I see the moon
And the moon sees me
And the moon sees the one that I long to see

So God bless the moon
And God bless me
And God bless the one that I long to see

It seems to me that God above
Created you for me to love

I once had a heart
Called mine you see
But now it has gone
From me to you

So take good care
As I have done
For you have two
And I have none

I see the moon
And the moon sees me
And the moon sees the one that I long to see

So God bless the moon
And God bless me
And God bless the one that I long to see

~ This is featured on Sophie’s new mamas of the world lullaby CD, the American contribution. I loved this poem as a child, and it certainly touches me now. I’m unsure of the author.

A few shots of the animals we saw at Zoo Granby…

Rick and the animal butt pictures…we’ve decided to keep this one in mind when we get our debt paid off. This will be a good one to send creditors when they start asking if we would like more credit…HA!



Sophie didn’t seem to care for the gorillas too much. She is especially shy around men, and I guess these remind her of big, hairy men…;)



Cute in that ugly sort of way…

Eeew snakes…but I just wanted to touch it nonetheless…

This was by far my favourite animal of the day! I thought it must be a panther but its exhibit said a black jaguar, and if you closely at his belly, you can see his spots like the spotted one shown above. What a beautiful cat, and much bigger than our black cat. ;)



alligators…cute in an ugly sort of way as well…:)

Red panda

A tiger leaped into a tree (not sure if it was this one) which was quite something to see, too bad we didn’t get a picture of it. So effortless, no climbing necessary. :)

Ha – oh, that pic of Sophie with the camels. See how cross she looks? This is about where she got squirmy. This is her, “I’m sleepy and had enough now face”. Ah, little peanut…

Enjoying th elephants (not in this pic, is the elephant she was looking at…)

checking out the llamas I think…

Mommy I’m tired!! Hurry up!!! Hee…

Ok. Take the darn picture. Now can I please have a nap now??? ;)

I don’t think I could ever say we have had a perfect day. But Rick & I cannot believe how perfect Sophie’s birthday went yesterday. We thought we were in an alternate reality!

We started the day an hour later than usual; for some reason all three of us did not sleep well the night before, so there was a lot of tossing & turning. Sophie awoke at close to 7am instead of 6. I had decided on Friday to play the day by ear because planning an outing would mean Sophie would be missing her scheduled naps, and I figured her birthday would not be fun for her if we lugged a cranky baby to the zoo.

But despite the late start, the first part of the morning went rather smoothly. She was in a very good mood, so I dressed her in her finest dress (a silk dress from Vietnam I bought at the ByWard Market in Ottawa when I was newly pregnant with her last year) and sat her at the table to open her presents. That proved to be rather entertaining for her (even if we had to coax her past the tissue paper & wrapping to actually get to the good stuff, which she promptly examined, then started throwing on a pile on the floor, then went back to playing with the wrappings. HA! Babies…), so we decided to have breakfast & go to the zoo, fingers crossed.

As I was getting her dressed to go to the zoo, I talked to Sophie about her special day. “Do you know today is your birthday?” Stares at me intently. “You’re one year old today. Last year at this time, we were in the hospital. Do you remember that? When you were born?” Looks at me thoughtfully. “Do you remember being born? And coming home for the first time?” Whp knows what she was thinking, but I’d like to think there was some recollection, or some understanding of the importance of the day. Rick even remarked how calm and content she seemed all day. It was her special day, and she seemed to know it.

Our children’s birthdays are so special for mamas too (and papas, but I can only comment from the mama perspective). I think the first is particularly special, since it makes one year of being this child’s mother. Birth is something so special that only us women can experience. I got through the day without locking myself in the bathroom and crying…lol. Just a few swelled-with-tears eyes filled with pride when she opened her presents. Hard to believe this time last year, Sept. 21st, we brought home this little 6 lb., helpless infant. Now only a year later, I swear you can’t stop her! :)

The drive up to the zoo took place during her first nap time, and she slept for only 30mins. of it, which concerned me (it’s about an hour and a half to Granby). She did start to fuss a bit just as we were arriving, she had enough sitting restrained in her car seat. I put her in the sling as I didn’t think she could see much in the stroller. Still, we brought it with us just in case.

