I am proud that (part 1)

our dress up box is larger than our "things that go" box.

Patiently waiting

I like to imagine that Sophie occasionally perches there in the front room, patiently waiting for mama to come home ("Mama go Congo"). But to be honest this was taken a week before I left...

Outfit stories

One thing I love about dressing my children - especially the younger they are - is that there is often a story about their outfits. Take this case in point:

stripey sweater - chosen by Grandma
soft cord dress - chosen by me but given thumbs up by Grandma as her birthday gift to Sophie
blue & white check blouse - saved by my mother from the '60s
fancy pants shoes - a Nana who had to buy the best for her granddaughter's birthday
white tights - new because what stays white more than 3 or 4 wears?!



This is a combo of hand-me down sweater (that I bought Sebastian for his 2nd birthday - Sophie is not waiting around for the Frog Prince) and Value Village deal of a polka-dot trimmed denim dress.


Here Seb is sporting his new West African ensemble; he proudly wore it for 2 minutes and pronounced it itchy; so it is going through the wash a few times.


And then there are the outfits that their father chooses!!!????

Things one can do with food

Seb had seen something about making dinosaurs out of food in a magazine. Unfortunately, it did not got fully consumed - even the blueberries!

Were we that bad?

I acknowledge that my posse has visited quite a number of GPs, specialists and ERs this past year (though I will point out that the hospital stint that M did was in NB), but has it really come to this?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090413.wontario0414/BNStory/Front/home

The thrills (and chills) of parenting never cease

By now, most of you know where I spent my Wednesday afternoon. For those that don't, SickKids ER. You see small, plastic cannonballs made by Playmobil are not meant to be inserted up one's nose. Sophie knew it was up there but just coudn't figure out how to get it down, and neither could I.

While their dad continued to recover on the couch from his brutal migraine, Seb was hustled off to a friend's house from where he would be walked to school and Sophie and I went to SickKids to be sheepish and wait.

After 2 hours, all was resolved in about 20 seconds with the help of a tiny pair of forceps. Small discomfort and no pain.

We went home with the cannonball in a speciman jar. It's our family's new rattle.

Nocturnal sprinkles

Nope, I am not talking about Sebastian's waterworks...

But I have a beef (a vegetarian beef). Previously, I have blogged about the great satisfaction that I take in having both a well-stocked larder and now a well-stocked "clothes to grow into" basement.

The downside is that if a brand-new item is flawed, I can't return it because I can't recall where I bought it. The most galling case in point are Seb's new rain boots. I remember them being $5 more than the plain blue but WOW! green! frogs! sold.



He has worn them about 5 times. 4 of which have produced soaked feet - both of them...

I know that we need rain this spring but could it please come at night - when Seb is all tucked in?

The worst kind of night

OK, so I went to bed too late as I was blogging away - my fault, I'll confess.

But my bed mate had felt pretty rough all evening and was tossing and turning all night, until he reared out of bed at 2.30 a.m. and vomited all over the bedroom floor - three times. Migraine, terrible, terrible migraine. Fortunately, he hasn't had one for ages and ages. Poor guy misses his first chance to work for the national desk today.

After cleaning that up and tending to his now-sofa-based woes as best I could, I went back to bed but couldn't sleep. Sebastian kept coughing. Seb's coughs are a warning to both his parents - first sign of allergic reaction (had ruled that out), first sign of asthma attack (possible but had checked several times and nothing), just plain old deep cough that didn't seem to disturb his sleep (just mine).

I managed to doze off eventually, only to be awoken at 5.30. Sebastian is calling out because his nighty-nighty has exploded and his bed is wet with strange gel bits on the sheet. I change his pjs and put him back to bed recto-verso.

Surprisingly, I feel fine right now. The kids are merry. Their dad - poor soul - is still huddled on the couch.

Sophie the song-writer

Sophie is twanging away on the ukelele and singing that toddler ditty: “there are no diapers on me”.

Followed moments later by “diarrheaaaa. Oh mum. Mummmmmmm.”

It’s a song that luckily sticks in the mind, so that I won’t be caught out with a nasty surprise in a few minutes…

A busy stretch - Monday's adventures

A regular Monday - though cooooolllddd.

The highlight was hosting a classmate of Sebastian's. Why? Because we are friendly. But also, they are going to the Dordogne for the first time on Friday! So we had a lovely evening of food and wine and travel advice while the 4 children tore around the house.

The supper menu was fantastic (largely thanks to M working an early morning shift and thus having time to prep with me):

1. green apple martinis (only for the adults), cornichons and olives
2. honey mustard glazed fish with apple date coulis, broccoli, rice and carrots
3. bed of greens and peppers with mushroom "bouchees" and Shitake-sesame dressing
4. baguette and cheese platter with fresh figs
5. homemade brownie with grapes and strawberries
6. Tisane to wrap up when the free-flowing French wine tapered off.

I wish we could dine like that several times a week!

BTW - it's still snowing here...

A busy stretch - Sunday's adventures

Sunday was a home day - except for all the errands I ran (like getting new boots for Sebastian, sending my new laptop off to be fixed..., buying a bike lock, buying a new water filter, some groceries - you get the point). It was a gorgeous day and Seb went around in a short-sleeve t-shirt for much of it.

Sunday night was the fondue finale. A cheesey boozey concoction shared with our Oakville buddies.

Here are some shots of the food and the sidewalk play.

A busy stretch - Saturday's adventures

After a delightful Friday night dinner at a local Vietnamese restaurant with Kevin & Arthur (followed by drinks and dessert back at ours) - all facilitated by the YMCA's monthly date night...

