finger thumb

poop, poop!

No, I don't mean that. If you are the parent, or grandparent of friend of any small boys, aged 2 to-who-knows-how-long-this-will-last, you know that "poop, poop!" is the sound that a train makes when it whistles its greeting to another train. At least, you'll know this if you are familiar with the Thomas the Tank Engine stories.

You all probably know by now that my tastes in kids toys runs along the lines of timeless vintage classics, wooden waldorf-ish granola fare, with plenty of little cars on the side. I generally am not a big fan of most of the current toy franchises. My kids don't watch tv (yet), partially because I hate the fact that almost all children's shows are just one giant merchandising tie in/commercial for toys that kids will beg their parents for. Also, they are often a bit on the sexist side. And where are the black/aisian/eurasian/hispanic people? Yeah, I know, there's Dora, but don't even get me started on how they had to add Diego and also, have now made Dora thinner and her clothes pinker. That's another post. All this is to say that I'd prefer, when I have a choice, to encourage my kids to play with open ended toys that don't have a pre-existing narrative to close off their creative choices.

But as the Little Dude gets older, and casts his eyes about him, my chances to steer his toy choices are starting to wane. 

He's always loved cars and tractors and diggers and trains. And at the local library book sale last fall, we found a large hard cover anthology of Thomas the Tank Engine stories. The original ones, with the art work that looks like somebody drew it, instead of having been spit out by a computer. He loved the trains, and I loved the old-fashioned-y-ness of it, and it got read. A lot. And I don't quite know when he got his first train. Probably he saw them at the book store (where they have a large play table with trains set up). Birthday money from Great Grandma arrived, and when I asked him what he wanted to buy with it, he said "Thomas the Tank Engine!" Since then, any gift giving occasion has seemed to produce one engine or another. And he LOVES them. And I wouldn't say I hate them. He plays pretty creatively with them, and they are not obnoxious. But there aren't many girl engines, that's for sure. Some, but not a lot. 

But I'll tell you, he loves, loves, LOVES building the tracks for them. When the Baby is awake we put all the pieces up on the dining room table where large, circular-ish tracks are built. But when the Baby sleeps, everything can be put on the floor, and long, lovely meandering tracks weave their way under tables and around chairs. I'll admit that I'm pretty impressed with the configurations he comes up with (like this swirly loop at the end, with a roundhouse in the middle that he made the other day. And there are many cries of "poop, poop!" and "peep, peep!" as Thomas and Gordon and Toby etc. greet each other.  But less pleasant are the many cries of "I need a new engine!" One of the larger sets that came in a big box with all the tracks, also came with a little book, somewhat misleadingly called "The Yearbook". What it is, is a catalouge of all the possible Thomas the Tank Engine toys that are available for purchase. And boy, does he look at that book a lot.

"Mom, mom, what is THIS guy's name?" he says, pointing to the book.

"That's Murdoch."

"Can we buy him, mom?"

"Not right now love."

"After lunch them mom, can we buy him then?"

sigh.

Just today he called me to his room during quiet time to say, with all the emphasis and intonation of a parent promising a toddler a treat:

"Mom, I'm thinking of a good idea. After quiet time, we can go, me and mom, to a train store! Is that a good idea?"

And everytime I have to break it to him that, no, we are not going to a train store, and no, we will not be getting a new train any time soon. Probably not until his birthday. In the summer. He does not like the sound of that.  And the other day, during the pre-dinner witching hour he was moaning and whining around the kitchen and I said to him, "you seem a little bit cranky." "You know why I'm cranky?" he replied "I'm cranky because I need a new traaaaaaaiiiiiinnnn." Uh-huh. I can honestly say its was making me pretty cranky in that moment too. 

But we've hit on a plan. We have a little jar marked "Train Money" (see above) that is full of the coins he is saving for a new engine. So the other day, after lunch he excitedly jumped down from the table and said "I know mom! You know what we should do? Lets go and find some more money!" Yeah, I wish it was that easy. Oh my boy, everyday is full of learning, and these days, he's learning that money cannot just be 'found'. So our plan is this: we're going to have a garage sale in the spring. I've promised him that when all the snow is gone we will take our grown-out-of clothes and old books and toys, and we'll have a garage sale, and all the money from his stuff can be taken to buy a new engine. He's quite keen on the idea. He's started a little box of books he can bear to part with, which is great. Of course, spring is a long ways away.
But I think he'll survive until then. 

