Quote of the day (Anna)

Caroline was holding Emmy upside down and tickling her.

Emma: [giggling hysterically] Stop!!...Do it again!!...Stop!...Again?

Where do they pick up these things? (Anna)

Another parenting challenge I never anticipated. My two year old being the victim of extortion...from a pet dragon.

[Emma running into the bedroom] "Mumma. Mumma. Scared. Scared." [leaps into my arms]...There's a dragon. It scaring me."

When she had calmed down a little bit, she starting scavenging through the drawers where we keep our losoe change.

"What are you looking for?" I asked.

"Money. I need to give monies to the dragon so he won't scare me."

Apparently, it worked. Having been paid the protection money, the dragon apparently DID stop scaring Emma. So much so that he gave Emma a ride on his back, and then happily came on the bus with us. (On Vancouver buses, apparently you can transport an adult, a toddler AND a pet dragon for the cost of one ticket! Deal!)

I think sometimes it's best not to psycho-analyse toddlers too much, or we might conclude that we have inadvertently taught her that fear is unnecessary if you've got the money to keep it at bay. Or something. (Also I must confess, I did ask her if anyone in her life apart from the Dragon has been asking her for money, to which the answer was, thankfully, no. I might be old-fashioned but I do think that two is a little young for kids to have to pay protection money in the schoolyard...)

By the way, are dragons always male? I just realised that I've never read a single kids' story about a female dragon.

Quote of the day (Anna)

Emma to a friend:

"We have to walk. Yeah. We can't drive today 'cause Mummy has my car."

And it was very nice of you to lend it to her, Emmy!

Euphemistically speaking... (Anna)

There are a number of things that Emma does that help us to slow down and not rush our way through life. These include:

- eating cereal (or rice) one grain at a time. This is particularly effective when we are running late for something
- insisting on collecting 20 rocks between here and the bus stop, thus turning a 2 minute walk into a 1/2 hr expedition
- insisting on putting on her sandals "all by myself" and then taking them off and starting all over again
- making potty time into a three hour party, complete with animals, songs and books
- walking backwards
- biting on the toothbrush so we can't move it, while grinning inanely because she knows she's in charge
- balancing along the edges of anything she can balance on, and then going back and doing it again, thereby turning 2 metres of pavement into a distance equivalnt to the Great Wall of China
- suddenly finding something fascinating in her pockets wthat needs to be examined, whenever we believe we might actually be about to arrive somewhere
- asking to be "up", then "down" then, wait, did I say "down?" I meant "up"....
- spinning round and round on the spot, thus making zero progress on a linear plane
- Curcumventing any attempt we make to speed things up (by, for example, taking her out of her car seat instead of letting her clamber out by herself, or putting her t-shirt on) by reversing what we've done, and redoing it ALL BY HERSELF.
- Endlessly responding, "But why, Mumma-Mummy....uh huh....but why? Why Mumma-Mummy?" until it is all we can do not to snarl "I don't *&^&%$ know why, ok?! The question doesn't even make any sense any more!!"

In other words, Emma helps us to deal with the stress of a busy life by forcing us to stop and smell the roses...every single bloody one of them!

A gentle nudge (Anna)

Emma was driving a toddler "jeep" up a hill today and was finding it hard to move forward. Of course, she didn't want any help from me in the pushing department. So I discreetly put my foot behind her back wheel so she wouldn't roll backwards.

I wonder if this is an apt metaphor for parenthood - nothing as overt as pushing them up, but just quietly putting our feet behind our kids' back wheels so that they can keep propelling themselves upwards, rather than sliding down back to where they begun.

Food in containers (Anna)

Emma is at home with me today, not feeling well.

When she goes to day care, she give her her lunch in little tupperware containers that she carries in a lunch box. We tend to give her a fair bit of variety since we never know if she's having a feast or famine kind of day, and also if (being a toddler) she baulks at one thing, she has other options. So she might have leftover stirfry in one container, crackers in another, cheese in another, blueberries in another, etc.

This morning, after a long sleep, she was ready for some breakfast. We were having leftovers from last night - organic turkey sausage and salad (with added blueberries), and, on her request, I made some scrambled egg and toast as well. As usual, I put it on her plate at the table.

But instead of tucking in, she decided that the presentation was all wrong. She went into the cupboard with all the plastic containers and pulled them all out, lining them up on the kitchen floor in a long train. She then chose her favourites, and painsakingly transferred each of the food groups into seperate containers - one for sausage, one for salad, one for the blueberries she picked out of the salad, one for egg, etc. Then she balanced them all up into a huge "breakfast tower" and rearranged them until she was happy with her tower.

And then, she opened all the containers and ate. Every bite.

Ruminations (Anna)

If your kid has a fantastic time, but nobody thought to take photos, does it still constitute a "good childhood"? Or, in these days of blogs, facebook posts and "parent points"*, does it only count if it is captured/witnessed?

Great long weekend, with lots of fun, good company, family time, happiness and....sun (yes, it's true! Vancouver is sunny!) Festivals, oceans, barbeques, beaches, music...

But no photos. C'est la vie. Emma - if you're reading this at some point in the future and don't remember the weekend, you'll have to take our word for it, kid.



*parent points. An unofficial collection of points gained through evidence - preferably photographic - of the fact that your child is having a good childhood. You know, those photos that show your child having fun or interesting experiences as a direct result of your "good parenting". Extra "points" are awarded for particularly "educational" experiences and the use of "organic" food or equipment or both. If you're still confused, a short visit to anybody's facebook list should offer a clear explanation.