Earth Day Giveaway: A Turtle’s Tale – Sammy’s Adventures
While I have mentioned before that I am not entirely convinced about things like global warming – or at least the full impact of human of us on this (read: we just don’t know enough about climate change to say anything precise), I do know that we have some impact, often detrimental, on our environment. As a mom, I want to leave the world a bit better for the Poptart. This includes teaching her about what we do, intentionally or otherwise, to the environment.
The question is: how do you teach an almost 3 year old (OMG) about the environment and what’s happening around us?
When I was contacted to review a new DVD called “A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures” I jumped on it. The movie is the life story of a turtle, from hatching all the way up until he’s 50. The main plot line is Sammy is trying to find the love of his life: a female turtle named Shelley.
Around this, however, are his other adventures, many of which illustrate the impact of humans on turtles and the underwater ecosystem. From hatching and being immediately abducted by a seagull (spoiler: he escapes and survives), to encountering an oil spill and being adopted by well-meaning hippies – it turned out to be a great way to introduce the Poptart to some concepts that are difficult to get across. It’s also entertaining enough for the entire family.
The Poptart got immediately attached to Sammy, Shelley and their buddy Ray. Added to the fact that I could actually make dinner in peace, I like to think she actually learned a thing or two about our world.
GIVEAWAY: And since Earth Day is April 22, I will be giving away a copy of “A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures”. The package includes both the Blu-ray and DVD copies as well as a code for a digital download (note: the download is only available in the US).
Additionally, since I am Canadian and cannot use the code I was given, I am giving away an EXTRA digital download code.
To enter, leave a comment about something environmental.
Disclaimer: I was given a copy of the DVD/Blu-ray of “A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures” to review. Opinions are my own.
Review and Giveaway: The Garfield Show
As a kid in school, we used to have the Scholastic book orders and there were two series I ordered every book from. The first was the Little House on the Prairie series. The second was the Garfield series. I really loved reading the little vignettes and they were a good escape for me. I think part of it was that I just loved cats, and Jim Davis had a knack for capturing the behaviour of cats in a way that explained it to very young readers.
I also loved the Garfield cartoon specials. I had them all (recorded on VHS, of course, from the TV), so when the opportunity came to share Garfield with the Poptart, I immediately said “yes”.
The other weekend (when I wasn’t feeling well), I popped The Garfield Show: Dinosaurs & Other Animal Adventures video in the DVD player. The menu screen shows a few scrolling scenes from the six episodes on the disc so she was able to pick one that interested her.
We started the episode and she was immediately entranced. Although the cartoons are no longer hand-drawn, and I don’t think Jim Davis has much to do with it, the antics of Garfield, Odie and their friends bring back a lot of fun memories. And the fact that I can share this with my daughter means a lot to me.
The best part is that she seems to love Garfield as much as I did. She’ll ask to see the video or part of it about once a day.
And for you, I have a copy of the video to give away. Just leave a comment by January 31 answering the question, “What’s the thing from your childhood you wish you could share with a small person in your life (or a big person, if you have no small people)?
Open to people with a Canadian or US mailing address. Winner will be picked at random with the “And the winner is” plugin.
Disclaimer: I was given a copy of the DVD for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
BlogHer Update and a Giveaway!
So as my committed three or four readers know, I am going to BlogHer ’11 with Karen, Tracey and Alexis. We’re going in a brand spanking new Chevy Traverse, kindly supplied by General Motors. Last week, Tracey, Alexis and I took off to Carter GM in Burnaby to look at a traverse to make sure it has all the stuff we need, like space for our crap necessities in life like clothes and of course, appropriate spots for our technology.
I’m going to leave the clothes packing for now – I’m still trying to figure out which suitcase to take and how much to pack. Ask Alexis about the time she went to Paris in the middle of winter for a few weeks and took only a carryon. I may have to pay her to pack for me. What I’m focusing on is the technology side. With four of us packed into a car going to a social media conference, you can bet there’s going to be a lot of technology that we’ll want to use along the way and while we’re there.
