A rainy Wednesday...

Today was one of those days when the rain is coming down just a bit too hard to go outside and we needed to find something fun to do to keep the little ones from going crazy with cabin fever. So we had a mish-mash of activities over the course of the morning to keep everyone entertained!

Last week, on another cool and rainy day, I decided to try dyeing some dried rice to use in a sensory bin - something to keep the kids amused and change up our usual routine of 'cloud dough' or play dough. I used 2 tbsp of vinegar and about 10 drops of food colouring (I used neon colours this time around to get these awesome hues) in 4 small mason jars to colour the rice. With lids on the jars, I shook the vinegar/food colouring solution with about 1.5 cups of rice and spread it out on a cookie sheet. Then, as per the blog posting I found on Pinterest, I baked it for about half an hour in an oven at 250F to dry.

The first time we played, I had the kids on their little picnic table in the kitchen but I found that the rice just went everywhere, so today I threw down a plastic table cloth and let them go.....

Ever since our painting with found objects session that we did last month, the kids have been keen on bringing these trucks into all of our sensory bins and art/craft time! The little tractor and dump truck were super fun in the rice - scooping and filling up with ease!

And the best part was that they seriously played with these few small things for over half an hour! And when we were done, all that was required of clean up was to dump the rice from the plastic sheet back into the container! Voila!


By now it was the normal time that we would be getting ready to head outside to the park. Both kids had been so good this morning but were ready to burn off some energy. Unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans....so I took a page out of my husband's book for rainy/cold evening activities and we made a fort out of blankets and the kitchen table. This is where the kids had snack today - complete with flashlights and an IKEA tunnel to help us get in and out of the fort. Talk about FUN!

What types of activities do you do with your kids when the weather is too wet or cold to go outside?! Pinterest is giving me lots of good ideas, but I'm always looking for others....

More silly things my kid says....

With 3 jobs and the sun shining brightly most days lately I have really fallen by the wayside with the whole blogging thing. The kids and I are getting out pretty much every day and it's fun to see them really getting adventurous at the playgrounds and during our outings! I have to admit I would much rather be sitting down with a cup of tea and a book than in front of the computer during the short breaks I get while the kids nap (after all of my chores and 'to do's are completed), so this is a long-overdue posting!

In keeping with the original intent of this blog, I am writing down another chapter of 'silly things Wee Man says':

• A while back we were out to dinner at a local restaurant with some of the family, and Wee Man was getting a little antsy while waiting for our dinner to be served. I grabbed the drink menu off of the edge of the table and gave it to him as something to flip through. This particular menu was a small book, complete with pictures as well as drink descriptions. He was flipping through looking at it and stopped on a page with a glass of wine and an image of a wine bottle. He looked at it seriously for about 30 seconds and then looked up at us and said, "Grannie juice!". We almost fell over laughing! Anyone who knows my mom knows that she enjoys her wine, and usually when we go over to their house for dinner she has a glass in hand. Obviously Wee Man has been paying attention! As he continued flipping through the pages and stopped at a page with an image of a couple of bottles of beer to which he pointed and said "Daddy juice". Again we had a good chuckle.....and yes, my husband does enjoy a bottle of beer now and then, and rarely drinks it out of a glass!

• As all parents of toddlers know, the streak of independence and testing the waters that occurs around the age of one and a half to three or so can be a challenge, as well as a blessing. Wee Man has been exerting that streak more and more lately and is starting to understand the purpose of the "naughty corner" and other disciplinary measures taken in our home. One of these measures is a firm verbal "stop it" from Daddy when he starts acting up in one way or another. But lately we've been hearing him scolding himself when he knows he's doing something he shouldn't be and we haven't caught him yet. The other day he threw something hard at the wall while I had my back turned and I heard "Stop It!" (in that same tone that my husband uses) out of his mouth immediately following the thump. I had to chuckle.

