Looking Back: Our Most Popular Posts from 2015

By Misty

What a year it's been for Kids in the Capital! In January we launched a brand new website, and we love the new look! We also received many great articles from our contributors over these past twelve months, and we're looking back on 15 of our most popular posts. Is there one that we missed? Send us an email and let us know what YOU loved reading this year: kidsinthecapital@gmail.com.

15) Reinventing Goldfish Crackers - back when I had more time (time?? What's that?), I tried out a much healthier version of Goldfish crackers and they were a huge hit!

14) Choosing the right camp for your child: there's a lot of time that working parents need to fill when their child is off school (or maybe you just want your child to experience camp). This post has some great tips from a past camp director!

13) Save money using Flipp: who doesn't love to save money? Cheryl tells us how to use the Flipp app to price match and save hundreds of dollars each year.

12) Worth a Visit: Almonte - we started 2015 with a new series "Worth a Visit." (Side note: I failed in keeping up with the weekly posts, but I'm looking to re-launch a monthly series in 2016!) Amy wrote this post for us, and it went a teeny bit viral. Those Almontonians love their town!

11) 5 Tips for Being an Anglophone in a Francophone System: I may speak French, but I'm certainly not bilingual. Some tips 'n tricks for sending your child to French school.

10) Mother-Daughter Journals: Donna wrote about this fantastic idea for connecting with your daughter(s).

9) I let my kid go to the park by herself...and then I wrote about it! Most readers were very positive, although many thought that 5 (the age of my daughter last summer) was too young. She's now 6, and already asking when she can start to walk to school by herself!

8) Don't tell my daughter to cover up! I write a lot about raising daughters, and the issue of dress codes is a controversial one.

7) Walter Baker Park: we got a lot of views on this post by Tracy. A park with an adult workout zone!!

6) Do you suffer from Mommy Disease? This post resonated with a lot of our readers - we're clearly all suffering from something :) I'm planning on writing a follow-up post in 2016, as health-wise, I'm doing a lot better!

5) Buy Nothing Ottawa: the act of giving and receiving, with no strings attached, is a heartwarming thing. Andrea gave us a great list of all the buy nothing groups here in Ottawa.

4) One thing you can do to save your sanity: this one was written for all the moms out there - can you guess what the "one thing" is?

3) Mommy Needs a Drink: the idea for this post had been "brewing" for a while before I wrote it. Do we live in a culture that makes light of problem drinking?

2) Holiday Gift Guide: Lara and I searched far and wide (well, not really...we patronize a lot of these businesses ourselves!) for great holiday gift ideas. All of these businesses are local to Ottawa or Canadian.

1) The Holidays in Ottawa: 25 things to do under $25 - clearly the winner and #1 on our blog this year, with over 20,000 hits!! 

Our readers love posts about things to do in Ottawa, as well as personal opinion pieces and parenting tips. We plan to bring you much more in 2016, and a big thank you for taking the time to visit and comment! What else do you want to read? Leave a comment and let us know!

Winter activities in Ottawa: Feeding the Birds at Mer Bleue

While Misty is dreaming up ways to make things feel a bit more winter-y I'm all for embracing the warmer temperatures and doing some of the outdoor things I usually avoid because I don't like being cold. 

This weekend I thought we would enjoy the lovely weather and get outside and we headed to Mer Bleue Boardwalk to see if we could find some chickadees to feed. Mer Bleue is a few minutes down Anderson Road from the 417 so it's a short drive from a lot of the city.

What to feed the birds

I'm no great expert on this but we stopped at bulk barn and for $2 or so of the wild bird seed I got enough seed that we could visit at least 5 more times without running out. Someone else who recently went to feed the birds said the birds seemed to love black sunflower seeds even more (and you can get that at bird shops). I stopped for coffee for myself on the way and asked for three small empty cups for the kids so they could each have something to carry a reasonable amount of seeds in on their own.

Where to find the birds

I've only done this a couple of times but here's what I've found to be key (please leave a comment if you have other/better ideas :).... listen for the chickadee dee dee noises... they tend to be close to treed areas, and then put some seeds in your flat hand and wait to see if they show up.

It's not very scientific, we found the birds in quite a few different places around the boardwalk, including in the tree right next to where we parked in the main parking lot. In fact, the most photos I got that I love were taken within 10 feet of my van!

I learned something pretty quickly with my three though. While the birds will land in a completely flat hand that isn't moving, the sensation of having a bird land on your hand is kind of strange and the kids didn't love it so much. My daughter dealt with it best. The boys each tried it once and then wouldn't try it again.

So what do you do instead?

Birdseed on the head! The birds happily landed on all three kids' hats within a few minutes of me putting some seed there.

Birdseed on hat works well. Beware the six year olds who will take off their hat and dump the seed directly into their hair.

Enjoy the Boardwalk

The Mer Bleue Boardwalk is a nice 1.2 km walk that is completely flat. The three kids (9, 6 and 6) made it the whole way without anyone trying to convince me to carry them or having to be left behind (at least not for long). It's beautiful, there's a self-directed tour if you're interested and if you're lucky your kids will pose for a few pictures for you.

If you're more of a winter person than I am, you can go and check this out once there's snow on the ground too!

There are so many great activities in Ottawa, leave us a comment and let us know where you like to go out and enjoy nature with the kids.

How to celebrate a green Christmas

Rumour has it that Mother Nature has left Old Man Winter for El Nino - the hot, young stud about town. I'm all for love affairs when warranted, but this is a bit much.

I'll admit I've never been a fan of long winters here in Ottawa, but I've always enjoyed snow in December. We get out and do ALL the activities (even skating, which usually involves the kids throwing themselves onto the ice in despair over their cold toes.)

