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! :-)

Home-made Finger Paint

I got a cool recipe online (my aunt posted it on her facebook, and then I saw it another couple times since as well on a few different sites), so I thought we'd give it a try today. Wee Man has a horrible cold (again), so I thought we'd stay inside today rather than letting the cold air aggravate his cough further...

Here's the recipe:

Home-made Finger Paint
3 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup corn starch
2 cups water
* Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and warm until the mixture begins to thicken. Pour into containers, use food colouring if desired and let cool before painting!

I used neon food colouring to get some of the cool colours and then a regular red and yellow (although my neon orange - top left - in this picture looks about the same as the red colouring) just to give us some funkier colours to play with.

The kids absolutely loved playing with the finger paints and making a huge mess in the process! haha. This is definitely not a clean activity....and the finger paints did dye their skin slightly as well. I have two kids sitting eating snack beside me here with tinted blue hands (that seemed to be the colour that stayed behind on skin...)!



So overall a fun activity - nice to find a recipe that makes finger paints inexpensively with things I have on hand in the kitchen! I think I might stick to the lighter colours next time just to avoid the blue-tinted hands (or does anyone have a dye recommendation that won't leach onto skin?) and we'll file this recipe as one to keep!

A New Role

So the time has come for me to go back to work.....the bills are piling up and after being out of the working world for about 20 months, I'm starting to feel nervous about what might happen if I continue with the big break in my resume when I do wish to go back one day, so this past weekend I was out pounding the pavement with resumes (again - I did it after Christmas too, to no avail) looking for something to add a bit more income to our household.

Thankfully today I got a call back from a former employer who offered me a part-time position in their store! I'm thrilled, but also super nervous about being out of the home for long periods of time again. haha. Isn't that always the case?! This weekend I am scheduled in for one 3-hour and one 8-hour shift to begin training.

For those that are curious, the store I will be working in is a locally-owned baby supply store - meaning it will be my responsibility to sell things like strollers, car seats, cribs and nursery furniture, feeding systems (bottles and the like), cloth diapers, and other things new parents need - or want - for the new little ones in their lives. How perfect is this going to be?! I LOVE this category!

Having worked at this same store helped me in a huge way when it came time to start thinking about and looking for things we wanted, and needed, for Wee Man when we found out we were expecting. I think that it'll be fun and stimulating to be back in that realm again, and this time around I have some first-hand experience of what worked (and didn't) for us, which can only prove to help make me more successful in this new role!

It'll be interesting to see how me working outside of the home is going to impact Wee Man, but I think that it can only be a good thing in the long run. He is very attached to me, and I know that I will be going back to daytime work in the Fall - although I'm still thinking part-time may be all I will do until he's of school-age himself - so these evening and weekend shifts are going to be a gradual help to him adjusting away from having Mama around all the time.

I am a little nervous about what having a full-time day job (watching Little A and Wee Man) and then going to work in the evenings and weekends will do to me. I know in the past I managed full-time studies and both full and part time jobs, however at the time I didn't have many responsibilities at home ~ a boyfriend and a cat just didn't have the same responsibilities that being a parent does. I'm determined to go in with a positive attitude knowing that I am doing the best thing for my family right now and to have fun selling things that I have a passion for!

I think the biggest impact is going to be on my husband, as he will be doing the single-Daddy role in the evenings (when Wee Man is his most challenging) and after a long day of work himself. I'm only hoping that the increase in income in our home will help to reduce some of the stress we've been experiencing lately and help us to enjoy the time we do have together as a family even more.

I'm sure I'll post about the changes in our lives as we go through this next phase, but for the meantime wish me luck......I might just need it! ;-p

The greatest parenting inventions

I follow Parenting Magazine on facebook and enjoy reading their guest mom blogs and articles and have found that I seem to be commenting on a lot of them in this blog......haha. So, yes, here's another.

Recently one blog/article I found interesting was their 20 greatest parenting inventions ever. Here is their list:

1. Television                   2. Velcro                 3. Umbrella strollers           4. Temporal thermometers
5. Cheerios                    6. Vaccines              7. Internet                          8. Sesame Street
9. Santa Claus               10. Washable markers 11. Play Doh                  12. Tear Free Shampoo
13. Portable DVD Players  14. Bubble Wrap   15. iPads, iPhones, iPods  16. Magnetic refrigerators
17. Microwave              18. Plastic Baggies      19. Digital Camera          20. Mac-and-Cheese

OK, maybe I'm seriously old fashioned or a bit of a "hippie" or something ;-p, but I seriously think that a big chunk of this list is not only unnecessary but things that I try to keep Wee Man away from or avoid in our day-to-day lives.  

