Baby Gates

When Colin started moving we had to move all the cat stuff downstairs because he was always picking at it or playing with it ie cat scratch pad and toys. But now that the baby gate system is in place I'm bringing the toys back and its sooo nice to see my kitties again. They sit on the other side of the gate on their turbo scratcher and watch the action from safety. 

I missed my kitties. Colin just threw a toy over the gate but it didn't get close to either one so they're just sitting pretty. Kodak would still rather be on the couch in baby land but that's his choice.

Also, just gotta say - yay! for mommy play dates :) I just got invited out to a play date later this week that's gonna be so much fun. I'm seriously never bored. I go out every day and get to do so much fun stuff. How many people get to spend their Monday mornings playing hide and seek with a little munchkin? Then later today I'm gonna take him either swimming or to the drop in for some serious energy burning.

PS. Now that I know somebody's reading this a lot I feel motivated to fill it with stuff. So here you go B :)

Who should pay bill for rapist's sex change? - Healthzone.ca

Who should pay bill for rapist's sex change? - Healthzone.ca

Interesting article. I really have no idea whether the public ought to pay for this person to have his/her sex change. It seems that if the person is truly suffering and needs it to have the proper identity that the procedure ought to be done because I don't want the government imposing suffering on anyone but its so hard to tell whether this is actually necessary. 

The problem being that in the public when a person is suffering from gender identity problems and decides to go through with a procedure like that they're making the decision to change their gender. I have no idea how bad a maximum security institution is. Maybe its bad enough for someone to lie and have their gender changed in order to escape.

Course if it is that bad maybe it should be changed to be a little less horrible. I don't know...

Thoughts?

I feel bad, I haven't posted in ages and I'm sitting here with the time to post and have nothing to say.

Nothing's really new or interesting and I haven't been watching the news lately to get inspiration for something silly to write. In fact before I started writing this I was browsing recipes. I'm thinking of making a quiche for Colin's lunch tomorrow. I don't like eggs and in general neither does Colin but I want to keep trying different versions of eggs to see if there's one he will like. I've been in in the mood to cook lately. Today I made butternut squash soup. It turned out really well. It was something all 3 of us could eat at dinner which also saved me a bit of effort.

I'm also looking for something yummy to do with avacado because Andrew did the groceries this week and over bought avacado. To make matters worse Colin has decided he no longer likes the things. Which sucks because neither do I.

So ya, I'm just looking for inspiration and pondering a return to the kitchen. I just finished cleaning up from making the soup though so I'm not overly enthused to go mess it up again.

So....that's the blog entry you get for today. Sorry there's nothing interesting to read here. Maybe someday....

Advice to New Parents

I've only been at the parenting thing for 10 months but it occurred to me today to write down the things I wish I had been told or known when Colin was first born. The list could be completely endless but here are a couple just off the top of my head:

1. Use a backpack rather than a diaper bag. The backpack is cheaper, you probably already own one. It can be put on your back leaving you hands free for baby and your husband won't feel stupid carrying it around.

2. Get 2 Monitors. I have a fairly expensive monitor but I wish I also had a cheap one that could travel with us for holidays etc. We always try to pack it but forget to because we can't pack the monitor till after the nap or whatever and it ends up forgotten.

3. Use a baby carrier. I have both a mei tai and a ring sling and they make looking after Colin and actually doing stuff much easier. In fact when he gets irritating sometimes in the evening I stick him in a back carry in the mei tai and he comes for a ride while I make dinner. It gives us both a break.

4. In the early days, when you keep having visitors that want to come and hold the tiny little baby, take the opportunity to get some stuff done. I used that time to do the paper work to apply for Colin's birth certificate, SIN etc and I'm so glad I did. Once those people disappeared I didn't have much time to get 2 handed stuff done.

5. Cloth Diaper. Cloth diapers are way easier than you probably think they are. They do require a bit of laundry but disposables require purchasing. And actually, once the baby arrives, shopping is much harder to get done because lugging a baby around to stores isn't a walk in the park.

This isn't a funny list so I guess it won't amuse any of my regular readers but I wanted to get it out there because I think it would have been useful to hear a while back. Maybe I'll add more to the list later but I don't have time. Gotta go shower while I have the opportunity.

Baby Gating

Rather than put up baby gates which I'm not overly fond of I'm now building barriers to slow Colin down. He's very smart. He figured out how to get around the first barrier. He's now talking to the chair I put in front of the doorway. He'll soon go over the chair I'm sure...

You know in zoos how they do what they call "enrichment" by adding different things to the environment? I almost feel like I'm enriching the livingroom by providing new challenges lol.

PS. He turns 10 months in 2 weeks. I can't believe how fast he's growing. He actually seems to have grown a couple inches in the last few weeks. He used to walk under the table without hitting his head. Then a week or so ago he bumped his head. Now its a couple inches too high to go under unless he crawls. Whatever's in that oatmeal - do you think its too late for me?

Smoke Alarms

I was watching Canada AM this morning and they were talking about fire hazards for the holidays. I wanted to share my own little story so that maybe it'll motivate people to check their alarms.

Did you know a smoke alarm is only good for 10 years? After that it needs to be replaced.

When we first moved into this house we replaced the batteries in the smoke alarms and pressed the "check" button to see if it made noise - it did.

A little while later Jen and I were cooking or baking or something or other and something spilled on the bottom of the oven. There was smoke - a lot of it - and no alarm. There was so muchs moke we took Colin outside so he wouldn't inhale it. No alarm???

That got me questioning things. Lucky for us my father in law used to run an industrial fire alarm company so he loaned us a bottle of spray smoke which we used to test the alarm more conclusively. It did not work. We had lived for months in a house with no alarm.

We have since changed the alarm and added a few others around the house and now feel more safe. Just a heads up that just because the beep goes when you press the battery button doesn't mean its working. Do an actual check and pay attention when you accidentally smoke out your house ;)

PS. Did you actually read my public service announcement? Good for you! Now you can laugh at me because my arms hurt like crazy from shovelling yesterday's special brick-snow

No

Well he's definitely learned what "no" means. He crawls up to the stairs, looks at me, I say "no", he either starts to cry or really quickly starts climbing. He knows he's not supposed to but the devil on his shoulder is just too strong.

now he just plucked a bunch of hairs out of Kodak. Kodak meowed but didn't leave. Stupid stupid cat.

Quick like a bunny

Colin is sooo fast!

He went into the hall just now and I was watching him but didn't jump up to go get him right away. I took a sip of my coffee and next thing I know he's up 3 stairs. I get up and approach slowly so he doesn't attempt to go down the stairs or something crazy. As I approach he watches me very still then decides to make a last ditch effort at escaping me and boogies up 3 more stairs. Of course I laugh because I just can't help it and he's all smiles making his happy sound.

I brought him back to the livingroom and now he's moved onto pulling books off the book shelf again. I think I'm going to have to move the remaining books of mine upstairs and bring the rest of his books downstairs for him to mess with.