Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Here are a few pics of Makeba on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. My brother dressed up as Santa for the kids (Makeba and my nephew, Evan) we did traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve supper at my brother Mark's house as they have a new baby and arrived home from the hospital that day. My mom and dad and Annand and I got the food all ready and Andrew (younger brother) and Catherine (his wife) prepared the great Santa surprise for the kids. They were so excited! It was really cute! She still tells me randomly about the monster book Santa gave her!

So, Catherine and Andrew also got her a guitar, and she LOVES it! On Christmas morning she opened the tea set we got her and the djembe drum we got her. As soon as she saw the drum, she yelled, "let's jam!" and grabbed her guitar. Then she looked around and put her tea pot on the drum and used it as a microphone! She was a one-toddler show! It was awesome!

Later we went to Annand's parent's house for dinner and she was ready for the presents! She kept looking around for more presents to open! She woke up from the nap she was having when we got there and her first thought was "presents!"

She had a truly generous Christmas and really enjoyed it. I think she loved the family all getting together, especially the attention she's getting!

Well, we hope you all had a lovely Christmas and that the new year treats you well.

Peace,
Hania

Poor little gaffer...

This momentous occasion must be documented...poor little Makeba has a broken arm! She is just over 2 years old and has a half cast on her little elbow. It broke my heart to see her so injured! I guess we had it coming since she made it to 2 without any major falls. I'm grateful that it wasn't her head!

Oh boy, all you parents out there know what it feels like to see your child fall from a height and all you can think is, HEAD INJURY!! INTERNAL BLEEDING!! WE'RE IN PUBLIC, HOW EMBARRASSING! It's silly, I know, but it definitely crossed my mind that people must be looking at me and thinking horrible things about the mother who let her child fall out of a shopping cart and is allowing the child to scream so much. I checked her over and felt the sore elbow, everything seemed in order, just really painful. We had been on our way to the bathroom to change her diaper, so we just had to keep going. I don't even know how we got to the bathroom, but sure enough, I changed her diaper and took her shirt off to see her arm and it swelled up really fast. A nice lady who worked there gave Makeba a little orange teddy bear and I asked her for a bag of ice and that ice seemed to save Makeba, because she fell asleep almost instantly in my arms with that ice on.

We called our family doctor and went in as an emergency appointment. She seemed to cheer up as we waited for him to see us, and even went to play with the toys. I'd given her some arnica (homeopathic medicine for injuries, helps with pain, anxiety, shock, etc) and that seemed to help. The ice really helped. I was running on adrenaline, for sure. All sorts of things went through my head about how I could have prevented it even though I couldn't have. I even berated myself for not force feeding her milk products, which she hates, for the calcium. Good old Annand looked up elbow injuries in toddlers and found that it is one of the most common injuries in young children. I felt better after that.

Anyway, she has to have a half cast on for a month and wear a sling to keep the pressure off her elbow. It took until the end of the next day before we knew she needed the cast because we got the x-ray the first day and then had to wait all night and the next day for the results and for our doctor to consult with the specialist. We have to go to the University hospital cast clinic for a check up in 10 days.

She's already doing so well. She spent the first two days propped up with pillows on the couch watching movies and reading stories and sleeping. Now she plays like usual and actually uses the hand on her injured arm. She's adapting and in good spirits! She thinks it's so cool to be "just like uncle Santosh" (he had a cast this past summer and she made sure to check in with him about his "sore arm" every time she saw him). I know that by Christmas she'll be just fine, cast and all! What an experience!

More of our funny little lass...

Here are some more recent pictures of our Makeba. She loves stickers... her favourite thing to do with them is put them on her face and our faces. Go figure! Eating chicken noodle soup that she requested I make for her, from scratch, for supper that night! She definitely knows what she wants! Oy. Oh, that's another thing. She's picking up all sorts of interesting things that I say, like Ay, yay, yay, and Oy!

She also has gotten into playing "mama and baby" and turns anything from her toy flashlight, to a doll into a "baby" and likes to wear her babies in a sling like we did with her when she was way too small to remember! We still sometimes put her in the "Ergo" backpack, so sometimes she calls it an ergo (which sounds more like igor when she says it).

Also, her imagination is in no danger, as she believes herself to be a baby tiger and everyone around her is also a tiger, for example, I am the mama tiger, Annand is the dada tiger and aside from grandparents and their titles, everyone else is their name and then tiger, like Santosh is Santosh tiger. We have also been skunks, monsters, and cats. It all depends on Makeba's mood and she decides what we are. Rarely are we ever just Makeba, mama and dada anymore. BUT, if you try to tell her she is something other than baby _______ (insert animal of choice) then she says, "no! I'm MaKEba!" very emphatically!

Lastly, of course I had to include her first picture with St. Nicholas/Santa Claus.

Now we anxiously await the arrival of my parents for Christmas!

Peace,
Hania

P.S. Natalie, this one's for you! Actually, the last one was, and I knew you'd be the first to see it! Thanks for your unfailing loyalty!

Goofy little lass...

Here are some pictures of our goofy little lass from this fall. She has been growing like crazy! I bought her a whole set of new pants because one day all of hers ceased to be full length pants! She loves to sing, dance, listen to stories, play "guitar" and her harmonica. Movies like "Shrek" and "Winnie the Pooh and Piglet" are current favourites. She likes the humour and the cuteness. Her latest thing is to do a knock, knock joke:
Makeba: knock, knock
Mama: who's there?
Makeba: eeyore
Mama: eeyore who?
Makeba: eehaww, eehaww (donkey sounds)
Mama: (laughs)
Makeba: don't laugh, it's not a joke, only smile.
Mama: (laughs even more)
Makeba: NO! Don't laugh!!

