When shopping for a cloth diaper, what does the Mom Buzz look for?

1. Snaps - I just love how durable they are, a little harder for my son to undo himself and it eliminates snagging from Velcro in the wash

2. Pockets - I love the stuff and go convenience. It's also the easiest for my husband and mom to put on the baby.

3. Color - Uhm. Yah. I like color. The more colors to choose from, the more likely I am to buy.

So, it's no surprise that I have been mighty curious about the fit, style and wear of Happy Heinys cloth diapers. And to peak my curiosity even more - they have a ONE SIZE CLOTH DIAPER WITH SNAPS. Oooh. Aaah. Yah. If you are an avid reader of the Mom Buzz, you know I am picky with one size diapers. I HATE when I purchase a diaper that claims to be one-size fits most - and it doesn't fit around the waist of my 27 pound 18 month old. Honestly, I've had this problem when he was even smaller. If a diaper says it goes up to 30+ pounds, it should definitely fit my kiddo!

So, Happy Heinys was up to the challenge! They sent two blue Happy Heinys for my big kiddo. First of all, there are over 20 colors to choose from - solids and prints. I love the new peace bear print they have! When shopping, see if you can find it! But the solids are gorgeous too, especially the selection for boys. There are 4 shades of blue, 3 shades of green and I love red and orange on boys! Heck, I even put my boy in yellows! It is a nice gender-neutral choice. But for the review, I was given baby blue and royal blue to put on my boys bum. Gorgeous shades. I think I favor the darker color to hide stains from dirt and food - but if your house is immaculate and your child never spills - the baby blue is so "soft" on the eyes.

The One-Size Happy Heinys can fit a child from 7.5 to 35 pounds. So my son has 7 more pounds to go before reaching the maximum size! How does one diaper fit such a range? Well, you can thank the snaps. I have tried a few diapers that use snaps to convert the size from small to large, but Happy Heinys definitely has the most snaps! You snap 3 snaps across to change through FOUR sizes. Name them what you want! I suppose we can say it goes from X-large to large to medium to small. The three snaps across definitely ensures the snaps will stay in place, no matter how active your little one is. Plus, to reduce the width around the waist, you can actually fasten the side tabs over each other. That can give you a better fit than even disposable or velcro diapers! So, technically there are 10 snaps that you can use to get a better fit around the waist and legs. Wow! And yes, the one-size diaper does fit my son GREAT.

Each Happy Heinys comes with two microfiber inserts - small and large. I usually only use a large insert in my Happy Heinys since I use it on the largest setting. But if you are using it with a teeny 7.5 baby (the smallest suggested size for this one-size diaper) the small insert would work better, reducing "bulging", which I am sure is more comfortable. But if you have a heavy wetter, you can try putting both inserts in there together.

Happy Heinys One-Size with Snaps is just the newest product they have. They also have One-Size with Velcro, Sized Pocket Diapers, Fitted Diapers, Diaper Covers and Training Pants. And Happy Heinys are proudly made in the USA.

NEVER TRIED CLOTH DIAPERS?
Okay, I just wanted to let all you 'sposie moms that I was nervous to make the switch too. I thought it would be so HARD. And my husband was mighty afraid of poopy cloth diapers. But it so easy to care for cloth that I often wished I did it with my first.

For pee dipes, I simply remove an insert (if necessary) and dump the diaper and insert in a diaper pail. Poopy diapers - I dump the poo in a toilet and flush. I rinse the poo off too and then put those in the diaper pail. Then every two/three days I wash. Sometimes 5 days go by (whoops) - but really I don't suggest that. Two to 3 days is best. You Machine Wash on Hot. Tumble Dry. And use 1/2 the amount of detergent that manufacturers suggest for the wash.

And I know all the names, brands, styles can be confusing. But pockets are an easy way to ease in. And one-size dipes significantly cut the costs even more. Even if you only use cloth on weekends, you will end up saving a lot of money. Just think - if you use 7 diapers a day. So 14 a weekend. Multiply that by 4 weekends a month. That would be 56 diapers a MONTH that you aren't throwing away - you are reusing and saving.

