Looking for a gift idea?

I was introduced to this site from one of the (many) blogs I read regularily.  It resonated with me - what a fabulously wonderful idea.  And the costs vary to the very affordable to the wow, who has that kind of money?

Quick rundown: 

The Heifer Fund provides families (who apply for the program), a starter animal that is native to their area and training on how to best care for that animal.  They must promise to give back the first offspring of that animal to another family in the community. Any subsequent offspring are theirs, to use to feed their family or sell to make extra income. It helps families improve their lives, without taking them out of their local cultures, and by giving them a sustainable resource that they are responsible for.

I hate preachy posts, so that's not what this is about.  Just take a look, and maybe, tell someone else about it...

xxoo.S

Bump!

Maddie has her first owie.  

She was playing around yesterday and while laying on her belly, with her face about 2 inches above the ground, her hand slipped and she landed on her cheekbone. After the 'toddler-delay', she started screaming. She wasn't too hard to calm down, and I didn't think much of it. 

After getting her up from her nap, there it was. A big (in my mommy eyes - small in reality), nasty, red bump.

She doesn't seem too bothered by it at this point. I, on the other hand, am devasted that this happened under my 'watch'.

And Seth, he just keeps asking her, "How's the shiner, monkey?"

xxoo.S

It's official

I met up with the women from my babyville group last night for dinner + drinks.  It was really nice getting the chance to meet up without little ones running (crawling) around distracting us.  And since I don't get to meet up with them very much anymore because of work, it was nice for me to see a bunch of familiar faces. 

Of course conversation centered around the kids, but when doesn't it, when a group of moms get together?  That, with a dash of friendly "husband bashing", is pretty par for the course, no?

Anyways, sleep habits came up, as they often do.  And it turns out, every single child is sleeping through the night regularily now.  Oh, EXCEPT for Maddie!!!

And here's the real kicker.  She's the OLDEST member of that group of kids.

Awesome.

Needless to say, I was jealous and well, that's it.  Just jealous...

xxoo.S

Winter wonderland - DAT!

We woke up to a few inches of snow dusting everything, enough so that you can't see the grass, and all the trees have a pretty little layer of snow on them.  You know, general winter wonderland stuff.

Hilariously, Maddie noticed it right away.  As I was making my tea, she sat in front of the sliding door in the kitchen, looking outside, pointing outside and saying "Dat!", then looking back to me for confirmation.  I was like, yes, that's snow.  Brrrr cold.  But pretty.

I can't wait to get her out there, playing in it!

xxoo.S

Irrelevant?

It is countless, the number of times I am having a conversation with someone, telling them about something that's going on with me, has happened, or I'm planning on doing, and they finish my sentence for me, saying, "Yeah, I read about it on your blog."  Or, "Yeah - I saw that on Facebook."

Obviously I embrace new technology.  Heck, I'm a geek, I love it.  But it's a little disconcerting to realize having a real-life-honest-to-god conversation with me is no longer really relevant to know what's up, what's new, and what I've been doing.

And then I start to think, well, maybe I'll hold back on the updates a bit.  Keep these news bits for in-person talk, and just post about those news bits.  Um - and then I realize the amount of brainspace that would be required to keep all of it straight and I reassess.

Facebook is fun.  Facebook is for the "now".  It's also a way of sharing bits and pieces of your life with other people that you (likely) don't talk to on a regular basis.  I'm far more involved, in touch and up-to-date with random highschool friends than I ever expected to be.  And they know far more about my life than I ever expected to share.  But whatever.  I've always been a loud, obnoxious, "share-y" individual.  So really, nothing's changed there!

And the blog.  Well, it started as an update page for close family and a way to journalize (is that a word?) about my life with Seth after being newly married.  Something that would be fun to look back on in 30 years and think, how young and foolish we were!  Harharhar.  

But after the arrival of Miss Madeleine, the entries got far more frequent.  And I think the blog became a way for me to work out my new-mother-angst (albeit, not quite as privately as a journal), ask for advice, and also try to keep track of some of the adorably cute things Maddie did on an everyday basis.

But the culmination seems to mean that I don't need to even open my mouth for anyone to hear about the latest in my life.  And I chose that - by sharing it in the blogoverse.  But for a yapper like me, it's like, well - what can I talk about now?  Without seeming like that strange old uncle that just keeps telling the same stories you've already heard, over and over again.

