The Wiseman Conspiracy

ON THE HUNT FOR AN EASEL

2012-02-18T09:16:00.000-05:00

We decided that we wanted to get an easel for Christophe's birthday that is coming up. We looked online and narrowed it down to 3 then to 1...

Double Sided Art Easel from Scholars Choice

Art Easel from P'Kolino

And our choice....

Art Easel with Paper Roll from KidKraft

I hate to admit we bought it from Walmart but it was almost 20$ cheeper then any other location and delivery was under 1$.

VALENTINES DAY

2012-02-17T09:06:00.000-05:00

Here is a quick look at what the C Monster and I were up to this week to celebrate the day of love...

We made these cake pops for a Valentines day party that was at our house for C and all his friends. They may look complicated but it was one of the easiest things I have ever made.

Buy pound cake cut it up in hearts with a cookie cutter
Stick popsicle sticks in the bottom
Freeze overnight
Use store bought frosting (this is important) melt it in the microwave stirring every 30 seconds on medium heat
Once it's pretty liquidy dip your frozen cake pops in; let extra frosting drip off
It's good if you can find a way to stand up the cake pops while they dry not to mess up the frosting on the back
Once dry, decorate as pleased
Store in refrigerator until ready to eat (you can pull out about an hour before)

This was Geoff Valentines day present C Monster selected the tool box and then said we need fill it with tools. When I asked what kind off tools he said tool treats.

Valentines day breakfast at the Wiseman's. Heart shaped Wow Butter and Honey sandwich with a side of chocolate dots and oranges.

LOBLAWS...

2012-01-18T17:11:00.000-05:00

Some of you might have seen my post in regards wanting to get an answer from Loblaws and BPA in some of there products this is the answer I got...

"Dear Ms. Wiseman,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us.

At Loblaw Companies Limited, food quality and safety have always been top priorities for us, and we maintain the highest ethical and safety standards for our products - whether they are sourced here at home, or internationally. We would like to assure you that products sold in our stores adhere strictly to all safety and sourcing requirements as per government regulations and that we are dedicated to upholding your trust in our products and our stores.

The health and safety of our customers is paramount to us we recognize the growing concern surrounding BPA. We are working with our vendors to reduce BPA in our product packaging wherever possible. Please be assured that we will also continue to work closely with all relevant government agencies to ensure we are offering our customers only the best in food quality and safety.

Thank you once again for your email. Please continue to share your feedback with us as it is one of the best ways for us to improve."

And this is what I answered back...

"Dear Ms. Weiss,

Thank you for taking time to answer my questions, however I am not satisfied with this answer. I am in no doubt that all your products meet canadian government regulation; however it is my responsibility as a mother to ensure I feel all food consumed by my child meet my standards. We used to buy Eden Organic beans not because they are organic but because they are bpa free. Loblaws has now stopped carrying this product and I am trying to find a replacement product I can purchase from my grocery store. We do not but any products that come in packaging that contains bpa. I have contacted some of the major brands you carry but was also curious to see if your own store brands contained bpa in the packaging.

Please answer my question does your canned beans such as kidney beans, chickpeas, black beans and other contain bpa in the packaging.

thank you"

Lets see what happens now.

SKATING

2012-01-17T17:11:00.000-05:00

...or is it called falling?

NO NAME BEANS DO THEY CONTAIN BPA?

2012-01-17T17:10:00.002-05:00

As some of you are aware I am slowly switching to consuming more no-organic foods in order to save cost, we are still trying to eat locally and I do avoid foods from countries that are know to use a lot pesticides. That being said I continued buying organic canned beans because Eden is the only company I was aware of that made BPA free beans. Most of you are very aware that I stay away from BPA and pretty much never compromise on that one. The epoxy liner in the Eden cans are clear most other manufacturers use a white liner that contains BPA, I am not saying that clear = BPA free, just that I noticed Eden's liners are clear and almost everyone else has white liners.

This week since time was a crunch and I needed beans I said f#%* it I am buying the cheapest beans I can find at Loblaws because I don't have time to make a second trip to the Big Carrot or cook them from dried. To my surprise when I opened my No Name brand canned romano beans the liner was clear; this got me thinking I wonder if they are BPA free...

I decided to send this email to Loblaws lets see if and what answer I get:

"I am enquiring to find out what kind of epoxy liner is used in your No Name brand canned beans such as the black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans and so on. I wanted to know if the tin can epoxy liner contained any BPA? Thank you for your time in answering this question."

THE BEFORE PICTURE

2012-01-17T09:59:00.000-05:00

This is C Monster before his hair cut. As per his request he has been growing his hair for almost a year now; recently he has decided he wants to cut it. This is the before picture of his crazy Einstein hair.

SANTA

2012-01-16T16:01:00.000-05:00

I know this is a little late but; here is the C Monster's picture with Santa this year. I never asked C Monster this year if he wanted to have his picture taken with Santa because last year well he really did not want to go up to Santa and also I think it's a bit creepy and weird to encourage your kid to sit on strangers lap. However when C Monster asked me if he could go meet Santa and tell him what he wanted for Christmas it really did not feel right to say no and crush him. So off we went a few days before Christmas to meet Santa at Gerrard Square.

PS - C Monster asked for a cook book for Christmas, don't you just love him.

Playdate Aftermath

2012-01-16T12:10:00.001-05:00

This is what happens when other children come over. :)

AREA RUGS...

2012-01-15T14:14:00.000-05:00

After we moved in we quickly realized we would need an area rug for the C Monster's play room if we wanted to avoid him screeching up the hardwood floor. I really wish I could now be posting that we only looked at eco-friendly area rugs but well in reality I did not want to spend 1500$ upward on a rug that was going in a playroom. We also did not want to buy a kid specific area rug, so that if in 2 years our dinning room stops being a playroom and starts being a dinning room, we would not be stuck with a 8x10 kids area rug.

We started by browsing online and found patterns that we liked and work with our space. Narrowed them down to our favourite 4; then we checked them out in-store along with many others. Here are 4 rugs that had made our short list before we started to look at them in person:

Stockholm @$299 from Ikea: I was really disappointed with this one. It was not our favourite pattern but the idea of a wool rug at $300 in the right size was exciting. It is a woven flat rug that mean it has no pile which translates into a very rough surface - not good for playing on.

Gate @850 from Dwell Studio: We never visited a store with this one as this was our back up rug if we did not like the Structube ones, as the price point on this one was a bit more then we wanted to spend.

Freeport @ $499 from Structube: In person the white is actually light grey; this caused the rug to look soiled even when it is clean. However this is a wool rug and I do like my natural fibres. I would like to note that before we saw any of the rugs this was Geoff's favorite.

Juno @499 from Structube: We were a bit concerned with the white and that it would easily stain. I would like to point out that this was my favourite rug before we saw any of them in person. This one is also wool.

Some of the key points we were looking for were:

Durability
Thigh pill count, meaning that the yarn used to make the rug was weaved very tightly and dense
Natural fibre
Priced under $1000
Size: 8' x 10' minimum and 8'-6" x 11' maximum
Flexible design, wanted an area rug that would work in a playroom or a living room or a dinning room
C Monster's opinion. This was by no means the deciding factor but we wanted him to feel involved in selecting the rug; it was going in his space after all.

And here is our final choice; so far everyone is happy with it; C Monster particularly enjoys driving his toy cars along the white stripes:

BLACK & BLUE

2012-01-15T10:34:00.000-05:00

So in a 24 hour period C monster successfully slipped off his chair; fell on the ice and slammed his face in a hard snow bank. He might not yet know how to skate or play hockey but he sure has mastered the hockey player look.

BOX RIVET SPACE SHIP

2012-01-09T17:14:00.001-05:00

In the last month or so, we've both moved and has Christmas at the new house. With all the moving boxes around and a gift-giving opportunity coming up, I thought it would be a good time to get Christophe some Box Rivets:

They're pretty easy to use -- just take two halves, rotate them so that they're 90-degrees off-axis from one another, and push closed. It takes a good amount of force to close, but that also means that they won't pop open on you easily once assembled, which is important.

I was imagining that we might build a fort or castle, but I started talking it out with Christophe and it became clear that he wanted a space ship. So he and I and Pierrette built a large spaceship out of moving boxes and box rivets:

There's a long central axis with a side passage and some larger spaces on both ends, as well as a few doors and a 'shooter' tube:

The central tunnel is fairly long:

The side passage has a larger space with coloured transparent skylights and a pop-open access point:

He seems to like it -- now he wants to invite friends over to play in it with him. So, if you find yourself moving, or otherwise in possession of a lot of cardboard boxes, I can happily recommend box rivets as a way to put those boxes together into a fort.

SCIENCE CENTER

2011-12-26T17:54:00.000-05:00

We have been members of the Science Centre for 2 years now and well our membership is up for renewal on Feb 2, 2012. I think it took us a total of 10 minutes to decide that it was once again worth shelling out the big bucks for the membership. This year we will probably get a gold membership as it is only a little more then a family membership and as of March 1 the C Monster no longer gets in for free. It takes about 4 visits to make up the membership cost and well I am pretty certain we went at least 12 times if not more in the past year. I am pretty certain if I would bring the C Monster there every day he still would never get bored of it...

NOEL...

2011-12-25T12:34:00.000-05:00

This is not only C Monster's first Christmas in our new house but it's the first Christmas that we spend all together in Toronto as we typically go home to New Brunswick. Here is our morning in video and pictures...

The C Monster got us up at 7am after a good night sleep....

The C Monster giving Papa his Tardis Cookie Jar. He selected this all by himself for papa.

The aftermath...

Hot chocolate; pancakes; egg and sausage for breakfast.

Breakfast for the squirrels; they need Christmas presents too.

Thank you everyone...

2011-12-24T23:59:00.000-05:00

*JOYEUX NOEL * MERRY CHRISTMAS * HAPPY HOLIDAYS * HAPPY HANUKKAH * FELIZ NAVIDAD*

HOLIDAY DECOR

2011-12-22T17:30:00.000-05:00

I posted a little while back a picture of our tree here are a few more shots of our holiday decorations...

Our kitchen table all dressed up. I have to say I love this table cloth I found at Loblaws...

The C Monster's Tree. We were at Canadian Tire a few weeks back and C wanted this tree I was not going to spend 100$ on a tree for his bedroom. On the weekend we stopped in at Canadian Tire for something else and the tree was marked down to $29.99; this made for a happy little boy.

FRIENDS...

2011-12-20T16:52:00.000-05:00

I have to say I am blessed to have found some amazing moms in my hood.

I love the fact that on almost any given day I have a group of great friends that I can text and there will pretty much always be someone available for a play-date. It really helps past the long days that can get very lonely for a SAHM.

On Monday we were at Sallyanne's house ( a close friend) and I took this picture of her daughter that I just had to share as it is way too cute...

The Baby G Monster Rocking her uncles hat.

On Tuesday that same group of friends came over for a Holiday Party. I really loved hosting a party for them and their children; I do not want to even imagine life as a SAHM without all these wonderful people in it.

This post is dedicated to all our friends HAPPY HOLIDAYS.

WHATS THAT DRIPPING FROM THE LIGHT?

2011-12-20T16:45:00.001-05:00

We knew when we moved in that we would have to re-do the caulking in the upstairs bathroom as it looked pretty bad. However we were hoping that it could wait a month or so. We were wrong! On Sunday morning Geoff noticed a puddle on the kitchen floor; well it was coming from the recessed light in the ceiling and last time I checked pot lights did not come with a fountain feature. Since I had just finished taking my shower and the light is pretty much located directly underneath the bathroom it did not take a long time to put 2 and 2 together. Now I need to re-paint the ceiling in the kitchen too but that is not a rush will get to it in maybe 10 years ;-)

A GREAT WEEK

2011-12-18T11:02:00.002-05:00

Just the other day I was asked by another stay at home mom (much newer to the gig then me; she had a 14 month old) don't you find the days long. My immediate answer was NO, I wish I had more time. She then asked me what do you do all day with him?

I decided it would be fun to do a blog post about just that what did we do this week...

MONDAY

Morning play date with friends at our house

Lunch with Papa

Afternoon trip at Canadian Tire to buy ice skates

TUESDAY

Played with his toys while I unpacked

Lunch with Papa

Decorated our gingerbread train

LLL Planning Meeting

Played with trains; the train tracks is still out as I am writing this...

