The Kidlet Chronicles

PNE

As it was a gorgeous day this morning with nary a cloud in the sky, and due to the fact I put in two days worth of hours yesterday, I decided to take the kidlet to the PNE.  As it doesn't open until 11am, I was able to get a couple hours of work in before leaving (because I'm crazy like that and seriously, I always put in overtime this time of year), then we had to pop by the preschool to pay next month's tuition, then to the bank to get out some cash, then to 7-11 to buy discounted tickets and finally, we were off.  And made it there just as it opened.

After paying $20 to park (ugh), we crossed the street and headed on in and headed straight for Playland so the kidlet could ride on all the rides at Kids Playce.  Let me just say that $20 for unlimited rides (for her) was a deal to me, considering we paid that much at a couple other events for just 4 or 5 rides.  There were probably about a dozen rides, most of which simply circled around and around, but the kidlet was ultra-excited about every one of them and loved every one of them.  A sampling:

First stop, merry-go-round.  She said she was Mary Poppins.

Boats that went around and around.

The raceway.  The kidlet had no problem at all sharing the car with a complete stranger.  Must have helped that he let her do the 'driving'.  And no, this one didn't go around in circles, it snaked back and forth.  Awesome.

Motorcycles that did 'wheelies' as they went around and around.

Dunebuggies that, you guess it, went in circles.

The giant slide. No way was the kidlet going to do this one herself, but luckily, parents are allowed on many of these rides for free!  So I grabbed a blanket, took her up, and down we came.  She giggled her head off and ultimately made me take her again.

The swings - a smaller version.  She kept trying to cross her legs but the operator made her stick them out straight.  She almost crossed them again just as it started but I shouted out to her and she left them alone.  Phew!

Dumbo.  Circled, but also went up and down.

Helicopters.  These ones only went up when you pulled on the bar.  The kidlet would half-heartedly pull it close to her, she'd rise up about half way, then she'd let go again and down she'd go.  I didn't realize that I could have ridden this one with her until she had gotten off.

The glass maze.  I think she led us down every single dead-end there was.

There was also the shaking shack with stairs that moved side to side, staircases that moved up and down, funny mirrors, etc., plus we also went on a mini-rollercoaster (another ride I was able to accompany her on for free).  The coaster went about twenty feet before dropping straight down and around a corner, then up and down again, then whipped around a complete circle before repeating.  It was a hoot and the kidlet (thankfully) giggled the entire time at how 'bumpy' it was.

We were there for about 2 hours before I finally convinced her to go see the farm animals, as it was getting super hot and the line-ups were getting longer and longer (rollercoaster was a half hour wait).  Plus, I wanted to beat rush hour home, plus I still had a bit more work to do (always).  But let me say that I haven't been to Playland/PNE for years and the rides?  Flabbergasted me.  Sure, I recognized the usual ones (pirate ship, swings, coasters, Revelation (no way in hell EVER), scrambler (my fave) but there were so many new twirly, upside-downy spinny rides that it made me motion sick just to WATCH them.  I really really REALLY wish I didn't suffer from motion sickness - I went on the Enterprise once and though I loved it, I was sick as a dog for the rest of the day.  Motion sickness is not something that just goes away.  It lingers for HOURS.  The older I get, the worse it gets.  Still, I hope I find some solution because I totally want to go on all those big kid rides with the kidlet when she's tall enough.  I had such a blast with her just on the little things we went on together.

So after the farm animals, we shared a footlong hot dog and got the heck out.  She was hot and tired so it was time to go even though neither of us really wanted to.  Had we stayed longer, we could have watched the SuperDogs, the acrobats, the divers, the ToonTown Parade - so much to see, so little time.  Like I said, had to beat rush hour and 3.5 hours is a long time for a 3.5 year old anyways.  Maybe next time we'll go to Playland and ride the rides BEFORE the PNE starts, and when the PNE is on, see all the shows/exhibits, etc.  Now that would have been planning...

