Nuckin Futs

Jillian is going to an alternative school.

I don't think I am an alternative mom.

We had our first parents meeting at the school tonight. I just don't get it. I want the same things for my kid, really I do, but I just want it without all the granola.

I promised the principal I would stick it out. I don't mean by keeping Jill in the school longer, I am comfortable with her in the school. I mean me being involved.

She is looking for parents to support the 'other' view of alternative education. Not the view that thinks their kids are at a free private school.

That is a big view to support. I will do it because I want the school to succeed and grow. I know of families who pulled their children out at the last minute because of the overwhelming attitude of some of the parents.

I believe one family referred to it as the 'freak show'. I didn't argue.

As long as this is the right place for Jill it will be the right place for me. If her needs change .....

One Down

I just finished my first week back at work.

My biggest struggle has been dinner. I was a huge fan of my slow-cooker .... until it broke.

Now I am a huge fan of anything quick. On the advice of a loving aunt I am going to try some frozen dinners. They heat up quick, are portion controlled and more healthy than most of the other things I can choose for a quick meal (like ordering in, or picking up at a drive-through).

I am sure I will get it under control as the year goes on.

If it wasn't so hard to find something we could all eat (see previous posts) then it might be ok, but I can't make noodles and sauce every night, I will go nuts.

I am going to have to menu plan. I am not good at planning. I am not good at menus.

I look in the cupboards and figure something out. Tonight, for instance, was rice casserole. Brown rice, frozen veggies, can soup sauce and cheese. The only problem with that on a school night is it took 50 minutes to cook - 20 for the rice and 30 in the oven.

As far as I am concerned at the moment pizza is the perfect meal. Bread, veggies, meat, cheese. As happy as that would make me to have pizza every night for dinner, I am not sure what the Ministry of Health would have to say.

Yes I am. They don't like that idea.

Where on Earth?

Jill was an easy toddler in some ways. Because she is actually 35 and only living in the body of a small child, she understood certain rules seemingly without effort. Only with Cait do I realize that that was not completely normal.

Cait puts things in her facial orifices. I have found banana stickers in her ears, pencils being stuck up her nose, and you name it in her mouth.

It is the mouth one that bothers me the most.

If it is small she has put it in her mouth. What really gets me is how much stuff have I missed? How many tiny princess shoes have I not fished out? How much money is sitting in her belly?

I started to write this because I had to fish another penny out of her mouth. I don't know where she finds them. Maybe she goes digging in the couch cushions for stuff to munch on. As I was typing I noticed though that she was being unusually quiet. I asked her what was in her mouth and she took off down the hall at top speed. I was finally able to dig a piece of cardboard out of her. Where on earth did she find that? I don't see anything with a bite missing from it.

Jill never did this. We told her that mouths were for food and that was it. We told her toilets were for pee and poop and toilet paper and that was it.

Oh, you know where I am going with this :)

So far we have been able to catch her in time and we make a habit of keeping all doors closed, but we have come close to finding all sorts of what-not floating in the toilet. Any suggestions? Any one else go through a 'can I flush it down the toilet' phase?

She keeps us on our toes. And looking up her nose.

Borrow Toys

A while ago I hinted that our place was overrun with toys. It wasn't an exaggeration. Quite the contrary.

When Jill was 9 months old a television show came and did a living room makeover for us. Why? Too much kid clutter.

Times that by 3 years and 2 kids.

We are blessed. Truly. Our children want for nothing. It is exactly what Rob and I wanted when we talked about having kids. It was also the running thought during many a hard decision that we had to make. We wanted to be able to give our kids everything they needed, as well as a good chunk of what they wanted.

One of the ways I thought to do that was by applying to be a toy testing family for a national parenting magazine.

We were accepted and from the time Jillian was 6 months old we have been receiving and testing toys a couple of times a year.

Since my immediate family has moved back to Ottawa our toy schedule has increased a bit.

It is great. We get as many (or as few) toys as I feel we can reasonably test in a three month period. There is paperwork to be done, but that is a minor piece for me. Quite a major one for the woman whose job it is to oversee all of this, collect the data, analyze it all and make the toy recommendations, but for me, it is a small piece.

