See Any Family Resemblance?

Charlotte's First Movie - What Will It Be?

Charlotte is getting older now and is starting to out grow Treehouse television which relies solely on telling a story by threes. Now that her attention span is getting longer, I wonder what Tig's first trip to the movies will be?... Wait - I know!



Everybody loves aeroplanes. Thanks Disney. You take the guess work out of life...
Will

The Honest Toddler: A Child's Guide to Parenting

Bracingly candid, sweetly indignant, and writing with an unchecked sense of entitlement, the Internet’s wildly popular Honest Toddler delivers a guide to the parenting techniques he deems acceptable (keep the cake coming and the apple juice undiluted).

The toddler stage can be a rude awakening for parents, whose sweet infants morph, seemingly overnight, into tyrants ready to turn simple errands into hellish and humiliating experiences. Trying to convince your defiant darling to do something as simple as put on her shoes can feel like going to war. It’s not all blood, sweat, and tears, though. Toddlers can be charming little creatures, with their unfettered enthusiasm, wide grins, and ready hugs. In fact, what makes toddlers so fascinating is their unique blend of cute and demonic behavior. A toddler will take your hand and say "I love you," then slap you in the face.

Now, The Honest Toddler provides an indispensable guide to parenting that places the toddler’s happiness front and center. Who better to instruct parents on the needs of toddlers than a toddler himself?

In a voice that is at once inimitable and universal, The Honest Toddler turns his sharp eye to a wide range of subjects, including play date etiquette, meal preparation, healthy sleep habits, and the pernicious influence of self-appointed experts and so-called doctors. The result is a parenting guide like no other, one that will have moms and dads laughing through tears as they recognize their own child in the ongoing shenanigans of one bravely honest toddler.

The Honest Toddler: A Child's Guide to Parenting: http://soa.li/6jbOO8J

Charlotte's New House

'Guess what, Charlotte,' Mum prompts in the supermarket grocery line, 'Mum and Dad bought you a new house.'

'Where is it?' Charlotte asks, looking in the shopping cart.

'It's in Dartmouth!' says Mum, triumphantly.

There was a slight pause, and Charlotte's wee brow furroughs.

'How we gonna bring it home to our place, Mummy?'

Bless her innocent little soul.

Dad

Email from Auntie Annette in Australia

Dear Charlotte,
I know mum will cover this as well but let me re state : liquid eyeliner is rarely if ever the preferred option at 530 am while applying at the kitchen bench.
The makeup you thought looked fresh and had you saying this is good for 530 will look heavy and caked under flouro lights vs the poorly lit dream world of the kitchen bench - life lessons to learn very early :)
And ps the back of a cab is excellent texting time once you fasten your shoes.

More to follow.

Love Auntie Annette (your fairy godmother)

Happy Mother's Day

'It my birfday?' Charlotte asks, eyeing the gifts sitting on the counter.

'Nope. Those are for Mamma and Nanny. Do you know why, Tig?'

'Umm, Santa Clause is coming?'

Nanny laughs.

'Nope.' I say. 'It's Mother's Day. Ya silly Goose!'

'Oh yeah. Silly me... I help you open the presents, Mammy!'

Smiling from ear to ear, Michelle pulls Charlotte onto her lap, and kisses her on the top of the head. 'OK. Sure thing.'

And Happy G'ma's Day to Niccy Niccy, and soon to be Mother, Aunty Lucy....

Bath Time In Halifax

Someone is starting to enjoy the finer things in life: like a new box of Princess underwear (we're all but fully potty trained these days), a back rub and a hot soak in the bath before dinner... It seems we aren't too afraid of the Camera these days either...

Open Halifax

Just got back from a day of sampling Halifax's finest in the annual 'Open Halifax' event.

Coffee, burgers, homemade lemonade, and fantastic seafood chowder. There was even a bunch of Lego to play with outside the public library. Fun!

After all the excitement, we took a bit of time out of our busy schedule, to wind down a bit by getting 'Gonged'!

Best of all, after all the running around the streets and doing cartwheels on the Citadel, we headed down to Dee Dee's for a scoop of ice-cream. Yum!

Great day out with the girls. 

W

My Dad and Jody Won Da Race

Jody and I have just recovered from the 24hr Eco-Endurance Challenge hosted by Halifax Regional Search and Rescue. After stomping through the pits of hell (manifesting itself in the form of Hurricane Juan storm damage), we emerged victorious, crossing the Finish line the next day in first place (for the Recreational Division).

What greeted us there, were two Angels: one nosily poking through the SAR Team's Incident Command Vehicle (Michelle), and the other waving a Canadian flag to spur on her exhausted old man (Charlotte).

Needless to say, the tattered old flag from our back garden was quickly replaced by Dad's Gold Medal!

Cheers for the moral support kid. Let's go to TimPortance.

Dad, xx 

Are You Five-Enough?