I’m mentally tallying up the technology I know we’ll be bringing along and I count:
- 4 laptops or similar (with requisite cables, adapter bricks, etc)
- 4 cameras (at least two of them are SLRs) and requisite cables, batteries, memory, etc.
- At least two pocket video cameras
- 4 cel phones
- Various other paraphernalia (ipods, etc)
And in addition to this, because I have an absolute fear of running out of power and storage for pictures, video, etc, I am bringing:
- Extra laptop battery
- 2 small power bars or perhaps 1 large
- Memory cards
- External hard drive (just a small 100 gb one)
- 2 jump drives for fast storage
- Battery backup
- Rechargeable batteries
- Battery charger
- E-book reader (at least 1 if not two)
- 12V adapter that plugs into a cigarette lighter/power outlet in the car
- Cigarette lighter USB adapter
- USB expander (because I only have two USB ports on my computer)
- USB A/C power adapter (or is that D/C – the one you plug into the wall?)
The Traverse at least, has 3 power outlets, so lots of places to plug in.The problem as I see it, is the cables. Cables are the bane of my existence. Too many cables get tangled up.
Every single one of those devices (the ebook reader, cameras, cel phone, ipod, etc) has a cable that’s used for charging and data transfer. And every one has a different cable because some of them are proprietary (damn you iPod) and others take USB, others Mini USB, and still others Micro USB. I used to schlep each of those on my way to and from work because I schlep that need different cables to charge and transfer data.
(What? I commute a long way to work. I need my entertainment)
Plus all the other stuff like back up power, laptop, etc. But there’s not a lot I can do about that. And then one day, the skies cleared and angels sang because Darren brought this home:
This? Makes my geek heart sing. It’s a mini USB that plugs into a micro USB that plugs into an iPod end. But you can only charge one device at a time (which is okay). And if you go cheap on the ebook reader like I did, you’ll have to get your in-house tech support to bend a mini USB cable adapt a cable to it because the one it came with keeps falling out.
I think it’ll come in really handy on the road trip down to San Diego. Hopefully there won’t be hair pulling and fighting over it.
And hey, since this is my very first BlogHer conference, how about a giveaway? I’m going to give away one of those cables to one lucky reader. Leave a comment letting me know what you hate most about all the technology we schlep around these days and you’ll be entered to win. Contest closes July 31, 2011.
The catch: you have to meet me at BlogHer to get it (so you have to be in the San Diego area between August 4 and 6). And if you’re indulging, I’ll even buy you an adult drink.
If you want to buy one, you can get them through NCIX locally in Vancouver and online. They come in black or white and you can even get a model with a power pack attached.
Disclaimer: General Motors is sponsoring us for the trip down, including vehicle, insurance, gas and hotels on the way to BlogHer and back. I am paying for the cable myself.
Coming up for air, and a Review and Giveaway
I know this space has been more silent than usual, but I have been swamped. Thankfully, it all ended yesterday, with the conclusion of a Monster Thing At Work I had to finish up and the end of my last contract for the forseeable future (e.g. – over summer) on Sunday (Yes, I got to work on Mother’s Day – isn’t that special?).
Today, I start taking care of myself. I normally see my chiropractor every two weeks because I have a job that requires extensive amounts of sitting and I have a 30 lb toddler to schlep around; so Thursday, I see him for the first time in a month (and I cannot wait for the pressure on my back to go away). Although she’s pretty good at walking, she’s a toddler and every once in awhile needs to be picked up and hauled off somewhere. Often, taking her places where there’s a lot of waiting requires some sort of entertainment.
Awhile back, I received a package from StyleKid with a couple of products for review.
