Social media and children

I'm encouraging my *mila* to learn how to use Instagram, Twitter, and the likes.  I'm also encouraging her to use these tools responsibly.  However, I'm noticing something (and this is new to all parents out there, as we have never grown up with these mobile tools):  bullying.  Kids get on these devices, toys, mobile phones, etc. and find ways to ostracize each other.  They ignore texts and they're berated.  They put their iPads down to, I don't know, use the bathroom; and the bullying begins.  The constant tethering and umbilical-like ties we teach them by example is causing their own demise.

*Mila* is nine and she wants to use her new iPad to text, facetime, take pics and post them to instagram. But the second someone gets the least bit upset with her, she's deleted from their following.  "Following"?  Yep, what they hell are we doing?

When I was her age, kids rarely phoned each other after school.  So, we came home put our troubles away and didn't lose sleep.  We had our stomach aches in the morning and there was no constant dingling of texts, facetime requests, or instagram deletions.  It's time to teach our children etiquette with the technology we created with such immediacy and need for the quick, small, and entertaining.  These tools are meant to make life safer, easier, and delightful.  They aren't meant to cause gut ache, worry, and drama.

If you have children on these tiny little tapping tools, teach them manners.  Set boundaries.  Set limits.  Our new rules today:  no texting after 7 pm.  No facetime while you eat your dinner.  No followers on instagram without your parents permission.  Oh, and another thing:  we watch everything you do!

signed, the willow

Christmas Eve with the Chickadees

And after....

signed, the willow

The Holidays 1

How were the holidays?  

We took some time to make a gingerbread house. Since "some" time equates to very little time, we bought a kit.  See above.

 This is how ours turned out.  Not sure that the icing is real icing as the instructions read "knead the frosting until it is the consistency of toothpaste."

It was an afternoon of giggles as we gave the gingerbread man and his snowman that lived in this humble abode some bulging eyes!


signed, the willow

Birthday Wish

This year for my birthday, I wish for world peace and for maternal health throughout the world.  All women deserve their god-given right to nurture and love their babies.

And all women deserve to gain some weight, put some fat on their breasts, hips, to feed their babies.  Yeah.  We've had our chances to be young, slim, pretty.  Now we need to have fat on our waistlines to hold our children and watch our daughters be young, beautiful and give them the confidence we have now - you know, the confidence we didn't have then.

and yes, I made the latte.  And then I drank it.  With that little baby in it.

signed, the willow

Bridge Dreams

It's funny because *Mila* and I decided to talk about dreams.  Oddly enough we have both dreamed that Mr. Weatherbee, from Archie comics, is a serial killer.  I know it sounds hilarious.  But it's not.  Why is there something so strangely creepy about Mr. Weatherbee?

Then we started to discuss a common dream we both have:  Driving over bridges with our fathers; Driving through water with our fathers.  We want them to rescue us, but quite often we have to drive through the puddles, get a little wet, even muddy sometimes.  So, why do we both have these dreams?  I think I may have already answered this question.  We encounter "puddles" and obstacles in life.  We find bridges to cross, cars to cross the puddles in.  Sometimes we get wet.  Sometimes we make mistakes.  Sometimes we are just plain scared.  So, who better to protect us than our dads.

I'm a grown woman and yet, I still need the comfort to know that my dad will carry me through some "puddles" in life.  I also find it very comforting that my daughter finds comfort with my husband, *Steve*, her dad.

As for Mr. Weatherbee....stay tuned.

signed, the willow

Oddly Quiet

Tonight (because it's so dark out) This Afternoon the house is oddly quiet.  It's never this quiet.  *Mila* is quietly drawing, colouring, writing, and I'm typing with the tv on mute.  It's nice.  I love being together just doing all sorts of quiet things.

Next week, this will change.  We're taking a turn in our lives.  The only one sacrificing will be *Mila*.  For the past 7 years, I've been there to pick her up from school and take care of her every need.  For 7 years.  Some mothers have been working since their babies were 7 months old, or even 7 weeks old.  We've been lucky and we've tried to provide her with the best push start into the world that we could.  But it's my turn to contribute and make up for lost time lost dollars.

