Lighthouse Park

Since Saturday was taken up by looking for and failing to find glasses, Sunday morning we went to Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver. Aidan slept very well the night before so we figured we could get a bit of a hike in before he needed his nap. So 10:30 ish we set out for West Vancouver.

The entrance to the park is off Marine Drive about halfway between Ambelside and Horseshoe Bay. The drive is very scenic and the houses you can see along the road are beautiful. I can only assume that the ones on the water side are gorgeous since you can't see many of them. By the time we got there and parked Aidan was raring to get going.

We walked through the lovely park down the Valley Trail to Starboat Cove, took some pictures, and continued to the Light Station and the Lighthouse viewpoint. Again we played with my camera and took some pretty decent pictures. We had a snack and Aidan had some running time by the Nature house and Sk'iwitsut buildings. We then set out to the West Beach trail to another viewpoint. Just before the viewpoint on a nicely groomed trail but for one rock that caught my left foot and I twisted my ankle and scraped my knee and leg for the first time in years. (I'd say at least 15 :p) After trying to clean it up as best I could with baby wipes we kept walking and about 15 minutes later Aidan was asleep in the backpack. It is amazing how cute he looks when he is asleep. Anyway, I guess the pictures will tell the whole story.

(Which I will add to the post as soon as Aidan naps.)






Aidan and Anthony at Starboat Cove, Lighthouse Park, West Vancouver 27 August 2006



Lookout over looking Starboat Cove (City of Vancouver in the distance)




Light Station over looking the Lighthouse



Aidan and Anthony (Anthony thought this looked like he had a beer belly but it is just his shirt puffing a bit because of the backpack.)






Snack time for Aidan and a chance for him to run around in the dirt a bit. (He was filthy in about a minute.)






Me, looking westish towards Howe Sound on the West Beach lookout.






Shore Pine Point



Look at that Road Rash





Aidan asleep on the Shore Pine Trail



Aidan still asleep at the car. Unfortunatly he woke up when we put him in the carseat and didn't nap anymore that afternoon. He did go to bed early though.

Tags: Lighthouse park, skinned knees, sleeping toddler

Cheers to the New Bi-Ped

Aidan has taken more than two steps on his own. FINALLY!!

I can now say to anyone who asks "Is he walking on his own yet?" "Yes, as a matter of fact he is." I don't have to tell anyone that it was only at the beach and he wouldn't repeat it at home. It is ok. He can do it. Well I have known for months that he could do it. He just wouldn't walk on his own.

His first step he fell but then he got back up and started motoring to the hibachi on the ground just getting ready to be lit. Ah, you say it was the danger factor that we hadn't counted on. Aidan will walk towards the things he really wants, and the things he wants are dangerous. Hmm I might have to sneak a couple of sharp knives to my Mom at the airport to entice Aidan to walk to her. That wouldn't get me into trouble, eh?

I will try to get some of this fabulous walking on the web as soon as Aidan will walk in front of the video camera. The cool thing though is that Aidan walked in front of both Anthony and I. You never know when a real first is going to happen, and I am very glad that both of us got to see it.

Tags: First Steps, Milestone

Penaten, Penaten Everywhere, and Not a Drop of Rash

This morning after Aidan had a short nap and T. was down for the count I decided to read my scrapbooking book. Aidan was happily watching Veggie Tales or baby crack as we like to call it here, and I thought I was safe. Aidan was moving around a bit but his attention was still on the songs so I really thought I could read. He then found the tin of diaper cream, you know the really thick zinc oxide. I thought (stupid me) that it was ok, because he was engrossed in the Veggie Tales and he couldn't open the tin anyway.

Now to be fair (to me) he is always quiet when he watches these songs and usually he doesn't even move, so it really wasn't any quieter than usual to get my mommy radar going. When I looked up Aidan, the coffee table and all of the clothes he was wearing were covered in diaper cream. Silly me I went down to get my camera and started a video conversation with Anthony at work before I cleaned him up. Well, I guess that it was the parent in me. I couldn't be angry at him as it was totally my fault for under-estimating his ability to open things.

