Today I am sitting here quietly while my littles are suppose to be napping. I hear them in there giggling, which is mostly what they do everytime lately. I let them, I still enforce a minimum of 20minutes of quiet time in their room. What they choose to do with it is up to them. If they sound to be playing nicely a little longer I let them. I think its important for them to have that time everyday. Im hoping it will help them learn independence as well as playing together. Its the only time they really want to socialize with one another. Also for my own sanity, the 20 minutes is nice to have in the middle of the day with 2 toddlers.
We spent a lot of the day at a city thrown picnic. They had a fun music group playing, Vocal Trash. All the kids loved them, they were super upbeat and fun. They make a big deal about promoting recycling and being green. We just relaxed with some friends who have kids the same ages and enjoyed our lunch and music. It lasted a couple hours. On the way home Lorelai could barely keep her eyes open, but somehow woke up again when we got her out of the van to come inside.
Now as I sit and listen to them play, I am perusing around my blogger page. As I have said in the past, it always fascinates me to see the countries viewers are from. It's cool to think I had even a tiny connection with someone so far away. For even a split second we have a connection. What I enjoy doing the most is seeing what countries show up and using that as inspiration to research the countries. Its always countries Ive heard of and probably even learned about in terms of history in the textbooks in high school. That's not what I want to know though, I like looking up information on cultures beyond stereotypes you may hear.
For example, today, I am reading up on Germany. This place is pretty commonly spoken about but never in any sort of depth about their culture and such. So I spent time reading different sites about common culture facts and even folklore from the country. In my findings, I was actually pleasantly surprised to find some interesting information about my daughter, Lorelai's name. I knew it was of German origin(although it is originally spelled Lorelei). I knew it had something to do with sirens. I also remember my pediatrician bringing me a poem in German when she was born. It was in German though so I had no idea what it said. In my findings today, I was able to find an indepth story. One being from Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorelei.
It speaks of the rocks in a narrow space of river, and how the way the water gushes over them makes a murmuring sound. They took that and turned it into a story of a siren on the rocks singing and drawing in the boats, causing them to crash on the rocks. They make the personified version of her into an almost mermish creature.
What's funny to me is that Lorelai is kind of that way. She is sweet and bubbly, wants hugs and kisses and fools you into thinking she is always that way, but there are times she can be so purposefully rotten. In the way she will do things like take a toy from her brother because she knows how mad it makes him. I can absolutely see her taking a piece of this story and it making up some of her personality. It almost confirms it should have been her name all along.
So thank you to my German visitors for encouraging me to not only read and learn some things about your culture today but for also making it possible for me to learn something about my daughter. It will be fun to have this story to tell her about her name.
Also if any of you can figure out how to send me a piece of your Black Forest Cake that was specifically noted in my findings, that would be great! We have cakes with that title here but usually what we have never compares to authentic food of their home terf. So I would really love to try what you guys make, ha!
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