ExerSaucer® Life in the Amazon Triple Fun™ Saucer

http://evenflo.com/Products/ExerSaucer/Saucers/Life_in_the_Amazon/

My newest love (and my boy's love!)

This is ExerSaucer® Life in the Amazon Triple Fun™ Saucer by Evenflo.
This is the first of it's kind. Generally, as your child grows, you buy a playmat... then you buy an exersaucer, a jumper or a walker. Finally you need to buy toys for aging children.

Playmat set up

But with the ExerSaucer® Life in the Amazon Triple Fun™ Saucer you only need one item! This is a product worth the money! (At time of post, it's $99.99 on Babies R Us)

I got this late in the game. I live in Taiwan, and a lot of these things we are used to in the USA are unavailable in Taiwan...
I actually got this second hand from another westerner. But it's in like new condition, so I am satisfied.
My son is almost out of the play mat stage, but he still likes to bat the butterflies occasionally.
After that, you fold up the mat, take the toys off the stand and attach them to the saucer. It's a quick and easy transition and my son can't get enough of the saucer itself now. The dragonfly has wings that are good for teething, and currently that is his favorite toy.
After your child is of an age to walk, its just a few clicks and twists to switch the saucer into a toy for walking age to (the instructions say) 2 years old. Now, with the fact that the toys are learning toys, (the crocodile is like a puzzle!) It may last longer depending on the child!
Another fun thing, the main toys are Velcro-ed on, so you can easily remove them and take the toys with you when heading out!

It really is a multi-functional, multi-fun toy!

Charlie Banana Cloth Diapers, One Size

http://www.charliebanana.com/

 I am a first time mom and as such, I had a lot of decisions to make. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a mommy and during all that, I have always imagined myself breastfeeding my baby, but it wasn't until I was pregnant that I even began the diaper conundrum! I've only really known sposies. Every child I ever sat for used sposies, my brother.. my niece... Sposies, sposies, sposies. So when I got pregnant, I don't exactly know how, but cloth diapering came to mind very early on. So I did a very quick search and the first review I read was for Charlie Banana pocket diapers. In those first few pages I read, there was nothing on flats and prefolds or AIO's. It was just all about pockets and especially Charlie Banana. So I found their facebook page and also looked for Charlie Banana youtube videos and cloth diapering 101 videos. This made me a super CB advocate even though I hadn't even used them! Then during my 8th and 9th months, I was on bed rest due to leaking amniotic fluid and I discovered the CD board on baby center. This is when the world of CD opened up to me completely. I started getting worried that my boy would have problems as many have stated to have a variety in their stash in case certain things don't fit baby well... I had 12 CB's already and since I am in Taiwan, it's hard to get all the other brands.. Fuzzibuns, Bummis... ETC. So I just stuck with CB and hoped for the best.
After baby boy was born, I realized, since I only had one size, that I would need to wait for the umbilical code to fall off before I could even use my CB's!!
Now, I still only have 12... Hubby is procrastinating about buying more... So I am stuck in 1 day cloth, 1 day sposie...
I have to say, I am super, SUPER happy with my CB's!! My boy seems to love to poo on sposie days (For those who don't know, exclusively breast fed babies tend to poo only once every few days!) and each time was a blow out. Then, on a cloth day he had a poo that when I got the diaper open, I just knew would have been a blow out if he had been wearing another sposie!
The adjustable leg straps and the over-lap snap are incredibly useful! A lot of other brands have hip snaps like Charlie Banana, BUT they do not have an overlap snap for the center snaps, so you end up with bumped up diapers that look funny. Because of the overlap snap on the CB's, you get a smooth clean look all the way around.
For a FTM and a first-time cloth diaperer like me, adjusting to find the perfect fit for your baby may take time, but CB's leg straps are just so easy to adjust that I didn't really have a problem! For my next baby I will probably invest in some small diapers for the newborn stage, but otherwise, I am extremely satisfied with my Charlie Banana One-size Diapers, and I will be getting more VERY soon.