Through their eyes.

 I did this interview two years ago. In honour of Mother's Day coming up, I thought I would ask the kids the same questions to see how the answers have changed.  If you look back, you will see that Emmett has not changed much,  but Charlotte has.  Matthew has never been interviewed before.
It is fun (and also rather illuminating) to see how your kids view you.  If you do the interview and blog it, please let me know in the comments so I can read yours!

Here are the previous installments: 

Enjoy!

Emmett, age 8, Charlotte age 7, Matthew age 4

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Emmett--You always say "Hello" to me in the morning?
Charlotte--Charlotte do not suck your thumb.
Matthew--Go!

2. What makes mom happy?
Emmett--When I'm nice to you.
Charlotte--Not sucking my thumb.
Matthew.  Pee and poop on the potty.

3. What makes mom sad?
Emmett--If I lie to you about cleaning up my room.
Charlotte--When Matthew hurts you.
Matthew-Fighting you.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Emmett--Well, you have nice jokes.
Charlotte--Funny jokes.
Matthew--Me laugh.

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Emmett--Ok, I have no idea.
Charlotte--You liked dolls.
Matthew--You were a little baby when you were little.

6. How old is your mom?
Emmett--I don't know how old you are.
Charlotte--80?
Matthew--You are Big years old.

7. How tall is your mom?
Emmett--I don't know.
Charlotte--I don't know.
Matthew--Um, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Emmett--Now it's playing Skyrim.
Charlotte--Go shopping with your friends.
Matthew--work on the computer.

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Emmett--Play with Matthew. And that is kind of obvious to me, isn't it?
Charlotte--Play with Matthew.
Matthew--Boring stuff.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Emmett--To make video games.
Charlotte-Will sing famous songs.
Matthew--Work on the computer again.  Every day you do.

11. What is your mom really good at?
Emmett-Playing video games.
Charlotte-You are really good at exercising.
Matthew--Eating and working and going on the computer to do work.  That's what you are good at.


12. What is your mom not very good at?
Emmett--I don't know.
Charlotte--You are not very good at doing cartwheels with your glasses on.
Matthew--Nothing.

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Emmett--Clean the house.
Charlotte--Taking care of your kids.
Matthew--I don't know.

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Emmett--I don't know.
Charlotte--Mushrooms.
Matthew-Breakfast and lunch and dessert.

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Emmett--I forgot.
Charlotte--That you say "Good job" for me doing something.
Matthew--Climbing a tree

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Emmett--Maybe I can draw you in one! (and he did!)
Charlotte--You would be like Candice (from Phineas and Ferb)
Matthew-- An evil guy.

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Emmett--When Dad and Matthew are gone we went shopping.
Charlotte--we go shopping.
Matthew--We love to hug each other.

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Emmett--I don't know.
Charlotte--We both have the same skin.
Matthew--We are not the same.  You are a girl.s

19. How are you and your mom different?
Emmett--Same answer as the other one.
Charlotte--I have blonde hair and you don't.
Matthew--No!

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Emmett--You are happy at me.
Charlotte--Because I am your daughter.
Matthew--No.  I'm not coming in.

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Emmett--I don't know.
Charlotte--To the store?
Matthew--I'm not talking to you.  

This is Emmett's depiction of me in a dungeon, getting ready to fight bad guys.

Interview with Emmett and Charlotte

I did this interview almost a year ago. Lets see how things have changed!

I typed out their answers, word for word as they told me. You could tell they were losing interest towards the end.

Maybe next year we can add Matthew's answers to this list.

Emmett, age 6, Charlotte, age 4

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Emmett--Be nice to everyone and don't poop and pee your pants.
Charlotte--Don't pee your pants.

2. What makes mom happy?
Emmett--When we be nice to you, Mommy.
Charlotte--If I don't pee my pants.

3. What makes mom sad?
Emmett--If you do be mean.
Charlotte--If you hurt yourself, Mom.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Emmett--Tell some jokes.
Charlotte--When you do a puppet show.

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Emmett--I don't know. Get Charlotte to answer it.
Charlotte--You played with babies and you took them to bed and put on their pyjamas.

