another great option is to reuse your children’s artwork as wrapping paper and as cards. I love getting home made mother’s day cards and my girls love making cards for others. This is a great use of artwork that would otherwise be thrown out and save you from buying overpriced cards and wrapping paper!



5.The Art Book
This is something I haven’t created yet but have hopes that when the girls get older and start drawing people and animals we can create our own books. I would love to take a bunch of their drawings and work with them to create a story to go along with them. It would be something simple but I love the stories that Ainsley has started telling me about her drawings and think that soon we will be able to start putting them down on paper. What I would do is mount the artwork on scrapbook paper and add the caption below telling the story. To finish off the “art book” we would either insert the scrapbook pages into clear page protectors and put in a scrap book or we could punch holes into the pages and bind with ribbon. I look forward to the opportunity to make our first book by Ainsley.

The other option for this is to not have a story at all and just put together a collection of art and store it in a scrapbook. This is a really nice idea as you could pick a variety of work done over the course of a school year and have a volume for each year.

Mommy Connections - Sanity Saver for the new mom!!

Saying that having my first baby was a huge shock is an understatement. I thought I was totally prepared for becoming a mom but I don't think that you can ever be prepared for the life changing event of having a child. I felt lost as times and lonely and isolated. I dreaded the day my husband went back to work and had a lot of conflicting thoughts about my loss of a natural birth (I had an emergency c-section) and my role as a mom.

I had the presence of mind at the time that I needed to get out of the house even thought I knew it would be hard. So I signed up for a new mom and baby class at a centre that unfortunately no longer exists. This was the best decision I have made. By attending this class, my maternity leave was completely changed from one that could have been potentially lonely to one where I made lasting friendships for myself and hopefully for Ainsley.

In this class we talked about everything. And I mean everything. We talked about our disappointment with our births (I was releived to know I was not the only one mourning the loss of the birth we wanted) to whether our husbands were supportive or not. We talked about our fears and anxieties that came with being a new mom and nothing was off limits. When the class ended after 6 weeks we all keep meeting every few weeks to check in with each other. I am still friends with a couple of these moms and it's really neat to see how our children have grown.

As I mentioned, the company that ran this program closed as the owner had her own baby. It was really disappointing to me that this centre was no longer running classes as I would have liked to join such a class again when Juliet was born to meet peers for her. Recently I have come across an organization called Mommy Connections. They have post-natal classes similar to the one I went through. They are new to Toronto but I think that it is fantastic that they are here. I recommend every expecting parent to check them out. Their classes are a great way to meet other new moms to spend your mat leave with and at the same time gain information about your baby and resources available to you.

Mommy Connections is a modernized Post-Natal Program & Social Network featuring 6 weekly sessions of expert presenters. Sessions are designed to enlighten, support and educate, plus give new mom’s a place to go and socialize with other new moms. Topics include fitness, nutrition, safety, infant communication, and more. The first class starts on September 21st at Swansea Town Hall and costs only $60 for a 6 week program. If you know anyone expecting you should let them know about this program.

For more details go to: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Toronto-ON/Mommy-Connections-West-Toronto/116945278352604?ref=sgm&__a=8&ajaxpipe=1 or check out their website www.mommyconnections.ca

Kobo - A dream for the clutter-phobic

I love to read. When I was a kid, I used to go to the library and take out 20 books at a time and read them all by their due date 3 weeks later. Yes, they were books like Sweet Valley High and did not take much to read through, but reading was my absolute favorite thing to do. This love of reading has continued through to my adult years, however, I don't exactly have the time that I used to have to read. As a result library trips are in the past. I would probably never be able to be sure that I would finish a book within the allotted borrow time. This being the case, I buy my books.

I am a huge customer of Indigo and buy my books in large lots so I get the free shipping option :). I have many, many unread books that I am dying to read but with my busy life I have to put off. As you can see, my bedside table currently has a pile of books waiting to be read and I have book shelves in the basement filled with must-reads.



