Steve and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary on Saturday.  This fall when I was sick and Steve was working all the time, we discovered that if we don't have some sort of family vacation every few months, every single one of us start to lose it a little bit.  So, in the spirit of just embracing the fact that we live in Canada, we decided to take a family trip to the Jack Frost Festival on Prince Edward Island over our anniversary.  It rained and stayed above freezing for two days before we left.  There was almost no snow in Nova Scotia.  No terrible winter to embrace.  They had to manufacture some of the snow for the festival this year.

It was a good trip but there were a couple of complications that we did not consider when we were booking the trip, such as:

• I'm 31 weeks pregnant and all of the outdoor activities at the festival, other than ice carving demonstrations and wagon rides, were unsuitable for me.  There were all kinds of ice slides and tobogganing.  Steve assured me that the hill he liked best would have caused instant labor to occur, as it sent him sailing into the air.

• Ellen has been ill frequently in the last six months.  She started slowing down Friday morning before we left, so I knew to pack her inhalers, but she only went down one ice slide before vomiting and spending the rest of her time outside asking to be held and stoically looking at snow dinosaurs until the shuttle bus could take the two of us back to the hotel.

This was The Bairn's favorite slide.

Ellen looking sick and sad next to a snow dinosaur.

We still had a great time.  By Saturday afternoon Ellen was feeling fine again and thoroughly enjoyed the bouncy castle and balloon animals and other indoor attractions.  She was also deeply in love with the giant banana, a grocery store mascot, she got to high five and it led her to tell her first joke, "Knock knock.  Who's there?  I didn't said manna."  Her very favorite parts of the trip, though, were the shuttle buses, especially the old blue school bus we rode, and watching TV in the hotel.  She keeps asking me when we're going back to the "festibal" and pretending that her fingers are in a hotel watching "Bubble Gummies."

Nova Scotia Summer

Sometime in March or April I say to Steve (and myself), "Why do we live here?  I can't live here.  I'm not living here anymore."  The spring is really miserable in Nova Scotia.

Then the summer arrives and I take the kids up the road to hear the live local music on Thursday nights.  I sit in a wooden chair shaped like a giant fish and the kids play and dance in the sand pit.  Sometimes the weather is perfect for a summer night and sometimes it drizzles rain and I tell The Bairn, "You're not made of sugar.  You won't melt," and I wonder how many mothers over the years have said the exact same words to their children and I think that life can't get any nicer at all.

Tonight the band sang this song (with accompaniment from a lady in the crowd on the spoons).  I'd never heard it before, but I like it.

Stupid Groundhog

It was -19 C on Groundhog Day, but we hauled the kids out to see Shubenacadie Sam anyway. He predicted six more weeks of winter and then he went into the interpretative center and let The Bairn watch him eat yogurt off a spoon.

This is not Shubie Sam.  This is Gertie Groundhog.  She was also there.  Steve claims that this is a picture of him offering up his firstborn in exchange for a better weather report.

Sadly, Sam seems to have made an accurate prediction this year.  We got a huge amount of snow on Sunday.

Today was the first day the kids got to go outside and play in it.

We paid to have the driveway plowed when our snowblower couldn't handle the job.  It left huge snowbanks for the kids to enjoy.

There's another storm coming through tomorrow.

I would like to move to Miami.  And I don't even like Florida.

Snow Days, Sick Days

We're just getting out from under weeks of illness. We've been down so long that we even dragged our TV up from the basement, where it's been sitting for the last 18 months, so that we can all nurse our fevers and watch movies and take it easy during these hard winter months.  We are also having the cold and the snow from the living in the Canada, which meant that we had to pull out a few special treats today.

Like snowcream.  The classic ice cream treat made from snow.  I ate it as a child and The Bairn is a convert, although I had to talk him into trying it.

Matching games from the parent resource center.  Ellen is very insistent about trying everything The Bairn does.  When he drinks hot chocolate, I have to give her a tiny cup of water and stirring spoon so she can participate in the ritual.

