Oooo, and I found out that after a tumultuous pregnancy, my dear friend Christy had a baby girl on Wednesday - 13 minutes after she arrived at the hospital! What???!!!!! Welcome to world Scarlett, I can't wait to meet you!
Saturday 28 August 2010
Today was good...
Oooo, and I found out that after a tumultuous pregnancy, my dear friend Christy had a baby girl on Wednesday - 13 minutes after she arrived at the hospital! What???!!!!! Welcome to world Scarlett, I can't wait to meet you!
Thursday 26 August 2010
A year in review...
Monday Ryan moves up to the 3's class in daycare. Yesterday her wonderful teacher Val surprised me with a scrapbook of most of her artwork from the year as well as a book of their learning stories highlighting what they have done throughout the year and what impact it has on their development. Here's an example.
'Ryan is a good friend'
When Ryan seres her friends their food or drink or passes them a toy and they say Thank you, she responds with 'your welcome' or 'my pleasure'.
Why it matters: Ryan feels great satisfaction from serving. She feels happy. Being happy and appreciative of all the wonderful things in life especially the small ones are crucial to one's well-being. It shows Ryan and her friends the importance of giving and receiving cheerfully to and from others. Children learn by example from their peers and their caregivers.
Signed, your teacher.
Alright Ryan, we know you have it in you! Please and thank-you's all around please! Actually, she's a pretty polite girl with a few reminders thrown in. Looking back at the pics from last September I can hardly believe that she's grown so much! I can't wait to see what happens this year....
Saturday 21 August 2010
Paper bag fun.
Ryan's having a sleepover with her Nanny tonight and Jason is across the street bonding with the neighbours (I can hear him laughing from here) so I thought thought this was a great time to update.
I wanted to make something special for Ryan's teacher this year because she is such a wonderful person and Ryan will soon be moving on to the next age group very soon. I've made one of these paper bag albums in the past and loved it so I thought I would give it another go. It's a great way to capture a memory all the while being economical and using up scaps. It was also the first time I really got to make use of my Big Bite - I gotta say it was fun!
I used binder rings to tie it all together...
I wanted to make something special for Ryan's teacher this year because she is such a wonderful person and Ryan will soon be moving on to the next age group very soon. I've made one of these paper bag albums in the past and loved it so I thought I would give it another go. It's a great way to capture a memory all the while being economical and using up scaps. It was also the first time I really got to make use of my Big Bite - I gotta say it was fun!
I used binder rings to tie it all together...
And a little bit of ribbon too...
I used 4 paper bags all together and on the open end of each I made a little tabbed page with some hidden picks.
There are five kids in the class including Ryan and each child had there own 2 page spread. There have been enough events at the daycare that I was able to get lots of pics to complete the album.
I gave Val the album on Friday along with an 8x10 framed group picture of her and the kiddos. I left it in the morning and when I picked Ryan up she said, 'I just don't know what to say - the work that must have gone into that!'. I love it when a labour or love is appreciated :o) Thank you Val!
Wednesday 18 August 2010
Good cop, bad cop.
The line has been drawn in the sand. It has become clear to Ryan that Jason and I have distinct roles within our family unit. He is the good cop. I am the bad cop. I'm not sure how I feel about that....
Ryan: Mama, I wan't orange juice (which is actually apple juice in juice box form)
Mama: Sorry Ryan, no more orange juice tonight. You can have some tomorrow night.
Lip is quivering, BAM! Full fledged crying. Like a flash little miss Ryan is up the stairs
Ryan: Daddy!!! (Sob, sob, sob) I asked Mama for orange juice and she said the 'no'!
Daddy: Did it upset you when Mama said no?
Ryan: Yes - I was upset! I want Mama say the 'yes'. Hmpf.
No more juice boxes were had that night.....
Ryan: Daddy, I want to play in the turkle pool.
Daddy: You’ll have to ask Mama Ryan, Daddy has to leave.
Ryan: (Sounding increasingly agitated) I don’t want to ask Mama.
Daddy: How come?
Ryan: Because I don’t want to be upset! I want Mama to say the ‘yes’ but Mama says the ‘no’!
Daddy: (Trying to fight back a laugh) Let’s go together and ask Mama, we’ll see what she says.