Rick & I were pleasantly surprised how much she enjoyed the animals! The exhibits are large (thank goodness, I always wonder with zoos if we are doing the animals justice or harm, particularly the ones not from this climate) so I had to point out the animals at times but once she saw them she was absolutely intrigued & delighted by them. I got a bit of video of some of the animals & you can hear Sophie laughing with excited glee in the background.

We stopped about half-way through so Sophie could have something to eat. We kicked ourselves for not bringing a picnic lunch; the zoo had many nice picnic areas and the food there, although sounded tasty, was…too greasy than we could stomach in one sitting.

So we got 90% through all the exhibits when Sophie got really squirmy in the wrap. So I put her in her stroller with her hat to block out the sun and she slowly started to go to sleep. We were so impressed that she made it that far, seeing how she missed her naps, and even more impressed that she started to sleep without a fuss! On the way out we decided to stop at the gift shop, but there was no way to fit the stroller through the gated opening. A worker explained to us, “pas de pousette dans la magasin” which we thought was a stupid rule for a gift shop at a zoo. I hope to God they let wheelchairs in (although I am not sure how) otherwise that would be called discrimination. Anyway, if Sophie wasn’t going to sleep I would have just folded up the stroller but since she was…I guess we don’t get to spend our money there, which was probably a good thing anyway: who needs over priced beanie babies? ;)

Much to my elation she remained asleep as I put her in her car seat and slept most of the way home so at least she had a full afternoon nap.

Even though we thought the day couldn’t be topped, the real fun seemed to take place after supper. We presented Sophie with her birthday “cake”: a perfect scoop of blackberry sorbet with one beeswax candle. I am so pleased I found this sorbet at the organic grocery store. It contains all of 4 ingredients: blackberries, water, apple juice & carob. Carob is the only ingredient Sophie hadn’t had, so this satisfied the no sugar no gluten thing plus we didn’t have to be concerned about introducing several new things to her system at once.

But to SEE her with it…I will post pictures soon…they are so worth seeing. She had her hands in it before I had the chance to strip her down…and once we did…let the blackberry carnage begin! We let her get her hands all through it at first, then I handed her a spoon. The thickness of the sorbet made it the perfect food to practice using a spoon on. I was quite amazed at how well she did with the spoon: we never showed her before. First she tried it with her right hand, then switched to her left. She had much better control with the left hand. We have been wondering if she’ll be left or right handed…hmmmm…

Anyway, when she was done, everything was pink. I had to stick her in the bath after that. I was a little worried about her sleep considering she didn’t nap as scheduled, she had sugar before bed (albeit natural sugars but sugar nonetheless) and a bath (we usually give her baths in the day now as it ramps her up too much at night). She did really well though, was a little restless at around 3am but after a bit of tossing & turning and soothing words from me, she went right back to sleep. And slept until close to 7am again. :D

So today she was slightly hyper which I guess can be expected after long car rides yesterday. We are relived to see she seems to adjust well now to sleep as we are hoping to make a trip to Syracuse before the snow flies. *WAH*!

Happy Autumn Equinox everyone. Now that is a season to be thoroughly enjoyed. :)

Now that we seem to have our rhythm down pat again, I wanted to post it here as a reminder to myself to keep it up and to perhaps help others plan their day.

I admit it is rather boring since my daughter is really young: once she is older I really want to schedule more nature/outdoor time.

I’m also going to put notes in there about sleep techniques that are working for us. Sophie is now sleeping 11 hours at night and I don’t remember the last time I had to get up in the middle of the night (except to pee! Hee!).

6am: we get up. Sophie starts to fuss and she greets me with a “Hi!” and a kiss on the cheek when I pick her up. Great way to start the day, esp. since I am so not a morning person!

