Mimi and Baba

That's what Aloka calls her Grandparents (Josh's mom and dad). My last post had a few snippits of Jim outside with us, but I have many more photos!
We had a great time, and Aloka was on cloud 9. They brought her a giant heap of beautiful clothes from Europe when they were there last July, which was so incredible. The clothes there are just so well made and beautiful!

Every morning she would wake up and then wake me up saying "mama , mama, mama can I go out to see Mimi and Baba? And of course we'd mumble in our sleep, "No, they're still sleeping". Then she'd tiptoe over to the door and peek out to see if she could hear them. If she did, she'd get so excited and come tell me "they're awake!!" And then go out to see them, at first feeling shy, and then as soon as they greeted her with open arms, she'd crawl into their bed (This is what she did, based on what she'd tell me later. Josh and I were always taking the blissful opportunity to sleep in!)

We didn't really do much for American Thanksgiving, but if you can call Indian food celebrating, we sure did that! We went to a nice little Indian restaurant Josh and I had never been to before (called "Baba's", ha! Aloka especially found that funny) and it was so yummy! Josh and I are definitely going back soon! We also went to a nice but freezing cold Christmas craft faire. It was held in the hockey arena so they had put a temporary floor on the ice, and it was freezing!! I felt so sorry for the vendors. Last year this same faire was in a really nice place where the ambiance and the temperature was much warmer. I looked at the paper that weekend and there were 9 craft faires!! Then 5 more the next weekend, and still more this weekend. Nelson and the surrounding areas are so rich with arts and crafts!
Then on Sunday the 26th we celebrated Josh's 32nd birthday! In the morning while we were still sleeping, Jim, Lynn and Aloka
hung streamers and balloons up all over the place. When we got up, I made a pancake breakfast and Josh opened his presents.
What fun!

On the day they left, Aloka said goodbye to them in the morning, and then went to school. She was so so sad about them leaving.

I took a couple pictures of Aloka (the one on the left) and the other children coming out of Dena's house (where the playgroup is), I just love icicles! We have some huge ones at our house too, it's been so snowy here this past week!
We have a lot of fun Waldorfy types of events coming up in the next week. We'll be doing an "advent spiral" which I'll post about afterwards, and there is also the famous (in the Waldorf ciruit) "Waldorf Winter Faire", where you can find all sorts of beautiful handmade crafts, furniture, toys, you name it. You can imagine what it's like in a town like Nelson; there's an abundance of beautiful wares!

Here is also a photo just after I picked her up from school, and she's talking to Josh on my (new) cell phone.









So, I have so many more photos I'm just going to put them here at the bottom!

Aloka and Mimi doing some caterpillar crafts

Our budding photographer took this

And this...

Josh and Jim wearing matching hats. It was Aloka's idea to go get her matching one too.

In case you're wondering, Aloka insisted on getting a "scary" tattoo. It's some kind of biker tattoo from a vending machine. She was determined.

At a "burger joint" for lunch


Josh and his Dad (the family resemblance amuses me. I realized in a photo I didn't post, that they have identical noses!)


A special moment with Mimi

Let the winter games begin!

Josh's parents are out visiting right now, and Aloka is having a blast.

We just had a first really huge snow storm last night and today, and Aloka couldn't wait to get outside and play in it!









We actually had tried to go out to eat for lunch but Jim and Lynn's car got completely stuck before we could even get to the road. So we threw in the towel and came back. Aloka was eager to get outside and go tobogganing down our driveway, and even though Josh had just shoveled it an hour ago, there was already enough snow to sled down!


As Aloka was sliding down the hill, I heard her say "I'm having SO much fun!!!" These two photos are just after they skidded to a halt.


























Then she decided to try going down by herself, what a thrill!

Balloon hat

This is just a funny hat Josh made a few weeks ago (pre-haircut)!

Lantern walk

Last weekend Aloka's Waldorf playgroup did a lantern walk to celebrate the changing of the seasons. The concept is to bring light to the darkness of the longer nights.
The children made lanterns, and then last thursday evening all the families and children got together for chili and cornbread, and then we went outside and sang songs around a little bonfire.

