Rachel has developed an obsession with flowers lately. More specifically, she has developed an obsession with picking flowers. "The flowers are a special sign for our family, Mom!" The other day, she picked some dandelions and insisted on bringing them in the car.
Since I have a lot of allergies, I didn't really want a lot of half-dead flowers in my van, so I got rid of them at my first opportunity. When Rachel noticed, she was upset and asked where they went. "Oh, your giraffe ate them," I said mostly as a joke, not realizing that Rachel would take me seriously. (She bought a stuffed giraffe at the Wichita Zoo the other day. Yes, she bought something that wasn't an elephant!!)
She picked some more flowers and this time I decided to leave them so that she could see what would happen. She was sad when I explained that the flowers had died and that wildflowers and weeds don't last long after they're picked, especially when they're not in water.
Yesterday she was talking about how she needed to pick more flowers but she wanted them to last longer. She was also discussing her bad luck with flowers that she's picked:
"First they got eaten. Then they grew dead."
Apparently today she told Ben that the stuffed giraffe is no longer allowed in the car because he ate the flowers.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Addendum
It has come to my attention (Thanks, Terry!) that I should have mentioned that the events of the previous entry took place in Missouri, the "Show-Me" state. ;)
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Questions I just should not have brought upon myself
Rachel: "Mom, why isn't your breast big enough?"
Me: "WHAT!??!?"
Rachel: "Why wasn't it big enough to feed Anna in her carseat?"
Yes, we got desperate enough at one point on the drive down that I scooted my (back) seat up as far as I could and attempted to see if I could breastfeed her while Ben drove. For the record, even with my porn star cleavage it was not possible. ;)
(I presume that no minors read this blog. If you're easily offended, it's too late now anyway. Sorry!)
Me: "WHAT!??!?"
Rachel: "Why wasn't it big enough to feed Anna in her carseat?"
Yes, we got desperate enough at one point on the drive down that I scooted my (back) seat up as far as I could and attempted to see if I could breastfeed her while Ben drove. For the record, even with my porn star cleavage it was not possible. ;)
(I presume that no minors read this blog. If you're easily offended, it's too late now anyway. Sorry!)
Detained at the border courtesy of UMKC
It should come to no surprise to anyone that once again UMKC's International Students' Office dropped the ball on providing us with the correct documentation for our trip to Kansas City.
We left for KC at about 5:15 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, only 2 hours behind schedule. At 5:30 p.m. we stopped for gas in Strathroy and Anna kindly chose that moment to loudly fill her diaper. We reached the border at 6:17 p.m. and were across by 6:34 p.m. Great! No, not so fast... we handed the nice man our papers and passports, explained where we were going, and were told that we needed to go inside to have our papers stamped. Never mind that we have not had them stamped by the border officials at all since moving down to Kansas almost 3 years ago! Apparently they are supposed to send us in every time. Interesting.
We got in, and the nice man who got us had no clue what to do so he passed us off to another officer. It was then discovered that although we have J visas (thus enabling me to have gotten a work permit), we are in the American system as having F class visas, a completely different animal.
It came as absolutely no surprise to me that of course Anna should have been issued her own J-2 visa papers so that she could get an I-94 card in her passport. No surprise to ME at all. Nope, not a surprise. In fact, we spoke to the not-so-intelligent lady at the UMKC International Students' Office several times about this need, both before and after Anna was born. Then again, we're talking about the same person who supposedly only realized in DECEMBER that we were actually living in Canada this year.
The border guy (Officer Mang, if you must know.) was actually very nice about it. We explained that this was the final step in Ben's doctorate and that we would only be gone for 10 days or so. He ended up issuing Anna an I-94 card for the low cost of only $6. Good thing we had American cash on us!
At 7:19 p.m. we were on our way. We drove all the way down to the first exit on the highway to stop for dinner! Just before 8:30 p.m. we got on the road and started driving. We stopped somewhere in Michigan for the night. I think it was outside of Kalamazoo but don't quote me on that. I'd actually have to look at the hotel receipt to know for sure!
