On the outside, my son Bennett looks like any typical four-year-old boy. He's cute, has a naughty streak, loves to jump on the trampoline and relishes tormenting his big sister. But all is not as it appears in his school picture.
Bennett also has a genetic condition called 18q- . He's missing a small piece of one of his 18th chromosomes.
My story in today's Swerve magazine was inspired by this blog post I wrote last June. I thought I'd share it again.
Posted in Potpourri
This gloomy weather makes me thirsty for something bright and pink, like spring should be. Good thing a bottle of Absolut Cherrykran just arrived on my doorstep, along with the recipe for a Cherrykran Pom Pom, a drink that packs way more of a punch than its name implies.
The Cherrykran Pom Pom cocktail is so pretty. Just pretend pomegranates are in season. Photo courtesy Absolut Vodka.
You may recall from earlier posts that I am not a fan of flavoured vodkas. I tend to think they taste rather chemically, as was the case with the UV Cake vodka. Since I am not a universal vodka-hater, and I have an open mind, I quickly unscrewed the top on the Cherrykran bottle in the name of research.
While I probably wouldn’t sip it on its own, I like that the Cherrykran has been infused with real fruit; in this case, cherries, white cranberries and plums. When mixed with lemon juice, pomegranate juice and just a touch of simple syrup, as the recipe calls for, you’ve got a slightly sweet, very tart and extremely pretty cocktail. And, just like a spring shower, it will sneak up on you without warning (read: it’s strong but you can’t taste the alcohol, so beware). I would normally tell you to stay dry, but hey, you’re drinking, so go ahead and get wet.
Absolut Cherrykran Pom Pom
Shake all the ingredients and strain over ice into a lowball glass. Garnish with pomegranate seeds.
*To make simple syrup mix equal parts sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until sugar is dissolved. Cool and refrigerate.
– Recipe courtesy Absolut Vodka
We have been cooped up indoors for too long. But not anymore. This weekend we embarked on our first hike of the season — and our first hike ever with a dog — in Fernie. What’s more, we managed to complete the four-kilometre, two-hour hike without carrying the puppy, or either child, and before it started raining (a small miracle).
Posing with Piper in front of Fairy Creek Falls.
Our destination: Fairy Creek Falls, a thundering (well, this time of year, anyway) waterfall that mists you on a warm spring day. Serious hikers might pooh-pooh this trail, but except for the hills, it is kid-friendly — we saw a garter snake and a bunch of snails. It also appeals to dogs: streams for drinking water, sticks to carry. And I have to say, with its 120 metre elevation gain, it’s a good hiking reintroduction for adults.
Fairy Creek Trail is one of Fernie’s many family-friendly hikes.
Four clicks doesn’t sound like a great distance, but for two children and a 12-week-old puppy it is an epic journey. Piper spent the first kilometre pulling at her leash and panting maniacally; I thought she was going to keel over until we came across a small stream. Avery grumbled at the first sight of a hill (Memo: “I like hiking downhill and on flats best.”), while Bennett ambled along in the rear singing to himself and completely unfocused on the task at hand (e.g. reaching the waterfall sometime before dark).
Me: “One of us should stay back there with Bennett.”
Blake: “He’s fine.”
Me: “But what if a cougar snatches him?”
Blake: “A single older woman can have him if she wants him.”
Unlike a regular adult hike, where you settle into a nice pace and enjoy the scenery, Blake and I vied to pawn off the dog on each other, and whoever didn’t have the puppy had to make sure Bennett didn’t fall into Fairy Creek. I shouldn’t grumble, really. The fact that both kids walked the whole way themselves (and that Bennett didn’t want to hold my hand the entire time) bodes well for an active summer. And Piper will have more stamina come July and August. So, thinking positively, I look forward to sharing more hiking adventures as the season unfolds.
I’m not a free-range parent per se, but I like a lot of the ideas put forth by American mom Lenore Skenazy in her book Free-Range Kids. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing her twice — once for a piece I wrote for the Calgary Herald about safe neighbourhoods, and again for a feature I wrote for Avenue magazine about the free-range philosophy, running in an upcoming issue.
Skenazy is a bastion of common sense. And spunk. I like her. So, when she e-mailed me yesterday morning to let me know that Saturday is Take Our Children to the Park…and Leave Them There Day, I thought, this is a holiday I can get behind.
Kids love playing outside, so take them to the park and leave them there.
The premise behind the 4th annual event, spearheaded by Skenazy, is simple: Our children are much more sedentary than generations past and childhood diabetes and obesity are on the rise. The antidote is turning them loose in nature and outdoor play spaces, an idea supported by a whack of studies that show how kids benefit from time outdoors. If you think parks and playgrounds aren’t safe, says Skenazy, think again — evidently, more children go to hospital from falling out of bed than from falling out of a tree.
But Skenazy doesn’t just want you to take your kids to the local playground. If they’re seven or eight or older she wants you to leave them there unsupervised, for a half hour or for the afternoon. Part of the free-range philosophy says that children need time for free play unsupervised by adults. It may sound a little Lord of the Flies, but it’s actually good for them to negotiate games and play activities on their own without adult intervention — this kind of collaborative play with peers hones decision making skills and spurs creativity. If you’re still feeling anxious, remember they won’t be alone — they’ll be with other kids and perhaps even the parents of children too young to be left at the park.
Avery just turned eight and she’s been walking our puppy by herself in the field across from our house. Maybe she’s ready for some play time away from me at the local playground…with some friends, of course. What do you think? Take Our Children to the Park…and Leave Them There Day — yea or nay?
Want to play?!?!
