Archive for May, 2007

Yelling for mama

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been staying up late fairly often doing this and that on the computer with my blog or editing and captioning photos. Over the same period, I’ve been jolting from sleep if Reid wakes up and calls out. I was afraid that I was sleeping through the quiet calls and hearing her only when she was getting scared or whatever as her calls were loud as I finally reacted to them. A couple days ago, though, I’d fallen asleep with her about 5:00 am and was laying there drifting in and out of sleep when Reid all of a sudden yelled, “Mama! Mama!” This time I knew that she hadn’t fussed first but went straight to high volume. I guess I’ll be able to continue staying up late if I want. That’s good news as I’m getting behind on the photos again or maybe I should say “as always”.

May your self doubts be small ones that are resolved as easily as this one of mine was.

Teachable moment … Or not

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Last night at supper, Reid asked for a slice of bread cut into triangles. Of course I obliged. At one point, she mentioned how the one piece looked like a watermelon slice with its curved edge and point. I put two of the triangles together and she identified the diamond that resulted. Next, I rearranged them and showed her a parallelogram. Ken reached out and, quick as a flash, grabbed a bread triangle and stuck it to his forehead.  It seems I offended his sense of what was appropriate at the table ;+) Reid was very much amused by her daddy’s antics. In my defence she was interested in our shape discussion, too, though she didn’t grin or giggle for me. I love it when Ken is off the wall – he is very much the responsible grown up most of the time. And of course I love to watch their faces as they laugh together.

Books we read, May 31st

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

We read:

  • In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming;
  • Sing, Sophie! by Dayle Ann Dodds, I love hearing other people read this book but it’s not quite as fun as reading it myself;
  • Babybug November 2006;
  • Which Way to School? A Read and roll book;
  • Biscuit Loves Father’s Day by Alyssa Satin Capucilli;
  • Spot Goes to School by Eric Hill, a fun story although the teacher looks overly harsh when Spot is being silly;
  • Oh No! Train Can’t Go! by Heather Amery, Ken was a bit of a literary deconstructionist with this one – noting that the only sheep with black on his face was the one who was accused of leading the bad behaviour.

Why I love raising a kid in the 21st century

Monday, May 28th, 2007

1. I can send emails that tell Reid tales without worrying that the length of the story warrants the cost of the stamp and paper.
2. I can take a picture with my digital camera, upload it to a web site and people can look at it (or not) whenever it is convenient for them, without the time or cost of printing the picture or mailing/bringing it to you.
3. I can call my family on a cell phone from my car in the daycare parking lot.
4. My family members, who live 8.5 hours/800 km away, can watch Reid on the local affiliate station live on their tv via satellite.
5. If I try really hard, there is a chance that I’ll be able to figure out how to get the segment onto my computer.
6. I’m sure Ken will know how to record it onto a tape so that it will be with the other video be have of Reid.
7. There is also all that video (about 5-6 hours so far). We have home movies of me and my siblings but the cost of the equipment and media plus developing was so high that it is more limited.
8. I have pics of Reid on my Blackberry to show unsuspecting people who express an interest in her or I can look at them when I need to see her. (But they’re not current, which proves I can procrastinate in new tech as well as old).
9. I have pics of Reid on my iPod for the same reasons (also not as current as they should be) and videos for her to watch on long trips in the car. I listen to parenting podcasts for tips and to hear that other people’s lives are as crazy as mine.
10. We have video chats on the computer so that Reid can see Uncle Roge’, Auntie M, Danielle, Corry the Cat, Max Doggie-Dog and Grandma Joyce or whoever else turns up at Uncle Roge’s yellow house.
11. I have this blog to capture my thoughts about life with Reid.

I love raising a kid in the 21st century because I can share her with you and feel like we’re not as far apart as we are.

Reid’s new bike-a-sil

Friday, May 25th, 2007

On Saturday morning at the crack of dawn, but closer to 8 am, I took Reid out to look at yard sales for a bicycle. Of course, I didn’t mention it to her in case our search was fruitless, like my wagon hunt at the Great Glebe Garage Sale last year. I’d scoped out bikes at Canadian Tire on Friday and have to confess that 49 dollars was way more than I was willing to spend. There had been signs for a community yard sale in part of Orleans and, I thought, surely there will be signs to follow. There were signs, the first one was big and mentioned the name of the community sale. All of the others that I found were for individual sales. We drove by two yard sales before we saw “it”. It was shiny red with black and sat near the road. I rushed a confused Reid out of her seat and kept an eye on the road for people rushing up unencumbered by kids. As soon as I set Reid down, she made a bee line for the bike calling, “Look, Mama, a bike-a-sil!” over her shoulder. I pulled out a 20 to cover the cost and immediately carried the bike to the car while the guy got my change. Reid wanted to get in the car with her new bike but I insisted we look at the books (like we need any ;+), puzzles (ditto) and games since we were obviously at a place with kids just the right age. We found some books and puzzles. I wondered if Reid would say “yes” to anything I offered but she turned down a Blue’s Clues puzzle but accepted a map puzzle – just like her dad in that regard. Of course Reid wanted to ride the bike as soon as we left but I reminded her that we had places we needed to go. As we drove to Kindermusik and then Upper Canada Village, Reid stroked the bike’s seat. Once home again, I asked Ken to put the training wheels on. He did and so on Sunday morning, Reid was able to take her bike for a spin. Which she did. In the heavy drizzle, okay, if you weren’t two and riding your first bike you might have called it rain. Reid peddled some and pushed with her tippy toes, too. Both worked well enough to make her happy. Our driveway is surprisingly steep in its slope when you’re just learning to ride a bike. But to have a bike, that is such a great thing! Just ask Reid.

