Pearl of wisdom
Aug 19, 2009 Family life
I’m reading a French magazine with my son. It’s made for toddlers and has a big picture on which we like to play “can you find the…?” or “do you know what that is?”. I point to a little boy riding a bike and ask:
- What is this boy doing?
- He’s riding his bike without a helmet!
Yup. Bike helmets are mandatory in BC (and common sense everywhere), but I guess they’re not mainstream yet in Europe. Here is at least one little boy who has integrated the message that you don’t bike without one!
Back from camping
Aug 17, 2009 Family life, Outdoors
All in all, we had a great time camping, except…
***Warning: following are gory details of illnesses. Read at your own risk***
Friday night I was dehydrated. That happens to me way too often: I get a headache, I’m a bit nauseous and I need to go lie down so I can get better. Then at 3 in the morning, our son woke up crying and I just had time to lift him up from his sleeping bag before he started throwing up. I luckily caught the first batch of vomit in my hand (!!!), then Zak reacted really quickly and grabbed our “dirty diapers” bag to catch the rest in. We then walked to the washroom to clean up, came back to the tent and our son threw up again (this time partially on the tent floor), so I sat up on a chair with him to help him sleep upright, hoping it would help him sleep better and make it so I could react quickly when he throws up again. Which happened twice. At 5, our boy asked to go lie down, which came as a relief since I had been awake since 3. He slept until 7.
He was fine the next day, except for a bit of diarrhea. But he was laughing and running and eating normally, so we were able to go hiking and geocaching with him and our friends. The three toddlers had a long nap in the afternoon, then we all went to the playground. A quiet, relaxing day. The babies went to sleep tired and happy, and so did we. Our boy’s bum was getting a bit raw from the diarrhea, since we had forgotten the diaper cream, but he seemed to be doing better and we just felt so lucky he hadn’t thrown up in his sleeping bag!
Our boy slept through the night, but woke up at 6 and when I pulled him out of his sleeping bag, this time, he was dripping… with poop. It had leaked from his diaper and from his clothes and was all over the (brand new) sleeping bag. Luckily, this was our last night! But we had to strip him down outside (and it was quite cold), wash him with diaper wipes (the campground had no showers or warm water), waking up the neighborhood of course because strangely, he didn’t enjoy it at all! He kept having more diarrhea – I think we changed him 6 times in 2 or 3 hours – and it started really hurting his bum. We were out of wipes, but luckily we were able to borrow some from our friends. On top of that, I was starting to feel nauseous again, so Zak ended up taking down the tent and putting everything away by himself while I could only sit down and try to entertain the toddlers.
We were supposed to go have a picnic with our friends after we left camp, but we figured out we had to get home ASAP to get some bum cream for our boy… who fell asleep about 90 seconds after the car started. I fought nausea the whole way home, dozing on and off myself (very enjoyable drive for Zak). Of course, there was an accident on the Port Mann Bridge, so it took us 3 instead of 2 hours to get home. We finally made it, but I lied down or slept all afternoon and evening, barely could eat anything and ended up quite sick myself. I took a sick day today as I cannot be more than a few feet away from a washroom.
I still enjoyed our weekend. We had a blast and I will do it again. We were not even bothered by mosquitoes! I just hope next time we’ll all be feeling good!
Ready to go camping
Aug 13, 2009 Family life, Gear, Less toxic, Outdoors
You should see our son in his brand new sleeping bag! We figured we had to get him a real one for this trip, as it is not supposed to be overly warm: it could go down to 11 at night. MEC makes a nice kid’s down sleeping bag, with cute sheep printed on the inside. Our son adopted it right away and this morning, when Zak wanted to pack it, he wouldn’t let him. He has a bit of trouble getting all the way in, but once he’s in there, he looks so funny! A real little mommy (or a sausage, maybe)…
Now we still have to make him actually sleep in it. We’re hoping we don’t get a repeat situation of Hornby Island, when he sometimes spent up to an hour playing in the tent before falling asleep with only his pajamas on, the sleep sack and sleeping bag scattered around his mat. This time, he could be really cold if that happens!
We are packing rain gear, although it shouldn’t be too bad. We are more worried about mosquitoes. According to the Bug Report (I didn’t even know such a thing existed), there is elevated mosquito activity and moderate deer fly and horse fly activity, although for those two, the activity should become elevated on Monday. If I can read between the lines, it means that on Monday, my son and I are going to look like we just had chicken pox (Zak somehow seems immune to bites) and I won’t go anywhere without a full layer of Afterbite. Of course, I could try and fight them off with Citronella, but last time I did that it didn’t work at all, except that my throat was sore from the chemical smell after two days. I am really tempted to try DEET: it may cause cancer, but sometimes it seems like a small price to pay to be able to actually stay outside for a few minutes. If only there was another solution! Zak wanted to buy a bug shirt and hat (basically, mosquito nets shaped like clothing… very trendy!) but they were out when he went to MEC.
Anyway, we still have a lot of packing and preparing to do before we can enjoy the relaxing outdoors… I’ll let you know how it went!
You live, you learn
Aug 11, 2009 Family life
Yesterday, after much debate, Zak convinced our son to “chose” the dinosaur rain boots we liked better by telling him they were iguanas – you do what you have to do. Our toddler fell asleep in the bike trailer on the way home, with the boots on his feet. When he woke up, the first thing out of his mouth was: “Boots are broken. I don’t like it. I go to the store get the ladybugs”.
Zak called me, and I had remorse, too, about not letting our son chose the boots he really liked best. And we were also afraid he wouldn’t want to wear them. So Zak, being the amazing dad he is, packed up the baby again and went back to the store to exchange them. They were back late, but happy. At least, our son was happy, Zak I’m not so sure…
Somebody likes cake!
