Amazing Kitchen Cupboards

Last weekend's new pantry has started us on a kitchen improvement kick.   So using a fresh coat of paint (and primer and more coats of paint and maybe a clear coat), we're now in the process of turning my ugly retro wood laminate cabinets, into cupboards so beautiful that they will make me want to spend a lot more time in the kitchen and I will totally get all the dishes done.  Always.  Totally.

 Well you know the old saying: "Anything worth doing is worth doing in red"  (or something like that).  So we chose a nice bright red.  The name of the colour is AMAZING.  No really, it's called Amazing.  Being a sucker for marketing, I immediately knew that this was the colour for us. 

Normally when we're doing any home decor where colour selection is involved, I campaign shamelessly for the brightest colour possible because I know that Adam, when left to his own devices, will choose various shades of tope.  This time, however, Adam found a random picture on the internet with red kitchen cabinets that looked kind of cool and agreed to the brightness without any fuss.   My husband is convinced, though, that we'll have to paint the walls a neutral colour like grey, and not a fantastic complimentary colour like green, to go with our amazing-coloured cabinetry.  Apparently there's some kind of a down side to lots of in-your-face colour.  No matter, we'll cross that bridge some other day.

In the meantime, the small bit of red already painted in the kitchen, is almost enough to make me weep from the beauty. Can you imagine how gorgeous it will be when it's all done?

And here's a cute shot of my kids hugging in the cart at HomeDepot:

I'm Famous!

So I've been watching this web show called Bump+. It's a fake reality tv show (shot like reality tv but using actors) where all the characters have unplanned pregnancies and the writers used the comments to shape how the plot goes.

Anyway apparently I was such a valuable commenter (it's the nerd in me) that they asked me to make a short video for their featurette.

It doesn't matter if I look awesome and am reasonably well-spoken, I feel instantly embarrassed when I see myself on camera. (Also in that second clip, they cut me off in mid sentence. What's that about?)

If you want to see the other Bump+ episodes go to bumptheshow.com. The season is over now so you can no longer affect the outcome of the show through your comments, but no matter, I'm sure they'll do this again.

Watching it again...argh I'm terrible on camera. I can't stand it. But I can't look away.

My new pantry

I'm trying to write a blog entry about my new pantry, but instead I keep looking over my shoulder into the kitchen to gaze admiringly at it.  I'm in love! Both with this beautiful new cupboard and with the handyman who built it for me.

Here's the before shot:

Picture this useless alcove with a giant black Ikea shelving unit sticking sideways out of it.  These shelves were meant to display decorative knick-knacks, but instead were stuffed full with pots and pans, appliances, books, papers, cereal, and anything else that was too tall or awkward to fit in our kitchen cabinets.  I don't know why our house's architect designed such an oddly-shaped kitchen, but it was the seventies (lots of drugs back then).











And some in-progress shots:

My man building me a pantry.  That's pretty much the sexiest thing I've ever seen.  I never got a really good picture of him using the drill though, unfortunately.  Also, I got bored of taking pictures by the time he started building the shelves, so no in-progress shelving shots (I know you're disappointed).  You'll just have to trust me that he built everything with his own manly hands.

























And Tah-dah!

Just look how all our kitchen stuff fits neatly into these shelves with room to spare.  That's a miracle, I tell you.  There's even a little space between the shelves and the doors for the broom, and the sweeper, and for hiding from the kids.  Adam still plans to fill in that space above the doors with some drywall (and paint the kitchen), but that's a project for next weekend.

I love my new pantry!  Thanks Adam!

Happy Mail

I just received what I'm going to call fan mail, from my friend and former Ryerson classmate.  Star Trek bookmarks and Wonder Woman stationary! What more could a girl ask for?  Now I have to buy stamps so I can send some super hero snail mail.

This letter came at the perfect time.  I've been feeling a bit sorry for myself because I'm suffering from the cold that has infected half of Burlington (I suppose it could have infected the other half as well, but haven't talked to everyone in town).  Last night was a good night because I actually slept and so did Jadzia.

The night before, on the other hand, was a different story.  I was all sniffly and snory and mouth breathey and having trouble falling asleep.  As soon as I found a pontentially tolerable position, my husband (who is a light sleeper) asked me to turn over because he couldn't sleep with all my obnoxious breathing.  I tried to accomodate, but Adam eventually went to sleep in William's room.

Then Jadzia woke up screaming.  She's just as miserable as I am, with a constant stream of slime oozing from her nostrils, and an appetite for boob to soothe her sore throat.  From 4 am onward she refused to leave me alone.  She showed no interest in sleep and would not stop screaming unless she had one of my breasts shoved into her mouth.  Finally I brought her into my bedroom, where she crawled all over the place, fell off the bed, played with the clock radio, sorted the dirty laundry, and eventually fell asleep with her upper body on my bed and her legs dangling off the side.  I slept a little until 7, when William came into my room.  He leapt onto the bed, causing Jadzia to slide onto the floor, although miraculously she stayed asleep for another 2-3 minutes.  I was so exhausted I called my parents for help, but everyone was busy.

Last night was so much better (because it included sleep), and the letter in the morning's mail was enough to make the day start with smiles.

