A Taste of Spring

I took the day off to attend a media preview of Canada Blooms this morning. I'm cranky in crowds at the best of times, and my bitchy pregnant self is ten times worse, so this was a great chance to see the show without any aggravation. My mom's a big gardener too, so she came along as the metro mama photographer.

If you've never been to Canada Blooms, it really is quite stunning. In just five days 500 workers transform the Metro Convention Centre into six acres of gardens. It's a not-for-profit volunteer-driven event, with this year's proceeds going to the Toronto Botanical Gardens' children's programs.

As soon as you step inside, you're greeted with lovely cool humidity and the smell of thousands of flowers. And then you see the flowers. My favourite thing is the magnificent displays of rows and rows of spring bulbs.



There are several large feature gardens, a marketplace, and displays of prize-winning arrangements.



My favourite feature garden came from Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds. They created a 3,500 square foot natural playground for kids, complete with wooden musical instruments, seating, slides, sandboxes, water features, and more. I would have loved to set Cakes loose in there. Next year.





There was another, less natural oasis at the show--the Niagara Wine Garden. If it wasn't 10:00 in the morning, and I wasn't with child, it would have been the perfect way to end the day. Hell, who am I kidding. 10:00 in the morning is as good a time as any for a refreshing glass of vino.



Canada Blooms runs until March 22. For more info, check out their website.

Sunday Morning

If you get a chance, you really should take the kids to see the windows at The Bay. My pics don't even begin to do them justice.








What are your city holiday traditions?

Go See Black Watch!

Update: Here's a great clip about the play:



McHotty and I had a lovely impromptu date night last night!

My mom’s in town, and told us to go out, but I hadn’t planned to since we’d just spent so much money on our trip, and I have a hell of a lot of Bronte to read. But McHotty called me at work yesterday desperate to go see Black Watch, which to be honest I knew nothing about. I asked him what it’s about, and when I heard the words “regiment” and “Iraq” I instantly dismissed it in my mind. But I agreed to go, because I’m always after McHotty to do more of the entertainment research, and Sunday is Father’s Day.

The play, by the National Theatre of Scotland, is part of Toronto’s fantastic Luminato Festival. Framed by an interview with a journalist in a pub in Scotland, soldiers of the famous Black Watch regiment recall their experience serving in the Iraq war.

The play is 1 hour and 50 minutes, with no intermission. It’s staged in the Varsity arena, and you sit on uncomfortable chairs, close to the action, and it’s hot and a little smelly. Fitting. The actors build and remove the sets as they perform, and intermingled with real footage from Iraq, television screens display the scenes on the stage, documentary style.



The performances were magnificent. The soldiers are gritty, raw, passionate, damaged, funny, vulnerable. The choreography blew me away, particularly during the show-stopping fight scene. I loved a scene where soldiers receive their letters from home and transmit their contents via sign language.

The play is also an interesting history lesson, and a provocative look at why soldiers go to war. The soldiers in this play are glorious. But there is no individual glory: the group of men take their bows at the end of play, together. Three times they pass around the stage, and I’m ready to cheer myself hoarse for the leads: but there are no individual bows. The men hold hands and bow to us, in unison.

After the play we went to my favourite restaurant in Toronto, the Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar. It’s so relaxed and fun there, the food is superb, and you can try lots of wines, for a really good price. We hadn’t been there in ages, and it was perfect, as usual.

After dinner we walked to the Distillery, which I was happy to see was hopping. We spotted a painting we both loved. My in-laws want to get me a piece of art for my graduation, so we are on the lookout. But as I expected, this piece was priced at about 6 times our budget. They offered to let us try it out for a week, and I must confess I was sorely tempted. Maybe next time I’m having a party…

Has anyone else taken in any Luminato this week?

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Update below!

For those of you who don’t live around here, we received more than 30 cm of snow this week. It always amazes me how poorly we cope with snow in the city.

Today I needed to take Cakes a couple of blocks to Queen Street, to our music in motion class. I had to take the stroller because I had a few errands to do after class. Thirty-six hours after the snowfall, almost half of the people between my house and Queen Street had not shovelled their fucking walks. Several culprits were businesses, a few of which occupy a large stretch of real estate. The snow was so deep I had to actually pick up Cakes’ stroller with 35 pounds of toddler in it. Not fun.

