Monday, April 30, 2007

"Da Da"... Yes I am!!!

Everything is right with the world tonight!

At about 7:40pm tonight, the Weed was laying on our bed, with a big smile on his face, when I came over to put him into pj's. He looked up at me and said, "Da Da". Clearly. Not like a fluke word, but the real deal! He called me "da da". So I called over Urban Mummy to taunt her, er, clarify, and her and I stared in amazement as he lay on the bed saying over and over again, "da da, da da, da da, da da".

I love that little boy!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Thoughts...

Belinda Stronach is not seeking re-election in the next election. HA HA HA. I knew (and probably blogged) that once she became a traitor and left the conservative party, crossing the floor to join the corrupt liberals for a cabinet post, that she would be going nowhere in politics. Clearly I was incorrect. She is going somewhere... out! Bye bye Belinda, you turncoat, and take Tie with you. His segment "Win, Lose and Tie" on TSN is brutal. I turn the channel when it comes on.

It looks like rain outside... I don't have an umbrella.

I'm really jacked that the Raptors are in the playoffs - but I hate that they are playing Vince Carter and the NJ Nets because I'll be REALLY upset if we lose to "them".

Got my marks for my 2 most recent Grad school classes... both A's. Only 4 more classes to go. YAY.

We have something in common - my wife and I - besides our kids, marriage, house, etc. I love to garden and UrbanMummy is good at it too. We have seedlings now sitting in the living room soon to be headed in the garden, of all these funky heirloom fruits and veggies. She picked them, she planted the seeds, we watch them grow. Fun, fun, fun!

Need sleep... am painting... had to happen sooner or later. Which one??? Both, or is that either. :)

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Of Poo, Sleep and Excess...


This morning on my wonderful walk to the subway I passed, not 1, not 2, but 3 Porsche SUV's either driving or parked in my area. Everytime I look at one of those cars I get angry at the fact people would actually buy these things. Firstly, what message does it give to your children... "Don't worry kiddies, we are superficial and you will be too. It's all about the name". Secondly, gas is over $1.00 a litre and with all this crap in the Middle East over oil, it's about time more of these Porsche SUV owners get out of their fucking cars and do what I do every day... Walk to the subway. Some of these SUV's are 2 blocks from the Yonge subway. 2 blocks! Thirdly, and I had to look this one up - while the price of the 2007 SUV ranges from $5K - $93K (USD) does the world need more of these cars, or Hummer's or that friggin huge Cadillac Escalade. Can you see around that thing when you drive? These things start at $56K and seat 24. They are excess x10.


As parents, once our kids hit that special age we decide we want them to start using the potty for poo and pee, and we run out and buy a little potty, sit it on the floor - usually in the bathroom - and expect a child to use it. I've noticed in the SpeakEasy household that our son walked by it for months looking suspiciously at it as if it was going to chase him down and bite his leg.

So I was more than a little surprised yesterday morning when my little boy - who not 3 weeks ago gave up his crib and pacifier within 3 days of each other, came into our bedroom and announced that he wanted to go poo AND pee in the potty so he could get that firetruck we've been offering him for 2 weeks. He ran to the bathroom, took off his pj's, his diaper and sat down with a truck and book and waited for us to come and sit with him. It was cute. He does sit there every now and then, usually at our prompting... well, always at our prompting.

But then there was poo... a LOT of poo. I mean a LOT. Neither of us wanted to go near it. UGH. I think at that moment, while he was jumping up and down, clapping and smiling, pointing at the poo, saying "I did it!!!" I was wishing he had done that in a diaper.

There must be a better way!


Sleep: Got almost 7 hours last night! 7 hours! That is 2 nights sleep, in ONE night! I'm practically giddy.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Now this I believe.

Found this in my inbox...

My site was nominated for Hottest Daddy Blogger!

Although I have only personally met a few of you, word must be getting out. LOL.

... and I have one vote so far!

I must have a stalker. :)

Don't I feel special!

My site was nominated for Best Parenting Blog!

Thoughts...

I love the Raptors. A Toronto sports team not named the Rock who are having success. GO RAPS!

As hockey season winds down, my interest in the Jays heats up.

Brittney Spears is blameing Paris Hilton and her manager for her post partum depression, shaved head, excessive partying, drug addiction, for her becoming a horrible role model for even inmates, and apparently for invading Iraq and the Suez crisis. No word if she blames them for the extinction of the dinosaur. Brit... GO AWAY.

Some jackass killed 32 people and them himself in the ultimate act of cowardess. See suicide bombers... If your life is that fucked up that you want to do this to yourself go right ahead. Take 1000 pills, or jump off a bridge, but to take an innocent person who wants to live life with you is so fucking cowardly. You are an embarassment to yourself and your family. I hope you rot in hell. Asshole.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Whew... It's been K-razy...

What a week.

We found out on Saturday (last Saturday) that UrbanMummy's 90 year old Grandmother in New York was not doing so well. Her parents had driven to see her and it was suggested that we come with the kiddies to see her too. Then as we looked at all our options, like driving (not an option after all), flying out of Toronto, or out of Buffalo, we realized that it was going to cost us $4000 for the 4 of us to fly in to NY. Then we got the call that she was getting better and that we would not need to come, and right after that call, we got the call that she passed away.

We booked a flight into Newark, NJ, rented a car and left the next day.

