Dancing Monkey

Dexter has progressed way beyond jazz hands with his dance moves. Check it:

Chaos & anarchy grip our fair city

The phrase "a perfect storm" is your basic hackneyed cliche, but sometimes such hackneyed cliches clearly express precisely what one is trying to communicate. With that preamble out of the way, let me say this: Ottawa was hit with a Perfect Storm of Shittitude this week, courtesy of the local transit union, our astonishingly incompetent city government, and—who else—Mother Nature.

First came the literal storm. Yet another Snowpocalypse. About 2 feet of snow fell over 24 hours on Tuesday, producing gridlock across the region. My commute home, which normally takes 15 minutes, tops, took 1.5 hours. Miserable. Also, freezing. But the huge snow dump was merely the preamble to the week's real excitement: The Transit Strike!

The first time I heard that a strike was even a possibility was on my (short, pleasant) drive home Monday. "Hmmm," I thought after I heard the report on the radio, "I'm glad I don't rely on the bus. A strike is going to be a real problem for people who take the bus to work. People like...Dammit! OUR NANNY! Our nanny takes the bus to work! Aaaahhhhh!!!!!!" How will she get to our place with no bus service? Nanny M doesn't even have a driver's license, let alone a car. She lives too far away to walk, and cabs would cost way too much. There's only one solution, Yep--if we want childcare during a bus strike, we have to pick her up at her place and take her home at the end of the day.

Under normal conditions, that round trip would take about 20 minutes. But under current conditions, i.e. mondo snow, and everyone who normally takes a bus cramming a car onto the road or skidding along on a bike to get downtown in the morning, it takes an hour. So Tom's been leaving the house for an hour in the morning to go get her, and I try to juggle the tasks of getting myself ready for work while watching the kids. And then it's my turn to drive around in this mess. It was much better today, but man, you would not believe what the streets were like on Wednesday. I've never seen gridlock like it here. Sure, it was like an average rush hour in a real city, but here, you just don't expect it. So many extra cars on the road. Plus, the snowbanks are huge, and not all the roads were even plowed.

And that's where the city's incompetence comes into play. The budget has been so mismanaged for so long that there is no money left for snow removal this year. Obviously, it gets done, but they triage the work so that only the main thoroughfares get cleared in a timely manner. Residential streets don't get plowed until long after the storm has passed. When I came home from work on Wednesday evening, nearly 24 hours after the bulk of the storm had passed, our street still had not been plowed. I got stuck in the rutted, churned-up snow repeatedly before I could get home to pick up the nanny and get back into the gridlock to take her home.

So, bah humbug. I'm in a foul mood these days. My resolve to have a better attitude about winter this season is broken already. At least we're getting out of here in a couple weeks for a nice respite in sunny California. Yes, they have traffic out the wazzu in the Bay Area, but at least snow isn't a factor. And let's hope there's no big strike going on during our visit.

Short visit, long trip

I'm in Kelowna with the kiddos. We're having a nice visit, as usual, but man--the trip out here was unbelievable! I must preface this tale by saying that the whole reason I made this spur-of-the-moment trip was a great deal on airfare. At these prices, I thought, I can afford a quick pre-Christmas trip--just me and the kids.

Tom and I got up at 5 a.m. last Friday morning, got the kids ready and headed to the airport for the first leg of our trip, a direct flight to Vancouver. Usually I try to fly thru Toronto or Calgary, as the Vancouver connection adds an extra hour or more to an already long trip. This time, the extra hour in the air turned out to be the least of our worries.

The trip to Vancouver was uneventful, except for a delay of about half an hour before takeoff for de-icing. But right before we were supposed to board our connecting to Kelowna from YVR, takeoff was delayed by 20 minutes. That stretched to an hour, then an hour and a half. We finally boarded the plane around 1 p.m. and took off. So far, so good. It was snowing in Kelowna, and there was a 1-hour period when planes couldn't land due to conditions on the ground. Of course, this was the hour when our connecting flight from Vancouver was trying to land. We were supposed to arrive around 12:30 p.m. on Friday. Instead, at 2 p.m. we circled the Kelowna airport twice before the captain decided we couldn't safely land, and headed back to Vancouver. Flight canceled!

If that wasn't bad enough, when we got on the ground I was informed that the earliest flight they could rebook us on left on Saturday at 7:20 p.m. We were stranded! By this point I'd been up since 5 a.m. Eastern time after getting 4 hrs of sleep the night before, spent almost 7 hours on the plane from Ottawa to Vancouver, over 2 hrs on the ground at YVR, and 1.5 hrs on the
tiny plane from Van to Kelowna. Wrangling two small children the whole time. I was completely out of food and down to 2 diapers. I didn't have it in me to stick around the airport any longer and try for a standby flight that day.

The one good thing about being stranded in Vancouver is that I have connections. I took a cab to my aunt's house, which is near the airport, to consider our options and have a bit of a visit. She doesn't have the room or the gear to put me up with two kids in tow, so I needed a hotel. Air Canada had a discount available at an inn near the airport, but I had no desire to be stuck at the airport all day, with no car, in a less than full-service hotel. So I decided the best course would be to go to abetter hotel right downtown. I found a decent rate online for the Hyatt, so we took a cab downtown and arrived around 7 p.m. Both kids were so sound asleep in the cab by that point that I had to shake Henry repeatedly and yell at him to get him into the hotel. I got them to bed within the hour, poured a bath for myself and cracked an overpriced beer from the minibar. I was asleep by 8:30 local time.

Dexter started waking up at 2 a.m., and both kids were wide awake by 5, starving, and I was totally strung out. So as soon as room service opened at 6 I had pancakes and a huge carafe of coffee delivered to the room. All this cost a fortune, but the service was exactly why I checked into a full service hotel. Plus, it was a really nice room. We spent the morning there chilling out and resting.

