Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Braun Forehead Thermometer Review!


I remember when I was in the hospital on bed rest while I was pregnant with the twins, and how the nurses would come around every four hours to check my vitals. One of the first things they did was check my temperature with a cool new forehead thermometer that they simply slid over my forehead. I thought that was the easiest, coolest thing ever and ever since having my own children, I wanted to score one of these thermometers! We never got around to getting one though. The generic store brand one we had worked fine under the kid's arms, so we just stuck with that because we couldn't justify spending the money on a new one with our growing family and other necessities taking precedence over it. 

I was recently selected for a new review opportunity from my Influenster community. I knew it was for the Braun company, but I had no idea it was for a new forehead thermometer! Imagine my excitement when I received the package in the mail and opened it up!


The first thing that really surprised me with this thermometer is how light weight and small it is. It's not as heavy as I expected for something considered fairly "high-tech." And the fact that it's not awkwardly huge makes it easy to transport in a diaper bag, my purse, or any other luggage bag for vacations, appointments, or other long trips in the case that someone might get sick.

It's very easy to use, too, which made me happy! ;)

To begin use, remove the protective cover from the part of the thermometer that swipes your forehead and then simply turn it on by pressing the white button near the bottom of the thermometer... (please excuse the poor quality of a few of these photos...I couldn't seem to get the flash/lighting quite right). 


After it comes on, place it above the eye brow, press the blue/green button and hold it while slowly swiping the thermometer down to the temple of the head and back. The thermometer will make a loud beep, telling you it's done and then reads/shows the temperature to you on the screen.



I tried it on Kendall first, and forgot to remove the protective cover the first time...oops! ;)

She thought it was a toy and kept trying to grab it as she saw me bringing it closer and closer to her face to swipe her forehead, but I was able to keep her little hands away enough to actually try it out properly. As you can probably see from the photos above, she didn't have a fever at the time we tried this thermometer out. 



I tried it on Mason the other day because he felt a little warm and was a little more whiny than normal so I thought maybe he wasn't quite feeling right, but no fever.


I love that I don't have to sit and wait forever while the thermometer is held under the kid's arms and wait and wait for it to check their temperature. With a quick push of a button and swipe across their forehead, I get an accurate temperature reading in a matter of seconds!

This is my new favorite mommy toy and definitely a must have in my opinion! 







**DISCLAIMER** I received the above product(s) from Braun/Influenster free of charge in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was received. However, all opinions are strictly my own.





Saturday, December 28, 2013

Miss 6 Months!

Guess who turned 6 months old a couple of weeks ago?



Yep! That's right! Our baby princess turned 6 months this month! It's hard to believe 6 months have passed since she blessed our lives with her presence, and that in 6 more short months, we will be celebrating her first birthday!

I feel like she has accomplished SO much this month alone, it's hard to keep track!

She is getting closer and closer to sitting unassisted. She can for short minutes at a time before toppling over or getting wobbly.


She isn't crawling or creeping yet, but she sure gets around pretty good by turning herself when she is on her belly. She spins herself all around to get to something she wants. She pushes up on her arms sometimes like she is gearing up to try and crawl but hasn't quite figured out the rest of it to actually get herself somewhere.



She also mastered holding her own bottle recently! She is a pro at this and almost seems to prefer "feeding herself" these days, which is bittersweet for this mama!



Kendall celebrated her first big holiday this month, Christmas! She got lots of fun new goodies from Santa, like some new snacks to try and new toys to check out and play with.












Perhaps one of the most exciting most recent developments for Kendall is she just cut her very first TOOTH!!! I don't have a photo of that quite yet since it literally just popped through on Christmas day or the day after, but it's definitely there! It's the bottom left. I'm sure all the chewing she has done these past couple of weeks helped pop that tooth through....




Another discovery Kendall has made this month is her feet. If she's sitting up in her bouncer or laying on her back, she always picks her legs up to grab her feet and even tries eating them. So cute!




She eats about 7 ounces per bottle every few hours, although I think she just hit a growth spurt or something this weekend because she ate 21 ounces in just a few hours time. She also gets her delicious baby food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner....usually one jar per meal but sometimes, like last night, it's two jars for one meal. She's quite the little piggy...and the thigh rolls don't lie...


