What could be better than having a lovingly curated gift box full of pampering products delivered right to your doorstep? Not much, especially when you’re busy tackling a new baby, under-eye circles and deep sleep-deprivation.

Our first ever giveaway features a brand new & super cool monthly gift box service by petitebox, a package full of premium hand-picked products for mom and baby. Launched by the founders of GlossyBox (a highly successful European beauty box brand), the concept is well known to the beauty industry, but fairly new to the expecting and new mom market.

What makes this concept so interesting is that petiteBox focuses as much on mom as they do on baby. The boxes are customized to your stage of pregnancy (from week 17), or to the age of your baby (up to one year). Even better, every month offers a new discovery, so subscribers get access to the hottest new products, some not even on the market yet. Their selection of brands include: Dr Hauschka, Weleda, as well as Earth Friendly Baby and Lansinoh. They even tuck in some helpful tips & advice into your little box of goodies.

Subscriptions are pay-as-you-go monthly – $25 (includes shipping), or you can purchase three or six month subscriptions at a slightly reduced cost.

petiteBox ships across the U.S, so you can send a treat to your favourite pal and their new bundle, and you won’t feel so far away!

Special Giveaway!

Win a 1 month subscription to Petite Box! How to win? Write a Review on any product on thebabyscoop, the more reviews you write, the better chance you have to win! Winners are chosen randomly. Contest runs Friday April 20th, 12pm – Saturday April 28th, 12pm. We will select our winner on April 30th, after 11pm EST.

Don’t forget to drop by our facebook, twitter & Pinterest pages to like us and say hi! Good luck!

Guest Blog: The Abi Chronicles

It’s big, my colour issue.

Let me illustrate with a short anecdote.

Sheba and I were waiting for the bus the other day, on busy Dufferin St. Distraction was required from the icy wind whipping dust in our faces (condo developers: your slick creations might render Parkdale less gritty in the long term but meanwhile it’s grit-city round here).

I suggested the ‘Call Out The Colour Of The Car’ game. As each vehicle raced towards us Sheba’d yell its colour and I’d go ‘Yay Shebes!’.

The only trouble was, that they were all grey.

‘Grey!’, she’d yell. (‘Yay!’).

‘Um…GREY!’ (‘Yay’).

Etcetera.

The exciting deviations were: ‘Black!!’, and many were ‘Errrrrr…whitey-yellow-grey!’ (she doesn’t know about ‘beige’ yet).

I disagree with this norm. Cars, phones, laptops, fridges, DVD players…all grey or black. It’s as though industrial designers are stuck in some 80’s and 90’s cinematic art-directed construct called ‘The Future’ and everything in that so-sleek, so-fast future is goddamn silver grey.

As a treat therefore, I bring you:

Ahhh. Doesn’t that luscious, life-affirming Liberty print refresh the eyeballs and open up the mind’s eye in a whole wonderful way?

Sheba and I are a mother-daughter team on a hue-mad mission to singlehandedly undo the hegemony of silver grey. If we had our way, the whole of western society would be speaking on jade-green Bakelite phones just like the one beside Don and Betty Draper’s bed; pouring our kids milk from stately royal blue refrigerators; yanking out lemon-yellow iPhones to text on rainbow-glorious keypads. Powerful men would give press conferences wearing entire suits of mouthwatering lavender or emerald green.

In Sheba’s aesthetic world order, the wearing of at least seven different prints in one outfit would be mandatory, both on days we’re ‘dressing up as a big girl’ and those where we’re ‘dressing up as a big boy’.

Femmy, mascy…what’s the difference? Colour is gorgeous, colour is powerful and colour gives us something simple to exclaim and delight over.

Bring it!

About The Abi Chronicles:

As our in-house blogger, Abi reports weekly on the full spectrum of parenting – from the searching, essential questions to the quirkier territory all families sometimes inhabit.

The stage in between a highchair and proper chair can be slightly frustrating for both kids and parents. And what parent isn’t delighted to finally get rid of the bulky (or plain ugly) stain laden seat? Welcome to the stylish and (very sweet) SweetSeat, the brainchild of a couple who live on a working farm in San Antonio Texas.

The handcrafted booster seat was born out of their desire for kids products that were long-lasting, high quality and low-impact (and yes, good-looking!). And what they couldn’t find, they decided to make for themselves. The SweetSeat team paid clever attention to the details: stable and sized to sit on any chair, the booster height is just right, so little legs can be safely tucked under the table when the chair is pushed in. The cover is made from an easy to wipe laminated cotton, which means its both super durable and child-safe (BPA and PVC free). And don’t forget the gorgeous designs – full of fresh and retro colours.

And lest you need any more encouragement to check these sweeties out – each and every seat is still handmade on the farm.

Ages: 18 months – 7 years. $84.00

Guest Blog: The Abi Chronicles

Since my mid-20’s I’ve rarely been without my own car. I first tried it several years ago and it lasted two months. I had highway-envy. (And its green-eyed sisters: IKEA envy, Beaches Boardwalk envy, and Hiking-in-the-Greenbelt envy).

When Sheba was born, our Suzuki Aerio got to join in the excitement. In labour, I yanked mightily on the hanging straps with each contraction; we drove it home again with our new beloved in the carseat, stopping on the way home at Shoppers Drug Mart for hillbilly heroin.

But the heat was off the love affair. Collapsing the stroller was more work than just walking, or taking the streetcar. We spent a blissful car-free month in London enjoying the stroller-parking spots on the highly-accessible buses, taking the world’s coolest Catamaran down the Thames…and walking our faces off.

The coup de grace for our car ownership came when Sheba was 7 months old.  Ms. Aerio was totalled by some ‘U’ turning tosser…and we decided to pay off some debt with the insurance payout. In the car’s place, went a complex hierarchical structure involving:

a)    Can this be done on foot?

b)   If ‘no’, will bike and trailer work?

c)    How low is that windchill?

d)   Let’s cab-it, baby!!!

The patchwork arrangement saves us a few hundred bucks a month – and that’s with AutoShare thrown in!

On good days it’s easier than owning a car. Believe it. On a frigid, dark Tuesday night when we’re late for dinner across town and the cab hasn’t arrived, it blows. But parking, gas, maintenance and keeping a car clean blow rather badly, too.

Perfection would be to co-own a car: but that’s un-Canadian, reprehensible and ideologically-suspect, according to the – uh – strong feelings bestirred when I dared to suggest it on Craigslist.

About The Abi Chronicles:

As our in-house blogger, Abi reports weekly on the full spectrum of parenting – from the searching, essential questions to the quirkier territory all families sometimes inhabit.