We have never let the littles watch much TV, hoping that this would help stop them from turning in to couch potatoes, and foster the development of some great imaginative play skills along the way. We knew all along that they would eventually want to watch some, we were just delaying it for as long as we could.  Of late, we have gradually been allowing them to watch little snippets, mostly of sporting events.  It’s no secret that we are huge SENS fans, so you can likely guess how often it is hockey that they watch. While Woo gets to watch hockey for ten or so minutes once or twice a week, this past Saturday was one of Goose’s first few times watching a bit of a game:

This is how they react to the TV being turned on

After we finally got them into their chairs

Yesterday at bedtime, I let Woo know that Willy would be going to the game. He first asked if Daddy was playing for the Senators (hehe), then asked if he could go and watch. I let him know that sadly, the answer to both was no, but that he would be able to stay up and watch a few minutes of the game with me. I didn’t think twice in telling him this, as today was a daycare day and I knew he would come home well rested and full of beans. He always does.

Sadly, when I arrived to pick him up, I was told that he had not napped! This shocked me, and the crank that followed made me doubt that staying up for the start of the game at 7:30 was going to happen. He soldiered on though, and we settled in on the couch for cuddles at puck drop. As we sat there, I gave him a choice. He could stay for ten minutes and then head to bed for stories and cuddles or he could watch and cuddle for twenty minutes, followed by a quick trip to bed.  He negotiated a third option that involved twenty minutes on the couch with a story read there and we settled in.

I should have known that you don’t negotiate with the tired and cranky three year old, and you certainly don’t overstimulate him when it is already well past his bedtime.  I knew that he was keen to watch the game and wanted to give him a treat.  I should have known. Sadly, bedtime took another hour post viewing* and was filled with many tears, cuddles, tucks and re-tucks, and a few complete meltdowns (all him, I swear).  He finally fell to sleep a little after nine, and will likely be well out of sorts tomorrow.

I am fairly certain that I will need to find slightly less stimulating choices for these types of night.  It shouldn’t be hard.

*the sad part?  after he was finally settled and I was able to resume watching the game, the Sens scored their first goal.  It was literally seconds after I paused it to settle him in bed.  I so wanted to wake him!

No comments yet

Willy went to the LCBO this afternoon to pick up some wine that we had tried recently and really liked.  Goose was sleeping and I needed to get some work done, so I asked him to take Woo with him.  Woo loves to go on “adventures”, so this was a no-brainer for him.  He actually volunteered to get out of his jammies for the trip, which says a lot!

They were gone for a couple of hours, and returned with tales of all the places they had been and the fun that they had.  Their trip involved a very minor fender-bender at the gas station (car rolled into our car at a very low speed), so their re-cap of the afternoon was quite excited, and didn’t really tell the whole story of anything that they had done.

When we sat down to supper, I asked for more details about their trip, and Willy told me what a help Woo was at the liquor store. It seems they were having a hard time finding one of the wines, so he turned to his Dad and said, “Why don’t we just go to the cash and ask them to help us find it?” Wise beyond his years that lil one!

No comments yet

I have always loved the Autumn time change. I am sure I didn’t really notice it as a child, but started to appreciate it more in my teens and early twenties.  Once I started going to the bars, though, it definitely started to mean something.  It was another whole HOUR of drinking, after all. It doesn’t matter that we could have continued at drink anyone’s place after the bar closed, this night was somehow better.  And more expensive.  As I got even older, I started to love the bonus hour of sleep more, and had pretty much stopped going to the bar after midnight anyway.  Sleep won.

When we had the little people, I started to have mixed feelings on the time changes in general.  Woo was born the night that we sprang forward, so that time change will always be special regardless of the havoc it always creates with my sleep, or the interesting things that it has done to us trying to overcome it’s effects on the lil ones and their schedules.  We have never successfully adapted, never gone without some really crazy effects like breakfast at four in the morning, napping strikes and all out crib parties at 3:00am.  Why is one hour so hard for us all to cope with?

