Category: Uncategorized

Categories
Uncategorized

Timber!

DAILY SNACK

We got our Christmas tree on Sunday,

And decorated it the next night.

I got some fantastic shots of the bottom branches

Straining under the weight of all the ornaments.

I would share them here,

Except my camera-to-computer cord seems to have wandered off,

So it will likely be January before I can upload them.

And then, this morning,

Colum took most of the decorations off the bottom branches

To play with them.

And was re-hanging them on the other side of the tree when,

Whack!

Yup, the whole thing came down

Just missing my kid.

Miraculously, I was able to get it upright again,

But we’re waiting for Dad before any of the ornaments go back up.

And oh my god, the needles.

Categories
Uncategorized

Family Shopping For Another Needy Family

This week or next at a home near you.

Each year my husband’s extended family gets together the week before Christmas to shop as a family for another family. About 20 years ago (give or take a couple), they realized that they could take the money they spent on gifts for each other and help make Christmas that much more special for a needy family in their area.

Continue reading “Family Shopping For Another Needy Family”
Categories
Uncategorized

My 3-Year-Old’s Wish List

DAILY SNACK

Colum’s letter to Santa Claus as dictated to me.

Note how he begins to trail off at the end and starts looking around the room for clues.

Dear Santa Claus,

We love you. We like your toys, and we love your malls, and we love your shop, and we’d love some binoculars and a telescope and a new light bulb for my floor and some bubble bath and some dolls and some dragons and some shoes and a toy waffle maker and a dot, too.

Love,

Colum

Categories
Uncategorized

Breastfeeding Dolls With a Twist

DAILY SNACK

You’ve heard of kids breastfeeding their dolls,

Right?

It makes perfect sense.

And it’s no weirder than when I used to

Shove dolls up my shirt

Only to birth them moments later.

But picture this:

Baby Timothy needs to eat,

But Colum is pretty sure he doesn’t eat the same thing as his stuffed duck.

What do babies eat, I ask.

Milk, says Colum, homemade milk.

He then looks around the room and spots Irene,

Sitting on my lap clad only in a diaper.

So Timothy was brought over to have a drink of his mommy’s milk.

No matter that she’s only 13 months old herself,

No matter that she was trying to teeth on his head at the same time.

Categories
Uncategorized

Broken Telephone

DAILY SNACK

Every time I need to take a phone call,

Without fail,

The children turn from their quiet play,

And need my attention immediately.

“Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom!”

“I’m sorry. Can you hang on for a moment. What is it Colum?”

“I’m eating like a lemur!”

Well, that certainly couldn’t wait.

And then the little miss starts in,

Toddling up to my knees with arms outstretched,

Grunting and whining,

And then finally throwing herself on the ground in a fit.

Once I get off the phone, of course,

They don’t need me at all.

Categories
Uncategorized

Santa in the Junction

Saturday, December 12 at Pacific and Dundas. 11am to 1pm

This is yet another reason that you will never have to set foot in a mall ever again if you live in or around the Junction. Kids will be lining up to tell Santa what they want for Christmas at the Junction City Square and partaking of free cups of hot cocoa, carols, story-telling, crafts and general neighbourly cheer.

Continue reading “Santa in the Junction”
Categories
Uncategorized

Self-Reliance

DAILY SNACK

When one-year-olds without an older sibling

Gets their toy snatched away from them,

They cry.

When a one-year-old with an older sibling

Sees her brother coming toward her,

She takes off running in the other direction.

Because she knows all is fair game

When Mom isn’t paying attention.

Atta girl.

Categories
Uncategorized

Hunger Strike

DAILY SNACK

It’s not that I mind having to prepare three meals a day,

Plus snacks,

For my family.

(Although I don’t always love it.)

It’s not even trying to find a balance beetween nutrition and convenience,

Organic and affordable,

Home cooking and home delivery.

(Lest the mom guilt set in too deeply.)

It’s the preparing of meal after meal that is discarded,

Piece by piece,

Off the highchair tray.

The choruses of, “I don’t want that.”

The husband who won’t be home for dinner after all,

And who won’t remember to take his portion for lunch tomorrow either.

I’m beginning to see why everyone else in this family

Is rail thin,

And I cannot seem to lose the baby weight this time around.

Because somebody needs to eat all this goddamned food.

Categories
Uncategorized

Public Meeting About High Park Daycare Moratorium

Monday, December 7 at Annette Recreation Centre. 7pm.

Last summer there was a year-long moratorium placed on new day nurseries opening on 3/4 blocks of High Park Avenue for the purpose of evaluating the impact these small daycares would have on this residential street. Neighbourhood parents staged protests and I may have posted about it once or twice. (This interim by-law very nearly prevented The Teddy Bear Academy from opening it’s doors after one of those massive old homes had already been renovated to fit a daycare and dozens of children were already registered.)

Continue reading “Public Meeting About High Park Daycare Moratorium”
Categories
Uncategorized

Sibling Rivalry, Take One

DAILY SNACK

I was bring Colum out a pair of socks this morning,

When Irene pointed at them,

And very clearly and deliberately said,

“Ock.”

“That’s right, Irene,” I said,

“Socks. Very good job, Irene.”

“Mom,” Colum chimed in,

“She said popcorn!”

Oh, my mistake.

Sorry baby girl,

But no matter how close you come to getting it right,

Your big brother will call you out on your mistakes.

That’s life.