My first book (or perhaps my second)

I found this laying around the crawl space and I thought I should document it before it disintegrates. I wrote this picture book in Grade 3. The construction paper has held up extremely well, considering it's on of the least archival paper known to mankind (particularly in red)

I Hate You. What a great, attention grabbing title, eh? Someone should have told me that yellow marker on red is not the best colour choice for the author's name.

Mrs. Ursel was a great teacher. I had her twice, for grade 3 and again for grade 5. She was also the one whe commissioned this project. Perhaps I should look her up. I wonder if she's on facebook.

Tainpere was my way of spelling "Tapir". The Malayan Tapir was my favourite animal at the zoo at the time (it's still pretty cool).

I don't know why Martha is trying so hard to be Elisabeth's friend. She should have more self respect.

Dono Dolphin may be a better friend than Martha gives her credit. Then again, perhaps Martha is a social outcast that only hangs out with rejects. Considering this is based loosely on my life at the age of nine, I'd say a bit of both going on.

The teacher, magical solver of all problems. I'm sure this is considered "reporting" not "tattling". The character of Miss Monkey is based of course on Mrs. Ursel, who has a wonderful sense of humour.

This turning point is a bit odd because it's the antagonist that makes a character change and we don't see that change happen. That teacher talk must have been something.

Not sure what this scene adds to the plot but I recall Mrs. Ursel found it hilarious. Adding "the Octopus" was an editorial suggestion by Mrs. U, if I remember correctly, I thought it was self-evident.

This part just makes me tear up. Elisabeth isn't so bad. She doesn't have it in her to hate Martha.

Leaving Dono Dolphin and Persie Penguin in the dust.

THE END

Telling Tales

My mother (Sylvia McNicoll author of such hits as Bringing Up Beauty, Walking a Thin Line and Last Chance for Paris) was one of the talented writers presenting at the Telling Tales festival in Westfield Village. The kids missed their nap to watch the show, so I'm not sure how good of an audience we were. William ran around screaming on a fatigue-induced high, but was fairly well-behaved otherwise. Jadzia kept squawking, until I put her on the ground, then tried to escape.

The only other presenter we saw is an illustrator named Ruth Ohi, who I'm a pretty big fan of because she wrote Chicken, Pig and Cow, one of my favourite (er, I mean WILLIAM's favourite) picture books. I meant to buy her new book Chicken, Pig and Cow on the Move, so I could get it autographed, but I got distracted and didn't.

We also took in a puppet show, played with a parachute, did a craft, chatted up some olden days people, and petted some farm animals. The geese were gigantic. One of the sheep was named William.

Laundry and Bravery

It's been one week since we got back from our weekend in the United States, but I only just now opened our suitcase to wash the clothes we wore. Don't make that disgusted face, I've done laundry since then, just not the stuff in the suitcase. In fact, I've been feeling pretty proud of myself for getting so much laundry done, and at the same time confused because none of my favourite shirts were resurfacing. That's when I remembered the suitcase, and the trip. Then I thought, it's probably not too late to blog about it, since the laundry's not done yet.


My father-in-law is a big BMW motorcycle enthusiast, so we all made the trip to Watkins Glen, New York, for the Beemer Rally on Labour Day Weekend. A BMW Rally is like camping, only without the campfire, and with more motorcycles.

The most memorable part of our vacation for me was the day-trip we took to the gorge at Watkins Glen State Park. This basically involved one hour of hiking up a steep stone staircase, beside a gorgeous and terrifying rocky cliff. Now I'm afraid of heights, and that fear is amplified when I'm accompanied by my children. I kept imagining scenarios in which one, or both of my babies fell horribly to their deaths. Each time I thought of this, my eyes watered, and my stomach lurched as if I was falling. My mother-in-law later said that we wouldn't have gone if she'd known I was afraid of heights, but that would have been no fun (it was the most memorable part of our vacation after all).

Besides death and dismemberment, one of my worries is that William will see that I am afraid, and develop a fear of heights himself. So you can imagine my relief, this Saturday, when he gleefully tackled this death-defying leap at the Bronte Creek Playbarn, a drop that made me fearful when I was two or three times his age.

I think his new buzz cut gives him super powers.

Shot at Here

I just remembered a dream I had last night. I was wandering through an old warehouse, or some other industrial building. Everything (walls, floor, doors, stairs) was made of rusted metal, covered in worn orange paint. Some things were labeled, not as what they were, but to narrate events that had happened there. For example, "shot at here" was printed on one wall with arrows indicating some bullet holes. I vaguely remember that I went through a door, across the hall with the bullet holes, down some stairs, maybe through another door into a very very large room. As I was making my way back the way I came, I heard the clang of footsteps on the metal. I hurried, but the sound became closer. "Don't shoot me!" I yelled. I got outside and ran toward the car I had apparently come in, a red Toyota, my mother's car. I managed to get inside the car and lock it when the dream ended.

Apple Farm

Went to Chudleigh's Farm in Milton today to pick apples. For more details, check out William's video blog entry.

Who has a penis?

Conversation with my son as he peed in the toilet:

"That's my penis."
"It sure is."
"Daddy have a penis?"
"That's right, Daddy has a penis."
"Mommy have a penis?"
"No, I don't have a penis. I'm a girl. Girl's don't have penises."
"Zia not have a penis."
"That's right. Jadzia doesn't have a penis."
"Frogs have a penis?"
"If it's a boy frog, I guess so."
"Spiders have a penis?"
"That I'm not so sure about. Bugs are very different than us. I'll have to look it up for you."
"I will have a candy?"
"Wash your hands first."

In case anyone's interested, the answer is no, spiders do not have penises. When they urinate, it's a solid (because their bodies can't afford to lose too much water) and it comes out the same hole as their poop. When they mate, their man juice comes out of a modified mouthpart (so I guess they only have oral). Male frogs do have a penis-like organ, but it's inside the body. I'm not sure if they pee out of it though.

Underwear: Day 2

This morning William woke up and wanted to wear his underwear immediately. I opted to skip our usual trip to the Early Years Centre in favour of pee patrol. I asked him often whether he needed to go pee, and about every forty minutes to an hour I staged a mandatory bathroom trip. Each time he would stand in front of the toilet and let loose a satifying stream of urine and he didn't have one pee-accident all morning.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same about number two. The good news is that his Transformers underwear contained the toddler excrement quite nicely. A relief, since he was sitting on our beige sofa at the time. The bad news is that I was stuck cleaning partially digested grapes out of my child's tightie whities.

I put William in a clean pair of underwear, rinsed out the stinky ones, threw them in the wash, declogged my sink, and washed my hands three times. William stayed dry for the rest of the morning.

Just after lunch, I took him to the washroom and put him in a pull-up in anticipation of nap time. Then I fed Jadzia and put her in a crib. In all, William was in his pull-up for about ten minutes. So of course he pooed in it.

I had just taken him to the potty but, being a boy, he's all gung ho about standing to pee and not so thrilled about sitting on the toilet to do his business. Whatever, I'm just glad the second one was in a pull-up. I'm told that children are toilet trained for pee long before the get poo, but I'm highly motivated to minimize future underwear messes.

I haven't decided yet what my plan is for the afternoon. Should we try undies at my parents' house this evening?

