mommapalooza

... a home by any other name ...

I have to admit that I'm tired of all of this traveling with Madeline, though she's a good little air passenger and I've vowed not to let it stress me all out anymore.  The 3.5 hour time difference between here and Alberta is what wears us out, I think. Chris and I seemed to have assumed that she'd adjust her internal clock right away, but instead she was getting up for the day at 4:30 am local time (which is a respectable 8 am in Newfoundland). She was eating at the wrong times of day. Heck, we were eating dinner after her normal bedtime.  That helps me to understand why she preferred throwing green beans and doing laps around the house instead of sitting in her chair and enjoying her meal. And she was, of course, going to bed much later than normal. I remember wishing that she'd be her normal self and being really frustrated with her behaviour, fearing that no one would recognize that she was acting out of exhaustation, instead of merely acting like a miniature caveperson. I imagine that Madeline was similarly frustrated with me. It's a tough situation, no? Anyway, it was good to come home.

It's weird to think that we'll be moving again next month. This place in St. John's will have been "Home" for over a year, and as much as I am looking forward to having a house of my own again, it feels really strange to leave this one. This is the first place that Madeline has named "Home", and she's grown-up in so many ways here.  I'm doubtful that she remembers much about our real house, but I think that she'll have a happy reunion with her red wagon. 

I'm kicking myself for not marking Madeline's height on the kitchen doorframe before we left Calgary. It would have been a treat to measure how much she's grown in the year that we've been away.

revenge must be better than cookies

Last night, Madeline invited me to "go swimming" with her in the tub while she had her bath. So, we both jumped into our suits, and my toddler played with her bath stickers while I washed her hair (I posted a few weeks ago about what a treat hair-washing is for Madeline). After the last suds were rinsed from her hair, Madeline asked for the cup I was using and then proceed to gleefully pour cupful after cupful of water over my head. Revenge. I didn't realize that she understood the concept before :)

Also, thanks to everyone who commented two posts ago about the durability of the Mabel's Labels! I could have spent my pennies on a couple pairs of Stride Rites, but it sounds like the labels will last longer :)  I am actually conscientious about where I spend my online dollars. Shortly before we moved to St. John's, I bought one of those Diapees & Wipees cases to better organize Madeline's diaper bag, and I was immediately disappointed in the quality of the product. I've never forgotten that, and really wish that I'd just sewn one instead. I could have used interfacing, and it still would have only cost a fraction of what the D&W brand case did.

little miss westjet

Madeline and I arrived home again (home is still St. John's) from yet another trip to Edmonton. This trip represented my third and fourth time taking Madeline on an airplane solo, right across the country. I've decided that it's really not the big deal that I thought it was. The hardest part was the three-hour layover that we had in Toronto, because Pearson International is a sucky airport if you're too young to pass the time away in Starbucks. Madeline and I walked though all of the Gates AXX, BXX, and CXX, and we could not find a single children's area. Not even a tiny lego table. The funnest part of the layover for Madeline was the family washroom, where she spent ten minutes splashing in the sink.

I've gotten better at packing our carry-on bag. This time, I only took:

• crayons
• a ziplock full of sheets of stickers
• a hardcover composition book for stickers and drawing in
• three softcover picture books
• a travel-sized DoodlePro
• a couple of Phidal sticker books (fairies and Winnie the Pooh)
• extra diapers, wipes, and a change of clothes
• portable DVD with three Pixar films (useful for the layover in Toronto)
• a few packs of raisins, a container of Cheerios, and a couple string cheeses, in a ziplock bag

which is good because my backpack doesn't hold much!  The most popular items were the crayons, the stickers, and the little DoodlePro.

On our flight between Edmonton and Toronto yesterday, we were seated in Row 16, and the seats in front of us were occupied by another solo-traveling mom and two toddlers, and in front of her, another solo-traveling mom with a toddler and an infant. Madeline was the only one in a carseat, and each of the three flight attendants came by and said that they were glad that I had Madeline in the carseat for the flight. She was the most content toddler on the plane, and seeing the other one and two year-olds wiggle, wander, and squirm made me feel better about my choice to use the Marathon on airplanes, even if hauling it through airports cramps my usual jet-setting style. I should have bought a set of the GoGo Kidz wheels a year ago ...

Madeline seems to have mastered the names of the buy-on-board snacks that the flight attendants sell on WestJet flights. Yesterday, when I said that I was going to buy one of their yummy turkey-and-swiss sandwiches for us to share, she said, "and Pringles and Twizzlers!" I wonder if she even knew what those things are?

random neat things

I didn't have my act together on Friday to put together a post of cool stuff I've found on the internet at large lately, but I'm going to make for it today.

