Christmas Wreath

The other week I decided that the boy and I would try making a Christmas wreath (it couldn't be any worse than our Easter wreath), and I figured if it didn't turn out, it could get hung on the boy's bedroom door and I'd put a store bought one on the front door.

Then I saw a tweet from Lindsey at Recreated (@LGrecreated) about this 'Amaze-Balls" wreath she had created, and I thought, hey, maybe I can do that. (Plus her post had plenty of 'balls'  and I have  the sense of humour of a 12 year old boy).

I let the boy pick the balls he wanted to use, and then he told me where to place them when we put the wreath together. I probably would have put more on, but the boy decided we had enough, and since he was the creative team, and I was just the labour, I had to listen to him.

The finished product

The boy loves to show it off to everyone, and I think it's front door worthy, so we're all set - bring on Christmas!

The Boy's view of the Christmas market

We headed down to the Christmas Market this past weekend with some friends to help us get in the Christmas spirit. The weather didn't really inspire any great Christmas-y feelings (it was damp & rainy), but the carollers, booths, food (yum warm nuts!), and general atmosphere made it a great night out. 

Like last year, the boy took his camera , to document the outing, and he's really getting quite proficient so I thought I'd share them.

There you have it, this year's trip to the Toronto Christmas Market was a success, I can't wait until next year to see what the boy finds picture-worthy then!

This is why the boy isn't allowed to dress me

"Mummy, look it's so sparkly and pretty, you should buy it"

Because what every SAHM needs in her closet is a sparkly gold mini dress... 

Although according to the boy I could wear it anywhere, so if you see someone freezing at kindergarten drop off, but looking very sparkly, you'll know the boy convinced me to get the dress.

The real Santa

I'm taking the boy to see Santa at the mall this afternoon to have his picture taken. It's become a tradition for us, and the boy has always enjoyed it, thankfully. No 'hilarious' screaming baby photos for us.

He asked me if it was the real Santa, and not really knowing how to answer it, I just asked him what he thought (best cop-out answer ever). After thinking for a moment he decided that our mall Santa was real, but other mall Santa's weren't, the Santa that was in our local parade was the real Santa too.

Nice to know that he still believes, but since he already realizes that not all Santa's are 'real', I wonder how long it will be before he decides that none of the Santa's are real? I think I'll be using this letter if he ever asks about Santa. But for now, I can still say, 'yes boy, there is a Santa.'

Home made advent calendar

The boy loves Christmas - he's been desperately waiting to get his advent calendar out so he can start counting down the days.  The calendar he uses is the same one I had growing up, and of course he has a chocolate one too (who doesn't love having a chocolate a day?)

This year the boy & I made one for his Dad too. Starbucks was selling a packet of 25 of their instant VIA coffees, and I originally bought it to be part of his Christmas presents. But I got to thinking that he might like his own advent calendar, and these would be perfect for it. 

I had just bought myself a new pair of boots, so I had a big box I could use for it, and then I had to put my thinking cap on to figure out the rest of it. I eventually came up with the idea of using paper towel rolls as the holders for the packets of coffee.

I cut the holes in the box (while having that SNL 'Christmas' song running through my head) by myself and then the boy helped with the rest.

Step 1: Cut a hole in the box....

We attached the tubes, filled them (the boy made 'ornaments for his Dad - basically cut up pieces of paper he drew on) and then we covered them up. 

Tubes waiting to be filled up

We just cut squares of construction paper to cover the holes up. While shopping at the dollar store the other day I found a cute countdown garland that I bought and cut up to use on the calendar for the dates.

Tada! Finished project

All in all, I think for a non crafty Mum with a 4 year old helper, it turned out o.k. I think my husband will love it, because the boy helped make it, and now I won't feel so guilty if I buy myself a chocolate advent calendar on Dec 2 when they're on sale!

Who needs Christmas presents? (or the boy's imagination)

People always say that kids love the box as much as the toy that came in it, and the boy is no different.

Recently he & his dad got new winter boots and the boy has commandeered the boxes they came in. They have been cars, garbage trucks, crushers, contraptions, and inventions. This afternoon he decided they were police and fire trucks, so he had to draw the flashing lights on them.

Decorating the boxes

  He then proceeded to drive (push) them around the living room making siren sounds.