WEDNESDAY

Spent the morning at Roden Parenting Centre, since our playgroup got canceled due to the mom hosting being sick (I hate this cold that is going around plaguing our neighbourhood)

Home for lunch with Papa

Played with his toys for a bit and watched a Christmas movie

THURSDAY

Doctors in the morning C monster got his men. vaccine

Lunch at Papa work with his coworkers. C Monster just loves going there I think it all the attention he gets.

Afternoon out at the Movies. We saw Happy Feet 2 in 3D.

FRIDAY

Morning play date with friends at our house

Pizza Pizza Lunch with friends

Afternoon library trip

Bough a Christmas gift for the cat, was C monster idea

Afternoon snack at Lazy Daisy Cafe

Wrapped papa's present

Then home to make supper

AND THE WEEK IS MAGICALLY OVER

PLAY TABLE

2011-12-14T16:06:00.002-05:00

Now that the C monster has a play room we decided that we should get him a nice play table that he can make puzzles on or play games at. I wanted something on larger size as the room he has is pretty big and this way he could have friends join him at the table. Below are a few of my favourite choices...

Rectangular Activity Table from Kapland:

Offi Play Table:

Caspar from Perludi:

However we have decided to retrofit a desk my dad made for me when I was about 16 into a kids table stay tuned for some pictures of the transformation.

CHRISTMAS AT THE WISEMAN

2011-12-14T16:04:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday, after realizing we did not have all the pieces of our artificial Christmas tree, Geoff rushed out to Home Depot to pick up a real tree. This is the first real tree I have bought since I live in Toronto (I have been here over 10 years now). I forgot how nice they smell and how messy they are; but it's worth it.

I also found my lovely advent calendar that Geoff got me from Etsy a few years back; it's a little late but the C Monster still enjoys his daily chocolate covered almond...

HERE KID HAVE 1/2 CUP OF SUGAR FOR BREAKFAST

2011-12-10T07:38:00.001-05:00

The EWG has recently reviewed 84 popular brands of cereal in the United States and found out that many of them have more than 25% sugar per weight and some reaching 50% of weight being sugar. I mentioned the United States because sometimes a product sold in Canada does not have the same ingredients as the one sold in the United States. That being said I am pretty certain that this list is still worrisome for Canadians and Fruits Loops are a dessert not breakfast.

Since the C Monster only eats Rice Crispies and Cheerios on a regular basis, I decided to look up the cereals I grew up on...
(Keep in mind a Twinkies has aprox. 42% sugar per weight and 4 chip ahoy cookies have aprox. 32% of sugar per weight.)

Fruit Loops - sugar per weight 41.4%
Honey Combs - sugar per weight 31.3%
Shreddies - sugar per weight 16%
Rice Crispies - sugar per weight 12.1%
Cheerios - sugar per weight 3.6%
Count Chocula - sugar per weight 37%

I have to say I was surprised by Rice Crispies I thought they would have been similar to Cheerios; I guess I need to read labels a bit more carefully.

If you want to do the math yourself it's easy :

g of sugar in serving / g of serving x 100 = %

5TH DAY IN NEW HOUSE IN PICTURES

2011-12-09T10:17:00.001-05:00

Main - Living Room

Main - Playroom

Main - Breakfast Nook

Main - Kitchen

2nd Floor - Master Bed

2nd Floor - C Monster's Bedroom

2nd Floor - Hall & Guest Bedroom

3rd Floor - Library/Art Studio

3rd Floor - Office

Basement - Laundry Room

Basement - Entertainment Room

C MONSTER'S NEW BEDROOM

2011-12-09T10:02:00.001-05:00

To convince C Monster to select the room we wanted for him we told him he could chose the colour we would painted it. I went to the hardware store and selected a dozen colours for him to chose from; that way it would not end up black. He selected a colour called "mac n cheese" and the name says it all.

I ended up needing a little over a gallon to paint his room; bigger house, bigger rooms = more paint required then I estimated. We picked up the paint at Paint Depot on Queen Street East, I highly recommend them. As always we used Sico paints; they have a no VOC latex base paint. However the tinting colour added to the base is not VOC free. I will post pictures of his room after the room has all been set up.

A sneak peek at C Monster's Room...

A pre-schooler description of sugar

2011-12-09T09:34:00.001-05:00

"when I eat it it smells like candy"

1st Snow...

2011-12-03T06:51:00.001-05:00

On wednesday this week Toronto had it's first snow. The weather has been incredible this fall I think I have only worn my winter coat maybe a dozen times if that; most days I still only put my fall coat on my way out. The snow did not stay as we saw some days since then with plus 4; a few more of those to go and winter is here on Monday, I think this time to stay as all the above zero days seem to be gone after that.

Since we have all our snow gear in storage so I could not entertain Christophe wish to go rolling around in the snow I convinced him that play-doh would be an acceptable alternative.

Readers out there if you have home made play-doh recipes that you like please share...

I OWN 2 HOUSES... WELL FOR A WEEK.

2011-12-01T15:52:00.001-05:00

The deal closed and the new house is ours. We have been over twice now to check the house and move a few things. Geoff is happy that he now has a garage to store his bike each winter. However the drive there this AM must have been chilly for him.

BIG RED BOX
When we opened our front door yesterday there was a big red box waiting in the entrance for us. With FATBOY written in an unmissable font on all sides. It was Geoff's xmas present. I ordered it on the 29th at midnight and it arrived in the afternoon on the 30th - that is quick service. That being said it only took Geoff about 30 mins to remember what a Fatboy is. No big surprise for Geoff this year... well he was surprised but 3 weeks early.

FRONT HALL RENO
All in all the house looked as we expected minus a few things; the sellers took the hooks in the front hall with them. They were not our style so it's really not a big deal the only issue is I now have to buy something soon instead of waiting. I also have to paint the front hall now as the paint got ripped up when they took off the hooks; once again I really disliked the colour they had chosen for the front hall. So I guess it will all work itself out. Stay tuned for more picture of our front hall reno.

2011-11-29T15:02:00.001-05:00

Afternoon Art

The C Monster received some PlayMais in a grab bag from a birthday party recently. This afternoon we took them out and started making things: a hammer (see video) and 2 rings. We spent the next 30 mins tossing the rings back and forth in the kitchen.

Boxes Boxes Boxes

I am slowly drowning in boxes here are some pics of the various stacks in our home; tomorrow the new house is all ours...

Old to you; new to us

On the weekend we made a trip to the annual Alpha School Bazar. The C monster bought himself a marble run from Discovery Toys for $5. This was definitely worth the $5 as he has played with it every day. The only thing that annoys me about this toy is that their is only one distinctive start; so we made little flags out of toothpicks, paper and scotch tap to mark all of our starts.

Can you find the C Monster?

A really nice wine

I opened a bottle of Strut Well-Heeled White Wine year 2010 today that I picked up at the local Wine Rack when we were staging our home. My real estate agent mentioned the wine rack would look better full instead of empty; now that the house is sold it's time to empty it again. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised; this is a really nice fruity wine. (most of the other bottles that we opened were a bit bellow average) I think I will have to pick up a few more bottles next time I am doing my groceries.

Moving

2011-11-28T07:19:00.000-05:00

The day is approaching and as everything else in a mother's life a curve ball is tossed your way - the C Monster is sick, fever of above 100, since last night. As long as the grown ups can avoid getting sick we just might successfully get ourselves moved from one house to the other.

Geoff and I spend just a little over 3 months looking for our new home, we really felt we had outgrown our cute little 2 bedroom house however the past 10 years we had grown extremely attached to it and we knew it would take the right house in the right location to get us to move.

We did find the right house (we hope) and I think I may feel lost in it at the beginning as we are more then doubling our square footage. Geoff will now have a great office on the 3rd floor and until our family grows I will also have a project/office room. We will have a playroom until the C monster get a bit older and after that a formal dinning room. My TV will no longer be in my living room; did I mention my TV will no longer be in my living room.

The house is not perfect as is it does have some work and we are happy to take our time to renovate the parts we want to change; however it is beautiful the way it is and is 100% livable so we can take our time to the work.

I wanted to say a great shout out at our real estate agent Josee Couture who has now helped us with the purchase of 2 homes and the sale of one. It did not take her very long to understand exactly what we were looking for and find our new home. I say find because I had written off the home we bought before we saw it and told myself it was not the one for us; and since we were looking at one near by Josee said why don't we go see it anyways. I fell in love with it the second I walked in.

Pictures of the new house after we take possession on Nov 30th.

Portrait of Papa with a Movember

2011-11-15T18:37:00.001-05:00

I guess since I've been working on a Mo for Movember, C decided to add it to his latest drawing of me (with some encouragement from Mama).

Interesting that the mo appears below the mouth.

Grow It Like ...

2011-11-14T19:25:00.001-05:00

For more than six months now, C has been growing out his hair, a decision he made for himself. At first, he wanted to grow it like "H", a friend, then like "S", his cousin.

His hair is getting pretty long, although the fact that the hair is curly keeps it up in an Afro-like ball rather than down and dangling in his eyes.

Canning Weekend

2011-09-18T18:19:00.001-04:00

Pierrette and my mother have been canning tomatoes, salsa and ketchup all weekend with occasional support from Lisa and I (I've mostly been handling the child care end of things.)

We started with 7 bushels of tomatoes. Maybe Pierrette will post a photo of the entire stack of finish product.

Engraving

2011-09-14T07:47:00.001-04:00

Maple Crete just redid many of the sidewalks on our street, and lots of parents decided to engrave their children's names semi-permanently in the street.

Anxious Ranger

2011-09-14T07:41:00.001-04:00

C is having a hard time waiting for 31-Oct to wear his space ranger outfit.

Strawberry Kiwi Smoothie

2011-06-20T14:24:00.002-04:00

Until I tried this smoothy mix I could not get the monster to even touch a kiwi...

INGREDIENTS:

- 1 cup strawberries frozen, partly thawed
- 1 kiwi, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 cup Vanilla yogurt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tbsp. honey

DIRECTION:

Place all ingredients in your emmersion blender cup and mix with immersion blender until smooth.

Face to Face

2011-05-04T21:32:00.001-04:00

Face to Face, a photo by diathesis on Flickr.

Back in December, we lured a black squirrel onto the porch railing by placing a line of nuts there for him to eat so that Christophe could watch.

Home-Made Yogurt

2011-04-18T21:27:00.002-04:00

One of the thing I've been doing in the Excalibur dehydrator is home-made yogurt. It's pretty simple, tasty (when I don't make a mistake), easy to make with limited ingredients, and I know what's in it.

I start with a pot and 1L of milk (usually one bag of whole milk), and most of the time I add some milk powder (1/4 cup or more, optional), which results in firmer yogurt. Whisk thoroughly, then heat:

Heat that up to 180ºF and either let it start cooling immediately or hold it at that temperature for a little while, say twenty minutes. Some recipes seem to feel this helps convert the milk proteins to make them suitable for yogurt, although I don't find it makes a huge difference.

Let it cool down to 115ºF. Take a ladle-full out, mix in one of these:

a package of yogurt bacterial culture

a few tablespoons of commercial yogurt with active culture

a few tablespoons of your previous batch of homemade yogurt

I usually start with the bacterial culture, do three or four batches in a row using one batch of yogurt to start the next, and then go back to the commercial culture. Some recipes recommend that you avoid using your own culture too many times in a row in case you end up accidentally culturing something else along the way, something that you don't want to be eating in quantity. I'm not convinced that's totally necessary, but commercial cultures aren't terribly expensive, so I don't mind going this route.

Whisk the mixture thoroughly, then return it to the pot and whisk the mixture into the milk thoroughly, then distribute into jars:

This is a reasonable time to add a little sugar, honey, maple, vanilla, if you like. Don't go overboard, you can always add more sweetener later if you like. Put the jars in the dehydrator at 115ºF for four hours to let the culture do its work:

Check on them, if they don't seem firm enough, or you decide you want a very tangy yogurt, you can let it sit another couple of hours in the dehydrator. It won't be at its firmest yet, and there may be some whey at the top. That's ok:

Cap and chill the cans in the fridge, for a while, perhaps overnight. It'll firm up further, as well as cool down:

At this point it's at it's firmest, and is "set" yogurt. If you want to mix in some additional sweetener here you can. If there's whey, you can pour it off or stir it in. If you mix it at this stage it becomes "stirred" yogurt, which many people prefer:

If you want, you can put your yogurt in a cheesecloth or coffee filter overnight to drain some of the whey out, at which point it will become Greek-style yogurt.