Aug 11, 2009 Family life
On Saturday we invited our son’s friends (well, at that age it’s more our friends who have kids his age) to the park for some fun at the playground, a picnic and some cake to celebrate our toddler’s birthday. We had a great time: it was cloudy and cool, but it didn’t rain, and the park was almost deserted except for us. We had also asked people to, if possible, avoid driving there: it’s right by the bus stop, on a bus-designated street… Some of our guests took the hint, and of course that meant we had to bike, too! Zak had the baby in the trailer, the cake in a cooler on the back of his bike and some extra clothes in his rear panniers, and I had panniers full to the brim with our lunch, some food to share, plates and cutlery, juice and water, a blanket to sit on… We were loaded! Unfortunately, we forgot to take a photo.
Zak worked all week on the ice cream cake, and we read online that ice cream cakes don’t survive in a cooler with only ice packs, so on Friday he went and bought 20 pounds of dry ice (which he brought back home on his bike with the baby in the trailer as well… lots of exercise!). The problem is, when we took the cake out, it was frozen solid, so much so that we had to wait for about half an hour before we could cut it! The road Zak had drawn on it with fudge sauce was frosted and looked white instead of brown-black. But luckily, the kids were able to eat the “boulders” that decorated it (chocolate cookies) while waiting for the cake to thaw.
Zak went all out: he baked cookies to crumble up for the crust, made two flavors of ice cream (chocolate and vanilla) and prepared fudge sauce to put in the middle with another layer of crumbled cookies. It was delicious! Our son agreed: I gave him a plate with cake and a fork, and he handed the fork back to me almost right away: “I use my fingers now.” He then held his piece of cake, nibbling on it and licking it, for about 10 or 15 minutes, without ever putting it down despite the fact that his fingers must have been frozen!
The perk of the dry ice is we were able to bring the cake back home still frozen solid, which means we have delicious leftovers. Maybe next time we’ll have to find an in-between solution… Oh well. Overall, the birthday was a success for all involved, and the small dump truck that decorated the cake (and the digger that we bought with it) has become one of his favorite toys. Like we didn’t have enough of those in the house!
Am I stifling my son’s creativity?
Aug 9, 2009 Family life
Zak gave me a call at work today. He was trying to buy some rubber boots for our son to wear in the rain, and he wanted to know my opinion on a delicate matter. Our son had picked some red boots with ladybugs all over them. They are very feminine. But those are the ones he wanted.
What to do?
I took a look at the Web site and to be honest, the boots were really quite feminine and definitely not super beautiful. And they had some much cuter ones at the store. So I suggested that Zak try to steer him away from the ladybugs and convince him that the dinosaur or frogs ones were better. But if that if it didn’t work, it wasn’t the end of the world to buy the ladybugs.
I really hope our son changed his mind, but I also feel guilty about my reaction. He’s two, right, so I shouldn’t care about him wearing feminine looking boots. It’s not even like he’ll get teased in school, he doesn’t go to school! But still, I would rather see him in dinosaur boots.
Am I ruining my son’s life by not allowing him to show his feminine side?
Two years…
Aug 6, 2009 Family life
Our son is turning two today. It’s pretty amazing how fast babies grow. I know, it’s cliché. But two years and nine months ago, two tiny cells collided so that today, a toddler with his very own personality can tell me what he does and does not want. Two years ago, when he was born, he was really just a larvae still… A not fully finished product with a lot of growing to do before becoming a fully functional human being. Of course, the growing never ends.
For now, even though he can make long sentences and often decides that he does not want to do what we ask him to do, he still wants hugs from his parents, he still allows me to hold his hand in public (at least most of the time) and he still thinks mommy milk rates pretty high among yummy things in life (although chocolate ice cream cake is definitely higher on his list). In the coming year, we will have to wean him, potty train him and help him through the last of his toddler years before he becomes a preschooler, already. But we’ll enjoy our baby while we have him. I want to be sure that when, at 15, he refuses to talk to us, or wears pants 5 sizes too big, or stops bathing, I’ll have dear to my heart these images of a smiling toddler being cuddled to bed to help me weather the storm.
I want to remember forever how he likes to play with my hair as I am nursing him, remember the sound of his voice waking me up in the morning asking that I go “sopen the door” of his room, remember him twirling around to make himself dizzy. I want to remember his first words last summer, his first real steps at the airport on our way back from Quebec last July, his first camping trip, his first bike ride, his first taste of fruit taken straight from the tree last September in Kelowna, his first Halloween dressed like a chicken, his first real Christmas unwrapping presents, the first time he played in the snow, his first visit to Tofino, his first Easter chocolate, the first time he coasted down a grassy hill on his run bike. There were so many firsts in the past 12 to 15 months that I’m sure to forget so many. There are also a lot more to come.
When you’re two, everything is new, everything is exciting. Small things can make you break down in tears, but smaller things, still, can bring your small back. Last year, I was going back to work, leaving home with Zak a baby whose personality was still just beginning to show. This year, I have a toddler who has won an even more important place in my life and my heart by his own merit, because he makes me smile, he makes me laugh, he teaches me to relax and to play and to have fun, he teaches me patience, he teaches me life. I could never overstate how truly amazing a job Zak has done with him, developing his vocabulary by holding long, complicated conversations with him, taking him to so many places, inventing games for him or with him. He has been the most patient of teachers himself, both for our son and for me, and with him at home I know that our son is being cared for by the best person for the job.
Ok, I’ll stop before I start crying.
As a side note, for those who still bother logging in to the Website, I swear that our son didn’t stop growing when he was 6 months old, we just never updated the photos past that date. I guess we are too busy. We still should do it. But in the meantime, we are living our life fully instead of just posting it. Sorry!