"Empire State of Mind"

I'm a huge believer and supporter of keeping music in schools.
It is so vital in the development of kids.
Music for kids can only be a good thing.

Here is yet another example of why...

A beautiful rendition of the chorus of Empire State of Mind [Jay Z & Alicia Keys]...by a kids chorus in New York City.

See more funny videos and Music Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Great kid's music game...

Found this one on the TVOKids website...

It's called the 'Make Your Own Music Game'.

You pick the musicians, DJs or beat boxer and create your own piece of music.

My 3 year old [almost 4] son loves it...bonus is you can record the piece of music your child creates and email it to family and friends.

Here's one that he created this morning...

Seething....

Oh open-concept house design how I loathe thee....

Note to couples that are thinking about the whole 'wanna have a baby thing'....

Open concept houses totally rock it when you are sans enfants....but bring kids into the picture...especially two that cannot register the command..."Stay here in this room...not over there but here" and suddenly you're on Google typing in words like 'renovations', 'fancy gates' and 'doors' at 11PM when you could be chilling for the first time that day.

So open concept yes if no little feet wander your house...
Little feet yes...containment in a specific area is key.....so doors are your friend.

You can thank me later for keeping your sanity.

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** yes this bitch session is entirely due to the fact that one wandering 3 year old, who shall remain nameless, discovered Mommy's carefully hidden [or so I thought] chocolate stash and ate the last Skor bar.**

Mommy my brain really hurts.....

You know the saying 'oh you must have gotten your second wind'...well before bedtime my 3 year old goes through winds 2, 3, 4, and 5 before he's ready to say 'ciao, ciao' to the day that was.

He's always been like that...super busy, into everything, running never walking, yapping away a million miles a minute...simply put he's always on the go. My little Tasmanian Devil he is.

So tonight when he passed on his hot dog, (with just mustard mommy, ketchup goes on on hamburgers only....spoken like the true New Yorker he's not) and he asked if we could go upstairs without watching his favourite TV show 'Olivia', I knew something was not right with my little guy.

30 minutes later he's cuddled up in my arms on the floor and crying because his 'brain really, really hurts' and that slight temperature he's had the last few days is now a full blown hot to the touch fever.

'Mommy please make my head stop hurting so much...please Mommy," cue this Mommy's heart breaking and feeling of total helplessness.

One dose of liquid Tylenol later, bubblegum flavoured of course, and mr. hyper active 24-7, is too tired to play anymore and tells me his head "hurts too much to read any books with anybody tonight. Mommy I just want to lie down. Maybe if I lie down my brain will stop hurting."
20 minutes later, at 7:35PM, my little man is sleeping away curled up on his bed, in the fetal position, clutching his 'teddy blanket' in his arms.

It's right then and there at moment that I wish they could stay 3 forever. And you realize that you love your kids more you than you ever thought possible.

Goodnight my sweet, kind prince. Hope you feel better in the morning.
Mommy loves you very much.

Things I won't miss.....

My cousin Christina is graduating from University this week and that got me thinking that one day I'll be watching my kiddlets walk across the stage to receive their diploma...

As much as I want them to stay little for as long as possible and not to grow up too fast, here are the top three things I won't miss...

1. sucking out mucus from little noses with a damn nasal aspirator...seriously they can send a man to the moon but that's the best they can come up with for baby snot removal?

2. the teething process and everything that goes with it...

3. the sleepless nights....my son finally started sleeping through the night when he hit the age of 2 1/2...my daughter is 15 months old...hopefully she appreciates the benefit of a full night's rest long before he brother did...

Things that make me go hmmmmmm?

A little reflection on the week thus far...

1. Why is it that my 3 year old son takes on the properties of slow moving molasses when I need him to do something [i.e: get changed, eat lunch, eat dinner, put socks on etc.] and yet he instantly morphs into Olympic record setting Michael Phelps when I leave the room for 2 minutes to change his sister's diaper and he manages to empty an entire box of crackers onto the floor and starts spreading peanut butter on them because he wants to have a picnic?

