Flyer conspiracy solved

One of my late grandfather's favourite tasks of the week was going through the weekly flyers. As a teenager, I didn't have the desire or time to pursue the flyers for potential deals. But my grandfather did. He'd regularly stock up on cans of beans, cans of salmon, boxes of Shreddies and anything else that he'd consider at a good price. "You'll never get it at a better price," he'd tell my grandmother while searching for bargains.

I have a love/hate relationship flyers. I go through some periods where I'll sit down for a half an hour, search through the flyers for sales and make a shopping list. Other times, I'll simply chuck the entire flyer package right into the recycling. But now I'm focused on reducing our food bill and flyers do help in planning our menu for the week. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a single flyer delivered to my door step in the last three months, so we've been looking at the flyers online. I even called the flyer company a couple of weeks before Christmas to complain. However, I never received a response. Searching for bargains on virtual flyers online is okay, but I rather have hard copies to look at.

Until a couple of weeks ago, I just assumed the reason why I wasn't receiving any flyers was because the flyer company had no delivery person. About two weeks ago, I spotted a man delivering flyers in my neighbourhood. Yesterday, I spotted him again, delivering flyers. I watched him for five minutes as he did his deliveries. I got excited when he walked up the path with a handful flyers. Yay, flyers, I thought to myself. Unfortunately, none were delivered into my mail box. Once again, I was flyer-less.

The thought of hijacking his stroller full of flyers briefly popped into my head. Instead, I thought I'd do some research and then take action. I took notice that my immediate neighbours received flyers. Very strange and odd.

This morning, I called the flyer company and got an actual live person on the phone. The problem, said the employee, wasn't on their end. It was on the Ottawa Citizen's end. In October, I started receiving a free subscription from the Citizen, in hopes I'd return as a regular subscriber. Unfortunately for them, all in the news at that time was H1N1. And as a mother of a young toddler, I was trying to reduce the amount of H1N1 coverage I was exposed to. When I asked them to cancel my subscription, they labeled me as a temporary hold, not a permanent hold. And for three months that is why I wasn't getting my papers. So I had to make a second call to the Citizen, to release the temporary hold and cancel my subscription permanently. It seems silly to do all this work in order for me to receive flyers that will eventually be dumped into my recycling box, but when you are looking for bargains, every little bit helps. Here's hoping I get my flyers next week.

An eureka moment

Sometimes you can't see the forest from the trees.

For a week now, I've been cursing, moaning and whining to myself as I try to figure out a knitting pattern. I'm knitting a hat for a friend and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to shape the top of the hat. I searched Ravelry for answers. There are more than 100 people who have knitted the hat that I'm knitting, all of whom say it is an easy hat pattern. If it was so easy, I thought as I was doing my research, then why the heck can't I figure it out? Until today, I was almost going to give up, accuse the pattern designer and those who knitted said pattern of a massive conspiracy and come up with my own shaping design.

I even called a friend, a fellow knitter, for insight. It is kind of hard to discuss knitting problems over the phone when you both haven't knitted the same pattern. So today, while I had some friends over and I was about to discuss my problem with my knitting friend, I stared at the pattern once more and the answer suddenly came to me. There was nothing wrong with the pattern. I just hadn't clued in what the pattern was telling me.

Boy, do I ever feel dumb. The answer was right there. I just was fixated on something that wasn't even an issue. Now the hat is on its way to be completed before winter. Sometimes I guess you just can't see the forest from the trees, even though the forest is staring right at you.

Boob tube woes

Darling daughter and I have been watching way too much television. Too much for my liking.

I blame it on a couple of factors. January blahs. I'm a bit too lazy at the moment to leave the house so we are frequently turning to television for entertainment. It has become a bad habit. An hour of CBC Kids has turned into two hours and even three hours some days. Yep, it is bad all around. Lately, I have found myself surfing my many television channels after lunch time to see what is on. And I dislike daytime television too. I blame it on winter.

Reason number two: darling daughter's new trick of turning on the television. To curb our television watching, I try very hard (well, maybe not hard enough or I wouldn't be facing this situation) to turn off the television. But darling daughter will have none of it. She'll turn it on. We now play a game where I'll turn off the television with the remote and she'll turn it back on manually. Sometimes I give in as it is a distraction from her climbing and walking on the furniture, which is also becoming a bad habit.

