I’ve been sitting on this for a while, not really knowing what I want to do with it, so here you go.

(Totally NOT pregnant.)

(Although this is kind of like a fourth child.)

It’s finished! Here’s my completed advent calendar (click to enlarge):

Hopefully the little pictures are easy to identify.

You may be wondering why we have a monkey, a sheep, and a brown bear on the calendar – those are felt-based representations of my three kids’ special sleep buddies. They are incredibly excited to have a calendar slot for their special friends. BIG PLANS are being made for the amazing super special things that will happen on those days.

If you have a favourite slot, let me know – I’m just curious. My own favourite changes every day.

I took this photo before I added the slips of paper that have our daily activity on them. The slips are a bright yellow and they stick out a bit, so you can see how many days are left. Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

Here’s our list of activities for this year. I found it really hard this year because school goes right up to the 23rd. I usually plan some exciting day trips and playdates for the week before Christmas but we can’t do that this year – instead, since we have to fit in the activities around homework and lessons and the usual daily grind, we’re doing smaller things this year.

Also, there’s only three weekends available, and two of those were booked with major parties, so again, it really limited our daytripping. I’m sure we’re going to have a good time, though!

Hang our stockings and put up the tree.

Make Christmas cards for your grandparents.

Ballet Show – A Little Princess. [Ed. note: The ballet show is at Centrepointe on December 3rd, and it’s a good show for smaller ballet fans as it’s fairly short and features lots of kids. But if your kids are older, you might consider The Nutcracker at the NAC, which is on the same day.]

Wii Sports Resort Family Battle!

Make peppermint bark. [Ed. note: my recipe is at the bottom of this post – it’s a great recipe for even the smallest of kids because smashing candy canes with a hammer is universal.]

Go to see Santa at the mall; take a toy to Toy Mountain.

Donate to your favourite charity.

Make a map on the floor.

Make a book about Christmas.

Museum of Civilization

Family Swim

Wrap a present for your brother or sister.

Cuddle up and read books with Mommy.

Decorate a Gingerbread House. [Ed. note: this one might be turfed if I can’t find a good egg-free recipe for icing that will actually hold the thing together. Keep you fingers crossed!]

Make paper snowflakes to hang in the window.

Watch a Christmas movie with popcorn and chips.

Go see a movie at the movie theatre.

Disney Live! With Belle, Cinderella, and Snow White – or, watch Star Wars movie of your choice at home [Ed. note: The show is at Scotiabank place and there’s a couple showings, if you’re interested; this is not an on-ice show.]

Dance Party!

Family Games Night.

Stargazing at Museum of Science [Ed. note: It’s at 7 p.m., hopefully the Little Miss makes it without having a total meltdown. If you want to come out for this event, it’s free but you have to register – see the Museum of Science website.]

Go for a drive to look at Christmas lights.

Get dressed up for a fancy dinner.

Bake cookies for Santa.

Waffles for breakfast!

Alternates – in case any problems arise, or we get an unexpected deep snowfall, I can make a night-before swap out with any of these:

Sledding!
Upper Canada Village – Alight at Night [Really wanted to do this one this year, but the lack of available days for day trips pushed it out to next year]
Have hot chocolate with marshmallows [Nice and easy for days when everyone is cranky]
Bubble bath in the big tub
Build a really amazing train track under the tree.
Make a fort in the front room.
Make a puppet show for daddy. [This one was a HUGE hit last year, but I wanted to take a year off, to keep it fresh]
Make rice krispie squares.
Play pin the nose on the snowman.
Family Skate.
Make your own playdoh.
Go to the library and get books about Christmas.
Take a night walk.
Paint on snow with food color and squirt bottles.
Paint a giant mural on the floor.

I’m excited, although reading over this list is making me tired. I better get my shopping done, stat!

Sir Monkeypants has been down in Southern Ontario for a couple of days, helping his sister move. I can count on one hand the number of nights I’ve had all three kids without Sir Monkeypants being here. Those of you with spouses who travel regularly just threw up a bit, didn’t you? Trust me, I know how lucky I am.

