2 For 1 Coupon To The November Bump Baby And Toddler Expo 2013

We are excited to be sponsors of the Hamilton Bump, Baby & Toddler Expo this November 23rd & 24th and being a part of this fantastic event. You'll find us in the "momstown corner" doing our famous Baby Picasso Infant Art Demos. Mamas with babies of all ages can join us and take away Babies First Keepsake Art Project.

Print this coupon and bring it with you for 2 for 1 admission:

Halloween




Halloween has been around for centuries. For most people, Halloween is a time of year for tricks, treats, and maybe even a few scares. It can be fun for both children and adults to dress up in costumes and go trick or treating or to a good party. This holiday provides a small escape where just for one day, you can be someone else.

 

Most cities have lots of activities and family fun at this time of year such as parades, parties, zombie walks, pumpkin carving contests, hayrides, pumpkin farms and haunted houses. Living in the Niagara Region we are fortunate to have many haunted houses, haunted hayrides and ghost walks/tours. With Clifton Hill in the heart of Niagara Falls being right on our door step, we are lucky to have haunted houses that are open year round. 

 

At our house we are Halloween crazy! Don't get me wrong I love Christmas too - but Halloween is uniquely different. It's not the candy or the hayrides or even the crazy zombie walks. I love fall. I love decorating our house, and carving pumpkins, I love the leaves changing color and maybe even scaring a few teenagers brave enough to come to our door.

 

Let me first say that I wasn't always this way. I grew up in an old house that I'm positive is a little bit haunted. I don't know if I believe in "ghosts", but there are just way too many things that have happened over the years while I was living at that residence that I just can't explain. With that being said, as much as I like this holiday I don't like the dark, I will not watch any scary movies and I flat out refuse to go into a haunted house (or my moms house at night when I'm alone).  When it comes to decorating and scaring other people - count me in!

 

It started just about the time when I realized that I was too old to go trick or treating anymore. I guess I never really grew up. This was a way for me to continue to participate in Halloween at any age. Each year I began to purchase and/or make a new decoration or prop. I am now in my 30's and my prop collection continues to get larger and more sophisticated (or expensive) with each passing year. It has gotten so large, that my husband unwillingly let me build shelves in his garage to store my collection. In this collection, we have everything from costumes, to life size dummies, to grave stones, to a stone looking facade for our garage.

 

Halloween for us is really only one day. A few years ago we had a big Halloween party the week prior to Halloween and we put out a lot of our decorations. A few nights later all of our gravestones were smashed by some teenagers. Since then we put everything out on Halloween day, and have to bring it back in on Halloween night to avoid any possible damage.

But on Halloween night, our house is transformed into a graveyard complete with a rickety fence, tombstones, fog machines, and much more. Our garage becomes the haunted tomb with a floating black lit ghost. Over the past couple of years I have started spilling into my neighbours yards, and this year I plan to fully decorate their homes. We have some new animated props, a corn field and a spider infestation that I can't wait to get outside. After having decorated our house for a few years, my neighbours have gained a new found love for Halloween and they both enjoy dressing up along side us.

So whether you like the parties or enjoy being scared, Halloween is fast approaching. Make sure you make time for Halloween before Christmas takes over!

The countdown until October 31 begins........Lets hope that the rain holds out this year!

Have a Happy Halloween!

 

 

Moms Nights Out

In addition to the many events that are on our monthly calendar for our infants and toddlers, we also have a series of child free or adult only events that are just for our moms.

Tonight we met at Johnny Rocco's for our monthly Moms Night Out Dinner Date Event. We've been here a few times before. The menu has something for everyone and their Tapas nights on Thursdays are amazing! Every month we choose a different restaurant where we'd like to have dinner. This gives our hard working moms the opportunity to get out of the house and have some much needed grown up time with other moms. At these events, we meet new people, have dinner, share stories about our children - maybe even brag a little bit, and also share some laughter.

Next month our mommy night out will be on November 11. We will be dining at M.T. Bellies in Welland. Can't wait to see you there!

Some of our other monthly mommy events are:

• Our Scrapbooking Club - For this event we meet at Peninsula Press. If you are crafty and would like some good conversation while you scrap it up, join us on October 30 for some scrapbooking fun. Additional paper and materials can be purchased directly at Peninsula Press. Even if you've never scrapbooked before but would like to start or just need some grown up time, join us for some good conversation.

• Mama Book Club - Our book club is sponsored by Scholastic Canada. We will be reading The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. Our first book Club Meeting is scheduled for October 31 at Mahtay Café from 10:00am-11:00am. If you enjoy reading then this event is for you. The first 7 people who sign up will receive this book for free, compliments of Scholastic.

