Day off

This is what I'm eating for breakfast right now.
Brought back all the way from Switzerland by my mom.
I'm eating it in bed.
With the laptop on my lap.
And a coffee on the shelf beside me.

Grosmami took Benjamin home last night, for two days. He gets to, as so aptly put by my friend in Germany, be a "real little boy" there.

It has been hard here for him. I try to keep him busy and occupied but it's been difficult with the big belly, the fatigue, the stress, the renos, the dirt, and the need and want to get ready for the new baby.

He will have fun with grandma and nonno. They play with him, they take him to the park, the woods, the store, the neighbours.

They get to bond with him. He is their only grandchild who lives in the same general vicinity; the other two live on the west coast of this grand continent.

And I had a great night. A long night, with minimal pee breaks.

So today I can muster up enough energy to get some more cleaning done, laundry, and packing up crap to take to the storage.

And plan some fun activities for Ben for the remainder of the week.

This will be our last week alone together.
A new baby will be here next week.
In some ways, I'm kind of sad that this phase is ending...

I admit it

Ok.

As much as I hate to admit it out loud, there is one thing that I know I will miss tonight. And it is the nightly bedtime routine with my toddler.

Benjamin is sleeping at his grandparents' house tonight and tomorrow night.
Hubby is out of town overnight someplace in the northeastern USA.

Only Rusty is here keeping me company.

So tonight I will have no toddler to tend to.

Which is the strange part...I get to sit in front of the tv and eat dinner, watch a useless tv show, take as long as I want to finish eating, leave the dishes as long as I feel like it, have a leisurely shower at my convenience, go to bed as early or late as I wish, read any book or magazine whose target audience is not pint-sized or features trucks with big wheels, and eventually fall asleep without having to remember to carry the sleeping child lying next to me back to his own bed.

But I know that the bed will feel empty without Benjamin there. There is something about snuggling with my clean-smelling, Nuggi-suckling, Bello-clutching toddler boy at night time looking at books of his choice and listening to his never-ending babbling of ever-expanding knowledge about various construction equipment.

It will feel strange not feeling the little pudgy footsies touch the small of my back after I turn off the light and try to get my pregnant belly comfy wedged in between several pillows.

I will miss the feeling of a warm little hand reaching for mine so he can fall asleep holding my hand.

And I will miss the flood of relief when I return from carrying a 27 pound kid into his own bed at 11:30 pm-ish. (This fortunately does not happen every night, but it happens often enough that I can honestly say it is one of those catch-22, love-it/dislike-it situations.)

And tomorrow, I will miss hearing the little noises his chubby feet make when he tiptoes to my side of the bed at 7 (ok 6ish) in the morning. I especially will miss that part because he shows up with an armful of stuffed toys (Bello, Imposter Bello, Lamb and Baby Lamb), drops them on "his" side of the bed, walks over to my side, places Imposter Bello in my arms, walks back to the other side, and snuggles up against me until I wake up.

(Imposter Bello is "mommy's Bello", aka "stinky Bello". His Bello is "other Bello" or plain and simple Bello.)

I will miss all of the above.

But not so much that I won't enjoy the peace and quiet tonight will bring. Maybe I won't even do the dishes tonight. I know I'll regret it in the morning but I have no kid to tend to then either.

I'm just too tired tonight to care.

So....good night.

The new approach to sleep in own bed

So far he's slept in his own bed through the night for several nights in a row.

The usual "I want mommy's bed" to fall asleep at night has been getting a little annoying for me. On the days that I'm tired and want to go lie down at the same time as him, the last thing I want is a bouncy, jumpy, twitchy toddler next to me.

But lately I'm abound with energy (I still slump after 4 pm but I seem to get a second wind at 8 pm) so now the new approach seems to be working. So far.

1. By 9 pm (ish) he's bathed, in pjs, teeth brushed, and with Nuggi-Bello.
2. He climbs in mommy's bed and rolls around in anticipation for me to join him.
3. I fold laundry in that room and put it away, keeping the lights dim and the conversation and eye contact to a minimum.
4. I head back to the kitchen after turning the bedroom light off to finish dishes or otherwise putter around. The kitchen is directly off his bedroom and he can see and hear me if he were in his bed as opposed to mine.
5. At some point I mention I'm putting the gate up to his room (he doesn't mind the gate at naptime), and that "mommy will be lonely in here all alone without Benjamin".
6. He comes to the gate and wants into his room.
7. I lift him in.
8. He says "mommy wanna come too?"
9. I say "yes, after the dishes I'll come tuck you in".
10. I keep puttering around and he lies on this bed. If he's really tired he rolls around with a stuffed toy or two, if he's less tired he may take a toy car and play with it on his bed.
11. He falls asleep without me present.
12. If he doesn't, I sometimes go join him for a few minutes to calm him down.