A year or so ago, the thought of him going out of town would have caused me to panic. It wasn’t the physical work I was afraid of, the shlepping around of three kids to various events, the complex juggling act of getting all three into bed at a reasonable time. Rather, it was the mental stress that scared me – no one there to give you a break when you’ve reached the point of exhaustion, no one to get up at night with the third kid after you’ve already seen two of them, no one to tell you to step off, lady, when you’re turning into Mommy The Grouch.

This time, though, I knew everything would be okay.

Saturday was our day to carpool to soccer, so I loaded up one boy from each of the houses beside ours, plus one boy and two girls of our own – thank heavens for the minivan! – and took everyone to soccer. The boys were good, the girls were bored but we managed. Everything was fine.

When we got home, my lovely neighbour Lori, mother to one of the soccer boys, told me she hadn’t realized I was on my own this weekend, and now she was worried about us. How long would Sir Monkeypants be away? How was I managing? And did I want to send the kids over on Sunday, so I could have a break?

And you know what I told her? I was okay. And I really was. The kids were so good. They played together happily. They listened when I talked. They were happy to give me some computer time while they invented new games and created imaginary worlds and laughed uproariously while shooting each other during a video game.

I told Lori all that and she was amazed. Your kids are good, she said.

Trust me, I know how lucky I am.

This post is part of Brie’s Monday Moments series over at Capital Mom. This week’s prompt was Absent.

It’s my birthday today, and also a PD day. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing, or a bad thing, but so far, I’d say it’s leaning towards the plus side.

For starters, I didn’t have to make lunches, which is a huge, giant, golden egg of a gift in and of itself. Without the usual morning rush, the kids were able to toddle about in jammies for a few hours and everything felt relaxed and fun. So that was good.

Plus there were presents – pie related presents! I am a happy pie maker today.

So far the kids and I have been to the movies (Puss in Boots, nothing outstanding but at least it wasn’t actively offensive like the Smurfs – and in fact, upon reflection, I actually liked it even better than the Shrek movies which I find a little manic and too-too clever at times), then we got take out for lunch and had a picnic on the floor, which was good.

Plans for this afternoon: cake making, napping, mad Playmobil party. Tonight: WORLD TRIVIA NIGHT, best night of the year.

So overall – despite the tickle at the back of my throat which is DEFINITELY NOT the start of the cold that the Little Miss has – it’s been a good day. And it’s getting even better.

Turns out PD days and birthdays go rather nicely together.

I’ve been AWOL! No blogging, no twittering, no Facebooking. So thought I better check in and let you all know that I am still alive! And thriving! Just busy.

After the first week of November I woke up one morning and realized that out of NOWHERE, Christmas is coming. I like to have all my shopping done by December first because I cannot STAND the mall in December. I get hot and cranky and dehydrated and there is no joy there for anyone. One problem with shopping early is that everyone always changes their mind between mid-November to the end-of-December as to what they would like. But this year I said, I DON’T CARE, and saw stuff on sale so I bought it. I’m in good shape, about 75% done I’d say, and I like that.

Another reason to do all the shopping early is that, for the past couple of years, I’ve done Andrea’s advent calendar idea, where we do a family activity each day while counting down to Christmas. I didn’t think the kids cared about it one way or the other – half the time they complain when I tell them the day’s activity – but last year when I was thinking of giving it up, there was SUPER WHINING, and it seems it has been cemented as a solid family tradition now for years to come.

So last year the little envelopes we had been using to hold the day’s activity were getting shabby, and rather than make a new set out of paper I started to think that something more permanent would be better. So I shopped and shopped and shopped online for the perfect advent calendar. I looked at ones with boxes and ones with pockets and ones with magnets and more.

But none were absolutely perfect, so what is a perfectionist like me to do? Make her own, that’s what!

