Most Baby Names iPhone App.

I remember when I was pregnant with all of my children searching through baby name books and online for the perfect name for them. I loved looking up the meanings and also reading the book with my husband. It is all part of the fun in planning for your new bundle of joy.

So now there is a new iPhone App. for expecting parents :

The Most Baby Names app is based off the #1 selling baby name book in the country, The Complete Book of Baby Names.

Why Most Baby Names?

* It’s fun, exciting, colorful and interactive! Hear babies giggling and ducks quacking or shake the rattle for a rockin’ good time!

* Most Baby Names features 103,000 names – competitive baby name apps don’t come close!  (Did you know the closest app has 6 times less names than we do?)

* Look up baby name definitions by clicking on the blue arrow in your lists or choose the * “Surprise Me” option for a combination of unique names.  (Who knows, we may have found you a winner!)

* Browse by individual letter or customize it to search for a specific first and last letter

* Add names to your Favorites List to look at later!

Types of Names

Use our simple list scroll to find various baby names under exciting topics such as:

* Celebrity names (i.e. Maddox, Phinnaeus and Beckett)

* Under the Radar Names (i.e. Bianca, Piper, Georgia)

* Name Alternatives, Most Popular in a particular year, Classic names and even College Football Stadium names!

They continuously incorporate feedback from our users and recently launched a redesigned app complete with many exciting updates!

The Plus Size Mommy

DiggersList For Disasters

We often lead ourselves to believe that a natural disaster will never hit our home. Yet, thousands of people’s homes are annually hit by fire, floods, earthquakes, tornados and hurricanes.  What’s worse, many home owners don’t carry the proper insurance to cover damages caused by natural disasters.

Matt Knox, Founder and CEO of DiggersList, a home improvement online resource, has 10 quick and cheap home-protection tips that will help you minimize damages to your home and your wallet.

For earthquakes:

• Fasten lamps, china and other small valuables to shelves or surfaces with puttylike anchoring or museum wax.
• Install latches on cabinet door in order to keep contents inside
• Secure your water heater to a wall stud with a water-heater strap

For fires:

• Install a fireplace screen to keep embers inside
• Have a spark arrestor installed in your chimney

For floods and rain:

• Install weather-stripping on and around doors and windows to prevent water from seeping into your home.
• Install storm shutters or create your own using precut sheets of plywood cut to fit into each window
• Install storm doors

Many of these items can be found via DiggersList, which when compared to stores like Home Depot can get save you 50 cents to the dollar on every purchase.

DiggersList is now available in Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, and Texas. However, they are looking for referrals to new cities to start lists in. So you can goto DiggersList.com and suggest a new city now.

The Plus Size Mommy

“Super Why” – in Select Theaters Every Week End In February

Two SUPER WHY episodes, Comic Book: Attack of the Eraser and The Big Game, will be in movie theaters on weekends in February as part of the Kidtoons program.

Soar to new places in February with SUPER WHY, as Super Why, Princess Presto, Wonder Red, and Alpha Pig go on reading adventures like you’ve never seen before.  Wham!  Pow!  Bam!  Join the superheroes inside a comic book, where they’ll use their literacy powers to stop the diabolical eraser from erasing the words in Reader Valley in Comic Book: Attack of the Eraser.  Then get ready to cheer for Super Why and his friends as they learn the importance of practicing in The Big Game.   Visit  http://www.kidtoonfilms.com for more information and to find SUPER WHY in a movie theater near you!  Super Duper!

The Kidtoons program is dedicated to helping parents connect with their kids by bringing family friendly animated movies to the big screen every weekend at participating theatres across the country.  Participating Kidtoons theatres showcase a fun, affordable family friendly matinee movie and provide a family experience filled with entertaining, kid-friendly characters, as well as cartoon shorts, music videos and sing-alongs before each movie. We even have fun giveaways for the kids, such as stickers, temporary tattoos, activity books or toys after every film.

Be sure and check it out! Only 2 week ends left!

The Plus Size Mommy

“Catty Wompus” Book Review

Catty Wompus is a Brightly colored book that is about Friendship written by Julie Howe.

My daughters really enjoyed this story about a little girl named Catty Wompus who had everything but was not a very nice little girl, until one day another little girl gave her a chance at friendship. It tells about how having a honest friendship is much better than any material things you could ever have.

I really enjoy reading this story to my girls. They may be a little young to understand the whole concept, but I feel by starting to instill these concepts into a child as early as possible truly can start to shape how your child see’s the World around them and the people in it.

It is very important that children give other kids a chance, even if they seem like they are mean or miserablefriendship or love might be the one missing link in their lives that they do not have, that can completely change their little World for them.

You can buy the book, learn more about the book and sign up for the mailing list here : http://www.amtopmcreative.com/clients/cattywompus/

You can Fan the book on Facebook here :  http://is.gd/8KAYP

I think your daughters will find this an enjoyable book and I believe you will enjoy reading it to them.