I used another connection in the afternoon to entertain the boys and make the most of our stay. My friend and former roommate, Jolie, was home that day and had no plans, so she and her kids met us at Science World for the afternoon. We were able to take Skytrain from our hotel, another reason why I wanted to stay downtown. The kids had fun, and Jolie and I got to have an unexpected visit.

Anyway, we made the most of our unscheduled layover, but man--what rotten luck. The Kelowna airport was closed for barely 1 hour on Friday. By the time we landed on Saturday evening, the snow was all gone. I ended up spending a small fortune on the hotel, taxis, food and other expenses while we were stranded. So much for my cheap, last-minute trip to see the grandparents. But I did what I had to do to stay sane while alone and exhausted with the two kids. Sometimes you can be thrifty when you travel; other times you just think, "this is what credit cards are for" and charge your way out of a bad situation.

Both kids were as good and patient as I could possibly have hoped during all this, but it's just a lot of hard work to keep everything together and everyone happy in those circumstances. Let's hope our flight home tomorrow goes a lot more smoothly. I don't have any connections in Calgary to see us through!

Does this sound like me?

I plugged The Home Front into this new site called Typealyzer to see what it made of its author, based on the content. Here's what it spat out:

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.








I agree that soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells are delightful. Beyond that--I think their analyzer needs some work. Or, I have to toughen up the blog a bit.

Dino see, dino do

Toddlers learn by mimicking the actions of the people around them. So if one of the people around you spends his days roaring while crouching over in a menacing way, it's only natural that you'll pick it up.

Happy Halloween '08!

Last year: Dinosaur and monkey.
This year: Dinosaur and froggy.


The dino was another great costume effort from Grandma Eileen (froggy was store-bought). Henry loved his gigantosaurus getup, and play-acted the part with gusto. Dexter also got a kick out of being in costume. He definitely knew he was wearing something funny and hammed it up a bit. I took both boys out for trick or treating around the 'hood. Dexter quickly caught on to the whole concept, and would grab a big handful of treats whenever a bowl was offered to him. I'm proud to report that Henry was very polite everywhere we stopped, leaving every doorstep with "Thank you! Happy Halloween!" Tom took Henry out for a second round of door-knocking after I came home. All told, he probably hit 5 blocks, along which about half of the houses were giving out treats. But those 5 little blocks yielded a truly astounding amount of candy. Check it out:



That bag is FULL Of candy and chips. Combine that haul with the fact that we didn't get many trick-or-treaters at our place (we didn't see too many kids beyond the ones who live on our block), and we have enough mini chocolate bars onhand to see us through the new year.

Strangest item in Henry's loot bag:

Nothing says "trick-or-treat fun times" to a kid like a piece of decorative dried corn, right?

It's possible that some of our neighbours are hippies. . .

I'm walking here!

Weekends to be thankful for

We've been enjoying a beautiful fall. After our horrific winter, non-existent spring and drab, rainy summer, we were due for some sunshine and (relative) warmth. Thanksgiving weekend (that's Canadian Thanksgiving, if you don't know) was exceptionally nice--temperatures around 20/70, sunny, and full of fun. Saturday featured a petting zoo at our local farmer's market, which Dexter loved. He's fascinated with animals right now, so he loved getting up close to the goats and chickens. On Sunday we went for a nature walk through a local conservation area with two families from our neighborhood. We spent several hours wandering about, admiring crimson leaves and chasing garter snakes through the underbrush. This outing led to an impromptu turkey dinner together, complete with a kiddie table that let the grownups have some peace. Just another great day in our friendly neighborhood. On Monday we cooked a modest Thanksgiving dinner just for ourselves. Dexter loved the sweet potatoes. Henry burst into tears when I told him I'd like him to try just one bite of mashed potatoes before I'd give him dessert. That's the way things go around here. . .

Henry studies a snake snagged by our neighbor, Tim

Yesterday was another fun day in the sun, albeit much cooler. Perfect day for a leaf party! Over the summer a small, underused park near our house was transformed into a Children's Garden by our neighborhood association. It's the kind of low-cost, community building enhancement that makes me lreally appreciate this area. The park needed more leaves for mulch, so a party was organized: bring a bag of leaves from your yard and hang out in the park. As you can see below, much fun was had by many, many small children. I'm still picking leaves out of my hoodie.

Today the clouds were back, and we're definitely feeling the crisp air of mid-autumn now. The water level in the canal is down below a foot, which can only mean one thing: winter is coming. We've got to relish these sunny days while we still can!

Giant steps

I'm officially calling today the day that Dexter moved from crawling to walking. He's taken his sweet time getting to this point, but finally he has his legs under him. Now he's walking across the room as often as he crawls. He's very proud of himself. Maybe now some of his pants will make it through the fall before the knees wear away.

(Sniff) My baby's all growed up. (Sniff sniff)

I guess I should get used to this

Tonight I tried to engage Henry in a conversation about kindergarten. It went like this:

"Henry, what song did you sing at circle time today?"

"I don't remember."

"Oh. Maybe you should pay more attention at school so you can tell me what you did."

"I'm not interested in talking to you about school."

Never mind, then. I did hear something about a giraffe on the wall, though.

Time of the signs

Dexter's almost reached the 14-month mark, and while he's still not walking, he has started using baby sign language! So far we've only seen two: "dog" and "more." The dog sign is cute, but for him to be able to communicate "more" is a big boon for all of us. Just like when we were using signs with Henry, I'm amazed at how quickly and easily he picks them up. It's not like we sit in front of him with flash cards or anything. We just do the sign while saying the word (or pointing at a dog, cat, etc), and he takes it from there. If we lived in Vancouver we could join my cousin Barb's Baby Sign class and learn a lot more. But even without a class, it's a really valuable and rewarding thing to learn together.