amish teens

I had an unexpectedly busy night tonight, so I don't really have time for a big, long, gushy post about my kids (as is my wont) but instead will just take a moment to share a link with you. I was looking around on youtube for something the other day, and I'm telling you, I have no idea what strange order of click following click led me to this, but I was quite captivated by a reality TV show that I'd never heard anything about. And the reason I've probably never heard of it, is that its called "Amish World's Squarest Teenagers" Worst reality show title ever. Unless it was a contest to ascertain which Amish Teen was the actually the World's Squarest. Which it is not. What it is, is a surprisingly sensitive documentary style television show, in which five Amish teens go to the UK and live with four different families during the period of time which they refer to as "rumspringa", aka, a time to "sow their wild oats" before they settle down and accept the life and traditions of their church. It was surprisingly respectful and educational (another reason why I've probably never heard of it). There are no fights, or major conflicts, or swearing or backstabbing, (it is about the Amish after all) so in a sense its not really a reality TV show. But it was quite compelling. I'm almost done watching it. (in the 11 minute increments in which it was posted on youtube, 16 parts in total) And I've been quite captivated. But who knows, I haven't seen the end yet. I could be all down hill from part 15, with tattoos and drunkenness and pregnancies and wet bonnet contests and the like. Though I kind of doubt it. 

calm

This doesn't happen often during my day. Two quiet, still, calm little boys enjoying their picture books, side by side. Its a sight to warm a mother's heart, I tell you. Rare are these moments. And when they do occur, you treasure it. You nurture it. You grab the camera and take a picture to prove that it actually happened. And then you go and try to get something done while the quiet lasts. By some miracle, this actually happened in the half-hour before dinner. And of course, it didn't last too long, but it was very nice while it did. I managed to got a lot of my dinner prep done for once without having to say things like "Your little brother is playing happily, can you please leave him alone." or "no, that's his, toy, he had it first, why don't you go play with one of your toys." or "no, no, that's dangerous, please leave the garbage can alone." or the ever popular "get that out of your mouth!"
I'm not saying they never play quietly. They do sometimes, but its often a bit more high-energy than this. And if one of them is happily absorbed in some activity, its not unusual that the other is tearing the book case apart. Though for the baby, that does qualify as quiet activity, and I've purposely filled the bottom shelves of the bookcase with his boardbooks, just so he can have the pleasure of removing each and every last one of them. We call him our "little de-shelver" or "the baby marauder". It often keeps him happy and occupied for all of the time it takes me to prep lunch.

And speaking of food, look at the awesome little grocery list I found at the store today.  Have I mentioned that I collect discarded grocery lists? There's something about them that I just love. The handwriting, the crossing out, the weird paper people use sometimes. I love that this one is tiny. 

Also, here's what's on the other side. Um, is it just me or does item number four say 'But Mush'? I hope that's short for something. Buttered Mushrooms? Butternut Squash Mush? Whatever it is, they appear to have found it. Phew. 

vegetables!

There's a show on the CBC that I love called The Age of Persuasion. Terry O'Reilly is the host and writer (and he also has a new show, Under the Influence, and also very good). Its a show about advertising; its history and quirks and dare I say, ethics. One thing that O'Reilly often says is that good advertising is a reciprocal relationship between the advertiser and the viewer. That is to say, there is, (ideally) an unspoken contract that says that good advertising, in exchange for your attention, should entertain you. I agree. Which is why I hate those stupid "We buy your used gold!" adds. Oh, right, let me clean out the couch and find all my broken and unwanted gold! Sheesh. Luckily, there are a few good adds. If all advertising was like this commercial, I would watch adds all day.

 

Lurpak is a Danish company, and obviously, they make butter. I especially love the bit where the toss the corn cobs and they make that nice 'poonk' sound in the pot. And the part near the end where they chop their way through a purple cabbage. Such a great add.

good fortune

I feel like I've been blogging alot about The Baby recently, and that I need to note a few of the awesome things that the Little Dude has been saying of late. The Baby is just at that really cute developmental stage where he is so bouncy and bubbly and happy, and there are so many firsts that I need to mark with pictures and posts. But the Little Dude continues to amuse/amaze me with the hilarity/awesomeness that comes out of his mouth all the time. I wish I was recording what he says all day sometimes. Its not so much what he says, but how he says it. And context and emphasis are most of the charm. 

