I used to knit. I went through a knitting phase about 13 years ago and I started to knit some beautiful patterns. Then I got distracted and I have a pile of unfinished projects.

Early this fall I noticed some gorgeous, simple scarves knit with chunky wool. How hard could they be? I decided to find out and I picked up the needles again. That was 4 weeks and 9 scarves ago. I am hooked (or should I say needled?).

I've checked out 3 yarn/knitting stores in town (Three Bags Full, Birkeland Brothers and Homecraft on West 4th) and each has its unique charm. All of them have helpful staff and classes so I find myself asking a lot of questions and getting pointers and tips. There are a lot of great resources on the internet with instructional videos and tons of free patterns.

Now if only I can learn enough to try something more complicated than a scarf...

Wednesdays are special at our house: we've reached the mid-week hump, I have the evening off at yoga class, there's French class at preschool. But most importantly, on Wednesdays the mid-week bundle of flyers arrives on our doorstep. And in that bundle is the Canadian Tire flyer.

S is obsessed with Canadian Tire.

He insists on us reading the whole flyer to him. Not only do we have to tell him what an item is, we have to read the blurb under it. I now know more about nail drivers, routers and reciprocating saws than I need.

I can see the attraction. S loves anything to do with tools, building, machinery and cars. Canadian Tire covers it all. He's not all that interested in the housewares pages but he's beginning to show some interest in the sporting goods ones (Roland's been talking about skating and hockey).

Looking for a deal on a power inverter or a new set of winter tires? Let us know and we'll keep on eye on the flyer for you.

S has been attending preschool for 2 1/2 months now. At first it was hard to pull anything out of him. Whenever we asked what he did at school, he'd say, "I don't know" or "Nothing." But now little bits of information are trickling out of him unprompted.

This week he told me about his music class and about the songs his music teacher has been teaching: a song about reindeers, "Bonhomme Bonhomme" and a song about Hanukkah.

We had told him that not everyone celebrates Christmas and we had mentioned Hanukkah to him before but hadn't gone into any details. Tonight he gave us a lesson in Hanukkah:
-Jewish people celebrate it
-they used to burn oil
-the menorah is a big candle stick holder
-they light a candle when it's dark and let it burn all night
-people have a big party and the kids play with a driedel
-they eat potato pancakes

I'm impressed that he has actually retains so much. I'm also impressed by what the teachers are teaching (e.g. winter holidays other than Christmas!).

When I asked S if he'd like to make latkes and play with a dreidel, he said, "But we're not Jewish." I reassured him that it would be OK for us to celebrate Hanukkah too.

Recently, S has fallen head over heels for silly rhyming books like Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. After reading one of these books, S will start to play with words and make up his own silly parables. So much so that he will lie in bed at night or at naptime for long periods of time just playing with words.

The other day we encouraged him to make up a poem and we wrote it down:

Sleep and the Leaf
Sleep in the lightbulb
Sleep in a tennis racket
Sleep in the forest
Sleep in the sunflower
Sleep in a bumblebee
Sleep on a camera
Sleep on a computer
Sleep in the restaurant
Sleep in the hot chocolate
Sleep in a jungle
Sleep in my shoe

As part of S's bedtime routine, I sing a couple of songs with him. This is actually relatively new. We used to sing to him a lot when he was very young as a way to soothe our difficult to settle baby. But once he was able to fall asleep better, we stopped doing it.

So after a story and tucking in, I will sing a lullaby, usually a tune from Mother Goose or Music Together classes. But no matter how soothing the lullaby is, it is always followed by a rousing rendition of O Canada. At the top of S's lungs.

I think he first heard the anthem on Kids CBC and one day I just started singing it and he already knew half the lyrics. Now, he can pretty much sing the whole thing on his own. Including his unique interpretation/pronunciation of the lyrics.

Nationalists would be proud of our child.

S started preschool last week. We’ve been excited and ready for him to start preschool for a while now. He’s at a stage where he needs more structure and routine. As well as stimulation other than ourselves or the unstructured daycare he was attending.