Daddy: OK, tell Mama what you wanted to ask her.
Ryan: No , I want you to do it!
We played in the turkle pool. It was fun. See, Mama can be fun too!
***
Scene 1: Last Wednesday night (August 11th, 2010). 8:30pm, right before before bed. Sitting in the family room.Ryan: Mama, I wan't orange juice (which is actually apple juice in juice box form)
Mama: Sorry Ryan, no more orange juice tonight. You can have some tomorrow night.
Lip is quivering, BAM! Full fledged crying. Like a flash little miss Ryan is up the stairs
Ryan: Daddy!!! (Sob, sob, sob) I asked Mama for orange juice and she said the 'no'!
Daddy: Did it upset you when Mama said no?
Ryan: Yes - I was upset! I want Mama say the 'yes'. Hmpf.
No more juice boxes were had that night.....
***
Scene 2: The following Thursday night. I'm walking around the yard, Jason is getting ready to head out. Ryan: Daddy, I want to play in the turkle pool.
Daddy: You’ll have to ask Mama Ryan, Daddy has to leave.
Ryan: (Sounding increasingly agitated) I don’t want to ask Mama.
Daddy: How come?
Ryan: Because I don’t want to be upset! I want Mama to say the ‘yes’ but Mama says the ‘no’!
Daddy: (Trying to fight back a laugh) Let’s go together and ask Mama, we’ll see what she says.
Daddy: OK, tell Mama what you wanted to ask her.
Ryan: No , I want you to do it!
We played in the turkle pool. It was fun. See, Mama can be fun too!
Monday 16 August 2010
Out in the world...
A little scrapbooking forum I frequent has started a new challenge. Its a blog challenge to help us think outside the box a little bit about the things we should be recording. I love this idea because it helps me to remember what it is exactly that I want to remember and subsequently, what I should take the time to write down.
The first challenge is to write about a first in your life; house, car, accident, child.... The options are limitless. I thought and thought and thought about it! At the end of the day, none of my firsts seemed as significant as watching Ryan progress through hers. I saw a scrapbook layout one day where a mom highlighted what her toddlers had learned that week. She called it, "The little milestones of little people" and I was struck by the significance of this. Simply because she will not remember these monumental moments and I don't think Ryan's 'firsts', at least the ones from these early years, will ever be as significant to her as they are to me.
I have already blogged about Ryan's many firsts from her first year, rolling over, sitting up, smiling, eating solids, taking a bottle, words... And, as anyone with a toddler knows, 'firsts' come at an astronomical rate. There is just no end to how limitless curiousity results in the mastery of skills. As a parent I love every one of them. Ryan was just as amazed as we were when she was first able to turn her tricycle around on our veranda...'I do it Mama - I turn it awound!'. Or when after repeated explanations that if she closed her eyes and covered them with a facecloth while I was washing her hair that she wouldn't get water in her eyes and wouldn't have to cry she finally tried it and said, 'Look, I no crying.' I know, that was quite the run on sentence. I love the look on her face - so proud that she can do it and so ready to tackle the next thing.
Unfortunately, along with all the happy firsts there are also the ones that break your heart and this is the story that I'd like to tell.
One evening this summer Ryan and I went for a bike ride. Her on her fancy red Radio flyer tricycle (that I just had to have) and me on my hand me down bike (isn't that always the way). According to Ryan, we went 'far, far away' which in actual measurements amounts to the stop sign about 50m away. Its a heavy trike! Anyway, there are about 5 'big' little girls (8ish to 10ish) that live in my immediate area and on our way back, these girls were playing basketball at a net that one of them has at the end of her driveway.
'Mama, I go put the bike away. I play basketball with the girls!', she said. Ryan has always had an affinity to older kids and to see this many all together - wow wee! So off we went, back home to drop off our bikes.
I warned her, 'Ryan, if you want to go play basketball with the girls you have to put pants on....' This is the time where I have to tell you that we'd been having some pants issues. Namely, little miss doesn't want to wear any (and was not wearing any at that very moment). I could tell that she really wanted to play with the girls though because we got home, put the bikes in the shed and ran in the house to get on some pants.
