Singing Bird

Adara loves the website for tvokids. It has some good videos and some great little games that she can play herself without help. So, while we limit her screen time, I would rather that her screen time was spent playing a game which she actually has to interact with rather then just watching. It helps her with hand/eye coordination, letters and numbers and computer literacy. This is all true, it's also what I tell myself to make myself feel better when my kiddo is playing a computer game so that I can make dinner in peace.
One one of the games on tvokids, there is a little singing bird. When Adara clicks on him to play one of his games, he sings a cheery little song "I'm clicking and learning, and surfing and singing...". It is a very cheery, happy little song that reminds me that she's learning and makes me feel better. Which is, in fact, why I think that bird is there. I think that that bird is specifically in tvokids in order to make parents feel better so that they'll let their kids go on the website. That weirds me out a bit, but I still like his little song.

Growing up girl

Someday she will stop sucking her thumb and not need to take her cows everywhere with her. But hopefully not soon.

Poppa. That's all.

Quiet Christmas moments

This holiday was pretty awesome. I had two full weeks off. Which means lots of time to play board games, watch movies, eat good food, visit with friends and even fit in a mommy's spa date. Kinda perfect really.
Adara finally learned how to play the complex little domino game that my family plays on holidays, Mexican train. That was a major victory and she spent the whole day before her big cousin arrived perfecting it so that she would be able to play to his standards. Success!

Feminism and the Modern Mamma

I've been thinking a lot this weekend about feminism and being the mom of a gorgeous blond little girl. There's been a series of things that have brought this to the forefront.

First up, Adara's new soccer class. She's in the 4 to 7 year old age group this time which is much more serious and actually uses soccer skills. She's the only girl in a group of eight kids. When I asked her after her first class this weekend if she noticed what was different and what the same between her and her team mates she talked about shirt colours, kicking ability and how much they did or didn't whine when kicked. No mention of gender, so I didn't mention it either. She held her own although there was one seven year old who had a killer soccer kick, hard hitting and fast. As a side note, moms, what do you do when one kids skills are so far ahead that it's actually a bit dangerous for everyone else? Not his fault at all and he's a lovely kid who doesn't shoot at people's faces, but this kid has one serious boot. Thoughts on that?

Second up, we were making a cake and decorating it with our new cake decorating kit yesterday. Adara and I like to bake together, it's our thing. We like mixing and making a mess and decorating. We don't actually eat most of it, we give it away since none of us has a huge sweet tooth. So, after making and decorating the cakes, Len was cleaning out the icing bag for me. He hasn't had much time with Adara lately so I suggested that he go play with her and that I'd clean up. To which Adara responded with "Yeah mamma, it's your job to clean up this big mess, Dadda and I are going to go play". I was trying decide whether to react to that or not, when Len did, gave her heck for telling me to do all of the work and asked her to apologize. She did and we went on with the afternoon. Now, if she and I had been playing and she'd told Len to clean up, would we have reacted the same way? Was it the traditional role models that set us off or the bossy pants tone?

And finally, this morning she says to me "Sometimes girls can be scientists, right?" To which I said "Yes, your cousin Lana is a scientist, you can be too." But why the "sometimes". Girls can be scientists all of the time. Why "girls" and not just "Sometime I could be a scientist, right"? What does that mean.
Thoughts on this moms?

Dancing Queen

Here is Adara this morning at Highland dance lessons. She is doing a series of steps known as "pas de bras" or in kid language "jump the pond, show your sticker (which in on the inside of her sock), squish the frog". She's been pretty pleased with herself about how well it's been going. After seeing a performance by this dance group in the summer at the beaches celtic festival she was pretty sure that she needed to know how to do that. So, we enrolled in saturday morning dance class.
But, here's the secret, I love doing saturday dance class. It's in the lovely beaches, a mere 5 minute drive or 20 minute bus from our house. I don't have to stay for the whole class if I don't want to and it's a lovely walk to a local tea shop that's not a chain and has amazing croissants of all varieties. It's across the street from a wicked breakfast place where a friend occasionally meets us after class. Plus I get to watch my little piece of business own it in the dance studio. Perfect.

Said by my four year old, early one morning

"He's no match for me. He's a ninky dinky boy!"

Ok then.

Iatse christmas

So, last weekend was the event of the year IATSE Christmas. So, for those not familiar this is Len's big work christmas kids party. Len's a stage hand, so one can imagine they go all out!
A track with motorized kids bikes. Two bouncy castles, a blow up train, breakfast for two hundred, a gift from santa, another take home bag of treats.
Plus this year, a magic show, dog show, bird show, 2 clowns and an aerial acrobat.
Oh right, and the snowing. In the opera centres rehearsal hall. Over all 200 hundred people. These people know how to throw a Christmas party! Adara was very able to navigate it on her own this year. During the magic show, she wandered off by herself. Len and I watched and giggled to ourselves from across the room as she siddled up to an eight year old boy that she'd been playing with earlier. And he let her. She watched much of the magic show cuddled right up to the eight year old and his ten year old friend. How does she get away with this?

This year we followed up iatse christmas with another friends Chanumas open house. It was very popular as their was a new dog plus a bevy of kids to play with in a large basement.

This weekend my friend Tracey's party (no other kids, but a cat... we'll see) and her good friend Emmas birthday. Plus, 2 batches of cookies and pie crusts to make in preparation for heading home to my parents place.

It sounds like we're too busy, but we're not. All of this "extra stuff" is what gives me energy and drive for my long weeks at work. After a terrible end of day at work today, Adara and I made a craft and had a very boisterous dance party for two. Perfect.

Remember us?

We're here too. She's just cuter and someone always has to be taking the picture. Thanks to our friends Mark and Laura's wedding we got out kid free for a summer wedding, so here we are lookin' good.

Swimming

Adara had been doing wonderfully over the summer with swimming, getting really comfortable in the water in her life jacket and without. So, it was time to set her free. Last year we did guardian swim which meant that I was in the water holding her all the time. The problem is, I never take my hands off her. The thing that's funny about swimming is you have to sink a little bit to learn what the opposite is. So, we signed Adara up for one on one lessons. We went for our first lesson and Adara was immediately comfortable. At the first lesson, the lovely lifeguard, Anya, let Adara sink a bit. She didn't like it, but now she certainly knows what's needed to stay afloat!