Introducing Dylan Jedi

The view of the city from my hospital room. Dylan was born on a glorious day. So while I was writhing in pain waiting for the damn epidural top-up, the rest of the world must have been at the beach.


Well worth the pain


He sprayed the room within seconds of this picture being taken


With Daddy


With his big sister





Sash just adores her Baby Dylan. Between bouts of regression and attention seeking, there are priceless moments of tenderness. We are very proud of our little troopers..

Dylan Jedi

Dylan Jedi arrived at 12.25pm on 15th August after 12...read it...12 freaking hours of labour. He is 8.85 pounds and 20 inches. We adore him already.

Still preggers

Yup, am still pregnant. D, Sash and the parental unit are spending the afternoon on Centre Island, which is a short ferry ride away from Downtown. I decided to take some quiet time at home because 1) I am not about to have my water break in a kiddie amusement park. Too cliche. And 2) I needed to run some errands like returning an imminently overdue library book. I have also vacuumed one room, defrosted the salmon for tonight's dinner and googled "labor contractions" and "difference between water breaking and peeing" to refresh myself. Hopefully I will be able to induce labor with my googling efforts.

This morning I received a call from L asking me if I had ever administered an injection. I jokingly explained to her that I am not a "real" Dr. I would however happily draft a contract for her. She explained that she needed to get a shot in her tummy to initiate ovulation (she is on IVF treatment) and she didn't have the guts to do it herself. I told her that I have no qualms about acting as injector in view of fact that it is the injectee that takes on brunt of pain, and I was fairly sure I could do it because I watched alot of Greys Anatomy. So I waddled over to hers in my PJ's, washed my hands, read the instructions, and injected whatever hormone into her tummy. Hey, what are neighbours for.

Yup, still fat..

Dagnabbit, I am still pregers!! When will this end?? D keeps telling the bump to "head towards the light" and even Sash is asking me if I am "ouchie". Yes darling, Mummy ouchie and Mummy wants ouchie OUT!! If D ask's me one more time if tonight is the night, I will slap him.

I am still pregnant. Yesterday's check-up confirms that I am 2cm dilated, and that the baby's head is in position. She expects that I should deliver befre my next appointment on Thursday. I sure hope so cause the baby CANNOT grow anymore without my busting my tummy and the only way is OUT!

My parents arrived on Wednesday and Sasha is having an absolute field day with her Tote and Net . They have been jet lagged so we have not done much other than showing them the neighbourhood. We checked out the ROM and had Sushi in Yorkville this afternoon while Sasha was at daycare. As we have only ever visited the ROM with Sash, D and I kept looking around for her, thinking that we had left her behind at one of the exhibits. Tomorrow I think we will be taking in an art gallery just North of Toronto. Depends on how much sleep they get after watching the Olympic coverage.

We have had a rather productive day. This morning we heard from the editor of our book and it is a go ahead as the peer reviews were not altogether scathing. We have a month to finish up the requested amendments and they hope to publish it in January and really start selling it in September 09. We plan to dedicate it to Sasha and Dylan as a way to make up for the time it took away from them. I remember last Christmas was spent practically force feeding Dora DVDs down Sash's throat to give us time to meet the editor's deadline. Boy did we feel guilty..

After the conference call, we headed out to the shops to stock up on halal meats and veggies before my parents arrive on Wednesday. Did you know that Walmart stocks the stuff?? I swear, I am such a convert and so is D. We feel ever so rebellious as we know the neighbours are dead set against big box shops (we live among the eco-warrior set), and ever so good about saving money. Although admittedly, we do stock up on DVDs so technically we are spending more money than during a normal food run. But they also sell my new fave drink (!!) so all is not lost.



My Italian is non-existent, unless you count Ciao Ciao, Penne Arrabiatta, and Allora, but I am pretty sure aranciata means orange sparkling heaven in a can. It is divine! When I was preggers with Sash I was addicted to Coke Light...so addicted that it is rather surprising that Sash came out normal. Lets hope Dylan doesn't come out orange hued...

We also cleaned the basement, moved the desk and train set aside and set up the futon for them. Sasha thinks it is her new play area so my Mum may have to fight her for the bed. We are I suppose as ready as we will ever be for their visit.

