hump day

i’ve personally always DETESTED that term.  but, as i said before, my influence is not vast, and seems to have reached its limits midweek.  So while i have been trying to drive all over the city in search of a new stroller (via craigslist) nothing is working out.  instead, Spring showed up.  for a day.  Thus, rather than document the changes i’ve been able to effect in the universe, this lovely wednesday afternoon i’m chronicling Mother Nature’s best efforts to put on a happy face.

Behold:

What a day for a trip to the park!

Walking is of course much too mundane.  Hopping is the latest craze:

And, apparently, the only thing of note at the park…

forget climbing, sliding, or digging, let’s just sit in a seat and have mom rush back and forth across the playground to do our bidding.

Question o’ the day:  what was/is your favourite thing to do at the playground?

Tuesday’s child…

has newly coloured hair, and funny-looking glasses.  See exhibit A:

Note my thoroughly *happy* expression.  I do like the highlights, though.  It allows me to pretend that I too have travelled somewhere warm and sunny.

Other happenings:  The delightful Aurora graced us with her company for a few hours today, sans entourage.  It turned into a mutual lovefest, for she seemed thrilled with these strange big creatures, and they were highly amused by her droll antics.

Also the perfect age for portraits, we managed to snap a few.  and mess with her hair.

Lifejackets are cool and safe.

So…what’s on the docket for today?  I guess we’ll just have to see………….

On a Monday…

So, Vanessa has inadvertantly challenged me to change as many things as i can before her return from holiday.  Well, she actually said the opposite of that, but apparently, she didn’t know it was Opposite Day on monday…nanni nanny poo poo

Since my spheres of influence are a tad limited, I’ve had to restrict my efforts to our home and ourselves.  thus, i am going to do a series of posts of the changes and happenings this week at the Milley household.  goodness knows i need a challenge right now, and posting them means that those who care to can keep up.

Straight on to Monday’s change, then:

I re-orged Agatha’s room.  a tricky thing to do in such a small space, i might add.

Question o’ the day:  what do you change most often about your living space?

I Spy

I’m not quite sure what to do with my mostly sublimated rage at the universe, (at myself??) and at the optometrist who flubbed agatha’s eye exam 3 weeks ago, but hey, at least the kid is no longer seeing double.  Which she was, apparently, due to the astigmatisms in each of her lovely green eyes. (a different optometrist was  fortunately able to pin point this problem).  After much hemming and hawing, we compromised on these geek-chic frames.  I like their non-traditional look, Agatha likes the little pink stenciled hearts on the arms.

A Break-My-Heart moment happened only a few minutes after she received the new specs: we were crossing the street, and she chirped, “Mom, I can run ahead, because now i can see where I’m going!!”  ouch.

today, these new eyeglasses were particularly helpful when we went to see “Peter Pan” (thanks, CBC for 10th row, dead centre tickets!)

We had a good time.  I always enjoy ballet, and the high-wire flying was quite magical.  Agatha and I agree that Neverland should not have been all brown in colour, nor have we ever seen the crocodile in all brown, but it was an agreeable way to pass an afternoon, nonetheless.

how’s about yous?  what are you up to this weekend?  please share.

squeals of delight issued forth

as i successfully garnered two free tickets to “Peter Pan” (the ballet) this morning…how you ask, did i successfully maneuver my way into 2 ballet passes?  i did it the old fashioned way, really, i won a phone-in radio contest.  so excited!!! i really wanted to take agatha to her first ballet, and was feeling rather low as the little promo was played on the CBC this morning, knowing that it just wasn’t going to happen (good seats are $80 each!!!!).  when they announced that they had 2 tickets for the first person to successfully name Wendy’s younger brothers, I (half-awake) stumbled upstairs, phoned the number i’d been rehearsing (hoping i didn’t get it wrong and wake some poor unsuspecting person) and voila, got through.   no intro, no recorded voice, just some girl saying, “So, do you know the answer?”  I blanked for a moment, and then said, in a rather tentative voice, “Michael and John..?”  ta da.  now, if only it were that easy to get free stuff all the time…

question o’ the day:  what’s the best thing you’ve ever won?  or, the most recent, if you’re one of those “I-win-stuff-all-the-time-i-guess-i’m-just-lucky-that-way” kind of people?  and you radio/print/net celebs (you know who you are)  what’s the best free perk you’ve gotten, just for being your bad articulate self?

