Maddie bits

We've taken to asking Maddie "are you a crazy girl?" ... because she indeed acts a little crazy every day. Here's a selection of her most recent adventures...

• She's obsessed with clementines (we call them Christmas oranges), we peel each section for her and she eats an entire orange with breakfast, after lunch, and after dinner. And if she happens to find one she can reach, she just starts eating it... PEEL AND ALL. Eww - gross.
• She knows her diaper genie stinks ... so when she's in her room she often goes over to it and waves her hand in front of her face (like we do, when we're telling her she's "stinky". I've caught her doing it a few times while playing too - and then I smell her bum - and yup, it's stinky. Does this mean she knows she's pooping? And if so, can we potty train her? ;)
• She knows the sign for drink, and knows how to say juice. But instead of using either of those, she just points and SCREAMS at the fridge until we give her a cup of juice as a snack.
• Because we have an evergreen tree in the front yard that she was obsessed with in the fall, and often wanted to "touch" (and I would tell her not to, as it was "ouch"), she now touches the fake Christmas tree we have, and says "ouch". Even though the needles are fabric (or plastic), and nothing in any kind of way is prickly about our tree, it's still "ouch".
• Also on the "ouch" bandwagon? The stove (well, this doesn't bother me, as it could be), her head when banging it on her crib bars, her fingers when she slams them in a cupboard door, and (for some reason) - snow!
• She likes tea. I know that's not crazy - but she's very very obsessed with my tea mug every chance she sees it.
• My purse is a new obsession. As is my new blackberry bold. Like seriously kid? Do you not have enough stuff? Can't I have a few things that aren't your playthings?
• Paper. Magazines. Letters. Christmas cards. Flyers. Newspapers. Random envelopes or old bills. They. All. Get. Torn. Up. She loves to tear paper. Thinking of returning all her presents and saving the money and just giving her a skid of photocopy paper (and boxes - yay!) to play with. She'd be just as happy I bet...

So that's it. Our house is in constant disarray. I don't know how anyone keeps their house tidy with a crazy toddler toddling about and wreaking havoc everywhere they turn...

Hope that gave you a giggle or two (at our expense) ... and if not - I'm sure THIS will...


xxoo.S

Clingy

We've entered a stage that I'm really not enjoying so far.  The "cling".  When we go to new places, when I drop her off at daycare, even certain times of the day when I just want to get stuff done around the house.  

She clings.  And whines.  And is generally miserable unless she sitting in my lap, or being held on my hip.  And if she gets to do that, well then she's just as happy as a clam.

Anyone else go through this?  I spent the first 2 months of daycare drop offs with a kid that barely looked back to say bye to me, and now I leave feeling guilty and horrible.  

xxoo.S

The cheesiest

That would be me, apparently.  

I've realized in the past couple of years that I'm one of maybe, a dozen people, that actually really enjoys Christmas music.  I love listening to it from about November 15th onward.  It makes me feel all warm and gushy inside.  I like listening to it when I'm wrapping presents.  I like listening to it when I'm baking cookies.  I like listening to it in a boat, on a moat, with a goat.

I used to apologize and roll my eyes in chagrin at myself, yes, I'm cheesy.  Yes, I know it's too early to be listening to the Love Actually soundtrack.  Yes, the Beach Boys are terrible...

Not anymore!  I stand by my stance that it's a lovely holiday, with lovely music of from all sorts of genres, and I like all (most) of it!

:)

xxoo.S

Weekend update

It felt like the weekend was never going to get here last week.  Both Seth and I kept thinking we were a day ahead (i.e. Wed felt like Thurs - you get the picture) - maybe had to do w/ the crazy weekend prior, or the Monday/Tuesday sick baby.

Anyways - we relaxed with a movie on Friday night (Wanted - not bad, def better than I thought it would be).  Saturday we cleaned the house, I bake cookies and Seth fixed the roof (well, assisted on fixing the roof - thanks again Dave!!!).  G&L came over to visit, and we all ate dinner before the "boys" headed back to Greg's to play some rockband.  Liz and I watched a terrible movie and random tv.

Wow - just rereading the above - my life is not that noteworthy anymore.  Unless I become a movie reviewer...

Anyways, Sunday was spent doing some more Christmas baking, and taking Maddie to get her pic with Santa.  Yeah, it didn't go well.  So now we have 8 wallet sized photos of my little girl SCREAMING her head off on Santa's lap.  Money well spent, I say.  I will scan one and post for you all to chuckle at.

That's all I've got folks.  Heading to bed now - up late these past two nights working, and then Maddie decides she wants to wake up several times throughout the night ... I am a walking zombie and it's only Monday?!?  

Yikes.  This working stuff is hard...

xxoo.S

We elfed ourselves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

3am!!!!!

Remember when I used to complain about getting no sleep? Oh wait - I've never stopped complaining about that.

Well last night really put its money where its mouth was ... she did her regular 11:30 wake up (or as we call it around here - the-within-15-mins-of-mommy-hitting-rem-stage-wakeup), and then the regular 3am wakeup.  Then I'm usually good to sleep until 7am.  Except not last night.  Looked like she was going back to sleep, but then a half hour later, she's crying again.  And rinse and repeat.  And rinse and repeat.  And...well, you get the picture.  

