A Conversation of Great Misunderstanding.

Conversation while colouring on a toilet paper roll………

Child - "I am going to make a testicle."
Me - "A what?"
Child - "A testicle, you know…to look through."
Me - "OH!! A telescope! I thought that you were saying testicle…a part of your penis."
Child - "No, a telescope. You know, Octopuses have testicles….tones of them!"
Me - "Hahahaha! No. Tenticles."
Child - "That is what I said, testicles."

Natural Birth

So this is another Ranty post - surprise, surprise. The thing that I love most about my blog is that I can pretty much say anything that I like because this is my space, and my opinions really only matter to me.

Ie) you can choose not to read it if you feel that you will be offended.

I posted on my wall about the Beyonce debacle, and how one statement says that she had and elective caesarian and then another statement came out and said that it was a natural birth.

First thing is first, I really do not care how Beyonce had her baby. I don't know her personally and the fact that it was on everyone of my feeds yesterday irritated me…just a little…

So I commented that if there is ONE person in the world who can have a natural elective c-section that would be Beyonce Knowles.

Apparently my humor was lost on a whole bunch of people and I was again called out for judging some poor defenceless woman…. lets start here shall we? If you think that you do not judge people you are a liar. EVERYONE judges people. That is what human beings do. You judge based on status symbols, fashion, the way they talk, what they eat, what their kids eat. I find it completely hypocritical that I am constantly told "not to judge" on my facebook… screw off. I am going to.

Number 2. It is not all about you. Guess what? I KNOW that C sections CAN be necessary. I also know of a whole bunch that ARE NOT! But, if you had one, you will probably think that it was the emergency kind…. but NOT every c section is an emergency. We know this to be true. How do we know this? Study after study after study that shows that once a woman goes into the hospital and accepts intervention her risk for C-birth go up. Every time.

So my comment about the c-birth got into a conversation about how every birth is natural, and how no birth is un-natural….. um… surgery IS NOT natural. period. cutting into a woman's abdomen and then removing her uterus, placing it on her stomach, cutting it open, cutting the amniotic sack open, and then taking out the baby, and cutting his cord, and pulling out the placenta through the hole in the woman IS NOT NATURAL.

So I said the PC version of this and was called out as being "so superior" because I had 3 .. you guessed it.. natural births - no drugs, no interventions, out of my vagina…where babies NATURALLY come from….

And then gets into the whole discussion of "If you have a c-section tell every single person your horror story" vs. "If you have a natural birth keep it to yourself because not everyone can have a birth like yours"

Double standard.

I was not there in the hospital/ birthing room, and it is not my fault that your birth did/did not go as planned… so let me have my judgements (a joke for goodness sake) about celebrities and also to celebrate my birth because God Damnit! I worked fricken hard to push those babies out and have the war wounds to prove it!!

Paying for it

My littest is a pretty good sleeper. I havent had much trouble with him in his whole 20 full months of life. However, since we have been on break since the second week of December I have let him sleep whenever he wants to. Sleep in, have a nap at 4pm, go to sleep at midnight, and so on and so on…

Well now, I am trying to get the schedule back, and boy is it ever hard. He is just not tired. Yesterday he woke up at 7am, I put him down for a really early nap at 11am, he was up by 1pm. He was tired again by 7pm.

I thought YEA! It's working!!

Yea, no.

He woke up at 8:30, and then again at 9:30pm and was awake…like WIDE awake until 2am.

So yes, he slept in - we ALL did.

This morning he was up at 9am. I skipped the nap because I wanted to force him to go to bed earlier…. and so he was miserable from 5-6:30pm.

I put him down at 6:30pm, and guess what? Up at 7pm, and up again at 8pm…..and now what? It's 10:37pm and he is WIDE awake….

Sigh.

Did I ever mess this one up!!

Sanctimommy

When most people post about Sanctimommies they are talking about me.

Someone who Co-Sleeps (doesnt CIO), Babywears (every day all day), Births at Home, Breastfeeds well into toddlerhood, delayed or selective Vaccination, eats Organic. (or as organic as I can do at the moment), Homeschools (oooh..that is a new one!) etc. etc. etc. etc.

Oh wait! And the pinnicle is that they tell other people about thier way of life.... guilty.

But here is the thing. I dont really care if you used CIO, wear a Bjorn or use a Stroller, Fed Formula because you think that it is better than Breastmilk. I dont care if you had an Elective C-Section, Vaccinated right on Schedule or Eat at McDonalds every other week. I honestly do not care nor wish to change your mind if you are happy for all the decisions that you have made while rearing your young child. Honestly.

It does not affect me or my family.

I can say that with my hand on my heart. We are all different people who do things for different reasons, I don't judge you, and you don't judge me....right?

