holidays

We just returned (well, just about, at the beginning of the week) from a little holiday in Victoria BC. What an awesome holiday. I'd love to write more, but I'm so bogged down by work I've missed during the holidays that I cannot go into details. However, the KIDS LOVED IT!!! And we miss Grandma and Grandpa EVERY day! Thanks for all the sleep! Thanks for all the time I had to read my books! Thanks for all the nature walks! Thanks for getting us to come out there on the beautiful month of May!!! Holidays are just blissful....

easter morning

Easter. Oh what a day we had! Even Mr. Grumpy Morning jumped out of bed at the crack of dawn. The first mumbling sounds of of his (usually very unhappy morning self, but somehow just delirious this morning) mouth were: "Was the Easter bunny here?" I think my kids wait for the Easter bunny with just about as much excitement as they do for Santa. And we're very lucky to not just have an Easter bunny visit the house, but our entire street of 30-some kids go out for an egg hunt on Easter morning, and it lasts the length of the whole block! We also painted Easter eggs the night before and despite ending up with a few of them on the floor, between the three of us, we managed to get through a whole two douzen of them. And best of all, we actually made it to church for 6.30 am for the Easter morning service. Ok, I do have to admit that we were about 10 minutes late... but we made it!

weather forecast by the hour

Weather forecasts... I mean hard core, hourly, wind, temperature, humidity etc. the whole nine yards. I look at them daily, even several times a day. Even Kaspar has learned to go over to the computer before he leaves the house in the morning and look up weather to know if he needs and umbrella or gloves along for the day. I've forgotten the days when such forecasts did not exist. I've forgotten to look outside and try to read the signs. I've forgotten how to live without internet... because the weather forecast just makes life with kids so much easier. Strange to think that there used to be a life, even just about ten years back, when I was not always connected to the internet. When the map to the farm had to be looked up in a map book. When the weather was judged by a thermometer outside my window and the lack (or not) of clouds in the sky. When I called people instead of texting or emailing. When I met people for coffee after work instead of meeting them on Facebook. I wonder what life will be like for my kids, when they're twenty, thirty, forty... I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter week-end!

hard to believe

A couple of days ago my five year old brings me a box of chess pieces and says: "I know this is a game and I know it has rules. Can you teach me to play it?" I was reluctant. I tried the good old: "It's really a game for older kids, even adults. I don't think you can play it yet." And when that did not work, I tried the "It's a very, very hard game to learn..." And when he still persisted, I have to admit (with shame!) that I even tried to buy him off with "wouldn't you rather watch a movie?" But he was persistent! We sat down and talked about the rules. We played a few trial games. And I still had a hard time believing that he will remember the rules and be able to play. But some four days have passed now and believe it or not, my kid is playing chess! We have not turned the TV on in days. There is no more pleading requests for video games... The only game he is interested in playing is chess. He is even willing to teach Stella and patient enough to guide her through a game that she, most certainly, does not yet grasp. But she is learning, too. I'm just so very amazed! He's not good at it yet. No, no.... I'm not suggesting it's some super natural talent or some chess genius kind of a situation. But I'm just amazed that he understand the game on a basic level and has the patience to sit there and figure out, slowly and meticulously what moves he can make next and what moves I will make. If he continues like this, he might very well get very good at it, I bet!

spring... there is nothing else like it

Yes. Spring is finally upon us. I have been waiting for it... of I have. And so have the kids. Kaspar actually had a "countdown". He literally was counting the days and the hours to the 7.21 pm on the first day of spring. You can imagine how brutally unhappy he was when we woke up to snow the next morning. :-)

Speaking of counting the days... a few nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night to some noise and discovered my sleepy son, walking around the house turning the lights on and mumbling something about having to check if things are still there... and then "I cannot tell you about it" and a little later "it has to be a surprise". He seemed really upset that I was there and it made no sense to me whatsoever.

It took me a few minutes, but I convinced him to come back to bed with me and cuddle. We needed to get back to sleep. It was only 3.45 am, after all!

