Five days into the month, and it’s still hard to believe it’s really already September. It feels like only a few weeks ago we were excitedly looking forward to the warm summer months, but that came and went by very quickly. But this is the first September in a long long time that I have to think about school again, except this time it’s for my little girl and not for me. But aside from school, September just feels crazy busy… we have so much planned!

September 8th – we meet Natasha’s teacher! I am really excited about that. It feels weird to be the parent and not the child… The tables have kinda turned. I also have about a million questions to ask her and I am trying to figure out how to squeeze them into our 15 minute time slot with her! Ugh…

September 10th – Natasha starts her first ‘unofficial’ day of school with a few children. They slow-transition them into the program so they don’t end up with an entire room of sobbing kids (their words, not mine). I just can’t picture Natasha sobbing, but we’ll see how she does…

September 11th – both Natasha & Veronika start gymnastics! This will be Natasha’s 3rd year and Veronika’s 1st. They are both very excited and Natasha keeps reminding Veronika that she will show her around and explain where everything is, particularly the best thing - the trampoline! :)

September 12th – we are taking the girls out for their first ever movie in the theatre! And it’s a Thomas movie, and they are thrilled beyond words.

September 13th  (morning) – Natasha’s first ‘official’ day of school with the entire class. And also, most likely first time taking the school bus, but I still have to inquire about that and get the schedule and such.

September 13th (afternoon) – Natasha’s first dance class! She is starting a new dance school since I wasn’t very happy with her previous one. This one is actually walking-distance from our home which is another pro. She will be doing acro/jazz/ballet and we already bought her a cute uniform for it. I hope she likes the class.

September 18th – Natasha’s 4th birthday! So bittersweet. Where did my baby go?

September 25th – my sister-in-law’s wedding! We are all very excited for her and both girls are looking forward to dressing up all pretty and being ‘princesses’. Especially Veronika, the child loves anything involving dressing up pretty. We can’t wait! :)

Okay, phew. Just throw in some additional shopping I still need to squeeze in. A haircut or two. Snacks for Natasha’s school. Some random odds & ends. How do you spell ‘busy’???

Matthew was having an awful day yesterday - pretty much everything went wrong for him, including these two things:

1. First thing in the morning he managed to get stuck in our elevator. The bloody thing won't open its doors and Matthew was riding up & down from the basement to the last floor about a megazillion times... 30 minutes and lots of curse words later he managed to push the doors open. Of course this made him late for work and therefore late coming home in the evening.
   

2. Then, after the girls went to bed, we started watching season 3 finale of LOST. It was exciting... what season finale isn't?! Anyway, about half-an-hour into the episode Matthew's computer screen suddenly froze. No big deal, right? He tried all kinds of things to 'unfreeze' it and finally ended up rebooting the machine. And then what happens??? He gets a lovely black screen with all kinds of messages on it. Long story short - his hard drive died off... burned out... kaput! Poor Matthew (poor computer?) Anyhow, we don't know if he'll even be able to recover the data from the dead hard drive, but in the meantime we ordered a new Dell computer. Should be here within two weeks...
   
   That's 2 LONG WEEKS I don't get to stare at HUNKY SAWYER!

So I've spent all weekend waiting for the season premiere of The Bachelorette on ABC, Monday May 19, 9:00-11:00 P.M (yesterday night). And I was so relieved when Veronika fell asleep prior to the start of the show so I could watch in peace & quiet. So come 10:45 I was anxiously waiting for the last fifteen minutes when she would choose who stays and who goes home.... and then, the next thing I know it's 11:15 and the show is over fifteen minutes ago! UGH. I fell asleep and missed the entire ending!

Talk about underslept... Matthew was making fun of me this morning. I have to admit, it's much nicer staring at 25 hot guys than 25 catty girls on the Bachelor.

Has this world gone Dora Mad???

I am talking about Dora the Explorer. The cartoon has been popular for quite some time now, and I am sure many toddlers and older kids love it, but why is everything revolved around Dora now? I went to Zellers and 90% of their clothes are Dora themed. I went to Wal-Mart and 90% of their toys are Dora themed. It seems that everything from girl's underwear to vanity sets to pajamas to jewelry is revolved around Dora. Do little girls this age not like anything else???

And I have to admit, but Dora toys and clothes are extremely cute. And there is a huge selection of them, but it's just way too much. It's almost like you have no choice but to buy a Dora outfit or a Dora toy because there is nothing else left! And the remaining 10% of items are either Diego (whom Matthew calls Dora's boyfriend) or Disney (Pluto, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Nemo, etc.). Matthew is convinced that Diego was created so that little boys are not excluded from this Dora madness and their parents have something to buy them too.