Reason number three: January blahs. Oh yeah, I already covered that.

I'm not too sure how to get out of television habit. If I had my way, we'd have basic cable. Growing up, I only had three channels to choose from: CTV, CBC and TVO. We we moved up the road, I was excited because we had four channels to choose from. I had a conversation with a friend this morning (yep, the television was on at the time) about how my television consumption has increased in the last month. I felt a little bit better to learn that I wasn't alone and she was facing a similar issue. It kind of relieved my guilt. I don't think I will be breaking my habit any time soon. The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games are starting in mid-February and we will likely be watching. And as a proud Canadian, it would be unpatriotic for me not to watch and cheer on my fellow Canadians. Well, that is the reason I am telling myself. Now, if I could just come up with a similar excuse for the situation I currently face. . . .

Halfway to three

A random thought popped into my head yesterday: darling daughter is halfway to the age of three. She will be 18 months soon, which is mind boggling when I actually sit down and think about it. It just seems like yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital, staring at her in her bassinet, not quite sure what to do next. Then there were the first seven weeks where she didn't sleep through the night and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert became my best friends while I tried to grasp hard onto my remaining sanity.

And after that, it is basically a blur. First time rolling over, first Christmas, first teeth, first solids, first Easter, finally sitting up, babbling, army crawl morphing into an actual proper crawl, first steps, full fledged walking have all happened in the last 18 months. She is officially out of babyhood. She has been for awhile, but this 18 month "milestone" marks the fact that she is a toddler. And a stubborn toddler she is. If she doesn't like something or feels like she is being wronged, she vocally tells us about it. She is now going through a no clothes phase. No sleeves and no pants, please. Those types of phases don't affect babies. These are actions of a toddler.

So if the last 18 months are gone in a flash, I can only assume that the next 18 months will go as quickly or even quicker. And in no time at all, I'll have a three year old on my hands, who in all likelihood be charming, sweet, demanding and mischievous. Mind boggling when I think about it.

Toddler attitude

My kid is full of toddler attitude these days.

As I blogged recently, darling daughter loves to play with the power button on the television. On off. On off. On off. On off. You get the idea. In addition to playing with the power button, she now likes to play with the DVD player. I caught her playing with it twice today. She was even so kind to open the DVD player, pick up the DVD in said player and bring the disc to me.

Secondly, she loves playing on the furniture. I don't trust her on the furniture. She's a toddler. She has no real concept of safety. There has been a couple of times where she has bumped her head. Now she is standing up on the couch and love seat, which is a real no, no. And as a result, she is spending a little bit more time in her play yard, especially when I'm getting lunch ready in the kitchen.

Thirdly, the outlet plugs. I have plastic safety doohickeys in all the electrical outlets, but she manages to pull them out and bring them to me. Lately, she has been in a fetching stage. She'll bring me the cordless telephone, television remotes and DVD discs.

Fourthly, the word no. No is her favourite word these days. Do you want to have a nap? No. Do you want something to eat? No. Do you want to play? No. Do you want your diaper changed? No. Yep, no is favourite word these days, especially when I take things away from her. She develops a real little attitude. She purse her lips together, scrunch her face and say no in a determined and firm voice. Yikes! When the heck did my kid become a toddler. Those baby days are over. I hate to even think what the teenage years are going to be like.

Anti-sleeves and anti-naps

Apparently sleeves and naps have fallen out of fashion for darling daughter.

I'm assuming all toddlers go through a similar stage when it comes to sleeves. Darling daughter regularly shimmies out of hers. It must be a toddler fashion statement. The only problem is that she is stretching the neck line of her onesies. Almost all her onesies now have out of shape necklines. Any hope of using them for future children are nil. And forget resale value. Who wants to buy an onesie with a misshapen neck line?

