I just read an excellent blog posting I wanted to share with you!   Safbaby.com just uploaded this new article on 12 ways to keep your baby and kids toxin-free in 2010.  Many of the tips will be a refresher for some (avoid the dreaded BPA is by now hopefully familiar advice for all parents), and some may be new issues you may want to consider for your family (avoiding corn syrup and food additives etc.)

Safbaby.com is run by two moms who provide great info on raising your baby in a toxin-free environment.

The article is nteresting reading for sure, with lots of links to more in-depth articles for further research. Hope it helps make your home and life more safe for your little ones!

When I was a little girl, one of the things my brother and I looked forward to the most at Christmas was the Advent Calendar. Each of us got our own paper calender, with the little  tab windows we pried open every morning on the countdown to Christmas.  As we got older, we had the special ones with chocolates behind each window – a big treat for us, raised to think raisins were candy until we were old enough to know better.

So this year, with our two oldest boys now almost 5 and almost 3, we started an Advent calendar. My mom, aka Nana, bought it for us and the boys take turns each alternating day, opening a window. My oldest searches to find the right date (great for number recognition and counting), and they open the little window to see the illustrations (wreathes, candles, Christmas trees etc.) No chocolates for my kids either (funny how we end up like our mothers), but this year we are trying a new addition and I’m hoping it will become an annual tradition for us.

Every day, as we open the calendar, we do a Christmas activity to help us get in the spirit. One day we sang Rudolph, the next we made paper snowflakes, one morning we chose two of my kids’ toys to give to charity. Today we wrote letters to Santa and one morning we made hot chocolate, a big treat in our home. I’ve made a list of activities (ranging from as simple as singing a carol to as involved as putting up the tree).  The kids are having a blast and are so excited each morning. I feel proud that we are doing something creative and Christmassy and hope that one day my kids will look back and remember these special times together.

And I must confess, this was not my brilliant idea. Oh how I love the Interent and Twitter and blogs – I find great parenting inspiration from other mothers online. I  saw a blog post on Canadian blogger bitofmomsense’s site. Turns out she found it at missfish in Ottawa. Then coolchillmom saw my tweet about it and so on. We are all attempting different versions of the same lovely idea. A quick Google search  on 25 Days of Christmas will reveal all kinds of sites and tips for creating your own reusable Advent calendars and coming up with wonderful activities for your family to count down the days.

As a bit of a busy slacker mom (got a baby, two preschoolers, a household and an online store to run), I’m taking a pretty simple approach with a storebought calendar and some simple, yet fun activities. But you can sew or create your own calendar, and lots of moms are journalling about each day’s event, or taking photos etc. There is even a Flicker page called Family Activity Advent Calendar.

Whatever you do, the important thing is spending some time with your kids and doing something special to gear up for the holidays. For us, it is really the first holiday tradition our young nuclear family can call our very own (not from my husband’s childhood and not from mine). I’m hoping our kids will one day carry it on.

Lately, my two older boys have been getting up earlier and earlier, despite the fact dawn breaks later and later these days. And my husband has a new job that takes him out of the house really early to commute to a nearby city. So I’m on my own from an early hour with two preschoolers (boys!) and a baby.

One morning last week, the baby was still sleeping, breakfast was long since over, I was still in my pjs, teeth unbrushed, eyes barely open, blearily wondering how to entertain my boys after the night I’d had with our teething little one.

We hit the couch, I stretched out and pulled our cozy throw over the three of us. It was time for their fave game, and mine: Baby Bird Hatches in the Nest. Basically, they burrow under the blanket and pretend they are an egg started to shake and crack and hatch. The babies emerge tweeting feebly and Mama Bird, aka me, the happily-still-horiztonal slacker mommy pretends to feed them worms and bugs, beak to beak.

Fortunately, you can play this over and over again, as my guys seem to have an almost endless appetite for it. Plus there are many variations: Baby Dinosaur, Baby Reptile (anything with an egg) or even Baby Bear (in the den) etc.