R passed me the DVD for The Happiest Baby on the Block last night. Thank you thank you thank you. After Sash reluctantly went to be at 9.15pm (this no nap routine is working) I forced D to get his ass to the basement to watch it. He asked if he could take his laptop along and I told him he either watches the DVD with me or he can bloody well read the book. I am not doing this alone! The DVD was a great and it really helped to see the 5S's being carried out on real babies. D was amazed at how easy it looked, and he can now understand why K, R's husband has been raving about the technique. In this case I think the movie is better than the book.

My parents have sent me their itenerary and I couldnt sleep last night thinking how awful it would be if I went into labour before they arrived. I have another check-up this afternoon so hopefully DrS will reassure me that the baby will be in gestation for at least another week. Fingers and legs crossed...

Upon recommendation from the neighbourhood Mums, I have been reading this book to learn about the 5S's as I am pretty sure that if Dylan is anything like his sister, sleep will be a major issue. We didnt swaddle Sash (the first S) because she didnt take to it, although everyone I know seems to swear by it. I suppose we are trying to rectify every mistake we made with Sash, with our accidental parenting. We didnt need to have Sash in a routine, but this second one will have to take on some semblance of a routine to make all our lives easier. Well, mine especially. But as they say, one can only plan...

Someone who reads this blog asked if I felt I was spoiling Sasha with all the material things that seem to be lavished on her ie toys, ballerina dresses, etc. Honestly, I dont think so. I would much rather spend $50 dollars on a toy car that will entertain her and spur her imagination for 2 hours than on a couple of DVDs that she will watch like a zombie for days on end. She is of course allowed to watch TV, as it would be impossible for me to keep her entertained all day and she does need some down time. I think however that at this age it is extremely important that she be mentally stimulated whenever possible. Also, being a stay at home Mum, it is also important for me to be excited or at least interested in her activities so yes, I may spend a bit more on sparkles infused finger paint than the generic flat paint but that is more for my own benefit. And trust me, when I have to keep her away from the TV, which admittedly is THE easy way out, for most of the day, the price of a toy car or a plastic slide is a small small price to pay. And seriously, at this age, I dont think it is possible to spoil a kid with material things as she is as yet unable to comprehend the value of things. She may have loads of toys, but she is also being taught to share (OK, threatened), to say please and thank you. What more can you do with someone who, for at least this morning, thinks she is a ballerina frog and is hopping everywhere looking for her toy lipstick?

D bought Sasha a snazzy little coupe as she seems to gravitate towards similar makes when we are over at the neighbours. We thought she might like to, you know, just sit in it in the garden, or maybe the driveway. She absolutely and truly loves it!! So much so that for the past 2 mornings and evenings, D has had to push it around the block for her "drives". She sticks her baby in the back and away they go. I think he is about ready to pay someone the exact amount he paid for it (if not double) to take it off our hands. We are kidding of course. We know that her life will drastically change in a couple of weeks so we are making the extra effort to make it as smooth a transition as possible. We realise that we have to start figuring out "special" things that only she, the big sister, will be able to do. So I am looking into signing her up for gym classes in September and D will take her to swimming classes in the Winter. Just Daddy and Sasha. Their special time. The fact that I am not too keen on wearing a bikini so soon after childbirth and the water may be freezing has nothing to do with my delegating this special task to D.

This morning Sasha and I headed to J's driveway which is across the street to wish him bon voyage. J and his parents are going to spend the week at a friend's cottage. J's Mum mentioned that she and L, her next door neighbour and also S's Mum (S being the only other female toddler within the 3 house radius that seems to be the centre of our Universe) have been discussing our situation and what they should do in the event I go into labour late at night. J has a nanny so it has been decided that one of the parents will come over to ours when we call either family for help at night or early morning and the nanny will take care of Sash and J if D needs to be at the hospital with me during the day. I swear, I have the sweetest neighbours. I reassured them that my parents will be arriving on the 6th of August (Yay!!) so I am planning to keep my legs crossed til then. But it is a relief to know that we have a back-up plan in the event that Dylan wants out early. R, another neighbour thinks I will deliver this Wednesday. Yes, I am that big and ungainly...

