Get Excited about Books!

Everyone is asking me what to get buttercup for Christmas and I have two set answers: Clothes and books.

"Okay," said one of my sisters. "What books do you want for her?

Well, I wasn't expecting to have to provide specific answers, so I pointed my sister to Excite Books and told her she could buy Buttercup a monthly membership. I'll have to wait until Christmas morning to find out if she took my advice, and can honestly say that I am really hoping she did.

So what's Excite Books? It's the brainchild of a pilot-turned-business man that combines the thrill kids get out of mail addressed just to them with the love of reading a new set of books each and every month. You sign up for one, two, or three age-appropriate books to be shipped to your door each month, and then when your kids tire of the books or their interests just change, the books can be donated to a needy library with Excite Books pre-addressed and pre-paid envelopes! Donate some or all of the books, or keep them if you wish--the point is to spread and keep the love of reading alive in our children.


Talk about a win-win situation (and a gift you can really feel good about giving for Christmas!)

Monthly prices are $4.99 for one book, $9.99 for two, and $15.99 for three and shipping and handling is $4.95 no matter what package you decide on.


Buttercup is too young to know what who Blake Michael, the 11-yr-old host of Cartoon Network's Fried Dynamite is, but older children will certainly relate to Excite Books celebrity spokeskid! He appears on the Excite Books site wearing a large exclamation point to signify the excitement of reading books.


The Excite Books introductory package offers 3 excite books, 1 educational activity, and 8 free gifts. And except for the $4.95 shipping, it's all free! You can choose a package for infants to teens, plus puzzle and cookbooks for all ages. And you can chart your child's reading progress with Excite Books reading completion stickers in their own Reading Progress Calendar!


Buttercup is an avid little reader, so this is all perfect for her and a great way for me to keep her busy and stimulated. We got to try out the toddler introductory package, and Buttercup received a matching items book, a bath-time book, and a book with the characters from Monsters Inc.


Her favorite right now, of course, is the bath-time book. Check out how the book is already helping her grasp the concept of colors!

So...anyone else wants to get their kids excited about reading? Excite Books is offering one of my lucky readers the chance at an introductory package with three free books in the age-group of your choice plus the eight free gifts!

To enter, visit Excite Books and leave me a berrie telling me what you think about the program. why you think Your entry also must include the age group you'd like your prize to be for, if your comment is selected the winner. Entries will be accepted until midnight, EST, December 13 and the winner will have four business days from the announcement date to contact me with their information or an alternate will be selected. US entries only, please.

Additional extra entries are also available if you:

* subscribe to my RSS feed and comment letting me know you did so.
* Blog about contest and link to this post.
* Non-bloggers can email three of their friends about the contest at berriesweet.info (at) gmail (dot) com and CC me on the email. Girl Scout's honor that I will never bother these sweet people. I promise!
* Grab my Berrie Sweet Picks button and place it on your blog page. I'll check!
* Follow me on Twitter! (nickname: berriesweetest)
* Tweet the contest leave a comment with your username telling me what you said to your "tweeple"!Please note all entries MUST include a valid email address to be considered for the drawing! That means that well, all entries must include an email address to be considered valid. Simple enough, right? ;)

Celebrate attachment parenting month and help students in need!

October is attachment parenting month, and I for one am excited to help spread the word about what I consider to be a wonderful parenting philosophy. I didn't come into motherhood with a book in hand and a check list of how I was going to raise my daughter via the AP methods; inastead, I did what came naturally to me like co-sleeping and baby wearing, and later realized I was "following" books and advice and doctors I had never read or heard of before.

But I have to say that even though Buttercup is in her own toddler bed now and our co-sleeping is becoming less and less (her call, not mine!), I am still so grateful for the chance to bond while baby wearing. I have tried many baby carriers over the past 16 months, and have been pleasantly surprised to find that there is at least one carrier (or wrap) out there to meet anyone's needs, tastes, and budgets. And this is where the Didymos Baby Sling comes in.

It's high-end in both quality and price (about $150 or so) and requires that you purchase mulitples in different sizes if you like variety in choosing the holds to wear your baby in. But it's been around since 1972, is extrememely secure around the baby with no bounce, and is absolutely gorgeous.

Other bonuses include the fact that the cotton used to weave the slings is 100 percent certified organic; the natural and color grown fabrics are not bleached, dyed, or chemically treated; and it can be washed at very high temps, making it a perfect fit for babies with allergies.

Now for the question of the say: What the heck do you do with a sling that costs boku bucks after Baby's done wuth it? Well, you might wonder what Moms everywhere are going to do with their baby slings and carriers after they are no longer needed, but you'll never have to worry about where to pack up your Didymos wraparound baby carrier after the baby has gotten too big to carry. While your child is light enough for you to carry comfortably, you can enjoy a special closeness and hands-free mobility with up to 10 different carries. Just be sure to get the correct size for your needs and body-type, as the different sizes are geared to work for certain ways to carry your baby. The one-shoulder carries, for example, take much less fabric than other carries, and require smaller wraps.

And after baby wearing time is over, this genius baby-carrier can be used as a hammock, scarf, comforter or swing and you can enjoy it for a lifetime. The Didymos is available at www.peppermint.com and www.theslingstation.com

But before out go out ad buy one, why don't you try and win one her first? In honor of AP month, I'm offering one girly-themed Didymos in pink stripes to one lucky winner. It's a size 6, which is the longest size and one of the most versatile for use with newborns up to toddlers. I used it once for review, and then put it away months ago to save for a future promotion (like this one!) so the sling is new and the box is just a bit beat up. The entry rules are a bit different for this contest, though, so pay attention!

Anyone who donates $5 to my DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge will be entered to win this beautiful sling. Just click on my Blogger Challenge widget on the top right sidebar, and choose the project you'd like to help fund and then leave me a comment letting me know you did so. This would make a great baby shower gift and is an awesome chance at getting a fantastic sling for next to nothing.

This contest is open through October 31, and internaional entries will be accepted. As always, the winner will have four days from the announcement date to contact me or an alternate will be chosen.

Thanks for your generosity and good luck!

Deadlines and diapers and donations, Oh My!

Hi all! Just another Donors.Choose.org Blogger Challenge update, this time for my Deadlines and Diapers blog. I decided to try raising money via both blogs, and if you decide to donate $5 or more to the blogger challenge linked to this post, you can also be entered to win a $30 Visa Bank Card, courtesy of Avannabel Baby and Lipstick to Crayons. This contest also runs through October 31, so give much and enter to win!

DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge Update

I said I'd repost this when I had something good to offer up for a prize incentive to donate to my DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge, and I'm so ready to go! SO, like, read up on the original post below...and anyone who sticks around to the end of the post gets a million dollars (no-I'm kidding. ) But you do get a chance to donate to a great cause and get entered to win an extremely sweet prize!

I'm always up for a challenge, so when I was asked to participate in the DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge, I jumped right in and then realized I should have asked how deep the water was.

DonorsChoose.Org got its start in a Bronx high school due to the ingenuity of teachers witnessing their students going without the very materials they needed to learn. Today, public school teachers post projects that range from a $100 classroom library to a $1,000 trip to the zoo. Bloggers like me choose projects we are interested in funding, and readers like you can then choose the ones that are closest to your heart to help with even a $5 donaton. Donors even get a sweet thank-you letter and picture of the classroom they contributed to.

For those of you who don't know (like me before this morning, so there is really no need to feel bad) last year's DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge raised $420,000 toward classroom projects benefitting 75,000 students in low-income communities. And the cool part is that the funds were all raised through the generosity of blog readers like you!

I had no idea that today I'd open my emails to find a request for little ol' me to participate in something so big and so very, very important. But there it was. And I'm honored and excited and ready to do my part to make a difference in the lives of public school children here in Michigan and across the state.

Now, for those of you who ate your Wheaties this morning, you'll notice that this is indeed a challenge. The goal of course, is to try to raise the most funds, with cool perks like press from Fortune magazine for the bloggers whose readers help the most public school students, a Technorati "generosity ranking," and even a special Blogger Challenge for Mommy blogs! It's all just great incentive to try and rally the most funds, which (and most importantly)will come to make a difference in a child's educational experience.

As for that deep water? Well, the DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge started today, Oct. 1...and that's when I got the invite to participate! I may be a bit behind the 8-ball here, but I'm more than ready to step up to the plate for the month-long Challenge!

Ready to help?? Great! Just check out my Challenge Page and choose which project you'd like to donate to!

And just for a little extra incentive, every reader who donates a minimum of $5 will be automatically entered into a random drawing I'll host at a later date for a surprise giveaway. I'll come back and edit this post when I have the details ironed out, and anyone who has already donated will be entered retroactively.

As always, extra entries will be available for those who:

* subscribe to my RSS feed and comment letting me know you did so.
* Blog about the Challenge and link to this post.
* Non-bloggers can email three of their friends about the contest and CC me on the email. Girl Scout's honor that I will never bother these sweet people. I promise!
* Grab my Challenge Widget and place it on your blog page. You can get that here. Easy, right?
* Follow me on Twitter! (nickname: berriesweetest)
Please note all entries MUST include a valid email address to be considered for the drawing! That means that well, all entries must include an email address to be considered valid. Simple enough, right? ;)

And that's it! So who's ready to give up one morning latte to help make a child smile?

So now for the prize: Anyone who donates a minimum of $5 to my Berrie Sweet Picks "Challenge Page">Blogger Challenge automatically gets entered to win a Star Wars set of Mimobots, including C3-PO, Darth Aidious, (1)Royal Guard, and Wicket, an approximate $160 value.

Here is my recent review, just in case you need me to reinforce the extreme awesomeness of this prize. So tell your husands, your friends, your college buddies, and pretty much everyone else you know since this would make a kickin' Christmas gift for the Star Wars fan in your life (and no one has to know it was free if you win! It can be our little secret, huh?). I'll pick one winner on October 31, and announce here on my blog and send the winner an email. The winner will have four days to respond, or an alternate will be selected. Good luck and let's all do some good in the process!

Update: This contest is open to international entries. As long you donate $5 or more, I am more than happy to accept your entry!!!