• Moms Night Out Game Night - All I can say about this event is that these nights are a blast! We play games, have snacks and laugh for hours. We are open to play anything. We do have lots of games on hand, but if there's one that you really enjoy, feel free to bring it along and we will  play it.

• Moms Night Out Movie Night - It's nice to get out with some friends sometimes to enjoy a good movie. This event alternates with Scrapbooking, and will appear on the calendar every second month. When it gets close to the movie night, we can suggest movies that we would like to see through the message board. Then we choose the movie together! Join us on November 19th for our mommy movie night out!

As a mom sometimes it can be a nice break to get away even for a few hours.

Mom's Night's Out are included our 25+ events each month. A momstown Niagara membership is only $45/year for the whole family and includes great events like these all year long! Your membership will also include a one year subscription to Today's Parent! Sign up for a free trial membership on our website: http://niagara.momstown.ca/user/register.

In addition to attending some of our 25+ events, you will be able to meet and bond with other moms that are just like you! Joining momstown Niagara gives you the opportunity to meet new friends who have children that are the same age. It's wonderful to go through the same stages and milestones with a friend who is just as excited as you are.

Scholastic Tales for Tots

Its official, winter is on the way. Today it was pretty cold outside. So cold in fact that after checking the weather, we decided that we needed to wear our winter jackets. Luckily it was nice and warm inside our local Chapters where our Scholastic Tales for Tots event is held.

At chapters we read a wonderful book called Good Night Sleep Tight written by Mem Fox and illustrated by Judy Horacek.

 

In this cute story that's perfect for bedtime reading, Bonnie and Ben's favourite babysitter tells them some nursery rhymes at bedtime. These rhymes include "It's raining! It's pouring! The old man is snoring"; "This little piggy went to market"; "Round and round the garden"; and more. In addition to just listening to the story, whenever we came to one of these familiar nursery rhymes we got to say it together.

After our story, we has a draw to give away this great book. Our lucky winner was able to bring home a copy to read before bedtime. Thank you Scholastic!

 

Our theme this month is "You Turkey". Although our Canadian Thanksgiving has passed, we had fun making some turkeys using toilet paper tubes, construction paper and some brightly colored feathers.

Scholastic Tales for Tots is one of our 25+ monthly events that are included in your membership fee of only $45 per year.  Your membership will also include a one year subscription to Today's Parent! 

If you and your children would like to come out and meet some new friends, please register here for a FREE 4 week trial membership!   http://niagara.momstown.ca/user/register

Alpha-Bits Alphabet Play!

It was an exciting day at the Book Outlet. Today we held the first of many Alphabet Play events that are sponsored by Post Alpha Bits Cereal. Post Alpha-Bits cereal provides a source of 9 essential nutrients plus is an excellent source of Iron and Thiamin. Post Alpha-Bits has the great taste and alphabet delight that both kids and moms LOVE.

We began our alphabet play with our regular circle time routine. During circle time we sing songs, introduce ourselves, read books and have the opportunity to talk and share stories with our friends. Circle time is great for a number of reasons. It helps the children interact and socialize with other children and adults outside of their homes, it helps develop listening skills and respect for others, it gives children additional time to bond with their parents/caregiver, and it also begins to prepare children for school.

Today we sang the Alphabet in both English and French! We were lucky to have one of our mommies who teaches French with us today. It was fun to learn that some of the letters in French sound very similar to the letters in English.

After circle time was finished, it was time for a craft. I is our letter for this month, and I is for ice cream. Our moms and babies made an ice cream hand/footprint craft.

I is also for island. Our toddlers made an island for our uppercase I, and an ice cream cone for our lowercase I.

In addition to tasting great, Alpha-Bits can also be used to spell different words and make some fun and creative pictures. We had fun looking through our bowls of Alpha-Bits to find the letters of the alphabet and then using them to make masterpieces!

Thank you to our generous sponsor Post Alpha-Bits, for providing all of our moms with a box of cereal to take home to help add some fun to their breakfasts too! We very much enjoyed the opportunity to taste, share and create with Alpha-Bits today. For more information about Post Alpha-Bits Cereal including Nutrition, History, Recipes and Special Offers, please visit their website at http://www.postfoods.ca/our-brands/alpha-bits/.

 

Alphabet Play is one of our 25+ events that we have each month. A momstown Niagara membership is only $45/year for the whole family and includes great events like these all year long. Your membership will also include a one year subscription to Today's Parent! Sign up for a free trial membership on our website:http://niagara.momstown.ca/user/register.