Did I mention that Sash's Tot and Nek are planning to come to TO for the birth? We are excited and extremely touched that they are willing to fly halfway round the world to be with us. D is trying his best to get as much work out of the way so he can play tour guide while I am trying to figure out if our cable service includes football/soccer matches... Sash, well, she is saving her bananas for Tot, or rather using Tot as an excuse to not eat her bananas.

You know how I've been trying to potty train my little Pissy Galore? Well, there's a new twist. After being brainwashed (by us no less) with this big girl panties concept, she now REFUSES to wear her diapers. Refuses I tell you! She cries out Ouchie Ouchie when I try to put a pair on her, and well, while I can reason with her Its NOT FAIRs, I cannot argue with Ouchie. All the manuals and books I have read point out that this is a good thing, that she is ready to be potty trained...what they dont tell me is What To Do When She Does Not Want To Wear Diapers but Is Still NOT READY TO TELL ME SHE WANTS TO PEE??? Do they tell me what to do when my little adorable hellion refuses to wear diapers at night but still guzzles 2-3 bottles of milk? No. Do they highlight the fact that I will have to ask her if she wants to potty every 15 minutes or I might just miss that minuscule window of opportunity. No. Do they point out that leaving the house for errands will take an extra half hour to make sure that she gets some liquid out of her bladder before spraying all over the city? No. So I have to come up with my own stopgap measures. I dragged D to the shops get more training pants and some Dora pull-up diapers. Hopefully we can trick her into thinking that the pull-ups are just a variation of her big girl panties. We also bought a Teflon coated mattress cover for her mattress. If not hydrating your child is not a criminal offence, I would probably try that out.

I had yet another obgyn check up this afternoon. R my neighbour told me that she usually cancels these weekly check-ups as she finds them a waste of time. I too find them rather tedious because its the same ole same ole..blood pressure, measure tummy, weight, prod prod...and Dr S will finally announce position of the baby before telling me that all is A-OK and that I have to come back next week. Sigh..This time however it was slightly different. She gave me the run down on how to detect labour signs, what to do when water breaks (as second baby, call hospital immediately), and instructions on where to check in. Sort of shocked me into realising that bloody hell, this bowling ball has got to come out. She also gave me a pack of papers which turned out to be pre-registration papers that I am to have on me at ALL TIMES now in case I go into labour. I was asked to sign consent forms for administration of epidural and ceasarean just in case. I had to confirm that baby will be circumcised. I ticked the yes box although D was not there to discuss the issue. Funny thing is he wants it done but I am on the fence...I hesitate slightly because it is a part of the baby and he may just want to hang on to it until it is his decision to make..and I am not too keen on the whole diaper changing a newborn with 90% of a willy (Yes, it is always about me in one way or another)...hmm..parental dilemmas. Ah well, we can always change our minds later.

The provincial health plan only covers ward accomodation so I had to check with D's admin department to double check his employee benefits. Luckily he (me) qualifies for a private room, which is in my book essential for security reasons. I remember the security precautions we had to take when Sasha was born, like wearing bracelets which would set off alarms as you go near any exit/entrance of the ward, and how ID badges had to be shown prominently. I have never been admitted to a Canadian hospital but I figure better for us to put in place our own security measures, like not having baby in same room with strangers.

Along with all the registration documents, I received brochures on safety etc. Usual stuff that didnt implement for Sash, like no co-sleeping, no using bumpers in crib, using baby gates, etc. What did stick out was this warning, published in bright red font, "Baby walkers are banned in Canada. It is a CRIMINAL offence to sell, advertise, or import new or used baby walkers, even for your own use. It is also a CRIMINAL offence to give them away". Wow, they obviously frown upon baby walkers.

In two weeks they will do an internal examination to determine how far along I am. Wow, coming along we are...

I had a craving for blueberry pie this morning. I figured I could turn left outside my door and walk 400m to the bakery for the yummiest blueberry pie ever, at $20 per pie, or turn right and walk 200m to the fruits and veggies shop for some fresh Ontario blueberries and bake my own pie. Mind you, when you factor in the cost of basic ingredients, ready made pie crust (unfortunately my ambition is limited only to the pie filling), fresh Ontario wild blueberries (none of that nasty Californian chemical absorbers), and other overheads such as my time cost, water and gas, it is probably cheaper for me to buy the sucker outright. But no, I decided to make the right turn. Bought the necessaries and looked up a recipe that a chimp, and me, couldn't screw up. It is in the oven baking as I type. I feel so bloody domesticated, it is positively sickeningly sweet, hopefully as sickeningly sweet as the pie.