If you EVER have any questions about cloth - e-mail me. I will help walk you through choosing, buying, etc. It would be my pleasure! erintales(at)themombuzz(dot)com.

One buzz reader will have an opportunity to win a One Size Snaps Happy Heinys Diaper in their choice of color. To enter, visit Happy Heinys and tell me your favorite color or pattern.

EXTRA ENTRIES:
To receive these extra opportunities for entries, you must fulfill the first REQUIRED entry. But for extra entries, you can do the following. Leave a comment for each:

• Add the Mom Buzz to your Twitter and Tweet the contest. Leave your Tweet Link!
  
• Blog about the contest - add a link to the Mom Buzz and the Sponsor
• Add the Mom Buzz button to your site OR add the Mom Buzz to your blog roll.
• Subscribe to the Mom Buzz via e-mail or RSS feed. (See right sidebar)
• What is your favorite type of diaper from Happy Heinys and Why?
  

Contest Ends August 13th. Please refer to complete contest rules.

Many of you will be traveling this summer - which means a long drive to reach your destination, or driving in rental car or borrowed car when you DO fly to your intended destination.

I don't know about you guys - but I stink with directions. North, South, East, West - I lose track so easily. I am great with a map, but ... that isn't exactly safe to be using when driving! Especially when you have kids in the backseat.

That's why I LOVE GPS units. They are a must-have car accessory. Why? Well, they help get you to your destination, they can help you get home if you get lost, they let you know how far you are from your destination even if you know how to get there, they can give you alternate routes when stuck in traffic ... they just rock.

But do you know there is GPS system with a back-up camera system? :shock-and-awe: Do you know how awesome that is? I almost don't need to explain the benefits of a back-up camera on your car. I have heard horror stories where parents back-up over their own children, thinking their children were in the house with another relative. They just couldn't see their kids because of the blindspots in the rearview and side mirrors. In fact, back-up collisions killed 221 people in the US in 2007, and injured about 14,400. (Read Risk of Reverse) The article reports that 44 percent of all nontraffic fatalities of children aged 15 or younger are from backup accidents. A safety group, Kids and Cars, support camera systems, believing they will help lessen the accidents. So it is a huge BONUS that the Nextar I4-BC includes one!

The I4-BC comes with a 4.3" color display GPS device, the wireless back-up camera, a carry pouch, wireless cradle, windshield mounting bracket, car adapter, AC adapter, and USB cable.

The GPS Device has built-in speakers, a built-in LI-ion battery, a SD card slot, photo viewer and MP3 Player. The features include:

• Touch Screen
• USA and Canada Map
• Text-to-Speech Prompt
• Turn-by-Turn Prompt
• 1.6 Million Points of Interest
• Navteq on Board
• 2D/3D View
• Day/Night Mode
• Speed Limit Control
• Back-up Camera View

EXPERIENCE
Now, my husband was kind enough to play with the Nextar I4-BC and put everything on my car. We both really loved the GPS unit itself. It was thin, white, sleek and the screen looked huge on it. It gave a real nice picture, so it was easy to follow direction. I don't like "speech" on any GPS unit - I find it distracting - so I keep it on mute.

Inputing an address was easy. If you never used one before, it will be easy to learn and follow prompted directions. If you have used a GPS unit before, you should definitely have no problem. You go to the Menu screen and select a destination. At this point you can see Points of Interest, Recents and Favorites - I usually am hitting up my recent destinations. But, you will at first need to choose address. Then you select a City if you are driving within your own city, or state if you are driving out-of-state. You enter that information, enter a street name when promoted, enter the address number when prompted, select the destination in various are provided and press NAV for navigation.

Now I mentioned having it on mute a little while ago. You can do that from the Navigation screen on the lower right corner. You can unmute it as you are driving too. On the top, left it will tell you your next "direction" with an arrow, so you know far enough in advance if you need to be in a right or left lane! The bottom of the screen provides so much valuable information! It tells you the estimated arrival time, total estimated time of the drive, distance to destination and your current speed. On the left and right side of the screen you will see a plus and minus side so you can zoom in and out of the map display.

