Two

Our Liv is two today. TWO. How much our lives have changed in these past two years - most certainly for the better. Despite the tumultuousness of the first year or so of Liv's life, we have all come out on the other side more appreciative, more aware of the gifts we've been granted, more understanding, better educated and feeling a whole lot more fortunate than we ever did before we met this spunky little kid.

(Click on the image to embiggen.)

Liv at two is a whole lot of fun. The other day someone remarked "I think her smile is bigger than her face!" And it's true. Liv's grin lights up the darkest day. She is delightful. Her happiness is infectious. She loves to run and dance and sing and clap and spin around like a crazy person. She takes care of all of the babies in the house (at least, the ones Mia isn't simultaneously caring for), loves trucks, trains and anything with wheels, plays ball and builds block towers. She brings a levity to our family that is so, so awesome.

Liv at two is a whole lot of trouble. She throws stuff in the toilet (when it needs flushing), in the bathtub (full of water), in the garbage (toys, books, magnets from the fridge.) She pulls books and games off of shelves, puts things in her mouth that she shouldn't, takes CDs out of cases and uses them as skates, writes on stuff with crayons, and generally creates quite a lot of work for the adults in the house.

Liv at two is a whole lot of sweetness. She doles out hugs and kisses. She wants to hold her sister's hand. She laughs easily. She smiles at family, friends and strangers alike at the drop of a hat. She loves people. She is, dare I say, enchanting.

Liv at two is healthy. She walks, talks, runs, problem solves, thinks critically. Her heart and lungs are good. We no longer require specialists of any kind for any sort of intervention. Her voice is still pretty quiet - that paralyzed vocal cord hasn't quite come into full working order - but it doesn't stop her from talking and shrieking and crying and laughing with the best of them. She is still wee - but on her own growth curve and proportionate and doing just fine.

Liv at two - we are so fortunate that you are here and that you are who you are. You make us laugh and marvel and count our blessings every single day. Thank you, thank you, for being such a sweet gift.

Love you always,
Mommy and Daddy

NYE09

Yep, this about sums up New Year's Eve:



Happy New Year! Wishing you all a happy, loving, fun, peaceful 2010.

oxox
The Berreths

A few Christmas thoughts

I was putting Liv to bed tonight after a few days of hubbub and excitement and sugar and presents and company, but she didn't want to sleep. I knew she was tired, but she resisted slumber, so we hung out in her room for a while, rocking and snuggling and nursing. We were laying on the bed and she scooted over to the window and looked out, eyes shining, the moonlight highlighting her standing-on-end hair, fresh out of pigtails. Her smile was impish, her breath was sweet, her little voice was filled with wonder. And I wanted the moment to last forever, so we could always be this happy, this young, this fortunate.

I wish that feeling gratitude for these brief moments would make them stay, that they could become more tangible than just in my mind's movie reel. That's the thing about experiences, and time - they exist, and then they don't, and all you have left is memories.

And so, as we make more and more memories out of these fleeting bits of time we're allotted, we try to enjoy these days, and let bygones be bygones, and show love to each other, and have patience with one another. And when we fail, we have the memories of those times when we did better, when we laughed easier, when we were more capable of putting aside hurt feelings or bruised egos or whatever.

This moment - right now - is the only one that matters. It's all we really have. And so on this Christmas Day, I wish for everyone to be happy in these moments, to set aside differences of opinion and grudges and negativity and to be grateful and loving. We are trying to do the same.

Love and peace,

Kim

From our house to yours...

Enjoy this season of merriment!


(I won't even get into how difficult it was to get this photo. It was almost as crazy as last year. Perhaps moreso, since Liv is now mobile and really, really doesn't like sitting still for more than two seconds.)

Be merry and bright!
oxox
Kim, Mitch, Mia, Liv (and Wilbur)

Santa says hi!

The upside to advancements in technology is the ability to really propagate certain mythologies and bring them to life, unlike anything in previous generations.

Thinking back to when I was a kid, visiting Santa was a trip to the mall and standing in line with the rest of the riff-raff. Or, if you're from a small town such as Kim and I both were, it was arranged for Santa to visit the local community hall.

But now, video up-loads are the norm, straight from the North Pole, with Santa providing a brief commentary on your child's behaviour during the past year. (See Santa's video message to Mia). I think I was more impressed with the video than Mia -- and Grandma Lolo was almost beside herself about how natural and realistic it seemed. There may have been a brief moment when Grandma actually believed there was a Santa after all!

Anyway, have a look for yourself. You might find it interesting and just maybe, if you're a good girl/boy, you might get a video message from the fat man himself...

Merry Christmas and hope to see you in the New Year!

later
-mitch

Little bits of random

Here are a few tidbits from this fall...

Mia started playschool this year. The exposure to other kids has been great, and it has also been good for her to have to listen to other grown-ups.

She enjoys school quite a bit. However, there were a few days this fall when she said she didn't want to go. "Why not?" I asked. "Malcolm pushed me," she said grouchily.

