This car positively purrs and it a fantastic ‘mom-mobile’. The BMW X5 is roomy and offers a ton of family-friendly features that make it a great option if your bank account can handle the hefty price tag.
My friends were exhausted. And for good reason. They have a 4 year old and a 1 year old, commute to work, and have to walk the dog. But, wait. Haven’t many people gotten through that? Looking at their tired eyes, and seeing them deal with their children, I remembered numerous episodes of Nanny 911. Structure helps everyone. Many a time I saw the nanny implement the ‘families sit down to eat dinner’ rule. ‘Everyone sleeps in their own bed’ soon followed. I always thought this simply provided structure just for the kids, but seeing this struggling family without much structure for children, it all made sense.
The routine provides clear decision making (or limits the need to make decisions) for parents. It eliminates guilt (I decided last year not to give in to tantrums, and this is a tantrum, therefore I shouldn’t feel guilty for not doling out another cookie) and it assists with family unity. Dinner being ready at 6, all sitting around a table facilitates conversation, and also allows duties such as washing up to follow. With bedtime, when parents can never have the same routine twice or depend on sleep for themselves or their children, a cranky family ensues.
Routines give kids a sense of security and help them develop self-discipline. Children also naturally fear the unknown, and structure will allow them to handle change within a context of the ‘known’. These little minds and bodies change daily and the familiar acts as a comfort.
The possibility of handing kids to babysitters and having them be put to sleep without a set routine is stressful and often ruins an evening that you are paying quite a bit for. Leave it to a night when you are exhausted for the toddler to decide not to go to bed, or to get up every 30 minutes. If you don’t have a fairly stricy routine for this, the child gets mixed messages. Parents should be able to parent – to make the decisions and be the ‘alphas’ in their family. Children crave this structure, and look for role models.
We have so much clutter in our brains and structure can eliminate all of those extra decisions. So get out the calendar and a timer and relax!
This is one topic that most of us aren’t pontificating over at a cocktail party, but most parents will need a few tips for treating head lice in their bag of tricks. Lice (the plural of louse in case you’re a grammar nut) are a very common problem, especially for kids ages 3 years to 12 years. Girls are affected more often than boys. Lice aren’t dangerous and they don’t spread disease, but they are highly contagious and can affect the self esteem of the most secure child. As the lice bite a child’s scalp, itchiness and inflammation occur.
Signs of Head Lice
Lice eggs are called nits. These look like tiny yellow, tan, or brown dots before they hatch. Nits look sort of like dandruff, only they can’t be removed by brushing or shaking them off. You may be able to see the lice or nits by parting your child’s hair into small sections and checking for lice and nits with a fine-tooth comb on the scalp, behind the ears, and around the nape of the neck.
Treatment of Head Lice
1. We’ve heard great reports about Lice Squad. They use pesticide free products, and carefully removes the lice with a solution and comb. It takes 1-2 hours and is done in your home. You can try medicated shampoos and removal combs yourself as well.
2. Saturate their hair in baby oil and go through it with a detangler comb then lice come. When you are confident you have most of the bugs, mix vinegar in with their shampoo and let them sit for an hour.
3. Soak your hair with mouthwash and then put on a shower cap. You may need to put a towel around your neck to stop some of the dripping. Let it sit in your hair for 2 hours. After that rinse out the mouthwash and then rinse your hair with vinegar to loosen the glue on the nits. After you rinse out the vinegar, use some conditioner as a final step.
4. Mix lemon juice with baking soda. The mixture will foam up as you stir. Apply to hair. Leave on for a few hours and wash hair.
Good luck and be sure to share which method worked best for you!
Almost December and the flowers still bloom. Beds of yellow leaves cover the sheep meadow and children run through, producing whirling dervishes in their wake. It’s a blast to watch kids in Central Park on a Sunday, with families are doing what families should be doing. Memories are being made, laughter is prevalent, and the merry-go-round plays happy show-tune-inspired tunes to a full house of horses and children.