6:10am-6:40am: after a bathroom pit stop Sophie has her milk, and then has potty time. I also take this time to get dressed, brush my teeth, etc.

6:40am-7:30+am: Independent play for Sophie in the play den, I check my messages & do a bit of work. I am currently designing my website in order to sell my jewelry online.

7:30+am: Sophie goes down for a nap between 7:30am and 8am, until 9am. I will also return to bed to nap at this time if I feel unrested. Otherwise, I do a bit more work on the computer.

9am: Sophie gets up, bath time & breakfast (Daddy makes breakfast). We do our bath in the morning as we found baths in the evening ramped her up rather than relaxed her.

10am: This varies. Sometimes we go for a walk, or run errands at this time, or Sophie & I start housework on the designated room/area for the day

11:15am: If we are home, Sophie has more milk, and then naps

1pm: Sophie gets up from her nap. Lunch time! Daddy makes lunch.

1:45pm: Usually independent play while I either do more work on the computer or finish up a chore. If we are out we make sure to get home around this time to Sophie can get down for a nap and be finished by 3pm. This is because when she sleeps later than 3, it may cause her to not get to sleep at bedtime, or sleep well through the night. If she had her 11am nap we may run errands at this time rather than in the morning.

2pm-3pm: If Sophie is napping at this time, I may take a nap, but usually this is more “me” time to catch up on my online groups, blog post, research for the website. I may sneak in an easy chore that is easier achieved while not having a baby around: dusting breakables, switching the laundry over, etc.

3pm-5pm: The afternoon is pretty open. Sophie & I finish the chores for the day, maybe spend sometime outside, let Sophie explore the now clean room/area of the house. She has a snack usually around 3:30. Sometimes if Rick wants a break we’ll take a quick trip to the post office or something.

5pm: Daddy makes supper, while Mommy & Sophie hang out in the livingroom. I usually take this time to have one-on-one tickle-the-baby time. :) Mommy also chats with Daddy while he cooks since our house is open concept. Ah, adult interaction. :) I can’t wait until she is older so the whole family can help out in the kitchen.

6pm: Dinner is finished. Sophie goes to the potty, then plays in her playroom while Mommy takes time to read in the room with her. Daddy does the dishes.

6:45pm: time to get ready for bed.

6:50pm: retreat to the calm of the bedroom, where Sophie has her milk, and I rock her for 5 min. afterward, which is just what she needs to get drowsy. Then, as I put her in her bed I tell her, “OK Sophie, Mommy is putting you in your bed now. It’s sleepy time. I’ll be right here if you need me”. I find if I don’t say this, she’ll wake up screaming 15 min. later.

7:10pm – 10+pm: ME TIME! This varies, I may fart around on the internet, do some work (design) if I feel inspired, read a book, watch some TV, spend some time with Rick…most nights it’s a little bit of all this.

I didn’t add all the pee potty time throughout the day, but it’s always after every nap, about 20-25min after liquids & every time I have to pee (which these days, is quite often). Hopefully she will start signing again soon so I won’t have to rely solely on timing, but this method seems to work the majority of the time.

As you can see, I have a lot of flexibility with this schedule, but this is the general flow that works for me. Some people’s rhythms are more structured than mine, again, it’s all about personality & what works for each person. I have a lot of leeway with this schedule as well. For example, I am sure to plan one cleaning day as easy, (Monday starts off with the room with least traffic), the next heavier, and I stagger accordingly. This way, if I miss a cleaning day due to appointments or an outing I can easily make up for it the following day. Or, if I feel inspired to double up on the cleaning one day, in order to get ahead.

I’m also flexible as to when I do what during computer time. Some days, I feel the need to write (blog) to get going. Today is a good example of that. I tend to start posts as I think of topics but not necessarily post them until I have the time to go through to proofread or finish them. Today I had a back log, so I decided to take part of the day to work on that to help get the juices flowing so to speak. Hence, all the posts today! I am going to do work tonight, because I am more inspired to do work now than I was earlier today. Besides, Rick is also working tonight, since he mowed the lawn this afternoon. Flex hours definitely suit both our personalities.

