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Up, Up, and Away!

Sep 2nd, 2010
by Marilyn @ A Lot of Loves.
11 comments

I was lucky enough to win a really cool superhero cape as a door prize recently. As expected when there is only one really cool something, that something causes some grief.

When I opened the package, I offered the cape to my son to try on first. He, being in a snarky anti-mom mood most of the time, scorned it and turned away.

I offered the cape to my daughter to try on next. She, being in a lovely and compliant please mom-mood most of the time, tried it on.

And that sealed the fate of the cape. It is now forever being argued over by the kids.

Em won the fight for the cape at the time I took these pictures. If you look to the side in some of them, you will see a little boy plotting his revenge. A revenge that was acted out with much loudness and zeal about five minutes after I put down the camera.

***************************************************

We are headed out on our first ever family trip involving airline travel on Thursday morning. We’ll be in Calgary for the long weekend to help celebrate my younger sister’s wedding. Fingers crossed we have nice weather, good food, and quiet kids. Really, if we finish this weekend having had semi-quiet kids and nothing else, I will claim it as being a success.

Posted in: Em, K, Kid Stuff.
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What I Learned: August 2010 & Wednesday of Few Words

Aug 31st, 2010
by Marilyn @ A Lot of Loves.
42 comments

I missed the past two months of monthly recaps because I am basically losing my mind. I’m existing, not living, and tumbling through days that are all mashed up together. But that sentence makes me think I’m headed toward something serious and deep, and I’m trying for irreverent and light, so I’ll pull it back a bit.

August 2010 was possibly the fastest month ever. This time trip is just too fast for me, and I’d like to slow it down a little, but since that doesn’t seem possible, I shall have to stuff my lessons learned into my soul and hold on because the next day is sure to bring some more.

What I Learned August 2010

1. Although I grouse sometimes about being a stay-at-home mom and never getting out of the house, when the opportunity finally presented itself for me to escape to New York for a few days, I made myself physically sick over the thought of leaving the kids behind. I guess I really do love being with the munchkins after all.

2. Hanging with a few thousand women in a hotel in New York is fun, overwhelming, and loud. I hope I will be better prepared to handle the mayhem next year. Also? When missing some little tinies, you will want to kiss the creator of Skype. Skype is possible the best invention ever.

alotofloves-bitchinamy-sparklecorn

3. After months of internal debate (Yes, I really did spend months agonizing over this), I turned to my lovely readers and asked for help on choosing a hotel to stay at for our upcoming Disneyland trip. The funny thing is, everyone’s response was pretty much split down the middle and didn’t provide me with a clear winner. What did help me was reading the comments. In the end that darn clock kept ticking and I had to make a choice. In case you’re wondering, I chose Disney’s Paradise Pier for our hotel, and I’ve stressed over that choice every since. But the credit card has been charged and I will find out in one month if I made the right choice.

4. If I can stop and appreciate the moment, it’s much easier to remember why I love being a mother.

5. Getting everyone prepped and ready for a family portrait is about as big of a pain in the butt as I feared, but in the end all of the hassle was worth it when I saw these great shots.

6. Not everyone appreciates a long-winded Grace. Sometimes you just want to get to the point.

7. I still love to sleep in. Alas, this appears to have been a one-off as my son has not let me have a repeat performance.

8. It is actually possible to take two children to the PNE (an uber-large city fair) by myself. (Note: I actually went to the PNE with a couple of other great local women, but since they also had their own kids in tow, I figure I was pretty much on my own for making sure I didn’t come home with one less child than I started with.) The kids had the best time. Feasted on cotton candy, harvested fake apples, saw a real live monster truck, won their first carnival prize, and roped a pretend calf. Plus everyone (including me) fell asleep without a single toss or turn.

This is possibly the biggest Wednesday of Few Words post ever but the calendar falls where the calendar falls.

If you have a Wordless Wednesday or a Whole-Pile-of-Words-Wednesday post please link up below!