As we were leaving, Ryan had another special request, 'Mama, I wear the sandals like you!'. Oh boy, now she was really preening. Along with the pants issue, there had also been some shoe issues. Like only wearing crocs everywhere, all the time. There was something big happening right then and there.
So there we were, all fancied up in our pants and our sandals and off we went to see the girls play basketball. I admit, I had some reservations. Our little neighbourhood is not a close one and we don't hang out with the neighbours. However, we'd been around most of the girls enough that they knew Ryan by name and sometimes stopped to have a little chat with her. We are also there biggest customers at their lemonade stand.... Anyway, I knew that they really wouldn't want to play with Ryan but I thought (I hoped anyway) that they might humor her and let her try to throw the ball.... Its nice to have hopes...
When we were about 10 feet away from the all-important girls and the majestic basketball net they all turned and ran into the yard! Ryan was so confused. Here she had donned her finery to hang with her peeps and they bailed on her.
We stood at the end of the driveway watching the girls play in the yard as I tried to figure out the best way to handle this situation. If the yard was any other but this particular one I would have brought Ryan in. As it happened, I don't know the parents of this little girl at all and, while playing with the b-ball net they have perched at the end of the drive way is one thing, I certainly wouldn't go in the yard. And the girls had made it clear they didn't want there fun interrupted by a 3 year old. To top it all off, Ryan was asking me repeated ly to go in. This is exactly the scenario that I did not want embroil myself in.
'Mama, I go over there.' said my little peanut.
'We can't honey, Mama doesn't know these people and we weren't invited.'
'But I want to go over there and play with the girls!'
'Let's play with the basketball. Do you want me to pick you up so you can put the ball in.'
'NO!'
'Okay, lets go home and play.'
Reluctantly Ryan turned towards home, her face as long as I've ever seen it and her thumb tucked securely in place. She was crushed and there was not a doubt in my mind that she felt completely rejected by these girls that just moments ago she held in very high esteem. After a few steps she looked at me and said,
'I can't walk, I want you to carry me.' Of course I picked her up to begin the short walk home.
'Ryan, are your feelings hurt because the girls didn't want to play with you?'
'Yes.' I don't think that she could have gotten any closer if she tried, her legs were wrapped around my waist and her head was tucked into my neck. The thumb was not leaving her mouth.
'Ryan, its OK that your upset but I don't think that those girls were trying to hurt your feelings. I think that sometimes big girls just want to play with big girls. Right now you're still a little girl. I love you, your my favourite girl in the world!'
'Hmff'.
So we got home and eventually the sadness and hurt went away and Ryan moved one with her day. I know that she won't remember this and that ultimately it will be a very insignificant part of her life. I think it was so profound to me though, because it was the first time I really felt like I couldn't protect her from the outside world. I couldn't make those girls play with her and be nice to her and give her the 2 minutes that would have made her feel like a million dollars. She didn't want me to love her at that moment, she wanted the girls and they didn't want her. The only thing that I could do was try to help her to understand the situation, hopefully I did.
Anyway, this is a first that troubled me for awhile. I though it was worthy of being recorded. Sorry if it was a little long winded.
The first challenge is to write about a first in your life; house, car, accident, child.... The options are limitless. I thought and thought and thought about it! At the end of the day, none of my firsts seemed as significant as watching Ryan progress through hers. I saw a scrapbook layout one day where a mom highlighted what her toddlers had learned that week. She called it, "The little milestones of little people" and I was struck by the significance of this. Simply because she will not remember these monumental moments and I don't think Ryan's 'firsts', at least the ones from these early years, will ever be as significant to her as they are to me.
I have already blogged about Ryan's many firsts from her first year, rolling over, sitting up, smiling, eating solids, taking a bottle, words... And, as anyone with a toddler knows, 'firsts' come at an astronomical rate. There is just no end to how limitless curiousity results in the mastery of skills. As a parent I love every one of them. Ryan was just as amazed as we were when she was first able to turn her tricycle around on our veranda...'I do it Mama - I turn it awound!'. Or when after repeated explanations that if she closed her eyes and covered them with a facecloth while I was washing her hair that she wouldn't get water in her eyes and wouldn't have to cry she finally tried it and said, 'Look, I no crying.' I know, that was quite the run on sentence. I love the look on her face - so proud that she can do it and so ready to tackle the next thing.