We got up and out fairly early on Saturday to take the Kitchener/Waterloo steam train to the world's largest maple syrup festival. Unfortunately, the steam engine is out of order this season, and the weather was downright bad for tromping around out doors for hours (with a 9 month old, 2 year old, 4 year old and a 5 year old). But we dashed from warm spot to warm spot and ate lots of sweet, sticky food (and some great perogies!).

Here are some shots of the (unheated) train and you can see the wind against M's coat and hair and poor huddled Seb... Seems like we were too cold to haul out the camera during the sugar bush and street party.

I was shattered at the end of the day and fell into bed before the kids had fallen asleep (because they had benefitted from car naps).

The weather channel

Friday, it rained cats and dogs

Saturday, it was cold and extremely windy (temperatures must have got to -5)

Sunday, it was warm and sunny

Monday, it is snowing and sleeting and raining

Out of sync, we:

soddenly (?) walked to school and went out to dinner on Friday

spent all of Saturday under-dressed and thus trying to keep warm at the world's largest Maple Syrup Festival

had warming cheese fondue on Sunday - the warmest day by far in the last week

so what should we do today?

That kind of Monday

The kind of morning when my professional, parenting and social selves collide.

1. First thing this morning, Sophie needed to pee in the potty (downstairs). So off she went sans culottes with brother trailing along to help or offer advice or for the show. I was putting away clothes when I heard Sebastian calling.

Seb: Muuuuuuuummmmm. Sophie did a pee

Me: Where?

Seb: On the floor

Me: sound of feet thundering downstairs

2. So I cleaned the pee off the bathroom's threshold and let Sophie wander off again (will I never learn?). The phone rang and it was a colleague from the UK about a small drama (more later). Then I hear:

Seb: Mum, Sophie did a poop.

Me:mouth: I am not sure I can get a visa by that day given easter and all...
Me: head: Whaaaaat?
Me: feet: follow Sebastian to downstairs playroom and find offending item nestled in amongst the scattered toys.
Me:head: *@##^%!@#%&*(^%
Me:eyes: Thanks, Seb. Woe is a mum's lot in life...
Me:mouth: I should be able to get all those documents read by this weekend.
Me:head: haha
Me: hands: scoop, toss, remember not to flush because I am on a professional call, find cleaning supplies, scrub, put everything away
Me:mouth: great speaking with you. I'll call you tomorrow.

To be honest, the woman who this colleague is replacing would have totally understood my situation. But she's off on mat leave with her third.

3. It may or may not be possible any longer to get a visa at the DRC border with Rwanda as of April 1st. No one can really tell me. Thus I may or may not have to fill out three application forms, get three photos, have someone vouch for me, get a letter of invitation, get $115, and provide my itinerary, and courrier it to Ottawa YESTERDAY. Eventually I'll know - maybe when I get to the Congolese border and am refused entry.

4.Through all of this, every time I passed through the kitchen I had to acknowledge the huge pile of dishes left over from last night's dinner party.

5. Outside my window, it's raining, sleeting, and snowing all at once.

6. I hadn't even had my coffee...

Ebay saves the day

Best wedgley mum award for April 3rd goes to moi (if I do say so myself). Last night I checked ebay Canada for lego wheels (was that cheating?)/ Well, tonight we are the proud owners of a new set of wheels! Seb will get them when I leave on my next trip.

At today's "parent-teacher interview" Mme Salmon even encouraged him to be playing with lego to improve his fine motor skills.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320354311879&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:US:1123

Keep up the hunt for purple garb, fellow second-handers.

Definite 2nd child syndrome

I just downloaded some photos and saw that we hadn't even taken any snaps for a week...

Here are some to appease the masses.



In her new stripey hooded towel. It somehow managed to beat her Thomas the tank engine towel for category of "favourite" (otherwise known as "mine").




This is the last of her birth presents. When Sophie was a wee tiny thing, Gen gave her a dress that was really not "us". So we traded it in for the largest size of the most "us" thing we could find - an alien tracksuit!

(As you can imagine, her big brother is slightly envious and has squeezed himself into it).

Please say it's over

In the past month alone, we have lost:
- one of Seb's red birthday gloves
- a purple mitt of Sophie's
- a pair of grey knitted mitts
- an old blue mitten
- another old blue mitten (but sadly from a different pair...)
- one organic lip balm (after only 6 minutes).

Please, please let winter be over.


UPDATE - -------------------

Obviously, nobody from the weather forces reads the wedgley blog because there are reports of snow on Monday and below freezing weather on and off all next week. Hmmm Congo has some appeal right now.

UPDATE 2 -----------------------

It's snowing/hailing/sleeting/raining today (Monday). But that's nothing compared to Saturday, when we spent the day outside (under-dressed) in 1 degree temperature and gale force winds that drove the real temperature down down down and drove us into any shelter we could find at the Maple Syrup Festival. Sunday was gorgeous though.

Travelling aunties, yipee!

Last year, my sister came to stay with us for two months. She made quite the impression on both children. To this day, Sophie says Aun-T Row-berda with glee.

And now we have confirmation that Auntie Jeet will be with us for May and June this year!!! We have so many ideas of things to do (including some date nights...) that we will have to restrain ourselves. She is here after all to complete her Master's.

Please note that we are currently taking bookings for 2010. You can download applications at www.wedgley.freebabysitting.com. We are equal opportunity friends and would be happy to host wandering uncles.