baby thoughts

Taking Time Off

2009-06-08T16:19:00.005-04:00

Though it has been ages since I last wrote a post here I want to make sure that I take a moment to let anyone who should miraculously come to this blog and let them know that I am taking time off from using this blog to write about my life and the goings on of my family and the crazy things that go through my head.

I will still write in my other blog and all are welcome to stop by (you never know when a great deal is on at BabyThoughts.ca)

cheers and ciao
Karla

2008-12-24T10:40:00.002-05:00

There is much to do today, and though I know this, I am not feeling stressed or overwhelmed. In fact I am pretty relaxed and very happy because I finally have most of my family with me for Christmas.

I have always loved Christmas, I love getting together with family, having a huge meal at 1am on Christmas Eve right after we open our presents and staying up until 4am. I love it and for a very long time our family had been apart at Christmas.

With that said, I will have to sign off and tackle the kitchen and get things ready for the preparation of the turkey.

I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2009!

K

Huge Toy Sale on at BabyThoughts.ca!

2008-12-12T11:56:00.004-05:00

Just thought I would share with you the great sale we are having on right now until December 14 at BabyThoughts.ca.

If you are still looking for a special toy to give your little one, stop by and check out what has been marked down.

Cheers,

Karla

2008-11-25T15:58:00.003-05:00

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted here. Time sure is going by incredibly fast, November is a blur to me and I am trying to get things in order for the madness that will be December.

I finally have time to breathe and relax after the three trade shows that I did this fall. They where a great deal of work to put together, but I really enjoyed myself at all three of them. I have to say that I really enjoyed the Today's Parent BabyTime Show, I was a little worried about it because I had never done a big trade show before, but it was a great deal of fun and we got to meet really great people. I was fortunate to have Sara Bingham from Wee Hands as my neighbour. She is a really cool person. I also got a chance to stop by my fellow friend exhibitors to say hi and chat a little. A fun and exhausting weekend.

Needless to say my house looked like a toy bomb exploded in it. I had boxes everywhere, it took me an entire Saturday transporting boxes from my place to the storage area and taking stock of things. I was so happy when it was done and the threat of being crushed by toys was gone. To be honest I wanted to cry from the joy of being able to see my floors again.

Isa was amazing through out this time, she spent two whole weekends with my mother and you can well imagine that she had a blast. I was so grateful that she was able to help because we had no one else who could do it.

One very exciting thing that happened at the Healthy Kids Expo is that we discovered this really cool guy named Hans who makes these beautiful wooden blocks. His company is called Ukoonto and he makes the blocks from his home in St. Catharines. You can check out the BabyThoughts.ca blog to read more about them.

We were able to introduce them at the Children's Trunk Show and the BabyTime show and the kids just loved them. To be honest both Frank and I had fun playing with them. Hans was able to stop by on Friday at both shows and be there to promote his toys. We are very excited to finally be able to offer a Canadian Made toy.

Well, enough for today...hopefully I will get myself in order and upload the pictures I took at the shows.

BabyThoughts.ca in the Media!

2008-10-30T14:19:00.005-04:00

I just had to share the exciting news....we have our first magazine coverage. Two of our fun and vibrant grasping/teething toys are in the What's New section of the November/December Calgary's Child magazine.

They are featuring the Tiny Love Andy Apple and the all new Manhattan Toy Winkel (Citrus Burst). Both are great toys to help young babies develop their fine motor skill, hand-eye-coordination and to sooth them during the uncomfortable teething period.

The great news does not stop there, we are having a contest...Register and WIN a $150 shopping spree at BabyThoughts.ca. The contest is open until the end of November, so stop by and register for your chance to cross your toy purchases off your holiday gift list!

Cheers,
K

Beautiful Fall Day

2008-10-15T16:25:00.004-04:00

Today in Toronto, it is a beautiful(or as Isa says bupipal) autumn day. I absolutely love days like today, cool, crisp and a little over-cast. Before Isa, I would love to spend days like today in my bed with a cup of tea, something sweet and a good mystery book. Now I can only do this on the weekends, when the Husband can entertain her.

Today, Isa and I spent some time at the park before lunch and collected some bright red leaves to use for arts-and-crafts. I figured I needed to do something autumnish(certainly not a word) with her.

At first she was not very interested in bringing the leaves home, she wanted to leave them at the park, but as soon as I said that she can put sprinkles on the leaves she was picking up as many as she can hold in her little hands. Now I have to figure out a way to not get sprinkles everywhere. This is what happens to me when I try to be all crafty and stuff.

On a side note, I posted a blog at the BabyThoughts.ca blog about a great offer we are having on the Haba Walker Wagon...check it out if you are in the market for a fabulous walker for your toddler.

Introducing Vilac Wooden Cars

2008-09-22T18:49:00.005-04:00

I just love the new wooden vehicles from Vilac that recently arrived at BabyThoughts.ca. It was a long process trying to get them here because I discovered them in late July and the company was closed all of August for summer holidays. You have to be just a little envious of the French and their full month of vacation.

Well, they are finally in and I am sooooo excited to have the toys up on the site. For those who may not have heard of Vilac, they are a French company that has been around for 97 years. I kid you not. They have a large selection of beautiful toys for young children.

I fell in love with their wooden vehicles, for their abstract quality, modern design and their high gloss lacquered finish. They are just the right size for toddlers and preschoolers and encourage children to develop their creativity and independent play.

All the cars are made in France using the same methods of toy making developed by the founder of Vilac, Narcisse Villet in 1911.

I hope you like these beautiful wooden cars as much as I do. You can stop by BabyThoughts.ca and click on Vilac to see the entire collection.

Howdy Partner

2008-07-07T18:46:00.005-04:00

Isa's first ride on a horse!

I was the only unlucky one to not get to ride the horse because I did not bring appropriate foot wear...sucks to be me.

At times she kept yelling faster faster, only to get freaked out when the horse would actually go faster. We all had such a blast and we were pretty happy to be able to give her this special memory.

Roughening It in Quebec

2008-06-25T19:15:00.003-04:00

Isa and I are in beautiful Wakefield Quebec visiting with the in-laws. We have been here since Saturday morning...1:00 am in the morning to be exact. And thankfully we are going home tomorrow.

I have learned something very very important while spending wayyyy too much time here...don't spend too much time here. Don't get me wrong a get along very well with my MIL and I LOVE her place but there is just so much that one can be away from one's bed, kitchen, routine, and blissfully quiet home. I could go on and on but I think it best to not.

The important thing is that both Isa and her 'Bella" have been having a blast. And she has been able to spend quite a great deal of time outdoors with nature (you should see the bites we have) and bond with her grandparents. As for myself, I have been getting pampered with awesome food, lots of free time to spend on the sunny deck with a book and a cold beer, but more importantly great company.

We have also had the opportunity to go twice to the lake, check out some beautiful horses, eat like it's winter and we don't have to try to look decent in a bathing suit and drink like only people in the country know how.

As soon as I can figure out how to upload the pictures onto our new computer I will post some up.

Well, I am off...there is a nice cold beer waiting for me :)

It's All About The Stickers

2008-06-18T19:09:00.004-04:00

Last week I began potty training Isa, in fact I had started writing a post on her first day's progress and I never got around to finishing it. Lets just say that after spending a good part of an evening Googling "potty training" and reading all the advise, as well as the dos and don'ts I was prepared to take on the challenge.

That first day, she went through three of her new pretty 'big girl' underwear in 10 minutes. But I did not freak out, no, I was prepared. I knew that this would happen and I made sure that I explained what happened and got her to sit on her potty and went with the motions. We were able to make it to the potty one time that day. You can imagine the commotion I made when it happened. After all they tell you that you have to make a big deal of the thing so that they feel proud of their accomplishment. And believe me I did.

That was our first day, on our second day things where pretty much the same in the morning. Thankfully I had bought enough underwear to last me for some time before I had to do a wash. I had also prepared the house by rolling up the carpet and making sure that she did not play in her carpeted room (though it did not escape unscathed). A good friend told me that she would reward her daughter with one sticker every time she made it to the potty. So given that Isa LOVES stickers I decided that I would use this as well. All is fair in potty training.

With the promise of a cool sticker as a bribe, potty training turned into the easiest thing in the world. By the third day, she was doing very well and there were only a couple of accidents. Now after one week she is almost fully trained. It is just amazing, she pulls down her own pants and underwear and sits down. When she is done, she does her little cheer and dance, she oversees the flushing of her efforts and chooses her sticker. I ran into a small problem at the beginning of the sticker implementation when she wanted to get two every time. I did not give in and she eventually stopped crying and accepted her one sticker. Nice try on her part though.

Believe me when I say that I was soooo dreading starting this thing. Now the only thing I am unsure off is how to wean her off the stickers. They are like a drug to her. I will ask my friend how she did it...thank goodness for friends.

So, if you are reading this post and are thinking about potty training your little one...use the stickers. Get yourself some cheap ones at the dollar store and bribe your way through.

Good Luck!

Back to Normal

2008-06-02T13:47:00.003-04:00

I am putting myself and my house back to 'order' after the chaos that was last week. Now that the Children's Trunk Show is behind us (thank you to all that stopped by) I can relax and spend more time playing with my little Isa.

I felt like the world's worst mother last week for not being able to play with her for too long, not being able to go to the park and lets not even talk about the meals that I prepared. And don't get me started on the state of the house....and the laundry.

Well, today we spent some quality time together at the park digging holes and making 'polar bear' mountains (from Dora saves the day) and I am thinking of making some yummy treats for both of to enjoy later (banana bread anyone?) .

Well, till tomorrow...enjoy the gorgeous day.

Oh, and Isa got herself an adorable haircut. Stay tuned for pictures and the drama filled experience.

In the Name of Safety

2008-05-28T10:04:00.003-04:00

For some reason I woke up this morning at the beautiful hour of 8:00am (thank you Isa) to the following thought: Safety. I don't really know why I was thinking about this, sure, Isa has had some safety training, but most of the lessons on safety have had to do with potential hazards around the house...you know, the usual ones. Don't jump on the bed. Don't stand on chairs. Be careful with drawers. Don't bother the cat.

When it comes to street safety, the only one she truly grasps is that she must hold my hand or the stroller before she crosses the street. She hates doing it but she has NO choice in the matter and so she has given up fighting with me on it. Well the other day, a good friend told me that she has taught her daughter to only answer to a special name when in public. This means is that she is only allowed to go with people who call her by her special name when in public, a name that only family members and special friends are privy to.

I thought it was a great idea and started thinking of the special name that we could use with Isa. I have come up with many possibilities but they all sound strange when said out loud, specially since I only think of her as Isa or her other cutesy names that I have for her which I cannot ask my family and friends to say in public.

And so, I have yet to implement this, though I don't worry too much as my daughter does not even answer to her own name as it is, even from me. Though it does concern me that she will answer to ice scream. Maybe there is another safely lesson that takes priority...don't take candy from strangers. This will be a hard one.

My Petit Litigator

2008-05-18T10:01:00.005-04:00

I recently read a a short chapter from the new book Toddlers Gone Wild! by Rebecca Eckler, where she talks about what a poor litigator her child is. Isa on the other hand is a great litigator, in fact she has learned to negotiate her way into getting more time than we anticipated.

A typical negotiation with her goes something like this:

Me: Isa, it's time to ....(insert activity, ie. change diaper, eat, go home, have bath)

Isa: FIVE MINUT (holds out hand while shouting)

Me: Ok, five minutes
(wait anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes, depending on what I have going on and how in a hurry I am)

Me: Isa, five minutes are up. It's time to...

Isa: TWO MINUT ( again holds out hand with two chubby fingers sticking out)

Me: One minute!

Isa: ok, mama. (point goes to Isa)

After these negotiations she is very responsive, I think that she feels like she got her way and is very proud of herself, which we all know she has.

All this success at the negotiating table has encouraged her to pull out the 5 minute card again on us. Sometimes she gets away with it and sometimes we catch it in time, it all depends on how on the ball the mother is.

FYI Friday

2008-05-09T19:18:00.005-04:00

I hope you will forgive my self-promotion for this edition of FYI Friday. But if you are in the market for new toys for you little one, stop by BabyThoughts.ca and take advantage of our great sale!

You can't go wrong with 20% off on selected items and an additional 10% off if you register.

Happy Shopping.

One Month and Counting

2008-04-16T11:11:00.002-04:00

Isa has been with me full time now for one month. At this moment she is sitting at the dinning room table singing to her self and breaking up her play dough into little little pieces.

I have to say that the dollar store is a mom's best friend, I have stocked up on construction paper, tissue paper, crayons, glue, stickers, play dough, Popsicle sticks and much much more. Now all I have to do is google for things to do with all the crap.

It looks like I am going to have to keep this post short as Isa is yelling my name over and over again and I can't concentrate.

I have a call at noon and I hope to have her in dreamland by then.

BabyThoughts.ca's New Look

2008-04-04T14:34:00.009-04:00

BabyThoughts.ca has had a Makeover!

I am so excited to finally have the new site up, after many months of meetings, design concepts, enless hours of programing and bug hunting the site is done. Bright, fresh and happy are just some of the adjectives that describe the new design.

The new changes will make your experience looking at our Toy Collection or Staying Connected through our mom groups, parenting resources, blog and articles a very enjoyable one.

You are sure to find a toy that will aid in the development and growth of your Newborn, Infant, Toddler or Preschooler!

Stop by and check out the new look >>

French Fries and Pizza Slice

2008-03-06T10:49:00.006-05:00

You may be wondering whether this is what Isa had for dinner last night. Though that would be a very good guess, that is not the case. Those are the two phrases that I kept repeating in my head over and over as I hurled down a ski slope last weekend. We were fortunate to spend 3 days and 2 nights at Horseshoe Valley with my FIL and BIL. It was my first time ever on skis and needless to say I was quite scared.

In fact I was terrified of going downhill on two sticks, but with the help of the Husband I was able to get the hang of it and actually enjoy myself. Though I have only mastered the bunny hill (my attempt at a larger hill proved disastrous), I quite enjoy it. So much so that I will be looking into getting some more lessons and finding myself some equipment...cause if you have ever rented ski equipment you know that it's ass.

The reason for all of us(especially me) to make the effort of going and learning how to ski is because we want Isa to learn and love to ski. Well, it looks like our introduction to the sport was a success, because she had a blast. We rented her skis and got her an instructor to teach us what to do with her on our own.

All in all, it was an awesome trip. We all had a blast (especially the guys) and I came back not only with a love for a winter sport (never thought it could be possible) but also lots of sore muscles. Isa came back with an association of snow with skiing and 'the magic carpet', this is the special lift for the beginner hills.

Though I wish that I had taken more pictures of Isa, and more importantly myself to prove to all that I did in fact go skiing, I did not. You will just have to take my word for it that I was actually on skis and that I did in fact go downhill on my two feet and not on my bum.

Enjoy some of the shots that I took of Isa, her first time on skis.

You can see the 'magic carpet' behind Isa. She kept asking to go on it over and over.

Isa going down on her own. She found her balance right away. It was incredible to see how
natural it came to her.

Snowed In

2008-02-06T08:44:00.000-05:00

Today, Isa and I will be spending a cozy day at home hiding from the snow. On days that are too cold or when a big snow storm is expected I keep her home.

The funny thing is that she declared after she finished having her morning bottle that "Isa, no school". Lately, she has been saying this quite often, we have had to bribe her with the promise of fun toys and activities at school to get her to head out the door. So every morning it is a small struggle to get her to go and when I pick her up, it is another struggle to get her to leave.

At times when I pick her up from school, I have to use the "I'm leaving now" tactic, many times this has absolutely no success. In fact she actually looks at me, waves goodbye and says "bye mama, see you later". What can you do after this?

So then I have to resort to plan B, which is not very nice...I take Bear and tell her that Bear and I are going home. This usually gets her running fast towards the door. I don't like using this because I find it quite mean but at the end of the day, with the dreaded transit ride home in the cold and darkness, I just don't care. But I should not whine, she is usually really good and is great about putting on her jacket, hat and mittens. Small victories is what being the parent of toddler is all about.

I am off to have another nice cup of coffee and turn up the heating. Let the fun begin.

Cuba, Christmas and Piña Coladas

2007-12-26T15:32:00.000-05:00

I have no idea how to start this post, I have had no drive to post anything mostly because things have been pretty quiet and when they have not been I have not been at liberty to discuss.

Well, firstly I would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings, Happy Boxing Day and so on. We had a very nice and quiet Christmas over at our place, which is just what I was hopping for.

We were also able to escape to Cuba for a week of sun, booze, food and relaxation. The three of us had a blast and one of us came back with proof of having been outside in 30 degree weather (me). Both the Husband and I cried quiet heavily as we were leaving paradise but all good things must come to an end. If you are ever interested in going to Cuba and would like a recommendation on where to stay send me an email.

I am looking forward to 2008, there are many ideas and schemes swimming in my head at the moment that I hope to put into action. I have to get everything straight in my head and begin planning.

I leave you with pictures from paradise (Cuba) will share my trip in another post.

cheers, K

At the airport, Isa excited to see so many airplanes

Enjoying a drink by the pool. One drink for mama and one for Isa.

Playing, eating, becoming one with the sand.

Not very impressed with having her picture taken.

