Gone fishing

We've gone "fishing" every day now for the last week. At the park. With a stick. In a dirty mud puddle.

He's caught some pretty big "fish" (leaves).

"Mom, I caught a fish!" he yells each time he hooks a clump of soggy, rotting leaves.

Speaking of mud puddles....I practically had to rescue him from one the other day. The mud around the puddle was so thick and squishy that his boot sank in pretty deep. When he tried to lift his foot out it just wouldn't budge. I (stupidly) was wearing my leather walking shoes. Right as I was about to dive in the mud after him (probably getting stuck myself) a nice lady in long rubber boots came to our aid.

Despite it's messiness, I love spring! If I had had my boots on I probably would have dove right into those mud puddles too.

On the bus

Here is a replay of our conversation on the bus yesterday.

Little guy: Why are those people getting off the bus mom?

Me: Because this is a bus stop. People take the bus to where they want to go and then they get off the bus.

Little guy: (obviously baffled as to why anyone would ever want to get off the bus) Oooohhh...

Little guy: Look mom, those people are getting on the bus and those people are getting off the bus.

Me: Yes, that's how the bus works.

Little guy: Mom, do they give us breakfast on the bus?

Me/other nearby passengers: Snicker, snicker, snicker

Me: No, it's not like the airplane. They don't give you food on the bus.

Little guy: Mom, I'm sitting on the bus!

Me: Do you see that yellow cord? When we get close to our bus stop, we pull it to let the driver know that we want to get off. It makes a "Bing" noise.

Little guy: (wide eyed) Oh, do I get to pull the cord?

Me: Yes, when I tell you it's time.

Little guy: Oh....(pointing and using a very loud voice) Mom, what are those people doing????

Me: Riding the bus.

Little guy: Mom those people are riding the bus.

Other passengers: snicker, snicker, snicker.

The conversation continued non-stop until we got off. Fast forward to the ride home on a crowded bus. The little guy had to sit in his stroller because there weren't any free spots.

Little guy: Mom, I want to sit on the seat.

Me: There aren't any seats right now. The bus is too crowded.

Little guy: (pointing at the man sitting next to me) Maybe that guy will leave and I can sit down on that seat.

Me: Maybe when it's his bus stop.

Little guy: Mom, is that guy going to leave?

Me: (silent, pretending to ignore him)

Little guy: Mom, I want that guy to leave so I can sit on the seat.

The conversation went on and on like this. I felt terrible for the poor guy sitting next to us!

Bring on the 5 day weekend!

Woohoo! I'm free until next Wednesday thanks to those overtime hours I've accumulated.

Me and the little guy have some big plans tomorrow. We're going for a bus ride (his idea, not mine) to the coffee shop for lunch. Afterwards, we're going to head to Mountain Equipment Co-op to see the canoes and kayaks and then maybe check out some toy stores before catching a bus home. And since it is supposed to be a lovely day, we'll probably also make a side trip to the park to splash in the puddles.

Should be fun!

Date night

Every time that hubby goes away on a business trip I plan a date night with the little guy. We usually go out for dinner and then do something fun like play with the trains at Chapters.

Tonight we decided to go shopping for a soccer ball. We found a really cool and inexpensive one at Old Navy. The little guy carried it in his arms the whole time we were out. He would have rather kicked it around the mall all night but mommy (that mean, old ogre) wouldn't let him.

Pre-school soccer starts in May so we're going to start practicing. When I told him I signed him up for soccer he was so excited about the idea of playing on a team, just like Caillou. I imagine that coaching pre-school soccer is a little bit like herding cats - should be very amusing to watch.

I've also been toying with the idea of signing him up for T-ball but I don't think there is enough running involved. Also, he would constantly have to wait for his turn to bat, which is awfully hard for a 3-year old. What he needs are activities where he can run his little heart out. Soccer just seemed like the natural choice.

I've gone off on a bit of a tangent here, haven't I? What I meant to say was that besides getting a soccer ball tonight, we went out for dinner and ate sushi and frozen chocolate yogurt. How's that for a date night?