So, check out the pictures and laugh with me. I think the shirt and the pants are done for.














After a lot of work, baby wipes, dish soap, soaking, baking powder, Spray n' Wash, detergent and a super hot Super wash most of the Penaten came out except for a little stain on the shirt. Wow. I thought they were done for. Now if only the Spray n' Wash didn't have such a bad smell. I have had a migraine since spraying the clothes.

Tags: Veggie Tales, Penaten, Into the mouths of babes, Messy baby, Spray n' Wash

Thursday Love

Last Thursday Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks and Irene Nam of Momster started Love Thursday. I really liked the idea but didn't get around to getting the picture and links up last Thursday, so today I am doing a double.

The first picture is of my husband Anthony and my son Aidan in the first 48 hours of Aidan's life. I love the picture and it really reminds me of the love I have for both of my boys and the love my husband has for our son.




This second picture shows my grandmother's love for her first great grandson. I love all that you see is Aidan and his grandnana's hands. The love that radiates from this picture is almost tangible.



Happy Love Thursday!

Tags: Love Thursday, Baby Love, Generations

Canadian Idol

So Canada you have kept Tyler again. Sigh, what are we going to do? I really thought he sucked.

Canada, please start to listen to the sounds coming out of his mouth. He SUCKS!!!! Dude needs to get a brain and go back to Saskatchewan. If you are only voting for him because of the Western alienation thing, get a grip. It is a friggin singing contest. Therefore the dude who doesn't have a brain and can't sing shouldn't be there. Please, for the love of Pete get rid of him next week!!!

As for the rest of them, I don't really care who wins. Eva and Chad you should get to the top two but if you don't, do like the song says "Blame Canada." :)

Tags: Canadian Idol, Rant

Weekend Update

I guess you could say that like most of my weekends this one was nothing too out of the ordinary. Friday night filled with "Take Home Chef" and "What Not to Wear" on TLC. Saturday filled with "Flutag," sunburns, video games and cards. Sunday filled with two sickies.

It seems as soon as Aidan gets a cold the next day Anthony has it as well. I am not really sure what to make of this. It is a little annoying but there is not much we can do. Anthony will almost never take time off when he is sick so he stays sick longer and on the weekends he is pooped. Both of them are getting better but as with any cold they seem to linger for a long time. This one seems much longer since it came only 3 weeks after the beginning of the last one.

Friday I managed to get a couple of cute pictures of the kids. Aidan and T. sitting on their matching chairs.



Aidan sitting like a "big boy" after nearly giving his mother a heart attack. He has taken to climbing on anything that he possibly can.



On Saturday we went to see the Flutag (Flying Day) sponsored by Red Bull. We went with our friends Tomer and Carla and we found a pretty good spot to watch the first few. It was pretty shady and Aidan took the time to suck up to Carla. I swear he is an opportunistic little devil.



The flying machines were pretty silly and most of them didn't make it very far. This one was still in first place when we left.



When we got home we decided to extend the day and Carla and Tomer stayed for supper. A nice corn on the cob, nugget potatoes and green beans for Carla and that plus some good steak for the rest of us. While we were preparing supper the boys were able to get some video game time in on the x-box. NHL hockey anyone? Aidan had at least three controllers trying to find one that would actually let him play. I am thinking that we will need a game system for him very soon. (Ok we will play too, but it will be mostly his.) Carla managed to get a nice picture of the boys playing.



After supper we got Aidan down to bed and then played the weirdest game of wizards ever. I swear that in the first game Anthony had crap and got way too many tricks for the hands that he had. In the second game I was under 50 until the very end because he had passed the luck my way. There was a hand where I had 2 wizards and a bunch of trump and still managed not to get the right amount of tricks.

Sunday we made a lazy day. Aidan was pretty cranky and Anthony needed a day of rest to get back to work on Monday. I was a bit cranky too, but Anthony really did need the time and he rescued me when I reached the end of my rope.