• Music is a big part of our home. We all love to sing and have fairly eclectic tastes in what we listen to. My husband also plays guitar and brings that out to have Wee Man help him play (he does the chords and Wee Man strums the strings) some evenings. So it's only natural that Wee Man has a strong interest in anything to do with music and has starting picking up songs himself. Seriously the cutest thing ever. He recognizes some of our favourite artists, and (melt my heart) can recognize a Michael Jackson song from the first few beats! We were in a store a few weeks back and a Michael Jackson tune came on over the intercom system. He stopped in his tracks looked around and said, "Mama....Mike-o Jackson" and then started busting out the dance moves! It was awesome. He's also been singing his own versions of some nursery rhymes as of late. Some of my favourites:
• "Baa baa back sheep. Yes sir, yes sir free bags fuuuw. One, one, one....baa baa back sheep".
• "Tinkle tinkle staaaaar. Up so high. Dime on Skyyyyy. Tinkle staaaaar."
• (And the theme song from his new favourite show: Franklin and Friends) "Franklin Franklin....doo doo doo. Franklin Friends. My House. Doo Doo Doo".

• In our house we often take turns cooking dinner. Whoever is heading the meal that night usually has everything planned and organized, but we often will ask each other "can I do something for you?" to help with the preparation. And often asking that question will get you some sort of a task to help out. The other evening while I was at work and the boys were at home together my husband said he was leaning down looking into our pantry cupboard for a snack and he heard Wee Man come up behind him. Wee Man looked at him and said "can I do something?" Always the little helper....haha! I thought that was such a cute little story.

• In our city you know it's finally Spring/Summer by the amount of dandelions on all the lawns and city green spaces. Keeping up with them in our own yard is a full time job - especially now since the city no longer sprays for them. Wee Man seems to think that all these "flowers" everywhere are very exciting, but the cutest thing is his name for them: "Daddy-lions"!

Texture Painting!

I have been wanting to try painting with different found objects for some time, and I thought what better way to talk about Spring and the changes that the trees and nature are going through than bringing some of the items we see outside in, and then use them to paint with after we explored them with our hands!

Wee Man loves to pick up the sticks, pine cones and other objects found outside - so I brought some of those in. In our front garden we have a few different types of ferns, bushes and trees, so I started with clipping a couple of branches - one just beginning to get leaves, one without leaves (but slightly budded), a pine cone and some sticks. We talked about the buds, "baby" leaves and big leaves on the trees and touched the sticks then I told them we'd be painting! They were very excited (in fact, every time the little table comes out they get excited - it means colouring, play dough, painting or some other sort of craft!)

I also grabbed a few other things to paint with  - pipe cleaners, fabric (not pictured), and some small toy trucks (I thought they'd get a kick out of those!). The kids each got to pick one colour of paint (I couldn't handle any more than that with all the crazy I anticipated that would come with painting with found objects....haha!)

And then we began. I initially gave them one object to paint with at a time. At first they were receptive to dipping the fern branches into the paint....

...but then Wee Man decided that the branches and other objects from nature were "scary"....not sure why, as without paint they were very exciting?! So then we moved onto the pipe cleaners, fabric and trucks. That was well received by both kids and they continued to dip the objects into paint and "drive" or sweep them all over their papers!

The end result were some cool-looking paintings. The kids had fun and made a good mess!

I think I would like to try this activity again! Next time I think I will use a thicker paper though. I used the finger-paint paper we usually use for painting, but the paint really soaked the paper (it's much more water based than finger paint - for this activity I used the Clementine brand non-toxic paint) and the trucks and some of the rougher objects (pine cones & sticks) caused rips in the paper as it got more saturated. The kids didn't seem to mind though! ;-)

Rainy Day Fun!

It's been quite some time since I last posted. Life has been whizzing by at an alarming pace - I'm in disbelief it's already May 1st today. How is that possible?! I swear I was just turning over my calendar to 2012 a few weeks ago....
The weather has been nice lately, so the kids and I have been outside as much as possible - exploring the parks and playgrounds around the neighbourhood; throwing rocks in the river, watching the ducks and geese once again make our river-side paths their summer home, digging in the dirt in the as-yet-unplanted flower bed and pots, and exploring the exciting activity of sidewalk chalk art!

