What Makes Me Unique: My So-Called Cookie Cutter Life

Todaysparent.com put out a call for parent bloggers to write a post about what makes them unique. Here's my post:

You know those old-school, romantic movies where the infectiously cute girl meets and falls in love with an equally cute guy, life tries to separate them but they stick together and eventually get married, buy an adorable house with a white picket fence, have kids and grow old together? That has always been my dream life and minus the white picket fence, I pretty much live that life.

I hear you say "OK, big deal. You live an ordinary, normal life. How exactly does that qualify as unique?" Let me tell you how.

I was born in Calgary but I grew up in the UK. I lived there for a short time with my parents and my three siblings. When I was eight my parents split. My Dad and my siblings moved back to Calgary while I stayed in the UK with my Mum. When I was eleven I was sent to an all-girls boarding school. At the time I was devastated, but now I'm grateful for that experience and the friendships I made with some fabulous girls.

When I was sixteen I was fed up with my boarding school life so during the Christmas break I managed to convince my Dad that I should move to Calgary. The following summer I packed up my things, said a tearful goodbye to my friends, my Mum and my cat and flew across the ocean. That September I started Grade Eleven in a huge, co-Ed High School (talk about culture shock!).

Miraculously, after several "Oh my God, what have I done" moments, I survived the transition and, like the plot of one of those fantastic movies, I met an amazing and cute boy who became my best friend and would later become my husband and my son's Dad.

Fast-forward seventeen years to the present day. I live in Calgary. I am married to my High School sweetheart. I live in a nice neighborhood in an equally nice house. I have a wonderful little guy who I stay at home with while his Dad goes out to work everyday. I cook, I clean, I grocery shop, I take my son swimming and to Gymboree, I plan creative projects and I make sure that we have quality family time together everyday.

My Fabulous Family!

But you are still scratching your head, thinking what exactly is unique about that, so let me answer your query. The normalcy of my life, given the family I come from (Mum operates a b and b in a Scottish castle, where she lives with her concert organist boyfriend, Dad spends most of his time traveling the world as a substitute doctor, brother lives in San Diego with his wife and two kids, sister lives in London after getting an MFA in art history and other sister owns and operates a make-up school), is a choice and is certainly not the default setting. My uniqueness comes in the form of my desire to give my son a normal, family-centric life. I want my son to have a sibling and I want us to eat dinner together every night, have family movie and game nights, go on family vacations every summer and visit with Grandma and Grandpa as often as we can. I want to give my son the life I craved and never had.

Oh, and my three favorite posts:
So What Do You Do?
Lest We Forget
Secret Spy Day

Uniquely and Creatively yours,
Maya :)

So What Do You Do?

This evening Aiden's Dad and I are going to his work Christmas party. This is a pretty big deal as this will be the first time we leave Aiden in the evening with someone else (thankfully the someone else is Grandma and Grandpa who he adores so he should have a ton of fun). It's also the first event I am going to since becoming a full-time stay-at-home-mom.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love being a SAHM and having the opportunity to hang out with Aiden and watch him grow up, but one thing that I've been thinking about, as trivial as it sounds, is what to say when people ask "So what do you do?". The first thought that comes to my head is "Everything and anything" followed promptly by the long list of what "Everything and anything" entails. I know that's not really what people are asking; What they are really asking is "If I were filling in a form about you and I came to the box that said "Occupation" what would I write in that box for you?". And yes, the easy answer would be "I'm a stay-at-home-mom" (which is nothing to be ashamed of at all by the way), but it doesn't feel as creative as it could be and somehow doesn't give enough justice to what we SAHM's actually do. So here is my list of alternate job titles.

Alternate Job Titles for Stay-At-Home-Mom's (or Dad's)
1. Domestic Goddess (as suggested by my fab British pal Charlie!)
2. CEO/CFO/CMO of Anderson (or "INSERT FAMILY NAME HERE") Family inc.
3. Camp Anderson/Run-A-Muck Director
4. Anderson Family Wellness/Activities Director
5. Court Jester for the court King Aiden the Great
6. Referee/Coach/Team Manager for the AFL (Anderson Family League)
7. Dean of the Anderson School of Life
8. Ring Master (Mistress?) of Circus Anderson
9. Captain of the Anderson Family Cruise Ship
10. Girl Friday for Aiden Anderson (let's face it, he's the real boss!)

