The Suburban Dad

Just a normal Saturday, trip to the emergency room

It's been awhile.  Thank you for your patience.

The last month has been filled with Olympic mania here in Vancouver.  Things are starting to settle down.

It's been a challenging couple weeks.  Our son got bronchiolitis.  He's been coughing and congested for the last two weeks.  Never heard of bronchiolitis before so we can cross this one off our list of infections our child can possibly get.

His wheezing got better midweek last week but got worse again on the weekend. So on Saturday, we took him to the doctor for another checkup and gave him another nebulizer treatment. His breathing didn't improve and we got sent to the emergency room at our local hospital.   So we survived our first trip to the emergency room and our son's first chest x-ray.  The doctor and nurses at the pediatric ward of the emergency room were all fantastic.  Chest x-rays for little people looks painful.  They strapped my little boy into this shell that can be classified as a torture device if used maliciously.  Our son was a good patient though. 

We kept him home again today since he didn't sleep well last night. Hopefully this bug will soon go away.

The Good Night Sleep Trainer by 4moms

Has anyone tried the Good Night Sleep Trainer by 4moms?

"Teach Every Child to Eat" - Jamie Oliver

Amazing talk by Jamie Oliver at the TED Conference

BC Gov't Making BC Families a Priority?

Our much adorned Premier of BC, Gordon Campbell, made his annual throne speech announcing that the gov't is making BC families a priority?

Some of the highlights:

• New partnerships with the private sector and parents will enable the establishment of neighbourhood preschools for four-year-olds and three-year-olds within communities over the next five years. They will provide families new voluntary options for public and private preschool across B.C. close to where they live

• New emphasis will be placed on parental involvement and in tailoring the education system to each child’s individual needs and passions.

• New forms of schooling will be developed to provide greater choice and diversity, centered on students’ special interests and talents.

• Voluntary, full-time kindergarten for five-year-olds will be implemented this September. It will be fully funded and in every school by September 2011.
  
•   A new Family with Children Property Tax Deferral Option will be provided to all B.C. families with children under the age of 18. Those families will be given the right to defer their property taxes under a new property tax deferral program similar to the one already available to seniors and those facing financial hardship. 
  
•  Government will work with municipalities to dramatically reduce housing costs for young families and to provide increased opportunity for homes they can afford in existing neighbourhoods.

On a side note, the throne speech also mentions a re-commitment to public transportation:

• The success of the new Canada Line has reinforced government’s commitment to invest record amounts in public transit, fix TransLink and get on with the Evergreen Line.
  

The thing about politics is announcements like this are easy to break.  This announcement just so happens to be made around the Olympics when many are protesting about the lack of commitment from the gov't to eliminate child poverty in this province.

My Future Olympian!

Unplanned, spontaneous family moments are the best!  As Vancouver is being engulfed by anything Olympic, the torch relay passed by our neighborhood last night.  Unfortunately, we didn't have a camera with us and this is the closest thing we have to capturing the moment.

Thanks to a major Olympic sponsor, celebratory flags were being given out and we grabbed a couple.  While waiting for the motorcade for the torch bearer, we taught our son to wave the flag and say "Go CANADA".

Once he got the hang of it, he can't stop waving the souvenir flag.  He also muttered "Go, Can-DA".  Close enough.

Maybe he'll be our future Olympian.  

The City's All Dressed Up for the Party

Welcome to Vancouver - Host City of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games

Back in 2003, I was really excited about the prospect of Vancouver hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics.  Now a week before the opening ceremonies, I am a bit torn by the whole Olympic movement.  Don't get me wrong, I still think the ideals of the Olympics are noble - bringing peace and uniting nations together through sport. The athletes are amazing and deserve the spotlight for the hard work they've put in. 

Now that it's in my backyard, I am excited yet divided about the whole thing. Yes, it'll be exciting for the city for the duration of the event.  Yes, the world will be seeing what a great city we live in (albeit the lack of snow). Yes, there are intagible benefits that cannot be measured by any scale whatsoever.  But, what are we really left afterwards as community in Vancouver and British Columbia?  Other Olympic-host cities have seen tangible benefits while some have seen no benefit at all (only to be left with mountains of debt and dilapidated facilties).  Sure, the world isn't responsible to what happens to a host city after the event.  But the world expects the host city to pull out the stops for the two-week celebration.  It's like a wedding that's gone way over-budget.  The intentions are noble yet the means may not completely justify the costs.

