December 21, 2006 by Barbara.

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).

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December 14, 2006 by Barbara.

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.

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November 23, 2006 by Barbara.

Some of you will know that I am obsessing a bit about finding a train set for Reid for Christmas. She loves to play with the trains at Chapters, especially the yellow one. Since I have trouble going to Chapters without buying anything, and really how often can we go, I want to get her some trains of her own. I was asking Karen at daycare if they have a train and does Reid play with it. Karen said that Reid will play with the train, trucks and cars sometimes but that she mostly plays in the “house” area. This part of the room always has babies and dollies and then also has a rotation of kitchen equipment, grocery shopping stuff, baby bath tubs, etc. I mentioned that Reid hasn’t been playing with her babies and dollies at home as much lately and Karen asked if we had bottles and doll beds, and that sort of thing. We have blankets and doll clothes but no furniture. I can’t quite get my head around bottles. I nursed Reid and I guess I think she can do the same for her babies. (Oh come on, you all know I’m a bit of a radical when it comes to nursing. :+)

When Amanda came for dinner as she usually does on Tuesdays, I described my conversation to her. I can’t remember if I told her before or after she convinced Reid that the naked dollies were cold and they set to work finding clothes and diapers. It’s good that Reid has a woman without the psychological baggage I have to play with dolls with her. I keep hearing Nancy White’s song that says, “daughters of feminists like to wear pink, frilly dresses and play with their Barbies all day.” I’m up to the challenge, though. I can do it!

If anyone is speaking with Santa, Reid would like doll accessories for Christmas.

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October 8, 2006 by Barbara.

Aunty Amanda was over for supper on Thursday night and brought wee little chocolate cakes for dessert. In keeping with the “wee little”, we got Reid’s minature tea pot and cup and saucer out, too. Grandma Joyce had suggested using a towel for a table cloth as Reid perfected her pouring technique - she has to remember to hold the lid on. I remembered the advice as I was wiping up the cider that was posing as tea. After the second potfull, I realized that the trick was to put only as much juice into the teapot as would fit into Reid’s cup as she doesn’t stop pouring til the teapot is empty. Since I’d learned that lesson, Reid had to change the rules and so decided that she should be the one to pour the cider from the bottle into the teapot. Boy, was I glad I’d run to get the towel/table cloth before the second pot of tea was poured! With her tea cup and mini cake she looked just like a proper lady (if proper ladies pick up entire cakes and take little bites off them ;+)

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September 9, 2006 by Barbara.

We started Labour Day by labouring. Reid and I got some chees bread started - I don’t think I have baked bread since Reid was born. She is becoming an expert ingredient-adder and her stirring technique is developing nicely. While our dough was rising, we picked up on Ken’s lead (he was cleaning out the coat closet) and tackled the cupboards on either side of the sink. They’re so narrow and deep they’re a bit of a nightmare and getting something from the end is a challennge. Or it was without a toddler in the house. Reid was only too happy to crawl all of the way into the cupboard where we keep big Tupperware and haul stuff out. To think all along the door had a safety latch on it and she couldn’t get in! I managed to identify some things to give away, some containers of Mom’s to return (oh you know you have some, too, Chris/Pam/Roger/Karin ;+) and some stuff I’m not sure why we ever put them anywhere but the garbage.By the time we got everything put away, it was time to knead the dough. Reid liked the texture, the bounciness of the dough and the smell, I think. She tried to get a taste but I tried to discourage her. Who knows if I was successful :+? We started some Sourdough Starter while our bread baked. I’ll have to remember to check it tonight to see if it worked.

After naptime, we went apple picking at the orchard behind Reid’s daycare. As we walked down the lane to the trees, Reid was holding our hands. She was running and so Ken and I had to walk faster. Apparently we didn’t walk fast enough because she dropped our hands and ran ahead. I’d tried to talk Ken into getting a pole with a basket-thing to pick the high-up apples. He said, “no”. When we got to the trees, he put Reid on his shoulders and they were able to reach many apples. (It shows how your world outlook is shaped by your reality. I’m short and think like a short person while he is practically a giant :+) Reid loved picking apples! She kept saying, “‘nother one apple, Daddy” and pointing to the place she wanted to go next. When he’d set her down, she would drag the bag of apples we picked, even though she was practically parallel to the ground with the effort of pulling. We picked too many apples. I need to bake up a storm so that we’ll need to go again. Maybe I should set up a stand in front of our house so that Reid could sell apples she picked. That way, she would get to pick more and play with money (and she loves to play with money!)

I know that some of you may have wondered if I would take a photo of anything as long as Reid was in the photo - here is Reid with her first portapotty.

Since it was a long weekend, I was jonesing for a Starbucks tea and took Reid to get Amanda and a tea and then we played at the park by Amanda’s house. It has pretty good equipment - different structure, even a hand pump and series of troughs. There were big kids at it and so we’ll have to file the memory away for next summer. Reid is so much braver than I expect her to be. She climber up the big steps and went to the big, unfamiliar slide right away. She also has a bit of “small dog who doesn’t know it’s small” syndrome. There were some kids who were at least 8 or 9 and Reid was sure she should be allowed to go play with the sand-throwing, rowdy, rule breakers. Mama disagreed. I helped her slide across on this thing they’re suppposed to hang from and swing from one end to the other. She liked doing that over and over until I felt her slipping and so shifted her weight to make her safer - and bashed her face into the metal handgrip. She had a bit of a bump and some blue bruising but nothing like I was afraid would happen.

I made a fabulous supper (though I don’t recall what right now) but Reid wasn’t interested. We went outside and picked some cherry tomatoes. Reid ate them as fast as she could pick them, even some that were not quite ripe. Maybe she has been listening to “raw food” stories on CBC when I thought she was just playing. Just before bedtime, we spoke with Uncle Roger, Auntie M (Merri-Lynn) and Danielle via Skype (a video phone call over the computer - Voice Over IP, if you want to sound hip). At the end of the call, I suggested that Reid should give them kisses, meaning blow them some kisses. Reid leaned up to the screen and kissed their faces on the screen. It’s too bad they couldn’t see her but at least they could hear the smacks.

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September 8, 2006 by Barbara.

It’s funny how fast something becomes a habbit.

I should start by telling you that Melissa and Amanda life relatively close to one another and that Reid know this and so asks about each of them when we’re in that part of town. She also has decided that she doesn’t see Amanda enough lately.

So anyway, the last few of weeks as soon as we get in the car to drive home Reid asks to call Amanda. Actually she demands, in a loud voice that brooks no disagreement, “Phlone Aunty Amanda” until I dial Amanda’s number. I think I let Reid call one night when she was fussing to go see Amanda and now it’s a habit. Once she has called Amanda, Reid chooses someone else to call (I guess she is on a roll). Often it’s Daddy at the museum or Aunt Kanon (aka Karin) or Grandma. It’s funny to see her in her car seat with a cell phone. I’ll have to take a photo one day.

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