p.s. the horse

The horse in the previously posted picture actually grabbed Kaspar by his jacket and ate the strap off his sleeve. Yup, ate it. A red, five inch long, velcro lined, fabric strap. Go figure! Must have been a very hungry horse. I was sure glad he did not grab Kaspar's entire hand. I wasn't there to see it, but they both look a little unsure about the animal in this picture...

the cold/hot factor

The weather has been so weird all winter. Whatever it is la nina or pollution or greenhouse gasses… I’m not liking it one bit. Sure, it was nice for Kaspar to enjoy the couple of weeks of full blown winter wonderland in December. I’ll even agree that I’d take this above the total lack of snow last winter, but being teased with +14 degree temperatures for a whole week, watching the crocuses come out and tulips begin to peak through the earth and the wake up to more snow and cold weather. I know it’s normal for January. I know. I know. I just don’t like it. I don’t like winter anymore, I’ve decided.

Winter with kids is so relentlessly tiresome. Just imagine for a minute the task of getting two kids ready to go outside. It takes a god ten minutes to track down all the garments and boots and blankets around the house. And that’s not even the beginning of the chore. Then it’s the decision of who to get dressed first. Of course, if I decide to get the two year old dressed, then the baby will start to cry just I begin. On the other hand, if I do manage to get the baby dressed and placed in the stroller before Kaspar decides to take off, then she’ll more then likely freak out, because she’s left there to lie all on her own. Then there is the traditional fight between Kaspar and myself of “You have to go and pee before we get into the snow suit!” “NO! I don’t have to pee!” and so on, and so on, until I cave and give up only to be faced by the unavoidable – “I need to pee pee, mom!” It always comes right at the moment, when I’m opening the front door and getting ready to shuffle the fully snow suited child out onto the porch. It’s Murphy’s law or just my luck. So, these days I intentionally avoid going outside with the two of them, if I’m home alone. When there are a second pair of hands to get the task done, then I can almost feel normal by the time we make it onto the street. So, that’s why I enjoyed the temperatures last week and am very much looking forward to spring. I know there are at least two more months of winter to go. But who knows… maybe it’ll end early. Maybe I can pray for El Nina to work some magic or move to Cuba?

I thought I’d better take a picture of the kids by the Christmas tree on the morning of our last “tree pick-up” day. We had been so severely sick during the season that I couldn’t remember if we took any pictures of the kids at all. And what’s another ten digital pictures, if the computer’s already full of hundreds and hundreds of them anyway? The invention of the digital image and camera has secured that not a single meaningless moment goes by unrecorded in a child’s life, while also securing themselves a prosperous future through parents, who’ll always be in need of memory upgrades, new digital software and such. Sad, really!

So, I took this picture of the kids, loaded it into the computer, stared at it for a while … but it took a few moments before it registered. I knew that something looked odd. And then it dawned on me… the colouring. It’s so strange looking at your own kids and realizing that judging by the skin colour they could almost pass for children of two different races or at the very least from two different families. And that is without adjusting the colouring or the contrast in the image at all. Honestly. I had never thought about it until now, but Kaspar is very pale. Alabaster child. Stella almost looks tanned next to him. Ever since noticing it in the picture I’m also seeing it in real life.

I had these grand plans of all these things I was going to write about today, but Stella is making those grunting, huffing and puffing and little kitten noises already. So, I might have to keep this short for the time being. She’s been acting really odd the last few days – restless, very restless.