I receive free products from Guidance Guide for review purposes but my opinions are all my own.

Finnegan has just reached the confident sitter stage, which might be the very best baby stage. I can plop him down on the floor and there’s a 95% chance he won’t fall over. He can sit up in his high chair. He can sit up in this stroller. I can wear him on my back in our soft structured carriers. It also means he’s ready for sink baths instead of blue plastic lounge tub baths.

Sink baths are my favorite. Nothing is as sweet as a freshly washed, cheerful baby ready for some snuggles, but our bathtub is huge and deep and trying to hold up a slippery baby long enough to get him clean just kills my back. Sink bath to the rescue!

We’ve been big Babyganics fans since Lincoln was the baby taking sink baths. He loves the foaming shampoo and body wash, which not only bubbles up right out of the bottle, it makes a good bubble bath too. As you can see, Finnegan is also a bubble fan.

Along with the shampoo we already use and love, Babyganics sent a few more things for us to try.

Wipes, sunscreen, hand sanitizer like this 72 pack 8 oz hand sanitizer, and body lotion are just a few of the many natural, gentle, plant-based products in the Babyganics line. From their site:

Our goal is to create products that parents feel good about using around their babies and that work in their homes and that they can actually find and afford all while keeping our impact on the planet in mind.

The lotion is SO nice on Finn’s winter skin, which gets dry patches easily, especially around all his baby creases (and he’s such a chunk he has a ton of baby creases). The wipes went straight into my bag because they’re perfect for hands and faces after I bribe my children into behaving by buying them donuts. And since this winter has been just the worst as far as germs and sickness goes, I put the hand sanitizer by the door to remind myself to give it a quick squirt anytime I come back from being out in the world. I am saving the sunscreen for our upcoming vacation, because Florida + super pale children is just a recipe for disaster without really good sun protection, but the idea of using SO much chemical sunscreen isn’t my favorite.

You can see my video of Finnegan living his best baby life with his bubbles on Instagram. Thanks again to Babyganics for the awesome stuff!

What goes into a great Christmas card photo?

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I’m not a food blogger, but I play one on the internet. I love reading blogs about food, pinning recipes on Pinterest (my Food and Drink and Dessert boards are my fullest by far), reading articles about food photography and – every once in a while – try my own hand at creating recipes.

I’m not an expert by any means, but when BlogHer told me about two new programs from ConAgra I knew they could feed my love of food blogging.

Before I tell you about ConAgra’s site, I wanted to say when I first read the email I was a little doubtful about working with them. But once I realized how many of their brands I had in my kitchen right at this exact moment (Alexia fries, Gulden’s mustard, Egg Beaters, Hebrew National hot dogs, Hunt’s tomato sauce, Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn, and Reddi-wip) it seemed silly to pass it up. If this isn’t your thing, that’s totally cool too and feel free to skip it.

The Dish is an online resource center for all bloggers who post food content or who WANT to post food content.

In their Seasonal Spotlight section you can find tips for keeping your blog content fresh and seasonally relevant.

Under Ask Our Team, they have put together an expert panel that includes Phil Lempert, savings expert; Dan Skinner, editor-in-chief; Abby Penich, ReadySetEat Community Manager; and several bloggers.

The Recipe Resources section is just what it sounds like – a round up of some of the best recipes from ConAgra’s recipe site ReadySetEat. Free tip: do NOT go look at the recipes when it’s 5:43 pm and you’re starving. Seriously, how much do I want this corn on the cob now? SO MUCH.

But in my opinion, the best part of their site is . Through the site you can sign up to receive coupons, samples and other exclusive content – and all you need is a blog URL. It would a great way for someone looking to expand into food blogging to find new ingredients to include and for seasoned food bloggers to get expert advice and tips to share with their readers.

There’s some great content on The Dish already, but I’m hoping they plan to expand in the coming months. I’d love to see even more focus on fresh, local ingredients that can be used in conjunction with their products to make easy family meals.

ReadySetEat has tons of great, fast, easy recipes that can be sorted by very useful categories (vegetarian, healthy, etc) but I’d like to see The Dish feature more of them, especially grouped by type – for example, Mexican recipes featuring a veggie option, a beef option and a chicken option.

Or even one recipe that can be used all three ways. Hey, that’s actually a great idea for a recipe series – see, The Dish has already started inspiring me to blog better!

Does The Dish/First Look, First Taste sound like something you’d be interested in? You can visit The Dish here, sign up for and follow them on Twitter at @ConAgraDish.

Want to be entered for a chance to win a $50 Visa gift card from BlogHer and ConAgra Foods? Just leave a comment below telling me which section of The Dish sounds the most interesting to you!

Rules:

No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods: a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post b) Tweet about this promotion with hash tag #sweepstakes and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here. This sweepstakes runs from 8/22/2012-9/8/2012.

Be sure to visit ConAgra Foods’ brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!