The first, which I’d wanted to try out for awhile, was a chalkboard placemat. These are nothing short of awesome. They come with a package of chalk and a small sponge for erasing the drawing. These are pretty nifty things and are great for restaurants, doctors offices or anywhere you have a table or chair your tot can wait at. The Poptart is at the scribbling stage so this is handy because she can scribble, erase, re-scribble etc. You have to wet the sponge to erase it, but I usually have a bottle of water along (and so should you (she says, sitting on the train with no water bottle)), so that’s not an issue. These are not your standard chalkboard material, obviously because you can roll and fold them, and the only issue is that the chalk (standard Crayola chalk) had some sort of coating on it which prevented the chalk from writing on the mat. We accidentally found this out when the Poptart dropped chalk on the tile kitchen floor and it broke (because tile is unforgiving, as my old digital camera can attest – did I tell you what I got for Mother’s Day?), and then she started using that to scribble.
A problem-solver, my girl.
The second item (which I was totally not expecting), was a crayon keeper. It’s a piece of fabric with pockets for crayons that can be rolled up and taken along. I imagine you could also put some paper in there too. I think this would be great in restaurants where they give them the placemats to colour on – they could use their own crayons instead of the communal ones out of the paper cup. It also comes with a 24-pack of crayons.
This is lightweight, it doesn’t take much space and can provide hours minutes of entertainment for kids while you’re out, so you might actually be able to have a glass sip of wine in peace.
GIVEAWAY:
MANDATORY ENTRY:
1. Visit the StyleKid website and leave a comment telling me which product you’d like to receive: the crayon carrier or the chalk mat, and the pattern you’d like.
EXTRA-SPECIAL HAPPY BONUS ENTRIES
2. Like StyleKid on Facebook (and leave a comment telling me you did that)
3. Sign up for the StyleKid email newsletter (and leave a comment telling me you did that). There’s a sign-up box on the lower left hand of the StyleKid webpage.
Since May 17th is the Poptart’s birthday and my dad’s birthday (and there will be gift-giving anyways), I’ll pick a winner that day, using the “And the winner is…” plugin for WordPress.
Giveaway: BMO Ecosmart Mortgage
I used to blog reasonably often about how it’s not easy being green. The changes I’ve made are the ones I’m comfortable with (and if I’m being at all honest, ones we can afford). That said, the Bank of Montreal (BMO) has a new mortgage program for homeowners: the Eco-smart mortgage. This is how it works:
A homeowner downloads the appropriate checklist (house or condo) from the BMO website. The check-list includes things such as: High-efficiency heating and cooling systems, Solar, tank-less or ENERGY STAR qualified hot water system and ENERGY STAR qualified windows, doors and majorappliances. If after reviewing the checklist, the homeowner feels their home qualifies; they then contact a BMO
branch to talk to a mortgage specialist. BMO will send an appraiser into the home of the consumer to confirm the house qualification. If your home qualifies (and if you qualify) you can get a fixed mortgage rate of 3.89% for 5 years.
You can get your copy of the checklist here (PDF) for either condo or house/townhouse.
As part of this, I ran through the checklist – and simply put, we don’t qualify. At all. Not by a long shot. Our theory is, if something works, don’t fix it. Also, we live in a townhouse so some upgrades require permission from our Strata.
We have mid-range efficiency heating system (80%). We had to replace the furnace a couple of years ago when the old one died right before a cold snap one January. That was the same day I had my wisdom teeth out – ever try to negotiate prices while doped up on codeine? It’s fun. Anyways, we thought about a high-efficiency one but that would have required permission from the strata and did I mention a cold snap was going to start the next day? The thing about super high-efficiency furnaces is that they have to be vented out the side which is a (long, expensive) undertaking and a half and won’t work for emergency replacements like ours. Since it’s only about 5 years old, we have no intentions of replacing it.
Our air-conditioning unit is another matter – it was installed when the townhouse was built about 20 years ago and it is not efficient. We’d like to replace it, but they can be a bit pricey (and you have to add labour to that) and we don’t really use it all that much especially with our canopy installed on our upper patio, so it’s just not a priority.
