Things I never thought I would do… until I became a mother…

1) Turning EVERYTHING into a song (and I am not even a good singer…)

Yes, my life is now a musical. It started innocently enough; humming when I change my baby’s diaper; creating little songs to distract her in the car; making up songs to make thunder less frightening; then came the toilet training and hand washing songs… and now, we just sing about EVERYTHING and anything! Though I admit, it is incredibly cute that my little one has started to create her own little everyday songs to sing to me. The problem is that she wants me to sing the song she made up with her…

One other warning about making up songs… MAKE SURE you REMEMBER the words and tune. You never know when the little one wants a repeat performance of a song that you made up months ago…

2) My obsession with bodily fluids…

Honestly, until I became a mom, I never thought twice about the colour of bodily fluids... now I find myself looking up stuff and asking other people (mainly other parents because they are less likely to look at you funny when you ask them these questions…) about what green snot means… and what colour should poop be….

And of course...

Finding myself so much in LOVE with another person. To be filled with so much wonder and anticipation to see what she will do everyday. And, to do silly things, just to see her smile.

Oh...

And be able to somewhat function on so little sleep….

Happy New Year!

I do not believe another year is over.... I do not believe I am another year older! Granted, it has been great being 29 for the last couple of years now.... I guess I should start to move on. It would be easier if I did actually feel another year wiser though..

So as usual, my New Year's resolution rule is to not have a resolution... though I do have some new year wishes...

In no particular order....

- Try to fold the laundry in less than a week....

- Attempt to keep the house cleaner... that is vacuum before the dust bunnies

start speaking to me

- Try to Finish unpacking the house from the move (granted my parents never did finish packing from their first move, and that was over 20 years ago, so I am

ahead of schedule right now)

- Try to write more

- Try to read more books that have more than 4 sentences per page

- Try to make me happy, and with that, help other people to be happy

- Try to worry less about the small stuff... and debate on whether I should worry

more about the big stuff...

I am sure this list will grow as the year progresses....

But the Most Important Thing...

- Try to be the best Mother I can be

Like I tell my little one... the most important thing is to try. BUT no half-ass trying... that does not count.

… and Things I never thought I will hear…

(after being on the toilet for at least 10 min… )

Child: mommy, there was no poop… but I had a good think….

Things that I never thought I will say

Honey, if you eat a bite of fish, you can have a bite of brussel sprout…

What is with the price of tickets....

During my recent vacation, we went to an ‘eco’ theme park in Mexico, where they charged children tickets based on height, NOT age. At the time, I thought it was interesting, a little bit odd, but interesting. And now, I think it should be done EVERYWHERE!

Last weekend, I took my little one to a water-park, you know, the ones with the wave pool, ‘children area’ and slides… I was flabbergasted (and trust me, I do not get to use the word flabbergast a lot) when I saw how much a kid’s ticket was. Kids THREE and up had to pay full adult fare. Yes THREE!

Now, this would not be so bad, if the three year old can take advantage of ALL the activities at the park, but there is a height restriction on the big slides (not that my little one would have stepped foot on the slide, heck, she did not even want to go on the baby slide, but this is more our problem than theirs.) Back to the problem… why in the world should I pay full price for my little one, when she can only use about 1/3 of the park? Heck, as I was there by myself, I was only able to use about 1/3 of the park - it is not like I am going to leave my toddler alone next to a pool while I go have fun on the tube slide… This was probably the most expensive couple of hours, of sitting in a pool in my life.

I think Mexico had it right; perhaps all theme parks should start selling tickets based on height. If a child can only use a certain percentage of the equipment, they should only have to pay a certain percentage of the price.

Now, I know why my parents insisted that I was 12 for about three years of my life.

photo courtesy of: Kevin Abbott (ka1970)

why, Why, WHY!!

In my pre-parenthood years, I was a bit of a science geek. I was taught to ask questions, lots of questions... So, now that I have a little one, I want her to be curious about the world around her, and ask lots and lots of questions – especially the ‘why’ questions.

Well, at least that was the theory…

I am very happy that I have a little one that asks ‘why’ about everything, BUT WHY does it have to be all the time. I think, the worst part is that she asks why about the same thing, again, and again, and again, and again… I have now put a limit on three ‘whys’ per topic.

Months ago, she has also started asking why as a way to question my authority (I am all for questioning authority, as long as I am not the authority….). I guess it can be worse; she can just revert to saying NO instead of asking why.

So, the question of the day - Is it wrong to completely zone out your child just so I can have five minutes of peace and quiet? Also is it wrong to reply to why questions with a blatant lie, just to amuse myself?

Post Vacation Blues

We have came home from vacation about two weeks ago, and the mountain of dirty laundry in my house continues to grow. I believe there will be an avalanche if I add one more little, dirty sock to that pile.

The thing is, I have been doing the laundry; most of the smelly clothes from the trip have been washed, but I still feel like I am fighting a losing battle with that pile of dirty garments. And, let us not speak of the war against the messy, dusty house.

One of the things I missed most about being on vacation was coming back to the room, after breakfast, to find that the beds have been made, the floors have been swept, and there are fresh linens in the bathroom. And then it suddenly occurred to me that my kid must think she is always on vacation! She comes home from school, or the park, and there will be food on the table (sometimes it is even what she asked for); her room has been reasonably tidied; and every once in a while she will get a fresh towel (still working on the laundry thing…).

Sure, I try to get her to help around the house. She is actually very good, and will help tidy her toys, fold her laundry, set the table, and ‘help’ with the cooking. BUT, sometimes it takes me twice as long with her assistant, which I do not usually mind, since we try to make it a game.

So, every once in a while, when I pass the upper limit of my messiness tolerance (or that I really cannot ignore that smell anymore…) I say screw it, and I clean, scrub and wash. And for a while, I push back the tide of griminess.

But for now, the cleaning service in Hotel Home is on strike, until reinforcement arrives, and I get a better benefit package. Or, until that thing in the back of the fridge starts talking to me.