She's our wonderful little character!

One week in Saskatchewan

In July we went to Saskatchewan for a week. We stayed at our friends' cabin. Alicia, Murray and their daughter, Makeba's best friend, Bella. They have moved away from Edmonton and we miss them! It was great to spend a week in beautiful northern Saskatchewan, with friends and sunshine!

Our dancing diva!

Here is our little dance-a-holic! We were eating supper at the Ollivierre dining table and Makeba was playing in the living room, as usual. She came into the kitchen and said "music, playing" We asked her if she wanted us to put the music on. In the pause while she thought about what we said, the music started playing and Makeba's hips began to move! We then realized that she was merely telling us that she put the music on and it would soon be playing! She danced and enjoyed herself as usual whenever the beat goes on!



This video is of Makeba singing and dancing. Her song is about a flower.

The End of May...

Here are some pictures of the events around and during my brother's wedding...

The Beginning of May...

Okay, so to catch up again... May came and went so fast! It was full of activity. The beginning of May was really a time of waiting for the end of May. It was quite a whirlwind as my cousin passed away tragically at the beginning of May, and Andrew, my brother, got married on May 17th. There were some conflicting emotions of sad and happy to sort through. We are recovering from the frenzie pretty well, now! Here are some pictures of the beginning...

I've been tagged...

These pictures are from April 27th. I'm just trying to catch up. This message was also written then, I just didn't post it at the time because I had no pictures. Here it is:

My friend, Natalie, has blog tagged me. That means that I have to give 7 facts about myself and tag another friend who blogs so that eventually we will all know 7 facts about someone!

1. I've begun writing stories and poems again. I think I did most of my creative writing when I was 10 years old, and then one short stint in a writing class at university, and it's been writer's block ever since. Not anymore! I guess we'll see how long it lasts! I'm truly enjoying it.

2. I've been planning a pretty extensive vegetable garden for this summer, and some things are already in the ground and in pots and seedlings inside. I had to put a sheet over some of them for tonight because it is supposed to get pretty cold! I'm probably the most excited about the purple carrots I planted. It will be so cool to eat purple carrots!

3. I have learned a lot about homeopathy as a way of healing and living. I love how well it has helped me with my lower back pain (it's gone, no more low back pain) and also my excema (it's gone completely as well). I never thought I'd be able to say either of those things. I was told I'd have back problems for my whole life and I also figured that I would have excema forever unless I moved to a humid country. Nope, just needed to get homeopathic treatment. It is so refreshing to trust a health care provider to actually be able to help me!

4. My favourite ice cream flavour right now is tied between chocolate almond and coffee crisp.

5. My two favourite Iron Chefs in the TV show "Iron Chef America" are Mario Batali and Bobby Flay.

6. I love the TV show "Flight of the Conchords," it's hilarious, and provides Makeba with some great favourite songs! Her current favourite is called "She's so hot...BOOM!" It's a reggae song, and she happens to love reggae of all kinds. I think it has something to do with the amount of reggae music she heard in utero. We were in the Caribbean when she was very tiny in the womb (I believe the book said she was the size of a cashew) and then when we came back to Edmonton, I just wanted to dance to reggae all the time! Now, it's Makeba who wants to dance to reggae all the time!

7. I am so happy that I am a mom it is almost ridiculous. My little girl is so wonderful. I am truly lucky to be able to make her my life's work. Don't get me wrong, I still want to do things for myself, and sometimes feel totally overwhelmed, but I'm just grateful that I can be what census Canada calls a "home maker" (even though I don't particularly like the title) and spend time watching my daughter learn and teaching my daughter all sorts of stuff about life. We have fun together and we laugh a lot!

Okay, Natalie, I did it. Are you surprised?

At the park...

Hi guys! Here are some photos from the park near our house. Makeba and her cousin Evan played together at the park for an hour and a half! That's a very long time for their short attention spans! They were so cute! Annand had his camera out the whole time, snap, snap, snap! Those two kids are so happy to play together! That afternoon we saw 3 airplanes, 2 trucks and a lot of sand! It was so great when an airplane would fly by and the kids would both stare up and point and say "pa-lane!" Makeba loved the slide and the swing. Evan loved climbing all over everything. They both loved walking back and forth across the ramp at the skatepark. Evan calls Makeba "Bikaba" and only she can make him giggle hysterically.

Anyway, things are going well with us. Makeba is growing up alot. She's sleeping in her own bed in her own room, and loving it. She still gets up a couple times a night, but one of those is closer to morning, and the other one is not a consistent wake up. Some nights we actually get a whole sleep like normal people do!

Makeba is really learning words very well. She can put together sentences up to five words. She counts to 10 (more or less, sometimes she forgets "6"). She also likes to sing the ABCs. She enjoys watching TV (like her father) and has some favourites on "Kids CBC" including "Bruno and the Banana Bunch" and "Gofrette" and "The Doodlebops."

Makeba loves to sing. We figure we named her well! She really loves music of all kinds. Dancing is a regular event in our house. We love dance parties. Makeba especially likes it when Dada or Mama carry her around and spin and twirl with her in our arms.

She has started to call me Mom and Annand Dad. She'll say "hi mom!" in a sweet little voice, or "bye dad!" when Annand goes to work. She still calls us Mama and Dada, but occaisonally drops the "a" at the end.

We pray together every night and Makeba's favourite prayerful song is "Hail Mary, Gentle Woman" and when Makeba sings it the prayer goes like this: "Hail Mary, full of grapes..."

Well, I'm so tired now, so I'll sign off! Peace and love to all of you!
Hania