Posted in: Em, K, Kid Stuff, Parenting, Wednesday of Few Words, What I Learned.
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Knowing What to Say

Aug 29th, 2010
by Marilyn @ A Lot of Loves.
25 comments

I have a series of posts stored in my drafts folder. They are unpublished and may stay unpublished forever. The posts are filled with things I have a burning desire to say. To tell you. And yet I am holding back. I resent holding back.

I wrote those posts because I thought the act of writing alone would get the words out of my head. It hasn’t worked.

I sent one of my posts to be published anonymously on another blog, thinking that the act of having them published somewhere out there would get the words out of my head. It hasn’t worked.

And still I haven’t hit publish on the posts in my drafts folder because there are those who know me and read this blog, that would not be happy with me. I have to deal with those people face to face. I am trying to honour what they would wish of me. I’m trying not to resent holding back.

I have built this blog in a certain style and a certain way conciously and with thought. I have purposely avoided topics or issues that I felt would be divisive or upsetting to people I know out there in the real world…which is fine usually, except for when I sit down to write and all I can do is dwell on a forbidden topic. A topic I have forbidden myself, mind you.

I’m finding it difficult to write around the wall I have built.

I’m finding it difficult to know what to say.

What do you do when all you can think or write about is forbidden (either by you or someone else)? Is there a way for me to release the pressure of words in my head without getting me in trouble?

Posted in: Blogging, I Don't Know What I'm Doing, It's All About Me.
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End of Summer, Not of Fun: Lay’s Chip Trips

Aug 28th, 2010
by Marilyn @ A Lot of Loves.
10 comments

This summer, I tried to take the kids on some great outings around the city, and introduce them to activities we’ve never done before. For some of our outings I used the Lay’s Chip Trips program, and I’m glad I did, as the program offered us substantial discounts on fun activities around the city. (To read about our adventures, see some great pictures, and learn more about the Lay’s Chip Trips program please click over to the full post on A Lot of Loves Reviews.)

Posted in: Lay's Chip Trips.
Tagged:

From Tadpole to Turtle

Aug 26th, 2010
by Marilyn @ A Lot of Loves.
16 comments

Today was the last day of 3-year-old K’s swimming lessons. At the beginning of the summer, overcome with panic that I wasn’t going to be able to find enough activities to occupy him happily, I signed him up for lessons at our local pool.

My plan for keeping 22-month Em occupied while K was busy in the pool were vague, but I can promise that they didn’t involve having me in the pool with the kids. Being seen in public in a swimsuit is not fun for many, and I include myself in that group. I was NOT going to go swimming, which of course means that Murphy’s Law came into play and I spent the entire summer swimming.

K’s first lesson waaaaay back at the beginning of July did not go smoothly. K stood at the side of the pool and refused to go in (not because he was scared, but because I wanted him to go in, and he’s all about doing the opposite of what mom wants – fun!). Em, on the other hand was fully clothed and not supposed to go into the pool but she was busy trying to fling herself into the deep end of the kiddie pool, all the while yelling “Bath! Bath! Big Bath!”.

I did what all good mothers would do in the situation, and held onto the arm of my daughter, who was just not going to take no for an answer and continued to make running jumps at the water, while subtlety pushing my son toward the edge of the pool.

The second class, I changed my approach and started all three of us in the pool just before K’s lessons began. It was much easier to send K to his lesson if he had already forced (lovingly) into the pool by me. It was also easier to keep Em from drowning if she was busy playing in the shallow end. After a few lessons passed, I didn’t have to force K into the pool at the beginning of the lesson – he started to run in willingly.

And so I spent the summer swimming/wading in the kiddie pool draped in a swimsuit two sizes too big for me because I never got around to finding a swimsuit that fit properly.

K’s last lesson today indicates that the end of summer is near. My son has officially passed his classes and now he must wait until his fourth birthday before he is allowed to take the next level up (turtles). He still can’t swim but he’s better in the water than he was before and will jump into the waist-high water, blow bubbles, and pick up weighted-toys on the bottom of the pool. He even may have learned how to bring his listening ears to class on occasion.

Once again, time shocks me with it’s passing. Two months ago, I thought the summer was going to be interminably long and I wouldn’t know what to do with the kids, and now it’s pretty much over and I have a newly minted turtle on my hands.

