The magical moments

Last night my husband and I were settling down on the couch to watch our previously PVRed shows.  We have a small obsession with a certain chef's reality t.v. series.  Tuesday nights, that's what we watch fairly religiously.  As he sometimes does, my 3 yr old wandered down from his bedroom wanting to be with us.  Neither of us was feeling very strict about where he slept, we let him lie down on the couch with a blanket and pillow and a few minutes later he was asleep.  Meanwhile, we were absorbed in our show, fast fowarding through the commercials that we didn't look over at him for some time.  When we did, we saw he had his head buried under the blanket with his legs and bum out and up in the air.  I haven't laughed so hard in quite a while.  We did photograph the moment, I won't post it here or likely anywhere, but we will be saving it for future embarrassment opportunities.  This is the kind of photo that parents show their child's girlfriend/boyfriend.  May even be worth saving for the fiancee.  Again I was struck by just how much I love my son.  I never knew it was possible to love another person so totally and completely.  I was happy before, but it seems so insignificant to what I feel now that he is part of my life.  It is a love that is unconditional and will never ever die.  Even when I die, I hope that I will have loved him so well during my life that he will carry that love with him until the day he dies and even then, if fate is kind, he will have passed it on to his children.  Having said that, I have my own parents to thank; it would seem it began for me, with them. 

 

Rainy day rant

This afternoon I guess I am in the mood to bitch.  Dollarama needs to be renamed to the Dollartwentyfiveortwodollarama.  I know that's a mouthful but I don't really think you can call it a Dollarama when very few items actually cost a dollar.  I was there today with my son, we were looking for cereal storage containers, which we found, priced at $1.25.  We also purchased a very small child's book; $2, a puzzle; $2, an Elmo snack bowl; $2.  While these things were far less expensive from the other big name stores, it still kind of burns me that even at the dollar store, prices have doubled.  I really hate to pay twice the price for an item that is manufactured in CHINA for a fraction of the retail cost and on top of that, the HST (I won't get started because I may be typing all day on that subject!) 

I realize I sound like a scrooge, but in this day and age, we need to be more careful than ever with our hard earned money.  Prices of goods continue to soar, the cost of living as a whole is increasing, but salaries are most definitely not following the same trend.  In fact, employers are finding new and more creative ways to short sell their employees.  Instead of hiring full time/permanent employees, we are seeing more contract positions that don't offer benefits or retirement plans.  More and more we have to rely on ourselves to pinch our pennies and plan for our futures if we ever want to stop working.  I consider myself to be very lucky to have an employer who offers those benefits, but my other half does not, so there is still some responsibility to plan and save.  So little changes here and there to prices at the DOLLAR store do aggravate me. 

Over the last three years I have learned how to make my money stretch further.  Pleasure shopping for myself is now virtually nonexistent.  This week was my first visit to Reitmans since before Christmas (and at that time I was shopping for other people!) and I bought two items both of which had been marked down to less than 1/2 their original price.  I shop at consignment stores for my son's clothing, I have found excellent quality things that had barely been worn for 1/3 of what I would have paid for them brand new.  I watch the flyers for specials at the grocery store and try to make meals that stretch.  We both ditched our cell phones; we used them mostly to call each other so now we just make sure to call each other before we leave the office or house.  Emergencies just don't happen that often.  However, it is still in the back of my mind that we should perhaps have one.  Instead of buying books, my library card has gotten much more use out of it.  I'm just not real good with the due dates, but at least that money is going to something I really believe in and appreciate.  If I could get rid of my car, I would but at this point in my life, it's just not practical.  I have to pick up my son from daycare after work, taking the bus from work, to pick him up, and then home is not something I want to do.  Our time together is precious and sitting on a bus is not what I call quality time with my baby. 

Maybe someday we'll catch a break and win the lottery, but until then...I will hunt out the bargains!

So much fun!

As luck would have it, day one of my vacay was totally rained out.  Of course that would happen to me.  On the bright side, I did get to spend the entire day with my hubby and son.  We typically only have one day a week together so two in a row was extra special.  I also brought my car in for it's regular maintenance, now that it is freshly lubed and the brakes are in tip top shape, we are ready to head up to the trailer tomorrow.  My 3 yr old is so excited.  He can't wait to go with his "lashlight, and fishing rod!"

