High Maintenance Mom

Easter comes early this year, March 23rd, so I am thinking ahead about how I will spend it with my husband, 2 year old daughter and 4 month old son. I have decided that instead of an Easter basket full of chocolate (since I will be the only one eating it all) I will fill it with books. My daughter can not seem to get enough books in her hands and she does need a few new "big girl books" as I call them.

Magazines are a fun gift for kids because they come in the mail throughout the year. Our kids see our magazines come and they watch us read them. In turn, we enjoy watching our kids get excited about their magazines. I have not read every kids magazine but I do have some favorites. If you are interested in knowing more about a magazine, I recommend checking out the magazine web site and looking for them at a local library or bookstore. Here are some of our favorites...

My husband likes to read about and analyze electronics long before purchasing so I generally let him pick his own gifts. His most recent are loved by the whole family. The Samsung YP-K5JAB 4 GB Audio Player with Built-in Speakers (Black) was bought around Mother's Day and the Sony MDR-IF540RK Wireless Headphone System with Rechargeable Battery were bought in time for Father's Day...

There's less than one week until Mother's Day and if you haven't done anything yet for your mom, now is a good time to send a card. It's holidays like Mother's Day when I realize that I have it easier than my brother, who doesn't have kids, because I can send pictures of my kids. Today we went to the zoo with the plan to get one picture of the kids together...

Another Valentine's Day will be celebrated on Tuesday. Many moms have spouses/significant others who continue to participate in this holiday as if we were still single and childless, the rest of us either don't care or have to find another way to compensate. I changed my toenail color to a deep red, bought valentines for my kids' friends that I would like to receive, and I bought a few fun items for myself....

After traveling for almost two weeks, I'm still working on our holiday cards. I've sent some, but not all. The one helpful thing I've been doing is to collect all the cards from each year along with the addresses. After I have hung them up, made appropriate "ooo" or "isn't she cute" noises, and let the kids play with them, I dump them into a manila envelope with the year on them. Throughout the next year I add any "change of address" information I receive...

It's always fun to go through the Costco holiday selection and I often wish I had bought more as the holidays approach. Who knew we'd be invited to a baby shower and asked to bring a bath toy after passing on the Elmo bath set last year? There are a few items I was really excited about this weekend so I thought I would mention them (Leap Frog videos, beading sets, puppets, etc.). There are also a few Halloween costumes ($12.99 - we bought B the cow one) and Dr Seuss books on CD (about $5.99 for a paperback book and CD)...

B loves this book. We bought it for him when he was 18 months old for his second Halloween. I thought it would be fun but I didn't realize it was going to be a favorite. We enjoy talking about the costumes and what is going to happen next. A great Halloween choice...

Because I live so far away from my family, I try to keep my family up-to-date with cards and photobooks of my kids. My favorite program for creating cards, sending pictures, and digital scrapbooking is Shutterfly.com. There are lots of services out there but Shutterfly is one of the only ones that lets your friends view your images without having to register for an account and if anyone wants to purchase a picture, they can easily order prints...

Happy Canada Day to our great northern neighbour!

The first celebration was on July 1, 1868 when "a proclamation signed by the Governor General, Lord Monck, called upon all Her Majesty's loving subjects throughout Canada to join in the celebration of the anniversary of the formation of the union of the British North America provinces in a federation under the name of Canada..."