Camping Overview...sadly not demonstrated via Instagram

After spending a week camping with my family, I feel grateful. Not for the amenities of home, but for home itself. Thankful that in our life we have the luxury of worrying about the little things, secure in the fact that our home is always waiting for us.

That being said, camping was good.

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It was wet and mornings started with a 5am wake up call from Simba.

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On Monday morning Simba and I saw a goose wandering around with an arrow stuck through it. He seemed to have one friend, or mate, that stayed close throughout the day. The SPCA came by the campground but the scared little guy continually scooted away and ultimately evaded capture.

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Aside from the adjacent Vedder River, one of my favourite features of the campground is that it connects to the municipal trail system, which connects to the dyke system, which leads to the front entrance of the campground. It's an leisurely way to enjoy a 45 minute stroll with my boys. We sing songs, tell stories, eat snacks and generally enjoy each other's company. Truly its lovely, for the most part.

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Sometimes we detour a short ways from the campground and stop to look at the horses and donkey in a local field. If Simba had his way, we would spend hours each and every day watching the animals.

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We don't watch animals all day, however we do spend hours in the playground; the swings are always a favourite.

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And, what would camping be without a campfire? We had campfires at least once a day (I LOVE morning fires) and we went through oodles of wood.  Interestingly, Bolt talked non-stop about s'mores but only ate a grand total of four and was otherwise disinterested in the fire, whereas Simba loved both making and watching the fires and ate no s'mores at all.

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Camping, or perhaps I should say glamping (at my sister-in-laws trailer) was time well spent with the family. I enjoyed listening to my boys giggle, laugh, run and play, though I will also admit that I enjoyed my brand new phone and data package (as if you couldn't guess).

Does your family camp?
Do you tent or trailer?
Do you travel the 'world' or you frequent the familiar?
What's your must-bring item for the kids?

FYI - apparently you CAN'T just embed your Instagram photos which is frustrating me to no end...so please do click through to the pictures so you can see all the fun we had!

2013 Top Vancouver Mom Blogger - I'm a Nominee!

By nature, Bloggers are opinionated folks who spill the beans about their life, their experiences and pretty much everything in between. As a Blogger, I love when my posts illicit comments, discussion or a sense of community; I'm no expert at reader engagement, but I try and I'm certain my ability to reach people improves with each and every post.

All that being said, perhaps more exciting (though not more important) than building blog community, is being nominated as one of the 2013 Top Vancouver Mom Bloggers by Vancouvermoms.ca.

I am one of THIRTY local mom Bloggers that are being celebrated and featured by Vancouver Moms, and let me tell you, this years nominees are top notch. My Blog roll is about to be expanded in a huge way, and I suspect yourS is too!

If you're interested, head on over to the VANCOUVER TOP MOM BLOGGERS VOTING PAGE and cast your vote (I'd love it if you voted for me!!) Voting is open until Monday June 10th and you can vote for your favourite THREE bloggers once this week and once next week. You can vote two times total!

All the nominees will be celebrated at the 2013 GLAM event at a secret Gastown Location and YOU are all invited to join in the fun. Tickets can be purchased on eventbrite for $39 until June 1 or $49 after that date.

Just because you're my friend, and I'm a nominee, you can get $5 off your ticket with coupon code 2013friend. Hope to see you there!

Help Your Preschooler Manage His Emotions

Back in September I shared a particularly difficult post about my son's aggressive tendencies but I haven't said much more. I've consciously chosen not to write much about the topic, first and foremost because I have to keep my son safe, but also because its a lot of trial and error and I want to make sure I'm sharing the efforts that have been most successful for us.

I think its essential for parents who are walking a similar path, to know they are not alone and I think its equally, important for other parents to get a glimpse inside the struggles of a family whose child doesn't act quite like everyone else.

The Hubs and I have put considerable effort into finding techniques and resources that help us, help our boy. We have had a doctor identify that what we are seeing is likely tied to ADD and anxiety, both of which are prevalent in our families. We are taking this journey one step at a time and we have seen great strides in Bolt's ability to manage his emotions and frustrations over the past few months.

It's a long road and there is no quick fix but here are two simple changes that are helping us, help Bolt.

Don't Acknowledge Negative Behaviour, Correct It - Instead of simply saying 'Stop Hitting Your Brother' and expecting my preschooler to express his needs in a non-physical way, I am learning to lead him by example and show him how to behave both physically and verbally.

I start with the physical: I take his hand and gently stroke his brothers arm while I state in a calm, even voice, 'THIS is how we touch other people, gentle hands'.

Then I give him the verbal language he needs to communicate his needs and feelings; 'Next time you can just tell Simba, I don't want a hug right now'.

End of lesson, I try and leave the positive behaviour I want him to emulate in the forefront of his mind and I'm always cautious not to overwhelm him.

Find Books that Speak to Your Child's Needs - Bolt has always loved books and they allow us to talk about feelings and behaviours in an indirect way that doesn't offend, aggravate or alarm him.