He also clearly understands a lot of what we say to him, and reacts appropriately. For example, if I say, "Dexter, do you want to have a bath?" he immediately drops what he's doing, takes off down the hall, climbs the stairs and crawls directly to the bath tub. He loves playing with a ball and will even play a game of "catch" if someone says, "throw me the ball!" It makes me wonder if he'll end up being a bit more sporty than Henry, who loves to run around but shows no real inclination to pick up a bat, stick, glove or any other piece of equipment that would make it into a game. But I know it's way too early to tell. I vaguely remember Henry having fun playing catch before dinosaurs and video games took over his imagination. So, who knows.

Speaking of vague memories, I'm proud of the fact that I've kept up this blog for 3 years now, even if my posting pace has dropped off considerably in recent months. We're getting to the point where I can dig through the archives and find posts about Henry that were written when he was about the same age as Dexter is now. It's fun to look back not just to compare the two boys, but to realize just how much Henry has changed. For example, check out this update from September, 2005. It's hard to believe that the toddler in that post who called both his parents "Mu-ma" now rattles off the seven-syllable names of extinct sea reptiles without stumbling. I just wish I'd started the blog a year earlier and captured moments from his first year for posterity. Oh well--can't change that, but looking back gives me incentive to keep posting at least a couple times a month, even though I often feel too tired or busy to make it a priority. Thanks for reading!

School days begin

After endless weeks of "gradual entry," Junior kindergarten finally (finally!) started full time on Monday. So far, so good. Henry is very used to going to "school", and he has a couple friends in his class, so the transition was low on drama. Everything he's said about it so far has been positive, and he was excited to bring a book home from the library in his groovy new dino backpack.

He's also returned home every day with a new form for us to read and sign, a notice asking for volunteers for various committees, and/or a list of foods banned from the school. So I think it's safe to say that Tom and I have started school, too.

The Cottage! The Cottage!

Sorry for the delay in my usually blistering blog-updating pace, but we were at The Cottage. Yes, The Cottage. Us!

Our neighbors invited us and the other families on our block with small children to spend Sunday at their The Cottage, which is on a lake about an hour west of here. In all seriousness, it was a ton of fun. Henry got to go for a canoe ride, which he loved. He also had a blast on the trampoline. The kids got along well, and the ratio of grownups to children was favorable enough for the former to relax and enjoy a sunny, laid-back day on the water's edge. Even I went for a canoe ride! We capped off the day with a marshmallow roast around the campfire before heading back to the city.

And that wasn't our only road trip of the weekend. On Saturday we made a return visit to Henry's new favorite place on earth, Prehistoric World. This is a distinctly old-school roadside attraction where you pay money to walk around on some guy's property and look at the life-size statues of dinosaurs he built out of concrete. The owner is obviously a grown-up dino enthusiast who figured out how to generate some income from his favorably situated property. (Henry is already putting together his business plan for a Prehistoric World of his own. Look for it in 2030.) Surprisingly, it was Dexter who really loved the statues. Henry thought they were okay.

What really enthralled him was the Dino Dig Pit, which is a big sandbox laced with faux fossils you discover as you're digging around. Henry went completely apeshit for this. I can understand why. He spends most of his free playtime outdoors "digging for fossils" and pretending that the stones and sticks he finds are dinosaur parts. But the game's getting old for him. On several occasions he's express his frustration with "pretend fossils," asking why he never finds REAL fossils. (It's really getting to him -- lately he's been taking our hammer to a large rock in our garden in the hopes that eventually it will yield a velociraptor fossil if he just keeps smashing it.) So he just loved digging through the sand and uncovering these true-to-life dino parts.

So, it was a busy long weekend with a lot of time spent in the car, but totally worthwhile. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera to The Cottage, but my neighbor was taking pictures, so maybe I'll be able to post a few shots later.

Pocketbook issues

While we were busy celebrating Dexter’s birthday, another important anniversary passed: the 3-year mark of our move to Ottawa. I’d say that over the last 6 months or so I’ve been feeling much more at home here. Not in a “Home Forever!!!!” kind of way, but I’m finally re-acclimating to life in Canada.

Except for all the times I almost choke on my Loonies at the cash register when it comes time to pay for stuff I had become accustomed to getting for cheap when I lived south of the border.

I’m not just talking about stuff like booze and gas, which is expensive for transparent reasons (surtaxes). Running shoes, almost all of which are made in China, cost about 50% more in Canada than the U.S. There’s a huge premium on books, small appliances, large appliances, and weird, random stuff, like paint. Since I painted our entire house in Richmond, I know that a gallon of midrange latex paint usually set me back about $16. Here I pay $40 or more. Now, I know there are lots of legitimate reasons why prices are higher in Canada, and honestly, I would be okay with paying a small premium. But there are times when it gets ridiculous.

Take, for example, my lunchtime errand today. I needed to get a sweater dry cleaned. A fancy-pants cashmere sweater, true, but it's not like it was stained or anything--it just needed a fresh-up. I don't use dry-cleaning very often (wash and wear is my style, baby!), so I wasn't sure what I would be charged. Thankfully, I asked before I handed over the garment. The price? $29, before taxes. Yes. Twenty-nine dollars to have one sweater cleaned. Twenty. Nine. Dollars. For dry cleaning! $29!!!!!

You know what I paid for dry cleaning in Richmond? $1.50 per item. And that was after a price increase. Before that, it was $1.25.

Astounding. Granted, the $1.50 dry cleaner was El Cheaperoo, even for Richmond, but how do you explain a price difference that massive? Is it really 20 times more expensive to operate a dry-cleaning business in Canada? Do Canadian dry cleaners bathe their clothes in the breath of angels, followed by a light misting of dew gathered from the petals of daisies grown organically in an unspoiled meadow? They must, right? You take that price shock, throw in the $80 quote I got to have the 4x6 acrylic rug in our playroom cleaned (which cost no more that $40 in the first place), and I guess I'll just resign myself to being a little dirtier from here on out. That, or I'm never again buying anything that isn't machine washable.

