Monday 30 May 2011

Mummy Brain Strikes Again

While I was outside playing with the boy this morning I had a brilliant idea for a post. It was going to be a quick, short little post, nothing major, but funny. I'm sure it was about something that we were doing, or something the boy had said. But since we were playing soccer at the time, I didn't have an easy way to jot anything down. I said to myself, don't forget!



The boy is now having some quiet time, so I thought this would be a perfect moment to write up my little post. That way I don't have to worry about finding time tonight in between everything else that needs accomplishing in the evenings. I can sit out in the sun and enjoy the warm weather while I get the post out of my head and onto the computer - I love wireless internet!

However, the minute I sat down, Mummy Brain struck. I have no idea what I was going to write about, what I wanted to say, or even what it was in relation to! I'm sure at 2 in the morning, when I'm trying to sleep it will pop back into my head and I'll feel like an idiot for forgetting something so simple. But in the meantime, I'm stuck with Mummy Brain, and with no known cure, that blog post is going to be rattling around in my head for some time, I'm sure - ah, the joys of motherhood!

Thursday 26 May 2011

Gardening Boy

This year my parents decided to give the boy a small plot of garden in their yard so he could grow his own vegetables. He loves being outside, and digging around in our garden, which is a lot smaller and doesn't have huge amounts of space for veggies, so this is perfect for him.  He helps me plant and weed in our garden, and last fall, he 'helped' me plant all of bulbs. So having a second garden for him is great, plus it means more fresh veggies for us! 

We live within walking distance from my parents, so it means that he'll be able to check on his garden as he needs to. He's a bit impatient though, and quite often expects things to happen right away. He's still anxiously awaiting cherries on our cherry tree. It's covered in leaves and all the blossoms have dropped off, according to him this means there should be cherries for him to eat!

We popped over to my parents yesterday so he could plant his garden. In his patch, he is growing carrots, lettuce, radishes and potatoes. He put everything but the potatoes in, which my Mum had done a few days earlier. Today we had to pop over to their house during the day and see if anything had grown yet. Funnily enough, it hadn't! I explained that he only planted the seeds yesterday so there wouldn't be anything yet. He replied, "I know, but I thought the potatoes Grandma had planted would be growing by now.' Poor impatient boy, I think it will be a long summer checking on his plants almost daily!

Monday 23 May 2011

5 more minutes

The boy doesn't nap, but for the sake of mummy's sanity, he still goes into his room for some quiet time each day. Depending on how tired we are, - I mean how tired he is -, he's in his room anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. However this is not a solid amount of time, he generally pops in and out of his room every 15 minutes or so to check up on me, to go to the bathroom, to fill his water bottle up, and any other excuse he can think of.

He has a wall clock in his room, and while he can't tell time yet, he does know his numbers so you can ask him to stay in his room until the big hand gets to a certain number. Most of the time he's pretty good and waits until he is supposed to be coming out. Lately however he's been trying to push it and come out of his room earlier. If you ask him to stay until the big hand gets to the 12, he'll suddenly appear about 5 minutes early. The reason? "The big hand is between the 11 and the 12' 

I'm pleased that he's looking at his clock and mostly following the rules, and it's nice that he wants to come out and be with me. I know when he's a teenager it will be like pulling teeth to get him out of bed, and he'll be hitting the snooze button on his alarm, I'm sure. But for now, when he appears earlier that I was expecting him, it's me that says, 'Please, just 5 more minutes'.

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Today I'll behave...

The boy is getting older, and starting to really grasp that his actions have consequences, both good and bad. So some days are great when he  knows what needs to be done, follows instructions, and listens. Some days, not so great. Yesterday the boy was misbehaving while we were trying to have his shower before bed. We'd had a long day and I was not in the mood for it. So he got two warnings and on the third, I simply told him no more shower, turned the water off and that was it. 

This meant a lot of screaming and fussing (from the boy, not me). He really loves showers and baths - we have a detachable shower head so he loves holding onto it and making his own sprinkler in the tub. After a few minutes though, he finally calmed down, and off we went to bed and the rest of our night time routine.

Tonight, the boy was getting undressed and ready to go have his shower, and he stopped and looked at me and said "I'll behave today Mummy". And he did, and it was awesome!

Saturday 14 May 2011

My little helper

I've mentioned before how the boy likes to help, and most of the time it's great. Even if it means chores take a bit (or a lot) longer, it means I'm spending time with the boy (and that way if things aren't done perfectly I can always blame him!) and he's learning to help and be useful.

Today was no exception. With the warm weather we've had recently, I decided I could finally pack away our winter things (I know it's May, but I didn't want to put them away and then need to get them out again). Since it was raining today, I thought it would be the perfect time to get it done. The boy was taking a break from playing outside (he's like the post office, neither rain, nor snow, nor gloom of night...) and thought that he would be helpful. 

However, his version of helpful was not so helpful today. He thought that while I was getting all the scarves and mitts and junk out, he would turn it into dress up time. This meant he had to try them all on. Then, as I was getting all of our summer stuff out (sun hats, sunglasses, gardening gloves etc.) those needed to get tried on. It meant that the job took twice (maybe three times) as long as it needed to. But eventually it got done, and it left me with a great photo opportunity (not only does he like to dress up, but the boy is also a bit of a ham). So all in all, it was a chunk of time well spent, I think...
Summer hat, sunglasses, sweater and gardening gloves - high fashion!

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Do I really sound like that?

Most of us aren't fond of the sound of our own voice. We hear ourselves on home videos or answering machines, and think that can't  be me, I don't sound like that do I? Well I've recently had that same experience, except I haven't heard a recording of my voice, I've been hearing my words coming out of the boy's mouth. 

