The morning after...

Sash loves Thursday night because that is our TV night. We cheer as the worst Idol contestants are voted off, and then we watch back to back Lost. On a certain channel here they air the previous week's Lost episode before the new episode, with text commentary outlining how certain aspects of the scenes are related. Brilliant! So on Thursdays instead of taking her bath at 8-8.30pm, having a slew of Dora books read and bedtime sometime after 9.00pm, we forgo the bath, take her upstairs at 10, read her 3 books and put her to bed by 10.30-11. D and I sit down and analyse the episodes, trying to figure out who the 6th Oceanic survivor is. I say Micheal (if Ben is not counted and Aaron is), while D thinks it is Locke. Suffice it to say she reaches her daycare on Friday morning in a zombie like state. And this will continue until the Summer. Which cannot come too soon. We had a major snowfall a few days ago, and reports are in to expect another 30cm over the weekend. Luckily we have no solid plans this weekend other than to have brunch tomorrow with our neighbors. I am thinking of keeping it simple with lots of coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice (by this I mean freshly squeezed by our friendly neighbourhood market), croissants and pain au chocolate, homemade blueberry pancakes with homemade strawberry syrup and maple syrup (this is Canada), scrambled eggs and sausages. And of course cheese sticks for the kiddies. Talk will most probably center around the new proposal by the Liberals to allow tax deductible contributions of up to $5000 per annum to RESPs. RESPs are children's education funds which are allowed to appreciate tax-free, and the govt also tops up up to $500 per annum to encourage savings by parents. Contributions are currently not tax deductible, and there is a lifetime limit of $50,000 per RESP, but if the proposal is approved it would mean massive tax savings for those in the middle class especially. If we max out the contributions at $10,000 per annum for 2 kids, we could save more than $3500 in taxes per annum. Tax rates are extortionate here, at 35-40% per annum. The argument is that whatever loss of revenue to the govt will be made up by more highly educated children in the future. We really hope this proposal is approved because the tax savings would just be such a bonus. Granted, we would max out the RESP limits even without such savings as we calculate that it would cost us approximately $400,000 for Sash and PJ to be given the freedom to choose any college they want to attend in 18 years, even an Ivy League US one. We of course hope that they choose to study where D works because then tuition will be waived and we will convert their education fund to our own enjoy ourselves till we drop dead fund.

On Sunday we are thinking of checking out the Toronto Art Expo as we are looking for a piece to liven up Sasha's room. We have been looking at some kiddie art decor, you know the type, mass produced cute-sy animal prints on canvas that still cost around $200 each. At that price range we would rather buy her something that will age as well as she presumably will, but nothing too expensive because then we might as well put it on our bedroom wall. Luckily for us, our house is extremely tiny so wall space is precious, hence we have to be extremely picky about what goes up. Hopefully we can find something cheap and cheerful. Just like us.