Month: February 2006

Do you think it’s a coincidence that we finally decided to stumbled into going ahead with our frosty in the very same week I registered Tristan for kindergarten? Surely there’s no correlation there…

For some reason, I was surprised by the big sheaf of paperwork I had to complete for Tristan’s enrolment. There were immunization papers, tax roll papers, transportation papers, and the school board application form. The one form that raised my eyebrows was from the school itself. It had all the usual information – date of birth, parent names, emergency contact, etc. But then it had a section with questions about the child’s abilities: can he dress himself, work buttons and zippers by himself, go to the bathroom by himself. So I completed those, understanding that they want to have an idea of his capabilities but also thinking that even though in February he might still need some help with buttons and zippers, I’m guessing in September he’ll be a lot more capable.

Then there was a small section with a bunch of adjectives, and you were supposed to check off the ones that apply to your child. Things like sensitive, curious, willful, artistic, independent.

Is he sensitive? No, of course not. I mean, yes… but in a good way. Could you please tell me the right answer here?

Is he stubborn? Absolutely. Well, sometimes. I mean, no more than usual. Um, can I please have another paper, I made a mess of this one.

And then there’s three blank lines underneath the question, “Is there anything else we should know?” Only three lines? How about I just append my blog? Okay, the short version. He’s sweet, he’s very bright and extremely verbal, and although he doesn’t like to share with his brother on most days, he’s very kindhearted and generous. He’s very empathetic, except sometimes he’s a little self-centred. I mean, he’s three. And he knows his letters and can count to 100, and he knows the obscure colours like fuscia and charcoal. He can put his own boots on, but he often chooses not to. (What do you mean I’m out of space, I didn’t get to the part about the trains, or the bathroom, or… or…)

I really should have just left that whole section blank. It’s not up to me anymore, it’s up to Tristan to make his own way. My labels, however carefully worded to prop up his self-esteem and make him seem like an ideal little learner, can’t possibly describe the complex bundle of wonder and contradictions that is Tristan.

I don’t want to prejudice their perception of him with my words, my thoughts, my observations. I want them to know Tristan on Tristan’s terms. He’ll shine, and they’ll love him. I have no doubt.

I can’t draw a deep breath when I think of the precipice on which we are standing. School is the conduit that will lead him toward his future, to guide him and encourage him and shape him. In just a few months, he will take his first steps on a long road that will lead to adulthood. And away from me.

I’m not ready.

Last week, I turned the keyboard over to you guys and asked for some help in dreaming up content. I told you to go ahead and ask me any question, or give me a topic, and I’d blog about it in an upcoming post.

Ahem. Not too many of you took up the challenge (looks pointedly around) BUT the clever blogger from whom I stole the idea in the first place came through for me. Suzanne of Mimilou asked: “In a comment on my blog, you mentioned having a crush on editing as a profession. Other than what you are doing now, what kind of career could you see yourself pursuing?”

Well, the ‘kept woman’ career path never panned out like I had hoped, but in general I’d be happy doing just about anything with words.

In a ‘money-is-no-object’ fantasy world, I’d love to be a freelance writer and researcher. (Quelle surprise.) I’d love to have a little home office all to myself and a steady stream of small jobs on a huge range of topics. I don’t think I have the stamina (read: attention span) to be a book writer, and I’m not sure I’d be creative enough to write fiction. But just to write pieces that I could choose, enough to keep me busy about five hours a day… yep, that would be sweet.

In the real world, there’s a part of me that thinks I would have made a really good teacher, espeically to primary school kids. I would have loved to do that, and tossed around the idea of going to teacher’s college after I finished my degree in 1998. The main reason I didn’t, in fact, is that I had gone to school part time while working full time, and you can’t go to teacher’s college on that schedule. That, and I just wasn’t brave enough to give up my income entirely for a couple of years and start over after being in the paid workforce for eight years. Money talks, ya know?

I’m too comfortable in my government job to think about big changes any more. And I do love what I’m doing, albeit some days more in theory than in practice. I’ve worked pretty hard to get where I am, and I’m content now that I’m here. I’ve started to look at other opportunities within the realm of government communications, but I don’t think I’ll ever move outside that scope. Next month will be my 16 year anniversary with the government, and in addition to my handsome remuneration and benefit package, my annual vacation will be bumped up by two days to 22 days in total.

