bambi saves the day

Last night was one of those "walkabout" nights. You know, like that movie about the Australian aboriginal boy made sometime in the seventies, where he walks and walks and walks. That was me last night. It was a good thing I actually went to bed at a reasonable hour myself. It gave me a solid hour of sleep before it all began.

Stella has begun teething, I think. She’s a bit more cranky then usual, keeps biting my hand and at times both of her own fists are in her mouth being chewed and sucked at the same time. She’s got rosy cheeks and a drippy nose and is not interested in sleeping much. Personally, I think she was awake most of the night. But that’s probably because I’m tired and cranky, too. I’m sure it wasn’t all that bad, but I did have to do the walking back and forth from one corned of th room to the other for several half hour intervals, several times during the course of the night. However, it’s understandable. Teething must be a real nuisance!

On the other hand – Kaspar’s reasons for waking me up a whole five times during the course of the night are not so clear. There was the "I had a bad dream, mommy!" then there was the "Do you want to be Stella? I’ll be Sam… ok?" and my exasperated reply of - "NO! NO! NO! It’s night and people sleep at night. Even Sam and Stella sleep at night." But my oldest is not so easily convinced. Even in the middle of the night he an come up with a reply that throws me a curve ball. He said something along the lines of Stella and Sam not being real people, and people in the books stay awake all night and all day. And then to top it all off, he tried to convince me to turn the light, so that he could prove to me that Stella and Sam are still out playing with the snow, even though it is night for us. Of course, I was not going to fall for it. But I did set myself up for it… didn’t I?

Well, this morning Bambi saved the day. I know that once upon a time I blurted out the words: "I’d never have a TV babysitting my kids!" But that was before I had any. And I guess it’s just a good lesson for me – never say never! This morning at 6:15 while I was trying to make myself a cup of coffee, feed the kids and get them dressed and all the rest of the jazz that comes along with the morning… Kaspar was quietly and happily watching Bambi in his pyjamas. C’est la vie!

Sam & Stella

When Stella was born, many of our friends considered it their duty to introduce her to the other Stella – Stella, Princess of the Sky; the Forest, the Snow etc. I immediately fell in love with the books, because of the gorgeous drawings and the quirky, sweet dialogue. Of course, since Stella is a little young to be reading just yet, the books ended up on Kaspar’s book shelf. And believe me, when I say it’s a big book shelf with a lot of books in English, Latvian and French!!! So, it was no surprise that it took Kaspar a few months before he discovered his true love of Stella and Sam. But ever since that first day, when "Goodnight Sam" was read to him at the very least twenty times over the course of twelve hours, Stella and Sam have become a part of our every day, friends of a sort.

Occasionally Kaspar will catch me by total surprise… "Stella, are you sleeping?" I’ll hear a faint whisper of a question behind my back while I’m folding the laundry. "Yes, Sam! Aren’t you sleeping?", is supposed to be my answer. However, sometimes I’ll stray off course and Kaspar will go back to his normal voice and scalding me a little, firmly reminding me of my lines in the play. He’s managed to memorize the dialogue from every one of those Stella and Sam books and we can spend hours pretending to be Stella (me, of course) and Sam (Kaspar) chasing snow flakes, listening to frogs snore or trying to find Fred (Sam’s dog), who tends to be a chameleon like creture in our house - taking on the visual appearance of a stuffed rabbit one day, a cat rattle another and sometimes he’s just an orange on the kitchen table. It’s not easy keeping up with the imagination of a two year old!

Today I finally went to our local Library and took out a library card for Kaspar. We’ve gone there before, but rarely have we signed books out. We usually go and just spend some time reading and looking at stuff before going back home again. Today we found the only Stella and Sam book that we don’t own and Kaspar just had to have it! I had one happy child on my hands. We read and read and read and read and read and read the book front to back several times. He took the book to bed with him so that "we can read it tomorrow morning again, mommy, ok?". And as he was beginning to drift off to sleep, he started another Sam & Stella dialogue with me… only this time I was not prepared and a little caught by surprise and I could not remember exactly what it was that the polar bears ate with the snow for breakfast. Oh man! I caused the biggest meltdown on this side of the universe. It took me no less then an hour to calm him down. I had to read the story one more time and cross my heart and promise to learn the lines tomorrow. Thank God the real Stella was a good little camper and slept through the entire ordeal.

