Melissa invited us for supper and a swim last night. Reid and I accepted but Ken stayed behind to clean his office, swimming really isn’t his favourite activity. Once we were poolside, Reid put on her lifejacket by herself and then grudgingly decided I could do up the buckles. She spent some time sitting on the steps but was soon propelling herself around the pool. It was surprising how bold she was and how quickly she learned how to twist her body to flip from her back to her front. I imagine it takes quite a bit of strength since the life jacket is designed to flip her onto her back. Reid didn’t like being on her back, though. I still got a few holding-on-for-dear-life hugs while we were in the pool but I was also kicked off the pool noodle that we were riding like a horse. Reid’s “diddy up, diddy up” and great big smile, filled with pride in her accomplishment, made up for the pool noodle. Now we have to continue to watch her like a hawk because she still gets water in her mouth when she swims around and she is bold. Just what I said I wasn’t sad to be missing.
Archive for the ‘Melissa and Peter’ Category
Swimming in the sun
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007A fun, Fun Fair
Thursday, June 7th, 2007Reid 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.
Pancakes, who wants pancakes?
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007Reid and I joined Melissa’s family and Aunty Amanda for “Pancake Tuesdsay” at Melissa’s church last night. As we drove there, Reid had told me that she wasn’t eating pancakes but since she was telling me that she wasn’t doing anything I wanted in response to my insistence on walking directly to the car instead of circumnavigating the parking lot as is her preference. As we got in the buffet line, I told her she needed to hand the lady her plate in order to her share of the pancakes. “No want pancakes, Mama,” she said and walked down the table to the melons that she spied at the other end. The church lady overseeing the melons was reluctant to give Reid four pieces until I pointed to the empty plate I held. So, Reid ate melons for supper. Some Mardi Gras partier she is, eh? I, of course, had pancakes, sausage and brown beans (even the anglo, Anglican churches have beans with pancakes here). I brought myself a couple pieces of watermelon, too, but Reid apprehended them. She nabbed a couple pieces of sausage from my plate as well. I guess she was entitled.
Well, it’s reheated Aunt Karin-lasagna for supper tonight and so I’m looking forward to my evening meal. I hope you have something just as nice.
I told you so
Friday, February 16th, 2007Last night at Melissa’s, Reid wouldn’t eat her supper. Melissa cooks generally the same sort of foods that I do but Reid is often too busy or too interested in the other toys or maybe the slight differences are distracting. In any case, this is not unusual. She will often eat bread and veggies but last night Melissa had a baguette, which is a treat for her family but Reid prefers Melissa’s white bread. Reid had eaten peppers and cauliflower on the way from daycare and then only one piece of the baguette but since the crust to non-crust ratio is unfavourable she stopped there. She drank some millk, too. Reid came be pretty stubborn. Me, too, and so I didn’t offer her an alternate supper. Am I a bad mama?
Reid slept poorly and was up at 4:45 insisting it was “waking up time.” I tried to convince her she was wrong but she cried and so we got up. I offered her crackers and she gobbled a few up. When she first got up Reid had told me, “My sick” but I think it was the supper-skipping and inadequate sleep. She perked up and by the time I was done showering Reid and Ken were cuddling and giggling and having fun.
I was pretty slow getting ready, though. On the way to work I missed my stop by three stops. I am lucky I don’t operate heavy machinery for a living. The rest of the day went pretty well and since the sun is shining and the temperature is minus six, I’m looking forward to seeing Ken and Reid.
Remembering when Reid was born
Friday, February 9th, 2007Zachary’s birth has brought back many memories of when Reid was born. Today at lunch I told of Ken filling out a form in the hospital – maybe the health card form that you have to fill out before you can take the baby home so that they know they’ll get paid – and when he got to the question about sex, his answer was, “She better never …” And that was when he really felt like a father, all protective-like.
Ken and I have also talked about the “boot camp” that the first few days were, when sleep deprivation and feeling out of our depth prevailed. We haven’t talked about how he was sick with his kidney stone before and after Reid came but I doubt either of has forgotten.
When I was at the emergency room a couple weeks ago with pneumonia, I was in the Monfort Hospital, the place we took Ken when he had the kidney stone. With the distance of time, I sort of laughed to myself remembering how I wasn’t sure how to get to that hospital, though we had practiced driving to the one where I would have Reid, and the panic on the faces of the other patients when I walked in nine months pregnant and how the one said that I should walk right up to the nurse and not worry about the man who was speaking with her. I explained I was with the man and my baby wasn’t coming anytime soon and everyone relaxed. A week later, I had Reid and Ken still had his stone. On the Thursday after Reid was born, we had to take Ken back to the emergency room. I dropped him off at the door and parked the car. And realized that I didn’t know how to disconnect the car seat from the base. I puzzled over it, hot and stressed and hormonal from just having had a baby and was starting to panic when I discovered the bright, red release latch. It never occurred to me to take Reid out of the seat. Sleep deprivation will do that to you. Once we got Ken settled, Reid and I left because hospitals are not a good place for babies. Melissa came to sit with Reid later that evening and I crawled into bed for a while. She assured me that holding a baby for a couple of hours would be a pleasure. Two and a half years later, I understand that she really meant it. I love my Reid who is a getting to be a “big durl” but I’d love to hold a swaddled newborn for awhile, too.