In any case, I'm calling this morning's toilet training another great success.

Underwear: Day 1

Yesterday I asked William if he wanted to wear big boy underwear like Daddy, he excitedly answered "Um, Okay!" So this morning, before my husband went to work, we took a family trip to "the Underwear Store" (aka Zellers). We made a big deal out of letting him pick out his new undies and he studied each package, exclaiming "Look at this underwear!" and "What's this one Mommy?" Finally he settled on a pack of Transformers undies (odd since he doesn't watch the show), with my husband quickly tossing some Cars and Thomas the Tank Engine packs in the cart aswell.

On the way home William told me "I like the underwear store Mommy."

When we got home, I was all gung ho and asked if he wanted to put his new underwear on right away. "No, I will not wear underwear," he replied. "I will have watermelon."

So we had a snack, then we read some books, then I fed Jadzia. While I was occupied with his sister, William pooed in his pull-up.
"Let's change your diaper," said I.
"Noooooo! I will not change diaper." Meltdown.
I counted to five, ready to pick him up and carry him to the washroom, when he suddenly calmed himself and marched toward the bathroom, chanting "I will wear underwear. Underwear in the washroom."

After I'd cleaned his bum, he peed in the potty man-style. I offered him his Transformer underwear first, since that was the one he picked. Once he had them on he said "No, I will not wear Transformers underwear. I will wear racecar underwear."
So I helped him take the Transformers briefs off and slip on a pair of Cars undies.
"No, I will not wear racecar underwear. I will wear Thomas underwear."
Fine, whatever. I helped him put the Thomas the Tank Engine ones on. I expected him to change his mind again, but this time William seemed satisfied with his choice.


He ran around the coffee table excitedly for about twenty seconds, then exclaimed "I'm hungry." It was almost lunch time, so I fixed some zoodles while William munched on a yogurt appetizer. When the food was ready, I noticed that William was not sitting at the table wear I'd left him. He was in his room. So was about a gallon of pee.

"Did you pee on the floor?" I asked him and he responded by slipping and falling on the wet mess. I told him it was okay and accidents happen sometimes and next time he felt like he needed to pee to please tell me (a repeat of the same speech I'd given him about a hundred times before the underwear excursion began). Then I rescued his books from the edge of the puddle (he'd managed not to pee directly on any of them) and wiped the floor with a towel.

I helped William change his underwear, though the ones he was wearing were only barely wet. Then we had lunch and I let William play on my computer for a bit. He had about an hour of dry underwear time before it was time for nap.

"Your underwear is dry, good for you!" I exclaimed. I asked him if he would like to sit on the potty. "No." Then I asked him if he would like to pee in the potty. "No." I asked him eight more different ways if he was sure. "No." I suggested we put a diaper on him so he doesn't pee on the bed. "No, no, no, no," he said and ran out of the washroom and went straight to the bedroom and sat on his bed.

I told him he could wear his underwear to bed, as long as he came and got me if he needed to pee, and he didn't pee on his sheets. At that moment he got a faraway look in his eyes and wet splotch formed under him. Gah! I carried him to the toilet, pulled off his underwear and put a pull-up on him. Then I changed his bedding. Okay, maybe I said the word "pee" too many times, but it all seemed rather premeditated to me.

I told him I understand that he is just learning and apologized for getting frustrated. Then we read stories and he went to sleep, in a pull-up. This afternoon we're going out, so I'll forego the big-boy undies until tomorrow. I'm calling this morning a success.

Cuteness and Momhandling

Above is a picture of my children climbing on me. Note, I am not holding William up, but rather guiding his body so he doesn't break his neck (or hit his sister) as he leaps over my shoulder. Below is a video of Jadzia eating a peach (co-starring William also eating a peach). It's cute. This is my life, a mixture of cuteness and manhandling. Children love with all their strength. They love by crashing into you running full speed, by leaping on and over you, climbing on you, offering tight strangle hugs, pulling hair, pinching faces. (Those last two refer to Jadzia). At the end of the day, I'm exhausted from all the love.

Real Life Timmies Drama

Tonight Adam and I went and saw the 7:30 showing of District 9, an action-packed documentary-style sci fi, that left me thinking I should learn more about world politics to appreciate all the metaphors (and left my husband wanting his own robot suit). Good movie.

Of course the real world is far more exciting because, when we stopped at Tim Horton's afterwards, we saw a drunk guy passed out at a table! Drama at its finest, and unlike District 9, this was happening right in front of our eyes.

We sipped hot chocolate and munched on blueberry and boston cream donuts, keeping one ear open to staff's discussions. First, about who was going to clean up the man's vomit, and later, whether they should call the cops.

Finally the cops did arrive. Two guys, looking burly in their bullet proof vests, and wearing gloves (I assume because vomit was involved).
"What's your name?" asked the cops, over and over, "How old are you?"
I couldn't hear the man's response, or even whether he responded, but eventually they figured out that his name was Adam (about which my husband Adam was just tickled pink).

When they couldn't get anything useful out of Drunk Adam, an ambulance droved up outside and in came two female paramedics, with walkie talkies and green scissors in their utility belts. They tried basically the same thing as the cops did, which was to say "Hey Adam, how old are you?" in various different ways. Drunk Adam looked to be in his mid twenties, old enough to drink but young enough to get carded at the liquor store. The paramedics also asked Drunk Adam where he lived, but that wasn't nearly as interesting to them as his age.

I guess they suddenly realized that this guy wasn't going to stand up and walk out, because right then one of the paramedics said "we'll be right back" and they both went outside and got the stretcher out of the ambulance.

The cops and the paramedics then worked together to lift Drunk Adam onto the stretcher. Drunk Adam didn't seem to notice or care that he was being wheeled away, but perhaps he was just happy to have somewhere more comfy to sleep than the chairs at Tim Hortons.

Then Drunk Adam got into a giant robot suit and started blowing people up with his ray gun. No, actually nothing else happened, we went home.

If we had a million dollars...we'd be rich

Every time money gets a little tight it inevitably leads to a budget discussion. As in, what would we do if we had millions of dollars in our budget. Adam and I were having such a conversation last night. I'd decided that I wanted live a modest suburban life, while using most of my money to travel. But where to go first?

To engage him in our conversation, I asked William: "Where would you go?"

He replied, "Zoe's house."

I thought he'd misunderstood my question. We'd just gone to his friend Zoe's house that day and sometimes I ask him to recap recent events. So I clarified. "No, I mean if you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?"

"Um, I know, the park!"

So this morning we went to the park. This is where you'd expect something shmultzy about the best things in life being free, except we had to cut William's dream gettaway short because he refused to stop throwing rocks at me. Turns out he did this because he was thirsty (a logical response for a two and a half year old). So we went home and had some water. And he threw his cup across the room. Now I'm not sure what the moral of this story is.

The Adventures of a Napping Toddler

William normally naps at 1 pm. Today:

Went to a playdate/baby shower. Stayed until 2:30 pm.

William fell asleep in the car.

Got home. Saw a note on the door from my Mom and remembered that I was supposed to pick up Morty the Jackapoo to look after while my parents are at the cottage.

Drove to my parents'. William stayed asleep.

Put Morty in the car. Jadzia shrieked happily. Morty whimpered. William stayed asleep.

