Mom of Three Angels

The busy time of year is here and Santa has yet to wrap the gifts for my three(3) little angels.  Guess he’ll be locked in the closet again this year.  

I have made a wise decision this year (I think), I am taking the christmas break off (starting tomorrow) to spend time with the kids.  It seems like we have all been too busy in the last several months and there has been no real family down-time.   So we will spend the break tobaggoning, baking, eating and just generally hanging out and getting to know each other better and of course having friends and family over to share in the joy of the season.

The thought of being stuck with the three of them without my ever reliable sitter as backup is a bit daunting but I am sure that I will be more fulfilled as a parent from the experience.   Every now and again I am taken aback by how much they have grown and changed in the last year and it scares me that I may be missing out as they develop into being their own person and I don’t want to be out of touch with them as they grow up.  So I think that some individual one-on-one time is needed so we can all recharge and reconnect. Wii bowling here I come!

Merry christmas!

I am not sure why people who do not vote are the loudest in proclaiming this fact.  More »

Although I already work in my chosen profession,  I decided to complete my BSc in Computer Science.  To get my feet wet, I decided to do a Humanities course and spread it over the Fall-Winter semesters.  That way, I would only have classes one evening per week, you know, I need to gently wean myself away from the kids.

Being on campus again is an experience.  Everything has changed in the last several years.  The students are monitoring their facebook pages and various emails.  Many do not bother taking notes.  Those were in for a rude surprise when at the end of the class they were told that there would be no handouts of the lecture notes available on the web.  The shocked silence was almost funny.  I say almost because I realised that my note-taking skills are all too limited.  Even more shocking was the lecturer’s announcement that she does not use email.  OK, even I was floored by that one.  However, I do (vaguely) remember the days before lecturers were available by email so I can grasp the concept.

Wish me luck.

This morning my 2nd son, who started kindergarten last week and is suddenly knows everything, demanded a new baby.  That’s right, three is not enough for this child.  He declared that he likes his baby sister, in fact, he loves her and he thinks that it is time for another baby (a boy) as we have not had a baby for a long, long, long time. 

As I tried to explain that mommy can make no more babies, it brought to mind the explanation my oldest son had given to his class when I had my tubes tied (and burnt).  He told everybody that mommy had gone to get neutered.  The idea of another baby is not so unappealing as it once was.  However, I know that is just because I am confident that I will never have to carry another alien … er… baby in my body. 

Those days are over, hallelujah! 

Whoever, said kids keep you young must have been child-free…

I have a busy household with 3 kids 7 and under, there are mad-dashes out of house in the morning, another dash to prepare dinner and eat as we leave for soccer practises, games and swimming, doctor appointments, clothes shopping, visits to the parks, birthday parties and the inevitable summer BBQs.  Notice that there is no mention of the unending housework that keeps the house running…  Ok with all of this, I should be in my teens.

I was just looking at the blog of a fabulous woman who homeschools 5 kids, bakes, sews, knits and God knows what else.   http://pleasantviewschoolhouse.blogspot.com/  She is my she-ro.  That is who I want to be when I grow up.  She looks great and probably finds time to workout.  It’s all I can do to get out of bed in the morning.  Should I mention that I am currently paying for a gym membership I have not used since January?  My mother would say not to envy someone because you never know what is going on behind the facade, however, I can help but wish I could be that … energetic.

