John joins the war effort

Doing his bit to get Dad back to work.

Well, it was inevitable. John and I have joined the strike. Not on the front lines, of course - we've been recruited to man the office weekday mornings. Mike was scheduled for office duty today, but they had a shortage of guys on the picket lines so he asked me to fill his place. The office, it seems, is a bit of a hot potato - everyone would rather be out picketing. However, someone's gotta do it, so I said I'd take it for them as much as I can. John enjoys it. It screwed up his naps a little, but it's a cool new place to explore, and there's nothing dangerous to eat. And every now and then someone comes in and makes funny faces at him, so it's working out alright so far. After our first morning, John and I have each logged more time to the strike than the majority of the guys who actually work for this company. Apparently someone's pet dog has put in more hours on the picket line than anybody, other than the picket captains. The organizers are pretty irritated by the whole thing, but all they have to do is make a schedule of where and when people need to be and the attendance problems would vanish. They're working on that this weekend - though, they said that last weekend too.

The strike is turning ugly. Lots of cut cables, vandalism, fires, thousands of people mysteriously knocked out of service in the night. (I guess all the guys are out prowling for cables in the night, leaving them too tired to picket during the day). The new piece rate company is here and running now. There was some talk in the meeting - all dead serious - that when one of the workers is spotted they are to be chased off with wooden stakes. Most of the energy is spent hunting down and tormenting scabs and managers. Telephone and e-mail terrorism campaigns were officially launched, sparking sinister cheers from the crowd. It's a lot like being part of a really dirty political campaign. It's dozens of guys living out their "if I were quitting this stinking job tomorrow, I would..." scenarios. Very dangerous. Hopefully, this won't last long. And hopefully, more will join in! Where are the 90-odd percent who voted to strike!? Mike voted No, and he's still putting in more time than most. Oh, and don't worry - Mike isn't getting involved in any of the illegal stuff. It sure is keeping the police busy, though!

He can stand!

An old favourite - John at 10 days old. Back then, just turning his head was a big deal - he couldn't even smile. Check out the colour of those eyes - it's not a camera illusion. They were actually a dark slate grey when he was born. We couldn't tell where his pupil started, they were so dark. It took a couple of months for them to lighten up to blue.

He's come so far! As you may know, John has become quite the little cruiser lately. As long as there's something to hang on to, he prefers to get about on foot. A few days ago, he walked from the table to the chair to Mike. Mike was holding him up, then let him go - and he stayed standing up! It was only for a few seconds, before he wobbled and fell, but he was standing all by himself! We did it a few times, but now he won't play along. We don't think he likes it, because now whenever Mike holds him up, he bends his knees.

The nurse predicted that he'll be walking before his first birthday - she just may be right!

He's become a very good crawler as well. The days of slithering along the floor have ended - he's up on all fours now. Preferred destinations include stairs and the bathroom, so I've got to keep doors closed and an eye out at all times. He got so upset when I wouldn't let him lick the toilet brush. It has since been banished to the upstairs bathroom.

His other destination is often Mike, which Mike is loving. John will often boot it to the door when he hears dad's key in the lock, or he'll head to the office, if Mike's on the computer. It's really cute.

He didn't start crawling on all fours suddlenly. There was this weird between stage, when he was up on his hands, but would propel his body forward with one foot, while sliding along the other knee. It sort of looked like he was pushing a skateboard or scooter. However, all fours is much, much faster, so he's switched over.

The strike goes on. It's an every day thing, so no trip home for Mike. He only needs to work 16 hours a week to get strike pay, but so few guys are turning up, he's decided to take up the slack and get out there every day, as many hours as he can.

In the morning he pickets one of the work centres, to prevent non-striking techs from the parent company from getting out on time. They're allowed to delay each truck by 15 minutes. Then, he's part of the flying picket team. Basicly, these are little teams of groupies, only mean. They hunt hunt down techs from the parent company out in the field, then picket right in front of the customer's house. When the tech leaves, they follow him around, setting up pickets wherever he stops to work. The logic is, those techs are essentially scabs, because they've been assigned work normally contracted to Mike's company. They're also hoping for some sympathy from our city's rabidly pro-union population.

