Fisher Price Laugh n' Learn Puppy!

        So for my first product review, I got the honour of reviewing the Fisher Price Laugh n' Learn Puppy. And I can honestly tell you that if I didn't already have the toy, after testing it I would go out and buy it. My 7 month old daughter LOVES it. The giggles every time it comes on, the hugs and kisses she gives it when it talks to her make me smile, and I love watching her reaction to it every time it talks to her.  It also says "I love you!", and makes a kissing noise, which is very sweet and gets a big smile every time.

    

          Another thing I really like about this toy is the educational value she'll get out of it when she's a bit older; it sings many of the songs I sing to her, it sings the ABC's, it counts and claps. Putting a spin on classics like "Patty Cake" and "Do Your Ears Hang Low?", this dog is a talented little pup! He's also totally gender neutral which is nice, the only problem you might have if you have multiple children is a fight over who gets the puppy and for how long...a shared custody agreement may be necessary!

          Needless to say, this dancing, singing, clapping,  fun little puppy is going to be a favourite in my house for a long time.

Happy Halloween Edmonton!!!

momstown Edmonton North & Edmonton South are getting excited for our BOO BASH this Sunday! Our members and their kids are getting costumes ready to celebrate with a family focused event.

Big thanks to our Activity Sponsors

Toadstool Music

Nicole Werbicki
780.902.3745
nicole@toadstoolmusic.com

We are an exciting music studio in Sherwood Park that believes music and imagination go hand in hand. We strive to engage our students' creativity and imagination in a positive and enjoyable environment. Our music lessons use a variety of methods to make music come alive, including singing, rhythm instruments, creative movement, and games. Check out our website for our current group and private programs.

Discovery Toys

Debbie Wong - 780.718.0919, debbie@ilovediscoverytoys.ca

Discovery Toys has been helping parents to "Teach. Play. Inspire." with our high-quality educational toys, books, games and music for over three decades.

Java Mama

Donna Emsley & Sharla Nuijens, 780.719.1949/780.985.2641, stalbert@javamama.com

Java Mama is your kid-friendly coffeehouse opening mid-November in St. Albert. Come in and enjoy a coffee while your kids happily play in one of two areas designed for children up to the age 6. Book your birthday parties or private events with us and participate in a wide variety of classes that we have to offer. We look forward to serving you very soon! Sip. Play. Relax.

Azure Music

780.417.4771
info@azuremusicstudio.com

Drumming, customized music lessons and more! Azure Music Studio offers creative, jazz and contemporary quality music lessons on several instruments such as piano, guitar, violin, vocals, drums, bass, winds and brass. Azure Music also provides drumming circles for school workshops, corporate events and birthday parties.

Music Together

780.484.9722
info@musictogethernl.com

Music Together® is an internationally recognized early childhood music program that encourages the development of your child's natural musicality through the joy of family music making.

Willowby Hall

Alla Ternikova 780.481.1456, admin@willowbycommunityleague.com

Willowby Community League serves the communities of Ormsby, Jamieson Place & Dechene!

Bounceroo

Brad Dick
780.406.6332
info@bounceroo.ca

Bounceroo! - We rent Interactive Inflatable Play Structures that we call Bounceroos!, We also rent popcorn machines and cotton candy machines! - Don't party plan by yourself. Renting Bounceroo! is easy. The bouncers, popcorn machines and cotton candy machines are a guaranteed blast for your next birthday, barbecue, picnic, fundraiser, corporate or community event. No deposit required and we take care of delivery and set up (approx. 15 min.). Go Bounceroo!

Christine Wills Photography

Christine Wills, 780.200.5929, christine@cwillsdesign.ca
Christine Wills Photography believes that photography shouldn’t be a luxury for those who can afford it, but a reflection of your life and the happy experience of recording it. Packages are reasonably priced and reflect the time and talent of the photographer. Christine Wills-Thornton has been a professional family, wedding, and lifestyle photographer since 2009, serving Alberta (Edmonton & Calgary) and willing to travel! She mixes traditional styles ( BDes 2012) with the latest trends to produce stunning images of you and your loved ones.

Bibagogo

Catherine Finlayson, 780.498.0326, bibagogo@gmail.com

Bibagogo® offers quality, functionality, value and appeal! An absolutely must have for all busy parents. It's fashionable and practical for happy feeding, eating, and playing at home, on the go, in the stroller and carseat. Lifetime guarantee. Great for baby, and last to preschool years. Go ahead. Get messy.

Adventure Bus

Debbie Brown, 780.700.8287, debbie@adventurebus.ca

The Adventure Bus is a full sized school bus that has been converted into a mini gym - brought directly to your location. All activities take place inside the Adventure Bus and no transportation of participants is involved. The Bus is equipped with a large variety of FUN equipment including: zip line, monkey bars, rock climbing wall, mini-trampoline, rings, bean bags, ribbons, climbing rope, balance beam, mats, shapes, parachutes, tunnels, hoops, etc.

Amber Leigh Photography

Mandy Benesocky, 780.554.5763, mbenesocky@gmail.com

We are Carolyn and Mandie Benesocky, two sisters who have joined our love and passion for taking photos. Together we capture happiness.

