gifts

kaspar and i spent half the day sorting through christmas gifts, which was mostly his toys and new clothes. it's unbelievable how many clothes and toys this kid has acquired in his 5 months!
absolutely astounding! the rate at which he grows out of clothes is quite astounding, as well. only two months ago his godparents brought him some gorgeous wool socks (yes, the hand knitted type) from latvia. at the end of october they were too large. yesterday i packed them away, because they don't fit any more. shocking, but true!

speaking of gifts... we have been totally spoiled this christmas. thanks to all of you! we have been showered with 'laima chocolates' and latvian 'dzintars' products for babies, moms and dads. the favourite toy for all ages - the elephant pillow has been a massive hit. it seems that the elephant has been photographed more then kaspar himself over the past few days. i'm not sure if kaspar will even get his hands on it, because his parents and friends like it way too much! and then there is the talking caterpillar and mountains of clothes and the coolest baby sun glasses... i'm not planning to write a list, as that would be totally boring for me and even more of a bore for you...but thanks!

speaking of growing children... kaspar has outgrown his car seat. that was not supposed to happen until he was 8 months or so. he's too tall. he's already 75 cm. tall and lanky kid! we need to get the next seat a.s.a.p., which is the one that will last him until he turns four or five or something like that. but with our luck, he'll probably grow out of it by age three. anyhow. that's our next outing - a search for a car seat. (thanks to grandparents and great grandparents we have that coming as a christmas gift, as well!) i hate the thought that i'll have to lug him out of the seat every time he leaves the car. yuck. it was so much easier, when we could just carry him inside with the seat and let him wake up slowly. or being able to stick him into a cart, with the seat, and go shopping. no more! those days are over! he's starting to sit by himself. he's discovered the fun of sitting and standing, so, lying on his back is no longer considered fun. bath by itself is no longer fun, either. we now need a bath tub full of bath toys! the infant days are long gone. the baby days are coming to an end. we are getting into the toddler phase. another month from now he might be crawling. and then walking and talking and ooooohhhhhh la la.... it's all happening too fast! i'm beginning to understand the mothers and fathers, who coo over infants and say things like "they grow up so fast!" or "i can hardly remember the days when mine were this age" (even if their kids are only two!) once upon a time i thought it was all a bit of a cliche. how ignorant of me!

speaking of ignorance...i've always known that tabbouleh can be made with bulgur wheat or cous cous, but recently a friend told me she uses quinoa. i had heard about the grain, but i never really knew much about it. well, it turns out that the little known quinoa is pretty much a miracle grain. you have to read about it to believe it... and it tastes great. since i've been making all of kaspar's food from scratch, i've been able to try out different vegetables and grains and such. now i've started to mix the quinoa with vegetables for kaspar. especially the ones he does not like. for example carrots - he will not eat carrots on their own, but mixed with quinoa they go down very well. he seems to love the taste of this fine little grain! and i love the internet. especially when it comes to finding information about random things like this. how did we ever live without it? how did one remember how long the turkey needs to roast? what the weather is like in china? what the people in helsinki nightclubs wear? or what i have to ramble on about today?

this and that and nothing really

hm. is it really the 28th? it is. how is it that over the holidays the days seem to be skipping dates. i could have sworn that yesterday was boxing day. what happened to the 27th? this is a 'night shot' picture of our christmas tree. i like the mysterious night shot pics!

today it rained. any other year, having rain over christmas, would have made me feel totally ripped off. however, this year i've been welcoming the +5 temperatures on christmas eve and even the last few warm days with rain and all. it's so much easier to take a child outside, when the temperature hovers around zero. especially my child, who hates snow suits and mittens and all that jazz. and of course, i hate having to torture him and dress him before we go out. so, the less to wear, the better in my books. white christmas is overrated, anyhow. we had a whole month of gorgeous white snow. then it melted and got warm. but on christmas day we were assaulted by snow flakes the size of kaspar's fist. truly. honestly. i'm not exaggerating, either. wet large snow flakes. well, maybe calling them snow flakes is a bit much. they were more like wet flat snow balls. coming down by the millions. we were on the highway, just on our way home from a gorgeous, yet long day (especially for kaspar) with our family, when the snow began. it took us nearly two hours to get home and kaspar was not happy about it. i hate having a screaming baby strapped in a car seat and a law that won't allow me to take him out of it. if you've never experienced it, believe me, it ain't pretty!


