Questions from the Weekend
Question 1:
How is it that a 3 foot tall 2 year old can take up 90% of the space in a queen sized bed?
Question 2:
Why is it people insist on going well over the speed limit in pouring rain and very limited visibility?
(I suspect this is Darwinism at work, but still)
Question 3:
Why is it the toddler doesn’t want a pumpkin until AFTER we leave the pumpkin patch?
Question 4:
Why doesn 5am have to be so damn early?
(okay, this is really more of a Monday question, but whatever).
Question 5:
How can a smartcar be safe if it’s that small?
What are your burning questions this Monday?
Why I’m Cheering for the Winnipeg Whatevers next year
Ed. Note: yes, my site was offline and my host had to fix it. But we’re back and I’m providing you with a post that will likely piss you off if you’re from Vancouver.
I have been an on-again, off-again passenger on the Canuck’s bandwagon for many, many years. I’m what you’d call a fairweather fan. I like to watch them when they’re doing well, but after years of disappointment, I am realistic about the Canucks ability to bring home a cup.
I am not a Roberto Luongo fan. I think he’s being overpaid and that he’s nowhere near the goalie everyone thinks he is. He brought it in the Olympics and walked out with a gold medal. But he melted down doing the job he’s paid to do: Vancouver’s number 1 goalie.
I am also not a fan of the Sedin twins. I think they’re over-hyped.
Vancouver, in other words, is inconsistent. Way too inconsistent for my liking so I’m jumping off the bandwagon once and for all. It’s just too hard being a Vancouver fan when you’ve lost faith over and over again in their abilities.
I have a soft spot for the Edmonton Oilers, but it’s really more of a feeling sorry for them soft spot.
I also quite like the Ottawa Senators. They’re generally pretty solid although they’ve had some issues the past couple of years.
So next year, I’m cheering for the Winnipeg Whatevers* (who are going to be considered an eastern team for game purposes next year which means a boatload of travel. It was too late to change the schedule)
So who else is going to join me on the Winnipeg Bandwagon?**
*They don’t have a name yet.
** By default, if you live in Manitoba you need to get on that bandwagon.
Pandora’s Box: Finding good in the Vancouver Riot
The story of Pandora’s Box is an old one: a woman named Pandora is given a box by a god and told not to open it. But temptation overcomes her and she opens it, unleashing all sorts of bad problems on the world. She quickly closes the box but it’s too late to stop all the disease, pestilence, and other disasters.
Then she hears a small voice coming from the box saying, “Hey! Let me out!” She is scared to until she finds out that what’s left in the box is the one thing that can save the world: hope.
* * * * *
In 1986, the World Exposition (“Expo 86”) came to Vancouver. This was, in the words of then-Premier Bennett, the chance to open Vancouver to the world.
In 1994, the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals to the New York Rangers in New York. And riots nearly destroyed the downtown core. I remember that quite clearly because the guy I was dating at the time was a die hard hockey fan (and when I say die hard, I mean he was a Hartford Whalers fan) and we were glued to the TV watching the entire series.
In 2010, Vancouver hosted the Olympics, which were a huge success on so many levels. People got moved around in a relatively efficient fashion, people were polite, and crowds were controlled (probably because there was lots to see and do). Everyone agreed that Vancouver had finally grown up and was a world class, or had the potential to become a world class city.
Last night, the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals to the Boston Bruins in Vancouver. Within a few minutes a police car was lit on fire outside the Canada Post building. Later, the Hudson’s Bay Company, Future Shop, London Drugs, Sears and other smaller stores were vandalized and looted.
The riot squad was called in, mounted reinforcements came to help, there was pepper spray and flashbangs. There were stabbings and fighting.
There was condemnation, put quite eloquently by Vaughan Palmer on twitter:
Riots Rock Loser City. Any place can behave well in victory. Class comes from how you handle losing.
There were no riots in Philadelphia last year when the Flyers lost to the Blackhawks. There were no riots in Chicago this year, when the Blackhawks were ousted in the first round by Vancouver. So what is wrong with us?
