This Moment: The birth of a bear

Martinmas 2011

Happy Martinmas!

It is cold and foggy here in Kent. It has been all day.  When trying to explain fog to Narina on the ride to our Steiner School play group she kept repeating "today is fecky". I haven't talked much of our special Friday ritual.  I am sure I will at some point.  It has been one of the best things we have invested in for Narina so far. Back to Martinmas, though. There is a wonderful article over at NaturalKids about some of the rituals that go along with Martinmas and links about whom "Martin" was.  For our family, this year, Martinmas was about light and lanterns.  It was about Narina building her own lantern for the first time.  In upcoming years the lanterns will get more portable and they will be paraded through the local village or community where she goes to school, but for this year it sat next to another lantern she built with her childminder a few weeks ago.  Singing songs I learned from one of the links on the NK blog I linked to in this post, we lit our lanterns tonight before dinner and just celebrated their beauty. 


Here are Narina's lanterns:

Here is the song we sang:

Glimmer, lantern, glimmer
Little stars a-shimmer
Over meadow, moor and dale
Flitter, flutter, elfin veil
Pee-wit, pee-wit, tikka-tikka-tik
Rucoo, rucoo.

Glimmer, lantern, glimmer
Little stars a-shimmer
Over rock and stock and stone
Wandering, skipping, little gnome
Pee-wit, pee-wit, tikka-tikka-tik
Rucoo, rucoo. 

Being thankful

 I have been full of thanks this week.  Thanks for the friendships I have and my upcoming Blessingway.  In a matter of days one of my dearest friends will be returning from Kenya to help me in my birthing process.  I can't wait to see her.  I am also thankful that Daddy's tour is almost done.  One week and a few days left.  Then he is home!  Then I give birth!  It is incredible to see the love between Narina and her father.  Their relationship is so unique from my own (of course), but when caught up in our day to day lives, I don't get much of a chance to reflect on the sacred bond they share.  The above photo was taken last week during some special reading time.

 I love this photo because it exemplifies the difference in our relationships with our daughter.  Narina knows not to crawl on me, especially on my belly.  She always asks first.  With her father she jumps on him no matter what he is doing and they both laugh together.  Here they are putting together Auntie Sarada's bed!

And now the belly photo montage.  I would like to point out that we are going to take some good photos of this lad before he is born but that we had a "just in case he comes early" moment of panic. 

So not because we look like stars with perfect lighting but because the beauty of the moment was in the belly rub and kiss... here you go!

Come on Daddy and Chase Me!

After a very full week of dear friends and lots (perhaps too much) activity, Daddy arrived back home for the weekend.  We spent last night with friends out at a local bonfire night.  There is an amazing Guy Fawkes night in Lewis and really, we should have gone to it when we lived in Brighton.  I am not one to wait around from the middle of the afternoon for fireworks at 7 so we never went.  This year, with Narina being two, we thought the noise and time might be tolerable.  Having Dan home meant we could share in the fall out of no sleep, over stimulation, general grumpiness should she not have a good time. We had a great time and it wasn't too much standing for this pregnant mama.  With only one minor freak out, we were able to come home happy and relaxed and have a pretty good nights sleep. 

Today I relaxed on the couch while Narina yells "Daddy come and chase me" and they run past me, tickle and do it all over again.  It is so good to have Dan home.  We all get a good dose of love, whether it be in the form of extra parent support, a lay in, or a good ol chase around the living room.