I want to thank everyone who entered to my giveaway for a Free night in a hotel room from Hotels.com (value up to $350).
The randomly selected winner was Marcia who said:
When we visited Universal Studios in Orlando last year we stayed at a Quality Suites that was very family friendly mostly because of the free hot breakfast buffet!
Didn't win this time? I'll be posting a coupon code for 15% off at Hotels.com momentarily. It's already up on my Facebook page for DeliciousBaby Fans.
I have another great giveaway starting soon. Be sure to check back (or subscribe so that you don't miss a thing).
Related Giveaway
If you really need a vacation, you might also want to enter the Hotels.com "I Need a Vacation" summer sweepstakes. The winner receives a onetime check for 102,250USD, no-strings-attached, which he/she may use as they choose – a vacation a year for 50 years, or three months travelling the world in high style. Just upload a photo of your best "I need a vacation" look to enter.
Many thanks to the Hotels.com for generously sponsoring this giveaway.
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Posted on July 13, 2010 |
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At home in Seattle, I often find myself rushing the kids from one activity to another. On vacation we can take the time to check out thing the kids are interested in. I suspect that's why they're willing to go into so many tourist sites with us - they know that they'll have time to explore at their own pace (which is sometimes faster than ours and sometimes slower). We try to allow plenty of time at each destination we visit so that we see everything we want to without rushing the kids through each of their own discoveries.
Case in Point: Outside the "New Mosque (also known as the Mosque of the Valide Sultan), there is a row of vendors selling Pigeon feed.
As you'd expect, there's also a HUGE flock of birds.
Culturally, in Seattle, we wouldn't feed birds in a park. But in Istanbul, it's considered a good deed - and I suspect that's why these pigeon food sellers are clustered outside the mosque. If the kids were just a little older we could have a great discussion about how things that are considered good in one context can be considered bad in another. But we're not doing that. Instead, we're just joining in.
So much for the idea that it's boring to learn about different cultures.
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Posted on July 12, 2010 |
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Today is your last chance to enter our free giveaway to win a free night in a hotel room (up to $350 value) from Hotels.com .
While you are at it, you might also want to enter the Hotels.com "I Need a Vacation" contest where you could win a vacation every year for 50 years.
If you have already entered, but want to add your recommendations for kid-friendly activities, restaurants, or hotels to DeliciousBaby for more chances to win, now is the time! Each recommendation will earn five extra entries in the giveaway.
Just visit this article: Win a Free Hotel Night (up to $350 value) from Hotels.com and follow the instructions.
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Posted on July 12, 2010 |
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I'm not sure whether the kids put more fingerprints on the glass cases at this traditional Turkish candy shop (Sekerci Cafer Erol), or whether I did. We couldn't resist the urge to taste a wide variety of cookies, candies and traditional sweets and walked away with a box stuffed with treats. Of course, once we sat down on a neighborhood bench we found out what we knew all along, as delicious as everything was, it was so sugary that we couldn't eat more than a few bites of each. Still, I won't likely get another chance to taste Turkish sweets from a 200 year old, family run shop again soon, so I'm glad I got to try a variety of flavors.
Related Links
Istanbul With Kids
About Photo Friday:
You are invited to join us for Photo Friday! It's a great way to get to know other bloggers and to help them get to know you. Just post a "Photo Friday" picture on your own blog, and link directly to your post from the linky below (If your url is longer than 100 characters, you will need to use a url shortening service, like bit.ly)
What's Photo Friday?
- Post a travel photo on your site. It can be about any topic, as long as it is G-rated.
- The focus of the post should be on your photo.
- You don't need to be a professional photographer (I'm not), but do showcase your best work
- It's nice to include a few sentences about the photo, but it is not required.
- Link back here so that your readers can see all the other great Photo Friday posts
Finding great children's books to help set the stage for this trip to Turkey was tricky business. Most of the books I found were research books, geared towards older kids. E and D are willing to look at a few pictures but they lost interest quickly when I tried to read the words or make up my own descriptions.
Somehow in my searches, I came across T Is for Turkey (World Alphabets)
and, since it won't be available in the US until August, I contacted the publisher for an advance copy to review.
Each page of T is for Turkey features a letter of the alphabet, colorful picture of some aspect of Turkish life, and a short description. D, for example, is for Dolmuls (pronounced dolmoosh) a minibus whose name means "stuffed." G is for grandparents, who are an important part of Turkish life.
The letter-by-letter approach, and the large scale pictures turned out to be a great fit for my 3 and 5 year old kids, and each of them was able to find something they were looking forward to seeing. What surprised me was how much I enjoyed learning about Turkish culture this way (instead of from a dry guide book). Still, it took a few sittings for us to get through the entire alphabet.
Several other destinations, including Africa, Brazil, China, India, Korea, Mexico and Poland are featured in the World Alphabets
series, and I imagine that we'll buy more of them over time.
Related Links:
Buy on Amazon:
T Is for Turkey (World Alphabets)
My Favorite Books About Turkey
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Posted on July 7, 2010 |
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I paid for everything described in this post at my own expense and nobody at the Olympic Park Institute knew that I would be blogging my experiences.