The park, totalling 843 acres in the middle of Manhattan, houses a pond, Poet’s Walk, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Boathouse and loads of spectacular trails, vegetation and street performers. Central Park runs north to south from 110th street to 59th street and east to west from 5th Avenue to Central Park West. Whether you take your kids to explore Belvedere Castle, play at one of the many playgrounds, ride a horse-drawn carriage, hang our at the Swedish Cottage Marionette theatre or do some catch and release fishing, the kids will be smiling!
Not planning a Big Apple trip in the near future? Get outside in your own city! We often take for granted the nature around us, and can easily spend more time indoors than the New Yorkers living in tiny apartments with concrete and fire escapes. Complacency is not an option when you have kids. For your health and theirs, go outside.
www.centralpark.com
Head to Campbell River for the fishing, but you might catch more fish with these mini cheesecakes thank you would with worms.. (or at least make yourself and kids very happy). The handmade treats from Cheesecake 101 are about 3 cms across, and decorated beautifully. If you’re doing a picnic or a selection of bite-sized desserts, head straight here and don’t pass go.
Cheesecake 101 Gourmet Outlet
Address: 660 Isl Hwy., Campbell River BC, V9W 2C3
www.myappyplace.ca
Many readers know that my son went through colic. But I’ve never really admitted the full extent of the turmoil that swept our house for 18 months. So in the spirit of our new blog, I will dish it. I was kicked out of mommy and me pilates. (Twice). And then excused from a breastfeeding group with nurses due to the excessive noise. People would come up to me on the street with advice (constructive criticism..). “I think he’s hungry! Wet! Tired! Overstimulated!”
What kind of mother would take a child that screams for an hour into a grocery store? The kind that needs groceries and has no other option, thank you. If you would care to watch him at home while I shop I would be grateful. But he will cry – no matter how many needs you satisfy. And he won’t get tired BY THE WAY – not even after 4 hours straight. It went on and on, and experts weighed in as close friends worried my husband and I would drive off a dock hurdling the whole family into the ocean in our LandRover.
Along with the other suggested colic remedies, we were introduced to Boiron camilia. I had used their arnica montana as a homeopathic remedy after giving birth and we decided to try the camilia. Typically recommended for teething, this natural herb is free of acetominiphen and anisthetics and is fully safe for babies. More important, it had a calming effect on our little (screamer) monkey. You twist the tip off the plastic tube of the convenient individual dose and can even slip the liquid into baby’s mouth while nursing (or better yet, have them pretend it’s a nipple and suck it out). We would have ‘picnics’ and I would have chamomile tea when he had his ‘medicine’.
Now that my two boys are bigger, though not quieter (now they never stop talking), they catch colds at school and get boo boos as they tumble. Insect bites while tree climbing are common. Boiron has (thankfully) expanded their lineup so I can keep curing the boys with natural medicines.
DAPIS gel is an ointment to relieve hives, itching and promote the healing of insect bites. Now they tell me. (I didn’t have to buy all of that mosquito netting after all.) The flip cap ensures a tidy application and the 40g tube is easy to slip into a purse or diaper bag.
I was one of those parents taken aback by the research on and subsequent removal of traditional childrens’ cough syrups from the pharmacy shelves. And it, of course, became another bone of contention with the older generation, “Well I gave it to you and you turned out fine! Kids these days…” Thankfully, STODAL honey-based cough syrup is great for kids over one year of age and – ahem – looks like any other ‘traditional’ cough syrup. So your mom doesn’t need to know that you’ve changed up the parenting practices. It’s so yummy my kids keep asking for it on their pancakes. When you come from Canada and it ousts maple syrup you know you’re onto something. (It now also comes in sugar-free). Unfortunately it doesn’t make the kids drowsy, so they keep talking and talking, but at least they’re not keeping me up at night with the cough. And I have Boiron camilia with my nighttime tea, so I’m relaxed anyway.
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Boiron. As always our opinions are our own.
We have all seen those films about outbreaks and crazy viruses that sweep a community. Scary music, HASMAT teams and beautiful actors working hard to save the world with makeup that somehow stays perfect throughout. I need some of that. Why do these films scare us so much? Because we know this type of uncontrollable horror can happen. Just as freak lightening struck my grandparents’ house when I was 6 and caused a bad fire, our children can be infected out of the blue by some pretty scary diseases.
