All for Terry Fox

My son's school has been raising money as part of the Terry Fox fundraisers happening all week. The students are supposed to bring in change from home -- from nickels to toonies -- to donate to cancer research.

Tonight, in preparation for his donation tomorrow, I emptied my wallet of whatever change I had and handed it over to him, saying, "This is all I have, Benjamin. I thought I had more. This is all we can give."

He replied, "No, it's not," and ran over to his money jar and spilled his savings onto his bedroom floor. Pointing to the pile of change on the floor, he said proudly, "I want to give all this, too. It's important to help other people who are sick...they're more important than money."

Times like this make me such a proud mama.

It's a miracle!

I am doing cartwheels -- figuratively, not literally (the last time I did a cartwheel was to prove to my son that I could do one -- that was last year and I'm still seeing stars). Why? Because my 5-year-old until-now princess-obsessed daughter told me she wants to be a vampire for Halloween! Hallelujah! Blood and black make-up trumps pink and frilly. :)

I vant to do a jig!

What not to make my daughter to school

I spent several hours fighting crowds to get my kids new back-to-school clothes. It was an ugly scene out there, but I got what I needed to get and was pretty proud of the amount I got for my budget.

When I got home, I laid out all my son's new clothes on his bed and all my daughter's new clothes on her bed. My son, who is 8, chirped, "Thanks, Mom!" after looking at them for about 10 seconds and then went back to creating Star Wars Lego characters. My daughter, who is 5 and starting kindergarten, on the other hand, looked at every detail of every garment, carefully coordinating the pieces into many and varied outfits. She looked thrilled! So I was thrilled. After all, it ain't easy pleasing an opinionated little fashionista. So I left her to her new wardrobe and walked out of her room.

A few minutes later, I walked back to her room to check in on her, only to find her sitting slumped on the floor with all of the new clothes scattered (as if they'd been thrown) around the room. "Lauren!" I said. "What happened here?"

"Why do you want the police to take me away?" she demanded, with tears in her eyes.

"I don't want the police to take you away," I answered, completely bewildered. "Why do you say that?"

"Because you bought me this shirt with black and white stripes! If I wear it, they're going to take me to jail!" she cried.

Ah, why didn't I think of that? To me, it was a cute horizontally-striped long-sleeve tee. To her, it was a life sentence. I guess wearing the wrong fashion can be a punishable crime after all!

Christmas comes early with Sears catalogue

My kids get along most of the time, but they do fight. Mostly over who has more of this than the other, or whose turn it is to feed the dog, or over a certain something they both want exclusively.

This week, they're fighting over the Sears catalogue, which was delivered to all of the homes in our neighbourhood recently. They're fighting because each of them wants their fair share of time to pore over every page, making mental and written notes about what he/she wants for Christmas. My 5-year-old daughter wants everything that is pink or purple, regardless of the objects' actual relevance to the likes of or the appropriateness for a child. My 8-year-old son is making a priority list, with the most wanted at the top, complete with prices for each item (in case the gift giver has a set budget, you see -- how thoughtful he is).

For them, the act of dreaming about getting some of the items in the catalogue is better than actually receiving the items they want. It was the same for me, as a child. Ah, the Sears catalogue! Such fond memories.

Did you study the Sears catalogue for things you wanted when you were a kid?