A shril child's cry pierces the gray early morning air...

When I got them home from daycare yesterday, they were wild! Hitting, squealing, dumping of toys, demanding I make chocolate chip cookies -- I felt like a bullied mom.

No, they are not always like that. But sometimes they come home from daycare/pre-school so exhausted that there's no reasoning with them. And when I heard this old CBC Radio piece, I laughed out loud (LOL?). Not much has changed in 50+ years!

All I can do, is have a snack ready -- grapes, apples, raisins boxes-- and get supper on as quick as I can. Then clean that up, pull out the Playdoh or markers and construction paper; get them in the tub and in pajamas, read some stories, sing Mockingbird and them tuck them the bed. Oh yes, and in between, smother them in grand bizous...

Newfoundland ABCs?

"Frances do you know your alphabet?" I asked.

"Oui," she said between jumping up and down on our bed. "Great, Big, Sea, D, E, F, G..."

What would it take to have another baby?

I just appeared on Radio Noon Cross Talk about, what else? The baby bonus.

What would it take to have another baby? Let's see, 2 years mat leave with topped-up EI, a second bathroom, FG to already be potty trained, a guarantee that my blood pressure wouldn't go all wonky this time postpartum and freak me out.

For everyone, it's really complicated. I'm just glad we're talking about it.

Six String Nation

Yawner?

"Where's Papa?"

"Napa Valley,"

"Is he going to sleep there all the time?"

('Nap'a Valley, get it?)

Baby Bonus Boom, Bust, Echo

I had a roommate in university from the Cape Shore who always used to say, "Joey sold Churchill Falls for the baby bonus."

Danny's promise of the $1000 baby bonus is a bit like Smallwood's hand-out to post-depression parents with 9 or 10 youngsters. Hence, the Baby Boom.

But these days, Newfoundland is in the baby bust stage. Most families (still living here) have 2 kids, max. Last year, was the first year more of us died than were born. We need a little kick start.

So, is $1000 alone enough to make me have a third child? Likely not. I'd much rather see a child-care plan and better funded day-cares for the two I already have. But in the meantime, until we echo, there's nothing wrong with rewarding reproduction.

Stop, look and listen

We were out of milk.

And besides I always take the kids up the street to the park or the store. We've been in the neighbourhood a few months now. They both like to race up the sidewalk, speeding like motorcycles, galloping like ponies, running like kids out of school.

I let them get a few lengths ahead of me. They stop when I say stop. And they are good about waiting for me to cross at pianos (ie. crosswalk).

But at the corner of Circular and Bannerman, there is no "piano". So this evening, we stood there and waited for the cars to pass.

But in a fraction of a second, Ben stepped off the curb. And in that same fraction of a second, a car whizzed by. A sound came out of my throat, guttural, squelching. He froze. I grabbed his orange t-shirt in my hand, knuckles white and yanked him back on the sidewalk, safe next to me and FG. His scared eyes and tremorring bottom lip mirrored mine.

"You ok?" I knelt on down, holding his face in my hands, stroking his blonde hair over and over.

He nodded.

"I need you to hold my hand. Please hold me hand."

We hugged tight. We crossed the street and held hands all the way to the store.

***In light of what happened to Zachary Strong's family this week, we were lucky. Please check out your neighbourhood. Hard to believe there's nothing -- not even a crosswalk -- at Bannerman, one of the city's oldest parks. I've already called my counciller. Please do the same.

Grand Bizou

You can say a lot of things about my two skunks but one thing's for sure, they got personality!

When we talking about going to the zoo in Quebec, Frances was always giving us big kisses -- we just thought she was excited about elephants. Turns out, while we were saying Granby Zoo, she was thinking it was Grand Bizou (Big Kiss!).