Babies aren't the only ones who thrive on routines. I am very content to slip into a comfy routine day after day. It's taken us a while, but our little family seems to have sorted out a nice weekday schedule. Here's what a typical day is like in our little corner of the world:
5:30 -- Abner wakes up in her crib, TDSH changes her bum and brings her to our bed for a feed before we all go back to sleep until the alarm
6:50 -- We all wake up to The Early Edition on the CBC but TDSH is the only one who actually gets out of bed (even then, he just grabs his breakfast and crawls right back in bed with us)
7:20 -- I finally make my way to the shower after hearing the day's weather report (why I even bother I don't know - every day seems to be rainy, foggy, overcast or some combination of the three. They should just say, "the weather is crappy unless otherwise noted") while TDSH gives Abner her breakfast
7:40 -- Out of the shower and wolf down breakfast so that I can take over feeding Abner and TDSH can wash up and get out the door soon after 8:00
8:00 - 10:00 -- Abner and I spend the morning playing around the apartment (which seems to be getting smaller by the day). Our favorite play activities are tossing Abner into a heaped up duvet, playing with "other baby" in the mirror, practicing walking along the coffee table, playing keep-away from the power cords under the table, and saucer time (which is loudly announced as, "It's sau-cer...It's sau-cer time!" sung to the tune of Flight of the Conchords' Business Time)
10:00 -- Abner goes down for her first nap after a quick feed and a book. Our current fave is The Pigeon Loves Things That Go! Once I put her in the crib, she usually watches her mobile for a while before she actually falls asleep. I never expected her to still enjoy her mobile at this age, but she absolutely loves watching the farm animals spin
After nap -- I never know what time Abner is going to wake up so sometimes we only have a few minutes to play before sitting down to eat lunch at noon...sometimes we have over an hour to kill (those days really kick my butt)
1:00 -- If we're going to go out, this is usually the time we'll do it
2:00 -- Abner goes down for her second nap of the day after a feed (if we're lucky). She's usually pretty good about napping even if we're out of the house. This is a skill of hers I've really grown to appreciate. I don't know what I'd do if she couldn't nap in her stroller or in the Ergo
5:00 -- TDSH plays with and feeds Abner while I do the dishes and get our dinner going. I often get distracted watching them play together though. It's fun seeing the little games and songs that only TDSH plays with her. Little Abby Foo Foo is a popular one these days
6:30 -- I'm usually just finishing my dinner at this point and TDSH begins putting Abner to bed. Our bedtime routine involves changing her bum, putting her in her sleep sack, giving her back her soother and parading her through the apartment saying "night-night" to everything before I feed her and rock her to sleep in the rocking chair.
7:00 -- Lately we've been sacking out on the couch (in the dark) watching M*A*S*H (still a fantastic show after all these years. Try renting it on DVD and watching it without the laugh track - it becomes a much more somber and realistic drama) or playing on the computer (such as this evening)
10:00 -- Give Abner for a little dream feed before heading to bed. I started doing this about a month ago and it's made a world of difference to her sleep.
Sorry, I realize that this post is a bit dull, but I want to make note of these mundane details so that I can tell Abner about it when she's older. Of course, now that I've written out this schedule it's going to go right out the window tomorrow because that's just how things go with babies...once you tell someone about what your baby is up to, the baby starts doing something completely different just to make a liar out of you.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Teething bites
Poor Abner. She's going through a lot these days.
For starters, she's finally teething. The first tooth is making it's appearance on the bottom after several weeks of rosy cheeks, less-than-stellar sleeping and more than enough drool to fill an Olympic swimming pool. She's also pretty much gone off solids. In a fit of desperation the other day, I gave her a teething cookie to see if she would like that...I don't think she actually ate any of it, but she sure had fun licking it and making a huge mess.
On top of that, she's got another cold. I've actually lost count of how many she's had in her almost nine months of life. This one isn't that bad, but she does have quite the coughing fits and the size of the boogers coming out of her nose would make a gold miner envious.