A shopping list for Adam

Eggs  - Just one dozen, we have a dozen in the fridge already

Milk - Two bags

Crackers - Any kind that's not whole wheat.  We have whole wheat ones and they taste like wood chips.

Lots of fruit - Whatever's in season and on special.  I think peaches and pears are good, but if they're too hard get something else.  Maybe oranges if they look good.  Don't get apples because we have a few and William doesn't really eat them.

Bread - one loaf, we have another loaf on the fridge.

Margarine

Real butter - Salted or unsalted, whatever's the cheapest.

Brown sugar

Something for dinners - What depends on where you go to shop.  Chicken nuggets are on special at Fortinos.  I believe Longos has some kind of fish.  I'm making stew with leftovers tonight, there's chicken in the freezer and of course we have dinner at my parents' house Friday, and your parents' house Sunday, so only get enough for three dinners.

Vegetables to go with the dinners.

Cream of something soup - Mushroom, or chicken, or celery or whatever.  In case I want to make a casserole.

Something for lunches - KD is on special at Longos.  You don't have to get KD but don't get no-name KD; it is offensive.

Cereal - Not Honey Nut Cheerios but I think that goes without saying.  I've also noticed that William is less likely to eat cereal that has flakes.

Maybe some yogurt - If you have money leftover.

Something you think of that I've forgotten.

Disney on Acid

Today we went to the Disney Ice show at the Skydome in Toronto (yes, I'm one of those people who refuses to call it "the Roger's Centre").   Once in a while, my Mom gets tickets to these things because she's "media".  If you haven't been to one of these ice shows, picture every animated Disney movie you've ever seen, minus any conflict and plot, all mushed together, on speed, and on skates.

We began be eating in that restaurant that looks down on the skydome.  Jadzia didn't come with, so there were no worries about high chairs and strollers.  The adults were my parents and me.  The kids were William and my nephew Hunter.  Try the pumpkin ravioli.  And my Dad's burger looked nice too.

The boys were very good.  Most likely because my mom planned ahead and brought activity books, glow sticks and M&Ms to keep them occupied.  And of course at intermission, Mom bought Hunter a Buzz Lightyear, and William a ridiculous twenty-two-dollar light-up twirly-whirl thingie.

William loved everything, even the parking garage.  "I've never been here before," he said as we walked through the grey dungeon.  He also liked staring up at the CN tower, eating Kraft Dinner at the restaurant, and using the automatic soap dispenser in the washroom.  The Ice Show was pretty cool too. 

My favourite part was the rendition of "The Sorceror's Apprentice" in which all the skaters were dressed as giant blacklight-activated brooms.  I also liked the bit where a bunch of random Disney villains went trick-or-treating at Jack Skellington's house. Each bit was as fun, high energy, and nonsensical as the last.

My Journey to Subaru

This morning at nine, my husband remembered that we had an appointment (at nine) to take our Forester in to get a new door sensor.  For about a week now our 11-year-old car has been lighting up that little picture of a car with its doors ajar, even when each door had been slammed shut twice (just to make sure).  We recently got a new alternator and battery for our dear old clunker, but the door sensor can only be found in a mythical place called a "Subaru dealership".

Adam said that the dealership was easy to get to, but he continually underestimates my ability to get lost.  I have a talent.  I've only lived in Burlington since I was five, so you can't expect me to know my way around.  And anyway the Subaru dealership is in Oakville.

So I got off the highway at Burloak instead of Bronte.  In my mind these two roads are the same thing, but in reality they are on opposite sides of a river.  All the streets connecting to Burloak, can also be found connecting to Bronte.  But Bronte's Wycroft Rd, doesn't connect to Burloak's Wycroft Rd.  And South Service Road, on Burloak's side,  widdles itself down to a depressing dead end.  To further confuse me Bronte Creek Provincial Park is on Burloak.  I drove around for quite some time trying to figure out where I had gone wrong.  There was Wycroft, there was the South Service Road, where was the dealership?  Perhaps it had been torn down and moved to another place, thought I.

I had both my children with me in the car, so while I'm not opposed to asking for directions, I hate when it means unbuckling the offspring.  Only when Jadzia started crying and William suggested "How about we just go home" did I pull into the mall and ask.

The woman working at Reitmans looked at me as if I had three heads when I asked where the Subaru dealership was.  "Isn't there one around here?" I said stupidly.
"Do you mean the one in Oakville? There's one on Wycroft Rd."
"Isn't this Wycroft Rd?"
"Yes but it doesn't connect.  They're going to build a bridge later on."
"Not in the next few minutes I'm guessing."
Reitman's woman gave me directions that exactly matched the directions I already had, but made me clue in that Burloak and Bronte are not the same thing.  Huzah!!

I only had to do one more three-point-turn after that and I got to the mythical land of Subarus (at ten fifteen).  I brought toys and snacks for William and Jadzia while we waited, but I was crazy to think I would need them.  I mean, a room full of cars, how cool is that?  The form that I had to sign before they made the repair had "WAITER" stamped on it in red ink.  They should have an extra stamp for "WAITER WITH KIDS".  Jadzia ran around the showroom chatting with her reflections, while William had a blast climbing inside the cars, playing with the steering wheels and turning on the hazzard lights.  The horn was "accidentally" honked no less than three times (might have been four), all the while a salesman was busy trying to show cars to customers.  Anytime I was expecting the "Psst, Ma'am, can you keep your kids out of the cars" but, to their credit, the Subaru staff didn't say anything. 

