living with a perfectionist child

1. I dropped Sophie off at Kindergarten this morning and she broke down at the classroom entrance. Following our plan with the teacher, I said my good byes and left. Madame Styles extricated Sophie from me. As of late, she is finding Mondays very hard.

2. One of the parents who was watching this little drama told me her son did the same and found that it was easier if someone else took him to school. Bingo.

3. Drove to my office and called the daycare and said that going forward I will be dropping Sophie off at daycare at 7:50am (ugh) each day and she can ride the daycare van into school. Our experience has been that this is a much easier transition.

4. Deal with work, a staffing issue at the daycare (a long story), and go to yoga (ahhhhh....).

5. Come home and once dinner and playtime is wrapped up, ask Sophie if she wants to review her little french readers. So far so good. However, since I took French many years ago my pronounciation is gawd-awful and seems to annoy and upset Sophie. I can't tell her how to pronounce "coeur" which is heart in French. I end up saying a bastardized version that sounds like "sewer".

6. Needing a little help, I call her teacher at home. Emily helps me with the pronouciation and I put Sophie on the phone with her, so we can move on. Emily also clarifies for me that the children aren't expected to know how to read this particular reader as it is definitely one of the more challenging ones. She reassures me that I'm doing fine by just encouraging the reading.

7. Spend 15 minutes finding a 'etoile' (star) for Sophie to bring to school for "e" words. Much debating back and forth from Sophie about what would make for an appropriate picture to bring to school.

8. Spend another 15 minutes penning our letter to Santa. And another few minutes decorating the letter. Sophie takes issue with the Christmas note paper I'm using for the letter.

9. A quick chapter in our book that we've been reading where sadly I was so exhausted I deleted sections (bad mommy). Sophie complains that there are not enough pictures but promptly perks up when we hit some drama in the story.

I'm not sure if I'll surive until she's 18.

meeting Tinsel

We had a blast today! We needed some family time so we headed to H20 and spent some time in the water. Fully pooped out we went over grabbed some lunch and then waited around for a bit to see Santa at the mall. We were quite impressed with the whole Santa scene -- Mrs. Claus is there along with two charming little elves called Tinsel and Cookie. Tinsel coloured and chatted with Sophie and Fynn. Unfortunately I didn't want to spend $10 on a 4 x 6 photo of us with Santa so we took lots of pictures of Tinsel instead (for free). They were also showing one of our favourite Christmas movies in the background. The kids did visit Santa and Fynn was quite impressed with Santa's furry cuffs.

All in all a nice start to the Christmas season.

book club reunion

Just before I became pregnant with Sophie, over 5 years ago now, I joined my first and so far only book club. For someone who loves to read, finding a group of fellow like-minded readers is a dream come true. We stayed together as a group through babies, divorce, moves, travel, and job changes. The usual stuff of life. After about 4 years we fizzled out.

I actually started to read more after my book club experience. The club had opened up my mind to a world of books I wouldn't have experienced before and I became a much more discerning reader.

A couple of weeks ago an invitation came to meet at Joan's house for a reunion of the group of us. We had a wonderful time....appies, wine, we each brought a book to share or give away. We talked about our kids, recent travels and next trips, people, and the funny little town-city we all share in common.

When you meet up with people who "get" you, it is kind of like finding your clan, isn't it?

burda 9826

I'm branching out a bit and trying a Burda pattern. It's a very cute and appears to be easy pattern. I'm sewing the skirt (of course) for Sophie. The only thing a bit different about this is that you cut the pattern pieces out on the bias so you get a chevron effect with the centre back and centre front seams.

This is new territory for me, but I think I can handle it :)

I really like the fabric. Again, all very inexpensive with my Fabricland membership card. Honestly, the ladies in that store must wonder since I'm in there about twice a week.

updates

Sophie update:
This morning I had an early morning meeting so it was impossible for me to take Sophie to Kindergarten and wait with her until the classroom opened at 8:10am. So, I took her to her daycare and then she boarded the daycare van and was dropped off. She walked in to school with her little friend Hunter. Interestingly enough it went very smoothly today and there were no emotional outbursts.

I got a nice email from her teacher today saying that Sophie is doing well in Kindgertan -- she's happy, relaxed, easy going and a bright little bulb. That makes me feel good and puts the other day in perspective.

