I just wanted to share our flying experience with Anna when she was four months old.  We flew home to PA to visit for my father's 70th birthday surprise.  Our flight to PA was so awful, my husband and I were scheming on how we could drive 33 hours back home, so that at least if our baby cried, we wouldn't have to share it with everyone around.  We didn't just experience crying, but that inconsolible crazy colic crying that eats at you soul for 4 hours.  After mustering all our courage, we had a dream flight back home and Anna slept the whole way.  What gives?  Here is what we could come up with: 

Fly early in the day.  It seemed Anna's tollerance of the airport and all the extra stimulation was much greater. 

Have something for baby to suck on, breast, bottle or paci during take off and landing.

Set up for a nap right before boarding the plane.  We did our change, feed and walk normal nap routine.

Try a dose of Tylenol if ok with your doctor, it seemed to help Anna relax a little, fall asleep and stay asleep despite take off and hurting ears.

Stay Calm yourself.  I worked hard to breathe deep and visualize a calm, peaceful, sleeping baby.  Somehow, I really think this helped.

I hope our experience will help someone who is traveling over the holidays have a smooth trip.

I recently wrote to ask how to keep our son Derek's feet warm and now that I have more time I can tell you all a little about our life with Derek.  My husband and I have always loved hiking, backpacking, snowshoeing, skiing, mountain biking and generally being in the outdoors.  When we decided to have a baby, my husband was convinced it would all come to an abrupt halt and I did my best to convince him otherwise, so I knew when Derek arrived that it was up to me to make our outdoor lifestyle work with our baby.  Derek was born in October of 2007 and with winter approaching I knew the first few month would be tough, but we started with short hikes with Derek bundled up in the baby bjorn and he would sleep for almost the entire trip.  We took him to the ski lodges with our friends and everyone would take turns watching Derek so everyone could ski.  A note for the previous writer who doesn't have friends with kids; these were friends without kids, they just grew to love our son.  By March we were comfortable enough to take Derek on a short ski skin up a valley outside of Telluride and the highlight for the entire group was when Derek decided it was lunch time and the weather was moving in, so I moved the bjorn to the front, let Derek breast feed and snowplowed down the path back to town.  Normally I wouldn't recommend skiing with a baby, but I've been skiing since I was 2 and we went slowly, but made it back to town before the weather got real nasty. 

Since then we've hiked many miles and took Derek on a one night camping trip which went well minus Derek getting the flu and throwing up all over the tent...Thank goodness for dogs!  I slept with Derek in my sleeping bag, but I would recommend a different situation as I didn't get any sleep at all.  We've had to give up our mountain biking, but we've traded it for biking bike paths with the trailer in tow.  Not the same, but we are discovering new joys, like biking to a fun place for lunch or a playground where Derek can meet new kids.  We have a burley and have found it very tough to keep Derek comfortable with a helmet on, which is a must.  I know kids with skull fractures from accident where they weren't wearing helmets.  Our solution was to rig his carseat in the burley until he was around a year and now we put him in the burley with the boppy around him which allows room for the helmet.  We love our Deuter Kid Comfort II for hiking.  It is adjustable and my husband and I can switch it between us in seconds and it is as comfortable as our expensive backpacking packs.  Derek has always been happy in it as well.  It's a good idea to bring something soft to put around their face when they fall asleep so they don't get chaffed.  The only complaint I have is that I wish it had stirrups so Derek could stand up occasionally and get some better circulation in his legs, but I'm going to try to make some.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

As to the feet situation, I found some down booties in a thrift store and we put them over smart wool sock for a hike yesterday in 50 degree weather and his feet were super toasty!  And a remark to the writer who wants to have kids and keep her current life, you can do it, but you need to remember that it will not be the same.  Sacrifices will have to be made.  I can't speak to sport climbing, but we have continued to do the things we love, but at a slower pace and with more stops along the way which is not all bad.  Good luck and thanks for having this blog where we can share our stories.

I found this website through Hyatt Hotels and gave it a try.  The service is called Babies Travel Lite and they will deliver all of the baby products you will need during your trip directly to your hotel. I used them a couple of weeks ago on our trip to Walt Disney World and it was great. We arrived at the hotel and our box with all of Michael's baby diapers, infant formula, organic baby food, and baby bath stuff was sitting on the bed. It was a great experience from start to finish and I think it should be the Tip Of The Week. I was able to order from hundreds of baby supplies online, told them where I was going and when I arrived and that was it. It was a little scary since we left the house without any baby supplies for our family vacation, but the service was perfect. The front desk knew about our box and told us it was waiting in our room. I have been telling everyone I know that has a baby about this service and how easy it was to travel with a baby and not have to shop for all of those baby products for your trip, pack them, take an extra suitcase, pay extra service fees for excess luggage and worry about the airline losing you luggage. I knew everything was OK with our order from Babies Travel Lite because they sent me a tracking number so I could track the box, then they sent another email that told me who was holding my box and where in the hotel so I would know in case it wasn't in my room when I checked in. Very cool service and my vote for Tip on the Week. I will be using them again when we go on our Thanksgiving family vacation to Hawaii.