so. today being the 28th, i can say that christmas is over, right? i'm ready for it to be over. i think we have been to four christmas dinners, four parties and met with a few friends on a more casual basis, within the space of one week. and that's after turning down a few invites and not making it to a few others... now i just want to be at home. i think our baby boy is ready for some time out, too. he's still teething, sleeping very little and feeling quite out of sorts. i would too, if it was my first christmas! if it's overwhelming for us, it must be so much more overwhelming for kaspar. i'm glad that we've been able to leave him at home once or twice with mutti. it's so good to have her around!

merry christmas everyone!

here is happy, happier and happiest....

my predictions were correct. i've had no time to write over the past few days. between all the eating and driving and partying, we barely have had time to sleep. :-) in fact, i don't really have any energy to write tonight, either.... but, i hope you are having a blissful christmas day, wherever you are. i wish you all a happy, merry, beautiful christmas and a wonderful new year!

i can smell it and taste it... it's that close

you know how some smells or foods remind you of home, or your childhood, or some other specific place? there is one thing that truly rings in christmas for me. it's baking "piparkukas" (the latvian version of ginger bread cookies). in latvian it means 'pepper cakes'. and the cookie does hold true to it's name. they're more peppery and spicy then ginger bread. i love them. especially my mom's version. but i think that every kid loves their own mom's version of "piparkukas" or "piragi" (which are another christmas thing for me. they're little bacon buns. shaped like perogies. but not boiled. baked.) this year unfortunately, my mother is in toronto and her piparkuku recipie is back home in latvia. she's borrowed a recipie from our latvian neighbour (who also has very good piparkukas!) and now has spent the last three hours trying the doe out, mixing a little of this and that. trying it out again. adding some magic potion again. and so on... i wonder how long it will take before she's satisfied. my mother is a perfectionist, in some ways at least! i've just spent the last two hours sitting in the corner of the kitchen with a glass of milk, trying a cookie from each pan, doing the taste test. helping spread the egg on the tops, before they go into the oven. i'm trying to remember the cookies from my childhood. but what i do remember is my mom and dad caramelizing sugar for her cookies. my dad being stressed out about it not being dark enough. and myself being told not to leave the chair, because hot, melted sugar is not something i would want to feel on my skin. i love those old bits of memories from long ago. just like old pictures. we recently got some old pictures of steve from his mom. they're great! the old colour schemes. yellowed backgrounds. and clothing from a whole different era. i always wonder what my pictures will be like another forty years from now?

kaspar's second tooth came in yesterday. it must have broken through over the course of the night. in the morning we were finishing our christmas cards and kaspar was sitting in my lap trying to bite the envelopes and the pen and finally he sunk his teeth into my palm. yikes. now he has two little sharp, ridged edges on the bottom of his jaw. his bites now hurt. our necks suffer. so do our hands. his own fingers do, too. but, he likes to bite more then ever. is that a sign that there are more to come?

tonight we had some friends over and kaspar opened his first christmas present. it was this awesome bowl, in the shape of a car and it makes car noises, when you touch it with a spoon or move it. i wish they would have had those when i was a kid! i remember my making car noises as the spoon apporached my little brother's mouth. and when my sister was old enough to eat, i had to do the same. what will i do with my well trained skills of making car sounds now? he's got a bowl and a spoon that does it all!!!

untitled

ok. i'm sitting here and typing and deleting and typing again and erasing again. stupid, really. wasting time. i cannot think of a title for this one. i really don't yet know what i'm going to write. so. no title.

