Alphabet Books

Katherine, in the evening, just before bedtime, it’s our special time to spend together. You and me, snuggled up together on the couch in the living room, reading stories. It’s a wonderful way of winding down your day and sharing our love of reading together.

Often the reading time also serves as snack time, having some sweet fruit just before bedtime. Depending on the night you may ask for strawberries, apples, banana… or like tonight – oranges. You munch on your snack while I read to you and often you pause to offer daddy and me a piece of fruit as well (yes, that makes us smile every time).

Some nights we are reading German stories, and other nights English ones. I love that you effortlessly understand either language and we can mix it up any way we feel like.

It’s up to you to pick the stories we read every night and right now you are really enjoying alphabet stories (you are so interested in letters). I recently bought a set of little story books, each featuring a different letter of the alphabet – this of course gives you 26 different stories to choose from. Tonight we were reading about Elvin the Elephant, Nate the Newt, Seal’s Silly Sandwich, Rosie Rabbit’s Radish and the tales of the Bubble Bear. If you kept count, there were 5 stories tonight. Why 5? Because 5 is a number you can show really well with your hand and as you were picking different books (by showing me each single theme letter on another book cover), you kept referring back to your handing showing the number 5 until we had 5 books (I tried to stop at 3, but that didn’t fly).

I admit, even if it’s already later than your bedtime, I am easily persuaded to read “just one more book” with you. And you are very good at persuading!

You are teaching me that feeding our mind is as important as feeding our body. There are books everywhere in our house; your daddy and I have been adding to this collection for many years and since you came into our lives, we have added many children’s books. I am excited to share my love of reading with you… and I am grateful for every evening we have together to snuggle up on the couch with some good stories. I love you always and forever.

Cherry Jam

Katherine, we had so much fun today (and didn’t even leave our home). It’s a long weekend, sunny & hot and the cherries on our big tree in the backyard are beginning to turn deep red… a perfect day to make cherry jam.

We started off by picking a big bowl of cherries. We had a great system going – I was picking them off the tree, handing them to you and you put them into our bowl (your little hands are just big enough to hold 5-6 cherries at a time, so were busy running between me and the bowl).

Next, it was time to pit them and after we changed you into some old clothing (yes, it’s a bit messy) we were ready to get started. I have to be honest, I expected you to watch as I was using the pitting machine, but you were “hands on” and pushed the lever down over and over. After a while I could tell your arms were getting tired (after all, our recipe was calling for a full kilogram of cherries), but you weren’t about to quit. When I attempted to take over for you, you looked at me with the most serious look and pushed my hand out of the way. My job was to hold the pitting machine on the bottom  so that it wouldn’t move around, and keep feeding the cherries into the top funnel. You were also very diligent with the “quality control”, tasting a lot of cherries to make sure we were only using the sweetest fruit.

For the cooking portion we (ok, I) decided it was best for you to just watch from a bit of distance (boiling & bubbling jam is just not pleasant if it comes into contact with your skin), but you were right back on duty when it came to tasting the finished product. The final verdict: “Katherine approved!”

You are teaching me that doing anything in life is so much more enjoyable when we do it with people we love (and the jam tastes so much sweeter because we made it together). I love you always and forever.

In Memory of your Grandfather

Katherine, today’s story is a little different… it’s not about you and me, it’s about my dad. You see, today is a very special day, it’s his birthday. Today would have been his 100th birthday and sadly he is no longer here to celebrate this milestone with us. But I was thinking what birthday present I would get for him - and I know that the best present I could give him is to take some time today and tell you about your grandfather.

He was a proud and charismatic man. He was a visionary, an entrepreneur and a gifted negotiator. He was a book publisher and an author, a man who loved to write. He was a runner, a gardener and he made the best potato pancakes.

But above all, he was my dad. My dad, who took the time to have a conversation on the phone with me every night before bedtime when he was traveling. My dad, who taught me how to ride a bike, running alongside of me and eventually quietly letting go when he knew I could do it on my own. My dad, who was so happy for me when I met your dad and we started our life together.

Your grandfather has taught me never give up on my dreams, because he never gave up on his. He taught me that we need to cherish the moments we have together with those we love, because the day came where I had no more moments with him. I know he would be so proud of you, his only granddaughter. In his honour, I’ll give you a special kiss tonight; I love you always and forever.

The Sparkle In Your Eyes

Katherine, this afternoon we went for a walk. You love being outside, I love being outside, the sun was shining, the air was warm… how perfect for a late afternoon stroll with no particular destination.

As we were leaving the house, you walked straight to your tricycle. A friend had given us this tricycle recently – her daughter had outgrown it and you fell in love with it from the moment you laid your eyes on it when she dropped it off at our front door. It’s red, blue and yellow with handle bars that your little hands firmly grip and pedals that your feet just barley reach. And the best part (for you) – it has a long handle on the back so that you can ride while I push as your legs aren’t long enough yet to pedal yourself.