6. How old is your mom?
Emmett--I don't know.
Charlotte--16

7. How tall is your mom?
Emmett--You are about 16
Charlotte--You are larger

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Emmett--Printing stuff for your friends.
Charlotte--Go shopping.

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Emmett--Wait for us to come back.
Charlotte--Wait for me to come back.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Emmett--You will be a guitar player.
Charlotte-Maybe you can be a cutting girl and cut trees off.

11. What is your mom really good at?
Emmett--I don't know.
Charlotte-You are really good at playing computers.

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Emmett--You are not very good at doing stuff.
Charlotte--You are not very good at cutting my hair.

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Emmett--I don't know.
Charlotte--Knit.

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Emmett--Chocolate
Charlotte--Soup

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Emmett--When you be nice.
Charlotte--What about painting pictures of us?

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Emmett--Supergirl
Charlotte--A Rock Star

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Emmett--play
Charlotte--we go shopping.

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Emmett--We have the same hair.
Charlotte--We are big together.

19. How are you and your mom different?
Emmett--I am smaller than you and you are bigger.
Charlotte--We are different than the neighbours.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Emmett--I don't know.
Charlotte--When I hug you.

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Emmett--Superstore.
Charlotte--Go home.

In Style? No Substance.

My mom reads quite a few magazines and she always passes them along to me when she's finished with them.  Usually they are things like Good Housekeeping, Canadian Living, Ladies Home Journal and the like.  The magazines all have a selection of advice columns, recipes, home decorating ideas and the like. There are also fashion layouts, but the clothes are usually pretty tame, and on the less-expensive end of the spectrum.

In my latest batch of magazines, In Style Magazine was at the top of the pile.  Now, I usually love paging through a fashion magazine to look at all of the pretty pictures.  Not this time.  This time, I started to feel really uncomfortable, bordering on annoyed.

I feel like the writing style of In Style magazine is designed to make you feel insecure.  To make you feel like you MUST do everything you can to try to look like the celebrities in the pictures or you will not fit in.  I was disappointed in the celebrity interview this month with actor Damian Lewis.  They gloss over the fact that despite the fact his family was poor,  he went to school at the prestigious Eton College, whose graduates include many British Prime ministers and members of the Royal Family.  How did he end up there?  What did he learn? Instead, they talk about the fashion designers he likes to wear.  He wanted to talk about the impact he is making on people through his latest role on TV as  an American soldier with PTSD, but instead he had to talk about the clothes he was wearing.

I counted 20 pages of ads for high-end brands at the front of the magazine before you even get to the table of contents--including a two-page spread for $1500 boots a beautiful actress is wearing.  There is no mention of the cost of the boots--or for the matching handbag in the ad hat also costs at least $1500.  How many In Style readers could afford those things?  The money spent on ONE of those things could cover my grocery budget for around six months.

Once you find the articles in the magazine they are not much better. One article, about breaking bad beauty habits just shows you how to substitute one expensive process for another.   Are you afraid of showing grey roots in public?  Don't pay for a full dye job all the time!  Schedule bi-weekly root touch up appointments!  There is no mention of another option: how to wean off the dye and rock your grey.  Hooked on blowouts?  Here are a list of products to buy.  How about instructions on how to cut your hair to show off the beauty of your natural texture?

Now, I love dressing up and playing with make up.  Heck, I work in a clothing store.  I put together outfits and try to get people to buy them as my job.  I don't make sales by making people feel insecure about NOT owning the clothes for sale in my store, though.

Maybe my problem is their brutal honesty at what they're doing.  The are unashamedly selling you stuff to look like celebrities and they are not afraid to admit it.  Other magazines sell their beauty spreads as "buy this so YOU feel like a better version of YOU" instead of "buy this because [current famous starlet] wore it once and [current famous starlet] is cool so that means if you wear this thing you'll be cool too".

Perhaps I should just respect In Style's commitment to superficiality and just hope that I am raising my own children to be confident enough that they won't feel the desperate need to buy whatever their favourite celebrities are wearing in the hopes it will help them make more friends.

I know I have done one thing right:  I have gotten in the habit of turning tabloid magazines to face backward in the newsstand when there are articles on the cover shaming people for how they look--now Charlotte does it too.
 