Things are turning a little ugly. There's some evidence that the parent company is expanding their new non-unionized, piece rate contractor to the striking region. Not cool. I feel sorry for the guys in that company - if they start working here, they're going to be facing some serious hostility in the field from ALL the unionized techs, whether on strike or not.

The parent company has also denied the purchase of Mike's company to the media, but according to the stock exchange, the sale has already gone through. Not sure what that's all about.

All in all, it looks like it's going to be very long and very bitter, and there's a pretty good chance there won't be a company left when everything's over. It wouldn't be the first time this company shut down a whole division over a labour dispute. No matter what happens, good luck trying to keep the union out of that new company. I bet the union bosses are in there already.

Life on the line

John, checking out his own website. Maybe one day, he'll start posting himself.

Today is day one of Mike's new job as a picketer. I dropped a very nervous, agitated Mike off this morning. He's not a big fan of civil unrest - at least not the public kind. We have no idea when he'll be allowed to go home. He doesn't know who his leader is yet. He doesn't know when he has to go back. He has nothing for lunch, because he didn't want to stand around with a bag. I wonder if picket lines are catered. I suggested to him that we make a little wee picket sign for John, so they can hang out together on the line. He didn't see the humour.

John's doing well. We're plunging ahead with the transition to finger food, now that he seems ready and eager. He's doing well in terms of chewing and swallowing, but he's getting caught up in his tray-to-mouth technique. Dry things, like bread, are no problem. But I tried little chunks of cooked carrot a few days ago and it was a disaster. I was making dinner while he munched and every time I looked over, more pieces had vanished. He kept emptying his tray, so I kept putting more out, thinking he was doing very well. Then I finished the rest of his dinner with a spoon and lifted him out.

Left behind were dozens of tiny carrot pieces, wedged between the seat and cushion. I can't blame the guy - I remember doing the same thing as a kid to food I didn't like. I pity the person who bought one of my childhood homes - they would have found a pile of abandoned food and soggy vitamin pills I had chucked down the basement stairs. Thank goodness for dirt floors - it probably all became compost in the end.

I guess we'll jus stick to the dry stuff for a little while. Did you know that if mixed with a small enough amount of water, even baby cereal can be a finger food? We discovered that one last night, as John smeared himself and every surface within his reach with blueberry oatmeal. He had grabbed the bowl from my hand and was trying to pick up the goo inside, only to have it run out between his fingers. I added more cereal to make blueberry oatmeal balls, which he could pick up and eat by hand. Very messy, but he enjoyed it. Mike won't stay in the room when I'm feeding John anymore; he can't handle the mess. I let John "feed himself" with the spoon, and get his hands right in there. I'm definitely much more lax with the table manners, which usually results in a very sticky baby. Happy, but sticky.

Though, even Mike gets in on the finger food fun sometimes. He likes to send me little "gifts" through John - usually in the form of whole kernels of corn. It's amazing what counts as fun once a baby is in the picture.

Strike update, as promised

This is a little talking drum, also sent by Mike's parents. He wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but it didn't take him long to figure out that it lights up when he hits it! This was sent along with his Tiny Tory T, a new spring outfit, and some meat, jam and chocolates for us. Thank you!

OK. Here's why the strike happened. For our purposes, the big "parent company" will be called PC, Mike's company, the subcontractor, will be called MC and the union will be U.

Alright. The last time we left off in the saga of contact negotiations, PC had decided to buy back MC. U was delighted. Talks resumed, with all three parties at the table. Things were supposedly going well, but after a few weeks, U started to get grumpy. They felt the process was too slow, and that PC was starting to dig in its heels on important issues, like wage.

To add a little pressure, hoping to speed the process along, U launched stage two of work-to-rule. It banned any training - including the new guys hired for summer, who are currently mid-training. It also banned team meetings, overtime, unsupervised conversations with managers and pagers from being left on outside a shift - that was two days ago.

Under these conditions, talks resumed. Everyone was a little agitated by then. U was mad because things were stalling, and PC was mad because U was playing hardball.

One thing to note, the sale of MC to PC was conditional on a collective agreement being reached. At yesterday's negotiations, PC kind of snapped. They accused U of being too inflexible, and questioned why they ever thought buying MC was a good idea. Some very colourful language was exchanged, then PC stormed out of the room. A great start to the day. THEN, MC started yelling at U, calling them selfish and accusing them of risking the company's future for some stupid perks. More loud, colourful language, then MC stormed out.