The police car on its way to help someone

Reckon that 'Santa' could get away with just bringing the boy some empty boxes?

Potatoes!

We planted potatoes in the garden this year. They weren't proper seed potatoes or anything, just some I had in my cold room that were starting to sprout. 

We planted them with the thought that even if they didn't produce anything they would at least help to churn up our heavy clay soil so that it would be better for next year.

Now that the weather is getting colder, we figured it was now or never to harvest them, so armed with his shovel, the boy set off to dig them up.

(Please ignore the ugly old air conditioner)

And here they are the fruits (vegetables?) of our labour

The boy was thrilled to have 11 little potatoes grown by himself, and is already planning where he's planting them next year.

We haven't tried them yet, I think they'll be a side dish to dinner one night this week. A very small side dish, but hopefully a tasty one.

Life cycle of a pumpkin

Halloween is finally here and the boy is super excited. We carved up our pumpkins this weekend and he really got into it. He designed the faces, scooped out the guts, helped to carve and then arranged them on the porch for tonight.

Here's the life cycles of our Mummy & Baby pumpkin (according to the boy)

1. Lugging the big heavy pumpkin, he insisted on doing it alone . 2. Decisions, decisions, which baby pumpkin to pick? 3. The face the boy drew by himself. 4. All carved up. 5. Ready for their big night

Happy Halloween to everyone - stay safe & enjoy all the candy!

Nice weather for ducks

We haven't been skating with the boy yet this season, so we all laced up our skates and headed to the local rink for public skate. It took the boy a little bit to get back into the swing of things, but once he remembered what he was doing he was off & going.

If only there wasn't an NHL lockout....

Since "Frankenstorm" is headed this way, it's been a very wet & rainy weekend, so when we left the arena, we were treated to the site of  a brace of ducks hanging around outside. We had to stand outside in the pouring rain watching the ducks.

My little naturalist

We then came home to dry off, have something warm to drink, and cuddle in a warm blanket. What better end to a damp day?

Dairy Farmer

The boy had a PA day on Monday, it was beautiful weather, so he jammed the day full of fun - we went to the zoo, to a pumpkin patch. had lunch out, and played soccer. I was exhausted by the end of the day (the boy was still raring to go of course)

At the end of the day I asked him what his favourite part of the day had been, and he told me it was milking the cows (at the pumpkin patch they have a fake cow you can milk). He apparently might like to milk cows when he's older.

Looks like he'll have lots of fodder for his other career as a writer.

Farmer Boy hard at work (or trying to figure it all out)

Just a mum

I was at the boy's school the other day after dropping him off at lunch time. I then had following conversation with one of his little friends.

Little Girl: Are you a helper or a Mom?

Me: I'm a mum, I'm the boy's mum.

LG: Oh, how come you were here the other day then too?

M: I was helping out

LG: Oh, my mum never comes to school.

M: Oh, um, well, does your Mum have a job? I'm at home, so I can come in and help. But if your mum works, that would be why she can't come in during the day.

LG: No, she doesn't work, she's just a mum (said with serious disdain)

At this point it took all my mum skills to keep a straight face and not burst out laughing.

After asking a a few more questions I found out that the little girl has a baby sister and her mum is home with the little one all day.

But, in the mind of her daughter, she doesn't work, since she's "just a mum"

Even days after the event I still can't help but smile at the thought of the poor mum of that little girl who 's 'just a mum' . 

Although I'm now afraid to ask the boy what he thinks I do, I'm not sure I'd want to hear the answer.

Walking in an autumn wonderland

Our daily walk to school now comes with a lot of leaf crunching and jumping.

I wonder why he's dizzy.

One of the things the boy has learned in school (from his friends not his teacher) is the joy of rolling down hills. Yesterday he spent a good 15 minutes rolling down the hill at the park. Near the end, he stood up and said. "I feel a little dizzy", but then proceeded to run up the hill and go again! Oh to be 4!

From Apple Picking to Cookies

The boy & I went apple picking the other weekend at a local apple farm. He was very enthusiastic and we came home with nearly a bushel's worth of apples. 

Picking Apples in the pouring rain

We're now hitting the point where we're starting to need other things to do with the apples other than just eat them every day! When I saw this fantastic recipe on the Yummy Mummy Club for cookies made with applesauce, how could I resist?

