Boon TRIP

Boon provided me with free samples in exchange for this review, and I promise to share my honest opinion on this product.

I pumped for the first time today and will attempt to pump once in the mornings to prepare for my return to work in early October. With Porter I found pumping super annoying and difficult to work into the daily routine, but with Wallace I'm hoping I can somehow manage it better since he's currently napping really well most mornings. Please continue, Wallace!

So, I pulled out my new breast pump, along with the Boon TRIP that Boon sent me a few days before Wallace was born. Because it's travel-sized, I'm thinking it will be a great addition to my pump bag that I'll bring to work this fall! It would also be a great size for tossing in my purse if I'm bringing Wallace a bottle, when we are out on the town.





The TRIP reminds me a lot of our Boon LAWN except smaller, and it includes two brushes for cleaning. Once I was done pumping, I had the kids help me clean all of the pump parts. The big brush was perfect for the bottles and the smaller, two-sided brush was great for the pump flanges and small valves.







I think once I return to work I will be able to wash off my pump parts, set them out to dry near the sink, and then pack it all up at the end of my work day--no problem. For home use, I'll probably still use the brushes but the drying rack is fairly small--so I'll keep using the LAWN for most of my drying at home.





The TRIP retails for $14.99 and would make sense for moms who need to clean pump parts, bottles, or even just sippy cups for older kids.

Boon SNUG Spout

Sometime in the recent past, we made the jump from sippy cups to 'big kid' cups with both Truman and Cecelia. This means that the chances of cleaning up a gigantic mess of milk at the table are about 100% for each meal, but I figured it was time to push them towards independence and all of the clean-up that entails.

But that still leaves sweet Porter drinking (safely) from a sippy cup, so when a Boon representative contacted me to review these sweet new lids, I said, 'YES.' Because I'm a little obsessed with Boon products in general with their sleek aesthetics and awesomely bright colors. And also because we have more straggler cups that are missing lids in this house than we have lonely tupperware containers. Which is saying a LOT because our tupperware storage situation is seriously maddening.

(pretty new lids = not maddening)






The Boon SNUG Spout is a universal silicone lid that can slip over any cup you have, instantly converting the most forgotten cup into a fun new sippy cup. It works with any cup that is 2.5" to 3.75" which basically means all of our eleventy hundred cups in the 'kids cabinet'. The lids are dishwasher safe and are really easy to rinse off under the faucet, which is key. Because, seriously, Porter has to be one of the messiest eaters and drinkers ever, as evident by the fact that his Boon lid was completely smeared with random food after two seconds of use.





I wasn't sure if it would be easy to pull the flexible lids onto various cups, but once they arrived Cecelia and I gave them a try right away. You definitely have to pay attention while you are stretching the lid down over the cup but it's not difficult or anything. I found that sometimes air will get trapped under the lids and it will make the sippy spout tilt inward, but it's an easy fix to pull it back out (and apparently they still work correctly even if tilted a bit). They really did fit over nearly every one of our loner cups that I found, especially the ridiculous amount of 'Take-n-Toss' cups that we have acquired over the years. Since Cecelia is completely obsessed with sippy cups, I was curious if she would approve of these. And she definitely does! No surprise, she requests the pink or purple lid.







Porter does not care (although he can now say 'orange' and it's the cutest), and he was enthralled with touching every single one of the cups I photographed. And he gladly tested the most important part of a sippy cup: does it spill or leak? I found that it does NOT leak in my highly objective data testing. Score!









So I'm a fan (and more importantly, the kids are fans) of these lids. You can find them at Target stores or Target.com online, and if you are looking for a way to make those random cups without lids work for their money, here you go!

(Looks nice on my Boon Grass, too!)

#Scout Box | Savvy Sassy Moms

I haven't gone into a lot of detail about my affiliation with Savvy Sassy Moms as one of their twenty-five product scouts, but it's high time for a proper discussion! SSM is an online style magazine for moms and being a product scout for them means I get to test out and review a lot of baby/kid/mom gear. I'll always be honest with my reviews, I did apply for this position, and it's not paid---but it should be a lot of fun to try out new products and share it with you readers. Some of the reviews will be on this site and sometimes I'll post on my main blog, but I like to reserve true product reviews for over here....unless the post involves a giveaway for the readers, then I'm all about it living on the main blog. I've just always categorized the product information this way, and I try to only include links into my posts if I really love the product.

Enough business talk, let's discuss the first fun package I received from Savvy Sassy Moms!







Right before we left for Colorado in July, I received this awesome package from Savvy Sassy Moms with the theme of 'Back to School.' Some of these products I've seen and used before and some were brand new to me, all equally exciting to open and try:


1. Smarty Pants Vitamins: we have always used the Target Up&Up version of kids' vitamins, just the chewable kind, nothing too special. So when I received these 'Kids Complete' version, I knew the kids would totally go nuts for a GUMMY vitamin coated in 'sparkly sugar' (as per Cecelia). Then I actually read the label and realized these things are not sweetened with high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors, or preservatives. There are 5g of sugar per serving which isn't horrible, and apparently this is the only gummy multivitamin on the market that has Omega 3s and Vitamin D3. Sounds good to me!

