Seedlings; Kids On the Hip and I am not Perfect

Seeds are Sprouting

I am so excited my seeds are taking and my sprouts are growing... I planted a few more last weekend and will do the same this weekend - by spreading out when you start your seedlings you have a variety of plants at different point is their growing cycle so you end up with a more continuous crop.

Kids on the Hip

Kids on the Hip is closing. All week, everything is 25% off; next week starting on Saterday everything is 40% off, then that is it: bye bye Kids on the Hip. I went by today and picked up a few things for the C Monster including great little toy cars for an Easter Hunt. My plan this year is to hide some paper eggs around the house with some clues on them leading you from egg to egg. With each egg I will hide a little car - at the end when he gets to the final egg their will be a small chocolate egg for him.

The cars are from Plan Toys - mini trucks and cars II.

Keeping it Real

Inspired by fellow blogger Boho mom I decided to post about my imperfections:

• I make tonnes of typos (many of which are cleaned up later by my helpful husband)
• My dishes are not done
• The laundry is piling up
• My son is down to only one nighttime diaper - I so need to wash diapers
• We had ice cream for lunch (chocolate of course)
• I have granola crumbs stuck to my butt

Looking Forward

To a great lunch on Friday with my friends.

Beding, sheets and pillow cases

As Christophe gets older I find the need to scrutinize more and more things we buy for him (and us for that matter). A few years ago if I needed new bed sheets I would have looked for 100% cotton sheets with a 200+ thread count in a color that matches the decor of the room they are for. (We currently have beige and red in our room bought under these guidelines almost 3 years ago now)

Today now that I am a more savvy stay at home mom I need to add a few more criteria to this list - so now we are looking for:

• 100% cotton
• 200+ thread count
• Neutral color
  
• Organic
• no flame retardants
• Fair trade (optional)

Now why you may say well here goes:

100% COTTON

We like cotton the best in our house: it's a natural fiber; it's soft; it's washer and dryer safe. Their are many other natural fibers out there such as silk and hemp. I find hemp is not that soft and well silk kills thousands of little worms to make your sheets and not the most practical to wash. There are also some not so natural but claiming to be natural fibers out their such as bamboo - for more info read this great article from Inhabitat.

250+THREAD COUNT

When you get sheets you want to make sure you get good quality sheets something that will last well this is where thread count (tc) comes in. Thread count refers to the number of threads, both vertical and horizontal, in a one-inch square of fabric. With my experience I find the more you have the stronger your fabric is and the softer the fabric is. This is not the only determining factor for these but a good guide. For example we got 400 tc once and really hated the sheets. So open the package and touch them first.

NEUTRAL COLOR

I used to buy sheets in some sort of fun color to match my room and often I would end up getting rid of them before they ripped whether because I got tired of them or I changed the decor and they did not match anymore. Now we only buy unbleached or natural sheets that way all our sheets match, you don't have to worry about matching pillowcases and so one. Also no matter the decor of your room the sheets will go with it. A plus to natural sheets is they give you that hotel feel when you slip into bed.

ORGANIC (or Unconventinaly grown)

For thousands of years cotton was grown organicly and then in the 1950s pestisides came along and revolutionised the cotton industry for the worst (according to me). Cotton became more plentiful and cheep while our enviroment and health was placed at risk. Pesticides have been linked to many health issues and enviromental issues. Some of these are: fertility problems; sensory, motor, mental and psychological effects; farmers or a gardener run a greater risk of developing neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease; Effects on learning; links to cancer... All you have to do is google pestisdes and effects on your health and you will find thousands of articles.

You have to keep in mind that cotton is the most heavily sprayed crop on the planet; "twenty-five percent of all insecticide is applied to cotton. Two hundred chemicals might be applied to a single plant in one season in the United States. This translates to a third of a pound of chemicals per pound of cotton fiber. One and a quarter pounds of agricultural chemicals are used in California to produce the conventionally grown cotton in a single set of queen-sized sheets."1

Buying organic cotton products can have a large impact on the enviroment - for the positive.

NO FLAME RETARDANTS (PBDEs)

We cover everything that is man mad in flame retardants so it does not go poof if their is a fire. When the easiest solution is to surround yourself in natural fibers with no chemicals so they don't go poof if their is a fire. Flame retardants are bad when it comes to close contact with you; now don't get me wrong I think their are places where flame retardants are required but my bed sheets is not one of them.

Why are flame retardants bad? "Health Effects related to Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs): Brain and nervous system, Reproduction and fertility, Persistent and bioaccumulative, Neurotoxin; brain damage."2

FAIR TRADE

I put fair trade as optional because well, we all know fair trade is better because it garentees that the workers making our product are treated fairly and paid proper wadges. I would love to only buy items that are fair trade. However sometimes an item that meets all my other requirements will be $50 and an equivalant item that is fair trade will be $75. Most times we can justify paying more but sometimes we just can afford to do so.

