You're Gonna Love this Song Too

Merry Christmas!

Canadian Staple

Because every kid needs to learn how to play hockey in the back alley.

First Haircut

A few weeks ago I came to the realization that Lil' E's hair was getting a bit out of control.  The night of Kezia's birthday supper Carl mumbled to me, "I tried my best with her hair but.....".  And then we knew.  The wispy, tangled, uneven do had to change.

I had a conversation with a new friend at my Spanish playgroup about cutting our daughter's hair.  She told me that back in Argentina they would shave the baby's hair right at birth.  I told her that in Bolivia usually they wait a bit and then do it at a few months, right down to the scalp.  I got to thinking......is she too old to do that?  Would she be upset years from now looking back at all the Christmas pictures with her buzz cut?  More to ask, What had happened to my reasoning that I would actually consider shaving my almost 2 year old kids hair?!

When I mentioned taking the clippers to Elena's head, I was expecting a huge negative reaction from Carl.  He just casually mentioned, "Oh, it would be a bit tricky since some of the longer strands are quite thin.  Couldn't you just cut it all off with scissors?".  Wow.  We have changed.

So that's just what we did, went at it with the scissors, not cutting it all off.  I gave her a roll of floss to unravel while I madly took the scissors to her head.  I saved some of her locks for her baby book.  It wasn't as short as I thought I would need to cut and now it looks pretty cute.  And in all of it, I didn't even cry at Elena's first haircut.

Flashbacks

I've been doing some Christmas baking these last few weeks.  I baked one evening with my neighbour and did some on my own in preparation for a bake exchange.  Last year I didn't feel like baking anything because November was a hard month and it sort of spilled into December as well.

I was sauteing something in a pan, a teflon one, I thought to myself,
"I sure wish I had a cast iron pan instead.  I wonder if I have time in these next few days to head to  mercado Cumavi to pick one up.  I know exactly which street has those vendors....."
Uh, that's weird.  I'm a thousand miles away from Cumavi.  

I was madly rushing to get cookie pans out of the oven to get the next ones in because,
"I have to hurry and not have the oven on for so long.  I wonder if there is enough gas in the garafa for me to finish these batches of cookies...".
Oh wait, my stove uses electricity not gas to cook.  There is no gas tank beside my stove because I'm in Canada.  I'm not in Bolivia.  I haven't been in a long, long while.

It's like burping up nacho chip breath when you haven't had nachos for days.  There's been plenty of other food you've eaten since then and so you're left a little surprised wondering where that came from.

I thought I had digested from last year, but it's all still there.

She Likes to Move It, Move It

Asha loves to dance.  Did you check out her moves here from my anniversary post?  I think it all started in Bolivia because her preschool was always putting on a show, usually she was the centre of it and there was always dancing.  Oh, she loves to move.

So we decided after a successful and enjoyable dance camp in the summer, we would enrol her for classes during the year.  It's a Mix and Match class which means there's a variety of types of dance being taught throughout the year.  This semester, if you would call it, they are focusing on ballet.  She loves the done up hair, but she whispers to me before class, "I really like ballet, but I'm going to LOVE the hip hop part after Christmas,".  I went to observe a couple of weeks ago and it was great to see what she's been up to.  Even during the games where the other kids were swaying to the music or skipping around, she's doing this interpretive/break dance move all over the floor.  The teacher said dance, and that's exactly what she did.  I got a kick out of Asha's last demonstration as she carefully and passionately followed the teacher, plus made crazy faces in the mirror at the same time.  Such a card is she.  Well, I was also very proud of her because she did was asked of her and she's actually quite good.  I can't wait to see what she'll bring to the next semester of dance.

What I Found on My Bed

*Huge catch in my throat, eyes well, heart full*