Monthly Archives: June 2008

Party!

Huzzah! The first kids-only (except for their parents, and the grown-up kid!) birthday party has come and gone, and not only are we alive, we’re pretty darn pleased with it all. The boy behaved beautifully, from the moment he jumped up with excitement and exclaimed “My friends are here!” when the door bell first rang, to the hugs and thank yous as he opened gifts and then again as each friend left.

This year’s masterpiece, designed and decorated by HRH:

(Do you sense a theme to this year’s party? Invitations, thank you cards for the little gift bags given to each attendee, and yes, he was even wearing a Totoro t-shirt I made for him using a transfer.)

Note to self: morning birthday parties with a bit of lunch for the kids = awesome idea. Perhaps next time I should make a third pizza or a second foccaccia, too, and not burn the front edge (first time I made pizza in the new oven, argh… at least now I know to do it at a lower heat). The boy is now napping soundly, and will be able to play with his new toys once he wakes up. He already made me assemble the play shopping cart and roamed all over the house with it on the way to bed for a rest (including two bathroom trips).

It was fun to play with little friends we don’t see that often, but there was also a touch of sadness, as Liam’s friend Arthur is moving to Windsor with his parents on Monday. They were the last to leave, and the boys gave each other a couple of very sweet hugs. We’ll miss them.

I’m thankful the rain held off so everyone could run and jump and play outdoors. We ended up taking the food outside, too. All in all, a good morning. Now that it’s over, I’m not quite sure what to do for the rest of the day. I didn’t sleep very well last night, but I’m restless and can’t settle down. I would eat cake, except my last solid meal was thirty-one hours ago and a piece of foccaccia, three cups of tea, and a square of cake haven’t done much to fill the gap.

And I have to admit that I actually did make cookies this morning, because there was so! much! frosting! left over. In the shape of threes, naturally, following through on the ones and twos I made for the previous birthdays. Liam helped me frost them.

Thanks to everyone who came out, especially those with other commitments weighing on them in the form of packing, sick kids, and other birthday parties to travel to. We appreciated everyone’s company!

Party Minus Twelve Hours

Well, here I am, writing my now annual night-before post. There is cake, but no icing yet, as HRH is designing the cake illustration this year and I had no idea how much icing to mix up. I have wrapped a couple of small gifts from us for the boy (one home-made, two actually separate parts of the same gift). There are small, adorable home-made gift bags to send home with small guests. There are a pile of balloons in the bathtub, hidden by the shower curtain. (There is nowhere else to safely store them overnight.) I have just finished printing thank you cards for those who have gifted the boy, but who are not small children and thus will not be here tomorrow. There’s not much else to do, as I’ll be mixing pizza dough and chopping fruit tomorrow morning. I’m not doing cookies this year, or extra cupcakes, since I am not feeding a small army. Small people, yes, but not large numbers.

HRH has just finished the design, so I am summoned to the mixing bowl.

Today So Far

This morning I woke up around ten past seven, and heard HRH and Liam talking about going to see Grandma. It’s Liam’s first Grandma day since she fell ill last month, and both of them have been missing their alternate Fridays together. By seven-forty Liam had his shoes on and was cheerfully heading out the door with HRH. I waved to them as they drove away, then made myself a cup of latte and settled down to enjoy my morning of nothing. This is my first day in ages of not being home with the boy, or taking him out to childcare then getting home to begin the day around ten and hit my stride around twoish, only to finish around four or four-thirty and go get him again.

After a week of business stuff and scrambling to meet a deadline because of how childcare days happened to fall, I have a day with nothing crucial scheduled in it. And I have kept it as a day of nothing instead of working on my own writing. Well, I scrubbed walls and most of the kitchen (our pantry doors are white, who knew?) which amuses me, because did I scrub baseboards and doors before my mother visited? No, I did not. But for some reason it seems important to do it before kids between one and six years come over for Liam’s party tomorrow. (Stupidly, I didn’t think of the whole FMS limited-energy-available thing, so I blew my whole day’s worth of spoons on scrubbing walls. I feel rather the idiot.) I have made a Totoro t-shirt for Liam as a birthday gift. I have made a list of Things To Do between this afternoon and tomorrow morning. And other than that, I’ve relaxed, read news and journals, discovered a pre-Ghibli Takahata film entitled Goshu (or Gauche) the Cellist and have been watching ten-minute sections of it on YouTube. It just feels really, really nice to not be watching the clock, trying to fit in as much work as possible between getting home and having to leave to pick up the boy, and stressing. Granted, there will be running around this afternoon when HRH comes home around 1:30, but until then, my time is my own.

I honestly don’t remember the last time I just relaxed and enjoyed a morning like I have so far today.

Aha!

I’m not big on posting news stories unless they relate to something I’m personally interested in, arts- or culture-wise, but:

Quebec companies charged with fixing gas prices;
Competition Bureau probe continuing in other parts of Canada

I’m not surprised that it happened, of course, but I am pleasantly surprised that the charge stuck, the companies actually pleaded guilty, and they’re being fined. Part of me keeps hoping that higher gas prices will push people to limit gas use (heaven knows we’ve curtailed unnecessary trips) but most of me knows people will just keep paying whatever the price may be to fill the tanks of larger-than-necessary vehicles. Speaking of which, HRH told me the other day that GM is officially considering ceasing the production of all Hummers (the H1s were already pulled at the end of the 2006 production year). And I’ve been metaphorically bashing my head against the stubbornness of Buzz Hargrove as he insists that GM keep the Oshawa plant open so no one loses a job. I’m very sympathetic to the plight of the workers who depend on the auto industry, but seriously, there is no point in producing pick-up trucks that no one is buying or will buy. It’s a waste of resources in every way.

