Proud Parents Show Off Their “Incredible Kids” Through Touching Stories and Hilarious Quotes in Things Remembered Facebook Contest
Every kid is amazing, but every parent knows their kid is incredible.
It is true – all parents think of their children as nothing short of amazing, but there is a way for the whole world to know just how incredible they truly are.
Things Remembered, the nation’s leader in personalized gifts, has invites parents to enter the My Incredible Kid Facebook Contest. Through March 31st, Things Remembered Facebook fans can show off their funny, wacky, sweet, intelligent, cute, caring kids through photos and stories highlighting why their kid is the MOST incredible kid on Earth.
Things Remembered will select 20 lucky winners to receive an engraved ID bracelet with the child’s name on the front and a special, secret message from the parent engraved on the back. These secret engraved messages let children carry the loving words of their parents everywhere they go.
“We want to know all about the incredible kids out there, and this Facebook contest gives parents a reason to reflect on the blessings, milestones and, more often than not, funny moments,” said Amy Myers, vice president of Creative Services at Things Remembered. “Maybe it’s his can-do attitude, her love of animals, his volunteerism, or her spirit to overcome adversity – we want to recognize all children from ages one through 18.”
The engraved ID bracelets are valued at up to $50 and come in two versions – one for boys and one for girls.
Mamascent ™, a one-of-a-kind bottle attachment designed to bring a mother’s unique scent to her infant’s milk bottle, is now available in the United States and Canada on Amazon.com. Mamascent ™ is ideal for parents who mix breast and bottle-feeding, to maintain the olfactory bond between mother and child. Launched in 2013, the UK-designed and made product is already winning rave reviews by mothers and caregivers across England and is now available in North America for the first time.
Mothers simply place a comfortable Mamascent™ pad inside their bra and wear it for approximately three hours. When the baby is ready to feed, the mother or caregiver can attach one of the pad’s five petals to an easy-to-use fastening clip that fits most standard-sized baby bottles. Whether being fed by mother, father, grandparent, nanny or babysitter, the baby smells the scented petal, thus replicating the sensory experience of breastfeeding. View a brief video on how to use Mamascent™ at http://mamascent.com/ .
“When using Mamascent™, babies feel the comfort of their mother even if someone else is feeding them. The baby is naturally soothed and calmed as this creates the closest sensation to feeding on the breast,” said Mamascent™ inventor Dr. Robert Österbauer. “Babies bond by smell and can identify their mother’s scent immediately after birth, generating a unique attachment to her. Clinical research suggests that the unique scent from around a mother’s breast is vital to the feed as it contains pheromones that guide the baby to the breast and promote sucking.”
Mamascent™ was developed by Dr. Österbauer when he noticed that his sister was experiencing great difficulty in trying to get her son to switch from breastfeeding to expressed milk bottle-feeding. Holding a PhD in Olfactory and Cognitive Science, he theorized that his nephew would accept the bottle if it was associated with his mother’s scent. Through much experimentation, Dr. Österbauer devised what is now Mamascent™. Using Mamascent™, his nephew learned to alternate happily between breast and bottle, regardless of who was feeding him.
Mamascent™ includes twenty scent pads (each with five petals), one travel container (where scented petals can be stored until feeding time) and two fastening clips that attach to most standard-shaped bottles. Retailing for $24.95, one Mamascaent package accommodates 100 feeds. It is now available at http://www.amazon.com/Mamascent-Bottle-Attachment-Complete-Feeds/dp/B00F8LJIJA .
Mamascent™ is a trademark of Trigger Scents Ltd. For more information and the scientific background, please visit our website: www.mamascent.com .
Although Mamascent™ provides many of the sensory benefits of breastfeeding, it is not intended as a replacement. Mamascent™ is for mothers who want the best feeding experience when a bottle has to be used.
Daylight Saving Time means more afternoon sunshine, but that may have been little consolation to those who lost an hour of sleep Sunday morning.
If you’re still groggy from losing that precious hour, then take advantage of National Napping Day, observed today, March 10. This unofficial holiday encourages you to catch forty winks and enjoy the health and productivity benefits of napping.
First observed in 1999, National Napping Day is the brainchild of Boston University professor William Anthony, Ph.D. and his wife, Camille.
“We chose this particular Monday because Americans are more ‘nap-ready’ than usual after losing an hour of sleep to daylight savings time,” Anthony said. “Our goal is to encourage folks to take a nap wherever they may be, at home, at the workplace, or on vacation, and to make it a regular part of their healthy lifestyle. It is a day when nappers all over the country need to lie down and be counted.”
What better way to transition into the warmer months than making time this afternoon for a siesta?
Daylight saving time is approaching again, arriving this Sunday. At first glance, it might seem enough to just remember to spring forward. But do you realize daylight saving time is one of the grandest social engineering experiments in America?