Wait...well maybe I do judge...because there is ONE thing...one itty bitty thing that makes me want to run up to another parent and slap them accross the face with thier own childs hand....you want to know what it is?? Something that DOES affect me and my family....

RESPECT!

I have been to MANY MANY a playground this summer, at all times of the day and I have noticed (and so have my kids) a growing populace of young tweens (8-15 yrs of age) at the playground alone (and you Free Rangers would LOVE this), but its not all make believe and fun play.

Its blatent, hurtful, un called for Bullying.

"I am going to kill you if you touch the swing"

"I am going to hit you if you go on the slide"

"EWWW! You kissed your brother! You are GAY!"

"I don't like you"

"I am not going to play with you"

Screaming, "Its our Ball, Get OVER it!!" to a 3 year old....

and then when confronted, by this overzealous sanctimommy, "That is RUDE. You will NOT talk to my children in that manner." I get, sheepish, "sorrys" and "I was only jokings"

So moms. There it is.

Teach your kid some RESPECT and all will be right with the world.

A Penny in Hand...and Mouth

I almost lost my baby to a penny. One cent. A worthless, useless, peice of copper (and lead) that my older child(ren) had left on the floor. You know the saying, "Find a penny, pick it up and all day you will have good luck."

No. Not at all.

I saw the baby had something in his mouth. (as he always does), and was aruging with my older two to stay in bed, as they had gotten out for the millionth time. (which they also do when daddy is not home).

I slammed the door, told them to stay in bed, and put the baby on the floor to change his bum.

As I was changing him, I remembered about the item in his mouth which I thought was LEGO; since we have a TON of that laying around the house.

He looked at me and giggled as I lifted him up to remove the object, at that moment he laughed and choked. I panicked.

I could hear that it has gotten stuck, so I put him across my knees and did the back blows that I was taught by my husband when a child is choking. No use. He just kept coughing and crying. I thought at least it wasnt in his airway.

I called my husband and asked what to do, and then got a lecture from a very irate firefighter/paramedic that told me that he could not assess our son as he was over the phone. So I hung up and called our 24 hour health service.

At this time the baby had stopped crying, but my mommy gut was still going off. As I explained all the symptoms to the nurse, drooling, not nursing, not eating etc... she asked me to give him a sip of water, which I did and caused him to go into fits of coughing again.

She told me to drive to the closest hospital immideately. (I should have called the ambulance at this point).

I called my mom to come over and watch the other two children and got dressed, me and the baby (as we had been in pjs), and while I was putting him into his car seat my mom pulled in.

I got in the car and sped the whole way (yes, not safe) to the hospital.

As I was driving I could hear him struglling, and gurgling, so I started to panic. It took me 15 minutes to get there from my house... (it usually takes more like 25).

I pulled into short term parking, looked at the pay meter, decided to check on the baby first...I opened the van door and he was covered in drool and vomit. It was like he was foaming at the mouth. (a sign of airway obstruction).

He did not look good.

I decided to skip the payment for parking and RAN him into the ER. Right up to the front. Waited 2 minutes while they were doing paperwork, and then was called to the window.

As soon as I got there I started bawling.

I explained what had happened and they took him into the back. As soon as we got a bed the tirage nurse called a code and 2 doctors and 3 nurses came running in.

I lost it. I felt like the worst mother of the year. So mad at myself for not being more vigalent about toys on the floor.

They gave him an Xray and stabilzed him. (apparently if he was on his back or on an incline - like a car seat, it exacerbated the problem).

I was shocked when I saw it was a coin.

Wedged in the collarbone area, side ways. So he could breathe when upright but not able to drink, or eat.

I was told to grab my car seat out of the van and then we were transported to the Children's hospital in the area by Ambulance, lights and sirens.

Once we got there we got a room in the ER and waited until 4 am for a bed to open up. He was not allowed to eat or drink so I kept him in the sling (Thank Goodness I Brought the Sling!!) which made him think it was nap time.

We were told that we had a bed and so we went up and I was shown a bed....for him.

Which makes sense. But we are cosleepers, and there was NO way that he would ever sleep in a crib for the first time in a hospital!

So we slept in a chair.

The things we do for our kids. I slept sideways with my feet over the edge. They were so numb when I woke up an hour later that I thought about calling a nurse!

We waited for 12 hours in all for day surgery.

They took him from me and put him out and then used an endoscope and a pair of itty bitty forcepts to take the offending penny out. The whole procedure was less than an hour.

But the LONGEST hour of my life so far.

After he woke up he nursed and we had to wait an hour to get discharged.

We (my mom who had come to be with me for the surgery) drove back to the first hospital where my van was (no ticket!!) and then I jumped out and drove it home.

I am keeping the penny forever. I am going to make it into a peice of jewlery.

