Riding a pedal bike…

I. got her first pedal bike (after her run-bike) for her birthday, and she’s been riding it ever since – we didn’t even bother putting training wheels on it…We just have to be there to start her and stop her, but she is in control enough to come to us now when she wants to stop, so we don’t have to run beside her anymore…we did do quite a lot of running the first couple of weeks after her birthday:) Soon we’ll be able to go on family bike-rides!!!

I know it’s been over a year…and WHAT A YEAR IT HAS BEEN!!!

I can’t believe how long I have been putting off writing again…It’s been over a year!

A lot has happened since we moved from Pemberton to Whistler! We moved to Cheakamus Crossing, a.k.a. Athlete’s Village in the Fall of 2010. We are still fighting against the asphalt plant, the muni issued a cease and desist order which the plant ignored, but at least we have something brewing in court now…

I have started working towards my Early Childhood Education Diploma through the College of the Rockies online education. It is a lot of work, but EVERYTHING is online, so I don’t have to go ANYWHERE! This is one of the reasons why I didn’t write: My time was fully booked between my daughter, family, work and my courses. We were very lucky to have had grandparents come live with us for a couple of month each, so our winter would be covered. This way our daughter was immersed in French for a month, then in Hungarian for 5 months (my Mom came for 2.5 months and my Dad for 2!). Without them, there is no way I would have been able to juggle family, work and school. I completed 8 courses this year and I have a few more to go. I am doing it part time (they allow you 5 years to complete it), hopefully in 2-3 years. I have learned lots, a lot of which I was confirming what I already know through 2 decades of experience working with children.

I have also had the opportunity to work a little bit with the Whistler Waldorf school, which was my best ever experience with the preschool age-group in an indoor setting – EVER! I love the school, I love how supportive everyone is towards each other (staff, parents, and children). The energy that lives there is so positive, caring and warm, that it makes you want to go to school over again, because you feel like you have been short changed…

Our daughter, I., who just turned 3 at the end of May will be starting 2 days of the Waldorf Preschool in September and then we will add 2 days of Valley Kids (ski school) over the winter months. Hopefully it won’t be too much for her, but seems like my boyfriend, D., may have one or two of her out of home days off, so he may pick her up at lunch or keep her home those days – either go skiing with her, or just hang out if she is tired.

I.’s languages have taken huge strides in the past year. After the Winter spent with my parents her Hungarian shot to first place, her vocabulary is colourful and varied, she is fluent, funny and witty. Since I haven’t been immersed in Hungarian for that long for 12 years now, she was using words (synonyms) that I understand but don’t use that much because I tend to simplify, since I haven’t been living in Hungary for a long time now. I love the colourfulness of her vocabulary!

Her French was in a strong second place after the Winter, but since I did a lot of school work and D. spent more time with I. after the ski school season, her French is also very strong now. It helps that we also have a lot of French speaking friends that we see often.

Kate Jablonski’s lyrical jazz choreography…

I found a young choreographer’s, Kate Jablonski’s, work on youtube the other day…lyrical jazz…I quite enjoy it, so I thought I’d share..

I love clean air, no asphalt plant in Whistler

Well, our Hungary vacation has come and gone…Calling it a vacation is a bit of exaggeration since it was more like taking one of the “Kon Tiki Tours”: running from one monument to the other in a country, only to hop back on the bus and run around some more in a different country, resulting in total loss of memory over what you have seen…

So we ran around visiting friends and family, the majority of the time being stuck in traffic jams with our chauffeur: my Dad (which was actually quite fun).

A sleepless night, but lots of language development happening…

WOW!! I. is just chaning every day! We are actually able to hold 3-word-sentence conversations with her. The times of trying to guess what she is trying to communicate are coming to an end. I can’t believe how much she is repeating everything – even full sentences – these days!

The first few days in Hungary with our daughter…

We are in Hungary for three weeks!!! Nice to spend time with family and friends here, and relax a bit. I. did amazing on the flights over here – we had to transfer twice! She didn’t cry, she didn’t bother people and she only slept two hours altogether that night.

No more commuting! A huge weight off our shoulders…

So finally, we are back in Whistler. And it seems like we can breathe…D’s parents have been amazing these past few weeks, helping out with taking care of I., cleaning, cooking, fixing walls etc. I was working full time, trying to cram some ours in while D. was sorting through clutter, trying to figure out what we are moving and what we are getting rid of, making phone calls to service providers and other issues regarding our move. I. did amazing. The transition seemed smooth on her part.

Bad timing for an ear infection…

D. is sick, I. has an ear infection, I am working full on, we need to move…everyone is exhausted…thank God we have Grandparents here for a few weeks to lend us a hand…

We are a bit worried that we are creating a pattern with I., a pattern we don’t necessarily want to continue:

Let kids be themselves, as opposed to trying to mold them into who you want them to be

Many moms get all wrapped up in competing with each other whose baby/3 year-old/10 year-old/25 year-old does what at an earlier age…I have been working with kids pretty much all my life and from experience I know that they all develop at their own pace. They will do things when they are ready. We need to let them take their time. If we don’t, they may eventually not want to do at all, what we were trying to force them to do too early.

Cheakamus Crossing

Here is an email I wrote to a friend, perfectly demonstrating how much is going on and how little time I have:

“I am sorry I haven’t contacted you in such a long time…we’ve been so busy: we sold our place, moving out May 1st, don’t really know where we are going, yet…