A future marine biologist???

I swear that the little guy knows the name of every fish, shark and whale in the ocean. Yesterday, to his great delight, I presented him with a copy of the "First Encyclopedia of Seas and Oceans." We must have spent two hours looking at the pictures and talking about all of the different types of marine life depicted on the page. He wants to know absolutely everything there is to know about the underwater world.

Sadly, we dismantled our salt water tank last year. If we had known he was going to be so into it, we might have kept it going.

My caregiver was telling me that lately he's been gravitating more and more to her extensive (and I mean extensive) collection of sea creature figurines. Her son used to collect them so she has some really beautiful ones. Yesterday when I came to pick him up he was still napping. Clasped in his hand was the most realistic toy salmon I've ever seen. And, nestled next to him was a whale, a shark and a frog.

As a result of his latest preoccupation, he's become very curious about our fire extinguisher. Even though I've explained it to him a million times, he's convinced that its a scuba diving tank.

I'm predicting that his next phase will be dinosaurs. What's your guess?

Full of surprises

It doesn't matter where I hide the wrapping paper. Or the tape. Or the scissors. He always seems to be able to find them.

Lately, pretty much every morning while daddy is in the shower, I hear a loud crinkle, crinkle noise as he comes into the room dragging a big roll of wrapping paper. He usually has some scissors or tape in tow too. "Mom, can you help me make a surprise for daddy?"

His surprises involve wrapping up a couple of miscellaneous toys and then presenting them to daddy right as he's walking out of the shower.

It's actually kind of fun (although I'm burning through a lot of wrapping paper!). I help him cut a square of wrapping paper, and then the two of us work together to fold the paper and tape it together. This morning daddy got a motorcycle and a space shuttle. Yesterday he got a car and a great white shark.

I just have one question: where are my surprises?

Rough weekend

Here's are a couple of older pictures of the little guy that always cheers me up when I'm down.

Why haven't I been updating my blog?

Well, for one thing, all I ever do is work. My files are on fire right now. Last night I was still getting emails at midnight. Give me a break already!

And tomorrow and Friday I'm acting for my boss, which should interesting (and insane!).

I'll do some good blog entries on the weekend - I promise!

I wish I had taken a photograph

I'll probably laugh about this some day. But it really wasn't very funny at the time. Tonight, just minutes before our babysitter was set to arrive, I noticed that it was strangely quiet in the bedroom. Never a good sign.

When I went in to check on the little guy, he was sitting on the floor with an open can of zinc diaper rash cream. He was dunking his hands into the thick, white ointment and then rubbing his palms together. When I went over to apprehend the cream in my nice dinner outfit that I had just ironed, he reached over and smeared a perfect white hand print across my shoulder.

My initial reaction was to throw him into the bathtub, clothes and all.

"My socks! My socks!" he yelled and cried. At that exact moment, his wet socks were the least of my concerns.

I ran his hands through the water which made the mess even worse. Zinc ointment, I discovered, is water resistant. As well as being water resistant it also spreads and multiplies every time it is touched. There was white cream all over my clothes, his clothes, my hands, the shower curtain and everything in between.

Next I tried using wet wipes, with better success. After much vigorous scrubbing, we were back to our normal flesh tone. Now lets just hope that zinc cream comes out of fabric!

A new plan that might just work

Okay, so here's the plan. On Monday we're going to start sending him to daycare in underwear. If he wants a diaper, he'll have to ask for one. And once his diaper is changed, it's straight back to underwear again.

I ran the idea by my caregiver today and she's totally supportive. I'm feeling mildly optimistic.

*******************

Yesterday I went to nursery school in the morning and had a blast! There were a couple of memorable moments I just have to share.

In the classroom they have a "pretend" car that kind of looks like a wooden bench with a steering wheel. The little guy loves to sit on it and pretend to drive. So yesterday when he started up the engine I decided to climb on and go for a ride too. No sooner than I had sat down, a little girl climbed on the car behind me. I asked the little guy where we were going.