The next morning we got on the road at 7:50 a.m. ready to make tracks down to Kansas. At some point in the morning, Ben clued me in that we would "gain" an hour due to switching to Central time, so we decided to try to get all the way down to Overland Park by 6:15 p.m. in time for Tot Shabbat! We actually got there at 6:28 p.m., in time for Rachel and Ben to zip in for the last few minutes and get the post-service snack. Yay for sugary Passover fruit slices! Chag sameach indeed!
We actually drove 10 hours in 11 hours and 40 minutes with a 4-year-old and a 10-week-old. And there were only a couple of hours in which we all wanted ear plugs to drown out poor Anna's screaming! She's actually done amazingly well so far. As I type this, she is asleep on her very cool new "Tummy Time" playmat. Yes, she's on her back. I think that she will eventually be a side-sleeper though.
(The most eventful part of our trip down was definitely Ben puking in the Home Depot parking lot just outside of Florissant, Missouri. He'd been sitting in the back seat trying to keep Anna happy. I kept asking if he was ok since he tends to get carsick and he'd forgotten to check if we had Gravol before we left - we didn't, and they don't sell it down here. I'm sure he could get something generic, but I don't think that either of us is really willing to put him in the backseat again for awhile.)
We left for KC at about 5:15 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, only 2 hours behind schedule. At 5:30 p.m. we stopped for gas in Strathroy and Anna kindly chose that moment to loudly fill her diaper. We reached the border at 6:17 p.m. and were across by 6:34 p.m. Great! No, not so fast... we handed the nice man our papers and passports, explained where we were going, and were told that we needed to go inside to have our papers stamped. Never mind that we have not had them stamped by the border officials at all since moving down to Kansas almost 3 years ago! Apparently they are supposed to send us in every time. Interesting.
We got in, and the nice man who got us had no clue what to do so he passed us off to another officer. It was then discovered that although we have J visas (thus enabling me to have gotten a work permit), we are in the American system as having F class visas, a completely different animal.
It came as absolutely no surprise to me that of course Anna should have been issued her own J-2 visa papers so that she could get an I-94 card in her passport. No surprise to ME at all. Nope, not a surprise. In fact, we spoke to the not-so-intelligent lady at the UMKC International Students' Office several times about this need, both before and after Anna was born. Then again, we're talking about the same person who supposedly only realized in DECEMBER that we were actually living in Canada this year.
The border guy (Officer Mang, if you must know.) was actually very nice about it. We explained that this was the final step in Ben's doctorate and that we would only be gone for 10 days or so. He ended up issuing Anna an I-94 card for the low cost of only $6. Good thing we had American cash on us!
At 7:19 p.m. we were on our way. We drove all the way down to the first exit on the highway to stop for dinner! Just before 8:30 p.m. we got on the road and started driving. We stopped somewhere in Michigan for the night. I think it was outside of Kalamazoo but don't quote me on that. I'd actually have to look at the hotel receipt to know for sure!
The next morning we got on the road at 7:50 a.m. ready to make tracks down to Kansas. At some point in the morning, Ben clued me in that we would "gain" an hour due to switching to Central time, so we decided to try to get all the way down to Overland Park by 6:15 p.m. in time for Tot Shabbat! We actually got there at 6:28 p.m., in time for Rachel and Ben to zip in for the last few minutes and get the post-service snack. Yay for sugary Passover fruit slices! Chag sameach indeed!
We actually drove 10 hours in 11 hours and 40 minutes with a 4-year-old and a 10-week-old. And there were only a couple of hours in which we all wanted ear plugs to drown out poor Anna's screaming! She's actually done amazingly well so far. As I type this, she is asleep on her very cool new "Tummy Time" playmat. Yes, she's on her back. I think that she will eventually be a side-sleeper though.
(The most eventful part of our trip down was definitely Ben puking in the Home Depot parking lot just outside of Florissant, Missouri. He'd been sitting in the back seat trying to keep Anna happy. I kept asking if he was ok since he tends to get carsick and he'd forgotten to check if we had Gravol before we left - we didn't, and they don't sell it down here. I'm sure he could get something generic, but I don't think that either of us is really willing to put him in the backseat again for awhile.)
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Good to know
"Mom, it's ok to nurse on the pirate ship."
Rachel is very much into pretend play lately. If either Ben or I are told one more thing about the upcoming (very much imaginary!) Great Elephant Festival, I think that we will scream.