The 'Yes' Drawer.  The kids have taken over one of my kitchen drawers.  It's full of their own kitchen utensils and things I suspect they can't break.  Sometimes they like to pull everything out and play games with them.

Ellen is, in fact, holding a knife sharpener.  That should probably go in the 'No' Drawer.

We Gots Snow

We had our first snowfall on Friday.  I took The Bairn outside after dinner with a flashlight, and we built a snowman.  At the last minute, right before we came back in the house, he informed me that it was a snowduck, so I slapped a bill on its head and went inside to rescue Ellen from the despair of being left inside.

Yesterday the snowduck melted.  The Bairn stood by its remnants (a big chunk of ice) in the grass and demanded to know what had happened.  Had the snow flown back up in the clouds?

We were thrilled when we came downstairs this morning and snow was flying again.  I bundled the kids up in all their snow gear.  Ellen fell over as soon as I put her in her boots and set her on her feet.  She lay in the hallway, calling, "Mommy?  Mommy?"  Outside, we tried to resurrect the snowduck, but the new snow was too powdery.  Instead, The Bairn made tracks and Ellen licked the snowduck chunk and we all hustled back inside when the wind blew too hard.

The Bairn was only too pleased to come in when I promised him his first ever cup of hot cocoa.  Marshmallow and all.

Happiness is a Day at the Beach

Steve's parents moved to Nova Scotia last week. Their house is across the road from the beach.  The Bairn is pleased.

Baby's First Canada Day

It is that very special week in our family. The week in which we celebrate both Canada Day and America Day.  We went down to the consulate and applied for Baby E's US citizenship last week, so here's hoping her report of birth abroad comes through by Friday so she can eat some cherry pie with the Americans.

This morning we headed to Pugwash for our Canada Day celebrations.  Steve's parents and aunt and uncle and a couple of family friends were there trying to talk to Ellen.  This is the face she gives them.  She is not friendly.

The first two years we took The Bairn to the Pugwash parade, he absolutely wailed when the emergency vehicles came by.  They are very loud.  So this year, I advised him to cover his ears.  Which he did for the entire parade.  (I really love how Ellen is considering the rusk in this picture.)

The Bairn only removed his hands from his ears long enough to eat a lollipop.

Pugwash has a strong Scottish heritage (the street signs are even in English and Gaelic), so there's always highland dancing and highland games (but the games are called something else).  The Bairn was very taken with the dancing and practiced spinning with his arms raised. 

Steve bought mason jars from a yard sale, which is his favorite thing to do.

And I ate a fish taco, even though a taco is the least Canadian food of them all. 

Victoria Day at the Beach

Yesterday we took the kids to the beach, so we could all do our favorite things.

For Steve that was lying in the sand and reminiscing about his 8th birthday party (held at that very beach), which he tells me I was invited to attend.

The Bairn's favorite thing is to throw rocks in water.  He does this funny thing where he throws a rock as hard as he can and then yanks his arm back and tucks it up at his side (like the picture above).  I find it very charming.

Ellen's favorite thing is to eat anything that will fit in her mouth.  She ate a truly impressive amount of sand yesterday and also threw a lot of it down my shirt.

And my favorite thing is taking a family outing all together.

March is the New February

Last month my friend Chou posted this nice blog entry with a picture of flowers to counteract the ill effects of February.  In the past I have railed against February, but now I live in Canada, so I know that the cruelest month is actually March.  At the beginning of the month, Steve came home with real flowers to help get me through the month and keep me from threatening too often to either (a) run away to warmer climes or (b) murder people in their sleep.  

This week is by far the worst, though, and Steve can't even restock the flowers, because we had a blizzard yesterday and the snow drifts are higher than the snow blower and the snow shovel got buried in a drift somewhere, so our cars are trapped in the driveway.  If I can't get these kids outside soon, we're all going to go mental.  Today we did successfully, as per The Bairn's request, create the most ghetto little puppet theater you've ever seen out of a cardboard box and some old fabric.  It stars a lopsided felt puppet named Chicky Bick and a paper moon, star, and comet on popsicle sticks.  But it's not enough.  I must leave the house soon.  We got Ellen's passport photos earlier this week but if we had her actual travel documents in hand, I'd be shoveling out that driveway with The Bairn's plastic beach shovel and heading to my parents' house in Tennessee.