Sadly, I don’t think he still understands the concept of having to return the books to the library. I’ll have to deal with that one of these days. Uh… leave it ‘till next week, I think.

good days and bad

You know how sometimes work can be the kind of a place, where you can have good days and bad days. Well. I'm finding that taking care of my home and two kids is sort of like that, too. Children can almost be compared to co-workers, co-inhabitor's of the same functioning universe. Except that there is no time away from them. They are the co-workers you room with, sleep with, work with, eat with... they are always there!!! They can be the best thing to have around one day and then the next day they can just be the biggest pain. They can be totally logical and then totally illogical the next minute. Perdictable and under controll yet also creators of inexplicable chaoss and cause for complete loss of all controll. They are the one thing in your life you love so much that you have a hard time explaining it to anyone else (except for another parent, perhaps?) yet you cannot wait to have a few hours all to yourself at the end of the day. Extreme joy as well as work, work... work. It all can be so demanding that you dont know how to find more time in the day and also such a relief of your stress that you wonder how you ever lived without them... talk about "catch 22". Hmmm. Today was good day! p.s. Stella has turned white! Yeah, it only took a couple of months. My kids are from the same father after all. Ha. Really bad case of baby jaundice? Maybe!

what's wrong?

What's wrong with this picture? If you can guess, you'll have a chance of winning ... ok, ok. There is no winners here. Yes! It's snowing again. I wish I could say it's raining cats and dogs, because I just love that nutty saying. But it looks more like it's snowing cats and dogs. What’s wrong with the world? It’s March! Easter is two weeks away. It just should not be like this. No, no, no!!!!!

look who's growing up

The baby days pass so quickly. I had forgotten how quickly. Stella is starting to grow out of that little baby stage and she's not even three months old yet. She has stopped sleeping all day and night long and is much more of a handful during the day. (Lucky me!) But she's also a lot more interactive and Kaspar totally appreciates that. She responds to all sorts of facial expressions, smiles back, giggles and talks back in full sentences. Yeah, right! Full sentences in baby language, I mean. The ghoo, ghoo, ghaa, ghaa kind of stuff. And she loves "tummy time"! I remember the first few weeks, when Kaspar was placed on his tummy... he despised it. He'd start to cry even before he was put down, in anticipation. Not this chick! She loves sleeping and hanging out on her belly. And she has this amazing little body that's able to bend into a letter C while she's on her belly. It's so cool! The legs go up, the head comes way up... It's amazing what babies are capable of. I could not last for more then a few seconds lying like that.

mommy in a baloon

Just in case you were wondering what I look like, when I'm stuck in a balloon ... This is the great little drawing done by my two and a half year old. Unfortunately, whenever he does do a cool drawing, like this one, he also likes to take the largest marker and "colour it in". Which really means just scribbling over the drawing again and again and again until there is no trace of the original object dawn. So, I'm thankful for my digital camera, which allows me occasionally to capture one of these great little pictures before the get coloured in.

