A dad, a toddler and duct tape...

Lily loves to play with stickers. Chapters puts round stickers on their 30% off and irewards books. These come off fairly easily, and are a great way to amuse her at Starbucks while I enjoy my latte. Once she realized that many of our books at home have the same stickers on them, she started to ask to have more 'ticks'. She plops a book down and says "Want ticks" and waits patiently while we peel off the round stickers. In toddler logic, any book or magazine with a round thing on it is a sticker. And we are to immediately peel it off for her. Have you ever tried to convince a toddler that a UPC code is not in fact a sticker, and is part of the cover of a magazine? It's not easy.

I looked for some round stickers today, but the Dollarama Store selection was not great. When we were at Winners, I swiped a sticker off their pricing cart and Lily proudly displayed her DUVET COVER sticker on the front of her coat, for all to see.


When she does get her little hand on a sticker, she goes around sticking it to her leg, her nose, her dad's hairy leg (ouch!), the couch and the floor until there is no more stick to the sticker.

When I went grocery shopping tonight I found a little book of dragonfly stickers that will be great. I told Bryan about the stickers, and asked if he found one to give her to play with while I was out. He said yes.

And then I saw the roll of duct tape.

Only a man would improvise a sticker by giving a toddler a piece of duct tape.

Taking time to smell the flowers...

C is for ...

Cute as a button!

Today was another gardening day...

we spent the afternoon outside, digging and watering.

You have to start off with a good snack.

It's easy to get distracted...

Sometimes you have to dance...

Or improvise when your slide isn't quite ready yet.

Daydreaming.

And having fun.

Time for a rest

Watching Mumma dig the new path.

I helped with the watering!

See?

Sandals, Flowers and Lily's Big Toe


Yesterday Lily and I walked up to Shopper's Drug Mart to buy her raisins. They have a great line of dried fruits that Lily just loves - she gets something sweet but gets her fruit at the same time. Plus, they are a portable snack that I always have with us. We stopped in at the Second Cup for a lunchtime snack. Lily had raisins and some of my cheese croissant and a steamed milk with raspberry. I was a bit confused when they tried to put sugar-free raspberry syrup in her milk. I didn't ask for sugar-free. I'm glad I caught them, because while a bit of sugar isn't that harmful, I'm convinced that the artificial sugar (Splenda or aspartame) is. Aspartame gives me wicked migraines, and it tastes weird. Ditto the Splenda on taste. After I convinced the barista that I really didn't want the sugar free stuff, we settled in for our treat. Lily is so funny with her words. She decided that she was done, and started saying "Out. Please. Out. Toat. Boots. Go" Toat is her word for coat. C's are hard for kids to say. I convinced her that mumma needed to finish her coffee (she'll learn soon enough that mumma ALWAYS needs to finish her coffee!) and then we were off.


We stopped in at Birth Source, my favorite local store. They carry all sorts of things for moms to be and new moms, and for older kids. The owner Tracy, is awesome, and has the store set up so kids can run around and play with toys while the moms shop. Lily had her in stitches! Lily ran around picking things up, saying "Ooh" and "What's this?" I had stopped in to see if the new summer shoes were in, and they were. It was fun chasing Lily down to get her to try them on, but we did find a cute pair in white. Last summer she wore a size 2 sandal, and now she's in a size 5! I can't believe how much she has grown. The sandals also have a removable squeaker in them. I'm not sure how long we will keep the squeakers in, but Lily thought they were fun.


I also picked up a new Snack Trap cup, as the toddler proof lid on the old one is no longer toddler proof. I love that these allow me to hand Lily a cup of snacks (including her raisins) and she can feed herself. Even better is that I can clip the cup to her stroller when we are out, and I don't have to worry about her getting cranky because she wants to eat something. We don't really use them at home because she tends to use the cup to store bits of paper, puzzle pieces and the occasional finger puppet.


The highlight of Lily's day was discovering the Ugly Dolls. Bryan saw these ages ago, and had meant to buy one for her - I splurged and bought one. Yes, they are ugly, but they are cute too. She was thrilled to have her very own. It's called Big Toe.

It's only about 8" high. And it looks nothing like a toe. Lily has already decided that Toe loves Cheerios, kisses and naps.

When we came back from the store, I ran into an old work friend. She now drives for Canada Post, and was just getting out of her truck when we walked around the corner. Angela just bought her first house, a bungalow town house in the west end. After a quick chat to catch up, Lily and I went to tend to the garden.

