A Moment to Take Stock

Where life is right now for me...

1. Beginning my process of a new One Little Word for the year.  This year it will be Present.  I am still percolating on the why and how and what, but it feels good.  So far it feels calmer.  Doing less, paying more attention.  This could also be because I'm sick and can't get my body or brain to do much other than observe, but it is a good place to start.

2. Horseback riding: I wanted to do some lessons after a wonderful fall trail ride with my students at Timberline Ranch, and the time was just right.  Every Monday in January for an hour.  Fun and hard work, for both brain (coordination) and body (my inner thighs are getting strong, baby!)

3. Clothing: Since September I have been taking the time to dress nicer, buy more professional, yet casual clothing and actually wear it...with jewelry, some scarves and occasionally makeup too!  I am working on the art of layering as my body is often cold but my classroom is warm.  I have received nice comments at work, so it is fun that others are noticing as well.

4. Catching up with friends.  In August I went to Montreal for a McGill field hockey reunion.  I spent most of my time with Matthew and an old teammate and new friend, Carolyn.  Last week we finally connected again for dinner at her place in North Vancouver.  I look forward to hanging out more!

5.  Nursing my fingers.  Last week at basketball I jammed two fingers on my right hand.  A week later, and a doctor visit and xray later, the swelling is down and the fingers are almost straight.  They are still fairly bruised and I can't bend them properly yet, but at least the tape is off and I can move them better.  No ball for a while, but I'm going to retape them and hope for the best this Thursday at Whistler.

6.  Snowboarding.  This week brings the beginning of our annual Grade Five Ski Program up at Whistler.  We take the students up three times over the next month, where they get lessons and we attach a pager and spend the days going leisurely between boarding/skiing and eating.  They are rough days at work, I tell you!

7.  Appreciating Kai's reading.  Kai is devouring books these days.  He can't get enough.  On the weekend I read to him for about 1 1/2 hours straight while Marc and his parents had a nap.  I had to stop as I was sick and my throat couldn't take any more, but he could have kept going for a long time.  I feel so lucky to have slowed down enough that I could spend this wonderful quiet time with him, learning from books and about my son.

8.  Sleeping.  Perhaps I'm in a holiday routine still.  Perhaps I need it. Whatever the case, I seem to be in bed early every night and I am really enjoying it.  I try to listen to an audiobook, but more often than not I wake up an hour into the book to turn it off and go back to sleep...aaahhh, hibernation.

Kai: 3 years, 3 months

Okay, so two and three (so far) have not been as tough as I had been warned. <insert 'knock on wood' here>  Yes, he is stubborn, willful and can occasionally scream, hit and throw things.  Aren't these things we all want to do from time to time?  However, more often than not, Kai is laughing, playing pranks, entertaining anyone who will watch and listen to him, and giving hugs and kisses.  A sweet boy.  Here are some of things he is up to lately:

1.  playing 'money': this has emerged just in the past week.  We dump out a pile of change of all denominations on my yoga mat.  Kai sits on one side with a good number of his Hot Wheels cars lined up nearby.  We take turns buying and selling these cars.  It goes something like this - "Would you like to buy a car?"
"How much is the red one?"
 "Two nickels."
"The one with the beaver?"
"Yes."
Customer counts out money, gives to seller.  Money gets put in the 'bank'. Car given to buyer.  Change roles.  This goes on for a LONG time.  SO much fun!

2. Is beginning to be interested in letters for the first time, and understanding that they make words.  He is working on writing his name by tracing dotted lines, and likes to type names of people he knows on  my computer.

3. Playdate obsessed! Every day he wants a play date, even as we get in the car right after a playdate!

4. Pretends to be a puppy.  Wants us to throw a ball, and he will chase it on his hands and knees, pick it up with his mouth and drop it for us.

5. Mimicking phrases we use.  Recent favourites are "That's the deal!" and "First things first."

6. Growing so fast.  He is getting taller and thinner by the minute.  He has gone from size 3 to size 4 pants in what seems like a few months.  We still have to roll up the 4s, but 3s barely fit...crazy.

