Aurora Wells

Today’s post may be more diary-like than usual, and I hope Aurora forgives me for co-opting her blog for my own purposes. I may be able to turn this around to be more A-centric by the end – we shall see.

I live about a thousand miles away from my very close-knit family, and Thanksgiving is my favourite holiday, so it always gives me a pang when American Thanksgiving rolls around, and I am not at the table with my parents, brothers, and extended family. Luckily, this year I was able to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with Mom, Dad and Steve, but I was sorry not to be able to share it with David, Ashleigh, my grandparents, or any of my aunts, uncles or cousins. Don’t feel sorry for me, though. I made a choice when I moved to another country, and I am happy with that choice.

Part of the reason for that is because I have a truly extraordinary group of friends. On Saturday night some of us feasted royally on a Thanksgiving-inspired potluck that featured some traditional dishes such as stuffing and mashed potatoes, as well as more original ones, like Butter Turkey (instead of Indian Butter Chicken) and purple kale salad. We get together about once a month for this sort of thing, and I always look forward to it. I’d had a stressful day, and a head-bonking incident (mine, for a change) on the way over, and I briefly considered nursing my head at home in bed. However, once I got there, the rest of the day melted away, and I was once again lovingly embraced in the comforting presence of my friends, and felt so much better. Aurora got to play with friends, Brian and I got to chat with adults, and we had a really lovely time.

Then there are the friends we see less often, but who are no less appreciated. Today we spent the afternoon at Aahva’s first birthday party. His parents, Morgaine and Craig, are extraordinarily warm, interesting, funny and generous with their time and with their hearts. Morgaine, an amazing photographer, took pictures of our family last month, and I can’t wait to show some to you soon. Morgaine is the sort of person who is willing to talk about love, life, beauty, and how work fits into it all, and she makes me think about things that I usually dismiss as less urgent than the tasks at hand. Aahva is truly blessed to be growing up in this family, and his parents seem to really appreciate him, too.

I had a little chat in the basement with Andrew-Bruce this evening, too, after Aurora went to bed. We discussed a number of things, including this blog (and yes, Bruce, I have insomnia again tonight!). One of the things we talked about was the fact that Vancouver has begun to feel so small, but in a good way. I feel like I’ve been here long enough that my roots have gone down deep, and spread, and are coming out as shoots all over the place. I run into people I know all the time, which has never happened anywhere else I’ve lived, and one friend even told me last week that she recognized another friend of mine solely through my blog postings, when they were at a community centre recently. I love the fact that one of my mentors at school turns out to be the mother of one of my mommy-friends. I love that so many of my friends ride bikes more often than they drive cars. I love that we get together to share an organically-grown, humanely-raised cow each year. I love that when my reading group gets together we have to spend at least an hour talking after we finish discussing the book. I love that I feel surrounded by so many sympathetic souls, who will act as my family whenever I need them.

Thank you to everyone, friends and family, near and far. A very wise young woman from East Germany, who had traveled all over the world, once told my cousin in response to the question, “Where is the best place you’ve ever been?”, that the best place in the world to be is where your loved ones are. I am incredibly grateful that my little girl is growing up with such a fantastic collection of people in our ‘family’. There! I brought it back to you, Aurora!

Much love,
Mommy

You may not know this, but most of the time that I write a blog post, I type to the accompaniment of Aurora’s pre-nap babble. A little whining, a little wall-kicking, some stuffed-animal-chatting, and occasionally some deep insights (”I have fingernails too!”). Time was when the pre-nap babble usually led to a nap, 4 times out of 5. Now the score seems to be reversed, and for the past couple of weeks, an actual nap is more of an anomaly. I look at the tired eyes of my daughter, with those purply college-student-during-finals bags under them, and listen to her say, “I’m tired, Mommy” and I think, “Yeah, so why won’t you nap, silly girl?”

Our potty-learning track record, so awesome from 19 to 23 months, hit the skids a couple of months ago, too. Now I carry old dishtowels with me everywhere I go (because I refuse to put her back in fuzzi bunz that never worked well anyway). She used to be quite happy to use the folding toilet seat when we went out, but now big toilets scare her. She’s also more likely at home to tell me that she just peed, than that she has to pee now.

