Archive for December, 2006

Reid goes to work

Friday, December 29th, 2006

I hope that no one will take the following to suggest that you don’t get youir tax dollar’s worth from me but if you start to think that way, let me point out that I frequently check and respond to emails from home …

I took Reid with me to work last Friday for a Christmas party and then to see my cube. (I don’t work in the same building as most of the people in my branch.) There were about 15 or so kids plus attendant adults in the big boss’ boardroom.  It was too cute to see all the little people colouring and gluing while sitting in the chairs around the big wooden table. Reid ws entranced by the video that was playing on the wall. (She has never seen *Lady and the Tramp* before and probably won’t again for some time. I’m such a crusader.) She was having such fun watching and colouring that when I wanted to use the bathroom, she refused to go with me. I asked a woman who used to work with me at TC to keep an eye on Reid and then left. Reid didn’t seem to notice my absence. This is a big deal as she is sometimes shy around strangers. Santa came and gave kids presents. Reid didn’t want to sit on his lap but she did accept the matching teddy bears game he gave her. Once Santa left, we cleaned up our area and headed downtown to see my office. Reid fell asleep on the drive and was a bit cranky at having to get out of the car but since I had forgotten to bring the cash and snowits that we had collected for The Snowsuit Fund, we had to go up. I’m not sure she would have been impressed with my cubicle, in any case, especially having seen Ken’s office earlier in the week. His office is bigger and has both a door and a window while mine has neither. Reid was friendly but tentative when meeting my manager and the guys who work for me. They all seemed pleased to have met her (of course :+) and since they hear lots of Reid stories, it was probably good to have a face to go with the name.

We made a stop at The Snowsuit Fund offices on the way home. I felt blessed not to need to go there in order for Reid to be warm and I hope she understood a bit of what I said about us sharing the snowsuits with kids whose parents can’t get them.

Then, it was time to go home, load the car and head for Wheatley. Did anyone say, “and time for the freezing rain to start”? Of course, it did start …

A big girl now

Thursday, December 28th, 2006

Of course, I have lots of Christmas stories but I have time for a quick, unrelated one. While at Grandma Joyce’s, Reid was starting to prefer using the toilet rather than a potty chair. On Tuesday night, when she insisted on using the toilet at our house, I asked her why. She told me, matter of factly, “My a big dirl now.” There you have it. She is a big girl now. My easy days of getting us both through a potty break quickly are over. The days of me dancing while waiting for Reid to finish have just begun. ;+)

Ginnerbread house

Thursday, December 21st, 2006

Reid’s cold continues to play havoc with her appetite and tolerance for interruption, including stopping for supper. She refused curry last night! Shocking is what it was but we went along with it. After Ken and I were done our supper, I got out the gingerbread house that Reid and I had assembled on Tuesday and the candy we needed to decorate it. Reid was excited to see all of the candy and the “tookie” house on the table. She didn’t manage to get a single candy stuck on before popping a real-fruit-juice gummy bear into her mouth (it was almost healthy ;+) After the third sneaking, and really she isn’t that sneaky, we stopped decorating while Reid ate a whole bunch of green beans. With the beans in her belly, she was able to focus on sticking lots of candies to the “ginnerbread” house after I put icing “blue” (aka glue) onto them. Midway through our project, while Ken was still cleaning up the supper mess, Aunty Amanda dropped by to exchange presents. We invited her to join us, which she did, while Ken escaped upstairs. At first I was teasing Amanda that I wasn’t going to let her have any icing. Reid piped up and said sternly, “My mommy share Aunty Amanda”. How could I not? Our gingerbread house is fortified with candies, lots and lots of candies. If there is room in the car, we’ll have to bring it to Wheatley so that we don’t eat it all ourselves (’cause I would, you know).

Definitely not ready to go nap-free

Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

Well, if there was any doubt whether Reid was ready to give up her afternoon nap, this weekend put the answer firmly as “needs nap”. This is a good thing because the Day Nurseries Act requires a nap for all kids in daycare but since other people talked about their kids not napping after two, I wondered.

