That's right! All you parents can thank me later! I have successfully created a TFEU (Tooth Fairy Employment Union).
Sage lost a tooth about a week ago. After forgetting the first night to deposit money under her pillow the first night...and then the second night...and then the third night (on this night the tooth went missing...I don't have it) Sage decided to leave a letter.
Dear Tooth Fairy,
You took my tooth but forgot to leave some money.
P.S. I still believe in you.
She wanted to leave it under her pillow...but I interjected and said that the Tooth Fairy is easily distracted...she is a fairy after all...and that it would be best to leave it in the centre of the dining room table. Just to be safe.
Mama came over to babysit that day and saw the note. When the kids weren't looking she wrote back from the Tooth Fairy. She apologized and noted that she was currently on holidays and would return shortly.
Well...the 4th night passed, and then the 5th, and then the 6th. I know what you are thinking...don't judge me.
By the 5th night Sage had just stopped asking. The 6th night I remembered! I pulled her aside and told her that there had been a big development in the fairy world.
All the fairies are now unionized. There are enough of them after all.
So the Tooth Fairy now receives EDO's every 3rd Thursday, weekends off, holiday time, sick time, mental health leave, family leave, bereavement leave, and stat holidays off. She does not work overtime.
Sweet deal!
Sage even agreed that it was about time since the Tooth Fairy has had to work all night, every night, since the beginning of time.
By the morning of the 7th day...a Tuesday...Sage had her money :)
So...love the TFEU and use the TFEU!
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
The Big Boy Bed
We went for the king sized bed! It's fantastic! Although I do kind of miss Robert so I do have to make an effort to roll over to his side of the bed lol. It's rough.
Will has been sleeping on a crib mattress on the floor for a few months now with no tumbles onto the floor so we decided to move the queen size into his room. We did stick a pool noodle under the fitted sheet to keep him in bed. He never was a fan of the crib and as soon as he moved out of the crib and onto the mattress on the floor he was taking 3 hour naps in the afternoon and sleeping through the night occasionally. Whuuuut? Where the F is that tidbit in the sleep training books that I tossed well over a year ago? FYI some babies f-ing hate their crib and want you more. Which we loved ;)
So really the king size will be more useful for our next babe. (Don't read into that statement.)
Anyway, he was freaking pumped when he saw the queen sized bed in his room! He is consistently sleeping through the night! I have even bragged about it a couple times and he is still sleeping in his room all night;) Now I just have to remember to not stay up til midnight because he is up at 6am. No wasting the day away in this house :)
The plus side to a queen sized bed is that if he does wake up at 6am one of us will crawl into bed with him now and he sleeps another hour or two ;)...usually.
Now to pick out the bedding! He will eventually swap beds with S. The queen size takes up about 3/4 of his room. And it's just not fair that the biggest child has the smallest bed.
Can't wait to reveal the comic themed bedroom!! Yay for geek-chic!!!
Will has been sleeping on a crib mattress on the floor for a few months now with no tumbles onto the floor so we decided to move the queen size into his room. We did stick a pool noodle under the fitted sheet to keep him in bed. He never was a fan of the crib and as soon as he moved out of the crib and onto the mattress on the floor he was taking 3 hour naps in the afternoon and sleeping through the night occasionally. Whuuuut? Where the F is that tidbit in the sleep training books that I tossed well over a year ago? FYI some babies f-ing hate their crib and want you more. Which we loved ;)
So really the king size will be more useful for our next babe. (Don't read into that statement.)
Anyway, he was freaking pumped when he saw the queen sized bed in his room! He is consistently sleeping through the night! I have even bragged about it a couple times and he is still sleeping in his room all night;) Now I just have to remember to not stay up til midnight because he is up at 6am. No wasting the day away in this house :)
The plus side to a queen sized bed is that if he does wake up at 6am one of us will crawl into bed with him now and he sleeps another hour or two ;)...usually.
Now to pick out the bedding! He will eventually swap beds with S. The queen size takes up about 3/4 of his room. And it's just not fair that the biggest child has the smallest bed.
Can't wait to reveal the comic themed bedroom!! Yay for geek-chic!!!
Friday, July 12, 2013
Set backs
I'm being pretty hard on myself today.
I'm a week away from my first 20 min run and my knees are hurting. Yep. They have been throbbing for a week. Which means I haven't run for about a week and I'm frustrated.
Tonight I ran anyway. I don't care if it hurts. Maybe it needs to hurt to get better?
I feel like I've been plugging away at this couch to 5k thing (not on a very rigid schedule :s) and I do not look at all how I thought I would look. I look the same. Although that idea has been argued to the contrary by my loving and understanding hubs.
I feel like my arms and lower legs are better. But I still have the flab of skin that is supposed to by my stomach and saddle bags at the tops of my thighs...and my weight hasn't changed at all.