Our New Addition

We bought a used Volvo station wagon from a sheep farmer in New Brunswick last week.  This was mainly due to the fact that Steve can no longer fit into our Saturn with both the kids in giant carseats in the back (he can't get his seat far enough back) and because I was planning to stage a coup if I had to drag the kids into church with Steve at 7 am (our meetings start at 10 am) one more time.

The Bairn was very impressed with the following details of the trip:

1. We took a ferry to reach the sheep farm.
2. Sheep, guardian dogs, border collies, and llamas (which he initially mistook for camels).  After we drove up to the farmyard and saw the animals, I heard The Bairn murmuring from the backseat, "[Bairn] pat them very gently."
3. The sunroof.

I drove our old car home with Ellen while Steve drove the new car with The Bairn.  It was dark and we hit a snowstorm somewhere in New Brunswick.  I do not like to drive in the snow and I lost Steve and I could barely see the road.  I would have pulled out my favorite snowstorm emergency technique (pulling off the road and crying), but there was nowhere to stop, because New Brunswick (Canada?) has long stretches of NOTHING and I was pretty sure that all the moose warning signs were indicating that if I stopped, a moose would come out of the woods and eat my baby.  (There's a moose near the legion in a different town that runs out on the road and rams cars.  On purpose.)  Fortunately, I was able to drive out of the storm fairly quickly and catch up to Steve, who had slowed down when he noticed I was gone.  

And we love our new car.  

L.O.V.E.

Camp-o-Rama

We went camping for the first time in our married life this weekend. We weren't sure how The Bairn would feel about it, but he's a born camper. He wishes we lived in a tent near a lake all the time.  When we came home yesterday, he really only stopped talking about Tent, kids, water!  Tent, kids, water! long enough to feed his baby doll some radishes.  True fact.

I did some reading up on camping with toddlers, most of which turned out to less useful, and the one tip which would have been VERY useful (go ahead and haul that high chair with you), I decided not to follow, because we were so tight on space.  Here's the best tip for camping with an 18-month-old: camp with four other families who also have children.  It's the best.
  
Remembering to bring The Bairn's boots was also wise.  He loved wearing them and they slow him down a bit, which was good for me.

Steve did all the camp cooking, but The Bairn was an enthusiastic helper. 

We stayed at Dollar Lake, near Halifax.  It was extremely hard to get a picture of The Bairn's face at the lake, because he was always so busy toting water and digging sand.

Like so.

One afternoon, we went with two of the other families to Martinique Beach in Musquodoboit Harbour.

It's a very beautiful cold water beach

where The Bairn was able to resume his important digging work.

Having Canadian Babies

Last week I toured the maternity unit of our new hospital.  It seems very nice.  There's an early labor waiting room with heated, vibrating chairs, which I quite like (if they give me a satisfaction survey to fill out, I will suggest that they add a masseuse to that room).  There are popsicles in the freezer.  Thank you.  The room in which someone delivers is the same private room where she recuperates, which is new to our town.  So, that's all good.  Except, I really, really loved our set up in Scotland.  When the nurse giving me the tour kept talking about a doctor, I kept thinking that really I just wanted to be surrounded by the nice, calm, female midwives who delivered The Bairn.  And when she showed me how the bottom of the bed comes off for delivery and told me that some doctors prefer to use stirrups, I was actually distressed.  There was no bed in The Bairn's birthing suite and the idea of stirrups during delivery would have made our prenatal midwife cry tears.  And me too.

Everything about giving birth in Canada, so far, is just a bit worse than giving birth in Scotland.