U, hurt and alone, pulled a "screw 'em all" tactic against both PC and MC, and called a strike right then and there. It was an impulse call, made in the heat of the moment.

As a result, no-one is prepared for a strike - the deadline wasn't until April 9 after all. Mike's union meeting last night was basicly telling everyone that story, and how they regret not holding off a bit - at least until after Easter so everyone could get the paid holiday. But, what's done is done. They don't have anything prepared beyond a loose plan. They aren't going to do anything until Monday - by then they'll have a schedule to distribute and everything else in place.

I've never been part of a strike, so I don't know what's normal, but this union is going to be doing some petty low things, in my opinion. Flooding e-mails and phone lines, picketing manager's houses, that sort of thing. They told everyone to keep it as unrelenting and harsh as possible, because it will make the strike as short as possible. The last three strikes were 7, 11 and 18 weeks long.

That's about all we know for now - we'll know a lot more on Monday. We don't know what kind of time committment this wil be - they'll schedule everyone for 15-20 hours a week, but he may have some blocks of time off. Who knows.

I kind of side with the company on this one - with everything but wages. Mike told me what the company offered and it's a joke. However, the union is digging in its heels on some really stupid things. They want Easter Monday off. Who gets Easter Monday off!? What are they, bankers? Some of the other things they want would be nice - they want a shift premium for the evening hours, which the PC guys get. I can totally see that - in the winter, they're working outside in the cold AND the dark. It deserves a shift premium. We'll see how things play out. Hopefully it will be very short. It looks like "short" means a couple months, but if that's the best they can do, I guess we'll have to live with that.

Happy Easter everybody! I'll keep you posted as things unfold.

My Tiny Tory

This is so funny - this was sent in an Easter care package from Mike's parents - it says "I'm a Tiny Tory." We howled when we opened it up! He's ready for his next meeting!

He's going to turn NDP in his rebel teen years, I just know it. Not sure how he feels about the Conservatives now. I imagine he's pro-life - I think that's probably the big issue in the infant wing of the party - but I like to think he's in favour of gay marraige, so the whole social end is a little off for him right now.

Mike had yesterday afternoon off, so we went to hang at the mall for a while. John had a blast. He was squealing away, laughing at the people walking past. You'd think I never take him places. We took him to the pet store - his favourite store, by far. He had a good time playing with a cocker spaniel puppy - they were pawing at each other through the glass. No puppies for John, though. Mike wants a dog-free life. I think that will change - in a few years, it will be two or three against one. John liked the kittens, too. And the blue fish- he was totally captivated by the little blue fish.

The convention did derail Mike's anti-smoking campaign a bit, but I think the events of today will spell its doom for some time.

I have good news, and I have bad news, from Mike's job. The good news is, Mike just got a raise for his one year anniversary - a buck an hour, with another buck added every six months from now on. Not too shabby.

The bad news is, he's on strike. Yup, just like that. Out of nowhere. They went on work-to-rule yesterday, which is why he had the afternoon off. They put all training off limits, and he was scheduled for a training session. He got all the way there and the union told them all to leave. However the rules state that a worker needs so many hours notice to have a shift cancelled, so all these guys were flooded onto the job board. Mike offered to take the day off, so there wouldn't be such a huge surplus of workers. They have to pay four hours for a cancelled shift anyway, so they told him to work the four, then go home.

Today, he got a call from his manager that talks broke down and a strike had started. The union set a strike deadline of April 9. However, management felt they were being pushy and uncooperative, so they left the table. So, the union decided to strike immediately - that was 11 a.m. This was all from his manager, not from the union, so Mike decided to go about his day until he was ordered otherwise. He went to leave for work as unual at 1, but his van wouldn't start. He had to get it towed to the company's garage. While he was there, he got the official paige to stop working. So, now his van is basicly impounded, which he's not too happy about. His manager is stopping by in the morning for a quick chat and to pick up his tools. Totally against the union rules - he's not allowed to have any meetings with his manager without a union rep there to observe - but Mike doesn't care; he really likes his manager.