So, hrumph. If any of my American readers would like to send me some Dryel (which I have trouble finding up here), I'd appreciate it. I'm only kind of kidding.

Another eye surgery

Henry had strabismus surgery yesterday, a repeat of the procedure he had two years ago. The surgery was scheduled back in December because the ophthalmologist decided that Henry's eyes were becoming misaligned again. I agreed with him, but I also have to say that the problem was very subtle, thanks to the first surgery.

It's too early to tell the final results of this one, as Henry's eye is all bloody today, and it takes the eye a few weeks to settle into its new position, according to the doctor. I was worried that the surgical appointment itself was going to be a traumatic hell of screaming, kicking, tears and general misery (from Henry, not me or Tom), but Henry took it all like a trooper. He was calm through all the pre-op procedures, and didn't need a sedative before he was put under. Understandably, he was cranky when he woke up and complained throughout the day about his eye being sore. Today he is back to normal.

To make up for all the drama I went a bit overboard with guilt and bought him a fancy Playmobil Dinosaur set knowing full well that it will only hold his attention for a few days. He also got to eat mounds of delicious jello, and have chocolate milk with dinner. What can I say--It's hard not to spoil your 4-year-old when they have to have elective surgery. And I'm not even sure it's a bad thing.

The birthday boy

Birthday! Birthday! Birthday!

My sweet baby turned one today! It was a very happy occasion, although the celebration was a quiet one. It's a long weekend here in Ontario, and on long weekends in summer, native Ontarians all head for "The Cottage", where they frolic in whatever body of water The Cottage abuts, swat at the blackflies that swarm The Cottage, perform maintenance on The Cottage, and generally have a grand old time at The Cottage. I believe they also drink watery Canadian beer and eat hot dogs, but that's pure conjecture on my part, as I've only been to The Cottage once, and that was in 1995 (during my first stint living in Ontario).

So, this being the perfect weekend to get away to The Cottage, 8 of the 9 families we invited over for cake sent regrets, as they were all headed to The Cottage. But Henry's friend Monika and her dad came over, cake was consumed, and we'll always be able to tell our second child that he did indeed have a first birthday party. And he seemed to appreciate the chocolate cake.

What's our todder-to-be up to these days? Here are a few highlights:

*No, he's not walking yet. Not even close. given what I remember of Henry learning to walk, I'd say Dexter is at least a couple months away from this milestone. He crawls like a demon and pulls himself up on stuff, but he's not trying to stand independently yet. Oh well--he'll get it eventually.

*He gives kisses. Very sloppy kisses on the lips or chin. I love it.

*He's said "Da-da" in a meaningful way at least a couple times.

*He loves music! He figured out which button to push to make Henry's toy tractor play "Old McDonald Had a Farm", and will sit there pushing it repeatedly, doing his little Jazz Hands dance every time it starts back up. He's also added arm flapping to his dance routine.

*On good nights he sleeps from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., then goes back to sleep for an hour or so after nursing. But those nights have been few and far between lately. I think he's in the early stages of cutting molars, because he's been waking up a couple times a night recently. So I'm back to being a tad sleep deprived. Still nothing like what we went through with Henry, though. . .

*Some days he eats almost-adult-size portions of food, and eats anything and everything he's offered. Other days he won't eat anything but a few bites of fruit.

*He loves his big brother (and Henry loves him back--they get along fantastically) and clearly wants to play with the big kids now.

*He's just as sweet as can be, with more personality every day. I can't wait to see what year two brings us!

About all the "The Cottage" stuff: It seems like everyone here who is a) Ontario-born, b) not destitute, or c) destitute, but related to someone not destitute, has a vacation home. This place is always called The Cottage. Not "Our Cottage," not "My Dad's Cottage," not "The Cabin", "The Chalet," "our place on the lake," "The Lake", our place in X, or anything other than "The Cottage." And these people talk about The Cottage INCESSANTLY, all summer long. I first noticed it when I moved to Toronto way back when. It's a real Ontario thing, and we're just not a part of it. That's all.

Four eyes

It seems that spending the last 15 or so years spending most of my waking hours staring at a computer monitor has finally caught up with me. On Friday I went for an eye exam for the first time in, well, EVER, as my right eye had been feeling weird and I was getting more headaches than normal. The verdict: I need reading glasses. Just for when I'm at work, pretty much. I have to admit I was surprised when she started testing corrective lenses on me and we got to one where I thought, "hey--that small type does look clearer now! Go figure!" I've always had perfect vision, and even now I don't notice a distinctive blurriness to anything when I read, but I'm definitely straining.

Next step: pick out glasses. I'll post a photo when I get them.

Jazz hands!

Dexter loves to clap along to music, and he also does this cute little "Jazz Hands" dance. He does this even when I inflict my caterwaul singing on him, so he gets really excited when he hears a song by a professional musician.

What we did on our summer vacation

We visited Grandma Eileen and Grandpa Moe! Daddy stayed home. Mommy almost had a nervous breakdown dealing with the two of us on the plane*. It was a long trip, but so worth it! Look at all the fun we had:

We met our cousin Stella! We dug for dinos with Auntie Anne!


We ate pancakes every morning and swam all the time!


We had a pool party with Stella and our friends Elly and James!


We did other fun stuff that Mommy didn't take pictures of, like mini golfing, trips to Sarson's Beach, and Croc-Talk. The weather was sunny and warm the entire time we were in Kelowna, so it felt like a true summer vacation.

Daddy did a lot of chores around the house while we were gone. We think he caught up on his sleep, too.

*Well, mostly Dexter. He squirmed constantly on both trips and was fussy for most of the flight home. Oh joy. Henry watched "Happy Feet" and other movies on his portable DVD player for hours on end and enjoyed all the treats I gave him to stay quiet. Putting electrical outlets on each seatback was a brilliant move on AC's part. No worries about running the battery down!