Ok, so I'll probably go with "I'm a stay-at-home-mom to the most wonderful and magnificent little boy and I love every minute of it." But a fun exercise nonetheless.

Happy naming,
Creatively yours,
Maya

All dressed up and somewhere to go!

Cleanliness is next to fun?!

I can honestly say that I strongly dislike cleaning our house. I strongly like when our house is clean mind you, but the actual act of cleaning is not high on my list of fun things to do in the day. So I began thinking how can I make this necessary thing that consumes so much of our time as enjoyable as possible and involve Aiden in the process. I suppose this was my creative problem. Here's what I came up with:

The Making Cleaning Fun List
1. Go on a stealth mission to the garbage: Hide behind trees, scamper between cars, sneak along the sidewalk and make a mad dash to the garbage before the bad guys get you, all while singing the mission impossible theme song.
2. Take up indoor duster tobogganing: Put a large duster on the floors and put your little one on top of it, like a toboggan. Pull them around as fast as is safe to clean the floors.
3. Bubble paint the floors: Get a tub of warm, soapy water and sponges. Cover the surface of the floor with soap bubbles and draw in the bubbles with your little person. Give them sponges and paint brushes to paint the floors and move throughout the house as you do this. You'll have clean floors in no time.
4. Play a sock matching game: Unload your cleanly laundered socks onto the floor. Pick out a distinctly patterned or coloured sock and have your little person find the matching sock from the pile. Repeat until all the socks are matched and folded.
5. Set up a sweeping slalom course: Place various items, like toys and chairs and empty cereal boxes, throughout the area that needs sweeping. Give your little one a broom or brush and a ball that they need to sweep through the course. Show them how to go through the course. Clean floors here we come!
6. Have a dirty laundry toss: Put a pile of laundry that needs cleaning on one side of the room and two different coloured laundry baskets on the other side of the room. Designate one colour of laundry basket for whites and one for darks. Give your little one an item of laundry and see if they can toss the laundry into the correct basket. Repeat until all the laundry is sorted for washing.
7. Make blanket caves on the beds: While making beds sit with your little one on the stripped bed and then pull one of the sheets over your head to make a cave.
8. Have a cleaning dance-a-thon :Give your little person kid-sized versions of your cleaning gear and spray bottles filled with water. Turn on some music and dance your faces off while dusting, sweeping, mopping and scrubbing.

Happy cleaning,
Creatively yours,
Maya:)

Family Photo Flash Card Update and Review

Well friendly ones, the family photo flash cards worked. If you recall I made family photo flash cards to help Aiden remember family members names and faces. Aiden's Granny came to visit last week (hence the lack of posts for the past few days) which was going to be the test of the project. Admittedly Aiden does have an impeccable memory - anytime we go somewhere for a second or third time Aiden lists off all the things we did there last time, for example at Cross Iron Mills mall he says "Guitar" for the guitar store, "Ampa" when we are in the guitar store as his Grandpa has oodles of guitars that they always play and "Piano" for the toys store with the little piano he can sit at and play - so the test wasn't going to be too difficult.

Although the last time Aiden had seen his Granny was in May, I expected him to remember her due to his fabulous memory and the flash cards. And sure enough, when he saw her he said "Ganny". What I didn't expect was him to be as comfortable with her as he was. Aiden is usually a bit hesitant to go to people he hasn't seen for awhile but when he saw "Ganny" he wanted up to her right away, letting her hold him within minutes of their reunion. She even got a kiss later in the day! And yes, perhaps this was due to the bond that they formed when she was here in the spring, but I think the flash cards helped ease the transition.

