Look Under There? Under where? I made you say Underwear !!

It  has been months since I blogged, but now getting back into it. My best friend from University- Erin- and I have decided to devote one night a week (post Noah's bedtime) to blogging. So the blogs return..

Yes, the underwear joke is the talk of the house these days. Noah finds it hysterical. And I find anything great that might encourage him to poo in the potty and continue to wear underwear, and if underwear humour does it, I'm in (and let's face it, I did teach him the joke....). And if he wants to wear underwear on his head, I'm all good with that too (he looks pretty good as the one eyed underwear monster, I'd say).

It actually all started with an Underwear Party. Yes, an Underwear Party. Noah has been pee trained since last spring but seems less interested in poo potty training. Leading up to his 4th birthday, I'd say  "Noah, when are you going to poo in the potty?" and he would say "when I am 4." On his 4th birthday, he woke up and the first thing he said was to Grandma - who bunked with him that night- "I'm going to poo in the potty today."  And he did. That day. Then stopped. And then started saying "I'm going to start when I'm 5." So Elana and I decided that perhaps we needed to make something happen, and felt that if we made a postive spin out of underwear as opposed to negative spin of not succeeding yet, that that might work.

Hence the Underwear Party. Here's the cake I made.. he LOVED it:

Here's Noah, checking out his 29 pair of underwear.. Superhero Lego Minifigure underwear (Batman, Robin, Superman, all good), Star Wars Lego minifigure underwear, Cars underwear, etc.. and just about to stomp all over them, just for fun...
And so far it really has been working! So in underwear we trust.. fingers crossed!

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/