If the above doesn't happen and I get fed up I either

• encourage him to play in his room quietly as it is NIGHT TIME NOW AND TIME TO SLEEP and then to to my own room. This may or may not work. I adjust whatever is necessary.
• or, I go to my own room and slam the door and leave the screeching toddler with daddy if he's home.

Luckily the second option hasn't happened too often.

Does this mean I'll never let him fall asleep with me again? No. I like it when we snuggle together sometimes. There are times when he's just too agitated that he needs his mommy to calm down and fall asleep.

But I'm happy that he's adjusted back to the normal routine so easily. So far. If I can keep it up until he starts school again in September, this will make my life easier. I'll be 8 months pregnant by then and likely more interested in earlier bedtimes anyway, for him and for me.

Yay.

Environment day

We live in the most western part of Toronto, a burb called Etobicoke. Etobicoke is known as one of the most environmentally-conscious parts of the city, although different areas within the city are more so than others. And it's catching on to the rest of Toronto as well.

Toronto, or the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) as it is known in these parts, consists of many so-called little neighbourhoods. Each neighbourhood used to be a town (I don't know how accurate my historical analysis is, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), and a revitalization of town-functions and town-living has occurred in many of these neighbourhoods.

I noticed for example that city people eat more organic, and better food in general, than most people who live in the suburbs. I also notice that city people walk. Suburban people seem to prefer the car, probably most likely because many suburbs in these areas have nothing to walk to. I also notice that when I'm at my most frustrated because of my small house with my lack of
storage or closest space, I inevitably bump into another person living in the neighbourhood who has come across similar problems and overcame their challenges through some creative renovating or rearranging. And in general, we city folks seem to want to live with less, not more.

In my neighbourood, I can honestly say that if I had no car, I could survive quite well. I may not be able to frequent big box stores or malls as often (although they are accessible by transit from where I live), but then I don't frequent them that much anyway. I much prefer the little delis, butchers, mom-and-pop shops anyway, which are all within walking distance from my house.

Having said that, I do NOT in any way discredit my access to the car. In fact, I am often glad I can count my fortune to be able to say at a moment's notice: "let's go here", pack up the toddler and/or dog, and then go there.

But I digress.

While living in Etobicoke, first as renters and then as home owners, we have participated in all environmentally proactive functions that we could. We had a compost bin in our little backyard well before they introduced the green bin, a city composting service where they pick up not only food waste, but also diapers and dog poop! We grew veggies and herbs, we re-use water from the salad spinner to water the plants, and we recycle. Despite of our limited storage capacity in our little home, we have a designated spot for dead batteries which we keep until the community environment days occur during the summer. Then we make the effort to dispose of them in an environmentally effective manner.

This year we took our 2-year old child to our local Environment Day Community Event.

• The child who knows the difference between the garbage in our house, and the compost bin.
• The child who knows the difference between which compost bin the diapers go into (the city one), and which bin the potato peels go into (the one in the backyard).
• The child who points out dog poop on the sidewalk and says "people should pick up dog poop".
• The child who has learned to point at graffity and say "that's not nice".

He got to carry the batteries in a baggie and give them to the guy at the Hazardous Waste Zone.
He watches us deposit several bags and boxes of stuff we no longer use to the Goodwill Truck.
He helped us exchange the broken compost and recycling bins with new ones.
He helped us carry empty paint cans to the Hazardous Waste Zone.
He carried a remote while I carried the old VCR to the Electronics Section.

This Environment Day in our area was the most visited, best organized one I have seen since living in the area.

This makes me happy.

And encourages me to continue recycling and composting.

Less is more!

Good things

No, I'm not trying to imitate Martha Steward. But lots has been happening lately, most of it good, and I just haven't had time to write about it!

But I will.

Just not now.

No time.