It will be fine.  Tell me it will be okay.

signed, the willow

Take me away to Glastonbury

I'm in absolute heaven with these wonderful people.  I want to be around them, creating magic with them.  Heck, I want to be them!



Welcome to the House of Fairytales from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.


signed, the willow

TRICK OR EVIL?

Today I'm really hoping that November will enter with flexibility and fluidity.  However, it's not happening thus far.  All that sugar, the late nights, the anxiety, the anticipation, and the fears...it makes me feel like is it really worth it?

I love the whole buzz BEFORE Halloween.  But after I suffer from the post-holiday hangover, I wonder if next year I can escape and go somewhere really hot.

With all the spookiness of Halloween, does anyone else see my daughter's deformed looking hand?  And the ghastly mist emanating from it?  Ok, maybe I do like the chills Halloween provides.

signed, the willow

It's been 23 years

Ok, it's been about 23 years since I have been to, or even considered going to, a concert.  

As *Mila* has the biggest girl crush on Selena Gomez and I find Selena harmless as far as little girl role models go, I figured there was no harm in having a last minute look online for 2 tickets.  

Knowing full well that prices probably sky rocket at the last minute, I decided not to tell her and instead just surfed.  Within about 10 seconds I found a set on the floor and emailed my husband the details. (I emailed him because he was sleeping and considered to be dead to the world.)  So, off *Mila* went to gymnastics while *Steve* made arrangements to buy the tickets (below cost I might add, the reason why he was left to negotiate).  I didn't think much more about it and finished my own workout, laundry, etc. and then *Steve* called to say *Mila* had made plans for an afternoon playdate, so that we could go grab tickets in Hamilton.  The worry then began.  Now I have to actually go to the concert?  Crap!  What did I do that for?  Okay, so I psych myself up for staying up late, get motivated, etc. and what if this? what if that?  Yeah.  I started to worry that we'd get the internet printout of tickets rather than the actual tickets.  Now what?  So, sure enough we get to the mall to meet two very honest looking young girls who have an envelope of internet printed tickets.  *Steve* has faith in the situation and gives the girl cash for the tickets and now I begin to zone out.  We've probably been ripped off and they've photocopied the tickets 50 times and resold them.  Really, what's to stop them from doing that?  

We went to pick up *Mila* from her playdate and we asked her if she wanted to come out tonight.  She considered it, but asked all the right questions: who? when? where? with who? to what?  So I handed her the questionable tickets and asked her to read where and when and then she could decide.  Kids scan things so quickly and know where to find information.  She handed them back and said "seats 35 and 36".  Yeah, but if you read the tickets you can see where and when...."SELENA GOMEZ?"  She had tears in her eyes and quite honestly, I did too because her dad and I had just officially blown her mind.  Something we parents like to do to see if an explosion will occur or what maximum elated expression will be shown to prove our own creation is actually real and not a hologram.

We arrived, only slightly lost, at the concert with some great friends [and one awesome assertive driver ;) ] who were scattered across the Coliseum (a fancy word for Arena in Hamilton).  We lined up to have our tickets scanned and then I got the [beep] [beep] [beep] sound on ours.  GREAT!  My heart pounded.  I've blown her mind and now we're going to get yanked because we've been scammed?  OMG!  I'm dying inside.  I'm clearly the worst mother in the Universe for letting this happen. Buying tickets off an online auction, last minute?  BAD MOTHER.  We are now yanked to the side to stand by an office where a father is yelling at a concert-organizer-looking-manager-type-guy.  He's furious.  His wife has her head in her hands.  His tweenage daughters have their well coiffed locks and perfectly mascara'd eyes leaning their heads up against the cinder block walls.  We too will be them in about 2 minutes.  The very kind supervisor that is now holding my tickets was sympathetic and came out of the office and said "Well, we don't really know why, but your tickets are flagged for some reason.  Go.  Sit down in the seats.  Enjoy the concert.  But, if the original owner shows up with the actual tickets, we'll have to ask you to leave.  Don't worry. Go."

So, off we went and sat in our rather tiny chairs.  Two male foreign exchange students from an Asian country sat behind us.  They were so excited about Selena.  It was the highlight of my night.  

Here's *Mila* unsure of what she's about to witness.