Even our prenatal companion book in Scotland was rock star awesome--short and professionally graphic designed and modern.  The book I was given at the hospital here is full of creepy cherubim and other unfortunate clipart AND it advises me to pack my camera and film and music cassettes and tape player for labor.  Hmph.

So, people who have done hypnobirthing.  Did you take a class?  Do you think the class was essential or would the book/CD combo have been sufficient to train you?

The Goings On

Yesterday was Canada Day.  We loaded up The Bairn and took him to the parade in Pugwash.  I took out the camera to take a darling picture of him waving his Canadian flags and wearing his Canadian romper only to find that the camera was dead.  So I also did not take a picture of him screaming his face off when the emergency vehicles at the beginning of the parade turned on their sirens.  I should have anticipated that reaction, since I have to take him upstairs when Steve makes smoothies in the blender.  He does not like the loud noises.  He was way into the tractors and the horses, though, so he decided to retain his Canadian citizenship.

We bought sausages and fudge at the farmers' market for lunch and then felt that Canada was sufficiently fêted, since it looked like rain.

This morning I called the doctor's office and the receptionist very gladly read my ultrasound report to me.  The ultrasound says that New Baby is a girl, just like I ordered.

This is pretty much the only baby bump picture I have of myself (24 weeks).

Steve's dad took the picture when we went up to the falls in Economy after church on Sunday.  He also took some photos that indicate that no one should be taking pictures of me while pregnant.

These are the falls.

Pretty, no?

The Big Announcement: Boy or Girl?

I went to the obstetricians' office for the first time today.  It's a practice of four doctors, one of whom will be delivering our baby, all of whom are allowed to tell parents the sex of their baby.

I waited for 2 1/2 hours to see the doctor, but I really liked him (even though he's MALE, which I'm not into for doctors), so I immediately forgave the whole practice.  He won me over by being English and having formerly worked in a London maternity ward, consequently being able to give me the whole scoop on the differences between birth practices in the UK and Canada; by chatting with me about Greece; and by being interested in things my general practice doctor doesn't care about, such as the names of my child and husband.

Then he asked if I was having a boy or a girl and I told him that he would have to tell me.  He assured me that he would be happy to

EXCEPT

the hospital didn't send the ultrasound information to his office.

He asked the receptionist to track it down, but no one could reach the ultrasound department today, so I have to call back.  And Monday is a holiday.  Sooooo, Tuesday.  Tuesday SHOULD be the real day we learn the sex of the baby.  Last chance to make a guess.  Steve says 'boy.'

Second Annual Family Clamfest

On Saturday we traveled to the beach to get our quota of clams, so Steve could bottle them and make us clam chowder without paying a million billion dollars for clams in the store.  I didn't take the camera because I thought to myself, "Sometimes you should just enjoy the day and not worry about documenting your life."  I regretted it as soon as I released The Bairn from the car and he began frolicking and singing in the grass in his darling baby swimsuit.  He is growing.  We must document every second.

The Bairn found exactly one clam, which he dutifully carried through the mud to the clam bucket.  If you would like to ask him about it, he will gladly recount the adventure.  It goes like this: clam, clam, clam, clam, clam.

Last year when I was able to strap The Bairn to my chest, our clamming experience was quite different, so I have made some notes for my future self and for you if you ever go clamming with a toddler.

DO
Bring the water shoes.  Even if they get sucked off in the mud and have to be carried part of the time, your feet will end up with far fewer cuts (from oysters) than people (husbands) who scoff at water shoes.  Also, toddlers look extra sassy in water shoes.

Let the toddler play in tide pools.  It will be his favorite part of the trip.

Pick up a donair pizza on the way home so you don't have to cook that night, especially if your spouse will be in the kitchen until 1:00 am canning.

DO NOT
Wear your favorite maternity top.  The toddler will definitely be climbing up your body repeatedly with his muddy water shoes and ruining one of the few pieces of clothing that actually fit you.

Eat seashells (Bairn).  It's bad for the digestion.

Eat three slices of the pizza.  Two is lots.