Well, I've met Malcolm and he seems pretty laid back, so this didn't actually seem likely, but I mentioned it to the teacher. She said she'd chat with Mia and find out what was going on. When I went to pick Mia up later that morning, the teacher said she had told Mia that if anyone was mean to her, she should talk to the teachers, and they would deal with it on the spot. She asked Mia if she understood. Mia solemnly nodded "yes". Then she said, "And if I see any badgers, I'll kick 'em." Um. Okay then.

***

Liv would be a TV addict if we let her. Experts say kids under the age of two shouldn't be allowed to watch any television. I think this is a good rule. It is one we tried our mightiest to enforce. But when she was about 18 months old, she started becoming really interested in the set itself. At first, she would casually meander over to it, and then randomly push buttons. Once she realized doing so could conjure up something on the screen, she knew she wielded some power, and couldn't get enough. Now, she backs her little self into the Winnie the Pooh chair and points at the TV, dictator-style. If we refuse, she just turns it on herself. We have to unplug the TV now when we're not watching, otherwise she would be sitting there constantly, mesmerized. One evening she was awake later than normal, and happened to see a bit of So You Think You Can Dance. She was utterly transfixed. We may need an intervention.

***

Mia is enrolled in dance lessons. Ballet and a bit of tap. She likes to wear her tap shoes in the house, though that is not technically permitted. She loves, loves, loves to go to class, and her newfound dancing skills, coupled with her tendency for drama, lead me to believe she will have a successful career in musical theatre. Diva-dom, here we come.

***

In September Mitch (and his mom - thanks LoLo!) re-built the fence in our backyard that blew down a few years ago. (Those Southern Alberta winds can really wreak havoc.) Here Mia is helping Daddy with the finishing touches.

***

Our little Liv is a pretty good eater. There are some days when I think she eats more than Mia. She's just not a great gainer (she's currently around 18 lbs). The pediatrician isn't terribly concerned and believes she will eventually catch up. In the meantime, Liv enjoys eating with reckless abandon, sometimes foregoing an actual utensil in favour of her digits.

***

Who dresses this kid anyway? She's starting to look like Lisa Larson Lee.

***

We went for a wagon ride in our back pasture late one afternoon in October and got a few cute shots (click on the image to embiggen.)

***

Halloween was a remarkably pleasant experience this year. The weather was good, Mia was excited, Liv didn't protest too much, and Mitch and I ate ourselves silly on the candy haul. I'd like to present to you our cute bunny and her princess sister.

***

We've had a lot of long afternoons to fill now that the weather has turned cold, so we've been doing some painting and glueing and cutting crafts. Mia is all over the cutting. She was practicing one afternoon, then sadly told me that she had to stop. "How come?" I asked. "Well," she sighed, "my hands are getting dizzy."

***

A final note: Liv had ear tubes put in before Thanskgiving. Her speech has come along quite well since then (they detected a bit of a hearing loss due to fluid in her middle ear.) In the past few weeks in particular, she has been wowing us with a new word almost every day. "Mommy" is still the fan favourite. I try to be grateful every time she says it, though it can be a tad wearing at times ("mommymommymommymommymommymommy...."). She also loves the "where's your nose?" game, particularly the part where she gets to gouge out the other player's "eye!"

Hope all's well at your house.
oxoxox
Kim

Running

It was Thanksgiving Day and there was much commotion due to visiting family and a dog and turkey and suddenly, like she had been doing it forever, Liv walked past us all and down the hallway. Just like that. And since then, this is mostly what we see of her:

We can barely keep up!

ox
Kim

We left our hearts...

...in San Fran-cisco...high on a hill...(Thank you Tony Bennett.)

So, we had a lot of fun with the Lees during our little end-of-summer jaunt to California. It was the first plane ride for both girls and, aside from an epic customs line-up on our way down (two customs agents processing several hundred passengers --I kid you not) that delayed us enough that we had to sprint to the gate, with two small kids and four suitcases in tow, plus a carseat, whereby the airline agents told us we could not, in fact, carry-on our carry-on luggage because their overhead compartments were too small to accommodate, so all of the painstakingly planned games/food/extra clothes I had carefully packed were sent to regular cargo, leaving us with a single sippy cup of juice, some gum and a few crackers, along with two short books and a four-piece puzzle to entertain two restless little girls for nearly three hours -- aside from that, the travelling parts of the trip were utterly painless.

Frankie and Lisa live in a suburb called Danville across the Bay from San Francisco. Danville reminds me of Agrestic, the fictional suburban community where the first few seasons of the Showtime sitcom, Weeds, is situated. Everywhere you look there are perfect homes surrounded by perfect yards with perfect cars parked in the driveways. It's lovely but the sameness of it all is a little bit creepy. Anyway, we enjoyed using the pool in Frankie and Lisa's back yard and we totally felt like their spacious, comfortable home was our own. (Sorry, guys!)

The weather in Danville was hot hot hot, but in SF proper it was extraordinarily chilly. Blustery, gray, foggy and cold -- too bad I dressed the girls in sundresses for our first trip to the city and forgot to pack pants. Lesson learned.