Fun Day at Howell's

Our field trip to Howells Family Pumpkin Farm turned out to be a great day. The sun was shining, and it quickly became very warm outside. We unfortunately chose a day where the major attractions and rides were not running, but that didn't stop us from having fun. We were able to take time to enjoy some of the smaller attractions that Howell's has to offer. These are attractions that we often miss on a regular business day when there is a large crowd and all of the big attractions are open and running.

We were able to watch some of the animated shows. In this picture we are watching the chick-n-mation chickens. They sing a variety of songs and tell jokes.

We had loads of fun in both of the hay jumps. There is one for children aged 3 and under, and one for children aged 3 and up. We were lucky enough to have both of the barns all to ourselves this day.

 

We played in the giant sand box with Tonka trucks and buckets. We spent a lot of time here, the kids had so much fun filling and dumping sand out of the trucks.

We also enjoyed playing on the slide, digging with the diggers, and visiting the animals. There were sheep, goats, donkeys, geese, turkeys, and bunnies. The two baby donkeys were so cute and fuzzy! In addition to all of this there was also a forest walk and plenty of scarecrows to take pictures with.

Although the market was closed and we were unable to bring home any of the yummy fudge, pumpkin treats or apple treats, the pumpkins were out and available to be purchased.

 

If you still need to purchase your pumpkin, Howell's has rows and rows of small to large pumpkins to choose from. They even have a special variety of pink pumpkins this year. Mini pumpkins, gourds, squash, corn stalks and bales of straw are also available for purchase on the farm. For additional information, please visit the Howells Family Pumpkin Farm at http://www.ahowlinggoodtime.com/

 

Discovery Field Trips, like visiting Howells Family Pumpkin Farm is one of our 20+ events each month. A momstown Niagara membership is only $45/year for the whole family and includes great events like these all year long! Your membership will also include a one year subscription to Today's Parent! Sign up for a free trial membership on our website: http://niagara.momstown.ca/user/register. In addition to attending some of our 20+ events, you will be able to meet and bond with other moms that are just like you!

Baby Story Time and Sensory Play

We had our first Baby Story Time and Sensory Play Event in October at the newly renovated Book Outlet. They have a great area in the children's book section with lots of tables and chairs. It's a perfect space to accommodate our group for some of our events!

Sensory play is a great way for babies and children both to learn and to further develop all of their senses. Children begin using sensory input from birth. Allowing children to explore using their senses by grabbing, smelling, listening, rubbing, staring, and licking will help them better understand the world around them.

 During sensory play, we were able to use our senses by listening to stories and looking at the pictures.

We used our hands to explore with sensory balls, play dough, sensory bags and sensory books.

We also had lots of fun digging through....and sometimes tasting the things in our sensory boxes.

What's great about sensory play is that you can use objects that you already have in your home to create sensory boxes. You can fill your sensory box with cereal, rice, shredded paper, cotton balls, beans and more. Sensory bags are made easily with gel and sparkles, macaroni, sand, beads, pom poms etc. Not to mention children love the different colors and textures and this is a great way to keep them entertained for at least a little while.

After our sensory play was finished, we had time to shop for some new books - and as an added bonus, the prices here are excellent. The Book Outlet has a warehouse full of books for both children and adults including a large selection of sensory books for babies too. Join us next month for our November story and sensory play event!

Story Time and Sensory Play is included in our 20+ events that we have each month. A momstown Niagara membership is only $45/year for the whole family and includes great events like these all year long! Your membership will also include a one year subscription to Today's Parent! Sign up for a free trial membership on our website:http://niagara.momstown.ca/user/register.

A Mother's Decision to Home Birth

• 
  The journey to my homebirth began not this past summer when it occurred, but four long years ago at the birth of my first daughter.
  
  I went into labour with that first child on a hot August morning. I had spent a lot of time researching pregnancy and parenting, but devoted an embarrassingly tiny amount of thought to the birth itself. I knew that pain was bad and drugs were good. That was the extent of my thought process. I didn’t fully comprehend just how profoundly this experience would affect me and as such, I completely deferred to the hospital staff.
  
  

  

  
  
  The hospital staff were not villainous in any way. In fact, they helped me to achieve the exact kind of birth I was hoping for at that time. The moment that contractions started, I got a shot of morphine. When they intensified, I got the epidural. When the epidural was so effective that I couldn’t locate the proper muscles to push, they used a vacuum to help me out. My first child was born. It truly was one of those rare moments in time where angels sing, time stops and the love that you feel is so strong that it makes you ache. And yet, in the midst of all that magic I couldn’t help feeling as though I might have missed out on something. My doubt in my own ability to cope with pain, created a situation where I hadn’t even tried.
  