Now that I have the weekend up I might have to do a week update. :)

Tags: Flutag, Wizards, X-Box, TLC

Confessions Update

I wrote earlier about some of my frustrations with the two boys that I am looking after; my own and a friend's son. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get our rules to mesh a bit better. The unfortunate thing is that we can't have a rule for my house and not hers because at 12 months he won't understand that different situations have different rules.

So I broached the subject of throwing objects. I was positive and I just said that "Something we are working on is not throwing objects even balls." I told her my strategy of taking the ball or whatever and stating what the object is for. I.E. "The ball is for rolling not for throwing. The maraca is for shaking not for throwing." I am hoping that with all of us doing the same thing I will have the boys under a little bit of control and not have them hurt or my house broken.

I also gave her his first "drawing" before I broached anything. I know she was very pleased with it and I hope it softened the blow. I also hope that crouching it in positive language made it better. I am trying to make things easier for all of us and keep the boys safer.

Tags: babysitting, rules

Confessions

I am not so sure that babysitting/caring for my friend's child is working out for me. I am not sure I want to be a care-giver. I am sure that I am not looking forward to September when it goes from 3 days a week to 5 full days a week.

Does this make me a bad person? I hope not. But my friend's child is driving me crazy. He is a few months younger than my son Aidan and can be very clingy. It isn't that Aidan can't be that way, but he is my child and usually a few minutes of cuddling and maybe a couple of minutes of breastfeeding and he is good to go. Of course this isn't possible with my friend's child. (Well the cuddling is, but that doesn't seem to work as well as it does for Aidan.)

He is also a thrower of things. I am pretty sure this is because my friend and her husband taught the boy to throw a ball early on. No rolling the ball for them. Throwing. Now this means that now he throws balls, toys, anything that he can pick up. I have tried really hard with Aidan to not throw things. Even balls. Especially since very soon they will be told in no uncertain terms "Don't play with that basketball/baseball/soccerball in the house, you will break something!" I have been trying to be a little subtle with the different rules that they have for their son, but I am thinking that I will have to be clear very soon that throwing things is one of my absolutely not rules.



Now don't get me wrong about this, I really like the boy. I am just not ready to have two little boys so close in age, but on totally different schedules, in my house almost full time. There are times when they are playing along side each other and my son isn't taking the toys from my friend's child that I think this may not be so bad. Then there are times like today when it is now 1:15 and I might be able to get some breakfast. {sigh.} I guess that I just have to hope that the bilingual daycare has a spot that opens up in January. (That is the earliest age that they would take my friend's son.) Though maybe in a few weeks I will have them on a similar schedule and we can start doing things again, then things might be good, great even.

In the meantime, please tell me I am not a bad person, and that there is hope for things to get better.

Tags: Day Care, Children, Rules, Hope

Canadian Idol: I can't keep quiet anymore.

To the voting Canadian public:

What the Hell are you thinking???????? Why have you not kicked Taylor to the curb yet? If I hear another "Dude where's my car?" moment from him I honestly don't know what I will say. Come on! Ashley has been kicking ass and you throw her away. It is almost enough to make a person actually watch it when it is being aired and vote.

To the contestants:

Steffi: Get rid of the bows. Sure they were fine in the beginning but now they are just getting in the way of people taking you seriously. Also, figure out how to emote a bit more. I think you could be amazing but right now all people see is someone acting.

Taylor: For god's sakes if you don't have a brain in your head by all means keep speaking the way you do. If you do have some intelligence stop imitating Ashton Kutcher in "That 70's Show" and say something intelligent.

Craig: Stop with the cheesy ballads and cheap theatrics. Oh, but thanks for choosing at least 1 song written for a male. Don't ever choose a Celine song. Please!

Chad: Choose some upbeat songs. Right now you are just a bit boring.

Eva: Shock the crap out of people and sing a song at least partially in French. Come on girl represent yourself!

To the judges:

Sass: Stop hitting on the young boys and for god's sake don't get drunk on the show!!!

Farley: Get out of the suit once in a while. It might do you some good.

Zach: Say what you mean and don't pussyfoot around it. Come on, they are paying you for your opinion.

Jake: Disagree with Zach all you want, don't take it so personally.

