Milestones happen every day when you have children. All of those little things you never want to forget. Everything is a celebration when you’re new to this world, and there’s really nothing like it. When my first child started speaking “Mama!,” at his first food (homemade mashed sweet potatoes…inhaled what didn’t cover his grandpa!), stood on his own, started reading…they’re all engrained forever in my mind. Parenting is magical, and seeing everything through the eyes of a child is such a gift.

Many families use Cheerios as one of their child’s first finger foods. They’re whole grain, melt easily in puddles of drool and have a hole in the middle to reduce the risk of choking. It’s with this in mind that they launched their “Cheerios Milestones” contest. You can visit the Cheerios website where you’ll be able to upload a favourite picture and be entered for a chance to be one of 20 finalists to appear on a special edition Cheerios Box and win Cheerios for a year! PLUS one lucky grand prize winner will walk away with $10,000 towards an RESP from TD Canada Trust!

The Cheerioscontest closes December 15, 2010.

But…

I’m having my own “mini-milestones” giveaway right here right now courtesy of Mom Central! Simply leave me a comment sharing a story about one of your child’s milestones for an entry. One lucky reader will receive a Cheerios playbook, perfect for learning and fun! Contest closes October 29 at noon mst.

Disclosure – I am participating in the Cheerios Milestones program by Mom Central on behalf of General Mills. I received a gift card as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

This post is sponsored by Mom Central Canada, but aside from the idea it’s 100% me.

SMARTloveoflearning.com is a community of people who share a passion for learning. From the teachers who make lessons come alive to the students who are eager to learn more and every parent, friend, aunt, and neighbor in between, there are many who share SMART® Technologies love of learning. After all, every good idea in the world exists only because somewhere along the line, someone cared enough to teach and someone was engaged enough to learn.

I’m a teacher. I’m a mom first and foremost, but I am and will always be a teacher. Before I had a B.Ed I was a teacher. It’s just the way I was made. Some people just are.

I remember very little about my “favourite teacher.” I place those words in quotes because I’ve had many great (and rather poor) teachers but she’s the one I really remember. She was my kindergarten teacher, now retired and going by a different name after a divorce, and it was her influence that inspired me to teach at just five years old.

I could read when I started kindergarten, and she did what not many would or could do. She put me into a grade one classroom for reading and math, and worked with the grade one teacher to have me put into grade two after kindergarten. That just doesn’t happen around here anymore, and it was the perfect arrangement for me. I remember her a a kind & gentle woman who really took the time to get to know me as a person, and as a learner. I remember singing with her on the carpet – The Farmer in the Dell, specifically. I remember my special cubbyhole. Everyone had one, but I sure thought mine was the best one. I remember bringing her homemade baked treats and watching them sit on her desk until Friday – the one day she allowed herself to eat junk food. I remember details like I don’t remember about any other year of school (and there were 20 including preschool and university, so that’s saying something) and when I think of her, I smile.

It wasn’t the curriculum I learned – though I’m sure she did a great job of that even if I don’t remember. It was how she made me feel that I could be anything I wanted to be. What I wanted to be was just like her. The ultimate compliment for a teacher.

That was decades before SMART Boards became commonplace in all public school classrooms. I can’t live without mine and use it all day long. I can just imagine what we could have done as students if we’d had them. It would have been magical! (video link) SMART Love of Learning has a Facebook group you can check out. Join and you can enter to WIN a SMART Board interactive whiteboard for your child’s school or a school of your choice! Simply click on the ‘Win’ tab to enter. If you’re a parent or teacher interested in raising money for a SMART Board interactive whiteboard for a school in your area, click on the ‘Toolkit’ tab.

Have you any doubt what I’m going to talk about after reading that title?

The Huggies marketing team is brilliant. Create a dance and a song that gets stuck in the heads of parents and children everywhere when they see it on commercials, put it on DVD so the kids can beg to watch it, then team up with Mom Central Canada for a blog tour and get mom’s around the country doing the dance with their children and their friends. I’m one of those moms, and I was given the opportunity to host a Potty Dance get together with some friends, which was great because we host playdates all the time and we got to have one with decorations and the food paid for by Huggies! We had a group of the kids’ friends over for our usual playdate (but with decorations! Pretty!) and somewhere in the middle we pulled out the potty dance mat and played the DVD for the kids (and mom, natch) to do the dance. It was hilarious, and since we always talk about poop anyway it was also quite appropriate.

Both of my children are potty trained, except when sleeping for the 2 year old, and both trained relatively easily, thank goodness for the state of my mind, but I can see how this would be extra helpful for a child who was struggle with learning to use the potty. With my son, being my first time, I started out by giving him a chocolate chip for peeing and two for pooping, making up a big sticker chart, and pretty much every silly little trick I’d ever heard of. Little did I know, not crapping your pants should really be enough reward in and of itself. When I stopped giving them to him, I just told him he didn’t need them anymore and he was fine with that. One thing he really did love was when I occasionally brought a washable marker in to the bathroom with me and I’d sit in front of him and write what he was doing all over his legs along with a bunch of doodles. “Fart!” “Poop!” “Pee!” All surrounded by pictures of flowers and puppies. We started with a potty timer, putting him on every 20 minutes. I recall one day when we were starting that he peed every single time. Eighteen pees in a day. Sheesh. We slowly increased the time between visits until he began to go on his own or tell us he had to go. With my daughter, we just told her when she turned two that she was old enough to not be in diapers anymore. There were a few accidents, but not many, and we put her on the potty at regular increments until she began to tell us when she needed to go. That’s it – that’s all. I was determined that it would be stress-free and child-led, and it was.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Watch a couple of Canadian public figures do the potty dance here and here.