On another note, a French tutor is going to be going to Sophie's daycare once a week for an hour and spending some time with the French Immersion kids to help with any homework and go over their reading. I am happy to pay the $21 per month for this service. It takes a load off of me, as Sophie and I would be practicing her reading at night and she would get frustrated with me when I got my pronounciation "wrong" in her mind.

Fynn:
That little boy is stringing some amazing sentences together. Everyday he is saying something new and interesting. He is going through that quirky stage of when he must do things a certain way. For instance, he must sleep with his stuffies, his tractor and one book. His bed is loaded with stuff when he goes to sleep but it seems to give him comfort and he settles down pretty quickly. He wakes up happy and wants to watch is favourite breakfast show

a major meltdown

Sophie was doing her best to dawdle this morning and it was getting close to bell time when I told her that we MUST get in the car. She complained about me rushing her on the entire trip to school. By the time we got there she had worked herself into a tizzy. She had a complete meltdown in the cloakroom with tears, sobbing, the whole thing. "Don't leave me, I'm so scared...." and so on. Ugh.

After 3 hugs and having her teacher physically pull her off me I left. I was frazzled when I got to work but needed to be present for a meeting. I called her principal a bit later on and spoke to him about her behavior and if he had any strategies for dealing with it. It doesn't occur that often, but when it does it rattles everyone. He has seen behavior like Sophie's before and suggested that I have a talk with her about her job is to go to Kindergarten and my job is to go to work. I'm to leave her at the door of the Kindergarten and not go inside even when Sophie begs me to. It might be hard at first but likely better in the long run. He did say that he has heard some experts speak to the fact that kids who are very attached to the parents often avoid "attachments with undesirables" when they are 13 or 14. So, what is annoying and disruptive behavior now, will hopefully serve us in good stead when she is older. I know I was that way as a kid, too, so she comes by it naturally.

Tonight, Sophie and I are going to try out one of her mitten ornaments that came from Oriental Trading. We are going to do these with her class next week, so a test run tonight is in order.

I'm almost ready for bed. Don't know if I'll keep my eyes open since I've been up since 5:45am to hit the early morning fitness class. I love getting my work out over and done with so I don't have to worry about it later on.

skirt #5...the go to pattern

I picked up some very cute fabric at Fabricland on Friday. I had intended to attach some grosgrain ribbon on the bottom, but forgot and finshed the hem before I could attach it. Oh well - I think Sophie will really like it.

I stitched this up to tonight after I got Sophie and Fynn tucked in. Sophie had a little French practice. Not official homework, but they are encouraged to practice their reading from these little booklets they get every 2 weeks. I think she is recognizing the words at this point (not sure if she is actually reading the words), but it's all good with us and she still seems to be happy with her class.

the wrap up of the skirt

I finished my skirt on the weekend. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I learned many things:

- how to insert a zipper
- how to sew darts
- how to stitch a blind hem-stitch (thanks to my mom)
- a size 6 in RTW (my normal size) has no correlation to pattern sizing. I should have made the skirt a size 8 and it would fit better.

I'm wearing a longer cardigan in the photo because it skims over the part of the skirt I'm not all that happy with - the hip/waist. It pulls a little bit because its a bit snug. Oh, well. Live and learn.
I got the cardigan last week as part of their birthday deal where you get a discount if you buy something within 3 days of your birthday.

****

Speaking of learning, Vic gave me the Nikon 6B-600 for my birthday and I'm in a steep learning mode. It isn't just a matter of slapping on the flash (at least I don't think so anyway). The photo of the kids in the bath is the best one I came up with tonight after doing a bunch of different shots in manual mode.

skirt #4

We had a crazy night Tuesday. Sophie woke up about midnight throwing up. All of her bed linens needed to be laundered. She had eaten blueberries as her bedtime snack (along with a few chocolate chip cookies) so you can imagine the mess. We think she picked up some sort of roto virus. It worked its way through her system very quickly. By morning, she was able to go to Kindergarten and on to daycare.
That poor kid hasn't gotten a break since September on sickness.

I found some cute purple corduroy fabric at lunch time on for 40% off so I whipped her up another skirt tonight. I think I finished this one in under 2 hours. That is a new record. Super easy and very fun. I've learned a trick or two and its making them sew up much faster.

skirt #3

I sewed up the purple fabric I bought at Dressew. I love it - super easy to sew with and I used my old stand-by pattern. I hope Sophie is surprised when she sees it ready to wear tomorrow.

The two little peanuts also had a two man band tonight, until Vic couldn't take it much longer. He was trying to cook dinner so can't say I blame him.

