Saturday, July 30, 2011

Fisher Price Stride to Ride Dino!



What can I say about this adorable green and purple toy. My 20 month old and my four and a half year old love it equally (you can imagine how that is going). Even though the age limit for this toy is, I believe 3 years... my four year old has staked a claim on it as well. So all is peaceful in the house, not! Anyway, I think it is a neat idea to have a riding toy that also serves as a walker. This concept allows the toy to be used more and probably gives it a longer life span. Not to mention, who doesn't love dinosaurs. Even at my age, I still love dinosaurs. We recently watched a very interesting documentary with the children about dinosaurs, I really enjoyed it!

So if you are stumped as to what to buy and hide in the closet for 5 months until Christmas... this might be the item you are looking for! Amazon has it for $49.99 but Walmart has it for $34.99.

This is a paid advertorial.

momstown 4th Bday Bash!

Hi to All!

This week I am copying over momstown Edmonton South's blog about the upcoming Birthday Bash. They have a great party planned. As many of you know I had originally planned a bday bash at Fort Edmonton for momstown North but it seemed attendance would be low so momstown South and North decided to join forces in hopes of having great attendance at this very fun event! I will be helping to promote the event and we will be drawing prizes for the momstown North winners as well. I myself won't be able to attend the bash as I have another committment that day (which was part of my original reason for planning something on a different day), but I will be there in spirit and thinking about all of the fun you will be having!!!
If anyone would like to volunteer to help keep the bday bash running smoothly please contact me. Thanks!

 momstown.ca celebrates 4 incredible years of building community!

When I joined momstown I thought it would just give me something to do.  I liked the idea of a message board with local moms and having a calendar of events catered specifically to my neighbourhood.  I found so much more than I expected with momstown and for the whole month of August we're celebrating momstown.ca's 4th year of building community among moms all across Canada!!

Be sure to join in on the momstown.ca facebook fan party on August 18th! So much fun and of course amazing prizes!
Join us on August 21st at Jackie Parker Recreation Area from 10am-2pm for tons of fun for the kids and as always local moms looking to connect with each other!
You'll also have a chance to win some great prizes!!
  • Presidents Choice Gift Card
  • Smashbox Cosmetics
  • Littlest Pet Shop
  • Little Tykes Sports Coupe
  • Greenworks Gift Pack
  • Gift Basket from Stella & Dot Stylist - Sabrina Komarniski
  • Scrapbook from Linda's Stampin' up!
  • Clorox Gift Pack
  • Life Choices Food Prize Pack
  • CBC Kids - Super Why Prize!
  • Maple Leaf Foods
  • Epicure Selections Gift Basket!
  • Gift Basket from Cafe O' Play
Thank you to our fabulous sponsors!
Don't live in Edmonton? There are Birthday Parties just like ours happening all over Canada for the whole month of August!
Ontario
  • momstown Barrie - Aug 20
  • momstown Burlington - Aug 14
  • momstown Georgina - Aug 27
  • momstown Guelph: August 16
  • momstown Hamilton: August 13
  • momstown Kitchener-Waterloo: August 21
  • momstown Markham: August 31
  • momstown Milton:  August 5
  • momstown Newmarket-Aurora: August 13
  • momstown Oakville:  August 10
  • momstown Toronto:  August 27
  • momstown Whitby: August 27
Manitoba
  • momstown Winnipeg: August 14
Alberta
  • momstown Central Alberta: August 29

Sunday, July 24, 2011

The Many Hats of Eve... 5KM Walk & Rally in support of PPD!

We had a very successul 5km walk today! I woke up this morning to a beautiful blue, sunny sky and was so happy not to see rain. Don't get me wrong, I love rain, but didn't want to walk 5km's in it!

Upon arrival at Headcas Hats this morning, our starting point,  I quickly got all of the walkers checked in and then was met with a nice surprise: A camera man from Global! He interviewed me and filmed the start of the walk. It was a good beginning. The interview aired this evening at 6pm, I will place the footage or link on the PPDA website this week.

We had a good turnout. There were a few more than I expected and I think we had around 30 people. I had originally hoped for 50 or so, but 30 was a good start for our first year! And so we began our adventure shortly after 12:00pm. We stopped into all of the sponsoring businesses one after another for stamps on our prize passports (which will later go into a draw for a wide variety of prizes). Many of the businesses also had coupons and gift certificates for us and some had beverages or snacks. We had a nice scenic walk along the river and also had an opportunity to walk throught the city market!

We ended our walk at the new locatoin of 101.7 World FM where we got our last stamp and had a short rally. We took lots of pictures which I will have up on the website soon. I think everyone had a really good time and I feel like we made an impact! Thank you to everyone who took part!

Tascheleia

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Nursing & Weening

Many new Mothers are still uncertain whether they should nurse their babies. Other Moms are unsure how long to nurse and when to ween. When we are unsure on such important topics we are subject to the opinion of others which is not always helpful, especially if we are being given out of date advice.

This is such a widely discussed and important topic. I believe it really is between the Mommy and her baby to decide how things will go. However it is becoming more and more widely understood and accepted that breast really is best, for so many reasons. There is no one food on earth that fully duplicates the complex variety of nutrients found in human breast milk. Also nursing is such an intimate bonding experience between Mother and baby. Nursing is also part of the biological circle of reproduction, it is something our bodies are meant to do. As well, it helps us lose some of the excess weight we put on during pregnancy and the "happy" hormones involved in milk production help mothers have a smoother recovery from hormone changes after giving birth.

Of course things don't always go as planned and nature is far from perfect. There are certainly situations that do not allow for breastfeeding; and as hard as some Mothers try they just aren't able to breastfeed.
I am always surprised when I hear that a Mother has been given the advice to stop breastfeeding. Something important to remember: there are no "shoulds". If someone gives you any kind of advice involving the word "should", like "you should stop breastfeeding", ignore it. Follow your instincts. What does your heart, soul, stomache, lifestyle and sanity level tell you?? There are many factors involved in making a big decision like whether to nurse and when to ween.

Something else to think about:
Recently I read an excellant article/blog called "African Babies Don't Cry". Essentially it discusses how many African countries still maintain the same child-rearing ways that have existed for forever. And that due to African Mother's natural instincts to do things like "wear" their babies and "nurse" their babies and "feed on demand" and "co-sleep", their babies are happier, more well adjusted and rarely cry. This article boasts that in many African cultures it is believed that if a baby cries something is really very wrong, because a baby has no need to cry if it is nursed and coddled and loved 24 hours a day. I agree with this, but agreeing with it and practicing it may be two different things. Let's face it, parenting is hard work and even with the best intentions we don't always make the right decisions. Much of parenting is also societal and cultural. North Americans sadly grew away from this kind of instinctive parenting and developed new ideas about mothering that have been passed down through the generations. We are only just starting to realize in North America that the kind of instinctive mothering that has been going on world wide for thousands of years is probably right and we need to find our way back to our roots. Getting there is a process and we cannot go backward, we can only go forward to a kind of mothering that will probably be a little of both.

Here is the link to the article I am referring to:
http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/claire_niala.html