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.

hip hip hooorrrrayyyy!

hip hip hooorayyyyyy! we're in latvia!!!

we had a few excruciatingly busy days just before our departure. even though i had good friends helping me out with babysitting a couple of afternoons, i found myself running out of time constantly. then, kaspar got sick two days before we were scheduled to leave. it was so stressful! i was so worried about the flight, about his well being, about myself keeping my sanity. uh! however, after a good day of chamomile tea and a whole lot of people sending good thoughts and prayers our way, his fever broke and he was fine on the day of the flight.

we left for the airport shortly after 3pm, even though our flight was scheduled to leave at 6pm. that was me trying to be super organized! good thing, too, because shortly after arriving at the airport i realized that i had left my sling (baby carrier) at home. we don’t leave the house without that contraption! i could not imagine spending the next two months without it. i contemplated taking a taxi back to the house (for a short moment), but decided to call my saving grace, my favourite neighbour, someone who really should be awarded the title of a ‘fairy god mother’, because she always saves me in situations of distress and is always there for me – astride. and she saved us again!!! so finally, at 6pm, after approximately 24 hours of no sleep we boarded the plane and took our seats. the flight was smooth. kaspar was more then happy flirting with the flight staff, sitting in my lap and doing laps up and down the isles on his hands and knees. he slept for a couple of hours, maybe three in total. however, i could not sleep, partially because i was afraid i might let go of him, partially because the flight had some turbulence and maybe also due to over exhaustion. But I managed to relax a bit and keep my eyes shut for a while. in frankfurt we had a short layover, however, for a couple of overtired little travelers the two hours seemed to last forever. kaspar was on his second wind. he wanted to move and crawl, but the floors were so disgusting that i had to keep him on the seats. they were long, bench like seats, so i could let him crawl a bit, if i kept close supervision. his energy lasted for about an our and then he just became tired. thank god we had the sling. about 15 minutes before our flight to riga began boarding he fell asleep in my arms and stayed totally passed out until we landed in the riga airport. i was thrilled to get a short hour of shut eye in during the second flight! the seats were narrow and small and i was able to prop pillows and bags around us, so that i was sure he was not going to slip out of my arms, even if i did fall asleep.

when we finally landed and got through the passport control and got our luggage, i was so glad to be done with the flight, so glad to be in riga, that the rest of the airport antics did not even phase me. you see, we had arrived on the same plane as the slovak hockey team for the world championships. so, there were men in beaver suits, a whole orchestra dressed in red suits playing a march of some sorts and a few young girls doing something that reminded me of really bad cheerleading moves or really strange dancing. besides that there was press, of course, with cameras and without, and a lot of people and fans. my mom kept asking if we should take a picture of kaspar with the beaver in the hockey shirt, but in all honesty - i was too tired to care. so, we went home instead! the first night, for the very first time in his life, kaspar slept from 8:30pm until 11:15 am the next day. that was definitely a first!

the picture in this post is on of us taken at terminal one in toronto just before checking in for our flight. terminal one is awesome! it does not even look like a toronto airport! so sleek and new... yikes. the image is not loading. why. why. why? i hate tech problems! tought luck. no picture this time...