Product Review: Little Miss Clips holiday collection

Little Miss Clips Holiday clips are sweeter than a candy cane!

momstown was lucky to be sent a beautiful package of holiday hair barrettes. Little Miss Clips are slip-proof clips perfect for fine baby or toddler hair.

We tried the clips in my daughters super fine hair (even though she's 4 years old, everything falls out of it!). The barrettes stayed in all day including the on & off pulling from wearing a winter hat and playing dress-up. The clips also looked cute and stayed in a 9 month old short baby hair.

These are perfect for any day, the selection is wide, but the holiday clips are just perfect for the holidays. Click here to shop!

Dear Santa, I'm covered in flour, pine needles & sparkles...

Dear Santa,

I'm trying really hard to keep up to you. :)

I've spent the weekend unpacking the Christmas decorations and setting up not one but TWO trees this year - one "nice one" for mama in the living room and one "kids one" that is being decorated just for you. When you visit please make note of all the homemade decorations that have been made with you in mind ("extra sparkles for Santa!") which required an entire tree to house them. Please also notice that many branches have about 5 ornaments on them set in place by 2 year old Andrew and there are none higher than 3 feet up. If you have a chance to look around I will do my best to keep the kidlets away from the adult decorations but I can't make any promises... it is a whole 26 days until you arrive which might be a few days too long to preserve any fancy breakables...
Our family enjoyed seeing you in the Waterdown Santa Parade last night. Lauren & I were on the momstown Hamilton float and ours stopped just in front of your float as you were climbing onto your special chair ~ very wobbly with about 6 helpers. Don't worry, I had your back and didn't spill the secret about the spiked hot chocolate and I vouched to Lauren that you indeed are very old (you've been doing this gig of flying around the world for how long now?) and your elves just needed to give you a boost. It was very neat to see you up close though in your lit up sleigh. Today has also been a baking day. Which of your elves came up with the Christmas Cookie Exchange idea? momstown loves the idea and in my pre-Christmas craze signed up to attend BOTH the Milton & Burlington events. I can hardly see out of my flour haze. That's 6 dozen cookies for each party .... to which my gingerbread are dinging in the oven now.... please send some Santa magic to make them taste good because I had to toss the first batch of dough...

I've been a good mama this year Santa. I try hard to fill this house with love, even when I have a headache from the chaos that surrounds me. I'm even growing you a new little elf - but not to worry this munchkin won't be officially around until next Christmas.

All I need you to bring in your sack for me is some sleep, a few hours of extra time (per day... can you pull that miracle?) and maybe some extra chocolate for my cravings. Please also remember that doll house for Lauren and firetruck for Andrew. If you could see to it that all the momstown moms & kids are safe, happy & healthy that would also make my year.

Merry Christmas Santa!

Love from a momstown mama,
Ann-Marie

Crafty Corner comes to momstown!

A big part of what momstown is about is helping your kids learn, explore and try new things.

As momstown mamas, Christi & I also really enjoy doing crafts with our kids and take lots of pictures of these crafty moments. Given all the thought that happens in our own homes for our wee creative enthusiasts and given the number of cool crafts that are happening out there at momstown events - we thought... let's SHARE them!

Welcome "Crafty Corner" to the momstown moments blog. We will be sharing ideas, how-to's and other fun educational & creative moments to share with your children. We believe in:
- making the attempt (gosh knows we know they don't all work out),
- being creative on a budget (our supplies are found aruond your house at your local dollar store) - getting messy! (buy a smock or use an old shirt!).

Childhood is about making memories and arts & crafts are a perfect way to establish regular creative activity and enhance colour recognition, sensory exploration and have loads of fun!

We'll be updating regularly (at least weekly if not more often) and will also be featuring our momstown mamas in their chapters as well. If you miss a post, check along the side to see our 'crafty moments' collected in one spot.

Get out your paper, scissors, paint & glue - we have some fun for you at the momstown crafty corner!

