Learning to be a safer parent

by Amy We ventured out in the wind today to join a small group of folks at Anna Belanger and Associates to take part in Amanda DeGrace’s Safe Parent course. The class takes place on the lower floor of the building in a warm, comfortable area with couches and rockers for those of us who happened to have our little ones with us. Joe and I brought Maggie with us and another woman had her 10-week old with her.

I had met Amanda before at some of the Kids in the Capital Tuesday meet-ups, I liked her immediately and this class is a wonderful forum for her. She shares experience and knowledge in a very clear way. She explained that she had designed the Safe Parent class to benefit parents and caretakers who might not have enough time to take a full first aid course for certification but who want to have some of the skills to help those they take care of in case something bad happens.

During the four hours Amanda went over what do when an infant or child is choking, how to perform CPR, what to do in case of cuts, seizures, burns, and more. She repeated the important points over and over again to drill them into our memories and she quizzed us.

The most important thing Amanda told us throughout the day was that if you forget something or miss a step, don’t panic – doing something is always better than doing nothing, and that if all you remember to do is call 911, you’ve done something to help this person.

The class was informative and made me feel better about being in an emergency situation with my daughter or another child and knowing a bit more about signs to look for and what to expect to see in certain situations. It was a nice environment with not too many people. We spent our breaks talking about our experiences with young children.

It was a good way to spend our afternoon and I would definitely recommend the Safe Parent course to others with little ones in their lives.

Amanda is offering all Kids in the Capital readers 30% off the Safe Parent course.  The discount will be accepted until December 31, 2010.

Amy is mom to 8-month-old Maggie and a 4 year old schnauzer named Henry. You can read her blog at amyboughner.ca where she writes about motherhood and anything else that’s on her mind.

Orleans Santa's Parade of Lights

by Vicky

I grew up in Ottawa's east end, and now I'm raising my own family here. Every year, for as long as I can recall, there has been a Santa Claus Parade in Orleans. It's a yearly tradition for many families. Yet I'm a bit sad to say that I waited until last year to actually experience it for the first time! Even though the parade wasn't a part of my childhood, it will definitely become a tradition for my kids.

Santa's Parade of Lights takes place on Saturday November 28th at 6:00pm, along St. Joseph Blvd, from Youville Dr to Prestone Dr. There are lots of great places to stand and watch the parade. However, with small children who get impatient quickly (like mine,) I would recommend standing somewhere closer to Youville Drive (at the start of the parade). That way you'll get to see Santa fairly quickly and then can head off for hot chocolate or to put the kids to bed. We waited closer to Place D'Orleans, and missed Santa all together since Joel got tired of waiting and wanted to go home. I would recommend going early and getting a good spot along the route because it fills up fast! Especially with young children, it can get hard to see.

We also didn't think to bring a toy or a cash donation collected by the Firefighters along the parade route, but many families did.

Bundled up!

The boys sat on their dads' shoulders for a better view. We all loved seeing the floats decorated with lights, and ooh and aah'd as each one drove by.

Babywearing!

Picture Perfect Holiday Photos: Second Installment

by Carly

I've always enjoyed being behind the camera much more than being in front of it.  Which is why I happily oo'ed and ah'ed over the family photos tucked into the beautiful Christmas cards we received over the years, but never reciprocated with one of our own.  Then the Little Man was born and my obsession with photography morphed into high gear.

The thought of having to book an appointment for a formal portrait, even if it was only at the local grocery store didn't sit well with me.  Likely because Jake had horrible reflux until he was over a year old and the odds that he wouldn't spit up projectile vomit on the chosen outfit before we even left the house were about as good as our chances of winning the lottery.

So while Jake took an unexpected nap one bright and sunny November day, I set the scene in our south-facing kitchen.  I hung a soft white blanket from the pantry cupboards, draping it over the kitchen table I had moved directly in front of the patio doors.  With the curtains wide open, letting in that gorgeous natural light, I carefully propped Jake up on some pillows tucked under the blanket and snapped away.