But just the other day, as I was hanging some laundry to dry around the stove in the basement, he was sitting in his little rocking chair in front of the wall of (still unpacked) storage boxes from the move. And with his finger he was "following" the words written on the side of the box, and "reading" what it said there. 

This is what he 'read':

"Mom, it says: 'You will have a happy love on a Monday morning. And some happy wisdom'."

Hm. Since when did my kid turn into a fortune cookie?

eleven months

Today our Baby is eleven months old. ELEVEN! Can you believe it? I can't. Though as Hubs and I were batting around that old cliché today (oh, where did the time go...a blink of the eye... so fast) I said to him, "actually, I feel like I've earned every one of those eleven months sometimes." There were a couple of hard days there, if you know what I mean, and when I look in the mirror, I can see them all. Right there around my eyes. Harumph.

But seriously, I'm very proud of my little/big eleven month old baby. So today I followed him around the house trying to get the perfect "eleven month old" picture, to commorate this day. But of course, it was folly to even attempt it, because that kid does not stay still for even a second, I'm telling you. So instead of the one perfect picture, I bring you a series of picture. Baby in motion, if you will.  Yaaay abacus! Both math and percussion at the same time! Shake-a, shake-a!

I love little hands so much. I love how his hands are never still. Even the one not doing the touching and poking and prodding is always off in the air doing a little dance of its own. 

And would you look at how tall this Baby is? His reach range is ridiculous. You should see how high we have to put the alphabet magnets up on the fridge in order for them not to become alphabet snacks. 

And I'm telling you, these kids cannot leave each other alone. Which is alternately heart warming and really, really annoying. At its best they are both laughing like crazy at each other's antics, and at worst they are, er, re-appropriating each other's toys. (Often during the hour before dinner I'll separate them, with one behind the baby gate upstairs and the other in the play pen in the dining room. Its the only way to get some peace during dinner prep.) 

This baby is funny and he knows it. Also, he loves to laugh. He's at the age where he's learned how to play games, which is so freakin' adorable. This is one of his favourites. It's a game we call "Where did the Baby go?" It's most commonly played after bath or during diaper changing time, when he loves to escape my ministrations and crawl as fast as he can into his brother's room across the hall and hide behind the door. Then the Little Dude and I make a big show of wondering out loud about where the Baby could have gone to. And after a suitable moment of suspense, he crawls out from behind the door to reveal himself, shrieking with laughter. He's usually buck naked when he does this, which makes it even funnier. 

He also spends a lot of time in front of this big window, looking out, watching the cars, smacking the glass with his gummy little hand. (You have no idea how dirty this window gets. The cloth I wash it with could be soaked in hot water and used to make soup once I'm done with it.)

And of course at this age there is a lot of 'monkey see, monkey do'.

Are you sensing a theme?

The window treatments in our house get worked pretty hard. So much peek-a-boo. 

After following him around the house for ages, I decided to sit him down in a chair (that was too high to crawl out of) in hopes of getting him to stay still for a portrait. 

So much for that. There is no sitting still. Ant there's just no keeping this kid down. Besides, this pretty much sums him up perfectly at this point in his life. Happy elevenses my big boy baby.

pintrest

Well, there goes what's left of my free time. Sigh. I just got a pintrest account. So, so much fun. Its like a virtual pin board, and you can go all over the internet and pin images onto your themed boards, and it automatically keeps the link to where it is on the internet, so when you want to find that knitting pattern back or where you saw that cute purse, boom, there it is. Its like bookmarking but more visual. And it has the slight thrill of shopping without the drag of spending money. Also, its like collecting but without the problem of filling your house up with stuff you don't have room for. That is to say, its really really enjoyable. But I just sat down at 8:00 and started with it, and all of a sudden its 10:15. Wha.... How did that happen. 

Anyhow, here's a link to my boards, so you can see what I've been 'collecting'. Yep, this has my personality type all over it. If you have an account (or decide to get one), come and follow me so that I can follow you too. I'd love to see what you've been finding. 

now, if you'll excuse me I've got to go back down the rabbit hole.....

birthday thrifting

I got some birthday money from far-away loved ones around the middle of the month. I love birthday money. It fills me with a childish glee at the thought of what I might spend it on. I'm probably not supposed to say that, right? It sounds a bit mercenary perhaps, but my relatives live far away, and we've all decided that buying a gift and then paying almost as much as what you spent to ship it across the country just didn't make sense. Instead we send money or magazine subscriptions. 

