My Review of Vtech Sit-to-Stand Activity Walker - Pink

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

As baby grows, the Sit-to-Stand Activity Walker keeps interactive learning fun front and center. Three learning modes teach colors, numbers, animals and sounds as baby sits, stands or moves. The durable design, with chunky wheels and an easy-to-grasp handle, turns the toy into an opportunity for ba...

Vtech Sit-to-Stand Activity Walker - Pink

Use only with intense supervision.

By Tiffany from NC on 6/23/2011

 

2out of 5

Pros: Visually Stimulating, Easy to Assemble

Cons: Annoying, Unstable, dangerous

Best Uses: Playtime

Describe Yourself: Parent of Two or More Children

This is an example of a product I asked someone specifically NOT to buy as a gift and they did it anyway.

My daughter got it at around six months old, so she started using it without the base first. She wasn't all that into the noises but like to play with it when the sound was off.

We found the sit-up position to be pretty much useless. She kept banging her head against the purple bar.

When she started pulling to standing we put it in the walker position. Even with the brake on the device is unsturdy. It's fallen over on her once (yes, that's possible) and moves WAY too fast when the brake is off. We have carpet and that's still a problem. Whenever I let her use it I have to hold her around the waist to make sure she doesn't face-plant. Seems to defeat the purpose, no?

(legalese)

Papa Murphy's

When Papa Murphy's was installed in a nearby shopping complex I actually thought they were some type of Papa John's rip-off. It wasn't until weeks later that I heard from some other moms that they sell a different type of commodity. They've been around since 1981 and I'd never heard of them until a franchise came to Durham.

Papa Murphy's sells pizza -- that much is true -- but what sets them apart from the typical pizza franchise is that the pizzas are uncooked. You order what you want from their menu or customize your own pie. They build it right in front of you on a special baking tray, and you take it home to cook. You can keep it in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours before it has to be cooked.


Papa Murphy's Review on Vimeo.
(How nice. A still image of me looking stoned which I'm NOT.)

With the coupon I clipped I paid $9.69 including tax ($9.50 plus 2% Durham grocery tax -- it's not prepared, so there's no retail tax). The usual price for a family-size pie would have been $11.99 plus tax.

So, for $9.69 I got a much larger pizza than I would have gotten from the grocery store freezer (our usual pizza of choice is Freschetta pepperoni) and it was fresh with real ingredients.

You don't have to be an expert at math to know that's a great deal. Even at $11.99 it's a bargain because you don't have to tip the pizza delivery guy.

Oh! What's interesting about this type of system? They accept EBT so customers who receive SNAP benefits can enjoy a treat. (You can't get Pizza Hut with a food stamp card because you can't use benefits to buy prepared foods. See--I learned something doing food stamp casework, huh?)

Papa Murphy's has hit on a great idea. I can see myself picking up a pie when I'm out running errands and having it ready to pop into the oven whenever Scott finally calls home and says "I'm walking to my car." With the family-sized pie we had about half left over for the next day's lunch. Scott insists that had it been any other day he could have eaten more, but he had a big lunch. We'll see. (I think the large would have been sufficient.)

Because good customer service gives me the warm-fuzzies, I've got to give a shout-out to the staff at the Hope Valley Commons (Durham) franchise. I was the only customer in there at the time and they made me feel like a rock star with the attention. They even carried my pie out to the car for me since my arms were full of baby. The entire staff was pleasant, and not in the "I'm trained to be nice to you" way, but the "I'm a nice person" way. (Walk into $tarbuck$ and you'll experience the former.)

Give it a try on your next busy day or pick up a meal (they have side dishes and desserts like cookie dough!) for a mom who's recently given birth or adopted a baby. If you go to their website and stick in your zip code you'll get local coupons.

Libman Freedom Spray Mop

Cross-posted on Snarky Momma.

You've probably seen a commercial for the Libman Freedom Spray Mop by now, but now you can see it in action being used by the snarkmistress herself.  Hey - I didn't even have to get my hands dirty.  It's called "Freedom" because you don't have to lug a bucket around or put your hands around a dirty mop head to wring it out.