The girls get to test new toys. Some aren't even available at toy stores yet. It is all geared to the Christmas toy shopping spree and the magazines articles about the year's best toys.

It's pretty cool.

This year we tested 35 toys. We live in shoe box of a condo. Some of the toys were quite large. That is why this is quickly becoming one of my favourite times of the year.

Donation time.

The catch to being a testing family is that you have to commit to donating all of the toys to charity once the testing period is over. That is the highlight for me. The girls get to play with great new toys, then they learn lessons on charity and giving.

Right now I make all the choices about where the toys will be donated to. My hope is that as they get older they will start to make the choices. For now, they come with me for drop-offs because I want them to see where the toys are going and who they are helping.

That is why we call them 'borrow toys'. We are just borrowing them to play with for a bit until they go to their real homes.

We just did a day of donation drop-offs.

Our place looks great! We not only took this years testing toys, but all of the baby toys that Cait has outgrown. It didn't just make a dent, it made a canyon.

A canyon that was quickly filled by other toys, but at least they aren't all over the living room anymore. They are all put away.

All but 2 boxes, one for Jill and one for Cait.

Let's see how long we can keep it this way!

I have a tummy ache.

Cait is slowly (very slowly) adjusting to daycare.

Jill is in her element.

Off to sleep and I hope to feel better tomorrow.

Just What I Thought

I really like being back at work.

Ok, so I bawled my eyes out this morning when I dropped Cait off. I cried again when I told Rob about it. And again when I picked her up and heard she had a rough day.

But I really like being back at work.

Jill is doing great, she is a daycare superstar. She started with full days and loves it. She asked me today if I would pick her up a bit later then yesterday so she wouldn't miss free play and snack. She has even made a new friend.

I don't worry about how Jill is doing.

I worry about Cait though.

Through the worry and pride I really like being back at work.

I like organizing the paperwork and labelling the books. I like sorting the toys and setting up the centres. I like talking with my colleagues.

I have been doing a lot of that last one!

I know that Cait will settle in. I know that Jill might have some rough patches.

Same for me.

Ask me again next week if I still like being back. I have only gone 2 days, I think I might still be in the honeymoon phase!

Back to Business

So after 17 months of being at home I am going back to work tomorrow.

We went back to school shopping today (well school shopping for Jill seeing as this is her first time going to school). Apparently Jill grew 3 feet over the summer because any pants that fit her in June are now culottes and her belly is poking out of every shirt she owns.

It may not surprise you to know that Jill is very particular about the clothes she wears.

She doesn't like pockets, she won't wear any pocket-pants. She doesn't like certain colours. She doesn't like certain fabrics.

She likes what she likes.

Fortunately we found a lot of things she likes. The only contentious piece is the fall coat that I picked out for her. She rightly informed me that just because I like it doesn't mean she will.

She'll wear it. She'll have to, it's going to get cold.

I got a new coat too. And some shirts. I am happy!

Jill decided that the dress we got today would be her new 'brave dress'. Her current brave dress is a pink dress that doesn't fit her. The spaghetti straps have fallen off and are poorly tied together. She has to wear a shirt and pants under it if she wants to leave the house.

She wears this dress whenever she is feeling anxious about something and needs to be brave. She wore to her first day of camp. She wore it to the doctor. She wore it to a first play date with a new friend.

Some kids have blankets, mine has a dress.

So we got a new brave dress. It is sitting on her shelf all ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow she is going to daycare for the first time. I was going to transition her in slowly, like I am with Cait. Jill looked at me funny and asked "Why?". She pointed out that we didn't transition to summer camp, or pre-school, or anything else. She just wants to start daycare and be done with it.

I told her that we would all take Friday off and be together for the day. She thought about that and then asked if she could go to daycare instead. Even at 4 she seems to know herself better than most adults do.

I will take her to daycare on Friday because the day at home is really for me. I want one last day home with my kids before everything changes.

I am proud of Jill that she knows what is best for her. She does do better in a program. She thrives on routine. She beams for circle time. She is going to do great.

I think I need a brave shirt ('cause I don't wear dresses). I am only needing to be brave about going back to work having the girls in daycare, but that's enough.