Tag Archives: Quinn

At home with the kids for the summer – The things you learn

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So, for those of you who don’t already know, I was laid off from my job at Deloitte in June. An absolute gift really as now I’m at home with the kids for the summer with a nice severance and enjoying them tons more than my 2-3 weeks holidays would have allowed… not to mention the hours were less than desirable at busy season and the manager I directly reported to did not appreciate my lust for life, as I’m pretty sure she loathed her own. A wonderful work environment. No?

So as any stay at home mom can attest to, when the house is full all day long the cleaning is much greater than when the house empties for the day. More meals to prep, more traffic, more activities.(No slight to the working mom, I was one of those too, and there are different struggles with that dynamic, no question – for example, “For the love of God and all that’s holy, why can’t I require less sleep and gain 6 hours in my day?”)

With that in mind, there are things that Court would do while I was working like the composting for example. He’d empty it every other day and from my perspective, magically the composter would be empty whenever required and I never had to manage it – Awesome! I never realized exactly HOW awesome that was until recently .

Like I said, there is more food prep and more activity now that we are all home, so our indoor composting bucket needs more dumping than it ever has before. As a result I asked Quinn to go dump the bucket a few days ago and he did. He said nothing of the event until I asked his brother a day or two later to do the same thing.
Q – “Cael, there are these lichens in there.”
Me – “what?”
Q – “Little white worms.”
Me – “Oh, maggots, I better go and check it out with you Cael”

So off the three of us go. Yes the three of us. I head out of course, as the leader, to see the degree of the situation (there is probably 30 or 40 in there, and I make a mental note to talk to Court about that). Cael was tasked with the dumping, so he is taking his job very seriously, and Quinn, our “lichen” expert is joining us out of sheer morbid curiosity.

Like the three musketeers we begin our adventure to the composter that is now in the middle of the driveway, and in plain view of the entire neighbourhood because it is city compost day. We all cozy up to the composter, and I show Cael with care how to maneuver the latch on the bin and I flip it up.
….

This is the part where I scream louder than I’ve EVER screamed, to the detriment of my own eardrums. The boys in suit scream like the girl that is their mother, and with new compost flinging everywhere from the bucket in Cael’s hand we all run to the front porch and cling to it like grim death. This became the unspoken “home base” we all needed.

What scared us? Maggots. There was no green to be seen inside that bin. They literally, no lie, swarmed out of the sides as daylight shone upon them, and when I released the lid in my screaming panic, it actually squished hundreds that poured out onto the rim. It was a horror show in a bin. I am gagging as I type this tale to you all.
…

Quinn is the first to break the silence that fear has imposed upon us as we all stare at each other through eyes like dinner plates.
Q – “Mom?”
Through thick swallows and a heaving chest providing the cleansing breaths that only a “home base” away from the maggots can provide I reply with a strong and solid “yeah?”
Q- “Um, you’re the parent…and you screamed and ran.”

Not a proud moment for sure. Thanks, and here’s a shout out to Captain Obvious for pointing that out. All I can do at this point is start a nervous and uncontrollable giggle at my epic fail to be the strong force that should protect my kids. “That’s right kids, every man for himself! Run like the wind, and GOD HELP YOU if you bring one in on your shoe!”

Quinn, who is always ready with a comment (not unlike his father), “I’ll bet that was really funny for anyone watching.”

We all of course laughed hysterically reenacting our ridiculousness because there is no way in hell, every neighbour would miss running to their windows to witness the display that followed three blood curdling screams. We all shone that day. Even Courtney. Go ahead … ask me how he also shone. Oh you crazy rapscallions have convinced me. …

Me – “Court, you wouldn’t believe what happened!” (I regale him with the horrific story over the phone)
Court -[snort, chuckle, guffaw] – “Um, [snicker snicker], honey…[snort snort]… it’s a COM-PO-STER”
…Think Sesame Street on that last sentence.
Me – (Another shout out to Captain Obvious) “I KNOW Huh-NEE…. but we have Kanata’s full maggot population in just OUR bin! What are we going to do?”
Court -[snort, chuckle, guffaw] – “Well sweetheart if you think you can singlehandedly circumvent the circle of life….[snort, chuckle, guffaw]”
….