The Return of the Prodigal Blogger

2007-11-28T11:08:00.001-05:00

I can't believe that it has been one month since I last posted. To be honest I have not had the desire to write and have been putting it off. Partly because I was just so exhausted after the shows and had a great deal of work to do for Baby Thoughts and partly because there was not much going on.

I can't believe how much is happening in the blogging world in the time that I was away. Both Kgirl and NoMotherEarth had their babies, Her Bad Mother sold her house and is probably in the mist of packing and getting ready to move and leave Toronto. I on the other hand have very little to report, we are in the mist of doing some work on the site which is causing quite a mixture of emotions from excitement, to apprehension.

Isa as always is doing very well...though lately she has been giving us some awesome tantrums. I am amazed at how much she has grown up, not only is she changing physically but she has also gone through a developmental spurt. We still have not made any progress in the area of potty training, she still has no interest in it and we have not been pushing it.

I am looking forward to the holidays, especially since Isa is older and can appreciate the season much more. I have dreams of taking her to Nathan Phillips Square and seeing the lights and big tree, as well as signing holiday music and maybe if I get creative working on some crafts for her to give as gifts to the family. If I can get one done, I will be proud of myself. Some researching will have to be involved which could be an issue with me.

What else can I say...not much. I hope to be in a better mood and have some interesting things to share or make up next time.

Where Have I Been?

2007-10-27T20:47:00.000-04:00

When Isa was around 3 months old, we attended the Husband's company children's party and she received a Fisher Prize sorting toy (see picture). Needless to say she did not get to enjoy it right away and so I put it away until she was the right age to play with it. The toy says that it is good for children 6 months+ and so I waited to introduce it to her.

Well, I did just that, and what happened you wonder? As expected she had no idea what to do with it. I then tried to show her how you play with the thing but she still had no idea. Furthermore, she would get really frustrated with trying to fit the pieces in the holes and ended up banging on the toy and getting really upset. In the end I would take the lid away and use the toy to teach her the shapes and colours in Spanish. We or I, would build towers out of the circles, squares and triangles, I would also sort them into categories and by colours. Isa on the other hand could care less, she enjoyed destroying my towers and disorganizing my neatly ordered shapes.

After some time, I decided to just put the toy away and to bring it out later. Well, that time came a week or so ago and this morning while I was playing with Isa in her room, she takes the sorting game, takes the lid off and dumps all the shapes. She then takes a moment to sort the squares, triangles, circles, and stars into little piles. Then she lines up each little pile in a straight line. Once she is happy with how they are arranged, she places the lid back on the thing and turns it so that the right hole is in front of her in order to make it easier for her to put the piece in. My mouth dropped to the floor. I wanted to grab her, squeeze her, kiss her and laugh all at the same time. I could not believe that she had done it.

What a wake up call this was for me. I cannot believe that I missed her attempts at mastering this very important toy. I have to be honest and say that I wanted to cry with happiness at her accomplishment. I have no doubt that she has been able to do this for some time and I have not had any idea. It has made me ponder all the other things I don't really know she can do.

This is just another indication that my baby is not a baby anymore. But I am so not ready to see her grow-up. One thing is for certain though...she is lots of fun to play with.

You're Not the Boss of Me!

2007-10-24T21:37:00.000-04:00

Mama...come with me.

I feel like lately I should be telling Isa this, the last few weeks she has been bossing me around and for some reason I have been doing what she says.

Frankly I feel like she has always bossed me around, when she was younger it had to do with feeding. I would quickly feed her at the first sounds of a whimper. I was always uncomfortable letting her cry for too long if she was hungry. As she got older it had to do with carrying her too much. Well now in her old age she is still at it and the Husband has told me that I have to take control of the situation.

I should say that it is not like she gets away with things that she should not, that is one thing that I have been able to remain firm on. It is more like she likes me to be in the place of her choosing. For instance, she tells me where to sit down on the couch, when to read her a story and what story. She does not let me lie down anywhere except my bed and if she does not want me to lie down at that particular moment she asks me to 'sit up mama' and takes hold of my hand.

She still does not like it when I am at the computer, she gets really upset and starts crying and pleading for me to stand up. I am not really sure how to handle this, lately I have been getting her to calm down and ask me in a calm voice to please stand up. I don't want her to think that I will stand up when she cries and whines. But I am not sure if I should let her think that she can always get me to stand up? I also don't know if this is something that at this age is fine and when she is older I will be able to provide some sort of distraction or explanation as to why I am at the computer. I have no idea.

The important thing is to be more assertive myself now and not let her push me around too much. I so believe that I have to set some limits, she does need to know that I may not want to sit in a particular place all the time or that I would like to lie down and that she is welcome to lie down with me or go and play with her father.

Okay, wish me luck.

For the Love of Reading

2007-10-18T11:35:00.000-04:00

Today is the kind of day that if I did not have a billion and one things to get done, I would spend the entire day in my bed reading a good book. I honestly can't remember when my love for reading started. When I was young living in Nicaragua the only books I had were my school books and to be honest I can't say that I remember reading at all. I would rather spend my time playing in my room or outside with my friends. I also think that what did not help was that we were in a state of civil war and books were a luxury item in a sense.

My love of reading really began when I was around 11 years and I was introduced to the Toronto Public Library. I could not believe that I had the ability to take out any book I wished for free. In the summer time I would ride my bike to the library and spend hours going through all the stacks and looking at what books there were. I loved to read and read anything and everything. My favourites were the mystery/detective books, I loved to read Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. I also liked to read the scary stuff such as Christopher Pike and R.L. Stein. As well as the 'dramatic' stories if you will of Judy Bloom and the Baby-Sitters Club.

Reading has always been a way for me to escape to a different world, imagine myself a different person and to put aside any worries or concerns that I may be experiencing for a short time. If I am feeling sad, worried or stressed I like to escape to my room and take out one my favourite books and read, such as any of my Agatha Christie books or Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. These are my sure bet books, I know that I can read them over and over again and still enjoy them.

I still love to go to the Library and browse the stacks to see what new author would interest me. I always tend to gravitate towards the Mystery section as I love a good mystery and enjoy spending a quite Sunday morning during Isa's nap in my bed with a good detective book.

Recently I have noticed how much Isa loves it when I read to her. I was struggling with reading to her because before she would grab the book from my hand and flip the pages herself not really letting me read. But now things have changed, she likes to sit on my lap holding the book open while I read to her. She no longer rushes or tries to take the book. In fact she likes to have it read to her over and over again. I have also noticed that she can handle books that have a longer story or require her to act out things.

This new interest and maturity that she has shown in reading has made be realize that we need to spend more time in the Library together. I want her to become acquainted with it and to learn the etiquette of being in a Library so that we can spend quality time there among the books. I am really enjoying this as I hope dearly that Isa will have the same love for books that I have.

Back From the Dead

2007-10-15T12:30:00.000-04:00

I guess that the title post is a little melodramatic but it sure has been some time since I last posted. I can honestly say that I have no idea where the previous week went. I was so busy with work that by the time I had a free moment to blog the last thing I wanted to do was write some more.

Well, today will be a short and sweet post. I am spending the day trying to get a hold of my toy suppliers and make all my purchase orders for the rest of the year. My brain right now is busy with BabyThoughts stuff that I have nothing interesting to blog about.

I am going to leave you with a few pictures of our trip to Ottawa for Thanksgiving. We were trying out our new fancy camera and so I will like to show them off. Just be aware that just because it is a fancy camera the photographers themselves may not be doing it justice.

We had an amazing time at my MIL's place but had an absolutely awful ride back home that just remembering makes me want to hurl.

I am sure that I have mentioned how much I loath long weekend traffic and now more so with a two year old who spends the entire time begging to get down. And how can you blame her when you too are wishing to get down as well. Not fun at all.

So, like I was saying, we had a blast. All the goals that I set out for myself to accomplish I did. Eat...check. Drink...check. Relax...check.

The view from my MIL's balcony

Isa, doing quality assurance on the pumpkins

The Wakefield Train...this was Isa's highlight of the trip as she is in LOVE with trains right now.

F.Y.I. Friday

2007-10-05T09:42:00.000-04:00

I would like to share with you the one store that completely changed my life. This store not only made me look damn good, but it gave me self-confidence, improved my posture and helped my back.

Secrets From Your Sister

If you have not heard of them, I would highly recommend that you stop by and check them out. Secrets From Your Sister is a lingerie store, but more importantly they will measure you and give you your correct bra size. Believe when I say that if you have not gotten measured by a professional you are wearing the wrong size. Even if your breasts are not large, you can still be wearing the wrong size.

I was introduced to them five years ago when I received a gift certificate for my bridal shower. I went to get myself something pretty and I came out crying with excitement because I had found a place where I could get a bra that made me look AMAZING. I do have to warn you that it does not come cheap but having clothes fit well, having your breasts look amazing and feeling so sexy in whatever size you are is priceless. Absolutely priceless.

There have been times when I wished that I could carry a stack of their business cards because I have walked by many women who are wearing the wrong bra. I just want to educate...I want them to feel as great as I felt. The thing to know is that it's not just women of a certain age and size that are wearing the wrong size, it is women off all ages and sizes from young little tiny women to more curvaceous ladies.

I invite you all to stop by their place and get fitted, you can then take that number and shop for your bras at whatever store you like or give your self a treat and get yourself something pretty and sexy from them. More importantly you should get measured every once in awhile and certainly after any big change in your body (pregnancy, after-pregnancy) because your breast size will change.

Happy Shopping!

Here Is To Baby's BFF

2007-10-04T15:12:00.000-04:00

I am a little slow on finding out things...only recently did I come across the League of Maternal Justice and their message and mission. In the spirit of motherhood I have decided to step down memory lane to my early days in Breastfeeding Land and drag you all with me. I promise it will be a sweet and short trip.

I have to say that I was unbelievably-freaking-lucky to have had my wonderful doula at Isa's birth to teach me the ins and outs of breastfeeding. She was there to take Isa's little head in one hand, my boob in the other and put the two together correctly. Because of her hands-on approach I was one of the fortunate few who did not have cracked nipples or bleeding (please don't hate me. please).

Breastfeeding was the one thing that I was absolutely terrified about before Isa was born. I was not worried about the labour (boy was I wrong), not the recovery, the complete lack of sleep (I was in denial on this) or the taking care of a new human-being. No. I was was worried about breastfeeding and whether I could do it, whether Isa could do it, whether it would be the most painful thing on earth and whether I would be able to stick it out. Though I knew, read, heard or guessed that it would be work, one thing I had no idea about was how lonely I would feel.

At the beginning when I was trying to get comfortable managing a small baby, undoing my maternity bra and correctly placing the baby to obtain a good latch, I would feed in private. If I was out, I would excuse myself and find a private place, this was so lonely because I would spend the next 15-30 minutes (I really can't remember how long it took) with just Isa. Amazing as she was she was not such good company at the beginning.

But just like everything, things got so much better, by the end I was feeding anywhere and everywhere. I did not care and I got so good at whipping out the boob that I did not feel self-conscious or awkward or embarrassed. I did what I had to do, I was always discrete and the efficient Isa was always quick. If there is a lesson to be learned, it is that you must persevere because the reward is too good to pass up.

Now it is a distant happy memory and hopefully just like riding a bike, it will be like I never stopped so when baby #2 comes along I will be able to get back on it with ease. Not that this is happening any time soon.

We are back now, that was not too long and too mushy I hope. It was nice remembering the good-old days, if there is one thing I miss about breastfeeding is not having to worry about what to feed Isa. Maybe more importantly is that I was always sure that she would love it. This is not the case anymore.

The Dark Clouds are Dissipating oh so Slowly

2007-10-03T11:02:00.000-04:00

For the last couple of days I have felt very down and unsure and stressed and worried and ...

I have been struggling with some work related things that I have been finding quite challenging. I have always felt overwhelmed when first confronted with an unfamiliar task and once I have taken some time to evaluate what is needed and tackle it in small pieces I get over my worries and fears and get it done. True to form the same thing has happened with my newest work project, it certainly helped that the Husband was able to talk me away from the ledge and get me to break things down into manageable pieces. He also offered his help which I am so grateful for.

And so today I was able to get a small but very important part done and sent off. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted and I can move forward onto the next step. Positive thinking. Positive thinking. Must have positive thoughts.

Alright, enough of this whining I am going to go and get my lunch ready...I am re-heating left-overs from last night and later on I will make a banana bread to use the very very ripe bananas that we have.

If you want a fast and finger-licking good recipe for Pork here is what I mad last night. It is courtesy of Chatelaine magazine:

Rosemary Pork with Pears

1 pork tenderloin
1 tbsp each of Dijon and chopped fresh rosemary
2 firm ripe pears
1 tbsp maple syrup or honey

Preheat oven to 450F. Place pork in the center of an oven safe dish and coat all sides of it with both the Dijon and rosemary. Slice pears in half, lenghtwise and remove core. Drizzle pears with either maple syrup or honey and place around pork with cut side up. Roast until pork is well cooked about 20 to 25 minutes, serve and enjoy.

Yum Yum Yum!

A Little Bit of Walking, A Little Bit of Partying and a Whole lot of Fun

2007-10-01T08:53:00.000-04:00

This was a very busy weekend for me, we had two parties to go to, lots of work to be done on the site and had to head downtown to walk the 5K for a great cause.

It was a wonderful weekend full of family and friends, Saturday we went over to my in-laws to celebrate my father-in-laws' birthday. Isa was in her usual spirits and the grandparents were eating her up. I have been teaching her the words to Feliz Cumpleaños (Happy Birthday) for over a week now in order for her to sing it at her grandfather's birthday. But she got stage fright and was not able to perform. All in all it was a great Saturday, the food was finger-licking good, the conversation was easy-going and we ended the night watching my new favourite show, Entourage. Love it.

I had to turn in early on Saturday as I was going to pick up Her Bad Mother at the indecent hour of 7am, 'cause we had to be downtown to meet up with the others for 7:30. And because I always panic that I will miss the alarm and wake up really late, I kept waking up every hour before I really had to get up. So I was up at 4 am, 5 am, 6 am... you get the picture. Needless to say we got downtown fine and after a great deal of cell phone tag we were able to meet up with the other walking comrades.

For those who may not know, we were taking part in in The Scotiabank Toronto Marathon in support of Her Bad Mother's nephew Tanner who has Muscular Dystrophy. It was such an eye opening experience for me because I had never taken part in any of the walks and had noooo idea how big of a production it would be. I wish that I had brought my camera but like my cell phone I left the house without it.

It was an amazing experience for me and one that I hope to make a tradition off. I found those that were doing the half and full marathon awe-inspiring. It was also so much fun meeting the other fabulous blogger ladies and put a face to the blog. If you stop by let me say that it was very nice to meet everyone, hopefully we can get together again...but maybe not so early.

...On to the second part of Sunday.

I got home and was 'invited' by Isa to play with her, she likes to boss me around and tells me to sit down on the floor and play. She also tells me when she likes to nap and when she likes me to watch Dora with her. I was finally able to convince her to sleep and headed to bed myself. But my sleep never came, I lay in bed in the darkness for two hours willing sleep to come...it did not.

And so, I got up and got things ready for the Big Birthday Bash. Just like the Summer Birthday Bash, we were all getting together to celebrate the birthday of all the fall babies. It was a huge success with everyone coming and having a fun time. The kids played, ate, danced, ran around, fought and made up. We adults ate and drank and got caught up on our lives. By the end I was ready to pass out from exhaustion but was still able to watch the end of the Season Two of Entourage.

Infinite Love

2007-09-27T20:13:00.000-04:00

I don't know if I can put into words the love I have for my Isa. Every time I think of her my heart swells and I can't help but smile. I could be in a crowed bus, at the grocery store or just watching tv at home and if I think of her a smile comes to my lips. I have always been a affectionate person, when my little brother was born I was always kissing him, hugging him and calling him all kinds of funny names. In fact my pet name for him for a very long time was 'lover', now at 15 years old, I have been asked to stop calling him that.

After my parents and little brother moved back to Nicaragua I went through some serious withdrawal and so my husband got me a cat. Let me tell you that I poured all my hugging and kissing and cute name calling on the cat. And like any self-respecting cat he was completely disgusted but tolerated me.

Then when Isa was born, I fell in love all over again. But I was scared to hug her too tight or to kiss her too often, she just felt so delicate. My awkwardness did not last long, soon enough I was able to show her all the love that I had for her. We would have so much fun together, cuddling, and kissing. I have a million and one pet names for her, I had to stop calling her by her many names because I was afraid that she would not know her own name. Now that she is an active toddler, she does not allow me to kiss her as much. She says no bepos mama, bepos is how she pronounces besos which means kiss. Now I have to ask for her permission to give her a kiss, but every once in a while I sneak one in and she laughs and says ' no bepos mama, no bepos'.

There are times when I miss the baby that Isa was, but I love the vibrant, active toddler that she is and look forward to seeing the young little girl that she will become. I have a need to go into her room right now and hold her in my arms, give her a good squeeze and shower her with kisses...but I can't because she is sleeping and Isa sleeping makes me really really happy.

Traditions: The Good, The Bad and The Scary

2007-09-26T09:32:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that September is almost coming to an end. I really thought that I would not be able to get through the month, what with birthday parties almost every weekend, getting prepared for the two upcoming trade shows that we will be taking part in (more on this to come) and all the work that had to be done on the business.

