some days...

oooohhhh, did i ever get a slap on the fingers with that last comment.... for those of you not fluent in the latvian language, i was just told that if i've started a 'blog' then i'm also responsible for updating it. uh! the balls of some people. :-)

well. we've had a week of insane news. and it's kind of thrown me off kilter. it started with us finding out that oma (one of kaspar's grandmothers) has cancer. she's an amazing woman, who, just a short two years ago went through some very rough time, losing her husband (steve's father) to lung cancer. i was so saddened by the news! but i'm praying that this will be in no way similar case. she's scheduled for surgery on my birthday and i'm hoping for a birthday present - news that the entire lump is removed and it has not metastasized. just recently, in a special on cbc television i heard that the statistics today are - 1 out of every 3 people in north america will be diagnosed with cancer some time in their life. yikes!

a mere 12 hours after the news about oma, we found out that grandma (grandma lives on the west coast!) had broken her leg, been rescued by a helicopter and was in hospital awaiting surgery. shocking! that was two grandmothers with bad news in one day. and a friend of mine emailed me to say that bad things come in threes. the guts! i refused to believe it, and thank god grandmother #3 is doing just fine. no problems to report there! now, grandma's was a story i could have devoted an entire blog entry to. or maybe grandpa should start his own blog!?! their story was like something out of a james bond movie. but grandma has been pinned, plated and screwed back together and now is at home, resting and healing. we wish her a full and fast recovery!

the third sad event followed just this past week-end. and it in no way compares with the above two. elliott brood did not get the juno. sorry guys! but, that was enough bad news for me for one week. enough things to worry about. uh. and it's not over yet! i'll keep you posted, if you promise to keep all our grans and omas out there in your prayers...

on a happier note i can give you a rockin' update on kaspar. he's finally over all his fevers and ills and is doing grand! he's discovered that he can stand up on his own pretty much anywhere, where there is something to hold on to (the picture is him cruising the couch!). that includes mom's pants, from behind, while she's doing dishes. that's a funny one! especially, since i cannot turn around without making him fall and he holds on for his dear life so that i have no chance of turning around... it's a site that has to be experienced first hand. the whole standing thing has also given him a few red bumps on his otherwise perfect forehead, which he has begun to abuse regularly. lately, he's become more and more daring, at times jumping off the bed head first, or crawling into the wall head first. he usually thinks that it's very funny, until it starts to hurt a bit more then he had expected. and then we have one of those big huge grand wails...

about two weeks ago kaspar graduated to taking baths on his own. he finally learned to sit still, so that i was not afraid to sit him in the tub on his own. it took him a while to realize that the tub is slippery and constant movement does not make for safe bath time. we had a couple of 'face under the water' moments, which, to my surprise did not phase him at all. but now, he's the king of the tub! he loves it. it's hard for me to take him out. as soon as he notices the towel in my lap, he just turns his whole body away from me and pretends i'm not there. some times there is crying, kicking, screaming... well, you get the picture. but i can hardly have him sitting there turning into a prune, can i ???