I know you aren't supposed to look at the scale but I'm desperate for encouragement. I'm trying...but it's not enough I guess.
Blah. Whatever.
How's that for a pic me up blog post! Go eat some ice-cream now.
I'm a week away from my first 20 min run and my knees are hurting. Yep. They have been throbbing for a week. Which means I haven't run for about a week and I'm frustrated.
Tonight I ran anyway. I don't care if it hurts. Maybe it needs to hurt to get better?
I feel like I've been plugging away at this couch to 5k thing (not on a very rigid schedule :s) and I do not look at all how I thought I would look. I look the same. Although that idea has been argued to the contrary by my loving and understanding hubs.
I feel like my arms and lower legs are better. But I still have the flab of skin that is supposed to by my stomach and saddle bags at the tops of my thighs...and my weight hasn't changed at all.
I know you aren't supposed to look at the scale but I'm desperate for encouragement. I'm trying...but it's not enough I guess.
Blah. Whatever.
How's that for a pic me up blog post! Go eat some ice-cream now.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Adoption 101
Since this whole process began, my inbox on Facebook has been full of friends inquiring about the adoption process. So, I thought I'd blog about it so the information is always there and so I know I haven't forgotten to mention anything.
We are adopting two children from within my side of the family. I'm not too sure about the process for finding a child from another country or from within Canada. I have heard that the wait for a newborn Canadian baby is approx 8 years and an international baby is approx 2-3 years.
The steps after you locate your wee babe are the same.
Find an excellent lawyer. This is your family and your future babies. It's worth the money. Our lawyer is named Leslie Tallis. She is the number one adoption lawyer in the city. It's all she does and has been doing for years! I have complete confidence in her. Not once did anything go against our favour.
First we had to get their parents to go down to Social Services where they would be educated about what it actually means to give your child up for adoption. It is an educational meeting for them and by no means do they try to convince them to keep them. They also make sure that the adoptive parents are not bribing (paying, buying gifts, etc) the biological parents. This is illegal in Canada. Which in part why it takes so long to get a newborn baby. It's not like Juno where you can just pick a pregnant lady, pay her way through the pregnancy and hope you get a newborn out of the deal. Seriously...you cannot even buy the woman flowers in the hospital after birth.
Secondly the birth parents return to Social Services to sign an Adoption Certificate. This process sounds easy enough but when you have to track down birth parents it's not easy. We found Sage's dad and he was lazy and had to be threatened to be taken to court...which was enough to get him down to Social Services. Hayden's dad we never did find. We had to prove due process to show the courts that we did try to find him. This way we could dispense of his consent. And we did.
We were a little concerned about Sage's birth dad in case he decided to fight in court. But Leslie said that in 25 years she has only had one birth dad show up in court! And as soon as she mentioned how much he would have to pay in child support to see his child he gave up. Easy. (And sad.)
This process took 2 years.
Now you owe your lawyer some cash. Because this next part is up to you and you won't be using her services for a while. Approx $6,000.
Then your lawyer gives you a list of professionals to do a home study. Approx $1800. This is not meant to be scary! It has been completely educational. I love our social worker! I want to keep her forever. She has been so helpful and answered to many questions that I almost burst out crying at second meeting. She helps with any questions you may have regarding the adoption. Any aspect of it. She also helps with parenting questions. They are all about attachment parenting so they help provide tips on how to do develop a secure attachment with adopted children. (She mentioned that it is easier to do this with older children than with babies under 3 that have been adopted!) Point for the older kids that need homes!
We have to do 6 home studies. This normally takes 6 weeks but it's summer. I imagine we will be done near the end of September. I really don't want her to go already. The only other professional I have ever felt this way about was my midwife.
She also helps with your homework! You will have to complete a Criminal Records Check, a Child Abuse Check (done at Social Services), a full medical examination, a personal history, and reference check. The personal history and reference check is a lot. And we will probably have to have friends and family over for drinks when they are done. It's intense but it has to be. These kids have been through enough. And if you want them, you'll do it. Oh yeah...pay your lawyer some more :)
Once that is done everything that we have completed up to this point is sent off to the courts. Call up your lawyer again. This takes approx 3 months depending where you end up in the pile. Then we sign our lives away and we're done!....well just starting really ;)
Good luck! It's so worth it!
We are adopting two children from within my side of the family. I'm not too sure about the process for finding a child from another country or from within Canada. I have heard that the wait for a newborn Canadian baby is approx 8 years and an international baby is approx 2-3 years.
The steps after you locate your wee babe are the same.
Find an excellent lawyer. This is your family and your future babies. It's worth the money. Our lawyer is named Leslie Tallis. She is the number one adoption lawyer in the city. It's all she does and has been doing for years! I have complete confidence in her. Not once did anything go against our favour.