So here are a few ideas to enjoy your green Christmas (although I do have hope that Mother Nature will see the error of her ways, and be welcomed back into the cold embrace of the Old Man.)

Go steal snow over at the ice rink

Seriously, they just dump the stuff in the back parking lot. Either go play on the mountain at the rec centre, or pack some into buckets and get home quickly to make your snowman

Make fake snow

Honestly, this sounds like the worst idea ever. All I can think about is my carpets caked in this stuff. But desperate times call for desperate measures. Check out this tutorial, but not if you have OCD or Obsessive Cleaning Disorder.

Freeze Stuff

The weather is so warm right now, you could actually play with rainbow ice cubes outside. That said, it can still be a bit chilly, so I would probably let my kids go wild with these in the bath tub! 

Make Paintsicles!

What a fantastic idea for some messy, painting fun!! 

Bring on Elsa

Create your own Snow Dance by blasting Frozen music and having the kids "bring on the snow." Then shoot confetti out of canon and have it rain down on the kids. Or not...Elsa music on its own is just fine.

What will you do for your green Christmas?

The day I walked by Maisy

It was a chilly day in late 2008 and I was walking along Rideau St. in Ottawa. I was in a hurry - head down, and feet moving quickly past the others sauntering along the sidewalk. I was also in a terrible, no-good mood. I can't even tell you now what had me so upset. Probably something trivial.

Up ahead I saw several people with flyers, attempting to stop pedestrians.

No way, I thought. Not today.

I assumed the people were going to try to sell me something. So I plowed ahead, and when a young girl attempted to hand me a flyer, I snapped at her; "I'm late!"

In a flash, I saw a young girl's face on the poster. It was the face of Maisy Odijck, a 16 year-old Indigenous girl who had gone missing. No amber alert had been issued. No search party had been sent out. Just those lone people on Rideau, trying desperately to reach out to those of us passing by.

A young girl was missing. And I walked right by.

This memory came flooding back to me this morning as I sat on the 174 listening to Dawn Harvard (President of the Native Women's Association of Canada) talk about her child's innocent questions after an interview Dawn had given. "We're Native, right? Does that mean I'm in danger Mommy?" I could hear the emotion in Dawn's voice as she talked about her struggle to answer her young child.

From an article by Dawn on Today's Parent:

"On a general level, the devaluation of Aboriginal girls and women, the impacts of systemic racism and the lingering effects of the residential school system have also contributed to the high rate of Aboriginal girls and women who have been murdered or remain missing.

Decades of silence on this issue have allowed it to continue. While the media has begun to draw attention to the problem, parents—both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal—must start the difficult conversations about racism, discrimination and historic oppression if we are to break the ongoing cycles of sexual and physical violence." 

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After I saw the flash of Maisy's face on the poster, my steps slowed. I realized that the people on the street were not trying to sell me something. I now know they were doing the job of our police, and our society - taking on the burden of finding a girl who had essentially been abandoned.

I turned around and ran back. I apologized to the young girl, and asked to see the poster. I looked right in Daisy's eyes and took in her general appearance. I told the girl I would keep my eyes and ears open. Then I walked away, and tears fell down my face. 

I knew I would not find this young girl, and that most likely, no one would. It's been 7 years, and she's still missing.

Yesterday our government announced the first phase of a public inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women. They plan to meet with parents in the coming weeks with the goal of hearing their views and what they want to see come out of an inquiry. I think of Maisy's mom, and wonder whether this offers her any comfort.

As parents, we have a duty to stop 'walking by.' It's time to start a conversation with our girls and boys. I know we're years too late, and we'll never get that back. But that doesn't excuse us from moving forward.

How do you talk about racism and oppression with your child?

The Beauty of Hazelwood

As parents, we're always searching for answers when it comes to our child's pain or discomfort. I know my daughter's GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) made life pretty tough for the first 6 months after she was born. We tried everything, and I read every book on the parenting shelves. Eventually things got better on their own, but those were desperate times!

Although we're past the colic and reflux stage of those early years, I've since heard many stories from parents who have tried necklaces made of materials said to aid in teething, colic and skin issues. The anecdotal evidence for the jewelry's effectiveness has been very positive, and as a Childbirth Educator, I've been intrigued to learn how these products can help fussy babies.

So when an opportunity came up to check out Pure Hazelwood, a Canadian company that sells hazel wood necklaces and bracelets, I jumped at the chance to learn more. I started by reading their "Our Story" page to learn a little more about the company. Back when co-founders Geneviève Lagacé and Patrick Lafond's baby daughter was born and was suffering from teething pain, they received a gift - an Aboriginal baby necklace made of four small wooden pieces on a string. The wood was hazel wood, carved right out of a tree that is native to Canada's Boreal forest. Despite their skepticism, they put it on their daughter and her crying stopped!

Geneviève and Patrick went on to start Pure Hazelwood, making and selling attractive and safe necklaces and bracelets for their customers. They have also engaged in scientific research on hazel wood, and discovered that the material is rich in anti-inflammatory molecules. The product works like a patch when on the skin, releasing polyphenols through body sweat.

My necklace arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago, and I've been wearing it ever since! I love the simplicity (I'm not much for flashy stuff), with a small gemstone, rose quartz beads, and small pieces of hazel wood. I'm trying the necklace to help with some skin issues I'm having, so we'll see after a few more weeks if it's made a difference!

If you're doing your Christmas shopping this month, this would be a perfect gift for parent or child. In fact, Pure Hazelwood is having a contest right now! Participants have an opportunity to win one of three Pure Hazelwood prizes, which include a $50 gift card and a Pure Hazelwood product (valued at $50). Enter below, and good luck!

Have you tried a hazel wood product? Did it help you?

Pure Hazelwood Influence Central Contest

“Disclosure: I am part of the Pure Hazelwood Influencer Campaign and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.”