I am looking forward to October, it is one of my favourite months because we always head over to my in-laws for Thanksgiving and celebrate the Husband's b-day with them. October is also what I consider the beginning of Fall, all the trees change their colours and begin to loose their leaves, the air is crisp, and everywhere you walk there is a blanket of multicoloured leaves that crinkle under your feet.

I also love Halloween, which is interesting because I did not get to experience Halloween until I was 11 years old when we came to Canada. I remember one year when I was about 8 living in Nicaragua all the parents of the neighborhood that we lived in put together a big Halloween celebration for us. What this entailed what that we could get dressed up and go to certain houses and they would have candy for us. In reality we ended up going to each other's houses to Trick or Treat but it was a great deal of fun and we sure where not going to complain about whom we got candy from. Candy is Candy.

In Nicaragua when I was a child we obviously did not celebrate many of the 'holidays' that are celebrated here. Certainly we don't have Halloween, Thanksgiving, the Easter bunny, and even Valentines' Day. What we do have are Pagan-Christian celebrations and one in particular puts Halloween to shame. Also our celebrations are certainly not PC (politically correct), they can be racist and sexist.

One of the celebrations that I remember with fear and I think is the reason why I sometimes have nightmares of being chased, is a pagan celebration that we have where young people, mostly young guys and kids would paint themselves with black paint or even tar and attempt to paint people black. I can't really remember the purpose behind the festival, I don't really know why they have to paint people black, all I know is that it is quite scary to have a mob of black bodies run after you in order to overtake you and cover you in black paint. What you usually do is stay close to your house and as you see the mob coming you quickly run inside and protect yourself. This is what happened one year when we went with the family to visit friends and took 'part' in the festival. I was terrified. The house that we were are had a balcony on the second floor and we would go out there and watch the people running for cover. Needless to say I never ever took part in this again.

There is one celebration that I absolutely love and miss, it is called 'La Purisima' and it is held in December and it is the day in honour of the Virgin Mary. It is mostly women and children who take part in this celebration, and to children it is like Halloween because we go from door to door and get candy and presents. In reality what happens is that everyone on this day opens up their homes and invites anyone and everyone to come in and sing wonderful, beautiful song to the Virgin Mary. At every house you are given something sweet to eat usually made with rum. After you have sung a few songs you leave and as you leave you get a candy, or a fruit and off you go to the next house. My mother would usually go and sing in a different friend's neighborhood every year, we would go in a big group from house to house with candles, singing and laughing, full of sugar (and rum for the adults). I went to one 'Purisima' here in Canada when we first arrived and it was such a sad affair because it was cold and we could not go out walking and so it was held in a gymnasium where we all just sat around signing in a huge brick box. My mother and I never went again.

This sure has been a long post, it has brought back lost of memories and made me a little homesick. I am a little sadden that Isa will not be able to experience the same wonderful celebrations that I did, the ones that made me feel so full inside. Even today in Nicaragua things are no longer the same. Many traditions and celebrations have gone or changed but new ones have been created as well. I keep telling myself that our family will create new celebrations, take part in new festivals but there are times when I find it hard not to look back.

The Party Continues

2007-09-20T09:56:00.000-04:00

This year I was able to put together a little party at Isa's daycare to celebrate her birthday with her classmates. It went as follows:

Date: Monday September 17, 2007

Time: Again after nap time (around 2:30)

Place: "School" a.k.a. daycare

It was quite an exciting surprise to the birthday girl to see not only her Mamá arriving at her school but her Nana as well. Even better was the fact that they were both carrying trays filled with cupcakes smothered with vanilla icing and sprinkles. Many of the invited guests were still sleeping but were soon awoken by the shrieks being emitted by the others, who were dancing and singing to birthday music. Once everyone was up and changed they were all invited to sit at the table with their birthday hats and served a yummy cupcake.

Birthday wishes were sung to the birthday girl who was very much taken with the lit candles on her cake that she ended up hurting her finger. There was a small pause as she realized that her finger hurt but with a quick kiss from Mamá she was able to continue singing.

As soon as the singing ended all 12 guests dived in into their cupcakes. Many took their time to savour their treat, others were not as patient, while others did not seam too interested in the sugary snack preferring to eat their healthy bagels. Overall, the majority of the guests enjoyed the icing quite a great deal, the birthday girl true to form inhaled her first cupcake and asked for another one. With her second cake she only went as far as licking the icing off and taking only a couple of bites, but no worries she had friends who were able to help her.

After everyone had enjoyed their vanilla icing, guests were treated to more dancing music. Everyone enjoyed dancing to 'If your happy and you know it" and "Mambo #5". The birthday girl performed her signature move of running around in circles and falling over. She gave a few performances before she was whisked away by her mother and grandmother.

It was an early departure but a great deal of fun was had by all. The happy day ended with a screening of Dora in parents room while Mamá took a short but necessary rest.

The End

Feliz Cumpleaños to Isa!!!

2007-09-19T11:23:00.000-04:00

I meant to put up a post this weekend to commemorate Isa's 2nd birthday but sadly I was not able to. No worries, this means that I can write about all the wonderful festivities in one post and put up some pictures (which I spent about an hour editing yesterday).

Here it goes...

First Event

Date: Sunday September 16, 2007

Time: after nap (say 2pm) until bath time 7pm

Place: Grandpa and Nana's house

The birthday girl was a little late to arrive at her party as she was enjoying her beauty sleep and her Mamá took too long to get ready. She arrived at the party location at 3:30, most of the guests where already waiting, they included the grandparents, Tía Caro, Tío Lance, Tío Miguel and Great-Aunt Jen. The last party guest to arrive was Tío Chente as he had also enjoyed his beauty sleep.

Guests were invited to spend some time in the garden and enjoy the nice weather before Winter arrives. Everyone moved inside quite soon as dinner was about to be served and those dressed inappropriately for the outdoors, or those with colds were getting a little chilly. The birthday girl's place was set with new Dora themed dinnerware, this was greatly admired and commented on quite frequently by said person. Dinner consisted of steak, potatoes, roasted corn and salad.

Everyone enjoyed themselves, conversation revolved around the birthday girl's resent move to a toddler bed, the upcoming election and the yummy food. Once dinner was finished, the birthday cake made by Tía Caro was brought in.

This is Isa's favourite as it has strawberries and whipped cream... in reality it is everyone's favourite. Birthday wishes were sang, the candles were blown and the entire cake was consumed.

Once the eating portion of the festivities were over, everyone retired to the living room for the opening of presents.

The birthday girl really enjoyed herself opening her gifts, she was particularly taken by the tissue paper but once she discovered her Dora pajamas she had no interest in anything else. She demanded to try them on right then and there. As soon as she had them on, she was able to return to her task at hand. All presents were opened and ignored at once. She them proceeded to run around in circles. Her parents were quite concerned as they worried about the upcoming bed time.

The celebration was a great success, everyone really enjoyed themselves. There was good food, great wine, an absolutely delicious cake and best of all family. The birthday girl refused to depart from her party until she had gone to feed the ducks in the ravine. Her parents were really anxious to get her home to start wining her down and get her ready for bed.

The birthday girl fell asleep in 15 minutes (to the relief of her parents) with visions of Dora and Boots in her head.

Feliz Cumpleaños Isa. Con todo nuestro amor Mamá y Papá.

Event #2 to come tomorrow

Toilet Training...Not Happening

2007-09-14T12:15:00.000-04:00

I like my diapers mama

Isa will be turning two this weekend and I have been wondering if I should be encouraging the potty training thing. I have to admit that I am not looking forward to the training, quite frankly I would like to whole thing done with and by some sort of miracle have a fully trained child without me having to put too much effort. I know that this is so not going to be the case, and though I am not grossed out at all by the process I am just not looking forward to having to be consistent about it and always be aware of her bodily functions. When did she last pee? When did she last have water or juice or food? Did she poo already? Will she poo again? These are the kinds of things that I will have to be very much aware off.

In any case I have started looking out for signs that she might be ready to begin but have not noticed much change. For instance she does not really go for long periods of time with a dry diaper, she certainly does not tell me when she is going to go pee pee or poo poo. In fact if I ask her she denies it and runs away. I also asked the day care if they think that she is ready to begin the training and this is what they said..."not Isa, she is not ready at all". They don't think that she is there yet, though she does know what the potty is and she has sat down on it, she is still not ready. They told me that it will probably be a couple of more months before she can start and that we should not worry about it. Who's worrying? Not me. I am going to leave it up to them to tell me when she is ready to go. Her teachers have SOOOO much more experience with this than I do and as soon as they tell me she is good to go it will be full steam ahead.

I have decided that I will go out and get her a potty and have her get comfortable with it. My hope is that she will get used to it, start using it and begin to put two and two together. My biggest fear is that she will have a negative reaction to it at some point, though I guess if that happens I just have to remove it from sight and bring it back out later. Not a big deal when you think about it.

If you have some tips on potty training and would like to share, please leave a comment. I know that I can use as much help as possible. You are welcome to share your story of how your child(ren) were potty trained and what worked and did not work.

My next challenge...transition to the big bed. We are in the process of transitioning Isa to the toddler bed as we speak. It is certainly not fun at all, more on this to come.

How Isa shows you she likes you...she lifts up her shirt

2007-09-13T21:56:00.000-04:00

I am not sure if I have blogged about how Isa loves good looking men. This daughter of mine enjoys flirting with men on the subway on our way home from day care. But she does not flirt with just anyone, no no she only has eyes for the hot guys.

I am always amazed at how good she is at it. She would spot some guy as soon as we get into the train. Then she makes sure that she makes eye contact and gives him a big smile. She quickly turns away and every once in a while she will look his way and try to get him to smile at her.

unfold trying By the time we are leaving the train she waives goodbye and gets a wave back from him. Can you believe it. I am always watching things unfold desperately trying not to laugh and not to look at the guy because who knows what he may think.

Well, today at her day care they had a visit from the local firefighgters who brought along the fire truck. I am sure you can well imagine where this is going. Her teacher tells me as I go and pick her up that Isa really liked one of the firefighters, as soon as she saw him, she walked up to him, lifted her shirt to show him her belly button, gave him the look and a big smile and sat down next to him. Her teacher told me that she did not leave his side for the entire time he was around. I could not stop laughing as she was telling me the story. I kept picturing her lifting her shirt up and being all proud of it.

Boy I really do hope that this stops by the time she is a teenager, I don't want her showing off her belly button to every guy she likes. She is just too funny:)

And She's Off....

2007-09-05T15:30:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to share another video of Isa, this one is of the first time she crawled. For a very long time she would just get on all fours and move her body back and forth, back and forth. Then she started to move backwards, until one day in May she actually put everything together and moved forward.

The only reason why I was actually able to capture the event was because I was filming her do her back and forth movements. Then all of a sudden she started moving forward. It took all the restraint in the world not to put down the camera and run to her to give her a big hug and kiss.

So, as I used to say when I worked at Famous Players Theater...sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

The Good Old Days

2007-09-02T21:18:00.000-04:00

There is so much to say but I have no energy to get into it at this time...so I will upload a video of when Isa actually enjoyed eating many things beside just cheese and bread. Rest assured that I was always ready to jump in should she take a bigger bite than she could handle...just in case you are worried:)

Where Did She Learn That?

2007-08-25T22:08:00.000-04:00

I am writing you this post from my new Sony Vaio laptop, the Husband went to the mall today with Isa of all people while I took at wee nap (about 3 hours long, please try not to hate me) and surprised me with it. It is meant to assist me in my work which means that I can write posts while I watch tv after Isa is in bed and not worry about waking her up with the noisy keyboard that we have. hurray.

Well, now that I have shared my new news, I am going to share a very interesting incident that occurred at day care the other day. One of Isa's day care teachers told a very interesting thing on Friday. It seams that little Miss Isa has learned the art of deception if you will. Listen to this, you all know how she is in LOVE with her 'Bear' and that she takes him everywhere. Well, at school (day care) she is not allowed to take him to the playground because he will get dirty and the other children are also not allowed to take their security objects with them as well. Well, Isa was playing with Bear and her teacher asked her to please put Bear away because they were now going outside.

What does Isa do, you ask? She takes her hat and hides Bear in it and tries to sneak him outside. Can you believe it? Well, her teacher is in awe of her because Isa tells her in a calm voice that Bear is away and that she is now going outside. Meanwhile she is cluthing her hat agaings her chest and trying to sneak him into the playground. The child is something.

Her teacher told me that she was really impressed that she would go to such lengths to take Bear with her. Me, I am trying hard not to laugh, while on the inside I am really worried because it shows just how much she loves the thing. What am I going to do if something happens to him? I am in so much trouble.

My Brain Is Going To Explode

2007-08-23T12:08:00.000-04:00

I have been doing quite a great deal of research lately that I feel like my brain is going to burst. Even though I need to take a breather for half an hour I thought that I would take five minutes to write. I meant to post yesterday but I had Isa with me as we had a play date that afternoon, as you all know, I can't spend more than two minutes sitting at the computer before she starts having a breakdown. I really have to work on this problem, but knowing me I will just let it be and just not work in front of her.

Well, what can I say that is remotely interesting and worth reading. Not much I'm afraid. I find that now that Isa is older there are 'less' things that are funny or embarrassing(for me). This is not to say that she does not have her moments, like the crayola incident but now I forget faster and if I don't take the trouble to jot things down they are lost.

One little funny thing, which maybe only be funny and cute to me is that now she is calling herself 'Ita', she can't say Isa and for sure she can't say her full name. So now it is always, 'Ita shoes' or 'Ita up', 'Ita bear' and so on. I think that it is hilarious and sometimes I actually catch myself calling her Ita, but really I should be calling her by her full name so that she eventually uses it. I am just so lazy when it comes to names, I have always given people short names, if I could have found a nice short version of my name I would have used it but you can't do much with Karla...Kar does not work for me.

What other useless tidbit can I share....let me think...I guess that I can share some of the new developments in the eating and bathing routine. It seams that Isa has lost any interest in all kinds of foods, now she will only eat dairy products (cheese, milk, yogurt), peanut butter, bread, avocados and strawberries, oh and she will each sweet bad things like cakes and chocolate(she is my daughter after all). This is all! You can imagine my frustration as every attempt at getting her to have a nice cooked meal fails. So I have taken a step back and decided not to fight her on it, now I give her what she likes. Though I always offer the food that is available for dinner for her to try, maybe one day she is accept it.

One thing that has helped me keep my sanity is that she does eat cooked food at the day care. Why you may ask? As I have mentioned before, it is due to a thing called 'peer pressure', this maybe bad for teenagers but a wonderful thing for toddlers. So she gets vegetables and meat during the week at day care. Sad but true.

Now for the bathing routine, for some reason, I have no idea why or when or how it happened, Isa HATES to have her hair washed. She screams and squirms and tries to get away from the water. She is okay with having shampoo in her hair she just hates it when it is time to have it rinsed. I wish I knew when we freaked her out for the first time or whether this is just her thing. This means that I have to be quick about the whole rinse and deal with the screams that come out of her. In toddler fashion, as soon as it is over she is all smiles and happiness. What's up with this?

Well, it looks like I have spent more than five minutes on this post, but I needed to write the new developments down before the next batch arrives.

*************************************************************************************************************
I would like to call on everyone who stops by to take a moment and support BabyThoughts and myself by placing a vote (Canadian residents only) for us at the SavvyMom Mompreneur of the Year contest. You can view my profile here or go directly to vote here. Every time you vote you will be entered to win great prices.

Many thanks,
-K

Off With Their Heads!

2007-08-13T09:26:00.000-04:00

Over the last few months now, Isa has really begun to enjoy painting and drawing and though she does quite a great deal of both at day care she does not have many supplies at home. It took me too long to realize just how much fun she has and how much fun I have playing with her and getting all messy with her. So the last time I was at the store I picked up a big pad of paper, paints and crayolas for her.

Well, we were coloring just yesterday and after some time I had to leave her by herself at her little desk and do some house work. I figured that since she was happily scribbling that I could probably get quite a lot done. Well, I did but there was a small cost. After I finished doing as much as possible I went in to check on her. I noticed that her cheeks were bulging, I look down at her hand and the she held crayon had been decapitated. So I ask her as I open her mouth to investigate if she has been eating the crayon? Needless to say she is adamantly shaking her head no as I open her mouth and find a kaleidoscope of colours. I look around at the other crayons scattered on her pad and notice that many have had a little taken off the top.

My first thought is nooooo not the new crayons, then I try to hold in the laughter that is threatening to escape because Isa looks hilarious trying to close her mouth in other to keep her crayon tops in. In the end I stick my finder in her mouth and scoop out the stuff and try to get as much as possible. I was not able to get everything as she was not a willing participant of the removal of the crayons and her teeth are sharp. I am just thankful that they are non toxic.

It looks like I have to make sure that when I get her markers that they too are non toxic because if she is like this with the crayons, imagine what she will do to the markers. Can't wait to try out the paints.

And Then There Were Three

2007-08-10T09:12:00.000-04:00

I have mentioned many times that Isa LOVES her small little bear like it was her own baby. Her 'Bear' is very much just like her in her mind and whatever she does he has to do as well. This means that if she eats, he eats, if she has to put on sunscreen then he has to have some as well, if it is time to put on sock, then Bear has to have socks on as well... you get the picture.

