One of the most annoying things about living in the province of Quebec (and there are many) is the roads. Not only are our roads utter crap, but they will then re-pave the roads, using the same crap stuff as last time just so that it will need to be done again several years later. This keeps the road construction companies rolling in dough. And seriously? You can tell you’re in Quebec without road signs. Years ago, my sister-in-law lived in Ottawa. I was dozing in the car on the way home and the car was rolling smoothly along the Ontario roads. All of a sudden, it was like driving over crumbled gravel; I opened my eyes, and saw signs showing we were now back in Quebec, land of the atrocious asphalt.

Anyway. The point of all that is that our suburb has been undergoing so much road work that it’s chaos to drive to half the places we want to get to. One day we had to go to George’s parents’ house and what should have been a five minute drive ended up taking us 20 minutes because we had to go so far out of our way just to avoid the traffic caused by rush hour combined with construction. Thank God I wasn’t trying to get to the hospital to give birth or anything because I would have been having my baby on the side of the road.

Right now our own streets are being ripped up and redone, which is LOADS of fun. Traffic is insane and the noise levels can get quite appalling. On the one hand, it was kind of fascinating to see the machines they use. Like this, uh, “thingy” which shreds up the asphalt and then spits it all out into a big truck to be hauled away to lands unknown:

And then this little zamboni-esque vehicle comes along behind it and essentially dusts and sweeps away all the leftover debris. I like it because it’s cute and also fairly quiet, not making any more noise than your average street cleaner does.

But the steamrollers. Oh my LORD, the steamrollers. I’ve never been so close to one before and I had no idea that a) they are just about as loud as a plane breaking the sound barrier, and b) they can make an entire apartment complex vibrate, right up to the fourth floor. Breanna has been freaking out for two days now because it scares her. It will start up and she’ll shriek, “What’s THAT?!” with big, round saucer eyes, and then she climbs up my leg like a monkey on a tree and clings to me, asking, “Steam? Okay! Okay Mommy! It okay!” as she waits for my confirmation that it is indeed okay.

Right now they appear to be on lunch break since it’s half past noon and all is quiet out there for now, but Breanna is napping, so inevitably they will most likely start up soon, waking her up before she’s had a decent rest, which will make her lovely company by late afternoon. The steamrollers already ruined supper last night, what with the fact that the overachievers were still working at 6 pm – I got to eat my meatloaf with Breanna perched on my lap, and she ate bites of her own meal in between “What’s THAT?!” wails. Fun times!

Do you know what they sound like? If you’ve ever seen your basic sci-fi movie you’ve heard similar sounds. When the heroes of the movie are hiding in some underground bunker or in the storage area of a space ship, or whatever, and the evil robot-esque villain is searching for them, there’s a sound that signals it’s getting closer, and you sit with baited breath, wondering if they’ll be found. And it sounds just like the steamroller in this video that I took from Hayley’s bedroom window:

Seriously. I’m living in my own sci-fi movie. I just have to close my eyes and I’ll find myself in some post-apocalyptic story, hiding out with my family and waiting for Vin Diesel or Ah-nold to come rescue us. I hope I get a really big rocket launcher to protect myself. Or to use to blow the steamroller up if it wakes my daughter up.

Between the apple crisp that is cooling on the counter and the meatloaf that is cooking in the oven, my kitchen smells so damn good that my stomach can’t stop growling.

(Aside – every time my stomach growls when Breanna’s close by, she looks at me suspiciously and asks, “fart?” Sheesh.)

I can’t wait until supper.

This site has photos of ancient “lost” cities. I got lost in them for a long time last night. I especially love seeing pictures of Chichen Itza, having been there many years ago.

God, I wish I wasn’t too lazy to make these creepy and cool Halloween cupcakes.

As I’ve mentioned before, one of Breanna’s favorite things to do is to rush over if you’re pretending to cry (or doing it for real) so she can rub your arm and say “don’t cry! Okay! Don’t cry!” Even today, she did it to me and I wasn’t crying at all. My glasses are busted and they are a bit wobbly so they make me especially nauseous when they move while I’m trying to work on my computer. I was sort of hunched over, moaning and whining (yes, my plans for the week include going to get them fixed or replaced, whichever is cheaper and more likely) and Breanna thought I was crying so she reassured me.

She took it to an extreme the other day though. She saw that I was sweeping my kitchen so – as she frequently does – she went and grabbed my Swiffer. She pushed it all around the apartment, then went to town with it in my living room (there’s just no explaining to a toddler that Swiffers don’t work on carpets). At one point she accidentally banged it into the couch and she immediately dropped to the floor, hugged it close, and said, “Okay, don’t cry!” over and over again, like she was terrified she had hurt her delicate little Swiffer.