A friend of mine stayed with my older boys to help out, and we had many people ask how we were doing.

He was fine, no worse for wear. Happy as a clam at the hospital, with me, snuggled in my sling. I on the other hand was an emotional wreck and now hyper sensitive to anything on my floor.

I guess that is what happens when a penny almost takes your child away from you....it also readjusts your priorities, and the way that you look at things in life.

How something so small, so useless, so worthless could have *killed* my son. Taken him away from me forever.

ps. a penny is as corosive as a battery when in the human body. THROW your pennys AWAY!!

pps. ALL of the health care personelle were amazing. All of them. So understanding, supportive and caring. For such a horrible incident for me and my family they made it feel better. I will be forever grateful to the men and women who worked in both ER's, surgery and Patient Transfer forever.

Super Mommy No More

I have a super power.

I can run on 4 hours of sleep without a cup of coffee. I can run after my 3 kids with an incredible amount of energy. I can eat whatever I want and not gain a pound. I am a size 0 without even trying.

I can work on many different things at one time. I run a business, a household, volunteer for a non-profit and stay up until 1am baking cookies to be that perfect mom....and it is killing me slowly...literally.

Things that I thought were MY normal are abnormal.

I have an auto immune disease. Disorder. Whatever.

It is like I am running a marathon every day all day long. Tricking people into thinking that I am coping.

I guess that I am not.

Graves causes extreme mood swings, which would explain why I am Dr.Jekyl and Mr.Hyde most of the time.

Graves causes a super high metabolism, thyroid storms, headaches, joint aches, food sensitivities, insomnia, etc. etc. etc.

I am still trying to wrap my head about #1 - losing my super power. Feeling as tired as all of my friends. Cutting back. Taking time for myself.

#2. Treatments. They all suck. All of them.

Pretty much take a person like me who doesn't trust the pharmacutical companies enough to Vaccinate my kids and now I have to be dependent on them for the REST OF MY LIFE.

Forever.

and ever.

I also have to render my thyroid useless. Kill it or cut it out, and then go the other way, and try and manage all the weight gain, the tiredness, the exhaustion, while taking care of 3 kids under 6. (did I mention that I am homeschooling as well?!)

Maybe I should just get pregnant again and push it off.....

So if you have been wondering why my moods are all over the place, why I am grumpy, mad and all the rest...there it is.

And no, not contagious. Caused by environmental factors. Which could literally be anything from being on Formula as a baby to microwaving hotdogs under a plastic cover. Or maybe ny flavoured water addiction.....

When there is a will....

**Warning - This is one of those TMI posts about kids and poop.***

So my 3 year old is not potty trained.

We have tried EVERYTHING.

Stickers, stamps, star charts, no diapers, pull ups, just underwear, going every 30 minutes, going every 15 minutes, sitting before breakfast, sitting before bed, reading stories, playing games, yelling, threatining, bribing and giving up completely.

EVERYTHING.

So he knows where the poop and pee go, but he doesn't care. He would be happy to sit in filth all day long.

We are getting better. He is asking to go pee, and the fact that he learned how to stand and pee is making it a little better. It's a novelty, so he tries to go every so often.

Poop is a whole other story.

He used to hide...like under the sink. Most likely because he got yelled at. Yes, I know. Bad mom. Apology, apology, etc.

So the other day I am getting dinner ready, I have the older one talking my ear off about a new transformer and how it changes his perception of the universe; while his little baby brother tries to take his first steps between my legs as I am trying to pour pasta water out....and I notice the 3 year old is missing.

I know in my gut what he is doing. Mom intuition.

I RUN up the stair to catch him mid squat in the *carpeted* stairwell. He looks at me with a "Shoot! Mom caught me" look.

I pick him up without a word and take him to the potty. He says, "I had an accident mom."

I say, "I know." and then because I am frustrated and there is poo everywhere *just* beore eating dinner I say, "but you know what, you have to sleep in your own bed, because only boys that poop in the potty get to sleep with their brothers."

Fit ensues. Dinner, Bath, PJ's, Story....and then take him to his room. Fit continues.

I explain that until he poops in the potty he cant sleep in his brothers room. He RUNS to the bathroom, rips down his pull up, sits on the toilet and PUSHES like he is passing a gall stone. Goes red in the face, and poops out the *teeniest* poop he has ever done.

He looks at me and says, "I pooed in the potty mama! Now I get to sleep in Ks room!"

You got me there.

At Least it's Clean

I wanted to post this before I forgot. A snapshot in a day of the life with 3 small boys when your husband works away from home.

I have this couch in my garage. Don't ask me why or how it got there. Just know that it is in perfect (kidless) condition and will not fit down my stairs. Of course the fact that it is in my garage means that my van can not fit in the garage which means it needs to be sold.... perferably BEFORE the snow comes back.