Product Review: Mocobabies

With my first child, I was able to attend signing classes. It was a great way for my non-verbal child to communicate her basic needs. She loved the classes and learned quickly how to ask for the things that she desired. Fast forward a few years, and two more kids, and my time is a little more restricted. But, I still would love the opportunity for my wee one to learn the signs as her big sister did.


And then came Mocobabies! I received the Mocobabies signing flashcards and stickers, along with a fantastic placement for review. I quickly pulled them out to have a look. The first thing I noticed was the durability of these cards. As Safiya began playing with them and of course, trying to eat them, the laminating made all the difference. The flashcards also featured many of the basic signs such as eat, milk, more, ball, airplane, baby, etc… On one side is the word and picture. On the reverse is the sign and the word. What a great feature, as babies are then able to recognize words, signs, and symbols as related. Safiya and I began practicing with my favorite….more! While she has not even begun to use sign language, I know that these cards will continue to be used as she develop her skills!


The signing stickers were a huge hit with all three of the kids, as they place them in a variety of locations around the house. The food items were placed on the refrigerator, the bathroom items in the bathroom, and some of the other ones were placed on the windows in the car and around the house. The older ones, 4 and 2 years, enjoyed imitating the signs that are on the stickers. The stickers were removable, so as you can imagine….they are still being moved all around the house!


Mocobabies has won the iParenting award and in our house we give them 5 momstown mamas, too!

"Mommy, I love you most of the time"

Yep, in response to my caring just-because comment today of "Lauren, I love you" my 4 year old daughter responded with...

"Thanks Mommy. I love you most of the time."

Most of the time? Not all of the time? Does she mean I 'like' you most of the time but I always love you? Does she mean maybe when I'm hassling her to hustle and get her boots on, I'm not lovable? Or perhaps when I'm negotiating one more bite of dinner, I'm not her favourite person? Maybe she's just telling me the truth, from her little girl perspective and comprehension.

Sigh, she's FOUR, not FOURTEEN and she's already told me she loves me "most" of the time. I am not ready, nor will I ever be ready, for my darling girl to grow up and start telling me what she really thinks about her mother.

Lauren, please just stay four years old forever.

Crafty Corner: Under Construction...!

My little man is in love with big vehicles like diggers, dump trucks and bulldozers (which by the way, I had no idea what any of these machines were called until his interest sprouted!).

Given his love of yellow mighty machines it made sense to dedicate his recent birthday party to these mighty machines. Problem is there is nothing out there for help - very little online in terms of ideas, activities or in store for decorations etc.

I had to put on my creative hat and start from scratch and since there must be other mamas out there with the same problem, I thought I'd share our construction ideas. Here are our SIMPLE homemade solutions to make a mini construction zone.

Craft ideas:

Diggers with DIRT

The kids coloured in pictures of vehicles then we cut them out and glued on "dirt" with coffee grounds, oatmeal and lentils. The kids LOVED gluing on the "dirt" (beware it can be messy) and made great decorations on our walls. I must admit, I was not brave enough to let a much of 2 year olds do this at the actual party so we did these in advance to add to the 'decor'.

Digger "Ornaments"

We made bake-able 'playdough' with salt, flour.. rolled it out into vehicle shapes, baked and then painted them. I had no luck at all finding a dump truck or digger cookie cutter so we used a train-car cutter and painted them yellow & black for effect.

Recipe for Easy no-cook Salt "dough"

Stir together 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 1/2 cups cold water (maybe a tad less), 2 Tbsp oil.

Stir until a soft dough forms. Then knead, roll and cut into shapes. Bake 300 degrees for about an hour. You can add food colouring the water or you can paint when cool. If you paint spraying with shellac when dry keeps the paint from peeling.

Construction Gallery

Easy simple colouring station keep the big kids happy and they coloured forever! As soon as they learned I was taped them to the window, the markers were smokin' as they coloured even faster to add to the display!

Other construction themes:

Each child received a yellow hard hat and a mini set of tools (saw, pliers & hammer) in a "tool bag" (paper bag). We tried to make a little game with them but as 2 years are prone to do, their attention wandered but it made for a fun take home.

Hope this helps any little construction workers at your house! Now I'm inspired to host a momstown construction big event this summer!