Work it!

Yesterday Dexter pulled my big sun hat out of the hallway basket, put it on and immediately started striking poses. Only 10 months old and already working the look. Fierce!

Sea Monster Cafe

The latest offshoot of Henry's dinosaur obsession is prehistoric sea monsters, thanks to a great book he got from our friend Yvonne. We've learned that many types of sea monsters eat squid, so Henry wanted to try it for himself. I thought this was a pretty surprising request, since he's so conservative in his food choices. But he likes fish and they had fresh squid at the seafood store, so I thought we might as well give it a try. So with no further ado, I give you Sea Monster Cafe:

Back to the blog!

I'm not sure if blog posts can legitimately be lumped into genres, but if they were, one of the most popular would have to be the old, "Whoa--sorry I haven't updated this thing in awhile" missive that crops up on almost every personal blog from time to time. And, here's mine. I've been busy at work, and when I get home I rarely feel like turning my computer on. So I've fallen behind. I don't think anything monumental has been happening, but there have been a few events that would have merited their own post if I hadn't been so lazy. Here's a recap:

I did the 10K!
On May 24 I ran a 10 K race. For various reasons, including (but not limited to) the weather this spring, bizarre injuries (how did I hurt my back so bad sleeping?), general lack of time/energy, and general lack of enthusiasm for running, I did not train as hard for this event as I imagined I would when I first signed up. But I still did fine, finishing in 52:00:07 chip time/ 53:01:03 official time. I was 54/606 in my age/gender grouping, 312/3885 for all women, and 1397/7048 overall. I was very happy with those results. And, it was an enjoyable event overall. 10K is a much, much easier race than the half marathon I did two years ago, so I wasn't suffering at the end of it. It was a warm, sunny evening, and the race course is a scenic loop around the canal. Tom, Henry & Dexter were waiting near the 7 km mark to cheer me on, just as I was starting to feel tired. Fun times.

Dexter is 10 months old!
My sweet little baby is turning into a toddler before my eyes. He's not yet trying to stand up on his own, but he only needs one hand to hold himself up against a chair or coffee table. This weekend he shook his head "no" in a meaningful way (it was the end of a meal and I was offering him another bite). He's on the verge of cutting his top front teeth, which will be a real boon to him because he loves eating real food!!! I can't tell you how excited I am about his appetite and evermore adventurous palate. He loves mango and avocado, neither of which his picky older brother will even try. This weekend Dexter ate and enjoyed salmon, scrambled eggs, meatballs, asparagus and chickpeas. Chickpeas!!! He ate like a dozen of them in one sitting. (Henry would throw up if I got him to put a chickpea in his mouth.) He's eating such huge quantities of food that I expect a big growth spurt soon. He's no longer willing to eat jarred baby food (except for fruit purees), but who cares? He eats! He eats!!!

Henry is swimming--and sleeping!
Well, not quite full-on swimming, but he's definitely getting over his dislike of water. We've been doing swimming lessons for the past few months, and it's paying off. He'll now put his face in the water and blow bubbles. That's a big step for him. It also appears that he's finally getting over his life-long sleep problems and sleeping through the night most nights (I'm now knocking on multiple pieces of wood to guard against The Jinx). In fact, there have been a couple mornings where we've had to give him a good shake to wake him up for school (I guess he is my child after all). But most days he sleeps through until 6:30 or 7 am, then crawls into bed for a cuddle with me before we get up for the day. He may be a big boy now by his own estimation, but he's still a very affectionate child who loves a hug. Can't complain about that.

Okay, I think I'm caught up now. I'll get some pictures up sometime this month. . .

Tulip Festival

I'm a week behind posting these, but better late than never, right? Mother's Day was beautiful here. Warm, sunny--perfect day for a family walk to check out the Tulip Festival.

The "day" part of birthday is misleading. . .

Pack up the party favors and put away the dinosaur cake pan for another year—the multi-stage celebration known as Henry’s 4th birthday is finally over! Somehow, the anniversary of our dear child’s birth has become less like Christmas (lots of preparation leading to a one-day spasm of gifts, treats, food and song) and more like Hanukkah (ceremonies, events and presents, presents, presents spread over many days). Henry had his first birthday cake back in April, when my parents were in town, and will have Cake #4 when he travels to California to visit Tom’s parents. (I guess, technically, the celebrating isn’t over yet, but I’m not going on the trip, so my role is finished.)

Cake #2 was served at his birthday party, which due to multiple conflicts took place a week before his actual birthday; Cake #3 was enjoyed with his preschool classmates on his actual, calendar birthday. So, phew! I have been very busy pulling together all this celebrating. Of course we had a dinosaur-themed party with dino plates, dino decorations, a dino cookie decorating activity, and—most importantly—a dino cake. A dino cake that I made myself. Woo-hoo! It was fun. Henry was thrilled with his party, no one went home hurt or in tears (although there were tears during the party from one kid who was clearly having a bad day), and for the third year running I was able to host almost a dozen small children in my home without having the place trashed.

We got Henry a dino bike for his present. It’s pretty big for him now, but he’s doing an admirable job riding it with the training wheels on. He’s not the most physically adventurous/reckless child, so I imagine it will be quite awhile before we take the training wheels off. Now we just have to get him a new, more grown-up style helmet—the one he has is uncomfortable due to its heavy padding (seriously--it looks like something you’d wear to jump the Grand Canyon on a motorbike, not a helmet to protect a kid from a 12-inch fall off a tricycle)!