It is a lot of trial and error and I am still tweaking this one. Rhythms are always evolving, especially with growing children.

As an addition to my original post, I wanted to also mention:

Find a tool of the trade that make your life easier.

In regards to cleaning, I am all for all natural disinfectants and not their chemical counterparts. What I am referring to is what tool could be changed that you now find cumbersome?

For me, it was vacuuming. It was loud, heavy & awkward, and could not be done when the baby was in the room, lest I want her to be deaf. I had to wait for Rick to have time on the weekend to vacuum, and with three cats, this simply wasn’t working. So I went out to find one of those people-powered push brooms for vacuuming my rugs. We have hardwood & ceramic throughout our house, so I needed something lightweight and quiet. I am all for living naturally, but we also live in a technological age. I so do not have the time to get on my hands & knees to scrub the floor by hand. Nor, would I want to! So I found the prefect tool. It is a Shark push broom, and this one actually has a small motor in it to help pick up the dirt. Even better, it was on sale half price at Canadian Tire: $20! I can’t say enough about this. I may have to go over the rug twice, but it does a fine job picking up all the dirt and hair, and it is so lightweight (and quiet) I can push it with one hand while having the baby on the other hip.

I wasn’t in the market for this, but when it saw it marked down to $30 from $69 I couldn’t resist. It is a Bissel vacuum mop, with a microfiber pad. I had been sweeping the floor and then dry mopping with a microfiber mop. It could not believe the extra dust & hair the microfiber mop will pick up after sweeping. This new gadget does both at the same time, cutting my floor cleaning time in half, and giving me more time to do things I enjoy, like, well, blog posting. :)

I find having a good cleaning rhythm means all the other parts of your life falls into place.

My original post on the topic here:

Finding My Rhythm Again

You know, what I love about keeping a blog is the whole progression of the thought process. Remember how this site started out: as a way to keep friends & family up to date on our wedding plans. Now it has evolved as a online database, where I keep events & information for future reference for our family. Then it has evolved once again, to a place when I am feeling blocked or uninspired in other areas of my life to kick start my thought process, and as a form of self-expression.

Take the last post for example ( Babies Are Inspiring ). When I first thought of writing it, it was solely for recording the fact that Sophie is learning to walk and play her xylophone. Then as I wrote, it evolved into a great example of how children learn organically: just the type of validation that lets you know you are on the right path in your way of thinking/parenting.

I am also pleasantly surprised by your emails, that people are inspired by my thoughts even though we are all in different places in our lives. It’s not about being the same, but about living authentically. I am glad that my thought process has helped others.

So if you don’t have a writing outlet like a blog, I encourage you to get one. Don’t do a lot of thinking, just let the information flow from your head to your fingertips. It truly is a form of meditation for me. Facebook is all well & fine to connect with people, but if you really want your personality to shine, a blog is the only way to go… :)

Oh, and if you are not a writer you can always keep a picture blog. ;)

I caught a bit of a show once where the “expert” was giving “advice” to parents on how to encourage your baby to roll over and to crawl. She was taking a doll, and placing the doll’s limbs in a crawling position.

WHAT??? The gentle parent in me was wondering what she was on.

Last time I checked, babies crawl…because they do…when they are READY. Just like everything else. Sure, I agree with putting newborns in different positions so they aren’t laying on their back all day & to build their head muscles (better yet, wear your baby. Because I carried Sophie in a sling she had amazing control of her head, I never found it important to schedule tummy time for her, and at her two week appt. the nurse was amazed at how high she could raise her head. “You must give her lots of tummy time” Um, yeah….)