The boy & I made them this afternoon and they are fantastic. We ate too many before I could get a good picture, so you'll just have to drool over the image on Yummy Mummy Club.

The only change I made in the recipe was to use hemp hearts instead of walnuts. This gives them a good protein kick, and they're still safe for the boy to take them to school. I've frozen half the batch and that way I have a quick ready made treat for us. Plus it means that we don't eat them all at once! 

Now I just need a few more recipes to go with the rest of the apples that are left!

Look Mummy, I got another one!

It's official...

The boy came home with his Scholastic Book order today, I guess it's official, he really is in school! 

The book orders & book fairs were one of my favourite parts of public school. Being a bookish kid the ability to buy more books was heaven for me. It was so hard to narrow down my choices sometimes and pick just one (or maybe two) Now it's the boy's turn to be excited when those pieces of newsprint come home. And I have to work on helping him pick just one (or maybe two) books.

First week of school

It was the boy's very first week of school, and he loved it. He did great, the only one getting teary was me! He's done lots of painting and learned new songs and those were the two things he said he wanted to do before school started! Plus there's a workbench in the play yard, so he's pretty much in heaven!

Just thought I'd share a few pics of my (big) boy on his first day school...

Walking to school with Dad

Checking things out

Cool castles to climb in.

He can't wait to go back on Monday, although he did ask us how much longer until the end of June! I think for now we'll just count down to weekends.

Now he might want to be a pilot

We went to the CNE yesterday, and took in the airshow. The boy loved it. He was so into the jets, he was amazed at how fast they went. So today he has been tearing around pretending to be a pilot in a jet plane, all the while giving us cockpit commentary.  Guess we'll have to look into flying lessons when he gets older!

The best way to watch the show - up on Dad's shoulders

My knight-errant

The boy & I went to the ROM the other day, mostly to see the new dinosaur exhibit, but also to check out a few other things, including the boy's favourite, the bat cave.

The dinos were very cool, and definitely worth the visit if your little ones are into dinosaurs. There's lots of cool tech to go along with them to help explain everything. The bat cave is a perennial favourite, I even remember it from my days of trips to the ROM!

Given the boy's newest love for knights, we also had to make a trip to see different types of armour. We found this great collection of different styles from the 17th century, including a Samurai helmet, Mughal armour and Indian dagger & sword. He even got to dress up in something replica medieval armour, including a helmet & breastplate which nearly made him fall over it was so heavy!

That's why I love places like the ROM, whatever your interest, dinos, natural history, knights, ancient Egypt, or ancient Rome, there's something there to help spark your imagination, and inspire questions. Of course with the boy, it doesn't always take a lot to inspire a question! And some days with all the questions he asks, maybe I shouldn't be giving him fodder for more!

Wow! 

Make believe

The boy seems to have moved on from being a Roman Solider to being a knight. We're now into learning about Medieval times and what life was like for a knight.

He's really into the idea of jousting and so gallops through the house pretending to have a lance so that he can knock other knights off their horses!

Sir Boy of Sillyville off to the library for more books!

A complete jewellery set

The boy seems to have finally decided (after much questioning) that I really do like the necklace that he made me. So now I have a beaded bracelet to go with the necklace. 

These are pieces of jewellery I'll always treasure. Maybe it will become a family heirloom! 

Who wouldn't want a matching necklace & bracelet

Why do you like the necklace Mummy? Why?

The boy came home from camp yesterday with a beaded necklace he'd made for me. It's very cute and of course I put it on right away and told him how much I liked it. And that's when the questions started.

"Why do you like it Mummy?"

"I like it because it has lots of pretty colours in it,"

"Why does it have lots of colours Mummy?"

"Well, those are the beads you picked for it,"

"Do you like it Mummy?"

"Yes, I like it a lot,"

"Why do you like it?"

"I like it because it looks like a rainbow,"

"It does, doesn't it Mummy. Why else do you like it?"

"I like it because you made it for me, and that makes it special to me."

"Oh, I'm glad."

pause

"Why else do you like it Mummy?"

and so on, and so on, and so on. I had to get very creative with some of my answers, and finally ended up repeating myself. But eventually the questions stopped. Until this morning anyway. The boy certainly does not suffer from a short attention span when it's something that interests him.

