I've heard it's not uncommon for 3 and 4-year-old girls to have imaginary friends. My Sophia always has many imaginary friends, students, children, animals...depending on who she is pretending to be at the time. This week, she has an imaginary husband. and they have 5 children. Apparently his name is Jared, and they live at number 1 Paint street. The story has been building all week. They have dramas, they have excitement, They have emotions and solve problem. Sophie makes them all dinner and teaches them things. Today's episode went something like this:
"Hi there, yes, we should catch up sometime. But right now I have to dance and spin. I can't run or jump or walk, just spin. And I have to teach my students to do ballet dancing. But I only teach them on Sundays. Sundays and Thursdays and Wednesdays, that's when I teach them. But I have to go back in time, to my husband, he's at the hairdresser's, with all the kids. I have to go back there in time so I can see Jared and my kids, cause they're just waiting for me, and they miss me. But next week we're going to ABC street - that's not too far from you're house! So we should catch up again sometime!"
Those are just a few of the bits I can remember. She's still going on... she makes me smile.
And last week, Dan and I are sitting on the couch one evening. We have some of Sophie's favourite music on for her, and she's dancing. We watch with delight (and maybe with just a few snickers). She spins, she kicks, she does fancy footwork, she wiggles her hips! We are as impressed as parents of a happy, creative 3-and-a-half-year-old should be. I ask her, "Sophie, where do you get all your good ideas for dances? Have you seen some of those dance moves on tv, or at school (daycare)?" She stands still, with one hand on her hip, and the other raised with a pointed finger. Her brow furrows. She has her Take-Me-Seriously face on. "Well," She says, "Jesus gives me dancing. He just sends me dances, because he knows I like dancing, and he likes me SOOO much...he just keeps sending me more dances, and then I dance for Jesus, and it makes me happy!"
So, my heart's desier...one of them: that my children would grow up curious, confident, happy, kind, healthy. Able to accept and recognise healthy love, and able to give it. Eager to create and learn and always wondering, asking questions, thinking what if. I get glimpses of some of those things, setting themselves up in her even now. Those moments are my greatest joys.
She says to me "Mama, I've decided, when I grow up, I don't want to live in America. Cause I don't want to live far away from you and Daddy. I'll miss you when I don't live in your house anymore. But I'll have my own house, and I won't be too far away, and will you come to my wedding?" We daydream together...about how I will definately be there if she has a wedding...and if she has a baby...and how we'll go to movies together and go shopping for shoes together and we'll have cups of tea, and how I'll babysit her kids so she can go on a date with her husband. And she makes me smile.
How easily my daughters can make my heart sing, and ache, all in the same day, in the same moment. Be strong and brave and curious and lovely my daughter. Be safe and careful and healthy and close. And don't grow up too terribly fast.
27 April, 2011
12 April, 2011
A Furry Intruder
It was Saturday morning. It seemed like a normal enough, lovely weekend day to me. Dan had left very early for a short morning flight, and I looked forward to taking him out for his birthday later in the afternoon. The girls and I had breakky at the table... nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
It wasn't until Dan got home at about 10am, that I found out there had been a noisy, theiving creature clambouring about our kitchen in the night!
The conversation went something like this:
A: Did you sleep well last night? Did you wake up both times Annika woke up? (Yes, I often ask my husband too many questions to answer at once. It's not meant to be an interrogation. It's more of a - choose your own conversation starter!)
D: Yeah, alright. No, Annika didn't wake me up. But the possum did.
A: what, on the roof?
D: No, in our kitchen! Bangin' around... didn't you hear it?
I did not.
The moral of the story is, Dad sleeps through baby crying, but is out of bed and on his sleepy feet the moment there's a sound like someone (or something) who doesn't belong in the house. While Mum hears every noise the baby makes, but sleeps desperately through everything else! It's as if my subconscious shouts at me: If we don't have to feed it, it's not worth waking up for!
Apparently, someone had left the laundry window open while the dryer was running , and at that blissful moment of bedtime, had forgotten to shut said window. Thus the window was a doorway through the laundry and into our kitchen, for small and hungry beasts.
