Karin was telling a story last night that shows Reid doesn’t just love yellow, she adores and reveres it. Reid “took” Aunt Karin to the park yesterday and while they were there, they saw a school bus parked nearby. Karin took Reid over to see it up close and she actually *touched* it. Karin said that as Reid touched the door of the bus she looked at her with an awe-struck look on her face. In the afternoon, they went for a walk to the mall and on the way home home, Reid pushed the stroller over yellow speed bumps which was fun, because they were yellow. She also sat on the edge on the sidewalk and ever-so-gently rubbed the yellow paint along the edge – and then checked to see if she were lucky enough to have got any on her hand. Sadly, she didn’t. I guess yellow fingerpainting will be on the agenda tonight. The house will seem awfully quiet without the hum of Grandma Joyce sewing and Aunt Karin being silly with Reid. Fortunately, Amanda will be over and so we won’t go cold turkey with no entertainment.
Archive for November, 2006
Pizza!
Friday, November 3rd, 2006Within ours of writing about the things I needed to confess to, I came across another. Grandma Joyce and Aunt Karin have come for a visit but they arrived at supper time and so I ordered pizza, a combination for them and an Hawaiian for Reid and me. A few minutes after I ordered, I got a call from Nicky’s Pizza. The man at the other end of the line explained that they were really busy and the driver had taken the order. He was concerned that the man had written down “combination” instead of “Nicky’s special”. I had to explain that Ken was away and so we didn’t need the Nicky’s Special this time but I thanked him for calling to check. And they say the service industry doesn’t care about it’s clients! (And maybe, you think, we order pizza too often :+)
Confessions of a mom
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006I was reading a blog this week that contained a few “confessions” from the author and some from the readers. It was interesting to see that people were confessing to things I didn’t know were “sins”, like not bathing kids everyday or not forcing them to eat all of the food on their plates. I am “guilty” in both counts. My favourite was from the woman who said that she should have asked the waitresses at a local restaurant to be her kids godparents since they saw them so often. It made me smile and think how pleased Didi and the one busgirl were that Reid wore her chicken costume (only the coat) to breakfast on Sunday. I don’t allow her to drink coffee from Starbucks but she certainly knows that she’ll get ice water (the ice is what makes it special) and a cookie when we go there and I let her share my tea and coffee, rationalizing that they’re decaf (and what kid shouldn’t learn to drink tea?). She doesn’t eat chicken nuggets most days of the week – or any days of the week for that matter – but I do give her cheese more than is recommended for an adult. I would confess that I sleep with Reid part of each night or that I still nurse her but I don’t think either of those things is a “sin”. It’s hard to think what I should confess but I’ll share three:
1. Until the time change, Reid ate breakfast in the car, if we fed her at all on daycare days. Thank goodness daycare has “morning snack” at 8:00 am.
2. Reid tries to wipe your bottom if she is in the bathroom with you and then she likes to see what you have done and comment on what’s there.
3. I don’t make Reid put her hat and mitts on when we run from the car to the mall even when it is cold. I thought I was teaching her that she *needed* them but it turns out I was failing in my duties as a mom. I know that now because a woman in the grocery store parking lot told me, “It’s called discipline!” when I said Reid didn’t want her hat on.)
So, does anyone want to confess to mama or daddy sins?
Have a great night either way.
Swimming lesson success
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006We had more fun at swimming lessons last night thanks to a trip to the pool on Sunday. Reid was comfortable enough to participate right from the beginning, which was good since we started by discussing our costumes (two chickens, a frog, a bear, a cow, and a dinosaur) and then making the sounds their animals make. Interestingly enough, cows don’t sound the same in French as they in English. Our teacher had us play a sort of hybrid between follow the leader and Simon says where each kid got to decide what the class did while we went around in a circle. We blew bubbles, “floated” the kids on their backs, “swam” them on their fronts, spun them in circles and more. It was fun because:
1. the kids had no idea when they were leading;
2. the parents near the end of the line (like me) had a bit of panic in their eyes trying to figure out something novel for the class to do;
3. the kids don’t actually do much for themselves other than blow bubbles – we parents drag them through the water in various positions for the most part; and
4. the teacher pretending my first three points aren’t true makes the class interesting for the adults and that makes the class better for the kids.
