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.

Attempting Haircuts: Proceed with Caution

This morning I cut C's hair. I always did K's hair, and did a decent job, until this year that is, when his baby hair made way to thicker, coarser hair. On Christmas Eve I attempted a haircut on him. Three "hacks" in and I realised that the game had changed. I was in no way qualified to do that job. Thank goodness Melonhead's was open. We did an emergency trip to the hairdresser and she thankfully was able to mend the mess I'd made. C's hair is still in that fine, baby hair mode. I did take him to Melondheads for his first real cut but with the amount he moves they weren't able to do a great job anyways.

So today I did it myself. Usually I just use scissors, but this time I decided to go for it and used a proper trimmer for the back. The problem is, he's so blonde that when you cut it short he looks bald. So now I fear I've gone too far and he's wound up with a military style shave, bald on the sides, short on the top. Oh dear.

To make matters worse, I keep finding little patches that aren't quite right, so I'm chasing him around the house like a mad women, trimmer in hand as he cries, "done done mommy". Poor kid.

Still my Baby

Well, my last post was on a not-so-good day. But since then, its been much better. No Mommy tantrums since then!

We had a busy weekend and successfully made over K's bedroom. When we first did his nursery we painted beige horizontal stripes of varying widths on the wall. It took forever, but looked great. We swore we'd never paint because it really was a tonne of work. But, four years later the walls were full of marks and dents, and it was time. It was definatly a bitter sweet moment, sanding down the stripes, putting up new paint. It was fresh and clean, I LOVE NEW PAINT, but it also felt a bit like I was admitting my baby was a baby no more. He loved his new "Thomas" room, but I'll admit its still a little hard to get used to.

I think we'll do C's room next. I'm thinking a soft green on top, and the same chocolate on the bottom, no border. James is in a hockey tourney this weekend, so we'll see how ambitious I am, and I guess how well the kids are behaving.

One of the big contributors to our bad days is that K, even though he's four, still naps. I hear of kids cutting their naps at 2, but its certainly not the case here. Particularly on school days, he's a mess by the time 4pm rolls around. We'll usually try to keep him up, feed him supper, throw him if the tub and lights out by 7pm. The problem with that is he's usually up at 5:30am the next morning ready to go.

Today was a good day. We had a rough start, C was up too early and was "crabby cakes" until he passed out for a nap at 11am. Despite that,the boys played nicely together all morning. They built trains, ate hungeets, held hands, play fought, it was sweet. K had school this afternoon, and promptly passed out on the couch when he got home.

Today was a good day.  Those "angelic" moments, watching them sleep, really helps make up for those other moments when they aren't so "angelic".  Its these moments that I take and breath and remember that as big as he may be, he really is still my baby.

Fine Print: Mommy Tantrums

We all have bad days. Its part of the contract:  unconditional love, heartmelting smiles, loads of adventures and new discoveries, screaming crying epic tantrums.

Yesterday was one of those days. It started out great, both the boys were all smiles for the morning. C napped with no fuss and K was my little buddy while we rearranged the furniture upstairs. When the time arrived for swim lessons, he was so excited that he begged James to come along. Despite his workload, James agreed and we all packed into the car and headed for the Y. Everything was going great, James dropped us at the entrance, K and I ran excitedly into the Y, into the changeroom, hurriedly got changed, dashed to the pool, and abruptly the mood shifted. K refused to get in the pool.

At first, no problem, we start all our 'group' adventures like this. K tends to be anxious, but he loves swimming, so "no worries," I tell myself "this will pass." Five minutes pass, and he'll sit on the edge of the pool, but won't get in. Ten minutes, still refusing. Twenty minutes, now class is almost over. Twenty-five minutes, all the kids are going down the slide, and K is still outside the pool. And I've been patient, I'm the only mom left standing by the pool instead of in the viewing area, and he's the only kid not participating. James is smiling at me through the viewing window. There's 5 minutes left and now I'm done being patient, so I tell K we're done and going to get changed.

And that's the moment. The moment when he goes to being a scared kid who's still endearing enough to get away with it, to the bratty kid who's throwing a fit and is old enough to know better. Now he wants to go in the water. Now he's crying because we have to leave.

Usually in this type of situation I would just scoop him up and go home. But he's wet, and in only a swim suit, so in this midst of his screaming and flailing I have to attempt to quickly get him changed. Not an easy task, the change rooms are crowded, and he's slippery, and his suit is sticking, and he's screaming, "No, No, NO NO!", and I'm mortified.  I'm embarrassed, and angry, and I just want to get out of there. I can feel people watching us. I can hear the whispers. In the midst of all this chaos, I'm still "calm"(although I must be red as a plum because I blush when I'm embarrassed). I'm just focused on escaping, when I feel a hand on my shoulder and a women's voice in my ear,

"Its okay, we've all been there."

I muster a small smile, finish getting our boots on, and drag K out of there. It was a very sweet, genuine gesture, and I appreciated it. But as I climbed into the car, completely defeated, K still yelling, I broke down and had my own little tantrum. I cried the whole ride home. Lucky James, what a day to come to swimming!!

Apparently tantrums come at all ages, and as much as "We've all been there" it certainly doesn't feel like that in the moment. In the moment it feels like all eyes are on you. It feels like you must be lacking some fundamental parenting skill. In the moment it just feels bad.

Today will be better.... I hope