Drove home again. Tried to convince Morty to go outside so I could put William to bed. He refused.

Carried William to his room while Morty was leaping on me. William stayed asleep.

Noticed that William's bed had no sheets or pillow. Remembered he had wet the bed the night before.

Lay him down anyway. He woke up briefly, stared at me, then rolled over and went back to sleep.

Got Jadzia from the car. (I know, I know, but she was only alone in the car for a minute). Put her in the exersaucer.

Morty licked her face immediately. She cried. William still did not wake up.

In other news: Today Jadzia got her first taste of chocolate cake, which she stole from one of William's girlfriends.

Also: On the way to the playdate, I saw a woman walking her cat on a leash.

Play dates rule

After yesterday's incident with the outlet it was nice to have a bunch of women around who can relate to having a two and a half year old. Today's festivities included: eating timbits, eating cookies, eating animal crackers, playing with toys, playing with balls, fighting over balls, holding Jadzia, baking a pretend cake, throwing magnets, shrieking, practicing indoor screaming, jumping on William's car bed, reading a book, eating noodles, throwing noodles on the carpet, watching Cars.

I can see why children nap, they make four hours seem like ten. Still, it was oddly relaxing having three extra toddlers running around my house, while we Moms sat on the couch in the eye of the hurricane. My friend Columbia calls me "Zen Mommy" because I'm always so calm and don't let things phase me. In reality I'm only calm with my Mommy friends around. They remind me that I'm not alone in the universe.

Electrified toddler

This afternoon I was on my computer, as I often am, while my children played in the dining room. Only Jadzia was within sight, but I could tell that William was only a few feet away from her, chatting merrily in his sing-song voice. Since she started crawling, Jadzia tends to follow her brother around like a loyal henchman. I was feeling quite proud of myself for remembering to close the basement door, when suddenly a bunch of things happened at once:

My computer abruptly shut down.
I heard a loud pop, accompanied by a spark, from underneath the dining room table.
My son began wailing.

I rushed to the dining room and grabbed an histerical William into my arms. The room smelled like burnt plastic.

When William was first born, we went around our condo putting safety outlet covers on all the outlets, anticipating a time when he would be crawling and getting into everything. Our efforts were in vain. He got into everything, except outlets. Apparently they aren't that exciting to an infant. When we moved into our house a year ago we didn't bother. For one thing that's a lot of outlets to replace, way more than we had in our condo. And for another, with all the dangerous appliances, sharp corners, and stairs, we thought the outlet covers were the least of our worries.

Now that William is two-and-a-half, he understands a lot more. And he's observant. Like he's seen me lock and unlock the front door enough times to know that a key is meant to be shoved into a hole.

So now the outlet in the dining room has a tiny explosion of black soot coming out of it, the same soot covers my son's arm, my keys are sticking out of the outlet, and the power is out in the dining room and family room.

My first thought is if my son is okay. As I'm comforting him I check his arm for burns, I wave my hand in front of his eyes to be sure he can still see, and I ask him questions to be sure he can hear me. I think about taking him to a doctor, but he seems completely fine once he calms down.

Next, I yank my keys out of the outlet and hang them up high, then I run downstairs and flick the breaker. Then I grab my son, tell him I love him, and burst into tears. I'd always assumed that sticking something metal into an outlet would cause you to die a horrible death by electrocution. I'm not sure how likely that is, but in my mind my son almost died, and it would've been my fault.

Jadzia Stands

She's been taunting me with this one for a while now, grabbing onto furniture, almost pulling herself up only to be distracted at the last minute by an interesting bit of carpet fluff. Today, she finally did it, Jadzia stood up in her crib.

My husband immediately announced that it was time to lower her crib mattress and went and got his tools. Now the walls are about eight feet high (baby feet). I'd like to see her try to stand now!

Algonquin Park Summary 3: Water Water everywhere

Yes, we did have rain, pockets of rain, pockets of sunshine, pockets of rain again. Still we spent lots of time at the beach, swimming and splashing in the cold "refreshing" water. William loved the splashing, so did Jadzia. Hunter was content to stay on the sand perfecting his sandcastle-building skills.

During a pocket of sunshine we optimistically rented a canoe. It began raining immediately. We joked that every time we said the word "canoe" the sky would open up again. We ended up paying for an extra day, so we could actually get some paddling time in. And we did, taking turns enjoying the quiet serenity of the water, spotting some herons, some ducks, and some Canada Geese (who I suspect were also tourists from Burlington).

Algonquin trip summary 2: a family of four in a tent.

When I say that I went camping, people inevidably ask: "Did the kids sleep okay in the tent?" Yes, is the short answer, as in "yes, they did sleep." Our sleeping arrangements were as follows: Jadzia in her playpen, me theoretically on the thermarests but nearly pushed under the playpen by William, William sleeping between me and Adam usually sideways with his arms around my neck and his feet kicking my husband's face.

Jadzia, who seemed determined to keep her regular schedule despite all the camping going on around her, went to bed first. Our ease in getting William to sleep might have something to do with keeping him up hours past his bedtime, roasting marshmallows on the fire. In William's case, "roasting" meant cuddling on someone's lap, with a dazed look in his eyes, holding a marshmallow stick so far away from the flames as to keep them eternally raw. When I offered to roast them for him he exclaimed "No, I will do it!" and when I asked if he wanted to eat the marshmallows he replied "No, marshmallows not done" or "No, marshmallows too hot."

My nephew Hunter seemed to enjoy roasting more than actually eating the marshmallows. He'd roast two at a time, usually offering one of them to my Mom or Dad, or announcing before he started "I'm roasting marshmallows, does anybody want one?" He was always on the quest for the perfect marshmallow.

After the mallows we'd take a long walk to the comfort station to use the washroom and brush our teeth. William was afraid of the loud flushing of the toilet, and would cover his face when I took him into the stall. Once my Mom, Hunter, and William got lost on the way back from the washroom and it was pouring rain and we didn't have a flashlight. Finally we found the camp office, where they gave us a map and directions.

At around ten, ten-thirty, we'd say goodnight, go into the tent, turn on our lantern, change into our pjs, and read a Robert Munsch story from the library anthology we brought with us.
Jadzia didn't wake up during any of this.

She did, however, wake up at six am to the sound of cawing grackles. Jadzia would then wake up me, then William, and then Adam. The adults were more than willing to go back to sleep, but William insisted we leave the tent to "See Hunter" and "Eat breakfast". Of course, once my daughter had woken up the rest of us, she went back to sleep until 9.

Algonquin trip summary 1: Hiking with the gang

My husband is demanding a blog entry summarizing our camping trip. Instead I think I'll write three. The camping-type excursion we engaged in the most was hiking. Each day we went on a different trail, carefully selecting the shortest loops.

All of the trails visited cliffs showing off the majesty of the park. Not being a heights person to begin with, and having a toddler along, I found myself constantly repeating "careful, careful" until my son began chanting "I will be careful. I will not be careful" as he stepped over tree-roots and around mud puddles. I stood between him and the drop-off whenever I could, but I wasn't as freaked out as I thought I would be.

