The revival of date night!

 by Joanne Before we had kids, my husband and I actually saw movies in a movie theatre, we went to Montréal for the weekend and enjoyed gourmet meals in the Market weekly!

Boy things have changed – now when we watch the Oscars we might have seen one or two of the nominated flicks. Weekends away have been replaced by weekend taxi duty and I now cook those “gourmet” meals. When we plan to go out for supper we no longer head to the Market but to St. Huberts or Pizza Hut.

With our kids are getting older, we are more comfortable leaving them with a babysitter.  But once you pay the babysitter there is not much left for dinner and a movie!  We were easily paying over $100 a date night when you add up babysitting, dinner and the movie.  A few years ago, my sister and I came up with solution to revive date night and not break the bank at the same time.   We started a babysitting co-op!   My sister has 3 boys very close in age to my 2 kids.  They love spending time together and they often ask if they can have a sleep overs… actually they normally ask if they can switch families and move in with my sister or have her kids move in with us!  Our co-op gives the kids more time to play together on a regular basis and us parents get a much needed date night.   What we do is, once a month the kids have a sleep over party!  Sometimes it is at our house and sometimes at my sisters – we alternate months.  The kids get to play and have their sleep over. We get to see movie, go to a party with friends or even tackle a home renovation.   Our co-op is “unofficial” we don’t have a contract signed and we are the only two participating families.   There are many resources out there if you wanted to set up your own co-op with family or friends in your area. We do a sleep over every month because my sister lives at the complete opposite area of the city than I do. But you can organize it any way you would like.  Today’s Parent did an article on babysitting co-ops a while back.   It works wonderfully for us!  Not only do the kids get excited to stay with their cousins but we get to enjoy a night to ourselves.  But we also look forward to having the whole gang at our house too… my baby is 5 so I am looking forward to the snuggles I will get from my 15 month old nephew!   Joanne the proud mom of Amélie (8 years old) and Mathieu (5 years).  She is new at blogging and you can find her at Our Money Pit.

Mother's Day gift ideas : Mom jewellery

by Lara I don't tend to think of myself as overly sentimental in general but I will admit, there is no jewellery I like better than the jewellery that commemorates my kids.

With mother's day around the corner, I thought I would share some of my well loved mom jewellery in case you are looking for ideas for your spouse (either as a gift or a request :))

Rings

I had a ring made when Kiernan was about a year old with his name and date of birth and loved it so much I had ones made when Juliette and Quinn were born.  I wear them more than my wedding rings (gasp!) although my wedding ring is smaller and pinches my "will never be the same after having three children, short and stubby" fingers, so it's hardly my fault ;)

But that is neither here nor there.  Back to the rings. I ordered them online from a store on Etsy called Accessory a la Mode and they are just lovely. I wear them on my thumb so I can stack all three on at once.

Necklaces

The last two Christmases my husband has bought me necklaces that commemorate my kids.

Last year I got a gorgeous necklace with a mama and three baby birds on a branch (in retrospect, we didn't realize there was one with a daddy bird too which would have been nice).

This year, I saw Mel's connection necklace and fell in love. I'd seen the pictures of them before but in person they are even more stunning.  I asked for one for Christmas and love love love it.

I asked around and got sent a couple of images of other lovely mom jewellery other moms have.

Like this ring with one mom's son's birthstone:

And Maranda had this lovely necklace made for her daughter:

Mom jewellery is fun, not terribly expensive, and a great gift for Mother's Day!

Do you have any mom jewellery? Do you want any?

Lara is mom to 4.5 year old Kiernan and almost 2 year old twins Quinn and Juliette. You can read her blog at Gliding Through Motherhood.

Tips for cooking with you children

by Krista I have written a little bit about how I love to cook with my children, and one of the most common comments that I get is "I could never do that, it would not be safe". I don't feel this to be true in my case, even though my children can be pretty rambunctious, and aren't always the best listeners in the world. We are very careful to ensure that all of us are safe and enjoying the process, and it makes them more likely to listen and want to do it again. So I thought I would share a few of the tips and tricks that I use to make sure that the experience is safe, fun, and successful.

Establish rules and set expectations from the start. I take the time to remind my monkeys before we start each cooking endeavour, and never bend or waiver from them, and they know it. There are some simple rules that apply all the time, like never touch the cutting board if mommy has a knife in her hand, never touch any part of the stove without permission, and always listen to mommy in the kitchen. I might add a few new ones in specific to the recipe, but these are the constants. I have established consequences, and make these known as well. They know that the rules are for their safety, and that not following means they have to stop participating for some or all of the recipe. They don't want that, so they are really, really good.