That morning, we lounged, warm under the blankets on our cushy old couch, for almost an hour!  We were all laughing and snuggling, the kids were stretching their imaginations with scenarios the baby birds got up to, and I was spending quality time with them – albeit from a horizontal postion, half asleep!

I highly recommend it!

What is your favourite slacker mom activity to do with the kids?  I’d love to hear it.

Both owning a business, and the retail industry, were both foreign territory when we launched Kai Kids two years ago this month. We’ve had lots of stumbles and successes and are always trying to learn and try new things, one of which has been hosting our own little trunk shows in Toronto for our local customers.

We’ve now had five or six over the past year and really enjoy meeting our clients face to face and watching their kids grow. Once in a while we get to see some of them dressed in our organic clothes, clutching one of our made-in-Canada non-toxic teethers or toting the safe sippy they bought from us. That always  makes us smile!

We are once again trying something new, a twist on our usual trunk show. This weekend in Toronto, we are joining forces with a friend, and fellow parentpreneur and eco biz person, Barb of Little Footprints Toys, another online store based here in Toronto. Together we are hosting the Eco Family Holiday Sale, carting our stock of organic clothing, safe toys, natural skincare, litterless lunch gear and accessories plus her inventory of fun, sustainable toys and games for the whole family, to our usual location on the Danforth.

We’ll both have some real deals, just in time for holiday shopping, plus some hot new products on display. Yesterday I received shipment of made-in-Canada cozy bamboo fleece sleep sacs for babies with sweet elephant and bird appliques from Nap & Nod in Vancouver! I haven’t yet had time to post them to our Kai Kids online store, but we will definitely have them at our sale on Saturday.

Little Footprints Toys will have lots of cool stuff for the little ones to try out and amuse themselves with, plus we will have a children’s musician on hand to lead a singing circle every hour on the half hour from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to help keep the kids occupied while parents shop!  And there might even be a pot of warm apple cider brewing!

So please come, join us to celebrate the season and score some great eco deals, Sat. Nov. 21, 2009, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1390 Danforth Avenue, Toronto. (near Greenwood Avenue). We hope to see you!

As soon as Halloween costumes are put away and the kids have settled down from their sugar high (Halloween and Easter are the only times of the year they get even a tiny bit of candy), we need to start planning for our big show next week. Next Friday and Saturday Nov. 6 and 7, Kai Kids will be at our booth at our favourite sale/trade show: Toronto’s popular Children’s Trunk Show.

It is a really well organized, well attended show featuring amazing products made and sold by Canadian mompreneurs. Everything is high quality, unique, gorgeous and geared to babies, moms and kids. We are one of the few retailers there, as most booths feature suppliers who make their own items.

We always enjoy the crowd, meeting new customers and chatting with loyal, repeat customers and networking with the other vendors.  This time out, we’ll have our new baby boy in tow so that should make things interesting!

So please, if you are in the Toronto area, come on out and support us, and the show.  It’s a great chance to get started on your holiday shopping and you know you’ll be supporting parents in small, local businesses. Plus, there are always lots of great deals!  This year, we’ll be having a big sale on the ever useful, durable, super-safe Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottles.   Get them while they last!

details:

• when: Fri. Nov. 6, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sat. Nov. 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• where: The Fermenting Room in  Toronto’s Distillery District: Buildings 6 & 7
  55 Mill Street.
• www.thedistillerydistrict.com

Hope to see you there!

I’m a pretty healthy eater, once was vegetarian for a few years, but since I met my snack-crazy husband and since I become a mother I seem to have developed more of a taste for sweets and junk food. Three pregnancies and drowsy afternoons of nursing definitely have made me more indulgent: with this last pregancy I was big into chocolate and almond coated ice cream bars and enormous bags of SmartFood.

But now that my baby is nearing four months I’m trying to be more conscious about what I eat so I can lose these last pounds of pregnancy weight!  So while I’m still going through a bag of black licorice a week (!) I’ve been taking advantage of the fall harvest here in Ontario and eating a lot of greens. Which I happen to like.