It has been an awful awful week sleep-wise. My back is killing me (or I could say my already ungrateful foetus is killing my back) and as I cannot sleep properly, I am a zombie the rest of my waking day. I am amazed that millions of preggy women out there can carry a baby AND work at the same time. I have had relatively easy pregnancies and I could, if I wanted to, do bugger all all day. Which to be honest, I do actually. I mean seriously, do I feel even slightly guilty that the most strenuous thing I have done today, other than messing with PlayDoh and painting with Sasha, is walking 200m to get organic blueberries. Well, OK, I feel slightly guilty, but I am just too zonked out to think much about my lack of guilt. I am in awe of the millions who go about their daily lives without complaint. I am humbled. I know I should do more. Or should complain less about what little I do. It cant be good. And I am pretty sure that telling Sasha that if she doesn't take a nap I will find another baby that will is not good either.

This morning we received a check from the Government. It seems we are eligible to receive $100 per month in child benefits for each child so we received an amount covering a year's backpayment (since we moved back to Canada) for Sasha. We are well chuffed because that is probably the same amount we will have to spend on PlayDoh this year.

It has been raining the whole day. Great to not have to water the plants, but it has been a bit of a challenge entertaining ourselves. As I type this, Sash is taking a nap.



Good thing we went for a long walk yesterday. Today is a total wash out.

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Two days before "Mamma Mia!" opened in North American theatres, the soundtrack to the ABBA-inspired musical romance charted higher than any ABBA album.

Doug and I played hooky to watch Mamma Mia, the movie. We loved it! Loved it!! And believe it or not the theatre was nearly packed (for a 1pm matinee this is unusual) and the movie got huge applause at the end. We are now listening to the soundtrack that we bought on the way home, and have just decided to go out for a latte before we pick Sash up at daycare. It is that kind of day. I have never felt the urge to visit Greece...but after watching this movie, I MUST MUST MUST go.

Yesterday evening, while walking Sasha back from her daycare, we asked her what she had for lunch. She said "I had pasta". We asked her if she played on the trampoline. She said "Yes, I go jumping with Rene." We asked her who else she played with. She said "I play with Anya." We asked her what game she played. Sasha replied "We play It's my toy, NO its my toy, no its MY toy".


She is not in daycare today because her daycare mate's Mum is having a baby today. She has scheduled her ceasarean while M, Sasha's mate, is at daycare. She is pretty much in the same boat we are in ie no family around except we are not sure when I will be delivering. Only 5% of women deliver on their due date. So when J asked if we would mind switching days to enable M to be in daycare while his Mum has a baby, we of course agreed straight away. In turn, we are asking if J would mind being on standby at night to come over to our place and watch Sash if we need her to. We will of course pay her whatever she is asking. Our neighbours have very kindly offered to watch Sash, but we feel that it would be less traumatic for her to have J over at ours, and Sash will be able to remain in familiar surroundings. So this morning, I took her to the splash pad to tire her out. She spent 2 hours running around in the freezing water, and the only way I could get her home was to tell her that we needed to get to the shop to get Daddy his mangoes.







I have been told that boys are more active than girls. God help me..

We spent the morning in the garden as we needed to do some serious pruning and weeding. It was getting to be a jungle out there.





While Sasha preoccupied herself with her finger painting, we set about taming the jungle. Mind you, we are by no means talented gardeners, but we try our best. Yesterday, we headed to our local nursery to get a few tubs of lavender, a few tubs of petunias and a couple of tubs of hydrangeas. Not too many new plants as we want to see whether they survive the Winter before buying more. Or rather we want to see whether they survive our black rather than green thumbs. D did all the work while I supervised our mini-Pollack.





She is still as yet unclear about the whole finger painting concept...she has her own unique way of painting her fingers with a brush, then sets about making palm prints..or finger paints..