Well, we need to grow up this time. And we all need to say to looters, rioters and other hooligans who ruin it for the rest that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
We need not to leave that job to the few who embodied hope last night: the 8 who faced down a crowd in front of a vandalized building and had garbage and other debris thrown at them while they implored the crowd to stop. The one who came down from his apartment and stood his ground against the crowd in his neighbourhood because it is HIS NEIGHBOURHOOD. He lives here and he took responsibility for his neighbourhood.
They are the hope in the midst of last night’s Pandora’s Box opening. And thank god they didn’t let themselves be left behind. Wouldn’t it be great if more people did that, and stood against the crowd rather than being swept away with it? Just think of all the good we could do. Like this:
Photo courtesy of Hummingbird604 on Flickr
In which I channel Sunshine
My friend Sunshine has this habit of winning a lot of contests. A lot. Of the ones I recall: a year’s supply of shampoo, various movie and theatre tickets, a trip to New Zealand (yes, really), and probably some other trips somewhere that I don’t remember. She wins. A lot. And she deserves it.
And I guess the key is that the more you enter, the more you win. So I’ve been channelling Sunshine and entering stuff lately. However I find that I am truly a parent now when it comes to winning.
On Saturday, I was at Save-on Foods getting burger buns and some other things and I saw they had Island Farms ice cream on sale. It’s our favourite so I bought two.
When I got to the cashier, she told me that if I bought a pie as well, I could enter a draw to win a freezer. I went to get one (because really, who doesn’t like pie?) and they were out. I told her that and she gave me an entry anyways. And promptly forgot that I entered.
The next day I got home from other stores and put the toddler down for a nap when my phone rang. I won the damn freezer. It’s a smallish one (6 sq ft or so) and fits well in the corner of my kitchen.
And I am ecstatic. Now I can separate my other frozen goods from meats, etc.
My kitchen looks absolutely insane now: two freezers, a wine cooler (full of juice – not wine – and cheese strings because it was on sale and I stocked up), and a tall chair with the garbage can on it because other wise the Poptart uses it as a drum.
And I couldn’t be happier about it.
Spring #Fail
INSTALLING SPRING…
███████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 44% DONE.
Install delayed….please wait.
Installation failed. Please try again. 404 error: Season not found.
Season “Spring” cannot be located. The season you are looking for might
have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
Please try again.
Because there are some lessons you can never learn enough
There are some lessons, when you become a parent, that should never be forgotten, or else the Universe will make sure that you remember them. Lessons like:
- no matter how well you secure a drawer, your child will manage to open it and jam their fingers between the top and the box of tea that’s in there;
- toddlers have a right to change their mind about that yogurt they wanted – after you’ve opened the container
- If you try to force the yogurt on them, they will throw it and it will go everywhere;
- if your child is not potty trained, never leave the house without at least one extra diaper and some wipes;
I have relearned these lessons a few times over the last few days.
Last night, she was playing with our kitchen trolley and suddenly started yelling “Stuck! Mama! Stuuuuuuuuck!”
So I went and unjammed her fingers from between the box of tea and the top of the little drawer it was in.
Today, I struck out for Superstore because we needed groceries and the Poptart needed new shoes. Darren had to work for a few hours, so when he got back, we both headed out. I grabbed her snack bag, containing raisins, crackers, juice and water, tucked her in the car and off we went.
We got there, I got her in the buggy, gave her some raisins and we meandered in, through the baby section and into the dairy section. I was making pretty good time, the Poptart was doing well, when all of a sudden she said “Up ‘n down!” stood up and lunged for me.
When I grabbed her to prevent her from going butt over teakettle I found out she was soaking wet.
And I’d dared to go out without an extra diaper and a change of clothes for her.
The great thing about Superstore is that it is the perfect place for this sort of thing. I trucked back to the baby section, grabbed a box of pullups ($21.97) since they don’t carry the brand of diapers we use, a travel pack of wipes ($2.19) then went over to kids clothing and got her a new pair of pants ($10).