Finally, eat, or feed to your children:

Sly

2011-04-18T21:10:00.001-04:00

Sly, a photo by diathesis on Flickr.

This is C's "sly" expression when he's trying to see if you're watching him without you noticing that he's checking. It's fleeting, and hard to catch on film, but in this case I was shooting through an "EZ-Fort" while he was checking out Grandmama, so I don't know if he knew I was there.

Christophe's Third Birthday

2011-04-17T22:34:00.004-04:00

It's taken me a month to process the photo's, but C's Third Birthday was a good day:

He enjoyed himself, and his three guests (we decided to try the 'one guest per year' approach). There were chocolate cupcakes and lots of fun. Pierrette had been talking about spreading the gift-opening out, one per day, to encourage him to enjoy the gifts individually. It sounded like a good idea, but I can't report on how it worked, because somewhere along the way she caved and he got to open them all.

Three years already. Hard to believe. C is now 40 lbs and I forget the height; I think Pierrette said 97th percentile on both weight and height on his last doctor's visit. We're trying to decide how to incorporate bicycling into the summer, and at 40lbs, C is leaving the weight class of many rear seats (although some go up to almost 50lbs). I'll let you know what we end up doing.

TTC Yard

2011-04-14T14:03:00.001-04:00

One of the absolute free things The C monster loves to do is watch trains. I think we can spend hours here just waiting for a subway train to emerge from the tunnel. Most times we get to see a few. If we can make close to when rush hour starts then well you will get to see lots...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Oakvale Ave,Toronto,Canada

Meet my new front yard

2011-04-14T13:58:00.001-04:00

We have been working on my front yard for a while now. We plan on planting some herbs and veggies in the garden patches.
Here is the result....

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cookbook Cleaning

2011-03-27T10:38:00.009-04:00

Life has been busy during the last few weeks but in all the craziness of doctor appointments, dentist visits, playdates, classes and mama getting a tattoo. I decided to start cleaning my cookbook stash. I will choose one cookbook at a time a work my way threw it trying a variety of recipes. The first book I am working with is "Company's Coming Meatless Cooking".

I bough this book about a year ago thinking that it would be nice to have some recipes to make homemade veggie burgers and sausages; however was highly disappointed when I realized how many of the recipes include cream of mushroom soup or condense tomato soup. - Ingredients we never use in our house. That being said we have had a few great recipes from this book like "Dhal" and "Chessy Nut Bake".

I also found a few recipes that once altered a bit were a hit with C Monster.

Nut and Fruit Shake

Sweet Potato Whole Wheat Pancakes
Peanut Balls

Apple Pancakes

So all in all I don't think I would recommend this cookbook and will probably not keep mine; just copy the recipes I like.

Dentist

2011-03-26T10:28:00.000-04:00

C monster had his first visit at the dentist this week. I really should have taken a picture of him but well it slipped my mind. He had perfect teeth, very straight and no cavities. We opted out of the fluoride treatment for this time however I really need to research it and decide if we are going to give him fluoride or not.

If you have an opinion on the subject I would love to hear it.

Book Shopping

2011-03-20T11:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I ventured out with a friends to some of the more unique book stores in Toronto in search of some books for C Monster. I have been trying to find books for him that talk about life subjects such as how people are different, emotions, weaning, nursing, becoming a big brother (no I am not pregnant) and so on.

However I find that finding these books at Chapters and such are a little harder and often I do not like the choices I have.

So our first stop was Glad Day Book Shop. Here I picked up 3 great books for C Monster.

Yuck! That's is not a Monster! - a cute little story about 3 monsters born at the same time but one of them is cute and cuddly instead of scary like a monster "should be".

A Tale of Two Daddies - This is the story of 2 friends one has 2 dads; the other is all excited and amazed to find out things about the 2 dads like who braids her hair or who gives her a bath.

My Princess Boy - The title says it all; this is the story of a little boy who likes to dress up as a princess.

Stop number 2 was at Toronto Women's Bookstore. Here I found a great book on pregnancy. That I bought for C Monster as a tool to understand what his mama will be going threw once we get pregnant. It's called What's Inside Your Tummy Mommy? This book breaks down your pregnancy by month and explains to your child just what baby looks like in your tummy. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is pregnant with a young child at home.

After our stop there we continued just down the road to Parentbooks. OK to a little about the store first if you are a parent and your child has any special needs from hearing to diet to Autism to anything under the sun that you can come up with you need to check out this store. Every single book in the store is about parenting. Here I picked up 3 more books for C Monster.

We're Having a Homebirth!! - A great simple picture book you can use with a child probably even as young as 18 months to help explain a homebirth to them.

Maggie's Weaning - A simple story explain to a child as he grows up he will need less and less breastmilk until one day when he will no longer need any.

Michele: the Nursing Toddler - A book normalizing toddler nursing and also explaining that all toddlers one day stop nursing.

And that ends my shopping trip yesterday...

Rocket Pack

2011-03-16T19:32:00.002-04:00

For the last 2 week C Monster and I have been gathering components for a Rocket Pack. I can't remember where he saw one but it stuck.

Yesterday we built it and this afternoon once all the glue was dry C Monster decorated it with stickers.

Beef Jerky

2011-03-13T20:16:00.006-04:00

We bought ourselves a dehydrator this winter with the aid of Pierrette's parents (Christmas present). We've used it for a bunch of things, from vegetable flakes to "raw" crackers, to home-made yogurt.

One of the things I've been using this for is Beef Jerky, dehydrated on wire racks. It's pretty simple, and I like it. I'm still pretty new at it, so I'm not going to get into details like marinades that I'm still experimenting with, but the jerky itself is worth quickly describing.

Basically, you find a cut of meat that's reasonably lean and cut it into strips. Cutting against the grain makes the jerky more tender, although slightly more fragile. Cutting with the grain makes the jerky chewier:

I'm still working on finding cuts that I'm happy with, but since fat doesn't dehydrate as well and spoils more easily, you want to keep the fat to a minimum. Large strips, especially on the outside, can be trimmed off, but marbling is too spread out to be removed:

Grass-fed beef is probably better than grain-fed, here, and alternative meats like Bison might be worth further investigation. These are fruitful paths of investigation for me. It's often easier to cut your meat thinly if you cool it to near-freezing in advance, which makes the meat more firm, and thus easier to slice.

You can marinate it at this stage, although simply adding some salt and pepper and letting it cure a little overnight is tasty. I've experimented a little with marinades, but it's too soon to form strong opinions. After that, you put it in the dehydrator at 155ºF and give it 4-6h.

When it's done, it should be pliable and not brittle. I'm still working out the details on exactly when it's done. Taking it out sooner tends to make the jerky more tender, but if you take it out too soon, it won't be thoroughly dehydrated and will spoil. Getting that balance right can be tricky.

Once you're done, pack it up, store it and eat it. If you're new to jerky, refrigerating some of it is probably not a bad idea. If some of it spoils, you won't lose the whole batch.

Yum.

Computer Time

2011-01-04T00:12:00.002-05:00

Computer Time
Originally uploaded by diathesis

C is enjoying some time with his Aunt Cathy in Irishtown, NB.

iF it's wiseman mOnster apprOved...

2010-12-08T19:52:00.000-05:00

I have a new blog I just started. This blog will concentrated on food and recipes that are toddler friendly....

Check it out and please do tell me what you think.

http://wisemanmonsterapproved.blogspot.com/

A Summer in Photos

2010-11-25T00:24:00.001-05:00

It's been a busy summer for us all. "C" attended his first wedding for the parents of his friend "Z":

We took advantage of the warmer weather to get out to Riverdale Farm:

And the Science Centre:

And to Monarch Park:

And within the past month or so, "C" has clearly shown that he understands that he speaks two languages. He still emphasizes English a little more than we'd like, but he does at least know that we speak French and English, and knows equivalent words in both languages.

That last photo is, of course, not current, but it was processed recently, and it's cute.

I hope you all had wonderful summers as well.

Fire Prevention Week 2010

2010-09-27T09:36:00.003-04:00

We've been to a fire prevention week down at the 'South Command Centre' on Eastern Avenue, not too far from our house in the past. Now that we have a toddler who's exceptionally appreciative of fire trucks, it seemed worth going again. Unfortunately, we couldn't find very much information on the web about this year's events, only the schedule for events in 2006.

So I contacted the email address on the City of Toronto website for fire station tours and the like, and Stephanie Gauci tracked down the information for us. Since it was hard for me to find the information, I thought I'd post it here in the hopes that it might help someone else.

Toronto Fire Safety Week Open Houses:

Sun 2010-Oct-03, 10am-4pm at 895 Eastern Avenue
Tue 2010-Oct-05, 5:30-8:30pm at 200 Bermondsey Road
Wed 2010-Oct-06, 5:30-8:30pm at 4560 Sheppard Avenue East

Events include:

Inflatable Fire Truck Bouncer
Mini-Combat Challenge
Fire Truck Displays
Celebrity Reading Room
BBQ
Displays and demonstrations by Fire Safety Experts

Anyway; if you have a child who's loves fire trucks, this is probably worth a look-see.

Tomatoes everywhere

2010-08-23T08:50:00.001-04:00

On Sunday we went to the farmers market and picked up 2 large baskets - I think they were bushels of tomatoes and then spent all day Sunday canning tomatoes.

I have to say canning tomatoes is a lot easier then I though - time consuming but easy.

I saved 3 dozen plum tomatoes so I can make and can tomato paste - that is what is on tap this afternoon.

And latter this week I will be canning pears.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's my birthday

2010-07-07T16:20:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to say a big thank you to my husband for everything he did to make my day special.

And to C Monster "thank you" for not napping today ;-)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

life's been busy...

2010-07-03T17:43:00.000-04:00

I just realized it's been more then 15 days since I last blogged - such a bad little blogger I am. I find things get busy and well our blog is what suffers. What have we been up to these days?

Put up a fence last week...

The picture tells you all.

Play dates with friends.

I just love this picture of C Monster and his "BFF" yes I think my 2 year old has a BFF. Z Monster lives next door to us - so I think he sees her more like a sister.

Sand Box - Part 1

On Canada Day we spent the morning building a sand box. We used 2x10 for the sides, some 2x8 for 2 seat to sit on, some 1x6 for the bottom along with some gardening weed barrier stuff... It was surprisingly very easy to build. Today I hope to get out to sand the sides down (make sure all the splinters are gone); then tomorrow we are hopping to build a lid for it and then fill it up...

C Monster has a swing

Also on the toddler fun front; I made a swing for C Monster. I used an old piece of 2x6 that was lying around from all the construction that happened to the house in the last 5 years. Sanded it down and primed and painted it with the left over paint from the house projects. I also had tones of rope left over; I braided 3 nylon ropes together - that way it's sturdier but also a bigger rope for him to grab onto. Then we hung it in the back under our walk out. When it's not in use I can lift it up and hang it away. I have to say I was pretty impressed with how it turned out...

Sluggy

Our garden is doing great this year except for a few crops that slugs are eating faster then I can deal with. And I think Sluggy might have had something to do about it...

I guess a 4" slug eats a lot and fast because since we relocated him to the park my garden is doing a whole lot better.

Berry picking

This morning we spent the day raspberry and black currant picking - here is our loot.

We went to Organics in Markham - definitely will return again next year or sooner. They have much more then just raspberries and black currants. We also got some home made jam and some fresh bread made on site in their stone oven... It smelled oh so yummy.

They had some chickens and a turkey roaming about - C Monster quite liked that. If you live in the Markham area make sure to check out their website or visit them.

Drying vegetables

One of the things we love making is crackers - but if you want to hide veggies in crackers it's best to dry them up first. About a month ago now I built a frame out of wood and attached a mesh bottom to it - simple drying rack like our ancestors used to use many many moons ago. Here I am drying carrots and onions. As I write this I have zucchini drying. The carrots so far turned out fine; still waiting on the others to dry up. Will let you guys know how it goes.