We're a pretty big reuse/re-purpose/recycle household and so the plastic baggies, umbrella strollers (I kind of thing of these as a one-child-only lifespan product, so disposable), and bubble wrap are big nos on my list for 'greatest parenting inventions'!

I don't agree with television, portable DVD players, iPads, iPhones and the like as 'parenting' inventions. While they have their time and place, I try to avoid these as much as possible in my daily life as a parent (at least when Wee Man is awake and around) and I cringe when I see little ones in the grocery store or shopping mall glued to a handheld device as a distraction. What happened to crayons, books or stuffed toys that they can use their imaginations with?! Or what about interacting with the world around them? Wee Man happily people watches, checks out (and continuously comments on) the windows and products in stores, and carries on a conversation with us and the sales people when we're out and about. Yes, I'm fortunate to have a well-behaved and patient child. But I do believe part of this is not allowing him these sorts of distractions and requiring him to learn and show patience, proper public behaviour, and manners at a young age. Sure there is the occasion when he has a meltdown in a long line or we've pushed him beyond his level of patience, but I prefer to pull something else out of the diaper bag at this stage (a beloved book, blanket, toy or little snack) rather than resort to an electronic device.
      Now, I do have to say that my husband owns an iPhone (I'm still in the dark ages with a phone that only *gasp* calls people) and Wee Man is somewhat interested in what it has to do. The hubby has downloaded 2 aps that Wee Man enjoys: one is animals, and when you touch the screen the animals make their sound; and the second is household items, again a picture and when you touch the screen it tells you what the item is (clothing, fruit, etc.). But he doesn't get this on a regular basis, and has no desire to play it on his own. In fact I believe his words usually are, "Daddy - namnals" (animals) and then he'll sit on my husband's lap for about 5 minutes and watch a couple of them before he's off running around with some other toy.
I do have a huge YES for things like Velcro (trying to tie a toddler's shoes is about the same as trying to wrestle an alligator some days!), cheerios - or any dry cereal for that matter, washable markers (see my crayon story in a previous post. haha!), magnetic refrigerators, vaccines (the age-old debate, I know, but we are big believers in vaccinations and have done so with Wee Man according to the recommended schedule in our province and I am thankful we don't have to worry about horrible things like smallpox, polio and the like in our child's health), and digital cameras (how many thousands of pictures of Wee Man have we taken already; I can barely remember the days when we had to conserve shots because we only had a few left on a roll and then having to wait to see what came out of those photo sessions!).

My list of 20 would probably look more like this:

1. Cloth diapers          
2. Washing Machine & Dryer                 
3. Velcro
4. Food Processor (I made all my own baby food - huge cost savings & I knew exactly what was going into his little body)        
5. Digital Camera                                   
6. Folding Potty seats
7. All-purpose strollers (LOVE our Valco - can't imagine life without it!)
8. Diaper Sprayer
9. Wipes Warmer
10. Reusable snack bags & containers
11. Breast pump and bottles
12. Cell phones (for text messaging and quick calls when I'm running behind on 'baby time'!)
13. Baby monitors (ours is a hand-me-down circa-1990s but works and prevents me from having to open his door to hear what he's up to!)
14. Vaccines
15. Convertible car seats (ours worked from birth & will last until he's 40 pounds!)
16. 3-in-1 Cribs (ours goes from crib to toddler bed to double)
17. Board books
18. Baby gates
19. Non-spill sippy cups & drink containers (We have almost white carpet in our home - everywhere. Enough said!)
20. Mirrors that fit rear car seats

You'll see a great number of my favourites have to do with reusable or long-term use things - cloth diapers; reusable snack bags (cloth with a water-proof layer; easily washable and so so so cute!); our 3-in-1 crib that will result in us never having to buy Wee Man another bed in his lifetime (we will have to get a double-sized mattress at some point, but the bed frame will last him into adulthood, or at least it better....It was bloody expensive and is solid wood - no particle board here!); our Convertible car seat (will last until he's 40 pounds and was used to bring our 7 pound bundle of joy home from the hospital); our Valco stroller (never had an infant car seat the snapped into a stroller, so having one that reclined fully and was usable for newborns through the toddler ages was key!); and board books (preventing rips and tears and having to get rid of well-read books!).