The other nice thing about my government job is that I’ll be able to retire with a full pension on my 55th birthday. That will leave me with a lot of free time to set up that nice little writers’ garret in the one of the spare rooms, as the boys will have just gone off to college. (Yes, I’m 36 years old and have my eye on my retirement. That’s not sad, is it?)

When I go back and read all that, it sounds a little bit like I’ve sold out and am just trudging toward my retirement. I don’t really feel that way – I’ve just always found that a job is something you do during the day that enables you to do the rest of the stuff you love in your ‘real’ life. I guess I’m a little underambitious; I can pay the bills and support my family, but what I’m really passionate about happens after 4 pm. Remind me not to give any future employers a link to my blog, willya?

So what about you guys? What’s your alternate-universe dream job? And, ahem, I’m still taking questions and ideas for future posts… throw a dog a bone, whydontcha?

Nothing to blog about today. The last and next few hours have been wasted invested in cramming for my French exam Tuesday at 8:15. Souhaitez-me bonne chance!

I’m right on the brink of achieving the levels I need, so depending on the amount of sleep I get Monday night and the relative positions of Venus and Jupiter, it could go either way.

For civil servants in Canada, if your position is deemed bilingual, you have to be retested every five years, unless you get the golden ‘exempt’ score. Kind of like the golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I myself aspire to a much more lowly intermediate score, or B level. As of today, my job doesn’t hinge on being able to achieve my levels, but I’m in a pool of qualified candidates for a promotion and I can’t lock it in until I confirm my language levels. This is kind of a practice run, but if I succeed I can sock away my results for another five years.

After many years of on-and-off language training, and investing three to four hours a week of in-class training for the past year, I think my proficiency in French is as good as it’s ever been. I can follow a conversation with relative ease, and even contribute well enough to be understood, if not in a grammatically gorgeous kind of way. I’m actually quite pleased with my progress in general, but in preparing for the exam I’ve taken a series of practice tests – and scored lower on each successive test.

So think a kind thought for me tomorrow as I try to conjugate the subjunctive and identify my si clauses and distinguish between direct and indirect objects… and still have enough brain cells left over to tie my shoes.

… I just saw this incredible news over at Half Changed World. Starting tomorrow, you can pre-order on Amazon.com one of my all-time fave childhood television shows: The Electric Company!! I used to watch this every. single. day. when I was a kid, and I’ve often wondered what became of it. It was like Sesame Street, which I also loved, but with an edge.

This is something we simply *must* acquire, and it will be a nice addition to our Schoolhouse Rocks collection on VHS. Now I just need to get some of the old Sid and Marty Krofft episodes (Land of the Lost was my favourite, but I liked HR Pufnstuf too), and pick up some of the original Muppet Show series, and my kids will never have to watch commercial TV again!

(Is it me, or is it suddenly 1976 in here?)

Suzanne at Mimilou had a good post the other day about media-savvy parenting. In my comments to her, I admitted to a certain (albeit questionable) smugness in that although my kids watch way more TV that the ‘experts’ would recommend, at least they don’t watch (whispers) commercial TV.

I thought of this on the weekend, as Tristan and Beloved happened to turn off the Theodore Tugboat video they were watching to catch the end of the animated movie “The Secret of Nihm” on cable. Whatever scene was on must have been fairly engrossing, because as I listened from the kitchen, they watched in silence for a few minutes. I couldn’t help but laugh when Tristan’s suddenly querulous voice asked, “Hey, put it back! Why did you change it?” It took Beloved a few beats to realize that a commercial had come on, and Tristan had no grasp of the concept.

Okay, so maybe they worship at the altar of the electric nipple, but he’s almost four years old and he doesn’t know what a commercial is – I can’t be doing that bad of a job. (She said, justifying and rationalizing as fast as her conscience would permit.)