Our attic space is presumably well-insulated – at least that’s what the home inspection said when we bought the place. And we redid the weatherstripping on doors that lead outside and to the garage this spring. The windows are builders specials and I can tell you they’re (likely) not ENERGYSTAR approved.
Our appliances came with the house and all work fairly well. The dishwasher is relatively new and we bought a new oven when we moved in. But aside from the oven, it’s hard to tell if they’re ENERGYSTAR compliant. I find it somewhat interesting that qualifying appliances are limited to fridge ,freezer, dishwasher and washing machine. I would imagine that most places also have a dryer.
Speaking of washing machines and dryers, we have big, old machines. We like them; between the two of us we do about three loads of laundry per week (that includes sheets and towels), our nanny does one for herself and one or two for the Poptart (depending on how many clothes she goes through that week). We do have plans on replacing them, but it’s combined with a renovation of our laundry room: new flooring, paint and shelving. And the machines work well. I’m not entirely sure that there would be any benefit in replacing them; I question how much of a difference a year or two will make bythrowin g a perfectly functioning machine away.
So since these changes are pricey, how about a little somethin’ something to help you get started?
GIVEAWAY: I have a $50 giftcard to RONA to giveaway (Canadians only because I don’t think RONA is in the US). All you have to do is tell me how you plan to make your home more energy efficient now or in the future. Enter by May 15; winner will be chosen by the “And the Winner is…” add-on.
Disclosure – I am participating in the BMO Eco Smart Mortgage program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of BMO – Bank of Montreal. I received a gift card as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.
Review and Giveaway: Ain’t Misbehavin’
I have a confession to make: until now, I have never read a parenting book. WE have never read a parenting book. Ever. We’ve been blessed with a relatively easy baby (what Gwen calls our “Sucker baby”) and that both of us have read and been trained extensively on management.
In one of his books on management, Ken Blanchard explains how they train Shamu at Sea World in San Diego. It boils down to: ignore the bad stuff, praise the good stuff. And that pretty much defines our parenting style. If the Poptart is being stubborn, we let her be stubborn and work it out on her own, by and large. If she’s having a tantrum, we put her somewhere safe (within view), and tell her, “When you’re calm, you can come for a snuggle.” I should note, she rarely tantrums for more than a minute.
What we are not is empathetic. That is, we tend to look at the behavior and not acknowledge the feelings behind it. And this is where Alyson Schafer’s new book Ain’t Misbehavin’: Tactics for Tantrums, Meltdowns, Bedtime Blues and Other Perfectly Normal Kid Behaviors comes in. Schafer promotes democratic parenting – which for a democracy junkie like myself perfectly sums up what I want to give my daughter: choice. Schafer maintains there is always a choice between at least two things; they may not be choices you like, but there are choices.
This most recent book seems to be geared towards older kids, however I can still apply a lot of the tactics she details in a partial way. We’re obviously not at the point of having family meetings, but we do make it a point to discuss over dinner what we’re going to do on the weekend or that evening and the Poptart will listen in.
I’m not going to spoil the whole book for you but there are two points Schafer makes that really resonated with me.
- Natural and Logical Consequences: Schafer maintains that behaviours have natural and logical consequences. Experiencing those consequences results in learning. So when the Poptart is tantruming and slams her head into the kitchen (tile) floor, it hurts. She figured out that it hurts less when she does it in the living room on the carpet. (No, really. She figured it out. Bane of my existence). Another example: when Darren was young, his mother told him not to go outside without shoes on, otherwise he’d have to wash his socks by hand. When he came back in with muddy socks, she gave him a bucket, washboard and bar of soap and had him wash his socks. Rather than thinking of it as punishment suiting the crime, think of it as consequence suiting the behavior.
- Never do for a child what a child can do for herself: the Poptart is almost two and is perfectly capable of putting her plate and fork in the dishwasher. I just scrape whatever’s left onto my plate at the table, hand it to her, and she puts it in the dishwasher. We leave her juice cup on a low shelf in the fridge and when she asks for “joos pease!” we open the fridge door and she grabs it and opens it herself. She chooses her own pajamas at night and will often choose her own clothes during the day.
