Dance

I am a dance mom.  Not one of THOSE dance moms.  Not the kind you see on that silly television show.  And yes, my kids do watch that show but we know that isn't "real", at least not our reality.

Our reality is that although my children love to dance, it isn't their whole life and we certainly don't run our family and household around their dance schedule.  But it does take up a significant amount of their extra cirricular time for 8 months of the year.

At the start of every season they are excited to see who their teachers will be.  Once choreography is started they can't stop singing and practicing their routine.  They get excited when they get their first fitting and love trying on their new costumes.  As soon as the competition dates and times are set they are pouring over it to see their own schedules as well as their friends.  All this culminates to the days of the actual competition when they get on stage and preform their routines which they have been practicing for months.

Competitive dancing has given The Big Oh and I lots of teaching opportunities for our kids.  Early on they knew if they wanted to be good at something it would require practice.  They also learned that practice didn't just mean one night or one week - some techniques and tricks have taken my children months to learn.  They learned not to give up.  They learned the importance of teamwork.  They learned to time manage and to make wise decisions - do your homework before your dance classes or you'll be up 'till 11:00 pm trying to finish it.  Dance also taught them to be gracious losers and modest winners (at least out in public).  One of the hardest lessons they had to learn is that sometimes life is just not fair - even though they feel they've given their all and worked 110% and feel they deserve recognition for what they've accomplished, they might not get it.

Hopefully they stick with dancing for a few more years.  Besides all these life lessons it's great exercise, and I just love watching them dance!

Defending My Honour

The other day I was pushing M3 and the neighbour's kid on the swings in our backyard.  I always told M3 to be careful around swings and not walk in front of one or else she might get kicked in the face.  So this time she told me to be careful as I was pushing them.  Here's how the conversation went.

Big Oh: Don't worry.  Daddy won't get hurt.  Daddy's big and strong.
Neighbour: My daddy is really really big ... and he is SOOO strong ... and he doesn't wear glasses.
M3: My daddy is a little bit strong and he wears glasses.

I'm glad I can count on her to defend my honour!

For the record, I've seen that kid's dad.  He's puny.

Big Oh

Happy Birthday

Today is my 40th birthday!  Happy birthday to me!  I'm getting a lot of love today.   I have a regular group of friends and family who always call or email on my birthday, but this year the birthday wishes have been especially meaningful to me.  Maybe it's because it's the big 4-0?  I feel blessed. I feel grateful.  I feel strong.  I feel healthy.  I feel loved.  I really FEEL all these things.

Sometimes we go through days on autopilot.  We wake up and do our usual morning routine - get the kids breakfast, out the door, go to work.  We're at work all day and rush out at 4 or 5 to get home to do more routine - dinner, wash up, driving to one kid's activity or another.  Then off to bed to start another day more or less the same way.   It is not easy to take some time to just slow down and enjoy everything around us.   Recently I have learned to take the time to appreciate everything that I have.  My birthday wish is for all my friends and family to be happy and healthy and to take a little time everyday to just slow down and to feel blessed and grateful for everything they have in their lives.

Y.C.

Board Games

My two nephews are at my place for babysitting this summer.  So along with my three kids that makes five of them  - my very own summer camp.  It's actually not too bad, they are close enough in ages that they will play with each other.  Of course they enjoy their time on their own electronic devices but I have also noticed them playing games!  Yes, good old fashioned board games!  This summer my kids are playing Clue, Monopoly, Chess, Checkers, and Password. They are also learning to play Mahjong. And you know what?  They love it.  Sometimes they actually PREFER playing these games over their electronic games.  I prefer them playing these games.  I like to see them interacting with one another.  I love seeing them talking & laughing with one another.  I even like it when they start arguing over the game, and I don't mind one bit when it ends with someone in tears because someone "cheated" or wasn't being "fair".  Because the alternative might just be every kids glued to their own laptop, iPad, or television for hours each day.

Of course there are merits to all these electronic devices.  And I agree there are plenty of educational apps and games out there to stimulate our children which my kids play with too.  But I am happy that my children also find enjoyment in a simple game of Checkers with each other.