One thing that I found super cool was that you can set an intersection as a destination. That way I know if I know is a store is located on a certain insection, and I know the current road I am on intersects with the road I want to find... but I am not sure where. Well, this option helps me know how far and which direction to head in! And I mentioned before that you can also do detours if a certain lane is backed-up. This is really useful when doing long-distance drives. We often use it when heading to Kissimmee! Traffic can get insane, but the GPS will always get us out of it and on a better route.

The windshield mounting bracket was sturdy and strong. It kept the unit on our windshield without a problem. It was easy to take the unit off the windshield when I needed to program an address as my husband was driving.

Now, my favorite part - the Back-Up Camera. This device is so unique that automatically displays the feed from your back-up camera when you are going reverse. This is a huge bonus! Just imagine how much safer your children, your pets, and your neighbor's children will be! Plus, I always worry when back-up in a busy parking lot since it is hard to really see who might be coming around the big SUVs. But the automatic back-up camera really helped me see so much easier at almost all angles. Worried about installation? I know I was, but there were great instructions included with the unit. Altough, I am positive you could probably take this somewhere to be installed if you want a professional to do it.

MUSIC AND PICTURES
I didn't use these capabilities, but it does have them. You can save MP3s on a SD Memory Card to play automatically on the I4-BC. You can also save jpgs on it to view in the photo viewer. But, I would be careful with this. You want to ensure you do not save jpgs in the flash storage area, since that is where Map Data is saved. And high-resolution images can cause the system to lag. So, if you are not computer-savvy ... skip this feature. Besides, why are we looking at photos when driving? Kidding, it would be a great way to carry photos when visiting family, but I would be afraid to mess something up. So :clap: for Nextar. And shame on me, being overly cautious!

OVERALL
Overall, it is a sleek GPS device with wonderful unique features. Maps, Music, Photos and a Back-Up camera. I don't know any GPS system that is quite as cool!

PURCHASE:
The Nextar I4-BC retails for around $299. I found it on Amazon for around $219. So, with some shopping around you will be able to find a super price for it at a retailer of your choice.

One buzz reader will have an opportunity to win a Nextar I4-BC. To enter, visit Nextar and tell me what other item catches your eye.

EXTRA ENTRIES:
To receive these extra opportunities for entries, you must fulfill the first REQUIRED entry. But for extra entries, you can:

• Add the Mom Buzz to your Twitter and Tweet the contest. Leave your Tweet Link!
  
• Blog about the contest - add a link to the Mom Buzz and the Sponsor
• Add the Mom Buzz button to your site OR add the Mom Buzz to your blog roll.
• Subscribe to the Mom Buzz via e-mail or RSS feed. (See right sidebar)
• Receive an entry for every other Mom Buzz give-away you enter or comment you leave on any other review or news post - let me know where! Leave separate comments.
  

Contest Ends August 15th. Please refer to complete contest rules.

For 24 hours, from 9:15am Eastern on 7/15 to 9:15am on 7/16, Aurora is F-R-E-E!

Aurora, the powerfully simple photo editing, organizing and sharing software (now available for Mac and PC!) is FREE for 24 hours. Yes, anyone can download Aurora to own it forever – for free – between 9:15 am Eastern on 7/15 and 9:15 am Eastern on 7/16. Simply visit www.lightcrafts.com/aurora, select “Buy Now,” and enter FREE24 at checkout. That’s it! Why is it free? Aurora is offering this 24-hour summer giveaway to celebrate its launch of Aurora for Mac and several new features now available in Aurora. See the attached press release for more information about the new features, including a Retouch editing tool! (The updated version of Aurora is a free download for existing customers, so you’re covered – when you open the software starting tomorrow, you’ll be prompted to download the latest version.)

Share your best edited shots to win big throughout July

To celebrate great photos and great photo editing made simple with Aurora, we’re holding an Aurora Friday Photo Editing Challenge this month…and everyone is invited to participate for a shot at winning some big prizes. We’ve got three incredible guest judges lined up – Tracey Clark from ShutterSisters.com, Amy Locurto from I Heart Faces, and Julie May from UnScene Photography Tour. You can enter the challenge, and read more details about it, on the Aurora Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aurora/71524602742 (details will be posted overnight tonight, but we wanted to make sure you had this news in advance, as well).