Meningitis is a serious bacterial disease, which causes inflammation around the lining of the spinal cord and brain. It can also cause poisoning of the blood and can strike people even into their 20’s. Before you read about Brodie, you should know that you will get upset. Should you wish to skip to the end, please first know that there are vaccinations to protect against meningitis. They are available for your kids in order to prevent four different strains. Unfortunately, many routine Canadian immunizations only protect against one strain of the disease.
Brodie: A tribute by his Father, Colin Campbell, an instructor in the department of criminology at Douglas College. (Published in the Vancouver Sun, April 29, 2008).
“My son, Brodie, an only child, died suddenly on April 24, 2007, from a rare and particularly vicious strain of bacterial meningitis. Brodie, a big, active, popular and happy-go-lucky kid with a great sense of humour, was 15.
In the words of poet W.H. Auden, Brodie was “my North, my South, my East and West; my working week and my Sunday rest. My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song . . . .”
My wife and I have learned in the months since Brodie died that there are multiple strains of IMD — groups A, B, C, Y and W-135 and that four of these strains are preventable. Indeed, Brodie had been vaccinated for meningitis C but died from the group Y strain that could have been prevented with the appropriate vaccine. There is no vaccine for the B strain and only the four Maritime provinces currently fund vaccinations against the four preventable strains.
My wife and I have also learned that IMD spreads through close contact, much like a cold or flu. Coughing or sneezing, sharing eating utensils or sport water bottles, kissing and close physical contact can spread the germs from person to person. Symptoms are flu-like and include fever, headache, vomiting and confusion. The symptoms, however, often fail to reveal the seriousness of IMD until it is too late.”
Tears? Me too. I can’t imagine a greater tragedy than the preventable loss of a child. Between 2005 and 2010, an average of 197 cases of IMD was reported annually in Canada and 6.7% of those affected died (typically within 48 hours). Funny, they don’t make movies with ending that tragic. Of those who survive, up to 1 in 5 may suffer from permanent and disabling effects. But it could never happen to us, right? We’re healthy and sprinkle chia seeds on our cereal. Wrong. One in five healthy teenagers and adults carry the meningococcal germ in our nose and throat but do not get sick ourselves. We can, however, make children sick when we sneeze or cough.
When the disease is properly diagnosed by a physician through testing of the spinal fluid, it can be treated. The bacteria usually disappear from the nose and throat within 24 hours after appropriate antimicrobial treatment has begun. Finally – some good news!!
Prevention of Meningitis
Rigorously tested, safe vaccines are the best prevention method of this disease; especially because people can unknowingly be carriers and easily pass on the disease to unimmunized people. Vaccines such as Menactra are available that protect children against four strains (A,C,Y, W-135). There is currently no vaccine to protect against meningitis B.
What are the symptoms of meningitis?
Symptoms differ in infants/toddlers and children/adults and not all people will experience similar symptoms and the same progression of symptoms. Medical help should be sought immediately following any of all symptoms.
Symptoms in Babies and Toddlers include:
- Fever combined with cold hands and feet
- Refusing food when normally hungry
- Vomiting
- Fretful, does not want to be picked up or held
- Pale, blotchy skin
- Blank, staring expression
- Drowsy, difficult to wake
- Stiff neck and arched back
- High pitched cry
Symptoms in Children and Adults include:
- Vomiting
- Fever with cold hands and feet
- Headache, especially combined with stiff neck
- Joint stiffness and muscle pain
- Dislike bright lights, noise
- Drowsy, difficult to wake
- Confusion or delirium
I must apologize, as we don’t usually scare parents or make anyone sad. But this is pretty important, and I didn’t even realize that only 1 out of 4 preventable strains of meningitis was included in my provincial vaccination until I was sent a press release. Did you?
This is a sponsored post by Sanofi Pasteur. For additional information and research you may go to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
We love lazy summer picnics filled with giggles, soft blankets and sandwiches with crusts cut off. SO we’ve come up with a few inspired summer picnic tips to enchant your family as you lead them into the lazy days of summer.