Candyland

Yesterday I went to Candyland.  I went with M1 and M3.  I also went with my friends.  When we went there were 4 birthday parties going on.  So it was really crowded.  I went on four different rock climbing walls and I reached the top of all of them.  I went on 2 slides.  The blue one went in circles and the red one just went straight down and super fast.  My favourite was the red one.  There was also a basketball area and I played.  There was a place where you put balls into a hole and it sucks it up into the top and the balls fall down.  There was also a place where there's a handle and you have to jump up and grab it and it brings you to the other side.  I want to go back.

M2

Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets vs Prisoner of Azkaban

Since my last blog I have been spending most of my time reading the second and third Harry Potter. In this blog I am going to compare them.

          Chamber of Secrets                                                        

The basilisk and Aragog really freaked me out because they were oversized monsters. I didn't really like when Draco called Hermionie a mud blood because he should be the mud blood! I found it really exciting when Harry could speak Parseltouge and he could open the chamber to save Ginny. I was really shocked when Tom Riddle was actually Lord Voldemort. I really liked this one because it was so exciting.


      Prisoner of Azkaban

The movie was my favourite movie because it explains everything about Harry's life, like how he has a godfather and how his mom and dad got killed ( Peter Pettigrew was a double agent - the secret keeper for his parents and working for Lord Voldemort.) The most exciting part was when Malfoy got hit by Buckbeak.


If I had to choose the Prisoner of Azkaban was my favourite because it explains everything.

M1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                           

The Golden Age of Sitcoms

My Dad asked me, “Why are there no more good English shows on TV anymore?”  Why don’t they make shows like Three’s Company, Brady Bunch, Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman?  I think there are a lot of good shows on today.  It’s just that there are so many channels I don’t know where to find them.  My girls are watching Treehouse or Disney or Family Channel.  The wife likes documentaries and reality shows, which are nothing like the reality I live in.  No wonder my father thinks there are no good shows on TV.

So that got me thinking about the “The Golden Age of Television”.  I hear the term quite often but I don’t know exactly when it was.  Was it during the 60s and 70s where there were shows like MASH, All in the Family, The Bob Newhart Show, Bonanza, Green Acres, The Jeffersons, I Dream of Jeannie?  Perhaps it’s different for every person and just depends on what you like to watch.  My sisters liked prime time soap operas like Dallas, Dynasty, and Falcon Crest.

For me, I love sitcoms.  When I was growing up, I felt I lived during the Golden Age of Sitcoms.  There was always something funny on every day of the week.  I first started watching Gilligan’s Island, Different Strokes, Happy Days, Mork and Mindy, and Three’s Company.  Then there came Who’s The Boss (Alyssa Milano can be my boss anyday), Growing Pains, Family Ties, and the Cosby Show.  They gave way to Cheers, Night Court, and the Simpsons.  Some that I didn’t watch every week but still enjoyed every now and then: Laverne & Shirley, Married with Children, ALF, Full House, Facts of Life, Taxi, Silver Spoons, and Perfect Strangers.

By the time I was an adult (based on my age), it seemed the only sitcoms left for me were Seinfeld and Friends.  Even The Simpsons was starting to get less funny for me.  Based on that, I knew I was getting old and out of touch with pop culture because The Simpsons is all about pop culture.  Well, then I had kids and after that I realized I couldn’t really watch TV because it was never my turn.  So the next best thing is to reminisce about my favourite shows.  I hope you enjoyed this stroll down memory lane as much as I did.

Big Oh

Last night M3 and I were looking at photos on my tablet.  We were in bed and had already read a bedtime story but she asked to look at some pictures so I said yes.  After a few "last one's" I finally turned off the tablet and said "No - time to sleep".  Well she didn't want to and she just lost it on me.  Complete with wailing and screaming "I'M NOT DONE YET...I'M NOT TIRED!" and flopping around in bed like a fish out of water!  Of course she's tired - it's already past her usual bedtime.  But it's summer holidays and we don't have to get up early.  It would have been so easy to give in and let her have her way even though I had already said no but I stood my ground.  I lay beside her and watched her, and after a few minutes her eyes started to get droopy and her crying had quieted a bit - she was falling asleep.  I wiped her wet cheeks and gave her a kiss and told her I loved her.  She asked with her eyes closed "Can we look at pictures tomorrow?", and I answered her yes - but I'm not even sure she heard me.