First we had to get their parents to go down to Social Services where they would be educated about what it actually means to give your child up for adoption. It is an educational meeting for them and by no means do they try to convince them to keep them. They also make sure that the adoptive parents are not bribing (paying, buying gifts, etc) the biological parents. This is illegal in Canada. Which in part why it takes so long to get a newborn baby. It's not like Juno where you can just pick a pregnant lady, pay her way through the pregnancy and hope you get a newborn out of the deal. Seriously...you cannot even buy the woman flowers in the hospital after birth.
Secondly the birth parents return to Social Services to sign an Adoption Certificate. This process sounds easy enough but when you have to track down birth parents it's not easy. We found Sage's dad and he was lazy and had to be threatened to be taken to court...which was enough to get him down to Social Services. Hayden's dad we never did find. We had to prove due process to show the courts that we did try to find him. This way we could dispense of his consent. And we did.
We were a little concerned about Sage's birth dad in case he decided to fight in court. But Leslie said that in 25 years she has only had one birth dad show up in court! And as soon as she mentioned how much he would have to pay in child support to see his child he gave up. Easy. (And sad.)
This process took 2 years.
Now you owe your lawyer some cash. Because this next part is up to you and you won't be using her services for a while. Approx $6,000.
Then your lawyer gives you a list of professionals to do a home study. Approx $1800. This is not meant to be scary! It has been completely educational. I love our social worker! I want to keep her forever. She has been so helpful and answered to many questions that I almost burst out crying at second meeting. She helps with any questions you may have regarding the adoption. Any aspect of it. She also helps with parenting questions. They are all about attachment parenting so they help provide tips on how to do develop a secure attachment with adopted children. (She mentioned that it is easier to do this with older children than with babies under 3 that have been adopted!) Point for the older kids that need homes!
We have to do 6 home studies. This normally takes 6 weeks but it's summer. I imagine we will be done near the end of September. I really don't want her to go already. The only other professional I have ever felt this way about was my midwife.
She also helps with your homework! You will have to complete a Criminal Records Check, a Child Abuse Check (done at Social Services), a full medical examination, a personal history, and reference check. The personal history and reference check is a lot. And we will probably have to have friends and family over for drinks when they are done. It's intense but it has to be. These kids have been through enough. And if you want them, you'll do it. Oh yeah...pay your lawyer some more :)
Once that is done everything that we have completed up to this point is sent off to the courts. Call up your lawyer again. This takes approx 3 months depending where you end up in the pile. Then we sign our lives away and we're done!....well just starting really ;)
Good luck! It's so worth it!
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Sh*t Hayden Says #263
You know that day we just had that was damn near +40? I got home from work, everyone was cranky and miserable so Robert and I decided to take everyone to a movie and have popcorn for supper. Yesss!
On the way home we decided to stop at Superstore to stock up on snacks. We were low on everything.
The theatre was only remotely cooler than our house so aside from the entertainment it wasn't that much better. And I think most of you know of my Superstore Outburst of 2012. So we were all lazy and feeling crummy and I didn't want to brave the hell that is Superstore by myself so I made everyone come with me to bask in my misery.
Turns out we should have just hung out in the freezer section for a couple of hours! It was great!
As we were on our way out we came to an intersection with a very lady like transvestite. Honestly, she made me feel like a man. She walked better than me, had better posture, and had a calm and delightful look upon her face while browsing the aisles. The only thing she missed was her midnight shadow. I think she forgot to shave her face which may be equivalent to me forgetting to shave my legs? An honest and soon to be hilarious mistake.
I knew what was coming in my head. In an instant I had the whole thing pictured. Beginning to end.
I already had my bitchy line of "Excuse for not teaching my six year old about trannies just yet!" (Totally inappropriate and I'm so glad it didn't come to that but nobody be messin' with my kids girlfriend!)
Robert and I noticed and kept moving along...really who cares. Hayden was a different story. Hayden stopped dead in his tracks. The look of complete bewilderment came over his face...jaw hanging and everything. I prepared myself for the worst when he inserted his popsicle (yes I feed my kids food before I buy it..it's about survival people!) back into his mouth and moved on.
Phewff!! Thank goodness!! In the clear.
Hayden wasn't right though for the rest of the night. Unusually quiet, not interested in playing. Just seemed as though he was pondering. I thought that today would be the day I had to explain this. Totally off guard. No idea what to say or how to explain it other than "to each their own" and "does not affect my life in anyway". Which we all know that to a six year old loaded with questions these answers would not cut it.
The dreaded bed time came...the time when kids want to talk. Hayden got all into his pj's and went to brush his teeth. I was waiting for him in his room...prepping for some sort of discussion.
Hayden burst out of the bathroom, hitting the door on the wall behind him. Ran into his room, jumped onto the bed, smacked me and yelled "Oh my god mom! That man wants a Regina!!"
Thank Goodness he figured it out!!
My only reply that night was "Don't say Oh my god...and yes...you're right."
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