In any case, Reid’s 25-minute mini nap (not power nap, as it turned out) on Saturday set the stage for a perfect storm of a bad night out. I wasn’t worried because we planned to go to Morrisburg and figured Reid would sleep the hour-plus in the car on the way there. Well, she didn’t and so at the one hour mark, we stopped for her to use the potty and then forced our bored and tired kid back into her car seat. We were late getting to Upper Canada Village for our carefully planned supper and visit for “Alight at Night.” I sent Ken to buy tickets for the train while I got Reid into the stroller and went for the admission tickets. Reid has been strongly anti-footwear at home lately, not wanting socks or slippers on and usually waiting until we get to our destination to put on her boots. Well, she decided that boots were an affront to her dignity and kicked them off as fast as I could get them on. I knew she was tired and so was I since my nap was cancelled when hers was abbreviated and so I didn’t feel like it was a fair battle – not fair to either of us. When I finally prevailed, we started to the admissions booth only to be greeted by Ken who said that the line ups were long. We joined a line and I went in to buy Reid a hotdog and fries since we were going to miss our reservation completely. She turned down my offering without hesitation, like she had forgotten that hotdogs are one of her favourite foods. When she refused to put on her snow pants and flailed and yelled as I tried to do so without her cooperation (did I mention the long lines of people waiting to buy tickets with nothing else to look at), I told Ken that we should go to the car and try to get her to eat a bit and dress properly before trying the line. She still refused supper and her outdoor gear and so to give her (and me) a bit of time, I went to the bathroom. When I came back, she was still yelling, only now it was for me. She  agreed to put her stuff on but balked when we tried to get her out of the stroller and onto the train. We headed back to the admissions line, which was longer even than the first time. After 20 minutes with a cranky girl, when she cried because the train went out of sight, I decided I’d best pull the plug on our adventure. I turned to Ken for his opinion but he wasn’t willing to comment since attending a Christmas lights display would never have been his choice and he didn’t want to be the Grinch. Reid cried out in a sad little voice, “ride train” a few times as we left but was asleep after only 15 minutes in the car, at 6:30. Reid woke only slightly when we got home and slept through til nearly 7:00 Sunday morning. Impressive for my point of view, was that she didn’t use the potty from 4:50 pm until 7:00 am. I definitely couldn’t go that long! So, my fascination with bathroom stories continues. :+)

Hanging with Reid

Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

I kept Reid home from daycare yesterday. She has a cough that sounds like it is coming from her toes and she had a rough night’s sleep. Under the daycare rules, she could probably have attended although they do have something about “sever coughs” and “participating fully” in the manual. We took Ken to work, w7ent out for breakfast (of course, we did, you knew that was coming) and then went to the mall to pick up some stocking stuffers. Reid decided that she wanted to see Santa – to my surprise – and she went right up on the stage without coaxing. She gave Santa a high five and talked to him about the characters on the colouring book he gave to her, all without turning to face the camera. The nice lady who had taken my money gave it back with a smile and then we left. We had a web video conference with Uncle Roger, Danielle and Lee-Lee (Kailee) before lunch and Reid actually told them about seeing Santa. She isn’t always forthcoming when asked what she has been doing and as I’ve mentioned she isn’t always accurate but this time she was both. We ate lunch, or at least I did. Reid’s appetite has been affected by her cold.  We also assembled our gingerbread house – a task that went much more smoothly than I had expected. We each had a nice long nap (I was a bit worried after the weekend’s experiences) before looking at eight months of photos to get prepared for writing our Christmas letter.

Note to readers: If I have missed any visits that any of you made, I have to blame it on the fact that I must not have gotten a picture and my memory is so bad that I can’t remember without assistance.

We went in to see Ken’s new office, which is just down the hall from his old office, and say “hello” to the people he works with. Reid was most impressed with the water fountain in the hall but I thought the office was nice – he has walls that go to the ceiling and a door while I work in a cubicle. We went to the mall on the way home for Ken to get his hair cut, a process Reid found facinating. “Daddy hair floor!” she kept saying in a surprised and excited tone. In retrospect we probably should have talked about how only special people are allowed to but hair, given the interest she expressed. I finally talked Reid into leaving Daddy in peace while we chose candy for the gingerbread house. I bought a kit but most of the candies were choke-hazards for Reid (which I should have notice but didn’t ;+). Reid loved using the shovels in the bins at the bulk food store and we came home with enough that there might even be some left over for snacking.

Well, recounting our day makes it seem busier than it felt. I think Reid was recharged and so was I.

Movin’ on up

Monday, December 18th, 2006

I think I only watched “The Jeffersons” because Roger made me. That’s my story anyway and I am sticking to it. The theme song is in my head now and again and it is apt for this note.

There was a note in Reid’s cubby on Friday to say that as of January 2nd, Reid would be in the Junior Preschool class. This means a move to the other building, the big playstructures every day (not just when I’m late getting there), 1 teacher for every 8 kids and a fee decrease thanks to the new ratio. I personally can’t imagine being in a room with that many kids and that few adults, especially since being trained is not a pre-requisite to moving up. In fact, it’s an age and space thing. The class is made up of kids who are two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half (approximately). Basil, who started with Reid, will be changing classes the same day. She will like that. She has been talking about him a lot lately. I think Lexsie’s mom has been keeping Lexsie at home more as they get closer to the point that she won’t be coming at all. I wonder if Reid will remember Lexsie when she comes back next fall. In any case, Reid knows some of the kids in the new class since they used to be in the Toddler Room and she will have Basil. The routine seems to be mostly the same as well. Ken and I will have to meet new teachers and that is kind of scary.

