It's 7:00 am and it's raining outside. While my daughter sleeps after an exhausting week of fevers, coughing and rushing out to see doctor after doctor, I'm sitting with my nearly 18-month-old son at the dinner table. He's playing with a Little People magnetic drawing board. Just a few short minutes ago, he was pointing to certain body parts on the Little People character and I was naming them off. My son already knows how to point to his ears, eyes, mouth, nose and belly button but has not been able to say any of the words yet. Today, he pointed to the hand of the blond haired character on his toy and I told him, "Hand." He shows me his own hand and repeated after me. How exciting! That brings up his total of new words this week to five, adding to the words he spoke at daycare this week: truck (pronounced "uck"), bus, Paolo (his name, which I have yet to hear him say) and John (pronounced "Ron"). John is the custodian at his daycare, and while they were thrilled to hear him say, "Hi, Ron" every time he walked by, his teachers were a little disappointed that he chose to say John's name over their own! He also found complete and utter satisfaction yesterday in repeating "Bye-bye nonna" as we left his grandmother's house and during the entire ride home.


Now I wait for my daughter to wake up from a much deserved quiet night. Her cough seems to have subsided a great deal but she did have a mild fever in the middle of the night. Every doctor that has seen her said it's just a cold but with this whole Swine flu scare, your thoughts begin to run wild. We're going to start her on a homeopathic treatment today to help rid her of the cough and try out some natural anti-viral tablets to help boost her immune system. She's still in pretty good spirits and has no other severe symptoms other than a lack of appetite. But what was that old adage? "Starve a fever, feed a cold." What do I do when she has both?

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...

Last year, we bought the Wii console along with the Wii Fit game. It was somewhat frustrating for me at first playing certain balance games using the Wii Fit balance board but now I feel I actually have a very good handle of it. My 4-year-old daughter has recently taken a liking, to put it mildly, to the Wii Fit game and plays it almost daily. It's great because she can get some physical activity into her day, especially during the rainy weather. (There's a rainstorm right now as I type!) But man, is she ever obsessed over obtaining good results. She's actually doing better than me! The funniest thing about it is watching her determination as she gyrates her hips in wild, circular motions during the hula hoop simulation game. I have to get it on video, it's so funny! I love her to bits, I tell ya, to bits!

Okay, don't think I'm greedy. I know I've already won the personalized FreckleBox lunch box for Madeleine. But I have been hungrily eyeing the Hooked On Phonics Giveaway on My Organized Chaos. I have the Hooked on French edition and Madeleine really loves it. She's learned more in one summer than some of my grade 8's learn in their lifetime. And one of Madeleine's friends has the Kindergarten edition and it seems to have worked so well for her son, who is already working his way through the grade 1 book. (He's starting grade 1 next month.) Anyway, I really want to work on my daughter's reading skills. I also want my daughter to enjoy reading more than I did when I was a kid. I always found it a bit of a struggle and felt I was a really slow reader. If Hooked on Phonics could help her surpass that struggle, then I want it!

Today Paolo visited with his daycare class and seemed quite comfortable in the toddler room. He wasn't sure if he should explore the room or hug my leg tightly, at first. But once he noticed the number of child-size furniture, he went to town. He pulled out the first chair he could grab and then nestled his little bottom onto it. Then, just like Goldilocks, he pulled out another chair and tested it out, too. And if that wasn't enough, he continued trying out every available chair in the room. I think it was a nice change from the struggle he encounters at home when he tries to climb the sofa or any other piece of furniture for that matter. It was the cutest thing to see his eyes light up at the ease of finding a comfortable place to sit. When he discovered some toy cars and trucks, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to casually sneak my way out of the room. I went to the office and finalized a few things with the administrator and left peacefully after a quick phone call to the teacher in Paolo's room confirmed he was happy and had not shed a single tear.

I can't believe it but I was just notified that I won the FreckleBox contest over at My Organized Chaos! Out of 330 entries, my number was picked and I couldn't be happier. I love personalizing things so I'm so excited that my daughter will be getting her own personalized lunch box. And just in time for school, too! She starts junior kindergarten this year and I'll be heading back to work. She already picked out the style for her new lunch box - The Cute Kitty. And cute it is!

Last Friday, during dinner, the phone rang and my 4-year-old daughter ran to answer it. I tried to encourage her to wait in order that I may check the call display and see if it was anyone we know. She chose to ignore my pleading and answered it anyway. After a quick hello, my husband took the phone from her, listened for a few seconds and determined it was a telemarketer. He returned the phone to my daughter who then proceeded to ramble on about random things, as she often does, until I heard her say, "Hello?.... Hello?"