I have also mentioned how we almost lost Bear a while back and since then I have been on the hunt for a back-up bear. I have gone into countless stores trying to find the same one, because she will certainly not accept anything else. Unfortunately it looks like her Bear has either been discontinued or he is just not that popular because I can't find him anywhere.

Well, on our way back from Ottawa with my mother in law, we stopped by to get gas at this nice place called The Flying J. As we walk in we see that they have a huge display of Ty Baby toys and head over to see if another bear is there. No such luck. Isa on the other hand is grabbing anything and everything she can carry in her two little hands and calling out 'mine, mine'. My MIL and I are rumeging through the selection to see if we can find a comparable, as we are doing this Isa spots this nice little cat and starts getting excited. This little cat has the same feel of Bear but obviously is not a bear, and she knows that. She keeps saying 'gaco' which means cat and is walking away with it. So my MIL says, well why don't we get her that and slowly take Bear away. So we look for a second little cat which will be the backup. Unfortunately Isa sees us and dives for the second one.

She is all excited because now she has two 'gacos'. Big Mistake. Big Mistake. Instead of solving the problem of one bear we now have the problem of one bear and two cats. She has to go to sleep with all three of them, and all three of them must be present everywhere. I was able to draw the line at taking them to daycare so only Bear gets to go, but now I have to figure out how to remove one of the cats without her getting too upset. I think that I will give it time and see if she gets bored with them.

In the end I still have to find another Bear because she is not giving him up, any other toys is just an extra and not a replacement.

Party Time

2007-08-03T11:08:00.000-04:00

As promised, here are some pictures of Isa at the birthday party for all the children in my amazing mom group who turned 2 during the summer. Enjoy:)

We are off to Wakefield, Quebec for the weekend and I am so looking forward to my mother-in-law's delicious cooking, lots of nice conversations and a good amount of drinking. Oh and all the nice outdoorsy stuff that we do in the country like having bonfires, swimming in lakes, sipping a nice cold beer while lying on a hammock as you watch your child run around naked as the day she was born and loving it.

So without further ado here is the great Isa. Needless to say she had a blast. She ate a ton of guacamole dip with nachos, as many strawberries as she could get her hands on, two cupcakes (hers and mine), lots of soap and who knows what else.

As soon as we arrived, Isa spotted the balloons and had to have one. She held onto the thing like it was her life line. She never let go.

There was a station set up for the kids to blow bubbles, at this time Isa did not know how to blow . In the end all she did was get completely full of soap and scream any time one of the other kids wanted to play. She is very possessive.

And she is off...see that even when she is off sailing she will not let go of her balloon.

Isa decided that her hands were not picking up enough cake so she took matters into her own mouth. By the end all the other kids where bobbing for cupcakes. It was hilarious.

And that is all...afterwards I took her home and tried to help her get down from her sugar high. Though she is used to sweet things so she does not get that hyper.

Soon it will be time for the second round of birthdays...the Fall babies are turning 2.

F.Y.I. Friday

2007-07-27T12:23:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I had an F.Y.I. Friday, but I came across a neat(do people say neat anymore?) website that I thought I would share with you.

It's an online store called Zig Zag Boutique, and they sell second-hand or 'gently used' clothing and accessories for women and children. I have to say that I will certainly give them a try for when I start looking for fall and winter clothing for Isa. Ever since she has started day care I have stopped buying her expensive clothing because she just destroys them. Isa is a little girl who likes to become one with the paint, markers, crayons, glue, sand, mud, water and any other sensory activity. Because of this I can't bring myself to buy her the beautiful and pricey clothing from Baby Gap, Baby Roots or Gymboree.

To be honest I have had a great experience with clothing from Zellers. I find that they can have some really nice things at really good prices. The clothing has also done well after going through the washer and drier a billion times. Sears also has good sales and some good brands, but you have to spend time going through their racks and there are days when I just don't have the time or energy to do it.

So I will take a look at what Zig Zag Boutique will have to offer me for fall. I am off now to return to reading Harry Potter, I cannot put it down, I have been reading it almost non-stop since yesterday.

12 Days Later

2007-07-22T20:32:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that I have not posted anything for 12 days now. I have been meaning to but if it's not one thing, it's another. I have also been busy with work stuff and we have an aunt from Spain visiting.

I am finding that July, like June is just flying by. Isa is booked every Saturday this month and Sundays we always go over to my in-laws. Looks like August will be the same, before you know it Fall will be here and then the dreaded winter. But I get ahead of myself. To be honest I am looking forward to the fall because so many things will be known, mostly to do with the business. I know that this is vague but I don't really know myself, which is what is causing some sleepless nights and worries. I am just looking forward to getting some answers.

Isa, as always is doing amazing. She gets smarter by the second. She has now discovered that if she says 'please' she will get something, this means that if she wants something that she is not supposed to have she would say 'please mama please' or in Isa language 'peease mama peease'.

Tomorrow we are off to hang out with the moms at the park in the morning for a little splash fun. I doubt whether Isa will actually go into the water, she has not done so this summer. I think that she finds the water too cold, she seams to take after her Nicaraguan mama who will not swim in any water that is not luke-warm. So she will probably make me hang out with her in the park while all the other kids have fun in the pool and the moms chat and stand over them.

Hopefully it will not be almost two weeks for my next post, I have been meaning to write about all the topics that I have found important to me as a first time mom with some experience but when I sit down to it, all the words escape me. We shall see when they return. Here is to a good week:)

*******************************************************************************************************
Just a reminder that the voting for the Savvymom 'Mompreneur of the Year Award' is still open. I would certainly appreciate your support and your vote. To find out more about me Karla Zamora and BabyThoughts.ca you can stop by Savvymom and place a vote.

Thank you.

Still Here...barely

2007-07-10T15:27:00.000-04:00

I see that it has been quite some time since I posted, to be honest I have not had the inclination to do it. My head has been filled with many things and some of those things have been funny, interesting blogs that I meant to get up but did not. I have also been battling some demons in the old noggin.

Today thankfully is a good day, I have gotten quite a few things accomplished which makes me feel very productive.

I don't really have one particular topic of conversation, so I will give you a run down of what BWM and the great Isa had been up to as of late. I am assuming here that you are actually interested but if you are not that's okay I understand completely.

So here it goes:

- After spending a whole week with me, Isa returned to day care. Her teacher commented on how much weight she had lost. Personally I don't see it but hey no problems. It was probably cause by me withholding almost all dairy from her life for that week as a way to stop the diarrhea.

- Being that it was so beautiful outside and that the kiddies were out for the summer holiday things were pretty quiet in the work front. Needless to say not a good thing but expected.

- We had a pretty quiet long weekend, we headed out to the Beaches on the holiday Monday with Isa to get out of our house. We usually just hang out in the village but we needed a change of scenery. All in all a good experience, Isa had a blast looking for rocks in the sand, thankfully she did not ingest that much of it as I believe she is now over sand having had enough of it at day care. The Husband and I are thinking of going back with more gear and maybe another family next time. I really enjoy the Beaches and have spent quite a great deal of time there. It used to be our hangout when we were young (pre-clubbing/drinking ages).

-This past Sunday, we had a big birthday party for all the kiddies turning 2 during the summer months in my mom group. What fun it was, I will certainly post pictures soon, I just have to find the damn cable that hooks up to the computer. Isa had a blast and I have to thank the moms who put together the party because they had so many fun things for the kids to do.
I think that a post dedicated to this day will have to be written sometime soon. Isa was hilarious and there are pictures to prove it.

That is what has been going on over here. Tomorrow we are off to a play date (weather permitting) and this Saturday we have another birthday party to attend. In fact we are actually booked for all off July, well to be more precise, Isa is booked for all of July. I am not. I guess this is what it will be like from now on:)

Tragedy Strikes...Almost. Phew.

2007-07-03T15:53:00.000-04:00

On Friday afternoon on the way to the park Isa dropped her favourite stuffed animal 'Bear'. I did not become aware of the incident until we were on our way home from the park one hour later. You can imagine my panic. Up to this point, Isa had not become aware that Bear was missing, but I knew that she could ask for him on the way home.

I don't have to tell you how worried I was, how was I going to explain to her that Bear was gone? How would she react? Cry? Scream (the most likely thing)? Will she sleep? Can I make it to the store and get another one? These were all thoughts that were going through my head as I walked home with her.

My friends whom we had gone out to meet told me that given the neighborhood that we lived in, someone probably found him and just left him somewhere where I would see him. This was my hope. So we left the park and re-traced our steps home. Nothing. No sign of Bear.

Then as we were half way home, Isa asks for him. I tell her that bear is at home (hoping that maybe she had dropped him as I was putting her into her stroller). She does not believe me, I think that she knew that she had brought him and I was keeping him away from her.

Screaming begins...I try to explain that bear was at home and that she would see him there. Screaming. I give up and begin walking pretty fast, still re-tracing our steps. People stare, she keeps crying, saying 'Bear, please' 'mama, Bear please'. You can imagine how absolutely awful I felt, by this point I wanted to cry as well.

Then, one block from home, I saw him ...Bear. He was found, I am just so happy that I almost start crying. He was hanging out with some flowers in the little bag that Isa carries him in. I am so grateful to whomever picked him up and placed him there. I think that it was probably some mother who understood the significance of the little guy.

I picked him up, brushed him off and handed it over to Isa. I know that I probably should not have done it because I don't know whom he had been hanging out with and because she had just been crying for him and having a nice tantrum, but I did not care. I was just so happy to have found him and to give him to Isa who missed him so much.

She grabbed him, smelled him and squished him real hard. The entire way home, she kept looking at him and saying 'Bear', she would show him to me and say 'mama, Bear' all the while hugging him for dear life.

Bear means the world to Isa, he is her most favourite stuffed animal. He was there for her when she transitioned to day care and helped her during the first days with no pacifier. I have got to find myself a second Bear because if we loose him again we may not be so fortunate.

Isa and Bear

Mama needs a vacation

2007-06-29T11:20:00.000-04:00

This week Isa had to stay home from day care because she had a mild case of diarrhea. Thankfully it is not a severe case but she is still not up to the right standards to return to day care which means we get to hang out together until Tuesday. Yay.

But I have to be honest and say that I am exhausted, I don't have to tell anyone who has a 21 month old that they are busy people who require constant and varying entertainment, who always criticize your cooking (at least mine does) and who must be exercised at least twice a day. Thankfully we were able to go and visit friends for a pool party and today we are off to the park to hang out in the splash pool. You can imagine my excitement.

Right now I am able to bring you this update thanks to Sesame Street and it's power to captivate. Every time I have to do something that I don't want her to join me in I pop in the trusted DVD and like magic she sits down and quietly watches it. Hey I take the help were I can get it, cause if not the girl would be hanging from my leg all day long.

Well it looks like it is over now and she is probably going to require feeding and hopefully a nap. I wanted to share our interesting time at the pool party but it will have to wait until she is down or maybe even for a later date.

Have a Happy Canada Day weekend!

The SavvyMom 'Mompreneur of Year Award'

2007-06-28T09:29:00.000-04:00

Baby Thoughts.ca is nominated for the SavvyMom 'Mompreneur of Year Award'.

Help us to continue make a difference in the lives of Canadian parents by providing them with exceptional developmental toys, valuable information through our online resources and supporting social networking among moms through our mom groups.

Your support is greatly appreciated, please stop by and vote for BabyThoughts.ca

Are You On Facebook?

2007-06-27T11:30:00.002-04:00

Well, like probably everyone in Toronto, I have signed up on Facebook. Not only do I have my profile but I have also created a Baby Thoughts Group The group is a place were parents can share their favourite or not so favourite resources, websites, products, companies and anything else that they may want to. Please stop by and check it out and if you are interested sign up and start a conversation.

I also wanted to send out a reminder that our June Sale at Baby Thoughts will soon come to an end. If you are searching for a great gift or for something for your little one stop by and take a look at the great selection of 0-6 month toys on sale. Remember that if you register you get an additional 10% off which you can put towards your purchase at any time.

Cheers everyone and enjoy the heat:)

This and That, That and This

2007-06-20T12:08:00.000-04:00

This post is about some of the special things that Isa has been doing lately. I want to write them down so as not to forget, cause we all know that it happens.

- She has finally started calling me mama. When I was teaching her to call me mama, I would touch my chest and say 'mama' then touch her and say 'Isa'. But instead of calling me mama she would touch her chest and say 'mama'. Then she started to think that the shirt was called mama so she would touch my shirt and say mama and then touch her own shirt. But now she knows that I'm mama. She never had a problem with papa because I would always call out 'here is papa' and so on. Needless to say I was so happy when she finally made the connection.

- She gives people hugs and puts out her cheek to be kissed when someone asks her. Its funny because she will give you a kiss if you ask for a 'beso' which means kiss in Spanish but if you ask for a 'kiss' she will give you her cheek for you to kiss her.

- Every morning when she leaves for day care she says 'bye mama, I yo you' and reaches up to me for a kiss. This just makes me not want to let her go.

- When she goes off to day care she must have her purse, this cute little bunny thing that her aunt got her for Easter with her sippy cup in it. She must also carry her favourite stuffed toy 'bear' on her other arm.

- At school, we have been told that she loves her sensory activities, like painting and playing with goop. She loves it so much that they have to change her out of her clothes and put her into day care clothes because she bathes herself with the paint. I never know in what state I am going to find her in when I pick her up. Its just too funny.

- She has been responsible for teaching her class mates Spanish. Her favourite teacher Carrie speaks Spanish and ever since Isa joined the toddler room she likes to speak Spanish to Isa as much as possible. So the other children have learned as well and actually ask Carrie for certain things in Spanish such as 'leche' which means milk, and 'agua' which means water. The day care people just laugh at how the other children can pronounce the words so well, probably better than Isa.

- Isa's speaking and vocabulary is improving, though she still does not pronounce things correctly she is consistent with her words and many times knows both the English and Spanish word for something.

I just love this stage, we have quite a lot of fun together, though there are times when all I want is for her to take a nap so that I can have some quiet time.

The Other Mama

2007-06-19T14:37:00.000-04:00

I think I have shared with you all how as of lately Isa and I have been joined at the hip. The girl will not leave my side and wants me to do everything for her. Well, last week at the big bar-b-q party that her day care put together I discovered the other person whom Isa clings to, Carrie, her amazing day care teacher.

The party was a lot of fun, I guess as much fun as it can be with 20 toddlers running around, all fighting for the same toys or pushing each other to go on the slide or the bouncing castle in what felt like 40 degree weather. One big plus was that I got to meet many of the other parents of the children that share the Toddler Room with Isa. We were able to chat while our kids ran around. Well at least their kids, Isa was as expected right beside me holding onto 'her' ball.

At one point, one of the children had to go inside and Carrie had to take them in. So what does Isa do? She lets go of my hand, and walks towards Carrie and the little girl and goes with them. I was in shock. She never leaves my side, not even for her father. Carrie tells me as they are walking away that she always follows her in, in fact she follows her everywhere. Ha, so I'm not the only one.

Off she went, with Carrie and I had about 15 minutes all to my self, I was smart and used the time to get some food and something to drink. But what I really wanted to do was go on the bouncy castle. Oh well.

Here are a few of the pictures that I took of Isa at her day care.

Couch Potato...and Chicken

2007-06-14T14:27:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I started something that may be coming back to bite me in the you-know-what. I have to blame it on being just a little frustrated, tired and hot due to another adventurous trip home on the transit system.

Usually after we get home from the day care, I prepare Isa's food and she eats it at her high chair watching the Treehouse channel. Try not to judge, because frankly I use the time to get our own meal prepared or to do something else. Well, needless to say she usually gets so distracted by the show that it takes her almost an hour to finish her dinner. That day I just could not wait for her to be finished and so I did something different. I sat her at the couch and fed her. I know, I know BAD idea. I don't have to tell you how much she enjoyed that. So now every time that I just want to get food into her and don't feel like fighting with her to eat, we sit at the couch and watch whatever show is on the Food Network. She is usually done eating within one show and she eats everything and anything I put in front of her mouth.

Well yesterday I wanted to see if you if she would have a preference for either eating in her chair or on the couch. I know that it is probably quite obvious, who would not like to eat in front of the tv while being fed by their mother. But I was curious to see if she would actually communicate her preference. Well, she did. She got up on the couch sat in her usual spot and patted the spot were I sit and said 'comima' which is her world for food. Smart little bugger, isn't she? But wait, there is more, it seams that she wanted to be an independent little one because she insisted on feeding herself. That's right, she wanted to sit on the couch and feed herself.

Needless to say, we will not be having a repeat eating session on the couch from now on. It will be dinners at the high chair with her feeding herself and probably tv . I will just have to deal with the constant reminding to eat and the hour long sessions but at least she will be eating by herself in her highchair. Two out of three is better than nothing.

Never Again in a Million Years. Ever.

2007-06-11T16:12:00.000-04:00

Oh boy, did I make a HUGE mistake on Saturday.

Let me explain:

I was invited by a good friend of mine, Xime who has a daughter the exact same age as Isa with the same name (Bella) to go over to her place so that the girls could play and we could hang out and chat. She asked if I wanted to come by in the morning, say at around 9 am, so that we could take the girls to the park and be back for them to have a nap.

