SodaStream Soda Maker Winner

The winner has been picked for the SodaStream Soda Maker. The winner, as picked by Random.org, is comment #159.  Congratulations to Anne J.

I've sent the winner an email. If I don't hear a response within 72 hours, I will select a new winner with Random.org. Thank you to everyone who participated and a special thanks to SodaStream for sponsoring the giveaway!

Friday Follow

Each week I tell myself that I'm going to make sure I try to get my name onto Friday Follow early so I can at least break into the top 100 and most weeks I fail. This week is no exception, but 108's not bad. So in addition to finding some great new blogs, I have a little contest with myself to see what number I can make.

Also, I want to give a special thank you to TammyLyne who told me about my broken button. I have no idea how long it had been like that and it's fixed now, but it's really nice having people like her who care and take the time to notify you of problems. Happy Friday Follow and an early Happy Mother's Day!

Old Fashioned Milk Delivery

I'm pretty excited about something we discovered the other day. A guy was in the neighborhood and was leaving flyers for the residents (which normally annoys me) for dairy goods delivered to your home. I wasn't sure where it was coming from or how the prices compared to the supermarket so I asked Dadda monkey to call the guy and suggested we go comparison shopping. Even if the price was slightly higher, but the products were coming direct from local dairy farmers, I was willing to give it a try. Also, organic milk wasn't on the list so I wanted to make sure we could get that.

Dadda monkey called and the man was very nice and explained that he had gone to the local dairy farmers, but none of them wanted to sell through him. He explained that most of them sell everything to Borden and he was getting his products directly from Borden. So it didn't really eliminate all the middle men, but the items are still pretty fresh and come to find out most of the prices were competitive. He also said he could get organic milk and gave us the price, but told us we needed to let him know ahead of time (which really isn't a problem since we go through a gallon every week or two). After our trip to the grocery store we found out that bread (I know it's not dairy) was priced about the same, but the milk was much cheaper. Also, half gallons and pints of ice cream were cheaper.

Later this week, since we're already almost out of milk, we're going to place our first order. I think it's a neat concept and it is actually going to save us money. Though I think it would be more fun to get nice glass bottles of milk each time.

Movie Time

(This is the experience of my monkey family going to the movies, not a review of the movie.)

So many people told us how much they enjoyed How To Train Your Dragon, that we decided we would try to take Monkey girl. Her favorite stuffed animal is a blue dragon her dad bought her so we thought this movie would be appropriate. We've never taken her to a movie before and to be honest, I was quite nervous about how she'd behave during it. We went on a Friday, at noon, after the movie had been out for a while (yesterday in fact) so there weren't many people in the theater. Just to make things more difficult and increase my anxiety, Dadda monkey decided we'd try to see it in 3D at the Imax theater. I wasn't looking forward to the idea of trying to get Monkey girl to wear her glasses the whole time and if she didn't then she'd be watching a blurry movie, which would make it even less likely that she'd sit quietly through it. On the other hand, we haven't seen a 3D or Imax movie (much less both) in this theater (we don't get out much/at all) so I was sort of looking forward to it. We arrived about 2 minutes before the movie started so we were off to a less than ideal start, but they sold us the tickets and we headed in.

As an aside, I can't believe how often the prices of movies goes up. With the 3D glasses fee (2.50 each) and our 2 tickets (at least the kids got in free) it cost us $28 to go during the day. Maybe it's a good thing (for our bank account at least) that we don't get out often.

We went into the theater, picked up our glasses (they had smaller ones for kids), and took our seats. We got an entire row to ourselves, which turned out to be a good thing. I think there were only 2-3 other groups of people in there. The other thing I had been debating was what to do with Bro Bro monkey. I brought the sling in the diaper bag because 1) he's too big for the Baby Bjorn and 2) I thought it'd be easier to have him sort of attached to me hands free so I could deal with Monkey girl, however I do have to say that I'm not really hands free with it because I guess I just don't understand how to use it correctly. I also wasn't really looking forward to wearing Bro Bro monkey because he is very squirmy and I thought it would take away from my ability to handle Monkey girl. I didn't think there would be a decent place to put his car seat, however score one for Dadda monkey because he was convinced the car seat would be fine. So I let him lug it in and sure enough, it fit rather nicely on the seat next to Dadda monkey.