Natasha watches Dora cartoons on Treehouse every now and then, but she's not too interested in it yet. She loves when the songs come along, but otherwise it's a bit too much talking for her. She still prefers cartoons that are more musical. It's just really frustrating because Natasha is starting to outgrow the Infant section of most department stores and is moving into the Toddler section where clothes start from sizes 2T. And I really don't want her to have an exclusive Dora wardrobe. Hopefully this madness will pass.

So since starting work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I've been taking the public transit to transport Natasha to my mom's place for the day. And it's a fairly short bus ride, ten to fifteen minutes in the most, depending on the morning traffic. The problem is that by the time I actually arrive there, I am ready to pull some hair out. You would think that TTC riders were a litle more sensitive to mothers with strollers. Yes, strollers can get bulky on a busy morning bus loaded with business people, but the new accessible buses are a lot wider than the older ones, are made to be wheelchair friendly, and I think generally strollers are much narrower than wheelchairs. Then, why does it become such a problem?

Yesterday was a typical example. I loaded a morning bus, which after 10 minutes of standing in the same spot and not moving was announced to be out-of-service. Great. So we all get off and wait another good seven minutes for the next bus to arrive. When the next one finally showed up, all the impatient and late-for-work people stormed right into it, leaving me to get on last. Fine. So when I was finally able to get on, it was impossible to actually move into the bus because everyone decided to stand at the very front, practically blocking my way. Like, are you blind, people??? Do you not see a stroller coming in? And only some good 4-5 "excuse-me's" later was I able to pass by them. Ok, so I am in. I pushed down the breaks on the stroller and just wished this bus would hurry up.

Naturally, since the previous bus went out-of-service, there were at least 10 people waiting at the next several bus stops. And they all managed to get on so the bus was packed without any room left to breath. Fine, but what do they do next? Instead of holding on to the metallic polls the bus provides for support, people assume they can hold unto the stroller! What?? Excuse me???!! The stroller is not there to provide you support, if anything, you're pushing it down and can potentially break it this way. Is this not common sense?? I would think it was. As if it wasn't enough that I have people breathing down Natasha's neck, all I need is a broken stroller in the middle of a packed bus! Ugh.

And of course, when it was time to get off, I needed to throw another load of "excuse-me's" to actually get off, because no one sees a stroller trying to get off the bus. Or they pretend they don't see. And it's really frustrating. Now, let me elaborate and say that I normally love using our public transport system, but just I wish people were a bit more sensitive to mothers with strollers. It's not that hard to move over and make extra room.

Ok, so as you know we keep a huge Flickr photo gallery of Natasha's photographs ranging from birth and until recent time. And so we've been receiving various comments from family members asking why Natasha's nose always appears a shade of yellow or orange in the photos and that we should wash it more often. And just so you know, this pisses me off because I always wash her face after she eats, so it's not dirty. But I finally learned why her nose appears orange in these photos. Apparently this happens to babies who eat a lot of orange veggies, such as sweet potatoes, squash, and carrots. And those three are Natasha's absolute favourites, so needless to say she eats them practically every day. And babies' skin colour around the nose tends to turn a shade of orange after eating a lot of these veggies, and the camera's flash tends to emphasize that and make it all too visible. And this is a fact, you can Google it up, but please stop asking why her nose is orange or assuming I don't wash it!

Ok. I feel better now.

Today is July 4th. Only two months left until Tuesday, September 4th - my first day back at the office.
But I am also really happy right now because tomorrow is Big Brother 8 season premiere! It's on CBS at 8:00pm (in case you wonder)  I am making Matthew watch with me. He got me hooked on the show since season 3, so no escaping that one, Matthew!

Here's my Meez. Get yours!

I have Wiiitis. What is that? You may ask...

If you follow Matthew's personal blog then you would know that he recently bought the infamous Wii. And so we've been playing Wii Sports on a daily basis which consists of several sports games, including: tennis, baseball, boxing, bowling, and golf. But it's the tennis game (the one I like most) that gave me Wiiitis. And what the heck is that, again, you may ask. Well, it's a new medical condition that I was diagnosed with by Matthew. He indicated I have Wiiitis when I started complaining of severe shoulder pain a few days ago. Initially I thought he made up this condition, but apparently he hasn't. See proof here, on this CNN article. When playing Wii, you swing the remote just like you would swing a tennis racket, and so my poor shoulder just didn't handle the sudden movements very well, and now I am in horrid pain.