Enjoying Cake #3
Off for a ride

Hair Apparent

Dexter is now 9 months old, meaning he's been on the outside just as long as he was on the inside. We're now completely into what I happily refer to as the Lunatic Monkey phase of infant development, as he no longer sits still for more than 2.3 seconds and gets into anything and everything, especially if it is something he's not supposed to have. As a baby, Henry was never one to put stuff in his mouth (he didn't want to risk that it might be food). Childproofing was pretty simple. Pack away the CDs, remove a few dangerous items, and voila. But with Dexter is's a full-time job. First, we have this whole new category of crap (i.e. toys) littering the house that we didn't have when Henry was toddling around. And Dexter is one of those babies who shoves everything into his pie hole, including, but not limited to, small magnetic toys (aah!), paper (I can live with that), bits of old food he finds under the kitchen table (gross), and--his personal favorite--dust bunnies. Ick. I feel like i spend half my waking hours (well, the ones not at work) fishing stuff out of his mouth. He's starting to pull himself up on everything, getting more adventurous every day. And, he's growing hair. He even has a little wavy curl developing at the back of his neck. It's going to be interesting to see what all this hair looks like when it's grown in because he has this crazy double crown that looks like it will be sending his hair up into a natural "fauxhawk" or some other crazy 'do that will make strangers suspect that I'm the kind of trendoid mom who uses her kids to make a fashion statement (if it does end up being a fauxhawk, I guess thee statement will be something like, "My mom is 2 years behind the times"). Or, maybe it will just end up being curly. Time will tell.

He may be a monkey, but what a sweet little monkey he is!

Standing tall

This morning I entered the nursery to find Dexter standing tall in his crib, holding onto the crib rail for dear life. And so begins the next big phase--learning to walk. He's reached that stage where his purpose in life is to uncover every single hidden hazzard in our home and make a beeline straight for it. Also, he enjoys eating dust bunnies. With the kind of housekeeping standards we have around here, he's got plenty to chew on.

Suddenly, it's summer

We're in the midst of a fabulous stretch of hot, sunny days. The temperature has been in the mid-20s (high 70s F) since Thursday, so except for a few random piles in shaded areas, the snow is all gone, the snowsuits are packed away, and our horrible, horrible winter is officially over! Yee-haw! I'm so happy to feel the warmth that I'm not even going to lament the rotten timing of my return to work (the very week I go back, it gets nice!), or fee too sorry for myself for somehow throwing my back out to the point where i can barely walk, let alone go running or otherwise properly enjoy the sun (I have no idea what I did. I just woke up crippled on Thursday morning. I'm working on it).

It's pretty remarkable how fast the change happened. Take, for example, this photo of my mom and dad with the boys. We're out for a walk last Monday afternoon (I left work early), checking out the flooding at our neighbourhood park:

Notice the jackets, vests, and hats? It was sunny, but there was a brisk wind that made it pretty chilly. Now, here's a pictures from today:
Bare arms, bare heads, bare legs. Henry spent much of the weekend tagging the neighbourhood with chalk drawings of dinosaurs. Here he is at work, and a sample of his handiwork:

All good things must come to an end. . .

I headed back to work today. Dexter's first birthday is still several months away, but since Tom took a few months of parental leave, I was able to take "only" 8.5 months off rather than the 12 months most Canadian women take. That's still a far cry longer than the 12 weeks I got after having Henry down in the good ol' U.S. of A. So I'm really grateful that I got to spend this time being a full-time Mommy. I was getting into a groove around here. But I don't regret going back to work. There was never any question that I would be going back when the mat leave was up, so psychologically I was well-prepared to walk out the door this morning.

My parents are in town right now to help me with the transition back to paid employment, so I left my boys in loving hands. When my mom goes home, Tom will be on the Mr. Mom gig for a week or so, then we have a nanny starting full-time in May. So that's the plan. Unfortunately Dexter isn't sleeping through the night yet and tends to like a lot of attention (i.e. nursing) from Mommy between 3-5 a.m., so I'm bound to have days where I'm a little out of it at work. But that's life.

Now, when I actually showed up for work today, I discovered that my login password expired, and no one in IT got back to me to reset it. Since I couldn't access my email, or even boot up my workstation, I wandered around and said Hi to people, hoping they'd remember me since i was actually on leave longer than I worked there in the first place (they did). I went to a meeting where the CEO reviewed Q1 results. Then I went home because there was nothing else for me to do. Ah, office life. Maybe tomorrow they'll remember what they pay me for.

Another milestone passes

I received this 9 fl. oz. bottle of baby shampoo as a shower gift in April, 2004. This week, we finally used the last of it. . . and opened another bottle of baby shampoo I received as a shower gift in April, 2004.

When your kids are pretty much bald for the first two years of life, you just don't go through shampoo very quickly.

8 months old!

Dexter is 8 months old as of yesterday. To celebrate, he finally figured out how to crawl forward. This trick had him flummoxed for over a month, so it was pretty exciting to see it happen. Before he mastered forward motion, he would push himself around backwards on his belly. If I left him for a few minutes, invariably I'd return to find him stuck under the couch or Henry's train table (don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds. His head wouldn't end up under the furniture, and he was only stuck in the sense that he couldn't figure out how to get himself out of the predicament). Dexter has also become adept at getting himself from a sitting position onto his belly, so he's all ready to start moving around like a little demon.

He's also getting more interested in eating solid food. It just took a bit of experimenting to find out what he likes. He prefers stuff he can grasp himself and crunch, so toast and Cheerios are popular. I discovered this when Henry gave Dexter a pizza crust when I wasn't looking, and he immediately started gumming away (that's what he's eating in the picture). It's pretty funny to watch him munch on toast with his two little teeth. I also discovered a line of organic, gourmet baby food that comes in little frozen cubes rather than jars. It's pretty good--I can even stand to eat a spoonful of it, while the jarred food makes me gag. Of course it's relatively expensive compared to jarred food, but we're not talking big bucks here. And he'll eat it, so it's money well spent. Round out all that with some fruit purees and fruit-flavored baby cereal, and he's eating pretty well.

