May 2012 - Forever In Mom Genes

Boy Toys?

May 28 2012

Is there really such a thing as a boy toy? I don’t mean in a Madonna sort of way… I’m talking about gender specific toys. You know, dolls for girls, army men for boys. For the record, the dolls and army dudes totally hook-up after hours. Toy Story opened my eyes to that deviant underground society. My kids don’t pay much attention to gender labels. They play with whatever captures their imaginations in the moment. My son often plays with his sister’s most iconic of girl toys — the dollhouse. Mind you, it generally serves as the hideout for robots, dinosaurs and a regiment of Storm Troopers. My daughter plays with her dolls occasionally, but not for long. She’s at her happiest when she’s active. And sweaty. And dirty. What captures her interest most are bike rides, bugs in jars, soccer games and her new passion, baseball {which in our rather small yard has led to abundant trips to the neighbour’s on ball retrieval missions}. Yesterday while my creative boy was creating, my sporty girl was playing with her new Grow-to-Pro Triple Hit Baseball machine. She started out t-ball style, but soon graduated to auto pitch. She can load[…]

May 23 2012

So I hurt my back last week. Wearing flip flops. You know you’re old when… But I digress. My crooked spine is now in the firm hands of my chiropractor, “Dr. Al Lignment.” After a few adjustments and a ample amount of yelling, I seem to be BACK to normal. Relatively speaking. I walked into my chiro’s office yesterday like the biped I was born to be. It felt great to be able to walk again without cursing; quite a nice relief for everyone within ear shot really. As I jumped up onto the torture table (Al says he doesn’t like it when I call it that, but I know he’s kidding. Quite a sense of humour that guy. Totally cracks me up. #ChiroPun) I announced, “My back is totally better!!” “No, no it’s not,” Al replied. “Apparently” I’m not some kind of miracle case and my back, though now realigned, still needs time to fully heal. Bah. It’s not that I don’t like going to see Al. I’m not afraid of the spine cracking. Even the neck cracking — bring it. It’s the time and the cost that hurt. Also, having to bring along my five year old[…]

May 13 2012

When Heather lost her three year old son Zack, she didn’t stop being a mom. Though her heart was broken, Zack’s brothers needed her more than ever. So she embraced them and loved them as mothers do while she made a plan to keep a promise; the one she made to Zack and to herself as they said goodbye. She vowed to keep his memory alive and to have Elmo, Zack’s comfort and joy, speak his name. And that’s just what she did. Heather tirelessly raised money to create a room (two rooms in fact!) in Zack’s name at York Central Hospital. She also persevered until Kevin Clash (the puppeteer who IS Elmo) knew how much Zackie loved him. Kevin knows and he was touched. And Elmo did speak Zack’s name. Heather is healing with her family and she continues to tell Zack’s story, not only to keep his memory alive, but to help other families deal with the pain of losing a child.” Heather and I became friends online. We bonded over our special needs kids and soon discovered we had many other things in common. When my daughter was in hospital shortly after Zack died, Heather kept tabs on[…]

May 12 2012

Time Magazine published this story about attachment parenting. The cover showed a mom breastfeeding her three year old son and the internet lit up like the fourth of July. Obviously generating a buzz was a factor in the magazine’s choice of cover shots. Every “mom blogger” from here to Timbuktu has weighed in on this. Some cheering, some outraged, some gagging a little. This photo may not depict the serene bonding experience of breastfeeding; it was used to spark debate. But haven’t you ever fed your child on the fly? I once breastfed my daughter while shopping for a new refrigerator. I was in a rush and she was quite happy nestled under my coat. Just because we weren’t locked in a gaze of love and warmth, it doesn’t make me a bad parent. It makes me a busy, multitasking mama who was trying to stick to a feeding schedule. The first thing I noticed in this photo was the mother’s arms. “Wow, her biceps are tight,” I thought. The next thing I noticed were her shoes. “Where can I get those ballet flats?” I wondered. I’m the mother of a son who was way off the growth[…]

May 03 2012

Lucky for me my mother has strong shoulders, because I cry on them often. Learning how to raise a child with special needs has taken a toll on our family. Of course there’s been joy and plenty of laughter and an insane amount of punning (my mom = the Queen of the Punsters), but I’ve also had to lean on her. I’m a mom now, but I still need to be mothered sometimes too. Yesterday my mum turned 65. Ever young at heart, retiring from her job was not on her radar. “Retirement?” she balked, “That’s for old people.” We never feel our age, no matter how old we are. But then something inevitably happens that makes you face reality head on. Somebody close to you becomes ill, a sister perhaps, and you are reminded of the tenacity of life and you feel the need to spend time with family now because you know, life goes by too quickly. Suddenly retirement doesn’t seem quite so ridiculous. In fact, leaving a career behind in favour of time spent with loved ones becomes the only thing on your radar. And so in a few months, my mum is going to join my[…]

Archive - May 2012

Boy Toys?

Pee And Electrodes Don’t Mix

Mother of the Year

What’s The Expiry Date on Breast Is Best?

Mother Your Mother This Mother’s Day