Rocking Out

I turned around and M had climbed up the rocking chair. Instead of getting her down, I made a little video of her.

Life is about to get scary!

Twas the Season

So, Christmas happened. We flew out to Ontario to see Paul's family. The trip itself was fantastic. We were blessed by the use of my in-laws (2nd) car for the entire time we were there, so we were able to drive to see a few different friends who live in the area, as well as come and go as we pleased. It was one of the best visits for getting to spend a good amount of time with friends and family without feeling rushed or board.

This was the first year in the life of our family of four where G really knew what was going on at Christmas time. We have made a few traditions in the past, but this year was the first time that she noticed them and cared.
We had the big family celebration on Boxing Day, which was nice. We had our own little Christmas morning together with the girls.
This is also the first year I have really felt caught up in buying presents for my kids. Having a kid with opinions really makes a difference! But we limited ourselves (and I think this will become a tradition) to 3 presents: Clothes (this year it was the dresses in the above pic), a book and a toy. Plus a stocking with a few things and chocolates in it (M was thrilled with the orange in her stocking and didn't care about much else).

The other exciting thing that happened while we were there was M's baptism. Paul's mom, Nancy, is a priest and so it was really special  for us to have her baptize our daughter. When G was born, we were attending an Anglican church, so it was very natural to have her baptized. But with M, we were between churches when she was born and now we attend a Westleyan church, who do not perform infant baptisms. We wanted M to have the same experience as G, so Christmas afforded the perfect opportunity to be surrounded by our family and have her baptized into the church universal. M was a perfectly behaved baby during the whole thing and charmed everyone who met her. She's such a joy to have in our family.


Overall, aside from the not-so-great flights (what is WITH Air Canada? Do they hate people?), it was a fun and relaxing Christmas season.

What I could do

I could post pictures of Christmas. I could tell you about our time in Ontario, our kids reactions to Christmas and the traditions we're starting to form. I could tell you about our bad experience with Air Canada and of our good experience with the ROM.

But I can't right now. All of that will come, but right now I'm upset. Our car was stolen. Over Christmas, it was parked in our apartment parking lot and someone noticed (or didn't notice) that it wasn't being used and took it.
The positives are: It was found, it was relatively undamaged and it wasn't torched (as the thieves in this town seem to like to do). We only lost one carseat, since we had one with us.
The negatives are: It's going to cost us out-of-pocket money to fix it, because we have crappy insurance. G's carseat, our stroller and some other random stuff was chucked out of the car, so we have to replace those things. It's taking time to figure out how it's going to get fixed, so that's frustrating as well.

Last year at this time is when we got Carl the Car and it was so very freeing. We discovered when we moved here that the transit system was pretty bad, and then it went on strike. I had quite a bit of trouble getting to the grocery store with a newborn, so we got our car. It made life so much better, and it really facilitated making some friends.
So, it sucks. It sucks to feel trapped in my house again. Especially without a stroller. I can carry M on my back for only so long and G can only walk so far. I can't really even use a car until we get another carseat.

On the positive side, we have friends now. Within a day of finding it stolen, we had three offers of rides and I was able to go to the grocery store. This would not have happened a year ago. I am so grateful that we've made so many connections in the past year.

So, I'll post more things soon and talk about the past month. But for now, I'm working myself out of this no-car funk.

Merry Belated Christmas.

Paul and G sing Jingle Bells.



My personal favourite is at 1:12 when she yells out "Like a lightbulb!"

The Messiah

It is nearly Christmas.

We were on our way to a party, and we needed to pick up goat cheese.  The idea of the party was that everyone would bring pizza toppings, and we were bringing the ingredients to make a goat cheese, fig, and caramelized onion pizza (which is, incidentally, amazing).  So with the kids in the back seat and snow falling heavily, we drove to the grocery store.  I parked, while Jan ran in to buy the goat cheese.

I was listening to CBC Radio 2.  They were broadcasting a concert from Copenhagen, the idea of which was to celebrate and promote world peace by incorporating Arabic and Jewish music into traditional Christmas music.  They had an amazingly beautiful version of a number of pieces from Handel's Messiah, re-orchestrated with Arabic drums.

There's something about the beginning of the Messiah.  The text is from Isaiah 40.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.

I will admit that even when I was studying the Bible in university at CMU, I  got choked-up in when we were studying Isaiah, and we got to chapter 40.  I'm not sure I can fully explain why.  The beauty of Handel's music only adds to the emotion, and in this performance the tenor (who was excellent) kept breaking away from Handel into Arabic music, which added a plaintive mystery and beauty to the already beautiful recitative and aria.

So I told G, "This music, that we're listening to, is very beautiful."

She listened quietly for a moment, then asked me "Is the man who is singing sad?"

"No, he's not sad.  He's singing to God's people that they don't have to be sad anymore.  He's saying: 'It's okay, you don't have to cry'"

"Why is he saying 'it's okay'?"

"Because ... God's people don't always do what God tells them to do.  And when God's people do bad things, sometimes God punishes them.  But here God is saying that their punishment is over.  God is saying that they don't need to be sad, that they don't need to be punished.  God is saying 'I forgive you'".

She thought about that for a moment.

"Like how when I do something bad you forgive me?"

I was feeling emotional already, and at this point I could barely keep it together enough to say, "Yes.  Exactly like that."

It is an amazing thing to watch a child learn, to watch a baby learn to sit, and crawl, and stand, and talk; to watch a toddler learn to express her ideas, and show off her memory, and exercise her imagination; to watch a child discover the world, and God too.  And it's humbling to think that I am responsible (partly) for teaching her.  Human fathers fail to be a fitting mirror for our heavenly father.  But what I want to do is be the kind of father who can be an image to my daughters of God's love.  And I know I will fail, but I want to try.  To hear my daughter describe me that way, even for a moment,--to hear her think: "What is my daddy like?  What does he do?  He forgives me." is almost unbearably moving.  It is exactly the kind of father I always hoped to be.  It also makes me think of God so differently to think that God's love for me is like my love for my daughters.  It was an insight, on an emotional level, to realize that God forgives Israel--that God forgives me--just like I forgive G: easily and endlessly.

I said, "I love you, G", and we listened to the concert, until Jan came back with the goat cheese.