The new Jawbone

One thing I have yet to master is talking on the phone while driving and I have no intention of mastering it. Talking on your cell phone is dangerous and puts everyone around you at risk. That's why I am loving my new Jawbone. Jawbone is a hands free bluetooth earpiece for your cell phone. The new Jawbone is 50% smaller than the original model, it has Noise Assassin which eliminates all outside noises beyond your own voice, invisible touch controls, over 4 hours of talk time when fully charged, comes with interchangeable ear-loops and buds to customize your fit and is available in 3 colors; black, silver and rose gold. The Jawbone is a definite must for me in my life b/c I spend a lot of time in my car running errands and sometimes I need to be on the phone in the car, it's just unavoidable. Whether I am calling the daddy for a reminder of what I went out for, endless phone calls from preteen C just looking to chat or catching up with a super busy girlfriend who calls me on her breaks I tend to use the phone quite a bit while out and about. But this little baby is not only good for in the car but great when you are out and about and need both hands for other things or even just at home trying to coral the kids. When I first received the Jawbone I did have some used issues with the invisible touch controls b/c they are invisible it took a bit of fooling around to figure things out but I finally got the hang of them.Once I mastered the touch controls and found the ear-loops and buds that worked for me it was smooth sailing. Answering the phone and hanging up is a simple touch on the front of the earpiece and the volume can be turned up and down by pressing the top of earpiece multiple times. Once your Jawbone's battery has drained you have two options for charging, a charging cord is provided that plugs into the wall or the male end of the plug comes off and the cord can go into the USB port on your Mac or pc. Though I do think the Jawbone still seems a little large in comparison to the other hands free units out there I think it makes up for it in style. I love the pattern on it, it seems almost jewel like, it's really hard to describe. I do have a few girlfriends who do tease me when they see me wearing it out and about but I choose to believe they are just jealous, haha!! The only snag I have ever run into is adjusting the earpiece, sometimes when I am on a call the earpiece feels like it is going to fall out and when I adjust it it hangs up on people sometimes. But that aside I really love my Jawbone and am very sad on the days I have forgotten to charge it or even worse forget it in the house when it is fully charged. I would love an optional car charger for it, though I wouldn't use it all the time there are times when it would have been handy. (They now do have a car charger option for an extra $29.99US, oh I need one!) This reminds me, I need to charge that baby up.
Wanna get your own Jawbone so you can look as cool as me? (jk haha) The Jawbone retails for $129.99US and can be purchased at their online store, they ship to both US and Canada or locally at your local cell phone provider. I have seen it at both Telus and Bell in my city. It also comes in two more colors now Rambling Rose and Babbling Blue.

Kissaluvs cloth diapers just too much trouble for this mama

We've recently been trying out Kissuluvs cloth diapers and I'm not sure we are really keen on them. There are good points and bad points to the diapers though. Kissaluvs come in 3 sizes; size 0- newborn (5-15lbs), size 1- medium (10-25lbs) and size 2- large (20-40lbs). They are custom made in the US and consist purely of soft absorbent material. There are a few different fabric options including unbleached cotton fleece and organic cotton with hemp. There are also a variety of colors to choose from if plain doesn't float your boat. Along with the actual diaper you also need Booster Doublers and/ or Super Soaker Doublers. Both are inserts that you lie in the diaper for extra absorbency, with the Super Soaker Doublers being more absorbent than the Booster Doublers. When we try out cloth diapers I always like to test them out at night because L does not poop at night usually but he pees a lot! Since we use disposables regularly and they we have yet to have a leak at night I expect a cloth diaper to hold up at night as well. The thing I like about the Kissaluvs is because they are so absorbent I have yet to wake up to L being soaked right through to his bed. The things I didn't like about this diaper; you have to buy your own diaper cover as the diaper does not have one built in nor does Kissaluvs carry their own. (I just went to Zellers and picked up a super cheap pack of plastic covers 3 for $2 and they did the trick but they were ugly and plastic, lol.) They make your babies behind HUMONGOUS!! Seriously they seemed much fatter than other lines of cloth diapers, after the first time wearing them L had to bend over and check them out and he walked bow legged for a bit. It was also quite the scene to get his pants on afterward. The snap system in theory was a good idea as they are adjustable and can over lap to better suit a more skinny-waisted baby, the problem for me was shear confusion I wasn't sure about all the snaps at first and over lapping they were way too tight and at the next snap down they were a bit too loose. I chose to keep them loose so they didn't hurt L, they did stay on fine though. Overall they did perform well but I thought they seemed like a lot of extra trouble compared to other cloth diapers on the market. I just don't need extra trouble. I would prefer a diaper that has it's own attached cover and it not so huge. If these things don't bother you though, this might be the diaper for you.