I have put the couch on kiijjij and on craigslist etc. And have gotten a few bites. I have been keeping it set up and clean in the garage, just in case people want to see it. (which is hard...because it is in my garage...as well as the lawnmower, and gardening tools).

Yesterday I had made an appointment for a woman to come and look at my couch. She wanted to come around one. So at 11:30am I decided to start to wrangle the boys into their clothes so that they looked presentable when a stranger was to come.

At 12:30pm they were finally dressed. I threw them outside in the backyard to play on the swings while I put the baby in the carrier so that I wouldn't have to worry about him when the lady came.

I walked outside with the baby on my back and watched and felt my mouth go into a silent "O" of horror as I looked at my middle child, the 3 year old, hose in hand spraying directly into the garage, right beside the couch.

"I am cleaning it mama. The garage!" O.M.G

The lady was coming to look at this "mint" couch and my 3 year old was trying to give it a bath.

OY!

Needless to say the couch is still there. (not because it got wet, because he *just* missed it)

We will try again another day.

Crying It Out....Again (RANT)

My cousin recently posted on her FB status that she was having a hard time putting her littlest one to sleep. He is just under a year old. Somehow, this opened her up for complete unsolicited advice from all of her "friends".

What skeeves me the most is that people get so passionate about this subject so you can't just say, "I didn't CIO, and my kids sleep great", you get to be attacked for your choice...passive agressively.

Don't Coddle, it's proven children have to "self-soothe"....ummm, really? Prove it. Because I can actually prove the opposite, here, here and here. Oh, and here.

Not to mention that I was a psych major in University and so "attachment theory" was a whole semseter class.

Oh, but "coddling" them will make them more dependent.

No. It doesn't. And I have a 3 year old who can tell you that for sure.

Dependence LEADS to Independence.

Once a child is sure of thier environment and *trusts* the people around them, they will venture out. If they don't.. (or think that you are going to abandon them) then they are much more "clingy."

And can we seriously stop with this "independent" "dependent" "clingy" "coddled" language?

Why DON'T you want your child dependent on you? Would you rather they be "dependent" on a friend? a peer? a stranger? How about a molester?

If you don't nurture your children, some one else will take the opportunity to.

So be HAPPY that they *want* to be with you, to share with you, to be comforted by you, to NEED you.

Just drives me insane.

If you want your child to "self-soothe" and be "independent" at 1 year old, then maybe you should have not "coddled" them as a newborn. Newborns don't need to be "coddled" do they? Maybe you should start the way you want to finish....or maybe you should get a dog.

Ode to Muffins

I recently volunteered at my son's kindergarten class. They are going to have a kindergarten celebration where they wanted to provide a meal for all of the parents. The day that I volunteered they wanted me to help make muffins with the kids.....problem is, I am not a baker....but that was only the beginning.

It started out simple enough, an email to ask us to bring some mixing bowls and maybe some measuring cups.

I got into the classroom and the teacher then informed me that since the grade 3's were writing their provincial achievement tests (another post on those shortly) in the staff room we could no longer use the kitchen to bake in. (which they had been using the day before)

We were to use the science room in the classroom, which was home to meal worms, and beetles. Yuck. (they were in cages so it was just more squeemish than actually gross)

We also learned that we only had two bowls and so if we wanted to make more than one batch we would need to wait for one full batch to be completely finished.

My partner (another mom) and I started mixing the ingredients in the bowl. We added the butter and then the sugar, and then looked for something to cream them with. There were no utensils, since we were not in the kitchen! I ran down to the main office to ask for a couple forks and the admin assistant said, "I can not have you go into the staff room as there are children writing an exam. I do have some spoons that you can have." and she passed me some PLASTIC spoons. I looked at them and said, "I can't really cream with plastic." She shrugged.

I went back to the classroom with my spoons.

Both the teacher and the other mom laughed when they saw what I brought back. We attempted to do the best we could with the things that we had. Mashing bananas to mix with a plastic spoon was a laughable sight.

With our incredibly lumpy mixture, we went on to the dry ingredients and saw that we needed another bowl, which we did not have.

I caved and called my husband to bring me my electric stand mixer.

I went out front and waited in the rain for him to take the 10 minutes that it took to get both of our other kids in the van, load the mixer and be my hero.

I ran back into the classroom with all the necessary tools to bake. We cruised through the rest of the instructions, and put little baking cups in the muffin tins.

Poured in the mixture and then headed to the break room by the gym where an extra oven was pre-heating.

We got to the room, and a little girl and he OT were writing the exam at the table. We were shot a look like...can you see we are writing here? We quietly tip-toed in and then put the muffins in.

I went back to the classroom and nursed my hurt hand, which had gotten bruised when the kids switched the mixer to "on" when I was plugging it in.