After she tired of finger painting, she helped her Daddy settle on a new location for her house and sandpit. She really is an outdoor lover...





We are trying to figure out how to get her to sleep earlier ie before 10.30pm, and so today, after our session in the garden, we told her she did not have to take a nap. D is a bit worried about our little experiment as it may affect her daycare naps, but I told him that we HAVE to get her to bed earlier because once the baby comes, we may have to both be upstairs for HOURS what with putting the baby to bed/feeding it and having to deal with Sasha. Imagine, no down time, no DVD and popcorn nights..no babysitters willing to sit!! Sasha is a totally different kid at daycare anyway so J will be able to deal with her. So we kept her occupied..well, I did..D took his nap. And she went to bed at 9pm. We will cutting out her naps a few more times to see how it affects her personality, but I suspect that naps at home may be a thing of the past.

Sasha helped D make waffles this morning.

Preparations

I am taking a short break from work to run a few preparatory errands. So instead of reading through page proofs of our upcoming article in an A tier law and econ journal (and by A tier I mean we were so well chuffed that D and I went out for a celebratory brunch AND another celebratory late lunch when we received the news that our article had been accepted...the whole time repeating "I can't believe it!". Even as I am going through the page proofs I am still thinking that I can't believe it). The errands involved picking up a traditional Moses basket and cherry rocker base which I found for sale online, and getting the basket to our dry cleaners to clean. We have set up the nursery with the obligatory crib (the one Sasha never ever used except to puke in every time we placed her in it), the changing table (I am still telling myself that this potty training WILL WORK..or else I am going to start teaching her to change her own diapers), the rocker and ottoman, various posters we have lying around and 3 metal models of antique cars and a plane (handmade in Cuba and bought at a garage sale for $2 each a few weeks ago). However, as there is still the possibility that I may have to undergo an cesarean (I try to address potential risks as much as I can), and will thus be fairly immobile while the wound heals, I thought we should have the baby with us in our room for at least a few weeks. Sasha co-slept with us for 18 months, and we are definitely not going down that route again because getting her into her own bed was just painful with a capital P. We could have Dylan with us in our bed too, but we want to mitigate the whole jealousy issue from the get go so a bassinet is the only way to go. I thought of getting a new one, but I am not a fan of the ones with all the gizmos (hanging animals and music/vibrating mode)and the idea of spending more than $150 on a piece of equipment that will only be used for a couple of months just reeks, especially in view of the fact that after this all baby paraphernalia will be disposed off at rock bottom prices. So I found one for sale second hand, by a couple who lives Downtown, from a non-smoking, no-pets household. They were selling the set that I was aiming to get, which is the traditional Moses basket with blue linen (not too frilly as frills irritate me), padded bottom, and wooden detachable rocker base. Simple, yet perfect for our needs. I figure that it is also "cute" and non plastic-y enough to be used by Sash for her dolls later. The whole package with a blanket/swaddler thinggy for $50 cash. A good deal I say.

I have also gone through Sash's old clothes to see what can be used for Dylan, bought N sized diapers (they are soooo tiny it is hilarious..I forget how small they are initially), and sorted through Sash's library and placed the more baby friendly books in Dylan's room (so she gets used to seeing them there). I now have to look for the video monitor and figure out which of Sash's 3 mobiles to place in the crib and we should be set.

Every morning, we have to play her toddler music soundtrack, so she can dance her tippy toe dance to Head,shoulders, knees and toes.

I am in my 34th week of pregnancy. I think I am. Funny how with Sasha, I could at the drop of a hat, tell you how many days along I was. With this one, I basically know my due date (which I thought was 20 August, but at my most recent check-up I was told it is 21 August...goes to show eh) and once in a while I reverse calculate. Its not that I am not interested in Dylan's development, it is just that well, you know, been there, done that, bought the T-shirt. I just want him out and about, and to get on with it. This third trimester has been especially difficult. But then pregnancies are all relative aren’t they? Sasha was such an exceptional womb tenant that any others have a high standard to meet. I was not this short of breath before. I cannot lie flat on my back for longer than a minute now because I feel very light headed. Which totally sucks because I hate sleeping on my side. I wake up every hour on the hour to pee..sometimes even more. When I am awake and about, I pee every 20 minutes. Dylan is in position but not engaged (he'd better not be) so that is why my bladder is just absolutely useless. I can’t walk the distances I used to as I get breathless. Being 20-30 pounds overweight (20 over pre-pregnancy, 30 over preferred/ideal/dream weight) is not helping. I am just knackered all the time. But I should not whine. I have had a relatively easy pregnancy, what with no morning sickness and other possible complications to deal with. It could be worse. But then it could always be worse for any situation. When D whines, I always remind him to put things in perspective, and that it could be worse. He could be run over by a bus and die tomorrow...which in my book is the worst of the worse. Don't ask me why I refer to buses since it could be equally bad being run over by a car, or steamroller..although the chances of being run over by a steamroller are pretty slim. So generally speaking in my life, as long as I am alive, alls well.

