march is a good month for birthdays or the cupcake decimation

the birthday boy (showing off his birthday shirt, made by erin of boolah baguette. check out her amazing stuff here.)

m's new "camera smile"

march 22, 2010 marked mateo's very first birthday. it is amazing to think that a year ago he was a tiny little bundle... how far he (& we!) have come in just a year. a year ago we wondered about what kind of a child we were welcoming into our family. today, we still wonder what kind of a person he will turn out to be. here are some things we know:

1. he loves to laugh... tickles, "wo ist mateo?", & taking the bus are just a few things that cause him to burst into giggles

2. he loves music... he loves to wiggle his bum & tap his spatula in time to any music playing anywhere, anytime. also, no one would ever get any sleep at our place without asian dreamland.

3. he is a thoughtful boy... as in, he is full of thoughts. pros & cons must be weighed, every little tiny piece of fuzz carefully examined, instructions of any sort result in a furrowed brow... you get the idea.

4. he's a ham... he loves putting on a show, playing peekaboo, squealing with laughter, clapping his hands... all for attention, all the time

we are so thankful for the people in our lives who love him & us, both near & far. we are so blessed to have friends who watch him faithfully, pick up the slack when we need a break, especially since our family is so far away. skype makes things easier, but it's not like having them here.

we are excited for the months & years to come... today mateo crawled for the first time, & yesterday, he said something that sounded for all the world like "danke, mama!" which brought tears to my eyes (which i know is ridiculous, because he didn't know what he was saying ;)

every day with m is a new adventure. we love you, baby! happy birthday!

birthday cupcakes. with vegan buttercream icing (which was a marginal fail, unfortunately.)

he was totally enthralled by the candle...

... and of course wanted to touch it.

first taste of cupcake... hm...

sharing some icing with mama.

happy boy.

the aftermath. followed by bath & bed. ;)

moving.

our new home: 289 ahrens st.

karin, working hard with ali & david to get our monstrous couch up the stairs

the couch ate her.

kitchen filled with boxes.

toben, intelligently retreating into the pantry closet.

last days in the old place

eating all by himself.

sort of.

mateo & toben are friends.

sort of.

driving around looking at so many apartments is no fun. especially in my stupid hat. not even sort of.

we'd like to report

we'd like to report a successful move. we are exhausted, but extremely happy to be in our new home!

we would also like to report that we have very wonderful friends here... friends who schlepp stuff, pack stuff, babysit, clean stuff, schlepp more stuff, unpack more stuff, & even cook for us.

we have so much for which to be thankful!

now, off to bed.

update on the home front

we are pleased to announce that we have thankfully found a lovely apartment on ahrens street in kitchener. we will be living on the top floor of a victorian house, with a large screened in porch and a huge backyard that we will share with our downstairs neighbours. david has been busily packing & driving loads of boxes & bags to the new house, while i try to organize things & keep mateo busy. we have wonderful friends who come & help, watching mateo, doing dishes, driving loads of stuff to ahrens street... thank you karin & erin! we have rented a 14' u-haul truck for saturday, & david is hoping he will get all of our furniture from columbia to ahrens in one load. david is a master packer. he'll figure it out. i'll be at the new place unpacking & putting things in their new places.

swing by if you're in the area.

pictures to follow.

eating apples or teaching baby to share & failing miserably

makin' musik

photoshoot with papa

sometimes we just like taking pictures.

hunting

over the last 2 weeks, since we discovered that the apartment we were so excited about would not be ready for us in time, we have been scouring kijiji about 1000 times per day, as well as all kinds of other apartment renting websites, the classifieds in the newspaper. we again thought we'd found a place... but that didn't work, either. so now, today, we have basically been calling any random number we see advertised in a window. lucky for mateo, he gets to come along on our hunting adventures, and he is really a very good natured and compliant hunter. we've spent two full days looking at places (i forget the exact number of apartments we've looked at), & sometimes things go more quickly than planned, & then we spend time in coffee shops, which is really the best part of the day. we have to be out of our townhouse by march 31, & we're starting to feel the pinch of necessity a little bit. please pray for us... we want a place where we can feel at home & safe.