I'd been on most of these hikes when we came here two summers ago, when William was the age Jadzia is now. The quiet serenity of nature was somewhat diminished this time. My family tends to fill any space it inhabits, even the great Algonquin forest. This is a good thing, lots of fun, lots of laughter, lots of love, resulting in a completely different hiking experience.

And a tip: if it has been raining, don't go on the Whiskey Rapids trail. The second half of the loop is a giant mudpie with no way around. You'd think this would be true of all the trails, but the rest were fine despite the rain.

Four Days of Grateful Things

I plan a longer entry after I've downloaded photos and such. I've been away from civilization and internet for four days camping in Algonquin. Of course I must list five things I am grateful for each day, so here's twenty:

marshmallows
sausages
campfire
canoeing
blue herons
the deer in the blueberry field
Adam taking my nephew Hunter fishing twice, and William fishing once
Having a big gang to hike with
Having some moments just my husband and I
My Mom and her electric frying pan
My Dad and his iPod
Herman's Hermits and other oldies
Warm nights
Everyone sleeping okay in the tent
Hunter being so grown up, but still being a kid
Ice cream
S'mores
The beach
A shower
Being home again

William's computer ability

William has been watching me play on the computer since before he could crawl, and more recently he's been playing games by himself. His favourite are the ones on the Sesame Street website, what he calls "The Monster Game". He used to limit himself to games requiring only a keyboard, of which there are very few. Any time a mouse was required he would say "Mommy do it" or, if I was out of the room, scream "MOMMY HELP!"

A couple of days ago, he was busily working through a playlist of games and videos while I was feeding Jadzia in the other room. I listened attentively for the call I was sure I would hear once he reached the mouse game. Instead, I heard Big Bird's cheerful voice praising him for getting the right answer.

I now suspect he's known how to use a mouse for ages, and was pretending just so I would spend time with him. Now that his cover is blown, I can point to anything on the screen and he will click on it.

Today, I left him alone for a minute playing Sesame Street games and, when I came back, he was surfing videos on youtube! (Luckily he only found ones that were family friendly)

Kamping with a K

Kamping at KOA (Kampgrounds of America) is as much like real camping as krabmeat is like real crab. I love krabmeat, it's a lot of fun, but somehow not as authentic as the real thing. Instead of wilderness, our kampground was bordered by suburban houses, cheap motels, and a train track (a freight train drove by periodically).

Though it wasn't exactly Algonquin Park, we had a blast. My parents stayed with my nephew in one tent, with my little family of four in another. Jadzia slept like a dream in the playpen, while William cozied in between Adam and I. Our ease in getting William to sleep may have had something to do with us keeping him up past ten, roasting marshmallows by the fire. I doubt we could have gotten him to bed earlier, though, not with his favourite person in the world along. No, not me, I was talking about his cousin Hunter.

In lieu of hiking and stargazing, we swam in an indoor pool, played in a playground, took a wagon ride and sang karaoke. (Of course I sang the most, but Hunter sang too and now I've got him hooked). Hunter also road a rented big wheel bike and jumped on a giant bouncy pillow. William collected rocks. I think we could take him any place that had a gravel road and he would be happy.

Roughing it

When I first saw "computer" on Mom's packing list, right alongside "marshmallows" and "sleeping bags", I laughed. That is so not camping. Now, here I am, sitting outside in our fold-out camping chair, trying to tune out conversations about firewood, enjoying the fresh air, and blogging.

Adam says that using a computer while camping is "lame" and "defeats the purpose of going camping." He also objects to my Mom's electric frying pan. His humungous expensive camera, along with multiple lenses and tripod, is okay because it is vacation technology.

To come: A full entry on the trip, along with a 30-40 second video of my Dad and husband talking about their toys.

Two videos

Here are two videos that show evidence that my daughter is growing up, despite most of my attention being paid to her brother. The first is of Jadzia crawling, lured by a strategically placed library book. The second video, which shows off her babbling skills, is William's directorial debut.





For those of you viewing this as a note in facebook, it seems facebook imports text and photos but not videos. My facebook friends don't seem to notice what they're missing, like on the previous entry when everyone commented on the photo, without realizing that there was a toddler meltdown video to accompany it. If you're reading this on facebook, go to my blog instead. If you're reading this on my blog, don't worry, you're already here.

The Kind of Day I've Had

PARTY PICS

Jen forgot to post pictures from the event so I felt obligated to help out!
check'm out!

Adam's 2nd Annual Birthday Barbecue Pool Party

As my husband was leaving for work today he said "Don't forget to write a blog entry about the pool party yesterday and how great I am."

So what can I say? It's wonderful to have friends. Old friends, new friends, Mommy friends, toddler friends, family who are also friends, friends who have become family, friends who I haven't seen in a while, friends who I see every week, were all hanging out in my yard, in my pool, eating food that my fabulous husband barbecued.

Yes it was Adam's birthday, but we put him to work anyway, cooking burgers and Polish sausages, and shish kabobs. Grilling pineapples, and passing out handfuls of strawberries and cherries. The invite said noon until ten, so guests came in waves, the second wave arriving as the first wave left. I made a birthday cake (well, two birthday cakes) and when I asked it anyone wanted seconds almost everyone raised their hands.

Unfortunately midway through the party William started to feel sick and I had to switch out of party mode and into Mommy mode. All he wanted to do was whine and cuddle with me and nearly fall asleep in my arms. Sadly it was at this time that all his little toddler friends were there to play. At one point Leyla, a beautiful curly-haired girl who is remarkably articulate for a two-and-a-half year old, came up to us and said "William, will you come play with me?" So precious, but we had to decline.

Shortly afterward, William puked all over me and we took a quick bath together (I was already in my bathing suit). When I say quick, I mean very quick, as there was still a party going on and we only have one bathroom. I put him to bed and rejoined the party.

Back in party mode but many of the guests had left, or were about to leave. My parents and in-laws stayed the whole time though and we started a splashingfest across our above-ground pool, largely instigated by my mother-in-law who didn't bring a bathing suit but got soaking wet anyway. William started to feel better after his nap and joined in the splashing. He even felt well enough to eat an entire pint of strawberries for dinner.

The party didn't quite make it until ten, which was good, because we were all tired. Not too tired, of course, to try out the Wii Fit that I bought Adam for his birthday. The balance board weighed us and tested us. We both were given Wii ages in our forties but we were happy because, though overweight, we were both lighter than we thought we were.

On the whole a great day with great friends, great family (including poor sick William because it's kind of nice when he's all cuddly), and a great husband.

Baby John's Welcome Shin-dig

I just went to a playdate/baby shower at my friend Columbia's house. 2 babies, 3 women, 3 toddlers, and a twelve-year-old. Officially, we were welcoming our friend Jessica's new baby John to the world (he's a month old and makes Jadzia look like a giant), but for some reason he didn't seem to notice there was a party going on at all.

You might imagine that many toddlers would be less relaxing than only one toddler, but I find the opposite to be true. It's nice to have friends who occupy the same circle of hell as you do. Not that having children is hell, there is much joy. I'm just glad it was someone else's child who got nail polish on the couch (because it could just have easily been mine).

We did trash Columbia's place a bit. I tried to help tidy up, but I have dyspurgatia (like dyslexia, only with cleaning and yes, I made that word up). Everyone's coming to my house for a bbq on the weekend, though, so I'll get my pay back.