D has been spending way more time at home that usual. Which is great as I have company. Which is not so great because I have to figure out what to have for lunch. Which is not so bad because it is Summer and lunch preparations comprise my defrosting hot dogs, and D grilling them. He can eat hot dogs everyday for lunch. Now you know why we work. Yesterday though, I reached my limit and told him "I don't know what you're eating, but I am having cereal for lunch!". He had Doritos. Now you know why we work well. This morning he asked me what the name of the Nelly Furtado song he recently discovered was. I asked him if he was referring to the song he played over and over and over last night for a couple of hours. He said yes. I told him I don’t remember. Unfortunately he was able to recall the name of the song all by himself so for the past 3 hours I have heard the song a freaking gazillion times. I am used to working with him at home, but I do wonder what the murder rate among newly retired people are. There has to be a paper in that...

Potty training still ongoing. Sasha is now only allowed to sit in the Ikea chairs in the basement. She peed in both chairs twice yesterday while watching her shows. I cleaned them as best I could, but I suspect that they will be disposed of once training is over.

I think we are getting the short end of the stick with the potty training. Yes, Sasha seems to be more amendable to sitting on her potty in the mornings. Also, as we have bought her a brand new pink, ballerina flower potty, she has for a couple of times willingly sat on it in the evenings. Usually after her bedtime storybook quota has been used up. I think she has figured out that for as long as she sits on her potty she gets read to. I have read that Potty book so many times, and she has heard it being read so many times that she is able to memorise the words. Now she has even started bringing other books to her potty. She has only peed in the thing once. We are seriously being manipulated here, and there is nothing we can do about it. She can in this case out-sit us, and after reading that book 3 times and any other book she wants, we are begging her to put her diaper on.

So now she has 3 types of potties, 10 pairs of training pants, 6 pairs of vinyl pants, 12 pairs of big girl panties, 3 pairs of Kushies, 5 potty books, a gazillion stickers to bribe her with..and she has so far since we have started peed TWICE. I am seriously thinking of letting her wear diapers forever...

Pissy Galore

When Sasha is not in daycare and we are staying mostly at home, we forgo the diaper and let her wear her big girl panties with another extra layer of thin vinyl panties. Potty training is one thing, pee smelling silk carpets is a whole nother. Apparently, she is supposed to dislike the feeling of wetness, complain, and we can then get her to the potty. We have also started sitting her on her potty in the mornings (as per J's advice), to get her used to going. Unfortunately, we had not taken into account the possibility that she does not mind being wet. We realise now how her ability to wallow in her own piss/poo filled diapers for a whole day may have worked to our advantage when we were using expensive diapers, but not so much during potty training. So her new nickname is Pissy Galore. We will persevere, and while our diaper bills may be somewhat reduced, I am pretty sure our electricity bills will rise drastically in view having to use the washing machine and dryer more than a couple of times on weekends. We have to go through another few weeks of this before we start her at daycare. Hopefully J will get better results.

This morning, to give D alone time to get some work done, I took Sash to the splash pad. Although on weekends they do not fill up the pad to make it into a splash pool (no lifeguards to chlorinate the water unlike on weekdays), I must say she really loves it there and just kept running back and forth for 2 hours. I think I prefer the pad without the water filled as it is much easier to keep an eye on her.













She took a 3 hour nap after..and so did I. This will be our new home away from home.

