mommapalooza

what's yours is mine

My daughter's playdate ended over two hours ago, and I am still shaking my head. When Madeline's friend E comes over to play, I have to check her backpack before she goes home with her mom and inevitably end up pulling out a few of my daughter's belongings. Today it was a wall decal and a huge mound of pink playdough. At least she asked if she could take home Madeline's purple necklace and stuffed purple unicorn. It all seems kind of bizarre to me, but I imagine that E's "collecting" is just a three year-old thing. Madeline was not impressed, however, and started hoarding her toys ...

It must be interesting going through airport security with E and her backpack of treasures LOL!

must have been a really good playdate

  sacked out 
  Originally uploaded by goingdomestic.

This is a scene that I don't see too frequently these days. Madeline stopped believing in afternoon naps about thirteen months ago, although I still believe!  Last Thursday, Madeline spent the morning at her preschool, had a thirty-minute swim lesson, and then played with her friend E after class for about ninety minutes. It's a pretty reliable formula for nap-induction, though I am so used to Madeline not napping that I hardly know what to do with myself when she does!

moving on

Slowly, over the last week, I've been moving all of Madeline's personal effects from her bedroom into the room that she prefers to sleep in. I have just one more framed photograph to hang up. I feel rather sad about doing all of this.

When our container of furniture arrived in BKK after making it's journey from Canada, the first thing that I wanted to do was set up a cute little bedroom for Madeline. It really bothered me, when we were living in our rental house in St. John's, that Madeline's room was so lifeless. All beige and dark furniture. Her room in Calgary was very cheery, and I wanted to have as happy a space here in Bangkok to play and sleep in. I was mentally decorating Madeline's room here even before we arrived. Our container arrived with the colourful sheets for her new bed, the fun pictures for hanging on her bedroom walls, and a menagerie of furniture and toys.  We were able to give her a large and bright room, with lots of wall space for artwork and a huge bathroom - so roomy that we could fit in there together!

All was good for about two months, until Madeline started to talk about scary noises that she heard in her bedroom. I don't know ... The only weird noise I ever heard was something that sounds like a washing machine that our upstairs neighbours seem to like to use at 6 am.  It didn't matter, though. When Madeline realized that her old crib was sitting in the room next door to hers, she couldn't move in fast enough.

I was convinced that it was merely a phase, and she'd be back in her bed and her bedroom in a week or so, after the novelty had worn off. After all, that room was smaller, and it's bathroom was not very conveniently laid-out for the newly potty-trained.  I thought these things were important.

It's been four months now, and last week, when I asked Madeline if she wanted to move back into her bedroom, she told me "No, it's too scary!" So, I've been moving her clothes between the closets and hanging up her pictures on the walls of her new room. And yes, I'm sad to starting over again, but I know that it's right thing to do as Madeline deserves to have somewhere to sleep and play where she feels safe. On the plus side, her new room is the coolest in the house - it only has one outside wall. We'll just keep her things in the roomy bathroom next-door, though :)

the princess diaries

I've realized, in my adulthood, that I am an anti-commercial princess person. Completely against marketing princess stuff to young children. It's never about how princesses in real-life go to school or work hard for non-profit organizations. Real princesses don't wear their crowns and ball gowns every day, and it's hard to convince my kiddo of that because Disney says otherwise.

But I can remember what it was like to be a three year old little girl, so I also feel that I ought to be a little forgiving with my own three year old little girl. This past fall, when I saw on Blogher that Disney was offering a complimentary copy of the Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dream DVD in exchange for a review, I signed up. And then I waited for the DVD to arrive in the mail. And waited. And waited some more. Shrugged my shoulders as the disc would be arriving in Bangkok via our American forwarding address, so it would naturally take longer. And then I waited some more. I emailed Blogher to ask if I was supposed to have actually received an actual DVD. No response. Tapped my feet a little. Then, a week before Christmas, it arrived.

Naturally, I did what any other logical parent would do in such a situation - I wrapped it up and stuck it in Madeline's stocking! 

It was the only DVD that Madeline cared to watch when we were on our London holiday, despite the fact that I packed some totally awesome family films like Curious George and Cars. My little three year-old adores it with all of her little heart, and I guess that I'd have to give it a thumbs-up as well, as much as that means from me. I would much rather that she watch the two age-appropriate stories about Aurora and Jasmine taking responsibility and being helpful towards others than a Disney feature about pining away for a prince (ie. Cinderella) or waiting to be rescued by a prince (ie. The Sleeping Beauty and Snow White), or has content that frightens her (ie. Snow White, Aladdin, and Mulan).  I'm pleasantly surprised that the Disney princesses of Madeline's childhood are a little more well-rounded and multi-dimensional than they were back in my day. 

If only they could wear shorts or jeans in their next DVDs :)

lifestyles of the rich and un-potty-trained

I just read, in Tuesday's Globe & Mail, back off hyenas - get your own $80 diaper. I honestly thought it was a typo.

For the record, I did not ever spend that kind of money on a cloth diaper!

for the baby name obsessed

The Globe & Mail ran this article recently: Unique's the name - finding it is their game. I thought it was fun to read predictions of future popular names from the so-called name experts at the end ...

rain, rain, go away ...

It's Friday, and I didn't even have to look out the window to know that it would rain this morning. This is the fourth rainy Friday in a row, which is unfortunate because it was only five weeks ago that Madeline's preschool class started their Friday morning outdoor water play program. So, Madeline's class has only had water play one time since the beginning of the school year. I've dutifully packed her swim outfit in her backpack every Thursday night, and I feel a little sad each time I unpack it, dry, on Friday afternoons. I think that she really liked the water play - after the first time, she told me that she played with soapy sponges. Chris saw a photo of her class at her school's open house earlier this week - it was taken during water play and they were trying to see how many three year-olds fit inside a single bathtub. It sounds like Madeline and her classmates are missing some good stuff ...