Now onto the movie, Monkey girl happily put her glasses on and was impressed enough with the 'big tv' to sit still for the first half hour. She was pretty good for the first hour and only got a little restless. She also started taking off her glasses and playing with them, but at least she was still sitting quietly. Occasionally, she'd say my name, point to the screen, and say 'dragon'. Dadda monkey got a drink at one point and she enjoyed occupying herself by moving the drink from one cupholder to the next for a little bit. The last half hour was a little more difficult because she wanted out of her seat. I wouldn't let her past my legs, but Dadda monkey did allow her to pass so she was happier and she never got more than 3 seats away. Bro Bro monkey started to fuss once, but with a quick adjustment of his pacifier, he settled down again. We all enjoyed the movie and I'm glad we went. We might even venture out to see another one in the not so distant future. Now even Bro Bro monkey has 'seen' his first movie and he got to see it with his sister for her first time.

SodaStream Soda Maker Giveaway! NOW CLOSED!

Dadda monkey and I really enjoy our soda, but we've been trying to change our lifestyle to be healthier and save money. I'd seen the SodaStream soda maker around before and we'd discussed purchasing one to see if it lives up to the wonderful reviews we've read. We finally went ahead and bought one and we've been enjoying homemade soda for the last two weeks. We've been very satisfied with the taste of both regular and diet sodas. I didn't get a chance to try any of the flavored sparkling water, but that's next on my shopping list.

Making soda is a very quick and easy process. It takes under 30 seconds and you can adjust the fizziness to your liking.

• Fill one of the liter bottles with water
• Screw it into the soda machine
• Push a button to add the carbonation
• Unscrew the bottle from the machine
• Add the flavor of your choosing
• Shake very gently to mix it up

That's it! You now have homemade soda or sparkling water that you can feel good about drinking.

There is no high fructose corn syrup in their regular flavors and the diet flavors are sweetened with Splenda. Check out this nutritional chart comparing Coca Cola and Pepsi to SodaStream's Cola. My husband hates the way diet drinks taste, but now he can keep drinking regular sodas and still vastly decrease his caloric, carb, sugar, sodium,  and caffeine intake.


SodaStream has thought of everything from the fizz preserving caps on their bottles to half liter size bottles that you can use for travel. The variety of flavors they have is astounding. My husband really enjoys their cherry cola while I have enjoyed the diet cranberry raspberry. I will mention one perplexing thing, while the cost of the flavors is very reasonable, I don't understand why the prices are different. For example, Cranberry Raspberry is $6.99 while Orange is $4.99.

With the Earth Day celebration earlier this week, now is a great time to make a change yourself. According to SodaStream's website, Sodastream is an "Active Green" product, which essentially means that every time you use it instead of buying soda at the store you're helping the environment by reducing your CO2 footprint. Making your own soda means there is less packaging waste from cans/bottles and less pollution from transporting the products. One SodaStream carbonator is equivalent to 170 to 310 aluminum cans (there are 2 carbonator sizes). Additionally, the carbonator can be refilled. 

It's really easy to get set up with your own SodaStream soda maker. They sell various kits, starting at $89.95, that have everything you need to get started making your own soda or seltzer.

The fine people at SodaStream generously agreed to provide one Mommy 2 Monkeys reader with a SodaStream soda maker of their own! The winner will receive a Fountain Jet Soda Lover's Start-Up Kit in the color of their choosing. The package includes the Fountain Jet, CO2 to make over 100 liters of soda, 2 reusable carbonating bottles, a sample pack of flavors, and 3 full-sized flavors of the winner's choice.


How To Enter:
(The first step is required for for your first entry. Any steps after that reward you with an extra entry.)
This giveaway, and subsequent shipping, is only within the continental United States.