To Ben Mulroney:

Please stop the I have no clue about music but that sounded wonderful to me crap. Come on, just admit that you have a tin ear and that nobody hired you for you looks or appeal to the Canadian public. Damn I really can't think of one reason why they would hire you for this particular job.

To People everywhere:

Can we start a web campaign to rid Canadian Idol of Mulroney? I would sign in a flash. Let us vote him off idol and keep a contestant another week!!

Tags: Canadian Idol, Rant, Mulroney

Am I Getting Old?

Since when did 33 become old? When did 33 mean you have all kinds of aches and pains that keep you from sleeping? I guess it might be like Penn Jillette says, that after you mid twenties everyone has some sort of pain.

Sigh, well, this pain kept me up till almost 4am last night. And I am babysitting this morning. WTF, if it was going to happen why not Monday night instead? I feel weird that it was so sleep depriving because it was merely really uncomfortable. The fact that my Ipod died was just a lovely bonus. I should have just have gone out for a walk. Maybe that would have got me to sleep sooner.

Anyway, enough bitching about pain. I will post something later about the boy. :)

New Camera, My Favourite Subjects

Something we hear a lot at our house: Anthony says, "Aidan, where's Mommy?"



Aidan and Anthony, False Creek Elementary School



We went walking and stumbled upon a small playground one day. I brought Aidan and Anthony back here to play. I am not sure that Aidan liked his first time on a tire swing. It was funny seeing Anthony try to maneouvre in and out of it though.




Aidan did however love the slide. It was on a slight hill and he could, with our help, climb up the slide and then go down on his own.



Aidan went down a couple of times on his bum, but he preferred to go both up and down on his tummy.



Wow this looks steep. It is amazing what you can do with camera angles.




Too bad you can't see all the dirt. He had a blast though. "Catch you later Grandparents."

Tags: New Camera, Aidan, Anthony, Swings, Slides

Teething Again

Aidan never does anything half assed. He is teething again. This time it is two molars and an eye-tooth. All. At. The same time! This doesn't make for a restful weekend.

Friday night I was sure that Aidan would be asleep in no time because he was tired, a little bit frantic and he got up before 7 that morning. This usually means that he goes down really easily. Not this night. I am pretty sure that he woke himself at least three times before midnight. This was when we decided that tylenol, and some dimetap for the stuffy nose might be in order. While it may be really easy to give Aidan medicine when he is awake, when he is tired and has woken himself up a few time it is a disaster in the making. Aidan still had a hard time sleeping. It was about this time that we figured out how many teeth he was trying to get out at once. He woke another few times during the night and we were all exhausted on Saturday morning. About 10 am we refound the oragel. Aidan was quiet for a full hour. Sigh, why didn't we remember it the night before?

Saturday we spent mostly looking for glasses for me. It is always difficult and the pair that I like best is $529 just for the frames. Most of the hip glasses are not for my face at all. They make it look rounder than it should and really much older than I want to look. I think I have a couple that might work but we couldn't keep going with Aidan because he was very quickly becoming "Tantrum Boy."

On Sunday we got up later than the day before and didn't do too much. Well Anthony cleaned out the filing cabinet, shredded three garbage bags full of paper and file all the bills and other paper that was hanging around the front table and computer desk. Oh we also got our new camera. Anthony found a nice camera very much on sale and got it to replace our small digital camera that was lost/stolen from our luggage at Christmas-time. So I had a chance to play with it a little bit. I will be posting some pictures a little later. I am also planning to take some pictures of me in some frames. Maybe I can get some comments on which pair to get.

Anyway, after playing at the park, eating supper and a bath Aidan was very tired and went to sleep without a fuss. Keep you fingers crossed for a good night.

Tags: Teething, Sleep, Glasses, Camera

Should I or Shouldn't I?

Please help! If there are any lurkers I need your comments.

I have written a post about my stepmother. It was cathartic and I needed to write it. Now I just need to know if I should post it.

