Happy Canada Day!

One of the first things that The Boy really loved to read was his atlas. We had a very small discount atlas that I picked up at some discount store years ago; it had its inaccuracies and the borders weren't neatly drawn, but he loved it and at 21 months old would carry it around and call it his "Boomby" (the name of the publisher was "Bloomsbury"). It was that atlas I took on the plane with us to Alberta that Christmas, so he could exclaim over the countries of Africa and the page called "Index to Maps" that he loved so much. It filled the hour and a half he sat on my lap which was of course a God send.

Taking advantage of this, we would throw in a little patriotism / education with each viewing, and before long he was able to pick out North America / Canada on the map. Every single time we would take out the book -- which is *our* country, where do *we* live, etc. etc. We pointed out to him which flag was Canada's, and he greatly impressed his grandmother six months ago by showing her which flag was Canada's from a row of them outside a building, and telling her proudly that *he* was Canadian.

The Boy now has three atlases (tell people what he's in to, get more of them ... but I do think that three is slightly overkill) and still enjoys looking at them. And we still do the repetition of our place in the world. I am proud of this country and our place in the world -- for me it was only after almost 15 years of wandering and searching that I finally accepted the fact that I was a west coast Canadian girl at heart, no matter how many other personas I tried on which didn't quite fit. And I want to try and express that to my son. He can wander as far as he needs to -- and in fact I will encourage him to do so -- but this is where he came from, this is where he began, and as such it will always be a part of him, big or small.

So this morning, I thought we'd continue on with the edumacation, and once I remembered myself that I was off work for an actual reason, I said to him -- hey! Guess what! Today is a special day! A very special day! It's CANADA DAY!!!

He was extremely excited. There was jumping and whirling and general merriment. His face lit up, and he whirled around and said to his dad making breakfast in the kitchen -- daddy! guess what! it's Canada Day! it's OUR DAY! It's a DAY FOR US!

Indeed.

Happy Canada Day to you all, even those of you who aren't Canadian. We're inclusive like that.