Carnivore

For the second time now my computer has shut down Word and lost all my work! I am so frustrated I could spit. On a lighter note, this morning Luke was chomping away on a stuffed giraffe and looked just like a lion with slobber all down his chin. In the picture he’s done with the giraffe and shouting at his stuffed cow. He enjoys shouting at the cow…no other animals get this kind of attention, just the cow. In fact he often gets quite angry at the cow and has even launched him across the room in frustration. Last night Derek told Luke, “Someday you will get to eat real cow instead of chewing on a stuffed cow” and I said, “You don’t know, he may want to be a vegetarian”. “Oh no,” Derek said, “Our son will be a carnivore.”

You may also notice that he’s wearing Halloween jammies (thanks Deegan!). We’ve gotta wear them while they’re in season, don-cha-know.

Since we had such fun with the cow, I decided we would read, “The Cow That Went Oink”. It’s all about this cow that doesn’t know how to Moo, instead she goes Oink. The other animals all laugh at her, “Neigh-ha, Bow-wow-ha, Cockadoodle-ha”. Then one day she meets a friendly pig. The pig is sad too, because she has also been laughed at since she cannot say Oink. Instead she says Moo. Then the cow has a brilliant idea. She will teach the pig how to oink. The pig learns slowly, “Mook, mooonk, mooink” Until finally she says, “Oink!” Then the pig teaches the cow how to Moo. “Oinkoo, oinoo, oimoo” Until finally the cow can say “Moo!” All the other animals are dumbfounded because now the cow and pig can say both Moo and Oink, and they have the last laugh, “Moo-ha, Oink-ha”. They are bilingual farm animals!

I absolutely love this book. It’s more than a book in support of bilingual-ism (is this a word?). It’s a testament to friendship, the benefits of hard work, overcoming obstacles and cultivating understanding and a helpful spirit. We want to teach Luke more than one language while he’s still young. Obviously the first language he’s learning is English. I already know some Spanish, and Derek needs to learn French and/or German for a PhD, so we are debating between these three. Like the cow and pig, our son will be a bilingual animal, with the exception that he’s very definitely a carnivore.

Instincts

Last year my Mom rescued some wild kittens from the bus barn at her school. At first they hissed and wobbled around on malnourished legs. After a while they became accustomed to being handled, and before long they were the most friendly cats you ever did see. We spent one afternoon ridding them of fleas and they became even happier, rid of those detestable pests.

Soon they were too much of a nuisance to have in the garage because they would run up to the back door and get underfoot the minute you stepped outside. So Mom put a box out under the elm tree and we would go visit the kittens there, making it feel like home for them. My Mom was their Mom. She fed them, cared for them, and she insisted that she was teaching them how to climb.

Most people assume that cats can climb instinctually. Not my Mom. She is a natural teacher and at the end of a long day in the classroom she would come home and turn the shady trunk of the elm into her own outdoor classroom. Taking turns and giving each kitten their fair share of her attentions, Mom would put each kitty a few feet up the slanted post of the fence and let them crawl back down. Before long the kittens had graduated to the tree trunk and Mom would wrap their arms around the tree higher and higher up the trunk and let them scoot on down bum-first. I think they felt safe knowing her hands were just below ready to catch them. She must have been a great teacher because soon those kitties were running and jumping onto the trunk of the tree like little Spiderman, hanging in one spot before leaping away again and tackling their brothers.

I think babies are a lot like kitties. Most people assume that they learn to walk and talk instinctually, when really the world is their classroom. They are learning from the people around them, not from some built-in instinct (although learning itself may be instinctual). In this instance, Luke is learning the most from Derek and me. And although some people may laugh at our “Rolling Lessons” and our “conversations” with Luke, this is his safe place to test the waters and become more and more brave until one day he will jump onto the trunk of the elm tree all by himself!

The news: Luke has now rolled over all by himself two times! He has also started rubbing his eyes when he is tired, which I vote “most endearing trait in a baby” (not just because it’s a way to tell you they’re tired without screaming – haha).

Crib Meditation

Photos: Luke with his John Deere. I love the one with his eyebrow up like he's saying, "Isn't my tractor sexy?"

Right now Luke is laying in his crib totally silent and still, but with his eyes wide open. He’s exhausted but he won’t shut his eyes, it's like he's meditating on the sheet. Why do babies and kids fight sleep so hard? I look forward to sleep. I can’t wait to get in a comfy position and shut my eyes. But I remember trying so hard to stay awake when I was a kid. I even tapped my foot against the wall to try to stay awake until midnight once. It didn’t work. The rhythm actually put me to sleep.

There’s Christmas, and the promise of Santa Clause and reindeer on the roof. I don’t remember ever believing that was true, so it was never important to me to stay awake on Christmas. Then there’s New Year’s Eve, and counting down the seconds. And there’s always the excitement before a birthday or a vacation to keep a kid awake. I understand those things. And I understand that we make it a treat for kids to stay awake, so then they get excited about it and it seems like a grown-up thing to do.

The fact of the matter is that a tiny baby doesn’t really have enough comprehension to be excited about anything enough to keep them awake. When I was a kid I actually put myself to bed if I got tired. My parents thought I was responsible. But I was just tired, and if I didn’t sleep then, I certainly wasn’t going to get any sleep at school the next day. There was much too much excitement in my daily life. First of all, Amanda was there. Second of all, there was always some drama. As a kid, everything was an emergency, a party, a fight, or the most fun we’d ever had in our lives. It was a wonderful, exhilarating day, every day. Maybe that’s why I could sleep so well at night, I had worn myself out just living each day fully.

