Calling all Grade 4, 5 and 6 students.

There are three weeks left in the Genworth Financial/Habitat for Humanity “Meaning of Home” contest. It’s a great educational experience for students and it supports a great cause.

Here is a little FYI for Canadian parents. The Entertainment Software Association of Canada has created a video series to guide parents through the ESRB ratings system for video games and on parental controls for video game consoles including the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3 and the Personal Computer. We have a Nintendo Wii at home and although my daughter is still quite young and only uses it mainly for Wii Fit games, it's good to know about the parental controls available for it. The online videos created by ESAC show you how to use these controls so if you're not terribly comfortable fidgeting with them, these videos will show you how to do it.

You can access the videos here.

...you get excited over a simple word like house. Why did I get so excited over the word house? Well, it's because my son, who is just shy of turning 1 and 1/2 years old, was watching his Baby Einstein DVD this afternoon and instantly pointed to the first image to appear and cried out, "House!" I was elated! So much so I didn't believe my ears at first. Then he said it again. And then I was certain, as was he, that he named it correctly. What a joy! Lately, he seems to be making more attempts at saying words but can thus far only manage beginning sounds, such as the [k] in car, though his mouth forms the [ar] blend, it's just that no sound comes out. But it doesn't matter because I'm excited about that, too!

My daughter has since made a proud achievement of her own. For the longest time, she has harboured a slight fear of knives, mostly instilled by us, her parents, as a safety guard to ensure she won't go near one, let alone touch one. But now that she is four, she has mastered the use of a butter knife. Last Friday, her nonna invited us over for dinner and enlisted the help of her sous-chef, my daughter, in making her delicious homemade gnocchi. My daughter is almost a pro at this since she's had more experience than I have had at making them. When she ran out of little balls of dough to roll into the gnocchi shape, she wanted to cut a chunk from the large roll of dough. Under her nonna's supervision, she carefully picked up a blunt serrated knife (for the first time) and cut a piece of dough, and at that very instant she turned around to look at me with a grin from ear to ear and proudly exclaimed with near bewilderment, "Mommy, I did it! I used a knife and I didn't get hurt!" That moment was priceless!

So my son has decided he's actually going to make an attempt at saying some words, other than mama. Though I love that his world revolves around me, I have been anxious for him to learn new words. And he's finally learned some. So far he can say: ouch, uh-oh, thanks, milk, and dada. He is also demonstrating a good understanding of other key words and can point to his nose, mouth, ears and belly button when asked. Today, he also showed me how he can shake his finger whenever I say, "No!" It's so cute!

I'm happy to say he's adjusting rather well to daycare. He did stay home yesterday due to conjunctivitis (pink eye) but he's much better now. Madeleine still puts up a bit of a fuss before heading out to school but she's slowing adjusting to the routine and never ceases to ask, "Is it the weekend, yet?" And I'm just so thrilled that I've managed to get both kids in bed by 8:15 for the past two nights all on my own. A pat on the back for me!

Now, having caught up on the bills, I can either do the mountain of laundry piled up around the house, mark two sets of verb tests, or curl up in front of the t.v. and finish watching Revolutionary Road, which is now overdue. I think I hear a bag of popcorn calling my name...