Frankie took several days off work and chauffeured us around everywhere, very patiently putting up with a fair amount of crying, fighting and screaming (and that was just from Mitch and me.) We made a few trips into the city, visiting the Exploratorium, Chinatown, Coit Tower, Little Italy, Lombard Street, the Embarcadero and many places in between. We took a drive to picturesque Sausalito where we watched seals and dined on delicious Italian food at a sweet little sidewalk cafe, and I bought the cutest purse, and a cool hat that nobody else thought was cool (I have been wearing it non-stop in this recent cool weather and it has kept me very toasty, thankyouverymuch). Mitch and Frankie loved Alcatraz (Lisa and I had both been before) and we also visited the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, which was fascinating and crazy.

My friend Janet also lives in SF so Lisa and I (and the girls, of course) had a chance to lunch with her and visit her awesome urban flat. She took us to see the Painted Ladies at Alamo Square, a must on the San Francisco to-do list. Jan and I haven't seen each other in a long time and it was fun to catch up and get a taste of her life in California.

Many thanks to the Lees for letting us eat your food, swim in your pool, drive your cars, mess up your house and generally disrupt your lives for six days. We love you and are looking forward to seeing you again soon.

oxoxox
KMM&L

Look out for the Squeasels: our summer trip to Nelson

It's October, and we're just getting to our summertime posts. Procrastinate much, Berreths? Why yes. Yes we do.

***********

There we were, hiking along a forest-y trail just outside of Nelson, when a weasel ran across the path in front of us and darted into the brush.

"What was that?" Mia asked, wide-eyed.

"I think it was a weasel," I said.

"A what?"
"A weasel. They're little, skinny, furry animals."

"Oh, right. I love squeasels! Let's go catch it," she squealed (or squeaseled? Ha! Ha!). And off she went. (She didn't find it.)

***********

We spent a lovely, hot week in the hippie town of Nelson, BC in August with our friends Jessica and Marc and their two cute little boys, Miles and Elias. We shared a house a short walk from downtown.

It was a cool place, but not ideal for people with small kids, due to the crazy staircase - no place to put a baby gate - and the absence of a backyard. It was a bit of an odd layout as well, not really suited for two families, as the main living area, aside from the kitchen, was on the upper floor and needed to serve as a bedroom for Mr. Miles.

We liked being close to the parks, shops and eating establishments of Nelson, but it was kind of like vacationing in a city. Fun, but not really relaxing, so much. In previous years we've stayed in yurts near Kaslo, and we would likely return there before hanging out in Nelson proper again. We'll see what next summer brings.

Nelson's Rotary Park has a lovely beach, where we wiled away a few afternoons, as well as a really great, no-charge kids pool in Gyro Park. Our friends Barb and Edan and their three kids were in the area at the same time to stay with his sister Erin and bro-in-law Brent. We went to their acreage overlooking Kootenay Lake near Kaslo for dinner one night and had a fabulous visit, complete with Edan's famous 100-Clove Chicken. It was as divine as it sounds.

Squeasels, watch out. We'll likely be back...next year.

ox
Kim

Our summer...a photo essay

September already - wow. We had a very fun summer. Let's review with a little photo essay, shall we?

Aaah. Our Mia, with the gorgeous tulips she plucked from our garden this spring. For some reason, before I had children, I hardly ever cut flowers from the garden. It's interesting how kids are drawn to physically hold what they find beautiful. Mia picked pretty much every tulip that grew - we had bouquets in the house for weeks. I loved it.



We enjoyed a lovely week-long trip to Banff in early June. My mom joined the girls and me for five days, then Mitch came up for the weekend. The mountains were gorgeous, the kids were great, and the weather was warm -- right up until it snowed. Ah, springtime in Alberta! The only hiccup was a brief trip to the Canmore hospital after Liv had a bout with stomach flu. Thankfully it was short-lived and she was fine. It was fun to enjoy the beauty of our own province - we don't do that enough. (PS Don't be alarmed by Mitch's handsome crumb-catcher. It was a little experiment and thankfully, he's decided a mustache is not for him.)



Waterton National Park is a magical place, and Liv had her first taste of its gloriousness in June with a little hike to Bertha Falls. When we arrived at the trailhead, Mia announced she didn't have any shoes. Hmmm, kind of hard to go hiking without those. After a quick trip to town, and a pair of cute $7 sandals later (I was prepared for a hosing, so was pleasantly surprised that we found shoes her size and also that they didn't cost a fortune) we finally set off. It's a nice little hike, about 6 km round trip, and Mia walked the whole way by herself. The clouds were a tad foreboding, but it was warm and early summer-y feeling and the wildflowers were stunning.

We also spent lots of time at the spray park in Claresholm:














Attended a family reunion in the little prairie town of Enchant, Alberta in August:










And did lots of just hanging around:



















We also enjoyed a week in the Kootenays at Nelson, BC, and vacationed around the San Francisco area for a week with Frankie and Lisa. But those are the subjects of another post.

As always, lovely to see you. Thanks for stopping by!
oxox
Kim