love is in the air

happy valentine's day! 

beluga sunday

this week, we followed our almost 3-year old's lead for our one day a week excursion.


i was told by the boy's preschool teacher that he has been spending all of his time at the marine mammals "station," listening to "baby beluga" on repeat, snuggling the mama and baby beluga soft toy, and staring at the identification poster that features all manner of whales and dolphins.


at home, the boy has been spending all his time with the orca soft toy that his grandfather got him when they went to the aquarium together on his last visit, and requesting free willy and free willy 2, on repeat.


so to the aquarium we went.

i was very sad to learn that the vancouver aquarium lost another beluga calf.

tiqa was born just when i got pregnant with the boy. i watched his mother, qila (now the youngest of the belugas at the aquarium once again), give birth to tiqa, just when i was becoming a mother, myself. so i was nearly in tears when i asked about the details. 


although i feel rather silly feeling so strongly about the loss of a beluga i "hardly knew,"  i understand that my affinity comes from a primal place: the universal experiences of motherhood, parenthood, and loss.

"qila" (i think)

so that when the boy asked, "where's the baby belugas?" i had to tell him the truth. that they died. that tiqa was sick; and that her cousin nala died because rocks (and a penny) went into her blow hole.


"they died?" he repeated.


"they got sick?" he asked again and again, truly wanting to know.


and for the next few hours as we settled back home, he continued to process the information. "baby belugas died already," he kept saying. then he showed us that he understood what it meant for rocks to go into a whale's blowhole on the grey whale softie he got from the aquarium today (for free!). 


"all the belugas died already," he continued to say.


of course, the wife (and i) helped the boy along by reminding him of the belugas he did see. and the dolphins. and the turtles. and the sharks. that he can tell his teachers and his classmates about his adventures. lest he tell them only that "all the belugas died already." 

i know we'll continue to have more conversations about what happened to the baby belugas for a long time. every time we go back to the aquarium, i expect.


but boy oh boy, this was much more unschooling than we bargained for. 

as for the girl... she had a good time on this, her first aquarium visit. she saw her first beluga up close, gave qila her big smile, and then went on to other, more important matters: like snoozing on my chest, enjoying her first ride in a new (to her) carrier, and people watching.

not exactly a zero-dollar experience. nor was it void of difficult, but important life lessons.

but before kids, the wife and i would do dates like this all time: just the two of us, or with friends and family.  


only now we each have a baby to wear, intellectual curiosity to foster, and challenging parenting choices to make. 

an attempt to take a shot of the four of us.
the boy is on the wife's back.
the girl, on my chest, asleep.

all in all, the best way to spend a sunday, really: together.

{this moment}

a friday ritual i've adopted from one of my favourite mama bloggers, soulemama. 

each week, she (and others she's inspired) shares a single photograph, without words, of a moment to be savoured and revisited.

here's this week's photo.

favourite things

the entire household is stuffed up. and while it hasn't been all that bad, on the sluggish days i hang on to the blessed, blessed little things that turn a day around: my favourite things.

: nearby train tracks 

: that she loves taking self-portraits with me. and the gap in her front teeth.

: this roar face.

: what prompted this smile.

: and the tulips she gave me earlier this week. palest pink. my favourite.

: this snack cum confection from a recipe i found here. its basically a brown rice crispy treat but with no marshmallows - only whole food ingredients. plus chocolate. (aside: i  doubled the recipe knowing this would be a hit. there's a modicum of refined sugar (only in the chocolate) so you can almost feel virtuous eating it. at least this is what i tell myself. and i choose to be very gullible. so gullible, i think i at half of it all by myself. hmmm.) 

. 

what of your favourite things can be a game changer in an otherwise not-so-favourite day? 

knit parade: four new hats for spring

i have an addictive personality.


and i am addicted to knitting hats.


in fact, it was when i knit my first hat that i fell in love with knitting. i was amazed that i was able to make something immediately wearable with my hands. it felt like such an accomplishment.


it still does.


here are a few hat's i've just finished.


for the boy
i've had this hat started in my basket for a while now. so happy it's finished. 

pattern: roar
yarn: spud and chloe sweater

the pattern was so simple and easy to follow. definitely a go-to hat pattern for boys - with or without the spikes. i had to bribe the boy with chocolate to wear the hat. he won't wear it outside the house either. i think i might be giving it away to a friend.

pattern: rib-a-roni
yarn: berroco blackstone tweed

the boy thinks this one has too many "sparkles." it's berroco blackstone tweed - which is soft and knits up well enough but i was not a fan of its nubbly fragile hand. i have knit this hat pattern 5 times now and it's still love: simple, masculine, and flies off the needles.

i'm so in love with this superman shirt.

much as i love the hat, i intentionally knitted for a full inch longer than i was supposed to before decreasing so it's sized a lot bigger than i expected. 


ah well. another hat is forthcoming - a blue and grey roar without spikes. the boy has requested it. but then again, he requested a scarf and hasn't worn it, either. ah well. a knitting mama can only hope.


for the girl
i've been wanting to try this hat pattern for ages. such a fun and quick knit! i'm not terribly fond of knitting with cotton but this organic cotton from knitpicks has fantastic stitch definition. 

pattern: children's cotton hats
yarn: knitpicks organic cotton worsted

i like the pattern so much, i memorized it and made two. the girl is modelling at the moment but this one will be a gift for a friend's daughter, who i can't wait to meet!

pattern: children's cotton hats
yarn: mission falls 1824 cotton

it's just as well i couldn't get a decent shot of the girl wearing the second hat. it's a bit small for her. she's got a cold. and she's teething, so her shirt is soaked. and this way, if the intended recipient's mama happens upon this blog, she'll still be surprised when she gets it! 

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incidentally, this sudden burst of hat knitting is brought to you by a "knit-along" (KAL) hosted by luvinthemommyhood where she featured my hat and mitts in a round-up post! how cool am i? very.