Moon Phases by PinePixel on Etsy
Today was a weird day on many fronts. Does anyone know what moon it is? Does anyone else believe in that hooey?
I woke up feeling weird and schlumpy, headachey, so I rocked down to the old hospital to get a blood test done. How many hours of mine have been spent sitting in waiting rooms waiting to get poked and prodded with needles, I can’t even count. It was nice people watching though, so that’s something.
After that excitement, Olive and I headed down to the bank to open an RESP for her.
11.5 months old and the girl already has investments! Or she would have investments. Currently she just has savings because the bank lady raised an eyebrow at Olive tearing around her office, ripping important documents, eating pens and trying to unpack her purse and said, “Perhaps we should schedule a separate appointment to discuss investments for the RESP when we would have….more time to fully explore your options?”
And I looked at her as Olive tried to topple the filing cabinet, and replied evenly, “Why, whatever do you mean?”
BUT bank carnage aside, I have been meaning to open this RESP since O was born, and hey- done! Finally! Check!
(for American readers, or non RESP-savvy Canadian readers, an RESP is a Registered Education Savings Plan, and it offers a tax-free way to save for your child’s post-secondary schooling. The Canadian government will match 20% of your yearly contribution, for a total of up to $500, in addition to a one time $1200 grant. Anytime the government wants to give me free money I am all for that.)
In other news that does not come from the boring financial planning department – Olive is signing! And would you like to guess what sign she is using most consistently?
Is it “milk”, for the 4-6 times a day she nurses? No.
Is it “potty”, for how she spends the first fifteen minutes of every day? No.
Is it “eat”, for her all time number one favourite activity? NO.
Internets, Olive’s first sign and the one she uses every. single. time almost without fail, is “Airplane”.
Yes. I used it once when we were sitting on the lawn and a plane flew overhead, and ever since, every single time she hears a plane, up goes her hand and she makes the sign and gets all excited and it’s fabulous and incredible and what a milestone but seriously AIRPLANE? AIRPLANE?!
I just. I can’t even. This child is signing airplane just to spite me. Five months of mama and more and eat and dog and she picks the sign least relevant to her daily life, the one-off sign I happened to do once on a sunny late summer afternoon. It’s like she is saying, ‘Okay, I will communicate with you. But we’ll be doing this on MY terms, rookie”.
Well played, Olive. Well played.
Since she first started doing that a week ago, she has also regularly started signing “All done”, and I think she has developed some weird hand wringing gesture that is attempting to replicate the “potty” sign. And airplane debacle aside, it is very very cool to think that we are communicating with her, and she is communicating BACK! She is seeing things in her world and telling us about them, she is understanding us and trying to impart meaning back. It’s a whole new level.
(Oh! She also talks on the phone now anytime someone says “Hello”, so if you get a call that features lots of shrieking, “thbbtttt” sounds and barking in the background, say hi for me, would you?
