Coping with Colds and Other Yucky Stuff

by Pam

Ah, fall. It is one of my favourite seasons with great vegetable harvests, gorgeous leaves and happy kids back to school. And then there is the downside – the return of the germs.

I’m home today with my youngest. Fever, cough and grumpiness seem to be on the menu today. Luckily I have been handling these bugs for a while now and have got some ideas on how to make the recovery more pleasant for everyone. Here are some of the handy hints I’ve learned. Maybe it will help with your kids when they're under the weather!

1. Be prepared. I am awesome at procrastinating but have learned not to put this one off. Get that medicine cabinet stocked with whatever you think you’ll need for sickness basics for your family. For us it is Tylenol and Motrin in both tablets and liquids (because sometimes they just can’t stomach the tablets), cold and/or cough medication, and anti-nausea and allergy medication. Make sure your thermometer is working and disinfecting wipes are handy. I keep a lined container and washcloth ready under the bathroom sink in case a delightful stomach bug suddenly visits. Better safe than sorry.
2. Keep up with the paperwork. Did I mention I procrastinate? Well, I’m learning. Keep your family doctor’s number, info on walk-in clinics, Telehealth (1-866-797-0000 in Ontario) and health cards in easy reach. Knowing the last time your child had the same illness or when he/she was last immunized may be important and you don’t want to be fishing around for this information while sleep deprived.
3. I LOVE warm therabags (bean bags) to help with sore tummies and general comfort. Crafty people could make one like this. We warm it up for a little over a minute in the microwave and the kids cuddle it for comfort. Hot water bottles are nice too with a little cover on them.
4. Layer up the bed. Yep, sick kids don’t always make it to the bathroom or bucket in time. No fun for anyone, but having a waterproof mattress pad layer between clean sheets makes clean up fast and hopefully all will be back to sleep in no time. Keeping beach towels handy for pillow covers helps too.
5. Keep that cupboard stocked too. You don’t want to have to run out to the store with a sick child in tow if you don’t have to. Soups, applesauce, Pedialyte, crackers, lollypops for sore throats and the like can be a great comfort to the little ones.

Hopefully any illnesses will be few and far between. Do add any ideas of your own to share. I’d love to hear what works for you.

Pam is Mom to Owen (9) and Laura (7) in Barrhaven.  They provide plenty of material for her blog, Easily Amused as she enjoys life with family and friends in beautiful Ottawa.

It's a wiggly party! *contest closed*

by Lara There are a few kids' shows that have always been MY personal favourites - the ones I watch a little more than would be expected of the parent while they are on for the children.  One of those shows is Backyardigans... the other is The Wiggles.  I love The Wiggles.  They're fun, they're average joes (something I find very endearing) and their songs are catchy!

Kiernan loves the Wiggles too (just in case you were wondering)! We have many of their DVDs (many from the pre-Disney era which are really fun to watch) and we listen to Wiggles in the car on a regular basis. The whole family can sing along to most Wiggles songs, and do (well, I do anyways).

Last year Vicky and I decided we were going to take our boys to see the Wiggles in concert. I still think *I* might have been more excited than Kiernan (but he was really excited too.  :)

We went all out and bought the kids Wiggles tshirts and Wiggles flashing wands.

Scotia Bank Place was PACKED. The show was non stop fun. Kiernan and Joel, at three years old, were enthralled by the show.  Most of the time they spent staring in wonder, but you could tell they were having a blast despite the often stunned looks :)

Check out the dancing folks - these kids were on cloud nine :)

And guess what?! We have tickets to give away to their upcoming concert on October 27!

The prize:

Family four pack (4 tickets) in the 100 level to see The Wiggles Wiggly Circus Live! at Scotiabank Place on October 27 at 2:30pm and a copy of The Wiggles DVD “Hot Potatoes – The Best of The Wiggles”.  (Approximate retail value of the prize is: $140)

To enter leave us a comment letting us know what your favourite Wiggles song is or who your favourite Wiggle (or Wiggles character) is.

For extra entries:

- Like us on Facebook

- Follow us on Twitter

- Tweet "I just entered to win a 4-pack of tickets to the Wiggles show on October 27 from @kidsincapital http://ow.ly/2Sbuc"

Leave a comment for each extra entry that you completed.

