My son was getting ready for Halloween since before Labour Day weekend. Exactly when most shops displayed their Halloween items.
He can’t stop talking about his costume and trick or treating. Here is Canada we go to malls first for trick or treating and then at dark in the neighbourhood.
I’m all excited for him and we are all going to dress up and go trick or treat. Oh and he is going to be a very handsome pumpkin. He picked the pattern himself and my mom made his costume. My daughter is going to be a very tiny princess and I don’t know yet probably a nice witch.

However, what is on my mind right now is not their customs and where we’ll go and what we’ll do that day. The only thing I’m thinking and worried about is the treats they’ll receive. We had tips before to check the treats and discard suspicious or open packages. This year the safety of treats are more serious with the melamine contaminated chocolates and coockies. For example be aware of the Sherwood Brands Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins. You can check the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for more information. Read the rest of this entry »

They call it terrible two, but with my two kids it started at 18 months old. Right now my daughter is 21months old and she already started her tantrums.

Today we were at Costco shopping. I was looking at the book section and gave both kids a book to be busy until I’m finished checking out the children book section. When it was time to go, my son gave me the book with no problem. BUT my daughter, she made so big a scene, started screaming and talking gibberish at the same time. I bet she was saying let me grow up I know what to do!!! Everyone around us was looking at us and even some nodded with a disapproving look.

I’ve been told by many including my paediatrician that the best way to treat the tantrum is to ignore the behaviour. Prevention is the best but sometimes you can’t do that. My son used to start crying terribly and then stop breathing. It wasn’t like chocking or anything but he would get purple and it would take me a few seconds until I could bring him back to breathing. You can imagine how scary it was the first time it happened. I went to our family doctor and he said it’s just a different way of tantrum. And I can cure this with in 6 month if I don’t pay attention to him when he does this. The physician was specific to make sure he won’t be able to hurt himself though as at this stage he was capable to do that to get what he wants.

I did as I was told to and done, he was cured.within 4 month. I did the same thing for my daughter I just ignored her and let her cry and scream in the Costco. I’m sure many people didn’t like it and thought I was inappropriate letting my child cry like this. I was self cautious but didn’t let all the looks on peoples around me make me to give in to her. That was a key moment for her to learn she can’t get anything buy acting this way at home or in a public place.

What I did from the beginning is that they know I keep my word no matter what I won’t give in. My son is pretty good at this he knows when I mean business, I mean business no matter what. My daughter though is still very young and challenges me to see if I give in or not.

How do you deal with your toddlers tantrums? Share it with us we all will learn something.

Until later,

Thank God they finally decided to do something about BPA.
I  hope that government is forceful enough to remove all products that contain BPA. There is a vast variety of products that contain BPA which is kind of scary.

Some of the products which might contain bisphenol A include:
•    hard clear plastic and some tinted water bottles
•    hard clear plastic baby feeding bottles
•    hard plastic baby toys
•    food storage containers, plastic bowls and tableware
•    cans of baked beans, soup, vegetables, fizzy drinks
•    dental sealant to prevent cavities
•    electronic equipment and CDs
•    spray-on flame retardants

When grocery shopping I used to check the label of ingredients now I’m also concerned about the container of the product too. I don’t know if they can easily replace the products in a BPA free product or not.

I for one am going to throw away all my plastic containers plus all my kids plastic food wear and replace them with glass containers. For kids plates I know there are many china like unbreakable dinner sets, but I have to study on them do they fall  under the hard plastic category.  For now I’m going to use what my great grandmother used for living whitened copper plates. I’m sure these won’t have BPA in them until I  decide what to do.It will be an expensive project but you can’t put a price on health.

Something else that  worries me is the BPA in dental sealants for sure I’m going to check with my dentist to see what kind of product he is using.

If you have a concern or have an idea please share it with us.

Until later,

It wasn’t as tiring as I thought it would be. But I worked on it slowly but constantly the whole week. And it took me almost another week to get back to my routine 

The key was to get prepared before hand. I decided on the menu and did my shopping except for the Turkey at the beginning of the week. Made sure my butcher will have a good size Turkey for me to pickup on Saturday.

Choosing the right menu for the time you have is another important element.
Study the menu and recipes carefully and do whatever you can one day ahead. Even a portion of recipe will save you a lot of time on the day of the party.

You can’t be prepared enough with two toddlers. Thank God my mom came early to help me. My daughter was cranky that day and wanted to be held by me all day. I was falling behind with my roast vegetables when my mom stepped in and helped.

At the end the Turkey was perfectly done, and jucy. The vegetables were exactly how I wanted them to be and served in a whole roasted pumpkin.

I will have the recipes and some pictures in my following posts.

Until later,

All my Thanksgiving preparation, including cleaning and decoration is during the day when my kids are around. They should be busy doing something when I’m busy doing my thing.

Here it is, for craft we need some dried fall leaves, some sunflower seeds, some small cedar fruits, a brush and some finger paint and non-toxic glue. The craft will be on paper disposable plats instead of paper.

They can decorate their plates anyway, they like. At the end when the art is finished I make a whole on the edge of plate and make a loop with a thread. Then we will hang the art on the wall.

We bake pies, my son loves to work with dough. When I make the dough he gets his baking pan, a share of dough and some filling to make his pie. In the mean time my daughter is painting a mini ornament pumpkin.

We sing and listen to fun music, they even help me clean up. They think they are cleaning up:) Overall, we have lots of fun during the time that I’m getting to do what I should be doing.

Just a little imagination goes a long way.

Until Later,