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Shit New Moms Say

1/27/2016

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Life as a new mom is... up and down and all around crazy town! Am I right? Check out the fun video I made highlighting the highs and lows of life with a newborn! (Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube Channel!!)
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Eliminate Odors Naturally With Fresh Wave

1/16/2016

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Thankfully the days of going out on the town and coming home with your clothes wreaking of second hand smoke are long behind us, but there are still many odor-licious items and situations that need to be dealt with on a daily basis. Laundry basket sitting for a week with spit up & blown-out baby clothes and sweaty socks & gym clothes marinating in it. The shoe closet. The diaper pail. You get the drift.
Unfortunately, a lot of the products out there for deodorizing or covering up odors are loaded with chemicals I'd rather not have in our home, in the air my children and I are breathing!

Related: Phthalates, Dioxins, and BPA, OH MY!

So, I was intrigued when I heard about a line of odor eliminators, with 3 items available exclusively at Target no less, claiming to be safe, natural, and effective. It's called Fresh Wave, and instead of covering up or masking odors, their products break down the odor causing particles on a molecular level rendering them inert. Whoa. Shut the front door, right?
Fresh Wave non-toxic odor eliminating products
Fresh Wave products are non-toxic and safe to use around kids and pets, phew, and they have a handy dandy "odor guide" chart on their website showing you which of their products are best for which odors. For example, their spray is great for skunk (glad I didn't have the opportunity to test that one out), soy candle for smoke, etc etc. From drain and disposal deodorizor to pet shampoo to vacuum pearls, it seems they've thought of everything! They even have a line for baby items!
But the big question is, do they work!?? I personally tested out the 3 products available exclusively at target: the gel (next to the garbage bin under our kitchen sink), the packs (in our stinky shoe closet), and the spray (on a onesie wreaking of spit-up). They all have a fairly strong fragrance, but it's very fresh and gender neutral, I would describe it as sort of a lemon-grass. The spray was very effective at neutralizing the smell and not adding fragrance - once dry, the onesie no longer smelled of spit-up or the spray. Success!! The gel and the packs, on the other hand, it's hard to know if they neutralized the bad smells or simply overpowered them with Fresh Wave's own scent (the lemon-grassy one - which did dissipate over the first 24 hours to a fairly faint scent). Either way, it was much more pleasant than the previous stench. So I'll call that a success, too.
US-Japan Fam reviews Fresh Wave natural odor eliminating products.
The ingredients listed on the product labels are "water and essential plant oils", sounds good but I'm always wary of such vagueness. Curious about what exactly that meant, I reached out to Rachael Gleason, Public Relations and Social Media Manager for OMI Industries and Fresh Wave, who replied, "Fresh Wave is made with a proprietary blend of water plant oils, including  lime, pine, aniseed, cedarwood, and clove. Since we are not a fragrance based product and actually remove the odor molecules, there are no harsh chemicals, no phthalates or alcohol in any Fresh Wave products. Just simple, pure ingredients and science." I guess I'll never understand the science part of it, but that's nothing new, ha!! But the explanation of "essential plant oils" satisfied my curiosity and worry.
You can find Fresh Wave odor eliminating products for purchase on their website and Target (online and in stores)!

So, what do you think - gonna give it a try? Do you have an air freshener or odor eliminator you already love? Share in a comment below!

Disclaimer: Although I did receive these products free of charge, all thoughts and opinions are my own and completely unbiased.
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Kids' Candor: Bilingual Educational Kits

1/14/2016

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These days you can order just about anything online and have it arrive on your doorstep in a matter of days, anything from clothes to laundry to furniture! What's more? There are services you can sign up for that will have a box of goodies sent to you every month, automatically! These subscription boxes are pretty cool, and I've reviewed a couple on here already: Sparkbox Toys, Bella Gravida (maternity wear), and Preggonista (clothes, accessories, and beauty products for moms-to-be) to name a few. But I recently got introduced to a new one which is quite different and really exciting!
Kids' Candor provides bilingual educational kits that have children (and their care givers) playing and learning in English and Spanish! You can purchase single kits ($45 each, with themes such as travel, feelings, counting, animals, and shapes) or a subscription (from $25 per month). **50% off discount code below!!**
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While my family is focusing on English and Japanese for our children, our 3 year old is actually picking up a wee bit of Spanish from TV. Just yesterday we were on the elevator and he looked up at me and asked why the couple next to us was speaking Spanish! I doubt he understood what they were saying, but to know they were speaking Spanish, I was quite impressed! Kids are unbelievable sponges, so I'm really excited to start introducing Spanish to him a bit more formally through Kids' Candor.

​We ordered the "Body Parts & Senses" set for our first kit, mostly because I knew my toddler would go nuts over Mr. Potato Head and all the stickers (as predicted, he did)!
US-Japan Fam reviews Kids' Candor Bilingual Educational Kits
As with any subscription box, it's incredibly exciting to receive it in the mail and open it up to find all of the fun stuff packed nicely inside!! Kids' Candor includes instructions (in English and Spanish) for all of the games inside, which makes it nice and clear how to all of the items, how to pronounce the key words, etc.
US-Japan Fam reviews Kids' Candor Bilingual Educational Kits
In a nutshell, here's why we're loving Kids' Candor and think you will, too:
  • help your child (and yourself) learn through play (in English and/or Spanish)
  • pick up great new educational game ideas to play with your child
  • receive educational toys and books that will last for years
  • great birthday/Christmas/Hannukah gifts
Get 50% off your first Kids' Candor purchase with code "KCJAPANFAM"!! 

So what do you think? Are you hoping your child will be bilingual (or trilingual or more)?! What steps are you taking toward that goal? Share in a comment below!
Related: Review of Little Pim Language Learning Program
Disclaimer: Although I did receive this product free of charge, all thoughts and opinions are my own and completely unbiased.
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    About Me ^_^

    I'm a NYC metro area mom blogger living in NJ with my Japanese husband & our 3 kids (twins plus 1).  This blog is chock full of product reviews, family travel guides, and giveaways galore! It's also home to Bay Ridge Families, and several guides focused on kid-friendly activities and guides to South Brooklyn, Hudson Valley, and New Jersey, as well as family-friendly destinations beyond the NYC area (check the menu bar!)

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