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

My response to the crazy dad and his laptop-shooting video

Some of you may have seen the video that's gone viral over the Internet of the Dad who's mighty ticked off at his teenage daughter and so as a result makes a video and shoots her laptop with a handgun to make his point. I shouldn't be giving this guy one minute of my time, but I can't stop thinking about it (and seeing continuous links to it being made on my Facebook news feed). So I thought I'd make a blog post about it today. I'm not going to link to the video. I think the guy is an ass and am not going to give him more attention than he's already getting - but if you haven't seen it and want to, I'm sure you'll find the Youtube video with a quick search.

I have to start by saying, I have never parented a teenager. I have been one, I have taught them (as a substitute teacher no less!), and I have spent a significant amount of time around them in past jobs. The teenage years have to be some of the most frustrating for all involved - too old to be kids, too young to be adults; hormones rage like an emotional roller coaster; rules and responsibilities adding up causing stress that have never been seen/felt in their young lifetimes; and then bring in the modern world of today with it's social media, poor role models from Hollywood and TV; and the list goes on --- it's not an easy time!

I was a relatively "good" teen by normal standards - I never drank, smoked, partied (in fact, I would have been what you would call a bit of a looser...haha), but I know I caused my parents a lot of frustration, anger, and the like during those teen years as I tested my boundaries, talked back and rebelled in my own ways. I know more than once I wrote letters/notes, had long phone calls, or face-to-face discussions with friends calling my parents every bad word I could think of and complaining about anything and everything I could regarding rules, responsibilities and those things they did and said I thought was unfair. I was a teen. That's how I chose to vent. I can kind of relate to this girl in the video.

Now, I was a teen in the early/mid 1990s when there was no social media in the sense of the word that there is today. Had there been something like Facebook when I was 15, chances are I might have made a bad decision like the daughter in this video and posted something up on my wall, too. That's how teens are communicating these days - Facebook, IM, text messaging, chat rooms....

In the past year I have seen more social networking blunders by adults in my circle, or companies I follow on Twitter or Facebook than I have fingers on my hands. I have seen updates/posts/comments that had some pretty significant name calling or venting, info about cheating spouses or significant others, bad drinking/partying pictures, and the list could go on and on. And these were adults. I honestly don't think people understand the long-term effects of some of their social media posts. It's become such a day-to-day habit for most of us that we often air too much dirty laundry on these types of sites, not thinking of who may see it or how long it may be online for (ie: forever). I try to think "would I want my grandma or a future employer to see/read this" when I post, and if the answer is no, then I don't do it. Not many people seem to have these same filters.

So this father in the video was ticked off at his daughter for "going behind his back" and writing mean and angry things, and yes - I understand apparently she'd done something like this in the past and been warned against doing it again. But as I'm watching, I'm thinking monkey-see, monkey-do. Should she have written it? Probably not - or at least not to post publicly on her page (and yes, I know there are settings to make things private, but obviously she chose not to do this and to share it with others - even if her Father wasn't the intended target). But she's a teen. She made a stupid decision. She was angry, venting, and obviously didn't feel she had another outlet to vent these frustrations in. And to be honest, I don't blame her if her Father is one to pull out a gun and destroy a laptop (which by the way - at the beginning of the video wasn't he complaining about the time and money he put into it?!). I wouldn't have gone to him either.

So instead of modelling good communication and relationship skills - which by the way are (in my opinion) probably two of the most important skills a person can have! He decided to act like an immature brat himself, vent his frustrations in a video (was this to post on her page for her and her friends to see? I missed the purpose of it - I think that's what it was), and then pull out his handgun and shoot her laptop. Um....what?!

I guess my biggest surprise with all of this is the applause coming from other parents in comments posted about this video all over social media. Yesterday afternoon of a couple hundred comments left about this on the Parenting.com website, the vast majority of parents thought this dad was awesome and totally hit the mark on how to react to this situation. REALLY?! WTF?!  I couldn't believe my eyes.....so not only did this father embarrass his daughter (yes, I know, parents do that regardless of what they do in the eyes of a teen) by posting a video to her Facebook page, he also spewed angry and hurtful words in his video, showed no modelling behaviour of respect, communication or understanding, and then destroyed property. What is this teaching her? How is she going to learn to become a well-rounded, responsible adult if this is what she has to go off of?

How would I have dealt with the situation? I honestly can't say, having never parented a teenager and have not been in the same situation. I know I would likely be hurt, disappointed and maybe even a little angry at my child. I know that there would be no way in heck I would be making a video, pulling out a gun, and destroying property. I would hope I could say I would get my emotions under control and sit down with my child to discuss the matter at hand. Likely there would be a removal of privileges - ie: deactivation of said Facebook account, limited/no access to the computer except for under supervision for the purpose of completing school assignments, etc.

In our house I hope that there is always open communication and a mutual respect for each other. I know that there will be a time when Wee Man will be angry, frustrated, and upset with me and us with him. There may even be several years of this during those trying teen years. I know that he will have times when he deliberately goes against rules and boundaries we set up for him. There will be big punishments ahead. But I know that no matter what life brings us in the future there is no way I would disrespect him in this way - nor will I ever applaud a parent who shows such a lack of reserve or respect for their child or property. The relationship with this daughter and father is gone - that's fully apparent in this video, and I can only hope that she has other more positive adult role models in her life, or I can only imagine what the future may bring....

