I was given a chance to do a free trial with Quickflix (one of those compaines that send dvd’s to your place rather than you having to go to the video store) which with a toddler and a baby on the way I thought would be a great opportunity for hubby and I to have some movie nights together – especially as we are living in a place with an enormous home cinema complete with it’s own bar!

Well we are far too busy atm and only got half way through the 8 dvd’s we could use a month, and that was trying hard to force ourselves to sit down and do it, so we didnt want to have to go through that each month.  I went onto the website 2 days before the end of our trial period and used their form to cancel.  I even wrote in the optional comments area why I wanted to cancel.  Low and behold this week I get an email informing me I have been changed to a subscription service – the 8 dvd’s a month one I told them we couldnt even get through.  So they obviously didnt even read my cancellation and try to suck me in by changing me to a lower plan – they just went ahead and started charging my credit card.  I am too, too busy this week (right in the thick of contract negotiations to buy our first business – so much stress and wondering if we have bitten off more then we can chew there) so Im not sure when I will get onto Quickflix.  But will give you an update so you know what happened but so far my advice is – DONT DO A FREE TRIAL WITH THEM!!!

I have read in other places on the net that there are a few of these companies that do offer free trials so other than this one if you are thinking about joining one of those types of rentals how about looking around or even asking directly if they offer free trials.  I did read that they usually only offer two week trials though.  Anyway – as always with those things make sure you cancel before the trial ends if you dont want to keep it – they all say in the fine print that they will sign you up automatically if they dont hear from you.  And keep a copy of your cancellation so you dont have to worry about it if you get into the situation I am in now.  I cancelled through a contact form so I have no copy.  Grrrrrrr.  Ah well you live and learn – I did this trial with the knowledge this might happen, I was just hoping that Quickflix had some morals about them, silly I know.

Then I thought if I got my sewing machine out (note the ‘if’ not ‘when’ hahaha) I could cut them up and make two sheets rather than one doona – two sheets being much more useful in a climate that averages 23 degrees for winter.  Yes thats celsius for those of you non metrics out there.  What a winter!

However just last night on that new program Money for Jam,  super scrooge of the week was showing us how to save money (for two kids) by buying a donna cover with the pattern on both sides, cutting it up and rejoining it with a plain sheet on the back so you got two doona covers.

Now I dont need two doona covers but I was thinking if I get two plain sheets cheap, cut up the doona cover, rejoin the one plain sheet with one part of the doona and hem up the other doona part.  That would give me a plain sheet, a patterned sheet and a doona cover with a patterned side and a plain side plus the pillowcase I started out with making a complete little bed sheet set for the little man.  Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine being some of his fav. characters – means I gets some great bed sheet sets for him for very little money!  Yay.  Now all I need to do is find a patterned on both sides Anpanman(his fav. Japanese character) doona and I’ll be set.

Also I thought about just listing the things that would be good educational value for my son/coming monster rat which was really the aim of this blog in the beginning…but it seems to have evolved to be a list of anything useful I find on the net – not just educational things for my son.  So I will put up some catergories and list the free things to download in groups so it should be easy to find the kind of things you are looking for, if you are looking for anything specific that is.

Stuff for try to get pregnant

Stuff for Pregnant mums

MumToBe:The Pregnancy Assistant 3.0

What every pregnant woman needs to know about Cesarean Section

Pregnancy Book 1.0

Pregnancy Heartburn Remedy 1.0

Software from Brothersoft.com

Birth Announcement Cards

Birth Announcement Cards

Birth Announcement Certificates – birth announcements, dedications, baptisms, godparents etc, etc.

Software from Freedownloadmanager.org

Pregnancy Announcement card

Stuff for Mummies

Huggies Toilet training guide (free with purchase) send away version is better – read linked page for details!