After the 15 mins, we went back to get our muffins which turned out wonderfully, and the OT said, "please take them out as they are too distracting!" We had 2 more batches to go.

She asked if we could wait until after the test....but we couldnt because the kindergarten class was over before the test would be over.

So two more batches went in, and we felt so bad going in and disturbing the test. (why they did not go to the library I am not sure).

We started to clean up by using the sink, which had horrible water pressure and then lacking paper towels. Finally, the OT came in to apologize for getting in our way and offered us the kitchen sink to clean up.

The muffins turned out wonderfully, and while it was a bit chaotic the kids learned a whole lot.

Lesson of the day - never take your kitchen for granted.

What is...A Food Coop?

There is no question that food is one of the most expensive things that you have to buy. That and with the fact that you actually have to continue to buy it no matter what - or you will literally starve.

There are lots of studies done on food; the right food, the wrong food, etc, etc, etc.... but for the most part organic, and fresh is the best way to go.

I live in a cold climate where the growing season is less than 4 months at best, so I supplement my family's diet with food from a Organic Food Buying Coop.

The way that it works is that you find an existing coop (the easiest) or start your own by finding 4 or more family's that want to work with each other cooperatively to save money on food.

You have to find a Company that then ships to a Distributor in your city. We use Horizon who is okay with food buying coops. We only have the rules of having to have a credit card on File and that we need to order a minimum of $1200 every order (be that monthly, every two months, every 10 weeks or even quarterly.)

Once you set up your Coop, you need to figure out a way to organize the order. We use www.foodclub.org which offers free software to keep track of what people order out of the catalogue, the invoices etc.

We have 2 people who follow the order from the beginning to the end, by making sure that we add our cases in a timely matter, call/email in the order, and arrange for pickup.

The great thing about a Food Coop is that you share the costs by splitting cases. You also save money because you take out the middle man. The Cooperative part is that you have to give up a few hours of your day on a Sunday or Saturday every two months (or so) and then go to the distributor and pick up the food, put it in your vehicle, sort it out and shop. :)

You may be skeptical, but I can honestly say that my 250g Goat Cheddar costs between $7 - 11 dollars at the store and costs me $5.90/bar from the food coop. (and that is just cheese!)

Any thing that you buy from a natural or whole foods store is available (minus the fresh produce), is available for 25 - 50% off the price.

Couple this with shopping at farmers markets and buying meat in bulk (direct from farmers), help to keep my family healthy.

We spend $250/every two months on Food Coop, $125-150/week for Fresh Food, and $100/month on Meat....for a family of 5.

I think that it is worth it.

Typical

So my eldest son at 6 years old has a super hard time playing by himself or with his little brother for longer than 10 minutes at a time.

I tend to get frustrated because he always wants to be around me, showing me what he is working on at that exact second. For the most part I go and see, but sometimes I have other stuff to do like check my email, do a load of dishes or laundry, put the baby down for a nap or heaven forbid try to take a pee by myself.

My three year old does not really have this issue and will sit with whatever toy for hours on end. Each kid is so different!

I think some of the issue comes back to the six year old's constant learning. He wants to share with me the stuff that he learns because he is a social person. He also loves me so he is curious to see what I am doing and likes to check up on me.

Throughout the day I tell him to go play, take him into the craft room, or play room or his room and get him started on an activity...10 mins later he has come back to me to ask me to come see, to do something else, to have a snack or the like. And I again take him to go and play.

Seriously??

Sometimes I even kick him outside with a shovel and set the timer for 15 mins just so he will stay outside to get some fresh air (in good weather). Of course I have my moments when I get annoyed and yell at him to go and play...and he does, for 10 mins!!!

That is unless....it's 9:30pm and I put him to bed 2 hours ago. He is more than happy to play lego, or read books until midnight alone in his room if I let him....what is up with that??

Pox

Such a controversial subject. Much more than I could have ever imagined. I don't usually delve into the reasons behind my hippy choices, but I thought in this case I would. Mostly because everyone had to give me their opinions.

The thing is that no one actually knows anything about the chicken pox. No, I am serious. Some doctors that I have talked to think it is liken to the plague, while others are not bothered by it at all. Some nurses encouraged me to expose my kids, while others thought it was one of the worst things that a person could do. No one could really tell me much about it, how to catch it, how to manage it or how long it lasts....but they could tell me that there is a vaccine.

I have chosen to delay vaccinations for my children because I had an extremely adverse reaction to the DPT vaccine as a 18month old child. So bad that they could not get my fever down for many hours, mis-diagnosed me with meningitis and gave me a spinal tap. I do not feel that I need to take that risk for my sons. I also do not like the fact that the vaccine for chicken pox is now conveniently located in the MMR shot...which is the most controversial shot out there at the moment.