Puffy paint and Cloud Dough....Facing Winter Boredom

While the weather has been nice we've been doing a lot of outside time lately, but we have been doing some indoor crafts and activities as well from time to time. I thought perhaps I would write and share a bit about them in this posting since so far I've been quite happy about them!


Painting with "snowballs" (cotton balls) was one of the things I thought I would try during our 'Winter' theme this past month. At the same time I found a recipe for a homemade puffy paint that I decided to use for our paintings (recipe below). It was a fun little activity! The kids were super excited - as always - to paint. At first both were a little unsure as to how to use the cotton balls as make-shift paintbrushes!

Little A never really caught on to the "dipping" motion of painting - choosing instead to spread the paint around by rubbing the cotton ball over the paper - which was quite effective in coating the paper with colour but didn't result in the "puffy" look when we set the paint in the microwave. Wee Man did fairly well with the dipping, but used so much paint in the process! His final result was a little puffier, but the paper was so wet it took about twice as much time to dry! ha ha.

Needless to say, I was happy I chose to use our finger painting paper for this craft session, as the paper held up well through all of it! To 'set' the puffy paint (and make it puff up a bit) the recipe said to microwave it while wet, so as the kids were finished I stuck them in the microwave. When they were dry (about 30 sec for Little A's artwork and 60 sec for Wee Man's) I helped them glue on their cotton balls to make snowmen (or "soooom" as Wee Man seems to call them these days). While the kids were having their snack, I finished the snowmen off by adding googly eyes, noses, mouths and arms and they were so excited to run around with the paintings for a while. Here are the final results:

For the puffy paint, this is the recipe I used:

1 cup flour
3 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. salt
water to make a "thick paint" consistency
food colouring
- To set the paint and make it puff up, place the works of art in the microwave for 30-60 seconds.

*Notes: I think I used a bit too much water - and I put in about 1/2 cup. My paint didn't puff up as well as the original posting on Momstown.ca showed (see link on the right). Since this makes tons I decided to just go with it, but next time I will add it tiny amounts at a time and play with different consistencies. Mine was fairly runny - still worked, but not as well as it likely could have!

I also found that the paper curled in the microwave (I did a tester first to try it out while the kids were still painting). I put some small microwavable cups on the edges of the kids' artwork in the microwave to keep this from happening to theirs and it seemed to help! My paper was curled almost in half while the kids' were just a little bumpy. The paint dries puffy, but also hard and can crack if you try to bend the paper.



Today I opted to keep our activities at home (due to an injured foot on my part), so I thought it would be a good day to try something like the Cloud Dough (also mentioned on Momstown.ca). How cool was this stuff!?!

To make it you need 8 cups of flour and 1 cup of baby oil. Combine them together and it makes dry - but mold able - "sand". The kids (and I!) loved this one!

I thought it was pretty cool that we could make "sand castles" with the dough and the kids loved dumping and scooping this - in fact, this is the longest I've had them playing nicely together at one activity all year! They were content to play for about an hour, and probably would have continued but we needed to get cleaned up so we could get a quick snack in before Daddy came to pick up Little A!

We had some cups, spoons and pots (yes, all Discovery Toys!) to play with in the sand - all of which have stencils on the bottom for stamping. The Cloud Dough, when compacted flat, allowed for us to see the patterns of food and animals on the bottoms of our pots and cups (the kids thought this was pretty cool) and the spoons when filled made little lady bugs from the imprints on them. Unfortunately the photographs didn't turn out well, but the kids thought this was a pretty neat trick and had lots of fun making bugs and pictures in their sand - as well as dumping and filling the containers.

Warning for those afraid of a mess: this is not an indoor activity if that is the case. This was messy!! There was Cloud Dough from one end of my kitchen to another. The good thing about this stuff is that when swept up together you can clump it and almost pick it up (or easily scoop it) into a pile to transfer back to the original container, but because of the Baby Oil used in making it, my floors are a little slippery tonight! Next time I think I will put a tarp down under our table for a quicker clean up! Also, the kids were wearing aprons - which was a good choice, because I chose not to and ended up having to change after we were done as I was covered in flour from head to toe!

The Cloud Dough is not oily or greasy, and feels soft and dry to run your hands through. Definitely a cool activity, and one we will continue to do over and over!

*Notes: Because it uses regular white flour those with a gluten intolerance or Celiac Disease will need to find an alternative flour to use in their recipe, and those who have little ones with this type of allergy visiting their home should also do the same if choosing to use this activity at a birthday party or play date. I used Johnson's Baby Oil in ours because we had a bottle of it on hand. As someone sensitive to scents, I found it a bit much after a while for me, but the kids didn't seem bothered by it at all. Since this batch of Cloud Dough will likely last us a while I'll just deal with the scent, but next time I go to make a fresh batch I think I will attempt to find an unscented baby oil to use as an alternative. I really strongly dislike the scents in Johnson's Baby products.


As I read through the other activities on the MomsTown.ca link, I am excited to try out the Silly Putty, too. That one looks awesome, as does a link my aunt posted on her facebook page of homemade finger paint. The groundhog predicted another 6 weeks of winter in these parts last week, so I guess we may have time to go through some of these inside boredom busters before Spring hits and we can move outside to playing in the garden and water (although I can't complain about the weather as of late - it's been pretty nice out here)! How do you get through the stuck-inside days? I'd love more ideas...