I often wonder in this society, what is the hurry anyway? Babies grow so fast…the next thing you know you have gray hair & they’re out the door for college. Sure, knowing milestones is important, if you child is lagging behind severely developmentally. But I am appalled at some of the advice out there, about what your child should do and when. From a holistic standpoint, every human being is different. When you get treated holistically, your treatment is based on the assessment of you, the person, not you, statistically in society. The truth is every baby is different, will learn different things at different times, and if we let them do this with patience & respect they will grow their confidence & self-esteem as well. There is so much fear mongering pointed at parents who just want the best for their child. Every so often, I will look things up on the internet just to see what’s out there, and it pretty much makes me want to run screaming. And the labels don’t even get me started on the labels. Is it possible that a child diagnosed with ADD may have a high energy temperament & just be spirited? Or have a food allergy? Or doesn’t learn well in a classroom setting? These options must be considered as well, not just, here is some ritalin, now conform…but I am digressing here…

Take for instance, Sophie’s teeth have not come through yet. She is practically a year old, but has been teething since she was 3 months! Drooling, biting, irritability for months & months (common characteristic in late break through teethers, actually).”She should be eating finger foods by now!” The peanut gallery says. Yeah, and I do that how when she has no teeth? “Take her in for an X-Ray”? To have the dentist tell me what, that her teeth aren’t through yet? No shit Sherlock, thanks for irradiating my baby for no reason. I am pleased to say that many dentists confirm the longer teeth are in the gums the healthier they will be out of the gums. You can feel the bumps in her mouth, so they are definitely there. Besides, since I believe in long term nursing, I was in no hurray for her teeth to come in, thank you very much.

I just don’t buy into this culture of fear in our society. For new parents, Rick & I are really laid back, and I know for a fact it makes some people nervous! But why worry? It does no one any good, it just gives you health problems. She is obviously healthy. We parent through common sense & intuition, not by statistics and keeping up with the Joneses’ kid. Sophie rolled over when she was ready. She crawled when she was ready. She stood up on her own, when she was ready. Just two weeks ago, I witnessed her walk across the floor of her room with the assistance of her walker wagon. I was amazed. How did she know to just, stand up and do that? Then I was like, “Do it again so Mommy can get it on video!”. I stood her up by it, tried to coax her to walk, but she was obviously flustered now. Just a prime example how learning is so not fun when you have to perform under pressure.

Oooh, I could so tie this into earth schooling & why we prefer our children to learn in a natural environment rather than a classroom one…

The other thing I find amazing, is the same day, she grabbed her xylophone out of the toy box, picked up a mallet and started playing it. Ok yes, playing it by means of banging on it there was no Mozart or anything being made here. We never showed her how to do this directly…probably indirectly. I know I like to bang on it once in a blue moon and try to remember tunes from when I was a child (Doe, a deer, a female deer…). Those times Sophie promptly comes over, grabs the mallet & throws it. LOL! But she never attempted to play it herself, nor did she seem to show any knowledge of how to do this up until a couple of weeks ago. This wooden toy is not even recommended for her age. We put it in her toy box when she was about 7 months and knew she’d play with it someday, when she was ready.

These examples show the importance of independent play, without a lot of distraction, so babies (and ultimately children) can naturally learn. They do learn by mimicking us (like the xylophone, or even how I will sit on the toilet & she will then go in her potty). But we don’t have to force it. No holding up flash cards and insisting they memorize it. No Baby Einstein DVDs that ultimately ruin their attention span. Just simple, down to earth, play.

We can learn so much from babies. They teach us the joy in the simplistic, to triumph all our achievements no matter how small and slow down to enjoy the small things in life.

So I don’t really feel crappy. It was just an appropriate mood for a post all about EC…

EC: Elimination Communication, also known as Infant Potty Training or Natural Infant Hygiene, has been part of our baby journey from the day Sophie was born. From the age of birth – 3 month, we practiced EC on a strictly part time basis…a little nakey bum time…but we really didn’t get into it “hard core” until she was 3+ months old. That’s when we introduced a potty at the times of day we knew she would go to the bathroom (that’s where the nakey bum observations came in handy. Through this observation we could make an educated guess as to when she would need to go, sit her on the pot, make a cue sound “shhhhh…” and she would go).