For my birthday, my husband was thoughtful enough to purchase a Kobo reader. I had not even thought about getting one to be honest. I am very much a paper person (as you can probably tell by my products) and it had never occurred to me to start reading on a digital reader. I do like the feel of a book in my hands and being able to physically feel my progress. So when I got my new reader, I was a bit skeptical about whether or not I would use it. In fact, Brett started to read a book on it before I had even figured out how to use it.



This weekend, I signed up for a book club and went to purchase a copy of The Birth House by Ami McKay. I originally went to purchase the paper version when I remembered I had the Kobo and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try it out.



It was very easy to order and download. I then realized what a fantastic alternative the Kobo is for someone like me. It drives me crazy that I have books taking up space all over my house. It is a nice thought that all my books can now be stored on a tiny device to read at my leisure. No more worrying about where to put them. No more dealing with my children ripping pages out of books (yes, this does happen). This will eliminate a great deal of the book clutter in my house which is greatly needed! Now not all the books I want to read are in digital format yet, so I will still get my fix of the traditional reading experience. But in the new format, packing for vacations will be easy and I will have more room for other necessities and my luggage will be that much lighter.

I am very excited to start my first e-book! Did I mention there are accessories???

The Organized Family Calendar

I am excited to announce the latest product from Glow Baby: The Organized Family Calendar. This calendar is the perfect way to keep track of all family members schedules with its unique design. Including both a monthly view and weekly views, this calendar is a wall calendar and planner all in one. Please visit www.glowbaby.ca to pre-order. Take advantage of our 25% off pre-order special with shipping scheduled for September 2010.



Calendar details include:

• 12 month calendar runs from January 2011 through December 2011
• Unique and stylish design includes both a 12 month calendar and 52 removable weekly planner pages
• Perfect for tracking each family members' extra curricular activities, work and social schedules
• Weekly planner pages accommodates 6 individual schedules
• Opens to 14" x 21.5”



I can't wait until January so I can finally use this calendar! It will definitely help me keep my mom schedule, work schedule and the girls schedules organized and I desperately need that!

Check out http://www.glowbaby.ca for more information.

First Year Anniversary

Today is Glow Baby's First Anniversary. A year ago today, I got my first box of Baby's First Journal hot off the press! While a lot of work went on behind the scenes before this moment, I consider this our anniversary as this was the day our journals made it into their first store.

A lot has happened over the past year. Glow Baby products are now being sold in over 80 stores across North America. We have received rave reviews from moms and many press outlets. It's truly amazing to look back at the past year and see how far Glow Baby has come in such a short period of time.

Just in time for our first anniversary we are announcing our latest product the Organized Family Calendar (details below) to help all busy families organize the family schedule.

Thank you to everyone who has offered support and guidance over this first year. Here's to another fantastic year.

Balancing Working from home and Motherhood – Not an easy Task

The decision to go back to work after having your first child is an agonizing one. Most moms I have spoken with have gone back to work with a heavy heart and hope that one day they won’t feel guilty about leaving their child with someone else all day. When my eldest was one I struggled with this decision and ultimately decided to quit my permanent job. I was lucky enough to find a consulting job with a previous employer and so I was able to work from home. It was the best of both worlds. I had an income coming in, I was challenged and most importantly I got to spend oodles of time with Ainsley. It was fairly easy to juggle my work and her needs.

When I began looking at the options after my second daughter Juliet was born, it was a different world. The company I had consulted for no longer had room in their budget for me so I was faced with either going back to work full-time or I had to find another solution. I had toyed with the idea of starting my own business but had never really had a reason to take the leap. The thought of being my own boss and being able to be here for my children was what ultimately motivated me to start Glow Baby. I thought that running my own business would be similar to working as a consultant except that I could choose what I wanted to work on and every high point would be because of my efforts.