kaspar and i have had a few action packed days. yesterday we went christmas shopping. we left dad at home and went shopping with my mom. it was hellish. the last week before christmas. i should have known it would be bad! but, we managed. and even got a few things from 'the list'. thank god, our list is quite short and most of our gifts are going to be handmade! but, i must tell you, the whole mall experience was excruciating. people wandering about like lost sheep. oh. the crowds, the mess, the air, the noise... never again. i will never again leave christmas shopping to the last week. i do say that every year, don't i? well, maybe i'll learn one of these years :-)

today i was participating in a christmas concert (no, not singing! i can't sing.) with some poetry readings and kaspar came, too. i got him all dressed up in his white dress shirt, and his red overalls and his fantastic little, leather dress shoes.
he was looking rather peachy! and for a while he kept clean, but by the end of the concert i had to take the shirt off. most of the time now his shirts have to be changed every couple of hours. yup, he's teething! well, during the concert he hung out at the back with my mom and became quite vocal when he heard my voice over the speakers. the poor lad was quite perplexed to have my voice come out at him from a speaker near his head. he kept turning around to see where i was. even from a far i could see him turning sideways trying to figure out the whole thing. funny. the world must be so confusing for a little guy! well. here is a picture of us, just before we left for the show.

and now i'm off to bed. i'm not sure how much blogging i will do over the next few days. i'm just a bit overrun with things to do - christmas busyness. you know, the usual... work parties, gift wrapping, card writing etc.

mamm, kur liela karote?

well, since the title is in latvian, i'll write in english today. for all of you, for whom translators might be hard to come by... the title means "mom, where is the big spoon?" and it comes from a well known latvian fairy tale, which, like most latvian fairy tales speaks of work as a virtue and scolds the lazy.

today was an important day - a girl from paris paid kaspar a visit. we had breakfast at 11 am, ate bagels for hours and drank cappuccinos and mimosas and kaspar was on his best behaviour!

and now he's sleeping soundly and i have a list of christmas related things to do, like wrap gifts, write cards, finish orders, call friends, make dates.... oh lala. so, i leave yoy with some pictures of kaspar and his big wooden spoon. his favourite toy of the day.

and for those of you, who have kept voting for steve's band 'elliott brood's' song 'the bridge' on national playlist at the CBC radio site. thanks so much! they are still on the list, for the fifth week in a row. wow! i'm totally impressed, as they are the only relatively unknown and new band on the list. for three weeks they were in second place (one of the weeks, only one vote seperated them from being first!) and now for the last two weeks they have held out in fourth place. so... keep those votes coming and heck, invite all your friends to vote, too!

christmas tree

here it is. his first picture with our christmas tree. he looks so serious... we were home alone, so he had no choice, but to sit in the big chair while i took this photo. more to come later...

atkal snieg. sovakar uznacis tads ists putenis. butu jaiet lauka skuret sniegu vel pirms eju gulet, bet tik loti negribas. varbut jagaida kamer steve nak majas... varbut vinam uznaks iekariens skuret? diez vai. sovakar vinam velais vakars. tas parasti nozime, ka mes vinu redzam ap kadiem 4:00, kad kaspars mostas. es varetu te sedet un verot ielu un puteni vel ilgi. izskatas jau briesmigi skaisti! viss tik balts, tik tirs, tik apputejis! sniegs man rada tadu istu ziemsvetku sajutu. neciesu svetkus bez sniega. protams, daudzas lampinas pie majam uz musu ielas jau ari piepalidz! vakar vakara mes izdekorejam egli. bija gandriz vai zel dekoret, jo soreiz egle tiesam pati tik perfekta, tik skaista, ka gandriz vai gribejas atstat tadu pat pliku. tas laikam butu tads parak ekstrems izleciens kaspara pirmajos ziemsvetkos... varbut nakosgad :-)

es sodien peksni attapos, ka ir jau 15. decembris. tik sausmigi skrien laiks. neesmu vel kartinas izsutijusi uz latviju (jaludz jau jums ieprieks piedosana, ka tas sanemsit par velu!). nav ari vel davanas sagadatas. pat liekas savadi, cik loti minimali es izjutu to tipisko ziemsvetku steigu. ja nav jaiet pa veikaliem, jabrauc ar publisko transportu, tad kaut ka tas decembra troksnis paiet garam. tik fantastiski! miers... it ka jau butu jasak uztraukties... bet...

