Skip to main content

Cats, Kids & Conferences



The girls and I finally discovered Mr. Wuzzles' true identity.  His/her name is actually Mittens and is indeed the neighbours' new cat (I don't yet know if Mittens is truly a Mr or actually a Ms).  Mittens didn't visit us for almost a week and I have to admit, I was pretty bummed.  But the past few days we've been getting lots of cat love.

We've also been in a really good place around here.  The girls have been fighting less and behaving more.  Unfortunately I'm pretty sure its an aberration of sorts.  Things will right themselves back to the usual chaos soon I'm certain.  But I have also been better about using some of the strategies from How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and How to Listen So Kids Will Talk and they really do work.  Just articulating Little A's feelings to her often diffuses her tantrums (i.e., Are you sad because Big A won't let you go into her room?).  Even her bedtime antics have diminished...mostly because I now tell her that if I have to come back into her room after we've tucked her in, I will take away her precious Pink Bear for the night ("Except if I throw up or am bleeding, right mommy?").  Yes, except in the case of an 'emergency'.  Little A has even been waking up with a smile on her face for a change!  Adam thinks we've turned a corner, but I'm still waiting for a regression.  I guess we'll see...

I've also got conferences on the brain right now. The CAN FIT PRO conference is this weekend so its several straight days of fitness training sessions, checking out the latest fitness equipment, gadgets and supplements, and spending way too much money in the tradeshow.

I also found out this week that one of the fertility clinics I work with is giving me a grant to attend our annual conference (the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society) in September to present research we are doing.  I am very excited as this is a great conference and this year it's in Victoria, B.C. and I've never been there before!!

So busy weekend but the timing works out well.  It's supposed to be hot which means I am actually beyond thrilled I have an excuse to spend most of it inside air conditioned buildings for the conference.

Have a good one!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Japanese 7-Spice Kelp Noodles

I love trying new spices and seasonings, so I am very excited that the President's Choice Black Label line now has a bunch of new spice blends available.  My most recent find: Shichimi Togarashi, or Japanese 7-Spice blend. It's a combination of crushed red chili flakes, sea salt, Szechiuan peppercorns, black and white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, orange zest, wasabi powder and nori seaweed flakes. I make Japanese-inspired dishes all the time, but resort to the same old flavours most of the time: miso, soy, sesame, ginger and garlic.  I was so excited to be able to liven things up a bit. This dish is easy and tasty, although be warned that this seasoning packs punch.  I used 1 tsp, which ended up being too spicy for me, and I have a high tolerance for heat!  I recommend 1/4-1/2 tsp, or, if you don't like heat at all, make your own at home and omit the red chili flakes.  You'll get all the flavour without the heat. I served these noodles with a mix of seafood (

Book Review: The A to Z of Children's Health

Hey there, welcome to Monday!  We had a delightful, relatively quiet weekend.  How was yours?  Hopefully no one in your home was sick...there is a lot of nasty stuff going around these days. If you're a parent, than you have probably spent far more time that you would like to desperately searching Google and/or parenting books trying to figure out if your child's rash, cough or fever warrants a trip to the doctor or if there is something that can be done to treat it.  It's hard not to worry that it could be something more ominous that just an every day infection and while you'd make yourself (and everyone around you) nuts if you panicked every time your kid has the sniffles, as a parent, you naturally want to do everything in your power to prevent your child from harm. Recently I was sent The A to Z of Children's Health , written by doctors Jeremy Friedman, Natasha Saunders, and Norman Saunders, of Toronto's very own Hospital for Sick Children .  One of th

How to Look Like a Celebrity

Okay, I know you're going to be interested in this post! I am sure virtually every woman in North America has wondered how Hollywood celebrities achieve such 'perfect' bodies.  Well, at CAN FIT PRO last week, one of Hollywood's top fitness trainers, Eric the Trainer , was there to tell us fitness professionals the secrets! Eric the Trainer, gave several presentations, and I caught the one on Celebrity Secrets, and it was most interesting!!!  I also found some of what he said rather disturbing. First off, he was very upfront about the fact that celebrities come to him for improve their appearance.  Not to improve their health or athletic performance.  To look their best.  He admitted that his approach then, is entirely dedicated to that end. Male and female celebrities are trained in completely different ways because Hollywood wants women to be lithe and thin and in his words, "look like they dropped out of heaven looking this way without every having ste