I hope Luke experiences life that way. So far it seems like he does. Watching his expressions as he wobbles around in my lap, learning how to sit on his own, it’s obvious that he’s getting a kick out of living. Everything is new and interesting. He’s getting brighter, bigger and stronger each day. I think the new-ness of it all actually keeps him awake sometimes. The other day I put him down for a nap on a scrap quilt and he lay there staring at it for half an hour before I saw him finally close his eyes. There was just too much stimulation and he couldn’t rest. Hopefully by now he’s napping on his plain blue flannel sheets. I hung a blanket over the side of the crib so he can’t see out. Hopefully that helps.

Rainy Monday

Photos: Luke sits in his rocking chair enjoying his toys and gives the peace sign!

I was making up this song as I watch a house behind us being built. But instead of boring you with all the verses, I’ll give you the last verse which includes all the others:

There’s a hole in the straw
In the drink
In the lunch
In the man
In the mud
In the wall
In the hole
In the middle of the lot!
There’s a hole, there’s a hole, there’s a hole in the middle of the lot.

Recognize the tune?
Well I must be feeling artsy today or something because not only have I got a song for you, I’ve got a poem. Yesterday as I was driving home from Niverville I saw a goose flying all alone, and it was just beginning to rain. It made me sad and I began to think about how geese mate for life, and what it must feel like to be widowed or a widower. I’ve thought about this quite a bit since Derek and I put together our will, and it just breaks my heart to imagine spouses left alone. I guess my mind wandered there more easily since Derek was gone all weekend out in the bush. Here is my expression of loss.

severed communion
fractured Self
alone i am unrecognizable
a
lone
goose
crying
where?
where can i go?
the sky is empty
life
less on the ground
lost
flightless
without You

It is grey and rainy, not stormy, just wet and dreary. Sad poems suit the weather. We had soup and grill cheese sandwiches for lunch. Derek came home and ate with us. It was very comforting to be together as a family eating a warm meal.

Concrete Day

Today our driveway is being poured! Hurray! No more dirt, no more mud! Luke is pretty excited too because he is going to put his hand print in the concrete once it dries a little more. I would have the whole family would put their hands in the concrete, but Derek is out of town, and if he were here he probably wouldn’t want anyone to put their hands in his beautiful new concrete. So it’s just Luke, because Luke will be forgiven quicker than me. The guys who are pouring the concrete don’t seem upset that I want to adorn their work with my son’s handprints. I thought maybe they’d think I didn’t appreciate all the work they put into making it so smooth and clean. But they actually seemed to like the idea and promised to let me know when the concrete has set to just the right consistency.

Last night after work, Derek drove out to Niverville to meet up with Dan Horne. Then they both drove their separate cars two and a half hours to the end of Mantario Trail. They dropped one car there and drove an hour back to the trailhead where they camped for the night. This morning they were taking off on their hike…20km today, 20k tomorrow, and 20k on Sunday for a total trip of 60 kilometers, or for you people not versed in metric – around 40 miles. Listen to the video to hear an interesting twist to their plans for sleeping outside. Derek called last night at Luke's bedtime to say good-night and was still driving alone. Hopefully they have fun and are not bothered by bears!

It is so busy around here! Our entire street is busy with construction. When we moved in, we were only the fifth house to be occupied on our street, we were the only house even built on the right side of the street. Now there is only one empty lot on our bay, all the other lots are either being built on or are already built on and occupied! And we’ve only lived in our house now for a little over four months. You can imagine all the big trucks on our street everyday. And today the big truck came for us.

There’s a song in The Music Man that goes like this, “The Wells Fargo wagon is-a comin’ down the street. Oh please let it be for me! Oh-ho the Wells Fargo wagon is-a comin’ now. I don’t know how I can ever wait to see. It could be something for someone who is no relation, but it could be, something special, just for me!” Today Luke and I sang, “The Winkler Concrete wagon is-a comin’ down the street. Oh please let it be for me!”

Silhouettes of Poop

Late in the night, when I awoke to feed the baby and change his diaper, I was surprised to find more than the usual wet diaper. I found a poopy diaper. I rarely turn the lights on anymore because poop just doesn’t usually happen in the night. I can change a wet diaper with my eyes closed, but a poopy diaper in the dark can be a scary thing. I had already set Luke’s bum back down on his jammies before I realized there was poop! Since it was dark all I saw was a dark silhouette on the diaper.

It was intense, but in the darkness I cleaned up Luke’s jammies and his bum, put on a clean diaper, zipped him up and since he was really awake after all the fuss I decided to nurse him a little longer. As soon as we sat down to nurse he spit up all down the front of his jammies. Up we went again to change his jammies. Finally we sat down again to nurse and I heard a familiar rumbling in the nether region. A second poop in the night! Unheard of, Inconceivable! I cautiously waited until he was done and changed his diaper in the dark once again. As I looked at the silhouette of the poop on his second dirty diaper I laughed to myself.

If a therapist ever asks me to associate ink splotches with objects, every ink splotch I look at is going to remind me of the silhouette of poop in the nighttime.
Pictures: Luke's new car seat cover. Cozy...

The Work We Do

Wow, it has been quite a challenge to blog today. The internet connection wasn't working and finally I got Harv and Helene's computer to connect, but not mine. So then I had to put the pictures on a flash drive, and believe it or not it took me a full five minutes to figure out where the USB connection was on their computer...so here we are...finally. And Luke is screaming. So even though I had a great topic for today it's going to have to wait until tomorrow when hopefully this will be a smoother process.
Luke dressed up today for passport pictures and hopefully this evening we'll get a family photo since we're both looking so cute. Hope you enjoy!