And in a move that is either sheer genius or pure insanity (I haven't decided which), we've decided that now is the time to start weening her off of her soother. We're still giving it to her at night and for naps, but it stays in her crib the rest of the day. It's absolutely adorable how she kicks her feet in excitement when she finally gets her soother.
Needless to say, there's been A LOT of crying around here lately, but with so much going on, I never know the reason -- could be the teeth, the cold or wanting a hit of soother -- your guess is as good as mine.
For starters, she's finally teething. The first tooth is making it's appearance on the bottom after several weeks of rosy cheeks, less-than-stellar sleeping and more than enough drool to fill an Olympic swimming pool. She's also pretty much gone off solids. In a fit of desperation the other day, I gave her a teething cookie to see if she would like that...I don't think she actually ate any of it, but she sure had fun licking it and making a huge mess.
And in a move that is either sheer genius or pure insanity (I haven't decided which), we've decided that now is the time to start weening her off of her soother. We're still giving it to her at night and for naps, but it stays in her crib the rest of the day. It's absolutely adorable how she kicks her feet in excitement when she finally gets her soother.
Needless to say, there's been A LOT of crying around here lately, but with so much going on, I never know the reason -- could be the teeth, the cold or wanting a hit of soother -- your guess is as good as mine.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Friday night project
I've been hankering to do some kind of a project for weeks. I think I've gone into a bit of withdrawal following Christmas. The problem is that Abner is a very light sleeper so sewing is out of the question during nap time (not that she naps long enough for me to actually do anything anyway) and she won't go to sleep at night unless it's completely dark in the apartment (there's no door on her room which doesn't help matters). Finding stuff I can do in dim light is a bit tricky. I got the idea to do Abner's silhouette this from this lovely little blog.
I would have worked on it earlier in the day, but I needed TDSH's help to get a suitable profile shot - have you ever tried getting a profile shot of an infant? It's damn near impossible. Here's the photo I started with.
I would have worked on it earlier in the day, but I needed TDSH's help to get a suitable profile shot - have you ever tried getting a profile shot of an infant? It's damn near impossible. Here's the photo I started with.
The continuing saga
I took The Dear Sweet Husband to meet "the Christian lady" (as we have dubbed her - sounds like a character on SNL) yesterday morning. Thinking she was the best option of the four I'd seen, I brought along my chequebook just in case.
Within the first five minutes, I knew the chequebook wouldn't be coming out of my bag...
Unlike the first visit, the kids were awake so we had a chance to meet them. Three very nice little boys sitting 'round the kitchen table quietly playing with some playdough. We sang a few rounds of "The A says Ah, the B says Buh," etc. and they were very eager to make playdough things for us.
One of the little boys (the only one not belonging to the owner) proudly held up a purple heart that he'd made for me and loudly pronounced, "What's in my heart?"
I naively said, "I don't know."
To which this adorable little three-year-old insisted, "yes you do. It's Jesus!"
I may as well have been having a conversation with Rod Flanders. That's a Simpsons joke in case you missed it.
Well that pretty much clinched it for us. Back to the drawing board.
Within the first five minutes, I knew the chequebook wouldn't be coming out of my bag...
Unlike the first visit, the kids were awake so we had a chance to meet them. Three very nice little boys sitting 'round the kitchen table quietly playing with some playdough. We sang a few rounds of "The A says Ah, the B says Buh," etc. and they were very eager to make playdough things for us.
One of the little boys (the only one not belonging to the owner) proudly held up a purple heart that he'd made for me and loudly pronounced, "What's in my heart?"
I naively said, "I don't know."
To which this adorable little three-year-old insisted, "yes you do. It's Jesus!"
I may as well have been having a conversation with Rod Flanders. That's a Simpsons joke in case you missed it.
Well that pretty much clinched it for us. Back to the drawing board.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Which would you choose?
So I've now seen a total of four daycares. Some near. Some far. Some clean. Some not-so-clean. Which would you go for:
1) The semi-tidy ground-level daycare with carpets stuck down with duct tape and more locks on the doors than Fort Knox...even the inside doors. Due to the owner's beliefs, Abner would not be allowed to dress up for Halloween (something I had been really looking forward to after seeing this fantastic idea for a costume).