She is a loon. But we do share a love of Swiffer products.

*******

I never wrote about Hayley’s birthday party last weekend. It was nice and calm. We had a home full of people, we were pretty well packed. Everyone was able to make it, including my parents, and everyone seemed to have a good time. We did up cheese and pate and cracker platters, vegetables with dips, fruits with chocolate sauce, chips and whatnot, and of course I made lasagna and a birthday cake. This year’s request by Hayley was a re-run, she wanted another ladybug cake. Okay then!

You can see the full set of party photos here, though there aren’t a ton since I was too busy to take photos. She got a nice mix of toys and clothes and it was all good.

*******

This weekend consisted of her friend’s birthday party on Saturday and then Thanksgiving dinner last night. Today was A LOT OF FUN since both girls were ridiculously tired. Neither could settle down and sleep until almost 10 last night, then Hayley inexplicably woke up from 1 am until 5 am. They were both cranky and fussy, Hayley has a dry cough and Breanna is teething with her two-year molars, so in general it was just a frickin’ great day here. At least they were both exhausted enough to fall asleep relatively easily tonight so hooray for that.

Hayley refuses to admit she’s tired even when she is, and she even manages to pull off looking awake in the picture she requested tonight. How does she do that?

And then tomorrow school’s back in (holiday today since today is technically Thanksgiving), and we’ll be back to our normal routine. Whatever “normal” means.

*******

Today, for the first time in years I made myself a big old omelet. I’ve documented my hatred of coming up for things for lunch if there are no leftovers to be had but today I just had the urge once I saw some vegetables and ham in our fridge. I sauteed some mushrooms, chopped tomato, cubed ham, onion, and garlic, then cooked up an omelet with melted cheese and folded the other things inside.

It was frickin’ insanely good. Good enough that I just might make myself another one tomorrow, dammit.

*******

I am full into prime time TV again now that everything is back on (except Lost, dammit). I am loving all my usual dramas (Criminal Minds first and foremost and still the show I would choose if I could only watch one, CSI, CSI Miami, and CSI NY). I’m slowly getting back into Grey’s Anatomy although it’s lost a little something or other. Even Desperate Housewives has sucked me back in. Reality TV is quiet with only Dancing With the Stars holding me in, but that’s mostly because I’m interested in watching Jennie Garth (from my once beloved 90210) and Cameron Matheson (who plays a character on my one soap opera, All My Children). I also started watching two new shows – Big Shots which is okay but not awesome, and Dirty Sexy Money which is so good I nearly burst an artery watching it. I tried Gossip Girl and loved it, but it airs at 7 pm here which is just stupid and not do-able for me so maybe I’ll catch it in the summer instead.

What are you watching this season? Let’s discuss!

Things you can do with a single sheet of paper. My favorite is one of the “simpler” ones, the third one up from the bottom on the right hand side.

This is absolutely amazing – photos of a dolphin giving birth. Unless you’re incredibly squeamish, there’s nothing to be afraid of, the pictures are just incredible and beautiful.

Happy turkey eating day to my fellow Canadians. I suppose there are many important reasons to celebrate on Thanksgiving, but honestly it’s all about the turkey and the pumpkin pie for me. I can’t wait to chow down.

I’ll try to post something more substantial at some point in time if the turkey hasn’t rendered me completely comatose.

You know, today when I was getting ready to leave to go to the school – I was asked to come in right at the start of the day – I made sure to pack my camera, double-checked that my card was in the camera and not in my card reader, tossed an extra pair of charged batteries in my purse, and headed off, ready to take pictures of Hayley in her Kindergarten class.

I totally forgot to take a single picture. I never even thought of it until I was walking up to the front door after coming home.

The bad part is that I don’t have any pictures to look at, to share with Hayley, to remember. The good part is that it just means that I was too busy having a freakin’ blast to think of my camera. (This is why I need a camera attached to my head which takes photos every two minutes.)

I seriously enjoyed my morning in Kindergarten. It was so much fun to watch what Hayley does every morning after she gets dropped off. They have a set routine of where to put things, what order their routine is, how they get their morning started, and I loved seeing it. I joined in on their circle time and sang songs with them (the teacher started to giggle when she saw that I was singing along because it showed that Hayley sings them repeatedly at home), introduced myself, and then got to read them a Thanksgiving story. I was shocked at how easy it was to hold the attention of 19 young kids as I read about how three turkey plotted to escape the farm before Thanksgiving dinner. We even got to join the other Kindergarten class for a little culture lesson, where a student who is Sikh and his mother explained in easy terms about their beliefs and showed how he gets his hair done every morning (apparently a lot of kids kept mistaking him for a girl with his long hair up in a bun with the piece of cloth over it, so that inspired the mini lesson) and it was great.

