Week 201 motherhood – wire sculptures, seat belt takeoff routines, playing bingo

Week 201 motherhood with 3 year 10 month old and 19 month old.

July 18 to 24, 2024:

The last day of the Fun with STEAM summer camp was really fun! The facilitators set up a fan facing upright with a plastic cylinder where the kids could put light objects into it to blow up. It’s like a rendition of something you would see at the science centre. The kids could experiment to see what items blew up and watch them twirl around in the tunnel before being spit out. The objects were things like cut-up tissue paper, feathers, cotton balls. I thought the child would have spent more time at this station but she only played with it for a bit of time. I guess because there were other kids there too and she didn’t want to play with others for long.
There was a “glue station” activity that we were the first to visit. The child took the materials from the floor and glued them together. I didn’t know until later that they intended the kids to glue the materials to the cardboard box that was on the floor. Geez. I wish we had some guidance. But then again, this shows open-ended play and the child did what she wanted to.
We did a “build a density tower” activity where the kids scooped spoonfuls of various ingredients like honey, corn syrup, milk, soap, water, vegetable oil, and food colours into a small glass jar. At the end of it, they would see the different layers and how they separated because they have different densities. Unfortunately, when it was our turn to visit the activity, there wasn’t much ingredients to scoop from so we did the best we could but our result wasn’t as clear and obvious as someone of the other kids who later did it when the facilitators refilled the ingredients. And no one came to guide us when we were at the activity centre either so it wasn’t like I purposely asked the facilitators to refill the jars. Ah well.
There was musical jars station with glass jars filled with different volume of water for the kids to clink with a spoon to result in different tones. This was a quick 30-second activity though.
Finally, there was a wire sculpture making activity station. This was a really neat one where the kids could thread beads through a wire, stick it with clay and put it on a board and decorate the board with other wooden materials too. However, the child didn’t want to do it exactly this way. She just wanted to thread the beads and intersperse each one with a thin piece of clay. Her final product definitely looked different from the other kids’. However, I also noticed how one parent basically guided and did the activity for her child. In the end, their product looked really creative and cool but the kid wasn’t the one who built it — it was the parent. So then what’s the purpose here really?
It’s exhausting to take the child with me to the grocery store to pick up the Flashfood orders because it takes her a long time to get settled and in and out of car seats and grocery carts. She has a specific way she wants us to undo the seat belt for her before she gets out now: She likes us to undo the right side of the bottom belt first and then she will undo the top part and then it’s our turn to undo the left part of the bottom belt.
(The easiest way is just to unbuckle all parts at once so she can get out, but she wants us to do it that specific way. If we don’t, then she gets frustrated and a meltdown could ensue. But I know this is yet another phrase she’s going through. A week or two later, it will be something different. Just like how she had that phrase of wanting to look at my phone for YouTube songs — she doesn’t request it as often now.)
She likes to take off shoes off when she enters the car too so when we get to the store/EarlyON, I have to put them on for her or wait for her to put them on herself. When it’s over 25 degrees outside and sunny, then it’s tiring and hot for me to wait for her.
Also nearly every day this week, when we arrived to the summer camp, she didn’t want to go in right away and wanted to eat/wait in the car first. But she also wanted me to open her side of the car door first. So I have to get up, open her door, walk back to my driver’s seat to sit and wait (which is fine because I can use my phone) and then once she’s ready, go and get her out from the car seat. However, the car is so hot during this time because we’re just sitting there and waiting. It’s just tiring and requires a lot of patience.
The child has a preference for the grocery carts inside the grocery store so I can’t even grab the closest cart from the parking lot. And then once we’re done with the shopping, she has to accompany me back to the grocery cart return section. Thus, I first have to go to the car together to drop off the groceries, then push the cart to return it with her, and then go back to the car with her. There are a lot of steps involved that could be eliminated if it was just a grocery trip by myself. I know all parents can relate to this.
I had a date night with mom on the Friday. I had been craving for laksa and my craving was satisfied when we went out for it. So good. So nice to eat without the kids. DH brought the kids over to his parents’ place. They were more comfortable with the space this week because they had gone just last week but I know it’s still not an easy task to bring two kids out by yourself.
