Canada Moms Blog

Princesses Can Be Awesome, If You Strap Blades To Their Feet

I'm pretty ambivalent about princesses: I don't hate them, but I definitely don't love them, and really, end of the day, if they were to all disappear from the culture I wouldn't exactly miss them. Happily, my daughter feels more or less the same way. Unless those princesses are on ice. Then they're awesome. Then they're REALLY awesome.

She's never actually seen any princesses on ice - which is to say, skating princesses - but we did watch the Nutcracker the other night and she remarked that it'd better if there were hockey players involved, which, you have to admit, is pretty solid logic, not to mention conclusive evidence that she's Canadian. She meant, basically, that it'd be better if the characters were skating. "Especially the princess," she said, referring to the Sugarplum Fairy, who really would be a lot more hardcore if she played goal.

Wild Things

This weekend, Jasper played with monsters. Big ones.

And he loved it.

It was at Bunch's Where The Wild Things Are Wild Rumpus, and there was much, much rumpussing of the kind that can really only be done in the presence of monsters.

Jasper's a little young for the movie, and I don't know how much he yet understands of the book, but end of the day, his familiarity with the characters and the story didn't - doesn't - matter. Dancing with a monster holds a joy all of its very own, whether that monster be one of Max's monsters, or Elmo, or Grover, or that big orange one that Emilia insists lives in the closet.

Because dancing with a monster is the very essence of what it means to be a child - it is to look at a being who is very, very different from you, and to see only someone to cuddle, to dance with, to hug. To see only a friend.

And then to get on with the party.

My heart grew a few sizes this weekend, I think.

Catherine blogs at Her Bad Mother and Their Bad Mother and everywhere in between.

Original post to Canada Moms Blog.

Canada Moms Hit The Road

Yeah. And it's gonna sound something like this:

(Yes, I KNOW. It's not the pur laine Canadian Tom Cochrane original. But: a) Emilia, being more devoted to the Nation Of Preschoolers than to her Canadian citizenship, prefers the Cars soundtrack version, and b) Tom Cochrane and EMI Music Canada aren't really all that sharesies with embedded video.)

(Check out the details at the Moms Road Trip website. We start in Halifax tomorrow and head east - maybe we'll be coming to a Motel 6 near you!)

The Baby Formula Breaks, Um, The Formula

Hollywood movies about birth and babies tend to take a predictable route: couple discovers that the woman of the pair is pregnant, man of the couple gets all flustered and blustery, woman remains patient and mature, misunderstandings abound, hilarities ensue, woman is rushed to hospital, man realizes error of his ways when squawling baby is placed in his arms, happy happy happy, END SCENE.

Adjust for variations involving adoption and teen pregnancy, but basically: ALL THE SAME.

Which, meh. Can we get something different around here? Please?

Oh, hey! Hello, Alison Reid!

We Like To Move It Move It

Our first official Canada Moms Blog Getting Ready To Launch Party is going to be this coming Mothers' Day Weekend TODAY! TODAY! TODAY! in Toronto.* This Saturday - May 9, the day before Mothers' Day - TODAY! TODAY! TODAY! from 2 - 5 we'll be joining the Bunch gang at their annual pre-Moms' Day bash and they'll help us kick-off Canada Moms Blog all glam-like. And we would love it love it love it if you would join us. Bring the kiddies! Get tattooed! Raise a glass to Canada Moms Blog and, you know, moms! There's gonna a be a party tonight this afternoon!

We would really love to see you!

(Dads also welcome. Also, grandparents. And aunts and uncles. And friends. Basically, anybody who rolls with kids who like to party and who loves moms. And mom-blogs. And Canada Moms Blog.)

(That would be you.)

*No, we haven't forgotten about the rest of you, Rest Of Canada. We're going to be bringing some party action your way, too. Stay tuned!

You Know You Love Us. Wanna Party?

So we've been kicking it beta-style around here at Canada Moms Blog for almost two months now - getting our feet wet, splashing around, getting the feel of the water - and now it's time to start diving in and, you know, swimming. Which basically just means, really launching this baby off the diving board and into the pool YEE-HAW CANNONBALL!