7. Finally he is falling asleep by himself at night.  We bring him up, read him a book, kiss him good night and turn out the light.  He likes us to check on him 'in 5 minutes', but mostly he doesn't need us to.  Very exciting!

8.  He is painting objects more often now and tells me what they are. Although what they are is not always obvious, when he tells me what they are, the colour and shape make sense.  He really likes trees and the sun.

9. He often gets up in the morning by himself, and if he's not coming to crawl into bed with us, he gets himself fully dressed.  Then he decides what he wants for breakfast and we pack most of it into a bag for him, as he wants to eat at daycare like Lukas.

10. Again, every time I write, it seems like his stories are getting more and more elaborate.  He is always telling a story, mixing what has really happened with something he saw on a video or heard about once.  Very funny kid.  We love you, buddy!

Desires List: Christmas Gift Ideas

In my family, Christmas has always been a big deal.  Not for the religious meanings, or the gift giving, but for the traditions.  We love gathering, and Christmas is always a season of fun and celebration for us, especially as we are all teachers in some form, so have some extended break over the holiday season.  With marriages and children, our family keeps getting bigger and as a result, our big gathering is every second year.  This is that year.

Over the past few years, again due to the enlarging family size (as you can see above), we have begun to draw names so the siblings and spouses are assigned two others for whom to buy gifts.  One year, we made gifts. Fun and interesting to find where everyone's talent is, but apparently not a tradition worth carrying forward in the eyes of the majority.  So, this year we picked names, but also a letter of the alphabet.  The gifts we purchase must begin with that letter.  The good part is that we pulled letters and names on Thanksgiving weekend.  The bad part is the letter I pulled.  I can only imagine that everyone else pulled equally challenging letter, so I am going to save them a headache by writing a list.  Okay, we have always written lists, but this one will be longer and start with a greater variety of letters.  In fact, as a personal challenge, I will attempt to write one idea for each letter of the alphabet.  Some may think this is overkill, or perhaps a bit greedy, but I know from my birthday experience this year that my family actually reads my desires list and buys gifts from it, so I would like to think that I'm simply giving them some options.  Here goes:

A- afternoon tea (like we did for my birthday a few years ago) with you!
B- baking sheet(thank you, Ute); books
C- Chapter's - love everything in the store; canvases, any size for painting
D- date night babysitter...this could start with the letter of the month you can do it
E- big elastics for my hair
F- Fluevogs (just dreaming here)
G- gift certificate of any kind
H- horseback riding lesson(s) (thank you me!), homemade anything, especially Christmas decorations
I- iPod connector so I can listen to it in the car - we don't have a tape or CD player (thank you Derran)
J- jewelry of any kind - earrings, long necklaces, bracelets
K- knitting paraphernalia
L- lasagne pan (deep, big) (thank you Kel and Mom and Dad); loose tea
M- magazine subscription (Canadian Living? Canadian Family?), tea mug for travel (thank you Savanna)
N- nice silk scarf to keep me warm and fashionable :)
O- opportunity to do something off your desires list with you
P- paragliding; pashmina - black; pregnant Paverpol statue
Q- quilting class at Spool of Thread
R- recipes, your favourites; rubber scoop for slow cooker; anything from R & W Co.; rotary cutter (sewing)
S- stove top kettle, silver clip barrettes to hold my hair during basketball; self-healing cutting mat (table size)
T- tickets to a Premier League or World Cup soccer game (not serious as a gift, just as a desire)
U- unique (not necessarily new) story from our childhood, written down for posterity
V- vin rouge
W- Wimbledon tickets (okay, again not realistic, but had to write it down); weekly menu pad for the fridge (thank you Kyle, Ryan and Odette); water bottle for the car
X- exciting night out...remember, it's the night out, not that activity that is exciting! (our rules didn't specify the letter had to be at the beginning of the word, did they?)
Y- yarn
Z- zzzzz...yes, if you could figure out how to get me more sleep ins, it would be a gift indeed

Books to Read: