ezpz – BabyCostsMoney

Great Plates.

Published on April 21, 2017April 28, 2017 by Darlene Dee6 Comments

I know, I know. Nobody asked me. <raises hand> But I’m going to share with the class anyway.

Babystar uses four different types of plates. I did not research ALL OF THE PLATES (like I did with strollers and that was hell) so there may be better options out there. Pretty please let me know in the comments if you have any of these and like/hate/feel nothing about them. Or if you have a favorite that I have not listed.

ezpz mini mat

LOVE

It fits on our Ikea high chair tray.
It is perfect on the living room side table or restaurant table because it does not slide easily.
The divided tray encourages Babystar to eat a variety of foods.
It’s silicon, so it’s BPA, BPS, PVC, and phthalates free.
Dishwasher safe (top rack).
It’s freaking adorable!
The extra lip around the food sections is a great place to put tiny bites from my plate that she may or may not try. But she does not get upset about them because they are not (apparently) technically in her food areas.

SIDE-EYE

It is really easy to move around on the tray or table. It does NOT suction. It is well designed but most kids are smart enough to pick it up if that is their goal.
Babystar does like to move her plates from room to room because she takes ninety minutes to finish a meal. These plates are rubbery so very difficult for her to carry without spilling. (I get that this is only an issue for some kids.)
These plates are quite expensive. If you want several different colors or have more than one kid, you are spending some serious dough.

VERDICT

I like the two we own (one was a gift at a MommyCon session). I also have one of the bowls, which does not fit on the Ikea high chair tray but is great for art supplies. I definitely LOVED these plates a bunch when Babystar was just learning to eat and would get frustrated when her plate or bowl moved around unintentionally. My advice: get one or two for when your baby is first learning to eat. Once he or she can pick up the plate, it’s time to teach them not to do that anyway. I like it as a ‘training plate’. And then as a travel plate.

Re-Play Divided Plate

LOVE

Re-Play is a great company that I kind of want to make out with. Their products are made from recycled milk jugs. In America. And did you hear the part about RECYCLED MILK JUGS??
BPA, BPS, PVC, and phthalates free.
Dishwasher safe (top rack).
The sections on the divided plates are deep enough to put actual food in, even runny stuff, like fried eggs or oatmeal or even, EVEN, cereal with milk. Whoa.
The divided sections also encourage her to eat a variety or foods. She NEEDS something different in each section. (So it also encourages ME to be a good mama and balance her meals. Thanks, fam.)
So far they have proven indestructible but I have not tried them on the bottom rack of the dishwasher (dun dun dunnnnnn). Which is great because Babystar likes to carry her plates around these days. (I really cannot figure out why she needs a change of scenery mid-meal.)
There are so many pretteeee colors from which to choose!
They are very affordable! I linked the plates from Abby’s Lane above because that online shop offers free shipping, and sells the plates individually for $3.25 each, in case you want to try one. You can buy direct from Re-Play here, but they sell the plates in 2-packs for $5.99. The catch is that you have to spend $79 for free shipping, and I hate that rule. I hate most rules tbh.

SIDE-EYE

Ahem. I must spend $79 for free shipping on the Re-Play website? AND their shipping is expensive. No, thank you.

VERDICT

Yes, please. We love these. But beware: if you have a plate thrower (opa!), these plates are irresistibly light and frisbee-esque. However, they aren’t going to break so there’s that.

IKEA KALAS Plate

LOVE

These plates are SO affordable! Six for $2.49!! I bought a few packs and I use them for everything: play date snacks, stuffed animal birthday parties, and tossing in the diaper bag for picnics. I have lost a few along the way and I DON’T EVEN CARE.
The are BPA, BPS, PVC, and phthalates free.
They are dishwasher safe.
They are kind of the perfect size.

