barn raising

2 December

enjoying

Exploring Advent this week.  The stones, shells and crystals make their way in and out of the bowl; marvelled at and studied by little hands.  Coco has always loved rocks and I believe she takes after her great-grandfather, a geologist, in her fascination of them.  Sometimes, the animals from our nativity come to visit (and often the nativity is in parts as favourite pieces get carried around and join in with other play).  I am loving the 2's.  So much exploration and interest in everything that is going on, and always on board for what the day holds. 

I hope you have a lovely weekend!  I so enjoyed the comments back and forth this week.  Looking forward to hearing more of your reflections for the second week of Advent. 

30 November

the first light of Advent

Sunday was the first light of Advent.  I have to tell you, this ritual that I only knew to be Advent calendars some 4 years ago has become such a meaningful celebration for me and such a symbolic marker of time.  I was first introduced to the concept of the four candles by my wonderful Catholic neighbour, who explained to me the meaning for her and how they celebrate it in her home.  Then I did research (of course...I'm always researching things) and found that Advent was symbolic of a time of waiting- in most cases, waiting for the arrival of Christmas, but in our case, also waiting for the news that our family was growing.  Since then, Advent has held this special magic for me. 

Now we have a 2 year old who just participated in her first Advent Spiral ceremony at school this past Sunday.  What a difference a few Advents make!  There are so many elements of Waldorf that resonate with me and fill me with pride and confidence in the educational choice we are making.  Advent, and the celebration of it in the school, only deepened this for me.  Cedar boughs were laid out in a spiral, and the children were given candles held in apples which they then, one by one, carried to the centre of the spiral to light from a larger candle.  They then set their candle down on a gold star in the boughs and in doing so the darkness in the room turned to a beautiful orange light as the spiral was set aglow, thus symbolizing the warmth of light in all of us, even in the greatest darkness.  Needless to say, my eyes were blurry with tears as Coco took her teacher's hand and walked quietly to the centre.  Grateful for her, grateful for her chance to learn in this environment, grateful for the teacher she already loves, grateful for the spell that fell over all of us.  The lyre music; the celebration; the hush.  She was so sure of herself, and there was no hesitation.  Her face glowed from the light of her candle and I felt as though we were all living in a magical storybook (to which a dear friend would answer, you are!). 

Later, and after Coco proceeded to eat her Advent apple, we brought Advent into our home with the lighting of our first candle at dinner.  Our Advent ring only just arrived yesterday, so we improvised with our first candle- a beeswax tealight surrounded by the treasures of this first week's celebration.  This year is our first in honouring the four elements with each new week of Advent.  First the stones, minerals, bones.  Second, the plant kingdom.  Third, the animals and, finally, the fourth light honouring humans.  I think I could stay in the stone element for all of Advent.  I love the variety of the crystals, the calcium in the shells, the rocks, the beach glass.  It brought magic to the table, indeed.

The first light of Advent is the light of stone-
Stones that live in crystals, seashells, and bones.

18 August

cake celebrations

We weren't quite through with Coco's birthday celebration, for what is a celebration without a house filled with family and cake?  I will admit right away that I am intimidated with gluten free baking.  We've been gluten free for a year now and I still lament the loss of fluffy pastry and whipping up my much missed pound cake without looking at the recipe.  And one kind of flour...I do miss that.  But in order to celebrate my daughter turning 2, I overcame my apprehensions and started baking.

The idea for this cake was 100% inspired by this cake, right down to the layers of pink inside.  It's a beautiful cake (hers), don't you think?  And perfect for a little girl on her 2nd birthday.  Baking our version of this cake took, ah, a long time.  Thankfully, my barn raising family- mother, brother, sister, husband and nephew- were around and kept the birthday girl busy drawing, reading, playing, and otherwise constantly giggling. 

One thing I've learned about gluten free baking is that a lot of time is saved by premixing your flour mixture.  Things would have come together sooner had I done this the night before.  Also, we had to attempt a second, easier frosting after the Swiss Meringue Buttercream spoiled (my timing was off for adding the butter, though that didn't stop my mom, sister and I from dipping our fingers into the bowl for taste after taste- delicious but, sadly, unspreadable).

And then we have the layers of pink- they really look so perfect in the picture.  I decided not to use food colouring and opted, rather, to colour the layers with cranberry juice.  It takes a lot of cranberry juice to get a lovely shade of pink, I discovered.  The result was a graduation of lilac, or if I'm to be honest, grey.  But, nevermind.  In the end it was healthy, adorable, and delicious.

And for a certain 2 year old it was nothing less then perfect.

