Win a 'handy' Euro-style wooden high chair!

I love the modern aesthetic: minimalist look, smart and streamlined construction. So, when I first came across the HandySitt Chair, a portable wooden high chair, I liked it instantly.


















The HandySitt Chair hooks onto the back of most chairs and basically allows you to seat baby or toddler at the table (that's right, there is no tray!) so he/she can feel like he/she is part of the action.

It's brilliant because it just sits on top of a chair you already have and folds up flat for easy storage -- great for space-challenged living. And, because it folds flat, you can take it just about anywhere! The seat is adjustable too: just adjust the handles to bring the seat parallel to the seat you're putting it on and then tether it with the safety harness underneath the chair.

The chair is built with steel and birch and weighs just 5 lbs.

The manufacturer recommends using the chair for children from as early as 7 months to 4-1/2 years, so it has a long shelf life.

Retails for $149 USD.

WIN ONE! Comment on this post (include your email address so I can contact you if you win): tell me where you'd use your HandySitt Chair. Deadline to enter: January 30, 2009, midnight.

Not comfortable leaving your email address in your entry? A couple of you have written to say you're not comfortable leaving your email address in your comment/entry. No problem! When I randomly select the winner, I'll announce it on my blog on Feb. 2, 2009 and ask that the winner contact me directly to claim the prize. So, come back to this blog on Monday, Feb. 2 to see if you're the lucky winner.

Get your child's car seat checked

I remember the day I was driving my new car home from the dealership, with my little baby boy strapped into the back, safe and sound in his car seat, installed by the car salesman. I turned left in the middle of a busy intersection in Vancouver and heard my boy yelp. I turned to see the car seat had not only moved, it had flipped completely over. It wasn't attached to anything! And my son, who was about six months' old, was hanging upside down.

That experience was horrible and terrifying. So when I heard that BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation is holding car seat checks this coming February, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about them. Even if you think you have installed your child's car seat correctly, please get it checked by the experts. It will only take a few minutes out of your day, and it could prevent the kind of situation that happened to me, or worse.

Car seat checks will be conducted on Feb. 3, 7, 12, 17, 21 and 25 at different locations throughout the Lower Mainland. Visit our website to find out details.

Like father, like daughter

I had a discussion with my husband the other night about whom our daughter resembles. I said hands-down she is the spitting image of him. He disagreed. I've posted some photos here so that you the people can decide! What do you think?

A birthday cake for a little princess

I slaved three hours decorating this cake for my daughter Lauren's 4th birthday. It's a castle cake! Like it? It turned out pretty well, considering I almost turfed it halfway through icing it. It was those darned crumbs that kept getting in my way as I was trying to put on the frosting.

Don't judge me by the crumbs in the icing. I did my best to cover them up. I even partially froze the cake layers before decorating.

I checked out a few websites that showed how to make a castle cake of this kind and ended up following their instructions for the basics and then improvised as I went along. Here's what I did:

I baked 4 cakes in 8x8" square pans. I used 3 of the cakes stacked on top of each other for the bottom tier. I then cut the last square cake into quarters. I used 3 of the quarters stacked on one another for the middle tier. Then I cut the last quarter into quarters and stacked 2 for the top tier. I frosted in between each tier (I used whipped cream and sliced strawberries for in between the layers). On the outside of the cake, I used homemade buttercream icing that I coloured pink.

To decorate, I iced the tops of 4 sugar cones and rolled in those multi-coloured sugar balls and placed upside down as turrets. The doors and windows are simple pink wafer cookies that I halved (both in length and width) and then frosted with white icing. Those white things around the tiers are mini-marshmallows. My 6-year-old son made the flag for the top (which we replaced with lit candles when it was time to sing Happy Birthday). It's construction paper taped to a toothpick.

Here's a picture of Lauren, dressed appropriately in her finest princess regalia and doing her best princess pose, beside her cake.

A new year, a new urbanbaby & toddler website

Happy New Year!

In honour of fresh beginnings, I'm happy to announce the newly renovated urbanbaby & toddler magazine website. It's not a finished masterpiece -- I'm still tweaking and improving as I go along, and I'm still developing some areas. But, I think it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.

If you have any ideas on the kind of content that would bring you back to our website often, let me know!