Another Mommy Moment

 I am seriously such a dork.  Sometimes I think I'm on a gag show, that Ashton Kutcher is going to jump out from behind a corner.

James and I have been doing a bit of house hunting (with not much luck, but that's another story). A few weekends ago we went to look at a bungalow in Cochrane. Nana and Pops were nice enough to watch K so that we only had C to lug along with us and he's usually pretty easy.

C's new thing is closing doors. He thinks its funny, and then he knocks so you'll let him out. Its actually pretty cute. So we're strolling through the basement, checking out the space, James and the realtor is looking at a workshop in the back, and C starts playing with the bathroom door. He closes it, I open it, he laughs. He closes it, I open it, he laughs. He closes it, I....uh-oh. Its locked.

Yep. I just let my 20 month old lock himself into the bathroom of a house we don't own or know the owners. Nice.

He's laughing, and knocking, and flushing the toilet, and I'm deciding whether to be panicked, or mortified, or a little of both.

Luckily James is an ace at opening locked doors with the inside of a ballpoint pen.

The whole situation lasted about 2 minutes. But the shame will last forever.

Who the Blog Am I?

I am struggling to find my blogging identity. Having a mid blog crisis.

OK, I'm a geek, totally thought that was funny.

But if anyone is actually reading this, you will have noticed the constant changing of my background. I'm like an aingst ridden teenager, desperately trying to find themselves, one day I'm a girly girl, the next I'm emo  (ok, caught me, like I even know what emo is, I'm so lame). I like the 'minimilist' look, but really that's just being dishonest with you all because I am not a minimilist kinda girl. I love the grunge look, but I'm still girly at heart, I'm a mommy, but the cartoon thing is taking it too far, its like a blog wearing mommy jeans.

Obviously my life is very hard when this is the issue of the day.

The point is I can't seem to settle on my background. So bear with me, maybe this one will stick. Some input would be appreciated.

Blowing Kisses

Did you ever read the book Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola? Growing up it was definatly one of my favorites. Its the story of a good italian witch, Strega Nona, who hires a guy from town to help her around her house. One night Big Anthony (the helper) overhears an amazing thing. Strega Nona sings a song and her enchanted pasta pot starts to fill with boiling pasta. When she has enough, she sings another song and the pot stops. Big Anthony thinks this is amazing, and to show off to the people of the town, one night when Strega Nona is away, he sings the song and the pot begins to fill. Everyone in the town comes to share in the pasta, they eat and eat and the pot keeps filling and they are all amazed. When they finally have had their fill Anthony sang the song, but the pot kept filling. See, the problem was that Big Anthony only heard was Strega Nona was doing, but he didn't see that she blew 3 kisses to the pot to make it stop. Without those kisses, the pot just kept boiling. It boiled and boiled until it filled the house, and ran down the hill, and it almost destroyed the whole town. At the last moment, Strega Nona comes home and stops that pot.

Great story.

So why am I telling you this story? Well, I'm convinced that someone has sang that magical song to my laundry pile, and neglected to blow those kisses.

My laundry is out of control. Its taking over my house.

Help!

A Moment With K

I'm sure most parents feel the same way, but I think K and C are hilarious. Even though C isn't talking much he still manages to make me laugh. The other day he was eating yogurt, feeding himself. Each bite he took he'd get some yogurt on his face, so after removing the spoon from his mouth he would scrape the sides of his mouth with the spoon to capture any excess, exactly like I do. Then he'd grab a wet face cloth and carefully wipe his face, only to repeat the process again with the next bite. It was so funny watching him, he was so proud of himself, my clean boy.

K just says the funniest things. I keep telling myself I need to write things down because in our hectic days, I tend to forget what it was that made me smile.

On Wednesday we were heading to swimming lessons, and K was just chatting away in the back set. For the whole ride he was talking and singing and laughing, when all of a sudden he lets out a big sigh and says,

"Mommy, I think my batteries ran out"

What a nerd.

Fancy on a Budget

Once again we have our house on the market. I think we are insane. This is the second attempt at moving out of the city and after only a week we're almost ready to throw in the towel. Two preschoolers, two yappy dogs, a home based business...its practically impossible to keep the house in "showing" condition. I'm exhausted. Add to that a failed offer on a spec home ( I hate builders!!) and 25+ showings in the last week, did we really need to stress?