8 August

two

Coco turned 2 on Friday.  She woke up bright and full of beans and 2 years old.  Am I the only mother who was a little emotional for this birthday?  Especially the night before, as I searched through hundreds of baby photos for ones to include on her birthday ring.  At the time of her birth, I knew she was small- all 4 lbs of her- but despite her size she was strong and healthy.  Now, looking back, my heart skips a beat at how little she really was and I feel the longing to want to hold her tiny like that again and to smell the incredible woodsmoke smell that was hers in those first few weeks.

I also felt a little emotional remembering our birthing day.  After weeks and months of unknown, on the day of the full moon, I finally got to hold my darling little girl.  We all wish for beautiful and natural births, and we tend to hold them in the highest regard- home births, midwives, complication free.  But, despite our wishes, not all of us are able to experience pregnancy and childbirth in that way.  My pregnancy was a full leap of faith.  It was dealing with fear and excitement all at once.  It was lots of ultrasounds, lots of intervention, lots of bed rest.  And, still, it was beautiful.  In the midst of it all I was able to connect with her and grew to know her rhythm.  When I held her for the first time and whispered to her, she turned to the sound of my voice and I fell in love.  There are many roads to a happy ending, and there is much beauty to be found along the way.

And so it is, my girl is 2, and I am still amazed at all it took to bring her into this world.  I think about feeling nostalgic for my babe in arms and then I turn to this bright eyed little girl who is ready to forge ahead in her life adventure as a 2 year-old toddler.  She is not nostalgic.  She is sparkling and learning and filling up with the world around her every day.  Her hair no longer smells of woodsmoke, but it does smell just like a skein of the best yarn.  She no longer makes those irresistible newborn squeaks and coos, but she is telling me stories and singing me songs.  She is no longer a baby bundled and tiny, but we both know that 2 is going to be great! 

I've thought a lot about the traditions I want to hold on her birthday.  I was inspired by a friend who, on the eve of her daughters' birthdays, will decorate the house so they can wake up to magic.  She keeps things small, the gifts simple and the celebration mostly just with family.  This really seemed right to me for this birthday and those to come while Coco is young- simple and magical celebrations.

So, we celebrated her birthday morning under tissue paper pom poms and cuddling her new "Baby".  Later, we took to the seaside with friends and spent the afternoon knee deep in clear salt water, tossing rocks into the ocean.  As Coco begins her new birth year I'm reminded that motherhood is a perpetual ebb and flow of feeling both wary of time speeding by too quickly, and excitement for all that is to come.  The key, I believe, is to pause in what is happening now, today, so that even as I may feel it's all going too fast, I can trust that we are making the most of every age, every stage, and every moment.

29 July

pony tail

Look who's hair is long enough for a pony tail! 

(Yes, this photo was taken this month, and yes, that means July, and yes, that is a wool sweater she is wearing, and yes, we'd all like summer to stay awhile around these parts!)

Have a great (and hopefully sunny) weekend everyone!

28 July

the simple things

When you go swimming at our community pool, you get a nice, very bright, orange bracelet to wear that proves you paid.  Children under a certain age don't have to wear these bracelets, which to some, as we learned the other day, just won't do.  After returning home from the pool, Coco talked on and on about the bracelets to Sean, who had taken her swimming, and because I was knee deep in making dinner.  The bracelet conversation continued through our supper together and well into bathtime, too. 

When she came downstairs all cozy, cuddly and fresh out of the tub, she was sporting two fabulous bracelets of her own.  Two simple bracelets, little circles on one and a squiggly line on the other, made from an envelope in the recycling bin and taped onto her wrists by her dad. 

You would have thought he'd given her the moon.  She slept in those bracelets that night...and the next.  She wore them constantly, slipping them on and off for bathtime and hand washing, until, finally, they both just fell off from all of the nearly-two-year-old wear and tear. 

So much joy and they didn't cost a cent.  Yes, sometimes less is so very much more.

12 July

das enkelkind

Coco had a great time with her Grandad, who she referred to most of the time as Dad-Dad and Daddy (I think the "gr" sound is a tough one at this age).  I loved watching my Dad be a grandfather, as I love watching all of Coco's grandparents love her up.  The last time we visited she was barely one- 10 months, in fact, and there were none of this trip's antics to enjoy.  A constant in and out of the paddle pool; filling things up, dumping them out; weeding (and she does just pull the weeds- amazing!); chit chat all day long; and running.  Running, running, running.  Each night she fell into bed with the kind of sleepiness that only comes with a full day of summer and often with the dirty knees to prove it.