But I must admit, kale, although pretty, is a tough sell around my home with my meat-loving man and two little boys. I once tried to put it on pizza, which even I found horrid. I’ve tried stir-frying it as well, but no matter how much garlic I sautee along with it, it still is hard to get down.

But I know it is so good for me and for baby too, so I wanted to share a kale recipe I’ve found that I actually love!  I find myself eating it even as I’m making it, it’s so good, and for kale, that’s saying something!

It was given to me by my friend Caroline, who eats kale all the time. Her mom grows rows upon rows of it in her garden up near Haliburton. Caroline even made this salad for me once late last spring when I was heavily pregnant. It’s super easy and flexible, and even if your kids won’t eat it (mine don’t) you and your partner probably will!

• one head kale (curly or black, although I like the black or dinosaur kale best)
• one avocado (or two if you want)
• juice of one lemon
• generous sprinkling of sea salt
• tablespoon of flax oil or olive oil (you can omit this if you want)

1. Wash kale, pat or spin dry, then cut away from the spines or stems and cut into thin ribbons
2. scoop out avocado flesh with your hands and squash and mush it into the kale mixture coating the leaves.
3. Add lemon juice. Mush some more
4. Add oil bit by bit, adjusting to your taste
5. Sprinkle with sea salt
6. Enjoy!

This salad tastes great a few hours later and into the next day as the flavours marinate and penetrate the kale.

Today we have a guest post from Barbara Nyke, a Toronto interior designer who specializes in eco-friendly design:

Children have been experiencing an unprecedented rise in chronic disease and illness such as cancer, autism, asthma, birth defects, ADD / ADHD, and learning and developmental disabilities. The Learning Disabilities Association of Canada has linked many of these outcomes to unregulated toxic chemicals that we use in our homes.

The benefits of choosing a sustainably-manufactured product for your home are numerous. The top three reasons are:

1. the product has been made by not depleting the earth’s resources 
2. the company is practicing responsible manufacturing methods 
3.   the product can help to improve your home’s indoor air quality; particularly of importance for a newborn and children. 

Indoor air quality can be, and typically is, many more times polluted than outdoor air because of the hundreds of items we bring into our homes.  The important sources of air pollution in the home include, but isn’t limited to: furniture, vinyl flooring, new carpets and carpet adhesives, paints, vinyl wallpapers and household cleaning products.

Some products contain VOCs, volatile organic compounds, which are chemicals like formaldehyde, styrene, toluene, formaldehyde, and a variety of benzenes found in carpeting, dyes, pesticides, fungicides, fire retardants and anti-stain coatings; These are frequently released into the air indoors.  Considering that we spend 90% of our time indoors, this is an important element to address.

All consumers would be better off to avoid chemicals like these that are known to be carcinogenic, toxic to reproductive organs and endocrine disrupting.

Decorating green on a budget

We all want to save money.  When it’s time to decorate a nursery, there are ways to save money, but there are also areas that we shouldn’t scrimp on.  Earlier generations relied on hand-me downs for cribs, clothing and toys.  I don’t think this sharing has ever waned in popularity, primarily for the sake of saving money, because children grow out of these items quickly and due to the benefit of recycling clothes and items.  Nowadays, there are plenty of stores that have taken this idea commercial and resell used products.

Visit  garage and antique sales to find lamps, rocking chairs and dressers to refinish and repaint.  An environmental and cost-effective paint would be a mid-cost, good quality eggshell, low-VOC, water-based paint, approximately $40.  Going this route is a an inexpensive way to have a non-odorous room, that with standard paints and oil paints can take up to a couple of months to off-gass depending on the level of ventilation.  Naturally-made milk paint is another alternative, but is costlier.

For flooring, an economical way to get broadloom on a budget is to choose an end-of-roll piece that has already off-gassed and is cheaper than buying a new cut.

