bounty of gratitude

fall continues to bring a bounty of things to feel gratitude for and another busy month to write about.

as always I'll start with the Sasha news: somehow, since the end of July, she has managed to grow another 4-5 inches and is now a whopping 37 1/2 inches tall! I've heard many times that we reach 1/2 of our adult height by the age of 2 1/2...which definetly puts her at over 6 ft when she's done growing upwards.

no surprise really, just insane that she had such a dramatic growth spurt. Long before her 2nd bday she was 33 inches tall and 33 lbs, which is where she was still at when she had her surgery...so that 4-5 inches happened in less than 3 months! probably explains a bit of the crankiness. ;)

around the same time we measured her height we also gave her the first hair cut. though her hair is not yet very long, we were tired of waiting for the glue to crumble or wash away. they said (when they glued her head after her little tumble in mid-july that landed us at the hospital) that the glue would dissolve in about 2 weeks. so...2 1/2 months later the chunks of glue are just creating mini dreadlocks which we can't comb through...and we cut out the glue chunks! her curls in the back are long enough that you can't notice the areas we cut out. Soon enough we'll be cutting bangs and doing an overall trim...but not yet!

She really wants to do everything "by myself!" including most of the pees on the big toilet now. yes...still some accidents in the world of potty learning, especially those poops, but overall she seems to be mastering it. Even when we were at a birthday party for Luisfelipe (which I have no pics for? how did that happen? forgot my camera, d'oh!) she said I gotta go and went on the big toilet no problem. Poor Mark has not had such luck, for some reason she has decided to make it extra challenging for daddy. at least she enjoys helping to clean up her accidents! ;)

Sasha is certainly a little taurus bull in personality (and she is showing a bit more of this at child care we've been hearing), but I still think she has a good dose of the gemini (which she might have been if she had stayed in til the due date!) so while she continues to challenge us with her bossy side, she is balanced in being a very sweet little helper too. in the garden she likes to 'help' the worms find new homes. hehe. The garden ended up producing a one edible tomatoe and 1 cucumber, as well as many zucchine (before tehy collapsed from their own weight over the edge of the tier, lol) a bounty of parsley and herbs, and many valuable lessons learned for our garden next year!! fabulous!


She is also sitting in the big chair now instead of in her high chair (though we really need a booster seat, she is actually big enough to eat over her plate at the table!) Should continue to keep family meals interesting as she is still mastering the art of 'table manners' but once she moves on to something 'big' she doesn't want to go back. Thanksgiving at Penny's was pretty much her last meal in the high chair, as well as more time with our beloved Whittam clan. Sarah is the cousin Sasha has seen the most in her life and she is a little shadow to her big cuz which is cute to watch when we all get together.

At her last appointment with eye doctor she did great as always, and even did one of those 'look at the objects and letters on the wall' tests (helpful she knows her alphabet and has a huge vocabulary) and she could identify things at a very small level, which means her vision is pretty good with the glasses on. We will have to start patching her left eye for an hour a day to help the right eye work a little harder. The concern is a deterioration of her vision in the eye that got lazy. So, she will have another follow up about every 3 months or so until the vision problem is corrected or stabilized. She may end up with glasses for life, or may not. at this stage it's still hard to say so we'll just go with the flow and do what we can to help her vision develop a little better. Her next appointment is in january so we'll update her vision progress in the new year.

Speaking of vision...many folks we know are running for city council, parks and school board in the upcoming municipal election Nov 15th. Being progressive 'lefty-types' these friends are all on the ballot for COPE, Vision and Green parties...which has our phone ringing an awful lot, hehe. Aside from the phone calls it also means a flurry of social fun. Mark went to a Vision fundraiser dinner with his CUPE 391 comrades. Pictured below is one of his new exec members Todd, (on the right end) who has given the union political action committee a much needed breath of fresh air and enthusiasm! Todd is well known for many things, but the biggest is probably his "Gung Haggis Fat Choy" (Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner)
This pic is from the COPE campaign office opening, which just happens to be 4 blocks away up the hill! and features Ellen Woodsworth and David Cadman who are seeking votes for city council, and Jane Bouey who is running for school board (and I hope they all get elected!!) Last weekend Mark and I got to boogy together with some friends at the COPE fundraiser which was a party at the WISE hall, one of fave places to see a good band you can dance to! (thanks to a last minute offer from granma! excellent!!)

Mark will be volunteering some time leading up to the election, and I will likely lend a hand on election day too. But otherwise I've been plenty busy with my other hats...and here's my update on that side of life:
The PEPpers have produced a leaflet (actually a bookmark) to spread our endorsement of the COPE/Vision school board candidates to help build awareness on this awesome group of individuals who want to work collaboratively, and collectively have an amazing array of valuable experience! The bookmark was a fun example of productive work that can be done through email dialogue in a day, as finding time to bring people together gets really challenging during campaign times.

The Charter for Public Education Network held our AGM and now have a couple of new board members I'm excited to work with! I wrote an Editorial for CPEN, and am working with our web developer to revamp our web site again.