Also, the vaccine schedule changes for children at the age of 7, where you get LESS vaccines and single dose vaccines...shouldn't it be the other way around?

In any case I exposed my middle child because he has the highest immunity and so I thought I would get him done, and then he would pass it to the other two...however, the biggest one got it first, and then the middle.

It is a lot different than I thought it was. They had a mild fever, wanted a little more of a cuddle, and were more wired than anything else...of course they have spots, but at most we have 30. I know that this is probably a mild case, but it makes me wonder why people think the vaccine is any better. Some kids still get it even with the vax, and McLeans just put out an article stating that the risk for shingles (which everyone seems to be up in arms about) is on the rise SINCE the vaccine has been released. But wait! They have a vaccine for shingles now so I guess we are all covered.

In the end I wanted my kids to get it before they were 7. And if they had made it to 7 without catching it naturally then I would have vaccinated them...oh and if you are over 7 and never had it - there is a vaccine for you.

I think what I have learned from this whole experience is to continue to listen to my own gut, do my own research and hope for the best.

Flagstaff to Tucson

Arizona is such a neat state as it goes from desert canyons to mountains with pines to saguaro cactus. It really is amazing.

The kids were pretty happy at this part of the trip because we were so close to getting to granny's house. They just sat quietly and played with the myriad of toys that were now strewn around the back seat of the van.

While in Utah I had googled for a store that sold my coconut milk yogurt (which is not available in Canada) and got a hit for Whole Foods in Phoenix. The husband was not happy to be driving through gridlock in the afternoon of a strange city, but it was really cool to see and we liked it instantly.

The problem with this trip was that we were flying through all the cities while the kids were good or the baby was sleeping and missing the travelling part. Seeing the real people in a different city, so stopping to go to a grocery store was actually really cool.

When we got to Whole Foods I felt like I had just hit Disney Land for people like me! Almost everything had a vegan option!! It was amazing! And so many different snacks for the kids. Things that I just can't buy here. I dropped almost 100 dollars in no time....hoping that my food wouldn't spoil before we made it to granny's.

We got some great sandwiches to eat on the way (and these weird smoothie bags for Ewan) and we were on the way.

Less than 2 hours later we pulled into Granny's house! The kids were so excited and we were happy that we just didn't have to sleep in a hotel for another night.

Provo, Utah to Flagstaff, Arizona

I don’t think that I have ever seen anything as beautiful as the drive from Provo, Utah to Flagstaff Arizona. We took the Scenic Byway – Hwy 89 and the sights were something out of this world. From the amazing red rock canyons all the way to the pine trees of Flagstaff this part of the trip was like candy for the eyes.

Of course the kids were less than enthused that we would have 1 more sleep until we saw Granny…”But we are in Arizona mom!!” and so I brought out the sticker books and Bakugan Stickers and all was well for a couple hours. I had also invested in dry-erase crayons and white boards from the dollar store. (much smarter than dry erase markers…)

By waking up early, the baby would nurse before being put in the car and then we would stop for a snack at 10am, then noon for lunch and then 2pm for another snack (unless he was sleeping from 1-3pm) in which case we would push through unless someone had to pee.

The Hwy 89 is like one of those highways that you see in the James Bond movies or car commercials. Incredibly beautiful and roads that wind around and down the moutain ranges. Chris said that he would LOVE to come back with something with a little more horsepower and sleekness than that of a minivan.

We went into Bryce Canyon and I can honestly say that it was the most spectacular thing that I have EVER seen in my entire life and if you are going into Utah it is well worth the stop. We had a nice lunch of Subway that we had gotten from Panquitch, and then after the canyon stopped at the gas station at Carmel Junction to pee and get more water. (The bathrooms were really nice for a gas station! I was pleasantly surprised!)

The next stop was Kanab, but seconds before we hit the town we saw a place that we could go into a cave system, but in true Utah fashion the flow of traffic was going way too fast and the sign came way too late for us to stop and see them. We are going to try for the way back.

As the red rock changed to orange I thought of all the mothers who must have such a job cleaning dirty mud prints from their children and/or pets!

We passed over a dam and decided that when we drove back that it would be a stop, and we stopped at a scenic point to get our pictures taken. The kids were happily watching Ponyo (thanks to a great friend lending me her DVD library) and we continued with not much issue to Page, Arizona.

That is until we left Page. We should have stayed the night as the kids were done! So the next 2 hrs were the worst part of the trip so far. No amount of DVD’s, food or anything would make them happy. So we hit the road hard, and made it into Flagstaff….we did get a little lost and had to rely on the TomTom to make it to the hotel. We ordered from the Olive Garden and went fast to sleep!

