The house of love
Sunday, 19 June 2011 
4 Comments
There’s lots of love going around in this house. Having grown up in a very Soviet household with no words of love spoken, I have made sure from the first day of my first child, that love is shown but also verbalised. Every day, often.
Oskar is now the kind of kid that tells us at least 15 times a day that he loves us. He goes around to everyone separately, gives them a kiss and tells them “I love you” or “mina armastan sind”. It’s so very sweet, even if it is over the top and sometimes every 5 minutes :)
Oliver is a bit of a different child – he’s just a little more energetic, mischievous and a little less sensitive and emotional than Oskar is (or was at 2). He’s good at parroting back “I love you too” when me or James tell him that we love him, but when nana says it, he runs away :| and when Oskar says it (while tackle-hugging him), he just tries to wiggle his way out.
Last Wednesday we had a breakthrough – we went to pick Oskar up from school and near it I let Oliver out of the pram to walk for a bit. After a few moments, he walked back to the pram, gave it a kiss and said “mina armastan oma vankrit” = “I love my pram”.
The first unprompted declaration of love went to his pram! :)
Oh well, a step in the right direction nevertheless.
This morning he fell asleep during worship at church, music does that to him. He slept on my lap for the next 2 hours, only waking when it was all finished. We went to wait for Oskar and James in the lobby, I put him to sit on a chair and was kneeling in front of him when he gave me a kiss, looked me in the eye and said “mina armastan sind, emme”.
Now that was a moment… my wild child loves me :)
Our Tree of Love elephant – a constant reminder that there’s lots of love to go around, one doesn’t need to be stingy.
I want one of those elephants too!:) Where did you get it?
And your boys are so sweet :)
It’s a miniature version of this, http://elephantparade.com/elephant/tree-of-love, ordered from http://shop.elephantparade.com/tree-of-love.html?SID=mrmbn50g48326tqffv5an3dj84
I quote you: “There’s lots of love going around in this house. Having grown up in a very Soviet household with no words of love spoken, I have made sure from the first day of my first child, that love is shown but also verbalised. Every day, often.”
Yep – I had EXACT same idea. I never heard “i love you” said in Estonia – only in the soap-operas. And it is not funny. Somewhere I read that Estonian men say “I love you” to their wife PERHAPS before they are about to die. PERHAPS. But that doesn’t mean there is no love or that they don’t care of each other. Mhh. (yet, Tarmo Pihlak was singing about this three important words, eh)
So, my 2-yo daughter says “ii alju” from (ma armastan sind nii palju) to me and to her little brother when going to bed. Cannot wait til she says the entire sentence :D
Perhaps I should take my children to church as well? :)