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!