We were emptying the dishwasher today and he started bringing things over to me and asking me to count them. But he was using the same phrases that I use when I'm encouraging him to count. "How many spoons can you see" and then when I counted them out and answered him, he'd look at me and say (in a very perky voice) "that's right, good job!"  I guess it's cute that he wants to encourage me in the same way that I encourage him, but it's a bit disconcerting to hear my words coming back at me.

It's happened before, where I'll explain something to the boy, and he'll use the exact same words that I've used to tell someone else about it, and then use parts of that to talk about something else. But repeating my own phrases back at me, in the right situation is new. What this means is that I have to be even more careful what I say around him, I'm always afraid he'll hear snippets of what I say and take it out of context and repeat them in inappropriate places or to the wrong people.  Now I have to be even more worried that he'll know exactly what I'm saying and repeat it anyway!

Saturday 7 May 2011

Colour & Fabric Choices (Bloggers Give Back)

For everyone who's following along with the Bloggers Give Back project (check out the site here, and my old posts, here, here and here) I thought I'd give you a quick update. We'll be doing a garden clean up early in June, and getting some containers and planters installed, prior to Frankie Flowers working his magic on the whole garden in the fall.

At the same time we will be delivering the fantastic furniture Ikea donated along with the cushions from Tonic Living. This means the women at George Herman House will have some plants to look at, while sitting in some very comfortable chairs. Hopefully all while enjoying the nice weather that is on its way. 

From their Summer Collection of outdoor furniture, Ikea donated 8 ARHLOMA armchairs with pads, 1 ARHOLMA table/stool , 2 LACKO tables ,1 FALSTER table and 2 FALSTER benches. Tonic Living has donated outdoor fabric and sewing skills for 4 throw cushions for the armchairs, and 2 long cushions for the FALSTER benches. But Tonic Living has so many great patterns, how do we decide? Head on over to the Bloggers Give Back Site and let us know what you like. Personally I'm a fan of Slick Mink with Sunnyside Robin or Flatiron Pacifica with Sunnyside Chocolate. I asked the boy and he likes Sunnyside Coral and Cool Stripe Coral. Actually, I also like his choices, maybe he's got decent taste after all!

L-R Flatiron & Sunnyside Chocolate, Slick Mink & Sunnyside Robin, Sunnyside Coral & Cool Stripe Coral


Thursday 5 May 2011

Today I'm....

The boy has a very vivid imagination and many of his games are make believe games. His newest thing is pretending to be different people. Which means you have to call him by that persons' name. He tells you who he's being and then if you call him by his own name he'll correct you and say "no Mummy, I'm not me, I'm...."

It's interesting who he picks to pretend to be. Most of them seem to stem from what he's doing at the moment, so if we're playing hockey or soccer then he's the Goalie. If he's doing jobs around the house he's either Bob (the Builder) or our contractor. Sometimes he's Nana, or Granddad, or even Lola (from Charlie & Lola). 

They all have different personalities, and do different things, so you'll never catch the goalie doing jobs around the house, he's only for sports, and  Nana does jobs like helping the boy to re-shingle her roof. They also all have their own (make believe) equipment. The goalie has pads and gloves, Bob has special tools, and Lola plays different games and instruments with Lotta or Charlie.

He also sometimes expects you to  be part of his make believe world, so occasionally I have to be Charlie, or Grandma, or even the boy, as he pretends to be someone else. It's a lot of fun, if not a bit confusing for me, as I try to keep it all straight. He's very good at reminding you who he's pretending to be, and also who you're supposed to be.  It helps that when he's pretending, he refers to himself in the third person, so "Bob is just putting up a new fence now" or "the Goalie has stopped the ball"

I don't know how long this phase will last, or if he'll just start internalizing the characters. For now, it's great having that glimpse into how his mind works, and seeing just how big his imagination really is. Now if I could figure out a persona for him to be that naps and is quiet and calm, we'd be set!

Sunday 1 May 2011

These are the rules

The boy likes rules - he doesn't always follow them, but he does like having them.Today on our drive home from church we noticed a jogger out on the road, and  he was very concerned. He piped up from the back seat "That man shouldn't be on the road, you're supposed to be on the sidewalk." We agreed, yes that was the safest place to be, and no we didn't know why the man was on the road, but that he would be safest on the sidewalk, and that's why we have that rule. Most of the time, once he understands why we have a rule, he's o.k. to follow it, when he remembers of course.

He also likes to invent rules to his make-believe games. So we'll be playing something with a nonsensical name, and then he has to tell us what the rules are. The other day we were playing 'bang the monkey in the bucket' and there were very specific rules as to what order we could do things in, how you played, and what was allowed during the game. Those rules changed as they went on though! It's moments like this that I'm afraid I'm raising a Calvin, and I'll find him playing Calvinball as he gets older

 Hubby and I get reminded of the rules if we break them "Mummy, we don't leave the tap on", "Daddy, we're not supposed to slam doors", "Mummy, we don't whine". They're all great rules for toddlers, but some days it's just easier for me to toss dirty clothes in the laundry rather than walk over and put it in nicely, but if I'm under the ever vigilant eye of the boy, I will get told that we don't throw our clothes. Some days I wish his memory wasn't as good so I could get away with stuff!

I asked him today what are some of the other rules and this is what we came up with: 

  • Don't touch the TV
  • Don't touch the iPad when Daddy's using it
  • Don't go out the window
  • Don't break the glass
  • Don't go down the drain when you're having a bath
  • Don't leave the shower running
  • Don't go in Daddy's workshop without anyone in there

I'm not sure where the rules about the window, the glass, or the drain came from, but I guess it if prevents him from escaping from the house, breaking my windows, or getting a toe or a finger stuck in the drain, then they're not bad ones to remember.