He's at a union meeting right now - I guess to get the picket schedule, go over strike pay and stuff like that. I'll post again tomorrow morning and let you know how things are going.

This probably derails my plans to come home with John. He said we'll have to see what happens at this meeting tonight, but I doubt the trip will happen now. He'll want to come, and will probably have the time, but the union bosses may not OK it, and the strike could end at any moment, so on a practical level, it would be difficult at best. Besides, even if he could come, he keeps insisting we drive and we don't have the money needed for gas and hotels for that. He managed to squeak through his convention for practically free, thanks to some unique circumstances and much sharing of resources, so we still have most of his convention money, but it still isn't enough for a long road trip like that. Besides - we kinda need it for the mortgage - we put a lot of creditors on hold for that stupid convention. Who's side gave him this complete lack of logic and reason? I mean, we have air miles. We can just GO, with little money needed, and ha can be back in less than a day if he gets called back to work. It just makes so much more sense to me. *sigh*

Anyway, I'll post again in the morning with another picture of John and a strike update! Exciting times!

Just say no to green beans

The face says it all. I don't know why I waited so long to try green beans, but I'm sure he's wishing I'd waited a little longer! Poor little guy.

Blech! 

Sheesh - had to work hard for this one. he won't sit still for anything anymore! I have a bunch of pictures of him trying to climb up the wall, or crawl off. I have a picture with nothing but a bum, snapped as he zoomed out of the shot. This is a new knit outfit sent by Great Grandma W, caught just as he was about to lunge for the space heater. 

Daycare subsidies

Just as a response to Bruce - the subsidy system blows big time.

Households who make less than $45,000 get 100 per cent of the cost paid. Any family over that gets nothing paid. The result is a screwing over of the middle class, including us, who are just above the level. Wealthy people can afford to pay. Poor people get a free ride. Families like ours are just squeaking by, but we have to pay as much as the wealthy families. You'd think maybe we could get PART paid at least, but no. We're treated as though we're wealthy, even though it's going to take nearly everything I have to pay for John's care. It's just really messed up, in a big, big way. I'm floored by the whole thing, really. I'm surprised people have been putting up with this for so long.

I saw Mike on CPAC! His back was to the camera, but those were his clothes, and I know that walk anywhere - it was definitely him. He called just after Stephen Harper's speech and was sounding very weary. He was working on a friend's National Council campaign, but lost. We're a curse - everyone we support loses. I guess that's what you get for always rooting for the underdog. He feels a little sore about the convention, but that's normal, I find. There are always hurt feelings after these things. Peter MacKay's leadership convention was by far the worst, but he's looking better and better these days. Even Preston Manning is looking pretty good. He's actually a good fiscal conservative. Dare I say it - a Red Tory even? At least he is next to all the So-cons out there. Mike was about to step out for some "fresh air" after the last call, so hopefully the tension there hasn't completely derailed his anti-smoking campaign.

John's doing great! Can't keep that little guy down! He's always on his way somewhere. I wonder if he notices that Mike is gone? Probably not, but he'll be all a-wiggle as soon as Mike walks in the door tomorrow!

I haven't mentioned the trip home to Mike since before the convention. His mind has been someplace else lately, and now his body is too, so I'll bring it up again after he's come back to earth. I haven't heard from the Spec, so I'm off till June for sure.

Forgot to mention...

Sorry - got so bothered by the daycare thing, i forgot to mention some of the biggest news! Mike is quitting smoking! Isn't that great!?

He started a few days ago. He's down to a quarter pack a day, and plans to slowly work himself off that. So far, it's going well. He usually tries cold turkey, but it doesn't work for him. he did the gum once, but that wasn't very successful either. This is the first attempt that he really seems excited about, so I think it'll stick.

Just don't mention anything about it to him - it's a sensitive time. I know what he's like and what stresses him, and too much attention about it would drive him back for sure. He just needs to work through it in solitude, without any pressure.

Gosh, this house feels lonely tonight! I spent the whole evening watching CPAC looking for Mike. He got caught up in the convention as wasn't able to phone as soon as he arrived. However, he's phoned several times since, so it's OK.

The Daycare Dilema

Sorry guys - the picture/text problem is back. So, today we do text.