And this is what I'm learning: just when I thought we'd worn Grandad out, he'd jump up and run around the garden with her some more, because grandparents have a special kind of love, it seems, for their grandchildren.  A magical, unconditional, completely smitten kind of love that brims over with pride, wonder and patience. 

Even when it's the 100th lap around the tomato plants.

11 July

where I have been

We are back from a trip home.  It's been 18 years since I lived in Ontario, but I still can't help but call it home.  Such is the way when a place works itself into your soul and being, and has formed strong memories of what we would these days call a "free range childhood".  Ontario is rich in fields and farmland, cottage country, little deciduous forests and hedgerows, undeniably hot summers, and a countryside that tugs at my heartstrings.  Where I am from the towns are small, the houses old, the antique stores abundant and, if you stand in the right spot, you can see all 7 church steeples in town at once.  A few minutes drive away is the countryside I grew up in, the schools I went to, friends I've known long enough to say "back in the day" with, and land I know like the back of my hand. 

The land is what I miss most, with names like "Candlewick Woods" and "Cornish Hollow Road".  This, coupled with the intense desire to raise Coco in such wide, open spaces as I was.  It makes coming home- as in my real and current home on the west coast- a little bittersweet.  Bitter in my longing and sweet in all that I am blessed with now.  It also brings with it the afirmation that we thrive in quiet, slow living and a reminder of an excitment for what lies ahead- the possiblity that there is land on an island in the Salish Sea patiently waiting for us to fall in love with; somewhere here on the west coast that will be Coco's own "back home" in her adulthood.  A land of driftwood, kelp, sand and tidal pools, a crackling woodstove in the damp of winter, honey from our own bees, and an abundant crop from our own garden(s).

Yes, a new back home will come, and we will wait patiently for it also.

 

13 June

horseys

We are in love with horseys over here.  Big time.  I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but horse fever has hit the Elliott household.  Maybe it was the endless games of "this is the way the farmer rides" or playing "horsey" by riding around on our backs, but here we are, in the thick of equine love.  I knew it was serious when I found Coco climbing onto Scout's back and calling him "orsey" and when "this little piggy" was ordered to become "this little orsey".

The other night we were over at our friends' house and out came a box of toys that their girls used to play with (they have now outgrown them).  The horse pictured below was an instant hit (as was a small, yellow, plastic rake- my girl does love to garden!) and somehow she even managed to ride it!

I find it all so, so sweet, and so perfectly her.  I am loving this phase of pink cowgirl boots and watching her galloping her little horses about.  As a girl, I loved unicorns and now I am sure- there really is something so magical about horses and their mythical counterparts that draws us in, isn't there?

So, I'm not surprised that her horseys have to join us at suppertime, or that last night she fell asleep with them clutched in her little hands. I can't help but keep thinking of this amazing new line and all the fun we can have with it. 

Yes, it looks like I'm along for the ride!

30 May

warming socks

Coco has her first real cough.  She's had colds before- runny noses and so on- but this is her first, keeping her up at night, coughing kind of cold.  It takes a lot to slow this girl down, so I've been doing my best to slow things down for her.  Earlier naps, lots of hearty cottage pie, stews, curries and stock, and plenty of hugs and snuggles to keep little spirits high.  She's managing well, but the other day I knew she needed a boost.

I first heard about warming socks years ago.  I admit, I did try the technique on Coco when she was just tiny and had her first runny nose.  But, the wet sock was too thick and didn't have a high enough cotton count to work.  Instead of easing her congestion I fear I may have contributed to it.  The cotton sock stayed wet and cold until finally, feeling awful, I pulled them off and put her in a warm bath ward off the chill.

Still, the other day I was inspired to try it all again.  Using a pair of perfectly thin, cotton socks, some beautifully warm wool ones, and Coco's Padraig's, I bundled her feet up with love and the faith that we'd have better luck this time.

We tried this during a cozy, stay at home afternoon and then again before bed.  There are lots of instructions out there on how to do this- I've linked to a couple above.  I made sure her feet were warm first and then I ran the cotton socks under cold water, wrung them out and put them on her feet, and then covered them with the wool socks.  You don't have to do the third step of adding the wooly, warm slippers but I did because I knew she'd be busy playing while the warming socks were working. 

And, work they did!  Those wet and cold cotton socks were warm and dry as a bone within an hour.  Her appetitie returned for dinner and I noticed she didn't cough once until bedtime that night.  Um, they really do work!  They naturally warm the body, increase circulation and relieve congestion.

They also make room for blowing dandelions in the sunshine, visiting our local farm for a sheep shearing festival, and plenty of busy kitchen play.