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!
Earth Run
Apr 27, 2009 Environment, Family life, Outdoors
Sunday morning, we headed to Stanley Park for Earth Run. The turn out was quite disappointing, but not unexpected when you consider that the race started at 8 am (registration was at 7, although we got there at 7:50 and barely made it before the start of the race). I suspect the early start was due to the fact that the MS race was happening around the same area a bit later in the morning. Not sure if it was due to bad planning on the part of the Earth run organizers or if it shows the importance devoted to Earth day…
So we had to rush like crazy to make it, and we were not even able to do the whole 5 km as we were with two other families with toddlers and in between the ones who wanted to walk (very slowly and mostly in the wrong direction), the one who fell in a mud puddle (ours of course) and the one who wanted to stop for a snack, we were so far behind the rest that we were strongly suggested to take a few shortcuts so people could clean up behind us. When we made it to the end (not all that far behind the last of the participants), there was almost no food and no goodies bag left.
Luckily, the weather was gorgeous and we were in good company, so we still had fun despite the disappointing event. The kids played at the playground after and we were able to catch up with our friends. One of them is pregnant again and due in July – her son will be 23 months old when the new one arrives. She walked with us despite being tired (and 20 pounds heavier than normal) and she’s still in a pretty good shape! The three boys were really cute and played very well together. And we made it there and back on our bikes without Zak having pain in his knee, which bares well for the future – let’s just hope I don’t jinx it by saying I hope he’s on the mend!
Rock climbing…
Apr 16, 2009 Family life, Outdoors
We just came back from a 6 day trip to the West coast of Vancouver Island which transformed DS into a lean, mean, rock-climbing machine. Or a mountain goat, I’m not sure… The beaches there are very rocky, and he decided that rocks were meant to be climbed. So we spent a lot of time hunched over, holding his hands as he went up and down.
He also stepped in every puddle he could find, some deeper than his boots of course. He found a lot of treasures thanks to our new interest for geocaching – we really enjoyed it, and so did he. He dug in the sand and pebbles, he went up and down a ton of steps (mostly on hid dad’s back, but sometimes on his own two feet). He slept on a mattress on the floor of our bedroom, without bars to hold him in, and yet didn’t get up to make a mess all over the place. And he developed his vocabulary at an ever-impressing speed. I don’t know if it’s the contact of people other than us – my in-laws, who speak only English – but the trip also seems to have helped him differentiate between English and French. He would ask his grandma for water, then when I said I was the one who had the water, he would turn to me and say “de l’eau?”.
His favorite activity remained rock climbing. Set free in the middle of the beach, he would run towards the cliff (with mommy nearby – there was a cougar sighting in the area just a few days before) and start scaling it. And I’m not being facetious: although his attempts were not always met by success, he was really trying to climb some quite abrupt walls. We had to redirect his efforts to challenges that were more reasonable. But it was really cute to see him and to hear him repeat, after his daddy, “rock climber”.
Priceless!
What a view!
Apr 1, 2009 Family life, Outdoors
That was the view Sunday afternoon from the top of Dog Mountain…
We snowshoed for about an hour from Mount Seymour to get to this viewpoint, from which you can see Stanley Park (the big patch of green mostly surrounded by water on the top right of the photo) and Vancouver (the big mass of buildings just left of Stanley Park). We had a blast on this wonderful sunny day and I was quite proud of myself for managing to carry about 30 pounds on my back for the 2.7 km it took to get there.
Luckily, on the way back, Zak carried DS in his backpack and I took the light load. We were out much later than we expected, but thank’s to Julie’s cookies, DS was kept happy. And strangely, he didn’t fall asleep on the way home. He went to bed late but had a good nap, and he has been back to his old self ever since. No more whining (well, I wouldn’t say no more, but at least it has been reduced to normal proportions), and he has even started laughing again. Seeing the difference in his behaviour makes us realize he really must have been sick last week!
April Fool’s Day
Apr 1, 2009 Family life, Outdoors
Today is April 1st and if I believed in God, I would say that he’s playing and April Fool’s Day joke on poor Vancouverites: it’s snowing! Normally, in February, the cherry trees are already in bloom, the flowers are out and spring is in the air. This year, the temperature has yet to climb up to double digits.
I do, however, find it more odd than irritating. People who complain about the weather are far more irritating than the weather itself – and we hear a lot about them these days! Personnally, I can’t say that I won’t be glad to see the sun come back, but I’m taking it all in stride. I have warm, waterproof clothes, and DS was just as happy, last night, to play outside in the frigid wind as he is to play outside in the summer sun. It’s all that matters to me!
A real tantrum
Dec 26, 2008 Environment, Family life, Outdoors
Today our boy had what was probably his first real temper tantrum in public. Guess where and why?
We went to the bike store to get him a new bike helmet. He got a bike for Christmas and his old helmet is too small now. And it was boxing day, so we had to shop till we dropped. Well, ok, we only went to that one shop which is across the street from home. The trouble was when it was time to leave. Our son would have none of it. Bikes are his life and he only had time to go around the store once! He broke into a full-blown tantrum.
I wonder if they see that often at the bike store. At Toys R Us, yeah, I suspect they do. But the bike store?
Personally, I love what it tells about him!
Pumpkin Patch
Oct 13, 2008 Family life, Outdoors, Resources
Today we visited a patch of countryside less than 30 minutes away from our bustling city: the Country Pumpkin Patch, in Richmond. We had a wonderful time with some friends of ours despite the fact that there is some room for improvement.
First, their Website doesn’t work… Except when it does. Which seems to be random. And I was slightly disappointed by the farm animals that they have: 2 lamas, 2 miniature goats and 2 pigs. I thought there was a petting zoo, but I guess I must have read their site wrong. The price tag is a bit high ($10 per person, free for 2 and under, although some of the signs on the site say 3 and under, some 2 and under). But the price does include a pumpkin of your choice and a hay-ride.
All in all, we figure it was worth it. The main site has a stage with live, non-stop entertainment; a bit lame for adults, but pretty good for children and the music was not bad at all. There are tables for picnics, a few booths selling junk food and a tent full of hay, which older children were having fun playing in. At first, we thought that was it and we were really disappointed. Then we took the hay-ride (with live entertainment) to the pumpkin patch. The corn maze was not overly entertaining, but the pumpkin patch is huge and all of the pumpkin were perfect! Granted, they opened on Saturday and we went Sunday, so we were among the first. Last year, we went later in the season and the remaining pumpkins were all smashed or rotten. This time, we had our pick of small pumpkins, big pumpkins, orange, white, green pumpkins…
Our boy and the son of our friends had a good time dancing to the music and sitting on pumpkins. They will enjoy it more when they’re older, and we’re definitely going to go back. I love to seize any opportunity to show my son where his food comes from. This is a great place to go to enjoy a sunny fall day.
-Mommy, look at me, I swear I’ll manage to lift it!