10 Experience Based Gifts for Little Kids for Under $25

Photo Credit: Eric M Martin via Compfight cc

The Holidays are approaching & as I trip over a doll while I pick another piece of lego out of my foot, I'm starting to dread the avalanche of stuff that's coming at Christmas. While I love seeing the unadulterated joy on the faces of my children when they open up a gift & immediately start to play with it, I hate the aftermath. I also know that some of the things they love the most aren't things, but experiences. They love zooming down hills on the bike. They love searching for the beaver in Hinge Park (still haven't seen it yet). They love watching the "mighty machines" that do road work, garbage pickup, & construction in our neighbourhood.

I'm not going to lie, I've already bought the kids stuff for Christmas. Things. Objects. I may regret having such a large collection of books next time I slip across the living room hardwood on one. However, this year for all gifts we give--birthdays & Christmas--I'm going to try to get more experience based things. Since I thought you might be interested in this idea too, I've made a list of experience based gifts for little kids under $25.

Happy Birthday Spokespapa (Plus a Present for Spokesmama Readers)

Sprout helped me pick this particular pannier design for Papa

Happy Birthday Spokespapa! In our tradition of getting terribly romantic extremely practical gifts for each other, I got a pair of Ortlieb panniers for Oliver. Yup, those dry bag style waterproof (& probably bomb-proof) panniers you see on bike racks come the rainy season in Vancouver. Okay, all year in Vancouver.

I got a great deal on the panniers & you can too--the Ortlieb Classic Back-Roller panniers (in patterns only) are on sale for $150 a pair ($50 off the usual price!) until October 31 or until they're all gone, at the Bike Doctor. They come in purple, green, blue yellow or white, with three different graphics. The bags feature an included shoulder strap, a roll over closure at the top, organizer pockets inside & a super simple to remove, very adjustable mounting system.

If you didn't know, Bike Doctor is a locally-owned independent bike shop at 137 West Broadway in Vancouver. They claim to offer "fast, friendly, expert sales & service" & while I haven't had my bike serviced there (yet) I can definitely vouch for the friendly & fast service on the sales floor. I got my & Sprout's bike helmets there in the summer. They have a great selection with tons of Giro helmets, which apparently are the only brand that fit our heads.

When I was there this week, within a minute of entering the shop, I had the two Trail-a-bike hitches I needed. Then I spent a while talking with staff member Jeffrey about the Ortlieb panniers. I've seen them around a lot & know their reputation is second-to-none, so that, plus the great price, made it a no-brainer. I'm also pleased to report that Spokespapa was quite happy with his birthday gift & put them to use right away. :)

I did promise you a present too, didn't I? Here it is: if you go to Bike Doctor, tell them I sent you (mention this blog, Spokesmama) & you'll get 15% off the purchase of child seats, rain capes or lights! You're welcome!

*The Fine Print: Spokesmama readers get 15% off regular priced items only, discount is a one-time deal & you'll be asked to show ID so you can't use it again. Offer expires November 15, 2013.
Disclaimer: this is not a sponsored post--I just like supporting friendly local bike shops!

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Meet ___

"Can I hold the baby, Mama?" at BC Women's

Whoops! This post was intended to stay in my drafts folder but got auto published. Sorry about that. Since it's here, rather than deleting it & leaving you with a 'Sorry, page not found' message if you clicked through from a tweet or FB post of the link, I'll take it as an opportunity to say a HUGE THANK YOU to some people who deserve awards for their supporting roles in the past few days:

• Linnaeus for being such a wonderful big brother already.
• Oliver for being here through everything & getting us to the hospital safely in our Modo car.
• Lisa, Dan & Lucy for taking such great care of Sprout---including his very first sleepover without his parents--while his little sister took her time deciding when to be born.
• Andrea & Tracy (two of our team of midwives) for being there at this wee one's birth.
• Candace & Lori (the rest of team one at the Midwifery Group) for great prenatal care.
• Jackie Dives (birth doula & photographer) for the moral support & incredible photos of the big event (sneak peek of our birth photos here).
• BC Women's & Children's Hospital staff for doing their jobs so well
• All the rest of our family & friends who provided moral support by phone, Facebook & Twitter when I was surprised by a long, slow-moving early labour.

THANK YOU again!