The other night whilst getting ready for bed, Tig got distracted with the top button of my shirt. She wanted to practice doing it up, but after three brave attempts, she decided she couldn't do it, and finally gave in.

"Keep trying, kid," I said, trying to encourage her along.

"Nope," she answered. "I'm not five-enough. I'm only three!"

To redeem her sense of accomplishment, we took a few extra moments to coach her through putting on her jammys ~ all by herself...

How do you measure your success in life?

Are you five-enough?

Magic Haircut

It has been well over seven weeks since my last haircut, so I'm lookin' a little ragged, to say the least.

'I need a haircut this week, I think.' Say I. More to myself than to anybody else.

Tig locks onto the subject, 'You gonna get your hair cut long like me, Daddy?' (Twirling her pony tails).

It doesn't get any cuter than that.

Dad

Saturday Swim and a Fluffy

After a Swim at the Halifax YMCA with dad, a flat white and a fluffy (toddler size steamed milk) at the Smiling Goat Cafe- they make the best flat white, outside of NZ!!

Emery is in town! She's like my sister!!

Charlotte's favourite toddler is in town for a visit and Charlotte brought along some books to read to her.

'I love Emerwy, she is my sister'.

I Come Too?

Yesterday, Michelle and I moved to a new level in our relationship: we walked into the bank and bought a house - together! Whoopie...

Incidentally, at Daycare, the kids have been learning their address and phone numbers. So, which set of details do we get Charlotte to learn?

After some light debate over the dinner table, that spilled onto the doorstep of Kari's house the next day, we opted to teach her only the new details, in anticipation of our impending move.

Later that night, when we picked the kid up from preschool, we quizzed her on what she had learned:
"So, Charlotte. What did you learn today?"
After the initial silence, her reply actually floored us a little bit.

"My old address is 5560 Almon St, 555-0793!"
We looked at each other with quizzical looks on our faces. Oh, she learned the old address. Oh well, at least she got the numbers right in the phone number. [changed here for privacy]

'Well done,' we both agreed, proud as punch of our daughter anyway...

"...and my new place is 89 Bow St. C-H-A-R-L-O-T-T-E spells me!"
Hahaha, both address' and her name, bang on. Well done kid. You're a baby genius. Then came the clincher...

"Are you and Daddy moving to the new place, Mommy?"
"We are." Proud grins coming from both of us in the front of the car.

Then her little face dropped.
Her shoulders slumped forward, and she sniffed...

"And I come too?"

Gees Louise: I tell the kid we love her every day, and yet still, there's room for doubt.

"Umm," I said, pretending to consider the options. "What do you think, Mamma? Do we take the Tiger with us?"

"Yeah, OK," she said grinning, (her tone deliberately letting Charlotte know it might be a good idea). "I could use a Charlotte around the house."

"You can come too, Charlotte," I said. Turning around to face the back seat.
"Mum said you can come stay with us at 8-9-B-O-W-S-T!"

"Yaaayyy!!!" There were celebrations all throughout the car...

Love you kid. Looking forward to our new adventure.
Dad, xx

No, Count Like This...

So Charlotte and I were counting her books lined up on the coffee table. "Count them, Tig. One, two, three, fo..."
"Nnnoooo Daddy-you count them like this, 'Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis...'"
What th'? No more Dora The Explora for you until you've mastered French!!!

To Charlotte

From: Nicola Taylor

Date: 5 March, 2013 3:25:45 PM AST

To: Michelle Pinfold

Subject: To Charlotte

Thank you for the art work and photos they arrived yesterday just before I left for Wellington, awesome love Niccy Niccy

Saturday Afternoon At Home

"Can I put on my purple ballerina skirt so I can be so happy?"

3 years old and is keenly aware of the connection between fashion and happiness. Her mum and "auntie" Annette are so proud!

Paddington Playstation - IWK Change Bandits

Thank you to Paddington Play Station bringing change to @shophsc in support of Change Bandits! #IWKRadiothon @c100fm twitter.com/IWKFoundation/…
— IWK Foundation (@IWKFoundation) February 1, 2013

What is Change Bandits?

Change Bandits is a community-based fundraising campaign that takes place during the months leading up to the IWK Radiothon broadcast. 

Led by an IWK patient hero, individuals, businesses, groups and schools are invited to register to become Change Bandits to begin raising money for the IWK.

Change Bandits can raise money in a number of ways including:

• Collecting spare change from family, friends, fellow students and co-workers
• Creating a personal online fundraising page that your family, friends and co-workers can visit to make donations to your campaign
• Hosting your own creative fundraising event

Change Bandits are asked to bring the money they’ve collected to the Change Bandit Round-up at the IWK Radiothon broadcast.  IWK Foundation staff and volunteers will be on-hand to count the money you’ve raised (you don’t have to count it yourself – they’ll have a coin machine to count your change!) and they will give you a card with your total.

All of the money raised online and collected during the Change Bandit Round-up will get tallied toward the final total, which will be announced by the Change Bandit hero at the end of the Radiothon broadcast.