SIDE-EYE

The plates are not divided, and Ikea does not offer a divided plate option. Sometimes that is fine. Other times it is less fine. The problem is that Babystar (being a typical toddler) never really gives me a heads up.
The plates are almost too light. I like their weightlessness when I am carrying them in Babystar’s bag, but they do tend to get swiped onto the floor a little too easily.
They are available online but shipping is $10, so you have to either live near an Ikea or know someone who does. Or buy a whole bunch of stuff from Ikea to make it worth it which would definitely be my preference. Go check out their pillows. I’ll wait. (I definitely sent several packs of the KALAS bowls to my nephew in another state whenever someone was headed that way.)

VERDICT

Worth having on hand, even if you don’t have kids. I totally owned some before Babystar was born for visiting children. The price is amazing. The product is good enough.

Regular Dinner Plates

LOVE

I’m pretty sure she feels like such a BIG GIRL when her plate matches mommy’s (and everyone else’s if it’s dinnertime).
This is extremely economical. Unless. Unless your child breaks them all the time and you have to pay for more adult plates (although this is like the salad plate size) or some ER visits from glass shard related injuries.

SIDE-EYE

Ok, first of all, and not plate related, but maybe don’t give the baby metal ~~weapons~~ utensils, even if they were given to you by her grandmother and used to belong to her father. Even then.
Also, we so fancy, and our dinnerware (though very cheap to acquire, dude, I bought an entire set of vintage Franciscan Starburst for fifty bucks from some clueless amazing person on craigslist), would be very expensive to replace. That does not mean I do not TOTALLY wish I had the child plate version of this pattern. But I just found one online after an hour of searching and it was $90 soooooooo I’m thinking that’s probably a nope.
Babystar likes to carry her food around. I would not freak out about the broken plate if she dropped it, but I would DEFINITELY freak out about the sharp ceramic shards on and around my baby.
Again, it’s not divided. (Though the child’s plate version is but I don’t have that one so please mail me one ok thank you.)

VERDICT

I don’t think this is a super great idea. Probably don’t do it. But also, you know, live your life.

My little Babystar has started this cool thing where she wants to eat twenty-five hours of the day. Yes, twenty-five. Because twenty-four doesn’t seem to be enough. I guess she’s trying to grow so she can reach the cookies.

My stack of five re-play divided plates was no longer even getting us through a whole dishwasher cycle, because of that whole CONSTANTLY EATING thing. I just acquired four more plates. Two were purchased by grandparents and two by me ($6).

RAISING BABYSTAR: $16,297.37

MommyCon 2016 + GIVEAWAY.

Published on July 24, 2016August 5, 2016 by Darlene Dee25 Comments

Babystar and I went to MommyCon DC yesterday and had so much fun!

(I was NOT a member of the media team or blog team or whatever it was called and I did purchase my own ticket.)

We actually volunteered Thursday and Friday behind the scenes, and that was also a blast. (Yes, WE. Babystar came along too and even had some playmates her own age.) Everyone involved with Team MommyCon was really nice and great and seemed all about the cause. By the time Saturday actually arrived, I was already exhausted. But luckily very excited, and the excitement trumped the exhaustion.

We arrived early because my son (home from college for the summer) and his girlfriend were working the event. If you attended MommyCon DC and checked your stroller, you met my firstborn. Thanks for being nice to him. (I know you were nice because he told me he was surprised how nice EVERYONE was. I wasn’t surprised but thank you anyway.)

The best thing about having him working there was dropping off Babystar for five minutes at a time so I could PEE ALL BY MYSELF. Stroller check was located conveniently right next to the restrooms.

Babystar helped by stacking things. Also, LOOK AT THAT MOUNTAIN OF GIFT BAGS!

We attended last year and I definitely noticed a lot of improvement. The layout inside the convention center was smarter this year. Last year the vendor space was a bit cramped and the diaper changing area was ridiculously big and far away from the action. That was not the case this year, and the addition of a Quiet Room and Toddler Play Space was great. (Note to the convention center: that door to the Quiet Room needs some WD-40. Whoops.)

