While I have generally enjoyed this summer with my kids (it would have been even better if I’d had less work and if the weather had had less rain), one thing that has been exhausting is the constant bickering. I realize it’s completely normal but normal doesn’t make something any less frustrating.

A great deal of my time is spent listening to stuff like this:

“I had that first!”
“No, I had it first!”
“No, I had it first!”
“No, I had it first!”
“No, I had it first!”
“No, I had it first!”
“No, I had it first!”
“MOMMY!”

At which point, I take whatever it is they both “had first” and put it away.

Other times I have listened to this:

“Stop hitting me!”
“Don’t spit on me!”
“Mommy, Breanna’s pulling my hair!”
“Mommy, Hayley frow this at me!”
“MOMMMMMMY!”

At which point I separate them until they calm the hell down.

And of course, I listen to this a lot:

THUMP!
CRASH!
BANG!
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
SMASH!

And since the people downstairs also have to listen to it, I ask them, through clenched teeth, to please stop using the furniture as park equipment, and then if it’s not raining I take them outside to burn off some energy.

Then on occasion, I’ve heard this:

“Stop. Stop! STOP IT! Mommy! Breanna won’t stop smelling my bum!”

And really, I don’t even know what to do with that one.

I’m considering investing in a pair of high quality ear plugs.

I haven’t done this in ages but I’m trying to avoid that whole “what do you want for supper?” “I don’t know, what do YOU want for supper?” conversation. Here’s the basic idea for this week’s menu.

Monday: Super easy and very tasty Beef & Black Bean Burritos with salad
Tuesday: Grilled Chicken Tournedos with corn on the cob and rice
Wednesday: Grilled burgers and salad
Thursday: Grilled Pork souvlaki with salad and/or corn on the cob
Friday: BBQ rotisserie chicken with fries, macaroni salad, and vegetables
Saturday: Still undecided
Sunday: Still undecided

Lots of grilling going on there. But it’s just so convenient.

What’s on your menu?

This weekend, Parent Bloggers Network asked if we were “that family”. You know the one. The family that invades your favorite restaurant only to end up with kids running and screaming through the dining room, snatching food off other people’s plates, tripping waiters, that sort of thing.

Well, the truth is, no. We’re not that family. But don’t hate me for that yet. First of all, we just don’t go out to eat that often anyway, and when we do, it’s usually McDonald’s or Burger King. The reason for that is less about the food than it is about the play area. When we go to eat there, it’s often directly related to too many days of rain and two kids who are desperate to rid themselves of pent-up energy. And when we leave, we do encounter a lot of resistance and whining, so there is that.

But even when we’ve gone to other restaurants now and then, the kids are pretty well-behaved. I think part of it is because they are in a situation that they don’t get too often so they’re busy being distracted by the hub-bub around them. I also try to never go to a restaurant without crayons and paper. Most family-friendly restaurants do have them, but I bring some just in case. Plus, they usually bring you all of three or four crayons and with more than one kid that’s just begging for a hissy fit as they fight over the one red crayon.

I might also bring a book or two, but generally they’ve always done pretty well with eating out on occasion. Breanna does have a tendency to want to get down so I might walk her to the bathroom with me to fulfill her need to move, and then we come back and she eats more.

Like I said though, if you are indeed the family that turns family dining into chaos, don’t envy me too much. Going out to eat is not a regular thing for us. If it was, the novelty would wear off fast and I’d be the mom hiding under the table.

And if you see me looking your way while your child screams and throws french fries, I’m not judging you. I’m merely feeling sympathy towards you and wishing that there was a tactful way for me to walk over and try to help because I do know the mortification of a publicly tantrumming child.

(And honestly, my kids are often better behaved when they’re out than at home for stuff like that. I promise you, it’s just as annoying to have a kid eat two bites, then get down and leave or have them drop their plate by accident all over the floor when they’re at home. Even more so, really, because it’s not like I can just leave!)

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Burger King Corp.

At 3:50 a.m. on Sunday, most of Toronto was sleeping peacefully. At 3:55 a.m., people were woken abruptly by a massive explosion. Sunrise Propane in the North York area of Toronto had exploded, with massive fires and black clouds of thick smoke. It was a six-alarm call to fire departments. As far as I know, no one was seriously hurt, thank GOD, but many people in the surrounding area had to evacuate. At this time, a section of the 401, the busiest highway in Canada, has been shut down, open only to those leaving the area.

I first found out about it on Twitter (see? It is indeed good for something!) because Rannie of Photojunkie was covering the details. He was far enough to be safe but close enough to get some telling photos such as these two:

(both images copyright Rannie Turingan photojunkie.ca)

Check out the full entry for more photos, a video, and developing news.

I’m glad no one was hurt. That must have been terrifying.

I’m coming in a bit late on this, but I’m eager to participate nonetheless. Kristen has noticed that all around the blogosphere people are having a hard time. All you need to do is pull up to the gas pumps to know how hard wallets are being pinched lately.

So she’s proposed a project for the month of August. If you’re reading blogs from a feed reader, take a bit of time to click out and open up the actual blog itself. If the blogger is using any kind of ads on their site, clicking to the site will help boost that blogger’s earnings for the month. While you’re there, maybe click around. Hit up the archives and see if there’s an entry that you never read before and click on it to read something from the past.

If they’re not using ads, click over anyway and leave a comment or find the contact info to send an email. Even if it’s not helping their wallet, it will put a smile on their face (you know, assuming your commentary is nice. If it’s not nice, then please don’t bother!).

Comments are always nice anyway. I love comments. I can always use more of those because it helps to make you feel like you’re not sitting here blogging at yourself. And if you’re inflating someone’s ad earnings while you comment, that’s even better.