I had a busy night as it was our daycare's AGM. Great organization to belong to and I do feel like they value the contributions of parents who volunteer.

a hint of Christmas

The season has started, hasn't it?

By fluke, we happened upon the Toronto Santa Claus Day parade today. It was a real treat for the kids and they indulged in a pudding, chocolate chip cookie, ice cream concoction. The floats have certainly improved over the years.

Later we took Sophie to A Christmas Carol movie and thoroughly enjoyed the amazing effects and the realism. I never get tired of this story, even though I know many of the lines off by heart. Sophie did not like Ghost #3, and was happy to know that Tiny Tim didn't really die.

Once I have my pencil skirt project complete, I've been eyeing up this pattern. Maybe in a baby-wale corduroy.

from the archives mid-November 2006

Place d'Youville restored in 1999. Wikipedia

I can't believe it's been 3 years since we went to Montreal. I loved it there. Rain, cold, I didn't care. It was beautiful. Old Montreal is OLD. And I loved that the most. Tiny little cobbled streets that you can easily get around. And I happily pushed Sophie all over the place, while Vic was in his conference.

Here's a photo in front of one of the doors at the Notre-Dame Basilica. The inside will take your breath away.

pausing on the skirt

I've taken the front and back facing out twice. My fusible interfacing does not look pretty after being taken out twice. I can't stand that, so I've recut the facing since I had enough fabric and redone the fusible interfacing, too.

I really do want to wear this skirt, so I'm not going to settle on it looking sew-sew (pun intended). I've done what I can: cutting, sewing, darts, zipper, etc. I'm taking a break and bringing the last leg of this skirt marathon to my mom's next week.

*********************

How can two small children suck the living breath out of me. Exhaust me more than anything I've experienced. We took them to the mall today for the tail end (I hope) of our Christmas shopping. It was a frenetic zoo. To top it all off Sophie has been having stomach cramps for about 3 days. She's been checked out by our GP, but when she again refused to drink a smoothie for dinner, I called my friend Kim, who is also our GP. She assured me that from the symptoms Sophie has (no fever), she is likely fine and that kids can survive on very few calories provided they are drinking liquids. She suggested some popcicles to get her hydrated and some glucose in her. She happily ate one and is playing with her Barbies now. I have no idea what was causing her tummy pain or if it will reappear again.

For now, they are both content.

Last night when I was ordering their drinks at Boston Pizza, I was so zapped from the day that I asked the waitress for "two kids' applesauces." She looked at me funny. "Did you mean apple juice?" "Oh, yes, that's what I mean." 10 years ago I would have been embarassed by that. Now, I just shrug my shoulders, and reorder.

Our good friends Bryan and Patti are coming over tomorrow night to watch Fynn, so Vic and I can take Sophie to this. I'm as excited as Sophie is. I've heard it's a little bit scary for little kids. Sophie is the crazy child who walked through our creepy downtown Pawn Shop when it was done up for Halloween. I say, bring it on.

the zipper...again

I took the zipper out. It needed to come out. I also trimmed it down so I didn't have the little gap at the bottom and it fit in much nicer this time. I also sewed up the side seams tonight and tried it on. A little tight. Then I realized that my seam allowance was too big, so I took one of the side seams out and it fit much better.

Tomorrow interfacing and the waist. Sewing really does make you appreciate the clothes you have in your wardbrobe and how they are constructed.

a zipper

The skirt I'm making calls for a zipper. This is my first attempt at putting in a zipper. Thank goodness for YouTube as I found a video on how to insert a basic one.
I also had to Google my Kenmore sewing machine because I didn't know what the zipper foot looked like and fortunately someone had posted a photo of one.

The zipper isn't too bad considering this is my first go, but I have a little gap between the base of the zipper and the back seam of the fabric. I need to figure that out.

********

Parents are encouraged to volunteer every so often at Sophie's Kindergarten. I suggested to her teacher that we do a craft and she was more than game! So in December I'm going to go up and do some of these with the kids. Madame Styles said that they had some uncut foam at the school, but I thought it would be MUCH easier to pick up a couple of kits that have them precut!!

manic mondays and mastery oriented kids

This is how my day rolled out:

1. Get kids' organized, take Sophie to school. Speak to principal about "what to do when Sophie gets incredibly frustrated with tasks" (e.g. yesterday she had a fit when she felt she couldn't draw a butterfly that we were working on). He explained that children like Sophie are incredibly mastery oriented. They feel the need to do things "right" and are perfectionistic. We need to let her chill out and take a break when she starts feeling this way. He was very kind and helpful.

