Where do you come from? Part II

Last time, we talked about Netherland (which is the name your Mother informed me that the country currently goes by). Now it's time to learn a bit about the other half of your heritage...Canada.

I have to do less impromptu research for this one since I have been here all my life. In fact, with very few exceptions, I have actually spent my entire life in this beautiful country. I am sure you will be able to tell that I am biased, but I will try not to let it get the best of me. Besides...a country like Canada sells itself, so it doesn't need any help from lil' ol' me.

First things first. In the photo below, you will see Canada and Netherland shown so you can get an idea of their sizes. If it seems like Canada is going to eat Netherland, fear not...Canada knows that doing that would cause it to get WAY too high (I will explain what that is later.)



Yes. Canada is BIG. There is really no getting around it. What's cool about being so big is that you can see and experience just about everything the world has to offer without ever needing a passport. How do I know this? Because I still don't have a passport, and I have seen everything except rain forrest (but no worries...they have them on the Queen Charlotte Islands).

Since I did a blog about Netherland as a person who knew nothing about it, I thought that it would be fun to ask your Mom about her first impressions of Canada. The answers were instructive of what Canada is for people who didn't grow up here. These are her answers:

1) It's big (see above).

2) It's cold.

3) Strangers talk to you (but, just so we are clear, YOU are not to talk to strangers).

3.5) Canada is 270 times bigger than the Netherlands and only has twice the number of inhabitants.

4) Our cheese has very little taste.

5) Canadians are more excited about illicit substances than the Dutch (even though the Dutch are famous for them).

6) We are, for all intents and purposes, America's hat (despite the fact that we consider ourselves to be very different from the Americans).

Please understand that I have taken some artistic license with your Mother's words, but these are basically the spirit of her answers to my questions.

Now, while taking nothing away from Mommy's answers, I thought there might be some other fun facts that you could use to amaze your Dutch family and friends!

7) The Dutch flag is the only other country's flag to have ever flown upon Canada's Parliament.

8) The Dutch Royal Family annually gifts 10, 000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa as a remembrance of the kindness shown by the Canadian government to the family during World War II.

9) The Dutch Princess Margriet was born in Canada when the family was taking refuge here in 1943. In order to make sure that she was considered a Dutch national, the Government of Canada passed a special act that declared the birth "extraterritorial."

10) In the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetary, the children from the town tend to the graves of the Canadian soldiers who died in the liberation of the Netherlands.

I guess your Mom and I are meant to be together!

Happy Canada Day, love!

A Post from Ella Luna and Mommy for Father's Day

Hi Daddy
We hijacked your blog to wish you a very happy father's day and to make you cry a little.
You have made mommy cry many times with your sweet and touching blog posts and this time it is our turn to see if we can do the same for you.

She made this video of you and me and my job was to be as cute as I could be in it, which as you know is VERY cute. Just so you'll never forget how much we love you, what a wonderful daddy you are and that we'll keep you forever!

Lots of lovebombs
Ella Luna and Mommy

My Father's Day Gift

So, as you read these, you will read them from the most recent post to the oldest posts. You may notice at this point that, from your point of view, the posts start coming more frequently. That is because I have had less and less time to sit and write since your birth. I do not begrudge this at all, but I want you to understand why you were getting all of this wonderful stuff towards (from your point of view) the end of the blog.

Which brings me to the other thing: gifts. This blog is intended to be a lifelong gift from me to you. In a way, it's the best thing I can give because it keeps on going for as long as I have time to write down my silly little thoughts. From your point of view, however, this blog ends with its first entry...so it's kind of like a way for you to travel through time to the beginning of your life and the beginning of my life with you. As I write this I am hoping that you will use this list of posts as a way to know the things you just can't ask me at the moment...to know the depth and the breadth of my love for you and a little bit about me as a person (we sometimes have a hard time seeing our parents as people independent of ourselves.) To paraphrase Elton John, my gift is my blog and this one's for you!