St John Resusciation chart must be Huggies club member

Baby Sign Language Chart (emailed)

Claim Forms for Familt tax Benifit, Child Care Benifit, Baby Bonus and Maternity Immunisation Allowance and Jobs, Education adn Traingin Child Care -from Family Assistance Office if you missed them at the hospital

Allergy Information sheets from the RPA

Food Intolerance sheets from the RPA

Sneaky Nutrition Tip sheets

Huggies Massage Guide – in 2 parts, must be Huggies member (free to join)

Stuff for Ladies

Stuff for Kids

Jeans for Genes Day Colouring in page

Huggies Colouring in page – 5 Cars or Disney Princess stencils, must be Huggies member (free to join)

Movie Wheel – draw an animation on the wheel and make a movie -Info and links here

Recipes

Crafty Stuff

Smilebox – digital photo books, photocards, birth announcements (basic design – free to email or post to facebook/blog etc with ads) print, burn to dvd premium designs etc costs money.  Basic designs are nice though.

Paper CD case

Block Posters – makes your image a big poster whatever size you want

Name Plates

Letterheads and Stationary and Page 2

Tags

Postcards

Today I read a nice little tip in a magazine for helping your kids with counting.  Starting off early (from when they are born even) as part of the bedtime routine try counting up (1,2,3,4,5…as opposed to 5,4,3,2,1) to 3,5,10 whatever to “blow out” their light at night as part of their bedtime routine.

Also when my son was very young a friend of mine used the 1,2,3 then your in trouble form of discipline with her kids and something she said really stuck with me, she said she wished she had of counted backwards (3,2,1) instead as there are so many positive things associated with 1,2,3 and her kids do kind of associate it with negative things.

We use 3,2,1 with our son now and have been amused to hear him count us down when we arent going fast enough for him.  So for me I’m pleased to hear him using his numbers at 2 years old.  He can count to ten in both languages but is still unable to fully grasp the concept.  I watched an amazing series on the Discovery channel about baby/child development called The Baby Human .  In one study (not the one linked) they should that being able to count does not equal understanding how to count.  To see if your child understands to concept of numbers line up some items – your child should be able to count those items, step two ask them to give you 3.  Until they grasp the concept truely they will just give you any number and count along.  So my son loves to count to 5 the most.  He will count 5 of anything no matter how many there really are.  When there are 5 things he looks like a genius!  HAHA.  But when asked to give me 5 ducks he will give me all 7 seven ducks that we have, or just 3 and get bored and do something else.  So a little ways to go yet.  If I remember the program right I think they said true understanding didnt come until 3 or so???  But my memory is poor so not sure, will need to watch it again.

If you can get a hold of a copy I think you should – I watched it after most of it was useful for my son but I saw a few things that sounded like they would have been helpful in playing with little man and enriching his baby days a little more.  I plan on watching it again to refresh for the next due in Feb.

However there is a very comprehensive list of companies posted on a pregnancy forum I belong to.  The lady who started the thread has been emailing companies left, right and centre asking for samples and has received quite a few.  The problem for me is that she has just listed the companies and what type of response/sample she got from them (forum rules I think).  Now thats pretty good and you cant complain about info on how to get free stuff BUT I and a few other people would like to know just how exactly to contact each company.  So that’s what this post is about…I am going to find out the contact info for each of the companies, email them and ask for samples and see what kind of response/sample I get and I will post the contact link/details here and then the response in coloured brackets later down the track.   Hopefully that will make it a bit easier for those who are a little lost.  Most of these are Australi only, although there are a few open to NZ residents too,  not many to other countries.

Here goes:

Companies with Samples forms…

• City Rail -Free Bib, Free Thomas Activity Book – 3-5yr olds – (15 page book with colouring, comic, drawing, quiz, games, reading and writting practice)
• Pidgeon
• GAIA – (1 skin soothing lotion, 1 Bath and Body Wash and one Baby Moisturiser sachet and a pamphlet)
• Rite Aid – To life Technology (1 pair of nursing pads, 1 pair of Hydrogel Breast discs + info)
• Hello Charlie (2 Bamboo nappies or Bamboo Nature Nappies or Bamboo training pants you pay $2 for postage – unless you purchase something else then they’ll give you the sample for free.)
• Ecodirect – Moltex Nappie – scroll down the shop inventory and chose the sample nappy of your choice and pay the $1 postage – which will be refunded on your next purchase.
• Heinz Nuture Baby free single sachet of Toddler Milk Drink.
• Nestle free sachet of Toddler Milk Drink ( 1 32g Toddler drink+brochure)
• Wyeth (1 S-26 Gold Toddler Nutritious Milk  Drink+ info pamphlet)
• Sanitarium – says download in the title but then says allow 28 days for delivery after filling out the form it thanks you and there is no download option so should be sent.  There are other offers to download for free though.
• Lalisse – skin care – you need to download the form, fill it out and send it and a stamped self addressed envolpe away
• Tena
• Poise (choice of 1 liner, ultrathin,pad + 1 moist wipe)
• De Jour – it says School and Uni samples but I emailed them and will see what happens
• Little Eyes (1 little eyes – gentle cleansing wipe for babies and 1 i-soothe – cleansing wipe + brochure about Painstop – pain relief for children.)
• Caring by Nature you need to pay $6 P&H but then you get a $6 voucher to use on your first purchse.
• Pigeon apparently you dont need a promotional code, I didnt have one so we will see what happens.
• Snugglers (1 nappy choice of small, crawler, toddler, walker, junior)
• Baby Love – Poo-Poo Pouch (1 poo-poo pouch nappy choice of Newborn or Infant size)
• Nescafe you need to send a friend a virtual cup then you can fill in the details for 2 free samples. ( 2 16g Chocolatte samples – 1 milk belgian desire and 1 dark belgian decadence + review them and go into the draw for a spa holiday)+(1 18g Latte, 1 18g Cappuccino)
  
• Lacoste 3 samples 1 mens, 2 ladies.  You need to fill in the form 3 times.
• Escada 2 perfume samples
• CuDerm free skin type assesment kit.
  

Companies you need to contact off the bat… okay putting email address on the net will lead to these people getting lots of spam – which is not nice so I will add a  (space) before every @ mark so that mr.so-and-so@email.address.com will look like mr.so-and-so @email.address.com just copy and paste the address into your own email client AND dont forget to take the  (space) away.

• Nice Pak *info @nicepak.com (2 wiggles wipes(baby and toddler), 1 heinz wipes, 1 heinz baby spoon, sudocream pen, 5 baby u nappy sacks + brochures on all those products/companies)
• Curash *enquiries @churchdwight.com.au (1 10ml 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner – newborn+, 1 10ml moisurising soap free bath – newborn+, 1 5g anti rash baby powder + brochure)
• Palmers *reception @etbrowne.com.au (1 2.5ml massage lotion for stretch marks, 1 2.5g massage cream for stretch marks, 1 2.5g nursing cream, 1 2.5g bottom butter+ brochure)
• Skinvitals *info @beautydirect.com.au
• Avado *info @avadoorganics.com (6 5ml samples – 2 baby naturals moisturiser, 2 baby nappy lotion and 2 baby naturals bath wash) + (baby naturals – 1 bath wash, 1 moisturiser, Sensitives – 1 tangerine and vanilla shower gel, 1 lavender and ylang ylang shower gel)
  
• Jurlique *customercare @jurlique.com.au
• Nads *info @nads.com.au
• Sorbies *info @sorbies.com.au
• Pure Spa*info @purespa.com.au
• Bioliving *info @bioliving.com.au
• Pure Destiny *info @puredestiny.com.au (soothing barrier cream for baby and bliss tummy rub cream for mum)
• Pod Puraceuticals  *hello@podpuraceuticals.com (1 5ml Liquid Facelift and 1 10ml SPF 15 Liquid tan)
• Gel Pack *contact_us@gelpack.com.au – They have a contact form but it didnt work for me. (2 5 packs of Nappy sacks)