She is currently in 12 month clothing, but those are getting a little snug on her so 18 months it is! She is definitely my fastest growing and chubbiest baby yet! 

At her 6 month check up in the beginning of the month, she was 17 pounds exactly...she must be pushing 19 by now with how much she has been eating lately! 

Kendall is one of the happiest babies! I have been really lucky in that all of my babies have been pretty well mannered, content, easy going, and happy babies. Kendall is definitely no exception to that. She really only gets fussy or upset when she is hungry, gets tired, or her older brothers or sister are bothering her or beating up on her. Other than that, she is always gabbing away, smiling, cooing, giggling, and just plain happy!





I almost forgot to mention that just last month, at 5 months old, she said her first word: "Hi!" Complete with the most adorable wave EVER. ;) It was so clear and just to be sure, hubs kept waving at her and saying hi, just to see if she would keep doing it or if it was a coincidence, but she did it two or three more times after, so it was definitely the real thing! She will still wave if you wave at her and she just started reaching for people when she wants to go to them or wants to give someone snuggles. It's the sweetest thing! Kendall is just a sweet little angel and melts my heart every second! I can't wait to see what she does or how she grows and advances in the next few months, as sad as it is that my baby is growing up. 










Christmas 2013!

We had a great Christmas this year. Just several weeks ago we weren't sure we would have Christmas together as a family this year because of some very personal events that were going on, so it was a nice relief to be able to celebrate it together the way it should be. 

Hubs didn't spend the night here Christmas Eve, so it was a little bit different than past years, but we made it work! Santa arrived late Christmas night....



The kids and I were up bright and early Christmas morning (at 5:30!!)! I let them have the goodies from their stockings to have a little something to play with and keep them occupied until we went to get daddy and could open their big presents. They were so excited with their little trinkets and goodies!







They got new hats and mittens, snacks, fun little cars and trucks, and little coloring activity books with crayons.

After we were done with that, we all loaded up in the van and drove to Mimi's house to see her and daddy and get their presents from mimi.







Merasia is IN LOVE with the art set Mimi got her, and the boys love the trucks and the bigger flatbed truck they got, along with all of their cool, new animal hats from Mimi! Kendall is a big fan of her new teether as well.... ;)

When we were done there, daddy came back home with us and we got to opening the loot Santa left here at home!





I think it's safe to say Connor's favorite present was his Spider Man Skateboard...I think his face says it all, right? ;)



















Merasia was IN LOVE with her Sofia the First castle and figurines, new dress up heels, and her Lamby (Doc McStuffins). Mason loves his dress up set from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, along with his talking Jake figurine and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fun toy. Connor was allll decked out with Spiderman loot! He got a Spiderman that crawls up windows, and another that shoots out his web at a target, along with his own Spiderman dress up set! Everyone was very satisfied with their new goodies! Kendall got a new learning table, along with her new pal Violet the Dog and some other fun little toys to play with and crawl around with. I think her favorite thing was the wrapping paper though....

After hanging out at home, playing with new toys, and taking the tree out and cleaning up, we headed to m in law's house for presents and a delicious Christmas ham dinner. The boys scored monster trucks, and the girls scored matching beautiful Princess dresses, along with a new Princess table and chairs set that doubles as a Princess tower/castle for Merasia and a new Spiderman sweatshirt for Connor.









All in all, it was a great Christmas, though I am glad it is over and I can (somewhat) relax...for another 12 days or so until the twin's 5th birthday! 

And let me tell you...if there is ever a time to get rid of your children's old toys and books, it's Christmas day. They are so excited over their new stuff, they don't care what they get rid of from their old toys and books! I went through everything with each of the kids, and they wanted to get rid of things I never thought they would want to part with! It made it SO easy and now there's a ton of room to fit all their new stuff! 

Now, on to a 5th birthday party planning in the new year....I have a Spiderman and Sofia the First party to get planning and together in just a couple of weeks. Craziness but oh so fun and worth it!