I am excited to announce my latest giveaway, a GoGo Babyz Infant Cruizer. The Infant Cruizer lets you easily convert your existing infant car seat into a stroller, perfect for pushing baby through the airport. When it is not in use, it folds up into a compact size, making it easy to fit in your trunk or gate check. When your child grows out of their infant seat, a toddler adaptor (purchased separately) lets you use it to convert your child's toddler carseat into a stroller. A twins adaptor is also available.
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My Review
I am very careful only to give away or recommend only products that I would recommend to a close friend. Because I had no personal experience with the Infant Cruizer, I asked GoGo Babyz to mail the giveaway directly to me to try out first. I compared it, side by side, with the Kolcraft Universal Infant Car Seat Carrier (the stroller I used with my infant seat).
The GoGo Babyz Infant Cruizer took just a few minutes to set up, and because I have a Graco Snugride, I did not need to install any of the adaptors that would be needed with a different infant seat.
I liked the fact that the Snugride snapped securely into the frame (with the Kolcraft I needed to fasten a strap around it, and I sometimes forgot that step... oops). The Infant Cruizer was less bulky and more easily maneuverable than the Kolcraft had been. I have not-so-fond memories of literally having to leave stores with the Kolcraft because I couldn't get through the aisles (can you imagine anything more heartbreaking to a new mom with her child sound asleep in the stroller). In contrast, getting through doors and hallways was easy with the Infant Cruizer. The Infant Cruizer also folds down smaller, meaning that it would fit better in my trunk than the bulky Kolcraft. The wheel brake, which is set with a single foot pedal was easy to lock and unlock.
A couple of caveats though... with the Infant Cruizer your child faces forward (instead of towards you) and is low to the ground. Neither of these would be a showstopper for me (and I suspect that the low base makes the stroller easier to maneuver), but they could be difficult for a parent who has trouble bending. Also, there is no storage basket and the handle is not designed to have shopping bags hang from it (which of course everyone warns you not to do & most moms do anyway).
Overall, I think this is a great product, and I love the fact that it grows with your child by accommodating a toddler seat (with a separately purchased adaptor). I am happy to recommend it on DeliciousBaby, and delighted give one away to my readers.
How To Enter
I will be giving the GoGo Babyz Infant Cruizer with adaptors for the Graco
Snugride, Britax Companion, Peg Perego Viaggio and Combi Centre away to one lucky reader. If you'd like a chance to win, leave us a comment before 11:59PM PST on Monday Dec 1 2008 and tell me one travel destination you plan to visit with your kids in the next year. Please include your email address in the comment form (your email isn't shared with anyone, and I will not send you email unless you win).
How to Get More Chances to Win
There are several ways you can get additional entries in this contest. Each takes only a few minutes!
If you have a blog, write about this giveaway or any article you enjoyed on DeliciousBaby. Leave a comment telling me you did so and show me the link where I can find it!
If you like this giveaway, share it using your favorite "social networking tool" (you can use the buttons at the end of this post). Then come back here leave a comment with your ID, so I can give you credit!
Winners We will choose a winner randomly and announce the results here on Tuesday Dec 2 2008. Many thanks to Go Go Babyz for generously sponsoring this giveaway.
Share This Contest If you have family or friends who you know will love this giveaway, just click the "share this" link at the bottom of this (or any) post to email it to a friend.
Rules Please, only one comment per person per giveaway post (except as outlined above where the comment is related to an extra entry). Duplicate comments and Anonymous comments will be discarded. Please make sure that the email address in your comment form is valid (email addresses are never public). Winners must claim their prize within three business days after the date of notification of such prize. A Sweepstakes winner's failure to respond to the prize notification within the specified three business days will be considered such Sweepstakes winner's forfeiture of the prize and an alternate winner may be selected from the pool of eligible entries. If an entrant is found to be ineligible, an alternate winner may also be selected from the pool of eligible entries. To enter, you must be a U.S. resident, age 18 or older. Employees, partners and vendors of DeliciousBaby and their immediate family members are not eligible to enter. We will disqualify any entries that we believe are generated by scripts and other automated technology. When applicable, the winner may be required to execute and return within five business days an Affidavit of Eligibility and a Liability and Publicity Release to be eligible for the prize or an alternate winner will be selected. All prizes will be awarded. No substitutions including for cash are permitted, except that DeliciousBaby reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater monetary value for any prize. Winners shall be responsible and liable for all federal, state and local taxes on the value of their prize.
With Thanksgiving and Winter Holidays quickly approaching, I wanted to share some of my favorite articles to help you get packed, through the airport, and safely to your destination.
That's why I am so excited to be working with three other bloggers who
I admire to organize "Passports with Purpose," a raffle that includes
many of my
favorite travelbloggers, each donating a
raffle prize to raise money for Heifer International.
Passports with Purpose is the brainchild of four Seattle
travelbloggers, Pam Mandel from Nerd's Eye View, Beth Whitman
of Wanderlust and
Lipstick, Michelle Duffy of WanderMom,
and myself. It is a great testament to what can happen when bloggers
who met using social media get together for a simple cup of coffee.
We've already gotten commitments from some fantastic travelbloggers,
and each of their sponsors has astounded me with their generosity.
I am also excited about our selection of Heifer International, because
Heifer represents the best of what travelers can hope to accomplish
when they travel. Heifer oversees over 800 projects in 50 countries
and has been working for more than 60 years to end world hunger.
Their donations of animals and training help families become self
sufficient and overcome poverty
Each participating blogger has procured a raffle prize valued at $100
or more. Tickets will be a mere $10 U.S. and will be sold through FirstGiving beginning on
December 1. The raffle committee will select winners on December
30th, and all the raffle ticket proceeds- minus minimal transaction
fees to FirstGiving will go to Heifer International. Get your pocketbooks ready, this is one raffle you are not going to want to miss!
If you have a blog and are interested in participating, let me
know and I will send you the details. debbie AT deliciousbaby dot
com. You can find more information at Passports With Purpose as well as a list of participating bloggers .
There were some great tips on how to make travel days easier, and I want to thank everyone who took the time to share their creative and thoughtful ideas. Here were a few of my favorites:
My tip for getting through the airport quickly is my pouch sling. It's a simple sling- no ties or latches involved. Plus, there's no metal so we can go through the metal detector without taking her out. (This was the main reason I didn't get a ring sling. We have to go through security everyday at my office, where her daycare is.) With her in the sling, I can carry the diaper bag on my shoulder and drag a pilots case behind me. No checking bags for us. Plus, I can lay the sling out flat on the floor and it gives us a small area for her to play on without worrying about icky airport floor germs. It can double as a blanket or as a nursing cover if needed.
Know your airport ahead of time. Many airports have online maps of their facilities. Just as you would read a tour guidebook about where conveniences are in, say, Paris, you should familiarize yourself with the location of conveniences in the terminal or terminals in which you may spend hours.
and
The air sickness bag! I give that to my son (who's 2, but we've been doing it for a long time) and a few small toys and he spends an hour or more putting the toys in the bag, taking them out of the bag, dumping the whole bag out, closing the bag with the little wire-closer-thing, opening the bag again, etc. etc. etc.
The randomly selected winner was Kristinia who said
Well since I've never flown .. I will this Christmas for the first time ever with my baby girl (2 months old), I hear its good to bring a very comfy blankie and pillow?
Kristinia, please email me your mailing address and I will send you your prize!
Didn't win this time? I am also giving away a Flip Video Camera and tomorrow I will begin a giveaway for a GoGoBabyz Infant Cruizer.
I'm excited to announce my latest giveaway, a Flip Ultra Video Camera, perfect for recording your family vacations or your favorite moments during this holiday season. What makes the Flip great, besides its small size, is the fact that its built in USB connector and software make it easy to share and edit your videos! This video camera includes 60 minutes of record time.
This Giveaway is now closed. To learn about new giveaways as they become available, please Subscribe to our feed
How To Enter
I will be giving the Flip Ultra Video Camera away to one lucky reader. If you'd like a chance to win, leave us a comment before 11:59PM PST on Monday Nov 24 2008 (Updated: Dec 1 2008) and tell me your favorite tip for documenting holiday memories. Please include your email address in the comment form (your email isn't shared with anyone, and I will not send you email unless you win).
How to Get More Chances to Win
There are several ways you can get additional entries in this contest. Each takes only a few minutes!
If you have a blog, write about this giveaway or any article you enjoyed on DeliciousBaby. Leave a comment telling me you did so and show me the link where I can find it!
If you like this giveaway, share it on StumbleUpon, Reddit, or Digg! using the links below, and leave a separate comment here with your Digg! or Stumble ID, so I can give you credit!
For each complete recommendation you add to our city guides, you will be given one additional entry. It takes only a few minutes, and it is a great way to share your favorite kids activities, restaurants, and hotels with other parents. To make a recommendation, just Click Here
Winners We will choose a winner randomly and announce the results here on Tuesday Nov 25 2008. Many thanks to Flip Video for generously sponsoring this giveaway.
Share This Contest If you have family or friends who you know will love this giveaway, just click the "share this" link at the bottom of this (or any) post to email it to a friend.
Rules Please, only one comment per person per giveaway post (except as outlined above where the comment is related to an extra entry). Duplicate comments and Anonymous comments will be discarded. Please make sure that the email address in your comment form is valid (email addresses are never public). Winners must claim their prize within three business days after the date of notification of such prize. A Sweepstakes winner's failure to respond to the prize notification within the specified three business days will be considered such Sweepstakes winner's forfeiture of the prize and an alternate winner may be selected from the pool of eligible entries. If an entrant is found to be ineligible, an alternate winner may also be selected from the pool of eligible entries. To enter, you must be a U.S. resident, age 18 or older. Employees, partners and vendors of DeliciousBaby and their immediate family members are not eligible to enter. We will disqualify any entries that we believe are generated by scripts and other automated technology. When applicable, the winner may be required to execute and return within five business days an Affidavit of Eligibility and a Liability and Publicity Release to be eligible for the prize or an alternate winner will be selected. All prizes will be awarded. No substitutions including for cash are permitted, except that DeliciousBaby reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater monetary value for any prize. Winners shall be responsible and liable for all federal, state and local taxes on the value of their prize.
I hope you will also take a moment to check out Tots on-the-go, the store sells many of my favorite travel products, and this is an opportunity to support a small, mom run business.
Family Travel Articles and News
The last time I traveled with a breastfeeding baby, it was still pretty tricky to get expressed milk through security. This week, the New York Times reports that TSA rules surrounding breastmilk have eased. That's great to hear! If you'll be traveling with baby this holiday, check out our guide to breastfeeding and pumping when you travel
TSA has announced that All airport security checkpoints will now have "family lanes". At some airports, it seems like the main function of the "family lane" is to get the slow families out of the way of faster travelers. That makes sense, but it puts families (and our impatient children) in a line that moves at a snail's pace. At some airports, though, staff has gone the extra mile to make family lines more convenient for parents. In San Francisco, the kids were given stickers after they passed through the metal detector, in Chicago TSA set up cute chairs where kids can get their shoes back on and here in Seattle, there are extra TSA employees to help you get luggage off of conveyor belts and prevent kids from running off.
Head over to Family on Bikes and send them your best wishes. The father and one son were hit by a car on Friday, and while they're mostly ok, this is a major setback.
The easiest way to get through the airport with a young baby, is to put them in a sling, and the RookieMoms are giving away a Scootababy Baby Carrier this week. I haven't tried this one, but it looks really nice!
Disney and Orbitz have teamed up to give away a customized 5 day family vacation at Disneyland There are also 55 secondary prizes that include complete Disney vacations and roundtrip airfare vouchers. They're also offering some great coupons to use even if you don't win. ORBDISNEY150 saves $150 off qualifying Disney Resort flight + hotel packages. Trips must be booked between 10/20/2008 thru 11/23/2008, for five or more nights for travel between now and 1/31/2009.
If you're participating in Photo Friday this week, don't forget to link back to this post... linkbacks are how more people find out about Photo Friday and how we keep the carnival growing from week to week, which ultimately brings more traffic back to you!
I never worry too much about finding something for the kids to do when we travel. There's always a square for them to run around in, or in this case a public tap to play with. When that doesn't work, there are birds to feed and skateboarders to watch.
Photo Friday: Please Share Your Photos Too:
Share a favorite travel photo by adding your link below. First timers, here is
more Information about Photo Friday
Last night, on the phone with my parents, we were literally moments away from booking what we thought was the best deal in Phoenix, $129 per night for a suite at the 4-star Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort, a hotel with literally acres of pools, waterslides and other kid-friendly fun. As my dad was talking about dates and details, I was skimming blogs & (almost miraculously) I spotted an article on WeJustGotBack.com's new blog about $72 per night rooms at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak. For our five-night stay, that blog post saved my father and I each $285!
As a travel blogger, I get lots of email from resorts telling me about special promotions and "deals." As an avid traveler, I am also signed up for newsletters from several different travel sites, yet I rarely post these deals to my site. Why? To do a good job writing about promotions, you need to know what the prices have been historically, you need to read the fine print, and you need to scour the available offers to make sure that the deal you're telling your readers about is the best available. I simply don't have the time to do all that myself. It's difficult enough to find the best deal for our own trips, can you imagine doing all that work for every deal that crosses your desk?