Idaho to Provo, Utah

Once the children had been fed and watered at the Lava Rocks we continued on.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to see outside because the weather was so bad. We happened to dive right through a snow warning and wished that we had invested in a couple pairs of winter at parts of the trip.

We were so thankful that we have a van with a DVD player in it, as the kids watched back to back movies. Since this day seemed so much longer because of the lack of secenery to look at we brought out the Tag Reader and the Leapster. I had gone out before hand and uploaded new books to the Tag (for Ryan) and we bought a new game for Keenan (which we would have had to anyway, since we lost all the games in the move…what is up with that?!).

But by far the BEST toy that we bought (and that I brought out) for this leg of the trip was a Lego Hero for each of the bigger boys. They played with those robots for hours and hours and hours! They were so obsessed with these toys that we actually bought two new ones for the ride home.

This was the day of great contemplation and conversation for the two adults in the car who do not always see eye-to-eye all the time. Topics ranged from spirituality, to school, to philosophy to 5 year plans and beyond.

I have said many times on my blog about how I have been a single parent this last year with my husband going away so often for work, so it was nice to be able to just have a conversation with him uninterrupted by the children who were glued to Finding Nemo and Lego Heros.

Once we hit Utah we were surprised how it was such a diverse landscape. Which would be a theme that continued with us on the trip down to the bottom of the states.

One thing I can say about Utahan’s is that they are incredibly nice people, so polite and helpful….but the most incredibly fast drivers that I have ever encountered. The flow of traffic was at least 30 over the speed limit making me and my family of travelers looking like an old man going for a leisurely drive on a Sunday afternoon.

Once we hit Salt Lake City we really saw what I would say was the first stereotypical American city that we would see on the trip. HUGE. I thought that my home city was big…um no.

Salt Lake went for miles and its subdivisions were as big as my own city. The architecture was amazing! It was such a beautiful city. We did not have as much time as I would have liked to see it all, but we are hoping to see more of it on the way back.

The kids were melting by the time we made it to the hotel, so the pool was a welcome sight for us all. We also ordered Dominos and were FLOORED by how cheap it was. We quickly had dinner, went for a walk by the river to stretch our legs and went to sleep to get up early for the next day!

Butte Montana to Idaho

Day 2 started not too bad. The kids did not sleep that well because our dog (oh did I mention that we took the dog?) would growl or bark under breath at every. Single. Little noise that she heard…which was a lot when you factor in the partiers that just had to stay up until 1 am that morning. Should I mention that our kids were super loud at 6am and that we didn’t tell them to be quiet, to return the favor. ;P

The breakfast room was amazing! The boys had eggs, fruit, toast and cereal with 3 helpings of juice. We made sure to bring in our to-go cups and Chris filled his with coffee and I with hot water to make instant oatmeal for Ewan later in our trip. (I also took some plastic cultlery and a couple cups that were awesome for putting freeze dried blueberries in for the boys so that they didn’t drop them on the floor of the van.

We drove through the rest of Montana which was pretty chilly weather wise, so we are not too sure why people think that Canada is so cold…because Montana and Idaho are pretty much the same. FREEZING!!

We stopped at the Walmart in Butte to grab some more snacky foods as the ones from home were being depleted pretty fast. We got some buns, peanut butter and jam thinking ahead about lunch. There is a McDonalds in pretty much every town but I am anti McDonalds…I know, I know, every fast food place is just as bad as McDonalds, but I have chosen them as my boycott and so I don’t eat there (or let my kids either – that goes for Wendy’s, DQ, Harveys and the like..)

We had to stop about every two hours for a gas fill-up and a pee from one of the kids (who did really well btw – Ryan kept a clean diaper the whole trip!)

We ended up stopping at Lava Rock formations in Idaho when the weather cleared for a moment to make our PB&J’s and look at the scenery (oh, and feed that baby!!) It was cold! Really cold! They (the husband and the two older boys) only lasted out there for maybe 10 minutes. (they were only wearing polar fleece though.)

Ryan took this opportunity to have the blowout of the century in true vacation fashion and I decided since it seemed that less girls were using the facilities I would take him in to change him.

I did have a little hissy fit as I had not yet figured how to pack the van for optimal usage and the wipes were buried where they shouldn’t be. So I ended up throwing stuff and yelling, and having to meekly apologize once I had attended to the disaster in my 3 year olds pants.

Lethbridge, the Border and Beyond

Once we left Lethbridge to continue our pilgrimage to the U. S. of A the ride was smooth sailing. We made sure to leave C-spot before the baby needed a nap so he slept for most of the trip down.

Going through Couts and Milk River was nice to see as we had only been that far once. We hope to make it to Writing on Stone National Park this year…as well as Ontario, and Victoria…lol.

