What am I?

A few months ago out of the blue Lauren asked, "What am I?"

"What do you mean?" I replied, as I wasn't sure what sort of answer she was expecting. Tall, short, hot, cold, Peter Pan, Cinderella, bunny rabbit, puppy dog. The answer could be anything depending on the circumstance or whatever game is being played.

"Well, Rachel* is Jewish, Max* is Ethiopian. What am I?"

"Oooh... right." I thought out  loud. I knew this question would come along one day and have yet to come up with a simple answer.

"Well, you were born in Canada like me and Daddy, so you're mostly Canadian. But... (then I took a deep breath) Grandma Mary is from Africa, Grandpa Philip was from England, Grandma Bernadette is from Haiti and Grandpa Fred was from Haiti and France, so you're from all over the world!"

I didn't even bother mentioning that Grandma Mary's mother was from Angola and her family was originally from Portugal. And Grandma Mary's paternal grandfather who was from England sailed to Bermuda and married a Bermudian and they both settled in Sierra Leone. And that Grandpa Philip had a wee bit o' Irish in him too.

What I got in return was a blank stare, followed by, "Oh." And then she went off to do something else somewhere else.

I'm not sure she processed anything at all of what I said. She's still working on sorting out that we live in Toronto, which is a city in Ontario, which is a province in Canada. Never mind having any concept of where in the world Haiti or England is.

I will never come up with a simple answer, but what I can do with Lauren is spend time looking at family photographs and maps and reading about all the different countries that our family tree has branched out to. Hopefully she will someday realize that what she is, is pretty lucky to have such a rich and diverse family history.



*Real people, but not their real names!

Now we are friends

I like being out and about with Lauren. She often has interesting encounters with the people we meet.

Last week we walked into the neighbourhood dollar store and were greeted by the woman behind the counter.

"Hello!" She said.

"Hello!" Lauren and I replied.

I was already off down the aisle looking for what I needed, but Lauren, who was trailing behind, got a follow up question.

"How are you?"

"I'm good... and you?" Lauren asked in return.

"I'm good, thank you."

A few moments later I had what I needed so we made our way back to the counter to pay for it. In that short time Lauren must have determined that the woman was friendly and receptive because she held up her cupped hands.

"Ooohh, what do you have there?" The woman asked.

"A snail I found!" There's a particular spot along our route home from school where snails like to gather on a rainy day. On this day Lauren picked one up to bring home.

"Wow, that's a nice one! I think I have a little bag that you can carry it in."

She then took Lauren's snail and put it in a tiny baggy. A grin from ear to ear grew on Lauren's face .

"What's your name?" Asked the woman.

"Lauren."

"I am Suraiya." She held out her hand for Lauren to shake. "Now we are friends."

Baby girl walking

Claire is walking!

She has been taking two and three steps at a time only every once in a while, for a few weeks now, but this weekend she was stepping further along and much more frequently.

The steps are slow and steady, but she's definitely gaining momentum.  

Miseria per dentem crepitus -or- misery caused by tooth explosion -or- teething sucks

Poor Claire. For the past week or so she has been experiencing what I call miseria per dentem crepitus,  or misery caused by tooth explosion. Yes, teething has been so bad I thought the experience deserved Latin recognition.

She handled the front teeth pretty well, but now the molars are pushing up (top and bottom) and there have been tears. Lots of them. And clinginess and not much sleep. The worst night so far was Friday. After hours of her flopping around restlessly in my bed I handed her over to C at 3am so I could get some sleep. What he was doing still awake, who knows, but apparently she stayed up and fussed with him for another two and a half hours before crashing finally. C caught up on his sleep after that.

We're trying a few different relief methods to ease the pain, but they only work for so long. Wait it out seems to be the only thing left to do. Hopefully the worst is over and the wait won't be much longer.

Never-ending laundry

There are three baskets of clean laundry on the floor of my bedroom. Sometimes there are two baskets, sometimes one.

We used to be on top of the chore of folding and putting stuff away, but we've been slipping. Now some stuff gets pulled from the basket onto the bed. Some folding happens, but mostly not, then hours later gets put back in the basket and onto the floor.

The priority these days is for the clothing to be clean. What happens to it afterwards and where it ends up isn't much of a concern anymore.

We'll get back on track again, one day.

Let the rivalry begin

I knew Lauren would have feelings of jealousy with a new sibling around, but it never occurred to me that Claire would feel jealous too, at least not for a few more years that is.

I noticed it first last weekend when I was playing with the girls in their bedroom. I was bouncing Lauren on my legs when Claire noticed and stopped what she was doing. She came to me and swung her leg around my waist and over Lauren's head, then wiggled her way between us and wrapped her arms around my neck.

Today while Claire was in her high chair eating dinner, Lauren came to me for hugs which prompted Claire to screamed in anger. Lauren walked away for a minute or so, came back for another hug and Claire screamed again.

Again after dinner Lauren got up on my lap while I was holding Claire. More screaming from Claire.

With development comes awareness, and Claire is becoming very aware that her Mummy has the nerve to spend precious time with the other kid in the house.

I'm not sure what to do about this except to let this phase run it's course. My dread, however, is that this phase will last for years.

Biking in the rain

It rained and poured and was windy and I got soaked.

That was the ride home today. I had a feeling there would be rain, but hoped it would clear by 4:15. Instead it cleared at around 5:15 when I was home again and peeling the wet clothes off and putting dry clothes on before hopping into the car to get Claire and Lauren from daycare.

The good thing about a challenging situation and coming out ok is that I know I can handle it next time. I did get wet, but I didn't melt!