Gloves and Shoes

Tavish was really, really into soccer this spring. His after-school activity was playing in the "ball pit". It started innocently watching from a distance or sitting on the goalie net. He was, after all, in Junior Kindergarten. The only video I have of this 'scene' is from December when he was still a part of the action, but in an observer's role. He's in the foreground with his back to us in a black coat and toque...

The early days of watching soccer

MOMENT: Gloves Make the Goalie

Spring saw him step out of his observer role and into that of a player once the older kids starting inviting him to play. There was one boy who was an excellent goalie and, apparently, wore goalie gloves. We eventually discovered that Tavish's interest in wearing gloves came from this. At the end of the school day, he'd run out to Lucy so she could hand the gloves over. He loved it in there and he proudly wore his yellow gardening gloves to play soccer with them.  They were so well loved that they show their wear...

Best goalie gloves ever

One day, Tavish casually said "someday Mommy, I'd like a real pair of goalie gloves". To which I naively responded "I thought you have your yellow pair". Clearly, he'd made it awhile before someone made an obvious comment about his gloves because he came back with "but these aren't real gloves, these are gardening gloves" with a slightly sheepish voice. Aw. I sometime miss the innocence that minimal peer exposure allowed, but it was certain that the yellow gloves with the frogs had seen their final days. Grandma came to town and to his rescue. Here is our proud son in Canadian Tire with the real gloves already donned even before paying the bill. It was tough to find him without them for most of the summer...

Real goalie gloves

"Goalie" gloves, an very day accessory

One last story corresponding to Tavish's love of soccer and his sweetness. He stumbled upon a pair of hand-me-down dress shoes intended for Keva and tried them on. He liked the sound they made on our wood and tile floors. I consciously said nothing and drew no attention to them. He asked to wear them to school one day and although I'm perfectly comfortable with that, I know that our son likely wouldn't be (see above story of beloved gloves instantly abandoned after an uninvited comment) and they are several sizes too small for his feet. I replied by saying "they would be fun to have at school, honey, but I'm wondering how comfortable they'd be all day on your feet, let's have a look." Sure enough, he had bright red rings from squeezing his feet in there, so after a short deliberation, he opted to play with them at home instead. I proceeded to find him in our yard kicking the soccer ball all over the place (neighbours yard, alley) wearing these clicky shoes with his trusty gloves. Like all innocent and unexpected choices, it seemed all too short lived. I failed to capture this wonderful moment in time, but I took a photo to aid with the visual reminder of our sweet soccer player-who-could wearing whatever sounded and felt right at that moment...

The only uniform he needed at one time...

Century School

November 2014

Mommy got to do some Show & tell with my family at the School House I sometimes teach at. My kids are, hands down, the cutest early settlers EVER!

Gaelic Sing Along

My cousin, Andrew, discovered singing through his love of the Scottish Gaelic language of our ancestors. Turns out, there might be another family member who's drawn to the songs...

MOMENT: An t-alltan Dubh

In the fall, I dusted off some cds for the kids to put into a small cd player in the living room. At their leisure, they could chose what music they wanted to play to promote independence and, of course, music. Both of Andrew's CDs that we have were hits. Tavish knows which numbers from which CD he most prefers to sing along with. Feel free to sing along with Tavish  by checking out Andrew's music: http://www.grianmcbuttons.ca/index.html. This is one of the sing alongs I captured...

Lucy

One of the toughest parts of being a parent is handing over the care of your children to someone else. Lucy lives on our street and we were introduced to her through another local friend. She had recently moved to Toronto from the US and had nanny experience. She took care of our children when I went back to work until school was out for the summer (March to June). It's always hard to let your kids go when you're used to being home, but it makes it more bearable when the kids have a good time with their caregiver. We were lucky that way...

MOMENT: From Lucy

"Plain old babysitting is expensive-
early childhood education is priceless."

I went through the photos and videos that Lucy sent to us during her time with our family and compiled them to share the story of Tavish, Keva, and Lucy. We've since parted ways, but this is a lovely reflection on the meaningful relationship they established in a reasonably short amount of time.

FLASHBACK: Nicole

When we were in Ottawa and I'd finally managed to line up some work, we hired Nicole to look after Tavish. She was lovely, patient, dependable and most importantly, she loved Tavish very much. We failed to capture any digital moments of these two together (blush), but there was a lot of playing, cooking, baking, singing, and cuddling. She was an excellent introduction to the childcare experience although our time with her was also short. She started in February (just before Tavish turned two) until the end of the school year on an as-needed basis. She moved to Toronto and Tavish headed off to Montessori school that fall. We don't have much, but we do have two photos of her with her nephew that were taken during the time she was with us. This is the perfect opportunity to celebrate our time with her. Thank you, Nicole. Tavish still remembers you fondly...

How Our Garden Grows

When Keva (and Mommy) woke up from a weekend nap, we discovered some gardening was happening to beautify our back'yard'...

"There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colours are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again."

- Elizabeth Lawrence

MOMENT: Dirt Digging

Summer must be soon, Tom and Tavish made a trip to the garden centre with the red wagon. Tavish prepared his plot and Keva discovered that gardening involves some neat tools.

And On That Farm, He Had A...

Kids not only say the darndest things, sometimes they sing them too...

MOMENT: Old MacDonald

There's this old guy whose last name is MacDonald. He had a farm and Keva likes to sing the sound of the animals (and other random things) that live on his farm from the back seat. We were driving somewhere and while I did most of the singing, Keva made the sounds... cows went "moo", horses went "neigh", pinks went "oink" and the goats on this farm go "boo!". Wonder what the ghosts there would say? Thank you Halloween! E-I-E-I-O...

Face Games

There was a long stint in the fall where our entire family knew the specific rules for what to do with your face should a small human touch it in certain ways....

MOMENT: If You're Funny and You Know It...

Hours of entertainment all in one little face!