Some of the others on my list are a little more frivolous ~ for example, our Wipes Warmer. Knowing I was going to be cloth diapering, we also chose to go the cloth route with our wipes. Meaning that when we needed to change Wee Man's diapers we would have to have moist wipes and I figured stumbling back and forth from the bathroom (not attached to Wee Man's room) wasn't going to be fun at o'dark-thirty. So, I bought the Prince Lionheart Wipes Warmer. We can put about 50-60 baby-sized wash clothes in this thing (wet) and it keeps them warm until we use them. Totally frivolous, but so wonderful! It also has a little nightlight on the front of it so it helps to light up his room a bit as it sits on his dresser, next to the table-top change pad (another great purchase), and helped us to navigate in the darkness during those night-time diaper changes and feedings! A wonderful invention. I can't imagine what we would have done without it....haha!

I also have to say that the mirrors that sit on the back of the back car seat so we could see Wee Man when he was rear facing and we were in the front is another wonderful invention! I can't count how many times it came in handy as he would all of the sudden start screaming for some reason and we could peek and see - was it something serious or just his "I hate the car - entertain me!" yells (he was a horrible traveller for about the first 6 months). If something like his soother came out, or his hat was over his eyes, we could tell and pull over if necessary to adjust.

As a Mama who breastfed exclusively until Wee Man began solids (and then continued until he was a year old), having inventions like a breast pump and bottles was fabulous! I was fortunate enough to have an amazing husband who was more than willing to do the single-Daddy thing for 5 days when Wee Man was 6 months old so I could away on a little trip to the USA with a girlfriend. Having a breast pump and bottles was a wonderful thing ~ I was able to stock up the fridge and freezer with enough milk for Wee Man for the time I was gone (he was starting solids then, so it wasn't as horrible as it may sound!) and then I took my pump with me and continued to pump & dump while I was away so I could return to feeding him when I returned. Without such inventions I wouldn't have been able to have the flexibility of being away from him for more than about 3-4 hours at a time by then. Luckily I had a little one who would happily go back and forth between the two, so we didn't have any issues with things like nipple confusion or bottle/breast refusal!

And finally, now that we're potty training, I have to say the coolest invention I have found is our fold-able potty seat. This little contraption folds down 4 times so small that I could fit it into my little purse! It sits on top of a regular toilet and allows us to continue with potty training without having to carry some massive potty chair or circular toilet seat cover with us! Wee Man prefers this seat over his potty chair, so it has paid for itself over and over and over again! I love it.


What kinds of 'greatest parenting inventions' would you have on your list?! There are so many things out there these days that I seem to find new things all the time that I think are pretty cool (or pretty crazy!)....what a time and world we live in!!

Thankful

Tonight was one of those nights when I'm just so thankful to have such a wonderful person in my life....my sister.

She and I have always been close. I would consider her my best friend. We've been through it all together - highs and lows - and no one else fully understands where I'm coming from like she does. We're almost exactly 2 years apart, so I don't ever remember her not in my life. For years we lived apart - in provinces on opposite sides of the country - but for the last 9 months she's been back "home" and I am so thankful for the closeness we share again.

Tonight was a much needed girls' night in. I'm going through some major stress in my life that I'd rather not put down in detail in such a public place, but it was so wonderful to have a night of escape tonight. She made me a wonderful dinner, we watched a silly "chick flick" on VOD, and then had a good talk (and cry) together. I walked away from the evening feeling a little lighter for having been able to get some of what I needed off my shoulders and an even greater appreciation for our relationship and the fortune that I have of having a best friend who is also my closest relative.

My husband and I have been asked more frequently lately (probably because Wee Man just hit his 18th month) whether we will have any more children. I've been completely on the fence about adding another child into our lives, but tonight made me think a little harder about the whole thing. I wonder if Wee Man had a sibling if he'd have that same closeness and bond with another person and be thankful for the relationship with him/her as I am tonight.

While there's never a guarantee that siblings will become best friends, I think how different my life would be without that constant companion that my sister has been. No one, not my husband (who I love dearly and can't imagine not having in my life), not my closest girlfriend (who has been a big part of my life since the age of 12), nor any other relative (and I have a huge and quite close extended family - including over 20 cousins relatively close in age to me) understands me or can fill that place in my life that my sister does.