Then there’s the Penny Incident. On Tuesday afternoon I stupidly tried to let her put herself to sleep in her bed instead of in her crib. She’d been playing with Daddy’s coin bank toy that morning, and she found a stray penny on the floor near her mattress. I was sitting here writing the last blog post when I heard the kind of gagging, choking noises that automatically put a parent on high alert. I ran into her room and found her sitting up in bed, crying that she ate the “toy” that was in her mouth. We established that it was money that she’d swallowed, but it was too far gone to pull out with my fingers, so I gathered her up and consulted Dr. Spock. He seemed pretty calm about coin-swallowing, and our family doctor seconded the “wait-and-see” attitude, so we sat on the couch and drank lots of liquids. After ten minutes, a couch-jumping marathon was underway, and her squeals of delight did much to calm my nerves. Two days later, the penny has passed, with no complaints of abdominal pain, so now we can breathe a sigh of relief. I am also re-evaluating all those “Not for children under the age of 3″ labels that I’ve been so blasé about, as in, “Oh, my child would never stick that sort of thing in her mouth!”

On a lighter note, thanks to Cara & Olin (& Marlow) for coming over this morning to make holiday crafts with us. We had so much fun, not least of which was the transformation of our couch into a “truck”. Here Aurora is opening the door, so I can climb on board with her. Where does she want to go? “Camaforna” here we come!

… and Teddy Bear does, too. And Mickey Mouse. And just about any one of Aurora’s friends who seem sentient to her. Ideas have a powerful appeal to her right now, as they are invisible, but can make things happen if you speak them out loud to, say, Mommy or Daddy. It’s one of the many cute things Aurora’s been saying lately.

Another thing Aurora likes to say is, “Little bit ’nuff”, instead of “that’s enough”. She hears “That’s enough” a lot from us, because she’s one of those kids who has a lot of trouble with transitions, switching from one activity to another. Daddy likes to call it a long attention span, which puts a positive spin on something that drives Mommy batty. Going from lego play to getting dressed to getting out the door is a big challenge, even when you dangle the carrot of a trip to the park in front of her. Then, once she gets to the park, God help you if you ever want to leave!

The past couple of weeks have passed by in a blur, but what have we been doing? Besides holiday and birthday shopping, and all the usual errands, there have been the birthday parties. We had a great time at Ayden’s and Caitlin’s 2nd birthdays at Science World and Jump Gymnastics, respectively. Then there was the big surprise 60th birthday party for Dirk & Adriana in Chilliwack. They’re old friends of the Wells family, and they had absolutely no idea that about 50 or so of their friends and family were going to pop out of nowhere and wish them a happy birthday (they’re only 3 weeks apart in age).

The moment of surprise as they entered the Cultus Lake Community Hall.

Dirk & Adriana, after having a little while to recover from the shock.

There were plenty of grandkids, nieces & nephews in attendance!

Aurora quietly observes a serious game of rock, paper, scissors. She seemed to want to play with the older children, but backed away whenever they actually approached her.

It was nice to have a chance to catch up with Auntie Lori for a bit, and Brian was able to reconnect with his high school buddy Vince (Dirk & Adriana’s son).

We spent the night at a nearby hotel, with Grandma Shaun & Grandpa Bill in an adjacent room. We’re lucky that they were able to brave the Coquihalla highway at this time of year, and it was great to see them again, between Thanksgiving & Christmas.

And speaking of Christmas, we have an early little treat for you:

Angel Bear, the ornament that Aurora chose for herself, on its very own little tree!

November in Vancouver is not usually great park weather, and this past week has been no exception. Instead, we’ve been turning half of our house into a fun play zone. Aurora’s crib is filled with the birthday balloons that still haven’t deflated, and she gleefully jumps around in there, like those pits full of coloured, plastic balls at certain stores and amusement parks. So far, none have popped; I guess she’s either not very rough with them, or they’re super-balloons.

