The best care in the land

We sent Ada to preschool for the first time yesterday. Last Friday, Ada thanked Stephanie for 2 years of the best daycare ever. We put money for pampering into the Thank You card our family had lovingly decorated, but Stephanie said she would rather fold the cash back into the school.

If you want to give your infant or toddler the best possible start, I can assure you that AcadeKidz is the place to go. I've trudged through every area daycare and chatted up many a home care provider in Ottawa's West End. AcadeKidz has recently expanded and has spots available - no waiting list. Get 'em while they're hot, as they say.

My plug: Superb staff retention. Stephanie, Michael, and Nora have been fixtures for years. Theresa, the Spanish-speaking caregiver, joined last year. The meals are gourmet (Ada has had everything from rabbit to Indonesian) from Dial-a-Chef and Crusty Baker. See this week's menu below!!). Newly renovated rooms with wraparound windows, on-site devoted female owner who is a fiercely dedicated educator, the veritable zoo of aquariums and small animals). Ada participated in a pilot jiu-ji-tsu class for 2 and 3 year olds. 

It's nuts how wonderful this place is. I could keep listing stuff but what counts the most is the love. I know, sorry, getting a bit sentimental. But I never expected my daycare provider to love my child. Would you have dared dream so high?

Here are AcadeKidz' new website and photos of the rooms. Their bilingual preschool is Academie de la Capitale, an International Baccalaureate school that accepts kids right up into high school.

Steph visits Ada on her first day of preschool. Check out the cute uniform!

Back to this week in our house... It's really hard to let Ada move to a new head teacher, despite having known Nora as long as we've known Stephanie. Despite knowing how terrific Nora is herself and that she's taken care of Ada many times in the early days when Nora worked both the daycare and the preschool.

I guess it's just strange and wonderful seeing her trucking off to preschool. She didn't want any help. Asked me twice if she'd got her socks on right. Fumbled with the collar on her new uniform shirt. Snipped off the label on her plaid while I peeked around the corner of the living room. She's one of the Big Kids at school now.

So, like the legions before me I say, my little girl is growing up! I'm not ready!

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Menu for week of September 4, 2012

Tuesday

Rigatoni in tomato, vegetable and cheese sauce, a salad with a vinaigrette of my own,
Peach an apple strudel, fruit.

Wednesday

Fennel and tomato soup, Chicken sandwich on a croissant, datte square, fruit.

Thursday

Oriental chicken in coconut sauce, stir fry vegetable and rice, cookies and fruit.

Friday

Roasted fish fillet( depending on arrival) with lemon and capers, steamed new potatoes,
vegetable, Palais au chocolat et caramel, fruit.

LoafBoy's Last Stand

Originally this picture had a woman in a "Mom" apron standing over the breadboard, but Jeff thought that was too gruesome. It was his idea, anyway. He said, "Death to LoafBoy!" when he saw the picture...

Drawing gifts

Back from vacation in the Adirondacks. With all the stress of childcare (while freely admitting how many blissful moments there are, and my total lack of regrets) I had forgotten what it was like to be simply happy for days on end. It is a wonderful place to visit, whether for a solo/group athletic adventure, couples retreat, or family holiday. LOVED the KOA on Whiteface Mountain.

Since I can't get out to browse the shops, I dream up presents and draw them. Here are my gifts to my beloved husband and sister. Detailing for Angela's Mazda 3, which has faithfully carried her our way so many times since James was born (thank you thank you thank you).

...and a plane ride over the mountains for Jeff.

He invited me to join him on the ride. It was scary and beautiful, just like you'd expect! The picture didn't work out as well as I'd hoped it would, so I did up a fancy envelope, too.

Perspectives on brains

July 31 - August 1, 2012

Still reeling from everything I'm learning from that brain book. I decided to design myself a brain rewiring program for the terror of cars I developed following a head-on collision in 2008. Say, walking and eventually running alongside busy roads 2-3 times a week while listening to great music. That way, I could start to associate cars and roads with feeling contented (by the music) and energised (by walking).

I might as well try it, right? I normally have to drive, be driven, or take the bus daily. And already drawing on the bus is my tool to relax when I am afraid, you know, when drivers go 80 kmh on the Transitway in the dark or faster on the freeway. Maybe I can go a step further, not just calm myself or make the traffic experience neutral, but actually start to enjoy it again. I come from a family of driving lovers and I was one myself, once upon a time. I even have a long-disused motorcycle license.

Only thing is, I keep avoiding the walks because I dread them!

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Above, James' exceptionally lovely skull and some attempts at mapping Ada's cheeks (where's the bulge?!). I hope they're forming high-quality neural pathways in those little heads of theirs.

Enjoy, understand, create

July 29-30, 2012

You'd think after all the time I've spent staring at these two that it would be easier to produce them on paper. But no. "Learning to draw is about learning to see," says Kit White in 101 Things to Learn in Art School. But isn't it about unlearning to see? About setting feelings aside, carving people up into shapes and lines? A fear that drawing takes me away from what is in front of me.

No, now that I think again, he's right. Drawing is about coming through to the other side. First, breaking things into pieces, practicing them over and over, and then, having mastered the parts, returning to seeing and depicting the whole.

Does this art scene have legs?

July 22, 2012

You might have seen the black and white posters around town promoting John Patrick Mills' gallery, one of only two realities inspiring some verve into Ottawa's art scene of which I am aware. (The other was the irreverent, now-defunct dharma arts.) Buried in raising my young children as I am, I'm out of touch and do recognise/hope that there must be more. I never made it to one of Mills' gallery parties. These gorgeous, videotaped affairs attracted everyone from bongo drummers to mothers with babes in arms, and artists set up easels in the sculpture garden to document it all.  Mills was shut down this year amid a typically-Ottawan outpouring of sour grapes (unsurprisingly, unFolding's Mike Levin rallied to Mills' side). The same lack of spirit last year pushed our singing bus driver out of his chair, too. Stuff like this makes me ashamed of Ottawa, which I normally love. I don't mind small, but we should try for feisty. Respect to Mr. Mills, who says he won't let this upset stop him.

* * * 

In honour of the fact that I signed up for that anatomy class, Anatomy of the Figure, I'm trying to focus away from faces in my current drawings.

Where's this bus going?

June 6-July 23, 2012

I laid down the final penstrokes on this picture of James' debut bus riding the other night. (Look at the little rug rat sleeping away, just a boy on the bus, playin' cool. <tsk>.) I sidestepped my usual attempts at colour coordination, played with the lines a bit... I've blogged before about feeling I need to take more risks in my drawing. But I also think I need to consolidate my style some more. Don't these two things go in different directions?

I could use an art mentor. I find I'm not so hot at managing my art practice. People like to talk about intuition and following-your-heart. Well, if I had a little voice inside me telling me what to do, I'd have tuned in long ago. Or maybe I am listening, I just have to solve my paradox: exploring my limits and finding my style. Am I the only person out there with this conundrum, I wonder.