So that’s really where I’ve been these past two weeks – sewing and sewing and sewing. I am OBSESSED with my advent calendar. It’s been 30+ hours of work so far and I’m still only 80% done. It’s going well – the pockets came out great but the numbers were a bugger and this morning I’m sewing down the pockets and they aren’t so much straight as forming gently rolling hills, but WHATEVER.

Family heirlooms should have that homemade touch of imperfection, right? Ah who am I kidding, the slanty number 4 is going to bug me forever.

A quick peek at the unfinished project:

FameThrowa likes this gingerbread man the best:

While Sir Monkeypants is partial to this little Christmas tree:

I love them all like my little children but this candle did turn out exceptionally well:

And that is all for today – the sewing machine beckons. More photos when it’s all done and I resurface for air.

I am having a communication issue with the kids’ school right now, and it is very frustrating.

My problem is that my older two kids have food allergies, and last year I expressed some concerns I had to the school about their food allergy procedures. I had three concrete requests for changes that I asked the school to address in this new school year.

Now, if they do not want to do those things, or do not have the budget or time to do those things, they should just tell me that. But their problem is that these things I have asked to have changed are part of the School Board’s official policy on allergies, so they really should be changed. But they are hard to change, so the school keeps telling me they are taking it under advisement and looking into it and considering their options, while they do nothing.

I don’t want to harass them because I know, trust me, I know, that teaching and administrating at a school is a very, very tough job. In addition to the long hours and dealing with kids day in and day out, there’s all the pressure from parents to do this or that, and once you let a hundred other people start telling you how to do your job, you find yourself in a position where you can’t do anything.

So I have decided to stop bothering the school with my requests because it is clear that nothing is going to be changed, and I know they do care about what I think and they do care about making the school a safe and happy environment and they are working very hard, but they can’t figure this all out, and so be it.

But I have also decided to write a post about it, because one of the things I wanted was a letter to be sent home to parents in my kids’ classes about their allergies. And this letter was not, ABSOLUTELY NOT, intended to ask those parents not to send certain foods to school, because I know it is completely unrealistic to ask non-allergy families to try to pack a lunch for their kid that does not contain nuts, peanuts, milk, eggs, soy, sunflower seeds, coconut, lentils, or chickpeas.

Rather, this letter was intended to let the parents know of a few small, simple things they could do to help. Because I really believe that if non-allergy families were told some concrete ways that they could make the world a safer place, that they would do that.

Here’s what I wanted the letter to say:

This is just a note to let you know that a student in your child’s class has the following food allergies: peanuts, milk, eggs, soy, coconut, lentils, and chickpeas. Please note that we are not asking you to eliminate these foods from your child’s lunch.

However, to help keep the school a safe place, you can do the following to help.

If your child has these foods for breakfast, ask them to brush their teeth and wash their hands before coming to school.

Teach your child not to share or trade lunch food, and to always eat lunch at their own desk.

Encourage your child to wash their hands after eating, with soap and water, to avoid the spread of allergens to common class areas.

And that is all. End PSA.

On Halloween, I stayed home to hand out treats while Sir Monkeypants took the kids out for trick-or-treating.

(Aside: Every year Sir Monkeypants tries to convince me that I will have more fun if I just leave a bowl of candy on the front porch and come out for the trick-or-treating with them, but I just CANNOT do it, to the point where I know that if I even tried to do it, I would be so fretty about what was potentially going on at my unmanned house that I would bring down the whole night. Does this make you think I am a) eccentric, b) adorably nutty, or c) batshit insane? Discuss.)

Anyway, I dutifully handed out candy to around 150 kids (nice weather combined with new super-awesome Haunted House down the street at MyFriendJen’s house brought out a much bigger crowd than usual), and here is the kicker – I recognized no one.

The kids who live next door? No idea who they were. Other kids from down the street who have been to my house for multiple playdates? Total blank. Kids from my kids’ classes at school, who called me BY NAME? Absolutely NO CLUE. Kids accompanied by their parents who I am actually friends with? STILL didn’t get it.