Maybe for now, that's just what I'll do.  And you can tune out as much as you like...

xxoo.S

Maddie bits

• She's starting to add more words to her vocabulary - she now is able to say dada, mama, nei-nei-nei (meaning no), YA (not yes, just YA), dis (meaning "this", as in give me "this"), dat?(meaning "what's that"?), it-thay (kitty), and as of this weekend, ouch and hot.  As I did a bunch of baking this weekend, I was trying to teach her to stay away from the oven - by telling her it was "HOT" and it would be "OUCH".  She turned it into a game and now plays around the oven even more than before.  Awesome.
• She finds toilet humour hilarious.  Meaning toots, stinky bum, or burps - all make her laugh so hard.  Yesterday she was playing with the lid of her diaper genie and I kept telling her that's where the stinky diapers go - P-U, stinky!  She was having a giggle fit over that.  And now knows how to wave her hand in front of her face for P-U and grab her nose for stinky.
• She's turning into a total mimic.  She loves to play with pots and wooden spoons - pretending to 'stir' something, and I've even caught her 'tasting' the spoon.  I must do that a lot!  
• I'm trying the sign language thing again with her - since she's mimicing a lot of our actions, I figured maybe we will have more luck this time.
• Still not sleeping through the night on a regular basis ... yeah, that's just a killer.  She WILL grow out of this, right?
• Lastly - I gave Maddie a taste of my baking the other day.  She doesn't like shortbread.  WHa??  

xxoo.S

The friendship dance

I've got a date with my Babyville mom group friends tonight - sans bebes.  I haven't really seen anyone since the end of September, as I've been busier than I expected to be with this whole "work from home" stuff.

It should be a good time, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and having a proper chat with full attention, instead of being distracted watching the kiddies play around.  It's so funny how difficult it is to make friends outside of a forced situation (i.e. school or work).  There's the whole dance back and forth where you are testing the waters on getting together, what you'll do, how you'll meet up.

I really enjoy living in Brooklin now - have gotten used to having to get into my car to get absolutely anywhere now (oh, I do miss the walking and the subway though...).  But I'm not going to lie, it's far away.  My girl friends in the city I now see only on special occasions.  My other girl friends live east end, yes, but not THAT east end.  It's still a bit of trek to see them.  I have my BFF, L, living in the Brook, but we don't see each other near as much as either of us thought we would.  I guess with me in baby-la-la-land for the past year, we have just been living different lives.

Needless to say, without sounding like a total loser (maybe not?), I'm a little lonely for girlie interaction. I miss being able to call someone up and just say, let's go to the movies.  Let's go shopping.  Let's go get a coffee (or drink!).

I know life has changed a la child.  But I think you should still be able to do those things every one in a while!  

xxoo.S

PS - Sorry to place a Thursday morning whinge on you.  Sometimes I wonder if I am a whiner and shouldn't miss those aspects of my "old life" so much.  Do other moms?  Because I don't usually hear anyone saying so.  Maybe they do, they just don't admit it?

Count one down

I picked up Maddie's "major" present today.  It's a play kitchen.  I had thought about getting her one for her birthday, then thought to myself - she's a bit too young for that just yet.  

Then I found out just a couple of weeks ago that she plays with the play kitchen at daycare all.the.time.

So I was like, sweet.  Christmas present - done!  And proceeded to check out the various options we had.  There were A LOT of options...

...from the very basic cooktop...

...to the basic full size kitchen...

...to the deluxe, there's more stuff in this kitchen than in my own, play kitchen...

As you can see - lots and lots of choice.  

But we decided to go retro...

I can't wait to watch her play around with it (and get the heck out of my kitchen cabinets!!!).  Oh - and the last but not least charming little cherry on top?  Her first "kenmore" set... adorable...

xxoo.S

Congrats to me!

I just made the final payment on my OSAP loan. No more student loans! Yaaaaaaaaay!

xxoo.S

The terrible 13's?

So everyone goes on and on and on about the terrible two's. I get it. Kids turn into little devil-monsters when they hit the age of two. Has something about realizing they can control their own destiny (i.e. get what they want) by having a temper tantrum (or five).

But, um, no one warned me about the terrible 13's. Maddie is officially 13 months old and this past week has been a bloody nightmare! I mean, I love the fact that she's walking around, plays by herself, babbling away, playing with the most random things (what is WITH her obsession with ziploc bags???).