I was like, sure, I should be able to make it there for around that time. After all Isa wakes up at 7 am, which gives us more than enough time. Unfortunately I had a terrible night and was really really tired the next morning. I asked the Husband to get up with the girl and to wake me up with just enough time to get ready and go.

Well, being that we live in a condo, with the living room next to the bedroom and a verbally happy little girl, I did not get much sleep. I think that I got a good 20 extra mins. No worries I thought, I will take a nap when she naps in the afternoon.

So off we went to our play date. We make it there for 9:30 am and head out in a wagon with the two girls sitting facing each other. By mistake we decide to bring a ball, needless to say they both want the ball, so I go and get Isa her ball. But she does not only wants her ball but she wants the other ball. Finally we get them to settle down with the balls, each one is carrying one ball. This happy period lasts for a total of 5 mins and just as we were just too far from the house to go back they start going at it again. Solution, take both balls away. Which means that we have to carry the annoying things four blocks to the park.

On the way to the park, Xime suggests that we get a nice coffee (I was in serious need of one as I had not had time for one before I left). We stop at the coffee place and she goes in to order for the both of us as we could not bring in the big ass wagon. So I stand outside with the girls, and the crying begins. Bella begins to fuss and whine because she wants to get out of the wagon and go with her mom. Isa begins to whine because she wants the balls back. And there I am on a busy sidewalk standing in front of a fancy coffee shop with two screaming little girls in a wagon holding onto two balls trying to figure out what to do. So I give them the freaking balls and start moving the wagon around in circles near the store window.

Xime comes out with the coffees and tells me that I should go in to put the sugar and milk in mine while she watches the girls. I knew before I went that Isa was going to throw a big fit as soon as I was not right beside her. So I warn her and tell her not to worry that I will be as fast as possible.

I go and Isa freaks. I can hear her wailing outside, I quickly put sugar and milk in my coffee and go back. All is well in the world now.

So now we have two restless little girls, two scalding hot coffees, two balls and one cumbersome wagon. Before we go to the park Xime would like to stop at this specialty train store that Bella likes to go into. To be honest I was a little worried at this point because I have no idea how Isa was going to react to it. Also, I felt a little embarrassed walking into this store with a huge red wagon, food, and two screaming little girls. But Xime reassured me that it was always busy with kids and that the owners did not say anything. So off went.

Thankfully the stop at the train shop went relatively well, there was only one little episode which was dealt with quickly and with food. Xime and I were able to finish our coffees while the girls played with the train sets and get caught up on gossip.

Once we finished our coffees and the girls were played out we headed out to the park. Needless to say that they did not want to get back into the wagon being as they had already been let out. Thankfully I was able to get Isa back into the thing with food as a bribe. This never fails me.

At the park the girls go nuts, they actually have a great time and really enjoy themselves. Xime and I spend the entire time chasing after them and making sure they don't kill themselves. I always find the parks extremely dangerous for little kids and so it really stresses me out, but that folks is for another post.

Well, before I know it it's 11:30 and Isa usually has her afternoon nap at this time. Oh no. I don't panic right away, after all, I figure that she can hold off until 12:30 or so. I tell Xime that we have to get going as Isa needs to get home to sleep. We start to head back but Bella refuses to go into the wagon. She wants to walk. By herself. Her mom is not happy about this and tries hard to hold her hand but she wont have it.

In the end I got home at 1:00, Isa fell asleep in the car, which was expected. I quickly get her out of the car seat hoping that she will not freak out and startle herself. No luck. I rush home and as soon as I am through the door, start taking off shoes and hat, as we head straight to the crib. I am hoping that she will just pick up where she left off. No such luck.

In the end she did not go back to sleep, the only sleep that she got that day were the 20 mins in the car. Needless to say we were both a wreck the entire day, I was tired and she was exhausted and we both could not go to sleep. I even tried to take a nap with the Husband taking care of Isa but she spent the entire time crying over one thing or another. It was just awful.

So that was a very big lesson learned. Respect the girl's nap time. I think that if I go back to visit Xime in the morning I will have Isa take her nap at her place or make sure that we are home by 11:30. Because I am never doing that again. Ever.

No.No.No.No

2007-06-07T20:00:00.000-04:00

That ladies and gentlemen is Isa's new favourite word. 'NO'. In fact it is probably one of two words that she can clearly pronounce, the other one is 'bear'.

The really funny thing is that she knows very well how to use it. If I ask her to do something or eat something that she does not like, she says 'no'. Firmly and with conviction. If she thinks that you may not head her she repeats it and says it again and again each time with a little more desperation and fear that she will not be understood.

There are times when being the caring mother that I am, I play a little bit with her head. I will illustrate:

BWM: 'Isa, would you like to have a bath?'

Isa: 'no'

BWM: 'Would you like to go to bed?'

Isa: 'no'

BWM: 'Are you sure you don't want to go and have a bath and play with your bath toys?'

Isa: 'nooooooooo, nooooooo, nooooooo'

BWM: 'would you like some cheese?'

Isa: 'no,no,no...????'

By this point she is processing the fact that I just offered her some cheese(her favourite) and is backtracking. Now her new favourite word is 'mas' which means more.

BSM: 'Isa would you like some cheese?'

Isa: 'mas,mas,mas eese'

I do hope that I don't cause too much damage, but at least it gets her to understand even further how each word is used and what her preferences are.

Even if, in the end I will be the one to suffer from this greater understanding when she is saying 'no' to everything. At least there will be no doubt when she truly wants something.

Hello Who Is This? Who?

2007-06-06T12:32:00.000-04:00

I got a very interesting call yesterday morning on the Baby Thoughts phone...a reporter from CBC.

You read correctly...The Canadian Broadcasting Channel. Needless to say I was really really surprised and a little exited to be receiving a call from a reporter on the company phone.

It turns out that the CBC was doing a story on crib sleeping vs. co-sleeping. I was informed that they needed to find a mother with a young baby to shoot putting them to sleep in their crib and she was wondering if I could suggest someone. My mind goes blank. Panic sets in because being the kind of person that I am I really really want to help this women. But I can't think of anyone who has recently given birth.

Then eureka, I do have a friend who has a 5 month old, I ask reporter-lady whether this is too old or not. Not. So I call, she is not answering. Fudge. Then it hits me, one of my really good friends has a friend who lives in the neighbourhood who just had a baby girl. Perfect.

I give her a call and thankfully she tells me that she will ask her friend, it turns out she would be happy to do it. I call reporter-lady back and give her the info and we say our goodbyes.

Unfortunately I missed the segment, it was ran during the National yesterday at 10pm but I called my good friend to see how the filming had gone and whether she had been able to catch it.

It turns out that they were doing a story on the statistics around SIDS and co-sleeping. I did co-sleeping, does this make me an irresponsible mother? It turns out that I was playing with fire and putting Isa at risk. To be honest at the time all I wanted to do was sleep and THE only way that that child would sleep was by hearing my freaking heart beat all night long.

I felt a little defensive, my friend said that though they did not come out and explicitly say that co-sleeping is BAD it was quite obvious what side of the fence they where on. I think that I just took things a tad too personal. I wont go any further with this topic in this post because I just don't have the time to do it justice. Maybe, I will post about my adventures with sleep and Isa at a later date. Lets just say there were not all rosy.

But all is good, the important thing is that I was able to help this CBC reporter and hopefully (keeping fingers and toes crossed) she may remember me and who knows she may one day come calling.

You've Gotta Read This!!

2007-06-04T11:03:00.000-04:00

I was going around visiting my favourite bloggers on Friday and came upon Metro Mama's post on May's ROFL Awards which stands for Roll On the Floor Laughing. The award is bestowed on deserving bloggers who make us laugh so hard that our stomach muscles hurt the next day.

So being the good lurker that I am I went and took a look at what all the fuss was about. And let me tell you that there are some seriously funny ones, in fact I am going to share the ones that I found incredibly funny and so clever.

My absolute favourite is Mad Hatter's Blog called Under The Mad Hat and her post titled The Local Chapter.

The post is on the annual general meeting of the Storybook Character's Union. All I can say is that it was brilliantly writen. Mad Hatter was able to capture the many characters that we read to our little ones on a nightly basis so well. You can totally picture the meeting with the characters all present and each bring forth their concerns and complaints from Job Security due to the child growing up and no longer reading the baby books, to Extended Health Care for the Pop-Up books due to enthusiasm of the child. Hysterical.

Another funny funny post is The New Girl's Memo to My Immune System. You have to stop by and read because it is just too funny, in fact I found most, if not all of her posts hilarious. I think that this blog will have to be added to my list of daily reads because if she is this funny before the baby, she will be freaking gut-busting once she has the baby. She reminds me very much of Martinis For Milk, Scarbi Doll's post when she was preggers with her son would have you pissing your pants every time. If you have the time and inclination or would like a pick-me-up you should take a look at her archive of posts, they will certainly bring a tear to your eyes.

Something wonderful for me that came out of these ROFL awards was the inclusion of a blogger called Kgirl and her blog The Kids Are Alright. She used to write under another name but for personal reasons had to abandon her blog, I guess that she has re-surfaced again as Kgirl and is back to posting. This is great, as I loved her style of writing and found her blog extremely entertaining. She too will be another addition to my daily reads for sure. Don't ask me when I will find the time to read all these people, I guess that Isa will just have to learn how to get her own food and put herself to bed.

There you have it folks...my top three. I highly recommend that you take a look at all the nominees and pick your own favourites.

Laughter on Monday morning is a must, specially on a rainy Monday morning. Cheers.

Isa's Top 10 'Dislikes'

2007-06-01T09:56:00.000-04:00

I was going to call this post the top things that Isa HATES but hate is such a strong word that I decided to go with dislikes.

The list has gotten longer, though some things have not gone away, I guess that it is only expected as she gets older and she is exposed to more things. So without further delay here is the list:

1. Cold Milk. Isa will not have her milk if it has not been warmed up. She could be starving but she will refuse it and sometimes throw it back at me if the temperature is not right.

2. No socks. She has to have socks on all the time. It can be disgustingly hot outside but she still needs to wear socks. I am able to persuade her to not wear socks with her sandals thank goodness.

3. Eating without a bib. I know this is a funny one, but Isa must have a bib on her before she eats.

4. Mommy holding other baby. She freaks out if I hold another child, be it a baby or toddler. It does not matter that I tell her that it is not my baby but right now she cannot comprehend this and so she starts crying and trying to climb on me so that I pick her up.

5. The stroller coming to a stop with her in it. Now if she is in the stroller, it must be moving. If it comes to a stop then it is time for her to get out. This means that when I have to wait for the bus after I pick her up from daycare, I actually have to walk back and forth at the bus stop. Can you believe the things you will do.

6. Her Hat. When the weather started getting warmer and it was necessary for her to wear her hat she would REFUSE. She would cry and take it off and would not let us put it on her. Thankfully daycare has helped us with this little problem, there she has no choice but to wear her hat to be able to go outside. Also all her little friends have one so she will wear one. Ah, peer-pressure. Such a wonderful thing with a toddler.

7. Empty hands. The girl needs to have at least 5 things in each hand in order to be happy. She prefers pens and other long and sharp things but she will settle for purses, bracelets, cards (like mom's credit card or driver's licence) and her favourite, markers. In order for you to take something from her you must offer something in exchange and it had better be good or she will not take you up on it.

8. Her hair washed. She screams every time I wash her hair, you would think that she was in extreme pain by her screams when I wash her hair. I don't understand it, because it is a baby shampoo and the water is at a good temperature. She is okay with me putting on the shampoo but not taking it off.

9. Waiting. Isa like probably many toddlers hates to wait for things. If she wants something, she must have it NOW. Understandably she has no sense of 'in a minute', if she does not get want she wants when she wants it she breaks down and we have to calm her down before she gets the object.

10. Mommy at the computer. Isa really hates it when I am at the computer desk, she comes up to me and begs, whines, or cries to be picked up and to sit on my lap. It does not matter that her father was playing nicely with her, if she sees me at the computer she drops everything and runs towards me. What's up with that?

There you have it, Isa's top 10 list.

Quality Time

2007-05-31T11:02:00.000-04:00

I had Isa with me all day yesterday, we were hosting a play date and I was not in the mood of rushing to the daycare to pick her up and make sure I was back before our guests arrived. So she stayed home, which presented a couple of challenges:

Challenge 1: take a shower without the Husband home.

Challenge 2: do some grocery shopping.

Challenge 3: get some work done.

Ever since she can move on her own, I have not had to try to take a shower with just the two of us home and her awake. Usually I make sure that I am ready before my Husband leaves or I wait until she is having her nap. But yesterday we both(Isa and I) slept in and I was not going to get up to have a shower before he left. I could not wait until she took her nap at around noon because I had to get some things for the play date and we would not have enough time afterwards.

So what do I do? I did what any desperate mother does...I sat her in front of the television and popped in a DVD. At least if was Sesame Street in Spanish so she was not watching just anything.

I waited to make sure that she was entranced and ran to the bathroom to take the quickest shower ever. I came out and she was sitting on her little chair 'singing' along to one of the songs.

With the success of challenge 1, I decided that we should be able to pull off challenge 2. Since it was such a nice day, I thought of stopping at the small park close to the grocery store for her to get some outdoor play time. We had lots of time to do both and she is used to going outside at daycare, so I wanted to do the same.

Well, we get to the little park and as expected it is busy...big surprise. The funny thing is that even though Isa goes to daycare and she is used to having to share the playground with lots of little buddies, she is still weary of a different playground. She has to evaluate her surroundings, evaluate the kids and then she will proceed and play. Well for some reason, yesterday after she evaluated she decided that she would not go and play. I blame it on this little boy who was running up and down the slide, with his mom yelling 'that's a 1'or 'that's a 2'.

So instead she went hunting for her favourite thing...sticks. By then I was bored and really wanted to get to the grocery store and go home. I was able to convince her to get in her stroller by letting her keep her twigs and we headed to the grocery store.

At the store the fun continued, she needed to hold everything that I picked up. At one point she had an avocado, a lemon, a zucchini, and a block of cheese in her little hands. I had to draw the limit at holding a package of meat. Needless to say this just sent her over the edge and she let me have it.

Thankfully, the store was not busy and I was done, well I had no choice but to be done. I payed and pushed the stroller home as fast as I could.

Even though the grocery store outing ended in tears it was not that bad, by the end she was hungry and tired. We got home had some cheese and she went straight to bed. And thankfully she slept for over 2 hours. yay.

Her long sleep allowed me to take care of challenge 3, I was able to get most of my work done while she slept and some of it while she ate her lunch.

In the end it was a great day, though she was extremely clingy at the play date. She would freak out if she could not see me, so she followed me around all day. This was really weird because she is a very independent child and the people who where over are those whom she has known since she was four months old.

By the end we were both exhausted, she was in bed by 6:30 and mama on the couch with a beer soon after that.

A great day!

Are You Feeling the Heat?

2007-05-24T10:31:00.000-04:00

I am happy to report that the interrogation aka parent/teacher meeting went well. Frankly, that is what we were expecting but it was nice to have confirmation. It looks like Isa is doing GREAT and that she is a well behaved, happy child who plays with everyone and everything (exact words from teacher).

Isa at her desk reading...she is such a good reader.

I was sooooo happy that they provided food for the little ones while the parents were talking. This meant that I did not have to worry about feeding Isa when we got home...cause there was nothing prepared and with Lost starting at 7 there was not much time. So, she had a wonderful dinner of Lasagna with orange slices for dessert, believe when I say that I could not have done better. Lately I have had no imagination when it comes to cooking...I blame it on the weather and my laziness. Enough about my poor culinary skills, specially when it comes to feeding the Isa...I think that I have talked about this more than enough times, that you must be rolling your eyes by now. Done.

Moving on....did you guys catch the season finale of Lost? was it not awesome? Well, the Husband and I were very impressed, I like how they were kind enough to answer some questions yet still leave some things a mystery. I also like how we got a glimpse of Jack's life after they are rescued. All in all it was a very good finale, we are very much looking forward to next season. Which is something that I can't say about 24. I have to say that this season totally SUCKED. It started out really good and then as soon as they brought in the conspiracy with his dad and brother it all went downhill. The last episode was just so absolutely awful, the part about how his father wanted his nephew was so so annoying. I guess you can see that I did not care for it.

Enough about my hatred for 24, lets move on. Today is a very busy day for Isa and I, we are going on a play date later this afternoon and then I am off to my book club meeting in the evening, we are reading Sweetness form the Belly by Camila Gibb. What a great book it was. I can't wait...though I have to find time to bake a nice loaf because this will be my contribution to the book club. I'm bringing the sugar and fat. Yummy.

And that folks is all that I have to say on this beautiful day in Toronto. Stay hydrated. Cheers.

Nice To Meet You

2007-05-23T11:18:00.000-04:00

The first long weekend of the summer is behind us and I am already looking forward to the next one. I hope that everyone had a nice May-tow-four, hopefully you did not have to spend more than 2 extra hours stuck in traffic. Speaking of traffic, I was really happy not to be going to Ottawa this long weekend, I find that just the thought that the trip is going to take at least 2 hours more makes me want to go to my bed and never get up.

I don't think that we will be able to get away with not going for the July long weekend but maybe I can get the Husband to take an extra day and we can come back later. No point in worrying about it now.