Unfortunately, along with all the happy firsts there are also the ones that break your heart and this is the story that I'd like to tell.
*****
One evening this summer Ryan and I went for a bike ride. Her on her fancy red Radio flyer tricycle (that I just had to have) and me on my hand me down bike (isn't that always the way). According to Ryan, we went 'far, far away' which in actual measurements amounts to the stop sign about 50m away. Its a heavy trike! Anyway, there are about 5 'big' little girls (8ish to 10ish) that live in my immediate area and on our way back, these girls were playing basketball at a net that one of them has at the end of her driveway.
'Mama, I go put the bike away. I play basketball with the girls!', she said. Ryan has always had an affinity to older kids and to see this many all together - wow wee! So off we went, back home to drop off our bikes.
I warned her, 'Ryan, if you want to go play basketball with the girls you have to put pants on....' This is the time where I have to tell you that we'd been having some pants issues. Namely, little miss doesn't want to wear any (and was not wearing any at that very moment). I could tell that she really wanted to play with the girls though because we got home, put the bikes in the shed and ran in the house to get on some pants.
As we were leaving, Ryan had another special request, 'Mama, I wear the sandals like you!'. Oh boy, now she was really preening. Along with the pants issue, there had also been some shoe issues. Like only wearing crocs everywhere, all the time. There was something big happening right then and there.
So there we were, all fancied up in our pants and our sandals and off we went to see the girls play basketball. I admit, I had some reservations. Our little neighbourhood is not a close one and we don't hang out with the neighbours. However, we'd been around most of the girls enough that they knew Ryan by name and sometimes stopped to have a little chat with her. We are also there biggest customers at their lemonade stand.... Anyway, I knew that they really wouldn't want to play with Ryan but I thought (I hoped anyway) that they might humor her and let her try to throw the ball.... Its nice to have hopes...
When we were about 10 feet away from the all-important girls and the majestic basketball net they all turned and ran into the yard! Ryan was so confused. Here she had donned her finery to hang with her peeps and they bailed on her.
We stood at the end of the driveway watching the girls play in the yard as I tried to figure out the best way to handle this situation. If the yard was any other but this particular one I would have brought Ryan in. As it happened, I don't know the parents of this little girl at all and, while playing with the b-ball net they have perched at the end of the drive way is one thing, I certainly wouldn't go in the yard. And the girls had made it clear they didn't want there fun interrupted by a 3 year old. To top it all off, Ryan was asking me repeated ly to go in. This is exactly the scenario that I did not want embroil myself in.
'Mama, I go over there.' said my little peanut.
'We can't honey, Mama doesn't know these people and we weren't invited.'
'But I want to go over there and play with the girls!'
'Let's play with the basketball. Do you want me to pick you up so you can put the ball in.'
'NO!'
'Okay, lets go home and play.'
Reluctantly Ryan turned towards home, her face as long as I've ever seen it and her thumb tucked securely in place. She was crushed and there was not a doubt in my mind that she felt completely rejected by these girls that just moments ago she held in very high esteem. After a few steps she looked at me and said,
'I can't walk, I want you to carry me.' Of course I picked her up to begin the short walk home.
'Ryan, are your feelings hurt because the girls didn't want to play with you?'
'Yes.' I don't think that she could have gotten any closer if she tried, her legs were wrapped around my waist and her head was tucked into my neck. The thumb was not leaving her mouth.
'Ryan, its OK that your upset but I don't think that those girls were trying to hurt your feelings. I think that sometimes big girls just want to play with big girls. Right now you're still a little girl. I love you, your my favourite girl in the world!'
'Hmff'.
So we got home and eventually the sadness and hurt went away and Ryan moved one with her day. I know that she won't remember this and that ultimately it will be a very insignificant part of her life. I think it was so profound to me though, because it was the first time I really felt like I couldn't protect her from the outside world. I couldn't make those girls play with her and be nice to her and give her the 2 minutes that would have made her feel like a million dollars. She didn't want me to love her at that moment, she wanted the girls and they didn't want her. The only thing that I could do was try to help her to understand the situation, hopefully I did.
Anyway, this is a first that troubled me for awhile. I though it was worthy of being recorded. Sorry if it was a little long winded.
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