On the Saturday, I leaned into my blogger duties and dragged the whole family out with me downtown so that I could attend the Feast of St. Lawrence media walking tour event once again. I was invited in 2018, 2019, 2022, and this year. I saw the e-mail pretty late so I wasn’t able to bring a plus one unfortunately (otherwise it would have been great to have a date day with DH as a bonus). Since I didn’t get an invitation last year and who knows how long it will be again for me to get invited to one of these influencer events again, I said yes. (We had to reschedule a play date with one of DH’s friends though and I know he wasn’t too happy about that but when the wife is happy, his life is easier and he knows it.)
We drove downtown and parked at our usual cheap spot (only $8 for the entire day) and I did my blogger things from 11:30 to 2:30 p.m.ish. It felt out of my comfort zone to have to talk with other new people again since I didn’t have a plus one. We visited four spots (3 of them were old and familiar) and tasted nice food. I chatted it up with someone who works for Second Harvest and basically we just stuck with each other because she didn’t know anyone else either.
I felt FOMO when I saw that DH and the kids and my mom were dining at Hot House for lunch.
I mean do I regret joining the event? No because I know if I didn’t do it, I would have regretted not doing it. But also, it was an experience that I’ve technically had before so it wasn’t that special. Still, it was nice to get a break from the kids, I guess. I was grateful for the invitation, don’t get me wrong. It was also nice for the kids to see downtown since we rarely ever go there. It was the secondborn’s first time downtown and seeing so many cars and people too.
We visited St. Lawrence Market and had a green smoothie. Both kids passed out when we got in the car to go back uptown.
During our dinner out that night, once the kids were done eating, they wanted to run around and sit in the lobby area with the wooden bench and look at the fish. It was nice for me to take a little walk with them too since I can’t eat too much in one sitting these days. The little one prefers me all the time. But because she’s still little, she can be picked up and dragged away from me (despite protesting by crying lol) (but she doesn’t cry for long).
On the Sunday, we drove up north and east to Brooks Farms to pick raspberries. It was our first time picking these fruits and it was a lot of fun. We actually came to Brooks Farms last year during one of the EarlyON Wonders of Nature events (it’s a 30-minute drive but I don’t even remember us driving that far last time lol).
The raspberry brushes were low enough for the kids to pick the raspberries themselves which was great. I didn’t even know that raspberries came apart so loosely and easily when you pick them. They leave a little white part of the stem and that’s why the actual fruit has a hole in it. I didn’t even know this!
There was a rule about no eating and snacking on the fruits while picking but we saw other people do it. The kids were good about not eating the fruit but then the secondborn wanted to eat it and I let her. It’s funny because DH was like, “Noooo” the fruits have to be washed before eating! And he would literally run from the raspberry brush from the other row to us to give us water to rinse the fruit before the kid would put it in her mouth lol. Meanwhile, I’m the parent who’s like, “Ehh, it’s fine. It’s just a little dirt” lol. The secondborn continued eating the fruits she picked but the firstborn actually waited for DH to come to her with water before she put them in her mouth. Too funny lol.
We actually bought two baskets for the kids in case they fought over carrying them but they didn’t even care for them. We should have just bought one (cheaper that way).
The kids were tired from picking about an hour in and DH brought them back to the car where they ate snacks (the ones we brought from home) and my mom and I finished filling up our baskets.
On the Monday, it was the first day of the Creative Chefs Summer Camp program. I thought that because it was a special summer camp version that they would have more than one station/dish they would be making each day. Unfortunately, it was just like the regular creative chef classes that they have at this Richmond Hill location and it was just one item per day. The first day, they made pizza. Honey drizzled cinnamon buttered toasts the second day. And salads the third day. It was really ho-hum and not very exciting. Once again, they wrote and pasted the instructions on the wall for the parents to read to guide their kids on what to do. There were no comprehensive songs or stories before the cooking to teach the kids about what they would be eating or cooking and it was all self-guided. No dishwashing at the end either.
No wonder that on the second day of the camp, there was a significant drop in attendees. The first day was jam-packed with people and it was a little chaotic actually. The second day was super quiet. The first day, I counted 26 pairs of adults and kids. The second day, there were about 10 or 12 people only.
This is what happens when there’s no creativity when it comes to the recipes. Also, for the toasts on the second day, they used white bread. That’s not healthy at all. For the third day salad, they could have included some protein like shredded cheese or bacon bits. And what kind of creative chef class would ask a child to eat a salad? (Just plain lettuce, olives, red peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers.) Where’s the fun in that?