Posted in: Family, Growing Up, K.
Tagged: · ·

Babysitting: Wednesday of Few Words

Aug 24th, 2010
by Marilyn @ A Lot of Loves.
62 comments

I’ve mentioned recently that my 22-month-old daughter is not really a baby anymore, but a full-blown child with thoughts and loves and insistence that Things Be Done Her Way Right NOW!

Unicorn Monday

One of her greatest loves are her stuffies and dolls. However, as every mother knows, it can be tiring hauling your babies to and fro all day, so sometimes you need to pass them off. In the case of my daughter, she obviously feels that when passing a beloved baby off, it’s best to entrust them to a grandparent – in other words my husband or myself.

Sheep Tuesday

Not a day has passed in recent weeks, that one of us has not been forcefully asked to babysit a precious toy of my daughter’s. And don’t think we can get away with just holding the toy for a moment or two before laying it down somewhere. No. No. That’s irresponsible babysitting and my daughter knows it. She will come to check on us from time to time to make sure we’re still cuddling our charge. If we make the mistake of laying that toy down…why there’s hell to pay of course.

PS. Can’t you tell how much my husband just loves to be photographed for the blog? I gave him fair warning the pictures would be posted! Do you post pictures of your significant other?

It’s Wordless/Wordful Wednesday today! If you have a post that fits the bill please link up below. Thanks!


Posted in: Em, Family, Wednesday of Few Words.
Tagged: · ·

Another First

Aug 24th, 2010
by Marilyn @ A Lot of Loves.
14 comments

Getting up in the mornings may be the worst part of being a productive human being. At least is is for me. I am not now, nor have I ever been, a morning person. Dolly Parton was speaking about me when she sang:

“Tumble outta bed and stumble to the kitchen. Pour myself a cup of ambition. Yawnin’, stretchin’, try to come to life.“*

Sad to be up so early**

For the past few months my mornings have sounded like this:

6:30am: Husband’s alarm goes off

6:30-7:00am: Listen to the sounds of my husband getting ready for work.

7:00am: Husband closes front door of house more loudly than seems necessary

7:01am: Son is woken up.

7:01am-7:15am: Random banging and stomping heard from son’s room. I’ve never figured out what he’s doing in there…probably because I’m still lying in bed.

7:15am: Son makes his way to the potty where he will either bang loudly on the counter until I come to assist him, or he will finish up on his own and come to crawl into bed with me.

7:15am-Until I can’t take it anymore: Son alternately jumps on bed and pokes me in the face with random pokey items.

This morning my husband’s door slam woke my son, as per usual, and I lay in bed waiting for the counter bang, or the face poke to get me up. But it never came. While I lay in bed, eyes closed, waiting for my own personal wake up call, I must have drifted back to sleep, because when I next looked at the clock it was 8am. 8am! 8AM!! And where was my 3-almost-4-year-old son? Why playing trains in the nude in the living room.

It’s another first.

As I got into the shower and washed the sleep away this morning, I was still in shock about this crazy step forward in my son’s development. I was overjoyed…And then I wondered if I should feel sad at this sign that he’s growing up…Should this moment be bittersweet? Should it?

I tried to work myself up to some feelings of regret…but I couldn’t. This kid of mine let me sleep in. I slept in!

I love this kid.

*The lyrics are from Dolly’s classic 9 to 5. I love Dolly.

**I’ve been asked a few times what my favourite swag from BlogHer is. After a few weeks of living with it all, I think this Got Milk? mug is it. It fits the perfect amount of coffee, has the perfect size of handle, is the perfect colour to go with my other white dishes, and probably cost the Got Milk? people approximately 2 cents to produce. I’m a simple woman. On a related note this is the worst swag I received from BlogHer…

Jimmy Dean Alarm Clock

Posted in: Funny, Growing Up, It's All About Me, K.

A First

Aug 23rd, 2010
by Marilyn @ A Lot of Loves.
19 comments

My son will be four in November. He usually sleeps through the night, so I can’t claim him to be a bad sleeper.