Saying "Yes" to children is so much easier for parents.  It's fast.  It makes the kids happy.  It makes them LIKE you.  On the other hand, saying "No" requires energy and effort.  No is usually followed by some crying, pleading, wailing, or negotiating depending on the age of the child (sometimes all of the above).  It also requires explaining.  I've learned that I just can't say "No".   I have to give them a reason/explanation (and "Because I say so" doesn't work).   Doing this legitimizes my no and in turn it makes it easier for my children to accept it.  It also lays groundwork for future requests.  My children respect my decisions.  And as I see with my older girls, they respect and love me, even though I say no to them.

Symposium

Today for brunch my family went to a new restaurant called Symposium.  I had a grilled cheese sandwich and fries.  The grilled cheese sandwich was good but the fries were not very good.  I had a little bit of my sister's ice-cream and it was good.  I want to go back to try something else on the menu.

M2

I Read Harry Potter!

During the past few days I have been reading Harry Potter. A few days ago I finished reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.  During the first few chapters I thought it would be boring, but once I got to the middle of the book I couldn't put it down!  And I probably finished it in about 3 or 4 days.  After I read the whole book I watched half of the movie with my mom, my dad and M2 and M3.    I watched the other half of the movie with my mom and my cousin.

My favourite part was when Harry was playing in the Quidditch tournament as the seeker and  caught the golden snitch and got the Gryffindor House 150 points. All of my least favourite parts was when Draco Malfoy kept saying mean things about the Gryffindor House and good things about the Slytherin House. The most exciting part of it in my opinion was when Gryffindor won the house cup! The scariest part of the movie in my opinion was when Professor Quirrell took of his turban and Harry killed him!

Now that I am done reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone I am reading the second Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

The Big Kahuna (M1)

Comments

I wanted to thank our friends & family who have been reading our posts.  Especially thank those who also took some time to send us a txt or email in regards to some of the posts.  M1 & M2 loved reading the comments.  Because of this we have decided to allow comments on each of the posts - just click below to leave us a message.  Like I said, M1 & M2 love reading the comments and will definitely be encouraged to write more because of them.  I've also added to the left a place where you can put your email address so you can get notification when one of us posts something!

Y.C.

The Not So Beautiful Game

My brother told me, “If you don’t have anything nice to say about someone, don’t say it”.  My other brother told me, “If you criticize someone, you should start off with a compliment first”.  Well, soccer is not a person, but I did write an earlier blog about how it was “The Beautiful Game”.  So now I’m going to write about what I don’t like about soccer.

As I said in my earlier blog, I like to see goals being scored.  After all, that is the object of the game, right?  You need to score more goals than the other team.  Another way to say this is that you need to allow fewer goals than the other team.  I think the latter view is how soccer must have been thought up when the rules of the game were being created.  Why else would it be so difficult to generate offense and so simple (relatively speaking) to play defense?  And make no mistake, it is the rules of the game that hinder offense and promote defense.

First, there is the offside rule.  It is very restrictive and prevents any degree of goal-sucking.  In hockey, you can at least float around the blue line waiting for a breakaway pass.  Second, there is the lack of a more severe penalty for kicking the ball out of bounds.  In hockey, it’s a 2 minute penalty for shooting the puck over the glass in the defensive zone.  Third, there is no rule that pressures you to generate offense.  In basketball, there is a shot clock and the over-and-back rule.  (Okay, so I’m comparing soccer to other sports, but hockey and basketball have the same basic objective – put the ball /puck in the opposing team’s net – so I think a comparison here is fair.)  In summary, when playing soccer you can pass the ball back and forth, never attacking, then kick the ball out of bounds at the first sign of trouble.  When the match ends in a 0-0 tie, your team will be commended for possession of the ball.