Then we went on our beautiful lantern walk singing uplifting songs throughout the neighborhood.
It was so fun to see faces peeking out of the windows, looking at our magical lanterns lighting up the night, and the songs filling the air.


Dena had decorated the entire outside of her house with little paper bag lanterns. They were everywhere; brown paper bags filled with sand and a tea light candle, lining the sidewalk, stairs and the trail to the back of the house. It was such a magical sight to see when we pulled up.
I'm so glad Aloka gets to experience this! It's so much more than just a playgroup or a preschool. It's a community, and the parents we're meeting all have a like minded approach to raising their children, honouring their creativity, play, and imaginations. And valuing the importance of rituals in life. Waldorf very much emphasizes celebrations, festivals, gatherings and community in regards to raising our children.

SO, after the lantern walk, and after most everyone went home, Josh was still talking with Dena's husband Noah, while Aloka, Reya and Tillian (Dena's and Noah's children) played some music. Here are a couple cute video's of that!

And here's some funny photos of it too. Dena's son Tillian also has an electric guitar and Aloka seems to be a natural musician.

Canadian Beauty, eh?

I have no idea why I'm posting this! I just thought it was kinda funny, so here it is:

mmmm, cake. No wait... brownies!

Aloka and I made cookies last week. When I wasn't looking, she decided to get her little baking set, and add some ingredients herself including: maple syrup, safflower oil, a few chocolate chips and of course a whole lotta sprinkles. I took the cookies out of the oven and turned it off, turned my back for a second and lo and behold there was her little loaf pan full of "cake batter" in the oven. I decided to let it stay for a bit for her amusement. Amused she was not, however, because she wanted to see it rise and actually bake, silly me.
So, I told her there's no flour in the batter and a cake needs to have flour. I start washing the dishes with my back to the oven, and again, I turn around after a few minutes, and there in the oven sits her little loaf pan full of batter, and one perfectly rounded tablespoon scoop of flour!

I told Aloka that we should probably mix in the flour so that is just what we did (and I added some baking powder and more flour while I was at it!). We put it back in, and turned the oven on to bake.
Aloka watched the cake with intensity. It rose beautifully and Aloka was beside herself. It was exactly what she wanted to see her little cake do. Then within 10 or so minutes, the cake plummeted back down to a flat little pancake. "Oh NOOOOO" Aloka shouted. She was so bummed. I told her sometimes that happens and that she actually made amazing brownies! She immediately felt better and we pulled them out of the oven to cool. They weren't bad and boy did she love them!

Saying funny things

Aloka (with her new haircut)!

Going to the Co-op grocery store has been challenging lately with Aloka. Every time I go there, there is a struggle between she and I about her getting Sundrops, a "healthy" (organic) version of M&M's basically, but still pure chocolate. Inevitably she gets her Sundrops, and I trudge out of the store silently swearing off the managers who put everything delicious at toddler level.
Anyway, as i was parking the car yesterday Aloka says "mama, this time don't put me in the cart." "But Aloka, I know you're going to get Sundrops if I don't put you in the cart!" I look at her in her car seat, and she has this huge grin on her face, which suddenly changes to a fury, and she says "Don't know my trick, mama!" Boy, i couldn't help but laugh.
And then a couple nights ago, she decided she wanted do some ballet in the living room. Now, she has only seen a ballet class a couple times as far as her exposure to the dance form. So I turn on some J.S. Bach and she starts to dance, but a few seconds into it, she screams "WHERE'S THE BEAT??" So we turned on our "other" music (one of my faves right now is a belly dancing CD) and she's dancing along doing spins and the occasional belly roll and hip shimmy!

And then last week I was sitting on the couch with her and I noticed a moth in our window outside caught in a spider web and struggling to get free. I said something about it, and Aloka was fascinated. I wasn't sure how much to explain to her because we haven't talked to her too much about death yet, and she's very sensitive. We told her that spiders eat moths and that's what they need to live. She became very concerned about the moth. Then she said to us in a worried voice "Is it sensitive?" Josh and I were speechless. Josh get teary, Aloka was so concerned, and I was not sure what to say to her. She knows about death and impermanence already, but in a childlike abstract way.
Later that night when I was putting her to bed, she told me she's worried that an animal is going to eat her. She said "mama, will you keep me safe?" After I reassured her I would, she said "And will Dada keep you safe?" Awwwww, how cute! I thought it was so sweet and amazing how children are aware of the hierarchy of the family. So cool and primal.