Product Review: Stay hands free with the Strap Diva!

Mamas need their hands, in fact we could use at least four of them. We need to carry babies, hold children's hands, push a cart, lug a tricycle and least of all carry a diaper bag or some purse to keep countless diapers, wipes, snacks, wallets, toys and maybe a lip gloss in! Maybe 8 octopus arms would be better!

So, how annoying it is when your bag keeps slipping off your shoulder? As if you don't have more important things in your hands already!?

StrapDiva has come up with an innovative solution to keep those pesky purse/diaper bag straps on place on your shoulder! Simply brilliant, the natural leather and suede Non-Slip Purse Strap snaps over your strap handles and the grippy underside holds firm to your shoulder.

They are made in different fashionable colours so you can match your bag and the only person who will notice that it's there is you ~ because you don't need to hold the bag in place! momstown tested this with a diaper bag while out on a grocery excursion with 2 kids and my bag was the easiest part of the trip! If only my kids understood how to stay put as well...

Best of all - free shipping to Canada so you can add one of these to all those mama stockings this holiday season!

reasons to do your KEGELS?

"Mommy, I thought you were toilet trained! You know, big girls don't pee in their underpants."

Yep - that is from my 4 year old daughter when she overheard me explaining to my own mother that in the midst of leaning over the car seat to buckle her brother up I seemed to have a bit of a slip. Or maybe a mini trickle is a better way to describe it.

OMG.

What is going on with my body? I used to have a body which behaved! Now I have this body with its own agenda. And it leaks. I did not sign up for this!

So I guess a third pregnancy does deliver some surprises. When I mentioned this bladder issue at my prenatal appointment today I heard the worst news. Unlike the majority of other pregnancy ailments which disappear as soon as the munchkin arrives, these bladder concerns can get worse after birth!!

WORSE? Like I could be peeing down my legs forever? Are you freakin' kidding me?

I am doing my kegels right now. As I type. I am going to set a timer to religiously do them 10 times a day, no 20 times a day, maybe 30 times. I am not buying Depends, I can handle this. I am a grown - toilet trained - woman and I refuse to leak. Seriously.

Do your kegels ladies and count your blessings for dry underwear!!

(PS: I questioned writing about this but I think this is one of those non-talked about topics -- so ladies unite and chuck me some support on this one and add a comment to not make me feel like so much of moron for sharing... my mother is likely shaking her head as I don't think it's lady-like to talk about pee in such a public fashion. Oh fiddlesticks.)

Product Review: Sleepy Wrap keeps babes comfortable and cozy!

I consider myself fortunate enough to have an easygoing baby this time around. Safiya likes to be held or likes to be left alone and she is as happy as pie either way! Always smiling, and so, when I placed her in the Sleepy Wrap, it was no different. She loved sleeping in it, but also loved being awake and as close as possible to me!

The Sleepy Wrap was incredible. It was simple to put on and the wide straps at the top made it comfortable for mama’s back support too. It was perfect for my little one who is now 8 months old, so we decided to try it out on a friend with a brand new baby, too. We let our test mom try the sleepy wrap out with her one week old baby, and she was amazed! A bit skeptical of placing her tiny baby in the wrap at first, she was fully convinced once she had her in it. The head and neck support was perfect for even the tiniest baby. Another feature that is unique to the Sleepy Wrap compared to other wraps I have personally tried is the ability to nurse discreetly. I was able to nurse my little girl right there without ever having to move her!

The Sleepy wrap is one size fits all, and with one piece of fabric, the website will show you 4 different styles of babywearing.

In my opinion, the Sleepy wrap is an organic, affordable option for all moms and dads who want to comfortably carry their babies close.

My only dream now is that I had a Sleepy Wrap when my oldest was born!

I rate the Sleepy Wrap 5 out of 5!

Product Review: Sunlight Green Clean is a Dream

The momstown minds have clean, fresh smelling clothes - what's else a mom to ask, except for someone to fold them for her?

Sunlight Green Clean was recently tested by 165 momstown moms across the country and it's fair to say they were suitably impressed by the cleaning power, fresh scents and earth friendly, biodegradable components of the detergent. The wash in cold water also helped decrease all of our energy bills too which was a nice plus.

