… Already. And while she barely grasps the significance of the second milestone, it left us, her parents in a state of worn out wonder: “Has it been two years already ? Time certainly moves like a stealthy submarine under the arctic ice, when you’re on subtropical island looking the other way…”
"not here..."
"not here..."Much has happened in her development. She grew, learned to eat solid food, learned that some solids are better than others (chocolate and ice cream being an important parameter in that decision making process), stood up and walked, ran, jumped, bounced, rolled and confuses dancing with randomly wiggling her hips. She developed a vocabulary that consisted of Bangla, English, Dutch and something that is uniquely her own. She learned what a playground is, that it is often preceded by a bicycle ride and the transitive property of whining for a bicycle ride leading to the eventual playground. She figured out the subtleties of stalling going to bed by asking for milk, a big hug, making sure her teeth are brushed (up to three times), another big hug, going through her entire repertoire of songs and reading that book she wasn’t interested in two minutes before her parents decided it was “sleepy time”. She mastered a boatload of skills that we jaded, semi-matured people take for granted.
Raising this wacky little person over the last two years has been an intensive but incredibly rewarding experience.
As for relevance to this blog: her becoming two has no bearing on Vancouver. As any self proclaimed world class city, it cares as much about a single individual as the sea does about the droplets in its waters. However the connection between her becoming two this week and Vancouver is not random.
As we were driving back from work to pick up our genetic production from her daycare, we got stuck in an unusual downtown traffic jam. It turned out that the Vancouver police had blocked off a road or two in the heart of the city center. This required traffic to flow around and through the much less efficient back roads at a pace of roughly three cars per traffic light cycle. Needless to say, the road-rage enabled persona that takes over the body of my beloved SO from time to time, was having a field day.
Vancouver is a popular destination for film crews to hang out and occasionally shoot a movie or a series. While sitting in the car we theorized (*) that our predicament was the result of a movie being shot against the shapely form(s) of the BC Dome.
bc dome is enjoying a sunset
bc dome is enjoying a sunsetWhen we came back home, we found out that reasons for our delay were a lot more sobering: for some of us, the two year mark is not the next step in a promising life but the grim and undeserved end point. When something like that happens on the crosswalk you use every other week, a stone throw away from where you live, in the same week your own daughter turns two, it hits a nerve.
While at the time of writing there’s no clarity on what exactly happened, traffic and its patrons aren’t one of Vancouver’s prettier sides. A blog worthy topic for another day… for now I’ll set aside some extra chocolate and ice creamfor our Nearly-One-Meter-Julie-Andrews-Wanna-Be who is as per now on an expedited traffic training course.
(*) This would be a theory involving colorful characters like morons, fucktards, idiots and the cluebat deprived.
