A Dumping of the Brain

You would not believe how many blog posts I have sitting in my draft folding, with only one or two sentences written. Some ideas are from a year ago and others more recent. Some could warrant a post of their own while others do not. All of these drafts somehow give me the feeling of being weighed down so here is my attempt to dump them all into one extremely random post:

(source)

1) NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children. I read this book ages ago. I loved it. I wanted to recap it on my blog because I found it so very interesting, but of course, never got around to doing so. I actually took notes while reading (nerd alert) and probably bored my old boss, Katie, about it because I talked about it so much after I was finished.

Anyway, while reading another blog called hellobee, I discovered that one of the bloggers wrote their own recap about it. If you're interested in how children acquire language, learn about race, why they lie, or the inverse power of praise, read the book (or just the summaries). Really good stuff, in my opinion.



2) Limber Tail Syndrome. We brought Bama to the family cottage and after many hours of swimming his tail looked like this:

instead of the usual, this: 

I felt so bad for the poor boy and thought for sure he broke his tail while jumping off the boat into the water. It turns out that he had limber tail syndrome, which is caused by excessive activity, especially swimming. Certain breeds of dogs are more susceptible to this, including Labs. He seemed to be in pain and would whimper when he got excited because ya know, he wanted to wag his tail. He also had trouble sitting down. I'm glad I used my google-fu to learn about this syndrome rather than bringing him to the vet and spending hundreds of dollars. There's really nothing you can do and it went away in about a week.

3) My Love/Hate Relationship with Cloth Diapering, UPDATE.
Holy smokes, life is so much better when you don't have to share a broken washing machine with a bunch of other tenants, including one crazy lady, and one sorry excuse of a man. We went for months and months with a broken washer which involved me running up and down many many flights of stairs to wash Little m's diapers. Looking back, it was a huge source of stress for me and from start to finish, washing and drying the diapers took me all day. Now we have our own washer and dryer and yeah, it's amazing.


I also made my life a lot easier by deciding to dress Little m in a disposable diaper overnight. For the life of me, I could not figure out how to get the stink out of the cloth diapers that were on the baby for 12+ hours. By using one disposable a day, the stink is gone, and I am a happy camper.

4) We Moved! I love my house. I love my house. I love my house. Um, attached garages are WONDERFUL.

That is all for now. I feel lighter.

Bestest Buddies

Little m is so lucky to have a cousin who is just five months older than her. Tonight I was flipping through some pictures and these have me laughing so hard my sides hurt. A couple of characters, I tell you. Lately, for some unknown reason, her big cousin isn't exactly fond of Little M, but we're hoping that changes over the years! For now, we are having fun placing them side by side and seeing the fit of rage that incurs. 

September, 2011

Their first time meeting. Looking both dazed and confused. 

October, 2011

Little m's first trip to her Grannie's house in Canada. 

December, 2011

Celebrating their first Christmas together. 

January, 2012

Whooping it up in Florida with Sophies. 

July, 2012

Hanging at the summer cottage. 

Growing up, I didn't have very many girl cousins my age. I'm so happy Little m does! 

Oh Hello...

The munchkin is getting so big and she makes me laugh a ton, every single day. There are some things I just gotta write down because I think it'll be great to look back upon one day and reminisce. I don't want to forget all of the cute things that she's doing, so here's the latest and greatest.

Right around the time she turned one, Little m became obsessed with books. She can't get enough of them these days. Her attention span is seriously lacking and sometimes she stays engaged with a book from start to finish and other times for only a page or two.

Every night before bedtime she reads books with her daddy. Finally! I have been waiting for this day forever. Well I guess only a year, but still. Little m makes her teacher mama so happy with her new found love of books! This new bedtime ritual makes my heart melt. It is so freaking cute to watch.

First, Little m toddles (um, yeah, she's walking) on over to her bookshelf. She falls along the way and continues crawling over. 

She ponders the book selection and chooses her favourite. All of them are her favourite. 

She can't stand up on her own yet so she tries to crawl while holding the book, which doesn't work very well. Either that or she tries to walk upright on her knees, which also doesn't work well.

Little m makes it back to her daddy and he pulls her up onto his lap to read the book. 

She pays attention until she's bored, wiggles out of his arms, and starts the process again. 

By the end of story time there's usually a stack of ten books on the floor beside the chair. I love it. 

It's so cute to watch this bonding time with daddy and daughter. 

Here's a short video of their nightly ritual:

I can't believe she's such a big girl now.