Now, whatever I may say later in life, the only gift I need from you is your happiness. I want you to take full advantage of the blessings we have been provided in our lives together and for you to be the fullest and best you that you can be! That's it! I think, at the heart of it, that's all any parent wants for their children...to have them smile and to know that he or she helped provide that smile. These days, you smile when I help you burp or fart but I know it won't always be so simple.

You are the best part of my world and that is the best gift I will ever know. Thank you for letting me be your Daddy!

S

Meet your Uncle Christopher: The "Cool" Uncle

This is your uncle Christopher. It's his birthday today and I thought I would let you know a little bit about him. He lives in sunny Vancouver (at present) with your Auntie Shanna in a dreamy palace called a "condo." Uncle Christopher is the person whose company you will prefer to your father's when you are about thirteen years of age.

Why is that?

The reasons are numerous, but first and foremost: because he's not your father...he's your uncle. The second and secondmost is that he's your uncle with beer.

I will say this right now: there is far more to your uncle Christopher than beer. He is an accomplished businessman and is a caring partner for my sister, but to a thirteen year-old you, he is going to be the fun uncle that hikes up mountains for fun and then hoists a frosty beverage at the summit. And the coolest part? He made the frosty beverage he drinks.

Your uncle is in the volatile but never boring beer industry. I would not feature this so heavily if it did not have so much to do with how he came into our lives. I first came to know of him by way of an alarming phone call from my sister's friend one morning before I was on my way to work. This friend had taken auntie Shanna and my van out the night before on an uncharacteristic night of bar-hopping (uncharacteristic for Shanna...I think her friend was more accustomed to it). When I answered the phone that morning, I learned that this "friend" had allowed my delicate sister to be spirited away into the night by a sterling swashbuckler she identified only as "some beer guy."

I was, of course, livid. How could this girl have been so irresponsible as to misplace my sister? A "beer guy?" These roving bandits are the greatest Lotharios alive! Would I ever see my lovely and modest sister again? Most importantly: where was my van? I had to get to WORK!

After some time (4 minutes and 37 seconds) of intense panic, my sister (and my van) showed up safely and soundly. She explained that she enjoyed a glorious and colorful night at one of the city's less reputable but more exciting all-night coffee shops with a delightful fellow named "Christopher." It turned out that he was, in fact, a beer guy but he was more of a beer-selling guy in town to make sure that business was solid at one of his more profitable accounts.

A nice guy. Who takes my sister to coffee shops and protects her from roving weirdos at 4 a.m. A guy with a job and a plan and respect for women (are you taking notes here?). That didn't sound so bad.

I wish I could say that my suspicion ended there, but it did not. Greatly assuaged though it was, my concerns did not fully abate until uncle Christopher came to the city some weeks later and introduced himself to me. He looked me in the eye, shook my hand, and treated me to a beer (or two...Daddy never has more than two of those).

Since then, I am happy to report that we have grown very close. Uncle Christopher is a valued and loved member of our family who has demonstrated time after time that he isn't afraid of the oddity of our small Saskatchewan clan or the panic-attack babysitting that comes with it (sea kayaking, anyone?). I think for people like your Mommy and Uncle who come to us from experienced and well-traveled people, it might take some getting used to our relatively unadventurous prairie natures. But I'll tell you a little secret...one that only you, me, and (now) the whole internet knows: I may have taken some getting used to, but he had me at "Full-Bodied and Refreshing Lager."

So, let's tell him together: Happy Birthday, Uncle Christopher! Feel free to stop by our house for 2 (and ONLY 2) beer!

Love, Dad

Diapers? THIS is wayyyy harder...

Alright...I am going to level with you: I am not fashion-forward. I am typically found in the least-dirty superhero-themed T-shirt I can find and have no compunction about sleeping in my jeans. As you might well imagine, then, my understanding of your outfits leaves something to be desired.

