Review: Puddlegear PVC and Phthalate free Children’s Rain Gear

My son loves to play in the rain – and by play, I mean methodically jump and splash in every puddle he can find – you know, just like every other kid on the planet. But it isn’t always easy for us parents to say, “Sure go ahead and play!” knowing they are going to get soaked to the bone and you’ll have to drag them inside, cringing at your rug and furniture along the way, then get them out of the sopping wet clothes and into something warm – and then dry the clothes. Simple childhood joys are not as simple or joyous for parents. Unless you can come prepared.

If you haven’t heard of Puddlegear, which sells PVC and Phthalate free rain gear for children of all ages, you should really check them out. Made in Europe by a company called Abeko, the goal of Puddlegear is to dress kids in rain gear that keeps all of their clothes underneath dry, but doesn’t restrict their movement – so they can concentrate on the work of play and you can concentrate on enjoying the moment of letting them be kids – no more worrying about how wet they are getting and the chores you’ll be met with at home as a result of this indulgence. Just play.

You can buy Puddlegear in a range of sizes and styles – one-piece rain suits or a bib, rain pants, jackets, mitts – they even sell bibs and booties for infants – AND they can special order adult rain gear if you find yourself envious of your kid’s fun and want to join in (or if you are getting soaked anyway just being near the fun)! They are soft, flexible, breathable, wind and water proof and certified by Öko-Tex (sounds like echo-tex) to be free of over 100 harmful chemicals.

We tried out our Puddlegear on a particularly rainy day, letting our three year old jump in every puddle he could find on a walk to the supermarket, and then continue to play in the rain and puddles when we got home. I was soaked to the brim – but as you can see in the photo collage at the top of this post, his clothes stayed completely dry. He had a blast, he looked adorable (I just love how the blue suit brings out the color of his eyes) and he stayed DRY. Perfect.

Want to buy some Puddlegear of your own? You can order a suit for your kids online at puddlegear.com or stop by one of the retail locations which carry Puddlegear.

About the Momma:

Jen @ mommablogsalot.com

Jen is a Stay at Home Mom and Loving Wife. She spends her time online reading RSS feeds and posting in her blog. If you haven’t heard from her in awhile, she’s likely lost in a good book, sleeping or watching Grey’s Anatomy.

Oompa.com: Classic Toys That Don’t Need Bells, Whistles or Batteries

Oompa Toys carries a large variety of European wooden toys, baby toys, soft dolls, play food, ball tracks, play mats and other beautiful, high quality wooden toys – as well as baby gear and furniture. You will find no bells or whistles here – and no batteries either – instead you get pure, simple quality with the work of play and imagination at the heart of each item sold. I found their product selection refreshing and expansive. Their inventory is so large you could literally spend days just browsing all of their merchandise. The products I received for my son’s birthday were high quality and unique – definitely not the same old kid’s toys that everyone else will get.

If you are looking for non-character branded, quality toys that are designed to withstand generations of use, Oompa products are for you. Oompa states:

We believe baby toys should be natural, safe, non-violent and from manufacturers who provide safe and nurturing environments for their employees. We believe in fair, competitive pricing and strive for 100% customer satisfaction.

In addition to their online store (which offers free shipping for most orders over $65 and competitive shipping costs for those spending less), Oompa also has a retail location in Middleton, WI. So if you are in the Madison area, you can experience all of the great Oompa products in person – for the rest of us, their online shop offers everything you need to pick out the perfect gift for a loved one. You can shop by age, category, brand and country of origin – and the menus on oompa.com are very easy to navigate. You’re shopping experience will be safe and secure, tax free, with a 30 day return. They also have a rewards program for frequent shoppers which allows you to earn points redeemable towards future purchases every time you shop, review a product or submit a photo of your purchases.

Check out Oompa’s company blog here.

About the Momma:

Jen @ mommablogsalot.com

Jen is a Stay at Home Mom and Loving Wife. She spends her time online reading RSS feeds and posting in her blog. If you haven’t heard from her in awhile, she’s likely lost in a good book, sleeping or watching Grey’s Anatomy.

