A – Podlings Naturally Childish

We are a consignment store specializing in Modern Cloth Diapers, local, organic and eco-friendly products, clothing and toys. Newly-Opened Resource Center offers Birthing From Within Classes, Yoga and more, rental Available.

Organic Family Natural Home

Located in Cumberland, we have something for everyone! Try the Sodastream Soda Maker, a great alternative to Pop. For babies and kids we carry some items exclusive to our store: Kanoe Baby Hammock – Hazelwood Necklaces – Sage Creek Organics.

Planet Kids

Our goal at Planet Kids is to exceed your expectations and provide quality, value and service with a variety of award-winning educational toys and games.

Product Review – Melissa & Doug’s Wooden Castle

Happy Monday! It was a fun and exciting weekend at OBE HQ as we were nominated for two Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce community awards and were so very honored to be a finalist for the Chamber’s Environmental Initiative. So many fantastic businesses were honored over the weekend. It’s amazing to see the drive, ingenuity [...]

Product Review – Idbids, the Eco-friendly Alternative to Webkins

I’m all good with pop culture and understand that kids will be into what kids will be into – made clear to me this year when my science kid went major girl with a castle, a ballerina and unicorns from every direction on her list to Santa this year.
But, one thing I’ve never really been into [...]

Getaways – The Ultimate BC Toy Adventure

Editor’s Note: Good Morning. As we all gear up for some holiday travels this week, Comox Valley mom Alix Wilson has a great suggestion for a fun detour on the way to Grandma’s house – or anywhere on the Lower Mainland for that matter. Safe traveling. Happy Winter Solstice and enjoy this lovely week.
As a [...]

Product Review – Waldorf Inspired Rainbow Stackers

I love Waldorf toys. They have a simple, gorgeous - almost fairytale – feel to them that sooths and allow kids to be creative. It’s like watching your child’s mind blossom right in front of you.
High-quality wooden toys with such a mystique are seriously hard to find locally. So, when Sherry and Kristina over at Podlings [...]

Natural Pod Tree Branch Blocks

Ken laughed at me. “You brought home a cut-up tree,” he quipped smuggly, looking at me like there were plenty of more useful things to have spent our money on.
Yep, I did indeed bring home a bag filled with a cut-up tree – a gorgeous, light, fun and imaginative tree.

He’d give that it was a [...]

Mom-P-Inc. – Julie Catania of Organic Family Natural Home

Motherhood, it changes you.
While there’s a whole list that involves sagging and wrinkled, exhausted and emotional that can be wrapped in there, for many women becoming a Mom takes life to a whole other level.
It brings out our genuine loves, forces them into places creatively and personally that reveal talents and ingenuity unrealized until that [...]

Breaking News – Major MEGA Brand Recall

CVK Mom Robin – AKA Another Robin – just sent me a note about a major recall from the makers of MEGA Blocks.
More than 1.3 millions MagnaMan Magnetic Action Figures are being recalled because swallowed magnets may cause aspirational and intestinal trauma.
The small magnets inside the figures are known to detach and if more than [...]

Huge Local Consignment Sale in February

If your house looks anything like ours after the holidays, it’s packed full of things that no longer fit, are old news in the toy universe and just plain old need to go.
Thank goodness Chelsey over at Comox Valley Kids Clutter is on the ball with her February consignment sale. Kids Clutter is an on-line [...]

Safety First – Aqua Dots Recall

As if we hadn’t seen enough toy recalls this year, Tornoto-based Spinmaster Toys (their websites were entirely inaccessible this morning) is now recalling its entire Aqua Dots line after it was discovered that the coating on the plastic used in the dots “can turn toxic if swallowed” according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Meanwhile, [...]

Cool Mom Picks Safer Toy Guide

I am a H-U-G-E fan of the moms over at Cool Mom Picks if for no other reason than they keep me from totally losing my cool factor and giving in to the urge to live out my days in 6-year-old sweats and faded t-shirts.
They are super resourceful and totally funky, not to mention exceptionally [...]

Safety First – More Major Gear Recalls

I feel like I’ve left CVK readers in a local news wasteland this week with so many interesting and timely things going on a bit more globally.
But, I can’t overlook another major recall notice.
Kolcraft is recalling 425,000 playpens sold from January 2001 to September 2007 after a 10-month-old child died.
Twelve different Kolcraft play yards are [...]

More Recalls and Ideas for Being Proactive

The rash of recalls lately – particularly the ones for lead paint – have brought to the forefront a renewed deep concern on my end about the toys that live in this house.
I remember while I was pregnant and right after our daughter was born I wouldn’t have even considered putting anything plastic or painted [...]

Major Recall

Mattel has further recalled a whole whack of toys, this time those that older kids are more likely to play with.
The rash of toy recalls lately is really unnerving.
Check the Mattel site here to see if toys you own are a part of the recall as well as how to deal with them.

Worth the Drive – Kool & Child

My husband and I almost set up camp there – particularly happy that the tiny person and grandma decided to hang out at home instead of come with us. Otherwise, she would have insisted we move in forever.
I’d been told by more than one intrepid parent that Kool & Child in Nanaimo was one of [...]