I did on the other hand love their Terry Cloth Wipes; textured on one side for easy clean up and gentle on the other for a nice soft wipe. We have used these wipes for everything from diaper wipes, face cloths, snotty noses or just to pat dry a wet bum. Both Kissaluvs diapers and wipes are washer and dryer friendly, we have washed both numerous times and they look as good as new and smell great. Though b/c the diapers are so thick sometimes they come out of the drier still wet in the middle and need to be dried more. If unnoticed they start to smell a bit so double check that those babies are really dry.

Kissaluvs diapers retail at $12.95US (unbleached), $13.95US (color) and their wipes retail at $2US each, check out their retail locator for a list of retailers in the US or Canada.

Tag, you're it!!

The new Leap Frog Tag is like a smaller more compact version of their popular Leap Pad. The Tag is a large chunky "pen" that is a magical tool to help your child in the sometimes daunting journey of learning to read. I was really amazed by this product the first time we used it. Along with the Tag you get a book that looks just like any other regular book. The book it comes with is soft cover but the extra books you buy come in hard cover, they all have paper pages made of regular paper. It baffles the mind how the pen is able to read the seemingly normal book but the special printing on these pages allows the Tag reader to understand and read the book aloud to your child. Like the Leap Pad it not only reads the story aloud but responds to certain items on each page with noises and sounds. Each page also has a fun game to play as well. The great thing about this system is unlike the Leap Pad once your child has mastered reading the books are just normal books and not like the regular Leap Pad books. We had a wide variety of kids who tested out our Tag and it was a big hit for everyone even those who could already read and even baby L loved it though it is recommended for ages 4-8. Aside from reading the story along with the book the Tag is also capable of reading the story without the book which is a feature that baby L adored. The Tag can hold up to 5 books at a time and connects to both Windows Vista or Mac operating systems to load new stories or keep track of your child's process, both of which are simple and easy to do. Along with the books we also received a National Geographic Kids Activity Card set, this cards are great their are over 40 cards in a set with pictures of different wild animals on each card front and back. Touching the "pen" to these cards and you can hear what sound they make, where they are from and a little tidbit of information about them. I love these activity cards because they are so educational, they even taught me a few things I didn't know. The first few times L used the Tag he was rough and banged the "pen" frantically on the pages, he has gotten better with it and treats it more gently now but I do agree that this unit would be better suited for ages 4-8 as the older children seemed to be a lot better with unit. It looks like Leap Frog is set to come out with Tag Junior for ages 2-4 in May. Though we haven't tried out the Tag Junior if it's anything like the Tag it should be amazing!
The Leap Frog Tag retails for @ $49.99 US/CAD. In the US it can be purchased at LeapFrog.com and in Canada at any local retailer such as Walmart, Zellers or Costco.

Where am I?

So I'm sure you are all wondering where I went? Posts lately have been few and far between and I am sorry for that. We are still pretty behind on reviews from before the holidays and so far behind in catching up on emails as well. As most of my readers know Baby Let's Shop consists of just my family me (the mama), the daddy, preteen C and baby L. I write all the reviews at home in my free time which is hard to come by these days. That alone makes it hard to catch up but on top of that the daddy and I are planning to elope far away to get married. We were supposed to get married this month but due to passport issues with myself and the children it doesn't look like March is our month, which is sad b/c I'm holding off getting pregnant again till after the wedding. I have spent to much time filling out paperwork, mailing it in, filling out more, faxing it in. Endless hours have been spent on hold or actually talking to a live person but my questions are never answered, everyone has a different response and very few people have been helpful. This has been contributing to the lack of reviews. I hope you understand and please keep checking back for new reviews. We hope to be back to smooth sailing shortly. I promise to try harder to pop up a review or two in the meantime but I just wanted to update everyone on what's been going on here at the Baby Let's Shop homestead. Please keep your fingers crossed for us as I feel I am way behind due for both a wedding and another baby.