Isa's first car trip to Ottawa

On a different topic, today is parent/teacher interviews at Isa's daycare. I am really looking forward to them because I am very interested in knowing how she is doing in the Toddler Room, what we can do to help her and find out what she should expect in the next few months in terms of behavior and development (potty training).

My mother always went to parent/teacher interviews, even the first year that we came to Canada and she knew no English. Her opinion is that it is always important to meet your child's teacher and to listen to their comments and feedback. As she once told me, they see us for 8 hours of the day, 5 days a week, because of this it is very important to listen to what they have to say and to work together to deal with any problems or concerns.

So today I am off to talk about the little Isa and see how she is doing.

*************************************
We have some fabulous promotions at BabyThoughts.ca, stop by
and see how you can get upto 20% off.

Clean Up

2007-05-17T10:43:00.000-04:00

I feel like playing hooky from work today...I know that I should not but the house needs some serious cleaning and for some reason I actually want to clean. Needless to say these moods don't come often, so when they do they must be taken advantage off. In fact I am going all Martha Steward and taking out the Q-tips.

I just love it when I am all done and I look around my place and things are actually shiny and free of dust. It's just so rewarding...so with that, I leave you. There is quite a great deal of laundry that requires attention and the dust elephants must be tackled.

Pictures Say A Thousand Words

2007-05-15T14:34:00.000-04:00

It seams that I have nothing interesting or witty to write about today...so on that note, I leave you with pictures of Isa at her grandmother's place in Quebec.

Lets just say that they both had a BLAST.

Hopefully I will come up with something interesting to blog about tomorrow.

cheers.

Daycare or No Daycare?

2007-05-14T19:13:00.000-04:00

Since I quit my job at the end of March to work on my own business from home, I have been contemplating the idea of taking Isa out of daycare. I have to be honest and say that I really don't want to, firstly because I know that she has a great time there and secondly because when she is home I don't get much work done.

I admire profusely the women who do work from home and take care of their children. How do you do it? If you have some tips on this please tell me.

With Isa, every time I so much as look in the direction of the computer she drops whatever she is doing and comes running towards my legs and clings on to them for dear life. I have no idea how to get her to stop doing this. She does not do this with her father just with me.

I don't know what we are going to do, maybe it is something that she will get over and will no longer be an issue in the future.

Another reason why I don't want to take her out of daycare just yet, is that I have no idea where the business is going or how it will be in the next 6 months or so. If I take her out I wont know how long before I can put her back in if I need to. But if I take her out I can save so much money...haaaaaa.

So at the moment she stays, I guess we will revisit the issue when we really have to.

El Día de las Madres

2007-05-13T09:44:00.000-04:00

This is to wish all the mamacitas a wonderful mother's day. May your day be filled with well behaved children, diamonds and a room full of flowers.

Remember to milk this day because tomorrow you will have to go back to driving children around, cleaning the house and making sure they have a balanced meal.

So far I have been able to sleep in, coffee was made for me and Isa has been entertained in order for me to write this post in her presence.

Have a wonderful day.

Sickness, Sickness Go Away

2007-05-11T12:15:00.000-04:00

I have been nursing a sick baby these last couple of days and so I have had very little time to post. Poor Isa has been home with a fever due to a nasty cold that she has. I don't have to tell you that it is just awful when your little one is sick. She has been very quiet and clingy, she likes to spend most of her time cuddled with me on the couch or in her room. Now don't get me wrong I love to cuddle with her I just feel so bad when she is under the weather and is not acting her normal rambunctious self.

I took her to the doctor to eliminate the possibility that the fever was caused by an ear infection. As I have mentioned before, my doctor's office is on the other side of the world. Well, it looks like God was on my side yesterday because not only was I able to get an appointment at a decent time, traffic was a breeze, and I got to see the doctor the second I stepped into the office. Ten minutes after arriving at the doctors and we were on our way home. Now that is a record people, NEVER has that happened. EVER.

I was informed that Isa did not have an ear infection, that all she has is a cold. So there. All I can do is wait it out and give her Tylenol. I was happy and a little pissed off, only because I had to drive all the way to the other end of the city only to hear that what I had been doing was the way to go. But needless to say, I was relieved because Isa was not experiencing even more discomfort and she wont have take antibiotics.

Today she was better and was able to return to daycare. This means that I can actually do some work on the business and get caught up with my blogs.

Enjoy Mother's Day weekend. I am getting together with my Spanish mom friends with the kiddies for a play date tomorrow at the ungodly hour of 8:30 am (I usually wake up at 8). But I just love getting together with them, that I'm just going to have to deal with. The Husband will just have to let me have a little nap in the afternoon given that he gets to sleep in.

Cheers.

This and That

2007-05-08T11:26:00.000-04:00

We had a very good weekend, we went to a Cinco De Mayo party on Saturday and that same night I had a girl's night out. Isa had a blast at the Cinco de Mayo party, she hung out outside with all the grown ups (we are the only ones with a kid) and did some serious damage to the guacamole dip. In fact her dinner consisted of chips and guacamole (because I am a terrible mother, who forgot to bring her food).

It was such a blast, I had been a long time since we had gotten together with friends. I was also looking forward to my girl's night out, I have not been out with the girls for a long time, we had so much fun catching up, getting all dressed up (I wore heels, and dangling earrings) and hitting the town.

The really sad part was that we were all really tired and ended up cutting the night short. I was home by 11 pm, how sad is that?

No matter, I had a blast and felt great.

Sunday, we had a nice family bar-b-q at my in-laws. It was DELICIOUS. My sister-in-law and I were joking that we had been looking forward to it for the whole week and boy it sure did not disappoint.

All in all a nice weekend.

******************************************************

If you are in the market for a baby shower gift and
would like some suggestions stop by the BabyThoughts Blog

My Mamá

2007-05-04T11:15:00.000-04:00

With all the commercials about Mother's Day, I have been thinking a lot about my own mom. My mom lives in Nicaragua, she has been there for almost 7 years now and to be very honest I miss her a great deal.

I never had a bad relationship with my mother, we were always close and I thank her for always being there for me and making sure that I knew it. I have to say without a doubt that she did an excellent job of raising all three of us. She is one of those people that when shit hits the fan she does not freak out. Instead she pulls herself together and says 'with some hard work and time we will get this cleaned up'. In fact she was able to pull herself together(and all of us) when we first moved to Canada as refugees not knowing a word of English, having no family and only a distance acquaintance. She was able to pull herself together when her dream of moving back to her homeland and living a more relaxed life completely evaporated into thin air. And more importantly she was able to pull herself together when her marriage of almost 30 years came to an end.

I admire her immensely and I try to be the optimistic person that she is. Someone who always believes that every problem has a solution, you just have to be willing to work hard at it.

I miss my mom. I miss her quite a lot but in just a few short months she will be returning to Canada. There is no doubt that this is the place where she should be, all her children are here and more importantly Isa is here.

Here is to my mom, whom I love so much and miss much more.

Welcome Sunshine

2007-05-03T09:39:00.000-04:00

What a beautiful day it is today here in Toronto. The sun is shining, the trees and flowers are starting to appear and you can hear the birds singing.

I just love summer, I come alive in summer. I have to say that the only thing I dislike about living in Canada is the winter. I was never a winter person and recently I have found winter harder and harder to deal with. This winter in particular was terrible as I had to deal with a stroller and the public transit system. Not fun at all.

But that is all behind us and with spring in full swing and summer coming soon I am just so happy. Another reason why I am looking forward to summer is because Isa and I will be able to enjoy the park and the swimming pools more. Last year she was too young to have fun in the park, all that she could do was sit in the sandbox and eat the sand, this year though she will probably still eat the sand she wont do it too much as she will be able to enjoy the slide and the swing and all the other great things about the park.

Ahh summer.

Extra Extra

2007-05-01T09:41:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone, I am now not only blogging here but also at the other Baby Thoughts Blog. The blog was started by my husband as a place where we can share with you some of our experiences, news and resources about our big venture BabyThoughts.ca.

For my first post, I wrote a review of the beautiful Melissa & Doug Puzzles. If you are looking to introduce puzzles to your little one their hand-crafted, hand-painted puzzles are a great choice. Stop by and say hi. Cheers.

The Truth and Nothing But the Whole Truth?

2007-04-30T14:00:00.000-04:00

Is it right to tell pregnant women the whole truth about the first few weeks after birth?

I have to say that I am not sure what the answer is. I had a friend who gave birth two months before I did and when I saw her right before I gave birth, I questioned her on the birth, the breastfeeding and the pain.

She was very vague, all she would tell me was that it was indeed painful, that I would know when I went into labour (I told her that I was worried I would not recognize labour pains), that I should make sure that I slept as much as possible and that breastfeeding takes commitment.

There is no doubt that her answers were right on the money I felt that she should have given me more information. Though I wonder whether I would have really listened, many times one thinks in the back of your head that it will be different for them. It sure was not.

So if there are any pregnant women who by some chance are reading this post here are my two cents:

- Labour will be what it will be, you may be one of the lucky ones who has bearable pain or be like me who had pain that required medication. I think that if I can say anything on this is to have a plan before you go into labour about your comfort level with medication and communicate this to your doctor and partner.

- The first couple of nights will be extremely tiring, the baby will be feeding what feels like all the time in order to help the milk come down.

- No matter what kind of labour you have you will be very sore and in pain. Take care of yourself and don't worry as things will get better with time.

- Breastfeeding may not come 'naturally', at least it did not for me. I had the help of my doula and the nurse from the hospital. Please ask for help if you feel unsure, this is so important.

- Have the baby close to you at all times. I find that it is great when you have a baby sling and have the baby sleep next to you because this way you don't have to travel far to get to them.

- Sleep when the baby sleeps, no matter what is happening.

- You will be emotional for a few weeks after the birth and should not feel guilty for any of the emotions that you may experience. It is important to talk to our partner about any feelings that you may be having.

- If you can or want, have a birth doula. The reason why I recommend a doula is because with the cut backs in our medical system, the doctors and nurses are not always available to answer questions or concerns quickly. Also a doula will stay with you after the birth and make sure that you are breastfeeding well, that you yourself are feeling okay and will answer any questions that you may have. During the labour they will be a familiar person besides your partner whom you can rely on. They will also stop by a couple of weeks afterwards to check up on you and the baby.

- Go for nice walks with the baby as soon as you can. I found it so relaxing to take Isa out for walks soon after she was born. We both got fresh air and I got some low impact exercise.

I guess that that was more then two cents worth of 'advice'. Take what you like and ignore the rest. If you would like to share any other please leave a comment.

Here is to New Beginnings

2007-04-28T20:53:00.000-04:00

There is an amazing baby shower being thrown for mamas Tammie, Liz and Christina by some great friends of theirs.

It was requested that in honour of their upcoming births we send some advice or assvice as Motherbumper so nicely put it.

I thought long and hard about this and made the mistake in taking a peek at some of the great posts submitted by other bloggers.

Nevertheless, I have a couple of things up my sleeve. I apologise if I rip off your idea but there are just so many good ones out there.

1) Get support. I made the mistake of assuming that I could do everything myself, boy was I wrong. In the end I was exhausted and cranky which was not good for anyone. Get help from family and friends, don't worry about asking them to come on by and take care of the baby for an hour so that you can get some time to yourself. Or ask them to bring something nice to eat. Whatever it is, ask.

2) Don't always take everything the baby books have to say as the only way to do things. I did find it very useful to read as many books as possible mostly because I had so many questions and no one who could answer them. I personally like any of the Ann Douglas books.

3) Find yourself a moms group. Getting together with other mothers with children of similar ages was a life saver for me. They are some of my dearest friends still and we have been there for each other through many things.

4) Trust yourself. I think that we don't trust ourselves to know what is best. You and your partner will know what is best for your child. Trust that you will make the right decisions.

5) Learn to breastfeed lying down. In my opinion this is the best way to breastfeed because you don't hurt your back and you can just relax and let the baby enjoy his meal. After you are done you can both take a little nap. This was my life saver for the the midnight feedings.

I am done now, I think that I have given the moms-to-be quite a few pieces of advice.

Now for some of the assvice that I received when I was going to have Isa. I have to admit that I have erased many things from my memory. Mostly because it was certainly not worth remembering, so the list will be extremely short.

1) Don't give them a pacifier or bottle or they will not learn how to latch properly. I agree that you don't want to give a one month old a pacifier or a bottle as it may interfere with them learning how to latch. But you can certainly use your own discretion to determine when you can introduce either.

2) Drinking beer will help your milk come down. Enough said.

3) Don't let your baby sleep with you because if you do they will never leave your bed. So not true, Isa slept with us until she was 3 months and it was the best decision we ever made.

Congratulations to all the parents-to-be who are anxiously awaiting the appearance of their little one. Being a parent is the most wonderful thing in the world, it will be very hard at the beginning but it will get better, so much better.

Traffic, Doctor and Shots Oh My

2007-04-27T17:49:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had to take Isa for her 18 month shots, normally this is not a big deal, I am quite used to doing this as we have had to go for shots pretty much every six months. I now know what to expect, but man was it absolutely awful yesterday.

First, let me start with some background information. I live in the west end of the city (hence my name) but before I moved over here I used to live in the opposite side of the city. Because of this my family doctor is located in the East end. Before Isa was born, I had a lot of difficulties finding her a doctor on this end of the city, at least one that was recommended by someone and the problem was that many family doctors are now not taking new patients (I will not go into this issue because we can be here all day). In the end I decided that she will also go to see my own family doctor. And to tell you the truth it has really worked out well so far (expect for the distance).

On a good day (light traffic) it takes about 40 minutes to get to the doctor. Yesterday it took one hour. The traffic was horrendous, at one point I was moving at 40 Km/h on the highway, I was ready to pull out my hair.

To make matters worse Isa was throwing things around and getting upset because I could not give them back to her on demand (this too is another post in itself). I tried keeping her from having a total melt down by signing songs to her. This distracted her only for the duration of the signing which meant that by the end I had no voice left.

Thankfully we got to the doctor in time and did not have to wait too long for her to see us. The examination went very well, with Isa crying only a little bit but she calmed down pretty fast.

The icing on the cake was our trip home. By this time it was 6:30 close to Isa's bed time and it would take us at least 45 minutes to get home. Well let me tell you that it took us one hour. There was an accident on the highway and no possibility of exiting. By the time we got home we were both just frustrated and exhausted. I got the Husband to give her a bath, put her to bed and make dinner.

She had some problems falling asleep which was expected as she was really tired, but eventually she did and slept all night with no problems.

Needless to say I was done for the night, all I could do was sit in front of the tv and watch Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy.

At least we don't have to go back until she turns two and no more shots till school. Hurray for that.

Mother = Guilt

2007-04-24T19:54:00.000-04:00

I was watching the news and they had a segment on a program were mothers can exercise with their children. Personally I think that this is a great thing, but it bothered me that the mother said that she is happy that she no longer feels guilty about taking an hour to herself on the weekends.

I know from personal experience that us mothers place a great deal of guilt on ourselves. When Isa was a newborn I felt so guilty about everything. From the way that I fed her, to how I burped her, whether I made sure that she had enough tummy time and so on. As she got older it was giving her a bottle of breast milk so that I could spend some time by myself (by that time I really needed it).

The list goes on and pretty much at every stage there was something that I would feel guilty about. Things improved a great deal when she started daycare, only because I really did not feel bad about her going there. I absolutely loved the daycare, the staff, their programs and all the children. Now, don't get me wrong, this does not mean that I did not feel like the world's worst mom before she started but once we both went through the transition it was better. I felt confident that she would be looked after, as well as be stimulated and challenged.

There is no doubt that that I felt so guilty once I started working and would hardly see her. But I had no choice at the time and even now that I am at home, she still goes to daycare because she needs the interaction with the children. And also I just can't work with her at home. I admire any mom that has to do both because I know that it is hard not be mommy all the time.

Being a mom is feeling guilty pretty much all the time, but it is important to be practical about things. You can't let the guilt take over because I believe that if you do you hurt yourself. Many times it is about give and take, for me it was about giving up my time with Isa during the week but really taking advantage of the weekends with her. I would be everything for her on the weekends, her cook, her playmate...you get the picture. I have to admit it was exhausting but so good and rewarding.

The guilt we experience as mothers will probably never go away and very likely we will have guilt thrown at us as they get older. But you really have to try to not let it take over. Easier said than done.

Family Traditions

2007-04-23T12:47:00.000-04:00

I was reading a very nice post by Mimi on the Breach yesterday, were she talked about her family's tradition of going to the local greasy spoon restaurant for brunch. This got me thinking about my own traditions, like Mimi, we too loved to go to our neighbourhood greasy spoon restaurant for some eggs, bacon and pancakes but now with Isa reaching her toddler years and not being able to stay put in one place for longer than 10 minutes, we have stopped going. Instead we have very nice big breakfasts at home just the three of us.

It is interesting how I have always had some kind of weekend breakfast tradition. When I was a younger we would have a big breakfast every Saturday, with my dad cooking up some amazing pancakes and all five of us sitting down to chat and read the Saturday Star. I would always read the Comics, my brother the Sports and my dad the Wheels section. These were really special times for all of us, I am thankful that we did have them as now we only see each other once a year.