It's been a busy few days. The CPC convention is starting today, so Mike is on his way to Montreal as I write this. He should actually be arriving in the city right now. It's kind of sad to have him gone - we just realized that this is the first time we'll be sleeping in separate cities in the time we've been married. Though, he's already phoned once, so I'll probably be hearing a lot from him. I'm sure the other people in his van were rolling their eyes - not even out of the province and already calling the wife - but it was nice to hear his voice.

John's doing well. Loving his meat. I've started giving him bits of grated cheese too and he really loves that. Little pieces of bread, even. He chews now, so it's working out well. He chews everything - even yogurt. I've tried Cheerios again and he chews them too. He doesn't like them, but he'll chew them. Don't know why everyone gives their babies Cheerios. Probably because they're plain and portable. Just seems to be what's done - and they make great toys, too.

Took John to see the travelling dentist at Parentlink yesterday, but he was a no-show. I wanted to ask about the gap between his teeth, but I think it's OK - the little boy on the cover of Today's Parent this month has the same gap, so I'm sure it's normal.

All the moms marvelled at John's creeping and he put on quite a show. The shyness of a few weeks ago seems to have worn off. He was crawling all over the nurse and up to the other babies, having a great time. He and one of the other babies had quite an in-depth conversation in baby-babble. They both have their "babababa's" down pat. Then, as a showstopper, he decided to go into a jumping fit. For those who've never seen it, John does this thing where he'll prop himself up on my lap, and do little jumping actions. That's my cue. I pick him up and bounce him up and down, so it's like he's jumping way up into the air. He actually does all the hard work - he pushes off the ground with his legs, like a little spring, howling with laughter the whole time. The other moms thought it was hilarious. They all gave it a try with their own babies, but John was the only one who could do the spring action. It's probably from spending too much time in his jolly jumper. Had him weighed as well - he's about 22 pounds, fully clothed. That's right on his usual curve. I was worried about his weight - his appetite was so rediculous for a while there, it felt like I was starving him. The yogurt and meat made all the difference - it's a little earlier than some people say to start, but he REALLY needs those fatty foods. There's just no way to fill him up without them anymore.

Oh, I'm part of a medical study at the university now! It's pretty exciting. They need lactating women and the nurse knows I'm still breastfeeding, so she asked if I'd be willing to sign up. Basicly, it's one of those environmental contaminant studies. I let the university take a urine sample and pump two ounces of my milk, so they can test for flame retardent chemicals. They want to use it to lobby the government to ban the substances. Mike is horrified - he thinks it's bad science to have a political goal in mind for the results before the study even gets going. But I'm all for it, so they're welcome to as much milk as they want. I won't get to find out if my milk in particular is contaminated, but it's for a good cause, so that's just fine.

We went to see the daycares a few days ago. Boy oh boy. Where to start. Let's just say, it's pretty bleak.

There's only four in our area that take babies. We saw three of them. The first seemed OK. It had a good security system and the staff seemed nice. Stressed, but nice. The problems started with the tour. We were led to the first of the baby rooms, and we saw a little line of blank-faced babies, all milling around the gate. It's like those stories you hear about old folks homes (no offence, Vic) where the old people sit by the doors, hoping that someone will help them escape. There was no program happening. The one that's scheduled was a discussion about Easter. What one-year old cares about Easter? They don't understand a word being said.

Alright, that's tame. But it gets worse. In the next baby room, there were two teachers to 6 kids. One lucky duck was having a nap. The two little ones were having a bottle, tying up the teachers. So what were the other three doing? They were all in high chairs, staring at a wall, crayons in hand, "drawing" on a sheet of paper on the tray. Well, I guess that was the dream. In reality, one kid was eating his crayon, and had blue wax all over his face. All three were just staring off into space - or more specifically, staring at the blank wall. Three little blank faces in a row, while the teachers sat on the other side of the room. Apparently, this is their "creative" program. Sure didn't look very creative to me. They could have at least faced them together, so they had each other to look at during this torture. Besides, it doesn't take all your attention to feed a bottle - the teachers could have interacted with the others while the babies were being fed. It was just so sad. So many young minds, rotting away.

They're pretty strict about pick-ups. If you get ther past 6, they phone Child Services on you. I have a busy job. Mike works nights. Traffic happens. That could happen to us!