2) The less-than-tidy, bordering on downright dirty home adorned with fake plants (even outside!). I know this is not a comment on her ability to care for children, but clearly she has no taste. Not to mention the fact that she had the largest TV I've ever seen and all the kid's chairs and swings were lined up theatre-style in front of it.
3) The spectacularly tidy home of a family where even Martha Stewart herself could learn a thing or two about homemaking and organization with heaps of toys, books, puzzles, games, activities, crafts, etc. to play with between morning devotionals and afternoon prayer. Sounds lovely, but we're not practicing Christians, so this may be a bit odd to explain to Abner as she gets older. "Mommy, mommy, you just took the Lord's name in vain."
or...
4) The just-moved-in-on-the-weekend-and-don't-know-where-anything-is daycare where the owner dropped Abner on her head. Seriously.
I think we'll go with the Christian woman. It seems I'll have to work on cleaning up my language.
1) The semi-tidy ground-level daycare with carpets stuck down with duct tape and more locks on the doors than Fort Knox...even the inside doors. Due to the owner's beliefs, Abner would not be allowed to dress up for Halloween (something I had been really looking forward to after seeing this fantastic idea for a costume).
2) The less-than-tidy, bordering on downright dirty home adorned with fake plants (even outside!). I know this is not a comment on her ability to care for children, but clearly she has no taste. Not to mention the fact that she had the largest TV I've ever seen and all the kid's chairs and swings were lined up theatre-style in front of it.
3) The spectacularly tidy home of a family where even Martha Stewart herself could learn a thing or two about homemaking and organization with heaps of toys, books, puzzles, games, activities, crafts, etc. to play with between morning devotionals and afternoon prayer. Sounds lovely, but we're not practicing Christians, so this may be a bit odd to explain to Abner as she gets older. "Mommy, mommy, you just took the Lord's name in vain."
or...
4) The just-moved-in-on-the-weekend-and-don't-know-where-anything-is daycare where the owner dropped Abner on her head. Seriously.
I think we'll go with the Christian woman. It seems I'll have to work on cleaning up my language.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Collage of cuteness
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Your mission, should you choose to accept it...
Find a daycare accepting 11-month-old babies...this April. That's right. Only two and a half months from now.
Yes, yes, yes, I can hear you all now - "You just started looking for daycare? Isn't it a bit late?" The answer is a resounding "yes" to both of those questions.
In my defense, I did get a list of local daycares from the YMCA referral service way back when I was only six months pregnant. Unfortunately, that little burst of initiative sat untouched on my desk for the next 11 months.
I've have called a handful of random daycares over the last few months asking to be added to their waiting lists, but several of my friends said that it was better to wait until just a few months before going back to work, so I wasn't really that concerned about it. I figured if I was on a few waitlists, somebody would get back to me.
As I say, I wasn't worried about it until one of those random daycares I called actually laughed at me. Here's a bit of that conversation the way I remember it:
Me: "Hi. I'm looking for daycare for my daughter in April. Do you have any space available?"
Daycare lady: "Okay. How old will she be?"
Me: "She'll be 11 months old."
Daycare lady: "Buh-wah ha ha ha ha ha ha..."
Me: "Um...could you add me to your waitlist at least?"
Daycare lady: "Sure thing. You're family number 140 on the list."
Me: "So not very likely then."
That was two months ago. And I still didn't kick my search into high gear.
This morning, in a rare fit of productivity, I sat down with my referral list and started calling around again. After about 20 calls, I finally found one daycare with space - that's it folks...ONE daycare. Of all the daycares within 5km of our home, only one has space.
We ventured out in the fog this afternoon to inspect this anomaly. All things considered, it wasn't that bad. It's a little farther than I'd like, but the owner seemed quite nice and Abner didn't freak out when she picked her up and such. Even so, my first instinct is that it's not quite right for us.
It's the first place I've looked at though, so how am I supposed to judge a place when I have nothing to compare it to? What should I be looking for? Are my expectations too high? What are typical in-home daycares like? Please help!
Yes, yes, yes, I can hear you all now - "You just started looking for daycare? Isn't it a bit late?" The answer is a resounding "yes" to both of those questions.