On his first day of school S woke up with the birds in anticipation. We did all the rituralistic stuff: new backpack, new shoes to wear inside the classroom, picked out his clothes, etc. S even ate his breakfast without the usual dawdling and the usual chitchat. When we got to school (early, of course), the hand off to his teachers was smooth. We found his cubby, he put up his picture and he barely realized that I was leaving. He needed to go do some work!

When I arrived that first day to pick him up, he was coming out of a music class and he was surprised to see me. Actually, I think he was a bit disappointed that it was already time to go. As the rest of the morning progressed, S talked about the little bits and pieces of his first day at school.

Now that we're into week 2, he loves going to school: “I want to go again and again and again!! I want to go everyday!! It’s so much fun!”

I hope that positive attitude holds up--he's going to be going to school for the next 20 or so years!

Yesterday I babysat our 5 year old neighbour Tess. Clearly, she and S have been exposed to different worlds:

Tess: S, do you know what fairies are?

S: No.

T: Well, fairies are tiny little people that fly and have magical powers.

S: (eyes light up) You mean like superheroes?!!

T: What are superheroes?

S: Superheroes have super powers and they rescue and help people and save them from volcanoes and geysers and fires. What do fairies do?

T: Nothing. They just fly around.

Jr. is a messy eater. He always has been. He usually still wears a bib or more often, a bib-like alternative like a cloth napkin tied cowboy style.

Lo and behold, I have just discovered bib clips made by a Portland company, Kipiis. Basically, they are a funky, kid friendly version of what the dentist uses to clip a paper napkin around your neck. Why didn't I come across this a few years ago?! Why didn't I think of this?!

Although Jr is almost 3 1/2 years old, I did run out to buy one. We used it for dinner tonight and it was great. It kept the cloth napkin in place and because the napkin wasn't scrunched up to make a knot, there was lots of extra coverage. Handy for keeping all of Jr's overflow of cous cous (messy!) in one place.

S turned 3 at the end of March. Another year full of amazing changes zipped by and our toddler has become a little boy. I can't even begin to think of all the changes that have happened in the past year.

When S turned 2 1/2 years old he started to change remarkably. Something clicked and he went through a bit of a personality change. Up until that age, he was painfully shy and often clingy. It would often take him a long time to adjust to a new situation or new people. Now he's much more outgoing and adventurous.

And someone turned on the verbal tap and has left it on. S is a chatterbox. He is constantly talking with us or whoever he's with and when he's playing on his own. He picks up vocabulary quickly and uses them in context. He's shocked us often with new words or when he uses parts of speech that you don't usually hear 3 year olds use ("otherwise", "actually"). And lately he's picked up phrases that are quite entertaining: "Mommy, I don't feel like talking right now. I'm tired.", "It seems like he [new stuffed animal chick] needs a bath.", "This is the best chocolate cookie I ever had!!"

We love 3! Fewer tantrums. More independence. More conversations. More humour. S is fine company now. Before it was more about taking care of him but now there's more companionship. Mind you, there is a lot of caregiving that still takes place but everything seems so much more manageable now.

We actually feel like we have a bit more control over our lives again. And that those 2 a.m. feeds and 8 diaper changes/day are finally worth it!

Here I go again. Apologizing for not family blogging in months. Sorry.

So many changes over the past few months and so many things that I want to blog about. But no excuses for not blogging.

But I'm inspired to blog by my friend E who updates her family blog almost daily (in English AND Japanese) and by Glo who has moved to Shanghai and sends great accounts about her new life there and who will be starting a blog soon.

Do I back track and write about old stuff or move forward and write about new stuff. Whatever. I'll mix it up and just BLOG!

About a month ago I started to feel anxious. S was getting close to 3 years old and he still wasn't potty trained. More and more of his peers have been trained and it seemed like he's one of the last ones. He starts preschool in September and has to be able to toilet entirely on his own.