So if you are planning on visiting us anytime soon to play our Wii, you're most welcome to, but be aware that you might leave with Wiiitis. And I got a really great laugh from reading about the treatment to Wiiitis on the CNN article mentioned above: Ibuprofen. Oh, that was hilarious.... I still have some good 10 shiny-orange Ibuprofen pills in our medical drawer that I got at the hospital after I delivered Natasha. They were supposed to ease the post-delivery pain, but now they have a second purpose - to cure my Wiiitis!

I've been thinking lately about how once you have a baby you suddenly become a point of interest to complete strangers. People who never threw you a second look before suddenly stop to say hello and look inside the stroller. Random neighbors from our building stop Matthew and ask him if his wife delivered her baby already... seven months postpartum. And I know this is normal, people love to see a fresh little face and they always assume that if they talk to Natasha in a silly voice she will start smiling and laughing at them and think they're the funniest thing she ever saw.

Well, she doesn't. She doesn't think that at all. Natasha is a pretty serious girl and apprehensive of strangers; many times she starts crying when complete strangers talk to her. She can get comfortable with new people given some time, of course, but not for random street encounters. And I don't blame her. In fact, I don't even like it. I wish people would stop talking to her in their silly voices and make their silly faces; she's not a monkey. She's a human being. Talk to her like one.

And what bothers me even more is when they question my decisions. The other day, a middle-aged lady who was taking the elevator with us, made a comment about Natasha's pierced ears and asked me in a very confrontational voice whether they are gold or not. Duh. I could just tell she was expecting me to say no, because before I even had a chance to say yes, she went on and on about how babies should only wear gold. Seriously, do you think I am stupid, lady? Just because I am a young mother doesn't mean I don't have a head on my shoulders or enough common sense. But that's beside the point! This is my baby, and whether I chose for her to wear gold earrings or not, it's entirely my decision, so what right do you have to question me?? Sometimes I wish people minded their own business. And sorry if this sounds mean on my part, but I thought it was funny when Natasha burst into tears after that lady continued making silly faces at her.

We had a worse encounter a few weeks back, when a different 'know-it-all' type lady from out building asked me if Natasha was already sitting up on her own (she wasn't yet), and then proceeded to brag about her own child who was already talking in sentences at six months, let alone sitting up. After that she did the worst thing she could do. She started touching Natasha's hands and waving a rattler in front of her face. Seriously, it took me a LOT of self control not to slap those hands away. You do not touch my child!!! I don't know you. I don't know that your hands are clean. You do NOT touch my child. I really thought people were brighter than that. Again, Natasha let her know how she felt about her by bursting into tears.

To be honest, I don't mind if people look at her or make comments, but do it from a distance. Not in her face. Not by touching her. She doesn't know you. She doesn't need to like you just because you act silly and pay attention to her. Put yourself in her shoes and see if you would like that.

Grrrrrrrrr.

Did I mention I hate telemarketers? Or any other strangers calling my home at ANY time of day or night? Well, I do. And especially now that I have a child I hate it twice as much. Stop calling me!!! My baby is asleep! For crying out loud, get a life! Well... maybe that is your life. In fact, maybe that is what you do for a living, and you must call me to earn your living so that you can have that life, but either way, I am fed up!

And if that's not enough, I now have hospitals calling me. From Sick Kids, to Mount Sinai, to various medical centres and organizations... with all due respect to Mount Sinai for the fantastic care they provided me with when I delivered there, you did NOT ask for my permission to distribute my contact information to a bunch of your 'friends'! I delivered a baby there, do you really think I need twenty places calling me during the day and waking that same baby twenty different times??? And add to that list a bunch of 'kid organizations' from Disney Book Subscription Clubs asking me to subscribe for reading material for Natasha (helloooooooo, she's 6 months!), to various toy companies asking me for deals, to charities asking for countless donations, to market-research companies asking me to answer 5-minute questionnaires that turn into 40-minute ones (I just have to laugh when they ask me if that's my baby crying in the background... yeah, maybe if I got off the damn phone and actually attended to her, she wouldn't be crying!)...

I am annoyed and I don't care. Have some decency... oh, and I won't even go into the whole Toronto Star newspaper calling me every other day even though I've asked for our number to be removed, oh I don't even know how many times! And no, I don't need a free vacation to Hawaii, just as much as I don't need a new subscription to Parenting magazine.

Grrrrrrrrrr.