This year is going to be different, I can feel it. It’s not that we’ve talked about the time change, or that I’ve devised a strategy that will help us deal with it.  Today even started ominously, with Woo waking before six for cuddles.  I groaned and moved into his bed, knowing that it could be the start of another long day for us.  Then it happened.  I was able to get him back to sleep, and fell back to sleep myself.  When I woke and looked at my watch, it was almost eight!  The magical day that I’ve only dreamed of thus far was upon us – the littles slept in!!  Seeing that they were already an hour behind their usual schedule, I figured that we would roll with it, and move the time change ahead a day.

We are a pretty well scheduled family and it works well for all of us most days.  Today we were able to keep their regular day, and they barely noticed.  Goose was a little over-tired for her nap, but only when she could not fall to sleep because she had been goofing off too much with her brother.  At the end of the day, they both knew that they were staying up late and felt that they were getting a treat.  When they fell asleep, they fell asleep at their corrected “normal” times.  I am going to sleep tonight knowing the I gain an hour sleep tonight, and tomorrow is my sleep-in day.

I think this just might work, and we will beat the time change for once.

We’re so doomed.

No comments yet

I recently undertook a contract to write a course for a local school. I am really excited about this, but also nervous.   It’s something I’ve never done before, and have very few guidelines to follow, other than “get it done by the end of the year – or sooner”.  I like to have a template or ten when taking on a new project, and use them to guide me. Quite often the final product looks nothing like the templates, they just give me the boundaries.

Timelines are a little tight on this one, and my other job has been taking up all of my free time, so I took this week as holidays to write the lessons.  I have been making slow progress, and am struck by how much this reminds me of being a student.  I basically sat on my butt all week doing research, writing, revising, reading, researching some more.  My butt is INCREDIBLY sore from all the sitting.  I time my work so I know when I can take breaks, make a million outlines and lists, and I procrastinate.

I envision that the anxiety will set in next. I did veg and take some vacation-y time this week, and am getting bogged down by some technical issues put me a little more behind than planned.  Next is work around the clock mode, I am pretty sure.

1 comment

We’ve had a long and hard three or so months, but I am beginning to think that our family is coming out of the lows and moving forward again.  We’ve all had a hard time adjusting, and shown it in different ways.  The lils have been great, but I know that they are sad and confused by all the travel, upheaval and change.  I’ve been lost as to how to help them at times, but have done what we thought was best.

In the past week or so, something has slowly started to creep back into our lives.  A sound that has been conspicuously absent and sorely missed, their laughter.  Not the little giggles when someone toots, or tells a joke, the belly laughs that leave them breathless, snorting and begging for more. It makes us all feel so good, and shows that we are doing better now.  So we are doing silly things, singing crazy songs and relaxing more and more everyday. It’s so wonderful.

No comments yet

2 comments

Goose has been fighting us when it comes to getting her teeth brushed since birth.  We have tried all of the tricks that worked with Woo, singing the brush your teeth song, fruity Thomas toothpaste, electric toothbrush, the begging, pleading and tears (me, not her).  None of it works with any regularity.Willy can generally cajole her into a passable job, but she is particularly stubborn with me, pretty much refusing to allow me to brush. I feel like I am never getting her teeth properly brushed, and have visions of her getting fillings in her baby teeth!!

Then one night recently I heard Willy singing to her, and watched as she opened her mouth and let him brush her teeth.  All of them.  At the same time! I was astounded, and asked that he share his secret. It turns out it’s his special version of Old MacDonald, sung to the same tune.  We’ve been working on the lyrics, and the current version goes like this:

Old MacBrush-Brush had a mouth, brush, brush, brush, brush, brush…
And in that mouth she has a molar, che-che-che-che-che
With a brush-brush here and a brush-brush there, here a brush, there a brush, everywhere a brush-brush.

We repeat for as many teeth as are needed.  She loves it, and brushing is a dream!

No comments yet