Ok, and one last thing because our daughter is such an engineer: We have a huge hula hoop we got at a festival over the summer. Aloka was trying to get Josh to hold it in the air, upright, so she could stand on the inside of the hoop (like you're trying to get a dog to jump through it). She gets lifted up (not very high off the ground) and Josh is holding it from the top with one hand and Aloka's hand with the other. Quite a trick! But the hoop starts to sag with her weight. So she takes a look at the situation, and she tells Josh "Hold it from the bottom Dada, it's stronger!" What?? Josh and I look at each other like "since when does she know the physics of a Hula Hoop?"

a few more pics from Halloween

Melissa and I actually didn't get photos together of our final gypsy attire, alas. But Josh took one of me before Aloka and I went out for the evening:

Josh's "Pug-kin" that he carved. It's an image of Melissa and Nick's pug named "Poppy":

Here's also a funny self portrait of Aloka (yes, she took this by herself!):


And on of me that Josh took:

And some silly ones of Aloka and Josh on the couch:

Pumpkin Carving Party!

We all went over to Melissa, Nick and Nile's house to carve pumpkins. Aloka once again got a hold of the camera and clicked away, not to mention a few videos. The best one is unfortunately too long; I think she filmed for almost 5 minutes.
Josh carved a great pumpkin version of Melissa's pug named Poppy. I carved a flaming skull, but my favorite was Melissa's pumpkin that said "Poo" because the B looked more like a P! We got a good laugh from it. She has pics on her blog too of the fun evening!

Afterwards, Melissa and I tested out our Halloween costumes. We decided to go as gypsies. My renaissance pirate wench costume fell through because the lady that sewed it couldn't get it shipped in time, alas. The gypsy costume turned out to be so fun though, we just dug through our "tickle trunk" (a Canadian term Melissa just taught me for dress up clothes) and found gobs of stuff, especially with my new belly dancing obsession. Boy did we jingle!!

Aloka went as a skunk, and her costume was plush and luxuriously warm. I'll include a separate post of our Halloween experience, so many photos and vids!

I got a cool shot also of all our pumpkins above the fire place. I don't know what the fire is doing, but somehow I got it on film!
And lastly, here's a video Aloka took while we were on the floor carving away.
Aloka was filming Betsy and her friend Puck, but Aloka didn't know Puck, so she said on film, "and here's Betsy and the other guy". You can hear us laughing.

Josh and Sabrina as seen by Aloka

Aloka takes pretty good pictures!

Aloka Rain version 3.2

She had another upgrade last night while she was sleeping. The gnomes have been busy. She was like a different little person today. She was so empowered, I couldn't believe what i was seeing! She vacuumed the house by herself (usually she hates it because it's so loud), she shaved Josh's head:
And she became a pro cinematographer! She figured out how to take pictures and videos. I'm including a clip of hers. It's just hilarious! She took a few others but they were too big to post. Josh and I were in disbelief.
She's also growing in size so fast! She was in dresses and sandals much of the summer so when the weather shifted, we suddenly discovered that all but a few of her pants and long sleeved shirts were too small. Our beloved friend Melissa rescued us from the monotony of the same 3 outfits by getting her 4 new pairs of pants from her recent trip to the States, wahoo! Thanks Melissa!! So when you're not seeing Aloka in her tutu/ballerina/gypsy/belly dancer/or totally naked attire, you'll see her in some cute new things.
Here's another video of Aloka dressed up doing a "gypsy dance", actually more just like playing my finger cymbals (for bellydance)!