Things were going so great. Potty time increased exponentially, we were saving a small fortune on disposable diapers, and time on laundering the cloth ones. We even bought a Potette and started potty-ing on the go. My mother witnessed Sophie going to the pot in our hotel room when we were in Québec City. She began to sign and/or fuss when she needed to go. The communication between us three was marvelous.

Then somewhere around 9 and a half months, it stopped. It was a combination of, her sleeping habits being disrupted, milestones (learning to crawl/stand up & explore & not caring to stop to use the potty), & changes in my health that affected my nursing her, including digestion issues/constipation. She stopped signing. She stopped fussing. I could always rely on her taking off her diaper when it was soiled, if I happened to miss one. This comforted me because it meant she didn’t like the feel of dirty diaper against her skin. However now, she kept right on playing and crapped in her diaper; I would be none the wiser except for the smell.

“Ok”, I thought, “No big deal. Potty pauses are to be expected, esp. at milestones”. Truthfully, at this time I was exhausted, and after dealing with severe constipation, I was just happy she was pooping, I wasn’t going to complain about changing shitty diapers. I was happy to diaper her as I just didn’t have the brain cells at this time to be alert enough to watch for signs when she was bare bummed. I offered the potty when I could, tried to keep up with timing since she had stopped telling me, but I always seemed to just miss it.

So after we got the sleep & digestion issues sorted away, which was around mid-August, I was ready to take EC from part time to full time again. I kept observation even though she was going in her diaper for the most part. I knew that she poo’d in the morning after her milk, and again after dinner before bed. I set a goal to catch the poops, since those were the most disgusting to clean up after. Pipi would be the icing on the cake.

The first day, things went marvelously. “Just like riding a bike,” I thought, “you never forget.” We even went out to run errands that day, and she peed in her potette whilst in the van. Horray!

I was, however, celebrating far too soon. Slowly, gradually, Sophie became adverse to the pot. I would put her on, and she would fuss to get off, only to pee in her diaper minutes later. In the morning I would sit her on the pot for the morning poo, and after 20 minutes, would take her off, put her in the play den to play, and she would poo minutes later. She seemed only interested to sit and play/”read” books on the potty, not actually do her business.

So a couple of days ago, after dwindling down to catching 2 pees a day and no poos in the pot I was discouraged. “I’m a failure!” I lamented. “I wasn’t consistent, and now she lost all her potty skills! I suck!”

Not one to wallow in my own, er- crap for very long, I decided to get real. It’s time to make EC a priority in our home again. Radical measures were called for.

So yesterday, while out running errands, I picked up another two potties to stash around the house. That way, there was always a potty near by to stick her on. That afternoon, after her nap, we went into her room to play (the room right now is a play room/den since she still sleep in our room). I removed her diaper, and…anything cloth or hard to clean from the floor. We have hardwood, so any accidents would really make no difference to me. I sat her on the pot so she would know it was there. She didn’t want to sit long (I thought maybe she would like to scoot across the floor on it as she did before our potty strike, but she was not interested) & off she was to play.

Armed with one new potty & a roll of paper towels, I waited. After a few minutes, I relaxed and started to read my book. I kept one eye on her, as usual. She sat on the floor, playing with her blocks, talking away. I looked down again and realized she was SITTING IN THE BIGGEST PUDDLE I HAVE EVER SEEN – it was so big, I thought for a moment perhaps we had a leak somewhere. No. The only leak we sprung was from our baby! She was talking and playing and running her blocks through it. I had left her baby legs on and those were soaked, along with her shirt, it was on the long side…

So after briefly sitting her on the potty & making the cue sound, a shorter shirt, completely bare legs & a large wad of paper towels, she toddled off to play again.

About ten minutes later, she pulled herself up and stood by the couch to “talk” to me: babbling, showing me her block…I smiled and talked back to her…and as she was in mid-babble, I…*sniff sniff*…smelled something…at the same time, Sophie reached down to touch something…

I immediately leap into action, picking up the baby and plunking her on the potty before she had a chance to make a mud pie out of the turd that was now on my hardwood floors.