Screw the recession. Let’s blog it!

(If you want to take part, go check it out – there are prizes too!)

Can I complain about the weather for a second please? After all, I’m Canadian. If I don’t talk to someone about the weather at least five times per week, I’ll be kicked out and forced to live on some remote island in the Caspian sea or somethingm

This summer? It has sucked. You know how a lot of people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder in the winter because of the shortage of sunlight, cold, and all-around dreary weather? I wouldn’t say I suffer from it, so to speak, but I do start getting a bit down in the dumps by February and March, and I long for days of sunshine and temperatures that don’t include windchill factors.

But I’m starting to feel like I have S.A.D. this summer too. Because for the past three weeks, we’ve had one or two days without rain. Almost non-stop we’ve had craptacular weather. It doesn’t generally rain all day long but it rains early enough that it’s not good park weather, because who wants to sit in a soggy swing? And then it rains later in the day, ruining soccer games, outings to the pool, and playing in the courtyard with the family on the other side of our complex.

When it rains, especially in the evenings, it brings out hordes of mosquitoes which, naturally, is a truckload of fun. We look sadly out the sliding doors and watch the rain fall in the pool on our balcony (and hope it stops before it reaches critical mass which would require me to go out there and start bailing it out with my stock pot). I’d let the kids go in the pool while it’s raining if it was at least hot out, but the rain has made it damp (I wore SOCKS yesterday which is generally unheard of until September) which is not good swimming weather, and more often than not there are rumblings of thunder in the distance.

The other evening when I took the garbage out (in the rain), I noted that the grass is beautiful – so green and vibrant. By August it’s usually turning yellow. It’s nice that it looks so wonderful. It’s a shame that we can’t actually enjoy it. Kind of like my lovely little bistro table and chairs. They’re constantly soaked and I haven’t been able to use them nearly as often as I would have liked.

We’ve cherished the few beautiful days, going to the public pool or using the wading pool outside. I’m hoping for some more before school starts back up again. By this point the kids and I are getting a little sick of each other and it’s clearly a case of severe cabin fever. If we don’t get a break in the weather soon we may all go a little insane.

I’ve seen The Shining many times. I know what happens to people who are cooped up too long!

The forecast for the next five days? Showers and thunderstorms. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am.

The girl in the window, the story of a feral girl. Warning: I wouldn’t suggest reading this without a box of tissues because I sobbed hysterically throughout it. And if you’re a parent, be advised that you will have an overwhelming need to go hold your children, even if they’re sleeping, and you won’t be able to stop yourself.

Found via Dooce

I have to say that I kind of hate myself for saying this, but I love Paris Hilton this morning. If you haven’t already seen the John McCain ad that uses a flash of both Britney Spears and Paris Hilton (basically claiming Barack Obama is more of a celebrity than a leader), here it is:

Britney Spears refused to comment on it, but Paris Hilton was a bit ticked off. So, in retaliation she put together a spoof video.

See Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad and more funny videos on FunnyOrDie.com

Paris Hilton actually made me laugh, and not AT her for a change. “See you at the debates, bitches!”

This makes me laugh. It’s funny because it’s true.

So, as any long-term readers know, we live in an apartment. We don’t live on the ground floor, and our building’s courtyard, while spacious, is not fenced in and we don’t have a pool for the building either. All of our close friends live in houses and they all have pools in various sizes for the kids. What’s nice is that we do get routinely invited over to swim – Hayley went to her friend’s house today and swam this afternoon in between storms.

However, there are times when it’s hot and sunny and we want to splash around but no one is home. And we wondered why we kept feeling like we couldn’t have a pool too, just because of an apartment lifestyle.

So we got one. Granted, we’ll never be able to have a huge pool to actually swim in, and it’s not like we could set up a water slide or diving board unless we were willing to take our lives in our hands, but a little pool? Why not?

And in the end, the “little” pool wasn’t that little anyway. It’s wide enough for both kids, easily, and they can enjoy themselves. I can stick my feet in too, while I read out at the table beside them.

It’s quite nice, actually. George filled it up with a lot of stock pots of water, and once it was halfway it was enough for them to get in, while still leaving a high enough wall that water wasn’t constantly sloshing out to annoy the neighbors downstairs. I have to frequently remind them not to purposely splash or throw the water out of the pool but so far it’s working out well. They get to have fun, cool off, I get to read, and surprisingly it tires them out enough to get them to sleep relatively easy at night.

We may not have a yard, but dammit, we have a pool and it’s working for us!

Speaking of pools, we went to the public pool for the first time on Friday. It was a lot of fun. I wasn’t sure what to expect with two young kids and a crowd of people in a huge pool, but they have free life jackets and it wasn’t as packed as I had anticipated, despite the warm, sunny day. Hayley finally got brave enough to lift her feet up (we convinced her the life jacket will not let her sink under, even if she wanted to) and she did a dog paddle all over the pool, even going out to areas where she could no longer touch the ground.

Breanna still wanted to be held unless she was on the steps, but she did jump in once. She also fell in. I had gone in to the washroom so George was sitting on the side while Hayley paddled around. Breanna leaned over to see the water and being top heavy with the life jacket, she just lost her balance and went in, her face hitting the water and everything. She didn’t cry – I think she was too shocked to be able to. She has talked about it ever since though. “I fall in the pool!”

It was unfortunate that we needed to eat supper, because it was very nice to just swim around, but alas we had to leave to get groceries and come home to cook something. We’re hoping to go back tomorrow if it’s nice enough. The forecast is calling for “periods of rain” so we’ll have to see.

And if not, at least we have our private pool on the balcony!