So if you are worried about family and friends coming into town this holiday season and more specifically how your little person will react to them I'd say give the flash cards a shot. Your little person might not remember their names, but at least their faces won't seem as strange as they would without the cards. They also make a great keepsake for later on in life.

Happy flashing!
Creatively yours,
Maya :)

Bubble Painting

Aiden loves water and bubbles, so yesterday, despite the lack of mud room or tiled space in our house, I set up a makeshift water table for him on our coffee table/creativity centre.

Water Table
1. Fill a larger Tupperware container with warm water.
2. Add dish soap and food colouring to the water.
3. Place water container on a little person level table. Be sure to put towels on the floor around the table.
4. Provide various toys and items for your little one to play with and marvel at their creative use of these items.

Now I could have just given him the usual water table types of toys, like cups and ducks and floating toys, but I decided to throw in a spoon, some sponges that we just used for wrapping paper making and a paintbrush. Aiden dove right in, covering himself, the table and the floor with bubbles. And then, being the creative little soul that he is, Aiden proceeded to use the water and bubbles as paint and the table as a canvas and using the paintbrush and sponges, covered the table with magnificent bubble designs. How neat is that?!

Happy bubbling,
Creatively yours,
Maya :)

Family Photo Flash Cards

Aiden is very fortunate to have fabulous relatives both near and far. We try to visit with his Grandma and Grandpa and his Grandpa Doc (when he's in town) at least once a week but sometimes life gets in the way and we don't get to see everyone as much as we'd like. Aiden also has a Granny who lives in Scotland (who is arriving tomorrow!), an Auntie in London and an Uncle, Auntie and Cousins in California that he rarely gets to see. So
Aiden is at the stage where he is a bit weary of people he doesn't know or doesn't see on a regular basis and with the holidays coming up and family coming into town we want to prepare Aiden for strange family faces as much as possible. Enter family photo flash cards.

Family Photo Flash Cards
1. Find or take digital pictures of important family members or other people you want your little person to remember. Be sure to include photos of Mom and Dad and your little person. You can even include photos of your little person's lovey, like Aiden's monkey.
2. Shrink them to index card size.
3. Print the photos out on paper or card stock.
4. Cut the photos out and laminate them.
5. Stack the photos and punch a hole through the top left corner. Secure the stack with a binder ring.
6. Go through the stack of pictures with your little person during the day naming each person or asking your little person who the photo is. You can also play a memory game with the cards: Lay the cards out on the floor face down. Ask your little person to find a relative. Then they will turn over the cards until they find the relative. Repeat until you have gone through all the cards.

The Review
Aiden loves his stack, so much so that he asks to see "Papa" or "Dada" periodically throughout the day. He also laughs like crazy when we get to the picture of his monkey bombing our photo. And in terms of recognizing family and being comfortable with them when he hasn't seen them for awhile, so far so good, but I guess the real test will be when he sees Granny tomorrow for the first time since May.

Happy flashing,
Creatively yours,
Maya:)

Lest We Forget

I am a half-Indian-half-Welsh girl who married a Scottish-British-German-Canadian boy. On this day I can't help but be filled with gratitude for the sacrifice that so many brave men and women made so that I could have the freedom to watch my sweet, lovely angel nap while I write this post. I shudder to think what the world would be like if those men and women didn't take their call to action, but I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't exist in the first place and if I did, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet the most amazing man (Aiden's Dad) to then create the most amazing little man (Aiden). So to all of you men and women of service, past and present, who keep freedom alive and kicking, on behalf of my amazing life, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Creatively and humbly yours,
Maya :)

Sick Day

Like many households in November sickness came knocking at the door and we opened the door to let it in - silly us. Fortunately Aiden got over his cold/cough pretty quickly and is now back to 100%. His Dad and I are not so lucky and are both feeling pretty crummy, but his Dad is much worse than I am. So the question is how do you entertain a busy, active toddler who's going full tilt when you are feeling less than stellar?