“HA! Caught you, elusive poo…” I was thinking. Even though I missed one turd, surely there was more to come…

But nope. Small poo, and it was all on my floor. “At least it’s easy to clean up,” I muttered.

Back to playing, and reading my book. Yet another ten minutes later, Sophie was back by the couch, talking to me again. Then I hear, well, a running water sound…

…Hurriedly pick up the baby again, and plunk her on the pot, a trail or pee following us. This time, I caught some of it in the potty. “Well,” I sighed, “I guess that counts for something”.

Rick emerged from his downstairs office ready to make supper. I told him our potty – or – lack of potty adventure. “Do I give up?” I said to him, half exasperated.

But today was a new day. I started the day realizing that I learned a lot from yesterday’s experience, and I was ready to get creative today. So after Sophie had her milk, I plunked her on the pot, her books, comb and toilet paper roll (she loves those) at her side. I decided to sit on the toilet at the same time. There is something to be said about tandem elimination. You know how one person will have to go and then everyone else in the house will develop the urge too? Well, success! “Woo! MOMMY 1, POOPY 0!” I yelled out to Rick. I stood Sophie up and had her do a victory potty dance. It was too early in the morning. She just looked at me like, “what are you doing?” Still, there was no denying she was happy that I was happy.

The rest of the day seemed to go smoothly. I was elated to find a dry diaper before I sat her on the pot. Every time I had to go, I sat her on her pot as well. And, even if I didn’t have to go, I sat on the toilet while she was on the pot. I was ELATED at how well this worked.

I think it was also comforting to always have a potty near by. We used the one in the livingroom once today, after a tiny pee hit the floor. I think having them around gives me more confidence to let her go bare bummed again, since the potty is right there. Today definitely restored my confidence, which I so needed.

So after supper, I knew this was another prime time for the elusive poo to make an appearance. So I sat her on the pot, and I sat on the toilet, even though I didn’t have to go. After 15 min., she started to fuss to get off. “Oh well,” I thought, “you can’t expect to catch them all right away…” Then Rick heard me yell, “OH YEAH! Mommy 2, POOPY…ZERO!!!” ;) I stood Sophie up to do the potty victory dance. This time, she was smiling.

So I left this laundry basket in our bedroom for a few days, knowing I would be do laundry again the following Monday. I don’t know what it is about cats and laundry baskets, whether or not they contain clothing they seem to think they make cozy little sleeping areas. Zany made quick work of this spot claiming it as her own little “nest”.

So Monday rolled around and as much as I tried to coax Zany out of the laundry basket, she would not budge. Those of you who know this cat, know how big, fat & stubborn she is. Fine. I’ll start throwing the laundry in, and she’ll move. I filled the basket to the top, mostly with towels, which you can imagine, gets heavy. The cat didn’t budge. I started getting worried, so I dug out her head. I tried to poke, then prod a little harder, but no way was she going to get out. Then after a few pictures, she must have tired of the attention, and hopped out. :P

Cats are funny creatures.

Yes, so I know Halloween is over a month away, but with all the candy & decorations out, how can you resist? (Christmas stuff is out already, for crying out loud, but I am so not going there yet.)

Last year, being the first Halloween in our house and therefore the first one we got to give out candy, I wanted to do treat bags. But with a newborn it was just impossible to find the time. The generous handfuls of candy were a hit in the neighborhood, but even with the Costco size vat of candy the handfuls got smaller as the night dwindled on. We were so not expecting close to 400 kids!

So this year, I am prepared early. I already started assembling the bags as my time is limited so it will probably take me a month to assemble 350+ treat bags. Rick & I picked out some of our favorites from childhood: tootsie rolls, double lollies…I even found little mini pop-rocks to put in, as well as stickers.

Now…just to figure out how to explain to Sophie in coming years why SHE can’t have this candy. Not until she’s at least 5. Maybe next year we’ll have to look into passing out organic treats that don’t contain refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup? I don’t think our wallets can stomach that…;)