So tonight I say thank-you to the wonderful, generous and thoughtful woman that my sister is. I am thankful for the sounding board she has provided as I work through a difficult time in my life; I am greatful for her generosity and selflessness; and I am hopeful that things will look up in the near future, but know regardless of the path ahead I have at least one person on my side that understands, is completely unjudgemental and will have my back no matter what.

L.O.V.E.

Crazy Stuff My Kid Says!

I'm always amazed at how fast kids grow! And while the notches on the growth chart in Wee Man's bedroom and the seemingly constant too-short pants & sleeves still having me shaking my head continuously and silently wishing he'd stay tiny forever, it's the quickness with which he is learning these days that really has me in astonishment!

On Monday Wee Man officially turned 18 months old, and while I still think of him as my baby, I am quickly learning that he is definitely no longer a baby. He went running nude out of the bathroom the other day (there's always a quick escape between undressing and bath time in which he loves to run around the house naked at top speed laughing and squealing the whole time!) and I realised all of his baby fat was gone. Gone are the days of chubby legs and belly and here - running around my house - was this tall, lean little boy!

I've noticed that nothing gets by him anymore either. I've always thought that children were like little sponges, just soaking up everything in their world around them. Watching, learning, storing, memorising, parroting - the world is so exciting because everything is new....and they just love to learn and explore! Things that I never really think about because to me they are just part of everyday get Wee Man so interested or excited. It's fun re-living life through the eyes of a toddler.

But his language acquisition from day to day - and the beginning of him forming sentences - has been the most amazing thing to watch. Last week my husband and I were trying to guess how many words Wee Man had now and so with a pen and paper I jotted them down as we played and he spoke. In a half hour period we had written down 52 words that the general public would be able to understand, 48 more that we knew what he was talking about but weren't overly clear, and 17 animal noises. Wow! Crazy. Our 'What To Expect' book says by 18 months he should have 10 words. Haha. No communication issues here.

The other day he had us in stitches with some of the things he was doing and saying and my mom said "I hope you're writing these down somewhere"....well, that is what today's blog posting is going to be about. I want to remember these things! These aren't in any particular order - just jotting them down as they come to me:

• Those that know me well will know the important part Michael Jackson has played in my life. I'm a huge fan, and have been for most of my life. So needless to say, when my ipod is on and playing you're likely to hear at least a song or two every half hour or so. The rule in my house is we don't have the TV on during the day - with the exception of the news and an occasional snippet of a show on either side of the noon-hour news cast. So music is our background throughout the day. I'm quite eclectic and my ipod has everything from MJ, to Beethoven, to 80s & 90s one-hit-wonders and pop artists, to African drumming, to kids music (Disney, Muppets), and so on. I often tell the kids the name of the song and the artist who are playing while we're listening and Wee Man loves to dance, so the faster beat songs tend to get his attention. I never really thought that at this age he would be able to tell the difference between artists. Well the other day 'Dangerous' comes on the stereo and Wee Man looks up from his Mega Blocks tower he was building and says "Jackson". A few songs later 'Black or White' came on and he said it again, "Mama. Jackson". I was floored. Good 'ol boy - knows his MJ. Made his mama proud! ;-)

• At my mom's house the other day Wee Man was climbing on and off an armchair she has in her living room. We allow him to climb up on the furniture so long as he sits down on his bottom on it when he has gotten up. This particular time he kept standing up to look over the back of it as the chair is kind of in the middle of the great-room, next to a couch making sort of an informal room divide between the living and dining rooms. I told him a couple of times he needed to sit down and he would do so, but as soon as we turned away there he would be - back standing up and checking out what was going on in the kitchen/dining room area. Finally I had lost my patience with him and told him if he continued to be bad I was going to take him off the chair. He looked at me with these big eyes and said "bad". So I asked him what was bad and he promptly replied with "Hen-wy" (Henry is the name of our cat). I couldn't help it - I burst out laughing as did my mom and sister who were also in the room with us at the time. Too funny.....and yes, Henry is quite a troublemaker in our home and the words Henry and Bad are used together on a regular basis. 