Then I went to the cashier and explained and she let me through with just paying for those 3 items so long as I left the rest of the buggy outside the bathroom.
10 minutes later I had a clean, dry, toddler who was hungry. So we went and got a cookie from the bakery (they give one cookie per visit per child under 10) and she munched on that while I went and got the rest of the stuff we needed.
After dinner, she asked for yogurt. When I tried to give it to her, she threw it across the dining room table.
So what lessons have you had to learn (and re-learn) as a parent? Any others I should be aware of as we approach 2?
Time for Me
Thanks to Crystal Light for sponsoring this post. To learn more about how Crystal Light can flavor your day with 30 refreshing flavors, visit http://www.facebook.com/crystallight.
I am a mom. I work outside of the home. I have really long days Monday through Friday and on the side I teach people how to be swim instructors, and train others to teach people how to be swim instructors.
I am, in other words, busy. Here’s a snapshot of most of my days:
- Alarm goes off already? Or Toddler goes off wakes up already?
- Haul self out of bed, grab clothes and find ebook reader that’s somewhere in the bedroom (likely in the bed with me because I fell asleep on it)
- Grab clothes, deodorant, etc.
- Grab toddler, change her and go downstairs (if she’s awake)
- Grab water of life (coffee), juice and a banana (for toddler)
- Sit on couch and watch morning news to see if I need an umbrella, sunglasses or both (I live in Vancouver)
- Play with toddler, and by play I mean let her use me as a set of monkey bars to get on the back of the couch and mush banana into my hair. Banana is good for my hair, right?
- Damn, I have banana in my hair and no time for a shower.
- Extract toddler death grip from hair, get dressed (in living room) while toddler names all my body parts as she sees them*
- Nanny comes upstairs
- Grab lunch and breakfast supplies; get bag; kiss toddler; walk to train
- Ride train to work (1 hour)
- Work; brush hair throughout day to get banana out
- Ride train back from work (1 hour); get picked up
- Get accosted by toddler who demands I take my shoes off.
- Play with toddler or laze on blowup bed in living room with her.
- Eat dinner; help clean up dinner
- Play with toddler
- Shower (usually with toddler)
- Snuggle toddler
- Snuggle honey
- Go to bed
So there’s not a lot of time for me time in there, but I’ve gotten pretty good at carving it out where I can find it, to get a little zen in each day.
The first place is on my train rides; I have 2 hours a day where it’s just me (well, and 400 other people, but still). It’s a commuter train, so it’s pretty quiet, especially in the morning. I often use the time to write**, or I’ll watch an episode of some show on my ebook reader, or just read. Or sleep if I really need it. I’ve even figured out how to meditate on the train if I want.
The second place is at work. I’ll often bring my portable DVD player and an exercise DVD and do that at lunch. Or I’ll finish up watching that episode of Fringe from the morning because I got the timing wrong on the train. If it’s nice, I’ll go for a walk.
Also, there’s a bullet point in there that says, “Play with toddler or laze on blowup bed in living room with her.” Although the “playing” part isn’t so relaxing, I do find it energizing to spend some time with her after work, whatever the case. And in most cases, she’s happy for me to just lay there so she can climb all over me.
If I really need a break, I throw money at the issue. I pay our nanny extra to bathe the toddler in the evening so that I can have a bit of downtime and shower by myself.
Above all, I walk to the train in the morning. It’s not necessarily a quiet walk, but it energizes me and lets me focus on me for a bit. This is where I work stuff out in my head and my heart, whether it’s warm and sunny, or cold and raining as it was this morning (note: stick extra socks in bag)
It took me awhile to work out daily time for myself, but I can do it now – most of the time. For me, a lot of it is perception. Some would say that train time is not “me time” but for me it is. My lunch hours are unpaid so that is me time and it’s up to me to make the most of it. The Poptart wanting me isn’t a burden; being her mom is part of my identity and playing with her and snuggling her is as much for me as it is for her.