In my defense, I did get a list of local daycares from the YMCA referral service way back when I was only six months pregnant. Unfortunately, that little burst of initiative sat untouched on my desk for the next 11 months.
I've have called a handful of random daycares over the last few months asking to be added to their waiting lists, but several of my friends said that it was better to wait until just a few months before going back to work, so I wasn't really that concerned about it. I figured if I was on a few waitlists, somebody would get back to me.
As I say, I wasn't worried about it until one of those random daycares I called actually laughed at me. Here's a bit of that conversation the way I remember it:
Me: "Hi. I'm looking for daycare for my daughter in April. Do you have any space available?"
Daycare lady: "Okay. How old will she be?"
Me: "She'll be 11 months old."
Daycare lady: "Buh-wah ha ha ha ha ha ha..."
Me: "Um...could you add me to your waitlist at least?"
Daycare lady: "Sure thing. You're family number 140 on the list."
Me: "So not very likely then."
That was two months ago. And I still didn't kick my search into high gear.
This morning, in a rare fit of productivity, I sat down with my referral list and started calling around again. After about 20 calls, I finally found one daycare with space - that's it folks...ONE daycare. Of all the daycares within 5km of our home, only one has space.
We ventured out in the fog this afternoon to inspect this anomaly. All things considered, it wasn't that bad. It's a little farther than I'd like, but the owner seemed quite nice and Abner didn't freak out when she picked her up and such. Even so, my first instinct is that it's not quite right for us.
It's the first place I've looked at though, so how am I supposed to judge a place when I have nothing to compare it to? What should I be looking for? Are my expectations too high? What are typical in-home daycares like? Please help!
Friday, January 16, 2009
For these things I am grateful
HEALTH: We just got word that a good friend of ours is in hospital. He's one of those amazing people who you'll talk to for only a few minutes, but feel like you've known him your whole life. He's about the same age as TDSH and has two kids of his own. I know people get sick and wind up in hospital every day, but it's somehow different when it's someone you know. It makes you examine you're own situation much more closely. How would I handle it if TDSH had a serious illness? Not a fun thing to think about, but it certainly makes me very grateful for our health.
LESLIE BECK: On a related note, I am grateful for Canadian nutritionist, Leslie Beck and her No Fail Diet book. I hate the fact that I am "dieting", but I don't see any other way to lose the remaining baby weight. One and a half weeks in and I'm down over six pounds. Not bad. I followed this diet two years ago and lost almost 25 pounds and managed to keep it off until I got pregnant.
MELTING SNOW: Man alive, am I grateful for melting snow. I could finally get the stroller out this week after a three-week hiatus. Abner and I have been out every day this week for hours on end traipsing around the neighbourhood, going to music class and getting errands done. It feels so nice to walk along a sidewalk and not worry about tripping and falling on ice.
MY GRANDPARENT'S ROCKER: Abner has been having a little trouble staying asleep lately. Each night she wakes up two or three times in the first few hours after we put her down to bed. Each time we give her a few minutes to calm down on her own before we head in and pick her up to rock in the rocking chair. I remember playing in this chair as a kid and I recovered it to match the nursery before Abner was born. As much as I love rocking her to sleep night after night, I do wish she would just sleep on her own though.
SMELLY T-SHIRTS: Since Abner was born we've had to learn tricks to get her to sleep. When she was little, all we had to do was put her on her side and she's be out like a light. As she got bigger, we tipped her mattress on an angle and that worked for a while. Then we would use her mobile to get her down, but then she began pulling it down on herself so we had to come up with something new. In a wave of inspiration, I took off my t-shirt one afternoon and tucked it into her crib with her. She was asleep in minutes. Each three-day-worn shirt lasts for about four or five days. As she crawls around her crib getting settled for a nap, she drags the shirt with her. It's so cute. So if you see me wearing the same t-shirt a few days in a row, now you know that I'm just stinking up a new one for Abner.
COMMENTS: You can't imagine how much I look forward to reading the comments I get on this blog (unless you're a blogger yourself that is - then you know exactly how exciting it is). If you feel so inclined, please feel free to make a comment - it would make my day.