The necklace in question. In case you weren't sure, I do like it...

Huge Thanks

We were in Newfoundland last week on vacation and the boy had a great time. We went up Signal Hill, saw the lighthouse at Cape Spear, toured around the Avalon Peninsula, and went whale watching. The boy loved going on the boat, and not only did we get to see whales, but we also saw puffins.

Puffins guarding their burrows

I don't know why the boy was so entranced with the puffins, but that was all he could talk about, and still talks about. As a souvenir we decided to buy him a book about puffins, which we had to read every night (and morning) at the hotel. Unfortunately, in the hustle of trying to get packed up to come home the book got left behind.

His new favourite animal!

I tweeted that I had left the book behind and got an reply with an offer to help from @MarriottIntl within a few hours. The staff at the Marriott in Newfoundland were so friendly and helpful, but I just figured it was all part of the legendary Newfoundland attitude. But it seems that helpfulness goes across the Marriott chain.

They helped me track down the book, got in touch with the manager of the Courtyard Marriott in St. John's, and then low and behold in the mail today we got a package.  In it was the boy's book, and as an extra special treat, they had included a puffin bookmark & a puffin key chain!

I can't say enough nice things about the Marriott hotel. Not only did they pick up on a chance tweet, and followed through, but then they went above and beyond by taking note of the boy's interest in puffins. So thank you Marriott for being so awesome and making my boy's week. (And a half hearted thanks from me, since I've now had to read the puffin book a lot again!) You've got a customer for life in my family.

A boy & some ducks

We just got back from a family trip to Newfoundland, and one of the the things the boy really enjoyed was watching the ducks at Bowring Park. He stood still and watched them for ages, it was amazing.

Of course, he then managed to blow off all the stillness by tearing through the park and playground, but he was still for a bit!

Calm & quiet, will wonders never cease!

Apples & Dust

Some days I find it harder to come up with healthy snack ideas than dinner ideas. Looking for something that's filling (but not enough to spoil a meal), tasty, easy, quick to make, and preferably without a lot of clean up after! Well thank goodness for mum friends when you need to shake up your snack routine.

The other day, my friend Stephanie told me about this fantastic snack that her kids love, call 'Apples & Dust'. With a name like that, how could we not try it out?  We love apples, and this, according to Stephanie, makes them taste even better. So in need of a snack this afternoon, we thought we'd give it a shot. It's really simple, all you need is an apple and dust (aka cinnamon).

We chopped up the apple into finger food sized chunks and popped them in a bowl. Next the boy liberally sprinkled cinnamon over top, then we put another bowl over top and shook it all up.

The result was delicious. Who would have thought something simple like covering apples in cinnamon would be fantastic?

Apples & Dust (a perfect snack with a preschooler approved name)

Summer bliss

A perfect summer afternoon, relaxing on the deck at our local outdoor pool.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

The boy started playing in a soccer league this year, and is really enjoying it. It took him a few weeks to figure it all out, but now he's actually gotten pretty good.

Today after scoring a goal and then having the other team score he had a bit of a melt down. Once he'd settled down he told us he was upset because he wasn't able to stop the other team from scoring and he didn't think he'd be able to score again.

We had a quick chat about being a good winner & loser and the power of thinking that you can do something. We reminded him of the little engine and that seemed to help. He went back out and scored two more goals in the game, and was much happier when the other team scored.

Being a gracious winner and loser is something I think is a really important skill to learn and I'm glad he's enjoying playing soccer as I think team sports help to teach this lesson. Now we just have to see if this carries over to next week's game (and the rest of his life!)

Training ground for life?

A Canada Day Craft

With Canada Day this weekend marking the unofficial start of summer, the boy thought it would be fun to do something "Canadaish"(his word) for a craft today. I decided we'd make our own Canada Flag. It's an easy (and quick) craft to do.

We've made this craft before, and since you use your child's hand print as the maple leaf, it would be a nice indication of how big they've grown if you made one each year.

All you need is some red & white construction paper (or white paper & red paint), scissors, glue & crayons or markers. Use your white paper as the base, cut your red paper into 3 even strips. Glue 2 of the red strips on the sides of the white paper, leaving you with a band of white in the middle.

