My Baby is Showing Affection - Unforgettable Moments

My reflections - unforgettable moments with Matthew.

'The first touch,
The first smile,
The first eye to eye contact,
The first hickey, a hunger call,
The first lick on the face, a wet one,
The first hug, for the bear,
Very shy every time,
Then snuggles to me,
- its all my baby.'

I was sitting on the sofa and watching Matthew playing. He is now 11 months plus. With his little hands he takes the white Easter bunny and hugs him on the left, then on the right side, and playing shy at the same time. That was so so cute, and I wish I had the video camera, but I knew soon as I get one all will be over. I continued to watch, to my surprise, Matthew is now talking to his prayer duck, of course in his own language. Then I get up and get the camera, but the unforgettable moments are now over. Truly unforgettable.

Earlier today we went to church for Ukrainian Easter Good Friday. It was his third visit to the church. Unfortunately we were not able to take him on regular basis on Sunday before, because of his eating and sleeping schedule, especially that he likes to eat and sleep at the same times as all the church masses. Well on the parking lot we ran into two priests who knew my father and came up to greet him. One of the priests immediately ignored my dad and dived to play with Matthew. Matthew responded by pointing and reaching out to him - next thing the priest is kissing his little hands. Another unforgettable moment.

Matthew started to show true affection around nine months but earlier around six months Matthew had these interesting ways to express hunger. When hungry he would latch to my chin and give me a hickeys. He would also make suction motions with his lips where we though it was hunger, but no he was massaging his gums. But try to explain this to his uncle who insisted that I feed him - I guess he got paranoid when Matthew made a move on him with his lips. Another unforgettable moment to share.

The true affection surfaced when Matthew started to hug his blue plush bear and a big brown bear. It was and still is so cute to watch him as he embraces the big brown Bear's head with his little hands. And then it is nice to watch him when he embraces the small plush bear with his little hands and brings close to his body to hug him. Many many unforgettable moments.

'Matthew can I have kiss kiss' - we would ask. 'Matthew I love you' - we would say all the time. 'Matthew eeee eeee eeee' - we would squeak. And there he goes with his mouth wide open and tongue across my face, a wet wet lick. Unforgettable feeling.

We Used to Drink on the School Trips

Imagine this, twenty five kids on the bus going on the school trip, and once in the while some of them would take a bottle of Vodka from their knapsack and drink, including me. Yes, we used to drink, but it wasn't a Vodka, it was a tea or some kind of juice. Back then we didn't really have good drinking plastic bottles to bring our drink in, so we used whatever we had at home. Since the Vodka bottle was the only bottle with the screw top, that was the most popular bottle taken on the trip, some of them still with a label on it. So this is how we used to drink on the school trips in the elementary school. The scary part was that they actually let us drink on the bus while bus was in motion. Luckily we didn't damage our teeth. So one day here is me, drinking my Vodka from the bottle, suddenly I stand up on the bus and yelled out to my friend beside me - did you see this, wow? And suddenly my teacher gave me a look that I had to bury myself in the bus chair, turning red, and trying to drink my Vodka, and of course to pretend that nothing happened. Can you guess what I saw? I will give you some clues: it was in Europe, it was a big tree, parked bike on the side of the road.

Economic Crisis or Greed Crisis - AIG Bailout, Chrysler Bailout ... You Name It

I promise to write something nicer next time, but I just cannot take anymore all the crap about economic crisis. I think they are more greed crisis, than the economic crisis. The two examples on the news, 'Obama 'outraged' at AIG bonuses' - I am too, and so are the US taxpayers.

'CAW face clash over wage cuts' - Chrysler autoworkers in Canada are getting paid $76 per hour, which translates to $608 per day, $3,040 per week and $12,160 per month. Someone tell me what is wrong with this picture. There are people who make $76 per day who probably may have even more skill than the autoworkers. Never mind the spa benefit. And now I am really outraged. I think Stephen Harper, Prime Minster of Canada should speak out too. Or do I have to write him another letter?
Here are two examples, and I will call this government mistakes. So before government gives out more bailout money, please learn and more due diligence next time. I am just disappointed hearing stuff like that and I had to vent - after all some of my tax money are paying for someones massage.