In Style, you are going to be the coolest kid in my recycling bin this week.

Public Service Announcement

As you all know, I was at summer camp last week.  I had dinner at the Director's house one evening after a particularly busy afternoon patching up campers.  We had a great discussion about what we wish parents knew before sending their kids off to sleep away camp.   Since blogging is more fun than putting my suitcase away, I thought I would share some of what we talked about

• Please, be honest on the health forms.  Staff don't ask questions to judge your child, they want to be able to provide the best camp experience possible.  I had an incident where a camper fainted in the heat.  We got her rehydrated and cooled off and she was fine later.  The next day the camper fainted again.  This incident was different than the first one--I could tell the camper was faking.  I called home and found out that this person will pretend to be sick to get attention or to get out of doing stuff (like going on a hike)  This is important to know!  Put it on the forms!  If you have a bedwetter or a sleep walker, if the camp staff knows ahead of time, they can be placed with the more experienced councilors who will be better equipped to handle the situation while preserving your child's dignity.
• If you send medication with the child, label it please.  I was given a pill box with random medications in it and neither the camper nor the mother could tell me which pill was which or what dose they were. They were important medications for her to take and thankfully I was able to look them up, but this is a risky thing to do.  If you can't send meds in the original packaging, WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN please.
• When you are packing your child for camp, get them to help.  At the very least, make sure they watch what you are putting in their bags.  The Director and I were talking about the shocking amount of really expensive clothing in the lost and found box that goes unclaimed.  It dawned on us that most of the campers probably have no idea what is theirs and what isn't since they they didn't see it go into  the suitcase.  This is especially true for boys, who will sometimes live in the same two or three smelly t-shirts for the whole week of camp.  I have seen an entire cabin's worth of clothing in one giant pile during cabin inspection Writing some initials on tags with a Sharpie or investing in some labels couldn't hurt either.
• Consider cutting your child's ADD medication dose.  I know this is a touchy subject and I have no personal experience with ADD, but I have seen kids go off of their meds for camp and do just fine.  I had kid last year who was on a sliding dose and asked me for exactly what he needed every morning at breakfast (he always chose the half dose and did great). This year I watched a child plead with his mom during my registration interview.  He wanted his dose cut but she wouldn't even consider it.  It was very hard to watch this.  I know it is hard to quit those drugs cold turkey, but kids are running around so much at camp, that they often don't have the same problems with focusing and paying attention that they do at school since they get so tired out the old fashioned way. 

Do I have any former camp councilors reading this?  Did I miss anything?

An interview with Emmett and Charlotte

This is a meme I stole from my friend Sandy's facebook page. I typed out Charlotte's answers word for word as she told me. I don't think she understood all of the questions!

Answers by Emmett (E), age five and Charlotte (C) age three.

1. What is something that mommy always says to you?
E - Don't touch anything in my room
C - Put your boots on.

2. What makes mommy happy?
E - When we clean up.
C - I'm sorry mom.

3.What makes mommy sad?
E - Not cleaning up.
C - Don't touch your face, mom

4.How does your mommy make you laugh?
E - By making knock knock jokes.
C - It's happy funny

5. What was your mommy like as a child?
E - Baby food. (I think he heard "what did I like as a child?")
C - You might go in jail when you are little, mom.

6. How old is your mommy?
E - I don't know.
C - 14

7. How tall is your mommy?
E - 13
C - As tall as a giant.

8. What is her favourite thing to do?
E - Play Wall-E on my PSP
C - Play to eat.

9. What does your mommy do when you’re not around?
E - Read by yourself
C - Be mad, mom!

10. If your mommy becomes famous, what will it be for?
E - By putting on silly clothes and then they will laugh at you.
C - I can play anything I want with you.

11. What is your mommy really good at?
E - A game.
C - Jump jump jump and wiggle.

12. What is your mommy not really good at?
E - A hard game.
C - Pat my dog Lucy.

13. What does your mommy do for a job?
E - You clean up, then I clean up.
C - You do a job to eat, mom.

14. What is your mommy’s favourite food?
E - Chicken and fries.
C - Your snack.

15. What makes you proud of your mommy?
E - When the cleaning lady comes.
C - I am proud to pat my dog and brush my dog Lucy.

