Comments (14)

By rebecca, April 19, 2012 1:04 am

I am participating in the Indigo Kids program by Mom Central Canada.  I received compensation for my participation in this campaign.  The opinions on this blog are my own. (This one’s also a giveaway!)

CONTEST CLOSED.

Colum’s class went on a field trip yesterday which meant I got to had to drop him off first thing in the morning and he would come home at the end of the school day. For this parent of a child in half-day kindergarten, this was nothing short of THE MOST WONDERFUL THING EVER. I still had a three year old and a baby to take care of, true, but now we had time to go places and do things.

My plan was to take the girls to an Indigo Kids location so they could pick out a birthday present for their brother. (Of course, when I say “they,” I mean Irene because Mary can barely even pick her nose. And by “Irene,” I mean Irene with my overbearing guidance.) I really wanted to go to the downtown location because I was craving some city action, but, you know, the parking. (Take the subway. What’s that? Take the highway? The subway. Take the subway. No thanks, I just ate.) My inner voice was trying to tell me something when I remembered that the Manulife Centre (where the downtown Indigo is) validates parking.  We were off.

This was going to be fun.

But just in case it wasn’t:

The kids section was really quite impressive. There was a large selection of games and toys and I very nearly broke the budget on a Radio Flyer scooter thanks to some merchandising mastermind who knew that all I ever wanted since I was a little girl was a scooter. Why could I never have a scooter?! Luckily, Irene was the one calling the shots.

How about this? Nothing says 6-year-old boy like a Blossom Bright Flashlight.

Ballerinas? Cupcakes? C’mon!

Okay, now. Let’s remember who we’re shopping for.

That’s much better because you can never have too many table hockey games. Or maybe the one we already have is enough.  Let’s move on to the books while we think it over.

There was a large selection of children’s books for kids of all ages laid out nicely. We poked around the activity books and science section for a bit before heading for the early readers. A friendly staff member approached us almost right away to see if we needed help. I did! Colum is a very, very good reader, I explained. Many of the early reading books geared at his age level seem too simple for him, but the stuff for older kids don’t seem appropriate either. He’s only just turning six. He still likes to look at pictures and he doesn’t like to be scared.

Here’s what she recommended:

And my favourite:

I love them all. Seriously, if you’re at the Indigo Kids in the Manulife Centre in Toronto, ask for Elizabeth. She’ll sort you out.

There was just one last thing to do before we left. I needed to get a little something for my special shopping helper, Irene. Inspired by the books I got for Colum, I vetoed anything based on a TV show. How about a colouring book? Then I had to outlaw anything princess and anything wedding themed. Yes! There were multiple colouring and activity books aimed at young girls based on some princess bride fantasy. What’s that all about?

Finally, I found just the thing for my little painter.

I can’t wait to find out how Colum likes his new books on his birthday on April 29. Unfortunately, neither can you. This campaign ends at the end of the month and I need to post this right away if we’re going to have time for our giveaway!

Enter to win a $35 Indigo gift card by leaving me a comment telling what you like (or think you would like) about Indigo Kids. Hint: they also do free gift wrapping which is perfect for that kiddie gift on the go. Hint hint: online shopping!

Contest closes at midnight on April 30th.

Indigo gift card winners from other blogs participating in the same campaign are not eligible.

Canada only.

CONTEST CLOSED.

Congrats to Margaret!

Comments (1)

By rebecca, April 16, 2012 2:19 pm

The two bigger kids were playing in one of the upstairs bedrooms, the one that used to be “Claire’s room,” but now houses all of the toys. Baby Mary and I were chatting with my grandmother in the living room of the house that she has lived in for 55 years or so and the house that she still manages to keep in pristine condition all by herself at 80+ years of age. Unfortunately the impeccable housekeeping trait seems to have skipped a couple generations and been replaced with compulsive web surfing instead. Genetics, why hath you forsaken me?!

So there we were chatting it up when I heard the first scream. Kids scream, right? That’s what they do. So I ignored it. The second scream caught my attention, but I still kept talking. But that third scream. There was no mistaking the urgency and the pain in that third scream.

I sprinted up the stairs, baby in arms, and found Colum kneeling in front of the sofa bed, screaming and screaming. I plopped Mary on the floor and raced over to find his middle fingertip caught in the hinge. It seemed like both lifting the bed up or folding it back down would just squeeze his finger even worse.

