William's first story.

Rather than entertain William with computer games and videos, I decided to open Word and write a story together. It ended up being less of a collaboration and more of him dictating to me while I prompted him with "and then what happened". So here's the story. I don't think it's publishable yet (the narrative thread needs work), but it's quite impressive for a first try.


William and Craig and Hunter

Once upon a time, there was a boy named William who wanted a hockey stick. Craig plays hockey with a hockey stick. William wanted to join in so he said to his uncle Craig “play hockey with hockey pucks!”


“Great idea!” said uncle Craig and they got some hockey sticks and hockey pucks and they played for a whole hour. Just then, Hunter came by.


Hunter got a hockey stick. Hunter got a hockey puck. Hunter went to play hockey with Uncle Craig and William. William got the puck in the net. “Score!!! I win!!!!” he yelled.


Then Hunter and William and Craig got guns. Hunter got a new gun, a ball gun that shoots paper. They shot at shooting guys. Craig and William and Hunter were mad. The shooting guys made them mad.


Then Hunter and William and uncle Craig went to watch some tv. It was Toopy and Binoo. They were happy.

Success!

On Saturday my friend Becca and I bribed William, saying that he could play in the Ikea play area if he learned to use wear underwear all the time and use the potty. Today I'm happy to say I was able to keep my promise.

Before we signed William and his friend Aedan in, we had to swear on the souls of our ancesters that they were both completely toilet trained. Of course, said I. Noone has to know that William had only been wearing underwear a little less than five days.

The boys played while Becca and I (and Jadzia) had lunch at the Ikea restaurant. When we got back an hour later, we found out that William and Aedan had gotten kicked out of the ball pit for throwing balls (gasp). But much to my relief, had not soiled the ball area resulting in a ban from the premises.

After the bribe had been carried out, the boys ate sandwiches that I had packed and then Becca and Aedan had to catch the bus. (William was very disappointed that we had to take the car home). William held his pee (he doesn't like using public toilets) until we got home with no accident. He even opted to wear underwear during his nap.

Hooray!

It's my real birthday today

It's my real birthday today, as opposed to my birthday party on Saturday. I had to celebrate before the actual day, because I assumed I would be far more fun loving and carefree while still in my twenties. Well I've passed that deadline. I'm thirty. I'm old. Or at least, I'm an adult.

Today I spent the morning with one very good friend and the evening with another. Becca and Amy both went to elementary school and high school with me, and were both in my wedding party when I got married. Becca, who I spent the morning with, and I have followed similar paths, our sons are the same age and are really good friends. On the other hand Amy, who came over for dinner, is a career-woman who uses her excess income to travel the world. Funny how that works. I feel like we just graduated high school together. In fact, it's been a little over ten years.

All in all it was a pretty good, if somewhat low key birthday. Having already celebrated on Saturday, I didn't feel the need for any hoopla. Adam was late from work, which was fine (I had Amy), and I even had a birthday cake (which somebody brought to the party and was in our freezer).

So anyway if you want to get me a present, or click on the donation button, today would be the day to do it. Alternatively, if all two hundred people (who apparently read this blog on a regular basis) sing Happy Birthday in your heads at once, you might reach me telepathically.

Best Birthday EVER!

I'll hit the end of my third decade in a couple days, so yesterday we commemorated the event with a wild party in my honour. My fabulous husband cleaned the house, made pierogi lasagna, and baked a cake shaped like the Enterprise. The "wildness" came in the form of children of various ages that attended.

That morning, as my husband was getting ready for the shindig, I took the kids to Ikea with my friend Becca and her family. Becca showed William the play area Ikea has for kids to play in while adults shop. The room has a ballroom, big screen, TV, play kitchen, train table, and tonnes of toys. William's eyes were wide as saucers as Becca told him that this was a special place where no Mommies were allowed, but kids can go if (and here's the catch) they know how to use the potty and wear underwear all the time. William immediately wanted to put underwear on. We promised to come back on Wednesday if he kept wearing underwear, so he could play there with his friend Aedan (Becca's son who is already toilet trained). So far he's still wearing underwear (with several accidents). If this works, Becca doesn't have to get me anything for birthday or Christmas at least until Jadzia turns 2.

Some fun moments:
My friend's daughter 7 1/2 year old Katelyn totally crushing on my nephew Hunter.
William and his friend Leyla having a twenty minute hug and wrestle fest. Yes, love was in the air.
William peeing on the carpet in front of like ten people.
My totally awesome Star Trek Cake.
The screening of my brother's wedding video on Adam's computer, including hilarious video clips depicting the history of my brother's filmmaking career.

Did I mention my totally awesome cake? I don't really have a picture of it before it was devoured. Anyone?

William, Craig, and a bunch of other people, dancing in front of the wedding slideshow.