She likes shimming out of her sleeves during nap times. It entertains her while she should be napping. Ah, nap time. It is on the endangered species list in our household. I can't remember when she had a good, quality nap in her own crib. Darling daughter will occasionally go to daycare. According to our wonderful daycare provider, darling daughter naps. She'll nap for an hour and half to two hours. And sometimes she'll nap in a playpen while children play around her. What the heck?!? These days if I can get an hour nap out of her, I'll be lucky. This afternoon, she napped for an hour. Instead of shimming out of her sleeves, she shimmed out of her sleep bag. I have to say, that was pretty impressive. Nap time used to be my favourite time of day. No longer. My new favourite time of day is 5 p.m. when dear husband comes home and provides me with sweet reprieve.

Teething is a bitch

Pardon my language, but there is no way around it: teething is a bitch.

There. I said it. I feel a little bit better.

Last night, for the first time in three nights, darling daughter slept through the night. It was a far cry from her usual peaceful nighttime sleep, but at least dear husband didn't have to sleep on my yoga mat on her bedroom floor.

Except for the two year molars, darling daughter's teething days are slowly coming to an end. The only two teeth that have yet to come in are her bottom incisors. Shortly around New Year's, they started to come in, but they weren't really bothering her. Until Thursday. After she woke up from her afternoon nap, she developed a fever, which in her case usually indicates teething. We checked her gums and they were red and swollen. We have spent the last four days trying to comfort a crying, sad, overtired and cranky toddler. Dear husband had to spend two nights on her bedroom floor because she wouldn't sleep without someone in her room. On Saturday night, he spent three nights sleeping on her floor, which screams parental love to me. Or desperation for sleep. Or a little bit of both.

On Saturday, we could see the little whites of the top of the teeth poking through the gum line. Unfortunately, they have since retreated. Fortunately, the pain has somewhat retreated, too. Our happy little darling daughter is back, but she is still overtired. She refuses to nap today, to my dismay. So basically I'm back at square one: waiting for these incisors to finally appear. Until that happens, I'm praying that the worst is over and they poke through. Because, really, teething is a bitch.

Not buying groceries isn't the answer to reducing our food bill

I think I mentioned it earlier this week that we didn't have any food and dear husband had to go to the grocery store and pick us up some supplies. It was a combination of laziness and financial frugality on my part. In December, we spent an insane amount on groceries, about $700. I thought initially we were in the $625 range (which isn't exactly good) but I later found a receipt in the bottom of my purse for about $75. I could chalk up our food expenses to the fact it was the holidays, but we did cash in some Sobey points, which helped out.

So this month I'm on a mission to reduce our grocery bill. Eating leftovers for the first little while helped immensely. But the leftover train has run out and I'm back to planning and making meals.

Earlier this week, dear husband started complaining that darling daughter didn't have all that much fruit. She did, but I guess cutting apples and clementines isn't all that appealing when you can wash and rinse berries. But we did start to get low on the basics so I had to break down and buy food. Now, I want to point out that I wasn't going to let my family starve in my mission to reduce our grocery bill. But I have discovered that we waste a lot of food when we have a lot of food in the house. It is easy to not use soon-to-be expired produce or leftovers when it is hidden in the back of the refrigerator. Although I still have a close eye on the bottom line, I've eased up on the purse strings a little. If anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear them. I'll let you know how we fared at the end of the month.

It is a Fred Penner afternoon

Darling daughter is cranky. I blame it on teething. Not even a snack could cease the tears so I had to bring in the big guns: Fred Penner.

Darling daughter absolutely loves Fred Penner. Loves him. She starts to dance immediately when I turn on his CD. Unfortunately for us, we only have one Fred Penner CD. Often, we find ourselves playing it over and over again. At Christmas, dear husband couldn't find another Fred Penner CD, so he bought a children's CD instead. It did not go over so well. When he put in it the CD player, she expected to hear Fred. Instead, she heard the voices of children belting out classic kids tunes. She immediately gave dear husband a look as to say, "what the heck is the crap?" Apparently she doesn't accept substitutes.

Fred Penner seems to be working. Although she didn't start dancing when I hit the play button, she stopped crying, which was the goal of the exercise. We likely have to play the CD all afternoon until dear husband comes home. Good times, good times. I don't mind Fred Penner actually. I think he is under appreciated by the older set. I need to get another one of his CDs to at least bring some variety into my life.

Meal planning at its best, well, not really

I'm still on the meal planning bandwagon, but I think I've got one foot trailing on the ground and if I hit a bump soon, I might fall off the wagon entirely.

