Thursday, 3 July 2008

Flying solo with 2 under 5s


Seb was glued to the tv screen.

Sophie learnt what candy was and wanted more!


Tip No. 1 - keep them caged as much as possible

Tip No. 2 - give them candy and treats and whatever they want as long as they please stay in the seat/go to bed on time/ be quiet (or at least quieter), etc.

Tip No 3 - pack too many (way too many) diapers. As I found out, hotels know that they have you over a barrel and proceed to whip you. Sophie has/d diarrhea; I packed just enough nappies for the journey. But when that was extended by a day, I was getting desperate. Price of taxi to nearest 7/11 - $50. No thanks. So I stuffed Seb's night-time undies with a face cloth (terry cloth nappy, right?) and held my nose as I shelled out $11.50 for 2 - yes TWO - disposables. Some how, we made do with those.

Seeking some advice: how many candies or cookies are too many in a day? I mean, usually, it maxes out at 2 "bis", as we call them, in the afternoon and no or maybe 1 candy/day (though M threw that to the wind by introducing 1 tic tac for every time Seb emptied his bladder in the toilet and not his undies - but that's another post).

But when you are 4 1/2 and are got up at 6:45 and jump in a taxi (for 90 mins... - thank goodness the bladder was strong that time), struggle through lines and security, run to your plane b/c it turns out that you have to be bused the aircraft, are on the tarmac for 90 mins..., then fly across the Atlantic for 7 hours and 13 mins (that countdown clock they now have can lead me to desperation), then find our (heavy) bags) and struggle through US immigration (b/c the only route we could get back was via Newark...), then line up for customer service b/c we have missed our connecting flight, then take Air Train to a shuttle bus (that takes 45 mins to come), check in to the less than grand Newark Holiday Inn, and eat some mediocre pizza before curling up and falling asleep on the restaurant's booster seat, are 28 Jelly Tots and 12 tic tacs too many? I say not.

Back in the Big Smoke

So we're back in the big city after a number of wonderful summer holiday moments and some moments that I could have missed, thanks all the same. 10 days of travelling solo with 2 kids under 5 was just enough, too.

Back at the house, M has whacked and bashed his way through the back space and made it all flat. Now there are 2 flattened areas of dirt to cover over; any bets on how long they will stay that way! Mind you, I passed some raised tomato beds in someone's front yard; they looked awfully good...

Spent the morning unpacking, laundry etc, as well as rummaging through contents of fridge and larder to get it in some sense of order - and dealing with the poopy diapers that I had left to fester in the diaper pail - whoops. Better left unmentioned and unsmelt!

I was plagued with a head cold my whole trip. One flight in particular was really painful. Now I have clogged ears and everything is muffled, so I'm debating going to get it checked out b/c 3 days is long enough. But as we don't have a GP, I'll have to sit in a clinic for hours waiting to be seen.

The big leagues

My consultancy work must have hit the big leagues; I just went out and bought a heavy duty (25 pages+) stapler! That's how many big fat wasteful documents I print out...

But seriously, I am trying to desperately wrap up the project that I started in May. I have a 5 week over 9 week contract that I am late starting. And I was contacted last week to do a few more days on a project that I started in 2006. Yikes!

So much of a good thing. Hope the children don't suffer (mine or the world's).

Friday, 20 June 2008

Just in case

Just in case you think that all I write about is the saccharine stuff: I need to confess that in the past week, Sophie has started to bare her teeth and chomp down on people, and has discovered that her nose in an orifice into which her finger fits, as is her mouth...

Thursday, 5 June 2008

I can't wait for...

http://sprockets.ca/programmes/globetrotter/default.aspx This has an excellent reputation. We missed the weekend festival and they limited the weekday perfomances to schools, but I plan on giving this subscription to Sebastian for his birthday.

This is supposed to be a good theatre company for children (though poo-poohed by Colin our theatre tyrant friend). They do a season's ticket which I hope to get for Seb & his friend Xin for the latter's birthday this year.
http://www.solarstage.on.ca/shows%20village.html

It's a big city out there.

Montreal beckoned


Seb & I trying to win at the dance contest. He was disappointed we didn't; whereas after 10 mins, I kept asking the judge to disqualify us.

Sophie joins the squad.

Wedges on a train, need I say more?


Utter Glee!

Every visit we try to snap this shot at the Old Montreal Forum.

Here are some pics from our semi-rainy weekend in Montreal. It was only the 2nd time in 30 years or so that it rained on Westmount Family Day, but a good time was had in the arena. We managed a family meal at the Villa du Souvlaki on Sherbrooke and all got a good night's sleep on Saturday. On Sunday, the Y was having a fundraising day, so we took our host's eldest off for a race and swimming. The drive was long each way (we rented a car b/c I doubted that our beater would make it and didn't relish the thought of being stranded beside the 401 at 11.37 on a Friday night with 2 kids in the back) but it's a terrific city.

Tuesday, 3 June 2008

Give me an "A"!

Give me a "F", an "I", an "N', another "A", an "L", another "L", and a "Y" - what does it spell? Finally. Yes, finally we have a new keyboard in the laptop and all letters working again, expecially the very common (in English) letter "A".

Please let one of our family have a green thumb


When G&L were visiting last week, they did some gardening with the kids. It was just the strip in front of our porch, but it's looking very lovely and some flowers have already blossomed. Mind you, they blew the budget on the plants!

In the little video clip, watch for Sophie adopting her brother's obsession for gloves; just as long as she doesn't adopt his whining...


Life is good

Life is good