I haven't named my stepmother and it is very unlikely that she will ever find my blog let alone read it. The post isn't mean, and my husband doesn't think that it is too harsh considering what she did. I am obviously of two minds as to whether or not to publish this post. I would like to get all these things off my chest and it is probably better that I don't burden my father with this. It is also extremely unlikely that he will read the post either.

I also think that if I publish this post that I will feel a hundred times better. Just having it on my computer as a draft has helped but I know that having it on my blog will take another full load off. That is a huge part of the reason that I started a blog other than my family blog. I needed a place to write things that are not always warm and fuzzy. Our family blog is a way to let the people back home see some of the changes in Aidan that they miss living on the very other side of the country. This blog is a way for me to get things off my chest. It is not always nice and cute, (though sometimes it is) and has already made being a SAHM better. I feel more connected with other people even if I don't exactly know who those people are.

So connect people, should I publish the post or should I delete it, or should I keep it on my dashboard ready if I feel the need? Help me please.

Tags: Help, stepmother, catharsis

Spreading the Love

PajamaMama has christened the next few days:
The Bloggin' Good Blogger Days.

Your mission, shall you choose to accept it (and you will), is to go to as many blogs as you can and point out at least one good thing about the author of that blog. Do your best to give them a warm fuzzy feeling. Show your appreciation, admiration or plain old joy.
Tell them why something they did touched you, why a choice they made shows the true fabric of their moral being. Just go BE NICE to every blogger who'’s blog you read today. And don'’t be shy, either!!
Plus, post an entry similar to this one on YOUR blog and ask people to leave warm fuzzies in your comments. Spread the love, people!

Maybe if we take a week to engage in warm fuzzies, they will become a more permanent part of our daily lives, both on and off the computer.
In review:
1. Leave me a warm fuzzy in my comments.
2. Post a similar entry (or copy and paste this one, giving credit) on your own blog.
3. Leave a warm fuzzy on every blog you visit today.
4. Sit back, read your own warm fuzzies and feel, well, warm and fuzzy!
Enjoy!

All credit to her, esp for the body of this post. I love the idea, and liked how she phrased it, so I pretty much copied the instructions.

While you are at it visit a few of my favourite blogs from the blogroll. You will not regret it! Pass the good Karma along.

Tags: Blogging, Warm Fuzzies

Politics of breeding (Shout Out to Queen of Spain)

A few minutes ago I read a post by the Queen of Spain on the politics of breeding. I was amazed at how fired up I felt and I knew that I had to post because 1 comment wasn't going to be enough. I am not sure where this post will end up but I am sure that it is something that needs to be said. At least it needs to be said by me.

As a teacher I am already on the bottom of the politician's totem pole. Which is really a funny analogy when you think about it because the bottom of the Totem pole is the most important. If the base isn't strong and steady the whole thing just collapses. It is definitely like that with teaching and childcare, and parenting. How can you have a stable society if you make the stabilizing professions so difficult to be part of that many talented people don't take them up?

As a teacher it is so difficult to get into the public system in BC that many people stay on a "teacher on call" (toc from now on) list that they end up having a few part time jobs as well, live with their parents or depend on their spouse to make ends meet. (It can take as much as 2-4 years to get a year long contract and at any time that contract can be terminated for the next year and you are right back on the toc list.) If people are in a situation I was in, they end up working for an independent school for much less pay (and the pay is pitiful for public school teachers) and delay the time you must put in on the toc list of the public school, just so they have a dependable income to pay the essentials like rent and food. Let me tell you when you are making less than 30 K a year you are not buying a house any time soon. Not only do a lot of new teachers end up with mounds of student debt, they end up behind schedule if they take the independent school detour (to pay said debt)and even further from being a big tax paying individual. Isn't that what the government wants, a big tax paying individual? Then why do they not make education a priority. They under fund it, make our stupid union (another topic for another day) fight for wages, overpopulate schools with students and underpopulate it with teachers and then wonder why teachers are unhappy.

