World Cup

Ok, baby boy has outdone himself with strange, yet super cute life moments.

This morning right before leaving for church, I noticed him busying himself, playing on the floor outside the bathroom, minding his own business. Naturally this pleased us as husband and I were struggling to share the bathroom mirror with last minute hair/face touch ups - we need a double sink. Then something told me to look closely at the little Schamel on the floor. And there he was, forehead creased with concentration as he entertained himself by filling both my shoes with water from his sippy cup. I pointed this out to dear husband who found great humour in the matter at hand. Baby boy looked confused at our reaction yet proud of his new exploration method. Luckily no damage was done, nothing a paper towel couldn't fix. And off we went to church.

Our drive to church, or anywhere else, now includes narration from the backseat. Since learning new words from our little home-school program, baby continues to name all familiar objects out loud. From bus, car seat, to "a dog". He gets especially excited when spotting a dog. Poor kid, he's certainly into those four-legged friends. Unfortunately he'll have to curb his enthusiasm as no way am I going to be cleaning after him and an animal. Well, I suppose we'll consider owning one once he's a teenager. A responsible teenager, if there's such a thing...And it would have to be an outside dog, no negotiations. He'll also have to take it with him when leaving for college (I've just recently read about certain universities allowing dog owners to bring their pets to live with them in dorms). In the meantime he seems content with squealing in excitement every time he sees a dog. And his excitement makes everyone happy, including the dog owners if they happen to be in ear shot.

We don't know any dog owners besides grandma and grandpa Schamel. That's probably because most of the people around us live in apartments. Imagine living with pets in a small apartment. No thank you. Alright let me stop dogging on dogs, they're cute, as long as they are not mine...I've heard people say the same thing about children. Ah, talking about kids, yesterday our home was filled with little ones. First I babysat for a friend from church. She's an artist (painter) and had a class to teach. She has two little girls who were incredibly easy to babysit. There was no fuss, no crying and nothing I couldn't handle. This was my first time babysitting while a parent myself. At the beginning it felt slightly overwhelming as baby boy is in a process of learning to share. Luckily the 2hr nursery time at church has helped, that plus the two days a week joint home-school sessions. We also have a once a week playgroup which we attend when the schedule allows. Even with all these opportunities to learn social skills, the little one struggles with the concept of sharing. I find that it's better when we're at another person's house but here at our place he becomes slightly territorial. It took about 30mins to an hour and 2 time-outs for him to treat our guests fairly. So by the time our friends Ty and Roberta arrived with their kids, baby boy was a seasoned host showing the boys where the toys were and allowing them to have fun.

The favourite toys are balls from every sport. He especially loves basketball and soccer. Whenever you ask him what he wants to do, he runs to his room pointing to the hoop shouting "shoot". And then commences a game which often leaves me out of breath. It's a good thing he's also into soccer because our lives right now are all about the World Cup. I think I've mentioned here before that soccer is something I watch and love every 4yrs. This year is a bit of a disappointment though as we're only able to watch 10 games. This is because we've become financially disciplined and are striving to live a life where "saving gives us more pleasure than spending". So, no cable. On the bright side, the final match will be on free television yasssssss! Hopefully that match will be the fantastic Germans against the my World Cup winner's prediction, Netherlands. You heard it here first. Well, I don't even know if the scheduling of matches will allow for them to play against one another. Moving along. For the sake of my friendship with Roberta and the fact that we always want the hosting nation to do well, go Brasilia! And also because husband will probably read this sometime in future, good luck USA! Let me also add that for the passed 12yrs I've been by Brazil's corner, then they disappointed me in 2010. In fact, since watching the Brazilian team for the first time in 2002, no other Brazilian team has brought me that level of joy. That was a team of stars who played like a team. The unsung hero of that year has got to be Rivaldo. Oh, well, I must move on, there will never be a Roberto Carlos, a Cafu and the first Ronaldo. That's the thing with sports, it takes another kind of personality to follow any sport every single year. There's a lot of joy and a good dose of disappointment. It's not for the weak at heart. If I'm stronger next year I might consider joining the Barcelona fan base. Ah, on second thought, and for the sake of my marriage, I might have to grow a love for ManU. Sigh.

The things a wife does for her husband.