Travelin' with Baby Giveaway Hop-GoGo Kidz Travelmate

Welcome to the Travelin’ With Baby Giveaway Hop Event, hosted by So Easy Being Green and According to Jenny! This Event will run from October 10th - 24th with a Twitter Party Grand Finale on October 25th from 9-10 PM EST!
In this Hop, each blogger has a great prize, worth at least $25, to make traveling with your baby easy and fun! Don’t miss out on the fabulous Grand Prize worth over $500 featuring the best, must-have Baby Travel Products!
 

So I'm taking a break from cloth diapers and eco-friendly products to get practical. Not that that the aforementioned items aren't practical, but let's be honest, not everyone uses cloth diapers (Gasp! I know :)) and eco-friendly options are still unknown to some. So what on earth could I be talking about now?? It's the GoGo Kidz Travelmate. Hey, that's awesome Kristin...what is it? It is a wheeled cart that allows your convertible carseat to attach to it for easy hauling through the airport. It will become your new best friend when traveling this holiday season, and anytime for that matter. 

As a first time mom, I knew traveling with children could turn out to be a cumbersome task. It wasn't until I made the trek alone with B that I realized how much stuff he actually requires just to maintain some sort of normalcy on the road. (1st promise: I won't digress into traveling with cloth diapers as that's a story for another day). Airlines do not require you to purchase a seat for your child until they are 2 years old, being the ever-frugal mama that I am, I plan to get as close to that 2 year mark as possible! But, I was informed that if the flight you are on is not full, certain airlines will allow you to place your child's carseat in the empty seat for free. So what does that mean? That means I will not check B's carseat. Ever. (2nd promise: I won't digress into the multitude of damage that can and has been caused to carseats that have been "checked" with luggage on airlines) Now that B is out of his infant seat, he's in a "big-boy" convertible carseat. The Britax Boulevard 70 to be exact. If you've ever seen one of these puppies, they are not the least bit compact. They are heavy and awkward. Hauling that, and my purse, and my carry-on, and my child did not sound like an ideal way to begin a vacation. Trying to find a "rental" carseat in our destination city didn't sound appealing either, I had a friend recommend the GoGo Kidz Travelmate as an option to take our own carseat with us, so I thought I'd check it out. Go-Go Babyz, the company behind the GoGo Kidz Travelmate offered to send me a Travelmate to review and is giving away a GoGo Kidz Travelmate to one of my lucky readers!!

I'm not kidding you when I said this amazing invention is a lifesaver. The more I learned about the products offered by Go-Go Babyz, the more I wanted to learn about the company. I'll shorten it up, but basically Go-Go Babyz was founded by a mother and entrepreneur, Ms. Kerry Williams. Kerry wanted her company to be family-oriented and dedicated to developing innovative, high quality products to make life easier when you and your baby are “on the go". What I loved most about this philopshy is that every product is personally tested by mom, dad, and grandparents. ABSOLUTELY necessary in my opinion! This was just 8 short years ago that it all began and Go-Go Babyz is still family owned and operated. If there's a type of business I love to support, aside from local business, it's family owned. I love knowing where my money is going, and it's great to know it's going to a company that prides themselves on family values. 

Ok, back to the business. :)  Once I received the GoGo Kidz Travelmate, I realized there was some assembly required. The good news is, the assembly (including taking everything out of the box and searching for a screwdriver) took about 4 minutes. It was so small and compact, there was no way it was going to hold that gigantic lug of a carseat. Turns out it does! There are detailed instructions about how to attach your carseat, but if you were a child of the 80's/90's or ever wore a pair of roller blades you'll get the concept quickly. You rest the back of the carseat against the base of the Travelmate slide the ratcheting, quick-release strap through yoru carseat and ratchet it tight. That's it. No screws, ties, velcro, nothing but a quick ratchet and you're done. It has an extending handle to function like a rolling suitcase which makes wheeling around the airport a breeze! When going through security, I was wearing B in the Ergo and the security agent just wheeled the carseat around still attached to the Travelmate and swabbed it down. Although the wheels do pop-off rather easily for this exact reason, I found I didn't even need to worry about it in either airport I traveled through. Once through security, I checked in at my gate to see if the flight was full. It was; so the gate attended printed a gate check ticket. I was able to keep the carseat attached to the Travelmate the whole time. When it was gate checked, it was handled nicely and brought back up at the end of the flight. I didn't have to worry about the carseat getting knocked around on the baggage carousel, someone potentially taking it etc. It was all right there and so easy to haul! 

I really can't say enough great things about this company and this product. I will NEVER travel without my GoGo Kidz Travelmate, and I encourage all mama's to be to put this on their registry! You may not use it right away, but you definitely will soon, and you'll be glad you have it!

So, now for the fun stuff! Enter using the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win your very own, brand new, GoGo Kidz Travelmate! And when you're done, be sure to hop to all of the other blogs (Especially this one to enter to win the Grand Prize!) to win even more goodies to ease your travels!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Thank you to GoGo Babyz for providing the items for review and giveaway. The opinions mentioned above are my own and may differ from yours. According to Jenny, So Easy Being Green, and the Travelin’ With Baby participating bloggers are not responsible for sponsors who do not fulfill prize obligations.**

Kid Basix Giveaway Event

 

Baby Costcutters has teamed up with a great group of bloggers to offer three Kid Basix Stainless Steel products. Winners Choice!