But this week it is cold, rainy and miserable outside, and so I am back trying to find fun and entertaining indoor activities that will keep the fighting and poor behaviour to a minimum. I have recently discovered Pinterest and created a couple of board for things for Wee Man and Crafts for the kids (and me!) to do on those days when we just can't be outside. (If you're on Pinterest, feel free to check me out at: www.pinterest.com/amandahang)

One such activity was one I found a while ago  - coloured vinegar & baking soda! While the science aspect of the activity was lost on two under two, they still had a blast with the activity and it kept us all busy for about half an hour or so this morning!

Here is my photo diary of our activity:

Getting all set up - containers with baking soda and others with food colouring tinted vinegar. I used the droppers that come with the baby Tylenol (I know I kept them around for a good reason!) Regular eye droppers would work too.

The droppers were tricky for them to get at first. Little A caught on after I showed her a couple of times how to squeeze the top portion of the dropper once to fill and then again to release. The concept was lost on Wee Man. I would fill it up for him and he would then squeeze it out into his baking soda. That was good fun! (Little A soon realized I was doing most of the work for Wee Man and started requesting "help", too!)

Getting right into it! Note Wee Man "painting" with his dropper as I spend time snapping some photos.





Wee Man quickly discovers that putting baking soda in the vinegar (rather than the other way around) makes the biggest bubbles!!

...and so we move onto spoons - the kids loved watching the bubbles rise all the way up to the rim with the first few spoonfuls of baking soda!





Easter Crafts!

The Easter Bunny is just days away from visiting, and so I thought this week we'd do some Easter related crafts and activities.....the kids are old enough to get excited about it this year, and there are so many fun ideas out there that I couldn't decide what I wanted to do!!

Wee Man and I did up some cards for family one evening this week. I like to make cards for all the occasions that one should need such a thing, so this year I decorated up the front (using scrap booking supplies) and he was given crayons (and yes - he dumped the entire container out onto the table...haha!) and stickers to do up the insides. I think in one evening we hammered through about 8 of them. I was pretty impressed how long he was willing to sit and work on them with me!

For the kids during the days this week, I decided to try some new craft ideas. We did 3 days of crafts and some baking and each time I brought out the Little Tykes table to start an activity they got so excited! I've dropped the ball lately on doing up crafts (as opposed to just pulling out paper & crayons) and their level of excitement reminded me that I really should mix it up more often with organized crafts.

The first one we did up was a 2-part activity. Originally I had no idea what this would turn out to be, I had just read about the idea of using markers on wet paper plates, but as the kids started working I thought about making them into bunnies-in-eggs!

We started out by using water-soaked paper plates (we used a large platter that I cut in half as that's all I had on hand which is where the shape came from) and felt markers. The markers bled out on the paper when the kids drew on them, so it gave the effect of water colour paints, with less mess than using actual water colour paint!

Because the plates were so wet I needed to leave them sit over night to dry. When they did, I cut out bunny shapes and glued them to the plates to make them look like they were sitting in eggs....I added googly-eyes and coloured cotton balls for tails and set the kids out to decorate them with Easter themed stickers and crayons:

The finished product turned out to be super cute. The kids were really proud of them and Wee Man loves the fact we hung his up on our dining room hutch! He is very excited about the Easter Bunny coming this weekend!!

Today we had a mini egg-hunt in the house to practise for the real thing this coming weekend (Wee Man's Grannie told me the Bunny will be making a stop there on Sunday!). I didn't have any little baskets for them, so I thought perhaps we could make some....

I started off by having them colour some sheets of card stock. Then, I folded and cut them to make a cube (those 3D Figure lesson pans I created a couple years back when I taught grade 4 have turned out to be useful this year, too!) and instead of folding the top portion over to complete the cube, I cut bunny ears out of it and left them sticking up. A quick twist of 2 colours of  pipe cleaners for the handles and some googly-eyes and a little face drawn on the front, and VOILA - we had little bunny baskets to begin our hunt!! I hid about 20 little eggs and they had so much fun running around and finding them!