My absolute favourite, MUST-have book right now is The Way I Feel by Janan Cain. Each two page spread addresses a different feeling with an expressive illustration and a simple, concise poem to describe the emotion. If your child has trouble expressing emotions, this book is amazing.

I'm also a huge fan of The Kissing Hand and A Pocket Full of Kisses by Audrey Penn for separation anxiety and sibling jealousy respectively. These books are about Chester the Raccoon who is even one step further removed from my boy's reality, a fact I think Bolt really loves.

The classic Little Critter books have also really been resonating with our boy as of late; I Was So Mad was one of the very first books we found about anger that Bolt really seemed to relate to. I love that there are so many old and new Little Critter stories, so you can get one relevant to almost any situation.

As Bolt get's comfortable with the books he starts to ask why the characters feel a particular emotion and before I know it we are having brief conversations about feelings, which occasionally lead to more personal, incredibly candid discussions.

These books have worked wonders for us, if they don't fit your families needs, find ones that do. I promise you, its worth the effort.

We have made a number of other changes in order to help our family find its groove and I promise to share more of them later. But for now, I'm curious, how do you help your children manage their emotions?

Please Help Me Meet Michael Smith | Love Your Lentils

When I was maternity leave, I watched a lot of cooking shows on the Food Network; one of my favourites, was always The Chef at Home with Michael Smith. He always seemed so authentic and his food was so appealing yet simple.

I'll never forget watching him make a Beer Beef Stew; he said don't bother putting half a can of tomato paste back in your fridge, you're never going to use the rest of it, just throw whole thing in there. I don't even like stew and that simple segment inspired me to try his recipe, substituting gluten-free beer of course. It was awesome.

So when an opportunity to meet Michael Smith, thanks to Lentils.ca, landed in front of me, I knew I had to participate.

If you want to help me meet Michael Smith, head over to Loveyourlentils.ca and VOTE for my BBQ Chicken Pizza with Quick Lentil Crust by clicking on the voting circle at the top of the page. Voting is open until May 31st, at which point Chef Michael (and his team) will evaluate the top ten recipes as voted by the public and determine the winners.

Thanks in advance for your support!

Psst. if you click the picture it will take you to my recipe page, where you can vote.

Bleach Baths for Preschoolers (with Eczema)

My boy Bolt is 4 years old and has had eczema, literally since the day he was born. We recently started giving him dilute bleach baths (approximately 0.005%) as a way to keep his skin clean and free of bacteria, specifically Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as staph. According to this article, from the London Eczema Society, less than 10% of healthy individuals have staph on their skin, but almost all eczema sufferers have staph somewhere on their skin. 

I'll admit, the idea of bathing my child in bleach did not appeal to me initially. In fact, people have been casually mentioning it to me for about two years, but I just couldn't get on board. However, a few months ago, I couldn't get Bolt's eczema under control; his hands were constantly raw and his legs, arms and torso were covered with small bleeding and/or raw sores.

We started by applying some prescription antibiotic cream followed by a 10 day course of oral antibiotics to get the infection under control. It's only the second time he's needed antibiotics for his skin, but its frequent enough that I wanted to find a way to prevent these occurences rather than treat them after the fact.

So this time, when a friend mentioned how successful bleach baths had been for managing her daughter's eczema, I listened. I asked questions, I read articles and talked to other friends who were using the treatment before I went to my doctor to discuss bleach baths as a possible method to control Bolt's eczema.

Coincidentally, my doctor had recently received an email regarding the use of bleach baths for eczema and after reviewing the material and providing me with a copy of the article, she encouraged me to try it. Although the studies indicated we should have a bleach bath twice a week, we started out by having them every fourth day. Bolt consistently scratched himself raw on the third evening.

Now, both my son and I are have a bleach bath every three days and there has been a noticeable decrease in the amount of scratching, bleeding and discomfort we are both experiencing. I personally have a patch of eczema that has been irritated since Simba was born two years ago, and its finally healing.

I'm no doctor, but I am a Mom and right now I am a believer in the power of bleach to ward off staph. I whole heartedly believe you should talk to your doctor before trying any new eczema treatments for your child. If you and your medical practitioner decide this might be an option for your family, I encourage you to give it a try. We've been having bleach baths for about a month now since I already had bleach in my house, it hasn't cost us a cent.

For those of you who are interested, here's a summary of what we're doing.

Bleach Baths for Eczema
(to be repeated every three days)

• Fill bath half full with warm water
• Add 1/4 cup of bleach to the bath and mix well (I usually add 2 capfuls)
• Have your child bathe in the water for at least 10 minutes.
• Rinse your child with warm, clean water.
• Pat dry.
• Follow your regular mouisturizing regime.

Life Brand Bonanza at Shoppers Drug Mart

A few years ago, back when Simba was a newborn and Bolt was an out-of-sorts toddler, Shoppers Drug Mart was my refuge. A place I could go, clad in sweats and dishevelled hair, at 10:30 at night when both my precious boys were finally asleep. I would wander the aisles leisurely, looking for deals and buying any essentials we needed. Now that the boys are older, these little outings continue to give me some much needed alone time, satisfy my need to shop and ensure our medicine cabinet is always fully stocked, but they don't feel quite as essential as they once were.