I was told I had an hour and a half wait, but the car was done in forty-five minutes.  I imagined the salesguy going back to the garage and telling the mechanics: "Can you hurry up with this woman's car?  She's driving me crazy!"   Or perhaps, like Scotty, they multiply their repair estimates to make them seem like miracle workers.  In any case my door signal only goes on now when I leave the trunk open (giant stroller).

My Son Doesn't Hate French

For the past seven weeks I've been taking my son to a weekly, one-hour, preschool French class at the Ontario Early Years Centre.  William has shown little interest in the class and given no sign that any of the vocab was sinking in.  I've avoided practising with him outside class because I didn't want him to get frustrated and start to hate it.  Once when I suggested going to the Early Years for a drop-in, William refused because "I don't understand the songs."

Well yesterday William randomly pointed to his mouth and told my husband that it was his "bouche".  And today William has been asking me how to say everything in French.  "How you say wall in French?"  "Mur!" "How you say window in French?"  "Fenêtre!" "How you say car in French?"  "Auto!"  My vocabulary skills are being tested and I even had to look up a few words that I had forgotten.

Just now he was singing a weird mélange of "Frère Jacques" and the French version of "Head and Shoulders."

The weird thing is, we didn't go to "Fabulous French" last week.  We missed it because of car troubles.  I can't wait to go to our last class this week and see how he does.

My car hates French

Last week my car wouldn't start.  We were all ready for "Fabulous French" our class at the Early Years Centre where we subject our children to stories, songs, and puzzles en français in hopes that something will stick long enough to give them a head start in grade one.  Well my eleven-year-old Subaru which has been reliable always (except that time when I ran out of gas, and that time when I left the dome light on) didn't start.  My Mom came and drove us to our program and we only missed half the class.

After charging the car battery, my trusty dusty Forester worked like a charm for an entire week, until today when we were all buckled in ready to go to (you guessed it) Fabulous French.  Nothing was left on that I can see, and the car was running fine yesterday.  The only possible explanation is that my car n'aime pas le français.

Happy Three!!!

All the cleaning, shopping, baking and fretting over the last few days have paid off.  People seemed to have a good time at William's third birthday party.  Most importantly William, for the most part, enjoyed himself.  Here are some highlights:

Adam helping William put together his presents from Mommy and Daddy (but mostly Daddy) this morning.  "We" also got him a green lego race car.  Grown-up lego, not duplo.  Yes, they assembled that one too. 

My friend Columbia as the blue balloon fairy. She's awesome and crazy and awesomely crazy.  I love her.  

My totally awesome balloon hat.  That's my Dad in the background giving the thumbs up.

My nephew Hunter being transformed into Balloon Man, a super hero with powers involving weird balloon sounds and ninja-like reflexes.  He was actually kind of annoyed that I took his picture when his costume "wasn't done yet". 

The totally awesome car cake I made.  It's actually a whole bunch of pieces of cake glued together with icing.  My original plan was to put two cakes on top of each other one large and rectangular and one square, but the cakes were too thin so I piled them all on top of each other.  When that didn't work all that well, I used my husband's male car-building instinct.  When he had assembled the random cake pieces into a car-shape, I glued everything together with obscene amounts of delicious green icing.

Jadzia eating the totally awesome car cake I made.  "I'm supposed to share? What?"  She went from person to person getting hand outs and probably ended up eating more than anyone.  Oh, poor baby, noone got you any cake?  That's right Jadzia, I'm on to you.



Three seconds after the last guest left (and we'd opened all the extra loot bags) a late-coming guest arrived and we had another mini-party.  When the party was over (again) William insisted on having a bath to play with his new toys.  He got a bath toy fishing set from his friend Luke and some bath crayons from his friend Aedan.  William is not much into colouring on paper lately but he seems to have no qualms about colouring on the bathroom wall.  We had quite the rousing game of tic tac toe.  Perhaps next time I'll trick him into practicing printing.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today I'm reminded of an extra special romantic Valentine's Day three years ago, which I spent at the hospital watching Star Trek DVDs while I waited for my son to arrive. Tommorrow is William's 3rd birthday, and his friends and family will be over to celebrate.  Luckily, it's also Family Day, so most people have the day off and are looking for a family-type experience. 

Right now we are taking a break from cleaning the house (no small task).  William is playing Hotwheels car games on Adam's computer and I'm blogging (obviously).  My husband having no computer to use up here is downstairs pretending to watch the Olympics, but is no doubt actually playing with his iPod.  From the sounds of it, Jadzia is upset that she's not allowed to play.

After four and a half years of marriage, Adam still hasn't been able to teach me to clean a house up to his mother's standards, so he'll be taking over much of the cleaning as usual while I tag along like one of the children trying to help.  But that's okay, because I made a totally awesome car cake!

Adam says the Olympics are in reruns and our cleaning break is over.  Love is in the air.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Skating

As we were walking to my parents house, William and I were chatting about the ice that was on the sidewalk.  Well talk of ice lead to talk of slipping and sliding, and talk of sliding lead to talk of skating.  By the time we got to Omi and Opa's house, William wanted skates for his birthday.

