momstown Milton: Mom of the Month - Stacey White-Ferris - August 2012

Name: Stacey White-Ferris

Age: 32  Born In: Windsor

Children’s name and age:  Hannah 3 ½,  Will and Natalie 16 months

Childhood Ambition: To be a teacher or a waitress

Fondest Memory:  Watching my daughter nurture and nursed her babies while I nursed the twins. 

Wildest Dream:  To be able to retire now and be a S.AH.M - Stay at Home Mom and win the lottery so we could travel the world.   


Proudest Moment: Surviving the first year of having twins and a 2 ½ year old! 

Biggest Challenge:  Having to leave my kids with a sitter to head back to work. 

Perfect Day:  Sleeping in until 7:30 and spending the day at the beach with my family with everyone happy. 

First Job:  Waitress in a banquet hall

Indulgence:  Candy…especially sour

Last Big Purchase:  Mini van (3 kids take up a lot space)

Favorite Movie or Favourite Sport?  Pretty Woman

How long have you been a member of momstown Milton? 10ish months

Describe your experience as a momstown member? Being a momstown member has helped to save my sanity.  Having 3 kids under 4, I needed the adult conversations and escape from our house to a new environment. 

momstown Milton's Art & Play Program - Balls of Fun

 Our momstown Milton tots had Balls of Fun at our Art and Play Program. This month the theme of our educational curriculum was "At the Circus" so we decided to juggle, roll and bounce our balls through gobs of paint to see what would happen.

We started off with a variety of balls that were different in colour, size and texture - sensory overload! The kids were hesitant at first because they were unsure about getting the balls dirty. With a little bit of prompting, they soon began to get right into it and discovered the different types of prints that a golf ball made in contrast to a fuzzy tennis ball or a big smooth plastic ball.

Other learning concepts came into play such as sharing as the little ones rolled the ball back and forth across the table to each other.

When all was done, the mamas were very thankful to have the Huggies Simply Clean wipes in reach to clean up their little messy artists.

Join us next month when we make fishing rods and go put them to the test in the creek for our On the Pond theme.

Why Do We Feel So Guilty?

I can't speak for everyone else, but I feel more guilty now as a mother than I ever have before.  Just off the top of my head, I bet that I can come up with at least ten things that I feel guilty about:

1.  I feel guilty that my house is a mess.

2.  I feel guilty that Eric cries when we drop him off at daycare.

3.  I feel guilty that I don't cook fancy meals.

4.  I feel guilty that I've lost touch with a lot of my friends.

5.  I feel guilty that I give Eric a bottle in his crib.

6.  I feel guilty that I don't remember that last time I took an    exercise class.

7.  I feel guilty that I didn't breastfeed.

8.  I feel guilty that I don't spend enough quality time with my husband.

9.  I feel guilty that I don't read to Eric more.

10. I feel guilty that I let Eric watch television when I need a breather.

I suspect that I'm not alone.  Even Johnson & Johnson's has a marketing campaign (you're doing okay, Mom.) based around new mothers' feelings that we aren't doing enough for our babies.

But why do we feel so guilty?  Is it all the unsolicited advice that we receive?  Is it some ideal that we see in the media?  Or are we doing this to ourselves?  What can we do to overcome it and truly know that we are doing our best for our family?  We are so forgiving of everyone else, how can we be a little more gentle with ourselves?

This blog was written by Karen Bivand, a first time mother of 20 month old, Eric.  Karen's goal for motherhood is to survive it! 

(Photo From:  Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

My Journey to a Healthy Lifestyle

My name is Lori-Ann McLeod and I am the owner and lead instructor at Oxygen Yoga and Pilates.  I am a wife and   busy mother of two beautiful active children living in Milton, Ontario...

After the birth of my first child I not only felt overwhelmed with the responsibilities of being a first time mom along with having a completely different body then I had pre baby, I started having severe migraine headaches along with other health issues.  These symptoms became increasingly worse after the birth of my second child. I spent most of my days moving from one doctor’s office to another trying to find answers to my ailing health.  I ended up having some major surgeries and spent most of my time feeling physically and emotionally depressed. I felt that I was missing valuable time with my husband and children which made me even more depressed.   I finally hit rock bottom when I was told that I would need a complete hysterectomy. It was after that surgery lying in that hospital bed for what felt like the 100th time that I opened my eyes to see my children, husband, brother and parents looking at me with such worry and distress in their eyes that I decided that I had enough. I remember looking into my father’s eyes that day and saying “Dad, that’s it I’m done with this, no more”.

From that moment on I made it my mission to change my life and joined a gym and started making better food choices I started noticing my health improving slowly and realized that I was on to something.  I became fitness and Pilates believer by experiencing it transform my own mind, body and soul. Being able to move free of pain, with ease and confidence gave me a new lease on life. This transformation fueled my desire to learn and share my love of fitness and nutrition with others.

With a background in dance I fell in love with the Pilates method and decided to become certified with Body Harmonics.

I have been teaching privately for the past 4 years and decided to open my own studio in May of 2011.  I was honoured to find out that my studio won the Milton’s Choice diamond award after just 5 months in business. In the past 5 years I have  helped many people and Mom’s like me ease anxiety, shed those unwanted extra pounds and take time out of their busy lives to do something good for themselves. 

I initially created Oxygen to be a fitness studio but soon realized that it has become way more than just that.  It has become a place where people can get away from their crazy hectic lives to improve their fitness goals and connect with others in the community in a comfortable inviting atmosphere.

Oxygen Yoga & Pilates offers all kinds of fitness classes for every ability level. I also offer a Mom & Baby Pilates class that will help you reconnect with your post-partum body I encourage you to come and try a class and start your journey to feeling and looking better today.

Yours in health,

Lori-Ann McLeod
Oxygen Yoga & Pilates
348 Bronte Street South Unit 10, Milton
loriann@oxygenpilates.ca

momstown Milton: Tales for Tots - Finger Play with Scholastic's Old MacDonald Had a Farm Puppet Book

Today was a great day to be on the farm! Well, actually, we weren't at the farm, but we pretended we were at our momstown Milton Tales for Tots program at Chapters Indigo. It was a real 'hoe-down' with some children bringing farm animal toys from home, and most just excited to be doing things that have to do with their favourite subject in the whole world: Old MacDonald Had a Farm!

We started off looking after the little children by organizing a bit of colouring of different animals you would see on the farm that was found and printed from the Internet.

The older children got into the groove, the farm groove that is, by prepping themselves for the craft that day which was construction paper pigs.

             
              Craft items included:

              -pink & black construction paper
              -glue
              -Google eyes
              -pink pipe cleaner

               Voila! A pink pig!












Afterwards we of course sang Old MacDonald Had a Farm and many other farm animal songs (there are SO many!) And when it came to reading, the little ones were very excited because today's book donated by Scholastic Canada was Old MacDonald Had a Farm, the finger puppet version! Their little eyes smiled with enthusiasm.

Our grand prize winner for this book was Zachary! Perfect: he is 18 months and looooves animals!

Thanks everyone for coming out! Our Early Literacy Program - Tales for Tots is just one of many educational based programs that momstown Milton offers on a monthly basis!
 
Sign up today for our free trial membership and see how much fun and interactive learning can be!