It is certainly true that many of my family's traditions revolve around food. At Christmas a very important tradition is preparing our special holiday stuffing. It is an all day event with pretty much everyone in the family contributing to it's preparation. My mother and I also have our own mother-daughter tradition of having a nice cup of coffee in the evenings after dinner and chatting about anything. This is something that we started when I was a teenager before she went back to Nicaragua. I love this time of just the two of us because we got to talking about important things in both of our lives.

What traditions do you have?

Bye Bye Peta

2007-04-22T19:50:00.000-04:00

There was quite a big development this past weekend. We phased out Isa's pacifier (her Peta). I have to say it was quite a traumatic experience for all of us. We had been noticing that she has been using it way too much lately and even though we try to only give it to her for her nap and bed time she still finds ways to get it.

On the way back from Ottawa, she had her Peta and was constantly throwing it to the floor and asking for it back. It got to the point that I told her that if she did it one more time I would not get it back for her because she seamed to not really want it.

Well, needless to say she threw it, I did not give it back to her and a HUGE tantrum ensued. The Husband and I stuck to our guns and did not give in. She cried for 30 minutes and afterwards fell asleep exhausted.

Believe me when I tell you that it was absolutely horrible to listen to her crying for that long. I so wanted to give her her soother but I knew if I did she would know that if she cried long enough she could get things. The Husband was amazing and if he had not been there I don't think I could have done it.

In the end we decided to not give it back to her at all. She is a big girl now and does not need it to put herself to sleep. Today she has asked for it, but we tell her that petas are only for babies and that she is a big girl. She has been so great, she did not cry at all during her nap and only made a small fuss at bed time.

I was so worried that she would have such a hard time because she loved her soother and it gave her so much comfort. But it was the right thing to do and as it turns out the right time.

I'm off to the Country

2007-04-19T17:14:00.000-04:00

We are visiting my in-laws for the next couple of days in beautiful Wakefield Quebec. I am really happy to be here as it means that Isa will be completely taken care of by someone other than the Husband and I.

My mother-in-law has been just dying to see her and really looks forward to her visits.

So you may not hear from me for a couple of days as I will be doing what I do best in Wakefield: drink, eat, and read (in that order).

Enjoy the awesome weather and have a great weekend.

18 Months Going On 13 Years

2007-04-17T13:15:00.000-04:00

I was catching up on my favourite blogs and as I was reading Motherbumper's post on the things her little bumper does, it got me thinking about all the things that Isa has started to do and before they get lost in my memories I want to write them down.

I am happy to say that her repertoire of words has grown, she now says, UP, teche (milk), pio pio ( bird), mas (more), papa (dad), pan (bread) and some times she says mama. I have to admit that I don't know all the English words that she may know as I try not to speak to her in English. 'Up' is the only word that I actually encourage or don't correct with the correct Spanish words as it is an easy word and she uses it quite a lot.

Though her speaking is in the early stages, her comprehension is just amazing. She understand perfectly what we ask of her in both languages. She is able to follow directions and to perform small tasks. For instance she goes to the bathroom when I tell her that it is bath time. She goes to her chair when it is time to eat, when she is done and I ask her if she wants more food she picks up her plate and says 'mas'. She gets her shoes from the mat by the door when we ask her to, and even puts them there after we come home. Not even the Husband does that.

It is not only that she follows directions or that she comprehends but that she now communicates to us what her wants are. She tell us when she wants to go outside by grabbing her jacket and getting her shoes. She tells you whether she wants water or milk with her meals and lets you know that she would like to play with you by grabbing your hand and taking you to her room where her toys are.

It is incredible how far she has come and I have to agree with a good friend of mine who has a 4 year old son, these are some of the best times. But they can also be hard because they are starting to get frustrated and so the tantrums have come into the picture. She is like a little teenager one minute she is happy and the next she is having a melt down.

but it is all good, it is all part of growing up.

Extra Extra

2007-04-16T08:55:00.001-04:00

After many months of market research, creative design, software development, product research, vendor agreements, business plans…(you get the picture), I am very proud to say that the doors are open for business.

BabyThoughts.ca is a place where new moms can browse for useful resources, get connected to other moms in their community through online mom groups, and shop for cool developmental and wooden toys for their infants and tots.

All the hard work that was put in by both of us has paid of in a truly great site and there are so many more things that we are planning to add to it such as articles that address topics which are important to parents, a gift registry, more great developmental toys and much more.

Thank you very much to everyone that sent out their words of encouragement and best wishes. I hope that you stop by and visit. Please let me know what you think, comments and feedback are always welcome.

Everyone is a Critic

2007-04-14T20:58:00.000-04:00

I have been having some problems in the feeding department with Isa lately. I mentioned before how she will only eat things that are just solid or mushy but certainly not both. This means that she will not have lumpy mashed potatoes or soup with chunks of veggies or meat.

Not a problem, we learned about this particular eating requirement early and took steps to ensure that it was met. The problem is that I always have to think of something different to make her for meals. She will not have many of the things I make because they violate her requirements, ie. spaghetti sauce with meat and veggies or any nice home made soup.

Thankfully she is a great eater when she gets food that she loves, like cheese, yogurt, avocados, bread, pasta with tomato sauce and eggs. And she especially likes to sit at the table with us while we have our meals. This is something that both the Husband and I have taken very serious. But it sure is hard because before I would get so much house work done when she was happily strapped to her high chair. Now I have to make sure that the meal that everyone will be having is prepared for the times that she eats. Needless to say this only works on the weekends.

Ahhh, I miss the days when she would take just about anything, now she has standards.

So for those reading this article, if you are a parent of a baby that is just starting solids and is eating everything you give them with no problems, enjoy it, because Isa was like that and now she is not. On the other hand if your little one is not so keen on the solid stuff right away, don't fret because I know many babies who were like this who now eat anything their parents give them. And then there are the lucky ones whose child always loves food. If you are such a parent, don't tell us.

The moral of the story is that you just never know how it will be in the future and that you just have to adjust. Experiment and don't freak out if they wont eat something today because they can change their minds tomorrow.

Before

After

Let The Hunt Begin

2007-04-08T20:54:00.000-04:00

I was so wrong about how Isa would react to the Easter egg hunt. As I said, we went over to my in-laws to celebrate Easter and they bought a ton of little Easter eggs and bunnies for the five kids including Isa to search throughout the house.

In the end they decided to only hide the eggs in the living room and to have most within Isa's reach. I was very skeptical as to how much Isa would be able to participate. But boy was I totally wrong. As soon as she got her basket and saw the other kids looking for the eggs, she knew exactly what she had to do. It was incredible to see the focus in her little face, she looked everywhere for the little eggs. Unbelievable. It was hilarious to see her searching under the sofa, in the plants, on the coffee table, everywhere for her chocolate. In fact she even learned how to say chocolate. chote.

We were all just laughing so hard, it was incredibly fun to see her doing this. I have to say that I enjoyed it and that it will have to be a family tradition because she has so much fun.

Needless to say she got to enjoy the fruits of her labour and was just wired. Thankfully I was able to calm her down with a nice bath and was in bed at her usual time.

A wonderful Easter was had by all, round two happens in a couple of weeks at my other in-laws in Ottawa. Isa is going to start thinking that this happens all the time.

Happy Easter

2007-04-07T21:54:00.000-04:00

We wish you all a very Happy Easter full of yummy chocolate bunnies.

I know that Isa's grandparents are going to go INSANE over the chocolate bunnies for many years to come. Every time we go over they have some sugary treat for her and the smart little girl knows it.

I have to say that I am not sure how I feel about the whole Easter egg hunt thing and the cheap quality chocolate animals. I don't want Isa to think that this is all Easter is about. Now, don't get me wrong I think that the Easter Egg hunt is lots of fun and will be something that we will all enjoy taking part in. I am also looking forward to decorating eggs and doing other Easter crafts with her. Especially since I only got to do this once as a child (my mother was not a crafty person) I just need to ensure that she also knows that Easter is about Lent, Holy Week and the Resurrection of Christ.

But there is no point in worrying about this right now, she is only 18 months and has only a small idea of what is happening.

HAPPY EASTER

My Apologies

2007-04-06T21:15:00.000-04:00

I had hopped that now that I was no longer working at The Bank with my boss sitting right behind me I would do more blogging. But this last week I have been so busy getting ready to open up the store that I have had no time to blog or to even visit my favourite blogs. But things should be better this week as I have straighten things out.

So I hope to keep to my promise or goal really of blogging more and stopping by to say hi.

Cheers.

The Sunday Blues

2007-04-01T21:07:00.000-04:00

I have always had what some call the Sunday Blues, on Sundays I would get a little sad that the weekend was over and that I had to either go to school the next day or go to work.

I read in Cosmo, a long time ago that it was a good idea to do something that you really enjoy on Sundays to minimize the Sunday Blues. So I would usually spend it doing my favourite things like reading a good book, hanging out with friends, going for walks in Bloor West and having a very nice dinner with the Husband and watching some good t.v.

After Isa was born and I was back to work, my Sunday Blues got even worse because it meant that I would not spend as much time with her. My working weeks were very busy and thankfully they went quickly.

But now I have no more Sunday Blues, I can spend as much time with Isa as I want during the week. If I feel like keeping her home from daycare one day I can. Or she can go to daycare and I can pick her up early and we can go on play dates with her little friends.

I am just so grateful to have this opportunity.

Here is to the end of my Sunday Blues.

Just A Little Update

2007-03-28T10:06:00.000-04:00

For those who are interested here is an update on what is going on:

I did hand in my resignation last week and to be honest it was really nerve racking. I knew that it was the right thing to do but it still felt really weird to be leaving a job without having another one to be going to. Don't get me wrong, I know I will be VERY busy with the new business, there is so much to do and so much to learn. But we are taking a risk, a calculated risk but a risk never the less.

Like I have said before I am really looking forward to focusing on the business, there is so much that I want to do. I need to do more research and update the Resources that are up on the site, I want to think of other ways to make it even more helpful and interesting to parents. The other really fun thing is to search the Internet, read magazines and talk to moms about new and exciting toys that are coming out.

I am just soooo excited.

I know that it will be a lot of work but it will be very rewarding work, I find it so rewarding when we get comments from parents about the site, get suggestions on resources that should be included, a new mom group is created and moms join because I know how much support other mothers can give you.

I am also really looking forward to being able to spend more time with Isa during the week. I will be able to pick her up from day care earlier and it will not be just about coming home, eating and going to bed. We will be able to have play dates with my mom friends who are not working full time, go to the park and enjoy the nice weather that will be coming soon or just come home and play inside together.

All in all I am very happy and looking forward to what the future will bring. I will probably go off line for the rest of the week, as we get ready to open the doors.

I feel bad that I have not been able to keep up to date with all my favourite blogs, but know that I will be back and get caught up and leave a comment or two.

Cheers, everyone.

Be Back Soon

2007-03-19T12:16:00.000-04:00

I have to apologize for not keeping up with the blogging, work has been busy and my bosses have been hanging around me.

I will be taking a short leave from blogging as I get ready to open up the store on my website. There is lots to do and very little time as we hope to have it up by April 1.

I am actually quitting my job today to put all of my attention and energy into our venture. I am so excited to do this...will let you know how it goes later on.

Cheers!

Not In the Mood

2007-03-12T13:55:00.001-04:00

I am not in the mood to write today. I am tired and not very motivated...work has been pretty boring today, I would have rather stayed home and been productive there than come in and do nothing.

Hopefully I will be in a better mood tomorrow.

A Little Bit Sad

2007-03-06T09:15:00.000-05:00

I had two ideas for posts floating around in my head yesterday. One was about how much I hate public transportation and the second was about how happy I am about having had a girl. Then I started reading The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks and after that I was a basket case.

The book is told through the voices of the people that were affected by a school bus crash that killed 14 children of a small town in up state New York. Needless to say I was crying non stop, it is amazing how I cry at everything now. I have always been a very empathetic person but now since Isa was born I am worse. Not that I think that it is bad to be empathetic it is that it affects me for a very long time. When something or someone makes me happy it is great because I am in a good mood for days but when I hear or read or see something that makes me sad or angry then I am this way for long time.

This book got me thinking about losing the ones I love and how I would cope with it. I have to be honest and say that I don't know how I would react, I have never lost anyone that I loved and so I have not experienced death. As I read the part of the accident and the children dying, I kept thinking about Isa and how I would cope with her death if it came suddenly. I don't know what I would do, I don't know if I would completely shut my self in, if I will be strong enough to get help, will I let myself love someone again or will I retreat in fear of loosing that person. I just don't know and I don't want to know.

I have not spent time thinking about this for too long in the past, for the obvious reason that I just don't want to think about it. I also don't want to live in fear of what I just can't control. There are days when I think that I/ my family must really live that day like it was our last. We should appreciate being together and spend as much time together. We should not worry too much that Isa is not eating so well, that she is having problems feeding herself, that we are tired and just want to spend all day in bed, that the cat threw up again and so on. This book has reminded me of this, I will worry less about the pile of laundry that has to be done, about the mountain of dirty dishes that I have to put away and the lack of dinner, instead I will spend the short hours that I have with my Isa every weekday playing with her and cuddling her because you just never know. And lets not forget the Husband, we two must also spend time together and not just family time but couple time.

Now, I know that I will still freak out about stuff and I will forget to take my own advise and once the store is open I will be even more exhausted but the important thing is to make the effort.

Sorry for the gloomy post...like I said things affect me. I will be in a good mood again when I finish the book, which should be tomorrow.

Eureka!

2007-03-03T22:37:00.000-05:00

Have you ever been there the moment that your little one makes a discovery. Have you seen their whole face light up, their eyes widen and their lips form the faintest of smiles.

Isa made a discovery today, she was playing with a blue pen...because I am such a good mother that I let my child play with pens. Well she loves pens and she really likes this one, the good thing about this pen is that you have to click the end in order to be able to use it.

This is what Isa discovered today, she was holding it in her hand and clicked on the end. She stands there and just stares at the pen, she can't believe that it went click. So she does it again and the same thing happens. Then her eyes get bigger and she has this grin on her face. She has come to the realization that this is something very interesting and lots of fun. She looks at me and her dad and clicks again. And again and again and again and again, all the while laughing hysterically and running around the living room. The husband and I are also laughing hysterically because it is just so funny to watch your 16 moth-old hold out a pen to you, take her thumb and press hard and with purpose on the end all for the pleasure of hearing click.

We spent a good ten minutes laughing at the whole thing, Isa was extremely proud of herself and we where just absolutely gaga over her.

God, I love her so much.

F.Y.I Fridays

2007-03-02T14:03:00.000-05:00

Attention Mamas and Papas, there will be a big Mom 2 Mom Toronto Spring sale coming up March 17, 2007 in Brampton, for details of time and location please visit their website.

I personally have never been to these sales so I cannot say how good they are but it could be worth a look. And if by chance you are interested in selling some of your own baby stuff you can rent out a table at the event. For those of you interested in selling some big stuff like cribs, strollers, exersaucers, high chairs, etc you can pay $5/ each to have your goods be sold in the big ticket item area.

I do recommend that if you are interested in going, arrive early and bring cash, I don't think that you will be able to pay with credit or debit. Also, if you see something get it because if you take too long it will be gone. It might also be a good idea to know what things you are looking for this way you can be more efficient and can focus on what you really need.
I hope to be able to go but we will see if the husband will watch Isa, as it will probably be easier sans bebé.

Have fun shopping!

Toddlers and Twenty-Something Year Olds

2007-02-28T11:33:00.000-05:00

They say that toddlers and teenagers go through similar emotional development...but after having dinner with some friends last night I think that working-single-twenty-something people can be included in this comparison as well.

Let me first start with sharing that we had a meeting with the director at Isa's day care to talk about her up coming transition to the Toddler Room. For those of you who have gone through this transition you know that it is a big deal. It can be a very stressful time for both parents and child as both get used to the new faces and new routines. I will be honest and say that I am probably less prepared than Isa is, I am not ready to accept that she will be turning into a toddler, I still want to keep her a baby.

We have no idea how she will react to the move, they have been taking her over to 'visit' the toddler room and to be introduced to the teachers and the children, and the good thing is that she will see some familiar faces since many of her friends from the infant room are there now. Her teachers tell me that she loves to go over and play with the toys but this surprises no one as they are new and very fun toys, so who would not love to visit.

So yesterday we discussed how the transition will work and some of the things that is expected of us. We will be given a list of how we can help her become more 'independent'. It is expected that she will be working towards being able to put on her own jacket (I have no idea how I am going to accomplish this), put on her own shoes, eat everything by herself (including soup), sit at a table, and sleep on a cot. I have to be honest and say that I have no idea how this will be done but it will be. I think that she will get a lot of help from her little friends...they tell me that peer pressure is a powerful tool at day care.

Though I am not ready to see my baby change rooms, I am very ready to pay toddler prices. It will be a very welcomed relief to the budget. I already know what I will be spending the extra $200/month...paying down debt.

***********
Now to my dinner with friends...I met up with some co-workers of a good friend of mine to celebrate Chinese New Year. We went to china town for a "traditional" Chinese dinner.

Now this story is not about the dinner and whether it was authentic or not. It is more about how the co-workers interacted with each other. Let me give you a little background information. Before Isa was born, I had a group of friends at work with whom I would have lunch with every day, go out after work for drinks and go clubbing on Saturday with every once in a while. We would do a lot of things together and would joke and make fun and sometimes throw insults at each other for fun.