The Sick Day Activity List
1. Make get well cards for the sick people in the house using crayons, markers, paper, glue, stickers and any other materials you can find.
2. Make a special treat for the sick person. Let your little person help out by fetching items from the pantry, pouring ingredients into the bowls, stirring the mixture and wiping up any spills. Aiden and I made cheesecake for his Dad.
3. Choose a story to read together and then act it out using stuffed animals and puppets. Hold a show on the bed for the sick person.
4. Make a puzzle or board game or matching game using various art supplies. Play the game with the sick person. Aiden and I made a family portrait matching game (see post next week for instructions).
5. Take your non-sick little person out to a playground or to the mall or to a swimming pool or anywhere for that matter so that the sick person can rest in peace and quiet!

Stay healthy and don't answer the door if sickness comes knocking,
Creatively yours,
Maya :)

Happy Birthday Auntie Rachie!

Today is my sister and Aiden's Auntie Rachie's birthday. Auntie Rachie lives in London, England, so we can't celebrate with her today. However, in honour of her special day Aiden and I have planned some Rachie/Birthday themed activities for the day.

The Birthday Celebration List
1. Make a Happy Birthday banner and decorate it with crayons, markers, stickers and paint.
2. Make birthday hats from paper, cardboard, miscellaneous recyclables, Lego, stuffed animals, and any other materials we can find.
3. Go on a parade while wearing our various birthday hats.
4. Wear outfits in the favorite colour of the birthday person. If you don't know the favorite colour of the birthday person, wear outfits in a colour that begins with the same letter as the birthday person's name, for example Aiden and I are wearing red today.
5. Sing Happy Birthday to the birthday person's photo as many times as they are old during the day.
6. Create a special birthday song using various musical instruments and/or pots and pans and kitchen gadgets. Hold a concert for all the stuffed animals to debut the song.
7. Go on a Birthday Alphabet Walk: on your walk point out as many things as you can that begin with the first letter of the birthday person's name.
8. Play birthday games like musical chairs or pass the parcel in honour of the birthday person.
9. Make portraits of the birthday person or birthday cakes out of play dough.
10. Have a meal eating only things that begin with the first letter of the birthday person's name...lucky us, we get risotto!

Happy Birthday Auntie Rachie!
Creatively yours,
Maya :)

Fun with Finger Painting

As a former art teacher and avid painter I was definitely looking forward to the day I could share my love of painting with Aiden. Although I wanted to paint with him from day one, I knew I had to be patient and wait until he could understand what we were doing and more importantly that he shouldn't eat the paint so that he could fully appreciate the activity and explore the medium without having to be reminded every 5 seconds to not eat the paint. Well, that day came a few weeks ago when we tried finger painting for the very first time.

I have to say that I was a bit apprehensive before we started because I was nervous that he wouldn't enjoy it. But I told myself that if he didn't like finger painting it would be ok, maybe he's not ready for it yet and at least he's being exposed to something new which is most important.

So one afternoon, after nap time, I set up our creativity centre with some long sheets of newsprint paper, some cups for print making and some paper towels to clean up any spills. I put Aiden into his art shirt and spooned out some paint on the paper. I watched him examine the gloppy mixture that was sitting on top of the paper and then he dove in with both of his hands, swirling the paint around his canvas. He squelched the paint through his fingers, squealing with joy as he wiped the paint that was in his hands all over his clean art shirt. When he ran out of paint on the paper he said "More, more, more". And then he got back to it, discovering what happens when he mixes the colours together and how he can make different impressions on the paper depending on what part of his hand/body he uses.

When he was done I took his artworks and put them in the kitchen to dry.
To preserve Aiden's first painting experience he and I chose part of his mural to frame. We hung it up in the hallway and unveiled his art in his very first art show with his Dad as the guest of honor. And now, everyday, when we walk through the hallway we can admire his creative genius, which I hope will give him the confidence to use his creativity to the max in a world that sometimes doesn't appreciate a creative soul.

Here's the finger paint recipe I used:

Washable Finger Paint
1/2 cup liquid dish soap
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup water
Several drops of food colouring

1. Mix dish soap, flour and water in a bowl until a thick, creamy paint-like paste forms.
2. Separate mixture into 3 or 4 smaller containers. I used small IKEA plastic cups.
3. Add a different colour of food colouring to each container.
4. Cover and refrigerate until needed.