A Tip, Parents Do Not Loose Your Children at the Zoo

About two years ago we took our 5 year old nephew and 3 year old niece to the zoo. It was hot sunny day so we really needed to have some mouth watering ice cream. We split, I took my niece and sat under the tree full of peacocks. Yes, the peacocks were hiding in the tree. We decided to be brave, and lucky no flying patties or rain from the sky. My husband took our nephew to get the ice cream. I think the ice cream man was making that ice cream from scratch since there were only few people in line and took them forever to deliver that mouth watering ice cream to us. The funny thing was that there were few young Amish girls same age or a bit older as my nephew and they couldn't take their eyes off him. I watched from far away as he would at times put his head up and pretend not to see them. It was kind of cute.

The ice cream was really being made from scratch. We gave up waiting, just sat under the tree and observed by passers and by standers. As the time lapsed, by standers would come and go. Then one cool looking guy, not good looking guy, but cool looking guy made a quick stop to have a cigarette. He played cool, blowing smoke to the sky. Good thing it was to the sky and wind was blowing away from us, because I am allergic to the second hand smoke and I can smell it miles away. This cool looking guy was not approachable, he just looked like one of those if you are lost somewhere, you rather be lost and not ask questions.

We continued to wait. Many people passed by us, especially lot of parents with children - walking, being pushed in strollers or pulled in wagons. As we watched all these people passing by, suddenly a child fell out the wagon. The parents continued to walk not seeing what happened. The victim of the situation was 1.5 or 2 years old girl. The second older child in the wagon, the brother, was reaching out with his hand saying something, but because it was loud no body could hear him. The little girl was stunned for a moment, so she just sat there for few seconds trying to recover. There were lot of people, so no body really noticed anything, just us and the cool guy.

I really underestimated the cool guy, he was actually first to notice and first to yelled out loud - 'excuse me, excuse me' - he at first said in deep cool voice. No response from parents. 'Excuse me, you lost your child' - he finally yelled really loud, and started to move towards the little girl. It all happened in matter of seconds, and since I knew that the cool guy was taking care of the business I just got myself ready just in case. The parents finally turned back, the girl started to cry. The parents picked up this little girl and just walked away - looking kind of embarrassed. Well may be this is why the cool guy is cool guy - he got no thank you, or even a nod of acknowledgment. And I was ready to give him a medal.

The moral to the story - don't underestimate others by their behaviour or look or cool look, they may be first to give you a helping hand after all, and probably the last to be thanked. And the main moral to the story is - strap your children to the wagon, especially when at the zoo, because it isn't just the zoo of animals, but zoo full of people and you can easily loose your child as these parents did.

Mr. President Barack Obama Thank You For Visiting Canada

Mr. President Barack Obama, you probably will never read this thank you letter, but I am sure you can see in people how thankful we Canadians are for your visit to Canada.

The fact that you chose to visit Canada first it means a lot, but the fact that you purchased maple leaf cookies cookies from the local baker it means even more. I actually got goose bumps hearing that on the news. Your risk, I am sure your secret service will get you in trouble later, made our Canadian baker very happy.

Mr. Obama, I watched your presidential race, but watching you being President of United States is even more impressive. Your leadership is beyond my expectations - you are definitely a people person. Your strong focus on the economic crisis and how you handling it so far is on the scale 1 to 10 - I am giving you 8. Sorry I cannot give you 10 just yet, just little too early, but I am sure you have great potential outperform.

It was also nice to watch you and our Prime Minister Mr. Harper getting along so well. You may not have the same views 100%, but I see that both of you have great respect for each other and willing to work together to get us out from the economic crisis.

Mr. Obama, thank you again. And before I conclude this thank you letter, I want to tell you that leadership as yours is needed especially during crisis. If you are good to the people, people will respond positively and will be motivated to work together on the same goal. Like they say, one person can do so much, but together we can do even more.

Enjoy your cookies and good night.


Regards,
Anna