Today it was all about the Treasure Race which apparently involves pirate ships. You are not allowed to bring swings, carseats or strollers. Babies must be "on shoulder" and you are encouraged to bring blankets, onesies, sleepers, and even the booger sucker. It is ok to nurse on the pirate ship, but only when it is moving. Moms are not permitted to nurse when the pirate ship stops at a treasure chest.
Rachel is very much into pretend play lately. If either Ben or I are told one more thing about the upcoming (very much imaginary!) Great Elephant Festival, I think that we will scream.
Today it was all about the Treasure Race which apparently involves pirate ships. You are not allowed to bring swings, carseats or strollers. Babies must be "on shoulder" and you are encouraged to bring blankets, onesies, sleepers, and even the booger sucker. It is ok to nurse on the pirate ship, but only when it is moving. Moms are not permitted to nurse when the pirate ship stops at a treasure chest.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Only my kid...
Last week Rachel was given a Disney princess colouring poster that came with the Crayola Colour Wonder markers. These markers only colour on the "special" paper. This is not as great as it sounds. There is no mess, which is nice, but there is a delay between colouring on the paper and the colour actually showing up.
Rachel was getting mad while colouring because she kept saying that the markers didn't work. I explained to her that it was simply a case of delayed gratification. Of course she had to ask me what that meant, so I explained it to her. From then on, every time she coloured on that paper, she yelled out "Delayed gratification!" at the top of her lungs.
Rachel was getting mad while colouring because she kept saying that the markers didn't work. I explained to her that it was simply a case of delayed gratification. Of course she had to ask me what that meant, so I explained it to her. From then on, every time she coloured on that paper, she yelled out "Delayed gratification!" at the top of her lungs.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Oops!
How did I miss blogging on Rachel's birthday? In any case, her actual birthday turned out to be quite a fun day! We went to Kindermusik in the morning, and the whole class sang Happy Birthday to Rachel at the end. It was a gorgeous day, so in the afternoon we went to Springbank Park to feed the ducks. Too bad the ducks weren't back from the south yet! We ended up feeding the geese instead. Anna kindly napped in the stroller the whole time we were out, and didn't even scream that much when we stopped at Tim Horton's for a birthday donut (and ice capps for the grown-ups!) on the way home. Rachel played on the playground equipment at Springbank for a long time, and even climbed the chain rope ladder multiple times. She also made friends with a 2 1/2 year old girl and the two of them spent a few minutes happily handing rocks and sand to the mommies. Of course, it wasn't rocks and sand - it was ice cream!
We went out for her birthday lunch on April 7th instead of the 8th, because kids eat free on Mondays at East Side Mario's. Mind you, it wasn't so free after all since Ben and I decided to share a dessert that cost the same as the kids' meal would have been! Rachel had a great time and spontaneously thanked us for taking her out for a birthday lunch.
Her actual birthday party was on Sunday. Again, the weather was gorgeous, so we were able to get outside for awhile to play my ridiculous party game. A few days before her party, it occurred to me that maybe I should try to come up with something fun for the kids to do. Rachel has an elephant pool that she loves, and I thought about having rubber ducks in the pool for the kids to fish out. I figured that this would be easy to do. We'd write numbers on the bottom of the ducks and somehow make that correspond to prizes.
Little did I know that rubber ducks are scarce in London in the spring! Although I saw a bag of a dozen different colour rubber ducks about a week before Rachel's party, I could not find them anywhere after I decided to try this game. Ben and I went to Wal-Mart the night before the party (thanks, Grandma Karen! We had a really fun date, haha. Oh, wait. We did go to Starbucks and Ben got a free sandwich.). At Wal-Mart, it quickly became apparently that I was going to be the coolest Mom on the planet since I found juice boxes with ELEPHANTS on them. No ducks though.
On Sunday morning, I headed out to pick up a few things that we needed. I figured that either the Superstore or dollar store would have rubber ducks. Nope, no ducks there either. At 12:15 p.m., I called Ben to say that I was zipping down to the Westmount Zellers since I vaguely remembered possibly seeing rubber ducks there. Rachel's party was supposed to start at 2 p.m. No ducks at Zellers, but I did find a huge pack of temporary tattoos that I decided would make marvellous prizes.