It will either be a complete disaster or one of the kids favorite trips ever, I told my husband as I mailed off the check that would let us spend Memorial Day Weekend at the Olympic Park Institute's (OPI) Family Camp in the Olympic National Park.
The Family Camp concept is new to me. It's sort of like a summer camp, where you stay in the sorts of cabins that you remember from your own summer sleep-away camps, but with your entire family. Counselors (called Educators at OPI) are on hand to lead activities. Meals are served in a communal dining room, and showers? Just like you remember, they're in a separate building.
Family Camp seemed like a nice way for us to ease into camping with the kids. Ever since our trip to the Mar Vista Cottages in Mendocino, CA, when Everest and Darya cried as we packed them in the car, I've known that we needed to bring our kids out into nature more. While I'm happiest curled up with a book and a cup of hot chocolate, the kids crave the outdoors. Running in the grass, looking at bugs, and checking out animals seems to fuel them.
This is the first year that OPI has run family camps in the Olympic National Park, but the educators have been working all year (and some of them for many years) with school age kids, who come out for several days or even a week, to learn more about the rainforest.
I suspect that I come across as very confident about traveling with my young kids, but the truth is that I worry non-stop before every trip, and this trip gave me more gray hairs than most. What would the cabins be like? Would the scheduled activities be too demanding for our young kids? Would the kids deign to eat the food? Would I? But most of all - what would happen if E or D needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night?
The first surprise for us were the cabins. Ours was very "rustic" with three aged bunk beds, and mattresses that seemed just as old, but the in-cabin bathroom alleviated the worst of my worries about middle-of-the-night potty runs. We set everyone up with a sleeping bag, and the helpful staff provided an extra mattress on the floor for baby Eilan.
The daily activities couldn't have been more tailor made for the kids. Each morning, our family joined other families with kids under 5 (there were lots of them) in an outing with the educators. One day the kids were armed with bug nets and magnifying glasses, and we searched a nearby creek bed for bugs. On another day, we canoed (the lake was perfectly quiet, and we absolutely were not), and on a final day we searched for banana slugs. Those morning activities gave the kids a chance to get comfortable with the educators. By afternoon, they were ready to have their own wild adventures with the other kids, the educators, and any parents foolish enough to come along. With the kids safely and happily settled, I curled up with a long-neglected book.
For the kids, the long wet days were a fantasy come true. There were smores, talent shoes, pretend camp outs, and lots of stories. On our final night, too excited to sleep, E told me "Mommy, I'm trying to guess all the wonderful things we will do tomorrow."
For me, this kind of trip is far more satisfying than the over-the-top excitement of an amusement park, and I think it was for the kids too. There were no battles over which toys we'd buy, who would ride in the stroller, or any of the usual stresses that come along with a family vacation. The kids were freer than they are in a park or playground at home. With no cars whizzing by and nobody to disturb, we let them run and explore outside with very few limitations. Sure, I was grubby. True, the laundry required extra attention when we got home. Absolutely, I prefer most restaurants even to the organic salad greens and homemade soups served at OPI, but sometimes a little effort and discomfort has a payoff, even if it can't quite be quantified.
And leaving? A disaster. The kids bawled. Everest claimed he wanted to live in the park, and both kids begged to return the next weekend. What could possibly make me happier?
There are still a few weekends left with availability, and if you want to learn more about OPI, visit their website. (p.s. I don't get a commission or any other compensation, but I hope you try a family camp this summer.)
Readers: I feel like there's a lot more to tell about this experience than I thought to cover in this post - feel free to ask your questions and I'll do my best to answer
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travel-stories
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Posted on July 6, 2010 |
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I am giving away a free hotel night (up to $350 in Value) from Hotels.com to one lucky DeliciousBaby reader. It's easy to enter, just leave a comment telling me the most family friendly hotel you have ever stayed in (full rules below).
Related Giveaway
If you really need a vacation, you might also want to enter the Hotels.com "I Need a Vacation" summer sweepstakes. The winner receives a onetime check for 102,250USD, no-strings-attached, which he/she may use as they choose – a vacation a year for 50 years, or three months travelling the world in high style. Just upload a photo of your best "I need a vacation" look to enter.
How To Enter
One lucky reader can win. If you would like a chance to win, leave a comment before 11:59PM PST on July 12 2010 and tell me about the most family friendly hotel you have ever stayed in. Please include your email address in the comment form (your email isn't shared with anyone, and I will not send you email unless you win).
How to Earn More Chances to Win
There are several ways you can get additional entries in this contest. Each takes only a few minutes!
- Recommend a kid-friendly attraction, restaurant or hotel in our city guides to receive five additional entries. It takes only a few minutes, and it is a great way to share your favorite places with other parents. To make a recommendation, just Click Here. You may recommend as many places as you like, and each recommendation will earn you five additional entries in the giveaway.
- Subscribe to my RSS feed (either by reader or email) using the buttons on the top left-hand side of the page. Leave another comment telling me you did.
