Business Trip to Chicago

Last week was a whirlwind (pun intended, ha ha) as I flew to the Windy City for 3 nights away from Noah.
It was a Marketing to Moms conference (we are really targetting ways to connect with moms right now at work, and I was lucky enough to fly with one of my staff, Stef, who I never ever ever get to travel with.

The conference was ok- not sure if I would go back- the weather was crazy! It was cold, wet with wind warnings. In fact, the second night we had dinner at the waterfront and almost blew into Lake Michigan (thank goodness I am not rushing the weight loss or it could have been a worse ending).

Here are my photo highlights:


We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel and I enjoyed both the Kiss floor that I was on as well as the Pinktini's in the bar for Breast Cancer Awarenss Night

 

"Cloud Gate"- nicknamed the bean, is a cool stainless steel surface reflecting the city ..I'm in bright blue at the centre back.

The bean is pretty cool.. behind it the unbelievably architecturally gorgeous Chicago Cultural Centre where the conference was held

Looking up in one of the Conference rooms... amazing!

Took a few moments out to hang with the Obamas.

A Natural Born Leader?

Well, it seems the apple doesn't fall far from the tree after all.
It's not just that Noah does what most other kids his age do- makes up his own games and play with rules and play you can't deviate from- it's that he does it continually and with such detail. He is a director of all action.
With Sarah here pretty much building him a new foam structure every night, Noah has been pretty funny lately. As he goes to bed at night, or leaves for school, his instruction is something like this: "Sarah, when I am at school and daycare, can you build me a ferry? with the foam blocks.. and use the wood blocks too for the jail... and the cars should be on the bottom and the people should be on the top." He talks with his hands when he is doing it, and is very emphatic.. Clearly likes to lead.

Tonite, back to his new latest game, which is Snot Pancakes (yup, not a typo). Snot pancakes- as started by Noah- requires an adult picking up the snot (Noah) from the floor, throwing it (Noah) on the couch, mixing him around (which results in endless giggling) and then cooking it up and putting butter and syrup on (even more giggling). This evening, he directed Sarah and myself to our key positions in the game.. asked me for my camera, gave it to Sarah, told her to be the pancake photographer, told her where to go, showed me where I was to go and told me to be the pancake cooker, which prompted this conversation:

me: do you think it's genetic that you like to boss people around
noah: yes (big pause)... just so you know.

two bosses in one house.. we could be doomed...



Pancake Making



Finished Cake from yesterday

Sunday Funday

We had an awesome day today. Nothing spectacular, just a great Sunday.
Some amazing foam structures- lots of boats- a fun lunch at dimsum, and a plethora of cake activity (tried a new recipe..not so great.. so made a second one. All round all good.. enjoy the pix:

noah though it was super cool to wear my apron (around his ears!!)

noahs fave part of dim sum.. the mirror

my fave part of baking... making a huge mess!

mommy put the stove on auto clean which really stunk up the house, so we moved outside and cuddled while enjoying our hallowe'en lights

Foam Block Architecture!

My friend Lynn bought us a bag of foam blocks when she was at Costco a while ago. She thought that Noah would love them.. and he did.. but no one had any idea when an exciting thing they would become when Sarah came to live with us.
It started one night with Sarah building Noah a building after he went to bed so that when he came down in the morning he would see it.. it moved to boats, apartments, towers, ferries and you name it. What's funny is how Noah directs Sarah (hmmm, where did he get that skilll... huh?) and as he goes off to school he might say something like "hey Sarah, can you build me a boat, no, a ferry, and put the cars on the bottom and the people on the top and make it big...." and then after a nudge from me "please."

Sarah has been amazingly obliging to Noah and builds bigger, better and more exciting structures all the time, though it clearly is becoming a challenge. The moments where Noah comes in or comes down in the morning are amazing. And I have to admit, I get pretty excited to see what she has come up with too!

Noah- pretty excited about his ferry.

