2nd Time's a Charm! Seveth Generation Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Andrea at Mama in the City for winning our Seventh Generation Giveaway!

Contest Re-Opened!

Unfortunately, our winner of the Seventh Generation Giveaway has also won on another blog site. So we are re-opening the contest for a couple more days. I urge you to make a comment at the original post of how your family goes green! The original post is found here!

Seventh Generation Giveaway - winner!

Out Seventh Generation Giveaway is now closed - congratulations to our winner RBM - you will be receiving an email notice shortly from us and Mom Central!

Seventh Generation - A Giveaway!

We have recently moved from the city to the country, which has been great. It's fantastic for kids, lots of open space, it's quiet, it's relaxing, it's great. One thing that has stuck out for me though that I haven't quite been able to get over yet is that there is no curbside recycling here. In fact, the neighboring city doesn't have it either. Really! I know! It doesn't stop our family from recycling though. We still clean and collect it all and bring it into town every two weeks, depositing it at the recycling station. It's just one way that we are trying to help the environment. I know it's just a little thing, but the little things can add up. The way I see it is that kids learn best by watching their parents. They too know how to recycle now. They are my designated sorters at the recycling centre. They especially love the change in their pockets after we hit the bottle depot :) A little incentive to help the earth.
Because it truly is the little things that matter, I was pleased when Mom Central asked if I would like to try the Seventh Generation products. Seventh Generation's goal is to make products that are environmentally friendly, even diapers. Sounds good doesn't it? You can join the 7th Generation as well! As a Nation member, you’ll have access to coupons, special offers and great tips for green and healthy living. Check out http://ca.seventhgeneration.com/community_ca
We would love to share some of Seventh Generation's products with you too. Simply tell us what your family is doing to become a 'green family'. One Clever Mamas reader will win a gift from Seventh Generation of a 100% organic cotton Seventh Gen Eco lunch bag as well as coupons for a FREE package of Seventh Generation Free & Clear Diapers, Free & Clear Baby Wipes and dish washing products!
Contest is open to Canadian residents and runs until September 16th.

Disclosure – I am participating in the Seventh Generation program by Mom Central Canada. I received compensation as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

My Daughter's first crush

It's official, my daughter has her first full on first crush. She's 19 months old. Her crush? Elmo. Yep, Sesame Street nailed it when targeting the toddler crowd. She goes absolutely nutty when she sees him anywhere! And I mean anywhere. If she gets even a glimpse of that furry red face, her own face breaks into a wide smile and she shouts, "Elmo!" with squealing delight. The problem? We have one Sesame Street DVD. That's it. And we don't have cable. We don't want it. We're not getting it. First thing in the morning my daughter asks for Elmo. Yep, even before her sippy cup of milk. If we go out, when we come home, she asks for Elmo. The Elmo disk finishes and she says, "mo Elmo" (more Elmo). Because I'm so completely tired of this DVD, I decided to go to the Sesame Street website with her. Big mistake. Now, when she looks at the computer, she points and says, "Elmo". My husband has also played Elmo for her on his iPhone on YouTube. To answer all you supermoms who say, "just say no" and "why are you letting your 19 month old watch TV", really...I don't mind my kids watching a little TV. That's a whole other blog post anyway. And we do say no to her about it. You should see her super style fits when we do say no. They are quite amusing. She's completely heartbroken about it. It's curious to me that my boys never went through big loving Elmo stage. They liked him, but it wasn't a big deal like it is with her. The last kid I saw with an Elmo crush was my friend Jennifer's little girl (now 9). She was exactly like this when she was a toddler. Which makes me wonder. Is Elmo the first 'perfect boyfriend' crush for little girls?

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Clever Mama Anna and her husband Andrew as they welcomed their second son to the world this week!

Siblings and new babies

I am 38 weeks today and I am scheduled to have this baby by C-section next Tuesday morning. It's a bit odd to know this time around when the baby is coming, but at the same time, sort of nice to be able to plan and not have this big unknown event hanging over me waiting to go off like a time bomb. I saw my Dr. yesterday and this baby still has not dropped, she said its likely this baby would not be born naturally either (my first labour failed to progress likely because my son's head couldn't/wouldn't drop down).
 As we live in a small town, our Hospital won't do VBAC's and if I had wanted to go that route, would have to have our baby in North Vancouver (an hour away), meaning all my prenatal appointments would have had to be there as well, meaning more time off work etc. etc. I did consider a Midwife as we have 1 in Squamish, but when I called her at 9 weeks pregnant she was already full for all of September (My due date was the 8th). She would have had to deliver the baby in North Van as well, but at least all of my appointments could have been closer to home. We are getting 2 more midwives, but they won't be practicing until October. Squamish is having a bit of a baby boom, for example my own Dr. had 10 babies due./born in August alone.

Anyways I guess I just provided all this back ground info on why I am not going for a VBAC, as people usually assume you should at least try. I am a little sad about not at least having trial labour, but based on the above I think this is the right choice for us.

Things that are occupying my thoughts this week are mostly about my first son, who is VERY excited about the baby. He now sleeps with his doll instead of his 2 puppies and wakes up every morning asking about his baby brother. We don't actually know the sex of the baby, but his friend Caleb has a baby brother so I think he just goes with that. At 2 (26 months) I am not sure he even gets the boy/girl thing (the concept in general), we remind him it may be a sister and that we have to wait and see.

Things we have done in preparing out first son for the new baby:

6 weeks ago we moved him into his room full time (he was co sleeping) into his own twin bed (I will blog about this process some other time).

Read stories about new babies. Mostly ones from the library; not just books about bringing a new baby home, but about babies in general. I did buy him the New Baby Little Critter  book, which has a little sister, I try to keep it gender neutral and just say "baby".

A doll- I bought him one at Christmas when we were first planning this baby and it is just a cabbage patch doll that actually ended up in the closet for a long time, but now we change it's diaper and swaddle it together.

Remind him about the routine for the day the baby is born: he will go to Nana's house, Mummy will go to the hospital and the Dr. will take the baby out from my tummy, and then Nana will bring him to hold the baby (he is very excited to hold the baby). Side note: We have been using this routine trick in other parts of his life as well, such as bed time or leaving somewhere, talking about 3 things that will happen so that he know what is coming. For example," we will read a story, then sing some songs, say our prayers, and then Mummy will leave the room for you to sleep",  we remind him during the routine this is what we are doing and we find that it works really well in avoiding melt downs.

I have also stocked up on little gifts for him so that when the baby gets gifts, he doesn't feel left out.

I know that Kris and Jill have blogged on this topic ages ago, but I can't find their posts (will look harder later), but I thought I would share my thoughts and see if anyone else has any tips to add.