I’d seen Majesta paper products before on the shelves at several local stores. Having never heard of the brand, I assumed it was just some crappy no-name product that would be scratchy and cheap feeling. Boy, was I wrong – and on so many levels.

They make toilet paper, facial tissue & paper towel, all of which I was sent (by Mom Central Canada) to test out. To be honest, there’s very little difference between Majesta products and the higher priced ones that I usually use. In feeling anyway – we did the cheek test (the cheeks on our faces!) and the Majesta toilet paper may have even been a tad softer than the luxury one I buy.

We were provided with a sample of Charmin and two water bottles to do a “shake test” and it was the neatest thing. When shaken in water, the Charmin stayed whole and the Majesta disintegrated – it’s biodegradable and even safe for R.Vs! I’m going to switch Majesta in to be next big grocery shop and see if my family even notices. I’m thinking they won’t.

Majesta has created a new movement – it’s the movement to plant more trees. Tree.spon.si.ble™, which is “the act of responsibly caring for today’s forests while planting trees for the future” is noble indeed. In 2010, Majesta hopes to plant 1 MILLION Trees and you can help by purchasing Majesta products (Three trees are planted for every one that is used to produce the products), attending Majesta tree planting events or visiting majesta.com and dedicate a tree through the Trees by the Shore program. How appropriate for Earth Day.

As part of the celebration of the Treesponsible™ movement, Majesta is hosting a fantastic giveaway. This Spring you can enter for the chance to win $15,000 towards a Green Makeover for your home. The prize can go towards any ‘green’ home project, for example, landscaping, new energy efficient appliances or simply replacing those leaky faucets. The promotion is open until June 27th and you may enter daily and receive additional ballots by letting your friends know about the promotion. Check it out – that’s a LOT of money!

I recently received a great product from Mom Central for review – if you’ve got a newborn or even just a really booger-filled kid, this one’s for you.

I’ll never forget the days when my children were babies and had stuffy noses. It’s so horrible watching them gasp for air as they’re nursing, and elevating their cribs did not a darn thing to help them (or me) sleep better at night. I wish I would have had this product back then – I would have tried pretty much anything that wasn’t drugs, and even that was tempting!

The hydraSense® Nasal Aspirator and its filters were developed with pediatricians, as a gentle and safe way to relieve your baby’s nasal congestion quickly and effectively. It helps to maintain clear breathing and to facilitate eating and sleeping. Its soft nasal tip is specifically designed for babies’ delicate noses and its transparent design allows for you to see the amount and type of mucus that is being removed. hydraSense® Nasal Aspirator has a protective single-use filter that traps excess mucus, providing hygienic aspiration. The tip and base of the aspirator are easily removable for effective cleaning after each use. Unlike squeezable nasal aspirators, the hydraSense® Nasal Aspirator allows you to control the strength of the suction with your aspiration.

For best results, and to liquefy mucus prior to aspiration, use hydraSense® Easydose® or hydraSense®Ultra-Gentle Mist with Comfort Tip, a nasal solution composed of isotonic, undiluted, sterile, 100% natural-source desalinated seawater. hydraSense® contains more than 70 trace elements and minerals naturally occurring in seawater and is preservative free.

I don’t have a baby right now, but my preschooler son was pumped to try this out on himself. He didn’t let me help much so it didn’t really do the trick, but it was sure funny!

Visit the hydraSense® site by April 10, 2010 to sign up for the Dolphins Club. Once you sign up and log back into your account, enter the code MC2010 under the online coupons tab, in order to get an $8 off coupon (over 50% off!) to be used towards the purchase of your hydraSense® Nasal Aspirator (coupon itself expires December 31, 2010).

Check out this video on You Tube for more info as well.

As soon as I read about the Flip video camera, I knew I wanted one. I ended up ordering a Flip Ultra for next to nothing during an Amazon sale and had it shipped to someone in the US for free who then shipped it to me in Canada for just a few bucks. It pretty awesome with it’s super easy operation, 30 minutes of video and wicked flip out USB connection for seamless and fast transfers, but when I got my slick personalized Flip Mino HD I knew I had hit the jackpot. It shoots 60 minutes of footage in cinematic quality high-definition widescreen and is sleek like no video camera I’ve ever seen. As a parent, the customization appeals to me strongly – the picture of my children on my camera pretty much rocks – but the ease of use and quality of the video wins out over any other cool feature. It’s so convenient to just stick in my pocket when I head out with my kids and now I can capture anything and everything they do in high definition with just the push of a button, and transfer it all to my laptop, edit it and capture screen shots as images with no cords and no video editing ability.

Generally I like to share some negatives of any product – particularly when it’s a product from a big company – but I’ve got nothing. This thing freaking rocks.

Mom Central CANADA (yay!) is giving away 3 customizable Flip MinoHDs on Momcentral.com/canada. To enter, send an email to momcentral@live.com with the Flip password TOP in the subject line. Contest ends October 19, 2009 and is Canadians of legal age only.