The little table is usually set up with either colouring materials or the tea set (or both). Aurora likes to make many different flavours of tea, depending on what’s available to put in the cups; kitty-cat tea, duplo person tea, or, as shown above, “E” tea. The more convincing a show you make of scooping sugar, pouring cream, stirring and enjoying your tea, the more delighted she is.

We’ve also been building beaver lodges and bear caves in the living room, which is a level of domestic upheaval previously unimagined in such a small house. We all get really into it, though. We use chairs, blankets, the sofa & cushions, the cat stand, and/or hockey sticks to make a really skookum place to hang out on a rainy morning or afternoon. We were inspired by the life-sized beaver lodge that you can crawl through at Science World. We make sure the beavers or bears are really cozy with blankets and pillows, we bring them food to eat, and read them stories. I love watching Aurora’s face light up when she thinks of something new the animals might want, and when I volunteer to help her go get it. This evening we read about an aardvark, so the next thing we build might be an aardvark burrow tomorrow. It’s a good thing I got so much tent-building practice with my brothers in our bonus room. It’s definitely coming in handy!

For as long as I can remember (or at least since my little brother was two) I’ve heard about the “terrible” twos, when your angel baby is supposed to turn into some kind of monster for a year (or two). What I didn’t anticipate was how the angel and devil would reside side-by-side in my kid. Yes, Aurora has some tantrums, but usually when it’s been too long since she’s eaten or slept, and who wouldn’t be on a short fuse by then? And yes, she says “No” a lot, but more frequently it’s “No, fank you.”

Aurora, as it turns out, has taken to heart the lesson that you catch more flies with honey, and that Mommy and Daddy are more likely to say yes to a request when it’s followed by “Pease (please)”. When we’re tickling her, dressing her in unacceptable clothing, or doing other annoying things, she says, “No fankyou! No fankyou! No fankyou!” and we usually lay off. If we’re in her way, she says, “Dooz (’scuse) me” and when I sneeze (which is an awful lot) she says, “Bess (bless) you, Mommy”. When she first learned thank-you, she used to thank me for every single grape I cut up and put on her plate, to which I always replied, “You’re welcome” with a smile.

But the most awesome thing is when we’re sitting and playing or laying down with her and she hoists herself up to eye level, gently leans in, brushes a feather-light kiss on my cheek, and says “Love you Mommy”. I’ll take whatever bad she throws my way if it means I get goodness like that.

As promised, here are some pictures of the munchkin in costume for Halloween. Thanks to the Milleys for letting us borrow the Tigger costume – Aurora was totally jazzed about being a character she loves this year.

The Sunset Community Centre (Main & 51st) had a 1-5 year old play gym the day before Halloween. In addition to the usual gym stuff there was a craft table where we made icky playdough worms and a tissue ghost; a Halloween diorama for pictures, although Aurora kept wanting to pick up the leaves; a face-painting table; and a bouncy pirate castle. The castle was like a flame to my little moth. She was inexorably drawn to its door, fascinated by how much fun all the other kids were having and wanting to have fun, too, but completely unable to enter without Mommy (not allowed). She stood in line no fewer than three times, waiting while 4 or 5 other kids entered, then screaming and clinging when it was her turn. Ah, well, maybe next year.

Definitely the best part of the Sunset play gym – a trampoline! None of the other play gyms have one, and she got a lot of good Tigger practice, although after a few minutes of bouncing, the warm costume had to come off.

How to be a Tigger without a costume? Get your face painted!

All dressed up and ready to go!

Our friend Mandy hosts a great Halloween party each year, in fact, her whole neighbourhood goes nuts for Halloween. We visited for a while with our favourite fairy and her little doggie,

got loaded up with candy, and then set out to get some more. Brian took Aurora around Mandy’s block (rumour has it some of the movie people from the Vancouver film scene live here, and they get a little cinematic when it comes to Halloween) while Mommy went home to answer the door and give out candy.

Aurora made out pretty well considering how long it takes her to climb up and down each set of stairs. Daddy says at some houses they were practically throwing the candy at the kids. Her total haul? An impressive .75 kilos!

In case you are not a muppet fanatic, Daddy is Captain Vegetable and Mommy is Bip Bippadotta. Happy Halloween from the entire weird family!