I'm a little embarrassed to say that although we have medicine cabinets, most of the medicine we use on a regular basis is in a basket in my kitchen.  Although it seems like a sound idea, in reality, it tends to be an extremely frustrating mess. So when I was offered the opportunity to 'clean out my medicine cabinet' and fill it with Life Brand Products, I realized it was the perfect opportunity to actually start using the medicine cabinet is it was intended.

Since I loathe all things cleaning, I made a trip to Shoppers Drug Mart before I actually cleaned out my medicine basket. There are a number of locations close to my home, but I decided to go over to the No. 5 Road and Cambie Shoppers Drug Mart location in Richmond, BC. This store is new, big and spacious and I never feel crowded when I'm shopping. 

Shoppers Drug Mart wholeheartedly embraces the local community; this simple sign in the front window displaying the most prevalent languages in the community really speaks to me and shows me that Shoppers Drug Mart pays attention to the people they serve.

On this particular trip, I was on a Life Brand Bonanza, comparing prices and looking for products my family can always use. My first stop, was of course, the baby aisle where I grabbed some Baby Life bottle liners (saving about $1.50 over the name brand) before heading over to the medicines. 

I also made sure to grab 'essentials' including antihistamines, pain killers (I saved $6 on Life Brand Children's IBuprofun), cold and flu medicine and band aids, which we go through at the speed of light around here.  I regularly purchase Life Brand products since they are consistently cheaper than brand name products and when I compared the ingredient lists there were very few variations, most of which are usually in the non-medicinal ingredients.

In an area where the closest grocery store is a 15 minute drive away, Shoppers Drug Mart has stepped up and has a quite comprehensive grocery section complete with milk, eggs, bread, coffee, hummus, cheese just to name a few of the products. I feel like this simple fact speaks volumes about the investment Shoppers Drug Mart makes in the community.

Armed with a slough of new Life Brand products, I undertook the task of cleaning out my medicine cabinet and filling it up. It looks fantastic, now I can only hope I can maintain the neat, orderly shelves.

Are you a Life Brand Shopper?
Do you have a system for keeping your medicine cabinet tidy? (because I need one)

You can see ALL the photos from my shop on Google+.

“I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® #cbias #SocialFabric”

My Fisher-Price Favourites | 20% off Coupon Code

Babies need stuff, way more stuff than I ever anticipated and when you're a new Mom wading through all the options, things can get overwhelming fast. In those moments, most of us reach for something familiar, a name that we recognize, perhaps a product we actually remember from childhood.

Fisher Price Favourites is a list of twelve tried and tested Fisher Price products that have stood the test of time and made the cut as 'Mom Must-Have's, here's the list.

1. Ocean Wonders Aquarium
2. My Little Snugabunny Cradle N Swing
3. Infant to Toddler Rocker
4. SpaceSaver High Chair
5. Discover’n Grow Jumperoo
6. Brilliant Basics Rock a Stack
7. Learn Love to Play Puppy
8. Learn Say Please Tea Set
9. Click ‘n Learn Remote
10. Brilliant Basics Stroll-Along Walker
11. Little People Wheelies Stand ‘n Play Rampway
12. Little People Animal Sounds Farm

How many do you have in your home?

I have recollections of playing with the Brilliant Basics Rock and Stack during my youth in the eighties; its such a simple toy but the bright colours and the sense of accomplishment that little ones derive from stacking the rings make it a toy that kids can enjoy generation after generation.

Although I never owned one, I'm also a huge fan of the Discover 'n Grow Jumperoo; back in October 2011 I had the opportunity to attend Blissdom Canada with 6 months old Simba. That boy was never happier than when he was jumping, bouncing, touching and playing in the Jumperoo. I literally wanted to take it to my hotel room to keep him entertained all evening.

Seriously, does this look a six month old who flew from Vancouver to Toronto to attend a Blogging conference with his Momma?

The other item on this list that is an absolute must-have from my perspective, is the Little People Wheelies Stand ‘n Play Rampway. Bolt received his ramp as a gift almost 4 years ago and between my two boys it still gets used on an almost daily basis.

Personally, I love the car sounds it makes, but I think for the boys the sound features are a distant third.

They love to race all sizes of cars, trains (though they often fall off before they make it to the bottom) and anything else with wheels, letting them fly across the living room floor and having subsequent cars crash into the previous ones.

The elevator however, is perhaps the most coveted feature of all. My boys will fight over who gets to lift the elevator and bring the cars to the top, though Simba generally just lifts it up and down over, and over and over again. Regardless, the Stand 'n Play Rampway continues to entertain day after day and I'm certain when my boys outgrow it, this toy will go on to provide joy to another child for years to come.

So I'm curious, what are your Fisher Price Favourites? Did they make the list?

Are you interested in purchasing some new Fisher Price Favourites for your family? Head over to to Toys R Us Canada and use special pin FISHERPRICE20 to save 20% off your Fisher Price Favourites purchase before April 30.

Disclosure: I am part of the Fisher-Price Blogger Campaign with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.