Glow Baby has been in business for 9 months now and my expectations were definitely wrong on some levels but correct in other ways. It takes a lot of work to get a business up and running. When you are a sole proprietor you are the accounting department, the marketing department, the sales department, shipping department and the administrator to name a few. In my case I am also the product developer. I love my business. I love what I have created and I have a million ideas in my head about the direction I want my company to go. I do not however, have enough time.

It was definitely easier to balance my business needs and my daughters’ needs at the early stages of the business. Ainsley was in nursery school for 4 mornings a week and Juliet would nap in the morning so I could get work done. I would then pick Ainsley up from school we would all have lunch and then both girls would have their afternoon nap. I would seize this opportunity to work again. When the girls woke up we would have snack and then play until dinner time and then we would have family time until bedtime. I would then pick up working again after they went to bed. It was definitely busy, but I had blocks of time to devote to my work.

As Juliet grew older, she dropped her morning nap which meant that I do not have time in the morning anymore for the business. As a result, I have found a wonderful caregiver who is able to come in two mornings a week to play with Juliet so I can work. There are days when I struggle with the fact that I am not with her on these mornings and I do get jealous when they go out and have fun, but I keep telling myself that the total time I am missing each week is 6 hours. If I was working in an office I would be missing her at least 9 hours a day if not more.

Another challenge I have been faced with as the girls get older is that Ainsley has now dropped her afternoon nap. At first this was very frustrating as there went two hours of work time, but we now have a routine. I will let Ainsley watch an hour of TV (and yes I felt guilty and still do about this) but then she will come into my office/dining room and do her own “work”. She will draw next to me as I work and has learned that when mommy is on the phone she needs to be quiet. It’s actually very cute and I have a huge art collection now of Ainsley originals. Ainsley loves to see what I am working on and I love to see what she works on and we get to do our work together.

There are days when I miss the girls as I have to devote more time to what is going on in the business but overall when really looking at the amount of time I do get to spend with them, I am very lucky. I got to see their first steps, hear their first words and I get to be there to develop the people they are going to be. As much work as the business can be, I am in control of the pace of our growth and can keep it slow and steady while the girls are young and build a solid foundation. Once the girls start full-time school I can take what I have already accomplished and run with it. I hope that the girls remember the time we spend together happily and I hope that they can see what I have done with my business and realize that they too can do anything they want if they only put their minds to it.

"Baby's First Journal" wins PTPA Award

**See below for today's Press Release from PTPA Media***

PTPA Winter Media Awards
We are pleased to share a press release sent to us today …

Innovative products lead the way in Parent Tested Parent Approved Awards!

Consumer Product Winners include Shark Steams Pocket System, Disney’s Toontown, VTech Bugsby System, Corel Digital Studio and Painter Essentials and Crayola Digital Camcorder

Toronto, Canada, January 13th, 2010 - A video camera for children, a teddy bear that teaches CPR, a book that reads aloud to your child and a Cruizer that helps lug heavy car seats around are among the innovative new products that have just won the PTPA seal of approval from North America’s parents.

Consumers looking for practical, high-quality products and services can rest easy knowing that products bearing the PTPA Media “Winner” Seal are all “Parent Tested, Parent Approved.”

Because independent parents evaluate these products in their own homes, PTPA winners are chosen based on merit and consumer experience – not on commercial considerations. As a result, the PTPA Seal has quickly gained recognition as an international leader in certifying consumer products for quality, effectiveness and value.

“As a working single mother, I go to PTPA for unbiased and ’safe’ advice… from parents, not marketers pushing a particular product,” says actress and author Josie Bissett, former star of Melrose Place and now a mother of two school-age children. “PTPA makes it much easier to find products that enrich my children’s lives. Who better to trust than other parents who have done their homework?”

Companies ranging from Johnson and Johnson and McCain Foods to Wells Fargo and Cisco all submit their products for testing by PTPA’s network of over 20,000 volunteer product testers. Only those that receive high marks from PTPA’s unbiased, knowledgeable testers are awarded the PTPA Seal of Approval.