For a really long time James and I have been wanting a shift in lifestyle, to move somewhere with some real land and privacy and slower pace of life. Because James works out of the house, we spend a tonne of time here and although we love Tuscany, we also feel like we live in a fishbowl, everyone can see our yard, and we can see into a lot of windows (not that we try to, that sounds a bit more "peeping Tom-ish" than was intended. So, after flip-flopping for months on whether to make a go at it, we decided to take the plunge. Anyone want to make my life easier and buy my house? Check me out on mls.

A big part of this move plan was to try a reduce our mortgage. But, as we tend to lose focus, we're actually now starting to look at bigger homes on bigger lots, and hence, bigger budgets. So, since that is obviously not reaching our goals, we've really cracked down and created a budget. One that I think we can stick to, and I will blog about so that I'm held accountable.

The biggest cut to my spending is in the grocery budget. Is it just me or is it near-impossible to keep a shopping trip under $150? I really paid attention this week and managed to keep it to $125, but that meant cutting a lot of "fancy" treats and opting to make it myself. One of my favorite treats is cream cheese spreads. I LOVE the veggie cream cheese from the Great Canadian Bagel, but its oober expensive. So yesterday I made it myself. Who knew it was so easy and yummy! Here's what I did. I took about 125ml of light cream cheese, mixed in about 2T of cream of leek dry soup mix (Knorr), and added some shredded carrot, celery, and spinach. Its awesome. I think next I'll try a fruit one.

Fancy even on a budget.

Small Things

We take a lot of things for granted. Think back to our grandparents generation, washing laundry by hand, hanging to dry, boiling water for baths and dishes, yes we lead a comfortable life.

Our dishwasher broke down some time in November. It is the third time we've had to repair it in the five years we've owned it, and this time it was pricey. To fix the pump that broke would be $250. Ouch. When a new one is only $600 it seemed a waste to fix this one. I wanted a new one. James wanted to just fix it and save the money. So we waited, and weighed out pros and cons, and time passed.Something else was always more important, always the priority.

So for the past four months I've been handwashing all our dishes, and it never ceases to amaze me at the volume of dishes four people use on a daily basis. I remember as a kid my mom washing our dishes. The water was scalding! My fingers were burnt just thinking about touching the water and yet my mom was completely immune to the heat.

Well, after four months of perpetual dish washing, I've acquired those dishpan hands. And I'm not happy.

Dishwashing has become a large part of my day. I literally spend hours each day washing and drying dishes. And as soon as I've cleared that sink the very moment I've drained the last drop of water, someone will throw a new dirty dish into the sink. (Boo-hoo I know, my life is hard). So yesterday, FINALLY, we got the dishwasher fixed, and I am so thrilled.

Today I made lunch, and we ate and it was CLEAN. No half hour dish washing marathon, just threw everything into the dishwasher and off it went. *Sigh* I will never take it for granted again! Small things.

Selective Hearing?

Is it February already? Feels like that last few weeks have just been a blur. With playdates and school, swimming and church, we are always on the go. K is just abuzz with energy. From the minute he wakes to when he finally goes to bed, he is at a constant level ten. He's always so busy that most days I spend a huge chunk of my time repeating myself. "K, inside voice" "K, let's talk a little quieter", "K, stop yelling" "K...". We've had his hearing checked, I know he possesses the physical ability to interpret sound, but I think there is definatly a deficit, a "Selective Hearing" issue.

It may be genetic, his father possesses it too.

Today K is having a playdate with our neighbours little guy. They get along great, but if I think its crazy with just K, the energy level with a buddy is off the charts. They run, and shriek, play monsters and shout. When their caught up in their games, the selective hearing issue is more prominent than usual.

I was ease-dropping as they played on the stairs. K had gone upstairs and grabbed the story we read last night before bed. I use the term "read" quite loosely, because K's attention was really not on the book. In fact his inability to sit still for more than 5 seconds at a time had me seriously considering the possibility of ADHD. He was asking questions (unrelated to the story), telling random Thomas facts, wiggling adn wriggling, frankly I thought that I was reading for my own sake. But low and behold, today on the stairs, I listened to him recite the story to his friend, and very closely to how I had read it the night before. He even sang the song.

So it seems that perhaps he's not got a hearing deficit, or even ADHD. Perhaps he is actually an incredible multi-tasker. Either way, it was fantastic to realize that even in those moments when it seems I am talking to myself, it seems he is actually listening and (gasp) learning.

Very cool.