Fast-forward to 6am and it's quite obvious that she's not going to sleep.  So up we get.  And I feed her breakfast.  And I shuffle around like a zombie.  Until 8:30 when she starts throwing random toys and magnets (why magnets?  who knows) at me, at her stuffed animal friends, over the baby gate.  Just throwing.  Aggressive little beast.

So I'm like, hey - wanna go for a nap dude?  She's like, duh. 

I throw on some Bob, she goes down like a dream.  And it's what?  Noon?  Still sleeping.

Me?  Oh, I've done a bunch of work, a bunch of housework and am fighting sleep.  Because I know the minute I close my eyes and blissfully drift off?  That's when she'll wake up.  And that my friends, is just not worth it.

Or is it that I just don't want to give her the satisfaction?

xxoo.S

PS - happy Friday!  Hope you all have a good weekend - we're getting our roof fixed, having friends over for dinner, getting Maddie's pic w/ Santa, putting up the xmas lights and grocery shopping - but probably not all in that order...

Heartbreaking

Usually, during the daycare drop off dance, Maddie gives me a cursory glance as she scrambles out of her carseat (yes, we're still using the bucket - she's tiny!), and then runs off to the playroom to hang out with the other kids.

Grumpy, tired, happy, energized.  It's never really mattered.  She's never been that clingy.

Until today.

Don't get me wrong.  She didn't cling and cry and make me feel like a bad mom.  She just hovered. Hovered around my legs while I stood chatting with Alexise. Rebuffed the advances of the friendly 3 year old that is usually the one leading Maddie away from me, by the hand.

I didn't give in to the urge to make a big deal about it.  I just did what I always do, gave her a big hug and kiss, and told her to be a good girl and have a good day.  

Then I opened the door to leave.  As I'm shutting it, Maddie comes barreling towards the door. There's a long vertical window beside the door, which is what she pressed her face up to as she slowly (sadly?) clenched and unclenched her fist "bye bye". 

And that wasn't even what got me!  It was her big, brown, soulful eyes staring at me.  Not crying.  Not making a fuss.  Just looking at me like, "I'd rather be with you today Mommy."

Me too, bubs.  Me too...

xxoo.S

Oh Roseola!

It's been a whirlwind week and a bit.  I started the new gig officially last Monday and when you're working from home, it's a bit strange to start a new job, as you kind of live in la-la land for the first few days.  Add to the confusion a daycare provider unavailable for periods of a few days due to appointments and a teething baby, it's lots of fun.

Grandma Vallier came up as of Wed afternoon to help watch Maddie through the crazy week - while I had meetings and work schedules that I was trying to figure out.  Grandpa and Grandma Burke showed up for a visit on Thursday afternoon, dropping off Christmas presents and taking us all out to dinner.

That night (Thurs) Maddie didn't sleep well and felt warm to me.  The next day I headed into work for the full day and she hung out with Grandma Vallier.  She apparently seemed fine all day, but felt warm at one point again.  Figuring it was just teething, I didn't worry too much about it.  That night, at Maddie's bedtime we headed down to Kingston as we had the Xmas dinner with Seth's extended family on Saturday afternoon.  

Saturday morning saw Maddie definitely not feeling well, very tired, cranky, not hungry and still running a bit of a fever.  We kept up our hectic pace though, as I still just thought it was teething... 

After a crazy Saturday night where she wouldn't sleep at all unless tucked up beside me, and running a fever of 39.2, we headed down to the hospital to get her checked out.  They did the regular checks, and also did a catheter (DON'T recommend this on a 13 month old, at least I don't recommend having to be in the room while it happens) to check whether it was a UTI.  They didn't find anything, so we were told to monitor her fever and take her to the doctor at home if it didn't drop in the next day or so.

So we headed back home, on a long long drive where we had to stop a few times to change a diarrhea diaper, try to feed a cranky baby and bathroom breaks for the adults.  4 (!!!) hours later we were home.  The rest of the day was a nightmare as we dealt with a cranky-ass toddler and two sleep-deprived, cranky-ass parents.

Monday we kept Maddie out of daycare and took shifts on watching her - me in the morning, Seth coming home early from work to watch her in the afternoon.  The fever had broken and she was doing a little better.  Still very sucky.  Still not eating/drinking much.  Still very weak and wobbly on her legs.  But better than the past few days.

So we sent her to daycare today (Tuesday).  I knew she wasn't 100% but we both had work commitments we had to keep.  And then I get the call.  From daycare.  Around noon.  I looked at the phone, say the daycare provider's number and thought, shiiiiiiiiiiit, what's happened?

Apparently Maddie had developed a rash all over her belly, back, face and neck.  Weird right?  I couldn't think of any allergic reaction she could be having, so I googled "baby fever rash".  And low and behold, a million pages come up about "Roseola".  Apparently very common, it's a viral thing that babies under the age of 3 can get - sudden high fever, accompanied by low appetite, lethargy and irritability (check, check, and double check!).  Then once the fever breaks, a rash shows up for a few hours to a few days.

So there we have it.  A reason for the fever.   A reason for the cranky, non-eating baby.  Where she got it?  Have no idea.  How long she'll have it for?  No clue - the rash is still there.  Will she be back to her old self soon?  God, I hope so...

xxoo.S

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