On tonight's menu: leftover pizza and veggies. Can you say desperate? Or is lazy more the word to describe the situation?

Basically we had no groceries until now. As I type this, dear husband has returned from the grocery store, putting our new found bounty away. Grocery shopping was on my list to do today, but it just didn't happen. We met some friends at Chapters this morning and the kids played in the kids section. I spent some of my time policing darling daughter. She loves books, but books don't love her. She is hard on them. She likes to rip pages. After we left the book store, I had no steam to go to the grocery store. So I found some leftover pizza in the freezer and made some veggies. Voila! Dinner of champions.

This week's meal plan list is in my head, not on a piece of paper, which isn't the best idea because it is easy to get off track. But I got dear husband to buy all the missing ingredients tonight so I should be back on the wagon tomorrow morning. In my quest to find new recipes to try out I discovered a new cook book in the express read section at my local library branch called Bake Until Bubbly. Let's just say it has some divine recipes. However, I'm sure they will be appealing to the tongue, they may expand my waist line.

Pushing my buttons

As I have alluded before on my blog I don't like watching television during the day. For whatever inexplicable reason, I don't like watching daytime television (except for The View, but that may be changing soon because three of the co-hosts grate on my nerves . . .). So instead, I usually have the local talk radio station on. I may not agree with what the hosts say, but I feel like I have forged some kind of connection to the outside world.

But now darling daughter has learned a new trick: pressing the television power button. We aren't sophisticated (translated: too cheap to buy one) enough to own a flat screen television. I really want one, but our conventional boob tube still serves us well.

The clicking of the power button on off, on off, on off is usually what I hear when I'm busy in the kitchen. The house can be completely quiet and I suddenly hear voices. It is the television.

So now we play a little game. Darling daughter turns on the television and I turn it off with the remote. It continues for a few minutes before she gets bored and turns her attention to something else, usually climbing on the furniture. Oh the toddler years. They sure are fun, but they can be exhausting.

Is this considered playing fetch with your kid?

I felt a little bad today that I threw darling daughter's book up the stairs as an incentive for her to crawl upstairs.

Darling daughter is a pretty keen cookie. If you ask her a direct question that involves her crawling up the stairs (ie: Do you need your diaper changed? Do you want a nap? Is it time for a bath?) she'll run to the baby gate blocking the stairs to the kitchen and point upstairs. After opening the gate for her, she'll head for the stairs.

But lately she has been loitering at the bottom of the stairs, not wanting to go up. Maybe she is getting wise that when I say, Are you ready for nap time?, it is actually time for nap time. Typically, she always has something in her hand: a book, a small plastic dish, a little people figure while she crawls up the stairs. Today, she wasn't really wanting to go upstairs for nap time. So I took the book from out of her hands and flung it upstairs as an incentive for her to begin crawling. It worked. So when she reached the step where the book rested upon, loitering, I grabbed it upstairs and encouraged her to go and get the book. It worked again. Heck, it worked so well that when she reached the top of the stairs, she grabbed the book and waltzed off to her room.

But as I said earlier, I feel kind of bad. It almost felt like I was playing catch with her. Oh well. Some days I ask her Where is your phone? Where is your bus? Where is your sippy cup?, she'll run and find them and bring them too me. It almost feels like playing fetch with your kid. But maybe that totally isn't a wrong thing if it gets them to climb the stairs by themselves.

My car dashboard mocks me

They are back.

Those little bright icons, that suddenly appeared on my car dashboard to alert me that something is wrong with my brakes have returned.

Damn you. *Fist shake*

The story began last week. I had a feeling that something would go wrong with the car, so I wasn't surprised when the ABS and brake light icons appeared on my dashboard. I was left with two options: drive my car and ignore the icons or get it checked out. After an emergency call to the dealership, I found myself talking to a technician who thought it might be nothing. Or it might be something. After killing time by stumbling across a step class at a nearby Goodlife, eating lunch at Kelseys, a quick shopping trip at Costco and a 30 minute wait in the service department's waiting room, I finally got an answer: a broken sensor. Car is safe to drive, the technician assured me, adding there is nothing wrong with the brakes. Damn, how much will a new sensor cost? I asked. Free, the answer. Covered by the warranty. Thank God, as my credit card couldn't stand any more financial abuse.