The unmistakable signs of spring

I went for a run today and saw many piles of old, mushy dogshit in the melting snow. Could spring finally be arriving in Eastern Ontario?

"Mom, I'm hungry!"

That's a phrase I'm hearing in an endless loop these days. Which is surprising, because it's a phrase that until recently was completely absent from Henry's repertoire. But my food-phobic boy has developed an appetite, and i feel like I now spend a good chunk of my day feeding him snacks. The turnaround is striking for a child who survived for years on chocolate milk, air, and the occasional carrot stick. I mean, this is a kid with whom we used to have to cajole, negotiate, bribe and/or force-feed almost every forkful of food that went into his mouth. A kid who got sent to an infant feeding clinic for evaluation at one year of age because he was so reluctant to eat anything at all. A kid whom I felt compelled to breastfeed for two whole years because it was his only reliable source of nutrients. That same kid is now putting back near-grownup-size portions of fish, oatmeal, pasta, meatballs--all kinds of crazy things. Well, to be honest he's still pretty picky about what he'll eat. Vegetables, for example, are pretty much off the menu (He has a remarkable ability to make himself vomit if we push too hard on the veggie front. He did it the other day after we harassed him into a second bite of sweet potato. Count it as a lesson learned). But the quantity is astounding. And he is broadening his palate ever so slightly. I just about fell over backwards last week when he asked if he could have salmon--salmon!--for dinner. You see, salmon is fish, which is Baryonyx food, and if Henry can pretend to be a kind of dinosaur while he's eating, he'll put away extra bites. The more gruesome, the better. A few days ago I got him to try quesadillo by cutting into triangles I told him were t-rex teeth, and I added some veggie content by serving it with a blob of tomato salsa I described as "carcass" that he could dip the teeth into for the full prehistoric predator experience. He went for that. So that's how it goes with a picky eating almost-4-year-old: fresh vegetables = out, decaying animal flesh = in.

Little boys are delightful.

Easter Bunnies

We had a fun Easter weekend, despite the cold. On Friday one neighbor hosted an old-fashioned egg decorating party for the local kids. Henry had so much fun dipping hard-boiled eggs in dye that he actually wanted to eat one when he got home. The fun ended there. He really likes scrambled eggs, but cold, rubbery, overcooked boiled egg wasn't his scene. I don't blame him for spitting out the bite he took. On Sunday we had a visit from the Easter Bunny, then we headed over to a different neighbor's house for an Easter egg hunt (indoors, of course). Good times. The concentration of kids right around Henry's age makes it easy to organize and attend these events. Both were last-minute ideas. And today one of the moms from the block dropped by to ask if Henry would like to go to the park with her and a few other kids. So that's where he is now, while I'm at home with Dexter.

I'll say it again: I hate the climate here, but I really, really love this neighborhood. It's such a great community.

A man and his shovel

Okay, I swear this is the last snow-related post. Tom and our neighbor, Olivier, spent the day removing snow from the alley that borders our house. (Note that Olivier doesn't actually live in the house on the other side of the alley; he was just helping out to be nice. Yes, we have great neighbors, which does a lot to make up for the horrible climate.) Anyway--Two grown men, hours and hours of shoveling, and the alley is about halfway clear. Maybe now our basement won't end up completely inundated with water. It will just be damp.

And I have no idea what we're gonna do about the situation on the side deck. I guess there's more shoveling (or bailing/mopping up the basement, if it thaws before we get to it) in our future:

March Break = House arrest

The view from inside our cell

I've almost made it to the end of March Break (It's important to note that in Ontario they do not call it "Spring Break", because it most definitely is not). I'm not sure which group of sadists decided that closing down the schools and all children's activities for a week would be a good idea (cough*TEACHERS!*cough), but someone out there in bureaucrat land owes me one hell of a coffee break. Actually, it's not the "break" that's been wearing on me so much as the fact that we're practically housebound these days because the storm last Saturday really broke the city's collective back, and getting around town is a major headache. Many, many streets (including ours) still do not have their sidewalks plowed, so trying to push a stroller is an exercise in futility. The massive snowbanks have reduced a lot of roads to one lane, and everything from merging to cornering to parking is tricky and risky. Just to park in our driveway I have to drive past the house and reverse into the neighbor's driveway, as there is no longer room to turn in. And it goes on and on. REally, it's better just to stay in. So we're pretty bored these days.

We did manage a few fun activities to avoid going totally stir-crazy during this tedious week of no school, no swimming, no playgroup. We spent a day at Jensen's. We made a snail poster and cast plaster dinosaurs from a kit. We made of it what we could, but damn could we ever use some spring around here.

Apocalypse (S)now!

Chaos! Anarchy! It's the Snowpocalypse!

Yesterday's blizzard shut the city down. It started Friday night and kept dumping through Saturday. We got of 51 cm (20 inches) of fresh snow in two days. That's on top of the massive blanket of white stuff we already had. This is the second-snowiest winter in Ottawa's history. And a super-snowy winter for Ottawa is serious business, because even average years are really freaking snowy. It's like the hottest summer in Phoenix, or the rainiest year in Vancouver. Extreme stuff. I'm starting to worry about our roof, especially over the unheated side room. But there's nothing we can do about it--the area is inaccessible, and trying to get up there to remove snow would be stupidly dangerous.

Anyway, here's the scene:



(Compare that last picture to these ones from December, when I first started commenting on all the snow we have. They seem like the good old days now.)

A sign of things to come

Here's a little brother/big brother moment for you:

I'm done

Another storm hit today. I took a look out the window this morning and decided I wasn't leaving the house. No workout for me. No school for Henry. I just couldn't bear to spend yet another morning digging the car out from under two feet of snow. As far as I'm concerned, the only way to cope with this endless, merciless winter is to stop going outside altogether.

I mean, look at this shit we're dealing with:

Side yard, yesterday

Deck, today

Our roof is doomed!