today it is spring

today i think it is spring. the sun shines & the snow glistens with melting. mateo & i go outside, he in his baby pouch, tied to me. we swing, & look at birds. & watch the big yellow bus return the school children to their homes. m claps at the sky. we sing together, about the bear and his dog and the three fish he caught; they live on m's shirt. we walk to the mailbox, hoping for interesting letters & packages... receiving only coupons from pizza places where we never eat, as well as (ironically) a brochure for a weightloss clinic where you can "lose all your weight" (really? will i disappear?) & a wholly uninteresting but anxiously awaited t4. now it is time for a snack. we eat air soup out of plastic bowls, fresh & delicious. also we laugh a bit. & grumble. & examine our fingers very carefully. hm... what interesting appendages they are.

we like olympics, and other stuff too

here are the sports we like at the olympic games:

1. hockey (mateo stands at the tv and tries to pincer grip the hockey players as they fly by)

2. speed skating (mateo moves his head following the skaters round and round and round...)

3. curling (red rocks, yellow rocks, pretty coloured circles on the ice. also lots of yelling. mateo likes to clap. also, the norwegian pants are unbelievable.)

here are the things mateo likes right now:

1. his blue elephant shoes (they are good for walking and for eating)

2. his rattling bear (hand-me-down from the liebscher kids)

3. his oma blanket (it's good for hiding under)

4. animal crackers (they are hilarious)

5. our new housemate (christina schwering)

6. SKYPE (his favourite people live in our computer- omi & opa kampen!)

here are some things we don't like:

1. heavy wet snow, especially when we have to take the stroller through snow banks

2. molars (only baby tylenol fixes them)

3. toben's seeming inability to clean his rear

kisses for auntie anna

mateo's first movie

Wil's great video of his visit to our place.

we love visitors...

Marlon + Andrea = love

breakfast of champions @ Symposium in Uptown

Mateo shares his mashed potatoes with Dino

Mateo shares his mashed potatoes with Marlon

Sisters + coffee = happy day

Suuuuuuuuuuper Baby!

During this last week, Andrea & Marlon came to Waterloo to visit us. Our days were filled with coffee, movies, Steam Whistle beer, field trips to Uptown Waterloo, the New Hamburg Thrift Centre, and visits from other Winnipeg relatives (Paul, Lauren & Graeme).

Our supply of Manitoba Rooibos tea is now replenished. :)

Uncle Wil comes to call...

From Monday to Wednesday this past week, Dave's best friend Wil came to visit us in Waterloo. It didn't take long to show him "the sights" around here, so we spent a lot of time eating delicious food (I had ribs for the first time- thanks Wil), watching movies, & losing against Wil at Dutch Blitz.

Wil explains something incredibly important to Mateo.

Mateo loves Wil. So do we. But we missed Vinna.

Olympic spirit

a snap shot of our lives right now... in words

here are our lives:

wake up... coffee... apple sauce.

teaching... german... don't you love the accusative case? overheads... chalk dust... nils nilpferd und gisela giraffe unterrichten deutsch. marking quizzes with a red gel pen.

french... driving on the back roads to london... 1.5 hours one way... learning, learning... home again. betsy's killing me today.

smiles... giggles... backe backe kuchen... asian dreamland... animal crackers in my soup. rattle rattle bear... hop hop hop... dancing to the glee soundtrack... adventures on my sled in the snow... this baby can fly.

dishes... laundry... thesis. skype.

diapers... bathtime... clean new shirt.

manitoba rooibos tea... a little bit of home.

read... canadian mennonite... canadian family... a.s. byatt.

good night.

start over again tomorrow.

one of these days these feet are gonna walk all over... everywhere!

cutie pants

Christmas 2009