And finally, we did up some sugar cookies today as well to give away to some people as their little Easter gifts this weekend! The kids love baking so much, and decorating cookies turned out to be such a big hit at Christmas that I thought it was time to do it again. This time around they're a bit older, so when I told them we were "painting" the cookies first - and not eating them until later - they actually listened! They loved picking out the icing colours, dumping on the sprinkles! Of course, they each got to have 1 to eat as well..... ;-)

When the kids went down to nap this afternoon, I finished decorating up the rest of them. One of my favourite things to do! Here is the finished product:

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Easter! Happy Spring!!

Splatter Paintings

Today we did some splatter paintings in our craft time. I saw these in one of the links/blogs that I follow for toddler craft ideas and thought they sounded like fun! The kids like to make noise, a mess and to paint so it seemed to combine all of these into one!

I started off by gathering my materials: 2 large-sized yogurt containers with lids (one for each kid); poster paints (we use the Clementine Art natural paints but something with a little thickness to it would work); broken crayons; paper (cut to fit inside the containers); and tape.  I taped the paper into the containers and set out the rest of the supplies for the kids.

They got to choose the colours of paints they wanted to use (Wee Man chose green, navy blue and orange; Little A chose orange, red and yellow) and they dipped the crayon pieces into the paint and then dropped the crayons into the containers.

Then the fun began - we pumped up the music and got to dancing around while shaking our containers - Wee Man thought that this was just possibly the most fun he's ever had and totally got into it!

When the song was over I popped the lids off of the containers and the kids got to see the works of art they had created. Little A's (left, in the image above) crayons were delicately dipped in the paint and had a little less vigorous shaking done to them - and the result was a gorgeous splatter painting in bright, cheery colours. Wee Man (right, in the image above) chose darker colours and didn't just dip his crayons, but came up with fully painted hands which dripped into the container as he dropped each crayon (ha!) and then he fully enjoyed shaking his container (I seriously was worried the lid might pop off!) so his was a little less 'splattered' and the colours blended together more to create a swampy look. Both were awesome though and the kids were super excited to see what had happened.

I'm definitely going to try this activity again - the kids loved it and the end result was really cool! Highly recommended for anyone who is looking for a little different kind of painting activity. Aside from the dipping of crayons, this is a relatively low-mess activity and takes no time at all if you're looking for something artsy to do to fill a small block of time!


This activity could also be used at the pre-school/elementary level to teach primary and secondary colours. Using 2 primary colours children could explore what happens when the two mix, creating secondary colours (ie: red + yellow = orange). A great way to introduce secondary colours in a fun way and get the kids exploring and talking about colours.

I think I may try this activity again using glitter in the mix as well, how fun would it be to have a glittered splatter painting without the mess that a glitter shaker held over paper results in?! Perhaps for an Easter craft I'll cut the paper into the shape of eggs, put out some bright, Spring-like colours of paint and some glitter and we'll make splatter-painted Easter Eggs!

What were they thinking?!

Have you heard about the Huggies campaign that was shut down by families who were offended by the 1950s stereotype a recent commercial offered? Here's a link to an article I read about the campaign: http://www.examiner.com/advertising-in-richmond/angry-dads-outrage-gets-huggies-ad-campaign-pulled-from-television  and a link to a facebook page where you can watch the ad: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=3019575761858

If you haven't heard about it/seen it, this was the basis: Huggies put 5 dads in one house with their babies and gave the moms "time off" for 5 days. The "test" was to see if the Huggies diapers could stand up to "the toughest test imaginable - dads". The end of the commercial shows a woman saying, "Good luck babe". The commercial suggests that dads don't know what they are doing when it comes to caring for their young children.

99% of the comments I have read about this ad have been negative, with a vast majority of them talking about people boycotting the brand and product itself. It's amazing to me as to why they thought this campaign was a good idea?! Everything about this campaign is offensive.

