Weird and Wacky Books

I'm usually pretty open minded in my book selections and reading, but lately. The last three books I've read I either read just because I had it or couldn't get into it no matter how hard I tried.

I borrowed The Time Traveler's Wife from my sister-in-law and read it to the end, but not without difficulty. I found the plot very thin and could not follow it at all. This from a woman who has read all of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander Series!

Another book I had was The Feminist Mistake, a work of non-fiction. This is a book I bought sometime ago and forgot I had. There was a book mark in the middle of the first chapter so I obviously gave up on it before. I managed to get through the second chapter this time around then graciously donated to the London Public Library. This is a book that basically says since I've decided to stay home with my daughter I'm making the biggest mistake of my life and will live to regret it. I honestly can't support a book that degrades my life style.

Lastly I won a book from Chatelaine and am three chapters into it. Again the book has a shaky plot and is just to real yet too unbelievable for me to get into. It is about conjoined twins who have polar opposite personalities and one of them has decided to write an autobiography. I wanted to like the book called The Girls because it is Canadian and I can relate places mentioned, but it wasn't possible.

Here's hoping my next kick at the can will be better!

Lack of Money

I'm having a difficult time of late reconciling my local CAS' funding cuts with the "gifts" we've received from them the last couple months. I know the Ontario Government withdrew discretionary funding meaning most CAS' in the province will be in a deficit position by the end of the fiscal year. And that this change in funding will have an impact on the people serviced by these agencies, but there are areas of funding that could be significantly reduced. Here are a couple of examples.

In October the foster families in London and Middlesex received a Tim Card as a Thank You. While costing considerably less then the annual banquet it is still a significant expense ($1550). Further this package was send out separate from the regular pay packet meaning additional postage is the amount of $176. Added to this we used to get a book of Wendy's Hallow'en coupons to share with the foster kids, but don't now.

Then a couple weeks ago I went to the mailbox to find a beautifully inscribed Heart Shaped Keychain. This is a gift from London Middlesex CAS to congratulate us on our adoption. The inscription on the rotating heart says "Adoption" and "Comes from the Heart." Never mind the costs of the keychains, but the mailing was over $265. If you want to give the adoptive families this present then please give it to the children at Happy Court.

I'm not ungratefully for what London Middlesex CAS has done for us and for other families in the area, but I think there are ways to cut unnecessary spending and not risk cutting services to the children and families.

Sinterklaas

My husband is first generation Canadian, but don't tell him that. Most of the Dutch heritage got left in Holland when his parent immigrated. Both of his parents families arrived in Canada in the 1950s hoping for a better live.

Our daughter is 2 and a half (just ask her) and we've decided to share at least one of those traditions with her even if it is slightly modified from the original.

December 6 is the feast of Saint Nicholas and on the evening before Sinterklaas (aka St. Nicholas) delivers gifts to the good children while Black Peter leaves coal for the bad children. On Sinterklaas eve, there will be a visit to our home in which Rachel will receive small gifts in her slippers and she will leave out milk and cookies for Sinterklaas. She'll also leave carrots for his horse.

Like most Dutch families today the main gift exchange will be done at Christmas and we aren't giving gifts every night leading up to the arrival of December 6th. She does have a My Little Pony Advent calendar to supply those gifts.

Strollers

I’m an anti-stroller mom. Have been right from the start. Maybe itsbecause I wanted to make sure Rachel attached to us (she’s adopted) or maybe it’s because the infant carrier from the car seat was just plain heavy. Anyhow a couple of weeks before Rachel was born I investigated the different slings and wearable baby carriers. Keeping in mind that I couldn’t waddle my daughter to save my life, meaning I needed something that was super easy to use. We ultimately purchased a homemade black sling from Mothering Made Easy, http://www.momme.ca/index.php. Part of the reason for that was hope Richard would wear the sling occasionally. Regardless I used the sling the first year of Rachel’s life pretty exclusively and the stroller was for the grandparents. She slept in her sling a lot and Richard was proficient at getting her out of it and into her crib without waking her. I used it for walks, shopping, hikes, housework, etc, including a hike on one of the easier trails at Algonquin Park. Rachel like the sling and it was the one place you could be guaranteed she would settle down. I used the sling until she was about 18 months old then she preferred to be on her own two feet pushing the stroller or at least walking with Mommy.