garbage man

A few weeks ago Kaspar got a new pair of gloves and instantly they were named "garbage gloves". Indeed, we have a house full of "garbage gloves", "garbage jackets", "garbage boots", "garbage pants", "garbage bags", "garbage trucks", "garbage hats", "garbage sunglasses"... And Kaspar constantly plays the garbage man, sorting not only the recycling, but also emptying out the garbage cans, putting his sister's diapers into the compost bin and taking the bags to the garage. The only toy he plays with every singe day is his garbage truck. The constant questions during the day have to do with: "Is that garbage or recycling?" and "Can I put this in the garbage?" and "When is Roger coming next?" We even eat breakfast in the mornings for our garbage man Roger and list every detail of his truck for every spoonful of oatmeal. The most important day of the week is Wednesday. If you guessed that it's garbage day, you're right, of course. Yes. Wednesday is garbage day. Wednesday is Kaspar's favourite day. On Wednesday we have to get dressed and be ready to jump up and run outside to meet Roger, no matter what the weather is like. And God forbid we get out walking on Bloor street, while he's wearing his "garbage gloves". Then he pretty much takes on the role of Roger and even attempts to introduce himself as Roger to complete strangers. As if anybody else knows or cares who Roger is. But Kaspar does not care. Roger is his hero. A picture of Roger and his truck is framed and placed among family and friends on Kaspar's special wall. It has taken me months to convince my child not to pick up all the garbage on the street. But he only began to listen to me, when I explained that Roger does not pick up garbage that's not in garbage cans, either. So far we've all taken all this with a grain of salt and most times we play along with him, but I sometimes wonder how long this obsession will last? I really have no interest in garbage, myself.

stella

This chick really likes the outdoors. If I get her into a stroller and sleeping, she can easily sleep outdoors for a good three hour stretch. I cannot wait until the temperature outdoors gets a little more friendly...
A lot of parents feel that their kids sleep better while in a stroller, but it usually has to do with the movement, while they are being gently rocked in the moving carriage. Stella sleeps well as long as her nose is out of the blankets and breathing the fresh, crisp air. She does not need to keep moving. It's awesome!
She also has great wardrobe for the outdoors - literally dozens of different hats! My kids are the lucky recipients of hats not only from my own childhood, their friends, cousins, but also brand new styles, shapes and colours from grandma, oma, the other oma and my good friend Tania (she's super crafty and makes not only wearables, but also customized knit teddy bears which are absolutely stunning!) Bu that's a subject for another day. Admittedly, I'm a bit of a hat collector myself, so, it's only fitting that my kids have a whole drawer full of hats, is it not? It's just sad that they grow out of these adorable clothes and hats too fast. Way too fast!

no more snow!

This morning I took my cup of coffee and turned on the radio to a blaring: "expect another ten to fifteen centimeters by the end of..." What the f*&#??? We've had so much of the white stuff this winter! Enough allready! I truly felt frustrated. Almost on the verge of tears. Angry tears. I'm so done with winter. Done. Finished. Sick of it. And even if the weather is cooperating and the days are sunny and relatively mild and nights crisp and pretty in the moonlight... It will not convince me to like the winter. No more!!! If this was December, I might feel differently, I suppose. I admit that I do not usualy sniff at the prospect of a white Christmas. But a white Easter is another thing entirely. All this talk of snow was especially shocking today, because yesterday was the first day I could smell a hint of spring in the air. You know that bit of a muddy, humid, sunny smell.... when the snow is melting and the trees seem to be warming up to the idea of green and the sun is warm... I need spring!

keep it up

Well, Stella has found her fist. Before I had kids I thought that was some sort of an inside joke, when very excited mothers said - my baby just found her fist! But it turns out to be very true. For the first month or two of their lives little babies are just moving their arms without ever knowing how to control them. And then one day, all of a sudden they find the fist and from that moment on, more often then not, the fist ends up being in their mouth. Stella has just hit that stage. She also “coooos’ and “aaahs” and makes all sorts of other sounds with her lips. Kaspar tries to tell her to say “da-da”. I’m not quite sure, but I think it has to do with a cartoon, where some bear or raccoon baby is being taught to say da-da. I cannot keep up with the stuff he learns from cartoons. I know I should, but I’ve lost track. Today he said something about “wonder pets” and I was totally lost. It turns out that he’s seen a show about wonder pets on TV. Go figure! And they say that it’s hard for parents to keep up with their teenagers. Gosh! What am I going to do, when he hits the teens????