I've moved

I've moved the blog over to it's own url: http://www.mamabear.ca and finally took Dan's advice to go to wordpress too. Come on over!

Three car trips, three conversations

Isabelle: Mom, I'm tired of life. Everything is the same every day, all the time.

Me: (suppressing the mother of all eye rolls) It's the end of the year and I think everyone is tired out. Summer will be here soon and everything will be different again.

Isabelle: Life is boring. That's why. Boring, the same thing. Why?

Me: (unable to suppress myself anymore) You're 6. You're too young for an existential crisis.

Isabelle: What's existentional? And 6 is not young mom... it's very OLD.

Me: (TURNING ON THE RADIO.)



Me: What's that smell?

Tom: I dunno. I didn't farted.

Me: Are your feet smelly?

Tom: NO! My feet are NOT smelly. They are not smelly.

Me: (knowing the smell of sneakered foot released when I smell it) Are you sure?

Tom: (sniffing his feet in the car seat)... Ah, yes. Yes, my feet are smelly.

Pause.

Tom: MOMMY!!!! STOP THE CAR - my feets are making me sick. You have to wash them!!!

Me: (TURNING ON THE RADIO.)



Isabelle: I am cheering for Italy [in the world cup]. Who are you cheering for, Tom?

Tom: I'm cheering for ME! Yay, ME!

Isabelle: (exasperated) No, you have to cheer for a team from a place.

Tom: Oh. Well, then I am cheering for Niagara Falls! [best place on earth as far as my well-travelled kiddos are concerned]

Pause.

Isabelle: Mom, is Niagara Falls in the World Cup?

Me: No, Niagara Falls is a city. Only countries have teams in the World Cup.

Isabelle: SEE - you can't cheer for Niagara Falls. You should cheer for Italy.

Tom: NO! I love Niagara Falls and I am cheering for them.

Isabelle: But they don't have a team. Or a jersey even. What are you going to wear?

Tom: [WAILING] I can cheer for Niagara Falls.

Isabelle: MOM!!! Tell him he can't.

Me: (TURNING ON THE RADIO.)

Some more gratuitous chick pics

Breast Cakes

Made for a friend's stag - shhh: don't tell them I'm just practicing for World Breastfeeding Week.

Baby Chicks (in my basement)

Wordless Wednesday: what happens when Daddy goes to the petstore "just to see"

Earth Day 2010

I hadn't given a lot of thought to Earth Day Celebrations for this year - it's always a busy time of year with birthdays and events, so the Earth Day celebration often gets pushed aside. Plus, we try hard in the day-to-day to be conscious of our impact on our general environment, so many of the suggestions I read about don't really work well. Between Isabelle's Sparks and school, we're participating in two park clean-ups, so the fairly easy stuff is already covered. And falling on a Thursday where both Dan and I have several commitments means that a car-free day or activity with just Tom aren't going to happen (I could move the appointments, but the symbolism isn't worth the upheaval, forgive me).

So, this year we're going to focus on local - really local and plant some areas of our gardens with some sustainable local plants. I started last year replacing a shady area that used to have annuals in it with trilliums. After having most of them die off, I've figured out why and am going to try again.

Since our municipality started collecting compost, we've stopped doing our own composting (except egg shells). But the Star recently revealed that not very much of what we're giving them is actually turning into usable compost. And I've always wanted to try out vermi-composting - a bonus that Isabelle and Thomas have developed a sudden (and uncharacteristic for our family) love of worms. So, we'll be setting that up in honour of Earth Day too. Just don't tell my husband: he's not a lover of worms or my projects that involve rotting garbage.

What are you doing?

ps: This post was written as a part of the Earth Day Challenge hosted by The Canadian Mom Blog Network in Partnership with Mom Central, Majesta, and Fenigo.com.