Anyways, I decided to spend it on thrifting. I know, that may sound odd when there is a whole mall full of brand spankin' new fashiony goodness just one town away from me. But really, if I need to explain my love of thrift shopping to you, then you just might be reading the wrong blog. I really just wanted to buy a whole lot of fabric and do a whole lot of sewing. And for me thrifting is both shopping and entertainment rolled into one. 

So here's what I got.  First of all, and adorable girl's vintage dress. 

I mean, come on. Could that be any cuter? I'm amassing quite a collection of vintage little girl's wear. And with no one to put it on I'm either going to have to start displaying it as wall art or selling it in my etsy shop. 

ok, and then it was just an amazing day for sheets. This is a very small windowpane check, perfect for backing another Star Wars quilt.

And as you see, I had an assistant/photo stylist helping out with a few essential props in the shots. 

And I was so excited about this one, because I've actually been looking for this sheet for awhile now, and trust me, it is really rare to actually find exactly what you are looking for. I used to have a sheet like this, and I love the colours and it makes such a great quilt back. I'd used up every single scrap of the one I had previously so this was on my wish list, and so fitting that I found it for my birthday!

Lovely floral. Very soft and wash-y. Will be a great back ground for some other stuff. 

This is only a pillowcase (I wish it were a full sheet) but I love it. Its so fun. Sorry about all the wrinkles, I took pictures after I washed everything, and ya'll I generally cannot be bothered to iron. Life is too short to pre-iron my fabric stash. I'm not that crazy. (Says the woman waxing poetic about old besheets. ahem)

A very 80's little pillowcase. Not sure what I'll use it for, but whatever, its cute. 

Not a very good picture, but this is a really nice pillowcase. Great quality fabric. Probably why its so wrinkly. Its going to be so nice to embroider on. 

I have a little ripped smidgen of this in my stash already, but was very happy to find a whole twin sheet of it. I love the weird star shaped flowers. 

I have this one already in pink and greens. I love getting the same pattern in a second colourway. I'm not sure why, but I just love it. 

Ditto for this one. I already have it in aquas and bluey greens. I'm loving this peachy pink version. 

And how fun is this? I love this sort of pattern that goes from dense and fades up to sparse. Very rare now, but quite popular in the 50's. And its that good, old cotton, you can totally feel it in the hand. 

And then, for bib making purposes, I got some lovely smurfs. I already have some smurf sheets, but there's been quite a run on the smurfy bibs in the etsy shop lately, so I feel like its always good to have more on hand. This one is in great shape, very vibrant and unfaded except some idiot has used it as a painting drop cloth. Tsk. But large portions of it are still useable, and I just plan on cutting it up anyhow. 

And look! Strawberry Shortcake! This is quite a coup, as I've been looking for her for awhile now. There were a number of requests at the Christmas craft shows for little Miss Shortcake bibs. So now I can get on that. 

And last but not least, I picked up this weird little throw pillow. Its so crazy and 70's and... hairy. Anyhow, for 99 cents I could not leave it behind. 

So thanks to all my BC relatives who remotely 'bought' me these birthday presents (and more that I didn't have time to photograph). How did you know? They're just what I wanted! 

what is wrong with people

Hubs and I had a rare chance to go out for a movie the other day. The stars aligned, my parents could babysit, we had free passes, and were not too tired. So we headed off to the local googoplex to see what we could see. We decided on Haywire, an action flick, which normally would not have been my first choice, but I'd heard that this was an spy movie which had a woman in the lead role, so naturally my curiosity was piqued. Also, rumor had it she was an actual woman who could really fight, and not a supermodel/stick figure with big boobs. I had high hopes.

And I'll tell you what, I was not disappointed. The lead, Gina Carano, is a Mixed Martial Arts fighter in real life, and that woman can kick some ass. And she has the muscle mass to make it believable. And sure, she was still a very atractive person, but I was so pleased to see that the movie did not give us so many of the femme fatale/female action hero movie cliches. For example, at no point did she run really far and fast wearing high heel boots. I'm telling you, I HATE that in movies. I don't care if you are Wonder Woman, it sucks to run in heels, and you would definitely not be able to outrun someone in flats. Also, there was no gratuitous scene where she a) showers for our the viewers benefit b) gets dressed, from the lingerie up for the viewers benefit c) undergoes a makeover d) pulls a gun out of her garter belt/nether regions e) seduces someone to 'gather intel' f) acts like a silly helpless woman in order to get past some guards or something. Sigh. I could go on. There are so many annoying spy woman cliches. But I'm happy to say that the character Mallory Kane, did not do any of these things. Yes, there was a scene where she had to dress up while she was undercover, and she looked really nice, but they did not make a big deal out of it, or show her getting dressed, which was a nice change. 

