Hello Calgary | Girl in a Boy House

We have been on summer vacation for one week and we have turned into a slothful people. This is why I don’t register the kids in any organized activities; we are too busy being completely lazy every morning to get anywhere. I’m in my sweaty yoga clothes, drinking coffee and accomplishing nothing, until finally showering at 10:00, which sounds pretty benign until I realize I’ve been up for over five hours. It’s all we can do to get organized enough to leave the house by early afternoon. Mark has created a game he calls “Left Hook” which involves a chutes and ladders board, the corresponding superhero game pieces, sharks, and death. This game goes on for hours. HOURS. Each morning he sets up the board and the boys are occupied for a very long time. Jake joins in as well but alternates between Left Hook and his own complicated game that involves aliens, clay, and death.

The weather here has been so sunny and warm that I secretly wonder if I moved without knowing it. I don’t THINK I did. When it’s warm like this I have the frantic urge to seize the day and spend every second doing warm-weather activities, like swimming. Not that I am swimming. But I’m enjoying watching the kids swim. I am also defiantly displaying my scarred, scarred legs.

Outdoor pools are something of a novelty to me, since it is rarely so warm here that one would crave “cooling off” in a pool. Mostly when it is warm I have the urge to become as hot and sweaty as possible in the hopes that I will store up the heat for when the weather turns. There are a few outdoor pools here, and we have been enjoying them, by the time I pull myself together and get the kids in their suits and sunscreen.

Yesterday we went to an old favourite, a little wading pool that has been recently turned into a splash pad. If you’re in the area, you should check it out with the following caveat: the recent refurbishment means that grass sod has been newly laid and so, in the spirit of following the signage to keep off the grass, there is very little space to lay out picnic blankets, although I’m sure that will sort itself out as the summer goes on.

The kids had a great time, despite being disappointed that their friends couldn’t join us due illness. I managed to snap some super cute pictures; however, I was disappointed to discover that unfortunately I a) didn’t notice the moms in bathing suits standing behind the kids, resulting in mom bums in the background of most of the shots, and b) I don’t know how to photoshop things.

I used little black stars to mask the moms behind Jake. I AM CREATIVE.

Mark got soaked and then coughed for an hour.

Oh, post-pneumonia-infection cough! When will you leave?

Calgary may not be the prettiest city around, but look at that blue sky! And look at me, wearing a bathing suit and NOT EVEN CARING ABOUT MY VERY SCARRED LEGS.

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As some of you have noticed, I have a new logo! I love it so much. My beautiful friend Tracy, over at makemesocial.com made it for me. She’s creative and fabulous and she sees me every morning at 5:00 am and she LOVES ME ANYWAY. Those are my feet, by the way! Thanks Tracy – you’re the best, baby. xoxo

The cashier at the grocery store asked me how my weekend was. “Great!” I said cheerfully. “Oh yeah? What did you do?” he asked. I stood silently for a minute. I couldn’t recall one single thing that I had done. I started feeling idiotic, standing there quietly, so I replied “Um, not much, I guess. Some yardwork?” He smiled and nodded, clearly thinking I was perhaps the most boring person on earth.

I don’t find my life boring to live, but I often think it might sound fairly boring to the average person. I mean, yardwork? And yardwork wasn’t even TRUE, other than watering my plants, but I couldn’t think of anything to say and the best I could come up with was yardwork. Here are some of the things that I DID do on Saturday: walked the dog, baked a banana bread, made salsa and discovered, not for the first time, that breathing while putting onions and jalapenos in the food processor is not a good idea, as my burning eyes told me for the next few hours. My Saturday night was spent drinking wine, by myself, while watching the NYPD Blue episode where Kelly collars a rogue cop in order to save Martinez from wearing a wire and becoming part of the rat squad, and while I enjoyed all those activities I do not necessarily think that they are all that compelling, once I have written them down.

This weekend marked the last of the kids’ yoga class. During the month of June, the boys have taken a Sunday afternoon yoga class for kids at the studio I go to. Have you ever forced your children to do something extracurricular that they did not want to do? Until this month, I had not. I believe that my children need a lot of unscheduled time to just play, and so other than soccer they have been registered in no extracurricular activities. When my studio started offering classes for children, I mentioned it to my kids every once in a while, and they were always unequivocally not interested. Then one day Mark mentioned that he would like to try it. Bam! I immediately registered both of them for the four week session in June, much to Jake’s chagrin. He didn’t want to take a yoga class, he was scared to take a yoga class, it would be boring to take a yoga class. I coaxed and cajoled and promised that if he just tried it, if he just tried three classes and he still didn’t like it, he didn’t have to go to the last class and he would never have to do it again.

Jake has a tendency to be anxious in new situations. He is outgoing, he makes friends easily and plays happily, but when it comes to trying something new, he hesitates. But I thought this would be a good fit; I thought the breathing techniques would help him if he was nervous and I thought the postures would be good for his, how shall I put this, lack of coordination. I emailed the teacher, a lovely and sweet young friend of mine, beautiful on the inside and out, and on the first day her face lit up when she saw my boys. She asked Jake to set up his mat next to hers. I waited the 45 minutes for the class to end and when he came out of the studio, he was glowing and happy. “I think I want to come back next week, please” he said.

When the session ended on Sunday, Jake spiralled into sadness. He was sad to leave the studio, he was sad to leave his teacher. He sobbed on the drive home, until he picked up the little flower that the teacher had made for each of the kids. “When I’m sad or mad or nervous I’m supposed to smell this flower,” he said, and started taking calming deep breaths, smelling the flower, not crying anymore.