She tried my patience yesterday. I knew she would pull up plants. Really I did. I'm not sure why I was surprised when she did. She's too little to know that pulling up the pansies I plant every year in honor of my grandpa is not a good thing to do. When she's older she'll understand. After several 'discussions' about the plants, she helped me water the plants, and then she went down for a nap. The nap was not by choice. She pulled up her third pansy plant for the day, threw a fit when she was told NO, and then cried while asking for her Daddy. Ouch. Mommy was mean, so only Daddy would do. After a big cuddle, and a banana snack, all was well and Mumma was back at the top of Lily's list.

I spent a bit of quiet time repairing toddler damage to the flower pots, and called it a day before heading off to work.

And that's a whole other story, one that would take too long to tell. All I can say is toddler temper tantrums are easier to deal with (and are infinitely more excusable) than adult temper tantrums.

Mother's Day

It's been a long long day. Someone at work, someone who was apparently hatched and has no concept of Mother's Day, decided that a store meeting at the awful hour of 6am was a good idea. So I've been awake since before 5am today.

I came home at 8:30 to wake my sweet girl. We had a nice cuddle while she ate Cheerios. She gave me a card that she had picked out herself. Bryan said he steered the stroller so she could reach the cards, and she picked out a pretty card with pink and orange flowers on it. Very nice. Lily told me it was 'pretty'.

I beat Lily to her morning nap, and we both crashed until about 1pm. It wasn't enough for me, but I think it's because I am coming down with a cold. That or my allergies are rearing again. Time for Claritin. I still feel crappy - we had to turn down a dinner invitation at Mark's (next door) because I wasn't up to it. Disappointing, because he was going to make steak. Mmmm, yummy steak.

Bryan and Mark were going to put Lily's swing set together, but some of the bolts were stripped, so we made the executive decision to purchase all new bolts. I have to get them at my store tomorrow, so Lily's "Whee!", as she calls the swing and slide, will have to wait. I bought her a toddler swing, but hers will be decorated with flower stickers instead of Tony Stewart gear.

I finished the day by watching the Penguins beat the Flyers again. The score was 4-2, should have been 5-2 due to an incredibly blind group of goal judges...but that's another story. Lily's latest word is...

HOCKEY! What a good girl. We're trying to teach her to say "Shoot the puck!" but she hasn't said it yet.

The past couple of days she has added BEAN, PRETTY, HOCKEY, and GLASS to her ever-growing list of words.

It was a good day - my girl was fun and giggly all day, and made me laugh. She gave big hugs and even a few kisses. She is my world and my love and she completes me. I wouldn't have it any other way. Being a mom is great.

To my mom, who is away in the south of France, I miss you and I love you! Can't wait for you to come home.

Road trip!

Since my mom and dad are living the carefree life, roaming the French countryside, it is up to me to check on our little slice of carefree country life back here. I took a midweek road trip out to the cabin to check on things.

For those of you that are imagining a rustic retreat with a wood stove for heat and cooking...well, it's not that at all. It's a year round retreat - you can't call a cabin with hardwood floors and satellite tv rustic. Mom and dad spend just about every weekend out there in the spring, summer and fall, and every second or third weekend there in the winter.



Miss Lily slept most of the way out, and we stopped in at my Grandma's for a quick lunch. Grandma joined us at the cabin and marvelled at the energy of my girl. Lily is a non-stop bundle of energy and curiousity. She has to look at everything, and check things out to see how they work. She opens and closes doors. She takes things apart. She puts them together. All the while, she is babbling away. Bryan and I were curious at how many words she has learned and uses, so we wrote them down. She is using more than 80 words right now! She learned two new ones at the lake - MOOSE and PRETTY. She has a rocking moose from IKEA, and she is finally confident enough to ride it on her own; until now it was a bit tall for her, and she wasn't sure about balancing on it. Now she hops on and off with ease.

Lily was so tired that she slept from 7:45pm until I woke her at 9am the next morning. She always sleeps well, but the switch from her own bed to the portable playpen isn't always a good one. She was too tired to notice this time.

I always sleep well at the lake. I had the window open, and fell asleep to the sound of ducks and geese quacking and honking across the bay, with the soft patter of rain hitting the metal roof. Bliss!

In the morning, while Lily was napping, I did a quick check around the yard, and was met by my mom's cat. It's not really her cat, but it is one that has been around for a couple of years. It probably lives under someone's cabin, and spends some of the time in our woodshed. In the winter, my mom puts out a dish of dry cat food, this year she tossed an old down coat on top of the woodpile for the kitty to sleep in. During the spring and summer, the cat fends for itself. Mom said it had been a while since the cat had been around, so she thought perhaps it hadn't made it through the winter. She's a tough little kitty, and made it through another winter - I put out some leftover roast beef and some dry dog food (sorry Molly!) for her. Chances are pretty good she'll have another litter of kittens, so any food will help her out. The kittens don't usually make it, but that's the life of a feral cat I guess. The ones that do survive keep the mice population down, so that's ok. Mom will be happy to see the cat.