So it was decided that I would NEVER do the composting again until winter. In my defense Quinn will attest that when he went to the composter originally there was only about 30-40 in there.

On another note… with the support I received from Court… there will be a surprise for him to follow. Perhaps one that will make it to the blog in the near future. Muhwahahahahaha!

A Total Blast From the Past….

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I was sifting through some old emails last night that I had archived and came upon this little gem that I sent out to a chosen few back when I was carrying Quinn. It made me laugh to remember exactly how in tune I was to what people said, did, and how they acted around me. Enjoy.
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Nicole Vallentyne wrote:
So…
It would seem that yesterday and today mark the dawn of a new phase in pregnancy, and quite frankly, my least favourite.  This new phase I will refer to as gigantism.  Let me give you a few examples of how I am aware I have hit this particular phase.

Yesterday I am all set to leave the house and pick up Jordynn on the corner from the bus.  On my way I run into a neighbour that I haven’t seen in a few weeks.  Upon seeing me he says, “WHOA-HO!   When are you due?” To which I reply, “About 2 weeks.”  The conversation is ended with him wishing me luck.  Luck how I wonder?

Not even five minutes pass when I see my other neighbour Louise, who says upon seeing me, “OH MY GOD NIKKI!YOUR STOMACH IS SOOO BIG!  You look like you’re going to explode.  That is a big baby.  Oh you poor dear.”

Thanks a million!

So then we have today to reinforce any doubt I may have had about entering this new phase.  Court and I go out for lunch, and I return from a restroom trip only to find many individuals unabashedly staring at me.  Not staring at me in that adoring way of saying,   “Oh, how wonderful.  She’s carrying a new life within.”  Oh no, it’s more like a gawking   “Good Heavens!”   kind of look.

Again, thanks a million!

To top it all off though, and this one really takes the friggin’ cake; I go into Bouclair today to pick up some material for a project I’m working on for Jordy’s room.  To make a long story short, I had some material put aside from another store I was at in order to get all that I needed.  As soon as I walk in, I quietly ask a lady at the cutting counter, “Excuse me, do you have a washroom?”

To which she yells at another worker at the other end of the store, “CAN YOU TAKE HER TO THE BATHROOM, SHE NEEDS TO GO!”

Great.  So this other girl sees me (somehow) and says, “Are you the lady here for the white eyelet?”

I naively say, “Yes, how did you know?”

She replies, “Fern called and said that you were pregnant and big, and that I couldn’t miss you.”

All I could do was smile, and walk up to her and say, “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE WHO ABSENTMINDEDLY FLAP YOUR CAKEHOLES AT WOMEN IN THE GIGANTISM PHASE OF PREGNANCY?!?!?!?!!??”

…Unfortunately, that is NOT the correct ending of the story, however it is fun to fantasize about.  All is correct except the last sentence where I actually responded, “Great.”

I pity the poor bastard that says one more thing to me today about my gigantism condition.  I swear to God I’ll go hormonal.

That is all.  Thanks for allowing me that little rant.
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I love you forever…

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Well after reading Court’s blog about no content for a while, y’know what with that whole work thing getting in the way, I thought I would take a minute to contribute one of my rare posts. Now, let’s see what EVER would I post about? …Right.  Kids of course.

Here is a little taste of the young sweetness that I’m gratefully surrounded by.

Let’s start with our little ham Cael:

Cael and I were talking and cuddling and he decided after a while that he wanted to head downstairs and play with some toys while I folded laundry.  Before going downstairs he paused on the top step towards the basement and says, “I love you forever mom.”

To which I reply, “I love you forever too, Little Man.”

“No like I REALLY love you, like forever and ever when we are dead and in our Heaven Suits!”