Case in point: This evening, I changed your diaper and then was directed by Mommy to put a new outfit on you. I would likely have left you naked as the temperature upstairs is nearing that of the ninth circle of hell. Your Mommy, though, thought you might be cold so I was directed to locate a "short-sleeved and open-bottomed" outfit for you. I searched for whole minutes as you lay patiently waiting on the change table, but I couldn't find any garment that fit this description. Mommy, hearing my panicked bickering from afar then lightened her criteria and told me to just find "anything."

Anything! I could find that! There were a whole BUNCH of things in the drawer. My eyes went directly to an outfit I have seen your mother call "her favorite" and thought there was no way to go wrong! Warm baby AND happy Mommy: what could be better??

The outfit I spied was a pink, long-sleeved and legged jumper. It has approximately 42 buttons on it and opens from both the top and the bottom. I placed you atop the open getup and commenced the operation of getting you into it.

For the record, you are far too interested in moving to be co-operative right now. You prefer mostly to flail your new little arms and legs about rather than be dressed. I get it: you are part European and clothes are optional for you. I was, however, woefully unprepared for the task of fitting you into and then fastening a suit of this complexity. To your credit, you lay there quiet as a mouse watching with bemusement at my obvious struggle. At the end of several minutes of playful jostling, you were IN and I was about to be the victorious baby-dressing daddy!

When your Mommy saw the outfit, though, she maintained her excitement very well.

"Look at you dressed up like a Princess for bed. Daddy put you in your best clothes as pyjamas!" she said to me by speaking to you.

"What do you mean? You said put anything on her. I have heard you call this one your favorite!"

She laughed as if to chastise herself for expecting a monkey to type the text of Hamlet, "Yes...for the daytime."

The good news? I got your diaper on JUST right so you won't get anything on your best outfit...for the daytime.

Love you BOTH

Daddy

Hey Baby's First Videos!

These are videos from your first walk. See how awesome I am when I get a camera in my hand. Mommy can barely stop laughing!

Day 5 of your life

Good day my little love. You are off to a banner start! You love to eat, poop, cry, and sleep! In baby terms, that means all is well!

It might be interesting to note that, since your birth (and quite by coincidence), everything I have been seeing and reading has been about parenthood. In fact, I walked into the library yesterday and the first thing I saw was a pamphlet about reading with your baby. Of course, I picked it up and even picked up some of the books that were suggested. Did you KNOW that babies like you really like high-contrast images and melodic tones? Well you DO! And now we have some books that have those things in them.

Now, to be fair, you aren't paying much attention to the books. You mostly just suck your finger and look around. But you do seem to like when Mommy and I sing Mother Goose nursery rhymes to you. You even snuggled your ear closer to my chest as we sang to you tonight...it must be easier to feel the vibrations in my chest than to make out the clamor of our voices.

It might also be interesting to note that you are already smiling and communicating with us. You can't really smile properly yet, but you sure try. Like me, you seem happiest just after you have eaten or slept. Also, you make a lot of different faces that we are gleefully mimicking for you to see.

Your eyes are blue and your hair is red-gold. Your mood is generally happy and you are very content unless you are hungry (which is fairly regularly). At all other times, you are pretty blissed out and even a bit floppy in your relaxation. I would be alarmed by this except for the fact that I used to be exactly the same and would be still if anyone could pick ME up and carry me around between feedings.

I'm sorry this is a hodgepodge of tales. I have heard all my family and friends talk about how they regretted missing out on all these little things when their kids were just little. The little things, they have said to me, all went by so quickly and they didn't always take the time to appreciate them. Well, for me, I have one more day before I go back to work and I am happy to say that your mother and I have barely been able to take our eyes off of you. I am happy to say that we are just taking each moment we can to enjoy every little face you make and every little peep that escapes your mouth. We delight in the brief moments of recognition when your eyes and ours meet. We even delight in your cries and your dirty diapers (though I am sure the delight will give way to other feelings soon). In short, we are savoring each of these little moments with you because they are each unique and too brief.

We love you with all our hearts and are so glad to finally meet you. Goodnight our gorgeous little lady.

Love,

Dad