Looking forward to...

The pride parade tomorrow. (HAPPY PRIDE EVERYONE)

The Last Few Weeks in Pictures...

2010-06-13T19:55:00.000-04:00

Every day I take picture thinking I am going to blog about the picture... I often never do because life just gets busy. So here is a quick look at some of the things that happened during the last 2 weeks that I wanted to blog about.

Baby Gets a Back Pack

My favorite pans for C Monster ripped at the knees when C Monster took a dive on the side walk. C monster knees were fine but the pans had a great big hole in them. He had these since he was 9 months old (We used to roll them a lot). They were bought at Wall-mart in NB then C Monster had a poopy explosion in the store.

I took one of the pant pockets and transformed it into a backpack for baby. C Monster was oh so delighted when he saw it.

Mama Gets New Boots

It has been since C Monster was born I was looking for rain boots. I have thick legs so I have a hard time finding boots that work for me. I also wanted real rubber boots not some of those boots you can get these days loaded with all sorts of chemicals. I also wanted something that looked good on me. I decided almost a year and half ago I wanted low Hunter boots but well they are not cheep - I finely went out and splurged on them.

In the picture to the left C Monster is modeling them for you.

Canned Eggplant

I finely got around to can eggplant and pistou in oil. You place raw eggplant with spices and onions in sterilized jars and add lots of olive oil. Wait one month then enjoy. I also may pistou with basil from my garden that I also canned. Once I open these and try them I will let you know how they turned out and post recipes if they were good.

Which Towel is Yours?

A little while back I blogged about reusing our towels more then once. The problem with this is how do you tell your apart from Geoff's or C Monster's - all our towels are white and match. I used some clothespins and labeled them with our initial and some identifying stickers. When we hang our towel to dry we add the pin to the side. Problem solved you always know "which towel is yours"

Hole No More

As much as I will be the first to admit I love to shop, I also hate getting rid of something that is 100% still usefull or tossing out something that is broken - because I know no one else would want to use it.

So when C Monster bran new organic sheet ripped only a few months after we bought it I was not ready to down cycle it to something else. I decided to patch it - I found this extra cute dinosaur patch for only a couple bucks on Etsy and sowed it on to the sheet. Since the whole was on the side of the sheet I did not need to worry about the treads being uncomfortable under you when you are sleeping.

C Monster quite likes his "new" dinosaur sheets - that is a bonus too.

Sippy Cups

2010-06-13T09:51:00.000-04:00

OK so we are in the hunt for a new drinking cup for C Monster. Our main requirements are:
- does not leak when tipped over
- C Monster can not shake out the contents
- not made from plastic (at least the inside parts that touch the liquid)
- shock resistant - i.e. not made from glass

The reason this came to is that we have owned many different cups for him. (see past post) but still have not found the perfect cup.

Cup number 1 - The Kleen Kanteen is great as he can drink from it, he likes it cause it looks like ours and now he even uses a sports top like ours - however he can also shake the water out all over the place when he wants to.

Cup number 2 - The Born Free we converted 2 baby bottles that we never used into a sippy cups again the issue is C Monster can shake out the contents also they are glass and well he got mad one day a pitched one - you can guess what happened after that.

Cup number 3 - The Foogo it's leak proof, shatter resistant, made from metal and so on but their is just one problem - we have owned 3 in a year and half and all of them have broken. The first one lasted a long time about a year or so - after a year the lid stopped closing and then yesterday the plastic base fell off. The second one we had cracked at the base after about 3 months and started leaking water. The 3rd one's lid broke just 2 weeks after we bought it. I had call Foogo and they said they would send me a replacement lid - that was over 3 months ago now and well I do not have a replacement yet and don't think I will ever get one.

And yes for any of you wondering I am going to send a link to this blog post to Foogo.

Any other cup we tried with him can't really be counted as they were tried when he was only 12 months old and well he has changed a lot since then.

Do you have a favorite Sippy Cup? if so please share with me.

Looking Forward To?

Having a sippy cup that I like - I know I am not very creative today

Pizza pizza - has no change tables

2010-06-11T19:41:00.001-04:00

Ok so I am sitting at pizza pizza waiting for G and C to be done in the washroom. C is getting his diaper changed in a not so clean washroom that has NO change table in the washroom. I repeat Pizza Pizza - a restaurant that is loved by all toddlers has no change table.

To Breastfeed in Public or Not

2010-06-10T18:51:00.000-04:00

Most of you are aware that C Monster nurses, he is now 2 and 1/4 and still loves his breastmilk or lolo as we call it in our home.

I decided just before he turned 2 to call my milk lolo that way when a 2 1/2 year old screams at the top of his lungs "I want lolo" when you are in the middle of the grocery store you do not have to worry about what others might say. I know I really should not worry about what others say but I do.

When C Monster was about 18 months old a stranger addressed him while he was nursing and told him he was to old to be doing that - I corrected them immediately. When C Monster was 18 months old it did not phase him one bit I am not even sure he knew what the stranger was talking about; however now that he is older and understands a lot (more then I sometimes realize) I don't want this situation to repeat itself again.

So after that incident we slowly started encouraging other liquids on the go and kept nursing for at home, nursing rooms and at friends or places that I knew would not be judgmental. Am I doing harm to C Monster with this I don't think so. If he asks for lolo when we are out I usually try to figure out why he wants it - is he hungry, tired, hurt (beyond a kiss fixing it) or just needs mama time. Typically it's because he is hungry - if it's for any other reason we find a quite spot and nurse - this is rare.

The reason why I started questioning if I am doing the right thing today is... C Monster had an appointment to get a vaccine today as I always do I nurse him during and after the vaccination. The nurse was surprised but ok with the fact I wanted to nurse my 2 1/4 year old during his shot. Christophe barely even flinched during the shot - just another breastmilk miracle. After the nurse was done she said take as long as you need and started to close the door, I said no no it's ok we will finish nursing in the waiting room. (I know they don't typically like it when you occupy the nursing station after the nurse is done - I think and hope she was just trying to be polite)

We sat down in the waiting room across from a family with a little new born (maybe 2 months at the tops) and started to nurse. The father asked me if my son just got a shot and said wow he is so big we don't even think we heard him cry - what a brave boy. I answered yes and explained that if you nurse your child during a shot they don't feel it as much. The conversation when from there and the mother and father poured their hearts out to me on how they want to breastfeed but they can't seem to figure it out and so on. We talked for a bit - I am pretty sure all her issues where due to a horrible latch and well by the time C Monster was done nursing and fast asleep in my arms; the mother decided to try to breastfeed her little one instead of giving her a bottle when she started to fuss and guess what she said it did not hurt, and we could all hear and see the baby girl gulp down her milk.

I gave her all the names of the various resources in the area for breastfeeding support and she said thank you and we parted ways.

Did the fact that I was nursing a toddler in public help this mother and baby maybe - would she have reached out to a total stranger otherwise maybe - we will never know. However a situation like this make me think twice next time I ask C Monster to wait 5 minutes for us to get to a more convenient spot to nurse.

PS - if you are wondering what are the resources I gave her:
La Leche League Toronto Help Line - (416) 483-3368
Toronto East General Breastfeeding Clinic - (416) 469-6667
http://www.drjacknewman.com/

So I ask you are nursing a toddler? What do you think when you see someone nursing a toddler? Would you nurse a toddler in public?

Cheese Crisps

2010-06-09T23:31:00.000-04:00

I was in a crazy baking mood today: I made muffins, bread, cookies and crackers. Well everything turned out great but the crackers were fantastic - So I just had to share the recipe with you...

Cheese Crisps

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

2 cup cheese, sharp cheddar or swiss

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp hemp seeds

2 tbsp ground flax meal

Directions

Cream together butter and cheese. Add remainder ingredients and mix well. Form into 1 inch balls. Place on cookie sheet and flatten with a fork.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 to 15 minutes, or until pale gold around edges.

For a change add herbs such as rosemary or sage. Or minced vegetables.
Enjoy.

Rain Rain Rain

2010-06-05T15:25:00.001-04:00

We have been getting lots of rain these days. I have been trying to enjoy the dry spots in-between the downpours. C Monster wont stop asking me to go jump in puddles...

Painting

It's been a few weeks now that I am working on the back walk out. It's all primed and ready for paint; I went to our locale green hardware store - yes we have a green hardware store - and picked up some paint from yolo. Will let you know what I think about them after I'm all done painting.

Juicing

I have been trying to expand my juice repertoire. C Monster will only eat fruit if they are dried or pulverized. I checked out from the library the book "Juice!" - so far so good. I have tried 3 recipes, C Monster drank 2 reused the other.

As always I only use the book or insparantion here is one of the recipes I made that was C Monster approved:

Blueberry Quinoa

Ingredients

1 cup blueberries

1/2 bananas

1 tbsp quinoa flakes, (prepare by adding 3 tbsp boilling water and let sit covered for 5 minutes)

1 tbsp honey

1 cup milk or yogurt

2 large handfull ice

Directions

Process all ingredients in blender until smooth

Looking Forward To

Eating my preserved eggplant (in oil) - I need to wait at least one month before trying it

Greening Your Laundry

2010-06-04T08:12:00.000-04:00

Greening our laundry

For a long time now we have been using eco-friendly laundry soap and washing in cold water (except for diapers); but there are so many more thing we can do to green our laundry.

Last week I bought a retractable clothesline from Home Hardware. I think the reason we never got around to this sooner is that we have been working on the backyard and house now for 8 years - everything pretty much done so we are now adding the finishing touches. I have to say I look back at things I have done in the past that were not the best for the planet and one that stands out in my head - is taking down the existing clothesline that was up when we bought the house.

I also picked up from Home Hardware bamboo clothespins. These are sustainable and very strong compared to your typical plastic or wood clothespin.

The last thing we decided to do is start using towels twice before washing them. In order to tell mine, papa and C Monster's apart I decorated some clothespins with stickers. We clip the pin on our towel to tell who's who's.

Looking forward to

Making some eggplant packed on oil and dried blueberries.

sewing day

2010-05-26T21:54:00.000-04:00

I spent the 2 hours C Monster was napping today sewing....

Baby Goes To The Doctors

What seems like a very long time ago we bought C Monster a doll; he never really liked it until just recently. However the beautiful Waldorf doll we bought does not stand up to C Monster abuse (He really does not abuse it that much). I have to say I am disappointed in this toy; when I undressed it today to give it a wash (C Monster dropped juice on it) I found not one but 4 spots were the seams were coming undone.

When I looked up my post regarding finding the Perfect Doll I realized this doll is not even a year old... Sorry Peppa but for craftmenship you get 2 thumbs down from us.

Luckily I can sew so C Monster Baby when to the doctors today for some stitches and is now all better.

Bag For My Clothespins

One of the many things that was on my to-do list was get a clotheslines - yes I did not have one. Since I am finally getting around to this I decide to make a bag for clothespins using one of C Monsters old shirts that has a small whole in it and a child's coat hanger ( also from C monster's closet). Here is the result - it was really quite easy to make.

All you need to do it cut down the sleeves (if it's a long sleeve shirt); sew the sleeves and the bottom of the shirt shut; then hang it on a coat hanger. The only thing is that you want to make sure you select a shirt that has a wide enough neck that you will be able to get your hand in to get the clothespins out.

A Dress For Baby

With various remnants, included the discarded sleeves from the project above - I made baby a dress. I wish I would have had the camera handy to capture C monster smile when I showed it to him.

Now my son can chose to dress his doll as a boy, a girl or a boy in a dress...

Looking Forward To

Being done reading the Breastfeeding Answer Book

C opens a baby gate

2010-05-26T11:10:00.001-04:00

I Can do it

C Monster learned how to open one of the baby gates yesterday - in our defense we installed one part in the wrong spot now that it is fixed I think he can't open it anymore; but I will have to keep a close eye in him. It's the gate at the top of the basement stairs.

C Monster has also fully mastered opening the screen doors - they must be kept locked at all times now. I try to make sure he does not see me use the little lock leaver.