The Great Sand Dunes National Park is a great place to take a toddler.  We took our 3 year old daughter, Ruby, to visit for a couple days in September and she had a blast.  She was ready to hike to the top of the tallest Dune.  She jumped off the side of the sand dunes, slid down them forward and backward and hiked up and ran down.  She was fully entertained the entire time.  The creek was running and even though it was a little chilly she splashed around and had a wonderful time playing in it.  We have been visiting the Sand Dunes for many years now, and even though it has become a National Park it still has a good feel to it and it was not too expensive.  We took our dog and even let it run off leash to fetch the ball without any problem.  The San Luis Valley is a great place in Colorado to spend time in the outdoors and the Sand Dunes provides hours of fun and adventure for you little ones.

For those of you who are getting used to my writing and to my reasons for running this site, it will not come to you as a surprised that I like gear that can be used for a number of different purposes.

This is where Mountain Sprouts Base Set comes in to further make my point.  Gear for children that can be used for many different activities, in different seasons, for long periods of time and then passed down is always a good thing. A good thing for the planet, a good thing for your wallet and a good thing that teaches that life is about fun but not getting more material stuff.

Mountain Sprouts base set can be purchased for $40. Click on this link to purchase a base set in Cranberry, Indigo or Canary: Mountain Sprouts

This long underwear-like, top and bottom set is made here in the US by a Colorado company.  It is made of a stretch silk-synthetic that is moisture wicking, breathable, UV 50+protection, stain resistant and comes with a multi-generation guarantee.

My daughter has used her base set at the outdoor swimming pool (as a bathing suit with sun protection) and as a bottom layer on cold hikes.  In every situation the base set is the perfect clothing and it holds up to chlorine, abrasion, and stains.  My daughter is always protected from the elements, and therefore happy.

Heidi

Here are some excerpts of the different blogs about our giant pumpkin.  Click on the provided links to read more fun stories:

         Colorado’s largest pumpkins congregated at the Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers weigh-off on Saturday. If you had ever asked me as a little girl if I would marry a man who would become conjoined with such an organization, I would have laughed until I was blue in the face.

The Great Pumpkin’s weight is 755 pounds and it won second place for the prettiest pumpkin. The state record was broken by Joe Scherber at a whopping 1,135 pounds!

“Has anyone wondered what we are going to talk about when pumpkin season is over?”

Official pumpkin growing website

Mile high mamas blog

Q and A with the pumpkin grower

Submitted by Heidi Ahrens with permission from Amber Johnson

MEC Newt Rain Suit: This full-coverage rain suit has taped seams and waterproof fabric that provides excellent protection in soggy conditions. Infants and toddlers will stay dry and comfortable on damp playgrounds, and as they explore wooded trails after a rain.

This great affordable ($51 CAD) rain suit can be found in red, blue or yellow at:  Mountain Equipment Coop

Heidi

I tested out the 12 cm container which holds 3 cups of food.  The bowl was completely airtight.  I stored the soup I did not finish that I cooked on a backpacking stove inside my pack and I never got a messy leak.  I was on a whitewater canoe trip and this bowl came very handy.  I like to try to keep my gear to a minimum and this bowl does the trick.  Also, for thirteen bucks it really is economical as outdoor gear gets.  I was easy to wash and did not get too dirty when cooking on our little stove. 

I love gear that I can use outdoors and also at home ( spend less $ on consumer goods).  This container is great to store snacks for little trips around town.  It can easily carry yogurt.   My daughter likes to store her snack in the container and close the three little clasps.  When she is done I can through it in my bag with no mess even if it flips upside down  or I am riding my bike.

 They are available in four convenient sizes: 14 cm, 12 cm, 10 cm and 8 cm diameter. They are made of high grade stainless steel #304. Easy to clean, the bottom part can be washed in the dishwasher.

Another great reason to buy this container is that you will be purchasing less plastic and storing your food in a more healthy environment.   Outdoor travel is surrounded by plastic and I am making it a point to feature products that reduce our use of this toxic material.