By the time I made it to Queen Street, passing through a large stretch of hell, I was pissed, so I went in to the business and complained. We went to our class, and then we did our errands. Knowing I would have to carry a stroller, a toddler, plus all of our purchases half the way home, I had to choose carefully, and could only accomplish a portion of what I’d hoped.

We shlepped our way home--the place I’d complained to had started shovelling. Hooray! But the rest of the walk was pure hell. By the time we got to our door, I was cursing and complaining to other pedestrians (I actually met a new neighbour with a baby!) As soon as we got in the door I got on the City’s website and requested the phone number for by-law enforcement. I also emailed Councillor Fletcher’s office (have yet to hear back from them. They haven’t done so well in the past--I’ll let you know how long it takes them to respond this time. I hope they use google alerts and see me bitching about them). A short time later, to my surprise, the city sent the number to call. I dialled the digits, and holy fuck, someone answered. He took the information and said he’d send someone!

So, I’m hoping a little hit to the pocketbook will smarten these assholes up. And! Even more exciting, as I type this, the sidewalk plough is driving by!!! I’ve never seen it on my street before. I want to run out there and kiss the guy.

You know what they say about squeaky wheels.

If you have assholes in your neighbourhood, write down their addresses and call Right-of-Way Management By-law Enforcement at 416-392-7768.

Oh, and the real reason I’m so pissy about this? When I was shopping today, I had to make the horrific decision between picking up my library books and buying wine. What do you think I chose?

Update: I thought you guys knew me better than this...I chose the books people! Hence the pissy mood.

Luckily my friend Jana guessed right, and when she came for a visit Saturday she brought me a nice bottle of red. Bless her dear soul.

Renewing My Vows

I’ve blogged a lot about my commitment to bringing up baby in the city. We’ve had a couple of nasty incidents in my ‘hood lately, so I needed a reminder why I love Toronto. Luckily, I have an out of town guest this week who always gets me out doing things, instead of hibernating with a book all the time.

Her first day in town, we caught the closing night of the Soulpepper production of Salt Water Moon. It was just lovely. It was a ninety-minute, one act play, with just two (very young!) actors. They were excellent. Soulpepper’s now at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District. If you haven’t made it to the Distillery yet, you have to go. It’s just fabulous. We stopped for a pint at the Mill Street Brewery before the show (they make delicious organic beer) and there are lots of great looking restaurants.

The next night, we went for martinis at my favourite haunt, Barrio, then took advantage of Winterlicious. We chose a place in my ‘hood I’ve always wanted to try, Edward Levesque’s Kitchen. I had the lamb and Chris had the steak--they were both to die for. I can’t believe it took me three years to get there (we’ve never made it further east than Gio’s).

Saturday night McHotty and I celebrated my new job with dinner at Barrio, then we caught The Weakerthans free concert at Nathan Phillips Square. There was also a fire installation in the square that was absolutely stunning. Here’s some pics...








My crappy camera doesn’t do it justice—there are some better pics at the WinterCity website, here.

After the show, we had a nightcap at The Comrade, one of the new nightspots at Queen and Broadview. Great place--gorgeous décor, cool tunes, and nice selection of drinks (including some Belgian beers. Mmmm).

Sunday morning I took a friend for brunch, back to Barrio again. They had some plumbing problems over Christmas and lost all their holiday bookings, so go help them out!

After a solid week of fun in Toronto my faith is restored—we won’t be fleeing for the ‘burbs anytime soon.

What do you love about this city?

Street Party

As you all know, I have fabulous neighbours, and we often enjoy a few cocktails with the guys next door. We can see Cakes’ bedroom from their patio and plug in her monitor outside, so we can happily have a babysitter-free adult evening.

We also have neighbours across the street we love, a cool couple with a daughter Cakes’ age. We do lots of play dates during the day, but both our kids go to bed early, we don’t have childcare, and we can rarely get together in the evening. Well, my smart friends have solved the problem. Last night McHotty was working and I was on my own. I had just finished my dinner of PC Indian and Dave’s Honey Brown (Loblaws should be paying me for this) and I was planning to work on my blog all evening (yes, I’m that much of a loser), but they gave me a call and suggested we drink beer on the front porch. They have a high-powered baby monitor, and their daughter’s bedroom faces my porch. We pulled a couple of chairs outside, along with a bucket of cold beer and a bowl of chips (in my ‘hood we fit right in). We were soon joined by a couple more neighbours, some tunes, and a bottle of rum. Good times. Why didn’t we think of this sooner? And the summer’s almost over!