And even for someone with a terrible memory, it all seems like yesterday.
Remembering when Reid was born
Friday, February 9th, 2007Zachary’s birth has brought back many memories of when Reid was born. Today at lunch I told of Ken filling out a form in the hospital – maybe the health card form that you have to fill out before you can take the baby home so that they know they’ll get paid – and when he got to the question about sex, his answer was, “She better never …” And that was when he really felt like a father, all protective-like.
Ken and I have also talked about the “boot camp” that the first few days were, when sleep deprivation and feeling out of our depth prevailed. We haven’t talked about how he was sick with his kidney stone before and after Reid came but I doubt either of has forgotten.
When I was at the emergency room a couple weeks ago with pneumonia, I was in the Monfort Hospital, the place we took Ken when he had the kidney stone. With the distance of time, I sort of laughed to myself remembering how I wasn’t sure how to get to that hospital, though we had practiced driving to the one where I would have Reid, and the panic on the faces of the other patients when I walked in nine months pregnant and how the one said that I should walk right up to the nurse and not worry about the man who was speaking with her. I explained I was with the man and my baby wasn’t coming anytime soon and everyone relaxed. A week later, I had Reid and Ken still had his stone. On the Thursday after Reid was born, we had to take Ken back to the emergency room. I dropped him off at the door and parked the car. And realized that I didn’t know how to disconnect the car seat from the base. I puzzled over it, hot and stressed and hormonal from just having had a baby and was starting to panic when I discovered the bright, red release latch. It never occurred to me to take Reid out of the seat. Sleep deprivation will do that to you. Once we got Ken settled, Reid and I left because hospitals are not a good place for babies. Melissa came to sit with Reid later that evening and I crawled into bed for a while. She assured me that holding a baby for a couple of hours would be a pleasure. Two and a half years later, I understand that she really meant it. I love my Reid who is a getting to be a “big durl” but I’d love to hold a swaddled newborn for awhile, too.
And even for someone with a terrible memory, it all seems like yesterday.
Sunday, it seems like I hardly knew you
Monday, January 15th, 2007Reid had a rotten night’s sleep Saturday night. I think she was experiencing a “grumbly tumbly” as Winnie the Pooh might say, though his is only ever “rumbly”, meaning hungry. Poor girl had many bad dreams, was awake enough to be aware she needed to use the bathroom (usually I can soothe her back to sleep faster) and out and out cried at one point (almost never happens). At 5:30, she declared it to be “no sleeping time” and got up to use the bathroom, for the third time. We went downstairs and watched a couple shows from the PVR and played with Potato Heads. At 7:30, Reid decided it was time to sleep. I thought it might kill my afternoon nap but was too tied to put up a fight. I closed my eyes at 8:00 and opened them again at 9:30. Reid slept until 10:00. Ken wandered down about then as well. Quite an unusual morning in our house. After lunch, Reid wanted to nurse and so I told her that we’d have to go up to her room but not expecting her to nap. Two and a half hours later, I woke Reid when I coughed too hard for too long. Boy, that was a pleasant surprise. Less so maybe for Melissa and Ben who were waiting for us to meet them at Chapters. Melissa said that they read many, many books. Reid and I went to have tea and treats at Starbucks and then got groceries, including a deli chicken and fries for supper. After eating and trying more Potato Head combination, it was bedtime again. Yep, she went to sleep again without fuss and so did I. I decided to go straight to sleep in my own bed just in case and was unfortunately proven right. I’ve decided that she is experiencing growing pains since I read about another kid with them on a blog.
Books we read, January 11th
Thursday, January 11th, 2007Well, if Wednesday was a whirlwind, I am not sure what today was. Reid refused all books this morning and then after daycare, we went straight to Melissa’s for supper. I had thought of packing a couple of books that have CDs but then thought that would mean Reid and I wouldn’t be able to chat while we drove. Besides Melissa’s kids have even more books than Reid does. I offered to read to Ben and Reid before supper but Reid was intent on playing with the instruments from the kids’ Kindermusik bags and Ben was only too happy to join in to “see how much noice we can make.” After supper Ben and Reid each chose a book and Reid decided that I should read Ben’s book first and so we read Barbaby Goes to School by Wendy Whitcomb Rouillard and started Three Toots for Freddie (at least I think that is what is was called). Reid sitting quietly reserve was all used up and she didn’t stay for more than a couple pages. We got home late enough that we headed straight to bed. Tomorrow, we’ll have to do much better since my goal is three books a day at a minimum.