The people on the bus go...(Anna)

Emma has well and truly hit the age where she will point out people's physical irregularities in a very loud voice on the bus.

"What is it on that person's chin, Mumma? It's yucky!"
(A mole)
"It has lots of hair coming out of it."

"Look at that old lady, Mumma!" (pointing to a guy in his 30s or 40s)

"Purple on her face, Mumma!" (pointing to a woman with a bad burn mark)

"Why that person has no teeth, Mumma?"

Did I mention that her language is clear enough these days that even strangers can usually understand her?

Did I mention that she has a very loud voice when she wants to that can carry several metres on a bus?

Ho hum.

Heart-stopping (Anna)

I had Emma tucked up in my arms this evening about to brush her teeth. Suddenly, she threw her head back, closed her eyes and started shaking violently, like she was having a fit.

"Emma! Emma! Are you ok?"I said, pretty panicked, mentally trying to work out how to get to the phone to call an ambulance with her in my arms.

She stopped shaking, opened her eyes and looked at me with concern. It's probably a voice she hasn't heard me use much. "I ok, Mumma. Are you?"she said curiously. I took a deep breath and tried to calm my heart beat.

And then she did it again. Stopped and giggled at herself. And then did it again.

Oddly enough, Mumma did not join in the giggling.

Jokes (Anna)

The latest cause for hilarity is Emma discovering that we have aliases other than Mummy and Mumma.

"Mummy's name is Car-line," Emma tells us, and then giggles. "Car-line" (giggle, giggle)

"Mumma's name is Anna!" she declares. (chortle...chortle...chortle...)"Anna" (dissolves into fits of giggles)

Speaking of names, Emma has started introducing herself to kids at the park as "Emma Catherine Lidstone Rocketship." No giggles with that one, she's deadly serious.

Sun! (Anna)

Well, between my evocation and Emma's optimism, somehow we made sun appear today.

I posted this morning that there was no sun. Then later when we were going out, Emma put on her sun hat and said, "I need to wear my hat, 'cos it's sunny." Caroline and I looked at the grey, gloomy sky and said, "Great. You can wear your hat if you want to."

And a few hours later, out came the sun. And we spent the rest of the afternoon outside, hiking, getting lost on the trails, and searching for good rocks and sticks for Emma's budding collection. The sun was shining through the trees and the birds were chirping and it was just lovvverly.

And, lo and behold, the world feels much more manageable than it did this morning.

Winter blues (Anna)

Emma was just reading a book and commented that the kid in it looked happy. I asked her why she thought the kid was happy and she said, "Because of the sunshine."

A telling comment, given that we have yet another grey gloomy day in Vancouver despite the fact that it's almost the end of May!!

Can't wait for some sun to arrive.

Tennis (Anna)

Caroline is a huge tennis fan and I remember her saying, before Emma was born, that she was looking forward to watching tennis with her baby.

Well, it's French Open season so there's been a bit of tennis watchng in our house recently.

Last week, Caroline turned it on for ten minutes before we were due to go out. I asked Emma to come and get dressed and she looked at me very sternly and said, "No Mumma. I not getting dressed now. I need to tuck up with my Mummy and watch the tennis." Which of course left Caroline wth a melting heart.

Then last night, Emma grabbed a round plastic sand toy with a handle and started swishing it around in the air with accompanying sound effects. "I playing tennis," she said. "With my tennis jacket." (she means racquet).

And then this morning, I came down to find Caroline on the couch wrapped in a dressing gown and blanket watching the tennis. On her lap, all snuggled up and warm, hiding underneath the folds of the dressing gown, were Emma, Victoria-the-doll, teddy and kangaroo, looking absolutely adorable. They looked so happy all cuddled up together.

Dr. Chocolate (Anna)

Sunday morning in our house is more often than not my time with Emma, while Caroline goes to a coffee shop to work on her PhD.

This morning, I was playing with Emma and she said, "I go to coffee shop and work on my PhD."

I said, "Oh, Are you working on a PhD?"

"Yes," she said.

"Great," I said. "What's your topic? What are you researching?"

She replied, "Chocolate cake."

Excellent. I couldn't think of a better topic for a thesis. Hopefully it will have a practical component to it.

My fault (Anna)

Emma, like most toddlers, can be quite possessive. "My breakfast." "My Mummy." "My blanket." "My toy" etc.

This morning, I accidentally bumped Emma's head when we were playing. She said "Ow". I apologized to her and added, "That was my fault."

Emma got very upset with me, and said "No. MY fault. MY fault, Mumma. MY fault."

Getting older (Anna)

The evidence is all around us, but occasionally we have reason to really notice that we are raising a kid and not a baby.

Tonight, it was when Emma suddenly said to her friends, "Hey everyone. Let's all be a fire truck. I'll drive." We looked at her and thought, "Where did THAT come from?"