Luckily my Mom had a pair of Hunter's old skates that were the exact right size.    He was a bit disappointed that he couldn't skate on the way home (it wasn't quite THAT icy), but the next day Omi and Opa took him to the rink at Bronte Creek (after first purchasing him an expensive helmet). 

My Mom first took me skating when I was about William's age, maybe a little younger.  I never reached figure skater skill level.  Even now, I'm awkward backwards and can't stop on a dime.  But I love it.  There's nothing like gliding along the ice, feeling the cold air on your face (and yet not feeling your toes).  I couldn't let my parents have all the fun. So this morning we went to the rink. 

As we were getting ready William said to me "I need Omi to help me skate."  I told him I would help him, that Omi taught me everything she knows.  We paid $5.80 for the two of us, and donned our skates.  Adam sat with Jadzia, while William and I headed out onto the ice.  I held William as he "skated" the few short feet from one rink door to the next, then asked to get off the ice.

I got William one of those metal a-frames for kids to push on the ice.  We both held on and covered about the same distance we had before.

William tried a little longer with a bribe of hot chocolate offered by Adam.  Then I skated my money's worth around the rink until the kids were to grumpy to stand waiting.  Legend has it, if you take a kid skating four times, they will fall the first three times and know how to skate by the forth. 

Two down.

A Healthy Hubby

Whenever my husband goes to the doctor he is told that his cholesterol is high for someone his age.  Normally events play out like this:

1.  Adam goes to the doctor who gives him a blood-taking form and tells him to come back when he's fasted.
2.  A few days later, Adam goes to the doctor's office in the morning before breakfast and feeds the vampires.
3.  Adam goes to the doctor to discuss results. The doctor tells him that if he doesn't get his cholesterol lowered he will have to go on medication. He gives him another blood-taking form and tells him to come back in a month or so.
4. Adam continues with his regime of eating whatever he wants and not exercising.
5. A month passes, and Adam does not return to the doctor.
6. A year later, he goes to the doctor and has cholesterol checked again.  By this time, the doc has completely forgotten the last visit, and tells Adam to the same thing, gives him a blood-taking form and tells him to come back in a month.

Today Adam went to the doctor to discuss the results of his latest vampire feeding.  This time he was determined to avoid possible heart attacks by actually asking for the medicine that our doctor keeps threatening to prescribe.  Well guess what?  He doesn't need it.  Adam's regime of eating whatever he wants and not exercising has finally paid off! His cholesterol is withing acceptable levels.  Hooray!

I'm going to go ahead and take credit for this for two reasons,
a) I've been feeding him more salad lately and,
b) (and this is the most important one I think) I instigated a new food budget which involves spending only $100/week on groceries, and (ba ba-da ba) getting Adam to bring his lunch from home instead of eating out.

Now I just have to figure out a new budget that will save money by forcing us to exercise.

Captain Freakout goes to the Doctor

Last night I was supposed to be sleeping, but instead my fabulous husband and I were taking turns consoling Captain Freakout.   Both William and Jadzia have been fighting colds for about a week.  Night time had entailed the constant cycle of William waking up because of congestion, screaming because of a sore throat, making his throat worse by screaming, refusing to take any water or medicine because he's too busy freaking out, finally calming down only to wake up again because of congestion.  Last night was the worse.  He would not go down.  He would not calm down.  He insisted on having milk instead of water we all know is a no-no for sore throats (I coloured some water white by adding a few drops of milk).  Our attempts to give him Children's Advil looked like the scene of a grizzly murder, with Adam holding William down while I covered myself in cherry-red liquid making numerous attempts to pour it into his mouth. As the medicine began to kick in, and our son became mildly more coherent, he said "My ear hurts."

Well this morning, I was supposed to be at a bowling birthday party with William's friends (and, more importantly, my friends) but instead I was at the walk-in clinic with my two sick children.  Our regular doctor's office is in the same building as the clinic so, even though we couldn't get an appointment, William insisted we go to our doctor's waiting room to see the fish.  Jadzia, who slept through last night's fiasco, was full of energy for crying.  I suspect she recognized the building as a place where they stick babies with needles.  Luckily, no shots today.

The walk-in doctor looked in both kid's ears and proclaimed them sufferers of ear infections.  Jadzia got a bottle of banana-flavoured antibiotics.  For William I made a point of asking for the strawberry version because he doesn't like banana.  When we got home William decided he liked banana after all and wanted the same medicine as his sister.  I bribed him with a popsicle.  Hopefully I don't have to give him a popsicle 3 times a day for 10 days.

Posting from the iPod

My darling husband mentioned to me that the new iPad will be useful for writing blog entries when we're on vacation. (We've been making a itinerary for a hypothetical trip to California). So I'm test-posting using his recently purchased iPod Touch, thereby proving that another new gadget is unnecessary. This tiny touch keyboard is tedious, yes, but I'm already getting used to it (and I'm kind of a henpecker typist anyway). I do suspect that this spurt of vacation-planning began because I made some comment about him getting the toys he wants but me never getting to travel (and is in fact a ploy to get my blessing). Well we just can't afford both a trip to California AND an iPad. Oh well.

William quotes of the day

Handing me a small lego creation: "Here's your gun.  You be a shooting guy and I'll be a happy guy."

"I'm not afraid of Santa.  Santa comes for Christmas."