godigi sakot, sodien man uztraukumam vairs neatlika energijas, jo kaspars ar saviem zobiem mus visus te terorizeja. ja lidz sim es sudzejos, ka vins maz gul, tad tagad vins gul vel mazak. ja lidz sim bija vins uz rokam jaaizmidzina, tad sodien vinu vispar no rokam izlaist nevareja. un tad vel ir uznakusi tadi jauni untumi, ka piemeram - jauna zoba izmeginasana uz mammas zoda. ja! vins man sodien ta iekampas zoda, ka es burtiski iekliedzos un to mazo nespetni parbaidiju tik sausmigi, ka vins pec tam nebija vairs aizmidzinams. tad vel, vins ir izdomajis, ka no 3:00 nakti lidz 5:00 no rita nav verts gulet. tas esot tas labakais laiks spelitem! vakar nakti man nekas cits neatlika, ka speleties ar vinu turpat vai divas stundas pirms vins bija atkal gatavs iet gulet. ja. nevaru sudzeties, mums patiesam iet interesanti! galvenais labi, ka mes esam te tris pieaugusie, ko vins var tramdit no rita lidz vakaram. (pareizak sakot no rita lidz nakamam ritam) ar vienu jau vinam nepietiktu! un visi tris vinu lutina, cits par citu vairak... kas bus velak? es jau lielas ceribas lieku uz jums visiem.... vasara bus laikam javed uz latviju maciba pie stingrakam tantem un onkuliem!

nu, laikam jau man bus sovakar jabeidz te dzejot. jamegina vel kadu stundu nosnaust, kamer kaspars gul. citadi, kas to lai zina vai dabusu gulet pa nakti jeb ne... es nemaz iedomaties nevaru, ka butu tagad ja mana muterite un steve nebutu seit. cik labi, ka tas laiks ir pagajis! tas nebija vieglas nedelas...

the first...

yay! he's got it! his first tooth has broken through. over the course of the night, he kept me up and i could not figure out why he wouldn't sleep. he wanted to feed every hour and kept waking up and fussing all night. by 6 am i was beside myself. steve got up to take him with the intention of letting me sleep for another hour, but how could i? how could anyone??? the crying echoed through the house and even though i was pressing one ear into the mattres and had two pillows piled on my head to drown out the noise, it wasn't gonna happen. so. i got up. took kaspar for a while. as we began playing and he did his usual 'i chew your finger' game... i noticed it. it was like a little tiny sharp razor edge on the bottom gum line. how exciting! first tooth, and he's not even 5 months, a few days shy of 5 months. i'm impressed! and feeling much better about the lack of sleep, because at least now i know the reason for my staying up all night. it makes a difference, believe me! i got out all my teething gels and drops. got the kid a bit drugged :-) and as he relaxed, we stood by the window and watched the sunrise together. the entire neighbourhood was painted pink. even the smoke from the chimneys rose pink. but, the fun didn't last. he was tired. waking up at 6 am means taking the first nap by 8am. he passed out, still quietly whimpering in his sleep... i wonder... how much does it hurt to have your teeth come in? does anyone remember that time in their lives?

we had big plans for today. we were going to attenda a funeral. yes - that can be exciting for us! it's an outing amongst adults, after all. the funeral is for a mother of a family friend, who passed away. she was a 100 years old. i'm not kidding! but, since the whole teething event has taken us by surprise, i think we will stay in. kaspar is not in much of a mood to be amongst a whole lot of people. and i think he's got a bit of a fever, too. besides, it's a good reason not to go outdoors, because the 'feels like' temperatures today have been posted in the high teens. even though in reality it's only -6 out. i'm still not much of a believer :-)

