Thursday, May 28, 2009

sing, sing out loud, sing out strong..

so the littlest baker, deirann, has always had a keen interest in music. granted she is only 19 months old, but during her time on this planet, she has demonstrated an innate rhythm that can't be contained.

now, i have no musical talent what so ever, i can't even play the radio. luckily, daddy rob's dna comes to rescue and provides some skill in this area, he plays the guitar and has quite a nice voice...although i don't think i have ever actually told him! he is able to pick a song up in a heartbeat and strum in out in no time, same talent can be said for the piano. when i was pregnant with both girls, he happily sang away to my bump and often brought the guitar out for a little serenade. so with this said, you can see where deirann's musical abilities come from.

when she was a few weeks old, we realized that a few lines of "hush little baby don't say a word, mama's gonna buy you a .....(insert whatever you can think of here!)" which would quickly quiet deirann down. anytime she would peep a little cry we only needed to get the first few words out and it worked like a charm. even devin realized this song worked and she would join in with her version whenever she heard deirann getting upset.

fast forward a year and a bit to last night. we decided to take the girls to the local ice cream shop for an after dinner treat. once we were home and the ice cream was all done, deirann decided she wanted more....and she wanted it NOW. for such a little, sweet child she has one powerful set of lungs. i was upstairs getting devin ready for bed when i heard the ruckus below start. thankful i had the "easier" child for once, i wondered how long it would be until rob called out for some help. i waited...and waited...but the crying did stop quite quickly. hmmmm....did he take her outside and that is why i can' t hear her anymore? or did he have enough and toss her into the playroom and shut the door? getting a little worried and i started to head downstairs when i stopped suddenly near the spare room.

what is that? is that deirann singing? no, she was screaming bloody murder 15 secs ago and now she is singing?

i popped my head around the corner and saw deirann sitting on daddy's knee looking at the computer screen...

see for yourself......




now if you look real close at the screen, you can see who she is singing her duet with....

yup none other than susan boyle....yes "that" susan boyle from "britain's got talent".

it seems that a few weeks ago when rob was on the computer with deirann on his knee, he clicked on some link that brought him to "the" youtube video and shazamm! a star was born. deirann was mesmerised by this woman, and soon she was singing along to the les mis song the wee scottie was cranking out. thinking it was funny, rob didn't think much of it until a few days later was i was out and he was minding the offspring. deirann was having some sort of breakdown when father of the year remembered the videoclip. he brought her back up stairs and found the clip and sure enough the "baby whisperer" worked her magic and deirann was settled in no time, singing along once again.

as every parent will attest to, when a baby is crying you will do everything to come up with a way to quiet her down. over the years we have been known to take 3:45 am drives along horseshoe bay beach, we have purchased a variety of rocking, bouncing, swaying chairs for infants, invested in a bunch of soothers, even developed a rocking-sway dance sorta thing...you name it, we tried it. anything to settle the cry of our girls. but who woulda thunk a lass named susan boyle would be our new found hero? now, i am still not sure what part i find more amusing, that the baby settles when she hears the crooner or the fact she sings along with her....either way, i gotta say, kudos to my hubby rob for finding this solution! point: rob.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Spilling the Beans

i recently received an email from good friends of ours that still live in bermuda. they (including three year old adriana) confirmed that they would be coming for a visit in late august enroute to bermuda from b.c. needless to say, i was a little excited at the idea of having a well-missed girlfriend living with us for a few days...but boy i don't think anything would match devin 's excitement! adriana is her bestest friend in the whole wide world and even though they have only seen each other for a few days at christmas since last july, devin still talks about adriana regulary as if she just had lunch with her at milestones or a pedi with her at the spa...it is that kinda friendship.

this recent email made me flashback to last fall when i receved a similar email from the same family saying they were going to visit us around christmas enroute to b.c.
being an experinced teacher, i know it is important to forwarn children when something a little different to the routine will occur. i have also learned (the hard way!) that you do not spill the beans about the change to routine too earlier or too late. timing is once again very important. if you tell them too early, you will be greeted with "is today the day -insert change to routine here_?" and if you tell them too late...well that can send them over the edge.

but of course all this knowledge went out the window last fall and i decided that i would tell devin that adriana and her family wre coming for a visit.

"is my best friend adriana (i swear that is what she calls her...everytime!!) coming today?"

"no devin, adriana is not coming today."

next day, "is my best friend adriana coming today?"

"no devin, adriana is not coming today."

you can see where this is going. this all started in october...and adriana wasn't coming until december...oh boy.

the teacher in me saw this as a great opportunity to introduce devin to a calendar. we got a red marker, some stickers and a simple calender with big squares to write in dates.