(& I didn't change the title of this post because, no, we still don't have a name for her yet!)

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Listicles: Oh, no, you didn't!

Kosher salt, straight out of the jar.

This week's Listicles was actually pretty easy to write. The topic? 10 "Oh, no you didn't!" moments. Why so easy? I have a three-year-old. Though we've so far escaped any incidents truly worthy of Sh*tMyKidsRuined.com--hope I'm not jinxing myself by saying that--there have been some good ones. Here's the list, in rough chronological order:

1. I'll start with an oldie. Maybe a year & a half ago, Sprout got a cute little board book--one of those ones where you lift flaps on each page to see something underneath. He'd always been quite good with his books, not chewing on them or bending them, but this one was different. While he was 'reading' it & I wasn't watching him, he decided to remove every flap in the book. I think I caught him before he got the last two off...
2. When Sprout was around two, he started demanding to have beer when we were drinking it at dinner. I'm pretty liberal about alcohol consumption, but I think two is a little young to start, so we said no. He got more & more demanding, so I thought maybe we could try reverse psychology, sort of. We decided to give him a sip of a really bitter, hoppy beer, thinking it would make him stop asking. Fail. He loved it & a year later still asks regularly for beer.
3. I scored a great deal on a Stokke Tripp Trapp chair for Sprout a few months ago at a local consignment store. First time he sat in it he decided it didn't quite have the patina he was looking for so hit it about fifteen times in rapid succession with a fork, leaving a patch of little pits in the wood of the seat. Sigh.
4. After asking for 'pwivacy' in the bathroom & closing the door, I go back to check on him in a few minutes & he's unrolled an entire toilet paper roll & shredded it. Half is on the floor & half in the toilet. He hasn't managed to get as much toilet paper shredded in the dozen or so times he's done this since.
5. While riding the bus home from somewhere or other a few weeks ago, Sprout was in one of those repeating-the-same-word-over-&-over moods. He started saying, "Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye..." ad nauseum. Kind of cute--we were sitting near the back doors of the bus. Then after he got tired of that, he switched it up to, "Die, die, die, die, die, die!" all the while staring at this young guy that was standing behind our seat. The guy got off the bus not long after--who knows if that was actually his stop? Heh.
6. One of the things I did in the preparation for Sprout's birthday party a few weeks ago was to clean the fingerprints off the living room window. I actually cleaned it inside & out. Took the screens off, wiped it with glass cleaner a couple of times & it was pretty good. Before anyone arrived, I caught him smearing the face equivalent of snow angels on it, on top of a row of fingerprints. Sigh.
7. My cousin-in-law (do you call your spouse's cousins that?) dropped off three bags of lovely hand-me-downs for the baby recently. I'd just sorted them out by size & put them back in a corner of Sprout's room. While I was making lunch, he took every single item out of the three bags & distributed them around his bedroom.
8. One of Sprout's chores is to refill the bird feeder. This usually involves about five minutes of him carefully scooping mixed bird seed & pouring it through a funnel in the top of the feeder. He's been doing it for months & doesn't usually need much help any more, so the other day I set him up on the porch with all the tools needed, then came back in a couple minutes. There was birdseed all over the porch, with about one scoop worth actually in the feeder. 
9. For the past couple of months, Sprout has been using the toilet on his own pretty reliably at home. I'd stopped worrying about 'accidents' since he's gotten to the point where he tells me he needs to go in time to make it to even public washrooms consistently. Then the other day he was in his bedroom 'reading', when he came out into the living room & said, "I need to pee." I said, "Okay, let's go." Then I noticed that his pants were completely soaked. Groan. He still peed some more in the toilet, amazingly. Then I checked his room. Reading chair cushion: drenched in pee.
10. Sprout got his first nosebleed yesterday, likely because he's lately adopted a serious nose picking habit. (we're working on it--ugh) When I tried to get him to sit still so I could wipe his face & hands, he started exhaling forcefully, splattering both of us with blood drops. This was the (very rare) day that we both happened to be wearing white shirts.

All right: parents, pet owners, anyone: got any 'Oh no, you didn't!" moments to share with us? Leave them in the comments below!

Join in the fun yourself--enter the link to your list here (click on the Listicles button to the right), or just browse the many other entries on Northwest Mommy.

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Happy Birthday!