Art

Yesterday C Monster painted in the afternoon. Now that the hot weather is here it's time to switch our days out in the morning and in in the afternoons. The paint used was home made I really like this recepie. We made it on May 8th and store it in the fridge - so far it's still good.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups water

1 cup white flour

1/4 cup white sugar

1 1/2 tbsp salt

food colouring

Directions

Combine first 4 ingredients in a sauce pan - stir very very well

cook on medium heat for approximately 7 mins - constantly stirring

pour in little jars and add food coloring to tint

store in refrigerator

Oh so Hot

Summer is here so it seems - I finally caved in today and turned on the AC. Yesterday the cats were cooping in various ways some enjoying the hot sun and others trying to find the coolest spot - the sink.

Looking Forward To

Friday - and friends coming to the house

Holiday Monday Morning

2010-05-24T12:34:00.001-04:00

My Garden

My garden is growing so well this year; I was out there this morning pulling some weeds and could not bealive my eyes when I saw little itty bitty cauliflowers.

First Harvest

Used them in a potato, radish, cucumber salad.

Home Made Wood Blocks

We had about 3 feet of 1" quarter round left over after some repair that we had to do to our back walk out. Basically one of the structural beams gave out - thanks to my dad we now have 2 new structural beams.

I did not want to throw out bran new wood that is perfectly fine - but it was really to short for anyone to use. I decided to cut them down in various lengths and sand the ends - voila blocks.

And that was my morning; making blocks, gardening - now I am listening to Digital Gunfire while getting lunch ready and blogging. C Monster is outside enjoying the fresh air with Papa.

Looking Forward To

Seeing my friend Kim and her little ones at the park this afternoon.

Bread Machine Question

2010-05-24T11:38:00.000-04:00

I was recently asked by a reader: "I just got a bread machine and would love to know what your favorite recipes are"

I only have a few recipes that made it to my recipe box for bread. I had previously shared one on the blog for Cranberry Raisin Loaf. Another one that I am particularly fond of is my Harvest Bread; it's a simple whole wheat bread that also taste very yummy.

Harvest Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups milk

2 large eggs

3 tbsp butter

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour

2/3 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup brown sugar, or sucanat or panella

1 tsp kosher salt

1 1/4 tsp bread machine yeast

Directions:
select 2 pound loaf size
whole wheat cycle
place all ingredients in order listed in bread machine

Another favorite bread machine recipe is my Everyday Pizza Dough.

Everyday Pizza Dough

Ingrediants

1 1/3 cups Water
1 tsp Honey
2 tsp Kosher Salt
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp flax seeds
1 tbsp hemp seeds,
1 tsp teff seeds
1 tsp amaranth seeds
1 tbsp wheat germ
2 1/4 tsp bread machine yeast

Direction

Place all ingredients in order listed in bread pan fitted with kneading paddle. Select your machines dough setting and press start. When cycle is finish divide dough in 2 and make your favorite pizza.

We had a few cookbooks over the years and the only one we kept is "Best Bread Machine Recipes" by Better Homes and Gardens.

When it comes to making bread these are some rules I found that almost always work when trying to muck arround with a recipe.

you can always switch out one sugar for another; as long as you keep the same quantity. For exempple if a recipe calls for a TBSP of sugar you can use a TBSP of honey or sucanate or panella or anything other sugar.
you can almost always subsitite up to half of the white flour for whole wheat, spelt, kamut or rye flour. Before doing this make sure their is not alread some of these flours in the bread if so you should never have more then 1/2 of the total flour being other then white - unless you add gluten flour.
you can add up to 1 cup of nuts and seeds (that do not absorbe liquide) to a 2 pound loaf
you can add up to 1/4 cup off seeds that absorbe liquide to a 2 pound loaf

Now the rules above will not always work sometimes you will screw up. I recommend if you are going to change a recipe after the machine has been going for a bit check on your bread you should be able to tell if it's too dry or wet.

stinky and not so stinky

2010-05-22T19:58:00.001-04:00

Stinky...

We have been in our home now for 8 years I think and have done reno work on all the rooms... now all we have left is to tie up loose ends - one being the cold air return that is in our front hall. See it's a large 12" x 36" ugly vent that has old scratched up paint that matches noting in that area - solution paint it. The only real way to effectively paint a vent is spray paint. I hate spray paint, it's toxic, it stinks, it's bad for the environment. But when you think about it which one is worst dumping the old vent or painting it?

We decided dumping it would be worst - so we got a can of spray paint. Today I cleaned the vent and sprayed it ( it was so stinky I had to wear a mask - I though I was going to toss my cookies from the stink) I still don't know if we made the best environmental choice - I guess we could have left it the way it was but I really did not want that.

Not so stinky...

Last week I picked up a Abeego Food Wrap. I had been looking for a reusable sandwich wrapper for a while now and was so happy when I saw these at Grassroots. So far we have only used it for plain bread and nut butter sandwiches - so far so good. It does the trick seems to keep your bread fresh and soft. C Monster loves opening and closing it himself - a plus. Best of all it smells so good - they are coated with beeswax to make them waterproof - it smells divine.

I might even need to get a few of their Abeego Flats.

Looking Forward To

My cold air return vent to be dry and back in the house.

Lets talk nursing bras...

2010-05-22T15:42:00.000-04:00

Nursing bra fashion has come a long way... especially for us larger chested woman. When you walk in specialty stores such as Evymama the shelves are lined with gorgeous nursing bras for women that wear a DD or smaller - but for the rest of us for a long time we were doomed to wearing very simple nursing bras with no frills. This time is over I tried 20 different bras at Evymama - some fun others plain. However if I was less endowed I probably would have had twice as many bras to chose from.

My first set of nursing bras I bought about 2 years ago were all the exact same one just in a variety of colors - lets be honest the variety of colors was black, white and ivory. First I had a little one with me, did not feel, sexy and well was way to tired to keep on looking for something fun. This time around I wanted bras that made me feel beautiful, flirty and fun - not a mom bra.

Here is what I found after just going to 2 stores. First I went to Secrets From Your Sister. (PS if you are chesty and need - nursing bra, regular bra or any bra you can imagine - this is the place to go first they are amazing but be ready to spend 100$ a bra.)

I picked up 3 bras from Freya:

Then I went off to Evymama and picked up 2 bras from Royce:

If you are going to go to either of these store give yourself time as you will be there for about an hour. Both stores have toys to entertain you toddler :-)

Looking Forward To

Having a back walk out that is painted.

Doll House

2010-05-17T11:47:00.000-04:00

One of the many things that were on my list to get for C Monster one day was a doll house. I think all children need a doll house it's a great way to help them act out feelings and emotions and tell stories with the little dolls.

I was so happy and appreciative when one our friends text-ed and said she wanted to give us one of her daughter's doll houses. I knew C Monster was going to like from the get go as he has played with it at her house before.

So before I continue - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU AYELET.

I set up the doll house that night while C Monster was sleeping and well as soon as he saw it he had to play with it. He quickly realized that his dolls did not have a bed. I tried flipping one of the tables upside down to make a bed but that was not sufficient. So what do I do? - I made him a bed. I used an old jewelery box for the base and made a mattress and pillows out of a small piece of white felt and used a small square of fabric to make a blanket. I only made 2 pillows for the bed I should have known better and made 3 as he always puts 3 dolls in bed together - mama, papa and him.

I guess this is his ideal sleeping arrangement - in bed with his parents.

Looking Forward To

Landscaping my front yard.

Sorry for being absent...

2010-05-16T09:17:00.001-04:00

I always tell myself that I am going to make sure I blog at least twice a week if not more frequently and well life happens....

I don't know how blogger moms that update their site everyday do it - cause I can't - well anymore.

I am going to give you a condensed version of what I have been up to for the last week and a bit - and hopefully I will have time to elaborate on some of them a bit latter.

Memere and Pepere are visiting
Garden is mostly planted - frost attacks - we win
C Monster get a doll house
I make a bed for C Monster dolls - as per his request
C Monster get new shoes - he must sleep, eat - basically live in them
I make broccoli waffles - not my best creation but edible
C Monster vocabulary expands at mad speeds
"I am working girl again" - my boss is horrible (he he he I love you Geoff)
C Monster learns to unlock doors
E Monster gives me flowers
Mothers Day comes and goes

I am sure many other things happened but these are the ones that stick in my head at this time.

AGO Response to cost for Off The Wall

2010-05-03T22:57:00.000-04:00

A little while back I blogged about Off The Wall at the AGO. Despite the fact that everytime we have been there no one has ever asked us for tickets or proof that we paid admission this is AGO official reasponse on the cost of admission for Off The Wall.

"Hi Pierrette,

Thank you for your email.

Access to the Off the Wall centre is included with the purchase of admission. It isn’t free, you have to buy an admission ticket to show the staff at the centre. If you have any more questions, please let us know.

Regards,
Information Desk
Art Gallery of Ontario"

A week in Images and Words

2010-05-01T04:41:00.001-04:00

The TTC

We started the week last weekend with a trip on the TTC. C Monster loves the TTC. What is not to love about trains, buses and street cars. We tend to walk everywhere so going on the transit is a treat for him. He also loves being a big boy and holding on the bars and so on.

The subway is a "chocho"; the street car is this weird gesture with his hands and the bus is the gesture from the wells on the bus go round and round. I love how with everyday C Monster us communicating more and more with us.

By the way we were taking the TTC to go to my friend Lisa's birthday; she wanted to go bowling. Happy belated B-day Lisa.

Drop in Fun

Since the weather turned to well almost summer; I had not been out to the drop in's in a bit. So on Tuesday we decided to go to Blake. C Monster loves it there and best of all we bumped into one of our friends Darlene and her grandson.

C decided that he had to paint not with one brush but will all the brushes... I don't need to mention that he made a mess do I.

That being said his artwork was quite nice - we have to go back next week to pick it up.

During the nice weather the teacher brings the kids outside; they have such a nice playground there - really well designed for little ones. If you live in Toronto - East End this is definitely a spot you should check out. (Blake Street Junior Public School, 21 Boultbee Ave, (416) 393-9415.

The Garden is Growing

I played rusian roullet with the weather this year and planted early. Well Toronto is well past frost warnings but I did not know how the garden would react to be planted in April instead of may. So far so good. I noticed my carrots are srpouting same goes from my radishes and most of the seaddlings I transplanted are surviving and growing.

Chocolate?

I just had to share this video with you guys...

Looking Forward To

Seeing Grandpa Roy Tomorrow.

How to make glue...

2010-04-30T15:52:00.000-04:00

How To Make Glue

When I was a kid we pretty much never bought glue my mom or memere would make it for us, they used to just mix a bit of water with flour and that was it. I wanted to find a recipe that I could make ahead of time and store.

Today I whiped up a batch; here is the recipe.

1/2 cup white flour
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 cup water

Mix all the ingredients until smooth with a whisk; then heat on low siring until desired consistency is reached. Pour into an airtight container.

This will make white glue that will dry transparent. For the little ones that have a hard time understanding where the glue is you can add a few tablespoons of sparkles or some food coloring to make a more fun version of glue. The sparkles or color help the little ones understand where the glue is on the page; also when they decide to use the glue as paint all is not lost you still have a work of art.

I will let you know if it goes bad before we go threw all of it...

Now That we Have Glue

C Monster spent parts of the day working on a mobile. I collect various pieces from the recycling and we painted them green this morning. Using the last bits of our store bought paint - so I guess I will be trying some paint recipes soon. After they were dried C Monster and Grandma used the sparkly glue to attaches various ornamentation. Once everything is dry we will turn it into a mobile for his room.

Looking Forward To

To my parents arriving - I think I said this before but I am really looking forward to it.

Randome Images

2010-04-26T06:00:00.002-04:00

Chilling with E Monster before Music Class

For what seemed like forever C Monster would not take his vitamins however recently the tides have changed. He is so cute I tell him "ouvre ta bouche come un petit oiseau" (Open wide like a little bird) and he just opens up and lets us give him his drops.

During a visit to grandma C monster wanted a little cave to be built with pillows; he then fell asleep in this cave.

I just love this image Geoff took of see during an early morning walk.

C Monster practicing his career as a door man.