Thanks Columbia, you're amazing.

Happy Canada Day

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Canada
Happy birthday to you!

Jadzia's First Non-Boob Breakfast

A momentous event, not to be overshadowed by the deaths of a pop icon and a Charlie's angel: Jadzia's first breakfast! That's right, she tried rice cereal, her first non-mommy-milk food. When William first tried cereal, back in the day, I was a little worried about him going off the boob and not needing me anymore. With Ms. J I don't really feel that way because, being an experienced mother, I know that children continue to be quite attached to their Mommies, long after they stop nursing.

I would have uploaded this video this morning but youtube was taking forever and being glitchy. My Mom told me that the internet was busy with people downloading Micheal Jackson stuff. I'm not saying that isn't true (she heard it on the radio), I just don't see how that could possibly make sense.

The Date

When my generous baby-sitting Mom asked what we were celebrating I replied, "A night off without kids of course." Though we didn't have our human children with us, we did encounter this gaggle of geese (complete with gosslings) while we were walking off the Bison steaks that we'd eaten at Spencer's Landing, the ridiculously expensive and extravagent waterfront restaurant. Yes, I did say Bison, which is like cow, only it's twice the price and they serve it with blueberry sauce on top. Yum!


Though we spent our entire week's grocery budget on dinner, It's not really a date until you see a movie too. In fact, my husband's spontaneous romantic impulses tend to coincide with the release of summer blockbusters. So we saw Transformers 2, the movie that Roger Ebert called "dumber than a box of staples". It wasn't as good as the first one, but you don't go to a Transformers movie looking for realism or oscar performances, so I thought he was being overly harsh. For low-brow humour and mindless special effects , this movie is the one to see.

I couldn't help but notice, though, that if the robots had been human, than the violence would have been extremely gory even for an R-rating (it was rated PG). And the autobots fight just as dirty as the decepticons! So it was inappropriate for my kids at least, which made it strangely more romantic.

Rain on my Parade

This weekend was the Sound of Music Festival, when almost all of Burlington gathers near the waterfront to watch a parade and various music acts in less-than-ideal weather.

It rained through Saturday's parade, thinning out the crowds to give us a front row seat. We enjoyed the marching bands well enough, but didn't bring enough warm clothes, so we decided not to stay for the kid's bands we had planned to see. We bought fudge to take home and decided that the Skor flavour was the best.

Today was better weather, so we headed down again and saw Tom Cochrane perform. He kept making gratuitous Canadian references and talking about how great it was to be back in the Golden Horseshoe. I think he was being an applause slut, but as long as he played "Life is a Highway" everyone was happy. William didn't want to stay for even one song, and finally dragged my parents away to take him to the park, where he got extra soaked.



Not that I blamed him. It was sweltering hot. That's Canada for you; cold and rainy one day, hot and sunny the next. Makes you value the good weather. Like Tom Cochrane said, "Nobody appreciates summer like Canadians."

Kids Learning about Science (totally not just playing)

Here are some videos of my kids learning about science. That's what you do at the Science Centre. We were technically there to preview the Snakes and Lizards Alive Exhibit (because my mother is media), but of course we spent most of our time in the Kidsparks area. Which I highly recommend for toddlers, if you can find someone to get you in for free. Or even if you have to pay, because everyone loves the Science Centre (even babies).

Okay, I'm exhausted. Really. Kid outtings take a lot out of you. It was a great day though. Thanks to my mother (also the Science Centre people who invited the media but especially my mother) for giving us a great day.

Conversation with a toddler

William lies face down on the basement floor, his knees tucked under him and his bum in the air. He looks as if he's searching for something under the couch. A half-eaten peach lies beside him, apparently forgotten. The movie Wall-E plays on the tv.

Me (standing on the stairs looking down at him) : Hey William. What are you doing?

William (looks up) : Why not?

Me : What are you doing?

William : I watch Wall-E

Me : But why are you on the floor?

William sits up and leans against the couch. He picks up the peach beside him.

William : Oh, I eat a peach.

He takes a bite.

Husband moves desk...suggests blog topic

Since Adam is such a wonderful husband, he moved his desk from downstairs in the basement to the living room next to mine. Now we'll spend lots more time "together" and I'll get oodles of stuff done because I won't be tempted to go downstairs to see what my husband is up to only to get sucked into the temporal vortex that is our television.

A few moments ago, I mentioned to my new desk-buddy that I wanted to write a blog entry but didn't know what to write about. Said he: "Why don't you post that video of William playing in the water?" Yesterday we went down to Spencer Smith Park (the Waterfront) and William got drenched in the fountain. I do have a cute, but kind of long, clip of him (gleefully) getting progressively more soaking. I am uploading it to Youtube, but it's taking 500 years. Here are some photos of the event:

My super long walk

This afternoon, in a lapse of sanity, I decided to walk to the Early Years Centre instead of driving. After all, I can't justify the purchase of a 900-dollar stroller without using it for at least one long walk.

I saw some things I wouldn't have noticed driving: a 2 shopping carts wedged into the grass, a field and a pile of rubble where a house had been. I also chatted with an older man about his children, and how he never had cool strollers like mine in his day. I took a few pictures that I might later post on my international photo tag blog. All very well, but nothing I'd give up a car for.

The trek (which according to Google Maps is 6.4 km) took me a little under an hour and a half. William and Jadzia fell asleep about 15 minutes in and woke up just as I was nearing our destination. The weather was great for it, overcast but not rainy, I felt neither too hot, nor too cool. I didn't feel sweaty at all until I stepped through the door to the Early Years. Without the breeze I became all too aware of how sticky I was.

Of course I bragged to all my Mommy friends about how I had walked from the ends of the Earth and they were all suitably impressed. (Completely unrelated: my friend Jessica had her new 7-day-old son with her. He made Jadzia look gigantic).

I had planned to have my husband pick me up after work (I couldn't walk back. It was uphill!) but instead Jessica convinced me to take the bus with her. Of course my gigantic stroller didn't fit on the bus until I removed the wheels (and the children). I could tell everyone (especially the driver) thought I was the supreme fool of the day for bringing an enormous buggy on public transit, but they helped me anyway. William was especially good on the bus, even singing a verse of wheels on the bus (the money on the bus goes ching ching ching).

So anyway, I'm glad I walked today. I'll never do it again, but now that I have once I can officially declare myself the Fittest Mom Ever, and permanently retire from any further exercise.

A post about Jadzia

I haven't been as diligent about recording milestones with Jadzia as I was when William was a baby. Partly because I'm busier with two kids, and partly because I understand now that children grow up not by stepping from one stone to another, but gradually progressing from one stage to the next. While you're waiting for them to master one thing, they're busy learning something else. In any case here's a quick list of things she can do:

Smiling and laughing - she's been doing this for months, of course. If you met Jadzia I'm sure her smile is what you'd remember. Her entire face lights up, and she is prone to hysterical giggling.

Puking - she still pukes all the time, but it doesn't seem to bother her. She tricks people into holding her by flashing that adorable smile, then she vomits all over them.

Sneaky moving - she can't crawl, but she somehow manages to get exactly where she wants to go, usually when my back is turned. I assume she uses a combination of rolling, stretching and grabbing with her arms, and lunging with her legs. I've also noticed that she rotate while on her tummy by pushing off with only one foot.