Eventually we set about doing what I was originally invited in for, and I helped the teacher with the smoothies. They were delicious and since most of the kids opted for the strawberry-banana mix, the teacher and I ended up splitting almost an entire blender full of raspberry-banana smoothies. That’s more milk than I’ve had in years. I’m totally making some at home as soon as we get more bananas and raspberries. Yum!

They had their drinks during snack time and then they started working on their Thanksgiving turkey craft until recess. I helped some of the kids out and my god they are so cute. For one moment of insanity I wondered why I had never considered being an early childhood educator. Then I remembered I would probably end up crying in the bathroom, and the moment passed.

Hayley’s turkey that she brought home

Hayley was really sad when I had to leave at recess to come home but she said that she was okay once she started playing with some of the kids outside. I could see her through the fence as I left the school (though she didn’t notice me) and I could see her playing with a few girls so I knew she was okay.

I definitely want to go back again. I love the teacher* and the kids are great.

*I knew I could get along just fine with her when she joked that she would put some vodka in our smoothies. Someone who can joke about that without worrying about whether that would offend someone is my kind of person.

As a mother, it’s common for me to talk about the milestones of my kids – when they first sat up, rolled over, walked, said “Mommy”, or made me breakfast in bed (still waiting on that last one). Every parent exchanges milestones with other parents regardless of whether they’re doing it because they’re proud parents, concerned their child is behind, or just because they’re annoying braggarts.

I have milestones too though. They’re not quite the same thing, they’re not quite as monumental. I’ve been walking for over three decades, and although it’s hard to get a word in edgewise with Hayley’s nonstop chatter, I have been talking for a very long time too. And it’s not like we have a book to write down, “holy crap, I just made my very first Photoshop brush / wrote my first piece of fanfiction smut / remembered everything I wanted to buy at the store without a list!”

Still, as a mom, here are some of my recent milestones.

1. I have sent a child off to school for the first time without breaking down into a blubbering mess.
2. I had my first meeting with the principal.
3. I filled out my very first Scholastic books order form as a parent*
4. I have sent off my first cheques to pay for hot lunches here an there
5. I have had my first (and second, and third) call-in to the school to say my daughter would not be in that day.
6. I have put my first not-done-at-home arts and craft treasure (an egg carton caterpillar) on my shelf and pasted first artwork on Hayley’s door.
7. I have done my first stint as the drop-off and pick-up mom at school (though I don’t look as stylish as some moms who do the same thing, but then again, I don’t have paparazzi following me either).
8. I have done homework at the kitchen table with her.
9. I have attended my first school function when I went to participate in the run.
10. I have successfully listened to my daughter talking about playing ball with / playing tag with / drawing pictures of and for a little boy in her class WITHOUT cracking into a stupid and goofy smile.

And then tomorrow I get to add another one because tomorrow morning I will be doing my first round as a classroom mom. The class has been learning about all kinds of fruits and different ways that you can consume them, and tomorrow they’re doing a smoothie day. Each student is responsible for bringing in a small carton of milk and a specific fruit (we were asked for raspberries), and they will be experimenting, trying small cups of different flavors of smoothies. The teacher saw me this morning and flagged me down to ask if I could come in for it, and I said sure. I’ve been requested to come on in first thing in the morning, so tomorrow I have to do things a little differently. I usually drink a coffee while I co-erce Hayley into eating and getting dressed, and I throw on whatever is (hopefully) clean. Tomorrow I’ll have to actually eat something too (yay for breakfast bars), put on something reasonably nice, and I’ll have to wrestle my contact lenses into my eyeballs.

I’m really looking forward to it. Once upon a time I was curious about homeschooling, and as time went on I realized that as awesome as it is, it really isn’t for me at all. Still, I promised myself that I would do what I could to be involved in Hayley’s (and eventually Breanna’s) school experience. Someday they’re going to be in high school and at that point they won’t want their OHMYGODMOM in the class or even in the building, so I have to do it now while I still can. I think it’s going to be fun, and I’ll get to see all these kids that Hayley talks about every day.

*I seriously loved Scholastic as a kid, right up through high school. I don’t think I ever missed out on ordering at least one book. I am so excited to be able to do it with my own kids now, and I can’t wait for all her new books to come in – we got quite a load of them!
——-
Did you know it’s The Great Mofo Delurk day today? That means that even if you usually lurk here, quietly reading from your feed reader or your blogroll or whatever and you enjoy reading but rarely (if ever) comment, now is the time to say a little hello to me so that I know you’re out there and I’m not just screaming into the ether. And if you’re a regular commenting demon, then a) thanks! and b) leave one anyway.

Gracias!