 

a new masterpiece underway...

in the absence of sarah, mommy makes an apartment complex

Lovin' the Groupons!

It's not just that Groupons save you money- which of course we all love- but it's that they make you think of options that you might not otherwise think of.

So tonite- because of a Groupon I bought yesterday- Sarah and I went for dinner at the Burger Bar and Tequila Lounge in Kensington Market. The best burger I have had in forever. Great tester trays of 4 x 4 oz of locally made beer, and the most unusual but yummy springrolls I have ever had- cheeseburger springrolls.

Yummy dinner, a nice way to show Sarah a cool part of town and then we even walked down to the waterfront and saw a cool light show on the CN tower.  I''ll never tire of this city!

No one is pitching me in the bathroom!

As the Head of Kids Content at the CBC, I go to a number of conferences each year. Conferences for tv, web, and also an annual festival all on kids content. I love them. But along with the production companies taking you out for nice dinners comes the not so great part which is wherever I might be, someone is trying to "pitch me" a show idea. As a broadcaster, my decisions trigger lots of funding, so you can see why folks come up to me when I am standing still for a moment, talking with someone else, etc. However, the being followed into or pitched in the bathroom always seems a bit over the top.

So you can imagine my delight going to Blissdom Canada today; a conference dedicated to mommy bloggers. They are more interested in becoming part of each others' "tribes" to expand their reach, or for some, find ways to monetize on this choice of a career. None of them have tv or web content to pitch. Most of them don't even know who I am. It's awesome. So between the networking to meet new women who we might work with at the CBC on our parents site, and going to sessions, it has just been plain fun.
Lots of sponsors trying to get the attention of all the "moms," which was awesome for us. Kraft had a great Hallowe'en room (Noah, some cool pumpkin cookies are coming home), Fisher Price was giving away bags of stuff (some more Christmas shopping done), and it was just lovely having those moments between the work. Below, a picture of Jen (from my team at CBC- exec in charge of interactive for kids) and I enjoying a non-pitching moment!

Check out our other non pitching moment as we were asked to answer.. "play is......"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thestep2company/6243647639/in/set-72157627891646116/

Oct 13- Our Mini Blackout Party!

Yesterday was an eventful day. The day started a bit bumpy with the realization that our bicycle had been stolen off the front porch (noah was pretty upset; my mountain bike with his seat on the back.. he loves it!)

But unbelievably, things picked up when we lost power at about 7:30pm. Leslieville was one of several pockets in the city who lost power (ours was down to bedtime for all and apparently came on at about 2am in the morning). Noah was just returning from a visit with my ex when the power went out.

It was amazing. It really was. On one side of the room I had a couple of candles. On the other side, my laptop (still running on battery and giving a nice warm white glow). And in the middle, Noah, with a mini flashlight designed for trick or treating, which he used as a mini-light sabre. It was simple. Noah asked all sorts of questions about power and electricity (clearly trying to get his almost four year old mind around it all) and jumped around, waving his wand in the dark light. It was almost like having a sparkler. No tv, no b/g this or that, no distractions. Just me, Sarah (my niece who is staying with us for a couple of months) and Noah.
We talked, laughed and read books by light sabre light. It reminded me of the blackout in Toronto in 2003 (and lots of Eastern North America, affecting some 55 million people) where suddenly people were out on the street talking to each other and families were finding out what each of them had going on in their lives.

I think of myself as an extremely involved mom. I get down on the floor and play with Noah, make up silly songs, crafts, hang out and have adventures. But the tone of last night was something special.
And to top it off, after Noah went to bed, I read a whole magazine (I know!) by candelight instead of doing emails or watching tv. Lovely.

So great that I am thinking of having a bi-weekly blackout in our house (I think I'll call them a Family Flashlight Fun Night !)... If it sounds good to you, come on by with your own light sabre, glowstick, sparkler or whatever gets you back to the basics of celebrating moments that are plug free.