On the other hand

Friday, May 25th, 2007

As Ken and Reid were driving home Wednesday night, they were discussing the buses and trucks that they see, the colours of cars, where the vehicles were going, that sort of thing. Ken said, “On the other hand, we’re going home.” Reid perked up and asked, “Where is the other hand.” Ken never told me what his answer was but I’m sure it was a good one.

On the one hand, it’s going to be a scorcher today. On the other, well, it’ll be disgustingly humid, too. Stay cool.

Retro McDonalds

Thursday, May 24th, 2007

Has anyone got a Happy Meal from  McDonalds lately? The last one we got came in a box. Totally old school. Okay, okay, I can’t be sure that it looked like what they had when I was a kid but it wasn’t in a bag. The other exciting element is the toy theme – Shrek. Ken’s first reaction was “oh, great, the marketing machine continues” or something to that effect. Once he had a chance to experience the Shrek doll, though, he changed his tune. It says, “I’m an ogre!” And then he belches. Ken chuckled, Reid giggled and happiness reigned. After the third or fourth rendition, Reid exclaimed, “I looove it!” Shrek hasn’t come out to pay recently and I think only Ken will be allowed to play with it until it gets “lost”. It’s good to see Reid and Ken laughing together.

Curry and ketchup

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

Last night Ken made rice, chicken and cauliflower. (I planned the meal without thinking of all that whiteness ;+) As soon as Reid heard about the rice, she asked about curry. What a sad little face stared back at me when I told her “no”. We often have rice without curry but I guess Reid is craving it.

Just before waking this morning, Reid was fussing and saying what I thought was “no wakeup”. I was trying to calm her by saying that she could sleep some more. It didn’t soothe at all and she finally said, “just hambuder, take it off”. Ah, I thought, “no kekup”. I told her that she could have her hamburger plain and she settled down. When she awoke, I asked her if she remembered her ketchup dream and she perked up and said, “plain hambuder”. Then, she asked to eat a hamburger for breakfast. I agreed, thinking that there was a leftover hamburger in the fridge. Wrong. There I was frying a hamburger at 6:25 am. Reid ate it happily and I know her belly was full to fuel the running and jumping and playing, and surviving the hot, hot day that is on the way.

Bob the Builder comes to Ottawa

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

I noticed an advertisement in a local paper last week announcing that Bob the Builder would be appearing at a nearby mall. This is strange for a couple of reasons: first, I never looks at advertisements but I’m trying to change this behaviour because they often have this sort of information and also I try to stay away from the marketing machine that kids’ tv programming generally is. Toopy and Binoo must be Can-con (Canadian content), I figure since the only merchandise I’ve ever seen are French books in the Scholastic brochure. In any case, I asked Reid if she knew who Bob was and she said N (or someone) at daycare had a doll. That was good enough for me because I love live performances. We went early enough to get a picture of Reid standing in front of a giant poster of Bob the Builder and then took up our spot on the floor. We’d bought some M&M cookies and water from Subway and had a little snack while we waited.

Some guy named Marcus was the opening act. I think that he appears on Treehouse but we don’t watch it except for Toopy and Binoo and the occasional Roly Polie Olie. Marcus sang and danced around. He reminded me of a cross between Raffi and Robert Munsch. Reid seemed interested enough but wasn’t willing to dance or do the actions suggested. She is a bit shy at the beginning of each Kindermusik class, too.

Finally, Bob the Builder came out. There was some sort of a call-repeat with the “Can we build it?” – “Yes, we can.” And “Can we fix it?” – “Yes, we can.” Reid didn’t say a word. Many of the other kids, even those with Bob dolls and hard hats, were quiet, too. The parents, me included, called out the appropriate response . Reid watched everything intently but quietly until they were building the new sign and started holding letters up for identification. Reid couldn’t resist letters, she loves them too much and she called out their names. Within half an hour, it was over and we were on our way. Reid had much to say about Bob the Builder on our way home. She processes things and is quiet but she doesn’t miss much.

Is there a better way to kick off the first long weekend of the summer?

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

On Friday night after swimming lessons, I talked Ken into taking us to Dairy Queen. Well, I thought I was talking him into driving and I would pay but then I didn’t have my purse. We share money freely but I’m forever spending his cash and then he has none. As we drove, we were talking about ice cream cones and Reid said, “like daycare.” I was a bit deflated. I thought that I was offering a special treat but those daycare people seem to have beat me to the punch. Reid managed to eat her ice cream cone in her car seat making very little mess. I got some on my sleeve, though, while tucking a napkin into Reid’s shirt to protect it from drips. As we drove home, I was thinking that the evening boded well for the rest of the weekend. I’m superstitious that way when the portent is positive. When it’s negative, I try to think that things can only get better. :+)