Karaoke after party with Eireann and Craig!

BTW: William still pees on the floor, and on chairs, but now he comes rushing to us after he does it, announcing "I'm going to clean up all pee."

Also: William pulled down his underwear and peed on his little potty, which is small enough that he can carry it around himself.

William Quote of The Day

As I was standing on the road buckling William into his carseat:

"Mommy watch out for cars. Watch out for cars Mommy. A car will come and it will hit you and you'll be dead. And you'll turn into an octopus."

I'll leave that open to interpretation.

Super Happy Paintings

Some of you may recall that I went to school for art, specializing in painting. That's right, I have all the qualifications required to become a professional artiste. My friend Becca turned me on to Etsy, a site for selling handmade crafty stuff (like paintings).

I've posted a few fun paintings that you can buy. They're 8 x 10s, which is small so obviously I recommend buying several and hanging them together in your own Jen exhibit. In the past I've painted larger works, and plan to again, but for the moment my Mom brain cannot contemplate the logistics of mailing anything larger than an 8 x 10.

If you're not so interested in buying paintings, check out the shop anyway. I just threw it up so I could get my work out there and any suggestions for improvement would be appreciated.

The H1N1 Line

I've heard some crazy stuff about the Swine Flu and flu shots in general, but truthfully I was more worried about waiting in line with small children than I was about any bizarre complications. My Dad is super pro-vaccine, so I easily convinced him to wait with me in the ridiculous line up.

The clinic we went to was open from 12 to 8, so we arrived at 10:50 to beat the rush. The parking lot was already full, so I let my Dad out with Jadzia, and he held our spot in line while I parked down the street with William. The above photo shows what the line behind us looked like at 11:30. This is also about the time that I ran out of healthy food to give to the children. William had already eaten a sandwich, a yogurt, and two clementines (one in the car on the way there).

Luckily the clinic, held at a high school, opened early. By 12:30 we were inside, just past a sign reading "1 hour wait beyond this point". We quickly burned through the handful of halloween candy I brought with me, and Jadzia threw my Dad's glasses on the floor 800 times.

The kids behaved reasonably well the entire time. A woman behind me even commented how good they were being. Although when we hit the end of the food, and passed nap time, William stopped listening to me and ran around the school gym, playing with caution tape, jumping on chairs, and generally being a bad influence on other kiddies.

We got our shots at around 1:30. Even my Dad got one because he's a school bus driver (I think that makes you high priority or maybe it was because he was with us). Neither William nor Jadzia cried when the shots went in. Jadzia cried afterwards, but quickly calmed down when I shoved a boob in her mouth in the recovery area (aka the other side of the gym), where they make you wait 15 minutes.

Apparently the kids have to get a booster of this shot at the end of the month, but I'm hoping my doctor will have it by then. The next time I stand in a line like this, I'd better be seeing a rock star, or a play, or getting on an airplane to go some place exotic.

Candy, candy, candy, zoo!

In many ways having kids is like reliving my childhood...in bizarro world. After years of donning costumes and shlepping a pillow case of treats around the neighbourhood, it's very strange to be the parent hanging back on the driveway calling out "Say Thank You." (I also was all mommyish and made a pumpkin pie and roasted pumpkin seeds, although the seeds burnt).

Noone stayed to hand out candy, our entire family of four went down the street and back. (Despite the fact that we had two kids with us, my little cowgirl did not earn us double-candy). On the way home, William decided that climbing people's front steps in an over-sized horse costume was not worth the free candy. "How 'bout I just go home and eat some candy. How 'bout that?"

My parents put him to bed that night (we had a stag and doe to go to) but I can only assume that the sugar adversely affected the bedtime process. I'm torn about how to ration his candy. On the one hand he shouldn't have too much at a time, on the other hand he earned it so it doesn't seem fair to keep it from him. On the one hand he will eat nothing but candy to the exclusion of all else, on the other hand if we ration it too much the candy debate will go on forever. And the couch will be sticky. I will definitely have to eat some.

Today, we decided that we should go to the zoo. A sugar rush, followed by a day without a nap. Nice. At least we didn't bring the candy stash (just a few chocolate bars in our picnic lunch). Jadzia loved the zoo. I took her out of the stroller so she could see the animals and she was so happy. She even learned a new trick: pointing! I would point at a lion, or a monkey, or a rhino, and she would look at my finger and laugh, then immitate me by sticking her arm out. I think she liked some of the animals too, the tiger in particular. I enjoyed the giraffe, who was kneeling down bizarrely to eat the grass and the tigers, who we saw being fed (the keeper said that he was feeding them horse meat). On the way home, the kids fell asleep in the car, and the adults wanted to.

After dinner, William asked if we could go trick-or-treating again.