  In those early days of being a mom however, the belief in myself grew. I existed on little sleep, I was an advocate, and I loved with a ferocious passion that I never knew existed. I began to research birth and birth methods extensively. This research consumed me in an almost retroactive attempt to reclaim the power that I had so easily parted with.
  Three years later, I became pregnant again. It seemed only logical that armed with this new knowledge and confidence I would pursue midwifery care and explore the option of a home birth. I was put on a wait list for a midwife and in the meantime stayed with my GP whom I trusted immensely.
  
  As the weeks ticked by, I became even more fascinated with the idea of birthing at home. I would have family and friends ask why I had become so fixated on this notion and I didn’t really have an answer. It was just one of those things that you know you have to do but you are not entirely certain as to why. I had tunnel vision, and the end of that tunnel was the image of me holding my baby in my warm and comfortable bed.
  The end point looked fabulous, but in truth the journey to get there was still one that terrified me. I was frightened once again, of my ability to cope with the pain. In those last weeks when everyone kept asking me how excited I was, I had to fake it. Truthfully, I was consumed with self defeating thoughts of failure.
  
  My due date came and went and yet still I had no baby. I went to my midwife appointment and at 40+2 my cervix was thick, closed and high. We sat there and discussed how to manage this turn of events and what my wishes were and I broke down. I knew that my body wasn’t responding because my mind had created such a huge internal block. If I had any hopes of delivering naturally I had to go easier on myself and simply do the best I could.
  The next morning I woke up and my water broke. I called the midwife who was not on my team and at another birth and she told me to hang tight. She would come and check it out when that birth was done, but to call if contractions were 4 minutes apart, lasting one minute, for one full hour.
  
  I started contracting about 15 minutes apart. I didn’t want my playlist, or birth ball or any of the carefully planned things that I had set out. All I wanted to go lay on the couch and watch The Kardashians.
  
  My older daughter woke up and that made me very emotional. I was eating breakfast with her, acutely aware that it was our last breakfast as a family of three. My plan was to keep her around thinking that her and I could snuggle and bond as things progressed. Apparently, that’s more of a TV thing. I would have a contraction and she would be jumping around and I couldn’t deal with it. We called our friends to pick her up, which was the right choice but made me even more emotional. She walked out the door and I just lost it, tears, boogers, the worst. It was a bit heavy to deal with while in labour.
  
  

  

  
  
  I was coping pretty well with the contractions by walking around. My husband is someone who likes to be busy when stressed out so he cleaned and checked our supplies repeatedly.
  Not long after my daughter left they seemed to be coming pretty closely. Four minutes apart but not a full minute and certainly had not been happening for an hour as it was only 10am or so. Still, I felt I should call and the midwives said that they were on their way but still a half hour out of the city.
  
  I continued to handle the contractions well, I just kept walking because laying down and the birth ball were excruciating.
  
  The midwives came and I was desperately hoping to be 10cms. I had always heard that transition was the worst pain, and was looking forward to being past it and beginning to push. They checked me and I was only 6cms and I was pretty disappointed. I continued to walk around by myself and contended with really pointless and negative thoughts like “If I was two yesterday, all this pain has been for four centimeters” or “I have pretty much this entire thing to do again” or “You have had an epidural, it was great, why are you even bothering with a home birth?” I considered going to the hospital, but thought I’d try the bath first. It took forever to fill up and contrary to every single birth story I have ever heard, it was awful. I got in, sat down, had one contraction and got right out. I sat in my towel perched on the side of the bed and somehow that was okay. I would contract, the midwives would talk me through it, Steve cooled me down with a cloth and ice chips which helped a lot. I stopped thinking of the end point and just dealt with one at a time. Let myself feel them, amp up, hang on and then let go and lose their bite.
  
  I sat for a while and then got up. I went to the bathroom and instinctively I knew that I needed to be checked again.
  
  Midwives looked and I still had a lip which they were able to pull up and around babies head. I hadn’t felt the sensation to push with the first labour because of the epidural, and it was just extraordinary. It was instinctual and animalistic and sounds came out of me that I didn’t even know I was capable of making. The contractions didn’t hurt as much, but the pushing itself was more effort than I could have imagined. After a few I was like “So, um, is she close?” I didn’t feel like I had a lot left to give.
  