Around the time Rachel was six months old we started to use a backpack carrier for longer excursions or if I really wanted Richard to be the one to carry her. One of the first big days with the carrier was the 2007 Niagara Falls Casino Marathon. We walked along a large stretch of the Niagara Parkway and Rachel spent the whole time on Richard’s back. We used the pack on my back when camping, on the 2008 London Health Sciences Do It For Dad Walk, or standing at the Richmond Street CP rail crossing to watch the CP Holiday Train roll through London in December of 2008. As Rachel turned 2 she wasn’t interested in the backpack anymore so we stopped using it.

We use strollers/wagons, etc on occasion because of convenience, but these days she’s happy to walk or ride her tricycle most places. The strollers and wagons are only used when she’s tired, the location “unsafe” or she wants to push/pull them.

What to do with Artwork?

It was my husband’s idea that I write about this. Rachel has started doing crafts resulting in a lot of colourful papers in the house. We are a family that firmly believes in reduce, reuse and recycle, which is why at least ½ of the gifts we give are in cloth bags. But I digress. Throwing the paper Rachel’s done her artwork on in the garbage or recycling bin just because it is “used” didn’t have much appeal. I suggested we keep it (it’s usually brown craft paper) and wrap her gifts from us in it or her gifts to others. So that’s what we’re doing and after Rachel’s torn it to shreds removing it from her gifts we’ll recycle it. We’ve got so much of it I’ve started giving it to the Grandparents to use as wrapping paper.

How to Win Third Prize for a Halloween Costume

Back in mid-August my parents’ trailer park had an early Halloween Celebration complete with trick or treating and a costume contest. My parents really wanted us to bring Rachel and let her try her hand at it. Last Halloween was okay but she was afraid of the costumes. So we got home from a week’s holiday on Friday and needed a costume for Saturday evening. Well Halloween costumes aren’t in the stores yet and dress up clothes to create a little princess more money than I wanted to spend for one night. I thought about calling my sister in laws, but headed to the dollar store instead. There I picked up 2 gauze butterflies (1 pink and 1 purple) to attach to Rachel’s purple sundress. She still didn’t know what was up and just thought we were going to visit Grandma, Poppa and Benji. While supper was cooking I sewed the butterflies onto the front and back of the dress then later I popped the dress over her head. She enjoyed all the decorations and the grandparents loved showing her off. We go a number of compliments on her butterfly dress. Once she had more than enough candy my dad and I took her to the clubhouse for the costume parade. Rachel went up in the 0 to 2 age group and her simple $2 costume won third prize, which was a toonie that Rachel held onto until much later in the evening. Just surprises you what a little ingenuity and cast can get you.

What does a Two Year Old Understand?

Rachel’s an inquisitive little girl who loves slides and swings. Every time we go to the playground she want to go on one or the other and we usually let her. A few months ago when we went to one of the neighbourhood parks I had to disappoint her. See sometime overnight the playground was vandalized and the paint used hadn’t dried yet. That night my husband and I decided to get her a play set she could use in our backyard. For several weeks we looked at and tried out different systems. That’s right Rachel did the hands on testing. After our last vacation we picked up the chosen set. Even before my husband opened the box Rachel was telling us there was a slide inside and there wasn’t a picture of the set on the box. Of course once opened she’d regularly look at the slide and show others the swing seats. It took my husband about a week to get the play set assembled and each morning Rachel would ask “slide ready?” We’d tell her not yet so she’d hang her head and say okay. The morning after it was completed I had a hard time getting Rachel to come in the house for anything. As my husband was getting ready for work the next day Rachel asked him if he was finished his breakfast and if they could go outside to slide. All in all it has been a fun process resulting in a very happy little girl who I think know exactly what her parents were buying right from the time she started testing play sets.