here are a couple of sunrise pictures for your viewing pleasure and kaspar, passed out at 8 am. don't you wish we all could take our first nap at 8 am? having made it to work, just after dealing with the morning traffic... it would be such a good idea. an hour long nap. i say we should lobby for it. the elections are coming up... if we cannot get the whole of canada to do it, then at the very least the city of toronto, or ontario. in latvia it should be easy to accomplish. we just have to convince vaira vike freiberga... :-)

cold, dark & snowy days

it's strange how fast the days fly by. especially at this time of the year. it's almost as though the year itself is racing us to the finish line. but in january time slows down. february, too. by the time march rolls around i always feel like winter has been here forever. like the spring will never come. and this year we have allready had an unusual amount of cold days and snow! personally, i'm almost done with winter. i would be very happy, if winter lasted until mid january and we'd have tulips blooming by mid february. however, do not misunderstand me. i do like winter. as long as it's snowy, not too cold and nice and short. so, no... i don't want to live in florida or anything like that.

sunday morning we drove out of town to get ourselves a little christmas tree. for many years we have been getting potted trees for christmas (and most years they have lived to see not only one christmas, but two!!!) it always made me feel better to be able to plant the tree in the spring, in some friend's parent's back yard. however, this year i had to come to the painful realizations that none of our planted trees have survived. they must cut too much of the root system, when potting the trees. that's my guess. so, this time we decided to go out and chop ourselves a fresh little tree from one of those tree growing places, where you walk into a field and pretty much every tree is perfect, every one is grown for the exact purpose of being butchered during the month of december and even though the landscape looks pretty, there is a certain sadness to it. indeed, on these farms, every tree is beautiful, yet, we still spent a good half hour walking around, trying to find 'the one'. it was an absolutely gorgeous day - snow falling, not too cold, just like this picture... next year, we hope to find a smaller, less commercial tree farm!

early on a sunday morning

i cannot figure out this blog posting to save my life. no, i have not read the help pages, so i truly should not be allowed to complain. but. but... the pictures in the last blog looked so crappy. i think i will have to learn how to use html - the mumbo jumbo of letters, forward slashes and brackets.

thanks to a certain someone, we woke up bright and early. 6:20 am. still dark out. boy, to think that i used to complain about having to get up at 8 am for work! now, days when we might sleep until 8 or 9 are extremely rare. they usually follow nights of no sleep. this morning we managed to play hide and seek in bed for a good 45 minutes. (steve must have been going crazy, as he only came to bed at 3am) by now, i've had two cups of good strong coffee and am feeling much better about life :-)

yesterday we spent the day milling about and receiving guests. the open house was a great success. we all sold some stuff and by the end of the day were feeling quite happy and intoxicated. i'm sure it had nothing to do with the mulled wine we sipped throughout the day. tania and paul kicked around for a bit longer, while we got the fireplace going, only for the second time since moving into this house. it's awesome. there is nothing like it! having a real fire going in a house on a wintry evening is absolutely blissful. especially coupled with some good old gram parsons.

posted pictures: first is a pic of tania love's gorgeous silk pillows and skirts on our couch. they did look marvelous in my living room. too bad i cannot keep the rest!(got to brag that my mom made that 5 seater couch for us in one day on and old frame we pulled off the curb on garbage day! we love it!!!) the second is a pic of tania howell's birds. my favourite illustrations of hers! she's applying for a birdwatching grant in latvia (as of yesterday)! we might need some volunteer guides and translators :-) !
the third is a (bad quality!) little shot of my newest line of jewellery. yes. i've gone colour crazy! if i could have found coloured stones, i would have used them, but for now it's enamel. enameling in the middle of the night. and the last, but not the least... kaspars. i swear he was trying to learn to whistle. you know, that loud two finger whistle, like the guys in the ballpark do it? unfortunately it's an art i have not mastered. i was no good as a teacher. however, i'll proudly point out that after a half hour of messing around, i've taught myself enough html to post pictures, where i want them to appear. and the right size, too! hope y'all appreciate my efforts! and now we're off to the tree farm. while the snow is falling and kaspar is happy, and steve is not working, we're off to chop a little tree down for ourselves. we'll keep you posted!