As I alluded to in an earlier post, our puppy Piper can be hyper. After she wakes up from a nap she wants to chase toys, pounce on things and generally chew the crap out of whatever’s on the floor. In other words, I need to constantly monitor her so I can correct bad behaviours (growling at her hippo squeak stuffie, digging in houseplants) and take away toys she’s trying to “kill” (by shaking her head spastically with them in her mouth). Plus, she now whines by the door to go out. At first I thought, “Great, she’s housetrained! She must have to go pee!” but now I realize she mostly just wants to go into the yard where she can chase balls, pounce on leaf litter and generally chew the crap out of the cedar chips. My point is: it’s impossible to get any work done with hyper Piper on the prowl.
So I was pretty excited when our neighbours told us about Hounds Lounge, a dog daycare in Inglewood. You can drop off your pooch for the day or half day where she plays hard with other dogs and comes home completely exhausted. Staff there are also on top of doggy interactions, putting the kibosh on things like barking, growling and other dominant behaviours. The price is right too (way cheaper than human daycare), with a full afternoon (up to six hours) costing just $20.
Since we’d institutionalized our children early on I figured 10 weeks old was a good age to cut the apron strings with the puppy. I sent her into the giant indoor playpen with 12 big dogs and let her run with the pack for an afternoon.
At first I worried the big dogs would bully Piper, but it was actually the other way around. She’s the one in the middle being held.
When Blake picked her up five hours later the woman in charge had some interesting observations about our confident puppy. Evidently Piper is a very dominant dog and spent the day trying to get on top of all the big dogs. She showed reckless initiative (and no fear at all) when engaging them to play. This is a good thing insofar as it means she’s probably a good dog for Bennett (she doesn’t cower from him when he tries to pick her up by the neck, or back leg). But it’s also a bad thing because it means more work for the family to make sure her dominant tendencies don’t turn into aggression toward smaller dogs or children when she’s an adult. The whole incident had me wondering what Cesar Milan would make of Piper.
Beyond this strange world of dog socialization, where a butt-sniff equals a handshake and pinning another dog is akin to staring someone down, my main priority with doggy daycare was realized: I got a lot of work done for the first time in three weeks. As a bonus, Piper returned home exhausted and slept for 12 hours straight. Thank goodness for doggy daycare.
A happy dog is a tired dog.
Before I had kids I didn’t really get Mother’s Day. Sure, I loved my mom, but I didn’t understand why we dedicated a day to pampering her with flowers, breakfast in bed and coupons for a massage. I mean, why all the fuss over how she cooked our meals and drove me to gymnastics and French braided my hair while I complained she was tugging too hard? Wasn’t she just doing her job? It’s not that I was a bad daughter, I was just a little clueless about what the mommy role entailed.
Now that I’m the person doing those tasks — plus getting up with sick kids in the night, helping them navigate tantrums and hurt feelings, walking them through math problems, reading them bedtime stories, enforcing bath time (and bedtime), shopping for the stuff they need, listening to the occasional sass and the endless complaints about broccoli and mashed cauliflower and “I hate shrimp!” — I wish there were several times a year when I would wake to flowers, breakfast in bed and coupons for a massage.
Being a mom is hard work and sometimes feels like a slog, but it’s also so rewarding, and never more so than on that magical day when your kids finally get it. Evidently, I was a little slow in that department as a child. My daughter, on the other hand, seems to understand (and I hope it’s not because I’m always grumbling about all the stuff I do for her). This year for Mother’s Day she made me a card that spelled out how great she thinks I am:
Avery made me this amazing Mother’s Day card. I’m going to frame it.
It’s not like I need constant high-fives and reinforcement about my skills in this area, but it’s great when your kid tells you and it comes from the heart. What touched me is how she captured more on the card than the mom part. Yes, she thinks I’m a “magical” and “terrific” mama, and she appreciates that I’m silly and that I plant flowers with her (that’s how we spent our Mother’s Day afternoon). But she also sees me as a person beyond my mommy-ness — as a writer and blogger and above all, a human.
So thank you my sweet Avery. I wish there was a Daughter’s Day so I could tell you all the things I love about you. Wait, never mind. I try to tell you these things in little bits every day. Like how I love how kind and caring you are, how it’s so sweet you have such empathy for your little brother, how you try so hard at tasks until you find an answer or complete them. And I love that you told me you loved me what sounded like 50 times between your birthday and today. I love you too.
Posted in Parenting
Tagged best Mother's Day gift, Mother's Day card, Mothers and daughters
I finally made it to dinner at Downtown Food last weekend at the suggestion of friends. After eating what I can only describe as the best — and most creative — meal out I’ve had in a long time, I have to wonder what took me so long to get there. So, if you get a chance, go.
The restaurant also has an interesting cocktail list, featuring a drink with sake, one with lychee liqueur and three different martinis (not of the sweet variety). I opted for the Farmer’s Martini, a wise choice given my penchant for gin and elderflower liqueur.
The Farmer’s Martini at Downtown Food is such a pretty drink. Bonus: it tastes good, too!
I’m guessing the name is a nod to its two farm-fresh ingredients: cucumbers and sage. No matter — this drink is awesome. Gin and cucumbers are meant for each other, but add in lime juice, elderflower cordial and a hint of sage and you’ve got a savoury drink that’s both creative and refreshing. Enjoy!
Farmer’s Martini
In a shaker combine sage cucumbers and ice and muddle to crush sage. Add gin, lime and elderflower cordial. Shake, then strain into a martini glass. Top with soda water to taste. Garnish with a lime wedge and cucumber slice. (Drink should be bright green with flecks of sage and cucumber.)
*Cucumber puree: Using a hand mixer or in a Magic Bullet, pulse cucumbers with a bit of water or lime juice to make a puree.
– Recipe courtesy Darren MacLean, owner and chef, Downtown Food