The next day, Beloved and Tristan were watching that animated Garfield movie while I tried to read the latest John Lescroart novel and ignore them. I couldn’t help but be distracted in listening to Tristan watching the movie, though. I wasn’t sure he’d sit through an entire movie, but he followed the plot and laughed at all the silliest humour, so he was getting it. But my heart nearly broke at one point when his little voice intruded into the depths of my reading trance and he said, “Mommy, Odie is lost,” with all the empathy his little heart could feel. I quickly reassured him that Odie would soon be found and all would be right with dogs and cats the world over, but I couldn’t get back into my book. I had to watch the rest of the movie with them, partly because I wanted to really get an idea of what he was taking in, but largely because the idea of spending a blustery Sunday afternoon lying on the couch watching a movie was something I gave up about the time the kids started noticing the glowing box in the corner – and I was happy to have it back again.

Curious George comes out in theatres some time in the next couple of weeks, and I think that will be his first cinematic experience. I can hardly wait! Popcorn, giant screens, chest-thumping speakers – I love the movies!

And finally, speaking of movies, have you seen The 40 Year Old Virgin? We finally rented that this past weekend, and it’s easily one of the funniest movies of the year. If you haven’t seen it, don’t miss it!

Here’s a question that’s been bugging me ever since I’ve been buying kids’ clothes:

Why does WalMart put multi-packs of kids’ socks into resealable bags? Am I missing something? Is everyone else keeping their kids’ socks in baggies, rather than the more pedestrian underwear drawer where my kids’ socks live?

(Tangential question: should I be reading something into the fact that my kids’ caregivers chose a bag of socks to give to Simon for his birthday? Albeit, admittedly, in addition to a really cool playdoh train set. Or, as Simon calls it, “play-day-doh” – rhymes with potato. I’m just wondering.)

So far today, my darling first-born son has:

– refused to eat the lunch his uncle cooked while we visited his cousin for a playdate;

– wiggled, wriggled and tipped over backwards in his chair at the same lunch, breaking the chair in the process;

– said he thought I should go away;

– refused to eat the dinner I cooked, or even try a single bite;

– said he didn’t like his little brother; and,

– made such a general pest of himself that I am now hiding in the computer rather than deal with it.

It’s just a phase, right? RIGHT?!

Sigh…

But PS – I had a blast at the party yesterday!! Thanks to all who played along!

It seems the theme on blog this week is birthdays. First Simon’s birth story, then a recap of his party, and now today, (**blows kazoo**) it’s blog’s first birthday!

It’s been an amazing year for blog, and for me. When I started writing, I had no idea where it would lead, but I never dreamed it would be as much fun as this. I had hoped to reach an audience of 10 or 20 people a day, and instead I’m reaching between 150 and 200. How cool is that? Just yesterday, we tripped over 30,000 hits on Sitemeter. Wow!

I was going to make a list of all the incredible people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting (and “meeting”) over the past year, but the list is just too long. And I can count more than a dozen “in real life” friends who have started their own blogs since then, including one entire extended family. I’m not taking any credit for that, but it just goes to show you how quickly and thoroughly the virus that is blogging has innundated one little corner of the universe.

In honour of blog’s birthday, I think I’ll host a comment tea party tomorrow. When Nancy held one a couple of weeks ago, it was a blast, and either she tagged me or I tagged myself to host the next one. I’ll open the doors around 8 am, and you can wander by and say hello any old time. I think I’ll limit mine to 12 hours, so make sure you come by before we call in the wrecking crew at 8 pm to clean the place up. I’ve vaguely heard that there are rules to this sort of thing, but I’m trying my best to ignore them. I’ll provide the snacks and the firefighter strippers (in all three genders, bien sûr), you bring whatever else you might want. Think we can clear 120 comments in 12 hours?

And finally, in the theme of comment whoring, here’s an idea that I’m blatantly ripping off from Suzanne. It’s “customize your blog experience” day! After a year of yammering, I’m starting to run out of ideas. So help me along – ask me a question. Anything you’re dying to know about parenting two preschool boys? Want a debrief on living in a constitutional monarchy? Itching to see a list of my favourite Timmy’s doughnut flavours? Go ahead, ask me a question or propose a topic, and I’ll write a post about it in upcoming days – or, depending on volume and laziness quotients, weeks.