The Williams sisters are playing the finals as I type this. I have not been following the tournament but I do like to know the outcome. I think I havent really been that much of a fan since the Lendl and Sampras days..since I realised the odds of my becoming a professional tennis player were pretty much in the negatives.

I wonder how the Williams family dynamics works on days like this. On the bright side, the parents are able to watch both daughters play without splitting up. Must be difficult to decide which parent goes to support which daughter on which court. On the other hand, how do you cheer for one and not the other? Or do you cheer for both, which we know cant feel right as being behind the winner just means being first loser. What about after the game? How do they go about consoling the one daughter while presumable planning the celebration dinner for the other? How do they deal with the "Its not fair" tantrums?

Nap time

I am thinking of getting rid of Sasha's naps. We have found in the past few weeks..could it be only 2, or more? Just seems like a lifetime..she is sleeping later and later. Last night she slept at 11pm. We started her routine at 8pm as usual. She just refused to sleep. She has stopped her tantrums, but that may be because we use her attempts to get our approval against her in that I have no qualms about continuing to read my book in bed while she stands next to me for an hour. I will ask her every 10 minutes if she has decided to get into bed. She will usually say no and I reassure her that she can do anything she wants but she is NOT getting into bed with me nor is she going downstairs...so her options are pretty limited. She wants to test wills?? Well, you've chosen the wrong person baby..You inherited that stubbornness from ME! It usually works much much faster if her Dad doesn't get involved. If he does then she knows whose strings she has to pull. As it is she now only wants Daddy to read her bedtime stories. When I read to her, 3 is he limit and then we start the whole test of wills, which she will give up soon enough and she lies in bed until she sleeps. She knows that Mummy does not want to be mad. When we leave it to her Dad, I find them having tickling fests, or building towers etc. She cries her crocodile tears and her Dad is in there for an extra hour reading. I leave it up to them usually as it is HIS hour or two and Sasha probably needs the balance between good cop bad cop that we play at home. Last night, as I went up to get my book, I found D giving Sash piggy back rides...sigh....so I reminded him that getting her revved up for play really isn't the best route to putting her to bed. You should have seen how contrite both looked as I caught them..hahahaha..quite funny actually. She also knows that if D is in bed, she will go to his side and stand there..tickle his feet etc and poof, before I can say DoDo Sasha she is in bed with us being tickled. I give them 5-10 minutes of playtime then I give her an ultimatum..her bed..or her bed. Usually by then I am either using a very low tone so she knows that Mummy will be shouting in a few minutes unless...she knows then that she is thiiiis close to pushing the boundaries. We then get her tucked in and a couple of rounds of Buenos Noches later, she is in on her way to lalaland.

So, I am thinking maybe she will be more amendable to night sleep if she does not have naps. But I need that 2-3 hour break when she naps, and she is required to nap at daycare anyway (Thats how we became religious about nap times...call it day care persecution). And the idea of taking away the nap times with the baby coming just makes me sick actually. Maybe we will try playing it by ear and let her stay awake in the afternoons if she really doesn't want to nap. Right now some days we have a similar sort of struggle during nap times when she is at her most alert. Except she stays in bed and sings...

How can you tell that I'm a nerd? Well, I tried my best to stay up all night to read this...



A fascinating account of the Walmart formula. Although I have only been to Walmart twice in my life, I rate this as Highly Recommended!! Well written and intriguing insight into the secretive Walmart model, inspiring, yet at the same time, loathsome. Funnily enough, reading this just makes we want to shop there. Luckily for us, the closest Walmart is about a 20 minute drive away. D values his time and anything that takes him away from his computer that is not "Unit" related is a waste of time. To him a visit to the doctor is a waste of time. He would rather pay the 15% extra as long as it can be obtained 5 minutes faster. I,on the other hand, do not see shopping as a waste of time. In fact, I like it a bit too much...way too much... I am however not a buyer, but a shopper in that I like the experience more than the actual purchasing...unless of course said purchase is from LV or Gucci. That is why I prefer to visit our local markets, to buy what I need in smaller quantities, so that I have an excuse to pop out and get a tomato on a daily basis....alas, am not able to do this at Gucci. While slightly more expensive than the nearby supercentres and the not so nearby Walmart, I figure I save money as I am not tempted to buy other unnecessaries that I figure I deserve due the savings that I make..I am a sucker for a sale..and since I am already there, why not stock up? So that explains why in my few years in New York and Toronto, I have only seen the inside of this behemoth of a North American institution twice. While reading the book last night, I tried again to persuade D to switch our monthly shopping to Walmart..No go..he doesn't like wasting his time looking for parking.