flotsam, jetsam, and tsunamis

it appears that most of life is made up of bits and pieces, small triumphs and hurts, routines and minor surprises.  certainly, my own existence feels like that most of the time.  Then i have these moments, maybe you do too, where I realize that bigger things are happening too, just behind the veneer of everyday life.  some of these bigger things are significant only because they have a personal effect; agatha appears to need glasses, for example.  kids need glasses all the time, but when it’s your kid who’s been walking around only mostly seeing things for perhaps years, it seems pretty important.

then, there are those other things, the ones that aren’t so everyday, for most people.  my neighbour’s dog was hit by a car this last week, right on our street, and a certain amount of mayhem ensued.  there was blood, and seizuring (in the dog), and that awful sound of keening, hysterical grief (the owner).  fortunately, it seems that a vet was able to stabilize the dog, and all of that craziness may only be an odd, off-kilter memory for everyone involved–a sort of big small event, if that makes sense.

then, there are those issues that dwarf all the others.   i’m reading “There is No Me Without You” for bookclub.  It’s about the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, specifically, in Ethiopia, and about a woman housing and caring for some of the thousands of orphans.  I think i’ve cried and raged and been struck dumb with grief and horror about every 20 pages, and i’m only just over half way through.  Don’t let that dissuade you from reading it.  Unpleasant as it is, i think we need to know what’s happening, and we need to decide our individual responses.  for far too long, i’ve let the enormity of the problem stupefy me into inaction.  now, i don’t know.  there’s got to be something that can be done for the 28 million (!) AIDS orphans (not counting hep, famine, war etc.).  it’s not about getting on the bandwagon, or decrying the horrors.  it’s not about issuing murderous imprecations against the heads of the major pharmaceuticals (though, i think right now i’d like to).  it’s about…it’s about…well, a lost generation.  millions of kids without moms and dads, without anyone to take care of them, or teach them how to care for themselves.  and we can’t even find homes for foster kids in our own province.

i’m not saying that this particular issue is the only one, either.  it’s just the one in the forefront of my mind right now, the one that seems to have burst through the sometimes numbing routine of domestic life.  it’s shaken me up, re-awakened the dormant activist in me, and dared me to write this uncharacteristically political/philosophical/polemical post.

question o’ the day:  what issue really gets to you?

can’t believe it was just last thursday…

when we were playing outside in the sunshine…

today, we played in this:

okay, playing in may be an overstatement.  shuffling around consuming large amounts of fluffy white stuff would be a more accurate description.  (what is it about kids and eating snow???)

obligatory head shots:

Question o’ the day, and a totally random one:  what book/movie do you return to, again and again, to curl up with?  do you even have a favourite?  or do you feel life is too short to reread/review?

now, a little parental pride.  check out the eyelashes on this kid:

there.  i’m done.  for a few days, anyway.  hope all is well with you….

a kid’s eye view

ever wondered what the world looks like to a small person?  certainly, i’m not the first to post pictures that my kids have taken.  but, it is interesting and incredibly humourous to witness the wonders of an age where a 2 yr. old or 5 yr. old can own and operate their own camera.  Certainly, there’s a lot of this:

the forest of legs.

But, there’s also this:

and this:

obliging grown-ups willing to pose and say, “cheese!” or “Stinky Undies!”

Sweet photos of sibling:

or, if sweet can’t be arranged:

startled and half-asleep.

but, the best of all:

capturing on film for posterity the room most important in the life of a two-year old.  and if mommy just happens to be in it while we document it, well, all the better.

question o’ the day:  what’s the funniest photo ever taken of you?