Jun 24

My daughter quite enjoys drawing and we, like most parents, are frequently in danger of drowning in a flood of “artwork”. So I thought taking pictures of some of her latest drawings was a good way to overcome the guilt of regularly throwing her precious creations in the recycling bin. But it turns out that I am a really awful person and the more I looked at these drawings, the funnier they became. So I decided to do the logical thing and share them with the internet. (Dear Grown-up Avery, I apologize. This is way out of line.)

But really, you guys need to see these!

This is meant to be Batman. During her brother’s recent Batman obsession Avery began drawing pictures of the beloved superhero for her brother. The hubby has taken to calling him Captain Cannabis as the emblem on his chest almost always comes out looking more like a marijuana leaf than a bat. No wonder Batman isn’t ashamed to be seen in public in satin underpants and a plastic utility belt! A lot of things seem logical when you are high as a kite!

Awwww…a child’s tribute to diversity! Isn’t that touching? We are all different in our world. That is, where different means we all carry Canadian (Cannabis, again) flags and are blond and blue-eyed. Well, I guess the fellow on the left is a little different – he only has one eye. We need to accept all kinds of lifestyle choices, people!

Nothing says Teacher appreciation like “You are the #1 best teacher I’ve ever had! At least, so far. I mean I’m only in grade 1 so it could get better than you. But you were really the best of the two teachers I’ve had so far!”

I find this picture extremely disturbing and I can’t really put my finger on the reason. Perhaps the overwhelming need of all these inanimate objects to introduce themselves. Or the inherent irrationality of introducing themselves as what they are? It’s like me saying “Hi! I am woman!” A little off, no?

This picture hung happily on our fridge for quite some time before a family friend was over and ruined it by asking if our daughter had drawn Buzz Lightyear in an anatomically correct way? I’m almost certain the – erm-object on Buzz’ belt is meant to be a tiny rocket ship. But it certainly does look somewhat…inappropriate, doesn’t it? Also, Buzz appears to have a caterpillar for a nose. And Jessie has something questionable going on in her belt-buckle region as well. Oh. My.

Jun 20

We’ve all used the word “someday” in a sentence.

“Some day I’d like to…”

“Some day I won’t…”

“Some day I’ll go…”

“Some day I’ll try…”

For many of us “someday” can become a cop-out, a way to put off trying.  Of course, I never procrastinate am just as guilty of putting off my somedays as anyone else. If you, like me, need a little guidance in finding a way to achieve your goals then let me introduce you to Defining Someday:

Last year I had the privilege of editing the manuscript for this book, written by my friend Danielle Voisin. It was a huge honour to be involved in the process and by giving me the opportunity to edit her book, Danielle helped me achieve one of my own Someday goals!

Danielle is one of the most driven, enthusiastic, and inspiring young women I’ve ever met. She is fearless and her success is entirely due to her careful planning and systematic approach to achieving her goals. I’m not going to lie, she is one very determined lady, but her process is very concise and lucky for all of us, she is sharing her method with us in her new book!

Defining Someday is all about not putting off your dreams for “someday” in the future but overcoming the obstacles that are stopping you from achieving them, whether they are in your head, your bank account, or your plan. This book helps the reader to fully define their “someday” goals and develop a plan to make them happen.

If you are anything like me, then the idea of self-help literature is not necessarily up your alley. The best thing about Defining Someday is it’s written in the format of novel with a main character who is struggling through his own personal goal-achievement crisis. It is about a hundred times more relatable than any other book you’ve read in this genre and you aren’t going to want to miss reading it!

You can purchase the book in both electronic and print versions on Danielle’s website. You should also check out her blog, also entitled Defining Someday, which is full of helpful hints for pushing on to make your dreams a reality. I promise you won’t be disappointed! This is one author who practices what she preaches. You can even read Danielle’s own “Someday List” where she tracks her goals and her progress towards achieving them. If you’re looking for inspiration and a little direction then this book is for you. By the time you get to the last page you will be ready and equipped to go out and conquer the world! Off you go now!

