Posted by: Mrs. Mustard | February 12, 2009

Going Green By Force

We may be going a little greener in our house.  We drive two very economic vehicles: a 2003 Rio, the husband’s commuter car, and a 2006 Toyota Prius, the family car.  This morning, however, I decided to investigate a strange smell coming from the garage. Although there is a lot of dirt, sand, and water on the garage’s concrete floor (it’s very much still winter up here), I noticed a puddle of something curious where the Rio is usually parked. I dipped my finger in it: definitely not water.  Smells a little off.  Possibly antifreeze or oil or both.  Maybe tranny fluid, although I have been told that’s usually pink (which this is not).  We brought it to the shop, and they’ll be looking into it today.

A 2003 Rio is worth very little on the resale market.  It has served us well, but if this proves to be a major expense to repair, we may very well decide to bite the bullet and go with only one car.  We are still making payments on the Pruis and adding another car payment right now is not a favorable option.

I am trying to think of the merits of being a single-vehicle family (not too many families seem to live with just one car anymore): lower insurance, less money spent on fuel and vehicle maintenance, reducing our carbon footprint, yadda yadda.

BUT WAH!  I would be stuck in the house with my kids!  All! The! Time!

If we go down to one car, Tony would be driving it to work.  His drive to work is bikable, but not in the winter, and it is largely uphill (BIG hill) which is sort of mean, even in the summer.  Yes, I am a SAHM, so the Pruis is parked in the garage a lot of the time.  But as any SAHM knows, it is nice to know that at least the option to flee the scene is there whenever the kiddies and I need to get out.

Which means I am stuck.  There is no public transportation here, and we live in an area that is sort of an “estates” development outside the main part of town.  No stores in walking distance, library and playschool are about 7 km away.  The only thing in walking distance is a park. And more houses.

Are there any other single-vehicle families out there?  Care to share how you make do with just 4 wheels instead of the standard 8?

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Posted in blah, irritants | Tags: ,

Posted by: Mrs. Mustard | February 9, 2009

The Perils of Speech Therapy: Riddit, Riddit!

After months of incessant pointing and “eh! eh! eh!”, I couldn’t wait for Sacha to start speech therapy.

He has been working on bilabial sounds (insert childish snicker about the word bilabial here), specifically F.  Couple this with his love of pretending in the animal kingdom, and we get the following new edition of “Kids Say the Darndest Things”:

Sacha is leap-frog jumping around the house this weekend, saying “Riddit!  Riddit!”  Obviously, we know that he is pretending to be an animal, and while we are pretty sure which amphibian he is imitating, we thought we would give him the benefit of the doubt and ask:

Tony: Sacha, what are you?

Sacha: Fuck.

Tony (mouth aghast, trying to contain the inevitable laughter eruption): WHAT are you?

Sacha: FUCK!  Riddit! Riddit! (resumes hopping on all fours)

Then this morning, while watching Curious George, we hear Sacha exclaim “Oh! Fuck!” I am sure you can deduce what George was playing with on the show.

Now, I have the daunting task of bringing to extinction all frogs so that he never says this in public. Must also find a way to avoid him pretending he’s a frog in front of my grandmothers…oy vey.

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Posted in boys, kids, kids say the darndest things | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: Mrs. Mustard | January 30, 2009

Now 99% Puke-Free!

I rarely get sick.

Correction: when I am neither pregnant, nor nursing, I rarely get sick.  Somehow, when it is completely forbidden by all pharmacist-anal-husbands to consume any type of medicated relief, I get sick a lot. Mostly colds, but I’ve had rotovirus and some bad stomach flus.  And the traditional morning all-day half-pregnancy sickness.  But I digress.

When my kids get sick, I run to the rescue and become super-mom.  I ain’t scared of no puke!  And diahrrea?  I laugh at thee.  HAHAHA!

However, I am perpetually amazed at how much puke can come out of a 2 year old.  And how difficult it is to parent not only the sick 2-year old and soothe his needs while cleaning up puke before his baby brother starts splashing in it, but to also attend to the puke-splashing 8 month old who requires his regular daily does of mamalove and turning his riding car around when he hits the wall.

I did it alone for 7 hours.  I even managed to get them both down for naps at the same time. But the puke kept coming, and I started running out of rags and paper towels and clean jammies for the boy (having puked on all of them and refusing to wear regular clothing).