He’s not a bad sleeper, he’s a picky sleeper. This child will not fall asleep anywhere else but a bed – preferably his own. I can’t remember ever seeing him fall asleep in a random spot since he was 8 or 9 months old. Until this afternoon.

A Sleeping K

Sleeping K

Amazing.

Posted in: K.
Tagged:

Get to the Point

Aug 19th, 2010
by Marilyn @ A Lot of Loves.
22 comments

I don’t talk about religion on this blog for various reasons – the main one being that once you open that can of worms it invites a lot of stuff in along with it. I like talking religion, but it can be a never-ending subject. We are a Christian family, albeit a Christian family with liberal views. I am much more liberal than my husband, and this liberalism has been the source of many discussion-arguments with various people. I’ve had enough religious discussions that have ended in arguments, that the thought of entering into another theological argument makes me weary to my bones. I usually pass on those opportunities now, unless it involves something I’m particularly passionate about. This may be another sign of my advancing age.

When my son turned three last year, we started sending him to Sunday School, which he loved. He loves hanging with other kids and playing with different toys. Although my son, K, seemed to enjoy himself at Sunday School, I wasn’t sure if he was actually doing any learning, since he is not one of those kids who puts his “listening ears” on that often. Something obviously did sink in though, because lately he’s started reminding us that we need to say Grace before eating (which we rarely remember to do without his help). If he reminds us (or if I actually remember before that happens), I usually ask him to go ahead and say Grace.

He loves to do it. I have a feeling that his love for saying Grace has more to do with his love for attention than his devotion to God, but I see no real harm in this activity.

When K announces that it’s time for Grace, we all bow our heads. K says his Grace – “Thank you, Jesus, for this food. Amen”. And then he’ll say it again. And again. And again. He’s nothing if not thorough, but it does usually come to the point that we have to stop him. It seems a bit…odd…to stop him from praying, but if we didn’t stop him, I’m not sure that we’ve ever be able to eat.

22-month-old Em, fully entrenched in the stage where she copies everything her big brother does, joins in with Grace too. She doesn’t fully understand what’s going on, but she bows her head, always keeping a watchful sideways peeking eye on her big brother. When he says “Amen”, she usually does too. When he bows his head for that second, third, fourth time, she does it too. K, for his part, knows that he’s being shadowed by Em, and likes it. He loves the adoration. And he loves the control.

Today, K decided that he not only had to say Grace for dinner, but for lunch as well. And he felt that Em should be in on it too. Em had other plans though, and wanted to get down to the business of eating. Undeterred, K bowed his head. Em saw that, paused, stopped eating, and bowed her head too. K said his grace. Again. And Again. And Again. And then I stopped him…because really? Must this happen every time?

Em started to reach for her food, but K stopped her and told her that she had to say Grace too. She looked at him. A little confused.

Then bowed her head.

K bowed his head.

We waited.

Em yelled out “FOOD!!” and took a bite.

Amen.

Posted in: Em, Family, Funny, K, Kid Stuff.
Tagged: · · · ·

Teaching a Friend: Wednesday of Few Words

Aug 17th, 2010
by Marilyn @ A Lot of Loves.
51 comments

Em is nearing the two-year mark, and she’s really left behind her baby stage. She is much more opinionated about everything, most especially her toys.

It’s a rare moment to see her without a “baby” of some sort. The baby changes daily, sometimes it’s a stuffed sheep or a stuffed kitty, but most of the time she divides her love between a Minnie Mouse and a Cabbage Patch Doll.

Today she brought me a book to read while I was cleaning the dishes. When I told her she would have to wait for me to read it until after I was done, she decided to read it to her baby instead.

She carefully pointed out all of the pictures to her baby, and asked me what some words were if she didn’t know them. She would open the flap for each hidden image and then hold Baby up to see it. Truthfully, it was awesome.

What awesome thing have your kids done lately? Or you!

If you have a Wordless or Wordful Wednesday post, please link up below!

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Posted in: Em, Kid Stuff, Wednesday of Few Words.
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