On the move (almost)

Milestone ahead

Dexter is getting ready to crawl! He's been pretty nonchalant about the process so far, showing very little interest in doing necessary pre-crawling things like rolling over from back to belly. He's just so mellow he usually seems happy to play where he lays. But this week he's making more of an effort to get out and about. Last week he figured out how to push himself backwards along the floor on his belly. This week he's practicing getting up on all fours, and he's rolling over more often. He still has work to do before he'll actually be scooting around the house. That's a good thing--babyproofing is going to be a big job this time around.

Henry's hovering beside me as I write. He wants me to spell "dig." So here we go:

DIG

Now he's happy.

Miss Stella

Kristy and Stella came home from the hospital on Thursday evening. My mom's staying over for a few days to help the new mom and dad adjust to their new family member. And what an adjustment it is. Really, there's nothing that can prepare you for those first few days at home with your first baby. That said, everyone is doing great and they sound really happy.

I wish I could pop over for a visit.

Two significant birthdays

The first: Dave and Kristy welcomed baby Stella Helen yesterday. Finally, a cousin for Henry and Dexter! I'm very excited to be an auntie. I'll post a picture later if Dave says it's okay (Believe it or not, there are still people--members of my own family!--who don't think it's normal to broadcast your entire life on the Internets).

The second: Today is the 100th anniversary of my Papa George's birth. Even though he's been gone for almost 11 years now, I still think about him a lot and wanted to mark this occasion in some small way before the day is over. So, here's to you, Papa.

Here we go again

Bah--Dexter won't eat anything! Not even super-sweet fruits like bananas and pears. He clamps his mouth shut and I can't wedge a spoon in there. I don't know how someone who likes food as much as I do could produce not just one, but two babies who don't like food at all.

Another anniversary of sorts

Last week we received a notice informing us that it is time to renew our annual membership to the Museum of Nature. That means it's been about a year since Henry fell head-over-heels in love with dinosaurs. I think it was a visit to the remodeled Dino exhibit at the museum that triggered this obsession, but honestly, I can't remember. All I know is that it's now impossible to overstate just how completely his imagination has been captivated by the prehistoric beasts. Around our house, it's all dinos, all the time. Henry reads dino books, plays with dino toys, wears dino clothes, sleeps between dino sheets, watches dino shows, plays dino video games on dino websites, and visits the dino museum at least twice a month. He also spends a lot of time pretending he's a dinosaur (usually a T-Rex), especially when he's feeling insecure in a social situation (he turns his hands into claws and roars at people). In the summer he collects rocks and sticks in the yard, claims they are fossilized bones, and assembles them into dinosaur skeletons. In the winter he does the same thing with chunks of ice and snow. It can take us a long time to walk home from school, as Henry is constantly discovering prehistoric fossils along the sidewalk. Basically, not an hour of the day goes by in our household without some talk of dinosaurs.

I admit that it can get a little tedious talking about and playing dinosaurs all the time, but the positive aspects of this obsession far outweigh any irritations. Henry is a sponge when it comes to learning about dinosaurs, and it's been very easy to harness this interest to teach him about letters (which dino names start with C, etc.) and numbers (how many claws does an allosaurus have, etc.). He's also mastered a huge list of dino-related vocabulary. I have my pronunciation of some dinosaur or other corrected by my 3-year-old at least once a day (does the name "dolichorhynchops" roll off your tongue? I didn't think so). Despite my best efforts to promote Hedge Fund Manager as an ideal career choice for a young man who would surely like to help his Mommy to retire in style, Henry keeps insisting that he wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up. We'll see about that, but I will say that we've read a lot of profiles of actual paleontologist over the last year, and it's striking how many of them say that they first fell in love with dinosaurs in childhood and never lost interest. So, never say never. Twenty years from now, if he's off digging for bones with a wire brush in the middle of some godforsaken dune, happy as a clam, I won't be a bit surprised.

Has it been 6 months already?

Or should I say, has it only been 6 months? Babies have a way of messing with your sense of time because almost as soon as you bring one home, it feels like they've always been part of your life. Anyway, whether it's been a fast 6 months or a slow 6 months, it's a mark Dexter hit this weekend, and it's a significant milestone in his first year. I believe there are few things in the world more adorable than a 6-month-old baby. This stage gives you an irresistible blend of pure babyness mixed with lots of personality. Dexter is very curious about the world around him these days. He's constantly grabbing at stuff, and when he gets ahold of something, he holds it up to his face for careful scrutiny. He's becoming quite enamored of his big brother. He'll watch Henry when he's up to his usual shenanigans with a look of fascination on his face that says, "Who is that guy? He's a total ROCK STAR!!!" It's very sweet.

Because he's 6 months old, I started Dexter on "solid" food the other day. So far, he hasn't been terribly interested. Then again, I don't know who would want to eat that flavorless mush they call baby cereal. I'm not finding I have a lot of patience with the recommended schedules for introducing baby food; the rule is that you start with the rice cereal mush, then introduce a new food every few days to make sure allergies aren't an issue, etc., etc. It all sounds like it's going to take a long time. If D. doesn't show interest in the rice mush like, tomorrow, I think I'll offer him peach mush and apple mush and other stuff that's actually tasty until he gets used to eating, then go back to rice mush. We'll see. I guess I'm just not very excited about the whole solid foods thing. I was when Henry was a baby, but since he ended up liking exactly one flavor of baby food (Beech Nut Peach Cinnamon Oatmeal) out of all the stuff I tried to feed him (including made-from-scratch baby delicacies), my spirit got a tad deflated. Also, I now realize that life as a parent is at its easiest when your child is breastfeeding exclusively, so the lazy part of me is sad to see that phase ending. No more feeding on the fly--now I have to plan meals, prepare the food, feed the food, and clean up. Oh well. I just hope he likes the peaches.