Which itself just means, really, taking that little beta-disclaimer off the top of this page and announcing ourselves a little more formally and - oh yeah - maybe throwing a party or two. Which is what we're up to this month (and a little beyond that if we can swing it) (you know how you always asked your parents if you could extend your birthday longer than a day? A week, maybe? Well, we're the parents now. And we say this party lasts as long as we want it!)

Where was I? Right. PARTY/

Our first official Canada Moms Blog Getting Ready To Launch Party is going to be this coming Mothers' Day Weekend in Toronto. (Simmer down, Rest Of Canada; you'll get your turn.) This Saturday - May 9, the day before Mothers' Day - from 2 - 5 we'll be joining the Bunch gang at their annual pre-Moms' Day bash and they'll help us kick-off Canada Moms Blog all glam-like. And we would love it love it love it if you would join us. Bring the kiddies! Get tattooed! Raise a glass to Canada Moms Blog and, you know, moms!

(Dads also welcome. Also, grandparents. And aunts and uncles. And friends. Basically, anybody who travels with kids who like to party and who loves moms. And mom-blogs. And Canada Moms Blog.)

(That would be you.)

Tie Your Tubes, Save The World

So if you`ve ever doubted that Canada is home to some world-class academic research, you can put your doubts to rest: a scientist at the University of Victoria has figured out a solution to global warming. The secret, apparently, is this: STOP HAVING SEX.

Okay, maybe not all sex - just reproductive sex. You know, the fun kind. I know! Who knew that it was going to be that easy?

So, yeah: no sex without birth control is the key to saving the world from environmental degradation, according to Hans Tammermagi, adjunct professor in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. "We can make changes (like turning down the thermostat and using public transit), but they don't mean a thing if our population keeps growing," he said.

Hey, it`s science!

Jian Ghomeshi Irritates Me A Little Less Today

I'm not Jian Ghomeshi's biggest fan. I hated Moxy Fruvous - the only band in the world more insipid than the Barenaked Ladies - and I find his relentless hipsterness annoying (memo to everybody: after the age of 35, it is very, very difficult to pull off "hipster" without looking ridiculous. "Hipster" is by definition a hair's breadth remove from ridiculous even for twenty-somethings - is there anyone, anywhere, who seriously wants to be like the Mac in the Mac commercial? - but for anybody who was in college when Kurt Cobain blew his brains out? That remove disappears entirely. KNOW THAT.)

(This goes double if you are a parent.)

(Where was I?)

Jian Ghomeshi, right. So he took on Billy Bob Thornton and lived to tell about it, sort of.

Disney On Ice? You Complete Me.

Once, a long time ago, before I had kids, I went to see Ariadne auf Naxos at the Met in New York. Yeah, opera. I like opera. It was an awesome evening: dinner at the Plaza, then opera at the Met, then drinks, then back to hotel to sleep it all off before heading out to skulk around SoHo with a credit card the next day. One of the best weekends I've ever had. And it's highly unlikely that I'll do anything like that again for, oh, say, the next 7 to 10 years. What with the children and all.

Instead, we do stuff like go to Disney On Ice and stay at hotels that have amenities for families.* Which, compared to the Met and the Plaza, might sound entirely unappealing, except for the fact that it's not. Seriously. Would I lie to you?

Why Is Canadian Children's Television Trying To Kill Me?

I may have said this here before - in fact, I'm certain that I *have* said something like this here before - but I think that Canada has really been pretty awesome at producing children's programming for television (producing children's music is another story altogether. I'll just say that I'm grateful that I had my children a decade or two past the prime of Sharon, Lois and Bram.) Mr. Dressup, The Friendly Giant: these are classic children's television programs. Canonical even. Right up there with Sesame Street and Schoolhouse Rock. No, I'm not kidding. They maybe weren't flashy shows; they maybe didn't have their fingers on some pulse of hipness (we are talking about Canada, after all) - but they were simple and effective and sweetly heartwarming in a way that was both completely unironic and uncreepy (as opposed to say, Mr Rogers, who is entirely creepy and only comprehensible through an ironic lens.) They were perfect Canadian children's shows, and I am proud to be part of the culture that produced them.

Judy and David, on the other hand...