• There's nothing cuter than the sound of a laughing child, and bath time at our house is filled with giggles and laughter. Pretty much since the first week my husband has been giving Wee Man his baths and it's always been one of the most favourite parts of his day. The other day I hear Wee Man yelling gibberish ("Dabba-dabba-da") and laughing hysterically in the bathroom and then everything would go silent and then about 2 seconds later my husband would laugh and the whole thing would start again. This probably went on about a half-a-dozen times. I was cleaning up in the kitchen wondering what the heck was going on! When they finally came out I asked about it. Apparently Wee Man would be exceptionally loud and then look all serious at Daddy, put his finger on his lips and shush himself! When my husband laughed of course it became a game and he'd do it over and over. We live in a condo with shared walls between us and our neighbour, so we have gotten in the habit when the noise gets a little much to shush Wee Man with a finger on our lips and a quick "shhh" as a reminder. I've noticed in the past couple of days he's been shushing himself when he gets a little loud....each time it happens I laugh. What a funny guy!

• Every night before bed we read a few stories to Wee Man in the rocking chair in his room. He has his favourites, but usually we try to rotate through them - more for my own sanity than for any other reason! We have one book that is a first-words kind of book with pictures and words below it. Wee Man loves this one (me, not so much) so it's in the rotation a bit more these days. I usually pick about 3-4 things on each page to talk about and point to and then move on or we'd be sitting there until midnight. One particular night we were pointing at some of the things on the page and Wee Man points out the "tar" (guitar). I enthusiastically agreed and went to move on to another one and he said "Daddy. Tar. Room" (my husband has an acoustic guitar that we keep away from little hands in our bedroom) - so I agreed and told him "yes, Daddy has a guitar in his room". Then he said "Tar. Undies." (Wee Man has a pair of training pants - we call them undies - that have abstract guitars all over them in different colours) - so I agreed again and told him "yes, you have guitars on your undies". Then he said "Tar. Out. Room" and pointed to his bedroom door (he has an electronic toy guitar that we keep in the living room with his other toys) - so I agreed with him again, "yes, you have a guitar in the living room". I was so pleased to see the connections he was making between the different types of guitars in our home and this cartoon-like image in a book. Very cool.                  

• Both my husband and I are fairly big Calgary Flames fans. I'm not talking banners and jerseys on the wall kind of fans, but when they're playing a game we'll put the TV on - we subscribe to Rogers Sportsnet West so we can get all the games on TV - and we both do own a jersey we used to wear when we'd go to the Dome and watch games (we used to go to 2-3 games a season when I used to work for a company that had season tickets and we got some in the staff rotation). So it kind of goes without say that our toddler has shown a bit of interest in hockey and that the Flames is his most recognised team (I'm OK if at some point in his life he chooses to cheer for another team - so long as it isn't the Oilers...haha!). Shortly after Christmas we were in Old Navy looking for some deals on some new pants for Wee Man. We were successful so we went to the cash line and were waiting for our turn to go up and pay. Wee Man kept saying "hot-tey" (hockey) over and over. I couldn't see anything to do with hockey anywhere, so I kind of ignored it or said "yes, yes" to his constant talking. After a couple of minutes we get up to the til and he goes "Hot-tey" and points to this little container with Flames lanyards in it next to the til. I don't know how he noticed those from about 3-people back in the line, but he did and he was pretty excited about seeing the Flames symbol. I was amazed. The flaming-Cs were about the size of my thumb nail on a black lanyard. This kid has good eyes!

           

• About a month ago I had the kids sitting at the Little Tykes picnic table we have, in the middle of our kitchen, colouring. I desperately needed to use the washroom so thought - great, they're busy and quiet so I'll run quick. I left the door open so I could still hear them and everything was still quiet so I figured all was going well. I was gone from the room for maybe about two minutes. When I come back out Little A is standing in the hall with her eyes all wide and I figured something had happened. I'm thinking a crayon broke, or Wee Man is standing up on the picnic bench....what I didn't expect was Wee Man standing in the middle of the living room with a dark brown crayon - our bookshelves (beautiful white built-ins on either side of our fireplace), coffee table, carpet (a very, very light beige.....we bought this house pre-children), and fireplace glass (it's gas and has been turned off since Wee Man was born) is covered in crayon. I have never gotten so mad at him....he was put in his crib in his room (usually the naughty corner is in our hallway, so this was a new thing to him) and left to cry in there for a good 10 minutes (usually it's about 2 minutes in the naughty corner) while I tried to find something that would take the crayon off of the surfaces that he had covered (Note: Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is a god-send. Worked like magic on everything except the carpet.....Woolite Pet Stain Remover got most of it, however in the bright sun I can still see a bit of his design). Finally he was allowed to come out and I brought him back to the living room to show him the colouring was gone and while I was "very sad" he coloured on the house, I was able to clean it up and it was OK now - next time he would only colour on the paper and we'd be much happier. To this day every once in a while he still remembers and will point to the side of the bookshelf or the fireplace and say "Nooooo. Bad. Mama Sad". He hasn't attempted to colour on anything but paper again!       