LESLIE BECK: On a related note, I am grateful for Canadian nutritionist, Leslie Beck and her No Fail Diet book. I hate the fact that I am "dieting", but I don't see any other way to lose the remaining baby weight. One and a half weeks in and I'm down over six pounds. Not bad. I followed this diet two years ago and lost almost 25 pounds and managed to keep it off until I got pregnant.
MELTING SNOW: Man alive, am I grateful for melting snow. I could finally get the stroller out this week after a three-week hiatus. Abner and I have been out every day this week for hours on end traipsing around the neighbourhood, going to music class and getting errands done. It feels so nice to walk along a sidewalk and not worry about tripping and falling on ice.
MY GRANDPARENT'S ROCKER: Abner has been having a little trouble staying asleep lately. Each night she wakes up two or three times in the first few hours after we put her down to bed. Each time we give her a few minutes to calm down on her own before we head in and pick her up to rock in the rocking chair. I remember playing in this chair as a kid and I recovered it to match the nursery before Abner was born. As much as I love rocking her to sleep night after night, I do wish she would just sleep on her own though.
SMELLY T-SHIRTS: Since Abner was born we've had to learn tricks to get her to sleep. When she was little, all we had to do was put her on her side and she's be out like a light. As she got bigger, we tipped her mattress on an angle and that worked for a while. Then we would use her mobile to get her down, but then she began pulling it down on herself so we had to come up with something new. In a wave of inspiration, I took off my t-shirt one afternoon and tucked it into her crib with her. She was asleep in minutes. Each three-day-worn shirt lasts for about four or five days. As she crawls around her crib getting settled for a nap, she drags the shirt with her. It's so cute. So if you see me wearing the same t-shirt a few days in a row, now you know that I'm just stinking up a new one for Abner.
COMMENTS: You can't imagine how much I look forward to reading the comments I get on this blog (unless you're a blogger yourself that is - then you know exactly how exciting it is). If you feel so inclined, please feel free to make a comment - it would make my day.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Parental warning: Explicit lyrics
One of my favorite things to do with Abner is to sing little made up songs to her. Often, I'll adapt existing songs with new lyrics. One of my favorite songs to do this with is "Short'nin' Bread". You know the one...Mama's little baby loves short'nin', short'nin'. Mama's little baby loves short'nin' bread.
Way back when at a music group back in the summer, we learned a new version that goes, Mama's little baby loves dancin', dancin'. Mama's little baby loves to dance around. Abner loves this version so I will often sing it to her while we dance around the apartment.
During one of my frequent bouts of trying to get her to sleep recently (Like many other babies I know, Abner is having a bit of a sleep problem these days), I began singing a new version of our favorite little ditty: Mama's little baby loves sleepin', sleepin'. Mama's little baby loves to sleep arooo...oh no. That's just not right.
Way back when at a music group back in the summer, we learned a new version that goes, Mama's little baby loves dancin', dancin'. Mama's little baby loves to dance around. Abner loves this version so I will often sing it to her while we dance around the apartment.
During one of my frequent bouts of trying to get her to sleep recently (Like many other babies I know, Abner is having a bit of a sleep problem these days), I began singing a new version of our favorite little ditty: Mama's little baby loves sleepin', sleepin'. Mama's little baby loves to sleep arooo...oh no. That's just not right.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
A little bit about Abner
The Dear Sweet Husband's equally sweet sister sent us a lovely package for Christmas. It was jammed packed with very thoughtful items for Abner, including a personalized footstool with each letter of her name making up a mini puzzle on the top. There was also a CD with her name in all the songs - how cool is that?! As amazing as these items are (and they truly are amazing...I can't wait until Abner can climb up on the stool for the first time), the most touching items in the box were actually for TDSH.
Among several other things like his old coin collection, school days book (so I can see just how good a student he really was) she also included his baby book. We spent ages the other night pouring through all the information that his mom and dad dutifully recorded over the years: who attended his parties, when he smiled for the first time, clippings of his first hair cut, first trip to the hospital, and his height and weight into his teen years!
How sweet is that?