"We're going skiing," he said.

I turned to the girl behind me and asked, "Would you like to come skiing too?" She nodded her head yes, so off we drove to the ski hill. A moment later the little guy hopped off of the car and ran across the room where the wooden toy building materials are located. He placed two flat boards on the ground and proceeded to ski around the room on them. The little girl who wanted to come skiing with us also grabbed a couple of boards and followed him down the trail. Within a minute, a couple of other kids joined in the fun. It was really neat to watch, especially since the little guy had initiated the whole thing.

Later on, after a nice long ski, the little guy decided to do a puzzle. He worked really hard at it and put all 40 pieces together by himself. When he was done, he started on a new activity. The second he had his back turned, one of the other little boys came by and tore apart all of the puzzle pieces. I saw the whole thing unfold and thought, "uh oh, this is not going to be pretty." When the little guy noticed what had happened to his puzzle, he looked at me in horror, "Hey!" he yelled, "Someone wrecked my puzzle." He immediately started trying to point fingers at one of the other kids who he suspected had sabotaged his masterpiece. In order to clear that poor kid's name I told him what I had seen.

I was amazed by the maturity of his response. He very calmly walked over to the puzzle wrecker and asked, "Did you take apart my puzzle?" The other kid came clean and said yes (of course, being 3-years old he had no idea he had even wronged anybody!). Instead of tattling or getting mad at him he just said, "That really wasn't very nice you know. That was my puzzle. You shouldn't wreck somebody else's puzzle."

I'm so excited!

I booked tomorrow off of work so I can hang out with the little guy all day. In the morning we're going to go to nursery school together so he can show me all of the toys. On the way home we're going to stop at the park and splash in the puddles.

Then we're going to go out for lunch and eat french fries before heading to Chapters to read books and play with the trains.

The little guy planned the whole day himself. I can't wait!

Daylight savings is cruel

I don't know about you but I'm exhausted. Even though I tried to go to sleep early last night, my body wouldn't let me. So I ending up losing an hour of sleep. And apparently so did some of my clients.... Mondays are usually pretty bad, but people were just downright cranky today. One of my clients had a huge (and I mean HUGE) hissy fit. This guy just loves to hate people like me who work in communications.

The little guy has also had a bit of a rough time adapting to the time change. In fact, I can hear him right now chattering to himself and kicking his legs against the wall. He's already called my up to the bedroom twice, both times to say, "Mom, can you come and sleep?" I'd love to, only that I know from past experience that he'll get all riled the second my head hits the pillow. He'll jump on me, climb on my head, tug at my hair, tell me he's hungry, thirsty and that he's not sleepy, beg me to let him watch movies, throw things, ask a million and one questions etc.... In short, If I go up there neither of us will get any sleep.

So, I think I'll just doze on the couch for a little while. Who knew that one little hour could make such a difference.

Babes gone wild

Last night we invited over our friends who we hadn't seen in ages over for dinner. They have two boys: a three-year old and a one-and-a-half year old.

Here are the top 10 lessons I learned from last night:
1. Our house is way too small
2. When a group of toddlers gets together they will all naturally gravitate towards the loudest toys possible
3. Herding cats is easier than herding little boys
4. It is next to impossible to have an adult conversation when you are on referee duty
5. Always have a "plan B" on the menu
6. Make sure to put away the choking hazards before the one-and-a-half year old finds them and puts them in his mouth
7. Block off the staircase to avoid all hell breaking loose on both levels of the house
8. It is possible to break the sound barrier right in your own home!
9. Electronic devices should be put out of reach to head off any unauthorized computing
10. A light coloured couch probably wasn't the smartest of choices

Although it was really nice to see everyone, I think our next gathering needs to be in the great outdoors where we can let our children out to pasture to run.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that this morning I got a phone call reporting that one of the visiting boys starting puking after he got home last night.