When I saw that WeJustGotBack was posting family travel deals on their blog, I was curious to see whether they would post the PR pieces that we all receive, or do the work to validate each offer. Last week there were a few posts that caught my attention: this post comparing two different deals at the Steamboat Ski Resort and this one with great tips for snagging the best deal in a recession. Then a few days later the blog saved my family $570! I feel like I can safely say that the offers on WeJustGotBack represent real values, not PR fluff. I also like the fact that each post calculates costs for a typical family of four. Most travel websites assume there are two in a room, so if you want to bring kids on a cruise, you usually need to read the fine print or call for details yourself.
My regular readers know that I am a minimalist when it comes to travel
gear. I would rather travel light than have all the latest "must haves,"
and some products work great at one age, but are not helpful at
another.
However we do have a few products that have stood the
test of time, and with Holiday Travel around the corner, I thought I'd share my list.
Ergo Baby Carrier
The easiest way to get through airport security is with your child in a metal-free sling, and the Ergo Baby Carrier is my personal favorite. With a sling, you just remove everyone's shoes and walk through, and there's no stress about your toddler running off while you collapse the stroller or gather your belongings. At two years old, D is mostly done using the sling and stroller when we're at home, but when we travel she still naps well in the Ergo, making it indispensable when we travel.
Phil and Ted's MeToo Chair
We often eat breakfast in our hotel room to save money, and there's no high-chair at grandma's house, so we bring our Phil and Ted's MeToo Chair with us. It attaches easily to most tables, folds down to just one inch deep, and weighs only 2 pounds. We use this as our home high chair too, so that the kids can sit at the kitchen island with us at mealtime.
Take & Toss Sippy Cups and Serveware
Even now that the kids are old enough to use cups well, I bring along a couple of Take and Toss Sippy Cups. Drinking from a sippy cup (or a cup with a straw) is a great way to relieve air pressure during takeoff and landing, and I don't have to worry about spills if there is unexpected turbulence. The cups nest easily, so that I can carry along extras without taking up a lot of space in my carryon. For early eaters, the forks and spoons are a great choice. They're easy to clean and reuse, but you won't break the bank if one gets left behind accidentally. Like the cups, they're also very space efficient. Amazon sells a complete set that is eligible for free super saver shipping The First Years Take & Toss Feeding Variety Pack 28 pc.
Lock & Lock Food Storage Containers
Here is something you won't see on most baby-care lists. Lock & Lock food storage containers are air-tight enough to carry infant cereal without spilling, and they make a great serving bowl too. Now that my kids are older, I use them to carry cereal, dried fruit and other small snacks. Unlike ziplock bags, they keep the contents from getting crushed, and they're also waste free. The removable dividers make it easy for me to carry more than one snack in the same container when I want to, and I love the fact that the containers are easy for a toddler to open and close reliably. Lock & Lock containers come in lots of sizes and shapes, but this is my favorite for travel: Lock & Lock 1.3 Cup Rectangular Storage with Removable Trays
Eagle Creek Pack-It Cubes I forgo the tradition of giving the kids their own backpack or suitcase when we travel. Why? I don't want to end up with one more think to carry when they get tired or fall asleep. These Eagle Creek Half Cubes are a nice size for the kid's gear, and when they can't carry them, I can easily slip them in my own carry-on bag or sling them over the stroller handle. I also use the full sized cubes in my suitcase to keep everything organized. With one packing cube for each child and two for myself, I know exactly how much I can pack for each person to fit everything in my rolling bag.
MP3 Player
It's no secret that music is soothing to young kids, and one of our favorite tricks for getting the kids to fall asleep just after takeoff is to play their bedtime music. Sitting still enough to keep earbuds in helps reinforce the idea that they should be relaxing. Even when the kids aren't asleep, books on "tape" are a great way to keep them busy, and an MP3 player is much smaller to carry along than a DVD player.
About Me I'm Debbie, mother of three delicious kids and I write about traveling with little kids. That's my daughter in the backpack and my son in Paris on Halloween.
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Even now that the kids are old enough to use cups well, I bring along a couple of Take and Toss Sippy Cups. Drinking from a sippy cup (or a cup with a straw) is a great way to relieve air pressure during takeoff and landing, and I don't have to worry about spills if there is unexpected turbulence. The cups nest easily, so that I can carry along extras without taking up a lot of space in my carryon. For early eaters, the forks and spoons are a great choice. They're easy to clean and reuse, but you won't break the bank if one gets left behind accidentally. Like the cups, they're also very space efficient. Amazon sells a complete set that is eligible for free super saver shipping 