The Review
Like many things that I worry about as a Mom, I didn't need to worry as much as I did that Aiden would not enjoy this activity. He loved finger painting, yelling "More, more, more" everytime the paint ran out.

The Tips
This is obviously a messy project so be prepared for this and allow your little person to paint with wild abandon as there is nothing that a little paper towel and water won't clean up. I also plonked Aiden in the bath after the activity to clean him off as inevitably the finger paint turned into body paint.

Happy painting,
Creatively yours,
Maya :)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

It's November and right on cue we have snow here in Calgary. I moved to Calgary from England in High School and in my first few years of living in Calgary the first day of snow was always somewhat magical. There was something I found so comforting and serene watching big, fat snowflakes falling down, joining their snowflake friends to cover the ground with a pure white blanket of snow.

As the years went by, however, the novelty of the snow wore off. Instead of cozy, holiday-movie type thoughts running through my head, I'd have thoughts of skidding cars, nightmare traffic and perpetually freezing hands because I always seem to lose my mitts.

But now that Aiden is here the magic has come back. It is truly amazing seeing his eyes light up with wonder and curiosity as he watches the snow fall from the sky. And even more amazing watching him experience walking in the snow for the first time and holding it in his hands while saying "Cold" as he makes a little snowball. He reminds me of how cool snow really is.

In the spirit of the embracing winter and snow here's a list of fun things to do in the snow with your little person.

Snow Activities
1. Build magical snow creatures who come to life at night. Give the creatures names and characteristics then tell stories before bedtime about the snow creatures.
2. Build a snow maze and run around the maze together. Be sure to create dead ends and booby traps to make the maze as fun as possible.
3. Bury a treasure in the snow and then make a map to find the treasure. Give the map to Momor Dad when they get home and see if they can find the treasure.
4. Draw pictures in the snow using sticks as pencils.
5. Have a snow angel making contest. Award prizes for the craziest angel pose, the most angelic angel and the angel with the wildest wings etc. be sure to have an award ceremony complete with a podium and National Anthem singing.
6. Draw different animal tracks in the snow and then spend some time walking like each animal in the snow.
7. Find a hill and go tobogganing.
8. Paint in the snow using spray bottles filled with water and a bit of food colouring.
9. Make snow pictures by putting a piece of dark coloured card stock in the freezer and then taking it outside and catching snowflakes on the card. Examine the snowflakes with a magnifying glass to see if they are really all different.
10. Do some snow bowling: Set up several empty pop bottles, 500 ml works well, at one end of the yard. Make some big, solid snowballs and take turns rolling the balls at the bottles.

Next week I'll post recipes for Magic Mud, Finger Paint and Easy-To-Make play dough, but in the meantime have a fun, snow filled weekend and let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Creatively yours,
Maya :)

Secret Spy Day

Yesterday we had plans to meet some friends at a mall for a playdate but the universe had a different plan  for us when it decided to hide the car keys in Aiden's Dad's coat pocket, which went with him to work. To make extra sure that we carried out the universe's plan, the universe also hid the spare car key in a place that we've yet to discover. Not only were we carless but we were also stroller and infant carrierless as these were both locked in the car.

So what to do when you are stuck at home, without a car and a stroller? Have a secret spy day of course. Here's a list of what Agent 00 Aiden and Agent 00 Mom did on our secret spy day:

The Secret Spy Day Activity List
1. Go on a stealth mission through the complex to the mailbox (see later post for explanation).
2. Disguise the entrance to our underground secret base with various natural things, like leaves, sticks, woodchips and rocks found in the yard.
3. Create secret spy messages on the sidewalk using sidewalk chalk.
4. Create decoy Agents by dressing up teddy bears and Aiden's plushy monkey, Thelonius, in Aiden's clothes and shoes.
5. Find spy equipment in the pit of rice sand, (see previous post on rice sand).
6. Test our agility on our indoor spy obstacle course (pillows, tunnels, ottoman, sofas, and ride on toys).