After Lily's nap, we loaded up the Mazda and headed back into the city. It was a nice drive - no traffic in the middle of the day on a Thursday. Minus the sunroof catching a rock, it was a good trip. Now I am off to arrange for the repair. A sunroof is a nice thing to have, but expensive to fix, as I am discovering.

Cream cheese on what?

Lily and I spent the entire afternoon outside yesterday. I had gardening to do, and she had rocks to find.

This is her favorite thing to do. She picks pebbles and rocks out of the beds as I dig. It could be worse - bugs or worms would be much worse. Once she has a rock, she pops it into a bucket and hauls the rocks around, or puts them in the bird bath, or balances them on a shovel and tries to walk around with them. Mostly, I think she just likes to say "Rocks". Her pronunciation is excellent.

I decided we would have an al fresco lunch. I put together a lunch of fruit and crackers with cream cheese, and some milk. Lily sat down and started to eat, but then got up to run around some more. We really don't have house rules outside - it's a free for all that she loves. She has to stay in the yard, and out of the garage. Basic safety applies, no climbing on top of garden furniture, and we are working at teaching her about sidewalks. Other than that, she can go anywhere and do anything.

And she did.

She went to the middle of one of the beds, pried an egg sized rock out of the dirt and took it to the table. She picked up a cream cheese cracker, and used the cracker to smear cheese on the rock and then licked it off the rock.

EWWWWW!

She was thrilled, grinning from ear to ear, covered in dirt and cream cheese. Her dad would have had kittens had he witnessed this. Never in a million years did I expect him to be the fussy parent about dirt and a kid. Kids are washable. Clothes are washable. Honey, you ate dirt too. You just don't remember it. Ask your mom.

Today we are NOT having cream cheese for lunch. Or rocks.

The early bird gets peed on.

Lily woke up naked this morning. She loves to 'help' getting undressed and decided to get a head start today. Her dad got the brunt of it, I just got to giggle.

Yes, we had to do laundry. No it was not that messy.

And yes, she is wearing her pyjamas with the zipper in the back this evening.

Ahhh, spring...


Here are a few pictures from today.Now that spring is properly here, Lily and I have been out in the yard. Amazingly, I have completed my entire yard clean up already. The front beds need another raking out, but that's about it. Lily loves playing in the yard - she has her own tools, even though she prefers mine. She has some fabulous yellow rubber boots - I tried to buy some boots for myself today, but the only ones I could find were silver and sparkly - a little too much diva for my taste.

Gathering rocks. (ROCK being today's word of the day.)

Hauling rocks. Her grandma would be so proud!

Tossing rocks in the bird bath. Not so sure the robins will be that impressed with this.

Lily and her gardening gear.

The dirt on her face is from the rock in her hand. She was licking the rock. It was clean. She had just dipped it in the birdbath!

Coming soon to our yard....

My mom bought this for us from a work friend. Their kids are grown and no longer use this, so they wanted it to go to a good home. Rob and Debbie delivered this, dismantled, tonight. Lily was thrilled to watch Rob and Bryan load it into the yard while Debbie and I looked at my plants. We'll have to grab a baby/toddler swing for it, and make a new cover for the sandbox, but other than that, it's perfect for our little yard. I can't wait to get this put together for her!

Anatomy of a Hairdo

This is why we don't do pigtails. They last exactly 3 minutes.

The word of the day is:

APPLE.

Lily is learning words at an amazing rate. We taught her apple a few weeks ago, but she hasn't used it a lot until now. Yesterday as I was doing dishes, I heard her saying it over and over. Turns out she was trying to convince the cat to eat her apple. Leo was on the other side of the baby gate, and Lily was standing there with her arm through the bars, thrusting the apple at the cat. While my cat has been known to eat many foods normally inappropriate for cats, such as broccoli, pepperoni and cantaloupe, he does not like apples.

Another favorite word is BOX. What's sweet is she says BOTS, which is the same pronunciation my brother used to for the Boston Bruins when we were kids. Botston.

Tonight, everything was a box. If it opened or could have something put into it, it was a box. That included her dad's shirt, her own pant leg, a cup and under the sofa slipcover. Her dad was not impressed when Lily put cheese down his shirt while saying box. But, it's better than what she did earlier this week. She lifted up his shirt and sprinkled water from her sippy cup into his belly button. Not sure what her word was for that, and I know that Bryan didn't use the word he wanted to!