Having only been aware of the Olympics since 1984, I am curious to look back on what the Olympic movement was like back in the 50's, 60's, and 70's before rampant commercialism and consumerism infiltrated our society.  Was the Olympics more 'pure' in its intentions then? Is there a way for the world to celebrate and unite through sport without spending the GDP of 20 third-world countries combined.

I've come to the conlcusion that Olympic glory is more about individual dreams more than a collective goal of a community or country.  Yes, winning medals will bring a country pride and joy.  But ultimately, it will mean more to the individual who won the medal than the community-at-large. 

Watching and reading all the media stories, if someone didn't know anything about Olympics, they'll probably think it's about drugs, road closures, security concerns, the homeless problem, ticket scalping, or a party Barack Obama can't attend. When the Olympics starts next week, I will be cheering on all the athletes as they are supposed to be what the Olympics are about (except for Lindsey Jacobellis - the showboating American snowboarder who lost her gold medal at the end of her race, but I digress)    GO CANADA GO!

Pop Songs that Will Help Your Kid Learn How to Count

Pop songs, good or bad, leave an indelible impression on all of us.  Driving home yesterday, Britney Spears' "3" was playing on the radio.  I turn to my wife and said, "We could play this song in the background to help Ethan count.  She counts to 3 and sometimes 4."  (Ethan can count to three and then he goes back to two after three).

So in the next five minutes after that, we thought of songs that "can help" kids learn how to count. (in no particular order).

1. Back at One by  Brian McKnight

2. 1-2-3-4 (Get Your Woman on the Floor) by Coolio

3. Step by Step by New Kids on the Block

4. 3 by Britney Spears

5. 1,2 Step by Ciara (for beginner counters)

6. ABC by the Jackson 5 (this one's for the advanced kid since it includes the alphabet)

7. 1,2,3,4 - Feist

Anyone else got any ideas?

Just to prove my point see Feist on Sesame Street:

10 Minute Trainer: It's All the Time I've Got

I used to be pretty active.  Since being a parent, exercise has fallen off the priority list.  Sure, I go snowboarding a handful of times in the winter and play the occasional game of tennis in the summer; I haven't made the effort to be consistent.

When my wife was still pregnant, I bought a 10 day pass at our local community centre gym.  I've only used 2 out of the 10.  Four months after my son was born, my wife saw this infomercial for Beachbody's 10 Minute Trainer.  It's basically a watered down version of their ever popular P90X series.  I purchased it hoping my wife would use it to help her lose some of the pregnancy weight.

So the DVDs have been sitting idly in our entertainment unit since then.  My wife tried it once and thought it was still too intense for her.  Since the new year, I decided to give it a try but took another 3 weeks to get started.  So far, I've done two consecutive days and my arms and chest are pretty sore.  I think this will work out for me as my effort to have some level of physical fitness built in to my daily life.

I'll let you guys know how it goes. 

Photo of the Day: I'm ready to host the Tonight Show!

Terrible Twos starting already?!

I'm not sure what's going on. But the crying fits are becoming more and more frequent with our son.  When he doesn't get what he wants is usually what triggers the crying fits.  I know he doesn't quite understand everything that's going on.  It's certainly not his fault that he doesn't.  But it sure is challenging to deal with these crying fits at times.

How do you balance saying yes to a little toddler's requests and drawing the boundaries?  Obviously, as the parent, you have to be the one to stay in control. Losing it certainly doesn't help.  For me, staying calm and collected in stressful situation is probably the hardest thing for me to do.

Our morning routine usually consists of me bringing our son down for breakfast.  Today, he didn't want to come with me.  He wanted to stay with him mom.  I brought him down anyways and as soon as we got downstairs, he started a crying fit.  God bless him, if he wants something, he knows how to get it.  So he climbed up the stairs and ran towards our bedroom.  At this point, all I can do is surrender as I needed to get breakfast ready.  My wife managed to calm him down.  In the end, he wanted her to go down with him and he wanted his milk. He usually knows how to sign please when he wants something.  In the last week or so, the pleases have turned into a pointing motion to whatever is he wants with a 'there, there' (in a toddler voice). 

I found an article that finds the bright side with toddler behaviour from Today's Parent Magazine.  But in the end they concede, that toddlers can be a handful.  Luckily for us parents, their charm and enthusiasm redeems all those temper tantrums.