I'm finding the best time to write is between bedtimes. As long as Patrick is home too, otherwise forget about taking 10 minutes for myself! Rose starts her bedtime at 7 or so, and if she's having a good night we're done by 7:15 - but if it's a "bad" night (or I waited too long to start bed and she's overtired) it can be drawn out for 30 or 45 minutes. On the bright side Emma is quite patient and easily entertained on those nights where I'm busy for-what-feels-like-ever with Food TV or YouTube or some other screen time thing.
I find it interesting how bedtime routines change over the small child lifetime. I started this journey with a baby who would only nurse to sleep, and then would only stay asleep while being held - god forbid you set baby Emma down when you thought she was asleep. A baby swing was a huge help, but you can't let your baby sleep in one of those all night! Napping basically only happened in the car and we co-slept with her so she could nurse to sleep and then not be moved. That was a rough habit to break, but looking back now I barely remember it. Likely because she had a lot of endurance and would cry for an hour (or more) at night before she learned how to self soothe. But she did, and now her "bedtime" is actually a very long process as she and Rose start at about the same time (7pm) but she isn't actually in bed ready to sleep until 8 or slightly after. She usually has her Dad time where they read books together and then watch her cooking shows that she loves. Once I'm done with Rose I can escape to my blog if there's time left, otherwise I watch a few minutes of tv with them and then read Emma a story or two, have "conversations" for a few minutes and then turn out her light - or at least say goodnight if she's not entirely tired and she'll "read" for a bit and turn out her own light when she's done. The change is night and day with her.
Rose went the other way - she started out as a great baby. You could nurse her, take her off, burp her, change her, whatever and she'd be happy to be laid down sleepy but awake and just nod off on her own. We used a soother a bit with her but then she found her thumb, and now we're working at breaking that habit (although not too hard, yet.) Then she got older and more demanding as a 2 and 3 year old where I got stuck reading 5 to 10 books a night, because I knew if I just read them I could then get out and move on to Emma - otherwise Rose would cry and carry on and keep coming out of her room and not sleeping. I'd try occasionally to put my foot down, but the sad, teary face broke my heart every time and I'd give in. But thankfully she's grown out of that phase and we are down to 2 books a night (3 if she chooses her "barn books" which are in a cardboard barn as a set so of course you have to read them all...) then kisses and goodnight.
Bedtime can be the sweetest time of day when you get one-on-on time with each child. You can have a few quiet minutes talking about how the was and how you had fun together. I know as they get older bedtimes will change again and they won't need the longer Mommy time and I will surely miss it. I guess I'll have to try harder to soak it in and not rush through it as I'm wont to do on the million-story evenings.
Toodles!
Sunday 31 May 2015
Saturday 30 May 2015
Saturday Mornings
Saturday mornings are our "young dancer" mornings. Both my girls dance, but Emma has graduated out of the young dancer program at the dance studio, so she dances Monday nights in 2 genres. The end of year performance is upcoming and all the dancers are working hard to make everything look beautiful. Rose really enjoys watching the graceful teenagers rehearse and perform. Kingston School of Dance is a great non-competitive dance school that concentrates on each person and their personal achievements. I hope the girls decide to continue with dance for a few years yet, but I know it may not be so. They are both strong minded individuals and I'm sure they will let me know, in no uncertain terms, when they are "done" with dance.Strangely neither daughter has expressed an interest in sports. Emma talks about her friends who play soccer, or do gymnastics, but she seems to have no inclination toward sports - or at least not yet. I suspect when gym classes become more about sports and less about tag that may change. She goes to a small school so I feel if she wants to play a sport she may not have a hard time getting onto a team. I remember playing soccer and basketball in elementary school - I only made the teams because they needed everyone who expressed an interest. I had fun, but sports are not really my thing, so they come by it honestly! But I sit at dance and I watch all the dancers and I think I should enrol myself as they all look so graceful and beautiful.
Toodles!
PS - I'm not sure why the text is all centered, but I'm still figuring out this Blogger thing, so bear with me!
Friday 29 May 2015
Kids and Food
I don't know about anyone else out there, but my kids are really weird eaters. And I don't just mean food choices. Tonight we had the noodles cooking and the sauce heating and Rose knew all this but asked "can I eat something before?"
"No Rose, you have to wait for dinner."
"But I'm hungry right now!" in that perfectly whiny way all kids perfect at some point. "I want letters in a bowl!" (She means Alpha Bits)
So I give in and she eats a small bowl of dry Alpha Bits, with some help from Emma. Then she asks for more "but with milk."
Cereal isn't going to hurt her, so I say "Ok, but you still have to eat your dinner," and we put out the watermelon she usually eats with cereal in the morning with it. (She definitely had some of that too.)
"Ok, I will."
When we look back both the girls have a spoon and are eating out of the same bowl of cereal and milk.