Unfortunately for me, this is not where the story ends. Kaspar was wide awake (unlike me) and kept asking bizarre questions. Like "what day is it today?" and "if yesterday was seven days till a special day, then tonight, is it six days already till that day?" and so on... I was so sleepy that it took me a moment longer then usual to decipher the line of questioning. It turned out that he is counting down to my birthday. And once I figured that out all the rest of the pieces fell into place. He had been checking on the "secret place" of the "secret birthday gift" that he and daddy had bought and hid before daddy left for his tour. He still checks on it once in a while and makes me go upstairs to his room and close my eyes while he does it, but I did get him to promise me that he will not go checking on it in the middle of the night. He laughed very hard, when I told him that "birhday gifts cannot grow legs in the middle of the night and run away from their hiding spots." At 4.45 am we were still laughing... both of us!

compartments

In my studio again at 4am. The picture was actually taken by a super awesome photographer friend of mine Christina (this is her site!) and of course she was not here at 4am. But it was my studio after me having spent the entire night cleaning it up... until 4am the previous night. At 4am I finally gave up :-)

This morning Kaspar woke up, once again, in a bad mood. I swear, he's just NOT a morning person. I can relate, because neither am I. I used to hate having to wake up in the mornings, yet, I would have gladly work well into the night, if I could. That is, until my children turned me into A MORNING PERSON against my continuing PROTESTS and despite my refusal to get up before 7.30 am to feed anyone anything, let alone cook a hot pot of breakfast. Forget it! Eventually I caved. It's just as unbearable listening to whining children in the morning, as it is to cook that pot of oatmeal. Besides, I've pretty much learned to do it with my eyes shut. However, this morning I had this feeling that the "having to go school" issue was a bigger problem then usual. We talked about it. We talked about kids that can be mean. (Oh thatš a hard thing to talk about...) We hugged a lot. And got through the busy morning without a full blown temper tantrum on either front. I consider myself lucky, when we can manage mornings like this. Especially when it happens after Steve having had several nights of "late work" at the Gladstone and myself having had to do a few "all-night-ers" in the studio myself. Yup, life gets complicated, when you try to combine parenthood & job & art & career & money & classes for kids. It helps to keep lists. I find myself becoming a bit of a frantic "compartmentalizer". I know, I know... it's not a word, is it? But it helps to be one, if you need to somehow keep things organized on the go. I'm still flying by the seat of my pants...

patience

Patience in the world of "parenting" is way underrated! I will be the first to admit, that I AM NOT the most patient person, but I always believed that I have enough to get by... that is until my kids came along. The patience it takes to be calm, when a five year old keeps saying: "NO! I am not going to listen!" ~ on boy!

I often wonder how my parents did it? I know my grandmother would have simple given me a spanking for speaking like that, but my parents were never ones to slap or spank me. And I have never considered spanking a viable option in parenting, except that at times like this, when your patience is tested again and again, and again, and again... I find myself closing my eyes and counting to ten (that is what I usually teach Kaspar to do when he gets angry :-), because it sure makes me want to slap my kid on the bottom.

Oh, I was going to complain about the colouring agents they add to kiddie foods & candies and juices. Thus the picture with the green tongue. But we'll have to leave that for a later post... I have to get to work!

fashion

Our mornings are becoming more and more complicated and time consuming it seems. If Kaspar might wake up a little grumpy, then getting him into some sort of clothes is relatively easy. I grab a t-shirt, jeans and hoodie and away we go. Stella on the other hand is a diva in making. She wakes up jolly, but it's enough for me to even suggest she wear the pink underwear or the green socks to get her nose out of joint. SHE HAS TO PICK OUT HER OWN CLOTHES ~
Some days picking out the colour of underwear or socks can take up to 10 minutes. In my frustration I've considered buying ONLY white underwear from now or some other just as drastic a measure. Then comes the dress v/s pants issue. Another 10 minutes. There have been days where she's in tears, on the floor, because I refuse to let her wear a summer dress without anything else under it. To her it does not seem to matter that it's -15 celsius outside. Ha! You wouldn't believe the time it takes for this little "princess on the pea" to get dressed and the patience it requires, the patience, patience, patience... I'm struggling with that myself. She does come up with some crazy outfits, too! The one in the picture is one of her best. But some have been just hideous. Occasionally I wonder what the caregivers at daycare think about her style of dress. Maybe they blame it all on the parents... What parents have to live with. Uhg.

taking pictures

If you want to know what these two are like, just look at these pictures taken on picture day at Latvian school. I love it! I get five goofy ones of Kaspar and five, pretty much all the same, shy, sweet, slight smile ones of Stella. So typical...

How many years before they learn to write? And how many before they stop writing you love notes? I received this no from Kaspars, shortly after Valentines day. Heartbreak :-) He is so proud to be able to write, even though at times it takes all my imagination to try and figure out what he has spelled (like the second and fourth line ~ I really do!) I love getting them from him. He's been writing me little notes and putting them in my bag or my pockets for me to find. It's the sweetest gesture and puts a smile on my face every time. It amazes me how thoughtful a 5 year old can be!