But what I don't love? The screaming. And crying. And fits of despair that she shows you, when you refuse to give/do/show her something she wants.  

Here's a perfect example:

As I've said before (glowingly, if I recall), the kid likes music. And she knows where the radio/cd player is in the kitchen. She used to point up to it and dance away if there was a song on that she liked.

Not anymore. Now she DEMANDS that I turn it on (if it's not on). Wants to be standing up in front of the player, pushing buttons, playing with the volume, opening and closing the cd part.

And she'll stand there for an hour if you let her. It just doesn't. Get. Old.  

So eventually you (being the parent and apparently with a shorter attention span than a 13-month-old) get tired of it. And take her down off the counter. Away from the stereo.

And that's when Satan joins us.

She arches her back. She screams. She cries. She cries so bloody hard that she barely breathes. And she points and points and points and points.

Oh, I get it. You want the stereo, kid. But I have to make dinner. And I think child services might have something to say if I let you just stand on the counter by yourself, next to the hot stove. Just saying...

And so I listen to the temper tantrum that ensues. For 5 minutes. For 10 minutes. For 15 minutes! Seriously? How does she even REMEMBER what she's crying about?? It's just ridiculous. And loud. And not just a little annoying.

So why doesn't anyone warn you about this stage? Because damn. It's tough.

The only thing to do? Get back at her by making her hair look ridiculous.  ;)

xxoo.S

Our Halloween monkey

Here she is - so happy and proud and just chuffed to be all dressed up and walking around like a big girl...

xxoo.S

I know I know

I owe you all some halloween pics.  I will post soon.  I promise.

Thanks to a generously lent costume from our daycare provider, Maddie was dressed up as a little monkey this year.  She absolutely loved halloween.  Seemed to "get" that she was dressed up, that others were dressed up, and all was good with the world (I was a little worried that she would hate her costume or get scared seeing the other kids in costumes - apparently I was worried for nothing, she's a helluva lot smarter than I give her credit for I guess)...

So we took Maddie trick-or-treating to our neighbours on the right and left of us.  She loved that too.  I think probably would have gone on to more houses if we had let her.  And then she helped give out candy to the kids that came to our house.  It was so warm out, that everyone was outside on their front steps, so was a lot of fun in that sense.  Except Miss Maddie kept wanting to follow the kids down the sidewalk and onto the street.  There can be a bit of downside to having a social butterfly for a daughter - especially when she's just a year old.

We've lots of other news - but I'm tired, so it's relagated to bullets for today...

• We sold the Accent.  I had to say bye-bye to AB (that was her name for the past almost-5 years).  It was a little bittersweet.  When we got her, I never expected that I would have her for a full 5 years, but I guess since I did, I got a little attached.  But I wasn't attached to the car payments and 2 insurance payments we've been making - so in the end, I was like buh-bye AB!  Thanks for the km's, thanks for not breaking down, thanks for being a solid little car.  Hope you treat your new owners the same...
• Maddie has started having nightmares at night.  I hate it.  I hate trying to calm her down and not being able to.  I hate not being able to tell her (or show her) that all is fine, she doesn't need to be afraid.  And I hate being woken up for 1-2 hour stretches in the middle of the night because she can't get back to sleep.  Any thoughts/advice/help?  Any feedback whatsoever is welcome!
• Lately I've been feeling more and more like my old self.  I've gone to a few concerts, met friends for dinner and organized a few more 'ladies nights' coming up in a few weeks.  I love being able to leave Maddie with Daddy and take off for the night.  It's the social life that I've sorely missed this past year and I'm really enjoying getting a bit of freedom back in my life.
• Grandma Thompson is coming to visit for a few days as of tomorrow.  The plan is shopping (of course), maybe some furniture restoration (could be tricky), and hopefully lots of Christmas baking (yum!).
• I have officially accepted a new position with a company - so I am happily gainfully employed as of the end of this month.  I am soooo happy and excited about this opporutnity that it doesn't warrant being explained in this bullet - I'll write a post soon.

Happy early November friends & family!  We're loving the unseasonably ridiculously warm weather lately and hope it bodes for a mild winter.  Hope you're getting outside and enjoying it while you can, wherever you are.

xxoo.S