In no time at all my grandmother was squeezing hand soap onto the hinge and I rubbed it all around his finger. Still, he screamed. I tried to pry the hinges further apart with my own fingers, I tried to ease his finger down and out and nothing was working. I started to flirt with the idea of losing it because what on earth do we do?! I am his mother, how can I not just make this better?!

Just then, his finger slid out. Thank goodness for over 80 years of wisdom and liquid hand soap. Thank goodness.

Between tears and ice and nursing hungry, screaming babies we found out that he was just trying to unfold the bed. His finger was bruised and a bit swollen, but he’ll be fine. And he’ll never, ever do that again.

But, holy shit. I forgot that as kids get older they just find more new and exciting ways to hurt themselves and scare the crap out of their parents. *blinking* It’s never going to end, is it?

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By rebecca, April 12, 2012 2:10 pm

This post is sponsored by Cottonelle, where they respect the roll.

Happy second anniversary of home ownership to us!

Two years ago we quickly snapped up a power-of-sale, fixer up on a major street in a neighbourhood we love. We quickly put in a kitchen, pulled up two layers of vinyl tiles on the second floor and refinished the original hardwood underneath, replaced both the furnace and the water heater, built a fence, opened up a doorway, installed central air, painted and weeded. Then we ran out of steam. Steam and money.

There is still so much to do. Let’s just focus on the bathrooms for now. We have three bathrooms. Nice, right? That’s two more than many three-bedroom semis in this city come with. I can see the envy in people’s eyes when I casually drop the number of bathrooms we have. “I might have to look into a cleaning lady,” I’ll say. “It’s just too hard trying to clean SO many bathrooms.” “Toilet training is a breeze when you have a bathroom on every floor!” They’re probably picturing a nice ensuite off the master bedroom, a standard four-piece for the kids and a little powder room downstairs. That’s not the case.

Our main bathroom is on the second floor, near the bedrooms. It is one of the smallest bathrooms ever made, for one.  It was also beyond scuzzy when we first bought the house. But we had time and budget constraints and having a house with a kitchen was priority number one. So we decided to just cover the old tiles with panels that could be glued to the walls, use peel and stick tiles on the floor, slap on a fresh coat of paint and give the rest a good scrubbing. We finished it up with a new shower head, shower curtain and assorted fixtures. It looked pretty good — until the wall panels started peeling off. Now they just sort of sag inward toward the tub. The kids can bathe up there, but we can’t get the walls wet until we find the time and money to redo them.

That brings me to the basement — quite literally, in fact — because that’s where I have to go to shower. As long as you remember to duck en route to the tub, you can usually avoid smashing your head on the heating duct. Also, if you first wet one side of the shower curtain, you can get it to stick to the wall and minimize the pool of water that will drip onto the floor from the leaky shower head. We’re working on the ant infestation down there and I, for one, think the four different tile patterns are charming. Irene loves the pink toilet too.

I used to shower on the main floor because that bathroom is by far the most functional of the three. It’s not stylish by any stretch of the imagination, but the tiles match and the room is basically in good repair. It’s in an addition on the back of the house, just past the kitchen and next to the laundry machines. So what if you have to step over a pile of kiddie shoes, bags and jackets? At least the clothes you didn’t take out of the dryer are right there! It wasn’t bad at all … until the fall. It turns out that addition is the crappiest structure ever built. It’s basically drywall thrown up on top of an old porch with little to no insulation. It’s FREEZING back there in the winter. On really cold days I have to bring the kids’ coats into the kitchen to warm up before going out. I have to wear a scarf to do laundry.

But it’s spring! The bathroom was looking a little dumpy after the off season, so what better time for a BATHROOM MAKEOVER! You know how crafty I am.  Remember that time I bought a sewing machine and still have only sewed one thing once? I can’t really do any worse than that, right?

Here’s what I was dealing with:

It gets worse:

Wait, there’s more:

My work was cut out for me.

I cleared out the junk, hung up a “Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much,” plaque that was lying around and gave it a half-assed cleaning. VOILA!

That’s right, my friends, no more unsightly toilet paper hanging around. All right, it’s less that toilet paper is unsightly and more that this extra toilet paper roll cover by Cottonelle is actually really cute. More than anything, my bathroom needed a splash of colour and this was so easy. Oh, and of course I used a filter on my “after” shot. We all know my makeover skills need all the help they can get.

And the best part?

There’s one for all three of my bathrooms. Try not to be too jealous.