It was time to register for the next session last night and I was trying to figure out if we counld get in Monkey’s class again but he doesn’t know when he is teaching. Drat! They do that so parents don’t follow a particular teacher, I guess but he’s been so good!
Reid’s Hallowe’en adventures
Wednesday, November 1st, 2006Reid wore her chicken costume to daycare yesterday and came home with the pants still on. I imagine she was pretty toasty but she must not have complained. It was a fight to get her to take the pants off when she got home but her eating skills are such that they had to come off. (Okay, I would have had to take my costume off, too, so she comes my her eating skills honestly ;+)
When it was time for trick or treating, Reid eagerly got her costume on. We lit the candle in her jack o’lantern – Brazilian forest scented from the Shopper’s around the corner from my office. They also had bags of 20 or more tea lights but I wasn’t sure how safe they’d be for a two year old and we really don’t need 20 plus more things to keep track of for a year. (The smell of the pumpkin “cooking” made my mouth water for pumpkin pie, but I digress ;+) Reid spent quite a bit of time staring at her jack o’lantern. Once Daddy was able to man the candy dish, Reid and I headed across the street. We got to the end of one driveway before she balked and halfway up another before she announced, “home” and headed that way.
We sat on the porch and tried to entice kids to walk up our sidewalk. It’s tough when only 2 of the 6 townhouses in our “cluster” had lights on (including us). Many more just stuck to the other side of the street. Reid was calling out, “‘mon kids” (come on) and “‘nother one kid” because she liked seeing the others in costume. The fellow across the street came over to see us. He said, “I saw the chicken from across the street and had to come.” He brought Reid candy, even. Over the course of the evening Ken and he chatted a bit, even introduced themselves (it’s been 5 years afterall :+) and that was nice.
After a while, we went out to see three little kids in a wagon and then she wanted to follow where they’d gone. We went up to a door, got treats, and Reid was hooked! “‘Mon, mama” she said and headed for next house. After a few successful encounters, she finally said “Trick or treat”. She said “bye” every time, sometimes managed “thank you” but smiled enchantingly (or so I think) every time . The neighbours liked “chicken little”, especially since by the time we got out there were lots of bigs kids with questionable, if any costumes, carrying garbage bags.
When we got back home, Reid didn’t even try to eat any of her candy. I whisked her upstairs to make her “Happy Hallowe’en” message and then I put her to bed. Reid’s *Daddy* didn’t forget about the candy, though, and checked out her loot. It seems that our neighbours gave out the same boring stuff we did. Sigh ;+) okay, I confess, I ate two bags of Cheetos because I couldn’t find any at the grocery store.
Reid read *me* a story
Wednesday, November 1st, 2006I picked Reid up from daycare on Monday. As usual, Reid nursed and then “drove” the car a bit and wasn’t keen to get into her car seat. She spotted the book, “Dinosaur’s Binkit” by Sandra Boynton on the passenger seat with the other treasures from my trip to the libarary. I gave her the book once she was in her seat – is it a bribe if I was going to give it to her anyway? – and I started driving home. Reid was excited to see the book (we’ve had it from the library before) and wanted me to read it immediately. Well, that didn’t seem safe to do while driving despite what I’ve seen other drivers doing and so I told her that she’d have to read it. Soon, I heard words that told the general bits of the story plus other words I couldn’t make out. The coolest thing was that she had the rhythm of the story right. It starts out cajoling the dinosaur to come to bed, gets a bit more insistenet and then excited “My binkit!” when it is found and, finally, it is soft when dinosaur is wished “night, night” as he dreams under his blanket. She knew the main words and what inflection to give them. I was impressed. Ken and I so want to share our love of reading with her.