Here are just a few of the innovative new products to receive the PTPA Winner Seal of Approval:

* Glow Baby’s First Journal: a baby care log book where parents can track the feeding, sleeping, diapering, and special moments from their baby’s day. A great keepsake for the child.

* Safestarts Safetygate: Prevents unwanted restarts of appliance after power outages for safety and allows local power companies to use less energy when bringing power back on.

* MimiTens: Mittens that stay on with no strings attached. Thanks to extra long cuffs, mittens don’t fall off and don’t get lost. Features Thinsulate and Bamboo fleece.

* Your Baby Can Read: This interactive multi sensory program teaches infants the written language as well as spoken language and was shown to be effective.

* Wonder Bumpers: The only vertical bumpers that help reduce the risk of SIDS, Increases crib airflow and has a reversible design to fit with any nursery décor.

* Book Sox stretchable fabric book covers: Stretches over hard cover books for protection. No cutting, folding or taping required. Recommended by schools to protect costly textbooks.

* Jumstart Escape from Adventure Island: A game that challenges kids to use their smarts to find a way off a mysterious island Parents will love that this game helps kids master math, reading and critical thinking skills through action-packed challenges

”At PTPA Media, we are proud to play a role in certifying innovative new products that parents can trust,” says Sharon Vinderine, president and founder of PTPA Media. “It’s win-win. By improving communication between manufacturers and consumers, we are helping companies serve their market better, and helping families identify products that have been tested and recommended by their peers.”

For a complete list of Winter 2010 award winners, check our Winners Announcement

About PTPA: PTPA Media provides an objective framework for appraising and promoting new products designed to enrich family living. The company’s mission is to marry innovative companies with discerning consumers, to improve families’ access to quality products and services.

Product Spotlight - Medicine Pad

This holiday I was unfortunate enough to get my tonsils out. It has been a long time coming and I was supposed to get them out over a decade ago but I couldn't find the time and my tonsils started behaving again. Since having children, I've been getting strep throat almost monthly so I finally decided it was time.

I have been using my medicine pad for the antibiotics I had been using for my strep throat but I was so glad that I had this tool for the medications I had to take after my surgery. I was on two different pain killers and anti-nausea medication. Since I couldn't swallow any of my medications I was using children's tylenol and children's gravol. As I wasn't quite with it, my husband was nice enough to convert the dosage amount for the children's formats to what I would need as an adult and we wrote it down on the medication pad. Thankfully we did this as I did not have the brain power to do this calculation every time I took my medication.

Now the real beauty of these pads became evident as I was taking 3 medications at once and each one had a different timing. By writing down when I took my medication it made it really easy to keep on top of my pain managment and at the same time ensure that I was not over-medicating myself.

I am very happy to have finally been able to create this product as it has been in my head for awhile. You can check these pads out on the Glow Baby website at http://www.glowbaby.ca/Medicine_pad.html.

Long Time no Post

Hi Everyone,

I have been meaning to put up a posting for the past couple of days. Life is getting pretty hectic around here. I am working on two new products for announcement in January, I am planning for Juliet's 1st Birthday party on the weekend, preparing for the holidays and getting everything done before I get my tonsils out Dec 21st. Oh and I keep getting sick.

I have also just set up a new Facebook fan page for Glow Baby where you can get up to date info on press, new products, specials, new stores, and any interesting tidbits I find about babies, family life or life in general. I would love for you to check it out
http://www.facebook.com/#/pages/Glow-Baby/194652368570.

I wish you all a fabulous holiday season with lots of joy and great memories.

Baby and Kids Magazine

I am very excited to announce that "Baby's First Journal" is included in this month's issue of Baby and Kids Magazine!! The article is about stylish mommy gear and there is a pic of the journals. Please check out page 19.

http://www.babyandkidsmagazine.com/digitals/2009/1109BABY/index.html

Thanks!