After coughing into his arm: "I just coughed in my elbow.  I should cough in my elbow just like Daddy does."

After watching a cartoon about pirates: "I remember I was a parrot in the sea."

"I don't want to wear a shirt or pants or socks.  I just want to wear my underwear!"

Sitting on the toilet discussing the flusher handle:  "We could take that one off and get a rocket ship.  That looks like a rocket, but it's not a rocket ship."

Update: Just after I finished writing this post William walked in holding his nipples.  "What are these?" I told them they are his nipples.  "Oh nipples, oh yes, I like nipples."

The Hole Game

Lately my son's favourite thing to do is "the hole game".  "Mommy we have to go watch tv and play the hole game."  What does this mean, you ask?  Well, the first time William made this request, I was just as flummoxed.  This confusion inevidably led to whining, crying, and screaming "Make a hole, Mommy! Make a hole!"

Once my husband demonstrated, it all made sense (kind of).  How to play "the hole game":

• Lie on an L-shaped sofa with your legs above empty space across the corner.
• Place a blanket over your legs.
• Open legs to create a hole.
• Have young people climb into the hole, sink to the ground, jump on your legs, throw balls and toys in the hole, etc.

I've produced another computer nerd.

As posed as this shot looks, I can assure you I did not place my daughter in front of this library computer (although I would have had I known it would so distract her from pulling books off the shelves). She just climbed onto the chair opposite her brother and started mousing away.

Jadzia even seemed to be using the mouse and keyboard as they were intended. Although, I'm not sure she completely understood the logistics behind the shapes and letters games she was playing, but then she's only one year old. Give her some time.

Jadzia walks and talks and smooches

Jadzia is getting to be quite the pro at walking, especially when there's music to groove along to. Not only that but she knows some more words. She quite clearly says Mommy, Daddy, pretty, uh-oh, thank you, and Hi. She also says something that sounds like "William". She's an excellent mimicker, aswell. Today when William was playing guns, she imitated the "Pshoo" sound of a lazer so she could get in on the fun.

And for extra cuteness: Jadzia gives kisses. She says "Mmmmmmn" while making as much of a kissy face she can make (depending on how close she is to bursting into laughter), then she'll either kiss you on the lips, wait for you to kiss her on the lips, or giggle and walk away. Yesterday she started to do this for a picture of me making a kissy face.

Good Morning

Good Morning Everyone! This I have trudged through a sea of vomit and diarrhea that has kept me away from my loyal followers. Okay, so it wasn't that bad, but it's hard to have a sense of humor about puke until everyone is all better...

Jadzia puked her guts out as we sat down to lunch on Sunday, the same afternoon we were scheduled to a birthday party for one of William's girlfriends. We didn't bring Jadzia (that would have been irresponsible) instead we left my mother-in-law with the sick baby and the rest of the family partied preschooler style.


The next day William was cranky in the afternoon, and I thought it was normal I-need-a-nap-but-I-don't-have-naps crankiness. I got him to sleep by driving him around the block, but he woke up even crankier than before, demanding television. All this is fairly normal behaviour for him, so I didn't clue-in that he was sick until he started retching. At that point, I grabbed him and rushed up stairs to the toilet (my kingdom for a downstairs bathroom!). We didn't quite make it. Only about 50% of the puke ended up it the toilet. 50% ended up on the basement stairs, the kitchen floor, and on the upstairs stairs (creating a path that my stair-climbing daughter, crawled right through). Also an additional 20% ended up on my clothes and hair. And 1% on William's clothes. (I realize that's 121%, but there was a lot of puke.) He puked four more times after that, but I'm proud to say that from then on I was able to rush him to the bathroom in time.


A peruse of facebook told me that everyone at the party was also sick, adults and kids alike. My husband stayed home sick from work a few days, but didn't puke (I don't think men puke). Patient Zero was fine all day Monday until she vomited in her crib that night and liquid-pooed in her diaper.


But now everyone is better. Even my car (I hope), which wouldn't start yesterday. I had to make it to another birthday party (will I ever learn my lesson) so I called my Dad and we installed all our carseats into the back of his mustang convertible (the perfect family car). Unfortunately Jadzia's carseat got stuck. The seatbelt is locked and won't give enough slack to get it out from around this piece of plastic that makes the carseat extra extra safe. Adam is off to my parent's house right now with screwdrivers.


William is having a tantrum about tv.

My tech saavy son

William playing bowling on Adam's iTouch

A picture William took of me playing with Adam's iTouch while Jadzia looks on.

More photos on facebook.

Wouldbe Tobogganning Pics

This afternoon we went tobogganing as a family. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so I'll have to describe pictures I would have taken, if I had been more prepared:

Pic #1 is a shot of me and the kids on our big black plastic toboggan. William is sitting in the front wearing his new black snowpants, red jacket, and fuzzy brown puppy hat. I'm in the back wearing my red coat, with zebra hat and matching zebra mitts. Jadzia is sandwiched in between us, wearing her psychedelic coat, yellow snow pants, and pink teddy bear hat. Adam would have taken this picture from the top of the hill, as we spun around to face him on our decent.

Pic #2 shows William dragging the toboggan behind him, on his way back up the hill after riding down himself. He took his red mittens off at the bottom of the hill, declaring "I don't need my mitts!" so they are in the toboggan.