I left there very depressed. The next one was no better. We happened to go at naptime, so we didn't get to see the "programs" these poor kids were subjected to. However, there was one little girl sitting up, crying in her bed. She was the only kid awake in the whole place - ECE teachers everywhere. And what was her teacher doing? Sitting on the other side of the room doing paperwork. Wow. Even I can take care of John while doing paperwork - this person went to school for this. All I could think was, wow, I'll be paying most of my wages to have some stranger ignore my child. Fantastic.

So, that place was a dud. Oh, and even though it was in a scary inner-city location, there was no security at all. There was no buzzer. No lock on the door. None of the staff even gave us a second look. We just wandered around freely. Complete strangers in the building, and no-one has a problem with this? Probably could have snagged a kid if we were so inclined. We had to ask for help. Some other guy - a delivery guy - did the same thing. He was just wandering around like us. Strange guy, just off the street. Staff wandering past taking no notice. This is NOT OK.

By then, I was downright depressed. This was John's future. Years of being ignored by people who may have a slip of paper saying they know what they're doing, but boy, do they ever not care about kids.

Luckily, the third one was much, much better. It was brand new. It was big, bright. No cramped, dirty hallways here. The hallway was actually a huge open room - they let them run and crawl around in there on cold and rainy days. The windows were big, the staff was enthusiastic. The supervisor had the flu, but the woman who showed us around was so excited to be working there. She said she'd never worked in a place that good. Even the food was good - no mac and cheese. I think enthusiasm is important. People who are excited about their jobs do a better job. Actually, the subervisor just called as I was writing this - we're on the in-take list. She'll have to sit down and plot out how many kids they can take in when, so there's still a chance we'll be put on a waiting list, but it's our best hope for a spot, and it happens to be the nicest spot.

It's just so expensive!!! All of them were about $1200 a month! Youch! We were totally not expecting that! By the time that, and the gas to get me to work are paid, I'll be bringing home a whopping $300 a month. It's almost at that level where I should just drop out of the workforce, but after 18 months, the price starts to fall. But wow. Things are going to be pretty darned rough for those 7 months, while I'm basicly working just to hold my place at work. I'll be contributing next to nothing to the household, yet some stranger will "take care" of John all day. It's not fair. Things may change - they may raise the subsidy rate to a more reasonable level, so middle class people like us will be covered too. But, it's politics. These things take time. John will probably be in school before they make daycare more affordable for regular people.

We looked into home daycare too, but we're just not sure about that anymore. It's $800 a month, but you have less control over what happens. There's no posted activity reports. And most homes have TV's - what if these moms are just plopping the kids down in front of the TV all day? Either way they rot, I guess. One way is just a bit cheaper.

This is the most horrible experience ever. Who dreamed up this system? And who dreamed up those outrageous prices!!!!

Anyway, now I'm depressed all over again. I need ice cream.

A day in the life - a photo essay

I haven't been able to post pictures and text together for the last little while - Blogger has had a few problems. It seems to be fixed now (thank you Blogger support people!), but I had already assembled this photo essay, so it seems like shame not to use it.

I guess you could say this is a fairly typical day, though every day is totally different. And obviously, there are gaping holes. For instance, Mike is around and does play with John, but won't let his picture be taken.

Our feature day starts like any other - John is awake, but wet, so I set out to change his clothes, only to find that I had to get something from the dryer.

A hoser moment - playing in his underwear while I dig up something dry for him to wear. 

Chasing me across the floor - or at least chasing after the shiny thing with the bright light. 

Got her! 

Mmm...mango 

Obviously just too good for the floor, John will pull up on anything and everything. 

Checking out the buckles - just like Grandpa P 

Naptime!? NEVER!!! 

I sure wish someone would take me out! 

Soooo tiiired. Probably wishing he took me up on that nap. 

Naptime, at last. 

Look who's up! 

Hey - mom's not looking - now's my chance to make a run for it! 

Trying to make a mad dash off the bed while I get him dressed.  

I'm going out!!! I've got the keys! 

Do you need the keys, mom? 

Taking a trip around the grocery store. Now that he can sit up in the cart and look around, he LOVES grocery shopping. 

Helping Mom put away the groceries