What I’ve started doing since using this book is switching from “if” statements to “when/then”. For example instead of saying “If you calm down, you can have a snuggle”, I’ll say, “I can see you’re upset and frustrated. When you’re calm, then we will snuggle.” The differences are somewhat semantic, but as we all know, the connotation of words – the feeling behind them – matters a lot. It shows respect for feelings and therefore the person.
I like this book and I expect it’ll come in useful for many years. If you’d like to see it in action on an older kid, pop on over to Left Coast Mama’s blog – not only does she have a review as it pertains to her oldest, but she had the opportunity to interview Alyson Schafer and ask her some specific questions.
GIVEAWAY: But if you want to see what Ain’t Misbehavin’ is all about, just leave a comment telling me why you’d like to read the book. I have a copy to give away to one lucky person. One comment per person only. Enter by April 21 and I’ll announce the winner on the April 22nd. Winner will be drawn using the “And the winner is…” plugin.
Disclosure – I am participating in the Ain’t Misbehavin’ program by Mom Central on behalf of Wiley Publishing. I received a copy of the book to review and gift card as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.
Review & Giveaway: Your Shape Fitness Evolved
In our on-again, off again quest to get into a shape other than round, Darren and I have tried several different things. The most recent incarnation is the Xbox 360 with Kinect, which was Darren’s Christmas present. A few days after getting it, he went and picked up a copy of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved by UbiSoft.
The first time I tried it, it was kind of weird getting into the system. The interface is a bit cramped and I had to go back and reset my stats when I accidentally hit the “okay” button. But like anything, it just takes a bit of getting used to. However, I think it could be improved if there were a bit more space between your arm and the control interface. Here’s a video with me narrating (be gentle! It’s my first video, and I was holding the camera and just finished a torture session workout. Although I think I should insert some Blair Witch-esque disclaimer about how it may cause nausea due to all the jiggling around I was doing.)
After setting up your profile and choosing a trainer, you get a fitness test which is also a bit of an introduction to how to use it. Based on your settings, the program chooses a variety of exercises to test you on. At least, it claims that it chooses the exercises based on your settings. Darren and I ended up with the same exercises although our settings are quite different. But in any case, the trick is to do the exercises in time with the trainer. If you go out of time, it squawks at you.
Now, I should say, I’ve only been using it regularly for a few days although I set up my profile awhile ago. Like anything, it’s really a matter of Getting Off Your Butt and Just Doing It Already (and we all know my track record on that). It has a nice variety of exercises for all aspects of fitness (cardio, strength, flexibility). The zen part is quite nice at the end of the day. I did the Tai Chi I workout and it’s actually fairly challenging from a mental point of view. Also I like the fact that I am purple in this section, rather than orange (priorities, people, priorities!)
Overall, if you’re someone like me that hates group fitness and yet needs to be told what to do when you’re exercising, it’s a pretty good program. I think it’s better than the Wii products, simply because you can add weights for intensity and you’re not limited to balance board exercises. The result is a comprehensive program that, if you do it, will help with your fitness level. Also, there are workouts for all levels.
Now if only Microsoft could invent something that would get me the benefits while I could be sitting down on the sofa eating potato chips. But, since that doesn’t happen, how about a giveaway to at least get you on the right path (or provide a nice coaster?).
I have a copy of UbiSoft’s Your Shape: Fitness Evolved to give away – open to Canadians and Americans. Leave a comment to enter. One entry per person only, please. Contest will close next Friday, March 18, and I’ll announce a winner on Saturday, March 19th.
And for more chances to win, just do a twitter search for the hashtag #UbiChamps.
While Ubisoft sponsored this review, the opinions I’ve expressed here are solely my own and represent my honest viewpoint. Ubisoft, Clever Girls Collective and I promote Blog With Integrity