• Pure Wipes
• Belli Skin Care
• Neutrogena a number is listed in number section but I use Neutrogena and had a question so I used their contact form.
• Cetaphil – contact form didnt seem to work so will wait and see if I get a response.
• Avene
• Avent – through the Philips Web site Contact Page although someone listed an email *customerservice @avent.com.au (catalogue, newsletter, 1 via cup, 1 dummy, 1 pair of disposable breast pads)
• Waxaway
• Total Nappy Supplies
• Little Innoscents (1 30ml massage lotion, 1 25g vapour rub balm + brochure)
• Sanctum (baby – 1 5ml bottom balm, 1 5ml bath wash, mens – 1 5mlshave gel, ladies – 1 5ml hy c recovery serum, 1 5ml firming eye balm, 1 5ml hand and nail repair, 1 5ml skin whitening lotion, 1 5ml moisture replenish + brochure)
• Mei Mei (1 5g liquid baby powder, 1 5g baby lotion, 1 5g baby diaper cream, 1 5g baby shampoo+ info)
• Baby Mum Mum
• Safire
• The Purist
• Mustela (just amazing service, help and tailored samples will for sure purchase from there!)
• Johnson and Johnson

Companies where you need to join a club..

• Club Nutricia (music cd and teddy bear)
• Huggies (lots of different nappy samples…I have 1 dry nights + 1 Little Swimmer plus lots of chances to win prizes each week/month – some completely free, some with purchase)
• Coles Baby
• Blackmores (free eco bag and natural guide to health book – plus email newsletter)
• Libra (free starter pack with 2 pads, 3 slim tampons, 2 flexible liners+ booklet for 1st timers)
• Aromababy (subscribe to an e-newsletter which entitles you to special offers and free samples)
• Skin Saviour – had run out of samples when I went…but it said that on the page, so check for yourself.
• Mum’s Grapevine also join them facebook and get a free My Child Magazine by sending a stamped ($2.50) self addressed A4 envelope to PO Box 2275 Wattletree LPO, Malvern East 3145 and they will send you the latest issue free!

• Sacla Italia it says it’s an entry to win a recipe book if you join, but then it says it will dispatch my book – waiting for this one as I love Italian.
• LaClinica it says join Mother & Baby Club to receive news updates, samples and free gifts!

Compainies where you need an entry form kind of thing

• Vaalia – need My First Yoghurt brochure
• Cottee’s Gubblegum play some games and get a free temporary tattoo – good for those with older kids.

Companies you need to ring

• Alpha-H ring 1800-659-777 and ask for some samples
• Neutrogena ring 1800-642-133 and its an automated system where you ask for the sample you want

Anyway you may remember making snowflakes when you were a kid by folding paper and cutting chunks out with scissors.  Well here is the technology version.  It looks a bit difficult but I can see some really intricate beauties in the gallery – and I don’t think my try was that bad.  It does look better white, I must say.

Flake number 20290285...my flake

Anyway the flakes on the site are white, but when you save them they are blue.  Have a look you can save anyone’s flake so go find yourself something beautiful to brighten up your dreary winter day, or make a beauty yourself! (Now or in six months time )  And dont forget you can make them in real life too!

What am I talking about???

I have found a website that will take your picture and map it out so you can print it over many A4 pieces of paper.  So that you can create a big poster for your wall.  Okay so it’s not top of the range as Wall Murals – and gee those are really, really nice.  But as we are moving and then the place we will go to is temporary, and Bubba boy being so young – his likes and dislikes are bound to change.  (Two months ago Garbage trucks were all the rage, then it was Cranes and Bulldozers, now it’s Buses.)

I haven’t tried it out yet, and don’t plan to until we get to the new place, so no actual review of the service but I’m putting it here so I don’t forget to do it once I get there.  You can try it anytime…and if you do it before me, don’t forget to come back here and tell us how it went!

Here’s the site…

And as I will be doing a 28 hour travel-a-thon in just under 6 weeks I am more than eager to see what I can do to make it as easy as possible.

Another great little travel secret for the little ones is the Trunki – a ride on suitcase for kids.  I’m often wheeling bubba boy thru airports on the back of my backpack with wheels, but this seems far more safe and fun for him – so of course we went ahead and forked about the $70 odd dollars for one.  Ouch, but reviews from those on my mailing group are very positive – and come on people 28 hours I think I’d pay in body organs just to keep him happy for some of the trip. (I can’t sleep on planes so it’s gunna be a LONG day!)

