Browsing Articles Written by

Jill Amery

Jill Amery is a mom of 2 small boys and the Publisher of UrbanMommies, a stylish digital lifestyle magazine filled with fitness, style, health, recipes and savvy mom advice to help you through pregnancy, birth, and raising your kids.

Moonjar

GEAR, toys By November 12, 2009 Tags: , , , , No Comments

MoonjarSpend.  Save.  Share.  Wouldn’t it have been nice if all of the world’s fighters had been given a Moonjar when they were little?  A special piggybank, the Moonjar helps to teach children financial concepts, and encourages them to learn how to handle money.  We need to save.  We need to support charity, and spending a bit is never a bad thing either.  The three pieces of the Moonjar fit together, and it cannot be a unit without the other pieces.  Pretty clever.  I bet the kids who grew up with these are never late on their Visa payments.  www.moonjar.ca

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Maple Leaf Lounge With Kids

Air Canada with Kids

Canada, ROAM By November 8, 2009 6 Comments

Air Canada and the art of travel. But with kids and babies. It’s interesting what a sense of entitlement we feel when we’ve given birth. I walked into the Toronto airport, very grateful that the limo driver had a car seat in his trunk. (For the price of the ride I could have gotten some pretty hot jeans, but all is fair on travel days). Waiting in line, I approached a lovely female Air Canada agent, simply expecting that she would agree that stopovers while venturing across the country with a child were absurd. No matter. A friendly banter, the baby acting extra cute, and $75 for the change, and all was settled. She was a Mother. 

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Education at the Fairmont Empress

Canada, grow, LIVE, ROAM By November 3, 2009 Tags: , , , , , 6 Comments

I was recently introduced to the concept of Educational Trips for kids.  Mommy or Daddy takes a child away for the weekend, and they get one-on-one time and learn together.  What better place than Victoria, at the Fairmont Empress Hotel?  I am very much an old Canadian.  I appreciate modern, boutique hotels too, but there is nothing quite like the luxury of the old Canadian Pacific chain.  Sometimes wallpaper, high ceilings, antiques and superb service are just necessary.  On a recent stay at the Fairmont Empress in Victoria, I was reminded why I seek out these fabulous hotels, and what educational opportunities are available in every day life if you take the time to look for them.

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Roasted Veggies

EAT, family meals By November 2, 2009 Tags: , No Comments

Fall is the time of year when we crave healthy, satisfying dinners. Root veggies are abundant at this time of year and can be prepared in lots of different ways.  A great way to eat root veggies is to roast them and use them as an accompaniment to a roast beef or chicken dish.  You can omit certain veggies if you don’t like them and add more of the ones that you do like.

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sex during pregnancy

Sex During Pregnancy

FAM, pregnancy By October 26, 2009 Tags: , , , 7 Comments

Ok girls.  Anyone want to talk about sex?  All I can do is talk from experience (and what I’ve heard of course – all the negative stuff is from other people) but it seems that it goes one way or another.  While pregnant, you either discover the stripper/bondage-loving sex-goddess that you’ve always wanted to be, or you have a perpetual headache.

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Don’t Kill the Kids and Other Babysitter Basics

LIVE, rest By October 26, 2009 Tags: , , , No Comments

Last week we featured the “New Parent Checklist” from Knock Knock and this week we bring you the highly useful “Don’t Kill the Kids and Other Babysitter Basics” notepad. Every time you are about to leave the kids with a babysitter, you have to go over all the tedious but important details she needs to know and worry that she won’t remember them. Even if you have the same babysitter, what she needs to know often changes. Well the “Don’t Kill the Kids” notepad is a fun form you can fill out with all the important details: where you’ll be, emergency numbers, medical information, rules, bedtimes and bedtime rituals and much more as well as a space for miscellaneous notes.

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The Art of Photographing Children

LIVE, play By October 21, 2009 Tags: , , No Comments

If you’ve ever tried to capture that perfect moment with a baby, you know it’s not easy (thank goodness for one thousand pics on a digital camera).  Maybe we’ve all just been trying too hard.. play may be the answer to brilliance (where have we heard that before?).  I never thought that my son’s true personality could possibly be portrayed through an image… until I saw the results from our amazing photo shoot with Lucy Lime Studios. His funny looks, unique expressions and his sweet innocence were wonderfully captured by Shannon Stevenson.

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Personalized Storybooks

books, GEAR By October 16, 2009 Tags: , , 2 Comments

Sometimes you just need the perfect gift.  A first birthday, a baby gift for a respected business colleague, or maybe for the homecoming of the baby who has just been released from the NICU.  It happens – and these occasions should not be allowed to slip by.  You might not be able to grab it from Winners a hour before the event, but it will most certainly be perfect.  Custom Made for Kids prints individual, bound storybooks about the life of a child.

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