We just got back from 2 full days up at the trailer, we had such a great time.  My parents bought it about 20 years ago, so many of my summer memories involve McGowan Lake Campground.  Now I get to enjoy it with my son as well.  He gets to experience all of the things I did as a kid.  We enjoyed swimming in the lake, racing for the turtle, playing "risbee", taking trucks to the park to race in the sandbox, swinging "not too high" on the swings, kicking the soccer ball, fishing, and digging for toy clams.  My little man loved his first camp fire.  It was well worth letting him stay up late for it.  He was not a big fan of the marshmallows, but he completely enjoyed the graham cracker cookies with chocolate.  He slept like a champ all night and was raring to go in the morning, not wanting to let anyone else sleep.  Why would they sleep when he's awake anyway??  We decided to come home 1 day early because they were calling for rain all day Friday...it's seriously no fun in the rain.  So we packed up and headed home.  It was a quiet drive for me since the little guy fell asleep before we even hit the highway.  So I turned up some tunes and just enjoyed the time alone.  Soon enough we were home to see daddy.  He missed daddy, he looked for him in the morning, and wanted to bring things home for daddy.  I hit the sack early, fun in the water and sun always tires me out, and the sleep was awesome since I was back in my own bed.  Week one of Vacay 2010 is just about over, but there is still week two to look forward to!  We will play it by ear and plan things day to day depending on the weather.  

Two days to go!

Two more days until I am on holidays...aaaaah.  It will be a much needed break from what I consider to be a stressful job.  I have some loose plans to visit with family, see some friends, and hopefully head up to the cottage for a couple of days for some R&R, swimming, and general down time.  I am not going on a big trip, everyone at works asks:  Where will you be going on your holidays?  My answer is usually:  No where. 

I am a home body.  I like to stay close to home, I am not a big fan of hotels and traveling on airplanes, I would much rather put my feet up at home, or see the sights around Ottawa.  Some people kind of look at me a little bit sideways, not understanding why I wouldn't want to explore different countries, cultures etc.  The truth of the matter is, I am quite happy to stay home.   I have been on a few big trips, well 3 to be exact, in my adult life, we went to Disney World on our honeymoon, once to the Dominican with a friend, and went to a wedding in Calgary.  I've had the same feeling at the end of each of them, that, "Gee, I'm SOO glad to be home!!".  While I had an amazing time on each trip the feeling of coming home was the happiest I would feel.  I think the next big trip that I take, I would like it to be a road trip.  Likely not this summer, but hopefully next, I would like to head to the east coast, see the lighthouses, Anne of Green Gables house, and eat some yummy seafood.

I am a homebody.  And here's to summer vacation!  2 days to go!!

Did I do the right thing?

I am not too sure, but here is the story:

Yesterday I fell down the stairs to the basement. I haven't fallen down the stairs since God knows when. I was distracted, holding things in both hands, when I missed a step and took a tumble down the stairs. I landed on my feet, mostly on the left foot, and then, it collapsed. My 3 yr old was not far behind me (thankfully he didn't fall!) and I heard him shout out "Mommy! You falled down the stairs! You ok?" Even though I was almost in tears, I stuffed them back to let him know I was ok. This got me thinking about why I did not want to let him see me cry. I know that I definitely did not want to upset him, but perhaps I should have. I'm still not sure. I guess I thought that if he saw I was hurt it would send him into distress mode too. Another thing that has occurred to me is that maybe our children need to also see our humanity, our emotions. Things are not always alright; we as parents experience happiness as well as sadness, pride as well as regret, triumph as well as pain. How will our children learn that our failures teach us just as much as our successes if we don't let them see ours. Is it a mistake to hide behind a facade of happiness when we really want to let loose our negative emotions? (I'm not in any way referring to violence; I do not condone that in any way shape or form; just outward expressions of feelings.)

Quite a lot of thought provoked by falling down the stairs.