California dreamin

You always hear that parenting is all about surprises. No matter how organized you are, or how attached you are to plans and schedules, the one thing kids will teach you from the get go is that organization is the equivalent to fool’s gold. Provides you with a little comfort, maybe some hope, but in the end, it’s an illusion. You need to be able to go with the flow cause plans are going to change.

But what you don’t often hear about are the pleasant surprises. One of the things that I have found shocking about parenting is how fascinated I am watching my kid learn and grow. It seems unreal to me that this little itty bitty thing who 2 short years ago couldn’t walk or talk is now, not only running and talking up a storm, but has the capacity to reason, to decipher, to kid around, to be sarcastic, to draw conclusions, to imagine and to pretend. The toddler years are mesmerizing to watch because this is the period where your child goes from being a little lump of cute smiles to her own independent, thinking, self with ideas, emotions and opinions all of her own. Of course I know I’m going to curse that when she hits the teenage years, but for the moment, it’s amazing to watch.

It sounds strange, and it’s hard to relate, but the tiniest things are absolutely amazing to me. We got Kiyomi a trike in the spring, and while she enjoyed sitting on it, she wasn’t really getting the hang of peddling. We wound up not really using it much over the summer, but a couple weeks ago, we decided to give it a go again. Kiyomi hopped on that thing like she’d been riding it her whole life and took off around the block! We stood there stunned, with our faces stuck between shock and awe and hopelessly prideful grins – that was of course until we noticed she wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down as she approached the street corner.

Driving the other day, one of us asked her a simple question, something that would usually have a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. “Would you like pizza for dinner?” The response: “Well, I don’t know.” I know, it seems so simple, and natural and part of learning and cognitive development, but I knew this child when she was learning the difference between “yes” and “no”, and here she was answering a question with nuance and interjection. I mean when did that happen? How did it happen?

Most recently, while the Olympics were on in Beijing, I would listen to the round up of events on the radio in the morning. CBC would lead in with a little theme music, and the announcer would start in with “Today in Beijing…”, and a little voice would pipe up from the breakfast table “Mommy, my Beijing!” She can tell you she was born in China, and lives in Canada, and will show you the different places on a map. When you ask her where she lives, she’ll happily say “Ottawa”. She will ‘read’ you a story, leafing through a book she’s read 100 times, and retell the story completely accurately. Again, I know the psychology involved – she’s reached the age where she’s starting to place herself in the outside world, relate to things beyond her parents, develop the ability to recognize humour and nuance. It’s all developmentally accurate, yet when you watch it happen with your child, it is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed. The effect it’s had on me is indescribable – there is pride of course, but wonder it probably the stronger emotion.

Despite my wonder and amazement, we’ve still been leading pretty busy lives this summer. There’ve been trips to cottages, to Mont Tremblant, lots of summer fun at parks, swimming pools and of course, lots of ice cream. There was the annual trip to the fair with Ella. The girls had a blast this year, running from ride to ride, taking it all in and grinning like crazy. That was of course until we decided that it’d be worth it to put them on the kiddie roller coaster. The first couple passes were fine, even though it was a little bumpy, by the 3rd, we had looks of incredulity that pretty much said ‘what is wrong with these people, and why did they put me on this thing?’ By the 4th pass, there were tears and looks of disgust. Thankfully, the ride ended at that point, so there wasn’t lifelong scarring, despite the fact that Kohji and I were pretty much helpless with laughter.

We also took off for a week in sunny coastal California, which turned out to be fabulous. Apparently, all you need to amuse a toddler for hours on end are sun, sand and surf. Oh sure, we hit a couple parks, the San Diego Zoo and a wonderful aquarium in Monterey, but those didn’t hold a candle to a toddler mind cause they were competing with the ability to chase seagulls and waves for hours on end. Kiyomi would spend the first hour or so every time we hit a beach either clambering over huge rocks insisting that we call her Ariel (from Little Mermaid fame) or tearing up and down the sand running into the water up to her knees than running away screaming in sheer delight. I tell you, she was having so much fun, I briefly considered doing the same thing, but decided against it for fear of arrest! As for the zoo, she was able to get nose to nose with monkeys, hippos, gorillas, etc…, but the absolute highlight there were the meerkats and the large metal hippo that she could clamber up onto. As far as the entire zoo was concerned (or at leasy any child within ear shot), “this hippo is all of ours, you can have a turn, but is my turn after, ok?” See, there’s that capacity for reasoning showing itself loud and clear.

Kiyomi also said good-bye to the 'ole crib, and is now officially sleeping in the 'big girl bed'. The transition proved to me remarkably smooth, but then again, I think it's fair to say we were pretty lazy. Her toes were practially coming out of the end of the crib before we decided to make the switch (and Kohji kept arguing that she slept curled up anyway, so what's the rush). However, it was time. Luckily for us, while she knows she can get out of bed on her own, she seems to have to desire too. We still hear the little voice in the morning... "Mommy, it's morningggggg!"

Next adventure, will be figuring out the morass and administrative hell that is j.k. registration (which I should point out isn't until next year, but I've already been told that I waited to long to get on the waiting list for daycares). My first foray – calling the local school to get information on what’s available in or at least coordinated with the school for after care – was akin to banging my head against a large (and rather rude) brick wall. I can honestly say (and I won’t use school names to protect the innocent) that I have never had to deal with a less helpful or more overtly rude person in my life (and I work for government, so that’s saying something). This does not bode well for what I expect to be future interactions with our local school system. Of course, calling on the second week of school was probably not the smartest idea I ever had, but I know if I wait too long, I’ll undoubtedly hear… “oh, you should have called months ago”. Sigh…

Parting shot for tonight is from Kiyomi's birthday. Pretty much says it all.

Good night, from Ottawa