2. Get to work. Do work stuff. Get a call just before noon that the hospital can fit me in for my ultrasound on my foot. My orthopedic surgeon has referred me there to see if there is anything visible that is causing my foot to be sore (suspected Morton's Neuroma).

3. More work stuff. Go back to the daycare and bring the kids' their dinner. I had an after work meeting today and our daycare was able to provide childcare so Sophie and Fynn were able to stay there. Sophie suddenly launched into an "I'm sick" routine when she saw me. She was a bit warm, so to be on the safe side I zipped over to the drugstore and got her some Tylenol. Gave her a big dose to knock it out of her (since her HSP occurrence, the doctor's have reassured me that a generous dose can't really hurt her).

4. Back to work. Work. Back to pick up kids at 7:30pm. Fynn has done a big poop for daycare and Sophie is back to normal. Small miracles. Then I head home do snacks, bath, stories, get lunch ready and sew the back seam of my skirt together.

How was your Monday?

hand sewing at lunch...

I saw this movie poster from 1959 on another sewing blog and it made me think of the "career gals of the 50s". I think I always knew that I would have some sort of career and that it would likely be in the business side of things. I hadn't really factored in the whole "mommy" side of things, however. The other blog asked the question of how others fit in sewing with the challenges of a full-time job, not to mention motherhood.

Right now my solution is to do little bits of sewing or scrapbooking in bits and pieces, usually after the kids are in bed. I have done a little sewing on my lunch hour at work. I find the light in my office is excellent plus my desk is at the exact right height and the office is pretty quiet over lunch so I can stitch uninterruptedly.

I pinned and cut out the the pieces for my skirt tonight and the I think the zipper I picked up at Dressew is the right length.

Right now Sophie is my little muse, so without her, I wouldn't have even considered sewing.

dressew

While I was in Vancouver for my work conference, I walked a few blocks (okay, several blocks) towards the 300 block of West Hastings into the Heritage section of the city (still the good part of Hastings) and hit Dressew. It is a huge fabric store that has just about everything, include thread, zippers, ribbon and some very quirky things too -- crazy Halloween wigs for instance.

I was very restrained - mostly because I had to fit whatever I bought home in my suitcase. Here's a photo of what I bought and a few photos of the store. The prices were very good - fabric for less than 4.99 a metre, buttons for covering at .99 (they are over $3 in Fabricland), zippers for .79 cents, Gutternman thread for 1.49, etc. They don't have many patterns - just some Burda.

My work conference was pretty jammed packed with sessions, but I did manage to make some time to do a bit of Christmas shopping and check out the Vancouver Art Gallery. I think after our super ambitious schedule that we had on our NY trip, everything seems really easy now as far as city sightseeing!

in costume

I had this photo printed at 4 x 10 inches. I needed it that long to fit in all the little goblins.

I used an old My Mind's Eye set of papers called Spooked.

I'm ready for bed tonight by 10 - so tired right now. I got up for a 6am fitness class today so I could be home and do dinner and fit in the kids' H1N1 vaccines later this afternoon.

I'm off to a conference in Vancouver for work tomorrow for 2 days, so I'll be taking a blog break. I'm wondering if there are any fabric stores near my hotel? :)

a simple little skirt

I sewed this little skirt up for Sophie. She picked out the fabric herself.
It is a very easy pattern but I was swearing at the waistband when I was trying to insert the elastic. I think I made one little part of the casing a bit too small and it was a royal pain to try and insert the elastic through that section smoothly.

I hope Sophie enjoys it :)

For myself, I went into our local fabric store today and picked out some suiting fabric for the "easy" skirt I'm going to sew for myself. We shall see how easy it really is.

a couple of projects

Ah, Sunday night - Halloween is packed away for another year. We got our photos processed today and I bought Sophie a really inexpensive little album that she could put them all in. It`s her little book and she wants to take them to daycare tomorrow to show the highlights of Halloween to her friends.

On the project front, I finished up a layout the other day of some photos from the summer of Sophie and our neighbour Maggie. The supplies were from the September Cocoa Daisy kit - which I really love.

I am also almost finished another little skirt for Sophie. I`m using the same easy peasy pattern. Just have to insert the elastic and I`m done!