Waldorf arts and crafts projects

As promised here is a picture of Aloka's lantern that she made. Next to it, you'll see another SweetPeas project; We decorated a terracotta pot with grout and glass pebbles, and then planted a paperwhite bulb in it. She loves these projects!
Today at SweetPeas we grated crayons with a cheese grater onto wax paper, of all different colors. Then we placed another layer of wax paper on top, and ironed it! It made a beautiful colorful melty thing, that resembles stained glass. We then made a pretty border/frame out of construction paper, and it's hanging on our window now. Another project we did at her other Waldorf Playgroup was a leaf collage on contact paper sandwiched together. That too, is hanging on our window. We're turning into one of those houses where the children's artwork and projects are hanging everywhere! I love it!
Parents: What do you do with this stuff?? We can't possibly throw it away, of course. I suppose we're supposed to stick it in a box until Aloka is 30 and then unload it all and a sentimental gesture, ha ha!
Gosh, if these projects are starting at 3, we're going to be filling up many many boxes! Although, when Kate and Winston got older, their art projects became quite impressive. Beautiful crafts, paintings, marble sculpture. I'm excited for Aloka to experience the same thing.
Here's a photo and a video clip of our playdough project. We made playdough the other day, one of Aloka's favorite things to do lately!

Pictures from Sweet Peas today

All the girls were having fun! The first photo is of the children making a "nest" just before snack time. Aloka ate 3 bowls at snack (millet with soysauce and nutritional yeast) and a cup of chamomile tea, she's growing!
Debbie is the adult setting up the story time table in the video. She's wonderful, and she will be Aloka's teacher for Kindergarten when she starts. We love Debbie!
Today, Aloka made a beautiful watercolor paper lantern with leaves on it, I'll definitely be posting a photo, it's so pretty!

Settling into fall

We're settling in and we have a nice routine going. Monday I have my belly dance class which Aloka usually comes with. She (and I too) just got a new hip scarf (with jingly coins) and she's so excited to wear it for the next class. She really learns these moves! It's cute, and all the women in the class seem to love her.
Tuesday she is in her Waldorf playgroup from 9-12pm, Wednesday is gynastics with Josh, Thursday is playgroup again, and friday is Waldorf SweetPeas playgroup and then Family Yoga. Holy guacamole! That's every day of the week. Weekends are filled with concerts/performances and whatever else is going on.
Dena (aloka's teacher) said that she and her family are really into snowboarding, and that when her two children got a little older than Aloka's age, it was really fun to have something in the winter they could really get into. So I foresee snowboarding in our future, probably this year.
Dena also said that falling (which i of course will be doing constantly) is no problem here because there's always so much fresh powder. She is from Colorado and said it was usually hard packed by the time they went out to ski.
So as long as I have some cushion, i won't mine the humility too much! I'll probably do some more cross country skiing again too this year.
So i don't have a ton of photos this week, but we did go to an awesome West African performance for children and i have some videos, though they're not really portraying the coolness of the group! The dancers did lots of back flips and amazing acrobatics along with a leopard dance at the end. The band is called Masabo, and Aloka and I left the theatre with huge smiles (and a CD and T-shirt!). It was a great show!

Aloka in (her/my) new boots

Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, as they say! I had just bought these crazy boots for my Halloween costume (renaissance pirate wench), and Aloka of course had to give them the test run. The funny thing is that I think she can walk in them better than me!
And the other morning, she woke up before us and she went wandering out of the bedroom. It became very quiet, like, "uh oh, what is she into" quiet. All you parents out there know exactly what I'm describing, I'm sure. I called her from my groggy sleep, and she comes in with my fake eyelashes (again for my costume) stuck to her forehead with elmers glue! It was hiliarious! I don't know how she knew to glue them, but somehow she figured out that's how it's supposed to work. Funny that she decided to glue them to her forehead, just above her eyebrows, not straight of course. I guess I should be very happy she didn't try for the eyes!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Aloka at Waldorf preschool