Jun 7

Dear Avery,

In the last week you learned to ride your bike without training wheels. I can’t tell you how proud I was to see you finally get the hang of it. You’ve been working on it for a couple of summers now and there was more than one day when you cried in frustration and at least one day when you insisted you would never be able to do it. So when you were finally able to get going on that bike the victory in your face was pure joy for both of us. I’m not ashamed to say I shed a tear or too when you finally got it.

Every day you take another step away from me. You began by riding your bike up and down the sidewalk in front of our house and the house next door.  You soon graduated to going up and down the sidewalk the full length of the street. But before long that wasn’t far enough. You began to beg to go around the block alone. This is something we’ve never let you do for several reasons. First, your sense of direction is not yet that great. Second, we live on a fairly large, and not exactly rectangular block. Third, the last time I walked around the block with you allowing you to “lead the way” you would have made half a dozen wrong turns and ended up somewhere across the river if I hadn’t been there to keep you on the right path. But, after biking around the block with Daddy once, I finally relented and gave my permission for you to go around the block by yourself. Once.

Every day you take another step away from me. In a few minutes you were back and breathless and triumphant. “I didn’t fall once!” you told me excitedly. “Can I go again?” So you went again. And again. And again and again and again. The next day you went at it again. Yesterday you must have gone around the block 25 or 30 times.

Every day you take another step away from me. Independence is addictive. You are now hooked on the sweet taste of freedom and I would be a fool not to recognize that there is no turning back. I thought walking was independence. Then I thought being potty-trained was independence. And then I thought starting school was really truly independence because you would be off all day doing things without me. But this really feels like IT. For the first time you can take yourself places under your own power. Of course we have rules about where and when you can take off but suddenly this whole new world has opened up to you and there’s no going back and you are stepping away from me again.

This independence thing is hard for me. As much as I want to always keep you within eyesight I am forcing myself to keep practicing letting you go because the satisfaction and pride in your eyes when you succeed feels marginally better than wrapping you in bubble wrap and holding you close to keep you from getting hurt. But I’m not going to lie, I am not loving this.

Every day you take another step away from me and even though I don’t like it and I want to keep you close, I couldn’t be prouder when I watch you go. I love you sweet girl.

Love,
Mommy

Jun 1

So I wanted to update y’all on Antageddon 2010. I wanted to. HOWEVER, since it has been raining pretty much 30 hours a day for as long as I can remember. Which one might imagine would drown all the little bastards right but I’m pretty sure our particular brand of ants are resilient enough to withstand a flood of biblical proportions.

Nonetheless, we did feel like we were starting to make a bit of progress in the War On Ants before the floods came upon us so we’re hoping that if we keep up with the 14 different ant-killing methods we were using that we will be able to reclaim our yard for the good guys (that would be us).

We managed to successfully pull off Kieran’s birthday party this weekend which was stressing me out because I had wanted to have it outside and normally you can depend on relative warmth and excessive sunshine in June in the prairies. Alas, it was not to be. With a forecast of nothing but rain for the foreseeable future I was able to accept that we would not be partying outside this year and I got my papier mache on. I made pinatas!

And I don’t mind saying they were a tremendous success! We used the pinata loot as goodie bag fillers so the kids all collected their own treats after each one broke. Because the pinatas were very nearly free to make I was able to spend money on buying good candy instead of that crappy pinata candy that you can buy at stores. They were absolutely perfect for the age of kids we had, not breaking too easily but also not being so hard that a 4 year old couldn’t possibly break it open.

Let me tell you, you haven’t know fear unless you’re a man standing on chair and holding a pinata while a number of four year boys swings a plastic bat directly at your junk as hard as they can.

The hubby is very brave.

This year the request was for a Batman cake and after searching out a simple idea for a Batman themed cake I was fairly happy with the outcome:

Please ignore the rather wobbly outlines of the cityscape. I bought super strength icing colour to get the perfect royal blue and black colour. This was the result:

And if that’s what it did to their tongues then you can imagine why it was no surprise when we woke up the next morning to our son yelling excitedly “MOM! DAD! COME AND LOOK! MY POOP IS BLUE!!!!“. Excellent.

But what I’d really like to know is how my baby…

…became a Batman-costume-wearing, mini-golf-playing, bike-riding, joke-telling, sweet, beautiful boy?