1. Go to  SodaStream and leave me a comment telling me which color you'd choose, along with what flavor you'd like to try first.

2. Become a follower of my blog, Mommy 2 Monkeys, and leave a comment on this post that you've done so.
3. Become a fan of the Mommy 2 Monkeys Facebook page and leave a comment on this post that you've done so.
4. Follow me on Twitter and leave  a comment on this post that you've done so.
5. Place my button on your blog/website and leave a comment on this post that you've done so.

The giveaway will remain open until May 8, 2010 at midnight central time. The winner will be chosen using Random.org. I will post the winner on my blog and also email the winner (please make sure your email is visible on your profile or post it in your comment). The winner will have 72 hours to respond to my email or I will choose another winner via Random.org. Good luck!

Disclaimer:

Mommy 2 Monkeys was provided with the opportunity to hold a giveaway for my readers. No other compensation was received and the views expressed here are my own.

Happy Fiesta!

Another clear sign that I haven't fully embraced all that San Antonio has to offer is that I missed all of the Fiesta events this year. Fiesta is a huge, 11 day long, celebration held annually in San Antonio. I even had a heads up because my new hairdresser participates in one of the them. There are over 100 events and several of them look interesting to me. There's everything from A Taste of New Orleans to Cornyation (where they poke fun of politicians and current events). There are parades, an oyster bake, multiple musical performances, craft shows, and military tributes. There are a large amount of military personnel located in San Antonio, which is clearly evident to newcomers. There are 4 large bases here and I learned one of San Antonio's nicknames is Military City.

Monkey girl had fun watching the parades on TV and I think we're going to make sure we go in person next year. The Battle of Flowers is one of the biggest events. It started when a group of ladies gathered in front of the Alamo, in 1891, to honor the heroes of the battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto. The parade surprised me with how many participants there were from all over the country. Apparently the Flambeau Parade is the largest illuminated evening parade in the nation.We'll make sure to attend next year. Happy Fiesta!

Teaching Subtleties

Today was monkey girl's speech evaluation to see if she should stay in the program that works with her. Her two therapists were here and it was very brief. They already know her pretty well so they had answered most of the questions themselves and only had a few for us. The result was she's still about a month behind in her speech and so we had the option of keeping her in or discontinuing the program. I'd been thinking a lot about this for the last week and came to the conclusion that if she's allowed to continue then that would be in our best interest. I'm sure she's benefited from having them work one on one with her, in addition to the extra socialization she gets when they're here so why would I turn down anything that helps her. They were fine with my decision and even scheduled an extra two visits a month for the next three months (until her annual evaluation). I'm glad it's over, though we should have probably waited until the yearly evaluation anyways.

One of the things I asked the therapists about was whether it's okay if her words aren't always clear. They said it's fine for now since she's just started increasing her vocabulary. They're more worried about speech than articulation. That got me thinking about something that happened a couple of months ago and how monkey girl might be more worried about OUR articulation. It was late one night and the smoke detector started going off. I think it was the battery, but Dadda monkey thinks it's faulty. Anyways, the loud beeping was distressing to monkey girl so I showed her how to cover her ears with her hands and said 'ow'. She copied me and coped with it pretty well. For the next few days, every time she heard a loud noise, she'd cover her ears and say 'ow'.

Then one day we were reading a book and came across a part of the story where a new character was introduced, the owl. I pointed to the owl and told her what it was. She looked at me quizzically and I thought she was struggling with the word so I repeated it a couple of times to her. Monkey girl then looked up at me, covered her ears with her hands and said 'ow'. It was quite funny, but I wanted to clear up the confusion for her. I told her, no, it's like a tweet-tweet, but it's called an owl. She looked at me again and said 'ow' while covering her ears. I said, 'no, not ow, it's an ow-el', but she just wasn't getting it. Clearing up such a subtle difference has proven to be difficult and truth be told, we still haven't made the distinction. So in our family, owls apparently make loud annoying noises and when you come across one you need to point to it, cover your ears with your hands, and say 'ow'.