Putting things in her mouth - this is her favourite hobby at the moment. She especially likes books, which means it's getting difficult to read to her. She also has an interest in toys that she didn't have before.

Sitting up unassisted - a fairly recent development and she's still not too steady. Usually, she'll see a toy inches out of her reach and end up folding herself in half.

Standing - okay, not by herself, but she loves "stand" while being held, or hanging out in her exersaucer.

Likes:

William

Toys

Things that make a crinkle noise

Books

Mommy's hair (or equivalent)

Bath time

Sucking her thumb (lefty)

Booby

Dislikes:

Falling asleep in the stroller (if she's tired she'll wail all the way home instead)

Sleeping on her back

Being left where she can't see people eating

Falling face down in her own puke

Our New Toy

We didn't find it on kigigi, or on ebay, and we didn't pick it up at garage sale for cheap. Unfortunately we just went to our local bike store and spent the bigger part of our tax refund on it. It's called the Chariot Cougar, because presumably most people feel better spending vast sums of money on something if it's named after a ferocious wild cat (or an aging woman who likes young men). Anyway, this thing costs $675 and that's before you even put the front wheels on it. Seriously, to actually use it you need to buy extra doodads to make it into a stroller, or attach it to a bike.




Adam has already taken William for long bike ride. I stayed home with Jadzia because apparently you have to be at least one year old to ride in a bike trailer. Everyone's so paranoid nowadays. I haven't ridden a bike in three years (since before getting pregnant with William), and it looks like I'm going to make it four

Ah, but it will make a nice two-baby stroller (as you can see by the above store model). I've been busily using Google Maps to find good walking routes to all my favourite hangouts. I'm going to be the fittest Mom ever!!! (For three-days, and then the novelty will wear off).

Jadzia in a big-girl seat

Monday May 25th marked the last day Jadzia used her infant carrier. On that day she went to the doctor where she was weighed and measured. That's when I found out that even though she is as light as a feather (a 14-pound feather), my daughter is one and a half centimetres too tall for the baby carseat. Could I let it go? Perhaps, but I'm ninety percent sure that seat was expired anyway, and would therefore sponaneously combust if I were ever to have an accident.

We immediately went to Babies R Us and purchased a new carseat-that-will-turn-into-a-booster for William, and flipped William's old chair into the rear-facing position for Jadzia. Jadzia is quite comfortable in her new seat. However, there are some logistical problems when one loses the convenient bucket-like carrier which can be easily set down on the floor, in a shopping cart, on a table, and replaces it with a floppity infant who can't sit up by herself.

It also causes lapses in judgement like puttin that same floppity infant who can't sit up into a restaurant high-chair clearly designed for toddlers:

Morty goes swimming

To further add to my list of reasons why I am the worst dog sitter in the world:

I put Morty outside because William was throwing things at him, then went to put my children down for their naps. The dog had his water and food dish out with him, so what could happen? I was gone for a good hour by the time I got them both down (including a short nap for me in William's room). When I got back I expected an impatient Jackapoo to be waiting at the sliding door.

When he wasn't there, I opened the door, poked my head out and whisper-yelled "Morty? Morty!" Reasoning that he must have found a nice patch of shade to lay in, I went inside and went on my computer.

Not sure how much time passed (I was using the time-sucking machine) when I remembered that the pool is open and I guessed what might have happened to poor Morty. I carried Jadzia (who was awake by this point) to the backyard to investigate. Sitting on top of the solar blanket of our pool was a scrawny shivering rat. Morty is smaller and lighter than my five-month-old and when he's wet you can really tell.

I put my daughter temporarily on the grass and fished the jackapoo out of the pool. He immediately began running around the yard and the house like he was on uppers (dogs do that when they've just had a bath, or just fell in a pool).

So now not only am I neglecting to walk dogs in my care, but I'm putting them in mortal danger by leaving them to drown in a pool for hours.

Annoying things my toddler did today

Refused to come to the washroom so I could change his diaper.
Refused to let me take off his diaper.
Refused to let me wipe his bum.
Squirted toothpaste into the sink
Pounded on my keyboard.
Had a tantrum because his Elmo game wouldn't work.
Jumped on his bed instead of picking out clothes.
Said "no thanks" to every pair of pants that I offered him.
Refused to stop jumping on the bed.
Refused to let me dress him.
Pulled out several pairs of clean pants and shirts, crumpled them into a ball, and threw them down the stairs.
Threw more clean clothes down the stairs after I told him to stop.
Refused to clean up the clothes.
Refused to sit in circle at the Early Years Centre.
Climbed into the front seat of the car and started playing with random buttons instead of getting into his carseat.
Forced me to drag him out of the front seat of the car because he wouldn't listen to me when I told him to get back in his seat.
Took off his shoe in the car.
Took off his other shoe after I told him not to.
Threw his milk cup on the floor.

And all that's before noon. Phew. Glad I got that off my chest. I feel I should add:

Cute things my son always does.

Says "Mommy hugs" and gives me a hug.
Says "Mommy kiss" and makes fishy lips and gives me a kiss.
Holds my hand when we're walking together.
Holds my head to steady himself when he's putting on his diaper, pants, or shoes.
Says "thank you" when I give him something without me even asking him to.
Says "here you go Zia" and gives his sister a toy.
Says "don't worry Zia" when his sister is crying.
Sings along to all the songs in circle time at the Early Years Centre.
Dances to all the songs in circle time.
Reads books on his own.
Says "sorry Mommy."
Says "don't worry Mommy."

William's cheapest haircut yet.

Before

After

Adam cut William's hair! We've had a haircutting clipper since our wedding but neither of us have been willing to try it out on our own hair. Of course our son is fair game. William is always willing to experiment. In fact, just yesterday he emptied an entire bottle of food colouring into his mouth. He looked like a smurf vampire but, so far, no blue pee.

Anyway I think my husband missed his calling as a barber because this haircut looks pretty spiffy. That's right, I used the word spiffy.

Dinner at Uncle Wojtek's House

Adam's uncle has a gigantic house up where you can get mansions for cheap (I don't know exactly what city it's in but you have to pass a lot of farms to get there). Adam says "It's Limehouse, near Acton, you know!" Anyway, we went there for dinner tonight and William had a blast playing with his second cousins, Conrad, Veronica, and Alexandra. Together they flew a kite, played with a remote controlled jeep and rode a skooter. Yes, William is too young for most of these activities but that didn't stop the older kids from trying to teach him. Conrad trying to get William to drive the RC Jeep was particularly amusing. Conrad kept telling William which button turned the car and which one made it go forwards and backward, and William kept saying "I will press this one" then smiling when the car made any kind of movement or noise.

When talking about cousins, one often gets confused as to whether they're second cousins, first cousins once removed, or just a bunch of kids who aren't actually related to you. For some reason, I clearly remember my friend's mother explaining cousin relations to me at a restaurant with crayon and a napkin. I don't have a napkin handy but here's my understanding:

I assume that everyone knows that your aunts and uncles are your parents' sisters and brothers.

Your aunts and uncles' kids are your first cousins.

Your first cousins' kids are your first cousins once removed.

Your kids and your first cousins' kids are second cousins.

