Happy Things

Today was a day for happy things I think. We were trapped in our house while Mother Nature froze the outside world and like I've heard so often, might as well enjoy it!

*while I was pretending to be a monster and 'going to eat' Kyra, she squealed at me and said, "No, don't eat me, I'm not tasty - eat baby Noelle instead!!"

*during lunch, Noelle once again jammed her finger up her nose and laughed - to which Kyra replied - "Baby Noelle! Use your spoon instead!"

*at bedtime, after complaining of absolute exhaustion - Kyra had enough energy to streak throughout the house at top speed putting away toys, then once again flopping against my arm and declaring how tired she was..

*during potty time, Kyra stated that she had a bit more poop - enough for just a little story...(with pleading eyes, I might add).

No Matter How You Slice It

Seeing as I've had some time this week in my evenings to ponder life and my own existence (yes, insomnia does this to me), I've been reflecting on parenting styles. And as I've had this conversation with my friend, Kelsie, we've thought that our society's parenting ideals are mostly about "keeping up with the Joneses and just who the H-E-double-hockey-sticks do the Joneses think they are??!". Between us we've decided that the Joneses are an upper middle income family, double incomed, nanny or just possibly daycare and pre-school family with 4 credit cards, juggling their limits, a mortgage up the wazoo, 2 gas-guzzling vehicles, 5th wheel, 4 cell phone numbers, 2 cats and a pure-bred show dog (kenneled at the trainer's house). These people have their children enrolled in gymnastics, music school, swimming lessons, skating lessons and possibly some sort of junior space training program. The children have every toy imaginable (that they don't play with), ergonomic chairs to sit in and their own computers. And the parents think that if you don't do all these things, the children may have stunted social skills and grow up psychopaths or merely unemployed... It may sound a bit dizzying but you'd be amazed at the amount of this belief there is out there.. I was once asked if I had my daughter enrolled in any programs yet (music, baby yoga), as I was purchasing her first pair of shoes..

Children will grow. Parents will always be parents. The question is, will their children grow to be good parents?

Weird Emotions

So. I was reading one of my favourite blogs today. In it, the author & mum of 3 announced that her family was expecting #4 to arrive this year. Oddly enough, I was almost jealous. It's almost as if I really want another child in the house and that I would desire some state of pregnancy at this point... Weird. Maybe it's my highly competitive nature or maybe I have some sort of latent mothering NEED that requires fulfulling but I actually, FOR A SPLIT SECOND, wanted to have another baby. Heck, why not 3 more!? It's not like my uterus is non-functioning! If we menstruate until 50, why shouldn't we have babies until then??? Okay, that's a stupid question. No, really, I can finally understand what drives a mother to continue to have babies - even if by accident (or so called..) - babies are addicting. And good babies, like I seem to have, are moreso.. Thanks a lot Noelle (sarcasm city)...

Just a bit more practice..

..and we'll see the walking begin. Pulling up is the order of the day now and as a baby shall do, she's trying REALLY hard - ALL THE TIME. Even naps have been put to the wayside to conquer these newly acquired skills (much to the chagrin of her mother). Any semi-stable thing is game to be grabbed and knelt next to - including motionless dogs, sisters or mom's hair (ouch). Sigh. Bye-bye baby and hello toddler, I'm not sure I'm ready just yet.

Confessions of a Scrapbook-a-phobic

This is what I feel like. It's not that it's like there's an essay that needs doing or that I'm too tired to get everything out. It's just that every time I have the time to actually sit down and put a page together - to freeze happy moments in an art-like medium - I just freeze up myself. I find a million other things to do and do them instead. Sometimes I just fart around and move piles of paper from one area of the desk to another.. Sometimes I find some chocolate that needs to be instantly devoured (bad Ronnie). And sometimes, I actually get the pictures out and fondly reminisce or just search my memory for when that moment in time truly occurred (the memories just get foggier and foggier..sigh). Procrastination, I'm convinced, is a genetic glitch that I seem to be stuck with - I can only hope that it doesn't get passed down.

Anyhoo...There are a few things that need to go into the scrapbook for this week... Like how Noelle is all of 9 months old and happily eating her way through every food group imagineable. She's decided that large chunks of carrot can be stored for later use in little cheek pouches that I never knew she had - who can tell?! And like how her big sister enjoys feeding her little bits of cereal AS LONG AS she gets to partake of said tasty treat at that moment as well.. "Mummy, Noelle doesn't have any more O's??" I seem to go through more snack food these days. OH, and another milestone moment was when the dog actually licked the baby's cheek while being climbed over - WITHOUT growling... She got a few treats for that one, lucky doggie!

This should all motivate me.. And well, I think it just may have.. Wish me luck! Good night!

You Can't Pick a New Year..

But you can pick your nose.. And that's exactly what our 'proud parenting moment' was this week.. She just laughs when we pull away her finger, so I might as well just pull out the camera and save the picture for future embarrassment.. (insert wicked laughter here). Happy New Year!