Sasha will be going on a field trip today. Her first ever, with her daycare mates. They are not venturing far, just the splash pad in the park which is about oh, 200 metres from her daycare. Still, it is her first trip, a milestone for US, and so Doug and I were quite excited last night getting her stuff ready. Her swim suit, a huge towel, her hat, swimmer diapers and her water shoes. We took her to the same splash pad last Thursday for a swim but we let her walk and splash around barefoot. J however insisted that we get her water shoes or Crocs as she will not let the kids go barefooted in the park....she does have a way of making us aware of our rather blase parenting. So yesterday afternoon I insisted that Doug come along for the shoe shopping expedition as I find it a bit too tiresome..and we ended up with a pair each.



Mine cost 18 bucks, while hers cost 30 bucks? Seriously, how is that logical?

After the shoe shopping expedition, we decided to let her cool own in the back yard in her own pool. In addition to her little house, her sandbox/picnic table, and her slide, we have added to the plastic junk collection in the backyard by adding a paddle pool.



She absolutely loves taking a dip, then running into her house, then taking a dip again.



And we love watching her doing this.

D isnt feeling well. He is down with the flu. Well, that's only my opinion. If you ask him, and he has been very vocal about this, he is on death's bed and he has been struck with some newfangled disease that renders him totally and utterly helpless. He is of course the only one in the whole wide world who is sick at this moment in time so the whole universe has to revolve around him. I now have 2.5 babies at home.

In addition to my having to listen to his moans and groans, I have to organise a semi-vegetarian barbecue lunch tomorrow. Oxymoron eh. We are having a couple over. A is an English academic who is vegetarian, and D, his significant other, is an Italian carnivore. I am thinking chips and cheese and crackers for appies, grilled marinated tofu skewers with satay sauce, tomato, mozzarella and basil (fresh from our herb garden thankyouverymuch) salad, grilled salmon (somehow eating ground up cow patties seem strange with a vegetarian looking on), maple syrup glazed sweet potatoes, grilled portobello mushrooms and iced lemon tea for refreshments (if I am not Sangria, nobody else is!). They are bringing desert. Should be fun although there is no way in hell Sasha is going down for a nap while they are over...so we shall see where Her Grumpyness takes us.

Sasha has been quite a handful this past week. Enough of a handful that even D has lost his patience a few times...unbelievable as it may be. She has been totally refusing to sleep and where it used to take us an hour to get her to bed, it can now take up to 3 hours. It is getting to the point where in exasperation I just tell her that she can do whatever the hell she wants to do, I get into bed and tune her out. Usually within an hour she will give in and ask to be put to bed. She is extremely strong willed and has no qualms about standing or sitting in one spot with her chubby little arms crossed and telling us that she is mad. To get her point across, she will, as she is shedding crocodile tears or having hysterics, tell us that she is crying. You know, just in case the reason why she is not getting her way is that we cannot hear her crying. Although we are directly in front of her, wondering what demon has possessed or child. She is really really testing her boundaries and it is getting increasingly difficult for us, well, me especially, to maintain them. If she had been like this in November I can tell you that there would be no second baby on the way. As it is I have never really wanted children because I have experienced the tantrums of younger siblings. Ever an optimist, I figured maternal instinct would kick in and all will be well. Well, maternal instinct is failing me with her current behaviour and I am, as I control my temper with her, thinking what the hell am I in for for the next few years. If I had a do-over, I sometimes wonder if I would opt for the easier DINK route. Hmmmmm...

We bought a bird feeder yesterday. It isn't the one that I liked most, but it was the most decent looking among the "anti-squirrel" line. In addition to TO being the raccoon capital of the world, we also have to contend with squirrels eating up birdseed and bulbs. Ah well, we are in their habitat.

I had Sasha help me with filling up the feeder. Of course alot of the seed ended up on the floor, but vacuuming is a small price to pay for her excitement in putting up her very own bird feeder. Of course within 5 seconds of putting it us she is asking where the birds are. Obviously the need for instant gratification comes from her Mum.