Almost the entire country moves their schedule up one hour. Every meeting, romantic dinner, and heart transplant occurs one hour later. Every business, court appointment and movie showing is one hour later. In virtual lockstep, the entire nation boldly takes a step into the future.
To put it in perspective, all the millions of dollars, countless man hours, programs, and smart people’s best efforts spent convincing the public to stop smoking, has only reduced the smoking rate by 15 percent. And smoking gives you cancer – it should be an easy sell, right?
But almost by decree, we get nearly 100 percent of the people to move their entire lives an hour forward!
Curious …
Modern society requires us to be a slave to the clock, a cog in the great machine. Organize almost any human activity and there is implicit agreement to the rule of time. But we are more than machines; we are complex biological organisms that sometimes rebel to even well-meaning change.
Daylight saving time was conceived 100 years ago as a way to save lamp oil during World War 1. Moving the clock forward extended daylight later in the evening, and less whale oil was used in lighting the parlor, which was a noble goal.
When we moved away from lamps that burn oil to ones that require electricity, the equation changed a bit. Now light could be made quite inexpensively, but heating and cooling was less efficient, so daylight saving costs us money.
Trade is modestly increased by daylight saving time. People are more willing to go out and spend money when it is light. A dinner out, a movie, some light shopping, they are all more attractive when you can see where you’re going and don’t need multiple clothing layers.
As you might guess, there is also a biologic cost. There is a measurable spike in heart attacks in the weeks following daylight saving time.
Many people are wandering around critically sleep deprived, and taking away one more hour spills the apple cart (a scary thought as sleeping is not one of my talents). When the clocks fall back in the autumn, heart attacks temporarily go down, and balance is preserved in some weird way.
But most people have only mild challenges from the leap forward. If you are sensitive, it can take several weeks for your sleep cycle to straighten out. Like all human attributes, adaptability to sleep disturbance is quite varied. Some people are challenged and some don’t notice.
But daylight saving is not really about saving money, saving whale oil or increasing trade. Daylight saving is about quality time.
Arriving home from work every night in the dark tends to discourage family activity. That extra hour of sunshine can be the excuse for eating on the patio or going for a walk after dinner – anything to dislodge the family from the TV set is a good thing!
Daylight saving is perhaps wasted on adults. Kids live for it. We all have fond memories of neighborhood gatherings on bright evenings. The chance to burn off a little energy and practice your negotiating and social skills.
Daylight savings is a rite of spring, and a promise of more time to add something fun to our lives. A few fragile people may become unbalanced, but most of us find an extra hour to enjoy life.
The blockbuster second film of The Hunger Games franchise that took the world by storm ignites once again when The Hunger Games: Catching Fire arrives on Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital HD UltraViolet), DVD (plus Digital UltraViolet), Digital HD, Video on Demand and Pay-Per-View Friday, March 7 from Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF). Academy Award® winning Best Actress Jennifer Lawrence (2012’s Silver Linings Playbook) headlines the all-star cast in this action-adventure which became the #1 movie of 2013 and the 12th highest-grossing film of all time at the domestic box office. The first film with a female lead to top the annual box office since 1973, the film has grossed nearly $420 million at the North American box office and over $850 million worldwide to date.
The second installment of the worldwide phenomenon is packed with over two hours of extensive, must-see bonus materials that include a Blu-ray-exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, “Surviving the Game: Making Catching Fire,”deleted scenes, an audio commentary with director Francis Lawrence and producer Nina Jacobson as well as a sneak peek at the highly-anticipated theatrical action film Divergent from Lionsgate’s Summit label. The Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $39.99 and $29.95, respectively.
Hailed as “a monumental achievement” (The Playlist), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire features a critically-acclaimed cast including Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson (The Kids Are All Right), Liam Hemsworth (The Expendables 2), Academy Award® nominee Woody Harrelson (The People vs Larry Flynt, 1996), Emmy® nominee Elizabeth Banks (TV’s“30 Rock”), Lenny Kravitz (Precious), Academy Award® nominee Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones, 2009) and Golden Globe® winner Donald Sutherland (Path to War), reprising their original roles from The Hunger Games. The impressive line-up is joined by Academy Award® winner Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote, 2005), Jeffrey Wright (Codeblack Films’ The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete), Jena Malone (Into The Wild), Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction) and Sam Claflin (Snow White and the Huntsman).
Based on the best-selling second novel of Suzanne Collins’ award-winning trilogy, with a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy and Michael DeBruyn and directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire begins as, against all odds, Katniss and her fellow tribute Peeta have returned home after surviving The Hunger Games. Winning means they must turn around, leaving their loved ones behind and embark on a “Victory Tour” through the districts. Along the way, Katniss senses a rebellion simmering – one that she and Peeta may have sparked. At the end of the Victory Tour, President Snow announces a deadly 75th Hunger Games that could change Panem forever.