It was stealthy, I'll give it that. It took an apple. Nothing else on the table was out of place - and there was a lot, in piles, on the table! There were a lot of apples in the fruit bowl. The little critter couldn't be bothered with the banana or the avocado - too much work! No claw marks in anything else either, just knew exactly what it wanted and sat there in the bowl munching on it. Until Dan came along and chased it away, with the rest of its unfinished treat clenched firmly in teeth. Back out the window.
I laughed :)
Yes, we are much more careful now (again!) to check every window is closed before sleeping.
And on a completely different note - the rest of the day was wonderful. yes, we enjoyed the planetarium very much - nerds that we are! Dan loved it, and though I'm not a very smart nerd when it comes to science, I thouroughly enjoy being awed and amazed by the wonders of our universe, and being made just a little bit dizzy thinking about all the things I don't understand. But most of all, it was just wonderful to be on a date- hand in hand, chatting and whispering and laughing....just like the young kids in love we were 10 years ago...only completely different.
It wasn't until Dan got home at about 10am, that I found out there had been a noisy, theiving creature clambouring about our kitchen in the night!
The conversation went something like this:
A: Did you sleep well last night? Did you wake up both times Annika woke up? (Yes, I often ask my husband too many questions to answer at once. It's not meant to be an interrogation. It's more of a - choose your own conversation starter!)
D: Yeah, alright. No, Annika didn't wake me up. But the possum did.
A: what, on the roof?
D: No, in our kitchen! Bangin' around... didn't you hear it?
I did not.
The moral of the story is, Dad sleeps through baby crying, but is out of bed and on his sleepy feet the moment there's a sound like someone (or something) who doesn't belong in the house. While Mum hears every noise the baby makes, but sleeps desperately through everything else! It's as if my subconscious shouts at me: If we don't have to feed it, it's not worth waking up for!
Apparently, someone had left the laundry window open while the dryer was running , and at that blissful moment of bedtime, had forgotten to shut said window. Thus the window was a doorway through the laundry and into our kitchen, for small and hungry beasts.
It was stealthy, I'll give it that. It took an apple. Nothing else on the table was out of place - and there was a lot, in piles, on the table! There were a lot of apples in the fruit bowl. The little critter couldn't be bothered with the banana or the avocado - too much work! No claw marks in anything else either, just knew exactly what it wanted and sat there in the bowl munching on it. Until Dan came along and chased it away, with the rest of its unfinished treat clenched firmly in teeth. Back out the window.
I laughed :)
Yes, we are much more careful now (again!) to check every window is closed before sleeping.
And on a completely different note - the rest of the day was wonderful. yes, we enjoyed the planetarium very much - nerds that we are! Dan loved it, and though I'm not a very smart nerd when it comes to science, I thouroughly enjoy being awed and amazed by the wonders of our universe, and being made just a little bit dizzy thinking about all the things I don't understand. But most of all, it was just wonderful to be on a date- hand in hand, chatting and whispering and laughing....just like the young kids in love we were 10 years ago...only completely different.
09 April, 2011
Ponies and pretty girls
Last weekend, Sophie went to a friends' birthday party, where she got to ride ponies. She was a bit nervous at first, but overcame her fear. She was brave and made new pony friends. Happy day :)
This pony is Louise. Sophie wanted to ride her first - she was smaller. Turns out she was also quick and a bit feisty. Sophie wanted a go on the bigger pony the next time around.
This pony is Cuddles. Sophie fell in love with cuddles. She even wanted to feed her carrots and apples after the ride (but, she ended up needing some extra help and encouragement for that!)
Annkia enjoyed the day too!
This pony is Cuddles. Sophie fell in love with cuddles. She even wanted to feed her carrots and apples after the ride (but, she ended up needing some extra help and encouragement for that!)
08 April, 2011
Blogging again!
Good morning. I am back.