Very sweet. But it got me thinking about how I've failed to record a lot of that stuff for Abner. I kept a very detailed monthly journal while I was pregnant, so at least I have that to pass on to her, and I include a bunch of general things in this blog, but I've missed on out documenting a lot of the basics so far.
I vaguely remember that she started smiling at about four weeks, and could stand with assistance at 10 weeks. Her first outing was to Superstore (what a shame) when she was three days old (we had to go get some provisions to get us through the stomach flu if I remember correctly). Her first social event was our friend Cole's welcome to the world party when she was just two weeks old. She slept in her own crib in her own room for the first time when she was four months old. She started crawling just a few weeks ago.
We're still waiting on the first tooth and even though her hair is starting to get into her eyes, I can't bring myself to trim it.
Unfortunately, I can't remember when she first started laughing or how old she was when she could hold her head up or sit up on her own though which makes me sad.
In the interest of getting more of these things documented, I recorded the following videos the other day of Abner's first attempt at drinking out of a glass without my help and of her first try at a little finger food.
Lest my head should get swollen with the sheer genius of my daughter's ability to drink from a glass, attempts two, three and four did not go as well (on the up side, the carpet did get sufficiently watered).
In hindsight I realize that the plate was a stupid idea and banana may not have been a smart choice as a first finger food since this is what tended to happen most of the time.
Among several other things like his old coin collection, school days book (so I can see just how good a student he really was) she also included his baby book. We spent ages the other night pouring through all the information that his mom and dad dutifully recorded over the years: who attended his parties, when he smiled for the first time, clippings of his first hair cut, first trip to the hospital, and his height and weight into his teen years!
How sweet is that?
Very sweet. But it got me thinking about how I've failed to record a lot of that stuff for Abner. I kept a very detailed monthly journal while I was pregnant, so at least I have that to pass on to her, and I include a bunch of general things in this blog, but I've missed on out documenting a lot of the basics so far.
I vaguely remember that she started smiling at about four weeks, and could stand with assistance at 10 weeks. Her first outing was to Superstore (what a shame) when she was three days old (we had to go get some provisions to get us through the stomach flu if I remember correctly). Her first social event was our friend Cole's welcome to the world party when she was just two weeks old. She slept in her own crib in her own room for the first time when she was four months old. She started crawling just a few weeks ago.
We're still waiting on the first tooth and even though her hair is starting to get into her eyes, I can't bring myself to trim it.
Unfortunately, I can't remember when she first started laughing or how old she was when she could hold her head up or sit up on her own though which makes me sad.
In the interest of getting more of these things documented, I recorded the following videos the other day of Abner's first attempt at drinking out of a glass without my help and of her first try at a little finger food.
Lest my head should get swollen with the sheer genius of my daughter's ability to drink from a glass, attempts two, three and four did not go as well (on the up side, the carpet did get sufficiently watered).
In hindsight I realize that the plate was a stupid idea and banana may not have been a smart choice as a first finger food since this is what tended to happen most of the time.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Hello 2009.
My little family took a trip to the Island with our extended family to ring in the new year. That's why I haven't posted in a few days...I was otherwise occupied stuffing my face with tasty food, playing Guitar Hero and lazily reading books by the fire (just Uncle John's Bathroom Reader...nothing high class or anything) in a super cute little cottage in Parksville.
Getting to the Island was uneventful. We dutifully booked our ferry reservation weeks ago only to discover once we got there that we were pretty much the only vehicle with a reservation. D'oh!
Once on the Island, we met up with the rest of the family (my brother, his wife, son, daughter and dog, my mom and dad, and my aunt) for lunch at our good friends, the Moreaus, in Nanaimo. We've spent a lot of New Years with the Moreaus over the years, so it seemed fitting that we at least stop in for lunch. Sadly, they weren't able to join us for the actual celebration.
After lunch we piled back in the car (which we had to park at the top of a very steep hill for fear that our all-season tires wouldn't make it down and we'd wind up sliding right over a cliff and into the ocean below - far below) and headed off to pick up our provisions for the trip.
