1. Is there anything you’ve ever eaten that was so delicious that you think of it and go kind of misty-eyed to this very day? Mm. I love the grilled calamari at Cafe Ferreira and we once had a perfect meal at a restaurant in Stockholm called, if I remember correctly, Restaurant. But the one thing that immediately comes to mind is the heaping plate of fried fish (probably sardines or some similar small fish) that I ordered on a family trip to Europe when I was 15. It wasn’t delicious. It was horrible. So horrible. It looked like a plate of french fries with eyes. Beady eyes daring me to eat them. I think I managed three bites. Gah.

2. Are you a city person or country person? Half and half? Why? I guess I am half and half. Although my teenage self would argue that being in the country is so boring, I love being surrounded by woods, or on a lake, with nothing to do but read books and sit in a hammock. Perhaps I enjoy it so much because it is so different from our life in the city.

I suppose in an ideal world I would like to raise my kids in the country until they are school-aged and then spend the weekdays in the city and live in the country on weekends and holidays.

3. You know how, before you actually have kids, you have all these parenting principles (”I’m going to home-school/make all the clothes/never buy junk food/bury the tv in the back yard”), and then when you actually have to raise a kid/kids, you end up kind of abandoning said principles? Do you have any of those? Do you feel guilty? Liberated? Indifferent? We don’t let Amelia watch TV (although she is allowed to play with the iPhone — with the phone/wireless turned off) and we are pretty strict about our bedtime routine (we don’t let her stay up late even if there are people over or we are out somewhere). I gave up on the “no pink” rule because it is a) impractical b) the girls look cute in pink. I don’t feel guilty about it but I do try to make sure to tell both girls how pretty/cute/nice they look no matter what they are wearing, after reading somewhere that girls want to wear dresses all the time because they get more compliments. I’ve gotten more lax about letting Amelia have some sugar (ice cream, the odd cookie or small piece of cake) but I do try to limit it.

4. What’s the loveliest place you’ve ever traveled? Could be wildly exotic or comfortingly local. The island of Kauai was spectacular, as was the Isle of Skye. But if I could choose one place to return to I think it would be Switzerland. Everything about that country is breathtaking.

5. Okay, same as Sigrid: Laundry tips? Please? I hate doing laundry. Or, rather, I hate folding and putting it away. I must have tried 15 different brands of eco-friendly washing detergent and I still haven’t found one kind that gets the job done every time. Oh, and I find that dryer balls work well enough that we no longer use dryer sheets.

6. Do you have a life plan, or do you just sort of truck along? I’m not one for setting hard and fast objectives, such as being married or attaining a job salary/position by a certain age. I thought I would go to law school after getting a liberal arts degree until I stumbled into publishing. I never imagined that I would travel the world to play Ultimate or spend two years living in NYC to get a master’s degree. On the other hand, I have known for many years that I wanted kids and that I wanted to stay home with them for as long as possible. As Melanie said, there are things that I want to do in my life but I do not have a definite plan.

7. Would friends of the teenage you recognize the current you? Would you still get along? I am not sure how to answer this question. I am still friends with a bunch of people from elementary and high school. Does that count?

8. Any novels to recommend for an almost-seven-year-old girl? What were your favourites? Which are you looking forward to sharing with your own kid(s)? I can’t wait until the girls are old enough to be able to sit through chapter books. The Secret Garden, The BFG, Matilda, Island of the Blue Dolphins, A.A. Milne’s books, E.B. White’s The Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little are a few that come to mind.

I am not really one for tagging people. But it’d be cool to hear what Marie-Eve, Amy and Julie have to say.

On CoolMomPicks I read about a non-profit in the US that helps build safe play spaces for kids. We are lucky to live in a community where there are parks and playgrounds around every corner. I couldn’t imagine trying to keep Amelia happy all day without being able to let her run around at these green spaces.

And don’t forget about HopeforKate. Donate if you can.

Today was the first day in about a week when Amelia wasn’t in pain from her teeth. As I mentioned in the previous post, she had a tough time last week so it was awesome to see her back to being her regular, happy self. After numerous days of Amelia feeling unwell, it made me so pleased to see her laughing and giggling and talking to herself and enjoying playing on her own again!

She’s been chatting up a storm, including the following sentence while we were waiting for my dad to arrive for a visit this afternoon: “Babu, work, home, Mimi, house.” It was obvious (to me, at least) that she was telling herself that Babu was coming to visit Mimi at her house when he finished work. At 18 months, how can she know and understand these things? Amazing.

Also, she started saying “whoops-a-daisy” today. We can’t figure out how she learned this phrase, since neither Ian nor I have ever said it to her. But she very clearly says it and then giggles because she knows it is funny. I’ll try to get it on video.

I am definitely not a recipe-follower. I’d rather just wing it or have a look at a couple of recipes online for guidance and then have at it. It makes for messy cooking. And plenty of dishes. And I am always running to the store to pick up some ingredient I don’t have on hand. But things usually turn out ok.