Pic #3 is of Adam riding down with Jadzia. It's a really cute shot, with Jadzia all snuggled up against her Daddy. The size difference between them is laughably adorable. Jadzia is but a swatch of pink and yellow against Adam's big red coat.

I should apologize also that these images are a bit over-exposed, because it was such a bright sunny day and I was getting a lot of glare from the snow. There are some pictures I wouldn't have included, of me going myself, Adam going down himself, me sledding down with just Jadzia, and with just William (I'd have posted these on facebook). William insisted on all these arrangements. As soon as the toboggan was at the top of the hill he would proclaim, is his bossy preschooler way, whose turn it was next and who they would be riding with. Not that I'm complaining, his arrangements were very equitable.

When we surmised that Jadzia was too cold, we took the short walk home and had some not-too-hot hot chocolate.

How to take the kids out to play

When I woke up this morning there looked to be a decent layer of powder on the ground, so I thought it might be fun to take the kids outside to play in the snow. Of course this was a multi-step operation:

Step 1: Called my Mom and arranged to go to the mall together to pick up some snowpants for William.

Step 2: Negotiated with William re: getting dressed. He was keen on going to the store, but did not want snowpants. I talked about all the fun stuff you can do with snowpants on: making snow angels, sledding, etc.

Step 3: With Mom's help, dressed children in pants, shirts, socks, boots and jackets and put them in the car.

Step 4: At the mall, bought the first pair of snowpants we saw. They were half-off. Score!

Step 5: Had lunch in the food court, thereby negating all snowpants savings.

Step 6: Took William to the bathroom in the food court, complete with child-sized toilet, twice.

Step 7: Kids fell asleep in the car on the way home. Carried them to their beds.

Step 8: Waited for the kids to wake up.

Step 9: Negotiated with William re: getting his snowgear on. When I told him I didn't know where the toboggan was to go "sledding" he freaked and refused to get dressed.

Step 10: Looked for toboggan in crawlspace. No luck. Called Adam to inquire as to whereabouts of toboggan. No idea.

Step 11: Compromised with William. "We'll get our stuff on, and if the toboggan is in the shed we'll go sledding. If not, we'll just play outside." He seemed to go for it.

Step 12: Looked for Jadzia's mitten in the closet.

Step 13: Looked for Jadzia's mitten in the car. Found William's hat and mitts.

Step 14: Looked in the closet again. Did not find Jadzia's mitten, but found a pair of William's old mittens which were tied together with string. Opted to use those instead.

Step 15: Retrieved children's jackets from their respective bedrooms.

Step 16: Dressed both children in snowpants, boots, mitts, hats, jackets. During this process, Jadzia took her mitts off three times.

Step 17: Found Jadzia's mitten lying in plain view in a place I had looked twenty times.

Step 18: Went into the backyard with the kids.

Step 19: Put Jadzia down in the snow so I could look in the shed. She happily crawled around until her mittens got snowy and came off.

Step 20: Retrieved the toboggan from the back of the shed. This involved climbing over two bicycles, a collection of pool noodles, and various large unidentified shed junk.

Step 21: Used the toboggan to slide down the slight incline of our backyard. One adult and two kids sledding down a 5 degree hill. Wee!!

Step 22: Made snow angels.

Step 23: After about ten minutes, went inside.

Only twenty-three steps? It felt like more. In any case it was all worth it. No, really. I love winter. I can't wait to go tobogganing down a slightly steeper hill. Maybe I should buy myself some snowpants too.

Merry Christmas! My Baby is 1 Tomorrow!

William's first movie

Adam and I took William to see his first non-stars-and-strollers movie. He napped until five pm after riding the train and carousel in Hamilton, so we reasoned that it would be okay to keep him up past his bedtime to see The Princess and the Frog with us. We were right! He was so good! He sat completely still for the first half of the movie. By the second half he was getting antsy, but never whined or asked to go home. Of course it helped that we had popcorn and drinks. I was a little nervous about the latter but despite copious amounts of juice consumed, William did not pee his pants. He went to the men's room with Adam after the movie was over. When asked what his favourite part was, William cheerfully answered "The Princesses!"

The race is over! Jadzia walks.

I was at a playdate with two of my Mommy friends, sitting on the couch, chatting, barely paying attention to the baby at our feet, when suddenly my friend Columbia exclaimed "Jadzia just walked from there to there!" There to there was a distance of four or five steps between two sections of Columbia's L-shaped sofa. She crossed the distance completely unassisted, determined to show my friend Becca a toy.

I immediately called my husband, who was jumping up and down in his office (I can only assume because I don't have a video phone). He asked me to film the event, but since the event had already passed, attempts to capture it took some effort (much to the amusement of everyone). Finally Becca succeeded in getting a repeat performance out of my daughter.

Torch Time!

I just want to say a quick congratulations to my elementary school classmate, Gavin Browne, who carried the Olympic torch today. I was holding a baby and my pic of the event is a bit blurry, so here's one that Adam took:


There was a short wait before the torch (and Gavin) ran by, so I amused myself by hugging mascotts:



In case you're wondering, the one in the middle is a giant pita, only you can't see the veggies from this angle so it looks a bit...well...nevermind. Anyway, the kids fell asleep in the stroller until just before torch time, which was perfect. I ran into a few of my old school friends, who were presummably there because they are also on Gavin's facebook. Didn't get to chat long, but that's what the internet is for. To quote Gavin (from msn): "It was very special. I had on a pin my grandfather got at the Montreal Olympics in 1984. He was military security."