The kids are obsessed with these, seriously. I only give them one per morning instead of the recommended 4 per serving, but they have effectively replaced our previous Up&Up multivitamins. Truman and Cecelia request their 'dummies' each morning and have no idea that it's not one giant fruit snack...or at least, no clue that it's one with good stuff in it and without so much bad stuff. ;)

2. Hello Kids' Toothpaste:

Truman and Cecelia are toothpaste freaks, meaning they get obsessive about picking out the type of toothpaste they want in the store. I hadn't heard of this kind before but wow, it's pretty awesome. They sent two small tubes for adults and I really do love it for me, and then three of the big tubes for the kids. We keep the bubble gum (PINK PINK PINK--Cecelia) flavor in our downstairs bathroom with those toothbrushes for the morning rounds. Then upstairs we have the blue raspberry flavor for the nighttime routine, and the green apple is stored away for the next time we run out. The paste is white, not a fake color, and it's another product without artificial sweeteners or flavors, and without preservatives. The packaging is totally adorable and it tastes good, which is excellent except it totally entices my three year old to suck the toothpaste off her brush even more than she normally does. I will totally buy these again once we run out and I'd love to try their mouthwash next.

3. Plum Kids Organic Jammy Sammy

I just found out that Truman CAN bring peanut butter to school, which is huge because we are big PB fans over here. But you know who loves these little pre-packaged PBJs the most? Porter. He seriously at almost every one of the five in this box, and only let me try a little nibble. We both approve and they make excellent traveling snacks, since I did bring them with me on the plane for our Colorado trip.

4. Annie's Organic Cheddar Bunnies and 5. Plum Organic Mashups

We are big fans of cheddar bunnies, they are delicious and I frequently steal the children's bunnies when I'm starving and need a salty snack. I like that they are made from real cheese and again, no artificial flavors or preservatives. We don't keep these in the house too often because they are usually gone in no time and are totally dangerous for all three kids. The Plum Organic mashups are also great for portability and for having no added sugar. Porter and Cecelia liked these a TON and I have to get more for them since they blew through the four pack in record time. Sometimes when I feel like I need to jam more fruits and veggies into my carbohydrate loving children, a squeeze pouch is my preferred method because it's just so darn easy and convenient. Bonus that these are organic and healthy.

6.  French Toast Uniforms


See Truman's polo up there? Ignore Porter's near-meltdown face and Cecelia's adorable pink cowboy boots, because Truman's shirt is from French Toast and it's nice and thick. He doesn't need to wear a school uniform but I was able to pick out a few things for the kids with my coupon that work well for them. This long sleeved polo is one of those that looks like two separate shirts but it's all-in-one, and it's surprisingly thick and seems to be made well.

I also got him this plain lime green polo and kind of love how adorable he looks in it. Although he'd wear a cotton tee shirt and mesh shorts every day, I am totally partial to a polo and chino pants. Gigantic feet and new size 1 tennis shoes not included.

Oh, Cecelia got something from French Toast, too:

Those capri leggings are totally her style and seem very comfortable, fitting well for my string bean (no small feat). I cannot get over the inexpensive price of the French Toast items because the quality seems fantastic!

7. Mabel's Labels



I received a combo pack from Mabel's Labels, which includes two of those adorable little metal tags, 16 stickers that can go inside of shoes, 50 Tag Mates that stick on clothing, and 40 custom name stickers. I had to restrain myself from labeling every.single.school.supply for Truman's first day of school, but I'm happy to have a ton of these for future use. Really into the clothing stickers the most, for things like art smocks and jackets. These would have been great for the daycare years when I labeled all of his 'extra' clothes I'd send to Lori's, too.

Oh, and one more product I received through Savvy Sassy Moms, that wasn't in the Scout Box: Trumpette toddler socks for Porter!

I love Trumpette and my obsession started back when Truman was a baby, and my mom began buying all of the infant boy versions of Trumpette socks for him. Then came Cecelia and holy smokes, baby GIRL socks are even more addicting! Porter had all of Truman's hand-me-downs until this box came at the correct time for my growing boy. I didn't know they made toddler socks but Porter rocks these all of the time. They look too small in the picture but I promise they aren't. I like that they have tiny skids on the bottom to keep him from sliding all over the place when he's standing on our hard wood. Also, the fake tennis shoe look is freaking adorable. Trumpette socks are one of my favorite gifts for newborn babies and now that I know they make other things besides socks, I might be stuck in a black hole looking at their website. Oops.

That's it for my first SSM box! I'm a fan of it all so far, pretty easy to please, I guess.

Boon SUDS Bottle Washer

A representative from Boon asked me if I wanted to do a review for a new feeding product of theirs, and I admit I'm kind of a sucker for all things Boon anyway (i.e. our Craigslist high chair, new bottle warmer and grass). Plus I wash enough bottles now with my refused-to-nurse-past-six-months baby that I figured a bottle washer would be a great product for us to add to the arsenal of baby feeding stuff. My poor long handled scrubber has seen better days and probably needs to be replaced anyway.

The SUDS bottle washer is pretty cool in that you just add soapy water to the bowl, press the bottle down on the stick, and water squirts up through it as the brush cleans and spins inside of the bottle. I totally did not understand how it worked by just looking at the product, so this video helped, but mostly I just had to try it once to get the concept.


I love how the bottle washer matches the rest of our lime green Boon products on our counter and I do approve of how clean it gets our bottles. The only complaint I have is that it can't clean the nipples and the bottle rings/attachment piece so I still have to scrub those by hand anyway. I think that the bottle washer will be nice to use for other glasses that I'd normally wash by hand, too. Apparently Boon knows that a lot of customers use their Grass and Lawn products as a wine drying rack, because how hilarious is this wine glass they sent to go along with the theme of using their stuff beyond the bottle years? I enjoy connecting the little kid years to wine consumption, big fan of that concept over here, obviously.



You can find the SUDS washer at Target in stores and online and it's BPA, PVC and Phthalate-Free. I like ours and it adds to our Boon collection nicely.