And She's Off ...

I know a lot of us have dreams and plans and hopes growing up.
I can remember all the things I wanted to do - for a long time I wanted to be a veterinarian. Some of my friends wanted to be fire fighters or doctors or pilots or teachers. Some of us changed plans (cause, you know, I didn't go past grade 9 science - I'm not a vet), and some people had their plans changed for them.
But, one of my friends has always had a plan to be an actor.
I've known her about 6 years - we met fresh out of university. We were both pursuing careers. It always amazed me when this friend of mine would talk.
She is a good actor, but she doesn't fit the cookie-cutter stereotype of being size 0 and having long blonde hair.
She's unique.
And she's good.
And she hasn't given up. Ever. For years she's been going to auditions, and making a living, as an actor. She doesn't exactly have a star on Canada's Walk of Fame (yet), but she's slowly making a name for herself. I've turned on the tv a few times lately and said "hey! It's Stef!"
As she's plugged away she's gotten somewhere. And it's exciting.
And even more exciting ... on Sunday she leaves for LA, to meet an agent thanks to a recommendation from someone who lives in LA. You know, someone who recognized her talents and is helping her get somewhere.
I couldn't be prouder!!!!
So, next week, think of my friend and send her the best wishes possible. I know I will be (even though I have to admit that it would suck if she moved there. Well, okay, not exactly, if she moves there and has the money to fly me in to visit ... that would not suck!)
Go get 'em Stef!!!

When Cats Bathe

Tonight when Matty had a bath, Rosie Rose Petal decided to join him.




There were several unsure moments and then ...


In she went. I only got one picture before she hopped back out.
You'd think the cat would learn. This is not her first swimming experience. And, she ALWAYS gets splashed when she is anywhere near the vicinity of Matt's bath.

Ahhhh ... you've gotta love cats!!!
You'd never get a picture of Mojo in the bath - she steers clear of the water as much as possible.

And, in other pet related news, when we got home tonight one of neighbour's dogs was roaming around. He is the sweetest Jack Russel. He came running up to us when he saw us walking down the path, and then tried to follow the boys to the grocery store.
His owner (who is always right there) was nowhere to be seen.
And, then the dog ran on to the road. It's a busyish road, and some cars luckily swerved to avoid him. I decided to bring the dog home. I just told him to come and he walked right with me. It turned out that the screen on his door came loose and the dog hopped right through the screen. It was one of those moments where you just feel good about life.
Everything was fine. His owner was really sweet about it too.

What would YOU do?

On the weekend I went to a garage sale.
It was great.
My nieces are really into Polly Pocket, and a family was selling about 3 or 4 Polly Pocket sets for $10. I was totally excited. I scooped up the box and off we went.
They were a really nice family. They threw in extra toys for free. They even helped my son catch some bugs in a bug catcher we were buying. So this was Saturday.
On Sunday Matthew and I met my sister's family for coffee and breakfast at this little bakery we go to. We brought all the Polly Pockets in and set everything up on one of the tables. (It's a really big space, and the staff had no problem with this).
The coolest of all was a Polly Pocket "Snow Cool Hotel". This thing is really neat. It's got a hotel and a little store and a snow hill where the dolls ski down.

And it's got a working skating rink. That's right. The skating rink works. How? With Magnets.
And, the entire time we were all enthralled with this hotel we didn't think anything about the magnets. It was pretty cool making little tiny dolls skate. (Admittedly, I think my sister, brother-in-law and I were more into this than the kids).
And then today my sister called me.
You know the magnets that make the thing so cool. They are lethal. This playset has been recalled! Just to be clear - I don't blame the family who sold it. The woman teaches grade one and was super nice. I'm guessing she didn't know.
Neither did I!
The playset currently resides in my parents' basement. We often bring over toys for the kids to have there.
So, now my sister and I are debating. The truth is - the magnets are in the skates so we could just take them away. Or supervise. We really like the toy.
But, then, if we return it we'll get more money back which we could totally put towards something safer. Plus, we'll have essentially made money on a garage sale toy. I sort of feel bad about that. But, not really.
And then there's the bother. I don't really think that the kids will swallow the magnets. I think we're pretty safe. But, there's always the chance...
I don't know.
What would you do?
I have to admit, now that I've written this out I'm probably going to call my mom to tell her - and we'll return it.
But, thinking of all the little pieces .... It will take hours!!!

