On Family Day we attended the Old Navy Family Fun Day Festival (say that five times fast) at Old Navy, Rideau Centre (thank you Loukia for the invitation!).

There was all kinds of fun going on during that event — from crafts to drawing art to dancing. And my Sweet Girl loves to dance. We host regular dance-a-thons Chez Gallant because we are a family that likes to boogie-woogie.

But Sweet Girl is a shy girl and while she loves to dance, she gets intimidated by crowds (who doesn’t, really?).

So for the first little bit of the dance party fun at Old Navy, Sweet Girl danced in my arms. With her head tucked in my shoulder.

But when she finally got comfortable with the music, the energetic dance instructor and all. those. people. Well, let this video show the cuteness factor:

There were a tons of kids who were out on the dance floor with Sweet Girl and a huge crowd of people watching the kids learn new dance moves. It was hilarious, cute and a great time.

I have tons of video footage but you don’t want to see minutes and minutes of my girl dancing. And frankly, I’m not that good of a video editor to make it even tolerably interesting for you.

Why I never blog my own videos

It took me 2.5 hours to get 15-seconds of video worth your watching time. At least I hope it was worth it. Please tell me it was worth it otherwise I may cry.

And while the time it took to deliver that final, ah-mazingly edited video to you can be attributed to a learning curve, video still requires a time investment I’m not sure I’m committed to giving. I’ll stick to publishing photos for the most part.

Do you use video as part of your blogging strategy? What tools do you use to make it easier? For the record, I used iMovie to create the above.

Family Day dancing fun.

If I could bottle up my daughter’s giggles I would.

I guess that’s kind of weird though. Because really I could just record them. On my camera. And then have a giggle-listening/watching marathon at my leisure.

But I like the idea of bottling them up. Capturing the purity of those giggles and unleashing them on a day I really need a pick-me-up.

The way her laugh has changed since her first giggle-gurgle makes me realize how quickly time is flying by. Yes, yes we parents all comment on this time-flying phenomenon at one point or another.

But no, really. I can’t believe how quickly life is whooshing.

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I got ‘em. Chances are you do too. Those instances that have tangled your best intentions into messy parenting scenes.

Tears and yelling on all sides. Hurt feelings and frustration that leaves you wishing for a rewind. A do-over where you’ll take a breath. Moderate your words. Keep your voice calm.

Instead, the aftermath leaves you questioning what the hell just happened?

It’s not Sweet Girl. It’s not circumstance. The blame lies in me. Because I’m the grown-up. The one who should have the control to not let the little things get to me.

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I’ve recently received a couple of “why aren’t my ears pierced?” questions from Sweet Girl. Not frequent enough for me to really think she wants to get her own pierced (yet), but enough to know she notices mine are and her’s aren’t. Enough to know it’s a thought circling around in her mind.

Eventually she’s going to ask. Like really ask to have her ears pierced. I don’t mind this. DH however does. What is it with men and their daughters’ ears?

Maybe it’s just the men I know. (more…)

We took Sweet Girl to see Santa last week. For the annual photo with Santa experience. It’s a weird custom when you think about it — something an online friend who grew up in the UK (waving at you Emma) pointed out to me once.

Strip away the nostalgia associated with this holiday custom and what you are really left with is this:

Hey, Sweet Girl, we want you to sit on a stranger’s lap and tell him all about yourself and what you want for Christmas. Don’t forget to smile and contrary to what we’ve told you in the past, when he hands you candy – take it.

Anyway…weird or not, Sweet Girl goes for the Santa photo-op every year. (It’s only been three years so far but work with me here.)

I do want to state that if she told us she didn’t want to go, or if she cried hysterically at the thought of sitting on Santa’s lap, we wouldn’t make her do it.

But she seems to not mind Santa at all, and so the (I guess only North American?) tradition stands.

The photo-with-Santa tradition continues…

We of course talked about the visit and photo with Santa well in advance so Sweet Girl would know what to expect. And so she could think about what she would like to ask the big guy in red for Christmas this year.

Sweet Girl knew right away and was very straightforward in telling me. She wants a princess headband, a necklace and two bracelets.

While I don’t really know what a “princess headband” is, I’m guessing it features sparkles and the colour purple or pink (or any combination of the two). I’m sure Santa’s elves can figure it out.

I keep asking myself how I got off so easy. That’s it? That’s all she wants? And it is. I asked her a few times and she repeated her gift wish verbatim.

I’m counting my blessings because next year I’m sure she’ll ask Santa for something obscure or impossible for Santa to provide (like a baby brother or a pet alien).

I’m glad Sweet Girl is keeping her list short and simple. It makes Santa’s job so much easier.

On a related note, I thought this article — What NOT to F’ing buy my kids this holiday — by Karen Alpert (aka Baby Sideburns) was quite funny. It’s a shout-out warning that all gift-givers (not just grandparents) should heed.

While of course tongue-in-cheek, some of the do-not-buy reasons are valid. For example, we too do not need another stuffed animal in our home. Just sayin’, people. Just sayin’.