The best improvement IMO was the offering of speaker sessions. There were six different sessions happening at any time, which made it difficult to choose where to spend our time. (This is a good problem to have!) I really enjoyed Steps Toward Sustainability with Yvonne Brown, Dear Baby XO: Why Mom Fails are Good for You with Sarah Showfety, and Ring Slings 101. By far my favorite session was Why Toddlers Fear New Foods with Dawn Winkelman of EZPZ. I have raised two picky eaters already and learned a lot of ways to prevent this pickiness with Babystar, hopefully early enough to prevent any food issues. (I know Cloth Diapering 101 with Jenn Labit was great because I attended last year, so I felt ok about skipping it this year EVEN THOUGH I know she gives out cool gifts.) I wanted to attend the Babywearing Yoga and Babies at the Barre sessions, but. But. But I was so so SO tired from working while babywearing the previous two days AND Babystar was conveniently asleep in her carrier during both of those session times. So I shopped instead.

Want to see what I bought?

All the Smart Bottoms stars plus the teal Blueberry diaper in the front row from Lil Tulips: $139.31
The three striped diapers (SO PRETTY in person!) and the squiggly rainbow diaper from Blueberry Diapers: $96.80
Swim diaper from GroVia: $12 (MommyCon special price!)
Stuffed ninja that Babystar pointed out and then bit so I had to buy it (smart baby) from Wrap Scrap Creations: $20
Two Ubbi Tweat Snack Containers (you can see that one was used for Cheerios right away): $15 (MommyCon special pricing!)
Navy blue mesh ring sling from Cute Awakening: $35
Ziggy Stardust t-shirt for Babystar from Jammy Jams: $18

Merch total was $336.11 plus $84 for tickets (general admission plus the Feed the Baby VIP session on Friday) so my grand total was $420.11. Which is almost exactly $100 less than last year. I wanted to buy much more but restrained myself. I wanted more more MORE cloth diapers and a Tekhni ‘hip sack’ (which is really just a pretty fanny pack for fancy mamas) and a woven ring sling and and and. You get it.

I chatted with several of the vendors; again, everyone I talked to was so nice. Everyone. Of course they were, right? They are vendors. But everyone was SUPER above and beyond nice, and excited to chat about their products or just about babies or life in general.

Life Tip #1: Get some Oh My Yog! Organic Yogurt from Stonyfield in your life as soon as possible. Stonyfield gave some out during the VIP sessions on Friday and I cannot even tell you how delicious it is. You will thank me. Unless you really hate yogurt. Then you might not like it. But you might — it’s that good.

Life Tip #2: Find out where to buy Brewla ice pops near you and get the coffee flavored one and eat it immediately. They had samples on Saturday and they were SO GOOD. The Strawberry Hibiscus was also delicious. But that coffee flavored one tho.

Life Tip #3: (If you have a baby or a toddler.) Attend a MommyCon near you. I think it is finally worth traveling for, and I wouldn’t have said that last year. Xza and her team have been on a steep learning curve and the entire convention is really really good now.

Everyone always wants to know WHAT IS IN THE SWAG BAG?

Everyone gets a gift bag. And if you attend a VIP session (held the day before), you get another special individualized gift bag. I attended Feed the Baby with Jessica Martin-Weber from The Leaky B@@b and it was great because she is just adorable and funny and great. And all of this was in my VIP gift bag.

You guys, look! There is a coral EZPZ mini mat! Just like the one I gave away last week. And just like the one I already own and reviewed and wondered if it would work better if I never put it in the dishwasher. I’m going to do a blind ‘sticky test’ soon and I’ll let you know how it goes. I will also tell you all about the BiteSizers and Re-Play dishware and GOOtensils once Babystar uses them a bit.

(That can is tuna. I don’t know. Special you-can-eat-it-when-you-are-pregnant tuna but still. What?)