An incident occurred on Saturday that has shaken me to the core and has challenged some of my core beliefs.On Saturday we thought we would venture out to Ajax for our weekly grocery shopping at the large Canadian retail superstore…  As I am crossing at the cross walk, with my kids in the cart and beside me, I am almost knocked over by a driver.  He apparently thought that although we were in the middle of the crosswalk, it was irrelevant to his getting to a parking space.  After he nearly runs us over, I point out that this is a crosswalk buster.  Only to be greeted by expletives from … you guessed it … his mom.  That’s right ladies and gentlemen, his wonderful mother.Well at this point DH steps in (they had not noticed him behind me) and tells them that they can behave in that manner before children.  He gets cussed out too.  At this point the driver stops and he and my husband gets into a heated conversation.  His mom jumps out and proceeds to hit my husband on the arm and her son calls him the N-word.  Oh, I should mention that they are south-asian.  It is at this point that passerby and other observers become interested.The police are called and although they were not prompt, the matter is handled in an appropriate and professional manner by them.  The offenders totally denied that any hitting occurred or that a racial slur was used.  However, the police could clearly see from the video and the several eye-witnesses who stuck around (thanks, everyone) that they were liars.  DH chose not to press charges and accepted their apology instead with the hope that they would think twice about what they did.So while shopping I had to explain to my 7 and 4 year olds what a n****r was and why people would use such a term.  My 7yr old found it hard to comprehend why anyone would use such a term and I was almost in tears. To say I was fluster is an understatement.  Good thing I had my handy-dandy shopping list or grocery shopping would have been a bust.Now don’t get me wrong as Afro-Canadians, we knew that we would eventually have to explain such things to our children, but I never expected to do this at this age or after having it thrown at us with such venom and hatred in a public place. I also, know that some people of African-descent use this term and I can only say they do it because it is so pervasive in the hip-hop culture.  I personally find the term degrading. It was even more startling to me to have people from another part of the world come at us with these terms that are very painful.   These are people who traditionally were not a part of the “culture” that fostered the use of the term.  I could excuse it as them not knowing the history and pain behind it, as them picking up on the American hip-hop culture that is so pervasive all around us.  However, the pain of having to answer my children’s questions is too much at this time for me to let them have these excuses.  I don’t feel optimistic about the society and how my children will be treated.  I am scared by the stereotypes that will follow them all their lives because of something they had no control over and which others use as a measure of worthiness…

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum(from “The HandMaid’s Tale : M. Atwood)

I had three(3) days off work so why do I still feel exhausted?  I got most of our back-to-school shopping done (YEAH!)  Now all I have to do is find a Transformer backpack for my youngest and some hoodies. 

The best thing about  clothes shopping for boys is that the selection is limited to jeans, t-shirts and hoodies.  No need to take various styles into consideration (just yet at least) and so I just shop the sales.

Helllooo, Walmart!

They grow so fast and it doesn’t help when the next child in line has a different build or a different sex than the previous child.   They are so inconsiderate that way.

Early last month we went to Marineland.  We loved it except for my near death experience.  No it did not happen on the Skyscreamer but on one of the “kiddie” rides.   The SKYHAWK!  My husband took our youngest son and I took the older one as they were not tall enough to ride alone.  (sigh) I was confident I could handle it after all it was only a “kiddie” ride and no one had fallen out while we watched.  I dont remember much about the ride except I screamed until I figured I was dead and stopped screaming because I was looking for the white light.  I was the only one crying when we got off.  Am I ashamed?  No way.  That was not a kiddie ride and it should come with warnings.

Marineland was a blast and my only regret is that we did not spend 2 days instead of 1 there. 

Happy Wednesday! 

Don’t you just love first time moms?  They are so innocent, so totally convinced of their own abilities.

Three pregnancies and three kids later, I am totally convinced that I was a better mother before I had kids. More »

This is my first blog and I think it is fitting to introduce myself.

I am a full-time mom of 3, two boys(7 and 4) and almost 2(going 21) girl.  I am also employed full-time and will be returning to school in September 2008(like I don’t have enough on my plate) .

Early this morning (@ about 4am), we were awaken by the loud screeching… er.. beeping of the CO/Gas detector.  After about an hour of dilly-dallying and hoping it would stop we finally called 9-1-1.  Now I am not at my brightest before my 1st cup of coffee and never at 4 am.  So although I can hear the gasps that accompanied the knowledge that we waited for 1 hour before evacuating, please understand that it took that long to get the brain cells working.

We fled the house… o.k. fled is overrated more like dragged 3 still sleeping kids from warm beds… out to the garage and into our 7-seater van which I drove and parked in the driveway until the emerency team responded.

All was well however, as I though about it, I noticed that none of the wonderful fire fighters or EMS personnel who responded looked like those in the calendar and were all (thankfully) clothed.

So I sat at work wondering why I did not take the day off because I feel like I have been run over by a mac truck and this was the slooooowest day in the history of workdays.

Tonight is also soccer night and so we will be at the field until well after 8pm.   I can only pray for rain…  which is a good possibility with the summer we have had in Toronto.

 Until next time.

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