Aloka and Josh at Barter Faire

At Barter Faire

Aloka on Thanksgiving day walk

Children at the Harvest Celebration potluck at the Waldorf School

We had our first Canadian Thanksgiving (Monday the 9th) and it was one of the best Thanksgivings I've had yet! Sounds silly, I've had a lot of them, but it really was wonderful. Aloka's new Waldorf Preschool teacher and her husband (Dena and Noah) invited us over, and we feasted with 6 or so other adults, and 7 or 8 children. One of the highlights was after we ate we went on a wonderful long walk through the cemetery, and then up to a cool trail. The kids climbed trees, and bounded joyously through nature. These 3 videos are from that! We then came back, ate pumpkin pie, I played some mbira, enjoyed more conversation, and then went home, spiritually, socially rejuvinated. We have so much to be thankful for, and it seemed we were all able to share in that mutually.
There are so many people from the States here that we've met lately! Dena and Noah are from Boulder, and another couple at Thanksgiving was from NY.
It's fun talking about our immigration experiences with other American couples, all expatriates, all starting a new life in a new place that we all feel so passionate about. Everyone i've met from the States here seem to all have a strong pull towards and love for Nelson.
The day before Thanksgiving, we had a fall harvest potluck at Aloka's school, with 5 other Waldorf families. Once again, many happy children and wonderful parents that we met. Another US couple from Northern California, they just moved here a year ago. I feel like we've found family here, as if I've known these people and the Nelson community all my life. So, i'm including some pictures from Thanksgiving, and also some from the Harvest potluck.
Aloka is doing well with her new school life! She's only been 3 times, and I still haven't left her for the entire time yet, but it will be soon. Today, I dropped her off and went to the co-op grocery store for a bit, came back, connected with her briefly, and then waited in the car for her and played my mbira. She missed me a ton, and there were some tears when she finally saw me. It was painful being away from her, I cried a little, and felt weird shopping without her. I was equally happy to come back from the store and poke my head into the class to tell her i was back. It is a slow process, and as much as i've wanted this freedom, I miss my baby too.

Laughing hysterically!

Just goofing around in front of the camera! That's pretty much as big as my smile gets, I was laughing so hard!

Josh is a winner!!

Josh entered a contest the other day, to create a poster for an upcoming event called "All Souls Night". I'm sure you can guess what it's for! Halloween! I'm so excited for Halloween, there's so much happening! The Nelson Waldorf School is doing a series of fun vignettes, and we're also throwing a pirate scavenger hunt party, with several adults in character also acting out vignettes as part of the game. Josh entered this poster today, and he was notified by email that he won! He gets $100 plus a bunch of art supplies from one of the sponsors of the event, a big art supply store in town. Plus lots of publicity! Woo hoo!!

Our artistic daughter

I sure wish I had some photos of her from today, prancing around with her little jingly hip belt doing "arabesques" in belly dancing class! She really likes it, almost as much as me! I'm LOVING this class!! It feels like such a natural and beautiful way for women to move and I have so much fun. It's great to be doing something physical and really working the muscles with the isolated moves found in belly dancing. Maybe I'll bring my camera to class next week!
In the meantime, here's a little clip of Aloka and Nile jammin' on the drums in 'Still Eagle', a cool little hemp clothing shop in Nelson.
On Saturday night, we also went to a really fun and high energy performance by the African drum and dance ensemble I previously filmed at the Garlic Festival, called Malicounda. This was so much fun and Aloka and I danced and danced. She is really immersed in the arts here in this town, I love it!
Some fairly big news for us; Aloka is starting Waldorf Preschool this week! She will be going two days a week to start, from 9-12. I'm a little nervous about it. She seems totally ready, but I've never been apart from her for so long. It will be a great thing, but it's also a big deal for her to be totally on her own with neither of us. The teacher is wonderful, and said she comes over to the childs home to play for an hour or so to get aquainted. Aloka will show her all her toys I'm sure, feeling more comfortable and familiar with her (her name is Dena). A great idea I think! We've already been to the school once, where I stayed with her. Waldorf School is so amazing, and so child focused. Thursday (the day we went) is "soup day", where each child brings a vegetable from home and they all chop veggies and put it into the soup. They then have it for lunch with the bread they baked the day before. If feels very wholesome, creative, lively, and full of wonder.
And on a seperate note referring to the photos, is the Playdough gingerbread girl and the little "sculpture" Aloka made a few days ago. For the past few months, she's been drawing people with a big round circle for the body, and then stick legs and arms coming out from the body. She puts eyes, mouth, and nose on the circle. Well, the other day I made her Playdough, and she was quietly playing with it. She called for me from her little fort, and I came over and saw that she had made a 3 dimensional rendering of her stick person drawing! I couldn't belive it! It was her first interpretational sculpture! It seems like a little thing, but boy are Josh and I proud! I'm also including a photo from earlier that day. She also made her own "gingerbread girl", complete with buttons on the dress and eyes and mouth, and some kind of patterned texture on the dress.