Aurora Wells

Vancouver? Sometimes I worry that Brian might think I married him for the entry visa, but seriously, I LOVE VANCOUVER! I cannot think of a better place to raise a kid. We have a choice of half a dozen parks with playgrounds within a 15-minute walk of our house. We have three community centres nearby, with wonderful, inexpensive kids programs for all ages. I take Aurora to three different libraries on a regular basis, for free books, music, and a chance to get out of the house to somewhere quiet and welcoming. When we pay our municipal, provincial and federal taxes each year, I know that I will be getting back in good infrastructure and community services more than I ever could pay for on my own.

Which leads me to my rant. This afternoon Grandma Gail sent me an angry (not at me) email about a kid’s gym that recently opened up in her neighbourhood. Or neighborhood, since she’s a Yank. Anyways, the idea of having children, ages 6 months and up, belong to a gym in order to get their exercise royally perturbed my fairly laid-back mom. She saw it as indoctrination, getting ‘em while they’re young sort of thing, and totally pointless when you can just take kids to the park or let them run around outside to get their exercise, right?

Wrong, apparently. According to the gym’s website, childhood obesity has doubled in the past two decades. According to my dad, the pediatric cardiologist, the number of patients he sees with adult-style weight and circulatory problems is increasing, too. Doesn’t it make sense for a culture that is willing to spend heaps of money on video games to think that the antidote is to spend heaps of money on gym memberships? How is the flat-broke state of California supposed to pay for cheap childhood exercise opportunites at parks and community centers when they can barely afford to keep P.E. in the schools?

Someday California will have to repeal Prop 13, which basically froze property tax in the 70s, and has made it so that the state and municipalities have very little in the way of revenue. All the money that people are saving in property taxes they end up having to spend on buying their own security, their own education, and in this case, their own playground equipment. In the grand scheme of free-market capitalism, it actually makes sense for each family to buy its own backyard playground, so more money gets spent at Home Depot and Target, and the economy keeps spinning round and round (thanks to petrochemicals and cheap labour in China, but I digress).

So the next time you Vancouverites walk your kids to the park, school, or community centre in your neighbourhood, just be grateful you don’t live in a place where everyone has to buy their own playground equipment.

In the war against gravity, Aurora took a few hits Saturday evening. She fell at least four times between 5 pm and bedtime. Tiredness, perhaps. Check out the knees – the shape of things to come, at least until the end of adolescence?

She wears her scabs with pride, and seems to hold no grudge against the friends she was carrying, who kept her from being able to use her arms for balance.

Aurora shows off her stellar walking technique on a very warm Sunday afternoon yesterday.

Apparently, the sticker is the best part of a banana.

A quiet moment, contemplating the stickiness of a new label. Beautiful dress, eh?

Who could ask for anything more?

Last Sunday we had some of the prenatal class over for a waffle brunch (Kalan, middle, and Magnus, right, above). Brian had spent the entire week trying to fix our old four-square waffle maker, which had been in a box of broken stuff for as long as I can remember (which is about four years), but in the end it couldn’t produce anything other than a mess. Luckily the newer two-square waffle maker was mostly functional, but even so, the waffles were a bit of a disappointment for Brian and me, who know how fantastic Grandpa Larry’s (originally John McCabe’s) sourdough waffle recipe can be. But hey, top them with fresh sliced strawberries and no.3 (darkest) maple syrup, and even so-so waffles make a fine meal.

It was highly entertaining and also quite illuminating to have two boys, almost exactly Aurora’s age, running around the house. We tend to think of her as being full of energy and constantly on the move, but next to the boys, she’s just a docile little doll. Maybe she was just mesmerized by the enthusiasm with which Kalan and Magnus enjoyed her toys, or maybe she felt a bit shy with all these less-familiar people, but she seemed so calm and quiet in comparison!

We had another boy over on Monday afternoon, the super-cool older man Edmund Milley (almost 3). Aurora followed him around the house as he investigated all her toys, and Mommy and Jenn got a chance to actually talk! That’s when Jenn (who must be a Godmother or something) made me an offer I couldn’t refuse: she’d watch Aurora for a few hours so I could take off and do absolutely anything I wanted – sans kid). The very next day seemed long enough to wait to take her up on this deal, so yesterday afternoon, at 2 p.m., I deposited Aurora at the Milleys’ house, and went away! I window-shopped for couches and armchairs (safe enough, since they’re not exactly impulse buys), then walked up and down Commercial Drive, stopping at the sinfully delicious Memphis Blues for a pulled-pork sandwich (which I’m not allowed to have when Brian’s around), and sat and ate and read in perfect peace for an hour.

And when I got back, it was to the happy news that not only had Aurora enjoyed herself, she hadn’t pined after me one bit. After all, Jenn herself is loads of fun, and a very reassuring presence, but Agatha and Edmund are tons more fun than Mommy! What fun it was to help Jenn wake them up from their naps, and all climb into Edmund’s crib together:

Then there were the pigtails:

Plus, baking hobo bread, playing with the dollhouse, reading Olivia books, and other activities too numerous to mention.

I think Aurora looks most like me at 18 months in this picture, above.

Mostly, I think Aurora feels relaxed and comfortable with the Milleys. I sure do!

Then Jenn made us dinner! Of course, now I have to find some way to spoil her silly in return. Any suggestions?

In North Vancouver, there is a little farm/petting zoo that whisks me back to a memory of one of my favourite books as a kid, Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm. In the book, we got to see the antics and foibles of the horses, goats, chickens, dogs, cats, and other assorted residents of a fictional farm named Maple Hill. I loved it, and still love it, and years ago my mom sought out three copies of the out-of-print book so that each of us kids could have one for our own families someday. Now it’s being reprinted in a beautiful new edition, so another generation of kids can read about the exploits of Pola Negri the chicken, Old Eleven the sheep, Chaos the horse (whom I always thought was pronounced “chah-auss”) and many others.

So yesterday, the happy convergence of an errand in North Vancouver (recycling cassette tapes and CD cases), a sunny day, and all three of us being together allowed us to visit Maplewood Farm, the absolute most perfect place to spend a spring day with a toddler. We saw ducks, geese, chickens, parrots, peacocks, a turkey, and that’s just the birds! There were pigs, miniature horses and draft horses, two kinds of goats, sheep, and a big room full of rabbits you could pet and feed. Check out the pix:

Aurora’s not sure what to do about all the ducks and geese.

Our friend Caitlin (with Mommy Kirsten) watches the pigs eating lunch.

Aurora tries not to pet the wooly sheep (note curled up fingers) but Daddy insists she give it a try.

Climbing on the rocks in the goat and sheep pen is much more fun!

This picture pretty much sums up the whole visit – Aurora trying not to pet the extremely docile animals while Daddy helps her explore the farm.

Take a close look at this photo – Aurora was sure that the best thing to do with bunnies is to pile sawdust on top of them!

After the farm, we visited the playground next door, which had the world’s most staticky slide.

Did you have a good time at the farm Aurora? “Yeah!”

but that doesn’t stop us from going out! To the park; although certain allowances must be made for the cold, wet weather, such as going to the one with pea gravel rather than messy sand/mud.

“Slide! Slide! I wanna go down the slide!”

“Now what do I do?”

One excellent way to work off excess energy in a toddler: picking up pinecones. Daddy calls it slave labour, since he’s the one who usually has to do it. Aurora, however, seems to love the task, and happily runs back and forth all over the yard, collecting them for disposal, two at a time.

By the way, isn’t the garage looking good? Great job, Daddy!

Lots of Kisses

Aurora’s fondness for reading knows no bounds!