All of these friends have now left the company that I am working at and so when I returned to work I did not have anyone with whom I can have that same relationship. Not only that, but I have to leave everyday at 4:30 to pick up my daughter. I am a very different person now, and I was a little shocked that I felt that the way the group was acting last night was extremely childish and annoying. I can't believe that I felt that way, I told me husband and he told me that I just did not have the same cool people at work to hang out with, but this is not the point. The point is that I know that I am pass that, I don't need to act like that, that kind of behaviour is for teenagers or early-twenty-something.

Am I wrong in thinking this way...could I have become boring and stuck-up? I don't know...a little part of me misses my old friendships but there are just so many more wonderful things now that I am a mom and my responsibilities have changed. I love the amazing people that I have met because I am a mom.

There are times when I feel old at 28.

It's Monday...Noooooooo

2007-02-26T08:49:00.000-05:00

I hate Mondays...mostly because I have to go back to work and be away from Isa. But what I hate the most is that it is snowing today. Now don't get me wrong I used to love snow and in fact I love snow on the weekends when I am home and can choose whether I would like to go outside and deal with it or not. But on the weekdays I have no choice, no matter what I have to go and get my pants filthy and I have to attempt to push a stroller with a 25 pound baby in it.

This is what I hate...I loath that most of the time I am the one plowing the sidewalk with the stroller because the city has not been out to clear them. On one occasion I left the stroller at the daycare and carried Isa, needless to say my back has not been the same since.

I am hoping that since it snowed last night that the city people will have gone and cleaned up the side walk by the time I pick up Isa. crossing finders.

Enough ranting...lets move on. What a nice weekend I had, I have to say that I was very productive, I did three loads of laundry (but folded nothing), vacuumed, cleaned the floors, did some grocery shopping and made two batches of rice pudding. One on Saturday and one on Sunday,the first one was not very good as I put in a tablespoon of salt, when it called for a teaspoon. In my defence the recipe was in Spanish and I was not 100% sure what 1 crdt meant. I also got Isa to have fish for both lunches, which makes me happy because fish can be so good for her and she is so darn picky.

You may be wondering where the Husband was this weekend. Well he was at home but he has been very busy getting the store front of our website off the ground and ready for testing, that we agreed that I would be responsible for house and baby for now and then when it is my turn to work on the business he will take over. I am so looking forward to having more help soon, thought I should not complain too much as Isa is a great baby and is very independent and very well behaved. What I am tired off are all the house chores that I have to do on my own.

Soon the store will be up and I will be busy with that...can't wait!

Back to the weekend...Isa had a great time on Saturday walking to the grocery store on Bloor West. The day was just amazing, it was sunny and not too cold, the air was nice and crisp and people were out and doing their thing. It is days like that that I am so happy that I live on Bloor West because I just love going for a stroll with her, Isa absolutely loves it. She loves looking at the people, the dogs and kids. She loves checking out the buildings and cars. Her face lights up when she sees me taking out her big stroller because she knows that we will be going into the village.

I am grateful for Bloor West for helping me through my maternity leave, since I had no car and as we all know too well the TTC is not stroller friendly, I hung out close to home. I would take a walk every day for that year into the village going to get groceries, stopping at the Chapters and getting caught up on the "trashy" magazines, going to the library or meeting up with my mom friends at the Second Cup. I love the Village and I love all the people that I have met, which means that it will be very hard to try to look for a house anywhere else, meaning that I have better start playing the lottery in hopes of winning money to be able to afford a house there.

Last night I made dinner for us and we had nice wine and my rice pudding and sat down to watch both the Oscars and Heros. I have to say that I am not a big fan of Ellen DeGeneres so I did not really pay that much attention to the Oscars, but Heros was fantastic.

All and all a great weekend, can't wait for Friday.

Fight Like A Girl

2007-02-23T08:40:00.000-05:00

This statement can mean many different things and in my case it means that I don't fight at all. I am extremely non-confrontational, this means that I tend to avoid conflict as much as possible. It is my character flaw if you will.

This is the mode that I went into yesterday, I was very upset about something and instead of saying right then and there how I felt I kept quiet. This morning as I was coming in to work I realized that I had done it. I had not said anything and because of that I was angry and hurt.

The problem that I have is that at the moment that something happens I shut down and then when I am ready to talk about the issue, some time has gone by and it is no longer as important, so I put it aside. I tell myself that I was probably over reacting and that I should just move on. But then something else would happen and still I would not say anything, until one day I would just explode. My Husband now knows how to distinguish the signs of when I am upset and drags it out of me but I think that it is very important for me to bring up the issue or the problem.

And so I have done it, I have spoken up about how I felt yesterday and I have to tell you, I feel great. I will try to not take the hurt feelings to bed with me anymore.

I will listen to my mother who said...Never go to bed angry. Words of wisdom.

Shopping Anyone?

2007-02-20T14:11:00.000-05:00

I just got back from a shopping excursion where I was not able to spend two hundred dollars worth of free money.

Let me elaborate...

My husband won a very generous $200 gift certificate to Mountain Equipment Co-op and since I have been complaining to him that I have no warm winter coat (nothing that can handle the -30 C) he gave it to me to go and find myself something warm.

Now, I am a girl that likes to shop at such stores as Zara, Jacob, Club Monaco, etc...I am not a very casually dressed person and certainly not sporty or outdoorsy in any way. But I had hopes that I could buy a nice zipped up sweater to layer under my coat in a very nice dark colour. So I headed over to MEC to see what they had...after all I had $200, what girl can't spend that kind of cash?

So I walk into the store and I see that things are arranged by categories such as Biking, Hiking, Running, Climbing and so on. My first thought was shit, I am in big trouble...I don't do any of these things where am I going to find a simple sweater. Then on the second floor I spot a sign that says Women's Apparel.BINGO.

I head over and start scanning the racks...there are lots of sweater...all kinds of sweaters...sweaters of different colours, styles, fabrics, and absorbency level. My first reaction is UGLY and FREAKING EXPENSIVE. There was this plain sweater made with some kind of patent pending material for $175...can you believe that? I mean for that kind of cash I should be able to get a whole freaking coat at this time of the year. I am very disappointed by the selection but decide to look at every single rack to see if I can find something to buy.

As I am going up and down the racks I think about what I could use...what do I need...work-out clothes is something I need. So I search for pants and shirts, but either things are just too expensive for a t-shirt ($75) or they did not have my size, or it was just not the right thing to work out in an indoor gym (long sleeved shirt).

I move away from looking for a work-out outfit...what else could I use? I know plain shirts. I spot some nice long-sleeved cotton shirts that I could wear under my sweaters. Score, there is a nice white one in my size for $14, this is a good price so I take it. Then I spot the sales rack and see if I can find something interesting. I see a nice hot pink sweater for $35 that looks like nothing that I own. So I take it...after all, why not. But I just can't find anything else that I like and I have very little time left, so I took those two item and went to pay.

Then, I remembered that I have to buy a freaking membership to this place, thankfully it is only $5 but still now I have $5 dollars less to spend on stuff that I don't like. Oh well, maybe the husband will find something nice or I can give it a couple of weeks and try again. After all I am a lifetime member of this place.

La Familia

2007-02-19T09:13:00.000-05:00

Ahh a new week...what a busy weekend we had. I have to say that I don't feel rested at all, we had my husband's family (mother, stepdad, sister) in from Ottawa. My MIL was dying to see Isa and was besides herself with glee when she did. Isa was a little freaked out because here was this woman freaking out in front of her, it took her a few minutes to go to her grandmother.

I don't think that I have said anything about my MIL or about our relationship. To be honest we have a great relationship, we have many many things in common such as reading, eating good food, good wine/beer, and lounging around. She knows me very well and we have always understood each other, she has been there for me as a second mother after my mom moved back to Nicaragua. I am very happy to have such a good relationship with her and I love visiting them in their beautiful ski lodge style home in a small town called Wakefield, Quebec.

Before Isa was born I would go there to totally unplug from my everyday life, I would spend hours outside on the balcony among the trees reading a good book and drinking a nice cold beer. In the winter months I would spend those same hours lying on the couch in the living room reading or talking with her about what was new. Always with a beer, a glass of wine or a nice cup of tea.

Now with Isa things have changed, I no longer have hours to read instead we all watch Isa play or chase the three cats around the house hopping to get one of them. We spend time cooking and talking about what has been going on and how Isa has been doing and stuff. My MIL is the best cook...the woman can cook anything, when we go there I come back 10 pounds heavier because I can't stop eating and once Isa is in bed, drinking.

Back to this weekend...the family was here to celebrate my MIL's sister-in-law's 40th wedding anniversary and they had a big party at this beautiful reception hall with about 60 of their closest friends and family. Needless to say Isa was the star of the party, she used her powers of cuteness to charm everyone. I was so proud of her because she was not overwhelmed by the amount of people and she agreed to play with my young sister-in-law and let me have nice conversations with all the other family members.

My heart would swell when she would scan the crowd of people and spot me and her little face would light up and she would come running to me and nothing and no one could stand in her way of getting to me, It is so amazing to know that you mean so much to someone.
It was a very busy weekend but it was very nice to see the family and to get caught up. Now I am off to be productive.

F.Y.I Fridays

2007-02-16T13:11:00.000-05:00

This is the second edition of F.Y.I. Fridays here at the Baby Thoughts blog. For this post I would like to share a children's gently used clothing store that was recommended to me.

The business is called Kaleidoscope and they have great gently used children's clothing. In fact, I have stopped by their Roncensville location and purchased quite a few items for Isa. All the items are washed and have no stains, holes or missing pieces such as buttons. The staff is very nice and will show you where things are. Also if they have new stuff that they have not put out for display they may let you go through it and you can have first dibs.

As they say, they only have name brand clothing and many things have not even been worn. They have some great selection of seasonal things so that if you have a little one and are looking for some winter or summer clothing that you know they might grow out off quickly this place might be a good place to check out.

Happy Shopping.

El Dia De Los Enamorados

2007-02-15T08:50:00.000-05:00

The husband and I had a very nice and quiet valentine's day yesterday and after our meal and good quality TV time we started talking about our day at work. Now, normally this is just a short conversation about how long and boring it was( at least on my part, my husband likes his work) but instead it was a real conversation about what is going on in our respective projects, how I have been given more opportunities to lead some meetings and him giving me suggestions on how I can really knock the socks off them.

After we had finished talking about our work, we moved on to our other favourite topic, ISA. We talked about all the cute things she did today, how she ate all her dinner by herself, how she played nicely with her toys, cuddled with Mommy, walked over to the tub when it was time for bath and agreed to go to bed for 6:30 because both Mommy and Daddy were a little tired and wanted to take a short nap.

It was a great Valentine's Day, very much like New Years, were we also stayed home and had a great dinner, some very good wine and the best conversations. This to me is the best way to spend a romantic evening with the one you love. There really is no need for expensive gifts and a big bouquet of flowers. Though diamonds are always welcome;)

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day with the ones they love.

Obsevations of a Bored Subway Rider

2007-02-13T09:29:00.000-05:00

This post is about random thoughts and opinions...it is not very politically correct so if you are a touchy person you might not want to keep reading.

(first observation has been removed...I really don't want to offend anyone who may be reading the blog)

I start to scan the crowd in the subway car for something else to occupy my time. And there sitting all pretty is this very good looking girl wearing 3 inch stiletto black pumps.

Now, normally this is not a big deal, after all just because I can't wear the things does not mean that I can't appreciate those who can. But on the day that they are predicting 15 cm of snow to fall this afternoon, this might not be the best footwear to have on. I don't get it...is there an underground parking lot attached to a subway station that I don't know about? Because even if you do drive to the station you still have to trek to your car in 15 cm of snow. So what's up?

I was a little jealous because I cannot and will not be able to wear such high and thin heeled shoes. The highest I go is 1.5 inches and this is even a little too high for moi. And now with having to go and pick up Isa and having to lug the stroller down a flight of stairs with baby strapped in I tend to wear flat shoes as it is safer for everyone.

These were my two observations on the way to work, there sure are some very interesting people on the subway every day.

El Laberinto del Fauno

2007-02-12T13:36:00.000-05:00

My friend Winni and I went to see Pan's Labyrinth on Saturday...I have to say that the movie was great but it scared the hibbi yibbies out of us.

Though it is not a scary movie per se, it has many parts that required me to close my eyes because they were just too "intense". I guess that I could say that there are parts in the movie that are very gruesome and violent.

It is much darker than I had anticipated...though I really knew nothing about the movie going in except that it had received some good reviews and that it had won some sort of award. The acting was amazing, the "creatures" were incredible and very well done and the whole feel of the movie was realistic. You can check out some reviews at Metacritic .

I also LOVED the fact that it was in Spanish and after a couple of minutes I was able to sit back and enjoy the movie without having to read the subtitles.

All in all it was a very good movie to use an extremely boring adjective. Check it out if you like the scary stuff though you might not want to go and see the late show...you will have a hard time falling asleep afterwards.

F.Y.I. Fridays

2007-02-09T08:07:00.000-05:00

I have decided that on Friday's I will share with you something interesting that I have come across. This Friday I am going to share something about myself, Her Bad Mother sent out an Internet wide meme on 8 Wacky and Weird things about you and I have decided to attempt this meme.

It took a 45 minute subway ride yesterday to think of 8 wacky and weird things about me, but I think that I have come up with some good ones.

Here it goes...

1- I like to put lemon on my eggs and salt on my oranges and mangos. The lemon on eggs is a family thing, I learned it from my dad. The salt thing on oranges I learned from my nanny when I was very young. Sounds gross but it tastes great...you should give it a try.

2- I came face to face with a Boa Constrictor. Yes you read correctly...a boa...I was about 5 years old and the snake was hanging out on my swings. The only reason why I am still alive is because it had already fed and was digesting. Needless to say I had nightmares for years. And yes, I did grow up right next to the jungle just in case you are wondering.

3- I have very weird pet names for loved ones. I have this habit of giving those I care about "terms of endearments". They are very weird names, such as "llorona" for my mother which means cry-baby I call her this because she always complains about things. So disrespectful you would think but that is what I call her in private. In public I call her mother which is another term of endearment. You have no idea how many I have for Isa...pretty much one for every month that she has been alive.

4- I played with Barbies until I was 13 years old. I know that this is going to send some people running away from my blog, but I have to admit that I did play with Barbies and that I loved it. They were my friends when I moved to Canada and had very little friends at school because I knew zero English. It was also a way for me to slow down the process of growing up, because I loved being a kid and did not want to be a teenager. I hope that my Isa enjoys playing with toys as much as I did, I had so much fun with my dolls.

5- I shot a hunting rifle. Needless to say this is very weird given number 4. But it is true, I went hunting a la English aristocracy the summer before Isa was born. My prey was an 8 cm diameter clay disc, I got it once but missed the second time. It was one of the coolest experience ever and I have to say those suckers are heavy. I could barely lift the thing let alone try to aim at a moving object.

6- I have "fluffy" toes. Okay don't get grossed out when I say that I have hair on my toes...but I do. I inherited my father's hairy genes and I get a couple of hairs on my toes. I also get some on my fingers but much lighter.

7- I really can't do math. The funny thing is that my title has the word "accountant" in it. Now that is funny...but don't worry, like everyone I have no opportunity of screwing up, they leave that up to the computer programs.

8- I like to bite my hair. I feel weird telling you this because it is my dirty secrete that only my family knows about. But when I am stressed, bored, or concentrating I like to bite my hair.

There you go people, eight weird and wacky things about yours trully. I hope that I have not totaly sent you running for the hills...I really am quite normal...really.

Ooooh Gooody

2007-02-08T14:45:00.000-05:00

I have just discovered that I can actually blog at work...I have to tell you that I can barely contain my excitement. You may be wondering what the fudge I am talking about. Well, because my work actually wants us to be productive and stuff like that they will not allow you to sign into Internet based email providers ie. gmail.

Now as we know and complain about, New Blogger now has us signing in using gmail. So I was not able to sign into Blogger to post entries. But somehow, I have no freaking clue how, I am able to log into my account and create this post...Hurray for me.

Now I can actually contribute more to my blog since I have more time at work to take 5 and quickly write something. All I have to do is think of something interesting to write about. I will have to work on that.

Okay I have to go and think hard on what to talk about.

Hush Little Baby

2007-02-05T22:06:00.000-05:00

I have started a new bed time routine...one that I just absolutely love. In the past I would just put Isa in her crib give her her stuffed pig, place a blanket on her, give her a kiss and say goodnight as I closed the door.

Now, before I do all of this we have a few minutes of cuddling. I don't have to tell you how wonderful this is. She lies on my chest and we just hug each other. She has gotten so cuddly lately, she was never like that before. Before we would give her a hug and then she would like to be released, I guess it was because she had things to do and places to see, now she comes to us and asks for hugs.

This new routine gives me the one on one time with her that we both need, since now only get to see her for a couple of hours a day during the week, I can spend a few minutes holding her, stroking her hair and singing her lullabies. It reminds me of when she was just born and I would do this for what seams like hours to try to get her to sleep. I used to wish for the day that I would not have to do that and now I am returning to it, funny how life is.

Sweet dreams everyone.