-Barbara Nyke, Eco-Designer, NIKKA DESIGN, www.nikkadesign.ca

For more information on designing healthier rooms for kids, visit the Kai Kids Fall Trunk Show in Toronto this Saturday, Oct. 17, from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. At 11:30 a.m. Barbara will be doing a free half-hour session for parents with time for questions afterwards.

We recently had our third baby, another precious life to nurture, sustain and protect. Back when we had Kai, our first son, almost five years ago, I was just starting to become aware about the toxic load carried in most common paints and household building materials.

When my helpful mother-in-law painted Kai’s room for us, I bought her a low VOC, fairly non-toxic paint to use that wouldn’t off gas hazardous chemicals into the air my baby-to-be was about to breathe. I recall it was called Eco-Spec and I had to hunt high and low to find it. However, just a few years later,  there are now many easily available lines of chemical-free paint and greener reno supplies on the market.

If you are adding a new addition to your family of either sort – a beautiful baby or a new family room, there is a lot you need to know if you truly want to make an interior non-toxic and healthy for your family and the planet.

Over the next week, we will have a guest blogger writing about how to Design Healthy Rooms for Healthy Kids. Barbara Nyke of NIKKA DESIGN in Toronto is an interior decorator who specializes in eco-friendly design.

Barbara believes that incorporating green and healthy living into our lives on a daily basis affects every aspect of what we buy, the products we use, how we dispose of items and the air we breathe.

Check back, as she will be addressing:

•  
  

  What makes a healthy room?

• How do you know the products you’ve chosen are eco-friendly?

• What does eco-friendly mean?

• Can you have it all? What are your environmental priorities when selecting products for your children’s bedrooms?

• Are you finding the style of furniture you want that’s also eco-friendly?
  

Lately I’ve been trying to cook more with my two oldest boys (2.5 and 4.5). Not always together, mind you! But two days a week, my middle son is at home with me and Baby Boy, while my oldest is at JK. He has missed a lot of mummy-and-me time in his short life, always overshawdowed by his big brother who can do more, say more, jump higher, run faster etc. He probably doesn’t notice but now that Kai is in JK I’m trying to make up for it (while the baby sleeps ). So Fridays at our house have become Muffin Mornings.After JK dropoff, some playtime at the park or errands, we come home to bake muffins together while Baby Boy naps. Last week it was Cranberry Flax Muffins, the week before, Super Seedy Muffins, and today, with Thanksgiving this weekend and Halloween around the corner, we made Pumpkin Raisin Muffins.This recipe is quite healthy already, but I threw in 2 tbsp. of ground flax seed instead of a bit of the white flour, and it seemed to work well. There isn’t much sugar but they had a lovely flavour and the boys thought they tasted great! Making muffins at home saves money and packaging so it’s a win all around – fun time together, teaching skills like measuring and counting, being more frugal and consuming less packaging!If you have a suggestion for your fave healthy muffin recipe, I’d love to hear it!Pumpkin Raisin Muffins

Well, we’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from hosting our Kai Kids in person sales lately!  A new baby has a way of sweetly derailing the best of intentions. But we are starting to settle into a new routine and have time to refocus on the business once again, so are planning a fall sale on Sat. Oct. 17th!

Same place, 1390 Danforth Ave., same time, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but with one big difference:

this time we are going to feature a special information session on Designing Healthy Rooms for Healthy Kids, by Toronto interior decorator and eco-designer Barbara Nyke of NIKKA DESIGN. Barbara is an accredited interior decorator who specializes in eco-friendly design, and has spoken widely on the topic on CBC Radio, Breakfast Television,  Canada AM, in the National Post and Loulou Magazine, and recently at The Green Home Show.

Send us your questions for Barbara and she’ll be happy to answer them for you during her talk at our sale! Either post them by commenting here on our blog, or email us at infoatkaikids.com (please replace at with @ – we are trying to avoid auto-spam here).

So make sure to join us for a hands-on look at our latest products, some special discounts, and Barbara’s talk on keeping toxins out of your toddler’s room. She will be doing a short presentaion at 11:30 with a question period after.

Mark your calendars!