Tip: For anyone with children who needs to rent a car in the United States and would like the company to install the car seats for you... rent from Avis car rental. They put the car seats into the car in less that 10 minutes and they were super-friendly. More than we can say for Budget and Hertz - both those car rental companies gave us a big hassel and refused to install the car seats citing litigation concerns. In both cases Hertz and Budget gave us pieces of car seats and set us on our way to figure out installation on our own. Never again. Avis rules!!

We drove from the airport into New York and into our hotel and the rest of the trip went as expected. We were only going for 2 days, which became 4 days, and I noticed a few things about my children.

1) The Happy Boy sleeps through everything! He slept in the car through banging doors and a crying brother sitting right next to him. He slept through the night in a bed with his brother in the next bed waking up every 2-3 hours and wailing for attention.

2) My son is the entertainer. No matter if he was meeting cousins for the first time or 5th time, he was giving them a show. Talking up a storm, and dancing and singing where necessary. During UrbanMummy's eulogy, he went over to her and when in her arms, was trying to talk into the microphone (which was off). What a ham...

3) When tired, The Happy Boy bites, kicks, hits and throws things, The first night he slapped his 17 year old cousin, then tried to bite her. She glared at him, he smiled, then apologized and kissed her arm. Odd.

4) My son is very polite. Many people commented about the fact that this 2 year old was saying "excuse me", "please" and "thank you" with regularity. Hey, I cannot control what he looks like but I can make sure he is respectful.

5) The Weed makes me very tired. He still gets up every 2-3 hours... all day... and night... every day... every night. Now we are starting to understand his needs and that helps get him back to bed easier at 3 in the morning. Last night excluded.


So we did the whole funeral and shiva thing in New York, and my boys got to spend time with their cousins and it was great. I loved seeing them bond. Even if it meant that my wife's uncle who taught her her first word, "shit", taught The Happy Boy to say, "Gramma, Gramma, go fuck yourself". She flipped out, everyone else laughed and he realized the power of that word, or phrase. I heard him telling me to do the same in the car on the way to the airport home.

We got to the airport after the 3 days we were there and our flight was delayed... 2 hours. We went through customs and were steered down the side, I thought because of the kids, but nope, it was to a different area where we were all - get this - searched for explosives. They even patted down the baby. I offered to take off his diaper so they could check, but after swabbing our suitcases, they just walked away from our stuff lead strewn all over the place. Didn't even tell me it was ok to go get it. So we finally packed up and went to kill 2 hours of time. And we did. WEatching planes take off and land. For sanity reasons, we had timed the kids sleep so that they would sleep on the plane (1 hour trip) but the delay meant the Weed would be wailing on the flight and possibly the Happy Boy too.

I asked the Happy Boy to not sleep until the plane - and he did exactly that. Stayed awake until I buckled him in to the plane, then his head flopped down and he was asleep for the entire flight. The Weed on the other hand napped before the flight and was a nightmare for the first 20 minutes, but slept the rest of the way.

We landed, collected out stuff, flew through customs (because of the kids and it now being 11pm) grabbed our bag, bus to the park 'n' fly and home. Whew. Tuesday to Friday was long, busy and tiring. Now I just need to finish one final paper for my Human Resource Management course and another semester will be done. Only 2 semesters will be left. YAY.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

It's Thursday!

and my son was crying this morning because his nanny took away the baby wipe he was using to clean the windows.

He really wanted to clean the windows. Kept saying, "Windows very dirty... clean now".

He's 2 years and 3 friggin months old and now he wants windex. Oy.

3 days ago he showed me his pacifier that he uses to sleep with only, and it, like the one he threw out a few weeks previously had a hole in the top of it. He asked me to "fix it". I told him I could not. He asked me to "tape it". I told him I could not. He then asked me to "paint it". I told him I could not. So the boy who I thought would be going into his teens with this pacifier said, "broken, throw garbage", calmly walked over to his garbage can and tossed it in. He has now slept three nights without it and has only mentioned it in passing to UrbanMummy telling her it was broken, that she needed to fix it, or "buy new one".

In conjunction with this gift of giving up his pacifier, looks like my little boy is also giving up his crib. He slept the last 2 nights in his big boy bed and even this morning, he woke up, knocked on his door, yelling "Happy Boy's here" (don't ask) then came out and downstairs to teh kitchen where I was getting ready for work.

Cutie!

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Sidewalk, Seder, Sleep and Stanley...

Re-cap of the sporting week that was... Jays won season opener, Leafs destroyed 7-2 by Rangers... bye bye playoffs - crap ass team, crap ass effort when it matters, Raptors clinched playoff spot for the 1st time since 2001.

Seder's were great... UrbanMummy made a fabulous dinner for the 19 guests. It was a delight. Had some family, some friends and some people in need of a good Passover dinner. We brought up folding tables from the garage that we used to use for all-day crops and scrapbooking in our studio, and made a "U" shape. Bought more meat place settings and away we went. Great tradition. Especially since the Happy Boy, all 2 years and 3 months of him, sang the first of the 4 questions. My Mom had tears in her eyes.. if only my Dad and Grandfather (her father) could have heard this... It was special.

Sleep: None. Still getting 3-4 hours sleep a night. Yawn.

The next time people stop to talk on the sidewalk and don't move over for the pedestrians, I'm going to turn up my music real loud, put my head down and plough forward. Move, get the hell out of the way, or be run down. :)