"Emma, why are you eating out of Rose's bowl? If you want some you can have your own."
"But this one is already here," she says. Kid logic, right? So they just happily keep eating out of the same bowl.
Cut to dinner time (about 5 minutes after they ate the cereal) and Emma is whining about wanting to play Play-Doh and they both seem to have forgotten we haven't actually eaten dinner yet. But, lo and behold, they both eat spaghetti like champs. Rose had a bowl of noodles with sauce and a bowl of noodles with butter and Emma ate a bowl of sauce "on the side, Mommy" which she then drizzled over her first bowl of noodles with butter. Then she continued on to have another bowl of noodles with butter and ate a decent portion of the meat sauce out of the "side" bowl. Why they couldn't have just waited that extra 15 minutes I will never know. I guess I just don't remember being a kid and being SO HUNGRY that you just can't wait.
Toodles!
"No Rose, you have to wait for dinner."
"But I'm hungry right now!" in that perfectly whiny way all kids perfect at some point. "I want letters in a bowl!" (She means Alpha Bits)
So I give in and she eats a small bowl of dry Alpha Bits, with some help from Emma. Then she asks for more "but with milk."
Cereal isn't going to hurt her, so I say "Ok, but you still have to eat your dinner," and we put out the watermelon she usually eats with cereal in the morning with it. (She definitely had some of that too.)
"Ok, I will."
When we look back both the girls have a spoon and are eating out of the same bowl of cereal and milk.
"Emma, why are you eating out of Rose's bowl? If you want some you can have your own."
"But this one is already here," she says. Kid logic, right? So they just happily keep eating out of the same bowl.
Cut to dinner time (about 5 minutes after they ate the cereal) and Emma is whining about wanting to play Play-Doh and they both seem to have forgotten we haven't actually eaten dinner yet. But, lo and behold, they both eat spaghetti like champs. Rose had a bowl of noodles with sauce and a bowl of noodles with butter and Emma ate a bowl of sauce "on the side, Mommy" which she then drizzled over her first bowl of noodles with butter. Then she continued on to have another bowl of noodles with butter and ate a decent portion of the meat sauce out of the "side" bowl. Why they couldn't have just waited that extra 15 minutes I will never know. I guess I just don't remember being a kid and being SO HUNGRY that you just can't wait.
Toodles!
Thursday 28 May 2015
This Evening's Amusement
Words overheard in the bath tonight - "Rosie, pour a bucket of water in my butt" - I'm not too sure why or how that came about, but often bathtimes create interesting conversations. Sometimes very loud singing when Emma lays down with her ears under the water and tries to hear herself sing. Also there is usually a lot of yelling over toys or who gets to pour with the bucket, and it always ends with a fight over the towels. We have two "regular" bath towels - one has Harry Potter on it, and the other Tinkerbell. You would think my girlie girls would fight over who gets Tink, but it's Harry Potter who is more popular. The HP towel was mine from when HP was new...I think I should get to use it, but that's not how being a mom works sometimes.
Someone's calling - gotta go.
Toodles!
Someone's calling - gotta go.
Toodles!
They grow up so fast
Tonight Rose has her Kindergarten orientation...and I have to miss it. Sometimes being a working mom is great, but not when you have to miss the important things. Heck, sometimes sharing the parenting duties is hard to do. Watching Patrick brush their hair differently than I do can sometimes cause me great anxiety too! I've learned to let him do things his way, but sometimes the wife-y nag still slips out. I know I should be happy he's doing these things even if it's not the way *I*'d do it...
I am very excited to hear what Rose thinks of this gathering this afternoon at school. She has been so much more vocal about everything in her life thus far. Emma has always been a quiet girl. She always told me school was "boring" and nothing happened there. Now she is in grade 1 and she does come home and tell me more things, but she is still not a "chatty Cathy." Rose talks all the time and at great length about who was at daycare and what they did and where they went, and I am desperately hoping this continues into school!
Rose is excited and apprehensive about this next stage in her life. I share her feelings. I can't believe my baby is 4 and will be getting on the school bus with her big sister next year!
Toodles!
I am very excited to hear what Rose thinks of this gathering this afternoon at school. She has been so much more vocal about everything in her life thus far. Emma has always been a quiet girl. She always told me school was "boring" and nothing happened there. Now she is in grade 1 and she does come home and tell me more things, but she is still not a "chatty Cathy." Rose talks all the time and at great length about who was at daycare and what they did and where they went, and I am desperately hoping this continues into school!
Rose is excited and apprehensive about this next stage in her life. I share her feelings. I can't believe my baby is 4 and will be getting on the school bus with her big sister next year!
Toodles!
