A to-do list I found on M’s floor today. I detect a nascent world domination plan here, which I suppose was inevitable given her genetic material. I’m intrigued by the possibilities of the “fake lightening machien” and the “bat machien” and I wonder what the stuffed horse robots are going to do with their remote-controlled […]
Category: Kid stuff
Latest in plush: statistical distributions
Having pretty much exhausted biological subjects (roadkill, organs, diseases), makers of fine plush lovies have moved into statistical distributions. You can buy a full set of ten, or individual distributions if you’re particularly fond of one. I note they also sell “statosaur” burp cloths featuring embroidery which combines dinosaurs and statistical distributions. Excellent!
Quilts
A few weeks ago I finally finished M’s quilt: It’s roughly twin-sized – 55″ by 75.5″. I’m quite happy with it, although the back (off-white lightweight polar fleece) isn’t perfect — sewing fleece is an occult art, I fear, and even the walking foot on the machine wasn’t quite up to the task — and […]
In Which I Read Stuff: Kids’ Books
A while ago I was chatting with someone about books and bookstores and all that sort of thing and the question was asked: so, what do I read? I answered rather stupidly — “um, not bestsellers” or somesuch — but it did remind me that I’ve fallen out of the habit of posting about books, […]
It Gets Better
I’ve long had a lot of time for Dan Savage, low-bullshit un-shockable sex columnist and general sensible guy, but his latest project is really something I’d like everyone under the sun to both know about and spend an hour of their time with. The It Gets Better Project is Dan’s attempt, through video, to convince […]
School, v.2
80/365 Sept 7: First day of school Originally uploaded by morecoffeeplease. To our intense dismay — because we are both strong proponents of the public school system — for the past few years we’ve found ourselves deeply dissatisfied with our local public school. Which, according to all publicly available data, is supposed to be a […]
Better safe than sorry
Walking up the street today on the way home, M and I were passed by the ice-cream truck, which then stopped a hundred metres up the street by the park. M: The ice-cream truck comes every day in summer! Me: Yep. M: But not in winter. Me: No. M: (thoughtfully) When do you suppose is […]
Twenty-seven things to do with trashed jeans
(OK, maybe only three. But it felt like twenty-seven since there was hand-sewing involved.) M is hard on pants. At this point in the year every single pair will have a rip in at least one knee. I never bother fixing them particularly well, since she’ll have outgrown them by the fall anyway, but I […]
Calling All Angels
A sad farewell to Addison, a very brave small boy who was born on my 30th birthday and who named his new immune system Steve. May there be no pain where you have gone. Jane Siberry with k.d.lang – Calling All Angels a man is placed upon the steps, a baby cries and high above […]
Pierced ears!
50/365 March 19: Pierced ears! Originally uploaded by morecoffeeplease. M is very pleased with her newly-pierced ears. She chose studs with tiny pink pearls and tolerated the piercing with not even a squeak. I was a bit nervous that she’d get through the first ear and balk at the second, but I needn’t have worried. […]
Women don’t breastfeed? Here’s a thought —
— maybe hospitals should be nicer to midwives. I gave birth at Women’s College Hospital, and of all places I fully expected them to support my midwives. But they were unspeakably awful to them — rude, dismissive, demeaning, the whole gamut of bad behaviour. They topped it off by ignoring me (I was admitted unplanned, […]
The Annual Food Groups Collage
Starting in Senior Kindergarten, it seems to be traditional to send kids home with a badly-photocopied Canada Food Guide and some badly-photocopied grocery store sale flyers and assign a Food Groups Collage as homework. For SK, fine, this is more-or-less appropriate: you’re five years old. You can practice reading and cutting and sticking and since […]
Uhm.
Child: Guess what my favourite number is? D: Three. Me: Nine. Child: Nope, six hundred and sixty-six! Me: How come you like that number? Child: I dunno, I just do. (laughs slightly evilly)
And yet M’s school insists I pick her up
Ah, how I love Lenore Skenazy. And STATS, who interviewed her. Perhaps the problem needed to be approached from a different angle, she thought. What if you actually wanted your child to be kidnapped by a stranger and held overnight? How long would you have to leave him outside, and unattended for that to be […]
In which I fume about absurd school forms
I am facing the annual pile of forms from M’s school. I am immediately annoyed by the size of the pile. Welcome back! Let’s spend an hour filling out forms! The pile is stapled together in the bottom left corner, WTF? which heightens the annoyance, then I nearly break a nail prying out the staple […]
I have a geek child (yay)!
Shopping with M the other day: M: …and don’t forget we need some of the Mozilla cheese. Me: The which cheese? M: The Mozilla cheese. You know, for pizza. Me: Oh! Mozzarella!
Desperately sad. Easily avoided.
I have to say something about this desperately sad story, in which two children, non-swimmers both, drowned and died along with their mother, also a non-swimmer, who had been supervising them as they swam in a hotel pool (without a lifeguard). It seems that one or both girls somehow got into trouble and the mother […]
Advice for idle parenting
The Idle Parent Children actually have an inbuilt self-protective sense that we destroy by over-cosseting. They become independent not so much by careful training but in part simply as a result of parental laziness. Last Sunday morning, Victoria and I lay in bed till half past 10 with hangovers. What a result! And the more […]
M’s new bike
M’s new bike Originally uploaded by morecoffeeplease. She chose the red one over the white-and-pink one. I hold out hope that perhaps the pink phase might be nearing its end. Of course, finding a bell that matched the bike’s frame colour was THE most important thing. We spent some time practicing starts and stops at […]
No training wheels
No training wheels Originally uploaded by morecoffeeplease. I took the training wheels off M’s bike on the weekend. A single three-minute riding attempt that same day produced much fussing and wailing of IT’S IMPOSSIBLE and I’LL NEVER BE ABLE and all that sort of thing, but yesterday fifteen minutes on the school track did the […]