Product Showcase

Simply Colors is Simply Fantastic!

I was so impressed when I received a package in the mail the other day—it was a beautifully boxed gift from simplycolors.ca! Presentation and quality is obviously important to this European company that is just hitting the Canadian market. Inside the gorgeous, customized box was a cute long sleeved T-Shirt that says “My Mommy Loves CanadianBabies”!!! 

Simply Colors offers customers a line of reasonably priced, high quality cotton clothing for children 0-8 years of age. The clothing line consists of t-shirts, creepers, rugby and polo shirts, hoodies, dresses, pants, baby hats, socks and tights available in 10 bright and trendy colors. Most of the garments can be personalized with the name of your baby, slogan or phrase for a fee of $6.30 and up. Customers can choose from 10 different fonts and over 14 print colors.

Simply Colors offers shipping worldwide with local shipping starting at $5.50. If you’re purchasing a gift, you may add their gift service for only $3.15. The gift service includes a box, coordinating tissue paper and a personalized gift card.

With successful branches around the world, Simply Colors is sure to please Canadians looking for simple, quality pieces for gifts and for their own children.

Click here to visit the Simply Colors website: www.simplycolors.ca

Wearing Baby with Style

It's stunning, gorgeous! Perfect attire for a wedding, a baptism, or any other formal occasion. No, it's not a dress, it's a baby sling!

 

This Pippalily sling is the most beautiful baby sling I've ever seen. Forget about drab denims and colourless cottons, this baby sling is made of the most beautiful brocade fabric and is available in several gorgeous colours. Plus, it's easy to use and very comfortable for mom & baby.

 

Our tester's 5 month old would promptly fall asleep after being placed in the Pippalily sling. It's also perfect for everyday use...especially if you want to be the most well dressed mom & baby at the park.

 

Pippalily - A stylish way to get your hands back. Each Pippalily sling is hand made and lined with 100% cotton for the baby's comfort. Price: $75 CAD Visit their website www.pippalily.com

Who’s Counting the Days?

How often have you dutifully packed up the leftovers from dinner with great plans to have it for lunch later in the week? And how often have you opened the fridge only to realize that you have no idea how long those leftovers have been sitting there?

You could use masking tape to mark the date on containers but where, oh where, did it go? (Tip: check the kids’ craft table!)

Instead, try DaysAgo digital day counters – all you need to do is reset the counter and attach it to whatever it is you are tracking and the digital display will count the days (or hours) for you. They are conveniently available in either magnetic or suction cup backing and are quite small so they don’t get in the way. Of course, they are useful outside the kitchen as well to help track filter changes, health regimens and plant watering and more…

Don’t forget to check the displays regularly to see how many days have elapsed though – you didn’t expect that the timers would magically dispose of any spoiled food or water your plants for you, did you?!

Check out www.howmanydaysago.com for more details.

Lost? Found!

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a parent… If you’re a parent, you have almost certainly experienced the frustration of yet another item lost at school or daycare! This is where Mabel’s Labels fits into your life. They offer attractive Canadian-made labels to identify your children’s belongings (or your own!). They come in various styles – from sticky labels used for the countless items on your children’s school supply list to iron-on clothing labels and extra tough and sticky shoe labels to my favourite: “tag-mates” which can be used on anything with a tag. Why are they my favourite? No-sew and no-iron – need I say more?

All labels are personalized with names, nicknames, initials or whatever you choose. And your children will love the picture icons and colours that are available.

Oh, and since we’ve already established that you’re probably a parent, then you also know the “joys” of fundraising… Why not have the organization of your choice use Mabel’s Labels as a fundraiser? In addition to the traditional fundraising option, they also offer a paper-free fundraising option which includes delivery direct to the customers, eliminates money handling by the organization and can be an on-going initiative with no deadlines – just direct people to the fundraiser website and they can shop anytime. Fundraising doesn’t get much easier than that!

Visit www.mabel.ca to see these great labels!

Going Green Baby Style

Stunning landscapes and images of our mother earth combined with adorable faces of babies and toddlers makes “Return To Nature” a fun film for parents and babies to watch together!

 

“Return to Nature” is the debut featured film by BC based company, Green Baby. The idea behind this inspirational DVD is to encourage babies and young children to appreciate Mother Nature. It incorporates the images of beautiful faces of local babies and toddlers with amazing landscape backgrounds and animation to help captivate the attention of young audience members.

My 22 month old daughter took one look at the first image of a baby’s face and she was mesmerized. We both enjoyed the soothing, original soundtrack and the random words of wisdom spoken by toddlers are just so precious! What a wonderful way to introduce your little one to our beautiful mother earth! I definitely don’t feel guilty about popping “Return To Nature” in the DVD player when I’m working or cooking dinner!

Available at www.greenbaby.ca $19.99

Oliver's Labels

Created by Oliver's aunt Debbie, Oliver's Labels are personalized, colourful and durable labels and tags. Debbie's story...""It all began with a small idea to help Oliver, my nephew, from losing his stuff. After seeing the overwhelming positive reaction from his teachers and other parents, I realized there was a huge demand for good name labels. I used my years of experience in the printing industry to develop a high-quality label that was both durable and beautiful. The business was born and now our full-colour designs and exclusive Found-it Tracking System™ are a few of the things that set Oliver's Labels apart from the competition."