S has been using the potty to pee on and off for over a year now. It was just a matter of getting him to use it all the time and to get him to poop on it also. And it was also a matter of training ourselves to regularly take him to the bathroom whether we're at home or we're out. I think that has been one of our biggest challenges.

In the past week, something clicked. S is happy to go to the potty whenever we remind him and often he will exclaim that he has to go, runs to the potty, rips off his pants and diaper/underwear and go. He has also overcome his fear of pooping on the potty. This has been a very pleasant surprise for us! For 5 days in a row he has pooped willingly.

I'm sure we're in for a lot of accidents and set backs but we're happy with this progress. But then again we're not surprised that this is how his potty training is going to go. S is just the type of kid that "gets it" when he's good and ready.

S has developed a taste for sweets. Up until he was 2 1/2 he didn't show much interest in sweets like cookies, cake and candies. Then Halloween hit and he got some candy. We let him try it and he was curious but not too keen.

One day he wanted to try some Smarties. He sat at the dining room table with anticipation as I opened up a tiny box of Smarties for him. He gingerly took them out of the box and lined them up on the table. He then announced that he was going to try one. He picked a green one and began to lick it. I asked him "What does it taste like?" He responded, "It's sweet!" He licked and licked and a green river of drool ran down his chin. He then bit into the Smartie and exclaimed, "It's crunchy!!" The rest of the Smarties were not given as much care. Half way through the box, though, he decided that he had had enough and left the table.

Since then, S has been exposed to a variety of chocolates. We've given him bits of chocolate from various chocolatiers and amazingly his favourite is bittersweet--the darker, the better. He usually only wants a few bitefuls (he has even given back pieces when he feels he's had enough). He has graduated to enjoy chocolate desserts like brownies, cake, cookies and ice cream.

It's interesting to observe how S's tastes are changing. We're just sighing with relief that he's not a chocoholic--yet!

S is a huge Doodlebops fan. He will listen to the cd over and over again and can sing roughly 75% of the lyrics on his own without the cd. He'd rather stay home and watch the show on CBC than go somewhere fun like Science World. When he's playing with his cars he'll incorporate the Doodlebop characters into his play ("Rooney's driving this car." "This one is for Dee Dee."). At mealtime he will ask what the Doodlebops or supporting characters are eating. He breakdances like Moe.

I don't fully understand his fascination with the Doodlebops. I understand the catchy pop tunes (some of them are actually well crafted) and the life lessons of the shows. But have you seen them? They are basically clown-like characters that would have scared me as a child. It's funny that he adores them so much considering he is frightened by a lot of other things he sees on dvd's or children's programs.

Has it really been 6 months since my last post?! Wow. It's ridiculous. Time has flown by and so much has happened. Do I backtrack and blog about all the things that have happened or do I blog about the present?

S is now on the verge of turning 3. Over the past few months he has morphed from a toddler into a bona fide kid. He has definitely developed his own tastes and interests so I'll blog about these soon (I promise!).

Midnight Kitchen is up and running and is doing well. Number one lesson we've learned thus far is that there's lots of learning involved and sometimes it takes us a while to figure things out.

A while back I posted an article called Feeding Junior: Adventures in Whining and Dining on VanEats that chronicles feeding S just past the age of 2. We have noticed that although he likes most food we offer him, he definitely has his preferences: soup (especially my mum's), noodles, meat, salmon, fried eggs, toast with butter and honey, wakame, green veggies...but most of all mushrooms.

Today I dropped him off at my folks' while I came home to clean the house. He had a great time playing with Goong Goong (my dad) in the rec room but when he wanted something to eat, he headed upstairs to look for Poh Poh (my mum). Just before he headed up, mum fried some eggs for fried rice. S wound up mooching some egg for a quick snack. He then proceded to mooch some freshly stirfried green beans.

As he was finishing his snack, he said to my mum, "Poh Poh! Mushrooms!" There was not a mushroom in sight. He did, however, smell them. Mum had braised some dried shiitake for another dish she wasn't planning to serve. The nose knows. She gave in and gave him some mushrooms. If he was going to be that clever, he deserved it.