If teaching is so unimportant to people, child care seems to be worse. The lack of daycare in this country is pitiful. The money that Harper's government decided to send us monthly does absolutely northing to remedy this. A hundred dollars a month, that they are going to tax back, (which is really going to screw up the people that really need it) is not going to make more child care spots. It is to going to change the 1-3 year waiting lists for spots. It is not going to make it any easier for a parent to stay home with their child. The main reason I am taking care of my friend Gen's child is exactly that. She put her son on a waiting list before he was born! She still does not have a daycare spot for him. In fact we both need to get our sons on pre-school lists yesterday.

The child care issue is one of the reasons I decided to stay at home with my son. I also decided that since we could make the sacrifice to have me stay at home that it was well worth it. Who needs to be able to buy a house anytime soon? The fact that I am still a toc also was a factor. My detour of three years seems to have made a big difference. I was on the toc list only about half a year before I got pregnant. So now I have detoured again. Sigh, I am never going to get a permanent position. The thought of having no discernible schedule for Aidan was too scary to contemplate. We also live across the country from all our family. The 6000km commute is a little much to get a reliable babysitter. All of these factors are not the most important in our decision to have me stay home with Aidan. The most important factor was and is that I want to stay at home with my son. I want to be the one who teaches him all kinds of things. I want to see him in all kinds of firsts. I want him to be a well adjusted social being who loves life and knows without a doubt that he is loved. Now this is not me saying at all that children without a stay at home parent do not have these things and are not loved as much. I just had the choice and for me there was no other one.

I am so glad that I made this choice. I am SAHM. SAHM I am. I made this choice, and I was fully supported by my partner-in-parenting-crime. When I was pregnant I wasn't sure if I was going to be totally happy as a SAHM, but when push came to shove and I was in the thick of it I realized there is nothing else I want to be right now. I am Mother. I can and will be part of a movement of mothers for choice. Choices for childcare, choices for education, choices for the kind of blogging you choose to do. The choice to be a mom or not. Strap on a vagina and join me.

Tags: child-care, rants, SAHM

Post 3: am I Stupid?

Well, ok, it started well. Then I realized that Tristan is a sleep moaner. A loud sleep moaner. Aidan did well and I made sure the music was on. Unfortunately the sleep timer kicked in at about 45-50 minutes of his sleep. Which for those of you who don't know Aidan's sleep patterns is about the time he will wake up if something disturbs his cycle. So I only go about 40 minutes to myself.

Oh well, tomorrow I will have the music playing the whole time!!!

Post 2: am I Stupid?

The answer is "NO!" They are both asleep. They talked (well Aidan did) for about 5 minutes, and when I peeked in just after the last post they were both quiet and lying down. Five minutes later both, asleep. Wow. Time to myself. Yeah!

Post 1: am I Stupid?

I need a few minutes to myself. Both Aidan and Tristan need a nap. Both are fighting them. They both need to sleep in the same room. Am I being ridiculous trying to put them down at the same time? I will give them both 10 minutes and check on them. Keep you posted.

Over and out.

Firsts

Today my baby boy got his first black(ish) eye. Sigh, he is such a boy!

Aidan loves to climb, and he loves books. Not just his books, but Mommy's books. The ones that are on the shelf that he shouldn't be able to reach. So, what did Aidan decide to do today? Well, he decided it would be fun to lure Mommy into a false sense of security. He decided that it would be a good time to climb up on the bottom shelf and reach as far as he could on tiptoes. He decided it would be a good idea to pull as many books as he could down to the floor. What he didn't anticipate was that he would fall on his butt and that the books would fall on top of him. He didn't understand that if that happens you should look down, not up. And then the small hardcover that he knocked down wouldn't poke you under they eye with the sharp corner.

When I heard the crash I turned around and Aidan had already closed his eyes and was in the silent part of the scream. I comforted him as best I could and he stopped crying fairly quickly. It was as I was sitting down with him that I noticed what had really happened. Until then I just thought some of the books had fallen on his head. Ouch! Corners of books can hurt. Thank goodness it was a small one and his black eye is only a small bruise. On the up side, 5 minutes of breastfeeding later and he was asleep for a three hour nap.

I hope he has learned his lesson. Hmm, not counting on it though. :)