The Beach

Here we are in the beach resort town of Parksville, on Vancouver Island, after 2 days (as predicted) of screaming, crying, wailing, and barfing, by both children. Stella, poor child, got sick (surprise!) on the day we left Calgary, resulting in a visit to the walk-in clinic in Nanaimo. So, now she gets drops in her eyes and ears, in addition to the saline flush up the nose. I am sure that our neighbours are considering reporting us to the local Child Welfare authority, with all the accompanying shrieking.

Our "cottage" is roughly the same size of our house, and is lovely. New, and co-ordinated, and slowly filling with the crap and clutter that follows forever in our wake. For one blissful day it was tidy and neat. Ah. For Francis, apparently the highlight of the trip so far is not the ferry ride, or time with the 3 boy cousins, or the beach, but ... T.V. We don't own a T.V., and this small cottage has three! Francis is a deep believer in the TreeHouse channel -- all kids! all the time! He doesn't quite trust me when I tell him that it never ends.

There is something magical about children and beaches. How they can amuse themselves for hours, digging in the sand. I love watching Francis playing with his cousins -- the way he tries to keep up, the way he tries to imitate their big-kid saunter and bravado. The cousins (David, Mathieu, Joshua) are so good about trying to include my boy in their world. I am indeed lucky that they are such good influences.

After this it is off to Portland for a couple of days. The cottage is so perfect for us, so decadent (especially after 2 days of camping) and great for the recovering and napping Stella, we will have to see how the hostel in Portland will work out.

Stay tuned -- will the Peacey-Dolls make it to their ferry reservation? Will they have packed enough clothes for all the barfing? Will the '92 Pathfinder make it back to Calgary without expensive repairs?

Climbing that Mountain

Did I mention that STELLA IS CRAWLING???!!!!

!!! Can you hear me? Shouting, clapping, smiling, praising? This here, this is one proud Mama.

Yup, it's true. It's commando crawling, and she is not really using her legs, but! damnit, it's close enough to crawling for me. She had learned to scoot on her butt, so getting her to crawl was very very hard. She has also learned to move to sitting from prone -- we had been working on this for about a year. She rolls onto her tummy and basically does a kind of downward-dog pose to sit up. (Did I mention that she is very very strong? We call her Chuckie -- short for Our Baby Chuck Roast). And ... (there's more) ... her aide says that she is crusing along the furniture and is using her spoon! Also, while I'm bragging, she can sign "hat", "more", "nursing", and "banana".

This is huge, and goes a long way to reassuring me that we are doing the right thing by advancing her into the toddler room in September. She (by the grace of god and the mercy of the daycare director) will be going to the same daycare as Francis. I, of course, am worried that she will be mowed down by the walking, talking, assertive other toddlers. But, mainstreaming means I need to step back and let her find her own way. If I was SAHMing with her, I know that I would be overprotective -- and who would that be benefiting.

Anyway. We are going to have a party to celebrate. This is huge!