(At least for the pizza, they used whole wheat English muffins as the base and actually heated them up in the oven for the kids so that the cheese would melt.)
And once again, after the child made the pizza and toasts, she wanted me to put it into her lunchbox to eat later. We have a new problem now where she won’t eat in school settings. Sigh.
For the other EarlyON programs, they would probably do a combination of food items to make in one day. For example, the pizza and salad could actually be made together on the same day. The salad doesn’t even take long; it’s just cutting.
Speaking of which, the child actually used the knife herself this time to cut the lettuce, red peppers, olives, and cucumber. Even though she wasn’t interested in eating the red peppers, lettuce, or olives, I told her that she could cut it anyway and then bring it home for dad to eat. She was happy to comply and successfully chopped up everything herself on the cutting board. It was really good to see this progress.
After we were done the class, the child as per usual lately ran over to the other unit where we listened to the end of the circle time. This time too, she actually wanted to go inside to play. She played with the cars in the soapy water for a while and was very content. The facilitator was so nice and even played some bonus songs for us because she knew that the child wanted to listen to circle time songs (and they actually did some songs earlier). I really appreciated her effort.
On the second day of the creative chefs class, the admin came around to the parents who had registered for the August summer camp program to implore them to cancel their registration if they had already attended the July summer camp program. Um, what? She said it would be more fair for more parents to attend the program if we already did the program once and it would be the same repeated program in August. Honestly, if they wanted different families to join the program, they should have set that out in the registration before parents actually registered. They shouldn’t have allowed parents to register and then come chase after them afterwards. That’s actually the word she used; that she was “chasing” parents about this. I firmly told her no: because my child was going to school in September and I purposely chose this program so she would have a solid schedule, see the same facilitators at the same location, and have her get used to school this way. She immediately barked back at me that the facilitators would be the same. “Well, the location would be the same.” (And in my head, I was thinking that the staff would be the same Richmond Hill staff anyway but too bad I didn’t say this in the moment.) And then she backed down because she didn’t have any other reason to give me to cancel the program. It was really annoying though and left a bad taste in my mouth. If parents are eager enough to sign up their child successfully to the pre-registered program, what right does the admin staff have to ask them then to remove their registration? Honestly, I remember logging in on my phone at 10 a.m. sharp to keep refreshing the website to see the spots open up. I was actually the very first one to register for all of the August summer camp programs. I saw they had 46 spots available after I registered. This means that there were at least 23 other adults who signed up. It’s a first-come-first-serve registration. You can’t just convince people to cancel their registration. What if this is their only summer activity planned for their child for August?
During this day, there was also an activity where the kids were given coloured shaving cream and some orange paper. At first, I thought that the brushes were just for the shaving cream to go on the paper (so that’s what the child did). However, it wasn’t until after we left the activity station that I realized that the kids were actually supposed to make “ice cream cones” by rolling up the orange paper into a cone and then stuffing it with the coloured shaving cream (because it’s fluffy) and decorating it with the pom-pom balls too. (Again, no one told us.)
It was actually during this time that I was chatting with a fellow mom friend that the same admin came to her to ask her to withdraw from the August summer camp program that she registered for her daughter too. The mom friend asked if there were any other reregistered programs during that time and of course there were not. She was hesitant to withdraw her child from the program. And then when the admin turned her back to get her a calendar, I quietly gestured to her “no, don’t do it”. Later, we chatted about this and we agreed that it wasn’t necessary to withdraw our child from a pre-registered program just because the admin wanted us to. She had her reasons of keeping her child in the program just like I did.
Also, that ice cream making activity, while it looked cute on the outside, actually is a very closed-ended activity. It leaves no room for imagination. All the kids basically end up with the same thing.
Another thing that irked me was that after the admin staff came to talk with my mom friend about withdrawing from the August program, she noticed that the mom’s daughter was finished using up the shaving cream in the palette. She took it away from her. The girl literally said, “I’m not done”. The admin staff said, “But you’ve finished using all of it so I’m going to fill in more for you.” And then when she came back with more and the girl used more of it on her paper again, the admin staff basically scolded her and said that she used too much of it and that she needed to save some for the other kids. Yes, sharing is an important tool but the fact that she said she “used too much” was not a healthy comment. It’s art. You should let kids explore and put as much or as little as they want. She is an admin staff. She shouldn’t have overstepped her boundaries to make a comment to a child about their art.