One of my only concerns about having a newborn in the house is finding the time to be able to prepare meals. When Amelia was a baby, there definitely didn’t seem to be time to spend hours (or even 30 minutes) cooking dinner, lunch or breakfast. I probably should start planning to make meals on the weekend that would just need to be heated up for weeknight dinners. But, that would require more planning. And shopping lists.

I don’t know if I’m cut out for that.

Amelia watched her first TV program today. We decided, after some deliberation, that it would be ok if she joined us to watch the US vs Canada Olympic hockey game. For the most part she wasn’t too interested in the hockey. She seemed to be be much more taken with the ads. When she was watching, it was hard to keep her at a good distance from the screen. Luckily, she mostly amused herself with other activities while we got to catch snippets of the game.

At one point, however, she was sitting on the couch with us and was transfixed by some commercial while stuffing muffin into her mouth. Even though it only lasted a couple of minutes, it was easy to see how kids (or adults for that matter), can just stuff their faces while sitting in front of the television. She had complete disregard for what she was eating.

Even though we don’t have curtains, we did get a new bed. And Amelia got a new playhouse. She spent most of the day playing with it.

I think I’m bigger than I was the first time around, but probably not by much. I may just feel bigger because it’s winter and I can’t just throw on a skirt and step outside. My belly button hasn’t “popped” yet and my wedding ring isn’t feeling tight. Because there is more relaxin in my body, my ACL knee feels a little sore from time to time, but it is definitely nothing to complain about.

Overall, I feel great and I’m happy and excited to be an incubator for our next little munchkin. And I know I’m lucky to have such an easy time of it. But it still irks me when someone makes a comment about pregnancy that is inappropriate. People say the most insulting things to pregnant women, things that you would never say to someone who isn’t growing a child in their stomach. Why?

The only thing you should say to someone who is pregnant is “you look beautiful/great/lovely/stunning/glowing [choose your own positive adjective].” And there are plenty of things you shouldn’t say. I’m not the only one to feel this way. Check out here or here or here for some examples of inappropriate things people have said to pregnant women.

I don’t usually rant on this blog. But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it lately. So please, if you are in the vicinity of someone who is pregnant, please say something nice and leave it at that. You might just make her day.

I think this poem from Meredith Gray is my favourite:

I’d rather be a mother
Than anyone on earth –
Bringing up a child or two
Of unpretentious birth.

I’d rather tuck a little child
All safe and sound in bed –
Than twine a chain of diamonds
About my foolish head.

I’d rather wash a smudgy face
With round, bright baby eyes –
Than paint the pageantry of fame,
Or walk among the wise.

.

I am also going to make a donation to an organization called Project Night Night that gives homeless kids staying in a shelter a stuffed animal, a blanket and a book for free (read about it on coolmompicks).

Furthermore, I went to the bookstore this morning and purchased several of my favourite titles. Do you need a new book? If so, tell me why in the comments. I’ll pick a winner at random and you’ll get a book in the mail!

Happy Reading.

With Amelia, there seems to be a whole new level of pinkness. I bought very few things for her that were pink. I tried to find other colours that did not scream “GIRL.” However, we did receive many gifts that were pink that she wore because, of course, she looks adorable in pink. And furthermore if your baby is dressed in any other colour than pink, everyone assumes your child is a boy. Why is that? When did green and yellow and orange and purple become “boy” colours and pink the only way that people can identify that your child is a girl?

Anyway, there is an interesting article in The Guardian (thanks Amy) that discusses, among other things, this obsession with the colour pink for girls, its connotations and how girls are slotted into a specific role in Western society at such an early age. It is a fascinating read, and I recommend it even if you don’t have daughters. From the article:

A few years earlier, the Sunday Sentinel had been of the same opinion: “use pink for the boy and blue for the girl,” it said in March 1914, “if you are a follower of convention.” So accepted, in fact, was this convention that as late as 1927 Time magazine was observing, on the obviously disappointing birth to Princess Astrid of Belgium of a daughter rather than the infinitely preferable son, that the cradle had been “optimistically decorated in pink, the colour for boys”.

This is, as you may have noticed, no longer the case. For maybe the past decade or so, little girls have inhabited a universe that is, almost entirely, pink. It is made up not just of pink princesses and fairies and ballerinas and fluffy bunnies, but of books, bikes, lunchboxes, board games, toy cookers, cash registers, even games consoles, all in shades of pink.

This Christmas is no exception. There is a pink globe, specially for girls. Scrabble has been repackaged in pink (the tiles on the front of the box spell FASHION). Monopoly has gone pink, with the dog, thimble and shoe pieces replaced by flip-flops, a handbag and a hairdryer, houses and hotels becoming boutiques and malls, and utilities turned into beauty salons. In at least one major supermarket chain you can now buy slices of bright pink ham, cut into heart shapes and called Fairy Hearts.

So regular Monopoly is no longer appropriate for girls? And PINK HAM cut in heart shapes? How are we supposed to explain this to our daughters? Is the campaign, Pink Stinks, which is also discussed in the article, a good place to start?