Stories Bedtime Son's My

My four year old son finds everything funny. If you cross your eyes at him, he'll giggle for 20 minutes.

There are many upsides to this of course - one being that when he's tired, instead of becoming cranky and prone to crying like most kids, he turns into a completely giddy, giggle monkey (although this is more fun that crying, it can make brushing his teeth tricky).

A downside to this is that his latest favourite source of chuckles is having his bedtime stories read to him backwards. I mean completely backwards - from the last page, starting with the last word.

Now this is not as easy as it sounds (granted he wouldn't notice if I messed it up slightly, but I'm too OCD for that ;-) Our brains are so programmed in our language that certain word combinations come off our tongue in the correct order, even if they're not read that way.

For example, consider the following phrase:

"Suddenly Thomas began to feel a pain in his boiler."

...read quickly backwards (by me!) would come out like:

"Boiler in his a pain feel to began Thomas suddenly."

In order to over-ride your brain's automatic word order sorting process and actually read every word in reverse order, you have to read the text much slower. This makes story time take much longer.

(Hmmm...!!)

Smart kid.

Surprise Stew ;-)

On the surface, it looked like chunks of stewing beef and potatoes in thick brown gravy. Little did my husband and kids know, it was spiked with veggies!!

(Heh heh)

I was nervous initially, because shortly after I added my purees, you could really taste them (oops). However after simmering for a couple of hours, the flavour of the meat had really come out, and it was delicious.

Here's what I pureed and added:

cauliflower
celery
tomato
onion

I also made a "spice juice" to add, made with fresh spices from the garden and some water:

basil
thyme
rosemary
sage
savoury

I threw in some peppercorns as well, although those weren't from my garden ;-) And of course there was beef oxo, to tie it all together.

My husband and kids all enjoyed it and cleaned their plates...

3 Parties In 2 Days

Phew! Glad that's over. Don't get me wrong, we had loads of fun, but now I get to have a "down day" on Monday.

I told Alyssa we had NO plans for today. (It was yesterday when I told her that... as I write this, it's about 1:30 am on Monday.) She said "Really? Can't we make some plans?"

Uh, nope.

No park trips, play dates, parties, swimming lessons... nothing. Yippee!!! Now I have about 300 photos to edit and a few discs to burn (I love all things photography related, though, so that's a happy chore for me).

I don't know where the summer has gone!! I know we're only half way through, but I had this vision of summer being this vast expanse of free time. What was I thinking.

Off I go to get some sleep...

A Tip About Flossing Sticks

I use flossing sticks for my kids' teeth - this saves me trying to fit my big fingers in their little mouths and enables me to floss between all teeth, not just the easily accessible front ones.

I tried a new brand recently and thought I'd pass on this tip for anyone interested in trying flossing sticks. I forget the name of the brand, and I won't bother going to check, because the key point has to do with the handle: if it's flat, it's easier to use.

The new brand I bought has round handles, and they're really hard to hold in place. They slide around in my fingers, especially once they're slippery from being wet. The flat handled sticks are much easier to grip.

From now on, I'll only buy the flat handled kind...

Ruby Fleetwood

Ruby Fleetwood, the six year old daughter of Fleetwood Mack drummer Mick Fleetwood, was injured critically in a pool accident in which she was doing somersaults in the pool, and apparently swallowed too much water and lost consciousness. Luckily it seems that she is on the mend and could make a full recovery.

Last year my husband bought one of those Dolfino Simple Set pools (14 ft x 37 in). At that time our son had just turned three, and our daughter was four and a half.

One year later the pool is still in its box in our house. My husband shakes his head at me, and some of our friends crack jokes. Both of our kids are in swimming lessons, and our daughter can swim well in water over her head. Maybe as well as Ruby Fleetwood... or maybe not quite. My son can't swim in deep water at all yet, but is making progress in his lessons.

While in their swimming lessons, my kids would never be permitted to do any kind of activity that is beyond their skill level (i.e. somersaults that could disorient them). However a backyard pool creates a scenario where even the most prudent parent or caregiver can become too relaxed and comfortable in their child's ability. Needless to say, our Dolfino pool will stay in its box for at least another couple of years.

A final note for the swim enthusiast parents out there: I have many friends with kids who are wonderful swimmers, including one who has a five year old who dives competitively, all from rec centre lessons and without the aid of a back yard pool. These kids have not suffered at all or been deprived by not having a pool just steps from their back door.