Up until yesterday, my folks have not taken care of S for any extended period of time. They've babysat at night while he's asleep but they had babysat him awake for 1 1/2 hours maximum. It's not that they aren't willing to help. My folks are older and they just hadn't felt comfortable with all the physical demands of taking care of a baby/toddler.

Yesterday was a breakthrough day. Midnight Kitchen was scheduled to be at the market and I was to manage the stall on my own meaning that Roland needed to help me move the freezer and other equipment early in the morning and help me pack up in the early afternoon. We needed childcare so my folks stepped up to bat and agreed to watch him for a while in the morning and then later in the afternoon.

Because my dad woke up with vertigo, my mom was on her own looking after S. I think she surprised herself--she was able to manage him without any problems and both she and S had a wonderful time! When I asked her if it was difficult or stressful, she said not at all! In fact, when I went to my folks' house to pick up S, he didn't want to leave.

So this morning as I lay awake in bed, a sudden wave of relief and new freedom washed over me. We now have an alternate daytime childcare provider besides S's daycare! I know it's not a big deal for most families, but for us it's taken a long time to get used to the idea that S might be ready and that there's someone that's available and reliable.

Wow, I'm feeling guilty for not posting anything for almost 2 months. It's been crazy busy leading up to our business launch and now ironing out all the kinks. Come to think of it, I haven't even mentioned our company here!

Gloria and I have launched Midnight Kitchen, a gourmet food company that is specializing in artisan cookie dough. We are currently selling our gourmet cookie dough and decadent ice cream sandwiches at various Vancouver Farmers Markets.

The past 2 months have been an incredible learning curve. I've been putting a lot of energy into the company: graphic design, packaging, dough and ice cream sandwich production, inventory, marketing, logistics, steps forward. It's like having a second child! Meanwhile I'm trying to juggle life with Roland and S and all the things that need to be done around the house. I never seem to have time to stop!

I guess that's a good reason for not doing more personal blogging. S is growing and changing at lightning speed so hopefully I'll be able to capture some of his antics when I have a few minutes to breathe in the next month or so.

S has become car-centric. Somehow cars have made it onto the radar screen in a big way. Brown van. Silver van. Yellow cab. Green car. Red truck. His skill in identifying and classifying cars has grown to different makes and styles. He can tell an SUV apart from a jeep from a van from a stationwagon... And he can spot a Honda a block away.

We think that cars made it on the radar when we got a second carseat to put in Roland's car. He started saying, "Dada's car" and didn't object to going out with Roland without me (at the time he was still very attached).

I was teaching him the alphabet while this car curiosity grew. One day S was getting out of his stroller which I parked behind Roland's car. Suddenly a lightbulb turned on. He excited pointed to the car and yelled, "H!!! Dada's H car!!" Thus his ability to identify Honda's. What I'm trying to figure out, though, is how he can identify a Honda by seeing a profile of the car or an angle that doesn't show the 'H'.

On the eve of S's 2nd birthday, Roland mentioned something about heading into the 'terrible two's'. I've never liked that label. I've pretty much blacked out the fact that two is a difficult age and have instead brainwashed myself to embrace the wonder of toddlerhood.

But then it suddenly hit me--what if S is 'terrible'? What if S turns out to be the kid that throws flailing tantrums in the grocery store or the playground sandbox? What if S whines incessantly for something then ends up a sobbing heap on the kitchen floor?

I have to say that we've had our moments. S has his fair share of tantrums but so far they're not much worse than when he was 18 months old. He's always voiced his needs quite strongly so his behaviour isn't anything new. Now that he's older he understands much more when we try to reason with him and he's also better able to express himself. Also I think we're better at reading him and heading him off before a tantrum starts.

We're only 2 months into the two's so we'll see how things go!

S turned 2 this week. Just 2 years ago, S joined our family and completely changed our lives. We are amazed by how much he's grown from a tiny, helpless baby into a strapping, animated toddler.