See also: IWK Health Centre Foundation - Homepage.

A Train Set In The Attic

Those of you not from Halifax, NS, you may be interested to hear that there is a wonderful model train set situated on the ground floor of the IWK Children's Hospital. 
     Not only is there a model train, but the entire ward has been outfitted with train symbology: everything from train track floor tiles, to information fliers on the Trans Canada railway tours stapled to the walls.

Charlotte is lucky enough to have an Uncle and Aunt with just as impressive a train set in the attic of their house. Co-incidentally, this particular model was painstakingly assembled by David who also happens to volunteer his time looking after the model train set at the IWK.

A quick peek at Charlotte enjoying her Uncle David's very own personal train station.

     If model trains interest you, then check out the short video I borrowed below, of the setup at the hospital--from the image above, you can see they have recently introduced a model helicopter.

Model trains in the entrance at the IWK Children's Hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

The trains run from 9 to 11am Monday to Friday. Note: Above film taken Feb 16, 2011.

First Trip to the Dental Nurse

She's got a toothbrush that makes a whirring sound.

A chair that goes up and down.

A bright light.

Some sharp scary things.

A sucky thing.

Lots of mirrors, and

Funny models of giant teeth...

...but she gives you a toy, some stickers, and even a free toothbrush.

Maybe the Dentist isn't so scary after all.

Well done Tig. You were really brave.

Bed Time Story (For When Time Is Short)

I'll tell you a story,

about Jack and Nori,

and now my story's begun.

I'll tell you another,

about Jack and his brother,

and now my story is done!

Charlotte's Third Birthday

After the longest build-up in the whole wide world (waiting for Niccy-Niccy to come and stay), Charlotte finally managed to have her birthday party and turn three.
The night before, we received a number of birthday wishes from New Zealand, and even a special one from Yoko in Japan.

The morning of the 25th, we started the day off with a great birthday greeting from Sam and Sydney to get us into the spirit of the day.

Then, Tig took some cupcakes to Daycare and basked in the glory as all the kids sang happy birthday.

Mum, Dad, and Niccy-Niccy were a little late arriving at Day Care in the afternoon, so some of the kids had already left before we got there. This upset Charlotte a little bit, because we had all promised her we would come over in the afternoon and make a fuss of her in front of her friends. (I'm sorry kid. I know you were disappointed and our/my tardiness made you cry. I promise I will try and make it up to you somehow kid. I really will).

 

     Tig's disappointment didn't last long, and after a quick tour of the Paddington Playstation, we headed over to Nanny's house and set off for our favourite Japanese restaurant the Wasabi House. Unfortunately, a small fire in the kitchen saw that shop temporarily boarded up, so we missed out of Takeshi's favourite sushi--by the way, if you're thinking it's weird taking a three year old out for sushi on her third birthday, you haven't seen Charlotte drink miso soup...

With the Japanese restaurant off the menu, we dived across the street to the King Wah to escape the -17 deg C temperatures that were causing us all to lose our sense of humour. After an hour of trying to stop Tig from sticking chop sticks up her nose whist blowing bubbles in her beef soup, we headed home to open presents and light the candles and have the birthday cake that Mum made.

Her haul this year was quite impressive:

1. She got a Tiffanys locket from Nanny.
2. Nana Niccy got her some Margaret Mahy books from New Zealand.
3. Sean and Di gave her a Kiwi jigsaw puzzle, some books, and a stuffed lion.
4. Granddad Mike sent a beautiful Husky toy that responds to story-time, we have since named Rosie-bell.
5. Aunty Lucy and Uncle Denny sent heaps of Cadbury's chocolate with magic pop rocks.
6. Mum and Dad took advantage of Charlotte's tendency to clean, and bought her a broom (complete with shovel and brush).
7. Gumpy and Carolyn sent around a Nemo puzzle which I look forward to doing with Tig after our skating lesson tomorrow afternoon.
8. Aunty Marg sent a book, some stickers and some other neat wee nick nacs. 
9. Granddad Kim... well, he doesn't even know when his own birthday is, but I'm sure he's thinking about Tig in his own way...

By the way, we finally managed to persuade Tig to sit still for a candid photo:

In addition to her broom, we also gave Tig a magic wand to follow on from the Magician theme happening at Lilly's birthday earlier in the month.
Finally, hot off the press from the Duty NCO's barracks on RNZAF Base Woodbourne came this little beauty from Sean (aka Dumby) in sunny Blenheim.

This is what I do best as duty officer at Woodbourne on a Saturday. May her year be filled with adventure and excitement (as well as challenging the authority of he parents...)!!!
Love, The Donaldson's.

Needless to say, there were many gifts and plenty of birthday greetings from Halifax and all around the world - so thank-you, thank-you, thank-you to all of you for acknowledging the offspring.
Three is going to be a good year I think.
Happy birthday Charlotte.
Love, Mum & Dad.