There. Now onto more exciting things, like looking for a good recipe for modelling fondant.

Three Years Old!

Three years ago today, during a humid heatwave very like unto the one that has just passed, I gave birth to someone who would very quickly prove himself to be a spectacular kid.

One…

Two…

THREE!

Happy birthday, Liam! Here’s to a year of exciting discoveries, lots of fun, and love!

As of the doctor’s appointment yesterday: 97 cm tall (a breath away from one metre, yikes!), 33 lbs, and in the 65th percentile for everything. Wearing a diaper only at night in case, otherwise underwear (not that there aren’t accidents when he gets distracted, but hey), size 8 shoes, size 3 pants, and 3x tops. Loves chicken nuggets, sausages, pancakes, waffles, maple syrup, cinnamon toast, freshly baked bread, grapes, blackberries, ice cream, blue popsicles, peanut butter sandwiches, pizza, chicken hot dogs, cheeseburgers, homemade granola bars, Rice Krispie squares, cheese, popcorn, crackers and breadsticks, milk, apple juice, sneaks sips of iced tea when he thinks I’m not looking, “coffee” (AKA warm milk with a touch of sugar and the foam from a cappuccino on top), “tea” (AKA cambric tea without the hot water), and creamy yoghurt. Sleeps approximately ten to eleven hours at night, with a one and a half to two hour nap in the afternoon. Loves baths and pools. Jumps, somersaults, swings, rolls, stomps, claps, and is impressively good at rhythm. Is somewhat shy about singing, but loves to recite the alphabet, to count, and to paint letters. Still adores books. He frustrates the heck out of me sometimes when I’ve told him to do/to not do something a million times, but I love him so much I can’t express it.

Spectacular kid. And we have so much more to discover.

Inbox Joy!

Contract! Which means I print it out, sign and initial it, and send it back via post today, and then my invoice for last month’s work can get processed! On today’s list of things to do was to pen and send off a firm and polite reminder that I had submitted the original invoice exactly one month ago, and had yet to see a contract that would enable that invoice to be acted upon.

I like not having to wave business terms in people’s faces. Business is business, but it’s rarely the contact who is the one holding things up, and it’s never fun to lean on them to get them to lean on the proper people.

Now I get to whip out my Official Contract Signing Pen, and look for an 8×10 envelope. And evidently refill my ink cartridge, because these pages are looking awfully pale…

Flip Side

This was the boy’s pre-birthday weekend, also known as The Third Birthday! Family Edition.

It would have been a lot more enjoyable if the boy hadn’t been recovering from the gastro and fighting the humidity (hello high summer, you were not invited to this party). He wasn’t at his best. We don’t see my parents very often, so there were things scheduled pretty much every moment the boy was awake: a picnic, home for nap, visiting with friends, bedtime, brunch, nap, the family party with both sets of grandparents. His naptimes and bedtimes were all over the place, and so many people around him all the time was a stress too. He’s also still feeling stressed from last week’s final resolution of potty training and the end of the sippy cups. The poor kid couldn’t focus on everything, and there were one or two meltdowns. On top of that, the kid is only three! We tried to keep him calm and give him the reassurance and comfort he needed when he asked for it, despite remarks about it.

There’s a reason I don’t hype up parties or Christmas: it’s not fair to either the child who can’t understand the need for things to happen in a certain order or the requisite passage of time, or to the adults having to deal with a hyped-up child. So I directed presents into my office and didn’t mention the cake, otherwise dinner (my father-in-law’s excellent ribs!) would have been completely miserable for everyone. I only told the boy that there would be a surprise after dinner. Well, the surprise of dessert got ruined, but fortunately near enough to serving the cake that we didn’t have to field a hellion of a child. He was thrilled with it, especially the Smarties spelling out his name, and didn’t wait for us to finish singing Happy Birthday before he started blowing out his candles. The surprise of presents was also ruined but by Liam himself who ran into my office after his nap and saw the gifts (not completely out of sight around the corner, alas), then gleefully sank his fingers into one and started ripping the paper off. He cried with frustration when I made him stop and told him to wait until everyone was sitting down with a cool drink. He was very enthusiastic about all the presents when he was allowed to open them, though, and wanted to sleep with most of them: clothes from both sets of grandparents, an easel and art supplies from my parents, and Thomas the Tank Engine pieces from HRH’s parents.

We also enjoyed a quick visit from Ceri and Scott in the late afternoon, as they were borrowing our cat carrier, and so Liam got to open his gift from them while they were there. I am so glad, because they got to see Liam’s joy when he took off the paper and found handmade Totoros and soot sprites!

So Ceri continues her streak of awesome handmade gifts! In the end he agreed to sleep with only all the Totoros and soot sprites, some of his new train cars, and a book. This morning, right after his cereal, he insisted on painting at the easel that HRH had finished setting up after the boy was in bed last night. It was half an hour before I could tidy it all up and get him out the door.

Thank you, everyone! Overall it was a good weekend, through the ups and downs. There was lots of laughter, walking in the sand on a tiny beach at Windmill Point where I used to play when I was small, bubbles, swinging, playing, watering the plants, many cuddles, and stories.

ETA: How could I forget dancing in the thunderstorm last night, after such a hot, hot day? HRH deliberately stood out on the balcony in the heavy rain while the rest of us stood in the shelter or the kitchen and watched the lightning. Liam jumped out and back in again while laughing, and even splashed and danced in his bare feet for a bit before seeking shelter again. There was much giggling and shrieking. The kids next door were doing it, too, and counting between the lightning and thunderclaps to see how close the storm was. It was a fabulous way to end the weekend, and the birthday celebration.