where's waldo?

oh, i meant to say 'where's kaspar?' we were on our way home and decided to stop at a road side pub/restaurant for lunch and found a spectacular playground for children, practically brand new, squeaky clean and pristine, inside the restaurant. kaspar was in seventh heaven! he was consumed by the balls and had no intention of leaving. i actually had to run with him out to the car and tickle him, while strapping the car seat and distract him with food afterwards, just so that he wouldn't cry franticly about being taken from his favorite playground. no wonder parents love ikea! ikea has it all figured out!!!

we just spent the day slacking off. kaspar woke up shortly after six, but i managed to play "sleeping beauty" for about 20 minutes in bed, while he picked my nose, tickled my belly button and played with his own toes. at least i could stay under the covers. finally, at about 8 am my aunt got up to make coffee and found me curled up on the couch and kaspar playing in front of me on the floor. she sent me back to bed. oh, i love her! i slept in until 10 am and woke up just in time to put kaspar down for a nap. the next two hours were mine! he slept like a baby. (the truth is, this saying is absolute bull. babies hardly ever sleep. what does that mean - sleeping like a baby? who came up with that one? must have been a childless man!) anyways. kaspar did sleep... and i hung out and had breakfast and read and relaxed. it's wonderful to be away from home. i can actually relax and not think - there is laundry to be done, floors to sweep, jewellery to polish etc...etc. after the nap we went to the beach and checked out some of the outrageous homes along the beach (more to come on this subject!) but we were home well before 3pm, because kaspar seemed tired. even though he had enough energy to try to haul it out to the water every time i put him down in the sand, he was not happy with the whole walk idea. we came home and sure enough he fell asleep shortly after 3pm. here's the strange thing - he slept until 7:17 pm. i managed to pull off a bit of snooze myself, but he slept for four hours. i was terrified that putting him down for the nigh will be impossible, but by 9:15 in the evening he was in bed and asleep by 9:30. strange. absolutely strange! it's a bit late for jetlag :-) as i'm typing this, i wonder... will he wake me up at some ungodly hour tomorrow morning? i better go and catch a snooze myself, soon. it's already after 1 am.

oh. here we go again. pictures are so finnicky on this site. i wonder if i'm doing something wrong. anyone else have problems uploading to blogger?

another day

here is another day at the beach! kind of chilly, windy. it's funny... riga is only a half hour drive from here, where we're staying for the moment, but in riga it's +22 today, yet, here in jurmala (and especially on the beach) it's only +15. i'm not complaining, though. spring can be pretty nasty and cold in latvia, but so far we've only had sunny days and gorgeous weather. and everything is blooming. even the lilacs are about to burst into bloom!

kaspar has picked his favourite place to stay - my aunt aija's & uncle jani's house seems to be the pick of the week. what can i say? my kid is a true bourgeois! aija's house is large and spacious and he can crawl everywhere and there are lots of new toys (from aija's grandkids). he loves it here! so much freedom... no one chasing after him and telling him not to touch this or that or something else :-) he gets bored in the smaller places, it's very noticeable. the apartments. the kitchens. even my mom's place. he has this funny way of asking to go outside, when he gets sick of being in one place. he lifts his arm, outstretched over his head and waves his hand towards the window and makes this funny whimpering sound. communication. the kid knows how to make himself heard! it's awesome. i wish i had done more in the way of showing him sign language, but that never really worked. i think i gave up, because with sign language everyone has to be on board, really... oh well! c'est la vie!

yesterday, kaspar was allowed to crawl around outside for the very first time. my mom's yard is full of flowerbeds and plants and only the center of the yard is grass (whatever grass there is at this time of the year). of course, he headed straight for the flowers. it's rather pointless to try to keep him away from plucking the flowers. i learned it the hard way. i had a friend over, but spent most of my time chasing kaspar out of the flower beds. he thought it was a very funny game. he did! but even though i tried to keep my eye on the lad, he was rather fast at putting plants, earth and dried leaves in his mouth. my granny used to say "every kid needs to taste his fair share of earth, mud and sand." i sure hope she's right! here he is - caught in action. dirty mouth, diggin' the dirt between the paving stones, a hand full of leaves - busted!