There`s a couple of choices to make the maple leaf. You can then either trace your child's hand on the white & colour it in (that was what the boy wanted to do), or you could trace it on the last piece of red paper & cut it out & glue it in the middle of the white. (Or if you wanted, you could paint their hand red and get them to make a hand print on the page - we've done this in the past, and it looks very cute too.)

Serious concentration going on here colouring in his hand

Easy, quick, and not too messy - my kind of craft! Plus the boy has something he`s pretty proud of, and will be waving on Canada Day!

Canadian and proud!

Cats and Dogs

We were shopping for new PJ's the other day (he's had another growth spurt!) and he decided he wanted kitty cat jammies (he's really into cats lately). That was fine, and so we started hunting for them. Dogs, dinos, diggers, bugs, spaceships, and lots of other designs filled the boys section of PJ's, but no cats. The cats were all in the girls section. So we ended up with a very cute pair of pink & purple kitty cat jammies, and one very happy boy.

But why are cats inherently feminine and dogs seem to be masculine? Who decided that? I have enough problems with the huge gender divides on clothes (why can't a girl like blue & monster trucks, or a boy like fairies & pink) and now even animals are decidedly girly or just for boys?

So far the boy hasn't shown any concern for what other people tell him to wear (he once told a boy who questioned why he was wearing a dress that 'he could wear what he wanted and it didn't matter') so I'll continue to let him help pick his own clothes and shop in whatever gendered section of the store he wants.

It helps that he looks good in pink!

Ancient Times

The boy has recently become exceptionally interested in the Romans lately. I've dug into all my old history books, we've gotten books from the library, and we've looked at pictures on line. We also created our own Roman 'costume'  with a centurion 'helemt' and his binoculars slung across his chest as his 'sword'

The roman soldier reading a book on Rome from the library

In doing our 'research' the boy has found some of his favourite new facts:

• Romans didn't have toilet paper
• Romans used oil to clean themselves and then scraped it off with all the dirt
• Romans liked stinky fish sauce (Garum) on everything 

These get told to lots of people, especially if we're out and he's wearing his 'helmet'

Today's Roman activity was fort building with our blocks

Our 'fort'

But, like all good creations, it needed to be destroyed. I'm not sure what the Roman equivalent of Godzilla is but he appeared to finish off the fort.

Crushing the for!

Keeping cool

With this mini heatwave we're having, the boy has figured out his favourite way to stay cool (and it keeps my plants well watered!)

One spray on the plants, then one on me,

Radishes!

Check out what the boy picked from his garden today!

They were delicious & peppery, just perfect!

Breakfast in bed

Recently the boy has gotten very keen on making breakfast for hubby and myself. Of course since he can't reach too much in the fridge this rather limits what he 'makes' for us. Some days it's cereal & milk (light on the milk, heavy on the cereal), and some days it's just dry cereal.

Today I got dry cereal, but in a nice touch, he put it on a tray to carry up to me. I really can't wait until he's old enough to start using the stove on his own - I'll be putting in requests for eggs, pancakes, french toast & bacon!

Presentation is (almost) everything

Contraptions

The boy loves to build, and loves contraptions. So when he got a giant marble run for his birthday recently, it was a match made in heaven.

He's been 'drawing' plans up for all the different ways we need to build it, and then when we put it together he acts as the 'supervisor' telling me what pieces I need and where to put them. However his favourite part is dropping the marbles and watching them roll down the ramps. So once it's all built he spends a lot of time finding all the marbles, rolling them down, and starting all over again. It's fun to watch his excitement as he follows the marbles back and forth. Until he decides that we need to start all over again and follow a new plan. Looks like engineering might be a career choice for him (or demolition, since he likes tearing them apart too!)

I'm pretty proud of this one - it's almost as tall as the boy!

Birdwatching

We live in a well established part of suburbia, with nice mature trees all around. This means that we have a fair amount of birds that visit us. Nothing too exotic, just a collection of cardinals, blue jays, sparrows, robins, chickadees, doves and starlings. 

We have a bird feeder and bird bath in our back yard, and provided the dogs don't see the birds they can eat fairly undisturbed. Today the boy & I were outside playing when two doves landed in the garden. The boy was about to go down his slide, so he just sat at the top, absolutely transfixed by watching the doves eat. He kept up a running commentary the whole time they were there. Apparently the birds in my neighbourhood are used to the sound of his voice, because it didn't phase them at all.

