Winners

Here are the winners of the What to Expect books giveaway!
Mags comment 3.
And
Jhanell T comment 11.
I have sent you both an E-mail. If it isn’t in your inbox, check your junk folder.
Thanks to everyone for participating even if you didn’t win. I hope to offer more giveaways in the future. Have a great weekend!

What To Expect Books Giveaway

The What To Expect series is now on its fourth edition!

The most recent updates to the What to Expect When You’re Expecting book include answers to dozens of new questions and a detailed week-by-week fetal development section in each of the monthly chapters, an expanded chapter on pre-conception, and a brand new one on carrying multiples. There is an expanded section for work place concerns and additional material covering physical, emotional health and nutrition.
Since I am not a parent, I have never read any of the What to Expect books, but when they generously offered to give two sets of books to two of my readers, I wanted to check them out. So I decided that since I work with babies, it would be useful to read What to Expect the First Year.

So far, I have been surprised about how much information this book covers. It covers everything from baby’s first medical exam, advice for soothing a colicky baby, signs of common illnesses in babies to baby’s first bath. It has a detailed section on breastfeeding vs. bottle feeding and the advantages and disadvantages of both. The month by month chapters show you what to expect during each month of your baby’s first year. The developmental chart of milestones is meant as a guide, but as the book reminds us, each baby is different and will develop at their own pace.




After your baby’s first birthday, What to Expect The Second Year picks up where What to Expect the first Year left off.
This book covers milestones (from first steps to first words, first scribbles to first friends). There are chapters on growth, feeding, sleeping, behaviors of every conceivable kind, discipline (including teaching right from wrong), and keeping a toddler healthy and safe as he or she takes on the world. There is a developmental timeline of the second year with special milestone boxes which help parents keep track of their toddler’s development.


Two of my readers will win a copy of each book! Meaning three books for each winner!
How to enter:
1. Leave a comment on this post telling me which book you would find the most useful.
Additional entries:
2. Follow @play2grow on Twitter and leave a comment on this post letting me know.
3. Follow @whattoexpect on Twitter and leave a comment on this post.
4. Follow play2grow via Google Friend Connect or subscribe by E-mail and leave a comment letting me know.
Please be sure that you leave an E-mail address in your comments so I can contact you if you win.
If I do not hear back from you within 48 hours, another winner will be drawn.
The giveaway ends on Friday July 20th at midnight Eastern
Thank you and good luck!

Special Occasion Tiered Cake By Melissa & Doug Giveaway

Here’s another Gummy Lump giveaway hosted by the The Not-so Blog. This time, it’s for a Melissa & Doug Tiered Special Occasion Cake.
This is one of the many realistic looking and detailed Melissa & Doug play food sets.

From the website:
“Your little host will be proud to present these three layers of “delicious” yumminess.
This fabulous cake can be topped with a bride and groom for a formal pretend wedding
or with a flower bouquet to celebrate any special event. Serving and assembling this
confection is easy with all the wooden layers, a selection of toppings, a server
and decorative cake plate included in the “bakery” box.
If you are interested in winning, click on the giveaway and follow the instructions. You have until the end of December ninth to enter. Good luck!

Melissa & Doug Play Kitchen Giveaway

I know this is last minute since this giveaway ends tomorrow, but I wanted to post it anyway. I meant to post it sooner, but you have until 12 O’clock tomorrow night to enter. This is for a Melissa & Doug Play Kitchen normally valued at $249, but is now on sale for $199. Here’s what it includes:
This sturdy, durable wooden kitchen includes a stove,
refrigerator/freezer, oven, microwave with turntable, and sink. Bright, colorful
graphics, and an exceptional price make this the most attractive kitchen! That was taken from the above page.

Gummy Lump.com is giving it away on their blog.
Click on the blog link, go to the giveaway entry and follow the instructions. You can also look at their site for pretend play food sets, blocks, puzzles and many more toys. Good luck!

Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates Giveaway

For the past few days, I’ve been thinking about changing my blog layout again and I decided on a winter theme. I was searching around this morning and found some neat winter Blogger templates from Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates. I tried using a couple of the Christmas themes and settled on this one. I’m sure in a couple of months, I’ll change the layout again and I’m pretty sure I’ll go back to this site. These templates are some of the best I’ve seen.

Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates is having a big giveaway. I had already decided to use one of these templates and after looking around on the blog, I found a post to this giveaway. Here are the prizes.
The grand Prize is a full custom template. It comes with a blog button, post/sidebar custom font, social networking icons, page dividers, and post signature. (ARV $150)
Other prizes:
Two custom Christmas photo cards (ARV $30 each),
Two premade templates (ARV $5 each),
and one custom blog header (ARV $80).

I’d love to win a custom template for my blog. I’ve been struggling with finding something unique and that reflects what this blog is about. I thought I’d share this giveaway with my followers as well if any of you are interested in updating your blog design. Click on the link above and follow the instructions to enter. Good luck!