I find that advertising for disposable diapers frustrate me in general. The ads that claim their diapers can cut down in the number of changes needed or will hold in moisture for 12 hours make me want to scream. I've seen studies in which a large group of parents or caregivers admit to leaving children in wet diapers for extended periods of time or for more than one wet elimination because they know their product is made to hold more. I've seen people I know do the same - cupping the crotch of their child's diaper and saying things like "oh, it can hold more - I'll wait to change him/her". I can only imagine what this is doing to the fragile skin of these poor little children, and would be willing to bet that the diaper cream industry probably makes billions every year because of this! In fact, I remember being very offended in the hospital when the nurse put Wee Man in his first diaper (yes, a disposable) and told us that they had a yellow line on the front of the diaper that would change colour when he was wet so we would know when it was time to change him. What?! Have we become that stupid as a society that we wouldn't know when to change our little ones so they have to add these types of features!?!

This latest campaign is just added to my list of why-I-hate disposable diapers!

Maybe I'm extremely lucky with a very hands-on husband?! There was never any hesitation from him when I said I wanted to cloth diaper from the very beginning. Now, I will say because we chose the pre-fold route he was a little apprehensive as it did require a couple extra steps, but a demo/training session from me before Wee Man was born seemed to be enough and he was right in there from day one changing diapers and doing all of the other parenting responsibilities that come with having a child. In fact, for the first couple of weeks I would say he may have changed more diapers than me (he went back to work when Wee Man was 10 days old and that changed slightly during the week days for obvious reasons)! Neither of us love this task - especially now as we're potty training Wee Man and are dealing with cloth training pants that don't have an easy-access side open, so soiled undies are especially tricky to get off without mess! But we both do it, because we are parents - in this together - and dedicated in caring for our son in the best way we know how.
     My husband changes diapers, gives baths, clothes, feeds and cares for Wee Man in every way needed. He does laundry, cleans bathrooms, cooks and participates in all aspects of caring for our home as well. This is the norm - we chose to parent together and both take equal responsibility for all of the tasks in our home. There is no "helping" by my husband - he just does it. I hate that word. We learn and experience it all together.

Are there really still dads out there that choose not to change diapers and that are that clueless in the parenting of their children?! I honestly don't think one of my friends has this type of a husband - in fact many of them will be the first to get up and go change the little ones' diapers when we're visiting or out and about together. Walking through the malls or along the paths outside I see dads pushing strollers, carrying their children or baby wearing every day. I know people who have stay-at-home-dad headed households. Who is it that these ads are trying to cater to?! I get it that they were trying to use humour with this ad campaign but this has obviously not worked. No one is laughing.

So I'm curious to hear what you think about this advertising campaign? Did you find it humorous or offensive - or something in between?

Kony 2012 - an update

No doubt by now you've heard about the Kony 2012 movement and perhaps even watched the 29 minute video yourself (http://www.youtube.com/user/invisiblechildreninc). With all the hype I've seen through social media and the traditional media lately, I decided to sit down tonight and see what it was all about. The video is well-made and definitely makes a person want to do something - anything - to help the suffering of these children.

As a parent, I can't imagine the horror of knowing the strong likelihood that any night my child could be abducted from my home and forced into a life of violence, rape and abuse; to send my child off every night kilometres away to a "safe" area to sleep with dozens upon dozens of other children in the hopes that safety in numbers will save him for one more day; to know if my child was taken that it would be likely that the next time I would see him he would be re-programmed by monsters to come and kill or mutilate me and the rest of my loved ones.

As a human being, I'm floored that this has been happening for decades and that decision makers the world over have continued to turn a blind eye because the horrors aren't happening to our people, or won't make an impact on our national security or economy, so it doesn't matter to us.

The impact of social media in the past year or so has proven to be extremely impactful in making change. Just watching the dictators around the globe being put out of power by masses of young people gathering together to make a change has been incredible. And while I'm not a big supporter of violence or military action, I know that both are a reality in making big changes most of the time.

The Kony 2012 movement is already making changes - I can only imagine what is going to happen if the goals of the movement continue to be reached as the year goes on. On Facebook and Twitter I am seeing "regular people" and celebrities alike making reference to the video and movement. It made me stop and pay attention.