What amazed me most was how still he kept. After I reminded him that it would frighten them if he moved, I saw barely a fidget from him. This happened about 4 or 5 times this afternoon as different birds came down to eat at the feeder, and each time he sat so still so as not to disturb them.

Apparently I need to take birds with me whenever I go places that I want him to sit still.

At least this means he can sit still when he wants to.

Can there be a wrong side of the bed?

The boy was having one of those days today. Not listening to anything, being exceptionally wilful, and incredibly bossy. Which caused me to have one of those days too. You know the ones where you start counting down the hours bedtime, and it's only lunch. 

The boy and I were discussing his behaviour, and I said that maybe it was because he had gotten up on the naughty side of the bed this morning. He stopped, looked at me and said, quite logically, "But Mummy, I only have one side of the bed to get out on." 

This does not bode well for tomorrow...

Don't come in here.

Some of the most feared words a parent of a small child can hear them say is 'don't come in here' (especially if the child sounds panicky at the time, or it was proceeded by a loud crash)

I hurt my back about a month ago, and as part of my treatment I've been having a weekly in-home massage from an RMT. It's great since I don't need to worry about taking the boy with me or finding someone to watch him for me.  He loves it too because he's allowed to watch tv for the hour (a rare treat for him).

Today while getting my massage the boy decided he was hungry and went to get himself some cereal to snack on. Suddenly there was a loud crash and the sound of cereal spilling. I asked if he was o.k. and his answer was "I'm fine Mummy, but don't come in here." Then there was a pause  and he added "It's o.k. now, the dogs are cleaning up the mess." Good thing my dogs like muesli!

Water Play = Fun

A warm day a busy boy, and the garden hose all adds up to a fun afternoon!

The aftermath of the fun.

The trick is not getting caught.

The boy & I were getting out of the car today, and as I turned around to let him out of his seat and to tell him what he was responsible to carry into the house, I noticed he was putting the tag from his backpack in his mouth. I told him he wasn't to put it in his mouth, and then asked him why he had done it. The answer? "Well I thought you weren't looking at me Mummy." 

This doesn't bode well for me during his teen years.

I picked you some flowers

After playing outside today the boy appeared with a handful of flowers, thrust them at me and said "I picked these for you Mummy so that you will feel better and be happy."

I'm just thankful that I haven't been able to get out into the garden to see the damage....

Chunky Monkey Cookies

'Skinny' cookies that are home made with no sugar, simple ingredients, and the recipe is easy enough that the boy can help me with? I'm in!

I was browsing Pinterest the other night, (aka wasting time when I should have been in bed & asleep) and I came across the recipe for Skinny Chunky Monkey Cookies from the Six Sisters Stuff blog. They needed ripe bananas, and it just so happened I had a few that I was getting ready to throw in the freezer for smoothies, so I figured I had nothing to lose.

The recipe is simple, (and relatively healthy for a cookie) some bananas, oats, cocoa, peanut butter, apple sauce, and vanilla. I handed over my masher and let the boy go to town on the bananas, and it was perfect. He felt like he was really contributing and it kept him busy while I got together the rest of the ingredients. 

The cookies came out pretty well, the boy had fun making them, and now we have treats for the week. All in all a successful afternoon. Now to decide between finding other cool stuff on Pinterest for the boy & I to do, or going to bed. Tough call. at least I can eat a cookie while I think about it.

Empathy

There are days when I wonder what is going through the boy's head. Like when he yells at me, or hits out at things, and then claims he doesn't know why I'm upset. It's nothing unusual, really just the behaviour of a 3 (almost 4) year old stubborn, independent wilful little boy. But this past week he completely surprised me.

I threw my back out on the weekend, and the boy has been nothing short of lovely. He's 'helped' me walk, he's volunteered to do chores for me, he's used his doctors kit to find out what was wrong, and he's been willing to mostly play in one spot so that I can move slowly to keep an eye on him. All of this was made easier by having his Nana (my fantastic MIL) come over and help out for a few days. This meant he still had someone to pay loads of attention to him during the day. He has been mostly on his best behaviour and it's amazing.

