50 Ways to Break a Habit

Our Saturday morning ritual includes a visit to the library. The Georgetown branch has a section downstairs dedicated to children, including two guinea pigs named Beezus and Ramona. Our visit isn't complete without a brief stop by their cage to say "hello" and offer a few sprigs of lettuce or some quarters to help the library pay for their care.

This week, in addition to letting the kids pick out a few books they found interesting, I went looking for stories I could read to one of my daycare kids who has parents in the midst of a separation and another book on honesty to curb another child's habit of misspeaking the truth. During my search in this section, I found a book entitled "50 Ways to Break a Habit." Ty and Erin both continue to suck their thumb so I thought this book might offer useful advice to get them to stop.

I was delighted when I saw in the table of contents an entire chapter dedicated to ending the habit of thumb sucking and eagerly turned to the indicated page. Paragraph number 2 offers this advice:

"Tape a Popsicle stick to the inside of their elbow so their hands cannot get anywhere near their mouth."

Wait ..... What?

I didn't check the published date, but I suspect it wasn't current.

I admit, I'm not a perfect parent and have quite possibly, in their almost 4 years, committed at least one act or another that will come up in therapy later, but tape a Popsicle stick to their elbow?!? Hell, I'm up for an award for denying them this piece of torture. Why not just rack them? Or tie them to a chair and dunk them mercilessly in Lake Ontario? Or hell, spare the hassle of constructing an ingenious instrument of malice and just haul out the Wilshires for a speedy thumb-ectomy.

I have a great idea where to tape a Popsicle stick! Perhaps the book was misfiled from it's intended location "Cruel and Unusual."

All sticks of Popsicle origin and otherwise shall remain the tools of whimsical creations. I'm even less concerned now than I was about a little soporific thumb sucking. In fact, I give thumb sucking the thumbs up!

The First Day of Spring

It's that time of year when I start counting down the days when the bitter cold of winter ends and the warm, southerly breezes breathe life back into my soul. I was looking through some photos of the kids while listening to some music and these just seemed to go together so well. Moments of fun and frivolity captured on film for all time. So many more moments to discover. Like spring, it's time that we begin again...

First Day of Spring by The Gandharvas




"My friend...
Don't just sit there and ruminate...
With your navel to contemplate...
It's a beautiful day outside...
Time's passing you by..."






"Come on out...
Don't just sit there catatonic...
I'm feeling supersonic...
A warm wind is sweeping by...
The sun's full in the sky...
And there's no way of knowing,
No way to know,
Know how long it'll last,
No way of knowing,
No way to know,
Know how long it'll last..."





"Come on out...
Don't just sit there and decompose...
Go throw on some summer clothes...
I would enjoy your company...
But please hurry...
Cause there's no way of knowing,
No way to know,
Know how long it'll last,
No way of knowing,
No way to know,
Know how long it'll last..."

Go Micheline!!

My friend, Mitch was chosen from a pool of some 15,000 RBC employees, recognized for their contribution to charitable causes in their community to carry the Olympic torch. We've been exceptionally proud of her for being chosen for this very honourable endeavour. On a cold and blustery day, she carried the flame for 300m through Blue Mountain on December 29th at 9:02AM.

The following are excerpts from the e-mail I received upon her return:

"I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I was today to be one of the persons to pass the Olympic flame. It was the most exhilarating, scariest, greatest, thrilling and exciting things I’ve ever done in my life. The small team that I participated with in Blue Mountain was fantastic. Tom got a great group shot of us all – this is just before we got on the shuttle that would drop off us off at each of our destinations. The 2nd picture is where I got off the shuttle and waited for the flame. Though you can’t see it in this picture the crowd waiting for me was incredible. I felt like a superstar – everyone wanted a picture with me or of me, some wanting to touch the torch for good luck. It was great.

Tom managed to get a couple of videos (a complete one of me walking/running) along with a couple of pre and post the relay. How he did that, I don’t know. He was taking pictures in one hand, filming in the other and I don’t want to think about what he did to keep that cow bell going. Everyone up there just loved it and apparently on the ctv video you can hear Tom the whole way!

Thank you all for your support and encouragement. You helped make this a really memorable day for both Tom and I."