On other news, we have it on the best authority from a gaggle of kids that people are officially old when they get to...10 years old! I guess that when you feel that you have counted to infinity when you make it up to 13, 10 does feel like a long away.

A kid after our own hearts (Anna)

It's nap time in our household. I am ignoring the fact that Emma is not in in fact asleep, but lying on her bed looking at a book. She doesn't know I know. She has, after all, followed most of the instructions we gave her, which were to lie in her bed quietly, with her head on the pillow. I believe we also added something about closing her eyes but fair's fair - that would make it that much harder for her to see the pictures.

When she's older, we'll probably buy her a torch, so that she can read under the covers after she's supposed to be asleep. But don't tell her Mums we said that.

Jumping (Anna)

We have a public holiday coming up, so I asked Emma what she would like to do on the weekend. She wasn't sure, so I reframed the question as "What things do you think are fun at the moment?"

She replied, "Umm. I like jumping on the bed."

So we might be spending our public holiday jumping on the bed. Or at least watching her jump on the bed.

Random nice moments that I want to remember (Anna)

1) Emma, while drawing: "Mummy, write my name on my drawing, please. I want you to write 'Emma Lidstone Rocketship'".

2) Emma had a star in her hand the other day, and a miniature lobster (miniature animals are a big deal at the moment). She kept saying "star and lob-star". Seems reasonable to me! On that note, try explaining to a toddler why the word "Emma" doesn't start with an "M". It's a confusing language we're trying to teach her.

3) I was in a supermarket the other day and being in a supermarket with a toddler is not always a joyous experience. That day, though, our conversation went like this:

Emma: I love you very much, Mumma.
Mumma: Well, I love YOU very much.
Emma: I love YOU very much.
Mumma: I love YOU very much.
Emma: I love you Mumma. I love you very much.
Mumma: And I love you very much.

I could have changed the subject, I suppose, but why on earth would I want to?

So naive (Anna)

When Emma asks us for crackers and some berry tea, we assume she's hungry and wants to eat them. Because, you know we think like parents and not like toddlers.

But no, she needs to put them in the storage compartment on the back of her tricycle to she can ride them around the living room.

Names, names, names (Anna)

Emma has started to name her animals and toys, rather than just referring to them as "piggy", "horsey" "doggy", etc.

A few weeks ago, she named one of her ducks "Paris."

Then, this morning,she was playing with a bunch of animals and she said "What's the horse's name?" So we encouraged her to come up with a name for the horse and she thought for a moment and said, "Horse's name is...Duck."

"The horse is called Duck?" we clarified.

"Yup,' she said happily.

And then she named her cow, and her tiger and her turtle. Their names? Duck.

So now we have a farm of animals who are all called Duck. Except for the duck, which is called Paris.

Hopefully, we can now say, "Do you have Duck?" and won't have to spend hours looking for the right one. But that might just be us being hopefully idealistic.

Lucky duck (Anna)

I like birthdays!

I've been banished from the kitchen table while Emma and Caroline wrap my pressies...and I've heard rumours of chocolate cake. Aren't I lucky!

And Emma's been giving me affectionate cuddles all weekend and singing happy birthday as often she can. I love it!

Tea party (Anna)

Yesterday, I attended my first ever mother's day tea party.

I arrived at Emma's day care and my little daughter put her hand in mine and said, "Come with me, Mumma," and took me into the back room, which was labelled "Ladybug Cafe". She sat me down on a kid size chair at at a kid size table that was covered in a ladybug tablecloth, and handed me a menu decorated with ladybugs.

Then, we shared a plate of goodies that contained a large croissant and a baby croissant, a large chocolate-covered strawberry and a baby chocolate-covered strawberry and some grapes. Unlike most of the tea parties I have with Emma, the food was neither plastic nor imaginery. Emma did a lovely job of sharing and offering me bites (three bites for Emma, one for Mumma, repeat.) And we drank lemonade with added frozen raspberries, which was a delightful combination, from little cups, and had a lovely conversation with each other and with other kids and their mums/moms before Emma presented me with a beautiful mother's day piece of art.

It was almost perfect. Almost, because Caroline was out of town at a conference and so couldn't be there. We missed her - no mother's day celebration can be complete without her! But it was a wonderful, wonderful tea party with fabulous company. Makes me tear up just thinking of how proud and excited Emma was. Or maybe that was me.

Quiet as a sleeping babe (Anna)

I don't like to be a sceptic, but when my beautiful little daughter, who should have been asleep hours ago, stands up in bed and bellows, "I'm sleeping!" I find it hard to believe her....