For me, we are coming up to the new year. This year, January first just didn't really do it for me. It was just another day. Time has split itself for me, into before and after 30 April 2010. It's a sad reason to have your whole sense of life and time rearranged so absolutely, and really, I don't mean for my first blog back to be a complete downer. So I'll try to pick it up soon! But just so you can orient yourself to my life, this is where I am - at the end of the year when my sister died. In May, it will be a new year for my family, in a way. Year 2. So in a way, I take a deep breath, and I hope for better. I try to be better. I decide to breathe and grow, and to write, more.
This morning my 2 beautiful daughters are fast asleep at 7:30, and so is my dear husband. It's Friday - it's a daddy day. Very soon, they will be having a bleary-eyed breakfast together, and I will be rushing off to work. Equally as bleary-eyed.
Annika is nearly 8 months old. Though it's so hard to believe that, or even to see it. Adjusted age, she is 6 and 1/2 months old, and that is how I think of her. She sleeps 5 hours at the most before waking to need a feed. Is this right? This can't be right! Somenight she needs to learn to sleep longer than that, surely? The articles I've read say... oh wait, right, she doesn't read those. She does her own thing.
There's so much more to say.... and I will try to say it.
I want to write about my kids - their language! All the wonderful things they say! All the ways they learn. If you know me at all, you know I am passionate about language, and about education, so I want to tell you stories about how that happens in my home. I'm so curious about how it happens everywhere.
I want to write about food. About what I cook, and learn. I cook gluten free dinners, and I do it nearly every night, and most nights, I really enjoy it. I am also (to quote my beloved sister Brittany) a foodie at heart.
I want to write about the things I enjoy reading, watching, and listening to...to explore those things that still bring me joy, as my own person. Do you ever feel like you lose yourself, being a mom? I have been getting a little lost lately! Here's to exploring just where I might be found. Oh yes, and there's also that - the spiritual journey. I might want to write about the ups and downs of that. We'll see.
And now I've just about finished my cuppa - down to the very last little bit of cold tea left in the bottom. Which means it's time to rush about and get to work now. :)
For me, we are coming up to the new year. This year, January first just didn't really do it for me. It was just another day. Time has split itself for me, into before and after 30 April 2010. It's a sad reason to have your whole sense of life and time rearranged so absolutely, and really, I don't mean for my first blog back to be a complete downer. So I'll try to pick it up soon! But just so you can orient yourself to my life, this is where I am - at the end of the year when my sister died. In May, it will be a new year for my family, in a way. Year 2. So in a way, I take a deep breath, and I hope for better. I try to be better. I decide to breathe and grow, and to write, more.
This morning my 2 beautiful daughters are fast asleep at 7:30, and so is my dear husband. It's Friday - it's a daddy day. Very soon, they will be having a bleary-eyed breakfast together, and I will be rushing off to work. Equally as bleary-eyed.
Annika is nearly 8 months old. Though it's so hard to believe that, or even to see it. Adjusted age, she is 6 and 1/2 months old, and that is how I think of her. She sleeps 5 hours at the most before waking to need a feed. Is this right? This can't be right! Somenight she needs to learn to sleep longer than that, surely? The articles I've read say... oh wait, right, she doesn't read those. She does her own thing.
There's so much more to say.... and I will try to say it.
I want to write about my kids - their language! All the wonderful things they say! All the ways they learn. If you know me at all, you know I am passionate about language, and about education, so I want to tell you stories about how that happens in my home. I'm so curious about how it happens everywhere.
I want to write about food. About what I cook, and learn. I cook gluten free dinners, and I do it nearly every night, and most nights, I really enjoy it. I am also (to quote my beloved sister Brittany) a foodie at heart.
I want to write about the things I enjoy reading, watching, and listening to...to explore those things that still bring me joy, as my own person. Do you ever feel like you lose yourself, being a mom? I have been getting a little lost lately! Here's to exploring just where I might be found. Oh yes, and there's also that - the spiritual journey. I might want to write about the ups and downs of that. We'll see.
And now I've just about finished my cuppa - down to the very last little bit of cold tea left in the bottom. Which means it's time to rush about and get to work now. :)
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