• It's funny how kids know quickly what they can and can't do in a house, and yet will continuously try to push those boundaries by testing whether no really means no today, as it did yesterday, or whether things may have changed. In our house we have a few rules....no standing on furniture, he must stay away from the stove and fireplace (while they may not always be hot at our house, at others' houses they may be and from time to time here, too), no touching the rice-paper lamps (we have a floor lamp that's about 5-feet high and made of rice paper and a matching small table-top one, so they're quite fragile), and he can't go into our master bedroom if we're not there. Most of our house is essentially one-room so wherever we are pretty much we can see Wee Man and keep our eye on him. He knows these rules well and yet continuously tries to see if he can get away with one or more of them from time to time. The other day he was edging closer and closer to the floor lamp so my husband told him that he needed to find another place to play....he went right up to it, put his hands about 2cm from it and said "Noooo". So hard not to laugh and encourage it. He does this every once in a while with other things, too. When we tell him "no" he will look up at us, flare his nostrils and open his eyes super wide (is this our stern face?!). It's hilarious. Then he'll go right up to whatever it is that we're warning him about and get soooo close, yet not touch it, and look right at us and say "noooo" and then do this stare/nostril flare thing. It's like this taunting "not touching - can't get mad - not touching - can't get mad" and it takes everything in us not to laugh while we continue with our stern warning. What a little brat. haha!

Happy Valentine's Day!

My husband and I have never really been a couple that has celebrated Valentine's Day - and to be honest, I think the whole "holiday" is really the retail world's way of making some money in the lull that is February, after all of the Christmas-shopping mayhem has ended. But this year, partially because Little A is spending time with us during the days and also because I'm always looking for new crafts and things to do with the kids, I decided we'd celebrate a bit!

So Wee Man I both donned red shirts today (we're celebrating a day early because Little A won't be here tomorrow) and we've had a 'heart' themed day.

I was going to be all super-mama and do heart-shaped pancakes with red berries, but Wee Man wanted nothing to do with pancakes this morning and was adamant that 'bet-ist' (breakfast) was going to be 'cet-al' (cereal) and he desperately wanted Mini-Wheats and 'nanas' (Bananas). So there went that idea. Maybe we'll attempt it tomorrow and I'll remember not to ask him what he wants for breakfast --- he'll eat anything pretty much put in front of him, but when you ask he has his opinions! ;-)

Our morning activities centred around Valentines - we made some heart shaped cards for our loved ones and read some books during storytime that centred around love, friendship and Valentine's Day itself.

The kids loved picking out stickers and different sized hearts to glue onto their cards, and they turned out so well, too!



On the weekend I decided to make some heart-shaped cookies. We gave most of these away in our weekend adventures to see some family and friends, wrapped in little bags covered in hearts, but for snack today the kids were lucky each got to eat one special heart-shaped cookie! Since Wee Man (and now Little A as well) had a bad cold late last week and over the weekend, I opted not to have the kids help this time (which is part of the reason I made them ahead of time, too) - but I think we'll  bake and decorate cookies again around Easter since we did these at Christmas (in shapes of snowmen, bears and Xmas trees) and they both loved decorating it. I just love these sugar cookies. They bring back so many wonderful memories of holidays from when I was little - my grandma used to make animal shaped sugar cookies and decorate them with colourful sugar and sprinkles and every time I eat them I am transported to those happy memories!

For anyone looking for a quick and easy Sugar Cookie recipe, this is the one I use:

2/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
3 tsp. baking powder
flour to make dough soft (approx 3 cups, added gradually after all other ingredients have been mixed together in the order given above)
- Note: These tend to  roll out easier when the dough is chilled for at least an hour; they use less flour in the rolling-out process when that is the case. Bake at 325F until lightly golden at the edges.


And finally, this year in our house Valentine's Day will have another special meaning, our two kitties Henry & Che will be one year old! So tomorrow we'll wish an extra-special Love Day to the newest members of our family:

I hope, however you celebrate Valentine's Day, that February 14th is one filled with much love and remembrance of the special ones in your life! I look forward to having dinner with family (we're making homemade heart shaped pizzas for dinner), a quiet day at home with Wee Man and knowing that I am fortunate to have so much love in my home and my life! <3