So at 4:00 pm, I called in reinforcements: my 83-year-old grandmother.  I asked her if she could come over, not to clean up puke (which had occurred 7 times by then) but to play with Kees so that I could clean up, rub Sacha’s back and head and try to settle him to sleep.

She came, she rocked it up. I got Sacha to sleep.  Victory…for now.

When she left for her dinner date, my mom came straight from work, in her scrubs and all, and helped more.

Finally, my pharmacist husband came home just before 7.  He took over Sacha’s care so I could get my Hippo to sleep (who will only go down for his favouritest mama of all time). I then scrubbed all the hard floors in the house and did about 5 loads of laundry to get rid of the puke smell.  Tony got Sacha to sleep and things seemed to calm down.  We even watched some television.  The puke came, I conquered it. The house was now vomitless.

Fast forward one hour: more puke.  In bed.  All over his PJs. In his hair. On the rug.

Screw it.  99% puke-free is good enough.

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Posted in boys, health, kids, motherhood, parenting | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: Mrs. Mustard | January 22, 2009

A dolphin is NOT a fish. Duh.

Sacha has now been in speech therapy for three weeks. He amazes me every time we go, not only with his progress but with his openness to do anything Lindsey (his therapist) asks him to do.  I cannot say the same for his attitude towards me – normally, his way of avoiding my demands requests is to wave and say “Bye, Mommy.”

Sacha’s session yesterday was no exception. Sacha was playing a fishing game where he used a little fishing rod and pulled out fish from a “pond”. When he’d pull one out, Lindsey would say “Sacha, this is a FISH. Can you say FISH?”  He would oblige by making his best attempt at an FFF sound, followed by something approximating ITCH.

At one point, Lindsey used the rod and caught a fish.  She asked him to say FISH. Sacha shook his head and kept saying “Non non non non.” She looked at him and again said “Sacha, this is a fish. Can you say fish?” He adamantly refused.

After a few repeated attempts on her part, he finally said “Non non. Daffin.” Lindsey said “What?” And Sacha pointed to the fish and said “Daffin.” She had caught a dolphin with her rod. She laughed at said “Yes, Sacha, it IS a dolphin!”
I friggin didn’t even know he knew what a dolphin was, let alone the word. God bless Finding Nemo ;)

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Posted in boys, kids, kids say the darndest things

Posted by: Mrs. Mustard | December 23, 2008

The Conspiracy

We are part of the conspiracy.

December is full of “Are you ready for Christmas?” which is a euphemism for “Did you buy all your presents yet? Are you sure you have enough presents? Did you remember great aunt whatshername? How much did you spend on your kids? What did you get for your parents? Your husband? Are you sure you’re totally done?”

To which I reply: Of course I am ready. Santa is very low-key in our house. He brings one gift to each person. No, this gift is not a Powerwheels quad or an iPhone 3G or a new car. No, Santa did not put gifts on my credit cards, and no, he did not buy people things on their “lists.”

In our house, Santa gives from the heart.

This year, Santa is bringing the boys each a bead-wire maze. You know, those bead-wire toys that you always see in doctors’ offices and you always wonder where you could get one. Mrs. Ho Ho Ho went on the internet and found a baby-sized one for Kees and a regular one for Sacha, and it took me an hour to wrap them since the man in red doesn’t do wrapping and I have been told by some that I should never seek employment at those booths in malls that wrap presents for you. I’m that bad.

I also bought each boy a nursing necklace with their names on them, as I thought it would make a great keepsake. These are going in their stockings.

As for the parents, I made them a custom calendar featuring about 80 photos from their kids and grandkids, as well as all the birthdays and anniversaries from the family. It took me about 4 hours of work per calendar (one for my family, one for the out-laws) but they really are worth it.

And I will not reveal what I bought Tony, as he reads this blog. (Hi Tony. I am not an idiot. You will have to wait until Christmas.) We also gave a couple gifts to godchildren (we have 2) and our niece and nephew, which Sacha helped pick out and wrap (that was an exercise in patience).

Sacha also made a special gift for his Grandma and his Baba (which they haven’t opened yet) with moderate adult intervention. Kees kissed their cards. Or tried to eat them. Either way, he left his mark.

Christmas cost us about $3oo this year.