We are kind of amazed at how much we've grown as parents. The past 2 years have been the shortest yet longest 2 years of my life. The learning curve of parenthood is huge and just when we think we have a handle on things, inevitably things change. It's certainly been a lesson on flexibility and patience.

We are lucky to be parents to an active, curious, healthy toddler. He's given us a whole different perspective on the world around us and he's taught us some values, virtues and life lessons that we might not have learned without him. Thank you, S, for making us fuller people. And thank you to our friends and family for supporting us through the most challenging yet joyful 2 years of our lives.

Years ago my friend Barb M. confided in me about how difficult it was for her to be in the sandwich generation. That is, she explained, when you're in the middle generation caring for both your aging parent(s) and your own child(ren). I understood and could empathize with her from seeing what my dad was going through with caring for my grandma.

I now know first hand what it's like to be in that sandwich generation. The last few weeks have been challenging. My dad was hospitalized for 2 weeks with acute pancreatitis. S had to be on antibiotics which in turn made him sick. And I suspect that he also had a touch of the flu that Roland and I both had.

I don't know what made me more ill--the flu or worrying about both S and my dad. Of course I observed S's every waking second to monitor his progress and I did what I could to treat his symptoms and speed his recovery. Although preoccupied with S, I worried about my dad and when S was off to bed the worry balance shifted onto my dad. I also felt guilty for not being able to visit my dad and help my mom more while I was ill and while I had to care for S.

Luckily everyone's better. Dad is recovering at home, still waiting for further appointments and diagnostics. S has bounced back but is still having some lingering symptoms of those nasty antibiotics. Roland and I are both well. But I still have knots in my stomach every so often. Just worrying and feeling a bit squished in the middle of the sandwich.

Ugh, a yucky topic indeed. Last evening, S vomited from illness for the first time. He has vomited from choking and crying too hard but this time it caught us by surprise.

For much of the day he didn't have his usual voracious appetite. He wasn't quite himself but we thought he was just tired or under the weather. And then he refused to eat dinner. We treated the situation as though it was a typical toddler "testing of the boundaries" and downplayed things.

After dinner we were playing in the living room and it happened...S hurled. All I could think of doing at the moment was to run and get some towels while Roland held him. Lesson learned: if a child is vomiting, move him OFF the rug and onto the floor!

S was energetic and active after the bout. Today his appetite is better but he's not quite himself and he's napping longer than usual. The rug, however, is in less than fine shape. Despite using our mini-steam vacuum cleaner (it had been sitting there unopened for months--a good occasion to crack it open!), the rug still harbours the telltale stench. I bought some non-toxic, enviro-friendly cleaner and I'm desperately hoping that it will work!

S and I have been attending different music classes since he was about 6 months old. We first started attending Parent Infant Mother Goose then a music class based roughly on Kindermusik. Now we're going to a Music Together program.

The philosophy behind Music Together is based on research that all children are musical and the focus is on building music competence through adult role modelling. The music education for caregivers is interesting. If it weren't for my own musical education, I might find some of the information a bit more than I'd really need. But I'm geeky and I find it interesting.

What really matters is that S really enjoys the classes. He recognizes the songs and actually participates in the movements, playing with the instruments and "sings" along. He doesn't care if there are differences in time signatures, timbre, pitch, etc. He's just groovin' and having fun.

I've been feeling everso slightly guilty for not blogging for over a month. But all I can say is that life has been busy and I've gotten into a groove...

S is settled into daycare. He still doesn't nap there which means it's a short stay but he's generally happy and thriving. He's actually blossomed in many ways since he started going to daycare. He has finally gotten over separation anxiety and understands the concept of my return. Prior to daycare he would kick up a fuss if I went out even if Roland was home with him. He's becoming more comfortable and social around people in general. I think he's getting the hang of playing around other kids and 'sharing'.

The business is really swinging into action. Now that I have childcare covered, I've been able to really focus on getting the biz launched. It's lots of planning, logistics, juggling, learning, creating, brainstorming, headscratching, research, decisionmaking... But it's exciting, rewarding, gratifying, interesting, challenging, motivating. What makes it really fun is working on it with Glo who I've known for almost 25 years! (wow, that makes us sound old!)

