Mom On The Run

When I was a pre-teen and into my teens, my mother worked at a bank on Saturday mornings and my brother went to a drama class.  This left my dad and I alone.  Now most normal dads would spend Saturday mornings puttering or watching sports re-runs, while most normal pre-teens would spend Saturday morning on the phone or watching “Saved By The Bell”.

But not us.

My dad and I shared a common bond – we both have ants in our pants and can’t stand to be cooped up in a house. 

We spent those Saturday mornings at the mall (Scarborough Town Centre) together having a French Vanilla or Hazelnut coffee from Mmmmmmmmarvelous Muffins and sharing a muffin.  We had a weekly date. Sometimes we’d sit in silence watching shoppers bustle by with their bags of goodies, and other times we talked about sports, or school, or even boys. 

I miss those days.

Tonight I had night school, and since hubby is away my dad babysat my girls for me.  When I arrived home the house was mostly silent, with the exception of a male voice and high-pitched girl voice.  I stood at the bottom of the stairs for a moment and listened in as best as I could. 

My dad was having an intense conversation with Sierra – just the way he did with me when I was a little girl.  It brought tears of happiness to my eyes, and the guilt of leaving my girls with a sitter while I was at school melted away.

I miss those Saturday mornings with my dad, I miss my coffee and a muffin.  I hope that one day my dad will also take my girls out on Saturday morning dates. 

I love you dad, thank you for babysitting tonight!

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A few weeks ago Sierra was invited to play at one of her fellow daycare classmate’s house.  At first I was very hesitant – why would a parent want to pick my 3 yr old up from daycare early so that her daughter can play with her?  Afterall, the kids play with each other all day at daycare.  Unfortunately this one classmate is selectively mute – she doesn’t talk outside of the home.  Sierra must make a big impression on this little girl as she doesn’t stop talking about her – at home.  As part of this little girl’s therapy, it was decided that she should have some of her favourite classmates come over to play, to see if she’d be comfortable talking to them at home. 

Sierra was picked up by this little girl’s mom and Sierra spent the afternoon at her house playing Barbie’s and baking cookies.  She had a blast.  After work I picked Brooke up from daycare, then went to the little girl’s house to pick up Sierra.

The family lives in an ENORMOUS house!  It was huge.  And spotless.  And full of expensive furniture, and decor.

Brooke and I were invited to stay for dinner, and since my hubby is never home for dinner we happily agreed. 

I felt totally not worthy.  This family must be loaded – the mom stays home and has 2 kids in daycare – whoa!  This is why the house is spotless.

As the evening went one, it became abundantly clear to me that my parenting style is drastically different.  I get down and play with my kids, I don’t spend much time cleaning, I allow my kids to eat in the living room (snacks only – meals must be eaten in the kitchen), etc…  All in all their parenting style is different – I won’t criticize because hey – different strokes for differnt folks, yanno?

But it really got me to thinking.  It really made me appreciate the relationship I have with my kids.  It made me appreciate my small humble, messy home.  Walls full of pictures of the kids or pictures the kids painted for me.  It made me feel suddenly rich!  Although that family has way more material things than us, we are far richer.  And I now have a newfound proudness of my home sweet messy home – it shows that I am far richer than I originally thought.

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On Saturday, before hubby left for his week long trip to Ireland, he presented me with a gift – a webcam. 

I HATE webcams. 

I always thought there was absolutely no need for them, unless you were having erotic conversations with people over the ‘net.  Yanno, you show me yours and I’ll show you mine. (No, I won’t show you mine, but thanks for asking).

Then he told me that instead of just phoning each other with Skype (as that’s how we stay in touch), we can now video call with our new webcams. 

Video call?  How expensive is that? 

It’s FREE! 

(Now you’re talking my language!)

In preparation for our Sunday afternoon Daddy call, the girls and I tested out Skype video calling with Oma:

(Sierra made that mug for her)

Normally the girls want to talk on the phone, but once you get them on the phone they just listen and breathe heavily into the caller’s ear. Then they start pressing buttons and eventually hang up on the caller.  I’m sure you’ve all had a conversation with a toddler or preschooler like that.

I wasn’t expecting much from the girls, but they surprised me.

They spent 30 minutes on Skype with Oma and they actually talked! 

Sierra told Oma all about how she slept, that she stayed in her own bed the whole night etc. They ran and got random toys to tell Oma and Opa about etc…

Kids LOVE video calling!

What’s better than getting to see yourself on TV or Mommy’s laptop?

Seeing Daddy on Mommy’s laptop – that’s what. 

Unless you’re Brookie-Boo.

She was devastated.  Absolutely devastated that daddy was stuck in the computer.

and as hard as she poked the screen, she couldn’t get daddy out and this made daddy cry ’cause he couldn’t console her, hug her and make it all better.

Working thousands of miles away from home sucks.

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See this little guy? 

He looks WAY better than I do (and feel) these days!

I have: bodyaches, chills, fever, sore throat, runny nose and a sinus headache.  So if you’re looking for me you can find me huddled up on the futon in front of the fireplace.

Have a great weekend folks – I hope yours is better than mine

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And apparently my girls are made out of chocolate.

Sierra and Brooke will only drink chocolate milk.  I’ve tried white milk, water and a million different kinds of juices – but all they ever want is chocolate “milkies”.  Unfortunately they drink so much of it that they barely eat any food (or is refusing to eat simply a girl thing?).  I never realized how much of it they were drinking until today…

Brooke had diarrhoea this afternoon – and I swear on my life that it had the colour, consistency and smell of milk chocolate syrup.  My kid pooped pure chocolate syrup. 

  I will NEVER eat another chocolate sundae again!

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