To purchase this great product click on this link:  Life without plastic

Life without Plastic is a web-based company based out of Canada and run by a family.  They offer many other products that I would love to get my hands on.

Maybe these little bowls will become the Sigg version of food containers, can you imagine them in different colors and designs. Hey, maybe I should get royalty on that.  For now, you can take a marker and write on the container to identify the content or the user.  Useful, if you are traveling with a few little ones and you are digging through your pack for your picky toddlers bowl of snack and not your leftovers.

www.lifewithoutplastic.com

Heidi

Here are some November 4th, 2008  resources:

• Volunteer to register voters with Rock the Vote
• Participate in election campaigns:
• Click here for Change 
• Visit Green Party website Here
  

I enjoyed your article, Heidi, and wanted to share the system that we've settled on, as I think it works particularly well for traveling/hiking/backpacking. Most of the time, we use a system similar to gDiapers, but with an absorbent cloth pad inside of a diaper cover. It looks like this. When traveling, we wash the pee-soaked items by hand, and store the poopy ones for home or a laundromat. If we don't have the time (or good weather) for laundry, then we can replace the cloth pads with the compostable gDiaper pads. These can be disposed of in a pit toilet or buried or packed out. At a minimum, we hand wash the diaper covers, but we usually only go through about two of those per day, and they're easy to wash inside of a gallon ziploc bag. Oh, and we also use cloth wipes, though we sometimes buy disposable wipes after they run out, depending on how easy it is for us to do laundry on a particular trip.

For our daughter Éloïse (4) who has hypotonia (low muscle tone), swimming is a very challenging activity as it solicits numerous muscles throughout her entire body. Although she has physical challenges, she is full of energy and wants to do as every other kid her age. She certainly realizes that she has the ability of doing whatever she desires, however, it may take longer to reach her goals.

So on a wonderful summer day, we decided to head to beautiful Lac Saint-Pierre in Val-des-Mont Québec where we spent the day with family members. We knew this was the perfect time to give it another try (our previous attempts in putting Éloïse in water had resulted in tantrums as she has come to realize how challenging swimming could be and had developed a fear of water). But that day, our goal was not to see her get wet, it was simply to give her the opportunity to overcome her fear. For the first two hours, she walked in shallow waters, not even getting her knees wet. Staring at her cousins, we could tell she so much wanted to join them. By dinner time, she surprised us and said she was ready and wanted to go in the water with daddy. So we put her life jacket on and for the first time since the age of 11 months, she was in the water up to her shoulders. To see the sparkles in her eyes as she got further from the dock was so rewarding.

As parents, we should never force our kids to go in the water if they do not feel comfortable doing so. This could generate a real water phobia. Rather, we should try to understand their fear, encourage them, and let them go at their own pace. With this experience and many more before that, our daughter has taught us to never give up and be patient. By adapting outdoor (and indoor) activities to our kids needs, we as parents help them reach their full potential.

There is nothing like getting dirty and finding things in nature. Children learn when they see, do, touch, and experience. To be a green mom, I have to let my kids just get dirty. They have to dig for worms, feel the soil, sometimes taste it and figure out what those worms are doing. It means scrubbing finger nails and taking long baths to soak but it helps the children understand for themselves what a worm is, how nature works and exactly what it feels like to figure something out. From all of my children’s exploring they have figured out, without me teaching them, that worms like dark, moist places to live. They know where the slugs are and which rocks to turn over. I did not teach them any of this but through exploration they have learned.

This has also taught my children empathy. They realize that worms are used for fishing or that birds eat them and they handle them gently. They want to know what worms eat and this led us to the discussion of composting and how soil breaks down. I found a neat power point presentation that helped teach my son about composting and then we took a trip to the library. He has now started asking us if we can make a compost bin and what are some ways that we can compost at home. One thing has led to another and now I am learning more about composting so maybe as a family we can begin using a compost bin or building one of our own.

I’ve discovered a few helpful books: Compost By Gosh by Michelle Portman and Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof. These books are for me to figure out what I’m doing but my son has been looking at Wiggling Worms at Work by Wendy Pfeffer and the book A Handful of Dirt. We have a lot to learn but together we are discovering how to be more earth friendly. We can start big and make our own as the power point show us or we can just start with a small kitchen composting bin and work up from there. Either way, it is fun to learn about. Something as simple as digging for worms one day has ended in book buying and library trips to learn more! To be a green mom and raise your kids green you don’t have to just care about BPA Free Sippy cups or organic food. There are lots of ways to be an eco-mom and help your children learn about the environment! My advise, get dirty and go from there!