1. Head to a fabric store and use pinking shears to make cloth napkins so the edges won’t fray. It’s great for the environment and you can design themed, beautiful picnics at a low cost.
2. Use individual jars for salad and dressings so you can shake and serve.
3. Don’t forget baby wipes and hand sanitizer.
4. We have lots of printables on our pinterest pages so you can do nature walks and scavenger hunts.
5. Bamboo plates always look stunning and are earth friendly.
6. Ditch the tech and opt for old-fashioned entertainment like cards, etch-a-sketch and throwing a ball.
7. Make a picnic playlist for every summer and your kids will have years of happy memories associated with the songs.
8. If you have little ones, include a few favourite dolls or stuffies with tiny dishes. Enchanted.
9. To help teach responsibility and respect, throw a garbage bag and some plastic gloves in the basket and do a mini garbage cleanup of the site when you are done. Picking up litter of others will instill many lessinons in your children.
10. Opt for tealights in mason jars for twilight picnics. It will be both safe and beautiful!
Enjoy – and don’t forget the bug spray! Add your ideas below!
This might very possibly be the best invention. Like EVER. It’s not turning water into wine, mind you, but to make sparkling water from tap with or without flavours added is epic. The Soda Stream reduces waste as you reuse the sturdy bottles provided, nor do you have to lug heavy cans or bottles. Storage space in your kitchen is more plentiful and it’s cheaper than buying soda. The sparkling naturals flavours are made with all natural ingredients and are healthier than typical pop and soda – plus you can also control the amount of flavour you add. I’ve found the carbonation refills at Canadian Tire and WalMart as well as online. It’s my new must-have appliance.
UrbanMommies was provided with a Soda Stream system for review purposes. As always, our opinions are our own.
“Liar, liar, pants on fire!”
Most parents are completely flabbergasted when their offspring tells a fib, no matter what age they are. However, lying is a part of learning and growing and, as the parent, you need to know how to handle the tale-telling appropriately and effectively. It’s essential to differentiate between the lies that should be ignored and the ones that must be addressed and handle lying in an efficient manner with love and understanding, but also help your child recognize the value of the truth.
Little Ones – Storytelling
Young children who fall in the toddler and preschool age category may tell lies that are simply a representation of their creative imaginations running wild. When this happens, you can address the fact that they are not telling the truth by saying, “Wow! You are very creative!” Or challenge them by asking, “Is that really true?” Give your little one the chance to think about their tall tale, tell you more descriptions, and decipher the truth from the un-truth.
Do not be misled, however…children will learn early, usually beyond the age of 3 or 4, that lying might be the solution to avoiding the consequences of their actions and, ultimately, deceiving someone.
Essentially, your little one will lie to please you or get your attention.
Older Children – Avoiding Consequences
Your older child will lie to achieve a different outcome. When it all boils down, your school aged child and teenager will fib to solve some type of problem.
When you know that your older child has told a fib, let them know that you are aware of the truth and that you would prefer that they tell the truth rather than be deceitful. You could tell them, “I’m sure that you meant to do your homework, but you still have some work left to do. We all make mistakes, but in the future, I would prefer that you practice honesty when I ask you a question.”
Parental Lying – The Messages that We Send
Keep in mind that we all tell “little white lies” sometimes and that we need to set the example, as the parents. If our children witness us lying, they will get mixed signals that tell them that lying is okay sometimes.
Without thinking about it, you might tell your friend that you have an appointment that conflicts with meeting them today or – even worse – you might tell your child to tell the caller on the phone that you are in the shower when you honestly do not want to come to the phone.
Before asking your child to lie for you or lying in front of them, think about the significance of the message that it sends to your offspring and ask yourself if it is worth it to relay that message.
When handling a fibbing child, do not promise him that there will not be any punishment if they tell the truth – and then dole out a punishment once the truth is revealed. It is vital to teach your child that lying is not okay, both by holding discussions with them that help them to recognize truth from un-truths and showing them with our own behavior.