In MBT news, we are very happy to welcome Mama Tulip. She’s writing a new feature, an advice column called Ask Mama T. Mama T has answers for your most pressing problems. Go on over and give her a warm welcome.

Island Retreat

We'd been planning to take Cakes to the Toronto Islands all summer, and the season almost got away from us. We finally made the trip last week, and I'm so glad we did.

The city's soon left behind with just a short ferry ride. The ferry alone was a big adventure for Cakes. Surrounded by many other small shining faces, she excitedly watched sailboats skimming by and planes taking off.

Once we reached the island, we diverted from the streaming masses headed for Centreville, and strode straight for the north end of the island, where there was barely another soul. [more]

Life's a Beach

When my husband and I first moved to Toronto we wanted to do something active and meet people, so we joined a sailing cooperative in the east end of the city. It was one of the best things I've ever done. The co-op had a little clubhouse on the lake, with a big deck, a BBQ, and a beer fridge. When we were there, or out on the water, it was like being in a completely different world (but only five minutes from downtown).

These days we're not sailing much, but we still love a trip to the beach. We took Cakes to Cherry Beach yesterday.

[more]

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It's time for the June Just Posts. I nominated this. Check it out! And you can check out the rest of the awardees here and here.

Long Weekends in the City

I do love a long weekend in the city. All the crowds are sitting on highway 400 and the city itself is lovely and quiet. We went for Sunday brunch yesterday and there was hardly anyone else there. The wading pools are open at the parks, and they too are quiet and lovely. Summer sure gets better when the wading pools open doesn’t it…





Yesterday McHotty and I took Cakes to Riverdale Park for some Canada Day celebratin’. We learned we can no longer get away with not buying Cakes her own ice-cream cone. At first we tried—I wisely scarfed mine down while Cakes was distracted watching some Hawaiian dancers. When she noticed what we had, sweet McHotty generously tried sharing his with her, even though she sucks on the cone but doesn’t eat it (a cone is just an ice-cream receptacle you know) and slobbers all over the thing. But when she finally snatched it and ran away, he gave up and went to buy another. Several minutes later, I noticed in all the confusion we had left the stroller unattended somewhere. Now we have resisted all expensive baby gear, with the exception of our $200 McLaren stroller, which we love for its light-weight portability and handy shoulder strap. Dragging Cakes behind me I navigated the crowds and, gratefully, found the stroller. When McHotty rejoined us with fresh ice-cream we noticed Cakes’ cone was missing. You know where this is going right? We retraced our steps, and there it was, still laying in the grass, not quite all melted, the napkin between the cone and the well-travelled ground. I furtively looked to see if anyone was looking and scooped that sucker up. Yes, the 10-second rule is now the 10-minute rule that’s made to be broken.

Summer With a Toddler

Though it’s only May, I’ve come to the conclusion that summer with a two-year-old is much more fun than summer with a one-year-old. Here’s why:

· Now that Cakes is walking and climbing like a monkey, I no longer have to walk around bent over, holding her hands and hovering all the time. Instead, I can sit on a park bench, work on my tan and chat with people, giving Cakes the occasional wave and thumbs up (I do however, have to keep an eye on the gate—she likes to try to escape.)

· We can kick the soccer ball around.

· Instead of chucking her hat every time my back is turned, this year she loves wearing hats and insists on choosing one herself. When I forget to bring one, she’s pissed at me.

· Ditto for the shoes.

· Ditto for sun lotion.

· She loves to water my plants for me.

· She’s warming up to the car. She’s finally made the connection that the metal prison is a means to go places that are fun. Now we can’t walk by the garage without a hopeful, “car!? car!?”

· We can sit on the patio and have a civilized snack together.

· We’re starting to be able to peruse our reading materials separately, side by side. Hooray! Here’s the TV guide Cakes, now pass me the travel section.

· Toddler clothes are much cuter than onesies.