The best example of his caring though came last night. Hubby had put the boy to bed, and the boy had asked me to come in for one last kiss. I managed that, but then he wanted me to stay for a cuddle in his bed. Normally I would say yes, but I had to explain to the boy that there was no way I could manage it right now. He got very quiet and very still. I asked him if hew was o.k., and he replied in a sad little voice, "I'm o.k. Mummy, I'm just sad that your back hurts and I want you to feel better. I don't like it when you're sick."

The empathy and the sweetness were overwhelming. If only I could bottle that up for our not so good days.

When I grow up, I'm going to be a grown up

The boy & I were driving & chatting today, when he announced that when he gets bigger he's going to drive my car. I pointed out that it was another 12 years before he was allowed to drive, and he said, "I know Mummy, when I'm a grown up."

This sounded like a humorous discussion, so I decided to ask him what he was going to do when he was a grown up. In his own words, this is what he said:

'When I grow up, I'm going to be a grown up and go to work. I'll go to work so that I can make money to buy food, and pay for the house and give some to people who don't have any. I'll work in a work, not in a store. I'll sit at a desk, and type things and fix things. Then I'll take your car and put gas in it for you. I'll also go and buy the groceries, so that we have veggies and meat and stuff. Then I can help make dinner too, because I'll be big enough to use the stove. And I'll mostly drive your car, but sometimes maybe I'll use Daddy's car too, but yours is bigger so it's better for me, since I'll be so big and tall.'

So apparently I'd better start saving up for his insurance now, since he wants to drive both cars, and all of his money from work will be spent on other things. But the fact that he'll buy the groceries and cook dinner after working all day more than makes up for it. I hope his future spouse appreciates the training that I've done!

Sandy Fun

Even though it was a bit chilly today, it was still a lovely sunny afternoon to head to the park. So bucket & spade in hand that's what the boy & I did. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Digging for burried treasures

What he managed to find (and proudly present me with)

Volcanoes!

We were talking about chemistry at the dinner table last night (hubby has a science degree), and we were trying to explain chemical reactions, and what better way to show it then by making a volcano? So that's just what we did.

With a little baking soda & vinegar and an empty plastic bottle, we had lots of fun. The boy got to put the baking soda in, and 'helped' hubbymeasure the vinegar.

We kept the mess fairly contained on a tray, so it made clean up a little easier. Which is a big plus for any science experiment. We actually used up all the vinegar I had in the house, and the boy was desparate to make more volcanoes, so we had to go out and buy more today.

Guess that means there will be more explosions & bubbles in my kitchen!

Mad scientist at work

Bubbles!

Sunshine (of Sorts)

We were outside playing today and the boy discovered a patch of dandelions. He loves dandelions, and thinks that they are beautiful. Every time he sees them he says how lovely they are and picks some as a 'present' for me. This means that we now have a pot of sunny dandelions in the house. They may be called a weed, but when the boy picks them for me, I'll pretend they're really flowers.

The boy thought I would love these beautiful 'flowers'

Interruptions

"Mummy, do you like the flower I drew?"

"Mummy, is it o.k. if I come upstairs?" (said while already upstairs)

"Mummy, the dogs are barking."

"Mummy, can you come and turn on my ladybug light?"

"Mummy look, I got my socks on."

What do all of these have in common? They are all things that the boy deemed so important he had to come and tell me while I was in the bathroom. I really need to remember to lock the door.

Stages in life...

My sister-in-law had a little boy not that long ago. He's absolutely adorable, and has that great new baby smell. While I was holding him the other day it made me have those "aww, I miss when..." feelings.

We've been having some weeks around here that are great, some not so great, and others that make me wonder if I'm going to make it through the week at all. So when I get to hold a newborn that has yet to speak, doesn't have a stubborn streak, and isn't independent to nth degree it makes me miss that stage. Then I remember the cluster feeds, the sleepless nights, and the complete helplessness, and maybe I don't really miss that.

One of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman, posted some advice for new parents, and the best line he wrote “And as they get older, the nature of the shit will change.” And it's so true. So while I'm frustrated some days with the boy, I have to remember, that no matter what age or stage he is there will always be shit of one kind or another no matter how young or old he is. So I will enjoy each and every part. Or at least try and block out the really really bad days.

Trip to the dentist

The boy had a successful dentist visit today, so that meant a trip to their 'treasure box'.

Funny what catches his eye.