Blargh

I've been super exhausted lately and today, I woke up with a minor sore throat.  Super!  I'm thinking it's just because I'm run down (hectic time of year for me) and I'm trying to take it easy but man, there are just so many things to do and people to see!

I took the kidlet to the office again for a few hours today - it was the deadline for registrations for our two golf tournaments and I wanted to make sure I was up to date for Monday.  Also, there was a BBQ lunch out on the patio where one of the Executives was going to shave his head for charity.  Raised a ton of money and he didn't even shave his head!!  He had a hairdresser come in and give him a trim - talk about anti-climactic.  Pffft.  And the BBQ consisted of hotdogs - no drinks or treats or anything.  Oh well, I had to go in anyway and it was a free lunch and the kidlet absolutely LOVES coming with me to the office (and she loves hotdogs, too).  Everyone there loves her too and they're always mentioning how well-behaved she is.

But now, I'm beat and am heading to bed.   Tomorrow is the company BBQ with a mexican fiesta theme and the kidlet's already stoked about that.  Crossing my fingers that the rain stays away - it's been SO nice out the past couple days!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...??

Yes, it has arrived.  Already.  In AUGUST.  The Sears Christmas Wish Book.

Say what?

I guess the smart thing to do would be to avoid the craziness completely and buy all my presents in the next month or so but you know what?  It wouldn't be the same.  Shopping without the malls being decorated, without Christmas music playing over the sound systems, without people wishing me 'happy holidays' with every purchase?  Without Santa and his reindeer nearby somewhere?  Not the same.  So I guess I'm a sucker for the whole harried commercialized package.  What I COULD do to avoid the last-minute panic I face every year is shop in November because don't they start decorating everything right after Halloween?  So that would work - the ambiance without the chaos.  I'm making a mental note of this.  Er, maybe I should write it down.  My little mental note-pad is chock full nowadays.

Um, but what the heck is all this talk about Christmas in AUGUST?  That's enough of THAT!

Yesterday, the kidlet and I met with Rachel and Byron at the park for a couple hours in the morning.  The kids played on the playground, splashed in the waterpark, wandered through the petting zoo and through it all, hardly said two words to each other without being prompted by either of us.  Still, they 'played' together well and aside from an early mini-tantrum from the kidlet, the visit went well.  We shall have to try to do this more than once a year.  This is the third time we've met up in as many years (I think).  Crazy!

I did manage to get a couple photos of the kids 'playing' together:

B blowing bubbles while K acts like a 'white kitty cat with a long white tail and white hair and pointy ears and a long tail and long whiskers and a button nose oh, and a long white tail'.  Or maybe she was just trying to catch the bubbles on her tongue, I can never tell.  Sigh...

Weekend

It's been a busy weekend.  Yesterday, I took the kidlet to a new playcentre at a Mall for something to do.  Before we went in, the kidlet was fascinated with a dinosaur exhibit in the central atrium - a life-sized T-rex (um, I think), a triceratops (not life-sized, I don't think, as it seemed quite small - but I'm no dinosaur expert.  I base my perceptions on Jurassic Park), a bunch of bones (skull, leg, horns) and a couple small skeletons.  On the hour, there was a cool water fountain show complete with the Flintstone's thing song, that Dinosaur Stomp song, and ending with the theme from Jurassic Park.  Then the T-rex growled and moved his head a teensy bit and snapped his jaw ever so slowly and wagged his huge tail from side-to-side while his pathetically-sized little hands alternately grasped at the air.  Cheezy, yes.  But the kidlet was mesmerized.  A real live T-rex!!  (taken with my cell phone)

 

The playcentre was pretty neat and I would have LOVED it as a kid.  I'm sure it's the same as Go Bananas or Crash Crawlie's, but as I've never been to either of those, can't say for sure.  There were hardly any kids there - considering it was a Saturday around noon, there were only a handful.  I followed the kidlet up through a series of well-padded obstacles where my larger-than-a-child's butt JUST managed to squeak through.  There was a giant slide upon which the kidlet sat at the top and shook her head.  I managed to coax her down by repeating over and over again that it wasn't fast or shocky (she's been getting shocks on some playground equipment lately and it freaks her out every time).  She made it down the first hump then froze, but finally let go for two more humps to the bottom, whereupon she said "Whee!  That was fun!  But I don't want to do it again!".  So we didn't.