The first act was a you-tube sensation named Christina Grimmie, who's victorious voice will take her wonderful places.  Funny that I chose the word "victorious" as her middle name is Victoria and I just found out on that wikipedia interwebby page.

Next was Shawn Desman.  Great dancers.  Great costumes.  Is this what concert bloggers say?  Concert blogger, I am not.

The music was loud and thumping.  The screaming got to *Mila* more than I thought it would.  Since she's been known to dish it out on more than the odd occasion.


Starry eyed.  Sparkly eyed.  And even a touch of mascara on those lashes for some extra glam.

And then Selena came out.  She sang.  No lip-synching here.  I think I started to enjoy the pop tunes and sweet saccharin of this odd event I have found myself in.  Mostly because it's now 8:30 and these seats are obviously ours.

Don't you hate concert photos from someone's BlackBerry?  no kidding.  Especially when they are not sure if they can use a flash or not and clearly are annoying the tweenagers in front with the laser-wielding blinding light to get rid of red eye!

I'm sorry.  But I have to show off my fun.  I'm a sucker for a chart, graph, measurement gauge, dashboards, stock market like plots, or treble equalizer (whatever!  you get the picture).

Selena did a little Britney Spears tribute as the first concert Selena went to was Britney's in the nosebleed section, no less.  Haven't we all sat in the nosebleeds?   I'm still sitting in the audience and thinking to myself "I wish I could be a dancer for a pop star.  Am I too old?  Maybe Aerosmith will take me on?"   

The highlight of her night....

I had the same highlight, oh 25 years ago....

signed, the willow

Halloweenies

With Halloween around the corner, there are so many great ways to dress up and create an impression or create a fright.  For years as a kid, I almost dreaded Halloween.  I would order my mother to make me a costume, only to change the details last minute.  My costume would then be perfect, as ordered.  However, growing up in Northwestern Ontario doesn't allow for balmy Halloweens.  In fact, every Halloween I have ever remembered as a kid involved *snow*.  So, those lovely costumes?  You got it!  Covered up with a snowsuit over top.  Candy and treats weren't a novelty to me.  My parents had a grocery store.  Now, as a mother I try get excited.  I really do.  I buy the candy, eat the candy, paint the face, gather costume ideas.  But, it's begun:  the anxiety of Halloween.  *Mila* too is suffering from GLOE (general lack of enthusiasm) when it comes to Halloween.

It's nice to enjoy the holiday through some creepy halloweenie spirit like so, from afar on the world wide interweb thingy.

Wouldn't you die to eat from these cute cones?

Source: styleathome.com via ZombieGirl on Pinterest

A little felt friend with those foggy zombie-like eyes.  Spooky!

source:  Lybo on Etsy

some vintage spookiness

Source: google.nl via Chantal on Pinterest

you'd have to have the right property for these.  Aren't they amazing?

Source: Uploaded by user via Chantal on Pinterest

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

signed, the willow

Candy Corn Nails

*Mila* asked for some candy corn nails.  I struggled with how to create these ones.  

First, I pulled out a Science project book.  Why not?  Use it to protect the table and use it to maybe come up with a better idea than intricately painting finger nails.  This is not my forte.

I figured some scotch tape might help us out for this and taped the top 2/3 of her nails.

So far, so good.  She thinks this is all legit and what the candy corn nail process is all about.

Paint the bottom layer orange (yep, I'll get to this later).

We let them dry and got down to taping off the top 1/3 of her nail and carefully painted in the yellow.  How fabulous is that yellow nail polish by Joe Fresh?

Order some cucumber slices from the kitchen for your tired eyes and relax.

We topped it off with some globs of white for the tips and hello Candy Corn Nails.  

Until we saw this:

Yeah!  Yellow goes on the bottom.

signed, the willow

Mask Love

Aren't these the greatest masks?  The quality of them is surprisingly impressive.  Why am I so amazed?  Because they are from the giant dollar store in the mall.

So inspired to make a great costume or two or three from these.  What would you dress as with one of these masks?  What's your costume for 2011?  Or the costume of someone you love?

I'm considering an angel with wings, or maybe a lingerie zombie?  Ooooh.

signed, the willow