In case you were wondering, Gavin isn't in the biathalon or anything, he got this gig by applying through royal bank. They wanted to know what people were doing to help their community. Gavin took their suggestion about spending time with seniors to heart, and moved in with his grandparents to help them out. Which is actually better than skiing and shooting at things, but less likely to garner multi-million-dollar endorcements.

Jadzia's pre-first-birthday race

As Jadzia's first birthday rapidly approaches, there's a race to see which ability will manifest itself first: walking or coherent talking.

Jadzia is getting very good an standing up unassisted in the middle of the floor, and has been doing the furniture shuffle for a while now, but still prefers crawling as her primary means of transportation.

As far as talking, her communication skills are growing rapidly. I have the definite impression that she understands 90% of what I say. She has several hand signals: waving, pointing (at nothing in particular-it's just fun to get adults to turn their heads), clapping, the signs for more (which she tends to use interchangeably with clapping, for apprieciation, as in "more Christmas tree") and the sign for milk. She nods yes, and shakes her head no (the nod being accompanied by "ya, ya, ya, ya, ya"). She says "Hi", only it sounds more like "Hieeee". Also she says something that sounds somewhat like "Doggy" to describe any animal that even vaguely resembles a dog (such as a chicken). I can't be sure, but amongst her babbling I think I heard her say "William" and some other almost words and names that I can't recall right now.

Today she kept saying "Daddy" as clear as can be. Unfortunately, since Daddy wasn't home, she used it to refer to various inanimate objects and people. That doesn't mean she didn't know what she was saying. I figure she must have meant something like "That's Aedan's Daddy, where's my Daddy?" or "This toy belongs to Daddy," or "Daddy would get a kick out of this" or "That shiny doorknob is so great, it reminds me of Daddy."

Yes, she is a near vocabulary master. Still, talking is a complicated skill, and we'll probably see steps before we see sentences.

I'm going to go ahead and post a video below that has nothing to do with walking and talking and everything to do with the hilarity of watching my almost one year old attempt to wake a dead-to-the-world sleeping almost three year old:

Christmasiffication Complete!

Jadzia's Big Steps

For a while now Jadzia has been climbing one step, then getting stuck and screaming for help, but recently (some time after the Burlington Mall Santa but before the Mapleview Mall Santa), she climbed the entire flight herself. Going down stairs she is not nearly so graceful and has already fallen down twice. Once I was sitting right next to her and couldn't catch her in time. The other time I thought the door to downstairs was closed when in fact William had opened it and encouraged her to "Come down Jadzia". So far, no visible bruising.

A less dangerous skill she's also developed is clapping hands, so I now get lots of applause.

Paparazzi Santa Photos

You know you're a parent when Santa Claus becomes a photo-worthy celebrity.

The guy with torn gloves and hairy arms on the Christmas Train in Hamilton may not have been the real deal, but at least he gave out candy canes. He also performed a Christmas rap.

I was more convinced by the Burlington Mall Santa. I didn't get a close look at him, but he had an entrance and an entourage worthy of his fame.

The Mapleview Mall Santa drew a big crowd, but they may also have been there to see Sir Topham Hat, Bob the Builder, Barney, and other renown television personalities.

Neglect.

It's happened again, I've neglected my blog. I have a few excuses for this:

• William is in the process of giving up naps and thus I have less me time during the day. Also my exhaustion level rises proportionate to his crankiness level.
• I've been spending my evenings watching DVD box sets of tv shows I borrowed from the library. They only give you a week before you get slapped with a fine and forget about renewing because they're all on hold.
• I've actually been writing my novel for a change. The wonderful people in my writer's group know that I'm pretty good at neglecting that.
• General laziness.

I have been doing things, though. My mind is itching with events that, while perhaps not interesting to the world, are blog-worthy at least for documentation purposes. Stay tuned.

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.

Mall Trick-or-Treating

Tonight we trick-or-treated at the Mapleview Mall. So did everyone in Burlington, apparently. The place was a zoo (and not just because most of the kids were dressed like animals). I was meeting some friends there but some of them I didn't end up seeing, and the rest I saw but lost them immediately in the insanity of the candy grab.

William doesn't quite get the concept of dashing from store to store grabbing as much candy as you can. Instead, he waited until I yelled "William! This lady's giving out candy! Say trick or treat!" then mosied over and silently held out his hand. This was followed by ten to fifteen seconds of examining his treat bag. Then he'd say "Mommy. How 'bout I go sit down at a table and eat my candy."

Needless to say our haul wasn't that great. (Especially since the stores were particularly stingy with the chocolate). Oh well, there's always Saturday.

I've been told I don't blog enough about Jadzia. She doubled her teeth in the last few days (her top front two came in) and still she doesn't get candy. William actually got more "Awe, how cute"s today than she did, so she must be growing up. Too young to eat candy, but old enough to complain about not getting any candy. No wonder she refused to wear her cowgirl hat for more than five seconds.