Start slowly. We didn't just one day decide to jump in and fry bacon together! Both of my children actually started out by sitting in a chair at the counter and watching me cook. I then got them to gather ingredients and utensils, then simple tasks like dumping measuring cups in the bowls or washing veggies. It took a while before we moved to actually cooking together at the stove.

Start simple and with familiar foods. Most of the early recipes that we made had fewer than four ingredients, or were really easy to throw together. This helped us make sure that there was something edible in the end, and that they were interested to the end. I also tended to have them help me if I was making something they loved. Pizza was great for this, a family favourite that could be pretty simple.

Pre-prep the harder stuff, if you need to. For me this most often meant chopping ingredients that needed to be sliced and diced, but could also mean doing some of the cooking in advance. It also means that I pre-plan what they are going to do in any recipe, ensuring that there are enough steps that they can do.

Allow for extra extra time. It generally takes me at least half again as long to cook with the lils. So if a recipe says it will take twenty minutes to prep, I aim to have it prepped in thirty or more minutes.

Expect a mess. The kitchen is pretty messy when they are helping out, so I plan for it and don't stress out. I try to keep the messy work contained to the same area and near the sink if possible. We also have tea towels at arms reach at all times. We clean up together when we are finished, or if we are really lucky, we get Daddy to do it for us!

Cooking with your little ones is a bit more work, but it is well worth it for me. Not only are they starting to learn the basic tools that will serve them well their whole lives, they are starting to know and appreciate what goes into the food that we eat. There is nothing that beats the pride I feel when they come running in to the kitchen at the end of the day, drag their chairs over to the counter and excitedly ask "what are we cooking for dinner?!"

Krista is married to Willy and mom to a 4 year old son, Woo, and 2 year old daughter Goose. You can find her at Life in the Hutch or on Twitter @kgraydonald

Tables and Chairs

by Ezmy Before having Budsie, A. and I enjoyed many a pub night with our friends from grad school and work. Since having Budsie, these nights have obviously become less frequent. But while few of our friends in Ottawa have children, this has thankfully not stopped us from getting together for the odd beverage. The fact that Budsie can now sit in a high chair, happily entertaining himself with food and chattering with passing waitresses, helps immensely.

When we discovered that a few of our old haunts had high chairs, A. and I were ecstatic. The perfect example? D’Arcy McGees on Spark St., a pub A. and I used to meet at after particularly long days at work. During Winterlude, we decided to see if they were family friendly. We were delighted to find out that not only did they have a highchair for Budsie, they could also set us up at a semi-private table with room for the stroller and everything. Most exciting.

So food was ordered and beverages were served. And then the inevitable happened - Diaper Explosion. Budsie and I headed to the loo. I did my usual scan to find the changing table. Was it on the wall? Nope. How about in one of the stalls? Hmmm, no. Well, maybe there was a space next to the sink? Oh dear. Thankfully, Budsie is a good sport and managed a diaper change half in the sink and half out. He found the shiny taps quite amusing.

Sadly, this is not the first time this has happened. It turns out that a number of family-friendly pubs with high chairs, and even kids’ menus, do not have change tables. I’m not entirely sure why this is. But I think it’s important to warn my fellow Ottawa parents, particularly those of you who, like me, are new to this gig: When asking about chairs, remember to inquire about tables as well.

Ezmy is a new mum to son Ewan (aka Budsie). When she isn’t working on her master’s thesis, or playing games with her boy, she’s blogging furiously about life as a stay-at-home mum in our nation’s capital. Follow Ezmy on Twitter (@ezmytweets) where she posts daily resolutions and updates on life with an active and very vocal baby.

Shopping for great deals at the Twins & More Sale

by Lara Nobody knows how quickly you go through kids' clothing better than parents... except maybe parents of multiples! ;)

We've talked about the beauty of shopping at consignment sales before, and tomorrow is one of the best sales the city has to offer! This sale is organized to raise money for the Multiple Birth Families Associaltion and only members of the association can be vendors (I've got about 20 diaper boxes of stuff waiting to head over there tonight :)

The items are all priced at the discretion of the vendors so you can find some amazing deals (and some overpriced items too :)  The sale opens to members before the general public so getting there as close to 11 is best.

If you are looking for summer clothing, shoes, toys, strollers, exersaucers, playhouses, or books - this is the place to be.  Hope to see you there!

What: Twins & More Bi-Annual Sale When: March 5, 11 am - 1:30pm (people line up, to get the best selection, get there early!) Where: Nepean Sportsplex

Tips:

- Bring a laundry basket or re-usable to carry your items around in. - Don't bring the kids - it's insane in there and you're definitely not allowed to bring in strollers. - They take cash and debit, but no credit cards or cheques. - Say hi to me, I'll be there volunteering! :)

Lara is mom to 4 year old Kiernan and 1 year old twins Quinn and Juliette. You can read her blog at Gliding Through Motherhood.