If your second cousins had kids, they would be your first cousins twice removed. They would be your kids' second cousins once removed and your grandkids' third cousins.

Adam says that there is way too much learning and logic in this blog post and not enough humour. That may be so, but I like knowing stuff, and seeing as most people reading this are trolling the internet reading random things, I'm guessing you like to know stuff too. But just in case you too were looking for more humour, here's a picture of me in an old Polish army officer's cap:

The Twitter D-list

When I first signed on to twitter I called it a poor man's facebook. Describe what you're doing in 140 characters. Gee, sounds like facebook status. Plus I have this blog as my soapbox, so why would I need to be twittering away like an attention-desperate budgie?

A little later I saw an interview with Levar Burton (aka Geordi Laforge) in which he talked about twitter. He liked it because it offered access to the fans without a publicist or other middleman. This is when I started using twitter to "follow" my favourite Star Trek celebrities. I even replied to their tweets, with no hope of response, just to make myself feel as if I were conversing, and not just stalking.

Well shortly after the Star Trek movie came out, I started adding the cast to my tweet list. It so happened that Anthony Yelchin, who plays Chekov, signed onto twitter for the first time that day and I was one of his first followers. Not only did he message me first, before I had even sent him one tweet, but he started following my updates.

All at once I'm being followed by not one, not two, but three celebrity gossip bloggers (used to be four but I think one realized that I wasn't a celeb and dropped out).

Now I am in a position of power aren't I? I could start any number of unfounded rumours about the elite! I could invite myself to all the hot star parties. Soon the name SuperHappyJen will be synonymous with fame and fortune, because if the tabloids say you are, you are. I may even get people to read my blog.

Star Trek

Okay so here's my review of the new Star Trek film. I haven't posted until now because a)I've been too tired (my children won't let me sleep in just because I was up to one in the morning!) and b)I'm not sure I can appropriately convey the awesomeness of this film without giving away spoilers. So here's my good college try:

Even though I was excited, I was a little worried going in that they would try too hard to make the film cool and less star-treky. That fear was eliminated in the first five seconds. The dialogue, the costumes, the battlescenes, the random aliens for no reason, the big scary romulan ship, consoles exploding. Everything was pure Star Trek.

The whole cast did an excellent job of playing the original series characters (only more modern sexy and cool obviously). Karl Urban did a particularly good job of getting Dr. McCoy's mannerisms and way of speaking, while still acting believably. Some fun scenes with a young, optomistic Chekov (Anton Yelchin) pronouncing Vs as Ws. Zoe Saldana played a strong, sexy Uhura. And of course Sulu (John Cho) got to sword fight. Yay!

Chris Pine played a Kirk who was a little more rough around the edges than we're used to, but in a good way (timeline-changing events in the film made him like that). My husband said that he kept expecting Zachary Quinto as Spock to cut open somebody's head and steal their brains (like he does on Heroes), but I was way too into the movie to even remember that he also played Sylar. Just to be safe though, don't insult his mother.

I knew there would be some time travel in the film, which is often used (mostly by fans) to explain inconsistencies in the Star Trek story line. Instead, this film used time travel to turn everything on its head and create an all-bets-are-off, anyone can die, anything can happen suspensefest, which is too often impossible in a prequel. (We all knew that Hugh Jackman was going to survive the entire Wolverine movie, and that made it slightly less exciting didn't it?)

Anyway, if you're a Star Trek fan you will definitely like this movie. If you're not, and would like to be, this would be a great flick to get you into it (you'll get to know the original series characters without the 60s campiness). If you just want a good sci fi action-adventure film, this one's for you too (although if you like sci fi action-adventure, you should be a Trek fan already).

I hope this film will spawn many many sequels and maybe even a tv series with this cast. Go Star Trek!

BTW: I was adding the new Star Trek cast to my list of Trek celebs that I'm following on Twitter and Anton Yelchin actually twitted me back! This means either a) he's not actually THE Anton Yelchin who plays Chekov, or b) he's not famous enough yet to ignore people. Anyway he said William is cute, so he must be cool.

Events

William put himself to bed all by himself! My naptime routine is to put Jadzia down first. This usually involves nursing her while I listen intently for the sounds of toddler mischief. Suddenly the house went quiet, too quiet. I went searching for William, expecting to find that yet another piece of furniture had fallen victim to crayon graffiti (although at this point it would just match the rest of the decor). I called his name and got no answer. I even checked the locks on the doors thinking he may have somehow escaped. Finally I checked his bedroom and there he was, sound asleep. Bonus!

Today is my Dad's birthday. Happy Birthday Dad! Dad is currently working as a school bus driver, which is pretty cool, because now I can understand exactly what he does for a living (although I'm sure he'd prefer his old IT jobs).

It's also my nephew's birthday. Happy Birthday Hunter! He's turning eight years old. Eight! Am I old enough to have an eight-year-old nephew? I mean, that's halfway to driving age!

Also a shout out to my friend Columbia. Yes, it is also her birthday. (This makes me wonder what happens nine months before May 7th that gets people in the mood to make babies). Anyway I know the last time I talked to her she was feeling bummed about turning 32. So I open this up to any elderly or middle age folk who want to comment on how great it would be to be that young again. Happy Birthday Columbia!

And finally, today is the opening of Star Trek XI (which is really just called Star Trek, because it is in no way a sequel to anything). I'm seeing it at 9:45, instead of 7, so that I can still have dinner and eat cake with the family. Then I'm totally going to wear my Star Trek uniform and be super nerdy. I love it!

Is the Star Trek movie too Cool for the Fans?

As someone anxiously awaiting the opening of Star Trek on Thursday (also my Dad and nephew's birthday), I found this installment of the Onion News particularly amusing:

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Hmmn aren't these the same reviews that lead to the cancellation of Enterprise? Anyway, I think it's great that they're making Star Trek cool again. Maybe then I will be cool when I wear my original series uniform to the premier.

William and Jadzia (caught on video)

Remember when I blogged about Jadzia laughing at William? Well here's the live version, filmed on location at Babcia and DziaDzio's house:

Also, against all reason, we took our children to the zoo again. Love is truly a necessity for survival. If we didn't love our children so much, we could never restrain ourselves from killing them. Pictures here.

William and Jadzia

Today, as I was getting Jadzia ready for bed, William was doing his usual song and dance for attention. (Today this involved using a plastic log from his train set as a gun and shooting at me). Jadzia kept turning her head away from her bedtime booby meal to get a glimpse of the show. So I sat her up and faced her in William's direction. Immediately she began laughing like a maniac. William, happy to have someone appreciate his humour, smiled gleefully and began excitedly naming all the objects in the room for his sister's amusement. Bed! Book! Pillow! Clothes! Mommy! With every word Jadzia's laughed harder, and louder, and squealed, and got hiccups, and kept laughing.

This isn't the first time William's antics have put his sister into histerics. To Jadzia, her brother is the most hilarious person in the world, and William is happy to play comedian.

The spontaneous garage sale.

This morning my husband randomly decided that we should have a garage sale tomorrow and and that I should go through the crawlspace when I had time and look for stuff to get rid of. There are several problems with this plan, but two came to mind immediately. First, I would not have time at all, and second, I am such a pack rat that no one would pay for anything that I would part with. But good old Adam was keen, even printing off "Garage Sale" signs and price stickers at work.