Peanut Butter 4 All - Part 2

2010-04-25T12:51:00.000-04:00

About a week ago I went on a Nut Butter kick and a new household favorite waffle recipe came out of it.

I love making waffles I find they are easier to make then pancakes and you can freeze the extras and just pop them in the toaster like a Eggo to heat them. Best of all C Monster will eat pretty much no matter what I hide in them. Such a sneaky mom I am.

The original recipe was from Global Gourmet and was called Peanut Butter Waffles. As always I changed it up a bit here is the recipe I came up with:

Almond Butter Waffles

Ingredients:
1 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. panella or brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons canola oil
2/3 cup almond butter
1-3/4 cups milk
2 banana, diced
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

Directions:
1. Heat the waffle iron according to manufacturer's instructions. In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
2. In a separate bowl, using a whisk or with an electric mixer on low speed, beat the eggs, oil, almond butter, and milk until foamy, about 1 minute. Pour the peanut butter-milk mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened and smooth. Fold in the diced banana.
3. cook as per your waffle iron's directions
4. Enjoy with real maple syrup

Looking Forward Too

Crossing all the items off my to do list... (it's getting long :-)

Baby on Passport Application?

2010-04-24T11:32:00.001-04:00

I recently sent this letter to our government...

"Hello Mr. Layton,

I was recently informed by INFACT Canada that the new child's application package for a canadian passport has an image of a baby bottle on it. I find this alarming for many reasons:

- it's portrays that in Canada the norm for feeding babies is by formula; when in contrary Public Health recommends exclusive breastfeeding until the age of 6 months and there after for breastfeeding relationship to continue as a compliment to solid foods until the child out grows the need.

-any image of a bottles can help sway a mother that is having difficulties getting breastfeeding off to a good start to turn to formula instead of seeking help to establish her breastfeeding relationship with her child.

- Passport are for one to be able to travel outside of this country and should not be associated in any shape with baby bottles, formula or breast-feeding.

-Baby bottles are typically linked in ones mind to formula (not pumped breast milk); by putting this image on our Passport Application the government ends up promoting (for free to the large formula companies) formula feeding.

To finish here is are a few points I am highlighting from the International Code of Marketing of
Breast-milk Substitutes by the WHO.

"Appreciating that there are a number of social and economic factors affecting
breast-feeding, and that, accordingly, governments should develop social support
systems to protect, facilitate and encourage it, and that they should create an
environment that fosters breast-feeding, provides appropriate family and community
support, and protects mothers from factors that inhibit breast-feeding; "

"Affirming the need for governments, organizations of the United Nations
system, nongovernmental organizations, experts in various related disciplines,
consumer groups and industry to cooperate in activities aimed at the improvement of
maternal, infant and young child health and nutrition; "

I would also like to point out article 5.1 of the code:

"5.1 There should be no advertising or other form of promotion to the general public
of products within the scope of this Code. "

The products the code talk about are breastmilk and bottle-feeding - I believe placing an image of a baby bottle on an application for a passport becomes a direct violation of this code and the WHO. I encourage you take the time to read the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and come to your own decision on this subject.

www.who.int/nutrition/publications/code_english.pdf

Thank you.

from a concerned member of your contingency,

Pierrette Wiseman
mom to Christophe

Check out my family blog:
http://wisemanconspiracy.blogspot.com/"

Where have I been?

2010-04-23T14:26:00.000-04:00

If anyone wonders where have I been the answer is in my back yard working. I think it's been over 3 weeks now since I have been to the park or a "drop in" in the morning. Don't get me wrong we still make it out in the afternoon or after supper to the park - C Monster is not totally being neglected for the back yard. Also he really loves playing and "helping me" in the back yard.

So the day is finally here I get to plant grass today or tomorrow. and then C Monster is banned from the back yard for 3-4 weeks to let the grass take.

You ask what did we do?

A Box for the Garden

The first thing was to build a small box around our vegetable garden. We just built the the wall 2 4x4 high and only along one side and the bottom of the garden. This was really just to help the dirt stay in garden - it also ended up helping us ensure our garden fence is installed straight.

I had a hard time deciding what to do about this wall and how to build it; see we live in an area that is of concern for termites. I looked at stone and brick but the cost was much more then we wanted in invest; that left wood. I started researching wood and pressure treated wood. Non-pressure treated wood is really not recommended for use in the ground especially if you know that termites like your area already. There are a few exotic wood that you can use but most of them are from virgin rain forest half way across the world. Knowing all that I started looking at pressure treated wood. Their are 2 kinds of pressure treayed wood available on the market CCA and ACQ. CCA is the traditional pressure treated wood that hear all the bad stories about the chemicals used and ACQ is a new alternative that does not contain any chemicals that the EPA considers of concern to the environment and humans. I am not going to go any greater detail but here are 2 website with loads of information.

Does Pressure-Treated Wood Belong in Your Garden?

Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA): ACQ - An Alternative to CCA

We were able to find ACQ wood both at Home Depot and Parliament Building Supplies. I have to note that Home Depot had no clue what I was talking about and I have to call the mill that their wood is from directly to get the information; however Parliament Building Supplies informed me that they only carry ACQ wood.

Home for the Edemama

The next step was making a home for our Edemama, I decided this year to plant along the neighbors fence in addition to our vegetable garden. This looks beautiful and also gives us a little more food. I purchased a small border that matches our fence - this is to keep the #1 predator for our plants out - C Monster. This year I am also planning on doing companion garden; so in this patch we are also planting our lettuce and spinach.

I also found these great spirals to use instead of wooden steaks. I prefer medal instead of wood; as much as wood is sustainable because it will biodegrade I find I can only use my wood steaks for one or 2 years and after that they are dead. These ones are sure to last many many years.

Patio Stones for the BBQ & a Place to Rest

Next step was a home for the BBQ, for 5 years now the BBQ has just stood in dirt... I spent time on Craig's List trying to score some patio slabs for free but was unsuccessful so we ended up buying some. We just got whatever was the cheapest per square foot - they are under the BBQ so who really cares what they look like.

I also rejigged the stones we had placed last year at the foot of the tree. I placed all our outdoor decorations up - the bench; some glass balls; lights; flower pots.

Finally we Have a Walk Way

Last night I picked up some "fake" flagstone. They are made from concrete. We laided them down as stepping stones. You can't really see them well in this image because of the dirt but they are installed and we have a walk way once again. We took out the old walk when we bought the house 8 years ago and since them well had noting. Last thing left is too plant the grass.

Looking forward to

Relaxing in the back yard while C Monsters plays in the grass.

Earth Day 2010

2010-04-22T17:10:00.002-04:00

Earth Day

So today is Earth Day; I will admit we did not do anything different today then other days. I really don't feel I need to - when Christophe is a little older I plan on maybe marking the day with a fun craft or something but nothing else. For me Earth Day is everyday; don't get me wrong I think celebrating the planet is good and it also helps bring awareness to living "green".

So what did we do today that was "green"

Organic food for breakfast, lunch and supper
"Carpooled" to Sports Ball (since Geoff had to take the car today anyways he dropped us off on his way)
Brought my own shopping bags for my errands today
Walked home after Sports Ball
Kept all the lights in the house off during the day (sunshine is more then enough to light your house)
Made "green" purchases for the things I needed to get today (food and sandals)
Breastfed
Brought a reusable water bottle for both me and C Monster (his had juice) and when it was smoothy time got them to place it in our bottles instead of cups.
Ate an organic lunch at the Big Carrot (very eco-conscious store)
Used cloth diapers and G-Diapers
Used non-toxic cleaners and beauty products

I think I could go on forever but I will stop now...

Did you celebrate Earth Day or did anything special today?

El Natura Lista - My new sandals

I have had the same pair of Birkenstock since C Monster has been born and well I walk a lot so they are pretty much dead. I will probably get about half a summer out of them maybe a bit longer. I had been on the lookout for new sandals something that is comfortable, fashionable, funky and well eco-friendly if possible. It's hard to find leather footwear that is also eco-friendly at least in part because many people think leather itself is not "green". I don't fully disagree with them but when it comes to sandals if they are not leather I can never "break them in" and they never stop giving me blisters. (I will also admit that one of my not so green likes is leather, I do own things made from leather including and not limited to furniture, clothing and shoes).

After looking for over a month for some sandals I found a pair at a locale shoe store Balisi; they met all the criteria but I was not familiar whit the designer - El Natura Lista. Since I had already given up on finding eco-friendly sandals that i liked I bought them. However the name gave me hope that these were a eco-conscious company.

Guess what they are a eco-consious company here are some of the things they boost about on their web site.

"We use natural materials

We avoid using polluting substances and toxic products

We seek to protect the environment

We maximize the use of biodegradable and recyclable/recycled materials

We pay fair compensation to providers and employees

We promoted traditional forms of production

We support the use of appropriate new technologies

We operate with corporate transparency"

Image from El Natura Lista

Dead Animals - stinky

So what do you do when you find a dead animal? We got to discover this joy earlier this week. C Monster and Aunt Lisa where playing in the lane behind our house when she pointed out what looked like a raccoon that had been deceased for at least a 6 months or so. He was hidden by a pile of leafs. we mad sure C Monster did not notice it and kept him clear from the area. Lisa suggested I called Toronto Animal Services (416-338-7197) and she was right within an hour they were here to bag and remove the stinky poor little fellow. I have to say I was impressed with their response time; it's nice to see that the animal owner fees we pay them go to good use.

La Leche League International Turns 50

Looking Forward To

Eating my tummy is growling :-)

April is Almost Gone

2010-04-21T15:00:00.000-04:00

I can not bealive it's already April 21st. April is a big month around here, you have garden prep, spring cleaning, my dad's birthday, my mom's birthday, my best-friend Lisa's birthday, my father-in law's birthday, this April also marked the one-year anniversary since my grandmother passed away.

Remembering Grand-memere

I am so glade that Christophe had a chance to meet his grand-memere it's not everyone that get to do this. I think grand-memere was even more excited then me when she got to meet Christophe for the first time in 2008. I always feared that she would never get to meet any of my kids; I am not sure as to why but it was important to me for her to be able to see me as a mother. I think it might be because I learned so much from her as I was growing up - she is the one that showed me how to sow and hem; to garden; to cook; to make simple games for play; to clean house; to love unconditionally. All traits that help shape and define me as a mother (ok maybe no sowing - I would love to have more time to do this) on top of all the traits that my own mother passed on.

She also though me to reach for the sky and that no matter what you can accomplish anything. She is a published author. She tough me to speak my mind to be honest and do what feels right to me for my son and not what others are necessarily doing.

She touched everyone that come in her life; and excepted everyone as they were.

As much as I try not to mourn on death - as I am certain grand-memere would not want me to, but I can't help but think of her this month a little more then I normally. Honestly I think of her almost everyday; she is with me all the time in every little thing I create with my hands.

Christophe knows who she is by image only and I think he even understands that he can not see her anymore. I sometimes ask him "ou est grand-memere?" (where is grand-memere?) and he points to her portrait in our living room and says "bye bye" or other times just points.

Thank you Yvon for painting this...

Looking Forward To

Seeing my family in a few weeks...

Peanut Butter 4 All

2010-04-21T14:35:00.001-04:00

Over the last few weeks I tried a bunch of new recepies but the 2 that stand out the most are Peanut Butter Waffles and Peanut Butter Cupcakes.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I made these for the moms group that I hosted last Friday - they were a hit with both moms, kids and dads. These are not crazy healthy but the nut butter, flax seeds and whole wheat flour put them a notch above your average cupcake. I topped them with a Peanut Butter Icing and a banana chip.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients:
3/4 cup cow or soy milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup + 2 tbsp panela (or sugar)
2 tsp ground flax
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F, line muffin pan with papers or spray pan
Mix milk with vinegar let sit for a few minutes
combine all ingredients very well
bake for 23 to 26 minutes
frost with Peanut Butter Frosting and top with a banana chip
for something a little different add some chocolate chips or banana to the batter.

Peanut Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp butter , at room temperature

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup icing sugar
1 to 2 tbsp milk

Directions:
With electric beater mix all ingredients except milk, add milk little by little until frosting is smooth and creamy.

I decided to ice the cupcakes in a basket weave - this is simpler then one might think. All you need is a pipping bag and a flat icing tip of any kind. I used one with little ridges. Here is a visual step by step.