Since having Sprout, our birthdays have become much less important than his. Every year that goes by we remember that one is coming up later & later. The days of big parties to celebrate another year officially elapsing are probably over, or at least for now. But surely Papa deserves a blog post for his birthday, no?

Happy Birthday!

Two years old!

Exactly two years ago, at 9:51am, Sprout popped into the world & my life hasn't been the same since. :)

Decorating the loot bags for his birthday party.

List #35: Birthdays

Sprout's first birthday party last August.

Stasha's Monday Listicles topic for the week is Birthdays. I took a trip down memory lane & thought back to some of the birthday parties I've been to, both mine & other people's. I remembered a lot of fun stuff, so here is a mishmash of fun memories & things I like about birthdays in general:

1. The cakes. I can't pick just one--I've seen some incredible birthday cakes in my life. Recently there was the 99% edible carousel complete with animal-shaped cookies riding between oreo straws of my friends' son's first birthday. I loved the construction-themed masterpiece my sister put together for her son's 5th birthday. Then there were all the colourful shaped cakes my mom would bake for us when we were little with the pans she rented, painstakingly decorated with buttercream icing. Yup, I've seen & eaten some really fun cakes.
2. The costumes. Okay, I know most people don't have costume birthday parties, aside from maybe the paper hats, but I love dressing up. One of my favourite parties was my 33rd, where we had a sci-fi/cyberpunk-themed costume bash. Everyone dressed up--costumes included Spock, two Captain Kirks, Predator, Darth Vader & various other bizarre aliens & futuristic get-ups.
3. Knowing how to party. My in-laws are well into retirement & despite their rather advanced years (77 & 81), they still know how to tie one on. Every year, for my mother-in-law's birthday, they have a huge do in their back yard with dozens of friends. Copious quantities of beer & wine are served, & nobody goes home without stuffing themselves on bratwurst & the myriad desserts that everyone seems to arrive with.
4. One-of-a-kind gifts. I love to make presents for people. Lately I've been pretty busy with work, so I've slacked off on the gift-making, but there's nothing like seeing someone enjoy something you made with your own hands.I much prefer to spend time on making something unique over spending money buying something that's likely to be duplicated.
5. Timing is everything. I was born near the end of August, which often meant my friends were on vacation when I was having my birthday party. However, the 22nd also falls during the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver. Being able to celebrate my birthday on the rides, seeing all the prize-winning farm animals & munching on cotton candy was pretty special as a kid & I still love to go there around my birthday as an adult.
6. The planning. Possibly my favourite thing about kids' parties is planning out themes, decorations, the food, the invite list & all the little details that half the people probably don't even notice anyway. I've tried not to overdo it with the planning for Sprout's first & second birthdays, as he's too little for costumes or involved games but I have some great ideas for when he's a bit older!
7. An excuse for a get-together. I'm a social person & I love bringing people together. Birthdays happen all throughout the year & give everyone a chance to have fun. 
8. A new number. Sometimes birthdays are a huge milestone, like the first one. Or the fifth, for me, as that was just a week or so before I started kindergarten. Turning 16 meant I could start learning to drive. 19 came with full voting privileges & the ability to legally drink. Though this year's isn't going to be anything spectacularly different--I'll be 37--I was getting tired of the number 36 anyway.
9. The centre of attention. Maybe it's because I'm one of three kids in my family, or maybe it's just my personality, but I think that having a day dedicated to celebrating one person is pretty awesome. Hallowe'en & Christmas are great too, but they're more about everybody. Birthdays you get full permission to hog the spotlight.
10. Best present ever. In 2010, my 'birthday present' arrived almost two weeks before my birthday: Sprout was born. I don't even remember what we did to celebrate that year, though I think there was something. Giving birth to a healthy little boy was enough to keep me on cloud nine for a long time.

Why Monday lists? Reading the lovely Chloe's blog, Tea Swamp Park, I found an idea I had to 'steal': a list of all her Halloween costumes, with quite a few photos. She got the idea from Hula Seventy's List Project. I've decided to do the weekly lists for a year that Hula Seventy is doing. 

Tea Swamp Park & Hula Seventy are not the only ones doing lists, however. Click on the Listicles badge to the left to check out NorthWestMommy's list & 'assignment' for next week.

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