Melissa & Doug Shopping Cart & Food Play Sets Giveaway

Here’s another great giveaway that’s on the Thanks, Mail Carrier blog. It’s for a Melissa & Doug shopping cart and your choice of two play food sets all from Gummy Lump.com.
The play food sets featured in this giveaway are the Bake & Decorate Cupcake Set and the Slice and Bake Cookies Set. Both sets are very detailed and are very realistic. The cupcake set includes a baking pan, mitt, cupcake wrappers, cupcakes, frosting toppers and dry and erase markers for frosting designs. The frosting toppers come off so you can switch them around on the different cupcakes. The cookie set includes frosted cookies, a knife, baking pan, mitt and a container. You can attach the icing to the cookies and the cookies to the baking sheet with the Velcro on the bottom. You can also slice these. They come as dough in a tube. I knew the foods were more realistic now, but I’ve never seen anything with this much detail.

The other play food sets include the Stir Fry Slicing Play Food Set, Tiered Special Occasion Cake Play Food Set, Wooden Bake & Serve Brownies Play Food, Wooden Doughnuts Play Food Set and there are a lot more to choose from.

The other prize you can win is the shopping cart which is also realistic and I’m sure most kids would have fun playing with it. It even has a little seat in front for the dolls which can be folded up if you aren’t using it. To enter, click on the giveaway link above and follow the instructions on the page. Good luck!

Guidecraft All In One Play Kitchen Giveaway

Here's a giveaway hosted by Thanks, Mail Carrier. It's for a Guidecraft All In One Play Kitchen!
I'm posting this because it looks to be high quality, detailed, it's larger than most kitchen sets and because it'd be fun for your child to play with. Because of the size and detail, it might be expensive for some people, so it'd be even better to win it! Some of its features include a fridge
with shelf and write-on, wipe-off marker board; a sink; a microwave; an oven with
pull-out rack; a dishwasher: open and closed storage; a clock with moveable hands;
a wall phone, and more. You can get a better description at This post on the Thanks, Mail Carrier blog. Follow the instructions on the page to enter. Good luck!

Fraiche Soaps & Swizzles Giveaway

I have a couple more giveaways to post. The first one is from, Fraiche and is hosted by Mama Buzz.. They sell all natural soaps, swizzles which dissolve in bath water and gift baskets. I like that the soaps are all natural and some of the scents sound good. I read on Mama Buzz’s blog that some of the flower scents actually contain flower petals and that the peppermint scent contains peppermint candy. I think the fruit scented soaps like apple and orange would smell really good. I’ve already entered and I’m posting this to let my followers have a chance as well.
here’s where to enter. Mama Buzz has better descriptions of the soaps and swizzles since she was able to actually try them. She also has several ways to enter to improve your chances. Good luck!

The Felted Pear Giveaway

I’m linking up to a Felted Pear Giveaway hosted by Counting Coconuts. I’ve already entered this giveaway and wanted my followers to have a chance as well. It’s for a $30 gift certificate to the Felted Pear. The felt foods are really creative and some of the platters are cute. There is a huge variety of food as well.
The Felted Pear is an Etsy shop where you can find hand crafted felt foods for children. The owner of The Felted Pair makes foods like of course pears, a rainbow of fruits and veggies, strawberries, a slice of pizza, a chicken leg, wheat bread sandwiches etc. She even includes not so common fruits and veggies. Click on the link to her store to see all the great items. You can even have food platters customized because everything is hand made. It states that all materials are safe for children ages three and up. You have until Friday to enter. Click on the link to Counting Coconuts at the top of this post and follow the instructions on the page. Be sure to check out the photos on that page as well because there are more items there that aren’t in the Etsy shop. Good luck.

My Twinn Doll Giveaway

I’ve never written about giveaways on other blogs before, but I thought this one was cool. It’s a customizable doll from, My Twinn!
You can customize a doll to look like your daughter or any special girl in your life. I know some of you have daughters and would probably love to give something like this as a Christmas gift or a gift for another occasion. The dolls are a little expensive because they are customized so if you win the giveaway, it would save you a lot of money and you end up with a cool gift. They have a variety of other things from friend’s collection dolls, pet accessories, personalized books and more.

When I was little, I would have loved this. I had a favorite doll that I named Kelly. I don’t remember if that name came with her or if I named her that. I’m thinking it came with her, but I picked her out at the store when I was four so I really don’t remember much about when I got her except taking her out of the box. I brought her everywhere with me. I remember she smelled like baby powder. Her head is turned to one side and it makes her look like she is sleeping. She came with an outfit, but eventually, I put my own baby pajamas on her and that is how she’s pictured below. I took another bracelet off one of my other dolls and put it on her and she still has the bracelet and pajamas on to this day. She sits in my closet with a few of my other dolls. My mom always wondered why I picked that doll to be my favorite instead of dolls that she thought were prettier. I really don’t know. She didn’t have a fancy dress, she was smaller than most of my other dolls, she didn’t make sounds or come with cool accessories, but I just thought she was special in her own way. Maybe because she looked like a baby and those were the kinds of dolls I preferred or maybe it was because she had a soft body and was easy for me to carry around and snuggle with.




I still like dolls and have a small porcelain doll collection. None of those dolls are as special as Kelly. Now, you can get dolls that look how you want and even just like you. Not many people can say they have a twin doll. It might be even more exciting if the girl gets to help customize her special doll. Anyway, I’m hoping one of my followers will win a special doll for her daughter or another special girl that she will keep and love for a life time. To enter, go to the review by Mama Buzz and follow the instructions. Good luck to my followers.