In this seven-minute video review I introduce you the mop and opine on whether it really replaces the traditional string mop and bucket.

Libman Freedom Spray Mop Review on Vimeo.

Can't see the video?  Here are a couple of bullet points for you to consider as you try frantically to make that video behave:

• Yes, I will be using this mop after today.  It'll be perfect for tackling under the kitchen table after dinner on nights where Rosco forgets how to work his thumbs.
• That no-bucket deal is darned convenient when you're trying to mop a floor real quick while your newborn is napping.  Also?  No mop stink in your utility closet or laundry room: the lack of a rag, string, or sponge top prevents that whole "smells like garbage because it dried too slow" issue.
• You can use any kind of cleaning solution you want...or none at all.  If you're trying to be all crunchy Earth Momma and fill the canister with hot water and wishes: fine.
• You can toss the cleaning pad into the laundry.  Buy a spare in case your laundry rotation is like mine: slow.
• It's virtually impossible to over-saturate your floor with this mop unless the lighting in your home is really deficient.  Less water on the floor = quicker drying time.  You control how wet the floor is and spray the cleaning solution to the spots on your floor that need it most.  I think this would be perfect for bratty pre-teens who tend towards sloppy chore-completion.  Hard for them to make your tiles bubble up if they have to direct the spray, ya dig?

You can interact with Libman and other consumers on their Facebook page at facebook.com/libmancompany.  Go see what other folks are saying.  If you get a chance to try the mop, come on back and tell me what you think.  Or even better - come to my house and use mine to mop my laundry room.  There are bugs in there.

I received the mop free from the Libman company to try and tell you about.  I'm not receiving any monetary compensation to share my opinion - and it's just that: an opinion.  The mop has a retail value between $19.99 to $24.99 (depending on where you shop...I shop at Target.  I love Target.  Target makes me happy.).

I'm a member of Mom Blogger's Club and they coordinated this review program.

VTech V.Reader

V.Reader Review on Vimeo.

Trying something different!  This is a product that I could say a lot about, so I figured I'd show it to you in a video.  You may need to turn the volume way up.  Sorry about that...and sorry that my accent gets country towards the end.


Rosco has only had the toy since Saturday and the batteries drained pretty quickly.  Once I've found my 9-V adapter and he's had some more time to use the V.Reader I'll come back and update on whether or not he's actually learning to read from it.

The V.Reader was a gift from Nana to Rosco: I'm receiving absolutely no compensation for this review.

Oops, my bad.

You ever put cash in your pocket and then forget about it until the next time you wear that item and need to keep your hands warm?

That's kind of the deal with my review blog.  I completely forgot I had it.  I'mma get better.  I promise.

I once was blind, but now I see.

I was poking around in my Upromise account last week finding out how much I earned for Rosco's college fund last year and linking my new debit card to the account.  I looked at my paltry earning statement and said "Damn.  How are so many people making this work so well?"  (The pro/con of being in a huge mommy-group is that you find out how people do things better than you.)  I know some have the Upromise credit card, but I wanted to figure out a way to maximize the program benefits without putting myself into hock.

Then I thought - "A-ha!  I can shop through the site!"  Upromise's site works with certain vendors and if you shop them through the site you get a kick-back to your college earnings account.  I was in need of contact lenses at the moment, and my usual online company wanted to chew me up in shipping charges for two li'l bitty boxes of contact lenses, so I kept looking around.

I found Coastal Contacts through Upromise, and had actually never heard of them before despite them callings themselves the "World's Largest Optical Store."  My lenses, Acuvue Oasys, were a few bucks cheaper per box *and* I found a free shipping code through Upromise.  I saved $10 over what my usual retailer charges and got a $2.34 kickback to college savings.  Can't beat that with a stick.