The Plus Size Mommy

*I was sent this book to review for  free on behalf of my relationship with Parent Reviewers. My thoughts and my honest review of this book are my own.

Unofficial Experiment on Skin Color

So, a few weeks ago I was watching the news and they had a, disturbing to me, segment on race and skin color and how children can perceive others by just their skin color.

I was so upset by this I wanted to see if my children reacted the same way. My children are bi-racial (I am white, my husband is black). We never speak down upon ANY race in my immediate family (cannot speak for Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and so on). I have ALWAYS taught my children to like everyone and be nice to everyone. And not just for race, for people who are physically challenged, mentally challenged, and so on. for NONE of us are perfect and everyone deserves equal treatment in my book.

I try VERY hard not to judge people, in my house, we serve the Lord, and being a Christian means that God is the ultimate judge and ONLY judge that matters.

I try to instill all of these morals into my children in every way I can. I know how it is to be judged, I know how it feels to be judged, even before people know anything about me. And lemme tell you, it isn’t a nice feeling AT ALL.

To me, if you have  green hair, polka dotted skin, and your 2 ft. tall, with 1 leg and no arms, I will love you just the same as anyone else.

What I look for in friends is character. Honesty, Caring, Integrity, and Loving people. I try really hard to surround myself with people like this.

I also know that people DO and WILL make mistakes. I am a forgiving and patient person. I may be upset, but I will come around.

I never hold grudges, and again Life is just TOO short to worry myself with this mess, and to be upset over things I cannot control, and things that I don’t agree with.  But we are ALL Human and we all say and do things that others may not agree with, but we may not walk in those shoes. We may never walk in those shoes.

Example- I would never steal. But If I was in Haiti right now fending for my family and my life, and I had no water, no food, your damn right I would steal so I could live. So, we can really never say never. A lot of people in Haiti I am sure never thought they would go to these extremes either. But things and situations change in the blink of an eye, and those who once said the same, I would never steal, are now theives.  And some may say it isn’t really stealing, to justify the actions, but taking anything that isn’t yours, is stealing. Even if it is a $1 off of the ground in the supermarket parking lot with no one around. You didn’t earn that dollar, and finding it doesn’t magically make it yours.

So, anyways, lol, I am sorry, I got onto a tangent here.

SO, this segment on the news really got me so upset, I decided to try it unofficially at home with my daughter who is 4 as my test subject.

What they did on the news was ask children about her age which baby doll was the good one and then what baby doll was the bad one.

Here is how our unofficial test turned out :

I was so proud as a mother of how she reacted and at her responses. Although she said the black baby was the “good” baby is not why I am happy with the results, it was because her REASON why the black baby was the “good” baby, she said it is because it is her sisters favorite doll. Disturbingly on the news some of the black children said the black baby doll was “the bad one” and the white baby doll was “the good one”. I do not understand other than the people who we surround ourselves with how this can be a child’s answer to this? Based all on skin color alone?
It terrifies me that these are their answers. It terrifies me to think people are STILL judged to be good or bad based on color or race.
It saddens me to no end.

I think I will pray on it. Pray for people to get to know others and see how much alike we are. How our hopes and dreams are so much alike. How much more love could be in the world if we weren’t wasting our time judging others who we don’t even know, instead of taking the time to get to know them.

So while I pray, I ask 1 question of you…. what would YOUR child’s answers be?

I love you,

The Plus Size Mommy

Do you Do the 5-Second Rule?* (WIN)

Ahh the mighty 5-second rule. Yep, we use it at our home (MOST of the time). Although lately I am thinking renewed stipulations are needed to be told to my children

This came about when my 10 yr. old son was eating spaghetti with meatball’s one night a couple weeks ago, and well, we all know the song…and then my poor meatball fell down to the floor, rolled out the door, and became a spaghetti tree?

NOT HERE…. Nope, after my son’s meatball fell onto the floor he picked it up, and popped it back into his mouth, before anyone could even say a word and ate it ! YUCK, yea, I know…I was so grossed out, he didn’t even look at it to see if any dirt was on it! ICK, I still gag thinking about it. But to a boy of age 10, this was most cool and funny. NOTTT!

So, I ask…Do you incorporate the 5 second rule in your home ?

I mean, if it is like a piece of something that the chance of something sticking to it is slim, I don’t mind, but a sauce covered meatball, this is where I draw the line, lol

A few days ago, I was asked to work with Clorox again on a campaign with Samantha Bee (From the  ”Daily Show”). She discussed the 5 sec. rule , you can read more about it here :  http://simpleandsurprising.com/

WIN!!!!

I am able to offer you a Clorox Gift pack values at $20 with a variety of Clorox Products!