Wednesday 27 May 2015
Encouraging Young Talent
Emma's "new talent" course is having a photoshoot coming up next month. As a registered member of this agency she pretty much has to go and get her headshots done if we want to try to recoup any of the money that we paid for her to take this course. The hope is when she is finished with the course she will be "promoted" for commercials, magazine work, even actual acting jobs or fashion shoots which will pay her (us!) some money and she will have a blast doing it. The kicker is that this photoshoot with a top fashion photographer is $500 once you get the photos for your portfolio, which you need to show potential recruiters.
She is so excited by the prospect of having a special photographer take her picture. Almost as excited as she is to have a stylist help her put together outfits and hair styles. I am overwhelmed by the whole thing. It's all very interesting and Emma has already learned more etiquette that I would have taught her at home, as well as how to walk on a runway and design her own runway routine. She's made new friends and is seeming a little more outgoing these days, but I'm worried she's going to expect too much out of this.
We have already discussed the outshell of money needed to continue marketing Emma at the agency. There are fees for all sorts of things, including the online "job boards" that the agency uses to find jobs to match the talent. We are going to give this a year and then decide if it's worth continuing. If she is having fun and making enough money to cover the fees than we will continue for sure, but if she's not easily marketed then we may cut our losses. My other concern (of which I have quite a few!) is that she'll be easily marketed and she'll have so many offers we won't know what to choose! It's unfortunate that most of the jobs will be in Toronto, which is 2 hours (more if it's downtown) from home, and Patrick (my husband) and I both work full-time. Luckily I have a fantastic boss and workplace that allows flexibility for my hours, but if I don't work I don't get paid!
I never imagined, when Emma was a tiny baby who only nursed or cried non-stop, that my life would get easier, but also infinitely more complicated, as she got older - and so quickly too!
Toodles!
She is so excited by the prospect of having a special photographer take her picture. Almost as excited as she is to have a stylist help her put together outfits and hair styles. I am overwhelmed by the whole thing. It's all very interesting and Emma has already learned more etiquette that I would have taught her at home, as well as how to walk on a runway and design her own runway routine. She's made new friends and is seeming a little more outgoing these days, but I'm worried she's going to expect too much out of this.
We have already discussed the outshell of money needed to continue marketing Emma at the agency. There are fees for all sorts of things, including the online "job boards" that the agency uses to find jobs to match the talent. We are going to give this a year and then decide if it's worth continuing. If she is having fun and making enough money to cover the fees than we will continue for sure, but if she's not easily marketed then we may cut our losses. My other concern (of which I have quite a few!) is that she'll be easily marketed and she'll have so many offers we won't know what to choose! It's unfortunate that most of the jobs will be in Toronto, which is 2 hours (more if it's downtown) from home, and Patrick (my husband) and I both work full-time. Luckily I have a fantastic boss and workplace that allows flexibility for my hours, but if I don't work I don't get paid!
I never imagined, when Emma was a tiny baby who only nursed or cried non-stop, that my life would get easier, but also infinitely more complicated, as she got older - and so quickly too!
Toodles!
First Post!
Welcome to 2 Talented Daughters.
My hope is to share my experiences raising two young girls in a time when nothing you do seems to be the right thing. Currently my daughters are 4 and 6 and I am trying desperately to allow them "free range" while at the same time monitoring everything they're doing. They are blonde, beautiful happy girls and I want them to always be happy (of course!) but also safe, smart, and open to every new idea and experience.
Currently the girls are taking dance lessons and Emma, my oldest, is partway through a local acting/modelling/new talent course. I am starting to feel self-conscious about my own look and bearing as these girls are going to surpass me in grace, fashion and poise very soon. Some people would criticize me for only enrolling them in "girl" activities (and modelling at age 6? Am I nuts?) but they chose these courses for themselves. I'm fully convinced Rose (my 4 year old) will make it clear to us soon what she is interested in trying out - she is much more spirited and vocal than Emma has been so far in her life!
Please visit often as I have grand plans for this blog - and leave many comments (good or bad) including ideas or other things you want to hear about that are going on in my daughter's lives.
Toodles!
~Jess
My hope is to share my experiences raising two young girls in a time when nothing you do seems to be the right thing. Currently my daughters are 4 and 6 and I am trying desperately to allow them "free range" while at the same time monitoring everything they're doing. They are blonde, beautiful happy girls and I want them to always be happy (of course!) but also safe, smart, and open to every new idea and experience.
Currently the girls are taking dance lessons and Emma, my oldest, is partway through a local acting/modelling/new talent course. I am starting to feel self-conscious about my own look and bearing as these girls are going to surpass me in grace, fashion and poise very soon. Some people would criticize me for only enrolling them in "girl" activities (and modelling at age 6? Am I nuts?) but they chose these courses for themselves. I'm fully convinced Rose (my 4 year old) will make it clear to us soon what she is interested in trying out - she is much more spirited and vocal than Emma has been so far in her life!
Please visit often as I have grand plans for this blog - and leave many comments (good or bad) including ideas or other things you want to hear about that are going on in my daughter's lives.
Toodles!
~Jess
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