Not Quite As Planned

Last night our family went to a wedding reception.
It was the kind of cool, swanky wedding receptions that people have when they aren't 23 years old and trying to meet everyone's expectations, including their own, of the perfect wedding. There was no seating chart, no banquet hall, no dance, no huge announcements of the wedding party.
It was a stand up affair where everyone ate high end yummy appetizers and there was babysitting for kids.
And outside there was this french fry making station and they just kept handing out the world's yummiest fries.
It was pretty cool.
Except that Matt did not want to stay in the kids room, or with us or anywhere. He wanted to RUN. Mike was hot. I was feeling a little ill. And I wore stupid shoes that hurt. I should have worn running shoes to chase Matthew.
We didn't stay as long as we had planned.
We barely made it to dinner.
And when Matthew jumped in front of the long line of people to grab food with his hands (again, these were swanky uber-cool people he jumped in front of) I knew it was time to leave. It was that or lose my mind ... and temper.
My parents tried to help out. They offered to take Matt for a walk. But, the truth was I had totally worked myself up, I was kind of freaking because Matt was refusing to go to the bathroom.
So we left.
I'm okay with this.
I've learned in the past 3 years that when Matthew gets started and gets me started it's better to remove myself from a situation than to drag everyone down with me. When I feel myself close to tears I walk.
Truthfully it's partly because when I just.can't.control my child, no matter what I try, I revert back to this feeling of complete parental insecurity. I try. I try to be strict and I try to be nice and it doesn't work.
And then I realize that maybe, just maybe, it's not my parenting but the fact that it's a situation that Matt doesn't do well in. And that's okay. (I told our daycare teacher the other day about how much I hated gymnastics because Matt had a meltdown every week. She told me that was probably just him letting me know it's too much for him. good point).
So we left.
After an hour.
And then we went home. Of course the Gardiner (the highway that gets from the reception venue to our house) was closed. Mike opted for the Lakeshore. And then we drove down to the street right next to the lake. Both were extremely slow.
The truth was NONE of us minded.
It boggles my mind how we were all a little nuts at a beautiful reception with yummy food and good music, but put us in a van that isn't moving and we're having a great time, laughing, singing along with the music and basically chilling.
Until Matt announce "I need to pee on the potty. NOW"
CRAP!!!!
We were stuck in traffic. As we had been for an hour. Luckily I spied a Shoppers Drug Mart. They don't generally have public bathrooms, but I figured I could ask. So, I took Matt out of the van (Mike didn't have to pull over - we weren't going anywhere) and we ran to shoppers to beg for a bathroom.
We were in luck. The manager came and brought us to the bathroom. And, we made it just in time. And, thank goodness we did because Matt needed to do both #1 and #2. And that would have been messy.
And, I realized this was one of the first times that Matt told us he needed to use the bathroom as opposed to us dragging him. I think he's afraid of having an accident in the van.
Of course, Matt and I both realized we were hungry and thirsty, so after choosing drinks and snacks we went out and eventually we found Mike. He'd done some sort of bizarre turn and was fuming in the car thanks to the traffic.
We decided to try another route where we were also stuck in traffic. But, it was fine.
I took pictures. Matt ate about 5 rice krispie treats and eventually made it home. I realized Mike was about to snap, and we were all still a little hungry so we stopped at Mcdonald's for a 9:15 dinner.
All in all a nice evening.
Not what we planned. But, you know, sometimes the best things in life are the things that happen unexpectedly.