Spring has sprung

The weather was glorious today so we went to the park to play and check out the puddles. Even though the little guy was decked out in his brand new, bright yellow rubber boots and waterproof gear from head to tow but he still managed to get completely soaked from head to tow. He actually dove head first into a deep puddle. Twice. Just for the heck of it. What a goofball.

I can't wait until all the kids come back to the park. As much fun as we had today, we were the only ones there. As soon as the snow disappears, all of our neighbourhood friends will start coming out of hibernation. Then we'll be back to hanging at the park every day on our way home -- my favourite was to unwind.

Doesn't spring (or at least the promise of spring) feel great?

A little Friday fun

Watching the girls hockey practice. The nice coach came over and gave him his very own hockey puck!



The secret ingredient in these cupcakes is playdough.

Missing objects report

I keep on finding toys and objects in the little guy's knapsack that don't belong to him i.e. little toy cars. The other day I found a flashing bike light (which have since been returned to J&K - sorry guys!).

Things disappear at home too, usually to be uncovered later in the strangest places (inside drawers and cooking pots, for example). The worst is when he takes money out our wallets. To him money is something fun to play with. Often, right before I catch him with a fist full of 20s he'll come up to me and say, "Mom can I have $13?" I'm sure I'll be hearing that a lot in a few years!

I'm hoping that this isn't the start of a "stealing" phase. So far (knock on wood) he hasn't taken any unpurchased merchandise from the mall or the grocery store. I know some other moms who haven't been so lucky.

Although I've tried to explain to him that he can't just take other people's things, he's still too young to recognize that stealing is bad. When I ask him why he's taken something he responds matter of factly, "Because I wanted it." To which I reply, "How would you feel if someone took one of your toys?" I try to get him to put himself into the other person's shoes but right now the only shoes he recognizes are his own!

Another example of the joys of parenthood!

For once

For once I'd like...

- to get to work and not find some sort of snot smear on my clothes.

- to have a private moment to myself in the bathroom. When I ask for privacy the little guy disappears for 5 seconds and then returns with an imaginary object in his hand. He says, "Here you go mom. I got you some privacy."

- to look under the dining room table and not find any crumbs.

- for people to stop asking me when I'm going to have another baby. Leave me alone already!

- to have a bath without the company of sharks and dolphins.

- to win the lottery.

- a jacket that doesn't spring holes in the pockets.

- to eat my breakfast in peace. Every day after eating a breakfast big enough for an elephant the little guy says, "Bite? Bite?" in the moochiest of voices.

- a one minute pick-up from daycare instead of what feels like an endless string of lollygagging tactics.

- a three day a week job that pays the same or more than my current full-time job.

- to make it out the door without forgetting something.

- a self-cleaning house.

- to be able to eat anything I want but not gain any weight.

- to write all of the stories I have in my head into a collection of best-selling novels.

- for someone else make my lunch (hint hint).

- a pair of pants that I don't need to hem.

- the little guy to say,"I'm not going to go in my diaper any more!"

- a little bit of "me" time with no strings attached.

- to feel a little more like the energizer bunny.

Now it's your turn. What would you like?

Camera shy

Tonight I received a notice from the little guy's nursery school that tomorrow is the last day to order school photos. This came as a complete surprise to me because I hadn't even seen the photo proofs. So I sent the director a note to explain the situation.

I got the following response:

"I am sorry to say that he would not get his picture taken. He was the only one who wouldn't. We took turns throughout the morning trying non-stressful ways of encouraging him....but to no avail. I could tell he was not going to be talked into it without becoming really stressed so we just let it go."

I wrote her back to say that I wasn't too surprised. We've tried to get his passport photo taken three times to no avail. He gets really intimidated by strangers behind big cameras. Lucky for us he's a total ham for the camera at home so we have roughly 2 billion other photos of him.

Picture day wasn't a total loss, though. The staff were able to convince him to pose for a group photo so, at the very least, we'll be getting a group shot.