My latest moral dilemma – giving my baby chicken pox. Or not. Am I a chicken?

Yet another trip to the Sick Kids’ ER, this time for a broken bone. Lessons on how stoic those little people can be – plus you get to see an actual real life picture of Tom’s insides.

A peanutty-tasting cookie that’s nut-safe policy compliant – and delicious too. Make it with different colours of sesame seed for an especially pretty cookie.

Reality check when kiddo calls me on my behaviour.

How’s that for a blog post title? And after so many months of abandoning you! So, about that, sorry. It’s been busy and I am trying to sort out how to fit all the stuff I need and want to do. Writing is definitely in the ‘keep’ box, but it’s also something that requires me to have a chunk of quiet brain space and I just haven’t been carving that out very well lately. But I’m back and I’m going to talk a little bit [...]

Tom at Niagara Butterfly Conservatory next to tarantula.

I: “Mama, I noticed that I don’t have earrings in my jewellery box.” (Yup, she’s sly.)Me: “Well, yes, that’s true – you don’t have your ears pierced, so you can’t wear earrings.”I: “Hmmm… I think it would be nice to wear earrings.”Me: “Would you like to have your ears pierced?”I: “Pierced??” as she checks her mental thesarus for what other possible meaning ‘pierce’ might have and comes up empty. “How do they do that?”Me: “Well, they have to push a needle through your ear to [...]

It seems like the swine flu (A.K.A. H1N1, aporkalypse, snoutbreak and hamdemic) has lost the collective interest of the media – or perhaps I’ve just stopped listening because there was nothing interesting being printed about it anymore. Like most big crises, the first wave of hysteria passed quickly and time will tell whether it was warranted or not.In the lull, it does end up that something very interesting has come to light that matters whether the swine flu is the next 1918 virus or not. [...]

I have a thing about natural fibres, especially for the kids and especially for nightwear. It turns out for us that this is a good instinct, because Isabelle gets awful, itchy rashes when she overheats at night. It only took us a whole winter to figure out that fleece footed pjs weren’t good for her – we’re a little slow on the uptake sometimes (I suspected shrimp). I used to love a company called Hanna Andersson – still do for lots of things. Their playdresses [...]

I’m sitting outside Isabelle’s music class – behind the door, I can hear the cheerful pixie piano going and the trample of little feet across the wooden floor. Stay at home motherhood is funny – this weekly hour as I sit and wait for her class is a quiet break when I can write and think or just play brickbreaker on my cellphone. Or it would be if this week was not also music exams at the conservatory. As I type, a poor examiner is [...]