The boarder was not at all what I expected it to be. I seriously thought that it would be a huge wall with guard dogs and guards everywhere…guess I watch too much TV! Not to say that there was no security there, because there was…just not to the extent (that I could see) that I thought there would be.

The guard asked the simple questions, where are we going, how long etc, and looked at the passports. As we drove away K exclaimed that he could see the guards gun.

Once we crossed the border we were heading for Butte Montana.

Montana is a beautiful state with mountain ranges and praire like fields. Other than the speed limit increasing to 130km/hr we didn’t notice much of a difference at all for the first jaunt of the journey.

As we headed towards little towns and cities we could see the shift from Canadian to Americanisms. The signs from the highway were over 50 feet in the air, so you could see them from the highway. Also, the towns were packed really really close together, so you would have nothing to look at but field for miles and then a huge city!

Another thing that we noticed right away was the lack of “Welcome to” signs. There would be a little sign that said Butte X amt of miles away, and then the turn-off but no big sign to say that this was the town. I guess it would be a bit redundant, but I like to take pictures of the welcome signs so I was surprised when there was none to be found.

Butte Montana was again not what I expected. I really thought that American cities were really big and full of super rich people, and in Butte it was kind of the opposite. One main road runs the length of the city and there are casinos on every other, if not every corner. The city looked a little like it was lost in the 1980’s but it was still a pretty little town with all the amenities (read Walmart) that you would ever need.

The best thing about the hotel that we stayed at was that it had a pool and room service provided by Perkins, who also provided the BEST breakfast room I think I have ever seen in all my days of travelling EVER. The boys LOVED the pool and the food and in the end isn’t that all that matters??

Happy Kids for Day 1.

The Road Trip. C-Spot to L.A.

When my husband suggested that we go on a holiday in the winter I completely agreed. Warm sun, surf and sand was just what the doctor ordered, especially since my home city did not get above 20 degrees in the summer this year.

When he then said that he would like to visit his parents in Arizona, I thought, "yes, that would be cool. Save on the lodging and the kids get to see Granny and Grandad."

Then when he said he wanted to DRIVE all the way down there in 4 days...well then I wasn't so sure.

We planned to get up early and start the 4 day trek at 5am...of course it is *our* family so we ended up leaving the house by 8am.

After the routine stop at Timmies we got on the road.

The ride to Lethbridge was uneventful. I had packed up a bunch of new toys for the boys to play with and had plenty of snacks so they were quite satisfied for the ride there. We had done that particular drive many many times before because Chris and I actually met at the University of Lethbridge and so we like to visit often.

I decided to get the camera out and start taking pictures of the sights as we passed them, and then noticed that we did not have the memory card in the camera. I had taken the point and shoot out of my purse in favor of the bigger camera, but they both used the same memory card and I had forgotten to put it into the bigger camera.

So...at 11am when the London Drugs opened in Lethbridge Chris went in to get a new memory card.

The next stop was the border and the boys, in true boy fashion started to squeal just as we were going through. Thankfully the guard was a nice one and just laughed as we went through.

End of an Era.

A couple of days ago my favourite parenting magazine Mothering said that it could no longer sustain the magazine portion of their business and that they are going to go towards an information/web only form of publication.

I was shocked. Mothering has been around since the late 70's! I could not believe that such an important part of my information gathering was going to be no more. I give out these magazines to clients and to friends who have babies and so I am sad that this part of the company will be no more. I love the realness of a magazine, the smell, the feel and the fact that I can stash them just about everywhere. I will have to guard my back issues that much more carefully. :)

I have been thinking alot on why this has happened. Of course the American economy is partly to blame, and they could have too much staff or what have you. But I think the real reason is because they are no longer a "Fringe" magazine.

Let me explain. For many many years Mothering has been accepted by one type of person. Your super crunchy attachment parent. (of course Natural Family Living as well). So you had one type of subscriber that would pay $30 or more (which is almost double than other "mainstream" parenting mags) because they wanted to feel that others felt the same way.

After 2005, "AP" became more "mainstream". I used to be on a parenting support forum that really was a proponent of Crying it Out, or smacking, or yelling and all out "seen but not heard" children. I went back again to see what their thoughts were, just because I was curious, and instead they were talking about their favourite slings, cloth diapers, sleeping in the same bed as the baby, and nursing well past a year.

I was kinda thrown.

But it's true. Attachment parenting principals are becoming more widely used. Mostly because parents are listening to their guts and not the textbook, or the doctor, or their mom, or whoever...just themselves.

And so with this "trend" mainstream magazines are more likely to print about safe ways to sleep with your baby, how to breastfeed, and what sling is the most awesome....and that takes market share away from Mothering as you can get 24 issues of Todays Parent for $1! (which is way cheaper...)

In a way, they kind of helped to make themselves obsolete.....and I am not sure if that is good or bad in the end.