Good luck! Contest closes at 11pm on Friday October 15.

Sunday October 17th 10am- 3pm The Glebe Community Center 175 Third Ave @ Lyon St in The Glebe

It's an honour just to be nominated

Woohoo! Kids in the Capital was nominated for a Canadian Blog Award in both the Collaborative/Multi-Author Blogs and Family categories.

This means a lot. It means a lot to us that someone took the time to nominate us. It means that the work we do and the posts written by our contributors are valued.  Thanks.

If you would like to vote for Kids in the Capital in either of these categories you can click here. Each person gets one vote for their favourite blog, in each category, per day.

And thanks. Again.

Social Media Monday - What is Twitter

by Lara Last week we talked about blogging and this week I'm going to talk about an aspect of social media that more people have a hard time getting in to - Twitter.

Twitter - in it's simplest explanation - is microblogging. It is a place where you can talk about the things that you are doing online and in small bites - 140 character bites. (Here is my Twitter page if you want to have a look)

The bigger question then becomes WHY?

Many people who don't use Twitter just can't understand the concept. What is the point? Who cares?? I don't get it!!

So here is my attempt to explain.

If you were to stand in the mall yelling out random things about yourself ("I'm meeting my friend Jenny for lunch!" "I don't know what's good to eat in this food court!" "Is there a place to nurse my baby in this mall?") you are fairly unlikely to get an enthusiastic response. If, however, you are at the mall with a group of your friends and you had any of those questions, someone would try to help you with the answers.

The same goes for Twitter.  If you don't know anyone who is using Twitter- the above questions are likely going to go out into the twitterverse (made up words starting with tw are just a fun part of twitter I'm afraid you're going to have to put up with me using in this post) unanswered. If, however, you have a large group of people who follow you on twitter and you say something like that, you may very well get a lot of response with advice, tips, etc.

"Say hi to Jenny for me!" "I love Taco Del Mar" "Check out the amazing nursing room near the food court"

Brie and I read each others blogs before we used Twitter, but it was only once we started talking on Twitter, and then subsequently met at a tweetup (twitter+meetup... you get it :) that we became friends.  Without twitter, there would be no Kids in the Capital.

And that tweetup happened because there is an incredible community of Ottawa parents on Twitter. Parents who help each other out.  Who are there when you're up in the middle of the night with a sick baby, to give advice on weird rashes, to commiserate over picky eaters, to talk about why such and such a place is the perfect place to go for a playdate with 4 year olds, etc, etc, etc.

Twitter, when used properly, is a community, a social network, a support group, and a lot of fun. It is a goldmine.

But Twitter isn't always obvious - it can be hard to use, hard to navigate, and hard to understand. So we will explain it!

In subsequent posts we will go through how to sign up for a Twitter account.  Once you have your Twitter account you'll want to know how you find people to follow and how do you get people to follow you back.  We'll discuss what all the symbols and terminology mean (there are a lot of short cuts needed to say what you want to say in 140 characters) and then we'll discuss some of the tools people use with twitter from Hootsuite and tweetdeck, to twtvite and twitpic.  There's a lot of info but we'll try to break it down for you so that it makes sense and you're prepared to dive in and give it all a try.

And if you're already on twitter, or want to go at it on your own - follow me and say hi, I'm @larawellman.  And say hi to Brie too - @capitalmom. We are, of course, @kidsincapital.

Lara is mom to 3.5 year old Kiernan and 1 year old twins Quinn and Juliette. You can read her blog at Gliding Through Motherhood.

“Best picks” for Hallowe’en reading from the Ottawa Public Library

Kids in the Capital is so excited to be launching a new series of monthly blog posts by Ottawa Public Library children's librarians! We hope you enjoy today's post and remember to check back every month for great children's books ideas. By Rebekah McCallum, Children’s Librarian, Cumberland Branch

With Hallowe’en just around the corner, it’s time for librarians at the Ottawa Public Library to choose some spooky stories for our storytimes. This year, I’m planning to mix some of my favourite dark tales from past years with ghoulish offerings newly arrived in the library children’s collection.