Anyway after those great tips I decided to look for more…

And I couldn’t find much together in any one place (and what I did find basically said get a DVD player) – so here’s a summary of the good stuff:

1. Lacing Cardboard – wrap the end of some colourful string or wool with some tape, punch some holes in some cardboard and let them have it.
2. Nuts and Bolts (the toy variety) to sort and assemble.
3. The old school paper doll and their paper clothes.
4. Fill a bag with cotton balls or shredded paper and add a few surprises (make sure they can all pass airport security – it wont be fun fishing in the bag at the security counter).
5. Coloured yarn and a piece of sandpaper – the yarn wil stick to the sandpaper and they can “draw” without you having to worry about the plane’s interior.
6. Stickers – take a page out of the sticker books and use a picture rather than a blank page for them to stick their stickers on.
7. Fishing – cut fish shapes out of paper,  put a paperclip on each, tie a small magnet on string to some sort of small ‘pole’ and chuck the fish on the floor (just in front of your seat – not in the isle or all over the plane).  Let them fish from their seat.
8. A line with pegs for each increment of travel (hours?) take a peg off each time – they can see it going by.
9. If your kids can be trusted with felt pens – cooking paper – the pens rub off so they can start again. Or just get a etch-a-sketch.
10. Baby wipes – give their dolls a wash on this long flight.
11. For the pre-reader a chart with the alphabet on it – and some letters  (same size) they can put the toy A on the A on the chart and so on – also do a numbers chart or a shapes chart.
12. with chasing cheerios there are finger puppets, but don’t forget hand puppets too, or even the homemade sock with googly eyes!
13. A mirror.
14. Apparently there are ‘colourwonder’ markers that only draw on special paper if they are really into their colouring and cant be trusted to not colour the whole plane, might be worth the money. They’re from Crayola.
15. Try the party favour isle and see what little bags and toys they have, usually inexpensive and small.
16. If you have a stopover – how about a beach ball or other blow-up toys.
17. photo album of the place you are going – or maybe of family members at home.
18. look for some little books, or even bath books to take along.
19. Character bandaids, bubba boy loves to stick them to himself  – I can get a pack of 10 or so at the 100yen store.
20. Smalls cars and a predrawn track on a piece of paper.  If you can make the paper the same size as the seat tray.  or bring the paper and pens and draw the track to fit the tray, include crazy and fun things, like your house and Disneyland…maybe something from where you are going and a few animals.

Some tips to make these bags better.

• make sure you have some new toys (some people suggest making all the bags a surprise so it adds to the fun).
• Don’t forget you can wrap some or all of the items to make them more fun that way too.

I’m thinking about taking photos of the ones we will need to make as the Chasing Cheerios page is very nice to look at.  So check back – I may post photos.

Also feel free to add any ideas of your own, there really isn’t much out there without wading thru so many pages of “pack some small toys”.  Anything to help us travel easier with the little ones right?

It’s a quick little photo book that you can print or save to your computer, not only that you can email it, burn it to dvd or post it to your blog (as I have done below).  You can also add video and music.  All for free.  It’s not very customisable,  but it comes with 3 music track choices or you can add your own.

Here’s the link where I found it

Johnsons bath themed photo book (6 photo spots) look on the left hand side for the link to “Make a bubbly bath book”.  This is the free one, once you download the software you can also get other themes from the actual makers Smilebox (see below for info on those).

Make a Smilebox photobook

I just grabbed two photos I had of Bubba boy in the bath used the zoom feature to change them up a little.

Next I tried a different theme just to see if it was still free…well it is with ads, but it can’t be printed.

For $2.99 you can own it and do whatever you want  except burn it (but I wonder if there is a way around that???) and for $5.99 (14 day trial), $39.99 per year you can do anything.

Anyway for me emailing and posting to a blog is more than enough for something for free. Although I don’t know if there is a limit – will come to that when I get there I suppose.

So here is my next effort – this time with music and video…be warned it’s a little loud.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Oh and I must mention I did have to try a couple of times to actually download the free theme and to view the actual link online.  But again it’s free so I don’t expect the world.

1. Kids cant brush properly until they are 6-8 years old.  Apparently they dont have the fine motor skills to do it well until then.  So there are many years of brushing your childs teeth, not just 1 or 2.