What is your family doing to keep gift-giving simple this holiday?

Well no, not really. But…ever notice how quickly your child’s words can hurt you? A quick ka-pow! to the face can seem a walk in the park compared to the searing pain in your heart when your child rejects you.

For the most part, I’m not on the receiving end of Sweet Girl’s less-than-kind comments. It’s my husband who is.

At least once a day he gets told: “Go away! I don’t want you. I want  Mommy.”

I’m not totally immune. Every once in a while Sweet Girl turns not-so-sweet on me and will say: “ I don’t like you anymore.”

This is usually in response to being told no, she is not getting a treat at 7:30 in the morning. Face it, kid. It’s not going to happen.

In any case, I had a talk with my husband about the way Sweet Girl disses him left and right. He doesn’t like it (obviously) and joked  he’d rather be punched in the face than receive that kind of rejection from her.

I know children play favourites with their parents. I can only assume it will be a matter of time before Sweet Girl realizes her dad is pretty awesome. I’ll become the parent who sits on the sidelines while they build puzzles together, brush their teeth, eat cookies. Whatever.

But right now, the sideline parent is a tough gig for my husband. We know she doesn’t mean to be hurtful. We talk to her about the power of words and the importance of being kind.

We recognize Sweet Girl is simply expressing a preference for how she wants her world to be. After all, it’s hard being a toddler when much of your life is out of your control (i.e. told you need to get up at this time, need to go to daycare, need to have a bath, need to eat your vegetables, need to go to sleep, etc.)

It’s a good thing my husband is a good storyteller. Each night before going to sleep, Sweet Girl asks her dad to tell her a story. She’s not interested in me doing this. Her dad’s stories are the best. She knows it. I do too.

* Image sourced via nootles.com.au

Last month after two classes, we pulled Sweet Girl out of swim lessons.

We tried swimming lessons last winter, and though we toughed it out to the bitter end, it was a less-than-great experience for everyone involved.

Sweet Girl didn’t enjoy the cold water and the noisiness of over 100 boisterous children learning to swim in a echoing swimming pool. She didn’t enjoy the lack of transitions between the different activities we participated in in a given lesson.

And she definitely didn’t enjoy the stress of wondering whether her mom or dad was going to dunk her head under the water (even though we rarely did and if we did, it was part of the lesson and we’d always tell her beforehand).

No, Sweet Girl was definitely not a fan of swim lessons. So we took a break and when summer’s warm weather rolled around, enjoyed free time at our local outdoor pool, our neighbours’  backyard pool and at the beach.

The entire summer she loved being in the water.

We practiced kicking, jumping into mom and dad’s arms and putting our faces to the water. Yes, we had a grand old time just hanging in the water.

Sweet Girl was also quite taken with the lifeguards and their role in keeping us safe. That we needed to stop and listen to them if they blew their whistles and asked us to get out of the water.

Here’s a photo taken last week of Sweet Girl being a lifeguard. She said putting the orange belt on is what makes her a lifeguard. Oh and Spike, also in the photo, is her “lifeguard cat”:

My little lifeguard and her “lifeguard cat”.

Come the fall we thought Sweet Girl would be ready for some formal lessons and so registered her for classes. We couldn’t have been more wrong.

In lessons one and two, our normally happy, go-lucky girl got anxious the minute we joined her swim lesson group. She refused to participate in the activities and began crying when it was suggested she practice jumping into the water. Something she knows how to do. And has done. Fearlessly. All. Summer.

Since it was obvious Sweet Girl wasn’t enjoying herself, we pulled her out of swim lessons. Instead, we’ve been taking her to the pool during public or family swim time. And wouldn’t you know…we again have our happy, go-lucky girl who loves to play in the water.

This is an interesting lesson for  my husband and I about our daughter’s emotional readiness. While we want Sweet Girl to learn how to swim, we aren’t going to rush her. She simply isn’t ready.

She’s a bit of an introvert, slow to warm to new situations and we recognize the structure of the swim class is over-stimulating and over-whelming to her.

Like a lot of toddlers, transitions from one activity to the next are hard for her. A 30-minute swim lesson that packs in a bunch of different activities doesn’t give her the time she needs to warm up to one activity and then prepare herself for the next.

Add into the mix uncertainty due to the newness of these activities and serious fear she is going to be dunked under water (it doesn’t matter how many times we tell her we won’t, she is fixated on this fear). Well, Sweet Girl isn’t having any fun at all.

While plenty of toddlers can handle the structure of these swim classes — otherwise why aren’t there more children screaming their heads off at the swimming pool during lessons? — mine cannot.

Sure, encouraging her to try new things and to test her boundaries – those are all ways to build her self-confidence. I get that. I see the value in it. However, pushing Sweet Girl to do something she simply isn’t ready to do…won’t build self-confidence. It’s going to erode it.

We will come back to swim lessons most certainly. However, I’m not stressing that she doesn’t know how to swim yet. I didn’t learn until I was six years old when one of my friend’s taught me. She will learn. When she’s ready.

Curious, how old were you when you and/or your children learned to swim?