Mom and Tots Fair??

[Piglet]

I noticed a few of the Calgary moms mentioned that they went to the M&T far this weekend - how was it? I have never gone in all the years I have been a mom or had a tot, LOL. Wat do they show there? Are there lots of cool things/freebies/demos? Do tell!

[darby24]

Not related to your post, I just wanted to say Happy belated 1st Birthday Kedem!

Hope you had a great day! :-)

[EllasMum]

It was pretty good - I went on Friday around noon and it was PACKED! I was really wishing I had my Mei-Hip by then (got it the next day in the mail - sigh) as it was crazy to get around in there with a stroller. Most of the displays were vendors - toys, shoes, books, food (cabbage rolls are not exactly baby food but hey, whatever works!), clothes... And then there were displays for organizations - daycare/home associations, RESP providers, playschools. There was a pretty good sampling of freebies, too. Freebies that I got were random Huggies bath products (but no free diapers or coupons - typical!), bag of baby carrots for snacking, Baby Mum Mums, magnets galore, magazines and pamphlets... what else - Nestle had free samples of rice cereal but DD has moved on to the organic stuff so I didn't bother with that. I spent way too much money there - I bought a gorgeous little organic cotton pants/t-shirt set for DD by a company called Parade (you can see the stuff at www.parade.ca). There was alot of nice stuff - massive potential for money suckage. :) Oh yeah there was also a Huggies Crawl competition but somehow we missed it. Oh yeah there was a petting zoo with baby animals that the toddlers/older kids seemed to love! All in all, it was worth the advance ticket price of $8. The parking, for ANOTHER $8 was a little painful! Ya gotta love the Stampede grounds! :)

[NewfieNat]

Agreed with most everything above. We were there on Saturday around lunch and the crowding was horrible. It was so bad I came close to leaving right away but stuck it out for the sake of $24 although we didn't get $24 worth of stuff or coupons. The best thing for us was 2 free cans of ready-to-drink Enfagrow, one being chocolate! I found some of the vendors to be very in-your-face and pressuring me with their sales tactics. It didn't work :-) I only bought a Nalgene sippy and some Gymboree bubbles although if there were Pedoodles in Ryan's size I would have gotten those too.

However, I kind of regret going, and here's why. Last night I got a phone call from a tupperware lady. I filled out a contest entry and gave it to someone at the fair and happened to mention that Ryan had received the Winnie the Pooh set for his first Christmas. Presumably, she WROTE THAT DOWN ON THE ENTRY FORM because this lady was calling to ask if I wanted any more Winnie the Pooh products. Umm that has to be against the freedom of information and privacy act in some way or another. But here's the kicker - she called at 9:40 PM! Now, if I was at the fair I have young kids, right? So DON'T CALL ME AT THAT HOUR!

GRRRR
"Rent a bigger space and maybe I'll come back next year"
Natalie

[EllasMum]

I hear ya! That's why I don't enter any of those contests - automatically means telemarketers will call! I went to the Women's Show a few years back and entered every contest in sight and had to deal with telemarketers every night - and usually multiple calls! At the Mom and Tots Fair I did actually enter the RESP give-away competition, but before I filled out their form I flat out asked the rep if this means I am going to be telemarketed - she didn't look impressed but said "if you don't check this box we won't call you" and then walked away in a huff. Too bad, lady! I avoid telemarketers like the plague!! ;)

Oh and on a side note, your Tupperware lady must work for the Calgary Herald on her spare time - they have called me, coincidentally also at 9:40pm - and when I tried to call back the next evening to complain, I got a recording, "our office closes at 5pm. Please call back during business hours" I SEE. SO YOU CAN CALL ME AT 9:40 BUT I CAN'T CALL YOU. Nice! :o

[Piglet]

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes!

We did have a very nice time - the year has just flown by! Kedem is now walking and is such a toddler.

Thanks again,