what we've been up to

here is a picture of kaspar meeting his 'opits' (grandfather) for the very first time!

the last few days have passed in a daze of a sorts. being back in latvia again, meeting all of my family, having kaspar here with me, traveling from one town to the next... it's a change from our toronto lifestyle. we're loving it!

kaspar has been the centre of attention pretty much at all times and is definitely getting spoiled by it. he's becoming quite the party animal. the 7:30 bed time is out the window. his naps now happen whenever he's in a car and last as long as the drive or sometimes just 15 minutes. stroller is almost unnecessary on our walks through the town or down the beach, because as soon as he lets out a peep there is someone right there, more then happy to carry him. he has begun to eat pretty much everything that we eat, because people just let him taste any food they're eating. this means he's been introduced to meat, sugar, white flour, garlic, spices, salt - all within the space of a week or so! so far so good... knock, knock, knock :-) and he's also met all sorts of animals. he's attempted to hug and pluck several fluffy cats. he has had a chance to check out and pet many different sized dogs. he loves the dogs, because he definitely recognizes the tail. he sometimes does say 'aste' while pointing at the dog (it means 'tail' in latvian!) we also met a few cows and he attempted to pick the nose of a very young little baby cow. funny enough, i don't think the cow cared. brown chickens with bare bottoms were quite a sight. the ducks were also interesting (but different ducks then the ones in high park pond - white ones). my sister keeps promising to take us to the zoo, however, i think for now we've had enough animals for one week!

the weather has been spectacular here. nights are still chilly, but during the day, in the sun, the temperature has been as high as +25 degrees celsius. we're spending a lot of time outdoors. the beaches are stunning at this time of the year and pretty much empty! spring has just begun here. the woods are full of these little white, blue and yellow flowers called 'vizbulites'. trees are just starting to turn green. the birch patches are all aglow with that pale green, almost yellow glow. i cannot wait until the ieva's begin to blossom. ieva is a tree that produces this stunningly fragrant flower in the spring! i have no clue what they might be called in english. sorry! my vocabulary for flowers, trees and wildlife in general is very poor in english. will have to work on that!

today we spent some time at the soviet vehicle show in kuldiga. it was an awesome array of cars and busses, bikes and military vehicles from the soviet era, along with people all dressed up to reflect the times of the make of each car. there were also soviet flags and soviet songs and the 'pionieri' (school aged children, belonging to something that would be like a ''children of lenin'' club, similar to 'boy scouts' but for the soviet school kids) piling into the old busses. a great show! the mc of the show was very funny and had just the right thing to say about each of the pieces on display. he had a way of telling the history to reflect the tragedy of the times with good humour and satire. e had some good laughs. my sister knew some of the people in the show, too! so, we got some good pictures.

anyhow.... that's all i can manage for today. it's midnight. i better get some sleep before kaspar wakes up.

p.s. i have a cell phone now! yes. my own cell phone, here in latvia. if you want the number e-mail me! then you can all call me and bug me... :-) and i've posted some pictures on flickr, because uploading to blogspot just takes too long.