things we do

I'm enjoying a brief moment of quiet. It's Saturday morning and Kaspar is in school until 1pm. It's relatively calm at home, when he's away, I must say! He's not just a fast paced, on the go, non stop kind of a kid... he's also become very competitive as far as his sister is concerned. Even though I try to take time that I spend with him and only him, every single day, I think he still secretly thinks that mommy belongs to HIM and only HIM and he's not willing to share. Or does it only because he has not figured out a way to NOT share, yet. Some days I feel like I need some circus lessons to be able to keep both of them happy and occupied.

I started work part time last week. Even though for the time being I have to go only once a week, I realize that my mom will have her hands full with the kids while I'm gone. The other day she practically collapsed when I walked in the door after work. I've applied to another two co-ops in our area for some daycare time for Kaspar. The waiting lists in our part of town are unbelievable! So, it's probably unlikely that we will get in before he begins school next fall. I'm only beginning to learn about all these things... and what a steep learning curve it is! Any programme that is geared for kids ages 2-5 in Toronto and is affordable is full. Every waiting list is a year long. Every spot is spoken for. Every seat is taken. It's amazing, really! I have to remember to register him for JK at our local school within the next month or I might not get a spot there either. I'd hate to have to ship him accross town to another school on a school bus at age 4. Oh, the things I have to learn to keep up with!!! !!!

abuse

If you saw a woman (let's say on a beach or at a pool) and she was covered in small, penny size, round little bruises, her torso, arms, neck, parts of the rib cage... all covered in little varying brown and yellow little bruises. What would you think? Abuse? Torture? Self inflicted torture? HA! I bet you the last thing that would come to your mind would be BABY! Right? I was standing in front of a mirror this morning counting them all (14 visible at the given moment) and applying "Arnica" tonic to the spots. Stella is a pincher and the older she gets the harder she pinches. And recently she has begun to pinch' n' twist. The pinch' n' twist leaves the darkest bruises. Maybe if I did not bruise so easily... but, boy, does it ever look weird. I'm starting to train her not to do it, but it's not as easy as you'd think. The pinching is a sort of a calming mechanism for her it seems. When she's really upset - she pinches. When she's really tired and falling asleep in my arms she pinches. When she's really hungry - she pinches. When she eats - she sometimes pinches, too. And the more she pinches the faster she calms down. Strange bird!

breakdancing?

Judging from the third picture in the series you might think she's break dancing. No! She noticed me with the camera and tried to take a step towards me without holding on to the couch. Need I say more? Stella is close to walking, but still long way to go before she figures out the balance thing on her own. Of course it does not help to have a "bear" hiding under the couch and cheering (or should I be totally honest?) more like "roarrr-ing" her on. Kaspar is constantly pretending to be a bear, a moose, a lion, a wolf, a big bird or .... a garbage man. Sometimes he lets me pick which I want to see. But for Halloween he's going to be a giraffe. He's got no choice in the matter this year.