Wiggly teeth and sad things

I feel a little sad today.

The gloomy weather isn't helping, I don't think I could live in England if its overcast and drizzly a lot of the time. That would royally suck…no offense to the queen…

Big C leaves tomorrow for his annual moose hunt. He is usually gone on the Thanksgiving weekend, so in that respect it was nice to have him home for the holiday. But it means 7 or 8 days of just me and the kid and fur kid. 

All will be well. We can handle it of course, it just sucks. I will miss him, Miss K will miss him and even the dog will miss him. And we cannot talk or Skype with him as he is off the grid so to speak.

As of about 9 am Friday morning we will not hear from him for 5 or so days and that plain takes a toll on everyone.

But we'll manage, its a temporary thing. Not like he's going to fight a war in some country, or taking off to climb a mountain and we don't know if he will ever come home.

On a lighter note, but still something that makes me sad is that Miss K has a wiggly tooth.

She was fired up this morning when she came into our bathroom to show us that indeed the bottom tooth was moving back and forth.

I'm excited for her as its a big step toward being a big kid, and she is excited that the tooth fairy may bring her something.

I'm sad though. I remember that tooth coming in. I remember seeing the white beneath the gums of my infant daughter and thinking that it happened too soon. And now a little less than 5 years later, she is looking to lose that first tooth and I'm still thinking its too soon.

She is happy though, and excited about the whole thing, so I will follow that enthusiasm and try not to shed any tears when it does actually come out.

Perhaps she can share some of her enthusiasm with the Blue Jays. They got walloped last night in game four of the best of 7 series. Their backs are against the wall now, and while one should never say never in sports I suspect there may be a whole lot of sad Canadians in the next few days as our only team loses its chance to get in the world series again.

Christmas is about 2 months away and that is a bid sad. 

Other than those things, which in the grand scheme of things are not really all that sad, life is pretty good overall.

Til next time…may the tooth fairy leave good things at your house...

150 minutes of my life wasted…or was it?

Two and one half hours of my life that I will never get back. 2.5 hours that I could have spent doing something else or taking a nap but instead I spent it basically taking up space.

Just one of those things that you do for your kids I guess.

Miss K was invited to another birthday party. She gets at least one a month, usually from kids that I have never even heard of her saying she plays with at school, but whatever, perhaps the parents invite everyone and hence the party invites.

She usually doesn't want to go. She has been to one so far and this was the second that she wanted to attend. But only if I could come too.

OK, not what I want to do on a Sunday afternoon, spend my time at a 5 year old's birthday, not even close to being on the list if you know what I mean. But at the same time I knew where she was coming from. I wouldn't be comfortable going to a strange house, with strange adults that I'd never seen before as a kid either. I seem to remember some pretty awkward feelings as a kid growing up in the same situation.

Thankfully I had met the mom of the girl having the birthday and felt ok asking if I could come along as Miss K felt more comfortable with the scenario.

Part of me wanted to say that no she couldn't go to the party unless she went by herself like the other kids. I wanted to say "You're five, nobody else is going to have their mom there". But I didn't and I wouldn't.

Miss K is a vibrant fun loving kid that will talk your ear off if she is comfortable with the surroundings and who she is with. 

She is still that same kid when the situation is unfamiliar, but it gets withdrawn into a shell of quiet observation when the tables are turned.

So we were off, to spend 150 minutes of tedium on my part, but it was nice to see Miss K relax and enjoy herself a little bit after a while.

I resisted saying too much or encouraging her to participate more but instead chose the role of supportive but mostly mute mom who was there for moral support.

One of those parental moments that you sort of want to hold onto. 

Big C and I were talking the night before about how excited (read not excited) I was to spend most of the afternoon at this party. We wondered how much longer we'd have before she didn't want us around any more. How soon was the day going to come that we'd have to drop her off and not leave the car, not hug her good bye or things like that.

I hated losing the afternoon to watch a bunch of children do crafts, eat and play games.

But I loved seeing Miss K look over from time to time and relief spread across her face seeing that I was there and smiling at her. I loved knowing that she had a great time and if my being there helped that, it was worth not having a power nap or folding laundry or whatever.

She is a great kid and if going to a birthday party or 2 or offering up another hug is what it takes to get her through, I'm all for it. As they say before you know it, it's gone, no more little kid, no more neediness, only independence.

Til next time…when your kid asks for help, I hope you can take the time to give it to them

Thanksgiving and the great marketing machine

Another long weekend has come and gone. A beautiful Thanksgiving weekend in these parts. Sunny, highs near 20 degrees, which at this time of year is a rarity. That's about 68-70 degrees for you folks that use Fahrenheit. 

And the weekend seemed long too. We didn't do too much special but it seemed like a good 3 day break from the everyday. Very nice to have the good weather to go along with it. 

We did a ton of yard work, not nearly enough I'm sure, as we'll still be out in the freezing cold trying so scoop up the last of the leaves and cut the grass one more time. But we're slowly getting stuff put away and cleaned up and ready for winter.

The weekend was not all work either. Big C and the dog got 2 hunting days in so that was exciting for them. Exciting for Miss K and I as well and we were able to sleep in. Not that we couldn't have slept in with them home, its just different somehow…quieter maybe is the word. I dunno, it was nice to sleep past 7 at least once and nearly 7 the other 2 days.

Miss K had her swimming lessons Saturday morning. There were no tears this week, she still cannot get over that she is too big for a parent to go in the pool with her. She feels a little out of her element all by herself I guess, but she's doing ok just the same.

We had a big family dinner on the weekend. My mom's family still gets together over Thanksgiving and Christmas. All the cousins now bring their kids and I'm suspecting in a few years we could even see another generation as the cousin's kids start having kids which is frightening unto its own.

There were about 28 or so of us for supper. A big group, but kind of nice that you could avoid the ones that you don't really want to talk to. One cousin was home that hadn't been in about 3 years so it was nice to see them. Others who shall go nameless, I just try to avoid.

Miss K had fun. She stuck pretty close to Big C and I for the most part but she was reasonably social and well behaved. She was also asleep about 15 minutes into the drive home, but when you play hard you sleep hard too.

Back to the grind for a shorter week which is always nice. Sucky that its the last long weekend before Christmas, but what can you do?

Speaking of Christmas my dislike for the season is increasing. There is Christmas crap in the stores already…already like 2 or 3 weeks ago already. Total bullshit. The marketing machine of corporate greed rolls on. Pretty soon we'll be able to buy Christmas lights with our kids back to school supplies.

It's awful. No wonder people get so stressed during the holidays, this crap has been shoved down your throat for over 2 months about buy this, do that, make this blah, blah blah.

I hate it. I don't hate much in this world but I hate the materialism, marketing and mayhem that goes along with it.

Deep down I quite like Christmas, there is much wonder and peace to be had with the season, but all this other crap I can do without.

I went this morning before work to pick up some solutions to our mouse in the house problem and a few other things and was assaulted by boxes and boxes of Christmas crap awaiting to be displayed in the aisles along with the stuff that was already there.

Not the way I wanted to start my day. Halloween is still 2.5 weeks away and I have to see all of that?

I don't get it, I never will and I will rebel against the Christmas machine. I long for a simpler time. Maybe not so simple that the gifts are handmade, but you get where I'm going…no one really needs a clove ball for their closet anymore do they?

We know Christmas is coming, we will probably decorate, and buy gifts but don't bombard us with gross displays of money grabbing commercialism until at least mid November…

I know its just my two cents…but that is about all I want to spend on Christmas at this time of year.

Til next time be thankful for what you have and enjoy the good weather while it lasts