Have I mentioned that my family is A) organized, and B) really fond of food? What this means is that each of us had meals assigned that we would be responsible for preparing for the whole group. My brother and I were teamed up and were assigned one breakfast and the fondue on New Year's eve. Where being organized comes into this is that we had a spreadsheet listing everything we'd need for these meals plus who was responsible for bringing each item. It was colour coded. Geeky? You betch'a. Did it work? Absolutely.
I can't say enough good things about the cottage that we stayed at. The set up is a little weird in that the cottage is part of a very dense little cluster of cottages on Parksville's resort road. Each unit is owned individually, but the owners are only allowed to live in them six months a year. The rest of the time they are rented out to people like my family. The place was plenty big to comfortably house the three of us, plus my brother and his crew. I don't have any pictures that do it justice, so I've stolen these ones without my brother's permission (that's what brothers are for).
Getting to the Island was uneventful. We dutifully booked our ferry reservation weeks ago only to discover once we got there that we were pretty much the only vehicle with a reservation. D'oh!
Once on the Island, we met up with the rest of the family (my brother, his wife, son, daughter and dog, my mom and dad, and my aunt) for lunch at our good friends, the Moreaus, in Nanaimo. We've spent a lot of New Years with the Moreaus over the years, so it seemed fitting that we at least stop in for lunch. Sadly, they weren't able to join us for the actual celebration.
After lunch we piled back in the car (which we had to park at the top of a very steep hill for fear that our all-season tires wouldn't make it down and we'd wind up sliding right over a cliff and into the ocean below - far below) and headed off to pick up our provisions for the trip.
Have I mentioned that my family is A) organized, and B) really fond of food? What this means is that each of us had meals assigned that we would be responsible for preparing for the whole group. My brother and I were teamed up and were assigned one breakfast and the fondue on New Year's eve. Where being organized comes into this is that we had a spreadsheet listing everything we'd need for these meals plus who was responsible for bringing each item. It was colour coded. Geeky? You betch'a. Did it work? Absolutely.
I can't say enough good things about the cottage that we stayed at. The set up is a little weird in that the cottage is part of a very dense little cluster of cottages on Parksville's resort road. Each unit is owned individually, but the owners are only allowed to live in them six months a year. The rest of the time they are rented out to people like my family. The place was plenty big to comfortably house the three of us, plus my brother and his crew. I don't have any pictures that do it justice, so I've stolen these ones without my brother's permission (that's what brothers are for).
Our fondue went off without a hitch. We determined it would be safer to have a cheese fondue first before Ryland and the girls went off to bed and save the oil fondue for later for just the adults. My family is very fondue-safety conscious as we all remember a little incident a number of years ago when the hot oil accidentally got poured down my back. Luckily, it was in the 90s and grunge was popular so I was wearing a very thick flannel shirt that protected my skin - so no burns.
Though we didn't plan on it, TDSH and I were awake to ring in the new year thanks to a little crying session from Abner.
Over all though, not a lot happened during our stay (which is kind of the point of a vacation, isn't it?) We became mediocre Guitar Hero players, feasted on way too much delicious food, played a few games, swam in the complex's indoor pool, read books, napped and ate some more.
Even my mom and my aunt got in on the Guitar Hero fun!
Though we didn't plan on it, TDSH and I were awake to ring in the new year thanks to a little crying session from Abner.
Over all though, not a lot happened during our stay (which is kind of the point of a vacation, isn't it?) We became mediocre Guitar Hero players, feasted on way too much delicious food, played a few games, swam in the complex's indoor pool, read books, napped and ate some more.
Even my mom and my aunt got in on the Guitar Hero fun!
The Dear Sweet Husband was such a hard core rocker, he even played while Abner napped in the Ergo. Who's a rock star baby now!
It was Maryn's first time swimming, so Abner showed her the ropes at the pool.
She also had a blast getting tossed in the air by her daddy.
My brother brought along something like 50 games for us to play...we only managed to get to about four or five of them.
Before heading back on the ferry, we took a little walk along the beach in Parksville. It was lovely, but bloody cold.
Abner has ridden a few ferries in her short life, but this was her first time travelling with her daddy and aboard one of the newer BC Ferries. Must say it was quite a bit better than the old boats.
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