2. Fluride is not something we should swallow!  Yes it’s in some people’s water (sad for those people).  Years ago in some weird misguided attempt to save our teeth from ourselves, some bright spark thought putting fluride in the water would do the trick.  But as with many many things research has proven that not only does oral doses of fluride not help us, large quantities of fluride is actually poison.  Topical aplications of fluride ARE good for the health of your teeth, however we still shouldn’t use fluride toothpaste for little ones who like to eat their toothpaste (mine) or those who can’t spit and rinse properly.  Research has also shown that kids 2-7 still swallow a fair amount of toothpaste while brushing, thats why many companies have low fluride options for that age range.  It’s up to you what you choose to use with your kids, but for me and bubba boy who has just turned two and sucks his toothbrush as soon as it’s in his mouth, it looks like it’s no fluride toothpaste for a while yet.

Anyway onto the nitty gritty.  I have read a lot about toothbrushing battles raging in bathrooms all over the world.  Luckily here in this little bathroom we have had very little in the crying, screaming and physical violence department, and bubba boy is behaves well too .  Now I’m not gunna lie and tell you after every meal it’s a breeze to brush his teeth.  Night time brushes just before bed are usually the hardest, but from what I have read what we go through here is very little compared to some people.  So I thought I’d write down some of the ways we brush bubba boys teeth.

Firstly, we started when his first tooth came through, and at that stage I was not very concerned at all.  Whoever took bubba boy into the shower or bath with us would brush our teeth while we were there (kinda of had too, it was either that or the kitchen sink), while we were brushing he got his own toothbrush which he sucked and chewed on and we left it at that.  My idea was that he would get used to having the toothbrush in his mouth and hopefully he would start to imitate us.

So the desire to be like mummy and daddy did kick in and he wanted toothpaste and he wanted to brush too.  This is when I started getting involved in the brushing.  He could play with his toothbrush while I brushed my teeth then when I was finished brushing I “swapped” with him – so that I brushed his teeth while he brushed mine.  I still use this tactic now when he’s in a really bad mood.  This is basically my fallback plan these days.

As he got a bit older and more independent we dropped that style and let him brush on his own, when he is finished then it’s mummy or daddy’s turn to brush his teeth.  Mostly this is fine.  He’s able to do something himself and he has little problem relinquishing control once he is “done”.  If we try before he is “done” it’s not so easy.  So once he is old enough to realise this could delay his bedtime we may need to add a time limit (maybe an egg-timer or 3 min song – I have read these are good tricks to add anyway to make it fun).

If he’s in a bad mood or just taking too long, we can take control without much fuss by my fave reward – tickles.  Bubba boy loves tickles.  So we say “give me an AHHHHH” and he says “no”, so we then say “give me an AHHHHH and then it’s tickles”.  Almost always gets us an “AHHHH”.  Be careful not not take too long to tickle.  Especially if your toddler is like mine and has a very short attention span.

I also have a “brush you teeth” song which I can use – it also involves tickles.  I never remember the tune I just make something new up each time, but basically I say “brush your teeth, brush your teeth, brush your brush your teeth, YAY” and then tickle.  I don’t tickle each ending or I would be there forever, also only tickling every second or third time keeps Bubba boy in anticipation, which he loves almost as much as being tickled.

Hope this gives you some ideas!

Things I have also read that could help.

Sticker charts – each time they brush they get a sticker!

Gossip – “hey daddy do you know what so-and-so did today? Brushed his/her teeth! Aren’t they fantastic”.

Selecting their own toothbrush/toothpaste.

Having their own toothbrush/toothpaste caddy. (Bubba boy has his own character toothbrush and cup)

Having character toothpaste and saying something like “lets go brush with character”.

Reading books about brushing teeth.

Having a song or egg-timer as a timer to either make them brush enough  or keep them on track.

Remember brushing your child’s teeth isn’t just about keeping their teeth healthy (although that should be a big enough reason to do it) but also to get them into the routine and habit of it as they get older.  Living in a country that has VERY POOR dental hygine I can tell you seeing people with rotting teeth is disgusting not to mention smelly!