So do you make time for yourself every day? How do you do it? What do you do?
*and because I am 12, there is nothing funnier than a toddler pointing and yelling, “Boobs!”
**and it comes in handy when you open your laptop and find out the machine ate one of your sponsored posts (this one) the day before it goes lives.
Remember, visit http://www.facebook.com/crystallight to learn more about how Crystal Light can flavor your day with 30 refreshing flavors. I was selected and paid for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
Because my week wasn’t entirely sucktastic
Two things that made me smile late this week.
First, on Friday, I tweeted this:
Honestly, I had no idea the Universe was on Twitter. I knew God was, but the Universe is another thing entirely (than God). Also, who knew the Universe used an iPhone. I’d take it for more of a Windows or Android phone type. I was pleasantly surprised to see a challenge issued:
And okay, I laughed. That Friday or whatever it was, it was pretty much the only thing I could laugh at.
The second thing happened Saturday. I was sitting downstairs doing some work for my contract that begins tomorrow (after I got Darren up to give me a break from being clung to by a sad and ill toddler), when I checked my email.
A week or so ago, I’d emailed Jenn (@PrincessJenn and her personal blog is here) to see if she could make me a banner for my blog. It was one of the things on my “BlogHer to do list” – get a banner made. I had a really vague idea of what I wanted and sent her some ideas along the lines of “including this painting and a couple of puppies”. And she sent it back to me really quickly. I was impressed with it and it was pretty much exactly what I (my gut) wanted.
I can read enough HTML to get me through; most of the time I use the wordpress WYSIWYG editor, so I was having problems replacing the banner because I simply don’t know enough about HTML and CSS and whatever to do it. So I told Jenn this and then didn’t hear from her for a few days. It wasn’t a big deal because of the rest of the stuff that was going on between work, the Poptart and whatever.
This is the email that came in today:
And then? She FTP’d it to my server for me. Talent and service.
So if you’re in a reader, click on through and tell me how purdy my blog is.
And then go hire Jenn for your own blog redesign.
In Which Four Hour Body Fridays becomes Four Hours of Sleep over two days
In short
Week from hell. Toddler really sick Wednesday. Would only sleep with me (and sleep a relative term).
Meeting the next evening. Get home at 1am. Toddler still up and sick. Turn on light to give her advil and see yellow goop coming out of her eyes. Decide to take her to the doctor in the morning. Go to bed with her. Again, sleep is a relative term.
Friday Morning: Toddler proves she is truly ours in that she does nothing halfway. Her cold has turned into pink eye, an ear infection, a mild chest infection and a sinus infection. She gets antibiotics, Smarties and a new Zhu Zhu pet because I feel bad for her and am a sucker for punishment. I call work and say I’ll be in around noon. I arrive at 12:15.
I busy myself with busy work while I’m waiting for information. Which arrives at 4:45 when I’m trying to leave. I end up staying late and leaving at 6:30. I inform my manager I am going home to snuggle my sick kid and have a very large glass of wine. She says I am not allowed to get sick until after Monday. I promise to drag my butt in even if I have pink eye.
On the drive home, I realize I never took my zoloft the night before which might explain why I feel so crappy. Or it could be the 4 hours of sleep over two days.
I stop at the liquor store, and then Wendy’s for dinner. The Poptart actually eats a couple of french fries and a chicken nugget. I pop in the shower with her, give her meds and advil and she passes out for over an hour on the couch. I lay down on the inflatable bed to read and end up falling asleep.
I wake up to Darren putting the Poptart in bed with me because she coughed herself awake and is fussing. She goes back to sleep until 3am or so when I give her some more advil and drain her sinuses. We sleep for about 3 more hours.
And here we are. That’s my excuse for no four hour body Friday post this week, and really, no cleanse or anything this week.
Also, does anyone know if polysporin eyedrops can be used preventatively?