Sir Monkeypants got home and he was all, did you see Kid X dressed up as Y? Or Kid A dressed up as B? And I was all, oh, is THAT who that was? I am an idiot.

So overall I feel like I am a) very, very old, and b) very, very stupid. I used to think I remembered faces. I GUESS NOT.

In other news, today I am posting a recipe for the first time in like, ever. I am a crappy cook and that is why I never share my so-called recipes online, because I do not wish to be responsible for mass poisonings that turn kids off of food forever. However, last night I made my first-ever whole roast chicken, and on the side I made these apple oatmeal muffins that were a) delicious, and b) screamed AUTUMN, and c) completely inexplicably, totally hated by my children.

So now I want you all to go out and make these yummy muffins, and then report back. I’m expecting either you will love them, and your kids will love them, thus confirming that my children are Pod People, or you will love them but your children will hate them thus confirming that ALL children are Pod People.

(Aside: The chicken went okay, although it did set off the smoke alarm THREE times, to the point where I finally just said SCREW IT, I don’t care if we all get botulism, I am taking the damn thing out of the oven. Now the oven is covered with grease splatter but the kids actually ate the chicken, especially Gal Smiley who ate like 1/2 pound of it on her own, so now I guess I have to make it again. With the muffins, because I am not a Pod Person.)

Anyway! Recipe!

Apple Oatmeal Muffins of Pure Deliciousness

1 egg (I use an egg replacer)
3/4 cup milk (or water, for those families with allergies)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 tablespoon wheat germ
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 medium apple, peeled and cut into tiny pieces (I like to use Golden Delicious)
1/4 cup chopped nuts (obviously omitted by me, as we are Allergy Central around here)

Preheat oven to 400, and grease a muffin tin.

Beat the egg, then add the milk, oil, and brown sugar. Whisk for a minute or two until sugar and oil are combined.

Add the flour, oatmeal, wheat germ, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon; mix until combined. Add the apple chunks and stir – batter will be very lumpy.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 20 minutes. Let sit for up to five minutes (or as long as you can stand to resist) before removing from pan. Enjoy warm for extra autumnal goodness.

On Wednesdays, Gal Smiley has skating after school.

It’s just for an hour but going to this lesson takes up my whole day. By the time we get home from the rink, the kids are hungry and there’s no time to cook, so I make dinner just after breakfast while all three kids are at school.

After picking up Little Miss Sunshine from kindergarten, we spend the afternoon packing for skating – one bag of skates, snowpants, hats, and mitts; one bag of colouring books, stickers, toys, and snacks for the Captain and the Little Miss. I fill the car with winter boots and coats for those of us who will be spectating.

I wish I could bring blankets too, because the rink is freezing, but it’s just too much cargo to schlep, even with all the kids helping. I’m a cold person and I spend the entire lesson shivering in the stands. It’s very un-Canadian of me to say that, isn’t it?

I don’t know how the other parents do it. This week, the mom next to me had bare feet in sandals, nothing but a trench coat on her back. On the other side, a group of parents chatted merrily wearing only spring-weight jackets, and farther down, one dad was wearing shorts. SHORTS.

Meanwhile I huddle in my heavy coat, mitts, scarf, hat, boots, and as many children as I can convince to pile on top of me for warmth, growing bitchier and bitchier by the minute. The fifty minute lesson feels like an excursion to the South Pole. How do hockey parents stand it? They must have secrets. TELL ME THE SECRETS.

Every Wednesday I wake up in dread. It’s Wednesday, I think. Rush to cook. Rush to pack. Rush to schlep. Freeze ass off. Rush home. Rush to squeeze in homework and baths and bedtime.

But it’s all worth it for that one moment when Gal Smiley steps out on the ice. Face shining with joy, determination, and concentration.

Oh, she’s down as much as she’s up, make no mistake. But she loves it. She comes off the ice with eyes gleaming, asking me if I saw her do this, then that, then this again. Cheeks pink, hair matted with sweat, chattier than at any other time with the thrill of it all.