Stay tuned for part 2 - and the waffle recipe....

Looking Forward To

Eating food from my garden - yum

I feel like I am ignoring you

2010-04-14T21:56:00.000-04:00

I feel so guilty, that I have not posted in almost a week (I think). Life's been busy - so I guess that is good for us.

Back Yard

We have been spending pretty much all our spare time working on the back yard. Today I picked up some patio stones to set up an area for our BBQ. The last 2 weekends were spent building a box around the garden. Next step after the bbq area will the the walkway - or if the weather is still behaving planing the garden.

Here is a picture of our littlest helper pounding away with his hammer.

My Seedlings

My seedlings are growing like mad - they are ready for the garden but the garden is not ready for them. C Monster loves watering them almost every morning for me. He is perticularly proud of teh edamame since he planted them himself.

Family

On the weekend we visited Tara and her kids (Geoff's sister) C Monster had so much fun and I think B and S Monster also really enjoyed his visit. Tara and her family are so great they keep pretty much everything from their kids for us - she is the reason we almost do not have to buy any clothing. This weekend we got to take home a tricycle for C Monster - he loves it. This time we booked our next visit with them right away we often go almost 6 months without seeing each other - I can't let that happen again.

Cat Food

C Monster loves feeding the cats. We turned our head away from him for a minute and he had one dish packed to the brim; when I told him to put some in the other bowl - he did ; but it was the water bowl. Note the nice mess he also made... However if it was not for C Monster I think many days the cats would not eat as I am always forgetting to feed them. Every day when C Monster sees their bowls he says "Bo num num". Bo is one of our cats.

Looking Forward To

The peanut butter cupcakes I am baking for my moms group that is meeting at my house on Friday. If they turn out to be yummy I will post the recipe.

Stainless Steel Straws

2010-04-09T20:57:00.000-04:00

I feel like I am playing catch up today with blogging and everything else in my life... This is something I have been meening to post for over a month now.

One thing C Monster loves is a straw; he will drink almost anything if he has a straw. Plastic straws are typically made from polypropylene; are not recyclable or biodegradable so they just end up filling up the landfills one by one. Yes there are biodegradable straws available but the city of Toronto is not equipped for them and you can not put them in your green bin they go to the dump; unless you want to beery them in your back yard so they can properly biodegrade.

When I found these metal straws at Parenting by Nature I was all over them. We have been using them for a few months now and love them. I recommend finding a tiny straw brush to wash them as it is hard to get juice gunk out of them. Also acid can corrode metal so it is good to at least rinse them if you are not going to wash the straw right after using it. We now have 4 long ones and 4 short ones more then enough for a family of 3.

Another alternative to metal is glass but with a 2 year that just did not seem safe to me.

Sprig Toys on the move of manufacturing to Mexico

2010-04-09T18:43:00.000-04:00

I posted a few times about the fact that I was un-pleased that Sprig will no longer be manufactured in Canada as this was one of the things I really liked about them. I decided to write a letter to the manufacturer to get more information on what was going on with Sprig. Below is the answer I received from them.

"Hi Pierrette,
Thank you so much for taking the time to ask these important questions. We are happy to have the opportunity to respond.

First of all, Sprig’s Canadian manufacturing was done by a third party manufacturing partner in Ontario. Their main products are auto parts, Brita water filters, and medical equipment. Sprig was a very small part of their business and we never operated our own plant. The product line they were manufacturing, the original Adventure Series, is now being phased out, while other lines, made in Mexico, are gearing up. Please be assured, that in no way is Sprig closing a factory or causing the loss of Canadian jobs.

As to our manufacturing partners in Mexico, we share your concerns that workers be treated ethically and operate in a safe environment. It is part of our sourcing process to evaluate these considerations in person before making an agreement with any partner. Our Mexican partners meet and exceed all local government regulations, which include:
·         Maximum Labor Hours: Maximum labor hours that can be worked on a normal schedule are 48 hours per week, with schedules of 8 hours during the day. Employees must be 18 years of age, or 16 years old only with parental consent.
·         Overtime is no more than 3 hours per day for no more than 3 days per week.
·         Employees are eligible for statutory holidays, vacations and Christmas bonus.
·         Wages are competitive for the area, though difficult to compare with our Canadian partners’ due to the fact that our Canadian manufacturers have been in business for a much longer time and thus have wages one would associate with longer tenures.
I hope this answers your questions. Please rest assured that Sprig takes these matters as seriously as you do. We do our very best to ensure that we are providing toys that protect both the environment and the people who occupy it.

Kind regards
Kim Greenlee
Director of Operations
Sprig Toys

Kind regards,
Kim Greenlee
HR & Operations Manager
Sprig Toys
phone - 970-472-0321 x100
www.sprigtoys.com"

After getting this information it re-assures me once again that Sprig is still on the right track, it would be nice if the toys were still manufactured in Canada but it seems that Sprig is doing everything right to ensure the toys are manufactured by factories that believe in treating their employees well. If you are interested in some toys from Sprig keep your eye out when you are at Winners as I am always seeing some their at bargain prices.

it's friday already

2010-04-09T13:56:00.000-04:00

This week just zoomed by. This morning was spent at our friends house Jessica and Z Monster for are weekly "moms play-date and lunch" - we had such a great time. C Monster always is so excited to see all his friends.

Lets back up a bit and recap this weeks highlights....

Tuesday

C Monster and I headed out to the AGO for a field trip. Grandma gave me a membership and I figured I need to make sure we use it. One of my friends informed us that the AGO have a great space for kids to play and be creative - Off the Wall. C Monster loved it and in his words said "more" as we left; this is definitely a new permanent destination for us. We will try to make it once a month same as the Science Center.

Off the Wall is free, no need for a membership or a ticket you can just walk right in. It's open on Tuesday's from 10am to 1pm and on Weekends from 10am to 4pm. I don't know how busy they get on the weekends but it was not too bad on Tuesday - really seemed like just the right amount of kids for the space.

C Monster spent his time drawing with chalk and markers, building towers from blocks and my favorite playing with a giant staking toy made out of a medal rod and everyday items like: shoes, plates, funnels to name a few. I would post a good picture of him but every-time I went to take a shot he ran off to the next thing - I guess he was having fun.

Wednesday

Play dates all around... C Monster's favorite activity is playing with his friends - I try to arrange play dates for him as much as I can. I love play-dates because they teach him all sorts of things.

Help teach him to share
How to interact with others
Develops social skills in general
New and difrent stimulation (when playdate is at someone else's house)

I am sure there are all sorts of other reasons but these are the ones that come to mind first. Also I find this is a little slice of sanity for mothers - after spending day-in day-out interacting with a toddler it's nice to have an adult (other then your husband) to talk to that relates with you. Other moms and nanny's are like your co-workers (the good co-workers that become friends too).

So in the morning we had a play-date at our house with Lisa and A Monster and in the afternoon we travel the ever so far trek to Jessica's and Z Monster for a afternoon of fun. (they are our neighbors)

Thursday

Off to Sports Ball in the AM - C Monster is amazing me with his listening skills and just his patiance in waiting his turn. When we got to class the babies class that is before ours was wrapping up; I told C Monster he had to sit and watch until that class was over and he did. I was so proud; some of the other toddlers where running around like crazy distracting the class but my guy was sitting and enjoining some snack with a few friends.

In the afternoon we had a gardening play-date planned but the weather said otherwise so I came up with cookies instead. I made the dough while C Monster was sleeping and then placed it in the fridge; once our little friend F Monster arrived with Debra we rolled out the dough and cut out the cookies. C Monster preferred eating the dough then cutting it but he had fun and that is all that matters.

"Healthy" Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
2 limes, zest only
2 tbsp. yucca syrup
1 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cups panela
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tbsp oat bran
2 tbsp wheat germ
1 tsp groud flax seeds
2 tbsp pulverrised kale or swiss chard, chopped up extra fine in food processor

Directions:
1. Cream the butter and the panela together. Add the egg and mix well. Mix in the zest and yucca syrup. Add remaining ingredients, mixing until well combined. Chill dough for at least 2 hours, I like to chill overnight.

2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. Place cookies 1/2 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 7-8 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are lightly toasted on the edges. Makes around 60 cookies.

Friday

And it brings us back to Friday...

Looking Forward To

Going to Aunt Tara's house tomorrow.

Last food diary

2010-04-05T21:34:00.000-04:00

Monday April 5th - C Monster's food diary

Breakfast

Almond Milk

Left Over Waffle with Pure Maple Syrup

Breastmilk

Morning Snack

Rest of His Easter Chocolate (not very much)

Lunch

Soy Beans with Butter and Hemp Seeds

Almond Milk

Cashews

Breastmilk

Afternoon Snack (at the mall)

Juice Box - Mango

Peanut Butter Crepe with a Few Chocolate Chips

Supper

Papadums

Almond Milk

Roasted Chicken

Crackers

Breastmilk

To conclude; C Monster does not eat a perfect diet. We try to sneak vegetables in because otherwise he would not eat them; I can't get fresh fruit in him unless it's blended in a smoothie.

I want to mention that my bread machine is on the fritz otherwise you would have probably seen fresh bread in C Monster food diary.

Lots done

I feel like I got tones done today - I love days like this. I picked up the last piece of edging I needed; I picked up a bike lock for C Monster's wagon, I gave plant food to all my seedlings, washed dishes, made iced tea, swept the floors, vacuumed, changed the bed linens, blogged, chopped up some kale to freeze, watched True Blood (yes this is an important part of Monday for me - it's my treat to myself during C Monster's nap), rotated C Monster's toys, changed the shower curtain... I am sure I forgot something.

Looking Forward

Going to the AGO.

Esater / Menu planning / Leather Pillow

2010-04-05T10:17:00.001-04:00

Easter Morning

When C Monster woke up this morning first thing we did after getting dressed was an egg hunt. Easter for me not really anymore about religion or an easter bunny but more about the beginning of spring. I am debating next year doing a celebration on the spring equinox instead. That all being said I also believe C Monster should be exposed to "mainstream" culture that "most" kids are exposed to - not for him to feel left out when he is older.

I decided a little egg hunt would be fun. We had some cloth eggs that we purchased as an easter present for him last year so we hid them around the house each with a picture of the next destination attached. At the end was a little basket with 2 chocolates and 2 cars. For me using eggs is OK - the symbolism of eggs for me makes the beginning of life and that's what spring is for nature the beginning.

Here is a video of the eggs hunt - it's a bit long :-)

Once a coat now a pillow

Geoff ruined one of his leather jacket. I hate wasting perfectly good leather; so I decided to try to make something from it...

Menu Planning - what's this - part 2

As I mentioned in the post yesterday; I was asked: "how do I find time to make everything?" When it comes to meals in the house it seems to just come together; it just happens. It probably helps that I love cooking and baking.

So how do I find time to make everything? - Well first I am a stay at home mom / homemaker. Yes I like to call myself a homemaker; I take pride in having supper on the table every night; making sure the house is somewhat clean; planning and designing every little bit of the house; coordinating vacations and family adventures and yes you can forget making cookies and iced tea - to only name a few.

Some tips I can offer you to be able to maximize how much "from scratch" cooking you do:

Involve the kids - C Monster at 2 years old knows how to level a spoon full; fill a measuring cup; operate (with supervision the stand mixer)
Kitchen appliances are your friend - I love my food processor, blender, stick blender, bread machine and stand mixer
Make extras and freeze them. I often make enough soup to freeze a jar. When I make pizza dough the recipe is large enough for 2 large pizzas - you can pre-assemble the extra pizza and freeze it for latter. Same goes for cookies & muffins (take out of the freezer and put them in the oven for a few minutes and you will have the next best thing to fresh.
Pre-prep basics. I pre-chop garlic and ginger in my food processor and freeze it in ice cube trays. 1 tbsp per cup with some water. Once frozen transfer to ziplock back. When you need garlic or ginger just grab a cub from the frezzer.
When greens such as kale, swiss chard, spinach starts to wilt in your refrigerator; clean then chop up in food processor - again freeze in ice cube trays. You can toss these in pasta sauce; pizza sauce or anything else at the last minute to boots up the nutrition value.
Practice your knife skills - once you can chop and cut fast and efficiently you will be amazed at the amount of time you cut off your prep-time.
Keep you cuboards organized - it goes faster to cook something if you can find what you need.
Use your bread machine for more then basic breads; it can make pizza dough; rolls and even sweet bread like banana breads.
Get familiar with recipes; it goes a lot faster to cook something you have alreay done a bunch of time; then to follow a new recipe.
I can't say it enough involve the kids.
Also don't keep the processed foods in the house - if they are not there you will have to choice to make something from scratch if you want to eat.