Making friends (Anna)

A lovely moment on the bus today. When we got on there was an old guy speaking Kantonese (I think). He had no teeth and was hunched over with a walking stick. He looked like he was about 150. He started cooing at Emma, so I positioned her stroller towards him, so they could have a chat. Then he started singing to her, much to her amusement. So what does a "150" year old Asian guy sing to a toddler? Well, he started with Old Macdonald Had a Farm - in English. Emma responded by showing him her miniature dinosaur and telling him all about it (a wise addition to the farm, methinks). Then he moved onto a la-la-lahed version of the melody for "Yes, Jesus Loves You", before singing "London Bridge is Falling Down" and "God Save the Queen". His grand finale was "Oh Canada." Quite the eclectic kids' album.

When he got off the bus, he said goodbye, in Kantonese. Emma responded by saying "We're on the bus. It's the number 19" (which surprised me, I must say, since it WAS the number 19, but I had no idea she knew that) and then said "goodbye" while waving her dinosaur. It was a very sweet encounter.

Gorillas (Anna)

You know you're a parent when you get to work and realise that you have a miniature gorilla and three rocks in your work trousers that your daughter has asked you to "keep safe."

"Watch me tease Mumma" (Anna)

Not fair! The baby got my hopes up, then dashed them unfeelingly...

I picked her up from daycare this afternoon (Caroline is away for a couple of days, so it is just me and the munchkin). Emma enthusiastically told one of her teachers that she was going home, having dinner, and then going for a "nap" in her cot - something she rarely volunteers. I asked her if she was tired (the answer is almost always no, no matter how bleary-eyed she is). She said, "Yes. I tired. I need to sleep. Mumma sleep too?"

Then, having dinner on the lawn to enjoy the beginnings of summer, Emma kept putting her head down on the blanket and saying, "I go to sleep in the garden? I sleep on the towel." She was in a good mood, but very cuddly and tired. I even opted out of an invite with friends, on the grounds that she was running out of steam. I started to get that glimmer of hope that maybe bedtime wouldn't be a battle. Maybe toilet time could be achieved with one visit instead of three (or six)? Maybe she would bounce up only one or twice instead of 3 million? Maybe 10 books would actually be enough? As she started to rub her eyes, I was even so cocky that I started to mentally plan my evening!

And then. Hopes dashed. Perhaps she got a second wind, or perhaps she was toying with me all along. Possibly she was overtired and missing her Mummy (me too).

Bedtime took forever!

Not in a bad way, necessarily. I got lots of kisses and "I love yous". Just not quite what I had expected when she started to cue up the "I'm-tired-and-will-fall-asleep-the-minute-my-head-hits-the-pillow" track.

Not fair!

The Vote Boat (Anna)

Emma was disappointed in us today. We told her we were going to vote (in the federal election today) and, having done so, she was really angry with us. Surely she wasn't upset about who we voted for?

Turns out she got the words mixed up. She thought we were going on a BOAT! And when we go on boats, it usually means fun - whether we're going on holiday, seeing some of her special people or just going over to the Granville Island kids market. So when the reality was that she got taken into an empty room and made to wait in a line so that her parents could put little crosses in boxes, I can see why she was a little disappointed.

(With the election results already in, we too, are disappointed. Can't help feeling that people are getting aboard the WRONG boat! But that's another story. Or, at least, I hope it's another story...one that, unfortunately, is likely to affect our family quite a lot more than most. *sigh*)

Living in the moment (Anna)

Oh, to be a toddler. A few wonderful moments today.

1) I was reading Emma one of those books about emotions today, and we were talking about the fact that the bunny was happy. She said, "I happy too." I asked what makes Emma happy and she said, "Mumma cuddles, Mummy cuddles and family cuddles." (awww) Then I asked her what makes her sad and she said, "I don't know. I happy now." Later, I asked her what makes her angry, and she repeated. "I don't know. I not angry. I happy."

2) Then, along the same theme of living in the moment, we were playing outside in the beautiful warm sun this afternoon, and I was playing some music on my computer - a bit of classical piano music, a bit of guitar music, and some other stuff. Every few minutes, no matter what was playing, Emma cocked her head and said, "What music is that? That's my favourite song." I think our lives would all be a lot richer if we could have the same appreciation for whatever song is playing at any given moment.

3) We found the absolutely perfect way to get a toddler to sleep tonight. On a relatively warm, summer-is-on-its-way evening, after a lovely play date with her friends, Emma fell asleep in a swing, rocking back and forth under a tree. And, against all odds, fell asleep again in the stroller on the way home, and then, further defying the odds, again tucked up in bed, where she is now fast asleep. We intend to make it a nightly ritual. ;) To hell with brushing teeth, stories and songs - this works for all of us!

All in a day's work (Anna)

Wondrous things to hear as a tired parent: "I tired. I need to go to bed."

Less than wondrous things to hear as a tired parent: "I took my nappy off and I peed on the carpet."