The cost savings are great, but they got here super-quick, too.  I think they shipped from Washington state on a Tuesday via priority mail and made it to NC on Thursday.  They came in a cute little box with a pair of promotional sunglasses (which I'll give to Rosco since he's already claimed them) and a contact lens case.  Oh!  And little Left/Right stickers to mark the lens boxes!  I'd never had a company send those before, so that was neat given my eyes are a whole point apart in lens strength.

I think I found a new dealer.

Now I just have to wait and see if Blue Cross refunds my lens purchase through my lens and frame coverage.  There shouldn't be any problem given there's a such thing as the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act enabling us to buy this stuff online in the first place.  I've never tried to submit an online purchase receipt with a claim, so we'll see how this goes.

Minted

Unfortunately, there's no slick image of the product I received here because by posting such I'd be spoiling what our holiday card looks like for certain family members.  (Surf over to Minted and use your imagination.)

Last year, I reviewed Minted's holiday cards on Snarky Momma as a part of a Parent Bloggers campaign.  This year, they reached out to me again to try their service because they've made some improvements to their system.  "Okay," I said, humanitarian that I am.  Minted is a company that prints custom photo cards and invitations.  You can go into their website and with the help of one of their designers pretty much tweak every card pixel.

I got the invite on October 16.  I dilly-dallied, twiddled my thumbs, and finally got around to taking some pictures of the kid...but they kind of sucked as far as Christmas card photos go, so I procrastinated some more.  Finally, I went to the site and found a collage card I could do where I could include a bunch of Rosco pics on one flat card.  (Little thumbnails are great when you don't have a seasonal-inspired jumbo pic.)   With some minor argument from the husband (who due to his profession thinks he should have the final say on anything having to do with design), I got the cards ordered on October 22.

I gotta say, I love the changes Minted has made to their site programming.  It's much more idiot-proof.  I remember last year we were cursing at the endless scrolling and having problems with getting the cards to preview.  Not this year.  The site is zippy, efficient, and they even have a cool feature where you can save your design work and come back to it later if you're feeling brain-dead.  The photo uploading tool is awesome!  Basically, you can upload a bunch of photos and play around with them in the template with just a couple of clicks.  Don't like it?  Click on the next one.  The process is definitely a lot easier this year.

On October 25, I received an email letting me know my proof was ready to view.  Basically, you just go to your account at the site and take a look.  You can either approve it for shipping as-is, or you can request changes and one additional proof (for free!).  The designers are really on top of their game.  Mine flipped a design element on the card so that it wouldn't be on top of Rosco's face.  Hell, I didn't even know that was an option, but I appreciate their preservation of his cuteness.

The cards shipped on October 26 by Fed-Ex.  That's pretty snappy, eh?  I imagine that time will stretch out a bit the later in the season you order, though.  They got here lovingly packaged, and of course look great.  It helps that we do a lot of our own photo editing because we know what general look we're going for, however if you suck at that kind of thing and your proof comes back looking washed out or if you want to zoom in on the picture a bit the designers can do that for you as part of the service.  They're in the business of churning out good-looking products, so if you're not proud to mail the cards they haven't done their job.

So, do I recommend Minted?  Yes.  I love the "designer" feel of the cards, and they're substantial in weight - not those little flimsy things you get from certain online joints.  They're pricey, but my research shows that they're pretty comparable to companies who print on similar quality paper with various card compositions.  Compared to, say, Snapfish, yeah - it might be a bit of sticker shock at a rate of $72 for 25 flat cards.

It's a splurge.  If you know your card recipients are the kind of folks who retain them as keepsakes or who'll scrapbook them they'll love getting these.  They've got some cards on the site that are as low as $1.52, so go take a look and let me know what you think.

After our holiday card list has been fulfilled, I'll come back and show you what our card looks like.

Disclosure: I received 25 cards from Minted at a value of $72 because of my ongoing awesomeness...and the fact that I was one of the first to check them out last year.  Remember - the Snarky Momma speaks the truth.  If something doesn't float her boat, she ain't going to tread water and pretend it does.