· Now that we’re down to one nap (getting later and later), we can actually do fun outings like the zoo. Good thing—circle time’s getting tired for both of us.

What other good stuff do I have to look forward to?



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The summer season is also reminding me how glad I am to live in the city, even though I get down on it sometimes, like I did two nights ago when I watched the cops remove the freaks across the street at gunpoint (seriously). But it’s worth the occasional drunk passed out on my sidewalk to have so many different parks to go to and things to do. If I feel antisocial I can go to the-park-nobody-goes-to-except-the-crazies. Or I can go to the busy park where everyone knows Cakes and helps me keep on eye on the gate. We were there yesterday and I came home to a promised email from one of the moms with book and blog recommendations. Today we did errands. The friendly lady at the local wine shop gave Cakes a bag of crackers to tide her over. When we got to the deli, Cakes offered one to the man-who-pinches-cheeks. We went to the cheese shop and she finished her crackers while I asked forty questions and sampled as many things as I could get away with.

There are lots of good events coming up in the city (I must do a post for MBT on this soon). There’s a festival in Yorkville this weekend, and an art festival in my ‘hood. Pride and Fringe are coming up. We haven’t been to the island yet this year. So much to do. Love it.

Toronto the Good, Part 5 – Socio-economic Diversity

Though I’ve complained about my neighbourhood on occasion, I do love it for its diversity and I think it’s important that Cakes lives somewhere where she’ll meet people of varying backgrounds.

I grew up in a working class family (I’m the first one in my immediate family to go to university). I think my background has taught me not to take things for granted, to work hard, and to be respectful of all people. Cakes is never going to lack anything—we started her education fund before we bought her first stuffed animal—however, I don’t want her growing up taking what she has for granted. I don’t want her to be surrounded by kids being chauffeured in luxury SUVs to fancy private schools. I don’t want her thinking every 10-year old has an iPod and a cell phone. I don’t pay hundreds of dollars for art classes for my 18-month old when we can do art for free at our local drop-in centre. I don’t want her turning up her nose at someone less fortunate than her.

I want Cakes to learn to give back to her community—there are many activists here and lots of causes to choose from. We’ll find something to do together that interests us both. Hopefully, the gentrification of my neighbourhood won’t happen too quickly. We’ll continue to wave at the man that sits, smoking, in his wheelchair outside of the community centre. We’ll acknowledge the panhandlers. We’ll have conversations with our neighbours instead of walking by, eyes downward. She won’t measure her success by what she drives, or who she wears—she won’t measure anyone by that.

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Get green with Mother Bumper at Mommy Blogs Toronto. From now on, there will be new posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday – check it out!

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Only three voting days left! Thanks for putting up with this.

Toronto the Good, Part 4: Diversity

I love Toronto for its cultural diversity. There are over 100 languages spoken here. Half of Torontonians are immigrants and another 22% are second-generation immigrants with at least one parent born outside of Canada. *

I want Cakes to appreciate that she lives in a big world with many different people and many different beliefs and attitudes. I want her to have an open mind.

I want her to speak more than one language. In this city, she will be exposed to many. I love the fact that we sing Twinkle-Twinkle in Mandarin at our local drop-in.

I want my daughter to be colour blind. There are several children on our street and she is the only white one; where I grew up, I could count on one hand the number of non-white kids I went to school with.

Cultural diversity has many other benefits, a huge one being food. We’re so lucky to have so much fabulous and authentic food to enjoy, from dim sum in Chinatown, to curries in Little India.

Here in Toronto, she’ll have access to cultural festivals, foreign films at the Toronto Film Fest, and music and dance from around the globe.

She’ll have a taste of the world; I hope it will whet her appetite to see it for herself.



*Source: Immigrants in Canada's Census Metropolitan Areas - Grant Schellenberg, Statistics Canada.

Toronto the Good, Part 3: Green Acres

Another reason Toronto rocks is all the green space.

Yep, contrary to popular belief, there is lots of it.

I love cruising down the DVP at night, winding through the huge expanse of green against the backdrop of city lights.