So what did we do with all the extra money that could have been spent on novelty gifts and miscellaneous Christmas crap? Tony and I have made it a tradition to donate to charities as part of our Christmas giving. We donated about $200 above and beyond our habitual acts of charity. Do we benefit from this? Not directly (unless you consider a tax receipt). Someone else, however, will benefit from our gift more than we can possibly imagine.

And that thought is enough to keep me happily humming Jingle Bells all year long.

That, and Sacha is obsessed with the Barenaked Ladies version of Jingle Bells. There will be an uprising when I put that CD away after the holidays.

Kitty in a Spruce Tree
Our Kitty in a Tree, through Sacha’s Lens

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Posted in Christmas, family, gift ideas, giftology

Posted by: Mrs. Mustard | December 6, 2008

Nostalgia

I set a little naked-bumed Kees up in his crib, sitting amidst a pile of pillows, and let him play with his crib aquarium. I then sat on the nursing chair, and watched the back of his head as he grabbed the toys, kissed the fish, and toddled from side to side, each time regaining his balance and squaring himself off to a proper sitting position. I watched him in silence until he turned around, remembered that I was there, and flashed me an ecstatic toothed grin. He turned around and resumed playing. And I resumed my motherly vigil.

I was not nostalgic when Sacha grew from an infant to a baby, from a toddler and into an opinionated two-year old. I remember being so anxious for him to be old enough to eat solids, big enough to sit on his own, and old enough to talk. Old enough to go to a sitter without screaming for his maman.

A second time mother is more educated in that respect.

Kees is already 6 months, and I miss him as a new-born infant. My sweet suckler who slept all the time, with his melodious hums and ahs as he sang himself to sleep.

Now, he has two teeth, and bites my shoulder when he gets excited. He rubs those little chewing implements on my breast when he nurses, testing out his new eating tools. He tackles his older brother, pulling his hair, kissing (or tasting, I’m not sure) his ears. He giggles at fart noises (his brother’s) and pulls the cat’s tail. He loves to read, especially “Where is Baby’s Belly Button?” with the large flaps to pull on and flip over time and again. At the end of the day, he nuzzles his head onto my shoulder when he’s tired, and calmly lets himself drift to dreamland.

I relish every minute of these sweet 6 month moments, because I know that soon enough, he, too, will be a terrible two, shaking his head “no” when I ask him to pick up his toys or stop dumping his crackers on the floor. He, too, may scream and throw a fit when I tell him that he cannot have anymore advent calendar chocolates. There are beautiful moments in Two-land, but I can wait.

I love my sweet Kees. Just as he is. Right now.

Kees - 6 months

Sweet Kisses

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Posted in boys, kids, motherhood, photos | Tags: , ,

Posted by: Mrs. Mustard | November 19, 2008

Yo, she write good an’ everything

I often use very colloquial language on this blog. I write as I speak talk. So you may get the impression that I am not so skilled in the area of written verbosity. I present to you proof that I am not an idiot.

Let me set the scene:

My Baba recently sold her house and moved into a condo my aunt had bought for her. The government, in their infinite “wisdom” cut part of her pension because they claimed that she was now living with a relative rent-free, while previously she was a homeowner. In reality, however, her expenses have not changed, since she is running the condo as her own (maintenance and all). So, seeing that I am edumicated and all, she asked me to write a letter for her to the seniors’ benefits department and appeal their decision.

The following is what I wrote:

To Whom It May Concern:

In recent correspondence with the Seniors Services Division, it came to my attention that my application for ASB is under review due to a change in my residence status. My current benefit has been calculated based on the erroneous residence status as “other.” I am living in a property that is owned by my daughter, but I reside alone and maintain the property in her absence at her request. My daughter has not, at any time, resided in this property.

While it is true that I am not a homeowner, nor a renter, I reside in a property in which I am financially responsible for all utilities, maintenance of the property and other costs that may arise. My financial obligations mirror that of a homeowner. As such, for maximum benefit calculations, I believe that my residence status should be considered equivalent to that of a homeowner. My monthly expenses are virtually the same as they were at my previous residence as a homeowner, and I would expect that my ASB should reflect this, as it is my understanding that the ASB is to provide assistance to seniors for their monthly expenditures related to the cost of living.

Please make the appropriate adjustments to my application and inform me when the benefit calculations are complete.

Sincerely,

Baba

Ok, so I obviously signed her real name at the bottom.

Summation: I write good.

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Posted in family

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