We also took her out to get her big girl panties. We have been asked by J at daycare to initiate potty training, as she is herself using this obsession with being a ballerinna to full use. So now, all ballerinnas tell J or Mummy and Daddy when they pee or want to poo, and they also wear ballerina panties and kushies (flannel lined waterproof panties to be used at daycare so that she feels wet, but pee does not get on the carpet). We found the kushies at ToysRUs, but had to get the panties at GapKids. Ok, I could have taken the subway downtown to get them at any of the many huge department stores, but being the lazy git that I am, I headed to our local Gap and bought the only option they had...set of 7 low rise bikini in XXS. So my dress obsessed kid will be potty trained using low rise bikinis with logos along the line of "Life's a beach" and "Gorgeous". She will so be in therapy soon. All the books tell us to get her involved in the process of getting the panties, but she was not interested and went about looking for more dresses. Doug bought her a green one that she approved of, she was not keen on a purple one that was on sale...seriously, she is only TWO. So on Monday, we begin the torture of potty training.

D was back and is gone again. I think he is in Chicago..well, somewhere Stateside. This time it is only overnight so it shouldnt upset Sash's routine too much. It has been a busy few days. We celebrated Father's Day with a nice brunch at Homeway, our new fave destination. After the most excellent French toast we took a walk in the cemetery nearby. It was quite obvious that more people visit deceased Mums than Dads. Unlike our Mothers Day walk in the cemetery, we didnt have to watch out for too many cars. When we got home, we opened presents, a nice tie from Sash and running apparel from all of us. D and Sash decided to put together a miniature inflatable balloon and launch it. It worked a little too well..floating all the way into the neighbour's yard. The fun and excitement did help tire both out so Father's day ended with a nice nap.







On Monday, D and I played truant from everyday life and walked to the closest Burger King for lunch. It just so happens that it is located in the cinema so we ate our Whopper meals while watching the new Indiana Jones movie. I rather enjoyed it although I think it may be a bit too simplistic, or should I say, old fashioned for today's audience. Just goes to show that although most movies nowadays rely too much on CGI and what not, they do have more complex story lines and plots. After lunch, we headed to Starbucks for iced chai lattes and lemon tarts. I must say, I love my neighbourhood.

Yesterday, as Sash didn't have daycare, we thought a treat was in order so we took her to the Toronto Zoo. We have lived here for a year and believe it or not, although it is only a 20 minute drive away, yesterday was the first time we took her to the zoo. Boy, did she absolutely love it. As the Toronto Zoo is one the of the largest zoos in the world, we decided to only target a few areas and leave the rest for future visits. So we only hit the Indo-Malaya area, the African Savanna and the Australasian area. To witness the jaw dropping moment when Sash saw her first live elephant feeding was worth the $40 dollar entrance fee. She loved the tigers, zebras, kangaroos, monkeys, gorillas, hippos, rhinos and fish. She especially liked finally meeting the Kookaburra she sings about.







I think next week we will take her to a petting zoo.

Ballerina girl

Sash is obsessed with ballerinas. Luckily for us, she thinks that anyone wearing a dress or a skirt is a ballerina. Her favourite outfit, until today, was her sailor themed long shirt and leggings because well, she thinks she is a ballerina when wearing said outfit (I am pretty relieved she has in mind more of the contemporary modern ballet, albeit nautically set, than the whole girly Swan Lake shebang). Her Daddy thinks it is absolutely adorable (but then he thinks her farting is adorable too..chip of the old block apparently) and knowing him, he will be out in a shot buying her utterly impractical tutus and leotards. So to circumvent such nonsense I pointed out the few dresses that she has in her closet (mostly presents as I tend to buy her trousers) and have labeled them her Ballerina dresses. She is in heaven, and I dont have to figure out how to machine wash a tutu. D now wants to enrol her in ballet classes. We have to wait til she is 3 I told him. Little does he realise that if she is anything like me, who absolutely detested ballet classes, she will outgrow this fetish for all things ballet related. Hopefully in the next few months. One can only hope. If I hated the actual dancing experience, I cannot imagine how excruciating having to sit through a class watching a bunch of 3 year olds doing it will be.

