NEW Must Have Parenting App: Milestones from @lyfeline_corp

This post is brought to you by Lyfeline Corporation. All opinions are mine. This really is a great parenting app!

Even as a parent of three children, I still worry sometimes if my children are developmentally where they need to be, especially when my children are babies!

If you are like me and need a little reassurance or help knowing how your baby is doing in their development, then you have got to check out one of my new favorite apps, Milestones! I have been on it every day since I downloaded it learning new things about my little guy, getting advice how I can help him develop appropriately and learning lots of great parenting tips!

Milestones provides a first ever opportunity for parents to track their child’s development directly on a smartphone. Working with researchers and pediatricians from Stanford and USCF, Lyfeline Corporation has developed a solution that enables parents to analyze, track, and promote their child's development through their smartphone. In the 2 months since the invite-only soft launch, over 10,000 parents are using Milestones to realize their child’s full potential.

Utilizing an American Academy of Pediatrics recommended series of development questions, parents gain an in-depth look into their child’s fine and gross motor, language, social and self-help progression. Parents also receive percentile benchmarking relative to the child’s age group.

It was really interesting to see the results for my 19 month old son. He was right on track in some areas, ahead in others and a little behind in areas like verbal and small motor. But what's great is that the app then gives me great activities and tips on how to help my son develop more in these areas.

Utilizing assessment results, Milestones creates a targeted program tailored to the child’s developmental needs and forthcoming milestones. Derived from leading edge research and proven medical practice, parents are provided fun activities and information cards that encourage healthy growth.

I really enjoyed learning about and trying the hundreds of fun, age-appropriate activities created by pediatricians that were specifically targeted at promoting healthy development in my son. I have already seen them working and I love watching my son learn new things!

Plus, Milestones offers some FUN regular weekly contests where users can win Amazon and Target Gift Cards, just for using the app! So not only do you get to learn about your child and help them, but you get to have some fun doing it! :)

There's no denying it, Lyfeline's Milestones is a true parenting game changer. Make sure to head to your app store and check it out! It is FREE and is one of the only pediatrician recommended parenting apps that offers Personalized Child Development Assessments! Find out how your child is doing and even get the tools to help them!

Buy It:

You can purchase the Milestones app for FREE from the Google Play Store and the iTunes App Store ; in-app Monthly Subscription Premium feature package available

* This post is brought to you by Milestones. All opinions are mine. This really is a great parenting app!*

NEW Luvs #Momoji Keyboard & $100 AMEX GC #Giveaway

This review and giveaway was made possible by iConnect Influencer Management and Luvs. I was compensated for my participation in this campaign, but all opinions are 100% mine.

Hey parents, ever trying to text your spouse, partner or family member about your really bad, no good, really horrible morning or day with the children? Maybe a huge poop explosion happened, followed by puking, peeing or tantrums. Don't we all have those days?? Don't you just want to have the right emojis to tell someone about it???

Now you can with the new Luvs Momoji Keyboard! When it comes to parenting, sometimes words just aren’t enough. The first custom emoji keyboard created specifically for moms and dads, the Luvs Momoji Keyboard was inspired by experienced parents and their affinity for emoji use, and gives parents more ways to easily express all the emotions that come with real-life parenting.

A picture is definitely worth a thousand words! Sometimes communicating a diaper blowout or your toddler’s public meltdown is best and most easily expressed in emoji form - and now you can express it very clearly and visuallys with this awesome “Momoji” keyboard!

PLUS, this Luvs Momoji Keyboard app is the first to offer access to the latest in emoji technology – the Promoji – which helps busy moms hunt for diaper deals on the go. Through the first-ever use of Promojis (promotional emojis), busy moms will be able to hunt for diaper deals and coupons from Luvs on the go, including Luvs with NightLock.

With new larger stretch tabs for easy fastening, and the same ultra-leakage protection and money-back guarantee, Luvs with NightLock™ provides the high-quality features babies and parents need for less cost then the premium brands.

Luvs makes it possible to vent about your day AND save! Doesn't get much better than that when you are a parent! :)

Now I can communicate to my husband how our day is going at home with less words and more accurate pictures! :)

Best of all, the Luvs Momoji Keyboard can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store℠ for iOS devices and Google Play™ for Android devices. Once downloaded, parents can use the Luvs emojis characters in SMS & MMS iMessage, Hangouts, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Tango, and Gmail as a way to easily express the emotions that come with real-life parenting.

Twitter Party Time!!!

And make sure to head over to the fun Luv's #Momoji twitter party with @iConnectIm on December 15, 2015 @ 9pm EST!

Win It:

Luvs is generously offering (1) $100 Amex gift card and one package of diapers (size 1-6) to a lucky winner!

Enter here for a chance to win:

(1) $100 Amex gift card 
AND
(1) package of diapers (size 1-6)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

* This review and giveaway was made possible by iConnect Influencer Management and Luvs. I was compensated for my participation in this campaign, but all opinions are 100% mine.*

Get Peace of Mind as A Parent with @LifebankU!

*This post is brought to you by LifebankUSA. However, all opinions are mine.*

Do you know what several types of Leukemia, Aplastic Anemia, Cerebrel Palsy, & Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma all have in common? 

Well, they all can be treated to some extent with stem cells!