While I'm not going to be participating on April 20th in plastering my city with posters, stickers and other paraphernalia to get the 'Kony 2012' message out (I'm not big on any political propaganda or signage littering neighbourhoods - 3Rs people!), I am blogging about it,  I posted a link to the video on my Facebook page, and the video itself has caused me to go and do more research on the plight of children in Uganda and other surrounding African countries that Kony and his army are attacking in the hopes that by educating myself on some of the issues I can get a better understanding of what I can do to help or make a difference.

I don't claim to know much about this issue - yet. I know that both Kony's army and the Ugandan army (that Invisible Children Inc. is working with) have both done many things to hurt, injure and destroy children and their families. But I do know that knowledge is power - and only by movements like this are people going to become aware of global issues such as these and start making choices and changes to better the lives of our brothers and sisters around the globe.

My wish is that all children around the world, whether in Uganda or Canada, can go to bed knowing that they are safe. I hope that in Wee Man's lifetime he sees an end to suffering, wars, hunger and disease the world over. Invisible Children's video seems to be one more step in the right direction......

L.O.V.E


UPDATE:

After writing my blog last night, I couldn't stop thinking about this movement, the video and the issues at hand. I continued doing some reading online and found some interesting articles, websites and blog postings that further investigate the Kony 2012 movement and made me feel a little better about my initial feelings that while Kony is a horrible man - just getting his name out, plastering my city with signage and other mass-produced forms of graffiti, and wearing a red thong bracelet isn't necessarily going to make a change - and that the video really had a strong ethnocentric and imperialistic feel to it.

Some of the things I wondered about when I watched the video have become bigger concerns to me as I have continued to read some of the critiques of the Kony 2012 video:

• What is the money that people are donating going toward? They talk about schools, shelters, and help to the Ugandan army, but I wondered about the costs of the mass-production of posters & other print materials they plan on sweeping the globe with, 'action kits', and other overhead costs that are the reality of any non-profit. I now understand their admin/overhead/travel and production costs have been in excess of $3million. That seems a little intense, and makes me wonder about where money I might have donated would truly be going. I'm sure there are dozens of grass-roots organisations in  Uganda and surrounding countries with less over-head, and run by locals who have a greater understanding of the issues surrounding the larger picture of Kony's army and the unrest in the area.
• Eeeek - so much of his son and his life is shown in the video hoping to reach millions of people around the globe!  As a parent, I'm very protective of my son. You'll notice that this blog - in which I have little control of the privacy settings - never has an image of his face nor have I given his (or my) real name. Yes, on Facebook I do post video and pictures of him but my privacy settings are at the highest they can go and I have only friended people on there that are a part of my every-day life that I would happily invite into my home. I'm sure that using the cute little blond Gavin in the video is likely done to tug on the heart-strings of anyone watching and was done with much thought and consideration, but I can't imagine doing something so public with my own child. I don't agree with the people criticising the use of the child in the video in the sense that they think children should be shielded from these types of issues. I disagree. While I do believe that parents and educators need to be cognisant of the way they go about talking about issues such as these, it is important for us to be open and honest about things with our children. The father in this video has made it his life to push the Kony 2012 movement and so in their home I do believe Gavin needs to know about what is going on, even at his young age.
• Why support the Ugandan Army? Isn't there any peaceful way to put an end to Kony? What's happening at a local level? I'm not a supporter of guns, violence or armies. I understand the need and desire to protect and secure one's country and am thankful for the people that do give their lives for my country by joining our military. I just wish that there were peaceful ways to go about it. This is my issue with this whole Kony 2012 movement and the national security position of the U.S.A and other countries.....the Invisible Children are funding an army in a country where Kony is no longer operating. My curiousity - and again, I know very little on the issues at hand or Uganda and surrounding countries - surrounds the decision of supporting an army as opposed to other more peaceful organisations or methods. As I watched the video last night, and again this morning, dozens of questions came flooding into my mind: Will funding an army not ultimately result in more children being hurt or killed? Are they not fighting against an army of children brainwashed and reprogrammed by Kony to protect him and his cause? What happens when Kony is caught and tried - is money being put into aftercare programs and counselling for these children now? What are the locals doing - how corrupt is the local government - and what other methods could be used to stop him besides continued violence?