Every time you climb on this tricycle and we start our walk, a big smile appears on your face. You turn your head around, looking at me with that sparkle in your eyes, ready for our next adventure. And so it went today – on your tricycle you climbed and off we went. We walked down the streets and walkways, all the way down to the beach (my favourite place).

You were sitting on your tri-cycle, looking around and pointing at things and people you were seeing. I love seeing you so happy!

You are teaching me that feeling independent comes in many forms and even when we have someone helping us a little so we can move forward, we can feel a sense of accomplishment and freedom. That sparkle in your eyes shows me that you are very proud of what you can do. I love you always and forever.

Independence

Katherine, gaining your independence is so important to you. You want a say in your life and you want to do things by yourself. As much as you’ll always be my baby girl, I love seeing you become an independent little person.

A couple of days ago when I unbuckled you from the car seat and wanted to lift you out of the car, you looked at me (with that serious look you have) and shook your head. You then proceeded to carefully slide out of the car seat until you came to stand in the car. From there you climbed onto the back seat, turned yourself around and proceeded to inch forward to slide out of the car; making sure I was close by, just in case, but making a choice not to take my hand. This wasn’t a quick motion, but you methodically kept moving forward until you made your way to standing in the garage. I closed the car door under your watchful eye and we proceeded to walk into the house, where you walked straight to the stairs, sat down on the bottom step and began taking off your shoes. This isn’t as easy as it may sound; pulling off sturdy winter shoes with your little hands takes quite a bit of effort, but when you are determined to do something, you do it. After you took off your shoes, you put them away in the closet… and then there was that serious look again, motioning me to take off my shoes as well (what was I thinking, we were in the house already – and yes, I admit I didn’t get right on that as I was watching you). Before I could do anything else you took my shoes and put them in the closet as well (lined up just the way they are supposed to) and closed the closet door.

When you turned around to look at me, your face was shining with pride.

You are teaching me that it’s my job to not get in your way as you are growing up; to make sure you are safe, well taken care of and loved and above all to be proud of you every day for what you do and who you become. I love you always and forever.

Together

Katherine, this week has been all about spending time together as a family. At the beginning of the week was a “Family Day” holiday and we spent time together at some family activities at the local recreation centre. And in the true British Columbia spirit that included panning for gold (well, in this case panning for little gemstones)… so Canadian! 

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and we had a busy day filled with meetings and work projects; but your daddy, you and I spent most of the day together and we shared lots of hugs, laughs and cuddles. In the evening we went out for dinner. A very casual dinner at the end of a busy day – we went to the food court at the mall. Now, this may not sound like a typical Valentine’s Day dinner, but I needed to write you about it, because I wouldn’t have traded it in for anything. We all three shared a (gigantic) plate of Thai food and what’s more important, we shared each other’s company.

You are teaching me that life can be so simple, yet perfect. Spending Valentine’s Day with the 2 people I love most in the world is as perfect as life can get.  I love you always and forever.

Forward

Katherine, we passed a milestone moment in your life! One of those events that we have been anticipating for a while, discussing when you would be ready for it… and dreading a bit (it involved a fair amount of work and we didn’t know how you’d react): turning your car seat forward facing.

You see, for the past 2 years – ever since we brought you home from the hospital – you have been riding the in the back of the car rear-facing. But the time has come (partially dictated by the length of your legs) to turn your car seat around and let you ride facing forward.

And I have to admit, we had been procrastinating a bit – turning your car seat in our car is not as easy as it sounds as your car seat fits very snug into our car. After you had outgrown your infant seat, we let you help choose your seat… and you picked a “luxury size” seat which daddy installed back then with much sweat and “a little bit resistance from chair and car” and he wasn’t looking forward to doing it all over again, this time forward facing. But a few days ago, he handed you to me and scurried out to the garage. When he re-surfaced a while later with a triumphant grin we both knew that he had “won the fight with the car seat” and we were ready for your first trip “like a big girl”.

After a moment of surprise when we buckled you in, you were delighted and giggling as we began to drive, enjoying the new & improved view… until we got the first red light. You don’t like ‘em. And you are very outspoken about it – letting out little screams and waiving both arms. So we explained to you that the red light means we need to stop, and once the light turns green, we can go again. We have explained to you that the red light means stop and we need to wait until it turns great at every single light we had to stop, every day, every car ride since you are driving with us forward facing and there will be likely much more of that in our future. You love to go, not stop, not wait – the faster, the better.  I can already see that one day you will enjoy a fast ride on the German Autobahn!

You are teaching me that it’s much more fun waiting at a red light when we waive our arms wildly… and cheer when the light turns green. Every part of life is more fun when it becomes a game and we don’t take it so seriously. Thank you for that reminder. I love you always and forever.