We left before we had hit all the stores because William was sweating to death in his horse outfit. I bought a tube of Thomas the Tank Engine toothpaste on my way out and William balked, proclaiming "Mommy! You said we were going home! Let's go home now, Mommy!"

On a sidenote, a CHCH News reporter was there pretending to trick-or-treat for the camera as we walked by. I doubt we got on tv, but you never know, we could be famous now.

William quotes of the day

While playing with my wristwatch:

"I'm just pushing your buttons. I know how to push your buttons, Mommy."

So true.

When asked to come to the washroom to have his diaper changed:

"No! I'm a shooting guy!" (Makes an angry face and 'shoots' me with the syringe from his doctor's kit).

Halloween party at Columbia's

Cuteness alert! Here are all the children who attended yesterday's Halloween Party: Londyn (princess), Leyla (dragon), Aedan (lion), baby Zoe (chicken), William (horse), Zoe (dalmation), and Jadzia (cow girl to go with the horse, get it?).

My friend Columbia went all out for this party. Children are quite happy playing with a few toys and each other, and Moms are even easier to please, wanting only a place to sit and chat while the kids are otherwise occupied. Let me tell you, we had much more than that! There were many varieties of snacks (some provide by other mums), guck and moon sand to play with (you know you probably shouldn't mix those), circle time with a home made halloween pinata, and loot bags to take home. Did I miss something? Ah yes, pumpkin decorating:



When I asked William which party pic to include in my blog post, he insisted I include this one of Leyla, him, and Aedan drinking juice boxes (the juice boxes may have been the highlight of his day). This was near the end of the party when all costumes had been removed. My son even feeling comfortable enough to go pants free.

Leyla incidently has quite the crush on William. She got him to help her take her shoes off, enjoyed playing with the moon sand and guck together (and mixing them gah!), and later pulled off William's horse hood and exclaimed "It's you William! William it's you!" Of course when Leyla was gone, William was content to play with Zoe in the elevator. He's quite the ladies man.

As if hosting this weren't an exhausting enough affair, Columbia is already planning a Christmas Party and a Birthday Party. Just thinking about it makes me want to go have a nap.

Family videos of the future

My husband and I have been playing with JibJab's "starring me" video selection. I've posted a couple of my favorites below.

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Today.

I took this picture today, because William asked me to. "Take a picture Mommy," he said. I had to run to the car to get my camera. Surprisingly, when I got back they were both still standing in the same place, posing.

In the picture, William is holding one of the cookies we just made together. He is without a shirt because, while we were making cookies, he poured an entire bottle of vanilla on himself. I handed him the vanilla when I was getting ingredients out, thinking it was a fairly safe ingredient for him to carry to the table (plastic bottle, cap won't come off if dropped). As I was reaching for the sugar, I heard William's little voice say "Mommy, I got vanilla on my shirt." Indeed, it was not only on his shirt, but all over the table, on the chair, and on the floor. The only place that was completely free of vanilla, was inside the vanilla bottle.

Did I mention that I was already exhausted by this point? My daughter is allegedly getting a new tooth, and got me to share in her misery by keeping me up all night. Jadzia was playing the scream-until-Mommy-holds-me game at 1, 1:30, 2, 2:30, 5, 5:30, and 6. I think it was teething because when I gave her Advil, she went longer before screaming again (just long enough for the meds to wear off), but she could just as easily have been messing with me.

My husband was kind enough to let me sleep in all the way to 9:30! Still, I was looking forward to a nap (for William, of course, not me). We didn't go out in the morning, partly because of my late start, partly because I was feeling lazy, so I guess it's not surprising that he refused to go to sleep. I fed him lunch, I read him stories, I tucked him in, I hugged and kissed him and his stuffies. He just kept getting up, screaming when I put him back in his room. Finally I gave up and said "Let's make cookies!"

A little while after the picture was taken, I decided that I needed to get out of the house. I remembered that there was an Early Years Centre drop-in on Monday evenings that I never go to (because it's on Monday evenings). It was just before 5, and Adam had messaged me to say he wouldn't be leaving work until 6. Far too long to be cooped up in the house any longer.

On the way I was stuck behind an extremely slow truck, carrying a mini-backho (or maybe a bulldozer). Then, as I got to the intersection just left of where I needed to be there was an accident by the side of the road. No decapitations or anything, just a fender bender, and a cop talking to the drivers. No rubber-necking needed, people. I couldn't weasel my way around them either, because there was a cop there. I tried going around the block using a side street, but it turned out to be one of those curvy roads that takes you right back where you started from. I tried taking a short-cut through the McDonald's parking lot but the lots didn't connect.

The lot was littered with signs that said "McDonald's customer parking only." Still, only meters from my destination, I decided I would park there. I pulled into a spot, turned off the engine, opened the door to let my son out, and found that both my children were asleep. Just as well, thought I, with the way the day was going I'm sure Ronald McDonald would tow my car if I parked there.

I looked at my watch to see if it was worth going anymore. My watch said that it was 1 am, on January 1st. "Liar!" I thought and threw it on the floor of the car.

I was going to go home, I was on my way, but instead at the last minute, I went around the block (when I say "block" I mean the block that is half of Burlington) and went to the Early Years after all. I woke the kids up, but they didn't mind (and if they did who cares). I had fun. And my husband made spaghetti when he got home. So it wasn't so bad a day.