Zumba

Hannah Gray 780.908.8826, hbgray@shaw.ca

The Zumba® Program: The Zumba® program fuses hypnotic Latin rhythms and easy-to-follow moves to create a one-of-akind fitness program that will blow you away. Our goal is simple: We want you to want to work out, to love working out, to get hooked. Zumba® Fanatics achieve long-term benefits while experiencing an absolute blast in one exciting hour of calorie-burning, body-energizing, awe-inspiring movements meant to engage and captivate for life!

Everyone is welcome at a Zumba class; it is designed for people of all shapes, sizes, ages, and fitness levels. Anyone can come to a Zumba class and have fun whether they are just beginning to exercise or already at an advanced level. Zumba is for everyone!

The Traveling Teacher

Lisa Murdock

780.463.3620
info@thetravelingteacher

Welcome to the travelingteacher.ca!! Do you lack the time and/or creativity to create fun and educational crafts and activities for your child? Are you a day home that would appreciate some assistance? Would you like to provide a craft at your child’s special party? Then you have come to the right place! The Traveling Teacher is a service that offers children exciting and fun thematic, pre-packaged crafts and activities each month – you choose the theme!

Door Prize Sponsors:

Mommy Connections
carol@mommyconnections.ca
www.mommyconnections.ca

Blackbird Photography
info@blackbirdphotography.ca
www.blackbirdphotography.ca

Bibagogo
bibagogo@gmail.com
www.bibagogo.com

Belly Dancin' Babies
info@bellydancinbabies.com
www.tascheleia.com

Usborne Books
www.usborne.ca

Sweet Tutu 4 U
sweettutus4u@hotmail.ca
www.sweettutu4u.com

Discovery Toys
debbie@ilovediscoverytoys.ca
http://ilovediscoverytoys.ca

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!

• Snow Pea Portraits will be doing FREE family photo sessions all day!
• Par-T-Perfect will have a face painter on hand as well as a Bouncy Castle to get some energy out!
• Tiny Labs is providing some scientific fun for all ages!
• Marr Mac Dance and Theatre Arts will be doing providing entertainment as well as fun activities with the kids!
• Cupcakes for all provided by Whimsical Cake Studio!

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

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

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

Space...

If anything ignites the imagination it is Space. So much is unknown about space and with our human curiosity and imaginative minds we like to conjure up all kinds of ideas as to what is out there and not out there. I have been enthralled by it since I was a child. Having grown up in the country, stargazing was a regular activity. It was an activity I really enjoyed doing with my Mother, she too loved astronomy. I learned so much about astronomy as a child: how to plot stars and constellations, how to find the planets and their moons, how to find other celestial bodies such as galaxies and nebulas. I have seen some incredible Aurora Borealis over the years as well and viewed a few comets too. Oddly enough, stargazing is something I became interested in because my Mother enjoyed it and I wanted to spend time with her, but I quickly learned to love it very much!

Sir Edmund Halley Returns in a Flame

In Junior High, my Science Fair projects for all three years were space related. One year, my subject was Aurorae Borealis and I created a computer simulation (on a very old Apple computer) that made Northern Lights dance across my computer screen. The year that Halley's Comet passed by our planet I did a project entitled: Sir Edmund Halley Returns in a Flame. Ok, the title is a little cheesy I know, but the project was a lot of fun. Space completely captured my imagination as a child. I even fancied the idea of becoming an astronaut when I grew up. Something I could not (puke) possibly imagine now as I get nauseous just being in a car sometimes, never mind a plane or a rocket ship!

The year that Halley's Comet came my Mother and I travelled to what was then called the Space Science Center and stood in line for two hours in the freezing cold to witness this celestial event through one of the largest telescopes in the area. To our amazement, Halley's Comet was in fact bigger, brighter and more amazing through binoculars out in the country than it was through this massive telescope in the city. Interesting.

You Can Hear Your Own Heartbeat

The stars were always their most amazing at my Grandmother's house out in the country. That is quite an experience in itself, to be out in the country at night in complete darkness. It is so quiet you can hear your own heart beat. Definitely unnerving for city folk. Outside at Granny's house however I had the comfort of a familiar place and the darkness of the countryside. There, the sky is littered with stars, too many to count, too many to imagine. What a sight!

When I was about fourteen I saw the most amazing and unnerving Northern Lights I had ever seen in my life. I don't remember what alerted me to the situation, but I stepped out onto the deck and the sky was gone. In it's place from the center of the sky above me were red and green streaks reaching down to the ground in all directions. It truly was like something out of a science fiction movie. I think it was at this time that my Mother told me of some Northern Lights she had seen as a child that she found almost frightening: Big, long, bright red ribbons streaking down vertically through the sky. That would scare a small child for sure.

Over the years of observing the night sky out in the country we saw so many beautiful things: Satellites of other planets, lots of comets, the Horsehead Nebulae just below Orion's belt and the Andromeda Galaxy. I bet a lot of you do not realize that you can see our nearest neighbouring galaxy through binoculars if you are out in the country!

As an adult I have tried to keep up my Astronomy hobby mainly through reading but have lost a lot of the knowledge I once had. I am finding now though, that as I renew my hobby, the knowledge is coming back. We joined the RASC - the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada this year! I am looking forward to some really cold nights of stargazing - the night sky is always most impressive in the Winter - there are a lot of really cold amateur Astronomers in this country!

Happy Stargazing!

Tascheleia

Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another
~Plato~