2. Had I known that my 3 year old son would be occupied for a good solid hour with one roll of Scotch Tape, the room of toys he now has never would have never seen the light of day.

3. Why is it that my daughter can sleep through a parade of construction trucks driving by her window, her brother's whining and phones ringing but the minute mommy sits down to starts typing a blog she wakes up? Really I don't type that loudly.

4. Why is it that my 3 year old can't hear me asking him to do something when I am sitting right next to him but he magically hears me whisper-cursing when I'm in a different part of the house?

5. Why is it that my son forgets basic rules...no yelling, no hitting, no screaming, no saying the word 'hate' on an hourly basis yet if I do something, like I don't know like yell, he instantly can list off the rules of the time out chair, including the 'if you get out of the time out chair before the timer beeps, I'm going to start the clock again'?

6. My 3 year old son won't walk across the balance beam at his gymnastics class but climbing all the way up to the top of the bookcase in the office...no problem.

7. My 1 year old daughter is a fairly picky eater but put her outside and suddenly dirt and sand are a Foodie's most sought after culinary feast, why?

8. Why is it that both my 3 year old and 1 year old can turn on the DVD player, TV and stereo and yet the simple instruction of 'please stay in your room' completely confuses them, like I'm asking them a question about geophysics?

9. Why is it that my 3 year old son complains of being bored playing in his room filled with toys yet he'll watch the same episodes of Olivia, Ruby & Max and Hard Hat Harry over and over again, like it's the first time he's ever seen them every single time?

10. Why is it that both my kids get their second wind exactly 10 minutes before mommy's show that she really wants to watch is about to start? I swear it's because they know we have the PVR feature...damn the kids and their tech savvy ways.

Too much thinking....time for mindless TV...'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here' it is.

Kiddie Karma

+ = not a good idea


I'm convinced that the behaviour of my 3 year old son and my 11 month old daughter over the last few days can be attributed to kiddie karma.
And my parents are the ones getting the last laugh.

I was one of those super hyper, overly dramatic kids...who always got into something...
I was always on the go and I never stopped talking....it was non stop 'why, what, when' 24-7...and I never took naps...

I also made life for my mom and dad very interesting....whether it was only eating [any meal] in the summer if was outside on the front steps or collecting the little frogs around my neighbourhood with my next door neighbour and putting them all in his pool so they could have a bath...
Yes never a dull moment.

I was so hyper apparently, that one of my uncles thought I was possessed and told my mom he should bring me to a priest to be exorcised.
My mom brought me to the doctor instead.

And he prescribed Ritalin.
After one month on the drug my mom took me off.
She decided that she would deal with my ridiculous hyper activity as opposed to having to deal with a zombie-like child who barely spoke a word or moved around.

So my daughter's extremely short temper, intense dislike for sleeping through the night (because apparently she thinks she's missing out on something) general moodiness and clingy for Mommy's arms should not come as a surprise...
(She is so going to be the one sneaking out of her bedroom window)
Nor should my son's experiments...

Ah yes my little scientist.
Like the one yesterday where he wanted to see if his toothbrush would flush down the toilet....(which it did)
I found out about that experiment, when he came running into the bedroom, with that 'guilty look' on his face saying...'It's OK Mommy nothing happened. I didn't do it on purpose....it was only an accident Mommy, it's OK You don't have to get mad."
(I am so grateful that my dad is a 'jack of all trades' and only lives 10 minutes away)
And my son summed it all up by saying..."It's OK mommy if they can fix a Formula 1 car when they get into an accident when they are racing...you can fix a toilet....it's not bad...don't get mad silly."
He has an answer for EVERYTHING.

Or this afternoon when my son took everything out of his drawers, closet, toy box and storage containers and laid everything out on the floor because he was going to have a garage sale....
Thank you Peter Walsh...
That is the last time Matteo watches Oprah.

Truly it is a wonder that I don't drink more than I do.

I have to go...things are far too quiet in the house...and that is NEVER a good thing...