ten minutes to myself

in the loop

In most ways, I think that St. John's is a better place to raise a toddler than Calgary is, though this weekend Madeline and I enjoyed a couple of the things that this sprawling monstropolis does better. First, I picked up a copy of the free monthly parenting magazine (Calgary's Child). I don't know of a better way to find out about kid-related things like community clothing/toy/gear sales, consignment stores, playgroups, special events, etc. In St. John's, all of this stuff seemed to be spread by word-of-mouth, which poses a problem when one is new to town and knows no one.

Second, we went to one of the kid-and-coffee joints that I was mightily wishing for back in February when it was too cold and windy to play outside and the most interesting indoor outings I could think of was another trip to the Y or a trip to Chapters so that Madeline could jockey for a spot at the train table. I think that an indoor place place with a few tables for parents to meet up at over tea would be a brilliant business to open in St. John's.
The one that we went to today was the Urban Treehouse, which is actually located outside of Calgary in Airdrie. It don't normally travel that far away for anything, but it seems to have a mythical reputation here, and I was curious. Madeline wasn't into the place as much as I expected, but the Treehouse was by far the cleanest indoor play place I've ever seen! So much cleaner than Coffee n' Scream or Jump n' Java! It was surreal!  Madeline dropped a bit of the cookie I'd bought for her on the floor while we were there, and I didn't think twice about picking it up and giving it back ...

we're going on a bear hunt

I think that both Madeline and I were a little blue this morning after bidding adieu to my mother-in-law (better known as Nana). Madeline sure had fun with all of the trips to the nearby playground with Nana, and I appreciated having someone else around while I ran around at lightening speed, trying to do all of the things that need to be done before our next move. Anyway, my proposed cure for the blues: a trip to the library.

This was our first visit to the library since arriving back in Calgary, so we signed Madeline up for her very own library card (free!) as soon as we arrived. She was quite thrilled to carry it around (and eventually abandon it on the shelf by the children's DVDs). She helped me to pick out a couple of movies, then played at the activity cube for about ten minutes. She filled the canvas bag that I was carrying with a half-dozen picture books. I am the most excited about reading Fancy Nancy with her, but she's partial to blue aliens!  An elevator ride downstairs to the check-out desk completed the outing nicely.

So much nicer than the last time we were there, in 2005, when Madeline was merely interested in pulling all of the board books off of the shelves!