My own family goes through about 6-8 loads of laundry a week which is probably pretty typical for most of the momstown minds panelists. When laundry already feels like a daily/weekly battle it's nice to have a detergent you can count on to make part of the job easier, less expensive and lighter on your environmental conscience.



The momstown minds rated Sunlight Green Clean 4 out of 5 "moms"!

3rd time around the block

It's not a leftover Hallowe'en pumpkin under my shirt. It's a baby.

This will be baby #3 for the Burton household and we're both darn excited and scared to death. At this point, I minimize my panic by not thinking past Christmas and only occassionally considering life past March 1st (the expected date). Simply because I have no idea what to expect and I think attempting to go with the flow on this one might be the key to sanity.

Some interesting observations / comments from others about a third pregnancy I've found...

1. WHY?
Everyone asks why we're having a third? I don't know, maybe because we thought it was a great idea!? We already have a boy & a girl so there's an assumption that this new baby must have been an unplanned surprise. Our baby was a planned surprise, not taking its time the way his/her siblings did so we feel even more blessed to add to our family (blessed but see above note, a bit anxious like any new parent feels about the upcoming adventure).

2. Are you crazy?
Here are some of the vote of confidence responses I've heard from some very so supportive friends ;)
- I can only handle two, I have no idea how you won't go nuts. (sorry, can't promise that)
- They are soooo expensive! Three! Really!??? (as one friend of mine says, babies are as expensive as you make them)
- You have no time as it is, how will you fit in another child? (I don't know either. Sleep less maybe?)
- They are SO close! (interestingly there is 27 month gap this time too and no one thought it was close last time?)
- The world is built for families of four, not five (um, thanks but the bun is in the oven, not open for debate at this point..)

3. No celebration.
I read an article once about how some researchers consider pregnancy to be addictive because of the adoration women feel when pregnant and wanting to recoup that feeling. With a first baby, okay, admittedly there is some fawning and adoring traits you feel from others. With a second baby there might be an occasional foot rub from hubby and more help with the household chores perhaps.

With a third, I think I have a sticky note on my back that says "It's my third". There is no recognition from others (even strangers!) and even less attention from your own self. Without realising it you still haul the big kids around (a first pregnancy you wouldn't even lift your grocery bags!), you still vacuum like an athlete, and you almost forget prenatal appointments because they are pain to schedule versus being the highlight of your month. No one treats you with kid gloves, pregnancy emotions are no longer a fine excuse for anything (you've learned better) and there is simply a lack of celebration. Anyone suggesting this pregnancy is addictive has never had more than one child. period.

4. Babies are bad for business
For this self-employed work-at-home-mom, there might be some point to that comment. The time I already steal in order to fit in some work time is about to decrease and yes, maybe the business will show some wear & tear because of it. But later on when we yearn for that 3rd child, can you really say you chose not to have another one because it was a business decision? Life will adjust and give accordingly (that's my plan anyways).

I'm blogging about this because it's probably one of the only times I will actually sit down to write about this miracle growing inside me. That's what it is -- a pure miracle. But this miracle is not going to get a pregnancy journal where I note all my feelings and its heart rate & head to rump stats....

But this pregnancy instead of being remembered not for my connection to my growing belly but my memories will be eternally linked to the responses of its siblings to the new situation. My belly is covered daily with preschool & toddler kisses. The baby will be christened Shay-le-la by its 4-year old sister. There is an expectation that Santa will deliver this baby for Christmas (despite the due date of March). There's an outright refusal by the toddler to even acknowledge that something called "belly" could also mean "baby". And so on.

Our pregnancy is redefined by our life now and that doesn't mean it has any less meaning than a first focused pregnancy did.

At end of the day, the decision to have a third for us feels incredibly right. The chaos and hair-pulling of the next few years was not the motivating factor in making our family larger, but the view of the people at our dining room table in years to come that motivated us. We all want to be surrounded by people we love and cherish and we're so pleased to be able to make three of those people from scratch.