Finally, in a moment of absolute desperation, I sprinted down to the dollar store in the mall. Well, sprinted is a slight exaggeration since my pelvic rotation has not yet gone away. In any case, I was moving as fast as I could! The dollar store had no ducks either. Thankfully, they DID have rubber seals and turtles. Rachel has a pretty good sense of humour, so I grabbed a bunch of seals and turtles and headed for home. (Yes, I stopped to pay on the way out.)
The kids all loved the game. Rachel and her friend Sarah were easily the most enthusiastic. Sarah's mom and I cheerfully (and sneakily) kept recycling their prizes by putting them back in the prize container instead of holding them in our hands. The game lasted much longer that way and the kids never noticed!
Rachel quite enjoyed being the centre of attention and having everyone sing to her, and she successfully blew out her candle and later talked about how she blew out the candle "and the fire went out!"
Her "birthday week" ended on Friday when she celebrated her birthday at pre-school during the weekly Shabbat party. Anna and I came in for the last 45 minutes of pre-school, so I got to see a little of what Rachel does there. Every time someone has a birthday, the other kids draw a picture of what they wish for the birthday child. Apparently Rachel has a little boyfriend at pre-school. ;) Evan wished her a blue birthday elephant. We've heard about Evan before. Rachel talks about him when telling us about show and tell: "Evan always guesses elephant!" Apparently Evan likes elephants too. When I asked Rachel if she'd like to have Evan over for a playdate, she thought that would be fun to show him all her elephants. I might actually have to pursue this.
We went out for her birthday lunch on April 7th instead of the 8th, because kids eat free on Mondays at East Side Mario's. Mind you, it wasn't so free after all since Ben and I decided to share a dessert that cost the same as the kids' meal would have been! Rachel had a great time and spontaneously thanked us for taking her out for a birthday lunch.
Her actual birthday party was on Sunday. Again, the weather was gorgeous, so we were able to get outside for awhile to play my ridiculous party game. A few days before her party, it occurred to me that maybe I should try to come up with something fun for the kids to do. Rachel has an elephant pool that she loves, and I thought about having rubber ducks in the pool for the kids to fish out. I figured that this would be easy to do. We'd write numbers on the bottom of the ducks and somehow make that correspond to prizes.
Little did I know that rubber ducks are scarce in London in the spring! Although I saw a bag of a dozen different colour rubber ducks about a week before Rachel's party, I could not find them anywhere after I decided to try this game. Ben and I went to Wal-Mart the night before the party (thanks, Grandma Karen! We had a really fun date, haha. Oh, wait. We did go to Starbucks and Ben got a free sandwich.). At Wal-Mart, it quickly became apparently that I was going to be the coolest Mom on the planet since I found juice boxes with ELEPHANTS on them. No ducks though.
On Sunday morning, I headed out to pick up a few things that we needed. I figured that either the Superstore or dollar store would have rubber ducks. Nope, no ducks there either. At 12:15 p.m., I called Ben to say that I was zipping down to the Westmount Zellers since I vaguely remembered possibly seeing rubber ducks there. Rachel's party was supposed to start at 2 p.m. No ducks at Zellers, but I did find a huge pack of temporary tattoos that I decided would make marvellous prizes.
Finally, in a moment of absolute desperation, I sprinted down to the dollar store in the mall. Well, sprinted is a slight exaggeration since my pelvic rotation has not yet gone away. In any case, I was moving as fast as I could! The dollar store had no ducks either. Thankfully, they DID have rubber seals and turtles. Rachel has a pretty good sense of humour, so I grabbed a bunch of seals and turtles and headed for home. (Yes, I stopped to pay on the way out.)
The kids all loved the game. Rachel and her friend Sarah were easily the most enthusiastic. Sarah's mom and I cheerfully (and sneakily) kept recycling their prizes by putting them back in the prize container instead of holding them in our hands. The game lasted much longer that way and the kids never noticed!
Rachel quite enjoyed being the centre of attention and having everyone sing to her, and she successfully blew out her candle and later talked about how she blew out the candle "and the fire went out!"