  I pushed a few more times and they suggested that I change positions to a birth stool because sometime that can help. I sat down and pushed, but I didn’t love it. My body wanted to arch my back and they kept telling me to tuck my chin. I was sweating so it was hard to even hold on. At some point a huge gush of blood erupted and I could see it through the mirror on my closet.
  Things got kind of frantic at that point. The midwife was saying that she didn’t know where the blood was coming from and they were doing extra monitoring. I asked “What do we do now?” and the midwife said “We need to get this baby out, NOW”. I was pushing and in between pushes I was saying how scared I was. They got me back on the bed and she said not to worry that she could get her out if she had to with an episiotomy (to which I was thinking, just do it already). I was really scared because I knew how much was riding on my shoulders and quite frankly, I didn’t know if I had the strength to push anymore. It was terrifying.
  On the bed she got out the scalpel but at the last second my previous episiotomy ripped open and at 1:15pm out came sweet Matilda. Perfectly healthy in every way and screaming within seconds! They were fearing a placental abruption, and had already dialed 911 on the phone.
  
  

  

  
  They put her on my chest and in a few minutes I delivered the placenta. She was already rooting and I immediately nursed her.
  
  The blood as it turned out, was from an internal rip that went up into my cervix in addition to the one in my perineum. Midwife attempted to repair it just at home in my bed, but was not able to get as high as she needed to. She suggested a hospital transfer via ambulance to get everything repaired.
  
  

  
  

  
  At the same time they weighed Matilda who ended up being 9 pounds 9 ounces and also required a hospital transfer to check on her blood sugar. I went in the ambulance, but for some reason they wouldn’t let the baby come with me so Steve drove behind us.
  I was riding there and just thinking “Holy shit, I can’t believe I just did that!”
  At the hospital both myself and the baby were checked out and given the all clear to go home that evening.
  
  

  

  
  
  I have had a lot of people tell me how sorry they were that my home birth “failed” and how disappointing it must have been to wind up in the hospital anyways. In truth, I don’t view this experience as a failure but instead a success of epic proportions. The home birth was important to me, not for the house itself but rather because it symbolized my ability to overcome my fear. I think sometimes about those last few pushes. I think about how scary it was to see the blood on the floor, how exhausted my body was by that point and how in those critical moments I found the strength to continue. I was able to do that because I am a mom. I drew strength for the same reserves that all moms do. When our child is up with a fever at 3am and we know that our alarm is going off at 6. When the same child is having a complete meltdown in a grocery store and we don’t give in, but rather finish our shopping with our heads held high. When we send them off to school for the very first time and hold back our own tears so that they don’t think school is anything less than fantastically awesome. All of us moms, whether we have had home births or c-sections, breastfed or formula fed, we all find strength in ourselves that we never knew existed.
  
  

  

Scholastic Tales For Tots: Fox and Squirrel and Apples!

At our Scholastic Tales for Tots event today we met lots of new friends! After introducing ourselves, we read a story called Fox and Squirrel  by Ruth Ohi. It's a cute fall book about a fox and a squirrel who have many obvious differences, but are also the same in many ways.
Adalyn was so happy to get to take the book home!

After our story, the rain stopped so we went outside and had some fun parachute time! In addition to being loads of fun, playing with a parachute is both physical and educational. During our parachute time we sing songs, learn to work as a team, and our toddlers begin to develop a sense of rhythm all while laughing and having fun. Not only is it a non competitive activity, but it also teaches a wide variety of social skills and it's a great way to overcome shyness.

 Our theme for the month of September is apples. Today we talked about how apples can come in different colors, shapes and varieties. We also learned that when seeds form inside of an apple, they are in the shape of a star. Our toddlers made an apple craft where they could see  both the inside and the outside of their apples. We made sure not to forget the worms!

 Once our toddlers saw that there was open paint, they really wanted to paint too!

We made some messy apple art. We stamped our sliced up apples all over our paper covered picnic table. It was so much fun!

After painting, we finally had a chance to clean our hands and taste some apples. Unfortunately the bees were a little bit crazy as they often are at this time of year, and they too wanted to taste some apples. Luckily no one was stung today.

We're so fortunate to live in Ontario where so many different varieties of apples are grown. The different apple types that we brought today were Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Cortland, Red Delicious, Fuji, and Gala Apples. Everyone enjoyed the apples so much that I don't think they noticed that there were different tastes and varieties - they even ate the skin. All of the apples were delicious, however I would definitely have to say that red delicious are my favorite!