As mysteriously as they appeared, they disappeared about a day later. Weird. I've been driving the car around for the last week, without a warning icon in sight. But they reappeared this morning, mocking me. I have yet to hear from the dealership as to when they will be able to replace the sensor. So unless they disappear again, I guess the icons will be mocking me as I drive around town.

Green bin envy

I promise this will be my last whining post regarding Ottawa's green bin program until I get my green bin.

Today is garbage day in my neighbourhood. The amount of garbage on my street is quite astounding. There is a lot of cardboard, which isn't surprising since this is the first paper recycling day since Christmas. However, there seems to be more garbage bags than normal at the opposite end of the street. It almost looks like a very mini Carp mountain.

I don't like garbage day. In fact, I hate it. Sure, we generate garbage, but I am constantly amazed the amount of garbage people will haul out to the curb, namely furniture. Living in Ottawa and got an old couch? Just haul it out to the curb. Don't even think about taking it to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. The garbage man will take it instead. I couldn't get away with hauling out an old couch to the curb in the community I grew up. It is unheard of. Instead, you got to buy special garbage bags (about $3 each). No black garbage bags are accepted.

Last week, someone dumped phone books onto a pile of garbage bags. They weren't picked up because it was cans, instead of paper. So there they sat in the snow bank. I doubt the recycle guys will even be able to see them this week because of the snow we have gotten in recent days. I think the next time we'll see them is sometime in the spring.

This week's garbage day is a bitter pill to swallow. Officially, this is the week the city rolls out its green bin program. Compost is being accepted. I saw a number of green bins at the curb. When I turned onto my street, it was black garbage bags and cardboard. Not a green bin in sight. Our street is in the phase two portion of the green bin program. We may get our green bins sometime this summer.

But I want my green bin now. I've been waiting patiently for a green bin since the city announced it was going to be taking the program city-wide. Until I'm able to feed my own green bin, I guess I'll just have to continue stewing with my green bin envy.

Small things make my day

We are already four days into January and I'm already sick of the snow. Snow, snow, snow. And just for fun, blowing snow. It seems like it has been snowing since New Year's Eve. I'm tired of putting on my boots, trudging out to the car with a toddler in tow, teetering on the snow bank lining the sidewalk, hoping I won't fall before I get to the car. Freaking snow. Hate it.

After a frustrating morning which involved me only getting a 30 calorie workout at the gym before the child minding lady handed me darling daughter right at the elliptical machine and then grocery shopping with said grumpy toddler, I parked my car on the street in hopes the snow plow operators would do something with the snow.

My prayers were answered. Shortly after lunch they arrived, plowing the snow away. And God bless their hearts, they even scraped away the huge snow bank growing along the sidewalk away. What a huge relief. I no longer have to worry about climbing over it while carrying darling daughter to the car.

So thanks snow plow operators. You made my bleak January day a bit brighter.

The January Blahs

There is no doubt about it, January is a blah month.

Poor January. It can't live up to the expectations of December, filled with Christmas cheer, holiday parties, weeks of vacation for the both young and old and of course, presents. Sure, a new year starts on January 1, but most people are holed up in their houses taking down Christmas decorations, coping with a fuzzy head from the night before or bracing themselves for the credit card statement that will arrive any day now to really enjoy New Year's Day.

And after the decorations are put away, the outdoor Christmas lights are turned off and the credit card statements arrive, people hunker down and wait for spring to arrive. Yep, there is no doubt about it, January has arrived.

I find this time of year to be sad. It is sad when you have to pack away Christmas decorations. It is sad when people turn off their outside Christmas lights as the winter darkness seems a wee bit more darker. It is sad when family visiting for the holidays leave for home. The Christmas cheer and holiday plans that you had been basking in for the last several weeks have vanished and come to an abrupt end. Although the eggnog is on sale at the grocery store at discount prices, there are no more holiday movies or specials to watch on the CBC when sipping eggnog out of your reindeer punch bowl glasses. The way I look at it, only four more weeks until February arrives, the shortest month of the year. Until then, I'll be hunkered down, knitting, waiting for winter to end.