Since grandma was sick this week and she had a faint positive covid test, the older child didn’t share the same bed with her. This meant that she didn’t sleep as well as she normally does with grandma in the warm bed. But at least she did fall asleep eventually in her own room again. It meant later nights than usual for DH too because he had to put her to bed. Both kids were bathing in our ensuite bathroom too.
On the day that the kids were making the salad in class, the child was playing in the sandbox. One of the facilitators came by to start sweeping the sand under her feet and she said to me, “There’s sand on her socks”. I told her, “That’s normal. She’s playing with sand.” And I basically brushed her off because she was interrupting my child unnecessarily. Seconds after this encounter, my child said she was done playing. Had the facilitator not come in to start cleaning up underneath her, she would have continued playing. Ugh. And honestly, why are they so anal about the sand falling on the floor? Why can’t they sweep it after the child has done playing? She’s playing with SAND! Of course some will get on the floor!
Same thing the other day when they had a water table. There was barely any water inside the bucket. How was the child supposed to play with such a small amount of water? The bucket was like 15 inches tall but the water level was only an inch high. The facilitator asked us if we needed more water and we did, so she went to add more but there was only a small bowl of it. So ridiculous. If you’re a childcare centre, you need to not be so anal and worrisome about these messy activities. They had towels under the table anyway to collect the water. So why are they so concerned about spills?!
Both days after the creative chefs class, the older child fell asleep in the car upon coming home. It was nice for me to finally have some me time in the car and use my phone.
We went out for dinner in lieu of our usual takeout Wednesday — just the 4 of us since grandma was still sick. It was a no frills meal and DH let me have time to eat when the kids were getting antsy and needed to go out for a walk.
On the Wednesday for circle time, the facilitators actually set up a bingo game for the kids. This was a huge success (on Tuesday, they did a “where’s the cookie” game and it failed because some of the kids didn’t know to keep their eyes closed or they hands folded behind them — my 3 year old didn’t want to close her eyes at all). This was the 3 year old’s first time playing bingo and she understood it right away.
Each kid got a card with 9 different foods on it and a cup of plastic buttons. The facilitators showed a different food on a card at a time and we had to see if our card had any corresponding food on it. If it did, we would put a button on it. It took a while before we got our bingo (3 in a row) and we were actually the very last one to get it. To make it fair, the facilitators actually peeked at all of the kids’ cards to make sure everyone won. This was really fun and the 3 year old really understood how it was played.
She actually told me afterwards that she remembered that we saw it being played on the cruise too but why didn’t they use buttons? Such a good memory. I told her because the cruise version of bingo used a digital kind and markers instead.
So neat because this was her first “game” that she actually played with others. I hope they do bingo more often during EarlyON.
One of the facilitators actually mentioned that we could play bingo at home with the kids too. I mean we could, but it isn’t the same without 20 other people playing it together lol.
We’re continuing to try to wean the younger one. She doesn’t need my milk sometimes during the day now and once this week, we went a full 8 hours without nursing. Yay!
I might be able to wear regular tops (non-nursing) ones during the day soon!! Or I think it could be a way to deter her from needing to nurse during the day too: purposely wear the non-nursing tops so she can’t get access which means she will fill up on cow’s milk or other foods.
The younger one always wants me to read with her. She wants me only. She will take my hand and lead me to the sofa or couch to sit and read together.
And when I refuse because I’m eating or ask DH or grandma to read to her, she will cry and throw her head back in protest.
Two times this week, she didn’t get what she wanted so she went to the family room and put her head down on the couch and was quiet for a few minutes by herself. I found it really amusing lol..
This younger one is more defiant and volatile in terms of her protests and meltdowns, which will be very interesting to see as she approaches the “terrible twos” stage. We will need to be more patient and tolerant than ever before.
Hopefully as she enters this exploratory stage, the 3 year old will cooperate and mature and wise up. The 3 year old’s current tantrums are quite wicked and long lasting too. When she finally calms down, she’s logical and asks, “Why was I crying?”
An improvement for the 3 year old is that she hasn’t said the phrase, “I don’t want to be alone” when we go to EarlyONs for a while now. So glad the daily attendance seems to be helping her. But the next two things we need to tackle are potty training and eating with others. All of these are key concepts for surviving and thriving in kindergarten.
It was a hard week this week because we were down one adult in the house to help out.