This may not be so bad if there wasn’t a penalty kick shootout at the end of a tied game.  Then, it’s a total 180.  Now offense is needed so let’s make it difficult for any kind of defense.  The goalkeeper must stay on the goal line until the player kicks the ball.  The kicker is 12 yards away from the goal line.  How can you not score?  I don’t have the stats but I would imagine the success rate for the kicker is above 75%.  The reactions of the fans, players, and coaches say it all.  When the kicker scores, they let out a sigh of relief – it’s expected.  When the goalkeeper makes a save (by sheer luck), the fans are euphoric.  Further evidence is that the goalkeeper doesn’t even know which way the ball is going.  He just picks whether he wants to jump left, jump right, or stay in the middle.  Many times he jumps one way and the ball goes the other way.  So I guess it’s the first kicker who makes a mistake that loses.  Is that how FIFA wants the most important sport in the world to have its matches decided?  (Imagine if Final Jeopardy involved a series of addition questions and the first guy to make a mistake loses.)

A simple solution would be to move the kicker further out.  Players are now stronger and can kick harder so while 12 yards would have been slightly reasonable in the 1980s, it might make more sense to move the kicker further out now.

Big Oh

Wonderland

Yesterday I went to Canada's Wonderland with my cow-fu & cow-mo (that's my uncle J.L. & my aunt T.L).  I went on  rides and my sister went on  rides.  My favorite ride was Timberwolf Falls and I got soaked!  I also went on White Water Canyon, Wilde Beast, The Fly, Dragon Fyre, and on a Trampoline.  I did Timberwolf Falls and White Water Canyon for the first time and I had to wear my cow-fu's XX-Large shirt because I got so wet.  I got a cherry mixed with blue raspberry icee.  And we got Tiny Tom's donuts.  For lunch we had Manchu Wok.  We had noodles and beef & rice & sweet & sour pork & vegetables.  It tasted good.  At 1:30 we saw an acrobatic show.  They jumped off a tower and bounced off a trampoline and did flips in the air.  I like hanging out with my cow-fu and cow-mo.

M2

The Beautiful Game

So I’ve been watching some of the FIFA World Cup and there seems to be a lot more scoring this year than in tournaments past.  This is good for me because I grew up watching North American sports and over here, scoring is entertaining.  It's important and it's what sport is all about. Passing a ball back and forth, then kicking it out of bounds is not entertaining.

I’m enjoying the World Cup because I’m liking how it’s bringing people together.  It brings together communities like Little Italy, the Danforth, Korea-Town etc.  It brings together people at work when they participate in pools.  It brings together friends and family who gather to watch the matches.  It lets us forget the troubles in our lives.  One day, let’s hope the most watched sport in the world can bring together nations to forget their hostilities towards each other.  (But we might still have to deal with the occasional soccer riot.)

The game itself is called “The Beautiful Game”.  And now I know why.  When a goal is scored, the play that generates the goal is usually a pretty passing play.  A header to cap off the play just makes it that much more beautiful.  The celebrations are also quite the spectacle.  I predict the last team celebrating will be Argentina.

Big Oh

Harry Potter

It was about 14 years ago when I first read Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone.  I can't say I discovered it on my own before all the hype - in fact, my copy is part of a box set which includes the first 3 books so I was probably introduced to it because I wanted to see/read what the big deal was about.  But after reading the first book I remember totally being  a part of the whole Pottermania deal.  As a reader in my mid-twenties at that time, I remember being really excited about the books.  I remember the feeling of joy, anticipation and just plain fun when reading and talking about the books.  I just had to tell as many people as I could about Harry Potter - I credit myself for turning my then 8 year old niece into a Pottermaniac (which has lasted into her twenties). I was sad when I read the very last page of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows - I think I was in Harry Potter withdrawal for days!  The Harry Potter books represent to me a time in my life when I was crossing the bridge from my carefree teenage/early-twenties years into adulthood and along with that came all the adult responsibilities.  I had recently gotten married and bought our first home, I had a steady job and was paying bills. But whenever I got a new Harry Potter book (and even the days/weeks before a release) I would revert to child-like excitment.  I would talk non-stop about it.  I would devour the book and then re-read it immediately afterwards in case I missed some small detail.  Since then I have read many more great books that have touched me, made me think, and even made me cry.  But I have not gotten the same "Harry Potter Feeling" again.

This summer I hope to have M1 start reading Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone.  If she'd like, I'll even read it to her and M2.  Or she may want to discover it on her own.  Fortunately she loves to read - I'd love to see what kind of experience she has with these books - a child's perspective.  And if I'm lucky enough I may get to share in her joy & excitement in meeting Harry Potter for the first time.

Y.C.