Speaking of good stuff, it's been a really long time since I had my act together to organize my favourite links of the week ... but lo and behold:

• Z Recommends - this is one my new favourite blogs. I think that Madeline might be a little older than Z, but the posts at this site are for such interesting toys, products, and music!  I found the Sippy Cup Showdown post very informative (because the leak factor is oh-so-important to me), and I actually won something (a deck of Bright and Beyond activity cards) from reading this site. Cool, huh?
• Monkey Bars are so Old School - I'd never contemplated the evolution of children's playgroup equipment before, so I found this article interesting. I'm from the old-school era (loved merry-go-rounds), so it was helpful to have some of the new-fangled equipment on the playground explained to me :)
• I've seen this kid-friendly bento box in a few blogs, but Ask Moxie has a good post about it (and plastics) here. I think they're terrifically cute and useful in that the number of containers would motivate me to fill them all with veggies, but sadly, Madeline's school will provide lunch when she attends for a full day. No whimsical bento box for her yet.

Playgroup Drop-out

I'm starting out early in terms of sabotaging my kid's social life. It turns out that one of the other parents at Madeline's swim lessons organizes a playgroup on Thursday afternoons, and she and I were invited last week. I was really excited for Madeline; quite a few of her classmates are regulars and increased socialization was one item that her teacher said she would benefit from at our parent-teacher interview a few days earlier.

Anyway, the location of the playgroup was at the complete opposite side of The Compound from our home. Too far to walk. I don't have access to our truck at four in the afternoon, either. I figured that the best thing was to take one of the local tuk-tuks to the playgroup, so I wrote down the number before we left the pool.  I called fifteen minutes in advance, and Madeline and I were downstairs waiting ten minutes before the ETA that I was given.

And we began to wait. And wait. And wait. And soon, we were thirty minutes late for the playgroup, and the tuk-tuk was nowhere to be seen. Madeline and I gave up. She was quite sad to have missed out on a tuk-tuk ride.

I'm quite mortified. The mom who invited us asked me several times before the end of the swim lesson if Madeline and I were coming "for sure", and we didn't make it. I wish that I'd at least asked for her email address or phone number so that I could call to apologize! Not sure that we'll be invited back for this week ...

random friday thoughts ...

1. Nearly-three years can be an awkward age at the playground. Not quite independent enough for the big-kid swings, but sometimes one is too cool to be seen in the baby swings. But sometimes not.

2. I had no idea that Madeline was so attached to the friends that she made in St. John's. She talks about them all the time, and I can only assume, misses them like crazy. Since we've moved back, every time she'd see or hear the four year-old twins across the alley from us, she'd get puppy-excited and couldn't get her shoes on fast enough to go outside and play. And now the twins have moved away. Each morning, Madeline wants to know if we're going somewhere that holds the possibility of meeting other young kids to play with. I wish so much that I knew some other at-home parents here in Calgary with children Madeline's age. An almost-three year-old who is desperate for friends is kind heart-breaking.

3. In the "Where were you three years ago" category, I give you The Baby Guide to Calgary. I've seen this book lurking on the shelf at Gymboree class for the last month or so, and while some of the pages merely summarize parenting info of the "back to sleep" and "barefeet are best, soft-soled shoes are next" variety, it's full of info on things to do with your wee one while on mat leave. There's a large list of free activities to do, as well. I would have loved having something like this around when Madeline was an infant. It was kind of flukey that Chris and I discovered that Strollerfit class at the Southland Leisure Centre ...

4. Madeline and I have been cheating on her Zooper with a Maclaren Volo lately, and I feel bad, but I love the Mac more. Of course, part of me is laughing at myself because I used to be horrified when I'd see children of walking-age still being pushed in strollers. Little did I know how quickly little legs could tire out ... Sancti-mommy no more, I tell you!

5. Madeline's third birthday occurs after our house is packed up here, but before she and I fly to Bangkok, and about a month before our container shipment will arrive. Crazy in terms of managing celebrations, gifts, etc. because Chris won't be around and I can't really take much to BKK in my suitcase, gift-wise.

6. Can a person be allergic to dandelion fluff? Because I think that Madeline might be. Did I post the same thing last year?

Homecoming

Madeline, Nap-Denier, fell asleep while I was finishing up with dinner this evening. I tried waking her up a few minutes ago, but she merely squawked. So, might as well use a moment of free time to catch up here ... because she'll be up until nine or ten tonight!

Madeline did fine while we were away. My mother-in-law found plenty of interesting things to do together (so much that I possibly look bad in comparison - hee!), and probably has filled her annual quota for playground visits. There was chocolate milk, blue Gatorade, and sandwich cookies in the house when Chris and I arrived home, so I know they had a good time :) We chatted on the phone with them most evenings. All in all, the separation went better than I anticipated. No reports of bedtime trauma. I am optimistic about the horribly long flight that I have to take Madeline on when we move to Bangkok.

Bangkok seemed to be a fine place for kids. There are more play-places than in Calgary, an English-language library, and a children's museum. One department store we checked out carried Maxi-Cosi and Chicco carseats, and I didn't expect to see carseats for sale in a country without carseat laws.  The coolest thing I saw (at a Toys R Us, no less): a sushi-themed set of Melissa & Doug cutting food.