But make no mistake about it, this was a violent movie. And of course, even though I knew that the main character was a woman (which is why I went, after all) it was still shocking to see her first fight scene, because its weird to see a woman and a man in a real fight. I winced to see her get hit, because it looked so real. Stephen Soderbergh was the director, and he went for an interesting sort of 60/70's spy flick feel, with a lot of the fight scenes shot so your could seen both actors and their whole bodies the whole time. Which made it both less sensationalistic, and more real. There were not a lot of cuts in those scenes, or close ups, or sound effects. So it was less gory and theatrical, but also more distressing in that you didn't distance yourself from it in the way that a more cartoon-y fight would. 

Anyhow, I say all this to set up the fact that... guess who was sitting next to me at this movie. Wait for it. An eight year old. AN EIGHT YEAR OLD. And her ten year old brother. With their parents of course. There were hardly any empty seats in the theater by the time we got there, so we didn't have much choice, but I certainly hadn't anticipated sharing my movie going experience with Cindy-Lou Who. Serioulsy, what is WRONG with people? That is so not a family movie. Let alone a kids movie. It made me feel really annoyed with the parents. I didn't say anything to them because its not illegal to bring your kids to a violent movie (just stupid) and saying something wouldn't have made a difference. I'm figuring that if you are the type of parent to bring their kids to a movie that has been rated 14A, you are probably not going to be shamed into a better perspective by a stranger's opinion. 

Anyhow, it did put a bit of a damper on my movie going experience. And then the next day I saw this. 

                          Its a documentary about the representaion women in popular culture and the media. It was very, very compelling. A friend of mine posted this trailer on facebook, but I went and found that you can watch the entire documentary online here. Totally worth it. Very well done and informative. I'm not going to go on about it too much here, because you can just watch it for yourself and see how you feel. It gave me a good pinch as it were, because you do get so used to seeing the way that women are portrayed all the time, that you forget that its not, well, normal.

Anyways, I didn't come here today to preach (just complain really, a slight difference). But its just these things have been on my mind, and its good to think about important things once in awhile. Also, I just finished reading Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the new Girlie-Girl Culture by Peggy Orenstein, (a really good read by the way, and important for parents of both daughters and sons. I know its made me rethink some of my parenting and I have boys, not princess obsessed little girls). So I'm in feeling very informed on the whole feminist angle. And you know, whatever is swirling around in my head usually ends up on this blog. I know I usually post cute kids stories or recipes and quilts, but I thought I'd change it up for a worth while cause.  But don't worry, I'll see you back here tomorrow with a thrifting post. 

crumb cake

The other day, as we were finishing lunch with a refreshing, palate cleansing bowl of applesauce, the Little Dude started to talk about recipes. As you know, he's very interested in food and baking lately. If he likes some kind of food, he enjoys ruminating on what other kinds of food that kind of food could be made into. So as he finished his applesauce, he suggested that it was such good applesauce, we should put it in a cake and it would be called "applesauce cake". It would have butter and sugar and flour and applesauce and crackers in it, he told me. 

Well, why not. 

I got out my trusty old Joy of Cooking, and looked up a recipe for applesauce cake. Since it was the weekend and we had Hubs around he whisked the baby away for some playtime, making it much easier than usual to fit a little baking in after lunch, but before nap time. We measured and sifted and stired and poured and all the other actions that make baking so much fun for a three and a half year old. We were just about to mix the wet stuff with the dry stuff when L.D. said "Wait, we forgot the crackers!" I showed him the recipe in the book and said that actually, it said we didn't need to have crackers. "But its and applesauce cracker cake! We hafta put crackers it it!" hm. How bad could that be? So, in the spirit of egalitarian parenting and creative freedom I got out the mortar and pestel for him, and handed him three cornbread crackers, and let him go to town. He gleefully ground them all up and dumped them in with the flour. "This will be delicious!" he told me. 

And he was right. It was a lovely cake, moist and sweet without being too sugary. I suggested we make some frosting, but he was having none of it. How about a little icing sugar to sprinkle over the top. Nope, he just wanted "plain cake". Alright then. So we set the table and invited GranGran over to join us for some tea and the inaugural tasting of the Applesauce Cracker Cake.

And it was very good indeed.