The big performance

Monday, December 18th, 2006

Reid’s class and teachers have been working for a couple weeks to prepare for their circle performance on Friday. Basically, all of the classes at daycare gather in the Toddler Room and each performs a couple of songs. Reid’s class is doing “I’m a big Christmas tree” (tune of “I’m a little teapot”) and “Where is Santa?” (tune of “Finger Family”). I think that we might be able to try and show you the latter the next time we see you or maybe on a video but the Christmas tree song doesn’t work with the tune that goes through my head and given my appalling lack of musical sense, that isn’t so surprising.

The teachers didn’t get the performance on video. Tammy said that they were too busy and that is easy to believe. Karen said she was laughing so hard that the tears were running down her face but that the kids did a really good job with their songs.

I wish I had been able to go to the performance but parents weren’t invited. Given privacy concerns and all the legal stuff, I’m not surprised.

Potty tales again

Thursday, December 14th, 2006

I was looking at a new parenting site, www.babble.com, the other day and read a posting that defined things that change when you become a parent. One of the things mentioned was talking about poop. That is not the subject of this email but it was true none-the-less.  We have had a few potty issues lately. Reid increasingly wants to use the toilet instead of her potty chairs. This is problematic since I usually say, “Hey Reid, do you have to go potty?” on my way to the bathroom because *I* have to go. If she takes the toilet, I’m left dancing in the doorway or heading for another bathroom. I take back every snarky comment about new houses having as many bathrooms as bedrooms.

Last night when I got home I practically knocked Reid over on my way to the bathroom. I had enjoyed an extra large tea (a Venti Calm, I you speak Starbucks :+) on my way to get Reid from daycare and didn’t have time to wait for her to get her coat off and couldn imagine what I would do if she wanted to use the toilet.  I think I may have asked her if she had to go after supper but all of a sudden in Chapters, she looked at me with panic on her face and pee running down her legs. I grabbed her up and took her to the bathroom. Her pants were soaked, her socks were wet and I had to dump a bit of pee from her boots. Thankfully, we had the stroller and there was a too-small and somewhat wore-for-wear Dora pull-up in the pocket (Ken hassles me sometimes about all of the stuff that rides around with us but I was vindicated last night!) Unfortunately, there was no spare pair of pants and about the only thing Chapters doesn’t sell yet are toddler pants. I wrapped my coat around Reid’s legs and we went to check the carpet where she had been standing. I couldn’t find a spot and so I left to find Ken without saying anything. I’m hoping the pee was confined to the pants and boots and if it wasn’t, I hope they think it was something from Starbucks. As we walked quickly home – have I mentioned we are happily enjoying unseasonanly warm weather – Ken and I talked to Reid about needing to give us warning but we have to remind her to go when she is busy and we both know it.

This morning when I was waking her up she was having a restless dream involving toilet paper. I waited to wake her to be sure that she had, in fact, said “toilet paper” and she said it again. Hmm, what would the dream analysis bokks have to say about that?

If Amanda is “Aunty Amanda”, is her mom “Great Aunt Jane”

Thursday, December 14th, 2006

We went to Amanda’s for supper Tuesday night, thanks to my shameless hinting for an invite. Amanda’s mom is in town visiting and she is definitely an honourary aunt in Reid’s life. As I was talking up “Aunt Jane” on the ride over, Ken kept correcting me and saying “Great-Aunt Jane”. I’m not sure that the rules of honorary auntness require generations be separated and also think that the “great” makes one seem unnecessarily old. (Especially since I would qualify as a great-aunt twice over). In any case, Reid basked in the glow of their attention and we all had a nice visit. Jane gave Reid a musical Christmas card which overshadowed a bit the CDs and books she also received.

Again with the rocking chairs

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

Reid has decided that Ken’s green recliner (which rocks if you don’t have the foot rest out) is her rocking chair. She will, bold as can be, ask him to get out of it if he is sitting there. Sometimes she demands he move. Shocking! Reid will try and convince him to share the chair but she wants to sit side-by-side and that just isn’t physically possible although she keeps proposing it. At times she will also suggest that he sit on her lap. I think of it as a small dog thinking that it’s big. In the end, he puts her on his lap and she snuggles into the crook in arm and remembers that he is a good cuddler.