A workshop with Nanny Robina...

I attended a 2-hour Toddler Shenanigans workshop today organized by a mommy group I joined a while ago. The speaker was Nanny Robina (TV personality and Parenting expert), and the topics we covered are: tantrums, fussy foodies, telling lies, learning to listen, transitioning babies to new things (bottle to cup, etc.).

I arrived a bit late, so I missed the first 15 minutes, but managed to get some good tips. Here's what she said (I'll put it on the blog so I can refer to it later):

Tantrums:

• can happen between 12-15 months
• timeouts should be 1 minute/age (can start this at 15 months)
• keep words simple when you're telling them something: "No hitting", "No pushing", "Gentle" (and take their hand and show them what gentle is).
• if your kid hurts another kid (cough, cough... Di): go to the kid that is hurt first (so your child sees your attention is to the other kid), then deal with your kid and discipline them
• always remain firm and be consistent with your punishment or your method of discipline

Fussy Foodie:

• it takes 74 times of feeding your child the same one thing before they recognize what it is, so keep trying to give them
• don't cater meals to your child
• age 4 is when kids normally get pickier with their food
• ignore "I don't like that" unless they actually try to get your attention and tell you they really don't like it. And when that happens, just casually tell them "don't eat it, put it aside on your plate" - don't take the food away

Transitions:

• it takes approx. 48 hours for your child to overcome a habit, so keep trying!!
• there are certain age milestones when you should try to do the transitions (ie. 12 months, 18 months). 

Learning to Listen:

• when telling them to do something, have them repeat it: "What did mommy say?"
• for a girl - eye contact is important when telling them to do something
• for a boy - NO eye contact (apparently, you want to empower your son, not overpower them)

That's all I remember. A lot of the items we discussed were specific to ages of the child, so it all depends on the situation and the age... but overall, very informative!!

WORD up!

I took all my nieces and Jacen to Word on the Street today. It's a book fair festival that I have always wanted to check out, but never got around to it. It's funny how I automatically go to the kids section now, and I didn't even really get to check out any books for me! The weather was fantastic for this event, and I think the kids enjoyed themselves.

Saads' Surprise Shower!

Di and Suzy threw Saads a surprise baby shower today! It was a Disney-themed tea party, and they did a great job with organizing it. Miss Saads was completely surprised! Yay! Great job ladies, and we can't wait to meet your little one Saads... another playmate for Jacen!! :)

Marley turns ONE!

It's hard to believe little miss Marley is one year old! We headed over to D+G's place for the celebration. Jacen was excited to go to his BFF's birthday party... he was so excited he had to try on all of Marley's gifts as well. Love that jean jacket... looks just like mine! haha.

I wasn't allowed to post this until now because we had to tell Saads that her surprise baby shower (post to follow) was this party!! Surprise, surprise Saads!! :)

Checking out the Express store...

While at Fairview Mall today, we noticed it was the grand opening of the first Express store here in Canada. There was a huge line outside the store and when I asked what the line was for... it was because HBO’s Entourage star Emmanuelle Chriqui and Toronto Maple Leafs’ Luke Schenn were inside the store giving out autographs.

I didn't wanna line up, but I did want to check out the store. So when I asked if I could go in to just look around the store, they just let me in! The store looked pretty cool, and it was great that they had a live DJ in there mixing my kind of music. We passed right by the two celebs, and they loved Jacen! All the staff we passed by loved his hat, and he was even taped on camera (but not sure what it was for).

We then met my sister for a bit after work, and then we met up with Quel and ate at St. Louis Wings to hear her awesome travel stories (she just got back from Paris and Spain).

Reading...

I've started reading Creep, by Jennifer Hillier. The author is someone I used to know, actually. We were in a wedding together years ago (she's also my old ex-boyfriend's cousin). We kept in touch every now and then throughout the years, and now she's a published author! I'm only in the beginning chapters, but so far so good!

Mommy's Little Helper!

I'm posting this on my personal blog (and not on the baby blog) just in case my in-laws don't find this as amusing as I did!

I don't know if I've mentioned, but Jacen doesn't do the regular crawling yet (on hands and knees). He does the soldier/snake crawl where he just slithers across the floor to get to his destination. At the end of a day full of crawling, his T-shirt gets quite dirty! Sooooo, I thought since he's picking up the dirt with his t-shirt anyway, why not attach a Swiffer sheet to him so that all the dirt can stay on the Swiffer sheet (and not on his shirt), plus it helps me with cleaning the floors!! And look how happy he looks. That can't possibly be child cruelty, can it?!!??  :P

Star-gazing...

 

Jacen and I met Di and Marley in Yorkville today. We thought that since TIFF has just begun, we would grab a bite to eat and see if we could spot any celebrities. We ate on the patio at Hemingway's, and Di saw the dude in the show Kenny vs. Spenny sitting at the bar, but I'd never even heard of that show so I didn't know who she was talking about.

After our yummy meal, we walked around and ended up in front of The Hazelton Hotel (where U2 and Madonna were staying apparently). There was a crowd of people standing outside and Di said she saw Geoffrey Rush.... I just missed him, apparently. We walked over and CBC Live was taking photos of people on the red carpet, so we joined them. The kids were a big hit, and for a second... we were celebrities ourselves! hehe

Eric's 2nd Birthday!

We headed over to Ev & Stu's place today to celebrate little Eric's 2nd birthday! It was a Mickey Mouse theme (as you can see from all the photos), and Ev outdid herself as always. We enjoyed the Minnie Burgers, the Mickey Mousse dessert and the cute Mickey fruit tarts.... and all the kids had so much fun in the Mickey Mouse bouncy castle! (I totally wanted to go in there, but I didn't wanna knock out any kids). Happy Birthday Eric! Thanks for sharing your special day with us!

Deep fried goodness!

We went to the CNE today with my sister and 2 of her kids. This time, I had the fish and chips, deep fried Mars bar, deep fried Oreo cookies, waffle with ice cream and Tiny Tom Donuts. YUM!