First, one of the writers over at Blogging Baby has started doing kid-friendly CD reviews. The second review, Here Come the ABCs by TMBG, was posted today. The first review was of a disc called Mommy Says No by the Asylum Street Spankers. Never heard of them, but they sound kind of funky.

There have been many more little kids at YMCA/YWCA lately, which means that it's become more difficult to ascertain which empty snack container and drinking box is Madeline's when I go to pick her up after my 10 am date with the treadmill. It's often like going on a treasure hunt, One of the other parents there recommended that I try out Mabel's Labels, and Madeline's arrived in the mail today. Love them. Even if these sticky labels weren't dishwasher-friendly, I'd still love them for the cute little graphics. I asked Madeline if she preferred the little fish, the little butterfly, or the little bird, and even she had trouble deciding (obviously, the fishy won out).  I wouldn't say that they're expensive, but they weren't cheap. I think I'll reserve my final judgement of their "value for the money" factor once I see just how long they last.

I am almost as excited about Mother Proof as I am about those labels showing up in the mail. It was featured on Cool Mom Picks the other day, and it's a website that reviews vehicles to determine their worthiness for the monniker "family car". The current car-of-my-dreams is in there :)

toddler logic. an oxymoron? discuss.

Today, when Madeline was "washing" her cups in the sink, she started pouring cups of cold water over her head and shrieking with delight. Yet, when we rinse shampoo out of her hair in the bathtub, she screams. It's just not fair :)

multitasker

I haven't had a lot to say here lately, so tonight I'll give you all a glimpse of how Madeline is already practicing effective time management by using bathtime to work on her alphabet identification.

The foam bath stickers that Madeline received for Christmas are very popular around these parts :)  Her Auntie Marian seems to find the neatest gifts.

Quotable Madeline

Madeline has appointed herself the official phone-answerer for our household. It started on Wednesday - the phone would ring, and she'd race me to it. Of course, I'd have to slow down so as not to knock her little three-foot self over, so she'd get ahead of me and grab the receiver first. I'd stand off to the side, and whisper, "say hello!", hoping for the best.

Without missing a beat, Madeline does say, "Hello!". Sometimes it's "Hello! How's it going?", even. Anyone eavesdropping might hear her chatter about something that she's been occupied with, or else be treated to a stream of high-speed babbling, depending on the conversation. After a minute or two, I usually can make out, "okay, talk to mom!". She'll pass the phone to me and say, "it's for you!".

Also, Madeline finally started to say her own name about two weeks ago. Previously, if someone asked her what her name was, she'd chirp "I'm me!" or else just bury her head in my shoulder. For awhile I thought that it was our fault for giving her a three syllable name, but then I realized that many of Madeline's same-age or younger playmates were calling her by name. I concluded that Madeline was just unmotivated. Then, a few days before Christmas, one of Madeline's grandfather's friends asked her what her name was, and she replied, "I'm Ma-da-wen!" clear as a bell! Sadly, I was out of the room for this triumphant moment, but Chris's excitement over this development was contagious!

In other news, I wasn't online much this week and don't have much to offer in terms of nifty articles/do-dads/links, but I was delighted to see that the best-est nursing pillow ever (designed in Calgary, even) was featured on Cool Mom Picks two days ago! I ended up buying a Baby Buddy pillow after testing one out at the lactation consultant's office when Madeline was a few weeks old. It really made a huge difference in how comfortable I was breastfeeding!

the small 3-0

Madeline and her NYE Date, Mr. Lobster ...
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic.

Madeline turned thirty months (or 2.5 years) last Friday, as she was in a plane completing her third trip across the country. I can't help but wonder if that journey across seven provinces and five time zones sped up the aging process! All of a sudden, it seems like she wants to play pretend nearly all the time. Sometimes she's a penguin (and lucky me - I'm a mommy-penguin), a cat, or a Wonder Pet-ish superhero (in which case she dons a cape and usually rescues her dad or I from a puppet with bad intentions). We'd had many picnics and tea parties.

Madeline would stay in her jammies all day long, I think, if I didn't insist that she wear non-sleepwear when we go out.

There is a list, in my Ann Douglas toddler book, of various skills that 30 month-olds are supposed to have achieved. The only ones that I couldn't mentally check off for Madeline are cutting with scissors and being able to dress and undress herself. I guess I don't let her practice with scissors as often as I should, and Madeline's affinity for her jammies would seem to be an obstacle in terms of getting her to take them off on her own :) Anyway, I hope that she's as amazed by her progress in 2006 as I am!