Scratch That

Remember in my last post how I talked about how looking after my kids was getting to be so much easier and enjoyable than in the past?  Remember how I was so proud of myself and feeling like I had this mommy thing all worked out?

Well that was before Tuesday.

Tuesday I took the day off to be with the guys and take them to Wonderland (solo....Super Husband is still away on business).  My friends were astonished.

"You're what"?

"Taking BOTH kids by yourself"?

"Good Luck"! (dripping with sarcasm)

I am convinced that these asshole comments set me up for disaster.

I couldn't possibly capture the horrendousness of the day in a blog post but I will say this.

1.  The workers will actually stop a ride to let your 2.5 hear old get out because he has Houdini-style  flung his legs over the side of the airborne airplane and is screaming "Mommy"!  Apparently other parents get annoyed when this happens.  Especially when they are waiting in line.

2.  The big red button on the control panel marked EMERGENCY STOP really does stop all the trains in their tracks!  Amazing!  Even more amazing is the fact they place said button to be accessible and low enough that a 2.5 year old can reach it while mommy is unloading other child from ride.

Yes!  It's true!  Little Man managed to shut the whole ride down without aid of a qualified worker.

We made a hasty exit after that one.

By the time we got home I was ready to implode.

Thankfully Super Husband is coming home tonight.

Tag - you're it!  I've got a date with a bottle of chilled white.

I Did It!!!

I survived the weekend as a single mom.  With sanity FULLY INTACT!  Trust me....that is an accomplishment!

Every time Super Husband leaves on business I get the dreaded sinking feeling in my stomach.  OMG....how will I cope?  Heck - I used to get that feeling when he left to go to work for the DAY!  Fast forward to the present time and I have to say that juggling a 3.75 year old and 2.5 year old is SO, SO much more manageable than when they were younger.  We actually had fun!  Yes, there were moments that mommy wanted to crawl back in bed or mix a margarita and put earplugs in but overall it was a good weekend.  And to boot a PRODUCTIVE one.  SCORE!

One od my super close friends had a baby less than 2 weeks ago and I have been feverishly working on a quilt to give as a baby gift.  I finally completed it Saturday morning while allowing the kids to watch a bit too much TV (oops).

I am super pleased with the end result.  This is my second quilt and the first time I've attempted to do free motion quilting.  Meaning I used a darning needle and made squiggly lines all over the quilt instead of the straight ones I did on #1 (surprisingly, the straight ones are harder....at least in my humble opinion).

Sorry for the crappy pictures.  Super Husband took the camera with him on his trip so I am left with my phone camera.  I suppose I could have used my iPad...but I only thought of that now.  Oh well.  It looked great after I washed and dried it and it was all soft, warm and crinkly!

I'm thinking of starting another one as I have lots of scraps left over from this one. 

After finally completing the quilt project I pacaged the kidlets up and off to a party at a gymnastics place.  They had a blast!  From there we went for dinner at a friends house (and gave the quilt)!

Sunday we got up and I decided to be brave and take both of them out shopping.  Now, I generally avoid doing this unless Super Husband is with me as backup because there is inevitably a meltdown and nothing gets accomplished.  But damn it, I needed to cross stuff off my growing "to-do" list so off we went.  First stop - Crappy Tire.  To return a sleeping bag that we had bought for Buddy.  We got it home, unrolled it, and realized it was not very high quality so we of course spent more money on a better one.  Sigh.  Returned that and then set off to find a puddle jumper for Little Man (Buddy already has one and LOVES it).  Bingo!  Found one - the last one that was not pink or purple.  And on sale!  Score!  Hightailed it out of there for my favourite store.  Costco.  Oh, how I adore Costco.  Managed to get some new storage bins and snack items before making a hasty exit before meltdowns ensued.  The bribery lollypops can only do so much.

After lunch we gathered our stuff up and set off for Lionel's Petting Farm.  The kids love this place, it's close to home and not only is it FREE but you get to feed the animals your stale bread and wilty lettuce so you don't feel like shit about pitching it in the garbage!  Total win on all counts!  On our way both beasties fell asleep (yes) so I decided to keep driving and enjoy the silence.  As I continued North, I was surprised to suddenly see a mass of cars pulled over and parked.  I mean, we were in the middle of nowhere...what the heck was going on?  So I asked someone walking by and he told me it was an open house for steam trains...little ones.  Wow!  My boys are totally gaga for trains!  SWEET!  So I parked that car then and there and woke up my boys to go see trains.

What a surprise!  It was swarming but we got right in line and after a lengthy wait rode on a mini steam engine!  It was so, so cool!

Afterwards, we continued on to the Petting Farm and then home for dinner.  A great day, overall!  I guess it really is true that it gets easier when they get a bit older.  Hip Hip Hooray!

Single Parenting

....Is HARD!  My hats of to the moms and dads that do this each and every day.  You deserve a tall cold one.  But only one because having too many results in bad parenting, I'm sure.  Yet another reason why having two full time parents is easier.  You can rotate being the responsible one.


We already know parenting is the toughest job there is and I honestly cannot fathom doing it alone full time.

Super Husband has left for the next week and a half on a work trip to a remote location in Northern Quebec so I am holding the fort and keeping the kidlets entertained.  To be honest, I don't mind during the week.  Between work and daycare and the regular routine that is life doing it alone is manageable.  What I do struggle with is the weekends I am alone.  Because weekends = lots of hours without anywhere we need to be.  And that's a SCARY thing with young kids.  Or maybe it's just MY kids???  You see, after getting up and eating breakfast my kids need to have a plan.  There needs to be a very well planned agenda or the day goes down the shitter reallly fast.  So I need to be strategic this week and pre plan our escapades for the weekend or I will be dealing with two little tazmanians before lunch Saturday - YIKES!

The good news is that this summer is SO much easier than last summer....or the summer before.  As the guys get easier it is so much more doable with sanity intact.  And let's not forget we don't have the house stress we had last summer.  Trust me....I was not a happy lady when Super Husband left for 2 weeks (yes, it was longer last year) and I had to deal with an 18 month old and 2.75 year old while the apartment was 96 degrees.  Yes....96 degrees!  Thank.God.For.Central.Air.

Anyway, I now need to gigure out an agenda for the weekend.  We have Wonderland Passes, Zoo Passes and Science Ctr passes but I am not feeling inspired.  We do have a birthday party to attend Saturday afternoon so that will help!  Also, the new big backyard is a lifesaver.  Lots of room for me the kids  to run through the sprinkler!