You have heard me talk about cord blood banking on my site before because I think it is a really interesting topic and one that all parents that are expecting a child should at least talk about. Do you worry about treating a future life threatening disease that your child may have? Maybe there is a close family member you dream of saving? 

Whatever the case is blood and cord banking can save lives and it is definitely an amazing concept! Years ago, people only dreamed of such a concept and now it can actually be a reality for you!

Today, cord blood stem cells are used in the treatment of more than 80 diseases, including various types of blood disorders and cancers such as leukemia. Choosing to bank your child’s cord blood with LifebankUSA can provide you with peace of mind and significant benefits for your baby and your family for many years to come.

Don't know much about cord blood banking? 

Well, let me give you a little more info about a cord blood bank.

Cord blood banking is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collect, process and preserve your baby’s stem cells for future medical use. It is a simple and safe procedure that happens immediately after the birth and usually takes the healthcare provider about 5 minutes to collect and package for shipment to their state-of-the-art facility located in New Jersey.

Plus, LifebankUSA offers Advanced Biobanking which includes placental blood banking, complete placental banking, cord vessels and cord platelet rich plasma. With these new biobanking services, you can increase the number of life-saving cells you store, thus, increasing the number of conditions you can treat!

And ONLY LifebankUSA offers the unique opportunity to save the most cells for both medical uses today and for the future!

If there is one thing all parents have in common, it is that we all want what is best for our child and we stay awake many nights thinking about if we have done everything we could for them to keep them safe and healthy. For many parents, cord blood banking is the answer to many of their questions for the future and it might be the peace of mind you need as a parent too!

*This post is brought to you by LifebankUSA. However, all opinions are mine.*

New Book Alert! Raising Kids to Thrive: Balancing Love With Expectations and Protection With Trust

This post is sponsored by the Role Mommy Writer's Network. All opinions are mine.

If you are a parent, one of your main goals in life is probably to raise healthy, responsible and loved children. But I am sure you have found that task isn't always very easy. It is definitely easier said than done especially with hormonal teenagers, terrible twos (and threes!), independent tweens and all the in between stages of childhood! Every day has new challenges and sometimes I don't know if what I am doing is good or bad anymore!

Am I raising children I can be proud of? Am I doing the right things as a parent? Those and so many more are questions I ask myself every day.

So I am so glad to now have a copy of Ken Ginsburg's new book, Raising Kids to Thrive: Balancing Love With Expectations and Protection With Trust. In this great book, renowned resilience expert, Ken Ginsburg MD, MS ED, FAAP, combines his experience with perspective from his teenage daughters and over 500 adolescents.

In this latest book, best-selling author, pediatrician and resilience expert, Kenneth R. Ginsburg, MD, MS Ed, FAAP, offers essential tips on fostering resilience in teens. He gently helps parents understand how they can meet the challenge to balance unconditional love, yet still hold high expectations for their children. Through his “Lighthouse Parenting Strategy,” he also helps parents recognize when to set boundaries and when to get out of kids’ ways.

This groundbreaking book includes two chapters written by Dr. Ginsburg’s twin teenage daughters, and interweaves opinions and input of over 500 adolescents who participated in the “Youth View” chapters. By combining the wealth of experience from Dr. Ginsburg and insightful commentary from today’s teenagers, Raising Kids to Thrive offers a fresh take on how to successfully parent teens in today’s complicated world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kenneth R. Ginsburg, M.D., M.S. Ed, FAAP is a specialist in adolescent medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and a professor or pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is also director of health services at Covenant House Pennsylvania. He has over 100 publications, including 30 scientific articles and 5 books including the award-winning / best-selling Building Resilience in Children and Teens (American Academy of Pediatrics). He drafted the AAP policy statement on The Power of Play and has been an expert source for several prominent parenting news articles and reports in media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, TIME Magazine, ABC News, Yahoo! Parenting, NBC News and CNN. He is working with The Boys and Girls Clubs of America to incorporate resilience-building strategies into their programming. He is also honored to be working with military parents and professionals to incorporate stress reduction and resilience building strategies into the lives of our nearly 2 million military-affiliated children. His greatest privilege is to be a husband and the father of two teenaged daughters.

Raising Kids to Thrive will help parents to raise kids who thrive for lifetime by:

* Balancing unconditional love with high expectations.

* Eliminate the need for helicopter or “tiger” parenting.

* Start meaningful conversations with their children by being a sounding board, not necessarily a dictator.

* Become a stable beacon so their children can turn to them for guidance and self-measurement.

* Understand and accept that people are uneven and the importance of expecting growth, not perfection from children.

* Reduce anxiety – for themselves and their kids – as they venture out on their own and move into adulthood.

* Holding our kids to high moral standards, while also being a role model for those standards.

If you have teenagers, up and coming teenagers or just want to be ready for this challenging stage, then Raising Kids To Thrive: Balancing Love With Expectations and Protection With Trust is a must have in your home library! This book will be released March 24 (tomorrow!) so you don't even have to wait to get this book in your hands!

Buy It: 

You can purchase Raising Kids To Thrive: Balancing Love With Expectations and Protection With Trust is available at bookstores nationwide and online from Amazon.com for $13.56; also available from shop.AAP.org/books, the award-winning AAP Web site for parents.

* This post is sponsored by the Role Mommy Writer's Network. All opinions are mine.*