Her "birthday week" ended on Friday when she celebrated her birthday at pre-school during the weekly Shabbat party. Anna and I came in for the last 45 minutes of pre-school, so I got to see a little of what Rachel does there. Every time someone has a birthday, the other kids draw a picture of what they wish for the birthday child. Apparently Rachel has a little boyfriend at pre-school. ;) Evan wished her a blue birthday elephant. We've heard about Evan before. Rachel talks about him when telling us about show and tell: "Evan always guesses elephant!" Apparently Evan likes elephants too. When I asked Rachel if she'd like to have Evan over for a playdate, she thought that would be fun to show him all her elephants. I might actually have to pursue this.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Ha.
About 2 minutes after I published the previous blog post, Ben called to say he was on the way home. Too bad Anna woke up when he called.
Friday night and the lights are low...
You think 10 sleepers is the way to go...
La la la la la la la la la
You are the spit-up queen, young and sweet, only 8 weeks old...
la la la la la la la
You can spit, you can spew, having the time of your life.
See that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the spit-up queen!
************************************************************************************
As I typed this, Anna finally fell asleep on the nursing pillow on my lap. I guess I'm not moving for a couple of hours until Ben gets home. I guess that Anna will sleep in a sleeper with a wet arm instead of moving on to sleeper #11. I guess that last night's lovely sleep from 8:15 p.m. to 3 a.m. was a fluke. I guess that I would like my working body back so that it would be easier to climb in and out of bed, up and down stairs, and carry a baby around. I guess that maybe I'm having some chocolate when Ben gets home.
La la la la la la la la la
You are the spit-up queen, young and sweet, only 8 weeks old...
la la la la la la la
You can spit, you can spew, having the time of your life.
See that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the spit-up queen!
************************************************************************************
As I typed this, Anna finally fell asleep on the nursing pillow on my lap. I guess I'm not moving for a couple of hours until Ben gets home. I guess that Anna will sleep in a sleeper with a wet arm instead of moving on to sleeper #11. I guess that last night's lovely sleep from 8:15 p.m. to 3 a.m. was a fluke. I guess that I would like my working body back so that it would be easier to climb in and out of bed, up and down stairs, and carry a baby around. I guess that maybe I'm having some chocolate when Ben gets home.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Friday, April 04, 2008
Watch out, fly!
I recently bought Rachel a deck of pre-schooler Crazy 8 cards. Instead of using the traditional deck of cards, there are 8 categories with 6 cards in each category. Each card also has a different colour. You can either match category or colour, or play a Crazy Card to change the category. It's very fun. This is good since Rachel has been wanting to play almost non-stop since we got the cards!
One of the categories is bugs. Yesterday I saw a fly in the kitchen so I called out to Ben to come get rid of it. Rachel asked what I was doing, and I told her there was a fly in the kitchen. She went running to get the category card, yelling "Fly is in the bug category! I'll get the category card!"
When I asked her why she wanted to get the category card, she explained that she thought it would help Dad to catch the fly.
As an aside, she was reading most of the words on the category card. She doesn't really read phonetically for most things. I'd say that she recognizes letters and has memorized which letters are in different words. I'm constantly surprised by how literate she really is though.
One of the categories is bugs. Yesterday I saw a fly in the kitchen so I called out to Ben to come get rid of it. Rachel asked what I was doing, and I told her there was a fly in the kitchen. She went running to get the category card, yelling "Fly is in the bug category! I'll get the category card!"
When I asked her why she wanted to get the category card, she explained that she thought it would help Dad to catch the fly.
As an aside, she was reading most of the words on the category card. She doesn't really read phonetically for most things. I'd say that she recognizes letters and has memorized which letters are in different words. I'm constantly surprised by how literate she really is though.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
A fun age
Rachel was in the office while Ben was reading an article that mentioned the CBC. She commented that "those people are silly with their alphabet. It's not CBC, it's ABC!"
She also has a couple of Rachel-isms that crack us up:
Poem = Pwom
Warm = Worm
It doesn't matter how many times we correct her, that's how those words come out.
She also has a couple of Rachel-isms that crack us up:
Poem = Pwom
Warm = Worm
It doesn't matter how many times we correct her, that's how those words come out.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Pre-schooler logic
Dad: "Rachel, what does snow turn into when it melts?"
Rachel: "Grass!"
A little later...
Rachel: "What does rain turn into when it hits the ground? MUD!"
Rachel: "Grass!"
A little later...
Rachel: "What does rain turn into when it hits the ground? MUD!"
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