Kay, so now I’m REALLY curious.  I have to find out more about this.  So I say, “Heaven Suits huh?  What do our heaven suits look like?”

Cael looks at me like ‘Are you kidding me?’ and says, “Y’know, they’re like blue dresses and we have that circle thing on our heads.”

What can  I say at this point, I should have known what this heaven suit looks like obviously, seems that everyone does according to Cael.  So I simply replied, “Oh, of course.  I love you in my heaven suit too.”

Then there is Quinn:

Quinn is a more serious sort.  Not too serious, just a “one mood” kind of guy.  He’s so easy going and takes everything in stride.  He loves to be loved up, and expresses himself conservatively, which is a bit of a contrast to his exuberant younger brother.  When he does throw you a bone though (and it happens often), you definitely know he means it and wants you to know how he feels.  So with that in mind, I’ll share with you the bone he threw me recently.  He was in bed one night and I was tucking him in .  I was kissing his face and then proceeded to nibble on his ears while he giggled. Then he says, “Mom, please don’t nibble on my ear.”

He was giggling so I was confused by the request.  “Why do you want me to stop nibbling on your ears Quinn?”

Insert throwing of bone, “Because I can’t hear all the beautiful things you have to say.”

Well guess which one of us turned into a melted puddle.  I’ll give you a hint….not Quinn.  What a doll.

Our sweet and ever growing up Jordy:

Last, but certainly not least, I have to share something about Jordy.  You may recall before how I was mentioning what a big person she is.  Well that continues on a daily basis. I learn from her a lot.  We all do.  She’s got an old soul and a heart of gold.  The thing I guess I’m most grateful for is that she still wants to hang out with Mom sometimes.  We had given her a lot of room with managing her own workload, at her request…and it didn’t go as smoothly as it could have.  She said later, it’s better when we are on her about this stuff.  What kid would say, “yeah, you were right, I need you to help me.”  This kid would.  We are pretty proud of her.  It is March break and she is staying in Cornwall until Thursday.  She asked me before she left, “Mom, can we do something just me and you on Thursday when I get back?”

Music to a mother’s ears to hear her teenager choose to spend quality time with her.

This is one proud mom, signing off for now.  I’ve got some Green Rice Krispies to make and some Shamrock face painting to do!   I love March Break. I can’t wait for summer holidays. 🙂

They think I can save THE WORLD!!!

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Hey people,

Yeah, the periodic post, after promising I’d be here more often. Whadda-ya-gunna-do? Well summer is here for the most part. That will mean that with the kids home all day everyday, my posts will be even less frequent.

Jordynn’s last day of school will be on the 24th. Quinn’s will be on the 25th and Cael’s last day EVER of preschool will be tomorrow. Littlest man of the house graduates from preschool and prepares to join Quinn at the elementary school in September. He’s looking forward to that as it means a bus ride to school instead of “Mom’s Taxi Service”. I think “Mom’s Taxi Service” (MTS) provides better service but who can really compete with a 4 year olds lust to ride the muggy, metal, yellow tube?

This graduation (of sorts) will be bittersweet for him I imagine seeing as the two loves of his life are not joining him at the same school next year. Me being a dogan means we have the kids in the Catholic system. His girlfriends won’t be at the same school. I’m not sure if he’s figured this out yet or not. Good thing their mom and I have become friends, that way he gets to see them regularly (hopefully!) without having to depend on school.

A little conversation I heard in the back row of the van a week or so ago went something like this:

Q-“Cael, why do your girlfriends always want to play with you?”

C-“Well Quinn, (snicker snicker) they think I can save the world.”

[insert them both having a good yuk over this and through giggling chatter they say]

Q-“But Cael…You CAN’T save the WORLD!!!” (snicker snicker)

C-“YEAH! I KNOW!” (Laugh laugh snicker snicker)

I know for a fact that these girls are smarter than these two chuckleheads give them credit for. This could mean that these girls are well on their way to understanding what it means to feed a man’s ego. God love them!

More later!