And everyone got a General Admission gift bag with some variation on these goodies.

Well technically, the Kind bar, Babyganics samples on the left, and GoGo applesauce were handed out by vendors in the exhibit hall. The rest was in the swag bag. Highlights included two types of reusable food pouches (Sage Spoonfuls and Little Green Pouch), an adorable doll sized cloth diaper from Nicki’s Diapers, and a Maya & Max by MOBY baby hat. Plus lots of other cool stuff, as you can see. I actually got another bag with a variation of these things at the end as a thank you for volunteering, so I’m going to give THIS one away. I’ll even pay your shipping costs, so US only please and sorry. Immediately after taking the above picture last night, I tied up the bag and set it aside for you.

I’m leaving this giveaway open until the middle of next week, because I will not be able to ship this out until August 5th.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH OR ENDORSED BY MOMMYCON.

I’m just gifting you my super cool swag bag. 🙂

WE HAVE A WINNER! Gabriela, I just sent you an email. CONGRATULATIONS! And thank you to everyone who entered!!

Enter to win a MommyCon Swag Bag here!

RAISING BABYSTAR: $11,149.67

Win an ezpz! Easy Peasy.

Published on July 12, 2016July 19, 2016 by Darlene Dee1 Comment

So I bought one of the ezpz mini mats. ($19.99.) You know, the one that fits on the Ikea high chair?

You know, the neato baby food tray that is either a MIRACLE or a FRAUD but nothing in between?

(Weird that people in Internetland have such strong opinions.)

So yeah, I bought one. And I liked it. The teenager and I opened the package and had fun sticking it to things. We were pretty amazed. It actually was really difficult to knock over.

But then, like a good little germ-hating mommy, I put it in the dishwasher before trying it out with Babystar. (It totally says DISHWASHER SAFE right on the package.)

Whoops. I do not think I should have dishwashered it. It lost a bit of its stickiness. But not stickiness, because it isn’t sticky. And it isn’t suction-y. It’s magic. It lost a bit of its magic in the dishwasher.

The Teenager and I replicated our earlier experiments and we were far less impressed. However. HOWEVER! I think there may also be some ANTILOP versus ezpz drama going on. (ANTILOP is the Ikea high chair’s stripper name.) I think they might hate each other. Or they secretly loooooove each other and don’t want any of us to know.

The ezpz mat seems to work great on this side table. She mostly entertained herself with her toys and books and snacks during So You Think You Can Dance. She even left her snacks on the table in between her dance breaks. (You guys, she can’t even really walk yet but girlfriend loves to dance. Standing up and shaking it. No hands. Adorable.) Babystar probably could lift the ezpz mini mat from that table, but for that matter, so could I. Who would want it to be stuck there forever? (Ok, maybe the baby.)

Verdict: I like it. I am looking forward to trying it while traveling. I wish I had not put it through the dishwasher. Half of me wants another one to try on the Ikea high chair sans dishwasher action but I probably won’t buy another.

Does anyone else have and love or hate one of these? Did you put it in the dishwasher? Do you have the Ikea ANTILOP?? I am mildly desperate to know how it works if you do not steam it in the machine first.

UPDATE: I wrote this post last week even though I am just posting it today. I have since taken it to a restaurant and it worked quite well. Oh, and the baby can basically walk now. I also reached out to the peeps at ezpz to see about doing a giveaway. They don’t do giveaways. BUT they will give me store credit for another mat if I buy one from their website and then review it. And I kind of already wanted another one to try on the Ikea highchair sans dishwasher action. So I will get a free one for you!

Enter here to win a ‘Babystar semi-approved’ ezpz mini mat in coral!

Shipping to US address only, please. And sorry. (Or ‘soory’ to those in Canada.)

UPDATE AGAIN: Congratulations to Amber R, winner of the ezpz mini mat. And thank you to everyone that played!

RAISING BABYSTAR: $10,695.56