Speaking of shopping, I miss buying, and of course wearing nice frivolous things. Impractical things. Like bags, cute dresses, shoes with heels and suits. Things I used to buy when I worked. When what I wore out mattered just in case I met that soulmate..like my wearing that certain Ferraggamo determined whether my soul mate would see it and say "Now there's my soul mate" and not "Uh, skanky bag,...waste of my soulmate time"...hahahaha...yes, my soul mate then was gay. I had, had to wear that right outfit to get me from the meetings with the Ministry of Finance to that meeting with bankers at Finnegan's after. I was so shallow, (but well dressed)and loved it! It is different now with me being a dependant and supplementary card holder. With thoughts of 2 postgraduate educations for each child to finance to boot..let me rephrase that..Sash and Dylan can be anything they want, they can be Nascar driving hairdressers for all I care, as long as they do this after getting their 2 postgraduate qualifications...in Nascar driving hairdressing if they wanted to. The last handbag I bought was my small Speedy..and the main consideration then was that it could lock (for travelling) and I could fit wipes, a diaper and a bottle in it and still have space for my wallet and phone (thing about being unemployed is that you carry less personal effects). The size was perfect as due to my being vertically challenged, a few centimetres could mean the difference between handbag and hand luggage. I have not bothered much with bags as I know that I will be glued to my diaper bag for the next 2 years anyway (Tip: In view of the many years of intended use, I persuaded D to get me my dream diaper bag as a Birthday and Xmas present combined...way worth forgoing stocking stuffers). Ditto with shoes. I dont think I know how to walk in heels anymore. I am eyeing a pair of Birkenstocks..how sad is that?

I had my biweekly check up this morning. Substitute Doctor (DrS is on holiday) not that happy that I have not gained weight since the last 2 check ups. Still at 132 pounds. I say YAY!! Bugger you I thought, its not you who has to walk around breathless with extra pounds and wait 2 years to take it all off. Now to celebrate with a fruit smoothie...

Canada Day

It was Canada Day, or the Canadian Independence Day yesterday. Many Canadians took the opportunity to have a long weekend by taking Monday off. They either went off to their cottages or they hit the city sights and beaches. As you can tell, with our rather flexible work schedule, yesterday was like any other day in that it was up to us to either work or do jack all at home. We thought of taking the subway to the waterfront and having lunch to celebrate Canada Day but realised that even if 0.1% of Torontonians had the same idea, it would be absolute madness there. We compromised by working in the morning, taking a nice long walk to the Alexander Muir Memorial Gardens in the early afternoon and joining the neighbours for a dip and chat after the kiddies had their afternoon naps. I may have mentioned that naps are religiously adhered to amongst the neighbours here.









We walked through Sherwood Park, across to the Blythwood Ravine and on to the gardens with Sasha insisting on petting every doggy that came along. Suffice it to say it took a fair bit longer than usual, but hey, we had the time to spare. The last time I visited he garden was last Fall, but D takes the same route for his runs. I had forgotten about the gem of a garden we have so close by. I suppose it is normal to take your surroundings for granted and it really hit home how lucky we are to live so close by the ravine system as we passed the jam packed car park, the filled to capacity splash pad and playground on our way to the garden. We hardly recognised any of the parents and kids (trust me, when you visit the park at least 15 times a week, you get to know who the regulars are) so we figured them to be "tourists" taking advantage of the awesome weather on Canada Day, while avoiding the madness at the Zoo, Science Center, Toronto Island and Beaches.

After Sasha's nap, we headed across the street to our neighbour's house for chips and dip (in their little pool). It is very much a luxury here to have a pool due to the short seasons and the lack of outdoor space. Luckily for us, we have great neighbours who are ever so generous with their invites...I suspect we will be visiting them alot this Summer in view of our not being able to get away this Summer.







I have just realised that I am 33 weeks pregnant today. Holy Guacamole..not far to go.

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.