purple tongues and such

i've been thinking a lot these days. thinking about stuff in general and about my kids a lot, too. it's been such a busy spring, ever more so because of my accident. but even besides that... kaspar's first year at latvian school ended. he received his first ever report card. kids started daycare. stella has begun to talk. and i take it all in and have time to pause in the middle of the day and just think about it all. what a blessing. have to be thankful for the little things.

looking back at pictures over the last three years i'm surprised how alike stella and kaspar are and yet how so totally different at the same time. character wise - they're from totally different planets. physically they seem like two peas from the same pod. if kaspar still has no patience to feed himself with a fork and a spoon then stella on the other hand has absolutely no patience to wait and be fed. she eats as well as she can, but refuses to let go of that fork. yes, half her meal ends up on the floor and the other half in her lap, but she's eating, regardless. when kaspar knocks his foot or hand or head on something it's immediate tears and crying and a generally extreme and "dramatic situation". stella gets pushed around on a regular basis by her brother and more often then not trips over the different pairs of shoes she constantly tries on, but she hardly makes a fuss, except for the quick kiss she needs to receive on the bruised body part.

this morning the kids went back to the daycare, but reluctantly at best. long week-ends are hard. hard on all of us. i hate having to fight all morning with my son about the benefits vs. drawbacks of daycare. i wonder if that will ever end.

steve spent the better part of the week-end in spain (elliott brood played a festival in bilbao http://www.azkenarockfestival.com/arf/) and brought us back treats like "heart attack hearts from dirty free". i'm quoting kaspar, of course. he figured out that he was saying something funny pretty much immediately. after a short explenation of what "artichoke hearts" are and what "duty free'" means he let it go until bed time, when he asked me to explain the "dirty and free" all over again. it took a good half hour. i have to admit, the concept of "duty free" is hard for an adult to understand, let alone a three year old who does not know the difference between ten dollars and ten cents. i don't know if he got even a part of what i was trying to explain, i only know that his idea of dutiful is "yes, i can be dutiful, but i will NOT do anything if i don't wnt to!" go figure! i think "dirty and free" is a lot mor up his alley.