Now, I'm not saying that the Kony 2012 movement isn't a good one. I've said before the knowledge is power and that social media has proven to be instrumental in helping to spread information and change, but I do hope that people don't just blindly follow 'Kony 2012' because it has become "cool" to do so. I hope that anyone posting the images from the Invisible Children organisation takes the time to learn more about the issues at hand. In doing a quick Facebook search I noticed there are several copycat pages and groups set up already. In fact most of my facebook friends that have 'liked' the movement have not actually linked themselves with the Invisible Children page, but a random group set up likely by followers of the movement. (oops!) We are guilty in North America and western society of looking at issues like this through an ethnocentric lens of "us vs. them". I know while I won't be donating money to Invisible Children, I will continue to follow this movement and learn more about what I can do to help...Kony, and the LRA, need to be stopped.

To read more, here are a few critiques I have found that I found interesting:

- "Think Twice Before Donating To Kony 2012, the Charitable Meme-du-Jour" by Katie J.M. Baker: http://jezebel.com/5891269/think-twice-before-donating-to-kony-2012-the-meme-du-jour
- Visible Children: http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/
- A Cautionary Tale: Kony 2012 - The Backlash by Under the Banyan: http://underthebanyan.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/a-cautionary-tale-kony-2012-the-backlash/
- "Stop Kony, Yes, But Don't Stop Asking Questions" by Musa Okwonga: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/03/07/stop-kony-yes-but-dont-stop-asking-questions/?tw_p=twt

Adjusting Nicely

I wrote recently how I've gone back to work in a part-time role at a local baby shop. My first shift was a 3-hour Friday night shift, so for Wee Man it wasn't much out of the normal routine. Occasionally either my husband or I will go out for an evening, leaving him alone with one or the other of us and we slightly deviate from the norm, so I think in his eyes it was much the same. There was about 5 seconds of tears as I got on my coat and he realised he wasn't coming, but he was easily distracted by Daddy and had a good night.

My second shift was an 8-hour Saturday afternoon/evening shift. While the day started off normally with Wee Man and me having breakfast together while Daddy got to sleep in (my turn is on Sunday mornings!), when I started getting dressed and putting on make-up (Wee Man's "Mama's leaving" radar perks up as soon as I break out the mascara) he started to get a little nervous and clingy, and by the time Daddy was up and I was packing my lunch he was in full-blown tears. I felt awful...

While I was tempted to call home and 'check in' part way through my shift later that day, I knew he was in fantastic hands and was having a great time with Daddy, and knew that my call would either stress him out again or make my husband wonder what I thought of his parenting skills. When I got home I was greeted by a relaxed husband sitting on the couch watching TV, a tidy house, and a gently snoring Wee Man on the baby monitor. It was nice.

I'm really enjoying the job - as much as I didn't know whether a retail position would give me what I was hoping to get out of a part-time job at this stage in my life, it's fun to get back into learning about and selling things like strollers, cribs, cloth diapers and other baby and children's items. My passion for and experience with this type of product is making the shifts go by quickly and helping me with feeling confident that my role of Mama hasn't changed my ability to be successful in working outside the home!

This past Saturday I had a 9:30am-5:30pm shift so the boys dropped me off and picked me up (we're a one vehicle household and they wanted the vehicle during the day) so it was pretty cool to see Wee Man come running into the shop at the end of the shift shouting "Mama!". That was my little pick-me-up after a long day; something I wondered how I would manage as I started looking at going back to work. Seeing several friends struggle with the work/life balance in their first year back after maternity leave, I was concerned about my ability to cope with it.

Prior to having kids I always looked forward to going home after a long day, putting up my feet, relaxing with a book or a good show and just having some "me" time. Knowing that parenting is a 24/7 job and that being tired or having a job doesn't matter to a toddler that needs their parent now, I was worried how I would balance the two. After 8-hours on my feet and a busy shift, just seeing his little face and having him jump into my arms seemed to erase the tiredness and rejuvenate me.