"so devin, you see here, this is today...october 7th...you see here, this is december 18th...that is when adriana will be here!" we proceeded to decorate the "big day" and hung the calendar on the wall where devin could look at it and mark the dates off. we discussed the fun things they would do togegther and how great it would be to play in the snow with each other.

"so adriana will be here when there is snow?"

"yup, fingers crossed devin there is snow, adriana will be here."

the calendar seemed to work like a charm for a few days, devin would run downstairs and put a big red line through the day so she could see how many more days were left.

one morning dev ran down to mark of the day when she noticed the marker was missing.

"mama, where is the marker?"

"hmmm...it is not attached to the calendar with the string?"

"no mama....the string is here and the hat (aka the "top" to the marker) but no marker. i need the marker to mark off when my best friend adriana is coming...

"yes devin i kn..."

"mama, look at deriann..."

needless to say, we found the marker...and a little girl that looked like she had the measles.

we decided to move the marker and calendar out of harms way and continued to mark off the days to the big arrival.

"so did you mark off when adriana is coming today on your calandar?" i greeted young miss d one morning.

"nope, my best friend adriana is coming today!"

huh? after a quick check i confirmed it was only early november and we had over a month before her visit.

"no dev, adraina is not coming today. look at your calander, we have lots of days to go before she comes..."

" she is coming today," devin insisted.

"i am sorry devin, adri...."

"mummy you said she was coming today!" poor devin was getting a little "angry" now, clearly i was in the wrong.

"devin, adriana and her family are not coming until december 18th. it is only november 3rd." when in doubt, state the obvious.

"mummy it is snowing."devin also believes that when in doubt state the obvious .

"well look at that it is!" ok if i can divert her to the snow, she may shake this whole"adriana is coming today" thing.

"...and you said my best friend adriana would come when it snows...."

oy, i did say that didn't i?

"devin i meant that there would be snow on the ground when adriaina came to visit..."

"...but mummy you said..."

"...i didn't mean that when it snows for the first time she would be coming that same day!"

"..but mummy...??!!"

so once again i had to disappoint my daughter and explain that her bff would not be coming for a visit for a quite a few weeks. almost like dog years, time to kids is way longer then it is to adults.

she was quite upset but did come around. we found other ways to count down adriana's visit..deirann should be walking by the time adriana visits ..."look mama deirann is walking ...is my best friend adriana coming today?"...and after we put up the christmas decorations .." look mama the tree is decorated...is my best firiend adriana coming today?"

this continued until december 18th, the BIG day. but i gotta admit, the greeting the two gave each other and the fun they had for those few days made the wait worth while.

so, what did i learn from all this? that i need to keep my big mouth shut and that devin is on a need to know basis regarding visits from bestest friends, christmas, birthdays...all the important stuff.

recently, i was hanging with a neighbour watching our kids play in the dirt together and was telling her that adriana was coming for a visit and that we are going to plan devin's birthday party while adriana was here. i was just about to explain that this time, i was not going to tell devin about the visit until the day before they arrive ..but i didn't have the chance....

"hey devin," hollars friendly neigbour, "i hear your friend adriana is coming to visit you for your birthday!"

....man that kid's head turned quicker then anything i have ever seen. she stared at me with those big blue eyes and her mouth hanging open.....and let out a squeal of delight that surely caused glass to break in all the nearby houses...followed with..." is my best friend adriana coming today for my birfday????"

...it is may 11h....adriana is not coming until august 25th....and devin's birthday isn't until september 3rd.....

oy.



devin and her best friend adriana.

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About Me

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Burlington, Canada
Description huh? Hmm...where to begin, what do I start with....? Ok, the basics...37 years old, married to my one love, have two incredible girls, a teacher by trade although unable to work fulltime in that field so I sub here and there and help my sister-in-law with her business. Recently returned back to the GTA after living in Bermuda for 10 years. Being close to family is great but I do miss the seaside. Interests....? I love making things, biking, music, playing outside...however I find time is what I am short of these days. Interests I wish I had...cooking incredible meals using more than 4 ingredients, exercise(apparently all that crap about burning calories while vacuuming and folding laundry doesn't count if you eat food!!)reading (grown up) books (I manage about 4 pages of my own novel a night thus my library overdue charges are quite large!). Things I like about me...my need for things to be in the right place, Things I am not so keen on about me....my need for things to be in the right place, my dislike for the telephone, my slight tendency to be a control nut...freak is sooooo overused.