You can enter Just by sharing with us your favorite funny 5-sec. rule story. The guidelines are below to enter to win

• Do you or someone in your family follow the 5-second rule? – comment and tell us who uses it and with what ? = 1 entry
• Who’s more likely to follow the 5-second rule in your house? – comment and tell us who and if anyone is against it, tell that too! = 1 entry
• What are the most popular items to 5-second rule? – comment and tell what are the top 5 items where the 5 sec. rule is used on most frequently = 1 entry
• Do you have a funny 5-second rule story? – comment with your funny story = 1 entry
• Thinking about Sam Bee’s style, what’s your parenting style? – comment and tell us how you parent = 1 entry
• Share a picture or funny video with us (send a link) of someone using the 5 sec. rule – comment with a link to the photo or video = 5 entries !!!!

This contest starts NOW and will end on Feb.  9th, 2010 at 8PM EST. Winners will be posted to this site. As with all giveaways winner MUST be a subscriber to this site, either via subscription or through Facebook feed. Winner will be posted to this site by Feb. 10th, 2010. Winner will have 48 hours to email me to claim their prize.

Have fun with this, I am sure this can generate a lot of funny stories and photo’s, I would love to hear them and share them.

There is MORE… Here are some other bloggers who are also holding the giveaway of the Clorox Prize pack, so you can visit their blogs and have even MORE chances to win!

• CONSUMER QUEEN
• BanteringBlonde

Thank you to all who enter and Good Luck !!!

The Plus Size Mommy

*Please note, stories, video’s, and photo’s may be posted to the Clorox  Facebook page*

*I am being compensated via giftcard for this post*

Learn More about #YourShape by Ubisoft for Wii*

Here is another video from the #YourShape by Ubisoft for Wii Fitness program.

* I am participating in the Your Shape Challenge through Collective Bias , I received the game for free
and I am also receicing fun prizes and perks. Your Shape is from Ubisoft.The weight loss and any idea’s are my own.

Spin and Win with Frigidare and Help the Children Too

Host Jennifer Garner and Frigidaire are teaming up for a new cause. It is called the Children CHANGE Program. They are dedicated and working hard to helping children who are living in poverty in the United States.

One in six children lives in poverty in America. They don’t need to. Save the Children works in impoverished rural communities in Appalachia, the Southeast, the Mississippi River Delta, the Gulf Coast, the Southwest and California’s Central Valley – where conditions resemble parts of the developing world. We provide early childhood development, literacy, physical activity, and nutrition programming as well as emergency relief.

HERE IS WHERE YOUR HELP COMES IN :

Frigidaire has a new spin and win game, where you have the chance to win a prize every day, or the grand prize of a brand new Frigidaire Affinity washer and dryer!  The best part?  Every single time you play, Frigidaire will donate $1.00 to Save the Children, as part of their $250,000 commitment to support Save the Children’s CHANGE program.  This is such an easy way to help, and it will help to provide nutritious snacks and food, and promote a healthy lifestyle for children living in poverty in the U.S.

With a click of your mouse to spin the wheel, you are not only helping the children and making changes in their lives. You also will have the chance at winning some great prizes.

Now click over to the Frigidaire Spin to Win Game and try your luck today, but more importantly you will be helping to make a difference for so many children!  Don’t forget you can play every day, and each time you play $1.00 will be donated!  Please tell your family, friends, tweet, blog, post on Facebook – there are so many ways to help get the word out there.

The Plus Size Mommy

Thank you to Frigidare for supporting this program and also to Mom Select and BSM Media for helping me to share it with all of you.

General Mills further reduces Sugar in Cereals* & coupon

General Mills has made a commitment to further reduce sugar in cereals advertised to kids under 12 to single digit grams of sugar per serving. The company has already been reducing sugar in cereals while increasing key nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin D, and providing whole grain.

Did you know that ready-to-eat cereal eaters consume less fat, less cholesterol and more fiber than non-cereal eaters? Cereals also deliver important vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients, making cereal a top source of key nutrients in children´s diets.

Other cereal benefits:

• Ready-to-eat cereals, including presweetened cereals, account for only 5% of sugar in children´s diets.
• Ready-to-eat cereal is the No. 1 source of whole grains in a child´s diet today.
• More frequent cereal eaters tend to have healthier body weights and lower Body Mass Index measures.

Studies also demonstrate the benefits of eating breakfast. A 1998 study showed that children who eat breakfast tend to perform better at school. Compared to children who skip breakfast, children who eat breakfast score higher on tests, are less likely to miss class or be tardy, have fewer reported discipline problems, and make fewer trips to the office.

For more information about kids and cereals, please visit Cereal Health and Wellness.

Right now if you visit here you will find a $1 off coupon for one of four General Mills cereals. If you choose to participate we will also provide you with VIP coupons for 4 boxes of General Mills cereal to help your family come together at the breakfast table every morning.

Enjoy your breakfast!

The Plus Size Mommy

*This information, online coupon and free cereal coupons were all provided to me by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Learn More about #YourShape by Ubisoft for Wii*

Here is a short video about the Your Shape  Fitness program for the Wii.

* I am participating in the Your Shape Challenge through Collective Bias , I received the game for free
and I am also receicing fun prizes and perks. Your Shape is from Ubisoft.The weight loss and any idea’s are my own.

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