The perfect sheets according to me that is...

So when we needed to get some bedding for Christophe both for his crib and now his toddler bed we looked arround at what was readily available here in Toronto that met our critarias and ended up on going with Coyuchi. These meet all of my critarias and I can get them at 2 stores that are within walking distance from my house: Kids on the Hip and Grassroots.

Depending on where you shop a fitted crib sheet will cost you about $45CND; a fitted twin sheet $80CND; and a fitted king sheet $105CND. These are well worth it we used our crib sheets for about a year and washed them once every 2 weeks and they still look like new.

1. Source Coyuchi
2. Source EWG

Summer Time Fun

Summers here... well some days it feels like it in Toronto. Summer is not officially here until June 21; however as the days are getting longer and the kids are refusing to go to bed "because it's not night time it's still bright out"; we are all getting in summer mode. With summer mode comes outdoor toys, sunscreen and parks; this post is about what I am doing as a mom to keep Christophe safe this summer, help him avoid toxins and for me select safe products.

Sunscreen:

There are 100's if not 1000's of sunscreens to choose from on the market so how do you know what to do when it comes to selecting one for you or your little one. Well this is a subject I was not very educated on until last year, I will admit it I am bad I used to never use sunscreen, but I don't want Christophe growing up thinking it's OK to prance around in the sun without protection. A few years back my best friends dad was diagnosed with skin cancer and he is one of the healthiest man I have ever met so if it can happen to him it can happen to anyone; he is still battle with cancer and will probably be doing so until the end. ( my thoughts goes out to him and his family everyday ) I think his story is probably what made me start thinking about sunscreen for use other then at the beach.

There are so many website out there that tell you the pros and cons of sunscreen that I am not going to talk about that. I just want to stress if you are going out in full sun or on a day the UV index is high were sunscreen. Now you may ask how do I tell if the UV index is high; here in Canada you can get all that information from Weathernetwork. Unless the UV Report is low I slap on the sunscreen on both myself and Christophe, if we are planning on being outside for more the 20 mins or so.

What kind of sunscreen do we use: I selected California Baby for Christophe only SPF 30+ and for myself Lavera SPF 30 for babies. So far so good when we are wearing the sunscreen and reapplying as directed neither of has had a sunburn. The reason why I selected a baby sunscreen for myself is that despite the fact that it is for me I am still picking up Christophe all the time so there will be product transfer. So you say why do I not use the California Baby; California Baby Sunscreen is not sold in Canada you have to order it from the US that being said it's not cheep, but it is one of the best sunscreens on the market for infants and kids.

Additional resources on sunscreen check out Skin Deep Sunscreen Report.

Hats:

Sunscreen naturally brings us to hats, wear a hat, wear a hat, wear a hat. Do I have to say it again. Not only wearing hats is fashionable it offers some sun protection creating shade around you face; and some hats offer additional SPF protection due to the fabric used to make them.

Our favorite kids hats are from Snug as a Bug as a bonus they are Canadian Made. Be sure to check out there adjustable hats. Unfortunately these hats then to be hard to find in stores so your best bet is to order online, you wont be disappointed.

And for mom I just love the hats from deLux. In my hood you can get them at the Hat Depot located at 704 Danforth Ave. This is a great little shop the owner still makes hats right in the shop; if you make it there ask them to show you the caps they make for small kids we got one for Christophe and every day he wheres it I think we must get at least 4 or 5 comments on it. Louis the owner and hat maker will also most likely show you pictures of his grandson that is around the same age as Christophe.

Now that we are ready to go out and play lets talk toys:
Many balls that we buy our kids contains PVC, latex or vinyl; also a lot of the balls you can find these days are decorated with Diego, Dora or some other cartoons. I am not sure about you but in my home we try to avoid any ting that is branded commercially by large corporations. Last summer we found this great company that only makes products that are PVC, latex and vinyl free - Crocodile Creek; you can purchase their balls at Treasure Island Toys in Toronto.
Other necessities for outdoor play are available from Green Toys; we have the Sand Play Set and I would like to get one of the Trucks for Christophe as well. You can get these at Kids on the Hip in Toronto. Green Toys is a wonderful manufacture from the US that make toys from recycled plastic and all there toys contain no traceable amounts of Phthalates or BPA.

When talking about summer items I should probably also talk about sunglasses and bathing suits; unfortunatly I don't feel aquiped to talk about them because well - For sunglasses Christophe refuses to wear them and bathingsuits we really only go swimming indoors. However with Christophe now able to walk I am sure we will be frequenthing the splash pad so I should probably start doing my research on this one... maybe I will share my findings in another post.