moments from dinner

Dinner was never so fun before Maia began her dinnertime entertainment.

Here's my favourite moment from our meal last night.



I know I've said this before, but Maia started it. She began her enthusastic pointing and yelling. We weren't sure what she was saying, so we tried giving her a phrase to yell in future. Very endearing. Perhaps the most fun of all is watching Tim and she enjoy each other so much.

"(a)-gain!"

A simple summery moment to savour with my sweet and sassy swinger.

crop circles

So I've decided it's silly to have land in your backyard and not have a vegetable garden. We've been at our house in Zurich for almost 3 years, and I think it's high time I grow more than flowers. But I didn't want to make a run-0f-the-mill garden with vegetables in rows. I have nothing against such sensible gardens, but I've always liked the idea of combining edible plants with flowering plants. So I've done a little research lately, learned about companion plants and the three sisters garden, and invited my parents to come help me dig up three round gardens that will include veggies, herbs and flowers.

Inviting my parents to help turns out to be one of the best decisions so far, since creating garden beds turned out to be a little more labour intensive than we thought. Turns out the rototiller we borrowed didn't want to turn over the grass, so we ended up digging up the sod in little squares... well, okay. Dad and Tim dug up the sod. Big job. I haven't planted the seeds yet since we finished the sod job last night in the dark! So right now, my gardens look more like crop circles.


Soon we'll find out if I'm as crazy as my friend Kerry thinks I am for planting round vegetable gardens. (I don't doubt you on the crazy part, Ker.) I'll be sure to post more when these gardens start to look like what I've envisioned... or like something totally different!

cherished moments of a mother

Happy Mother's Day!

This has been a treasured day. As it comes to a close, I'm reflecting on some of my favourite moments of this past day as a mother of a chatty, curious, sweet and sassy 21 month old.

There's the nature walk in the forest where we watched stunning orange orioles building their nests. We thought we'd have a child of nature who would love her time in the natural world so much that she would quietly soak it in while riding peacefully in the backpack carrier. Our dream was starkly contrasted by Maia's little-bodied-big-voice YELLING her thoughts into the forest. In spite of our subtle and less subtle attempts (from whispering to shushing to asking "Can you hear the birds singing?"), Maia continued to yell "PUPPIA!" (her latest version of puppy) along most of the trail. I wonder why we didn't see any deer today....

There's also the moment when we were trying to keep Maia from going down an unsafe set of stairs at the side of our house. I must have said to her, "No, Maia. There's nothing down there for you." Well, she's picked up on the idea that there is "nothing" at the bottom of the stairs... and keeps asking to see it. "Nuffing." What, Maia? "Nuffing!" Oh, nothing. There's nothing there. "NUFFING. Pease!" A day has passed and she hasn't stopped asking about "nothing". She must think we're totally holding out on her because we won't show her the nothing at the bottom of the stairs. Cruel parents.

Then there's the conversation where I said "That's cool." in response to something Tim said. Tim followed with "I wonder how long it will be before Maia will pick up on that word and say...". And just as he finished the last word of his sentence, Maia chimed in: "Cool."


My mother's day gift (besides the lovely breakfast Tim prepared that I sat down to eat just as my ride for rehearsal arrived at the door -- hmph) was a trip to the local greenhouse to buy some flowers for my hanging baskets. After planting outside this afternoon, I showed Maia a flower bud in a hanging basket by the door and explained that it will have a flower soon and that we'll come back to see it. She only had one thing to say: "Open!"

Maia's "Amy!" at prayer time has morphed into "Amen!" at last. But this hasn't left us without any mealtime antics. At dinner tonight, we held hands and prayed as usual. This time Maia didn't let go of our hands after "amen." Instead she looked up with a twinkle in her eye and said "Pay! Gann!" (Translation: "Pray! Again!") So this time, she led us in her own prayer, as prompted by daddy. "Jesus...thank you... amen!"

How do you put into words how much that warms a mother's heart?

Time for some of you other moms to comment on your favourite mother's day moments. Do tell!

mothers

While my mom is visiting this week, we've naturally had a number of conversations about being mothers. It's neat getting insight into what life was like for your own mom when you were little... and clueless about what it was like to be a mom.

Mom couldn't hide her Dutch roots today. She did something I likely wouldn't have gotten around to until 2009: sweeping the sidewalk. In fact, she had to frequent the local hardware store to buy a broom that would actually do the job. My broom was clearly not up to the task. Actually, there was so much sand and salt and gravel on one little stretch of sidewalk that we filled a wheelbarrow full. It was nice to have someone to bounce my gardening ideas off of today too. And again lovely to have someone here who adores Maia, probably loves her as much as I do, and was completely available to enjoy her. Thanks, mom.

With mother's day approaching, I thought some of you would be interested in my photographer friend Krista's Mother's day contest. Check it out! You could win a free photo session and a $25 certificate to Krista Jefferson Photography. Good deal.

quirky and wonderful

We are seeing more and more quirky behaviour in Maia. After Tim and I giggle at her little antics, we'll say to each other,

"She so belongs in this family."

Yeah, we know we're all quirky.

Here are a few examples...

Maia found a bright orange sticker from a large grocery store item (you know, the ones they put on the product to identify it as purchased) and proceeded to transfer it to her shirt. She insisted on wearing it all day. Not to mention her bath-to-bed -the-night-before hair. I suppose I'm the one who can take credit for that.

She has a great little black dolly a friend gave her. But she is determined to keep clothes off the poor thing. I think she'd be naked all the time too if I let her.

After months of watching daddy's post-bike routine, Maia has started to beat him to it. This week as soon as he came in the door from a long ride, she layed down on the carpet in the hallway and started to stretch until he came and joined her. Very cute.

At dinner last night, Tim asked Maia if she wanted any cheese on her spaghetti, to which she replied not with her usual "Yes" or "Pease", but a resounding "OH YEAH!".

Some of you laughed at her echo of "amen" at the end of our mealtime prayers. Well, the clever little thing has been trying to shorten our prayers to one sentence and no more. If we go on too long, she's begun to yell loudly mid-sentence, "AMY!". Of course, this brings the prayer to a grinding halt as we erupt in laughter. Clever kid.

It is becoming evident that Maia is a night owl like her mom, and not a morning person like her dad. The other morning, I got her out of bed shortly after she'd woken and immediately after being removed from the crib, she started to wail. Then she paused to do the sign for sleep (for her, tilting her head and pretending to snore). I asked her, "Are you sad because you want to go back to bed and sleep more?" Through her tears, she bellowed, "YEAH!". Poor girl is turning out to be a lot like her mother, who has always had a hard time getting the day started. But at night, leave her up, and she'll just do more laps around the kitchen table.