Wee Man seems to have completely adjusted to the idea of Mama working from time to time. I'm typically out 2 week nights and 1 8-hour weekend shift, and now when I pull out the mascara or put on my coat Wee Man says "bye Mama" and continues on with whatever he is doing. I'm relieved and know that while I would love to stay home indefinitely with him, that's not the reality in our life, and we'll all be OK with this new role that I've taken.

More Crazy Things My Child Says...

I did another blog posting a while ago about some of the silly things Wee Man says and does, and I figured as I get a chunk of them written down again I will continue to post from time to time. These things are just too funny not too record....I want to remember them years from now! These are the latest silly things, again in no particular order:

• Wee Man has a fascination with our remotes (what toddler does not?!) and so when we got rid of an old stereo a while back, we decided to keep the remote for him - removed the batteries - and it is his own special remote. The other day I was watching a show and he wasn't interested. He kept asking me for "news" or "wedder" (weather) and I kept telling him I was watching a show and when it was done we'd find him his show (he's obsessed with news and the Weather Network)! That wasn't good enough, so he went into the toy box and pulled out his special remote. Now, a few weeks ago our TV remote wasn't working so well as the batteries were dying so when it wouldn't do what we were trying to get it to do both my husband or I would smack it against our leg and try again. Wee Man was attempting to change the channel with his special remote and looked at me and said "no work", then he smacked it against his leg and tried again. I had to laugh. They really do watch everything we do, don't they?!

• My mom ("Grannie") and step-father ("Papa") were in Mexico a short time ago on a beach holiday. As we usually see them at least once a week Wee Man was asking about them one of the days that week and I explained we wouldn't see them for a little while because they were on holiday at the beach. Later that same week we were on our way to his other grandparent's house (my in laws) for a visit and part of the way there in the car wee man asked about "Grannie?". I explained we wouldn't see her for a little while because she was on holiday. He right away perked up with "beach?" I couldn't believe he'd remembered our conversation from a few days ago. He's never been to a beach, so I didn't expect that word would resonate with him. He kept talking all week about "Grannie, Papa" and the "Beach"! It was really cute.

• My Dad is a handy sort of guy, by trade and experience, so he is kind enough to come over on occasion to help us fix one thing or another if we find we are in need of a pair of skilled hands for a repair that we aren't comfortable with doing ourselves! One of the last times he was here fixing something Wee Man was awake and old enough to understand what Grandpa was doing (at the time it was a leak in a pipe going from our hot water heater to the humidifier). So when we talk about the play tools Wee Man has in his toy box Grandpa often comes up! The other day we were playing with some toys and a Lightning McQueen car he has wasn't working the way that it should (batteries power the head and tail lights on the vehicle when you push a button and must have died) so he came to me and told me it was "bro-ten" (broken). I looked at it and noticed it takes cell batteries - like a watch battery - and said I couldn't fix it because I didn't have the right batteries. He looked at the car, looked back at me and said "Gampa fix?"!

• I'm not sure if I've talked about them yet in this blog, but we have two cats in our home. Henry and Che are just over a year old and one of the highlights of Wee Man's life. He loves them! They are also very mischievous (as they are pretty much still kittens) and get into all sorts of trouble. One of the biggest no-nos in our home is a cat on the kitchen counter. I think it's dirty and disgusting and it's definitely not allowed. We've tried almost everything to discipline them and have found that they respond the best when sprayed with a water bottle. So we have one that sits on the counter so we can grab it quick if we need it. The other day Henry was up on the counter while I had nipped into another room quick while the kids were playing. I come back out and Wee Man is holding the spray bottle pointed at the counter and yelling "Hen-wy bad. Down". Too funny!

• Wee Man has had a bad cold over the past few days and his normally huge and adventurous appetite is down to nothing, so we've been trying to offer him anything in hopes that something might grab his interest. I was pouring myself a bowl of cereal and I asked if he'd like to try some cereal with milk. He looked at me and went over to his highchair and said "try a bowl". It was just too cute. I love that he's trying sentences more and more these days and that he's not just parroting ours, but coming up with his own creative combination of words to make adorable little sentences! :-)