Giveaway: The SmartShopper Grocery List Organizer

Imagine a magical world where your grocery shopping list was divided into neat little categories, didn’t have almost impossible to decipher words scribbled by a family member in their worst chicken scratch, and wasn’t littered with items already scratched out because someone bought an item in the middle of the week before your big trip to the store but didn’t buy enough to warrant starting a new list. It would be wonderful, wouldn’t it? With all that pre-organization your trip would go by faster since you wouldn’t have to turn around and go back to an aisle you missed on accident and you wouldn’t have to call home and ask, “Does this say bananas or bandannas (I know, terrible example but my brain shut down when put on the spot for two similar looking words, but go with me – maybe lots of people buy bandannas regularly…)?” If this is sounding anything like your weekly / monthly / twice daily trips to to the grocery store, then I’ve got a very cool new gadget to tell you about!

The SmartShopper is a digital grocery list organizer that records, organizes and prints your grocery list for you using voice recognition software, a built in thermal printer (which means no pesky ink cartridges to deal with) and a preloaded list of 2,500 common items found on a grocery list. You can also add a list of errands like going to the bank or the mall. If you can’t find an item you need in their system you can add your own custom items, and you can also train the software to recognize words that it has trouble with.

I had my husband help me test out this gadget, knowing his electrical engineering mindset would think of things to complain about that I couldn’t. Overall he liked this device a lot and was fairly impressed with their voice recognition software – although he did come up with a word that completely stumped the SmartShopper. He tried (unsuccessfully) to teach the SmartShopper to recognize Fage (pronounced “fah-yeh”) for several minutes, insisting on pronouncing it correctly for awhile, then trying “fah-Jay” (which is how I pronounce it, no matter how many times he corrects me) and still no success. But I suggested trying “Greek Yogurt” which also wasn’t in the system and this worked perfectly. After you’ve recorded your new word you assign it a category like baby needs, fresh produce, dairy, errands, etc. so it can organize it along with the preloaded items. So, yes, it was incapable of hearing Fage, but honestly I wasn’t surprised. The fact that it got Greek Yogurt was good enough for me. I also trained it to recognize Joe Joe’s (Trader Joe’s Oreos) which worked perfectly. And really, if it can learn the name of my favorite cookie, then it’s got my vote.

Some technical mumbo jumbo:

• The SmartShopper takes 4 AA batteries. I’m not sure how long the battery life of the device is but if it seemed to be a problem, you could always use rechargeables.
• Your list will be printed on small rolls of thermal paper similar to what you’d see in a receipt printer. The box comes with three rolls and you can order replacement packages sold as 3 packs for $7.99 directly from SmartShopper.
• The SmartShopper device itself sells for $49.99. You can also buy it with an extra package of paper (making 6 rolls in total) for $56.98
• The SmartShopper has a built in magnet so it can be attatched to your refrigerator. It can also be mounted to your wall using the included mounting kit. The magnet in the device is very strong and felt perfectly safe hanging on our refrigerator.

Would you like a chance to win a SmartShopper of your very own? We’re giving away one SmartShopper to one lucky reader. Here’s how you can enter to win:

1. Leave a comment telling us your favorite place to go grocery shopping – is it a big chain or a small mom & pop place? Or maybe one of those natural foods stores like Whole Foods or Trader Joes? If you had to do all your grocery shopping one store, which store would you choose?
2. For an second entry you can tweet about this giveaway or post about it on your blog and leave a comment here with either the URL of your post or your twitter profile.
3. For a third entry, subscribe to the Momma’s Review RSS feed, leaving us a comment here to let us know. We’ll be posting more giveaways on Momma’s Review soon so subscribing will be a great way for you to stay informed about all the great things you can win in the days and weeks to come.
4. For the last entry follow us on twitter and leave your username so we can verify. Make sure to leave a comment here to get this last entry.

This giveaway will run for 2 weeks.  It is available to US residents only. We’ll announce the winner here on Wednesday February 11. Winners will be chosen at random using random.org.

This giveaway is open to all US Residents.

Want another chance to win a Smart Shopper? Visit my girl, Lori. She is giving one away too!