The grass is greener

As we prepared to leave our beloved Brooklyn for our new home in Toronto, E and I often talked about how great it was going to be to have lots of open space for Cassius and Indio to run and play.

In Brooklyn, we spent many hours in Fort Greene Park, just steps from our apartment. We used to walk Cassius in the park a few times a day, I would meet up with my mommy group, and E still runs his Boot Camp classes there. It was a great place to meet friends for a picnic or a walk. I even went running there...once.

Our only complaint was that it was crowded. Being the only large-ish green space in our 'hood, we weren't the only ones who wanted to take advantage of it, especially when the weather was nice.

Now that we are in Toronto, we live close to a large park where we take Cassius for his daily walks. It's not technically an off-leash park, so we are very mindful of the other patrons in the park, though compared to Brooklyn, there are only a handful of people out at any given time. This weekend while at my parents house in the 'burbs, I took Cassius out to play in the school park nearby. It was kind of eery because I was the only person out in this vast open space in the middle of a beautiful August day. No one else was around! All I could think of was, "These people don't know what a jewel they have in their neighbourhood: a clean, safe, well-maintained park with 2 playgrounds, a soccer field, 2 baseball diamonds and enough blacktop to enjoy a game of 3-on-3, handball, or hopscotch."

Wonder what they would think if they lived in NYC where we used to clamour over everyone else for a patch of grass.

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The Good Stuff: MJM Books

I have recently become infatuated with all things personalized, especially since I can't just go out and buy an *Indio* magnet or sippy cup or keychain or anything for that matter because his name is not common at all. Combine this with my need to read to Indio and my ongoing search for great books for kids, I have stumbled across many personalized books.

There is a much larger market out there than I anticipated, but one company that stood out from the pack was MJM Books, a company made up of three brothers, Mike, Jeff, and Matt. I really liked the story in their book, If I Were Big and since I was looking for an original birthday gift for two separate adorable people in my life, I gave MJM a try.

Though the characters from book to book look the same, MJM allows you to specify skin tone and hair colour for the child and each parent. When I wanted a more complex combination due to the multicultural family of one of the recipients, Jeff at MJM was quick to reply to my email, ensuring me that he would make the necessary amendments.

I was not disappointed! The title page includes the child's name and a message from the book-giver.
They are extremely reasonably priced and the books are great! They are soft cover, so they may not last as long as a hardcover book, especially in little hands [and mouths], but they are wonderful nonetheless! The drawings are simple and cute and the story is sure to become a bedtime favorite!

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Bringing back the classics

Photobooths seem to be a quickly disappearing species. I remember taking countless pictures in the little boxes with the orange and blue curtains, especially at the Eaton Centre back in the days of hanging out at malls. Before they go the way of the Polaroid, let's see how many I can find.

Taken at Yorkdale Mall, Toronto [They have 2 booths.] with my good friend, Sophia right before we saw Julie & Julia [Great flick!].
If anyone of you know of any photobooths in and around Toronto, please let me know!

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Counting sheep

If you've followed this blog at all you may have read about my adventures in sleep training. I wrote about it quite a bit in the beginning, such as here, here, here, here and here. [Wow, I didn't realize I wrote about it that much!] Anyway, even though Indy has been sleeping through the night since about 6 months, we have never had a night or a nap where he doesn't cry before falling asleep. It could be for 5 minutes or 25 minutes, but there was always some crying.

Until now. For the past week or so our routine has been changed up a bit when I realized how much Indio loves to hear me sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, especially at bedtime. [The fact that he likes my singing in itself is pretty amazing!] No matter how much squawking he was doing, it only took a few notes to calm him down. And then it happened. I was singing and swaying with my little boy in my arms and I attempted to put him in his crib like every other night, prepared for the onslaught of protests I am so used to. Only this time it was silent [except for the last off-key verse of Twinkle Twinkle]. Indio was in his crib, awake, staring back at me with those big brown eyes, just watching. No crying. No screaming. Nothing.

I slowly backed out of the room, still singing, and shut the door, convinced the screeching would begin. But no, it was still quiet. By the time I got downstairs to turn on our video monitor, he was asleep.

After months of wondering if he would ever go to sleep happy, I think we may have finally crossed that bridge. Two days of no crying so far, so I'm not holding my breath just yet, but it's a good start.

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Morning giggle

Our local park hosts many festivals during the summer, including the one advertised here. [St Clair CORN Fest] Who's more immature, the person who switched the C and the P or the person who posted it on her blog?

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