Teaching Elmo to Drive the Getaway Vehicle

7. Make a getaway car using a laundry basket, some blankets and a toy steering wheel.
8. Make some spy goo (magic mud - see future post for recipe) to trap our enemies.
9. Make a spy base using blankets, sheets and chairs as the frame.
10. Make lego spy planes, bases, cars, boats and cities.

Although we missed seeing our friends, we had a pretty fun day being spies at home. Thanks universe for hiding the keys!

Creatively yours,
Maya :)

Coloured Rice Sand

Aiden loves his sandbox. Everytime we are in the yard he walks up to his sandbox, a red crab given to us by a friend from work, says "Eyes" while pointing to the crab's big googly eyes and then say "Appy", which is Aiden's version of the word open. After I take off the lid Aiden excitedly dives into the sandbox and proceeds to sift, pour, and mould the sand. He likes to bury toys and then retrieve them using woodchips as tools. He also uses his cups and pretends to drink the sand (ok, on his first few times in the sandbox he did actually put some sand in his mouth but spat it out pretty quickly and lived to tell the tale).

But now that the weather is getting colder we can't play outside in the sandbox as much as we used to, which is a shame as he does love it so. I suppose if we had a mud room or an area in our house that isn't carpeted we could always bring the sandbox inside, but unfortunately this isn't the case. So what to do instead?

Coloured Rice Sand
The Recipe
Rice
Vinegar
Food Colouring
Several bowls
A cookie sheet
1. Put rice in several bowls, as many as you want different colours of sand.
2. Pour a small amount, maybe a tsp, of vinegar on the rice and stir it up to coat the rice.
3. Pour food colouring in each bowl and stir to coat the rice. Depending on your little person's age and development you can get them to help you with this.
4. Pour the rice out onto a cookie sheet to dry. Leave overnight.
5. Pour the coloured rice into a shallow container.
6. Provide your little person with spoons, cups, toys (cars are great as they can drive through the sand) and containers and watch them explore the texture, sound and feel of their indoor sand.

The Review
I have to say I was a but skeptical of how engaging this activity would be, but I am now a believer - Aiden loved this activity, so much so that he spent a good half-hour to fourty-five minutes playing with the sand. He loved scooping it into cups, pouring it back into the container, and digging in it with his hands.

The Tips
Make sure you have a dustpan and brush handy. Along with pouring it into the container, Aiden enjoyed pouring it on the floor. The sound of rice falling on hardwood is way too enticing and fun for a little guy to resist! To keep the floor from getting too slippery I swept up the rice and put it back into the container whenever Aiden wasn't looking.

Happy rice dying,
Creatively yours,
Maya:)

The Breakfast Picnic

If you have an uber-active-don't-like-sitting-down-in-my-high-chair-for-more-than-10-minutes little guy like I do you will recognize the challenge of getting food into your little person. We have tried a few things like using a booster seat instead or the high-chair, taking the tray off the high-chair and putting it closer to the table, using only the waist straps and watching sesame street videos on YouTube (hey at least they are educational!). These solutions usually work for lunch and dinner but breakfast is another story.

One morning I decided that I didn't want to fight the Breakfast War so instead of putting Aiden in his high chair and bringing his breakfast to the table I scooped him up off of the floor, took his breakfast and my breakfast into the living room, turned on Kids CBC and let Aiden wander around while I set up a Breakfast Picnic. I laid out a blanket and put both of our plates on the blanket just like I would if we were outside. I cut up Aiden's food into bite sized pieces and made several stacks of 5 or 6 Cheerios so that Aiden could come and go as he pleased, taking a bite at a time while he played with his toys and watched tv. And sure enough it worked. He ate his entire breakfast (which is a huge accomplishment for him as he's not a great eater) and then some on top of that. So from that day on we've had a Breakfast Picnic everyday. Take that, Breakfast War!

Creatively yours,
Maya:)