And I'm trying to keep up with the usual stuff like running the house, keeping S entertained and busy with activities that he enjoys, weekly yoga classes, finding time to socialize with friends and supports.

Yeah, I guess I've been kind of busy.

S loves to cook. He has raided most of the kitchen cupboards and drawers. His basket of cooking utensils is overflowing. He is starting to pull out cookbooks to look at from the bookshelf. And he's started to ask to watch cooking shows on TV.

Cooking is the only game that will keep S engaged for more than 10 minutes. In fact, he will often cook on his own for half an hour. He will imitate mixing, stirring, pouring, mashing, kneading, whisking, flipping while naming ingredients and foods that he knows like meat, oil, broth, eggs, pepper, milk, bread, dough...

It's completely entertaining and we can see where he gets it from. I'm in the kitchen cooking much of the time and he loves being there to smell, taste and touch. When he's not imitating me, he wants to see what I'm doing and whenever possible, help out.

For Christmas we got him a kitchen play set...one of the ones with a fridge, sink, stovetop, etc. Now he wants to cook all the time. He loves to cut his velcro fruits and veggies, wash dishes and cook on the stovetop. All the while he says to himself, "Cook...cut...wash..."

The kitchen has been kept him busy while I cook and has miraculously kept him out of our kitchen drawers and cabinets. I almost wish we got it for him earlier! But at the same time we ask ourselves if we should be perpetuating this obsession. Maybe we should be encouraging him to play with other toys.

Or maybe we should start saving up for his culinary training.

A memorial service to celebrate the life of Jean Lyons will be held on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 at 10:30 a.m. at Christ Church Cathedral (corner of Burrard and Georgia Streets), Vancouver. For those wishing to contribute, a memorial scholarship fund has been established and donations may be made at the service or through the Jean Lyons School of Music (604.734.4019).

S started daycare yesterday. Considering he hasn't had much time away from neither Roland nor I, he did very well. When we arrived, he was a bit apprehensive and clingy but before long he was playing with some trains along with 3 older kids. Of course when I left he started to cry, pretty typical behaviour (later I was to discover that he cried for less than 2 minutes. Ah ha! Attempts to pull at Mama's heartstrings!)

He was a happy camper all morning--a visit to the library for storytime, free play at the park, interacting and playing with the other kids. But with all the new activity and stimulation poor S had had enough by lunchtime. He wouldn't eat and he refused to nap. And he wailed for half an hour.

So the daycare provider called and I b-lined out the door to pick him up. When I arrived he was still sobbing and red-eyed. Poor bubby. But half way home he was his happy self again, singing along to Old MacDonald. And he had a good nap.

How did I do with S in daycare? I was ecstatic! I had a list of errands I needed to run and felt liberated. I knew that he'd stop crying soon after I left. When I got home I did miss him a bit but not too much, especially when I had a chance to lie down to nurse my emerging migraine.

Daycare is a good change for S. It's definitely time for him to be around folks other than me. I say the same for myself.

Happy New Year! 2006 is already here...we can't seem to figure out how 2005 could zip by so quickly.

I'm not one to make new year's resolutions but some of my hopes for 2006 include getting the business launched, exercising more, continuing to parent as best as I can, more self care and cooking more. And blogging more, of course!

This morning I received some tragic news. A great community leader in music education, Jean Lyons, has died at the age of 84. She was walking home yesterday evening and was struck by a car. She was rushed to hospital where she was operated on but she did not survive.

I'm still trying to grip with the reality of her death. She was a vibrant, active, intelligent, animated woman who was brimming over with life. Always full of ideas and plans for her future. To have to die so carelessly is tragic.

As a youngster, I attended the Jean Lyons School of Music for several years. Miss Lyons was always a fixture there. She taught different levels of theory as well as individual piano lessons. Although she wasn't my primary piano teacher, I occasionally had a private lesson with her and she was always encouraging and constructive. And just when I thought she was stern and serious, she'd come up with some punchline to lighten things up.