It’s enough to warm a poor mother’s…heart.

Every year I make a calendar for my mom and Sir Monkeypants’ mom for Christmas. They like it because it’s something disposable, at a time when they are both trying not to accumulate any more stuff. It features photos of all of their grandchildren, and one thing I have learned from working on the calendars is that other families do not take thousands of pictures of their kids every year.

What DO they do with their time?

So now I spend a lot of our visits with the extended family trying to snap good shots of my nieces and nephews, and to try to set up group shots of all the grandkids, all with the calendars in mind.

There’s always a page or two devoted to each kid, and a page or two devoted to each family. For the page that will feature our family’s kids, what I want is a shot of all three of our kids.

Just one picture. All three in one spot at one time, smiling happily.

This year I’ve been working on my own Project 365, which means I have photos of the kids from just about every day for the past year (I’m at the 11 month mark now, whoo hoo!). Several months ago I started to really focus on getting pictures that had all three kids in it.

I have quite a few now. Ones where one kid is fake smiling, one smirking, one looking away.

Ones where two are happy and one is crying. Ones where two are sitting quietly while one jumps about blurrily in the background.

Ones where all three are giving me the NO MORE PICTURES, MOM eye roll.

I’ve taken their photo so often, the older two run away when they see the camera coming. The youngest is still content to pose but only if I will let her do the Super Fake Princess Grin.

I’ve thought of giving it over to a professional, but the chances of everyone being in a good mood at the same time seem to be less than zero.

I’ve heard others say that it’s important to take the camera away from your face now and then. To have a look around and experience things as they happen, not just fret about capturing them for the future.

But I have to say, looking back at the pictures and videos we’ve taken of the kids over the years – as many as there are, I wish there were dozens more. Hundreds more. It goes so fast, and it’s so easy to forget how little they were once, how far they have come. Looking at how they have changed makes me excited for how they will grow in the future.

So although I do try to remain present in the now, and I do try to peek out from behind the camera every now and again, I’ll keep on clicking. Searching for that one shot where everyone is posing nicely and smiling happily.

And if it never happens – at least the photos I do have capture the real us. And that’s more than worth putting in a calendar, I think.

This post is part of Brie’s Monday Moments series over at Capital Mom. This week’s theme was Photograph.

A couple of weeks ago, the Captain had a bad cough. He woke up in the night and couldn’t go back to sleep.

He called for us and I stumbled sleepily to his room, eyes blurry, still not really awake. He asked me if I would take him outside, to breathe the night air. It’s something we’ve tried once or twice when he’s had bad croup, but it’s been a few years since we carried a toddler Captain out to the porch at night, wrapped in a blanket.

At first I refused. It’s the middle of the night, I said. It never helps anyway. I’m too tired. It’s cold.

He didn’t fuss or complain or whine, only sadly rolled over to the wall, and that was actually worse. I felt guilty and I was fully awake now, so I caved in.

We went downstairs and I wrapped him in a blanket. I stood inside the sliding door and pushed him out to sit on the back patio.

But when I saw him looking up in astonishment, I had to come outside too. It was cool, but not cold – a sweet, pleasant night with just a hint of breeze, the last breath of summer.

The sky was amazing. We huddled together and excitedly whispered to each other, pointing out the things we saw. Thousands of stars – almost never visible in the city sky, and I can’t explain why we could see so many more than usual that night. The moon, big and full; two planets, Jupiter and Venus, we guessed. Can you find the Big Dipper? Do you see Orion’s Belt?

Then, wonder of wonders – a shooting star. Hard to believe, but in my 40 years I have never seen one before. He’s only eight and already has one to call his own.

He didn’t take it for granted at all. He knew it was something unusual, something to cherish. The magic of a shooting star will stay with us both for a long, long time.

We were almost sad to have to come in and go to bed. We fell asleep with smiles on our faces. Happy.

This post is part of Brie’s Monday Moments series over at Capital Mom. This week’s theme was Bliss.