About our Sponsor:

Kid Basix provides stainless steel bottles, sippy cups, and sports bottles. With the cups being made out of stainless steel you do not have to worry about BPA :) The SafeSippy 2 cup comes with a straw and three different inserts to adjust to your child's needs; a plug to put in if you are traveling, a sippy valve if they are still used to turning the cup up to drink, and a straw and drink through adapter.

Great news: While this giveaway is going on through October 8th you can save 20% off your entire order with the code: babycostcutters.

Baby Costcutters was given three cups to review in exchange for this giveaway. Here is what she had to say:

"My kids love these cups. When they came all three of them wanted to use them right away....even the 2-year-old. His was the SafeSippy 2 cup. The three different valves you can use in this cup will come in very handy as he moved through the sippy cup stages. My older two boys each received a Safe Sporter cup. They are using them to bring to school for snack time and are enjoying using them. We have not had any problems with leaks at all. With the cups being made out of stainless steel they are very durable cups and seem like they will last a long time!"

My mini-review: Because the summers here in AZ get so hot, I was worried about leaving/forgetting a plastic sippy cup in a car for a prolonged period of time. We found these cups and I LOVE the Safe Sippy2 which we use for B. The whole thing is dishwasher safe, however, make sure it stays on the top rack!! My handle accidentally slipped tot he bottom and melted near the heat coil on the bottom of my dinosaur dishwasher. B is still able to use the cup without issue and I can re-order just the handle part. PERFECT! :)

 

Open US only, must be 18+ years old to enter. Ends Oct 8th at 11:59pm est. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received no compensation for this publication. My opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. www.KrazyforKlothandKids.com is not responsible for sponsor prize shipment.  

Flipping or Flopping...traveling with Cloth

I think if you're reading my blog, it's safe to say at this point you know I'm a fan of cloth diapers. Just a little bit. :) I have a decent little "stash", I've finally perfected my wash routine to curb the "stinkies", and Polish Prince is totally on board. We have settled into our nice little cloth diapering life. Cue vacations. As practical as cloth diapers are at home, they are not necessarily the easiest item to travel with. They can take up a lot of room in a suitcase, you've got to have a reliable washer (or be okay with handwashing/using a laundromat), and you've got to travel with your own detergent. It's all a bit cumbersome if you're going away for a week or more. The great news is the cloth diapering community has an answer! Hybrid diapers. These brands are marketed to people who want to cloth diaper, but want flexibility as well. Hybrid diapers typically consist of a reusable cloth cover and a reusable or disposable insert option. As long as the cover isn't soiled, it does not need to be washed. Just wipe it out, I use wipe solution, let it dry and re-use! Some popular brands are Flips by BumGenius, GroVia and gDiapers. After doing my research and talking to some other cloth mommies, I decided to try the Flip system for my most recent trip.

The OS Flip cover

The OS Rump-A-Rooz cover. Note the double gusset along the leg

I went to pick up a couple covers and a pack of disposable inserts from Zoolikins and while I was there, I was perusing other covers to tuck the disposable inserts in, rather than just the Flip covers. I already had some Thirsties duo wraps (which I love), but was also shown the Rump-A-Rooz covers, which I hadn't previously considered.  The Thirsties and the Rump-A-Rooz have one of my favorite features in a diaper cover, the double gusset around the legs. B does not have skinny legs by any stretch of the imagination, but I did notice the Flip cover left a slight gap when he would sit. Since we were going to be on a 4 hour plane ride and an 8 and a half hour car ride, sitting was a reality, the gap was going to be playing with fire. I grabbed a couple Rump-A-Rooz covers just to try the difference.

 Now, just to backtrack a little bit, the Flips have little fabric--flap--I guess for lack of a better term, that hold the insert in place, whether  you choose the reusable or disposable ones. Since the Thirsties and the Rump-A-Rooz covers are not part of a "hybrid" system, they do not contain this extra fabric flap. I was worried that this would make the insert move around. Not the case in my situation! 

The Flip cover with the disposable insert tucked in the "flaps"

 What I would do is lay out the cover and place the insert inside. I would then lay B on his back, on top of both.Next, I fold just the insert up to his belly and then bring the cover up over the insert and snap it. (Please see the pictures below with my model Mr. Bear. There is no way squirmy B would cooperate for pictures of each step!) :)This was the quickest and most effective way to use the disposable liners in a "non-flip" cover.

Step 1: Lay out the cover with the insert placed inside

Step 2: Fold the insert up, leaving the cover still down. This gives you room to maneuver the insert.

Step 3: Locked and Loaded. See the inner gusset hugging the bum?

Through all of our travels, I did not have one leak, #1 or #2! I was shocked! Some mama's have told me they struggled with leaking through the disposable inserts in the Flip system and have suggested doubling up on the inserts. I was prepared to do that, but never ran into that issue. I think having the double gussets along the leg holes helped immensely! The great news is, I also use the covers for night-time since B has figured out how to work Aplix closures. Both the Flip and Rump-A-Rooz covers go great over fitted diapers and their snaps are A-MA-ZING!

Please feel free to share your traveling with cloth tips and tricks below!