- If you have a blog, write about any article you enjoyed on DeliciousBaby, or write about the place you hope to visit, and link back to one of our kid friendly city guides. Leave a comment telling me you did so and show me the link where I can find it!
- "Like" DeliciousBaby on Facebook, and come back here to tell me that you did. I will be using my Facebook page to share exclusive giveaways, discount codes and other opportunities.
Winners
I will choose a winner randomly and announce the results here on Tuesday July 13 2010. Many thanks to Hotels.com for generously sponsoring this giveaway.
Rules
Please, only one comment per person per giveaway post (except as outlined above where the comment is related to an extra entry). Duplicate comments and Anonymous comments will be discarded. Please make sure that the email address in your comment form is valid (email addresses are never public). Winners must claim their prize within three business days after the date of notification of such prize. A Sweepstakes winner's failure to respond to the prize notification within the specified three business days will be considered such Sweepstakes winner's forfeiture of the prize and an alternate winner may be selected from the pool of eligible entries. If an entrant is found to be ineligible, an alternate winner may also be selected from the pool of eligible entries. To enter, you must be a U.S. resident, age 18 or older. Employees, partners and vendors of DeliciousBaby and their immediate family members are not eligible to enter. We will disqualify any entries that we believe are generated by scripts and other automated technology. When applicable, the winner may be required to execute and return within five business days an Affidavit of Eligibility and a Liability and Publicity Release to be eligible for the prize or an alternate winner will be selected. All prizes will be awarded. No substitutions including for cash are permitted, except that DeliciousBaby reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater monetary value for any prize. Winners shall be responsible and liable for all federal, state and local taxes on the value of their prize.
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Posted on July 5, 2010 |
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Here's my morning calmness ritual (and believe me, with three kids under six you really need a little calmness before you start work for the day): Boot Computer, Look at this picture, Breathe Deep, and Dive into Email
About Photo Friday:
You are invited to join us for Photo Friday! It's a great way to get to know other bloggers and to help them get to know you. Just post a "Photo Friday" picture on your own blog, and link directly to your post from the linky below (If your url is longer than 100 characters, you will need to use a url shortening service, like bit.ly)
What's a Photo Friday Post?
- Post a travel photo on your site. It can be about any topic, as long as it is G-rated.
- The focus of the post should be on your photo.
- You don't need to be a professional photographer (I'm not), but do showcase your best work
- It is nice to include a few sentences or a paragraph about the photo, but it is not required.
- Link back here so that your readers can see all the other great Photo Friday posts
Disclosure: I do not have a relationship with any of the companies whose products are described in this post. These are products that I discovered at my local Whole Foods Market (and they're probably available at yours too). If you do choose to purchase one of these products on Amazon, I earn a small commission, and that income helps me keep this site going.
On our most recent trip to Istanbul, I brought along tons of baby food from home. Why would I do that when I usually advocate traveling light? Eilan seems to have some food allergies, so we're feeding him less table food than usual while we work out what's bothering him. Even without the allergies, there are two newer products that I think are so convenient for feeding baby when you are on the go that I would have been tempted to bring them along anyway. Since so many parents ask me what these products are when they see me feeding them to my kids, I thought I would post about them here.
Perhaps the best thing about both of these snacks is that the older kids don't think of them as baby food, and that means that I can carry the same snacks for all three children!
Squeezable baby food containers are so much more convenient than glass, that I didn't want to do without them. Glass containers not only weigh down my purse, but I'm always a little worried that they'll break and make a huge mess. These lightweight containers are also BPA free (glass containers are BPA free, but the lid liners contain BPA)
I'm sure it's terrible parenting to squeeze the food right into little Eilan's mouth without benefit of a spoon - but as a mom of three, I need every free hand I can get, and I've been blown away by how much these cut down on the feeding mess when we are out and about.
There are several different brands. I have no real brand preference, and usually end up with a selection of different flavors and food groups. If you travel to England, the grocery stores there have a much wider variety of favors than is available in the United States. Here are a few options:
Plum Organics "Mish Mash"
Yogurt Melts
makes a nice snack, and unlike the dried fruit or crackers that I fed my older kids at this age, they dissolve completely in the mouth. That means that with a very young baby there is much less risk of choking. Of course we prefer to feed Eilan real yogurt, but these add variety to our on-the-go snack selection.
Buy on Amazon: Yogurt Melts
Related Links:
Bottle Feeding When You Travel
My Favorite Products for Feeding Baby When You Travel
Yogurt Melts
Filed Under:
travel-tips
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Posted on July 1, 2010 |
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Here's a secret. I'm giving away an 8x8 Printed Cover Story Book from SeeHere.com to six DeliciousBaby facebook fans.
Just visit my DeliciousBaby Facebook Page and
- Become a fan of DeliciousBaby by clicking the "Like" button
- Find the Post that says I'm giving away photo books, and click "Like" on that post
This giveaway ends on Friday 7/2 at 11:59pm PST and winners will be randomly selected.
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Posted on June 30, 2010 |
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