So this morning she wore the first of her new Ballerina dresses.



She usually wears this to play or to get the paper at the newsagents.



But today, she wore her BD, took along her first purse, her pail and shovel and lets not forget her tiara...



She is definitely not getting this from me...

Lunchbag letdown

I have the flu, for which I cannot take drugs. Doug is away, again. Sasha is in daycare today. I had a craving for popcorn, so I decided to treat myself to a movie. I was torn between the new Indiana Jones, or SATC. I figured that I had to watch Indy with D, as he would be absolutely gutted if we didnt catch it together. So SATC it was. I must confess that although we live 4 blocks from multiplex movie theatre, D and I have only been to it once. As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, we tend to have date days instead of date nights as it is much more convenient/economical. So a few times in the past year since Sash has been in daycare, we hit downtown or the neighbourhood for a lunch date, or a movie and lunch. The last time we caught a movie, Doug paid so I had no idea how expensive watching a movie can be. My ticket, popcorn and diet soda was approximately $24. How do teenagers go on dates nowadays? Does this mean that when Sash or Dylan want to catch a movie we have to fork out $50 a shot (taking into account inflation)? Also, while it took me 3 seconds to purchase my ticket, it took me about 5 minutes to figure out which Special combo I should get at the concession stand..is it cheaper to get the regular drink and popcorn alone, or the Indy combo with special drink cup and pack of M&Ms...or should I get the nachos at half price?? So anyway, back to my point. I found my popcorn to be more enjoyable than the movie. It wasn't bad, but it was a lunchbag letdown. It was to me more worthy of a double episode season cliffhanger than a movie. Yes, it tied up the loose ends, but I cannot believe that after building up the characters after all those seasons, the writers would allow them to "cop-out" so to speak. I would have liked to see Carrie make Big squirm big time. Where was the drama?? Also, as mentioned by many critics, there was way too much product placement. The characters, and especially Carrie, was never that brand obessessed in the series. I felt like it was Carrie does Hong Kong. Although I must add that I now have a craving for all things LV and Chanel.

After the movie, I decided to get D's Father's Day present in advance. Sash and Dylan are getting him a running shirt and shorts. After getting advice from the experts I think we have a couple of winners. 2 salespersons asked me if I ran too, to which I replied, "Sorry, I'm a starver, not a runner." Which is unfortunately so very true...

I am in possession of my trusty old computer now that D is back and has bought his new one. Yay. I have caught up with some, if not all, emails and have downloaded pics taken over the past few weeks. Like these...



Sash with the original Dini...may he be happy wherever he is and whoever stole him have bad karma heaped upon him/her for the next 7 generations. This was taken on the train ride from TO to Montreal. On the way back she had to settle for...



Arnold, the snoring pig. I have however received the 2 new replacement Dini's and so if we lose all three..well, there's always therapy.

It has been sweltering here in TO the last few days. It seems like we had a week of nice brisk Spring weather and now it is just damn hot. After the first day of temps rising above 30 degrees, and getting close to 40, I realised that Sash did not have appropriately skimpy clothing, not to mention hats and sunscreen. Luckily, BabyGap is a 3 minute walk away so off we went after daycare to stock up on summer pyjamas, Tshirts and capri pants. I thought of buying her stuff in prime colours so she will be able to hand them down to Dylan...she was however having none of that so capris are pink, Tshirts in pastels and so are her jammies. I have no idea where she got her girly genes from. Did I mention that her Auntie K, my sis-in-law, bought her a My First Purse for her birthday..it is a little purple handbag with a compact, keys, lipstick and mobile phone inside..which Sash just loves and insists on carrying wherever she goes...even across the street to visit her friends. She is, I think, going to be an expensive child.