I’m delighted to be able to share my “best picks” for Hallowe’en reading with you through this forum. You can order all of these books online through OPL’s online catalogue and stop into your local branch to pick them up, or to discover your own spine-tingling favourites.

My first shivery suggestion is Dan Yaccarino’s ever-popular version of “Five Little Pumpkins”. In this simply-illustrated and brightly-coloured board book, we meet the five little pumpkins of the popular Hallowe’en fingerplay. Each pumpkin face has its own character, and each speaks to the reader in turn. Babies and toddlers will enjoy the book’s rhyming text and the expressive, but friendly, faces of Yaccarino’s illustrations. Young readers can also trace a ghost from page to page, count witches on broomsticks, and meet a black cat as they turn from page to page. A great Hallowe’en choice for those of us who prefer minimal spookiness!

For preschoolers who can take just a little more of a scare, author Rebecca Dickinson brings us a new Hallowe’en counting book. “Over in the Hollow” is based on the classic counting rhyme “Over in the Meadow”. But instead of an “old mother toadie” and a “green mother frog”, here we meet “an old, moldy mummy and his little mummies too”, “a hairy uncle werewolf” and “a spooky mama owl.” The new words fit the rhyme perfectly, and little readers will enjoy Stephan Britt’s textured, cartoonish illustrations with their many engaging and comic details.

Another recent publication, Ross Collins’ “Dear Vampa” details the sufferings of the Pire (read vamPire) family when new neighbours, the Wolfsons, move in next door. These strange creatures, with their cocktail parties, cell phones, manicured lawn, and peculiar habit of sleeping at night, drive the Pires nearly senseless with aggravation. Finally, young Bram Pire writes to his “Vampa” in Transylvania, asking him to prepare the “guest crypt” for their immediate return. Not until the Pires have moved out in a huff do we realize that the Wolfsons are concealing a fiendish secret of their own. This picture book is perfect for kindergarten and school-age children, but parents will also enjoy the author’s ironic, fantastical take on modern suburban life.

I couldn’t offer a list of Hallowe’en book recommendations without including Ruth Brown’s masterfully spooky “A Dark, Dark Tale”. In this beautiful adaptation of the classic ghost story, tension builds as we move through sombre moor, forest and castle, progressing ever closer (so we think) to a creepy climax. Imagine the surprise and delight of small, shivering readers when – up the stairs…down the passage… in the room…in the cupboard… in the box – we discover, not a ghost, but a…MOUSE! A wonderful Hallowe’en choice, especially for reading aloud.

Preschoolers who are up for a slightly longer read will enjoy “The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin” by “Goodnight Moon” author Margaret Wise Brown. This splendid story was published posthumously in 2003, and beautifully illustrated by Richard Egielski. Brown tells the tale of a tiny yellow pumpkin growing in a sunlit field, who begins to imagine himself “a very fierce vegetable.” The pumpkin longs to make a ferocious face like the scarecrow’s, to scare away the field mice. The days grow darker, frosts come, and the little yellow pumpkin grows big and turns fiery orange. But he cannot make a fierce face until three children take him home and transform him into a Jack-o’-lantern. Wise Brown’s wonderful turns of phrase and Egielski’s glowing, autumn-coloured illustrations work seamlessly together, making for an excellent read.

Finally, if your child favours fact over fiction, he or she may enjoy learning all there is to know about Hallowe’en through Denis Brennan-Nelson and Donald Wu’s “J is for Jack-o’-lantern”. This multipurpose book has something for almost every age. Preschoolers will enjoy the full-page, brightly-coloured illustrations depicting witches, skeletons and funky costumes, as well as the short rhymes on each page following every letter of the alphabet. Older children (and their parents) will learn all kinds of interesting trivia about the history and science of everything Hallowe’en. And every age group can experiment with the book’s great recipe and activity suggestions. Essentially, an entertaining and splendidly presented encyclopaedia of the festival.

So there you have them… my frightening favourites for your little one this fall. Happy reading!

Rebekah

Sunday October 17th 10am- 3pm The Glebe Community Center 175 Third Ave @ Lyon St in The Glebe