Last year we lived near High Park, a vast woodland covering almost 400 acres. It's especially stunning in the fall:



Just a short ferry ride away are the Toronto Islands a perfect place to enjoy a picnic and some play:



We recently visited Cherry Beach, five minutes away and our new favourite destination. A perfect place to watch the sailboats and soak up some rays:







There are no fewer than five parks in our new 'hood. We usually visit one or another about twice a day. We go early in the morning for some swinging and climbing and Cakes talks to her Chinese lady friends. We like to hit the splashpad in the late afternoon:



I make fun of my "wee" yard, but in truth, I like it that way. Instead of hangin' at home, we get out every day. There are many stay-at-home parents (yep, daddies too) around here and it's never hard to find playmates--for Cakes as well as me.

And the best part? No grass to mow.

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America voted, and, tonight.......



warning! spoiler alert!




Dmitri and Martha are not safe.

I think America was right.

Dmitri lost me last night when he tore his shirt off. I did feel bad for him tonight though, when they screwed up and started the closing music when he was about to dance his little heart out.

Natalie should not have been in the bottom two.

Here is my current ranking:

Girls
1. Allison
2. Natalie
3. Donyelle
4. Heidi

Boys
1. Benji
2. Traviss
3. Ivan
4. Ryan

Loved, loved, loved the ghoulish opening number.

Who is this Jean Marc fool! I want Dan back!

Toronto the Good, Part 2: Pride and Respect

In honour of Pride Week, another reason I love this city for my babe: exposure to many different family models.

I want Cakes to grow up among families that are different from our traditional family unit of mother, father, and biological child.

I want her to appreciate families with one mom or one dad, two moms or two dads, families that include extended family, families with adopted children, inter-racial families, families with no children.

Here in Toronto, particularly in our neighbourhood, she will see all of these variations and will understand they are not inferior to our family model.

She will respect these many forms of family.

By the way, the Pride festival has a weekend of family activities. Find information here.

Happy Pride!

Toronto the Good, Part 1: The Arts

One of the things I will explore on this blog is why I think it best to raise Cakes in the city (reasons beside the fact the city is better for us and happier parents make for a happier baby).

One of the biggest advantages of the city, in my opinion, is the access to the Arts. I grew up in a small town with one movie screen. My parents didn’t (and still do not) have a great deal of interest in the Arts themselves, but they did make an effort to expose me to some degree. They enrolled me in ballet, guitar lessons, and art classes; however, the offerings in a small town were very limited.

In my twenties, I discovered a love of the Arts. Toronto was a bonanza, the extent of which I didn’t fully appreciate until I moved here.

It is very important to me that Cakes be exposed to as much as possible. She can decide what she likes and doesn’t like. I don’t want to force things on her or make her days jam-packed with activity.

I can’t wait to see her reactions to new experiences. Oh, the places we’ll go…

The theatre. Big, beautiful Mirvish productions. I can’t wait to see her eyes widen at the spectacle. Pay-what-you-can Shakespeare. We'll take a picnic to the comedies at Dream at High Park and the lesser known plays at Shakespeare in the Rough. We’ll check out the quirky Fringe Fest shows (age-appropriateness permitting). There is so much great theatre in Toronto--we will take in as much of it as we can.

Dance. The Nutcracker every Christmas. Free ballet by the water at Harbourfront. Hip-hop classes (something else we can do together?)

Literature. Readings by her favourite authors. Shopping for new books at The Word on the Street festival.

Music. The TSO. Our brand spanking new Opera House. Broken Social Scene at Olympic Island. The Beaches Jazz Fest. Christmas choirs at Massey Hall. I will even suffer through children’s concerts.

The visual arts. I want her to have a membership at the AGO. Perhaps we can take some sort of class together--I am woefully ignorant on this topic.

Film. Foreign films on small screens. The Toronto Film Fest.

I know some of this stuff is expensive but there is also a lot for free. Plus, it is all about priorities. We may not have cable but dammit, we’ll have opera tickets.

We’re also surrounded by art in our community. There are many galleries nearby. Artists live here--our next-door neighbour is a sculptor; the next door houses an actor.

There is so much here to offer her. I hope she’ll have more interest in the concert hall than the computer screen. I think her world will be so much richer with these treasures at her fingertips. I’m sure she will find something to be passionate about and her own creativity will be nurtured.

I also hope someday we will enjoy all of these things as adults, and friends, and she will open my eyes to new experiences.

I hope this city can bring joy to her life.