Once the kids were in bed, I spent about three seconds helping Adam go through the crawlspace. During that time, I found some baby toys that Jadzia could play with, some sandals that I could totally wear in this weather, and an almost brand new pair of shorts that still fit. Sweet! Not much junky enough to sell though.

Bored and unmotivated, I came upstairs and looked up how to have a yard sale, which only fueled my niggling feeling that planning such an event, with less than twenty-four hours notice, was a bad idea.

I then went on facebook, with the intention of making an invite, but found that my friend is organizing a Mom 2 Mom sale on the same day. (Actually she's been talking about it for days and days, I just didn't clue in that it was this Saturday). Anyway, I felt guilty trying to steal her thunder, so I posted no invite.

I told Adam that I didn't want to have a garage sale (it goes against my lazy pack rat nature) and he told me that he would do all the work and that I don't have to worry. Now I feel both guilty and resentful for being made to feel guilty. I told him that nobody would buy anything. He bet me that someone would buy at least one thing.

So we'll make 25 cents.

I know, I should be supportive, but it goes both ways. Just the other day, my husband told me that I couldn't become an astronaut.

Writer's Group

Last night I met with my writer friends in a kaffeeklatsch/mutual editing session known as a writer's group. I haven't gotten much writing done in the past few months, but it's nice to spend time with people who refer to me as "Jen" instead of "Mommy" and who don't demand that I produce peeled apples, large quantities of cheese, and yoghourts out of thin air. My friend Geoff actually brought grapes and shared them! In my house, grapes are only for the boss. If I ask William to share, he answers "No my grapes" (some things he shares, but grapes are way too valuable).

I read everyones work from the last few months back to back and I must say it was a delight. Reading several chapters back to back is like reading a real book, you get so much more of a feel for the story. Also because I wasn't really expected to read everything, I didn't feel like something I had to do. I was reading for pleasure.

It's enough to make me want to write again so today, if the boss lets me, I will totally finish the chapter I'm working on and go onto the next one. Right now he has me held hostage in the basement watching "Cars" but sooner or later I'll get onto my computer upstairs with all my files on it.

Gift of Discipline Workshop: Week 8

Today's class began with this video that I was able to find fairly easily on youtube. It starts out fairly innocently and ends up down right disturbing. The point here is that children mimic us. The best way to encourage proper behaviour is to model it ourselves (and vice versa).

Obviously I'm not showing William how to beat people or smoke cigarettes, but since I've had a cold this past week, William has started ripping off pieces of toilet paper, blowing into them, then crumpling them into a ball.

Miracle Cure

I don't normally post on Jens blog but thought that i would this time

Ever since William got his new Car Bed and transitioned from the Crib its been tough keeping him asleep or tough getting him to sleep typically I had to either pretend to Sleep on his bed until he fell asleep and then i would carefully sneakaway.. this can sometimes take 30-45 minutes of waiting.

I transitioned to sitting in a chair in his room. to eventually sitting in the hall with his door opened slightly
but he always had to see me , or have me close by.. and would demand that "Daddy Sit chair"

he also tends to go 3-4 hours between waking up.. so.. Bed by 9, wake up 12:30, wake up 4, wake up 7
oh the fun and each time it took between 15 minutes and 45 minutes to get him to go back to sleep

one night when he was very cranky and stubborn and i was very tired and wanted to get back to bed.
i gave him the option of " do you want me to check on you later or close your door" and since he really doesnt like having his door closed. obviously choose the other option and.. well he stayed in bed.. and went to sleep.!!

so now our bedtime routine is..

Change Diaper
Maybe take a bath
Brush Teeth
Read 2 books (maybe up to 4)
hug and kiss
tuck under covers (also a new thing)
and see you later

trimming my bedtime routine from 1 hour to 15 minutes

also at night when he gets up.. its sometimes no more then just changing a wet diaper and putting tucking him back in.
sometimes.. less then 5 minutes

which is bloody amazing!

my Favorite Son :)

Gift of Discipline Workshop: Week 7

I was hoping today's topic was going to be sleep, but it was strategies. Then someone said "oh, we've already done sleep." I almost cried. But we haven't, I know, because I haven't missed a week and I've been waiting for the sleep topic. Just in case, I kept asking..."so...how would I use this strategy to get my son to sleep?"

Most of the things we talked about had been covered in other sessions: Time-in and time-out, the difference between punishment and discipline, etc. We were offered a concise list of strategies that I shall bestow upon you (examples are mine):

-Prevention. My entire purpose as a parent is often devoted to preventing meltdowns. Of course you're supposed to make sure your child isn't hungry, or over-tired (so it would be nice if they would ever get to the sleep topic).

-Redirection/distraction. When William is mad and lies down on the floor, I like to sing the sleeping bunnies song*. 80% of the time, when I get to "Wake up little bunnies" he will hop, hop, hop, as if that was the whole reason he was lying there.

-Natural consequences/logical consequences. Natural consequences are just what happens if you don't intervene (you get cold if you don't wear your coat), logical consequences make sense, but you still have to invent them. Like if he throws his food, he has to stay sitting in his high chair until I clean everything up.

-Time-in we talked about before.

- Either/or. Either you stop throwing those blocks, or I will take them away. I love giving my son choices, it totally works (sometimes). I'm all set to take his blocks away and suddenly he says "Oh, okay" and starts playing properly. Things do get through, somehow.

-Polite request. You're supposed to do this first, and it's amazing how easy it is to forget.

-Remove possession. I like to do this in combination with the either/or method.

-Do-over. Can't say I even did this, but the example they gave is if a kid won't hang their coat, you make them put their coat and boots back on, go out the door, and come in again. I just think that's brilliant. (I would need to use it on myself)

-When..Then. "After I change your diaper, then you can come back and play with your drum." It seems obvious, but somehow it works. I think my son still thinks that things disappear if he's away from them for five seconds.

-Tone of voice. Be calm...be nice.

-Eye contact. They say that boys in particular are bad at eye-contact and one shouldn't expect it from them at a young age. That may be true, but William is very good at using it as a persuasion technique. He does everything he can to get at my level, climbs on my chair, insists I pick him up. Then gets right in my face, noses touching, sticky toddler breath. "Mommy apple."

-Delay or deny privilege. I like to use this as one of my final resorts, as it may petentially cause a meltdown. (And I'm all about prevention, remember?)

-I-message. All this means is that you give a sentence about how you feel. "I feel frusterated when you won't go to sleep", "I feel happy when you help me pick up your toys". I do this, and it rarely works, but I'm told that it's good to teach children about feelings anyway.

*See the sleeping bunnies, sleep 'till nearly noon.
Shall we wake them with our merry tune?
Oh so still, are they ill?
Shhhhh....
Wake up, little bunnies and hop hop hop.
Hop hop hop!
Hop hop hop!
And STOP.

Shameless shelf promotion

In order to win the Shameless self promotion award

I have spent the weekend working on a revised website for myself, to show off some photos I have taken
I would greatly appreciate it if you could have a look and let me know what you think of it. and more importantly let me know what should be changed or improved

website link is

http://www.filipowicz.ca/

Thanks! :)

Adam