We climbed up and down and around until I started to get a little claustrophobic.  It was warm in there and pretty much every kid I saw had beads of sweat over their faces.  We spent about an hour there and the kidlet had such a blast that she fell asleep within three minutes of getting into the car.

Today was errand day.  The kidlet needed new sneakers and new indoor shoes for preschool (two more weeks!), plus I had to pick up kitty litter (groan) and a few new fishies to replenish our tank (since the death toll ceased months ago).  I also wanted to make a trip to Ikea, the hair salon to buy more product and the Mall for... I don't remember what. 

As I knew I wasn't going to possibly get it all done, I just did the first three. It took almost an hour alone to get the dang shoes but as both pairs were on sale, plus I got $10 off, it was worth it.  The pet store was quick, although the kidlet wanted to look at the hamsters and hedgehogs (the latter - so CUTE!  I want one!!) until I reminded her that we still had to go to the fishie store.

The fishie store took some time, too because I totally didn't know what fish to get.  All we have now are two danios, two platies, the gourami and the pleco.  I thought about some neon tetras because at least they have some colour (freshwater fish are so blah compared to saltwater).  After examining every single tank, I finally went to the fishperson and was going to get the neons when I noticed a sign that said black and white platies were 3 for $1.99 (regular $2.99 each).  So the cheapskate in me won and we brought home three more platies.  Three females to give our current lone female a break from the persistent male.

Then I decided, out of the blue, to make some bran muffins.  Heather had sent me a recipe but I didn't have a couple of the ingredients, so I looked online (allrecipes.com ROCKS) and found one that used shredded carrots and applesauce and whole wheat flour and flaxseed = healthy!  So the kidlet got her stepstool and help me mix up all the ingredients.  I sprayed the pans, plopped them in the oven, and vaguely wondered why I was able to make 18 large muffins (even filled to the rim instead of 2/3 as it stated in the recipe - 2/3 would have easily made me 2 dozen) when the recipe only made 15, but I figured maybe it was because I replaced the shredded apples with applesauce (as per one of the reviewers).  I was wondering how they were going to taste as there was no sugar called for in the recipe but thought hey, raisins are sweet, carrots are sweet, applesauce...

After they had been in the oven for about 10 minutes, I reread the recipe and lo and behold, somehow I had missed the "1 cup of brown sugar".  How?  I have no idea.  I'm obviously not a baker.  So the muffins are done and cooled and they're not bad but damn, if brown sugar wouldn't have made them AWESOME.  I wonder if the kidlet will go for them - they're super duper healthy.  She'll probably hate them.

Summertime

I won't start by mentioning how terrible I've been at keeping up with the blog because I think I've done that in the last umpteen posts.  I WILL say that I can't blame it on Facebook anymore as I think the novelty is finally sort of kind of wearing off.  Let's just blame it on life getting in the way, mmmkay?

I did manage finally to upload some pictures of a couple of our outings.  I've been trying to take the kidlet somewhere fun at least once a week, as our playdates have been few and far between (summer, everyone's busy, etc).  You can check out the album on the right.

A quick recap of our adventures:  Saturday we trekked out to Abbotsford for the AgriFair.  Took forever to get there as I had forgotten it was a long weekend and everyone and their dogs were heading out of town.  We had dressed warmly (i.e., pants) because the weather report said it was going to be cool and cloudy.  Um, no.  Cooking sweaty hot, it was.  So we basically let the kidlet go on several of the midway rides (5 rides for $20 - ouch), wandered through a couple of the barns, and headed back to the air-conditioned comfort of the truck.  I didn't take my camera but I took my new toy and got some video of her going around and around.  I was surprised at how well she did, even on the little mini-rollercoaster thing.  Might have been the sugar rush from all the mini-doughnuts (a must buy/eat whenever I see them)... also got some video of her feeding a carrot to a donkey.  May upload tonight if I can refrain from diving back into Harry Potter.  Wait, that didn't come out right.  You know I meant the novel, right?  I'm about a third of the way through.