Scenes from a Blizzard

Our blizzard is not as bad as expected, more like a long snowstorm, but we've still been inside for two days with all our activities canceled.  Steve is baking Selkirk bannock and I just taught The Bairn how to dip cucumbers and crackers into hummus (his natural instinct was to lift the bowl and try to drink it).

We also built a fort, as one does in a snowstorm.

And we ventured outside briefly, but it was too windy for the wee small boy.

And we are hoping that everything will be cleared up tomorrow, because we're going stir crazy over here.  We've gotta bust out of this place soon.

still with the cold

Current temperature: -19 C (-2.2 F)

Yesterday it was so cold that a cold advisory was issued for our county
and the truck wouldn't start
and the car short circuited
and The Bairn and I stayed in alllll day
and when Steve came home I was lying on the couch moaning, I hate the winter, which he knew, which is why he brought me a hyacinth, to remind me that spring is coming, and chocolates, to remind me that there's still joy in the world even in the winter with the polar bears closing in on us. 

Don't worry.  It's supposed to get up to -5 for The Bairn's birthday on Saturday.

We're Back in Canada, Part 2

1. It took Steve three days (driving) and me and The Bairn 16 hours (flying and driving) to arrive back in Canada.  Sixteen hours is too long for an 11-month-old to travel.  Two days later, when I put The Bairn back in his car seat, he screamed.

2. Since being sick, The Bairn believes he must be lying on top of me to sleep.

3. It's currently -11 C (-3 F).  Steve tells me this is not cold.  His skin is made out of rhinoceroses.

4. The Bairn and I walked to the grocery store today, even though we do not have rhinoceros skin.  We do have a covered stroller and a pair of serious boots, though.

5. Our library is closing for three weeks.  I assume this is because they want me to be sad.

We're Back in Canada

The Snow Came Down

I drove in the snow today.  Voluntarily.  Voluntarily!  You may recall the last time I drove in the snow, an experience that did not sit well with me.

The factors making this possible were as follows:

(a) I have snow tires.
(b) They very seriously plow and salt in Canada.  No messing around.
(c) It is so SUNNY that it's almost impossible to stay inside even though the world is full of snow.
(d) The Bairn and I didn't actually have to go out, so I knew we could just turn around and go home at any time if the snow driving turned out to be a mistake.

The Bairn I were hitting the thrift stores today.  We stopped at the Salvation Army to check out the Christmas room, because I want a wreath but I have no intention of making a wreath, notwithstanding the many beautiful patterns floating around Pinterest.  The Bairn and I have priorities for Christmas--making cookies and sending Christmas cards for me and losing the mail key as often as possible and learning to walk for The Bairn.  We have no time for crafts this year.  We're busy!  So busy losing that key and driving in the snow!

The Salvation Army had nothing for us today, so we moved on to our favorite thrift shop, a thrift shop so popular that there are very mean, handwritten signs with lots of exclamation points in the parking lot shared with a much less popular store specifying that customers to the thrift shop CANNOT PARK!!!!! in certain rows.  The pricing at this thrift store is mental.  High chairs sell for $3.50 but then sometimes mugs also sell for $3.50.  The Bairn gets most of his toys there, because they're almost all $0.50 except for the ride on toys and giant car slides, which are $1.00.  I show The Bairn a toy and if he gets excited and seems to be telling me with his eyes that he will love and cherish that toy, I let him hold it while I circle the rest of the store.  Then we buy the toy, bring it home, wash it up, and The Bairn changes his mind and decides that he would rather play with the mail key, my pen, or the newspaper circulars. 

While he was sitting in the parking lot, waiting for me to release him from his stroller after acquiring a toy boat today, The Bairn took a taste of the snow on the car bumper.  He likes it.  He likes snow.  When we get a bit more snow, I'm going to stuff The Bairn into his snow pants and take him outside to taste all the snow he wants.  There is nothing funnier in the world than a baby in snow pants.

I may become a convert to winter after all.