I remember the day. Oh, do I ever. I was probably about 7 months pregnant at the time; bitchy, big, and on the verge of being sick yet again. I suppose I was taking my uncomfortableness out on her and I was not very nice to be around, most likely. In fact, I must have been downright untolerable for her to have done it to me. To give me the curse. Yeah, you know it. That curse that accompanies parenthood that goes like this, "I hope that you have a kid who is just like you ." My daughter Kole,...

1. Unexpected moments of humour. You really never know what they are going to say. Or do. Or care if they are in public or not when they do or say it. 2. Movie choices. Would you have seen Spy Kids 1, 2, and 3 on your own? 3. When facing them with the comment, 'I do everything for you, I cook, clean, buy the groceries, etc., the least you can do is get me my shoes from the closet', chances are, they will do it. 4. You get to buy snack foods like twinkies, and blame it on your kid's ...

1. Letting your kid wipe down walls with a Magic Eraser is not exactly the same as having your kid do the really bad chores around the house, like scrubbing the toilet, cleaning out science experiments from the fridge or starting up the car for you in -30 weather so it can defrost. Some things really just aren't done. 2. Toys get smaller, and have tend to have many more tiny pieces to them as the kids get older, and they don't clean up on their own. 3. You can't just live on pizza and beer...

It's been almost 2 months since Christmas. Judging from the toys around the house, the most popular toys still seem to be the ones obtained from McDonald's Happy Meals. Seriously. My six year old got totally spoiled from me, my parents and everyone else who knows her. On top of this, her birthday was also 10 days before Christmas. Sure, the Barbie dolls are in continual rotation, but that's really all that she plays with on a constant basis. Okay, maybe it's my fault that her big present fr...

I'll admit to something, but first, I also have to hastily add this; I've been thinking about it, but would never change what I currently have. Since starting work, I've occasionally wondered what it would have been like if I made a different decision than to be a single parent. Sure, I'd think about it during those lonely late night feeding times, or when it was going to be difficult to make it to the end of the week without pawning off something dear to me to buy more diapers or formu...

I don't know if there is ever going to be a time where I don't take her shit. I love my sister, I truly do. But the things that we fight about, and the stuff we say to each other is truly horrendous. Last night, she said something downright awful to me, and I was just fuming. I was fuming about the fact that she said all this stuff at the top of her voice in front of my daughter. I was beet-red and shaking as she had the bloody nerve to accuse me of things that she knows nothing abou...

I mentioned it in my latest blog, but I'm slowly going crazy with my 6 year old's incessant chattering. I love her voice. It's such a sweet, girly voice. It's cute to listen to, because there's some word sounds that she still can't say properly such as mixing up W's for R's, and pronouncing other words incorrectly, like 'hopsital' for 'hospital', etc,. But, lately, she's just been going on and on about anything and everything. Since she was by my side for over 72 hours, I was going batty...

Last night I had another one of those annoying tornado dreams. I have them all the time. I'm always the one trying to lead everyone to safety, yet no one is listening because they are all panicking. I'm the one who is in the safest place, while others are lifted from their feet, whisked off to godknowswhere. These dreams are so vivid. I can feel the wind blowing my hair and pushing my body around, and the sound of the wind is deafening. Objects fly at random, often coming close to hitti...

It's funny/unexpected/nice how, as a single parent, I get offers of babysitting services from friends that I know well enough, but haven't let them into that part of my life. Generally, if I go out on my own, it's when my girl is already being looked after by my parents or her auntie. So, these people that I know so well, are apart from my day to day life with Kole. I generally don't take anyone up on offers to babysit outside of my family. I have a several girlfriends who are also raising kid...

My CrapComputer is just that... a piece of shit. It's a P1 16 M waste of electronic hardware in today's age of technology. I get booted often from other websites... this old thing just can't handle a whole lot of graphics. And forget about downloading things from the Net... it just won't do it. Now, there are many things on my lists of Must Haves... I must have a new car, I must have a washer/dryer instead of lugging all our laundry over the the laundromat or my parents' place. Neither ...

Previous to my current address, I lived a fairly transient existence. The life of a student is just like that. You live for eight months in a bland but cheap apartment, move home, work or travel for a couple of months, and then its back to the old grind again. I can't count the number of apartments that I've rented, nor the houses that I shared with friends. It was generally a good time, but with a child, I found the need for stability. We've lived in this particular apartment for almost 2 ye...

We're not identical. We are as different as night and day, but we're close. I see her everyday, and probably spend at least 2 hours a day with her (and her little girl). We share a car (but live in separate areas in the same town) and I spend a lot of time driving her child back and forth to daycare every day. We share a lot of the same friends, and spend a lot of time at my parents' place with both our kids. So, of course, we drive each other crazy at times. I've always wondered if there ...

I swear, there's something wrong with my sister. She literally is causing fights between us, because of her inability to listen, or else, she is simply not paying attention. I'm hoping that there is some medical reason why this is happening, because then I can attribute it all to that, and not simply bad manners. We were talking, at the top of our bloody lungs, about why I didn't come over to her house this morning to get her to drive Kole to school. (We live next door to each other.) ...

I mentioned it before; my grandmother died this spring. It's taken months for the probate to do whatever a probate does (to be honest, I don't even know what the hell a probate is!) but slowly, things from her now-sold condo are making their way into our family's homes. I've lived a college-life existence. Futons, used furniture, and mismatching cups, plates, and silverware. I have more invested in books than anything else... I've got four large book cases crammed to overflowing. Kole,...

I have the feeling that I am not doing so well in the mothering category. Lately, it seems as if I am handling things wrong, or just not getting the outcome that I expect. The worst thing about it is that I feel guilty and inadequate, even though I am doing my best. I don't know if the problem is because Kole is getting two very different parenting-styles, or if I am expecting too much or even too little, but the end result is behaviour that I do not approve of. Yesterday, she literally s...