Sunday April 4th - C Monster's Food Diary

Pre-Breakfast Easter Surprise

1/2 Kinder Surprise Egg

1/2 Little Scoop Egg

Breakfast

He refused to eat

Apple Juice Water Mix (50/50%)

Breastmilk

Lunch

PCO Berry Granola Bar

Spelt Pasta with Sneaky Veg Sauce

PCO Cheddard Cheese

Apple Juice water Mix (50/50%)

Afternoon Snack

Breastmilk

Supper (with Grandpa Roy)

Pizza Pizza cheese pizza

Chocolate Milk

Chocolate Ice Cream

Evening Snack

6 Organic Raw Cashews

1/2 Box PCO raisins

Breastmilk

Now to finish answering how do I do it all - I don't something always gives. My house is never perfectly clean, my dishes are often behind, my laundry piles up, the dust is gathering on my furniture. I also have help - my wonderful husband loves to bake and often makes bread in the evening. My mother in law comes by once every 2 weeks giving me a chance to catch up.

Sneaky Veg Sauce

If you have a picky eater like I do you need to get creative. One of C Monster's favorite foods is pasta; white pasta with tomato or meat sauce is not really the healthiest meal so I mix it up for him in a way most kids wont notice.

Ingredients

1/2 jar PCO

1 small onion

2 small carrots

2 small beets

1 cube frozen chard/kale (see tip number 5 above)

1 cube frozen garlic (see tip number 4 above)

1 tbsp olive oil

Directions

Chop up onion (pretty small pieces) and start cooking in pan pre-heated with the olive oil. Use medium heat - make sure you check on them frequently and stir to avoid burning.

While onions are cooking - using your shredder attachment for your food processor shred the carrots and the beets. Take out shredder attachment and replace with cutting blade and pulse the mixture 3 to 4 time to cut even more finely.

When onions are getting soft add frozen garlic, chard/kale and beet/carrot mixture - cook until all vegetables are soft. If mixture is sticking add a bit of water.

Once cooked mix in sauce and make sure it is thoroughly heated; toss with your favorite pasta and enjoy. I find that veggies stick better to noodle that are in spiral shapes.

Looking Forward To

My garden being planted

Menu planning? / art / and a bit more

2010-04-03T22:10:00.000-04:00

Menu Planning - What's that?

I was asked by a reader a few weeks back - "What does a meal plan look like in the wiseman house??How do you find the time to make everything??"

Lets start by answering the first question. I will address the second half in tomorrow's post. We don't have a menu plan. I used to plan all the meals every second Friday; then make sure the groceries were all bought and so on. I found that I was spending too much time researching what to cook and then things would happen and the planned meals were not mad; then food would be wasted. So sometime over this last winter I stopped pre-planning my meals. I like it better this way - some of my best cooking comes from just opening the fridge and getting inspired but what's in there.

To give you an idea of what C Monster eats (he does not always eat what we do - he is 2 and 2 year olds are picky - at least mine is) I decided for the next 3 days I will post a diary of everything that goes in his mouth plus recipes if applicable. As you will notice as you read C Monster food intact we are not perfect he also eats a lot of crap - well sometimes.

Saturday April 3rd - C Monster's Food Diary

Breakfast:

Organic Spelt Waffles with Organic Maple Syrup

Strawberry & Kale Smoothie

Breastmilk

Morning Snack:

12-14 Organic Raw Unsalted Cashews

1 PCO Toddler Berry Granola Bar

Strawberry & Kale Smoothie (left over from breakfast)

Lunch:

He refused to eat

Glass of Organic Almond Milk

Breastmilk

Afternoon Snack:

Kiju Organic Apple/Grape Juice (%50 juice / %50 water)

Supper:

1/2 Slice of Cheese Pizza from Amato

Glass of Organic Almond Milk

Breastmilk

Evening Snack:

1 Square of Chocolate

1/2 Box PCO Raisins

4-6 Organic Unsalted Raw Pistachios

Homemade Herbal Iced Tea

Breastmilk

Strawberry & Kale Smoothie Recipe

300g frozen strawberries (1 bag)
5 curly kale leafs vines removed
1 banana peeled
3/4 cups yogurt
1 cup apple juice
2 tbsp maple syrup

Place Strawberries in blender and crush using your blender's ice crushing mode. Once all large chunks are gone add Kale and half of the apple juice blends scraping sides occasionally until kale is mostly chopped. Add all remaining ingredient and process until smooth. Makes 3 - 4 smoothies.

I place C Monster in his sippy cup with a few ice cubes; when he done I put it in the fridge - he knows to ask for it when he wants it back.

Organic Spelt Waffles Recipe

1/3 cup Spelt flour

1/4 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

2 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup milk

1 tbsp melted butter

2 egg whites

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/2 zuchinni, shredded

1 1/2 tbsp mixed seeds

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In another bowl beat the egg whites until they are just stiff peaks (it’s better that they are a little soft than over beaten). Mix all wet ingredients (minus eggs) into the dry ingredients until just combined. Preheat the waffle iron.

Add the egg whites to the bowl and fold together quickly. Brush or spray the hot iron with a little canola oil and then cook the waffles per your iron’s instructions.

Serve with butter, and maple syrup.

Makes 5 waffles.

Art - crocodile

Yesterday C Monster did some painting; I am particularly proud of this one. He told me it was a crocodile. I see it do you?

Coxwell & Fairford

After some residents in our are complained about too much trew trafic the city temporarly blocked off one section of Fairford at Coxwell - to see if it would improve things. The youth of the neighborhood did not waste time to take over this section of pavement that is now safe for them to play in.

Looking Forward To

Seeing Christophe reaction to his easter egg hunt and finally building a box around our vegetable garden tomorrow.

Kitchen's here and more...

2010-04-02T17:03:00.001-04:00

This morning

It's gorgeous out, you would think it is summer today. C Monster and I spent the morning outside; me cleaning the front yard and him drawings with chalk; ridding his tricycle; helping out with the cleaning; playing with his cars. We also cleared out our little flower patch; we picked all the flowers that had grown - as I want to plant some vegetables here this year; Carrots and Onions.

Now lets rewind backwards and take a look at yesterday...

C Monster Talk

I have to say some of the stuff that comes out of my sons mouth is too cute. Here is a few conversations.

A toy and him this morning were having a conversation at the table:

C Monster :”whats this?”

Toy : “yum yum me gona eat it”

C Monster : “Oeuf”

Toy : “num num”

C Monster : “mine”

Toy : “me gona eat it”

This one is his reaction to going to Sports Ball at a different time of day. See he started level 2 in Sports Ball (ages 2-3) this week the class is at 9:45 instead of 9am. Geoff dropped us off half way and we walked the other half in the stroller (we used to get dropped of at the door). Geoff dropped us off in front of the Donlands Subway Sation.

C Monster in the car: "more vroom vroom doing doing" - translated "more car ball" or "we did not drive far enough we are not at Sports Ball"

C Monster as I place him in the stroller "cho cho doing doing?" - translated "train ball" or "are we taking the train to Sports Ball"

When we got to Sports Ball we had to pass the door and park our stroller; in the winter we used to bring it in with us because their was construction happening in the stroller parking area. As we approach and pass the door:
“There it is yeah”
“doing doing ohoh”
“no doing doing”

When he finally understands we are going:
“yeah doing doing”

The Kitchen Arrived

C Monster’s birthday present finally arrived today (I was just one month late). We got him a toy kitchen set from WonderWorld Toys. I have to say I was a bit disappointed when I opened the box - the description on line was a rubber wood kitchen. The top and bottom are made from laminated MDF and the round contoured bright bits are foam. I we would have known this in advance I am not sure it would have changed our mind on what kitchen to get for him but it might have. I was expecting all the parts except for the little window on the oven door to be rubber wood. That being said the kitchen is really nice; lots of storage space for all his stuff and the most important thing is that he loves it.

C Monster’s Space Part 3

I was waiting for his kitchen to arrive to do the last segment of C Monster’s space. Like I said perviously we have an extra small home so you need to maximize your space usage as much as possible also it is important for me that C Monster has space to play and store his toys in both the living room and the kitchen as these are the 2 rooms most used in our home.

In my kitchen I have a few open shelves at the end of my cabinets - one section is allocated to toys; again I use the same bins that way toys can be rotated around easily. In the hallway that connects the living room and the kitchen in order from the living room to the kitchen are:

His tickle trunk (dress up box) - I always stash a few toys on top of it when I am cleaning (in this picture is his abacus and xylophone). Next is his potty and after that his new kitchen.

To make the space more kid like without making it look horrible I framed a few educational posters and mounted them on the wall. The frames are designed in a way that the posters can slip out easily and be changed. We have about 20 posters and I try to change them once every few weeks.

So there you have the Monster’s space... after we are done landscaping and figuring out our back yard I will post about his little corner outside.

One of A Kind Show

2010-04-01T12:05:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Grandmama, papa, C Monster and I went to the One Of a Kind Show. It's running at the Exebition Center until the end of the weekend. This is one of my favorite places to shop and to get ideas from.

C Monster was a champ and listened very well to us all morning and afternoon (well until he passed out in my arms during a nursing break. For those of you with kids big or little the show is ready for you. First little ones get in free. They have a nursing room with lots of chairs and change tables; they also have a microwave for those of you that are bottle feeding.

For the kids 2 and up there is a complimentary child care center (you get 1 1/2 hours free) it's a first come first serve - keep that in mind. We talked about dropping C Monster off for a bit but I just could not bring myself to do - he was having lots of fun running around with his papa.

What did we get?

A Watch from Patina Canada for me.
Extra funky underwear for Geoff by the candi factory.
A wooden tractor for C Monster from Th orpe Toys. - let's talk about Thorpe for a second. I love their toys C Monster now has the tractor, the plane, the boat and the car. You can really only get their toys at shows (you can order them via email but the shipping is more then the toy) The plane was around 13$; the tractor 10$ and the one person car was under 5$, the boat was around 13$. The quality of the toys are fantastic - C Monster is pretty rough with his stuff and these are all surviving very well.
A Nugs for C Monster. - The gut selling them said they were extra solid as long as you stayed away from the ones with the long legs and arms. So far it survived many throws... lets see if it keeps up. These were just so cute and C Monster really loved them.
A modern and stylish tea cozy from Tenacious Life. - This is something we had been looking for, for what seems forever.
A Dragon puzzle for C Monster from Sleepy Hollow Creations. This is C Monster 3rd puzzle from Sleepy Hollow. They are mode from wood; and when I asked her about her paints she said they are all food grade. If I remember correctly the dragon was 24$ - the quality and hours of amusement C Monster gets from the puzzles make it money well spent.
For our sweet tooth we got honey and honeycomb from Honey Pie. I want to try to make honeycomb ice cream.

Worth a mention

We would of loved to buy everything we saw that we liked but at-last our pocket books and the environment can not handle that. So here are a few things we though about getting but did not - some of wish I did buy, but the good conscious consumer in me told me I did not need them.

L'Atelier du cheval de bois; he has some of the most beautiful hand crafted toys I have ever seen in made in Canada. We stared at them for a very long time but could not justify buying C Monster any of them as he already had tones of everything.
billy would designs; innovative and creative jewelry and accessories made from recycled and reclaimed wood. I so wanted the EarWings.
Stand Up; not only is this clothing company trying to make a difference in the world with donating a portion of each sale to help various causes world wide - they offer very fashionable funky designs for t-shirts. We both wanted one of their shirts but could not justify adding another t-shirt to our already overflowing dresser drawers.

If you live in Toronto you should definitely try to check out the show, I now actually try to wait till the show to buy stuff we need - I just finished going without a watch for 3 months because I wanted to see what would be at the show.