Besides the music education and the life lessons and discipline that becoming a musician entails, going to music school built this amazing sense of community. There is still a group of us that get together once in a while. We've known each other since our early teens and although we've gone down different roads in our lives, we're still connected by Miss Lyons.

The ironic thing is that until recently, we never really knew how old Miss Lyons was. It didn't really matter either. We just thought she was timeless. Like she was going to be around forever.

Roland and I are not big Christmas-people. We don't go all out and decorate or buy gifts or make a big deal about it. It's become way too commercialized and the meaning of Christmas is lost. Now that we have a child, we're not going to make it a big deal for him either.

So we've had a few discussions around how we will deal with the whole Santa Claus issue. Should we make Santa a part of our winter celebrations? How much of the Santa thing are we going to expose S to?

Last year S had a picture with Santa. I wasn't planning on having it done but we were at the Kids Only Market on a quiet weekday and Santa was reading a story with the kids. There wasn't a line up for photos so we just decided on the spur of the moment to give it a try. So we have a cute photo of a happy S with Santa.

This year I was curious to see if S might do the same so we headed down to the market. We arrived at around 10 but unfortunately Santa doesn't start work until 11. So we checked out the Santa room and played with toys at various stores.

When it got closer to 11, I asked S, "Do you want to see Santa and have a photo with him?" S looked at me with big eyes and that kind of spooked expression. "Nonononononono..." That was fine by me. For the rest of the day whenever I mentioned Santa, S looked at me with that same wide eyed expression. I had to resort to spelling or referring to Santa by one of his other names.

Well, I guess S answered the questions we had about Santa.

S finally said it today: "Poh Poh"! Poh Poh is what S calls my mom in Cantonese. He's been saying "Goong Goong," what he calls my dad, for the longest time and was probably one of his first words. I've been worrying that he's not bonded to his Poh Poh and that she might be developing a complex about him not saying her name.

I started to wonder about his connection to Poh Poh when he started saying words like pepper (pehpuh), computer (pupu), paper (papuh) but not Poh Poh. And he's been aware of her from day 1!

So we're all excited and a bit relieved. Of course it was only a matter of time.

S used his potty for the first time this weekend. OK, let me rephase that--he peed on his potty for the first time this weekend!

I bought a potty for S a while ago. At the time I hadn't intended to buy him one but he was interested in it and even began to sit on it while at the store. So I bought it and he's used it in a variety of ways...as a lounger in the livingroom, toy storage, step stool (however it's not the kind that is meant to be converted into a step stool!)... The potty was starting to look a bit unsightly in the livingroom so we moved it to S's bathroom upstairs a while back and he wasn't showing much interest in using it.

Then this weekend we thought we'd try to get him to relieve himself on the potty. I guess it helps that he sees me use the toilet and is keen on imitating. Lo and behold, it worked. Now we offer the potty to him each time he has a diaper change and when he wants to go, he can go.

I know it's early to potty train but if he's keen and willing, I'll give him the opportunity to use it. No pressure. Hopefully the novelty of it won't wear off!

Cold, desolate mountains. I picture extreme skiers and boarders and dream of coming back and doing some serious boarding and cross country skiing instead of being confined to what I am sure are the fantastic digs at the Banff Centre. That'll be me, having fun with participating and presenting while part of my heart is in the pow and most of my heart is in Vancouver missing my family.

Technorati tag (just doing this for Blogs n Dogs, this will not be a normal part of this blog!) blogsndogs

Are you looking for a fun evening of shopping, spa treatments, cool tunes, fashion and more? Drop by the Crave Holiday Shopping Party on Wednesday, November 23 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Roundhouse.

Along with over 40 vendors, our friends at Milk Factory will be selling their fabulous family survival gear at the event...fashionable and functional! And they've asked my business to do a crosspromotion! So if you want a sneak peak into what Glo and I have been working on, drop by the Milk Factory booth.

If you purchase your tickets online, be sure to mention Milk Factory as a referral source.