Back then I had only a film camera to work with and I shot about three rolls of film to ensure I got at least one good photo.  Not long after that we splurged on a good digital SLR and the Little Man learned to recognize Mommy by the black thing in front of her face.

Over the years I've repeated the process in various bedrooms - going wherever the natural light was best, hanging backdrops from headboards and even taping blankets or sheets to the walls with painters tape.  I've gotten great results using both the fancy-schmancy camera and the regular point and shoot types.

So, if you would like to take your own photos for your holiday cards, I humbly offer the following very amateur-ish advice:

1. Take photos in natural light without using the flash.
2. Take a lot of photos.
3. For at least some of your shots, get in closer to your subject, letting them fill the frame, rather than the background.

As far as locations go, some of my favourites include:

1. South-facing kitchens and bedrooms.
2. Rockcliffe Park.
3. Anywhere in the country.
4. The backyard.
5. Gatineau Park, Mud Lake and the Byward Market.
6. Staircases.

Happy snapping!

Carly has red hair and occasionally the temper to match.  She loves potatoes, rainy nights, photography, her husband and her 4 year old son, Jacob.  Probably in reverse order.   She also blogs.

Adding your child's art to your holiday cards

This post is from our friends at the Calgary based blog Kids in Cowtown. by Danielle

Do you find sometimes that your child's art would be perfect on a card but is just too big or too cumbersome to have them copy it 20+ times? I decided this year that I wanted our Christmas card to showcase some of my daughter's art. So I devised a way to do so.

I use Adobe Photoshop CS4 at home for photos so took advantage of the program to do my cards. There are several tutorials on the web if you google. I have kind of learned my way around the program in order to figure some things out. I am sure other programs work the same as well. I am also self-taught so there might be easier ways to do this.

Here's my list of supplies:

Cardstock paper (8.5X11 inches)

Blank cards & envelopes (I get mine from Michaels)

Eraser (optional for stamp)

Instructions (I have my full tutorial here):

Scan your child's art into the computer and create a layer so that you can draw over the image with a brush to copy it. Once you have that you can hide the original picture and resize the image to whichever size you wish and print it off on cardstock. Use a paper cutter to cut the sheet into a small image and glue or tape onto cards. Take an eraser and write a message such as "Art by (name)" and then with an X-acto knife cut around to make a stamp. Here's a great tutorial here. Use the stamp with ink pad and stamp message on back of cards for a personal touch!

Here's my finished product so if you're on my list this year please act surprised when you receive it!

Danielle is mom to a 3.5 year old daughter and 1.5 year old son and always looking for fun things to do with the kids. She blogs at Four Days Home.

Crafting a Costume

by Juli My son has got a fantastic imagination. He re-enacts favourite Thomas episodes, creates mysteries that he must solve, and constructs unique machines. Even with all of this imagination, he does not like to dress up.  This made Halloween and costumes a predicament. But, this year I tried a new strategy….getting him interested by letting him choose what to be and help make it. He decided he wanted to be a spooky train. OK, how about a train? And just like that, we are crafting our own costume.

Here is how we did it.

I used a Xerox paper box for the body of the train. I cut a rectangular opening from the bottom for my son’s body to fit in. Then, I used the extra cardboard (box lid and scraps) to make the wheels, front cab, and face of the engine.  We painted the box Thomas colours. We used wood glue to attach the wheels, front cab, bumpers, and engine face (you can also use a glue gun, I just didn’t have one).

To make sure the cab face stayed up straight, I glued a ¼” dowel to the back base. Then we added shoulder straps to help keep the costume on his body.  Next, I cut a whole in the top front of the box to stick the funnel in (it was made of a paper towel role).  As a final detail, we cut a whole in the front of the box and stuck a small LED flashlight in it.

Overall, I think it turned out well, even for a novice crafter.  What I enjoyed most was that it was a joint project for my son and me.  He took great pride in helping make it and wore it quite happily on Hollow-eve.

A friend mentioned that this would even been a great craft for dress-up play. I agree! But, my son won’t be doing that. He thinks dress-up is just for Halloween ;)