Kicks and Giggles

So today we woke up at 7 o’clock, or what I thought was 7 o’clock.  As I am feeding Chloe breakfast, I hear on the radio that it is 8:20.  My clock says 7:20.  I was under the impression that yesterday was daylight savings time.  So I checked another radio station.  They also said it was 8:20.  I decided I must be wrong and told Brian that he was late for work.  My calendar said it was daylight savings time yesterday so I decided to check the internet.  There I found out that it is only daylight savings time in some areas, like Albania, where I do not live.  This sucks because due to some miracle, I had managed to change Chloe’s schedule to the new time in one day.  Now I have to change her back, so I can change her again on Sunday.  Fun.  I am not a fan of daylight savings.  I need to move back to Saskatchewan, the only sane province that does not deal with this.

I can’t believe I am writing this, but I have actually found lately that I miss school and work.  I miss the satisfaction of printing off that 10 page paper.  I miss the look of it all stapled together with a nice cover page.  I miss the feeling of finishing the last question on a test and knowing you did well.  I miss reading to the kids and planning activities for them that include all curricular and developmental areas.  I miss executing those plans.  I miss how excited the kids get when they are learning something new or they figure something out.  I miss the daily all day interaction with other adult women.  Most of all, I miss learning new things.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love my baby.  I love spending my days at home with her and when all my kids are grown up and I am working again, I will write a post about the things I miss from when my kids were babies.  Is there a way to have the best of both??  I don’t know, but I am going to try to find out.

This girl is practicing her posing for future “I’m bored what should we do?  I know let’s take pictures!” photoshoots when she is a teenager.

Before

After

Chloe is 27 inches and 17.5 pounds.  At this size, she is only two pounds and two inches away from needing a new carseat.  Because of this, I have been researching carseats so that I can watch and buy the one I want on sale.  (That saved us a lot of money when we were originally buying for her before she was born).  Anyway, I have been looking for a convertible one that goes rear facing until 30/35 lbs and then forward facing until 40 lbs.  I think I have found one and I am going to buy the evenflo triumph.

Legally, it is required that she ride rear facing until 20 lbs AND one year old.  However, it is reccommended that they ride rear facing until they are at least 30 lbs.  It is safer for the child and puts less strain on their neck should you be in an accident.  Here are a couple videos with facts and some crash tests.  Rear facing is safest until 30 lbs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRP7ynNI8mI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2DVfqFhseo&feature=related

Also in all my research, I found this article on snowsuits and car seats.  I recently bought Chloe a thin but warm fleece snowsuit at Old Navy that we will be using.  In my opinion it is better to have to warm up the car a little longer or stay home on those -50 days (who really wants to leave the house then anyway?), then risk something happening, especially in Calgary where nobody knows how to drive.

http://babyproducts.about.com/od/carseats/a/carseatcoat.htm

With the election coming up I have been hearing and seeing a lot of advertisements for the different political parties and they are horrible.  They remind me of Coke and Pepsi commercials.  Pepsi insists on bashing Coke in their commercials, whereas Coke just states how good it is.  The political party commercials that I have seen (mostly NDP) are like Pepsi commercials.  They just tell my why Stephen Harper and the Conservative party are bad.  They don’t tell me why they are good and therefore give me no reason whatsoever to vote for them.  All I know is that they are able to badmouth their competition.  Congratulations.  Any idoit can do that.  This is not helpful when trying to decide how to vote.

Another problem with this election is that they are not sending out any information.  In our area, we only have green party and conservative signs up.  I have no idea who is even running for the other two parties.  I remember when I still lived with my parents we used to get pamphlets and flyers from pretty much all the candidates in our area.  We have chosen not to have cable and therefore only get CBC properly.  Occasionally we can get CTV and CItyTV.  Because of this, I was not able to see the debate and we do not see many other things about what each party is promoting.  I could watch it on the news, but they usually put that stuff on later in the hour and by that time I am getting Chloe ready for bed, so I can’t be watching the news. 

So in short, if you want me to vote for you, stop badmouthing the competition and give me some information.

I wanted to go for a walk.  Chloe wanted to cry.  Fortunately the leaves were exciting enough to distract her long enough for me to take some pictures, but not exciting enough to take away the soother.  We cut our walk short and cut through the park.

I try to take Chloe for a walk everyday (except the gross rainy or gross way too hot ones).  Today, we went for a walk.  It was beautiful.  The leaves are changing colour and are starting to fall.  It even smells like fall and I decided that fall is my favourite season.  It is pretty and not too cold or too hot.  (I’m like Goldilocks).  Also, you can wear a bunnyhug and jeans without feeling too hot.  One of these days, I am going to take Chloe and my camera and go play in the leaves. 

Anyway, as I was walking down the path looking at the beautiful scenery, my eye caught something not so beautiful.  On the ground, within 15 feet of the garbage can were numerous cigarette packages, gum packages, fast food cups, broken glass (in more than just one spot) and other garbage.  Now, I am not a big environmentalist.  We recycle some stuff but not all.  I use disposable diapers and bottle liners, and none of our cleaning supplies are “green”.  Still, I wonder how hard is it to carry that McDonald’s cup 12 more steps and put it in the garbage, or stop at the garbage can while you open your cigarettes.  The city worked to put out numerous garbage cans, so why not use them.  That is what they are for.

Also, Happy Birthday Leah! Congratulations Mark and Emily!  Welcome Baby Abagail Jane!