More writing I have been doing is for the co-op newsletter which has had a pretty strong focus on democracy the past couple of issues, hehe. But I keep it non-partisan...I'm all about trying to inspire people to be actively engaged (not tell them what to think), in our co-op and our community and so far have been getting a positive response for the writing I have shared. If I'm ruffling any feathers I haven't heard about it...yet. teehee. Since we moved in I've done the cleaning of the common spaces a couple of times, helped clean the trashed apartment of a tentant evicted a couple of months ago (literally took a handful of people a few weeks to tackle the disaster she left behind, yikes!) among other chores to lend a hand, so the newsletter has just become another means of participating doing something I love - writing and creatively trying to inspire more partipcation from others (like most co-ops there is about 30% of the people who do all the work!)

I attended a candidates meeting at Britannia one night for potential park commissioners and school board trustees. Becasue of my volunteer time on the Kensington association board, and having worked in a few community centres across Vancouver over the years, the Parks Board is of interest to me. But of course I was there to hear some answers from the school trustee wanna-be's. I'm pretty sure I know where Vision and COPE stand on things, so this was also an opportunity to hear from the NPA which is the more business minded party which leans more to the right. If you really want my thoughts on where they stand I'll share them with you, but I'm not into writing them here for my loyal audience of 12 mainly in ontario!

Regardless of whether I agree with policy tactics of certain parties I do have a great respect for people who put themselves out there to seek election to any office. A few of the NPA folks I have met I actually like too (gasps!) It's just not my style to have an enemy image of everyone I disagree with. I can't move forward in anything with that mindset. Besides, campaigning can suck the wind out of you no matter what side fo the fence you are on, and the amount of work can be overwhelming. (though the workload is heavier for those who actually research things before passing motions on policies and voting on them) Not entirely sure I'd like to do it. Though many have said I should consider it, for the moment I like being an agitator and facilitator from outside the system ;)

Anyways, the biggest news revolves around the documentary. Flick recommended I attend a DOC BC event called 'Meet the Producers' where there was a panel of folks from different media outlets (NFB, CBC, CTV, Knowledge, Vision, APTN) and an opportunity to learn about who was looking for what and how much they had to spend on it. Proved to be very interesting and a perfect first entry for me into the documentary world. Helped me lose my anxiety I had been building inside over the 'whole new world' unknown to me. After hearing what they all had to say the person I felt drawn to introduce myself to was a producer from the NFB. So I shook his hand and told him about my project. He said the next proposal deadline was nov 1st...

so after a few days to pull together everything we've done in the past year, on Nov 1st we sent in the proposal for "Educate Me!?" to the NFB!! ack! feels amazing and insanely nerve racking to have it out there...being reviewed by the production committee...who will meet and determine whether we make the final cut and are worthy of an invite in for a creative meeting in two weeks! breathe Kathy...breathe...


Thankfully over the same weekend we submitted the proposal I had good distraction for my nervous energy and lots of positive vibes from friends to keep me afloat. We did our annual foray to Shannon and Ryan's as they always do their house up amazingly and invite folks to come give out treats with them. I didn't get any good pics from their house (please send me some!) but here is a pic of Sasha in our last minute costume change attempt to work with the genie hat and vest she decided to wear last minute. lol. she keeps me on my creative toes...and in case you can't figure it out from this pic she chose to be a genie girl. She went from turtle, to pumpkin to genie in one day. nice to have options, hehe.

I also had time with friends for a ladies nite of wine and cheese at Kristina's (6 doors down is a perfect walk after that one to many glass of vino, haha), as well as a visit with our friend Sean we haven't seen since our road trip last summer. Sasha was over the moon for Sean and was totally giggly and playful. she led us all in a percussion jam session, and had us laughing hard when she kept asking "what do you want to sing?" only to reply "the wheels on the bus, right?" or "old macdonald, right?" so funny :)

a couple of cute pics from our adventure walk to play care

We have exerienced a touch of sadness since my last post as two wonderful people we knew have passed. The first friend we lost was Jolly who is a beautiful and joyful woman who died suddenly while on a journey in China. Mark will miss most the radiant smile she graced upon everyone who knew her at the library. And soon after, Peter who is a beloved friend to the Whittam clan, passed away from a sickness that finally overcame him. Both of these people left an impression on us we will never forget, and they leave behind a legacy of kindness that Mark and I mourn the loss of.

November brings the cool and damp rain of the fall, and around Remembrance day seems to enhance a sense of loss for all that was and all those lost. But this November, though a touch of solemn will linger within us for a while, brings much to celebrate as well. America is soon to have new president and a tremendous achievement has been reached in civil society south of our border. Amazing and inspiring that Obama won the election...now the proof is in the pudding. He'll never be able to make everybody happy with the conditions he is inheriting for his term in the oval office, so the job will be hard...but according to him "Yes We Can!" go for it! I'm enjoying the vibe of hope that seems to have spread with his victory!

By months end, in BC we will have new municipal governments, in our community we will have a new board for our co-op (likely with Mark as newly elected member-at-large), and I will have found out whether my doc idea is going to the next stages of development with the NFB. wow. next post should be a good one!
...the power of positive thinking, teehee :)

Two clips to check out this post: one of Sasha and her balloon


then check out Che on the open mic stage at Uketoberfest playing "Can't Buy Me Love" on his new ukelele, with back up from his buddy Jim. Guaranteed to make you smile :)