June 7, 2007 by Barbara.

We read:

• One Rainy Day by Valeri Gorbachev, twice before breakfast, once per parent, though I am pretty sure only I knew that Reid had already had it read to her when Ken started. He will read just about anything she brings him, though he reserves the right to complain, but he much prefers the books with straight storylines rather than those which are heavily repetitious;
• Busy Witch by Bettina Paterson, a simple book about a little witch’s day but Reid keeps choosing it; and
• The Fire Station by Robert Munsch, what can I say? The fascination with firefighters continues.

At Melissa’s we read:

• Follow the Silver Trail by Keith Faulkner, an interesting book with a variety of animals looking for who has eaten their food but the ending is a bit weird with the snail saying something about not realizing it was someone else’s food he’d eaten but he was hungry. There was no real resolution of the dramatic tension but Reid didn’t seem to mind;
• What Will You Wear, Jenny Jenkins? The book is based on a traditional song that I vaguely knew but the line “And I’ll buy me a roldy-foldy, tildy-toldy …” tripped my tongue every time and made we wonder about the song because the second half of the “I can’t wear …” verse doesn’t make sense to me;
  Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs by Giles Andreae, which was a bit scary; and
• Good Morning, Sam by Marie-Louise Gay, which I liked even better than the one where Sam and Stella are at the seashore without an adult.

Back home, even though it was late, late at night, Reid sweet-talked Ken into:

• Yuck! Stuck in the Muck by Corinne Demas, with many words that end in “uck”; and
• The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton.

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June 7, 2007 by Barbara.

Reid and I went to the Fun Fair at Melissa’s kids’ school last night. Well, first, I tortured Reid by taking the hotdog (one of her favourite foods and one she doesn’t get at our house) and committed an act of sacrilige by cutting it lengthwise. Reid didn’t care that it would otherwise be a choking hazard and she wasn’t fooled by my slight of hand burying the cut in the bun. Oh, the inhumanity! She eventually pulled herself together, with the aid of a brief, unplanned and unusual of late, before bed nursing. The hotdog, naked in its bun, seemed okay once the horror of what I’d done had passed.

After supper, we went to the kids’ school for the annual Fun Fair. Reid was asking about the kids’ teachers as we drove over but to the best of my knowledge, we didn’t see any of them. Reid did have a chance to go fishing and caught a blue plastic bug. She was mildly impressed. Next we went to the lollipop garden, which seems the best gig at the fun fair. You choose a lollipop from rows on an inverted bow with holes poked in it and if there is a dot on the bottom of the stick, you get a prize. Either way, you get to keep the lollipop. Reid was delighted with her lollipop and was unaware that she didn’t “win” the game. I offered her the chance to go fishing again, since we still had 3 tickets, and got a firm, “no I want to fish” in response. We went to the Scholastic booksale in the school library. I think we were both surprised to see a wooden rocking chair near the front but only Reid tried it out. Reid picked up a book that  had a yellow sticky note on it to indicate that it could be ordered but not taken home immediately. I told we couldn’t take it home because it was the last copy. She next spotted a Strawberry Shortcake book and showed it to me.  When I told Reid we couldn’t take it because it, too, had a yellow sticky note she didn’t miss a beat before she peeled the sticker off of the cover and handed the book to me. The librarians and I laughed and I explained that the sticky note meant we couldn’t take it, even if it were removed. Reid traded a ticket with the pick-pocket lady and reached into a pocket and pulled out more than a handful of little trinkets. Again, I think this is a good thing to for the occasion since everyone gets something and the set up is limited to a longish jacket with patchwork squares sewn on. After an abortive attempt at the cake walk - they ran out of cakes before we got to the front of the line - we stood in line again for the lollipop garden. Again we were foiled but this time we waited many minutes, I don’t know *how* many but any waiting is long with a 2 year old, don’t you think? With two failed line-ups in our recent past, I decided we should join the queue of people waiting for cotton candy. The pick-pocket lady came by again and Reid spent her last ticket while we waited. After a bit, and before we got out treats, Ben came up to Peter and me and said that they had to go to the van because he’d been falsely accused of pushing his brother. Peter wisely sided with Melissa and they all went home. Since Reid and I hadn’t pushed anyone all night, we stayed to buy the cotton candy. What an unusual thing cotton candy is! We got one that was about twice the size of Reid’s head. She eyed it up and then decided to lick it. Well, she stuck her tongue out and it touched the cotton candy anyway. That approach worked well for her. When I suggested that she bite it, Reid did so but sputtered and looked concerned and then went back to licking. What fun! (Yes, I had some, too. With my sweet tooth, how could I not?)

We stopped at Melissa’s to drop off some cotton candy for her, since she hadn’t pushed anyone either and she was having a tough week. Reid got to bed very late but I hope she thinks it was worth it.

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June 7, 2007 by Barbara.

Dani over at Postcards from the Mothership has been having a rough time with childcare. First, she switched daycare providers when the situation wasn’t what she hoped for and then the “new and improved” provider decided that she couldn’t manage the kids after only two days. She wrote today that she has found a live-out nanny. I’m glad for her. I feel so lucky that Reid, Ken and I all like the teachers at Reid’s daycare and have been happy with the centre since she started. But today, while I washed Reid’s face while she yelled and thrashed and brushed her teeth while she wailed and then re-did her ponytail that had come undone during the stramash, I was wishing that I didn’t have to send Reid out to daycare. Not that she doesn’t like it or that I don’t like my job but at that point the time pressure of getting out the door was getting to me. I took time to hug her and calm her down, making Ken even later for work but I wanted to cry a bit myself. Poor me :+/ If we had a nanny, I could’ve left Reid with hair and teeth unbrushed and she wouldn’t have kissed me good bye with left over tears in her eyes.

When I pick her up tonight and she is smiling from a good day with her daycare friends, I’m sure that I’ll be the only one remembering this morning.

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