He might only have duck-tape insignia, but Trev is my favourite science officer.

Yes, our Beaver colony dressed up as Star Trek crew for the parade. This was Trev’s second camping experience, after our March Yurt trek, and he loved it. I originally wanted to bike to the event since it is only 38km away on relatively flat road but unexpectedly cold weather caused me to pack an extra backpack filled with blankets and sweaters.

While Chris was still able to put everything on the bike, the load was just too wide and tall for me to be comfortable carrying it. Also, I realized that I wanted to eat full dinner before going and I have not left myself enough time to eat and get there without rushing and arriving late, possibly after sundown. All things considered, biking to the event would have been fantastic and if we do end up going again in the future, I will try and get everything set up so we can do it.

Whatever activities there were, Trev was not terribly interested in ceremonies, organized games or sing songs. He did some of it half heartedly and after a while we did not even bother going. What he did love was sleeping in the tent, playing with the kids in our Beaver Colony and roasting marshmallows on the camp fire. Even when all the other kids had gone to do activities he was not interested in, we had fun walking around or just relaxing at the camp site. Of the ten kids, only one was the same age as Trev and the balance were at least a year and a half older. He split his time between playing with boys, girls and by himself. He is particularly fond of one of the girls who liked his owl. And yes, glow sticks and staying up late are The Best Things Ever.

Can you spot the egg-laying mammal of action in the below picture?

Because the the really rainy week leading up to Friday, the first night was cold with temperatures in the single digits. We got into our sleeping bags and I was a little bit cold until I realised that I did not zip up the weather protection over the mosquito net. Once I closed the tent properly the area heated up within minutes and we were fine for the rest of the night. The next night was somewhat warmer and we were very comfortable. As this is as cold as it gets during the regular camping season, I think in the future I will be bringing fewer blankets. I had two for each of us and used one to line the foam mat. I am going to invest a bit to bring our camping gear into the 21st Century and replace the foam mats and the first blanket with small packing self inflating mats. I will let Trev keep whatever blanket he wants for inside the sleeping bag (he is particular about his blankets) but for myself, I can go with a lighter airplane blanket and a scarf in place of the large household blanket I brought this time. I don’t really think I can reduce the remainder of the equipment that much. The lawn chairs I would obviously not take on a family camping trip, but as we were on a group camp site this time, they were imperative. Perhaps I can replace them with small tripod camping chairs but not without some loss of comfort.

While I am excited about family camping, we have looked at our calendar and the summer looks very busy. Apart from packing light, we actually have to find a weekend we can get out of town. Then there are the bugs. This weekend was cold and there were almost no bugs because of it. Last time I camped I came back with over 200 mosquito bites and came home with no wish to camp for the next half a decade.

Slings

I am quite big on baby carrying. For babies of up to six months I really love my ring sling.

However, after the baby gets big and mobile ring sling is not as useful. For bigger kids I am really enjoying the Ergo carrier. I really wish I had discovered this carrier earlier, but even with just Markus I am using it daily and really getting my money’s worth.

I have never used the hiking backpack carrier for more than a few minutes, but Chris uses it whenever we go hiking with baby and is quite happy with it.

Circle of neglect devices

This is what my GP jokingly described things you can put the baby in so they can be happy and entertained while you go pee, or collapse in a heap of exhaustion. These include things like exersaucer, bumbo seats, swings, hammocks, playpens, etc.

Exersaucer

Because the kids (my kids anyway) get bored with these very quickly, to me these are a lot like engineering textbooks; they are really useful for about half an hour, and then maybe another five minutes and then never again. I found the Jolly jumper and the arc to be the best bang for the buck though it is always nice to have a couple of different things and keep them in rotation.

Arc (can also be seen in the background of the ring sling photo)

I have never been able to keep an awake baby in the playpen for more than a few moments, but I do find them a good substitute for crib when traveling.

That’s all folks

I am sure there are more things, but nothing comes to mind other than baby clothes and RESPs. You can raise a baby with much less than what I’ve listed or with much more. I tried to be streamlined and frugal while still having some fun and comfort. I found that sometimes moms get taken for a ride by baby equipment manufacturers. For example, I used to buy plastic and rubber spoons for my kids until I discovered that babies are not only able to eat with regular metal spoons our cutlery drawer was full of, but actually enjoy them. Markus’ favorite toy ever is a metal spoon! Now that know this I never worry about him being bored if I sit down for coffee, I get the macchiato and he gets the spoon.

Feeding chairs

I prefer feeding chairs that attach to regular chairs, they take up less real estate and can be easily transported.

Baby room furniture

We were lucky that we were able to borrow all baby room furniture from from my sister in law. This means that we got much nicer furniture than we would ever have bought. Yay for us! We used the height adjustment feature of the crib for the first two kids and we used the change table for the first kid only. I found the nursing chair difficult to get into with the nursing pillow so I rarely used it. For Owen I put an exercise mat with a comforter on top and found it useful for nursing but I did not reuse the setup for Markus. General conclusion – the more experience you get as a parent, the less stuff you need.

Nursing pillow

I love my nursing pillow.

Immersion blender

Making my own baby food is one of the few things I wish I did not wait for the last kid to start doing. Obtaining the immersion blender was not the only factor, but it certainly made making baby food so much easier and less messy. Little glass lock jars add to the fun and convenience.

For a while I have been thinking about writing down about what products I found useful in taking care of babies. So plug your nose, here it goes:

Strollers

When Trev was born we inherited a standard travel system stroller with the car seat attachment. Ours was Evenflow but I don’t see too many differences between the other manufacturers. We used it quite a bit. One of the important features is that the handle on the car seat can be moved to the back with one hand and that the stroller can be folded and unfolded with one hand. Eventually, as Trev passed the four months milestone and did not need to lie down the whole day, it become too big for our purposes. After carrying the big stroller with Trev in it over twenty meters in knee deep snow, I splurged and got a good quality umbrella stroller. The travel system stroller fell apart half way through the third kid but it was not its fault. I was using it to carry two kids on it for over a year, something that it definitely was not designed to do though it handled it gracefully till the end. The umbrella stroller is still functional with no obvious damage other than being extremely dirty (like everything else I own).

The biggest challenge with the stroller was carrying two small kids. If I had to do it again, I would splurge in the beginning and get one of those yummy mummy strollers where one kid fits under the other. Since we’re done having kids the four figure price tag was not worth it for us at this point. I am a bit particular about the baby being able to lie down in the stroller and not be in the car seat for too long so we ended up getting a regular double stroller from kijiji. It works fine despite being rather humongous.

Bathtubs

At home have one of those blue plastic bathtubs with uneven baby/toddler shaped floor, green anti-slip foam and temperature sensing plug. I like it well enough though I wish that the legs could not get the water in them as it is a bit fussy to clean. After the kids were able to sit securely, I used regular bathtub, or if I had mor e than one kid in the bathtub or wanted to save water, I used those red Ikea storage bins inside the bathtub. We also bought a bath thermometer when Trev was born, but I found it was not useful.

Mostly rectangular fabrics

I was surprised at how often I used burp cloths, face cloths and baby blankets. I particularly loved all the handmade blankets I got. Once I get really good at knitting I might make some for other people. I opted for paper rather than cloth diapers though I could have gone for either. I used an old wrap around skirt as sun shade for the stroller.