While D was away, we kept ourselves entertained by attending birthday parties. One was a coffee morning birthday, which sounds simple enough until you factor in Starbucks doing the catering. The kids of course were just happy to play and eat gobs of icing (which totally screws up naptime), so I can only conclude that the catered food (organic fruit salads, cakes ordered 3 weeks in advance..you get the drift), decorations and loot bags are mainly for the benefit of parents. Oh, the loot bags...I had no idea what a big deal they are. The hosts of the parties that Sash was invited to quite obviously put alot of thought into what went into the loot bags...or rather the shops they bought the tailored loot bags from. These were no ordinary knick-knacks thrown into a paper bag (or in my case, an Ikea stuffed toy), these were themed loot bags comprising personalized hard-cover books, crayons, bubbles, candy, musical instruments (thanks R for the tambourine, maracas and flute..), and stickers. For each child. In bags wrapped in candy coloured tissue paper and multi-coloured ribbons. I hope Sash realizes that her only hope of having such well organized parties is if she organizes them herself...










In between the partying..we just stayed cool in air-conditioning, just hanging about. Sash has this need to slather her tummy with lotion so I just open a little hotel sized bottle of lotion and let her entertain herself...for hours.



With the weather as it is, I have had to also slather her in cream..sunscreen.



Unfortunately, I have had to buy her 3 different types of sunscreen as she has had rather bad reactions to 2 types which are supposedly kid suitable. I initially bought her the usual Banana Boat spray on..she broke out in a rash. Her rash continued after I bought a Loreal kid friendly one. I decided to try an organic sunscreen for kids which is Paraben free (thanks Sofie Jane for our chat about organic cosmetics!) made by Jason, which seems to work quite well. I am however waiting for L, my neighbour who is coming back from NYC from a shoot, to pass me one made by California Baby which comes highly recommended and is totally natural. Unfortunately, it is unavailable in Canada (although the rest of the line is) due to some regulatory hurdle. Hopefully this one works. In the meantime, D and I have a range of sunscreens to use ourselves..

Single motherhood

Single motherhood is really difficult. I cannot begin to tell you how my respect for single mums have grown leaps and bounds. Parenting requires patience...single parenting requires the patience of a saint..something I do not have. Sasha has noticed Doug's absence, but as long as I tell her that he is at work, she accepts the absence. I can see her filing away the information in her mind, taking the time to comprehend (as far as any 2 year old is able to comprehend extended absences), but still not really getting it. She is feeling a bit more insecure, evidenced by one specific action at daycare. Usually when I drop her off, she will rush to her friends and I have to call her back so I can give her a kiss. This morning however, just as she was rushing off, she turned to me and asked "Can I have a hug?" It was the cutest thing ever and I gave her a huge hug and told her that I would pick up my bestest big girl at 5pm. Of course I had to get home and give D a call to tell him what happened. Thats another thing about single parenthood..not having someone to share these moments with.

I have been keeping myself more than occupied while Sash is at daycare. Going through pageproofs for another forthcoming article. This has been more challenging than usual because D has my laptop and I am using an old laptop of mine that we keep for Sash to play with. His laptop sort of acted up the night before he was leaving for Beijing and due to flight times etc, he had to take mine with him and I am stuck with an older laptop that is not wireless enabled. Sometimes technology can be such a pain.

I am still waiting for the replacement Dinis. We have one that she uses at daycare so I am resorting to taking that home with us for use on non-daycare days and nights. Surprisingly, she was not overly upset when she was told in Kingston that Dini was in Toronto and that we would have to wait until we got home to see him. In the meantime, she had Arnold (a snoring pig) which suited her fine. Until she saw Dini II at daycare....There was a touch and go moment on the train when she was looking through the pics on the camera and she came across one of her sleeping with Dini on the Toronto-Montreal leg..but we distracted her with a potato chip. I have ordered 2 Dini's as I have discovered that Jellycats is discontinuing the series. Lesson learned...when Dylan finds a comfort item, we shall buy clones/replacements galore. I hope he chooses something like Dini. I have bought him a Jellycat Sheep for him to try out. While these toys are bulky, they have come in handy as pillows on those uncomfortable plane/train rides.