16. If your mommy were a cartoon character, who would she be?
E - Star Wars
C - A cartoon baseball.

17. What do you and your mommy do together?
E - We play
C - Go in space.

18. How are you and your mommy the same?
E - By putting on the same clothes.
C - Same to go to the store in space.

19. How are you and your mommy different?
E - By putting on different clothes.
C - Girls in all cartoons.

20. How do you know your mommy loves you?
E - By hugging and kissing.
C - Play game game game play game game game play.

21. Where is your mommy’s favourite place to go?
E - McDonalds
C - My house with my dog and Emmett and Matthew and my dad and me.

Random Thoughts and a Shameless Plug.

I have a crafty itch to scratch. You see, I cannot knit anymore due to the fact that pregnancy has unleashed my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome with a vengeance. I am wearing splints as I type this.

I have been turning my thoughts back to sewing. I came across what I think is an old Victorian idea: the pillowcase dress. So simple, so comfortable for summer, and will be so adorable on Char. I even have an old Laura Ashley pillowcase in my linen closet with ruffled eyelet lace and pastel flowers (does Laura Ashley do anything but??) that will be the first one for my girl. I will be using the instructions I found here. See how easy it is? I am also going to try my hand at tie-dyeing a pillowcase dress for Char as well. At this blog is also instructions for a dress that involves sewing a pleated (or gathered) rectangle of fabric to an existing t-shirt. I can do these things!!! Stop me when I take a set of sheets to make a pillowcase dress for myself--at least don't let me out of the house while wearing it!

Last night our lovely respite worker came over for her usual Thursday evening. I met Richard at his office and we ordered Chinese and watched Casino Royale. What a fantastic movie! It had me riveted from the moment it started. My flannel-wearing inner Grunge Girl loved the opening song done by Chris Cornell (lead singer of Soundgarden) and the special effects and stunts were amazing. I don't care what anyone else says about Daniel Craig, but I think he was a great Bond. Yes, he is a little rougher around the edges, but it really sets him apart from the others that came before him. He fills out the Bond tux extremely well!! I found this movie didn't objectify women as much as previous Bond movies have. A lot of the gratuitous cheesecake shots were of a glistening Craig coming out of the ocean in a small bathing suit, not of a Bond girl. Quite refreshing. The various locations the film was set in were breathtaking--I want to visit Italy more than ever now.

Yesterday was a big day for Emmett as well. We have started making plans to add more therapy to our routine in the form of Developmental Therapy. Since we are not entirely sure where all of Emmett's delays lie I am open to taking all the help I can get. A therapist will be coming to our house starting next month for play-based sessions that will focus on motor, social, and speech skills. She is starting out by meeting us at speech therapy so she can see how our Speech Pathologist interacts with Emmett and carries out her sessions. Therapy will also continue at his preschool in the fall. Wow, therapy twice a week and school twice a week. We are going to be very, very busy this fall. (I am trying not to hyperventilate.)

Ok, shameless plug time. Remember last summer when I stood up in my dear friend's wedding? Well, a couple of blog posts about that came to the attention of one Siri Agrell, a journalist who works at a national newspaper and was writing columns about wedding culture and bridesmaids. She emailed me to ask if she could use a couple of my stories in a book she was writing. Well, one phone interview and several months later, the book is in stores. Names were changed in the stories to protect the innocent, but my real name is in the acknowledgements . I got quite a thrill from seeing my name in an actual book that is available everywhere. It is quite an amusing read. My career as a bridesmaid is over, but I still found it interesting. In addition to funny/scary stories from bridesmaids all over North America, Siri writes about the origins of the wedding party and how it has evolved over the centuries. Did you know that bridesmaids originally wore white and were expected to fight off potential kidnappers and dowery thieves?? How things have changed!!

Meanwhile, elsewhere in BlogLand...

I was recently interviewed by Elizabeth Flora Ross for The Mom Pledge Blog.  She is doing a series on women, the different birthing experiences they can have and the perceptions surrounding them.

I was honoured to be chosen to talk about my experience having a homebirth.  I hope you stop by and read the story.

Here is the apple pie story she references in the interview.  Elizabeth was quite tickled by it.