The Gift of Multilocation

Kitten seems to be blessed with the gift of bilocation: the ability of being in more than one place at a time. How else can one explain that in the time it took me to feed Muffin his breakfast Kitten found the time to write his name (yeah!) in pencil all up and down the stairway walls and on his playroom door, empty all 40 boxes of my summer shoes (yes yes I know that is way too many shoes to own but that will be th esubject of another post), unravel 2 cassette tapes, and upturn my jewelry drawer????

Ok some maybe he is gifted with multilocation because I don't think bilocation would quite cut it in this case?

Yes I am having a tough morning. Espen is away for 8 days and Kitten always acts out in the first few days, but this is more than he has ever done in the past.

In a way I feel kind of bad for Kitten, because I know he really didn't do any of it out of anger or to hurt anyone. I guess he was just "exploring" his world. I am even proud that he was able to spell his name correctly and recognizibly one 3 occasions. I just wish it wasn't on our walls and a wooden door. Luckily it is in pencil, now I just have to find an erasure and pray that I don't damage anything removing his signature.

I did give Kitten a wipe an made him scrub the pencil off and he did manage to remove a lot of it. I also insisted that he tell me why we aren't to write on any walls, or floors, or anything that is not paper and sanctioned by a grown up!

Then we put back all of the shoes in their boxes.

My jewelry box I will have to deal with when both kids are napping though it doesn't seem that anything is missing.

In a way I am happy that Espen is away because I don't think he would have taken it very well. Hopefully by the time he finds out it will only be a cute story with no consequences.

I had told him that if he were good today that we would go for a walk with Muffin and maybe check out the "ice cream" place. Of course he definitely has NOT been good but I am still dying for ice cream. I think that is one of the things I find the hardest about parenting: that YOU always end up punishing yourself for the sake of your kids.

And yes when Kitten will be rolling on the ground saying he wants ice cream, in my heart and head I will be right there beside him wanting to scream: me too!

I still wonder how anyone can produce so much mischief in so little time! Are all little kids able to be in multiple places at once and do we lose this ability as we grow? I do wish I could be in more than one place at once as I am sure all mothers do.

Cake Traditions

For all the people who asked me about making my own birthday cake: we have a tradition at home which started the summer that Felix turned 2 and we were having our kitchen renovated. Espen was great a built us a fully functioning kitchen in the dining room with fridge, range, dishwasher and sink, but there just wasn't room enough for serious pastry making so for Kitten's birthday I took him to pick out a cake at our grocery store (he picked one that had Bob the builder).

For Espen's birthday 3 weeks later we obviously still did not have a kitchen (that only came the following Christmas) so again I took Kitten to pick a cake for Espen and that time we got one with a car. Well that is also about the time that Kitten's long term memory kicked in and now whenever there is a birthday (ANY birthday) Kitten insisted on picking out a cake.

So for all my beautiful and yummy cakes, we never have any homemade ones for our birthdays :-(

Kitten finds my cakes way too grown up and boring. I guess I should try getting into the whole sculpting and fondant thing but just haven't yet. Partly because I am afraid that if he picks one out of my plethora of cook books and mine doesn't end up looking exactly like the book picture, that he will be disappointed. Perhaps a little silly but I guess I feel a wee bit insecure about my artistic talent.

The picture at the top of this post (oh why oh why can't I figure out how to poast another at the bottom of the post?????) was the last cake I did make for a friend's birthday though: a white chocolate, lemon and blueberry (with real blueberries) chiffon with lemon curd filling and a white chocolate-lemon-cream cheese frosting. I made some candied lemon peel for the top.

Very very yummy, but incredibly boring according to my 3 year old ;-)

The best birthday ever!

I had the best birthday ever yesterday!

Of course I got woken up at an ungodly hour by Kitten but he did stay the entire night in his bed so that was ok. He was just too excited and wanted to give me a perfume that he picked out (with Espen's help). It was the Poison Midnight that I have been wanting for a very long time (I usually wear Tendre Poison and am a total Dior girl).

After that the day just kept getting better. First of all it was absolutely gorgeous outside and we actually reach 10°C in the sun for the first time this year!

My favorite restaurant which had been closed for close to a year suddenly reopened under a new incarnation (same chef, different location and furnishings). Now I am a complete Ethiopian food addict and have been craving it ever since it closed. Dh took me there on a wonderful date on my birthday's eve and we set up a take out order for the next day. The chef prepared all my favorites just like he used to. It was absolutely awesome.

And no I did not end up getting a "boy" cake. Felix picked out a cake with a dancing Sleeping Beauty and her Prince (funny how the men in fairy tales never have names ). I will write more on the cake story tomorrow! He said I was a princess and that I was beautiful. I think that was the first time he said it to me. It just melted my heart!

One of my friends that has had a very difficult year and experienced a loss I couldn't even fathom just announced yesterday that she was expecting again. That was simply the best news! You cannot imagine how happy that made me.

The electronic community I belong to also seems to be coming together again after some bumpy times and that is also a wonderful gift for which I am so very grateful.

As far as presents go, Espen and my best friend went a little overboard: they got me the Kitchen Aid Professional 600 stand mixer for which I have been pining for over a year.

But that's not all, it turns out Espen bought it in the US when he was in DC last week-end because of course it is so much cheaper on Amazon.com but Amazon.com doesn't ship anything but books to Canada. So he had it shipped to his hotel the week before he was going there with his Dad for a father and son bonding trip.

The kicker is that the plan was on Sunday to spend the day at the Dulles airport airplane museum (or something like that) because they are both airplane freaks before they boarded their plane back to Montreal. Well Espen shows up there with this huge box (15"X12"X17" and weighing over 31 lbs!!!!). The box did not fit the lockers they had at the entrance of the museum and security refused to "babysit" the box.

The only thing they offered Espen was to lend him a wheel chair so that he could carry the box with his. Now the image of that just had me rolling on the floor laughing. Espen really used all his problem skills though to try to engineer another "more dignified solution".

He took the mixer, attachment, styrofoam packing material out of the box, stuffed them into a locker and then pleaded with security to "babysit" the empty box which they begrudgingly agreed to do after much pleading.

Isn't that a great story? I am just so in love with Espen. I just love him so much, especially since he has given me the bestest presents ever over the past 4 years: Kitten and Muffin. I really feel that our family is really coming together now and that is probably what makes my days so very extraordinary, not just yesterday but every morning I wake up.

My best friend also got me a gorgeous jelwelry set which prompted all the "you are beautiful mommy" comments from Kitten.

Oh and Muffin, with all his 7 months of life, was also extreemely giving yesterday if you know what I mean ;-)

I am just so very blessed! I'm not sure how anything could ever beat this day!

Fear of the number 3

This is my new discipline method with Kitten and it is working like a charm.

If I want him to do anything I tell him he has until the count of 3 in order to do it ... "or else". By the count of 1 he will usually rush to do whatever it was that was asked while saying "no no don't say 3".

I'm not quite sure why it works so well. We have gotten to 3 a few times and the only thing I did was either do it myself while I glared (e.g. turning off the TV) or picking him up and taking him to his room (e.g. when I asked him to get dressed for school). There was never any hitting or anything yet he seems genuily terrified by the number 3.

I have heard of triskaidekaphobia but never a phobia of the number 3.

Am I damaging my child irreparably by encouraging this fear?
Will the fear of the number 3 ever subside and let him live a happy, healthy and productive life?

Interestingly 3 is my personal favorite number....

Well that was a lot about nothing but at least it is letting me start blogging again.