Their Large Bag Tag is especially great for school bags because if your child loses their bag, it will find it's way home, thanks to Oliver's exclusive Found-it Tracking System - an online lost-and-found service. So cool and a great idea! Must have been a mom who thought of it.

More information about Oliver's Labels can be found on their website: www.oliverslabels.com

Clothing for the Courageous

We all get excited when our little ones reach new milestones but at the same time I’m sure many of you agree that we don’t want to rush them through childhood too quickly… so if you’re like me, you get tired of the teen-style clothing in mini sizes that are found in many children’s clothing stores. This is where Redfish Kids comes in.

Redfish Kids offers versatile clothing made with durable, pre-washed, and pre-shrunk materials that let kids be kids whether they are pretending to be moms to their dolls or playing at the park. Unlike much of the clothes you’ll find out there, these clothes are designed to last. In fact, pants become shorts, a dress becomes a smock and of course when your child truly does outgrow the clothes, they can be passed on to younger siblings or friends…

Check out www.redfishkidsclothing.com to view these beautiful clothes.

Tiny (Hiney) Bigs

It amazes me what moms all over are coming up with! Keri Schroeder of Seattle designed tinybigs with the aim of keeping her baby girl’s pants up. Tinybigs are a clever alternative to belts and suspenders. A clasp is clipped to baby’s pants, the shirt is then pulled down over top and an appliqué is attached by way of the magnet on the underlying clasp – okay, so you really do have to check out www.tinybigs.com to understand what this is and how it works! 

Tinybigs are good for any baby but are particularly useful for slim babies whose pants are too big at the waist and diaper-free babies who don’t have the bulk of a diaper to hold their pants up.

Be sure to visit www.tinybigs.com for more details!

A Breastfeeding Bonnet? Yes!

What a great concept! A “modern bonnet for breastfeeding babes”. One of the best parts of being on the CanadianBabies team is learning about all of the innovative new products that are out there and being able to share this knowledge with our readers.

I sure could have used one of these hats six years ago when, at two weeks post-partum alone for the first time with my baby, I stopped at a local bagel shop. I thought she needed to nurse so I picked her up and tried to get her to latch on, only to find that she had fallen fast asleep. Breast exposed and now full of milk, all attempts to wake her were futile and I began spraying milk all over her and quite possibly other innocent bystanders! Not only would this hat by MoBoleez have helped to keep me covered, I could also have used the large, super soft brim to soak up the spray!

A few months later when she was much less sleepy, the brim would have helped to shield her from distracting lights and noises and could have provided us with an instant game of “peek-a-boo”!

Clever little illustrations with phrases such as “Café au lait” and “Milky Way” on the top of the head and subtle messages on the edge of the brim make these Canadian-made, eco-friendly hats the perfect gift for any new mom. The attention to detail in this product shows the passion that MoBoleez founder, Diane Sam, has for breastfeeding.

MoBoleez hats are the only hats designed specially for the breastfeeding baby and mom. Check out this Canadian-made, eco-friendly product line at www.moboleez.com

First View of Baby

To say it was amazing is an understatement!  The tears of joy I shed this day weave a story told in three dimensions.  My husband and I had the fortunate pleasure of having a three dimensional ultra-sound at BabyView in Pickering.  The wonderful part is that we didn’t show up alone.  BabyView offers a separate seating area with a large television, which shows the entire session just as we saw it in the private room.  This allowed us to share this special moment with family - both sets of grandparents and our two year old daughter.

We learned that three dimensional imaging has been around for quite a few years, but is new to Canada in the last four to five years.  This type of ultra sound uses the same type of ultra-sound waves as a traditional system, only the computer is able to take the information and create a three dimensional image on the screen that looks like a regular photograph.  The first view of your baby’s face, in full three dimensions and real time movement was an emotional high.

When we first arrived we met Cheryl Mech, the owner of BabyView, who was also our sonographer for the session.  Cheryl is a registered sonographer with over 15 years of experience.  Once the necessary paper work was completed, Cheryl took my husband and me into the ultra-sound room, while our family stayed in the waiting area to watch the session on TV.  The room we entered was very comfortable, with music playing and a large flat screen TV mounted on the wall, so that I could see everything with ease.  From there we were taken on a half hour journey into my womb to see our next child in stunning three dimensional clarity.  Cheryl worked very hard to get the best angles and views, showing us all parts of our baby and getting stunning views of the baby moving.  You could really tell that Cheryl loves her work, saying “I have the best job in the world”, getting to share in such experiences with so many parents.  We were also able to clearly determine the sex of our baby …but I’m not telling what it is.

When our session was over we received a couple of pictures printed on their colour printer, a CD of several pictures taken during the ultra-sound, and also a DVD of the entire session with music track in the background.  The experience was mind boggling, and is something we can treasure for years to come as we watch the DVD of our newest edition to our family.  As well, it will help to prepare our 2 year old daughter for the birth of her sibling.

BabyView is located on Kingston Rd just west of Brock Rd. in Pickering and has been in operation for the last 3 years.  BabyView offers several packages and discounts for those wishing to attend more than once during a pregnancy.  The best time for a 3-D/4-D ultrasound is between the 24 and 34 week mark but Cheryl has done them as early as 11 weeks as well.  For more information on BabyView please see their website at www.babyview.ca or call 1-800-715-1579 (tollfree) or  905-837-1515 (locally in Durham Region).