Monday (it was a long weekend for us) the kidlet and I headed over to Heather's for a few hours and the kids played together quite well - all three of them.  Yippee!  There were no tears or screamage or tantrums, so H and I got a great visit in.  It was great and I can't wait to do it again!  The kidlet needs more playdates and I need some adult interaction!

Tuesday, work.  Yesterday... um... oh yeah, took her to Maplewood Farm in the morning (a few pics are in the album, but I didn't take too many).  Today was gymnastics where the kidlet is improving immensely.  Tomorrow is free but I'm sure we'll be heading out somewhere for a couple hours.  Summer is almost over - eep!

I'm sure the kidlet is looking forward to starting preschool again - she makes me drive by it every time we head out.  And this year, I've got her in the morning class, so I can get my work hours out of the way by noon and we have the rest of the day together (right now I'm still working afternoons, which is nice in the summer because most places aren't busy in the mornings).  As much fun as I'm having with her this summer (and every day I'm thankful that I am able to have this time with her by only working part-time), I'm also looking forward to shipping her off to preschool again to work in peace.  Besides, I know how much she loves it and she needs to spend more time with other kids, being an 'only' and all.

So there ya have it.  I'm sure most of you have probably dumped me already since I don't post enough, but I'm sure Mom and Dad will like the update and photos!  ;-)  And even if I'm not commenting, I'm still reading all yours!

Where was I?

Ugh.  Work has been super all-consuming lately.  It's the busiest time of year of me, what with organizing two golf tournaments and a hockey challenge, all three of which take place in September.  Not only that, but my colleague has been on holidays so I've got extra crapola to deal with that I just don't have time for.  When I went into work Monday morning, I was hyperventilating by 8:45.  Had to go in today as well, with the kidlet in tow, to finish off an awards submission package that was dumped on me last minute.  I expected it to take an hour or so; we were there from just after 10am until just after 3pm (I did take an hour or so to take the kidlet to the waterpark down the boardwalk and to get some smoothies afterward).  I had to drive home in early rush hour for the first time in forever but I still liked it better than riding transit in this hot hot sweaty heat.  Me loves me air conditioning!  And music!

The kidlet did great at the office.  Said 'hi' to everyone, smiled, was happy and cute and entertaining.  She played quietly behind me at my desk while I frantically tried to pull everything together for the submission.  Even Boss Man noted how good she had behaved, considering she was there for several hours.  I'd stop every so often and walk her around the hall so she could chat with people and I guess that helped too.  At any rate, I got everything done that needed to be done and she had fun at the same time.  She actually was excited about going back to the office after the spray park.  She kept saying how happy she was as we walked down the hall to my office.  At least one of us was!

Now, I'm toast.  It doesn't help that I hardly slept at all last night.  Met an old high school friend for a latte at 8pm.  I should have known better than to get an actual latte, but as I've said previously, I'm addicted to the sweetness that is the dulce de leche.  We had a great visit, both of us musing how even after a 2.5 year lapse, we still pick up right where we left off.  It's been that way since we graduated - time goes by, we get busy with our lives and lose touch, then someone finally makes the call/email and boom, we touch base again.  We yapped non-stop for two hours (caffeine buzzzzz) until it got dark and we were in a slightly dodgy part of town and thought it best to high-tail it back to our vehicles.  And high-tail it we did.

So I was rightly buzzing by the time I got home, yet still tried to go to bed around 11.  I think I managed to sleep on and off but not very heavily.  Then the alarm went off at 4:30am (Dean had to go to work early this morning), the kidlet woke up and wanted to play (say WHAT??) and I just wanted to sleeeep.  It took a half hour or so before she finally settled down again and fell asleep and I could finally return to my own restless slumber.  Needless to say, when I woke up this morning, I felt hungover.  From coffee!  Man.