Wednesday, July 9, 2008

A Tale from PEI

...or why you should never go clamdigging with a 1 year old.

We did not encounter the best weather at the onset of our PEI trip. The rain was so terrible on the Sunday after we got there that we debated going home. Instead, we spent the day in Charlottetown and waited to see what Monday would bring. Monday brought, clamdigging weather. This was something I was really looking forward too. I hadn't gone clamdigging since our honeymoon 6 years ago (but that's a story for another time).
So we set off Monday after lunch for a little clamdigging at the beach across the road from the campgound. (I should say, across the road, down the non-existant road across a field and then down a small cliff). Wouldn't you know it, but Jeremy picked that time to fall asleep. Seeing as Elijah had been so excited about this, I took him out of the car, through the path, down the trail to the cliff path, and passed him over to Larry and Luan. (Luan has done her fair share of sitting out of things due to napping children, so she understood completely). I drove back to the campsite, explained to Jonathan what had happened (he was to walk over later anyway) and rested myself while Jeremy slept.
After he woke up, we started the trek once again to the clamdigging beach. On our way, our car met up with Larry and Luan's truck. We collected our now beach weary boy and debated what to do next. Clearly, Elijah was on verge of the rare pre-schooler nap. Clearly, Jeremy was an energised toddler already excited having spotted the waa-waa (water). Jonathan suggested I take Jeremy down to the beach to clamdig and he'd take Elijah for a drive to nap, returning in a bit to pick us up. Sounds good to me. I took the baby, bag of shovels and pails and proceded down the path, realising that it is a lot more difficult to carry and child and a bag of things down the cliff path, than lead an almost 4 year old boy, but we made it.
Oh the beach was beautiful. Jeremy and I found a good spot to start search out the clam holes. I laid out some sand toys for him, grabbed a bucket and shovel and started to dig. I started to collect some clams (not many, but a enough to keep me encouraged). I then started a pursuit of what appeared to be 3 very fast clams attempting to escape my clutches. As I went to deposit one of them into my bucket, I noticed that the bucket was no longer there. It was now at the previous clamhole, where my son decided to put all of my clams back into. Alright, still early enough in the day to take the bucket back, distract him and start over. Nope, no deal. No matter how fast I was at moving the bucket out of his reach, he always got it back when I was in hot pursuit of a new clam. He thought this was great, just part of the game. The game where he was increasingly muddy. The game where he got to sit in clamholes. The game where he got to put his little hands in the hole I was digging out and splash mama. The game where I finally gave in and said, you know what, forget the clams, lets just enjoy the beach. So we did. Eventually, I waded out into the water in an attempt to clean myself up a bit, and dip Jeremy in too. After we trudged back up the cliff path, found Jonathan just pulling in to pick us up, I shepishly explained that yes, his wife, former master-clamdigger had returned empty handed. And I laughed, especially looking at my little guy, looking mighty-pleased with himself. No need to worry about supper though, Luan had hauled her fair share of clams that went very well indeed with the mussels we bought just down the road.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Summer Haircut

Warning to my mother, please don't cry when you see the following really cute picture of your grandsons!
Elijah has been looking a little shaggy lately and I knew it was that time again. He was wearing some remarkable bed-head that a brush just couldn't fix. Fortunately, our friend Rachel introduced me to home haircutting with Elijah's first haircut so I had my own pair of clippers on hand. Elijah has gotten really good at getting his hair cut. It used to be this tortuous routine involving a good DVD some Smarties and a continued promise that it would only take a few minutes. Now that he doesn't cry and wiggle, it really does only take a few minutes no DVD and no smarties.
This Friday, once Elijah was done, I contemplated something I've been debating on and off for a few months...should I cut Jeremy's hair too? I had cut it once, but it was just a trim. Now with the summer and constant sunscreen in the hair (when you have a fair baby who will only leave his hat on sometimes, the sunscreen is very neccessary) I was looking for him to go short. The same sort of short that caused my mother to cry out, what have you done to Elijah's hair, when we returned to her house after his first haircut at 17 months.
Let's face it, I'm no Celine Dion who refuses to put a blade to her son's head. One of the great things about raising boys is that short hair is easy. No tangles, no mess, just zip the clippers over them once in a while and they are happy campers. I'm also a big believer in boys looking like boys. (I'll duck while the tomatoes for stereotyping are chucked at me here). I know the style for boys these days is a little long and shaggy and that's great, when they are 12, not so much when they are 1 and someone comments on your very cute little girl. (trust me, it happened recently and Jeremy was wearing a very blue romper at the time...her apology included the comment, but he's so cute).
But I digress, the long and short of it is, I went for it. I propped Jeremy up in his highchair and started cutting. I waited for the tears and screams...I was not prepared for the giggles. He loved it. He thought this was fun. I have to remember that second children do not do everything the same as the first. (they are so different!). Now due to his beautiful, long, fine baby hair, his haircut took significantly longer than Elijah's. And in the end, I had to step away to decide if I did the right thing. One bath later, I was happy. Yes, he looks a little older now (they always look a little less like babies after a haircut), but it already is so much easier than before. It's neater and so much easier with the sunscreen. It was time, and I'm glad I did it.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Superman


A while back, I promised to write a bit about how superheroes relate to Christ. This was after I saw IronMan and before I got bogged down with work stuff/mommy stuff/life in general stuff. I thought a lot about which superhero to start with, narrowed it down to two before picking Superman.
Superman was the first superhero I really ever loved. My first experience with Superman was like any other child of the 70's...Christopher Reeve's Superman. And yes, like any other girl loving superheroes my favorite Superman movie was Superman 2(the romantic one).
I think we all enjoy the idea of the alter-ego. Clark Kent is the perfect example of this. No one would suspect him of being Super-anything. He's awkward, shy, bumbling, stuttering, and nervous. He takes care of his elderly mother. He doesn't drink or smoke. He's just this very good, very quiet person.
Christ was like this too. He was not the great warrior king messiah that the Jews were expecting to release them of their bondage. He was from a little town of little importance. He was a carpenter's son. His mother was unwed when she conceived him. He was unexpected.
Then introduce Superman. The fellow from Krypton. He looks human. He was raised by humans. He experiences life as a human. He even gives up his super-ness at one point to become completlely human. But as human as he is, he is also fully Kryptonian (I'm just making up a word here). He can do things that no human can do. He has super-strength and super-powers. He could do pretty much anything he wanted with them. But there is an innate goodness about him. His motto is to fight for truth, justice and the American-way. (I know, I'm Canadian, so part of me goes 'argh' at the American-way bit).
Christ also experiences human-ness. He is fully man and fully God. He is innately good. He doesn't fight for truth he IS truth. He also rescues people. He came into the world to save them. He laid down his life for us...all of us. True he could have come into the world to be this warrior-king that was expected and just knock everyone out of the way, making them do as he willed, but what good would that have done? He had a better plan.
I know all of this is over-simplifying. I also know that I could go on and write a big essay about it. But it's just food for thought. We love these superheroes. We long for these superheroes. Maybe we're all longing for a little more. Superheroes are just stories in comic books and on the big-screen. We're all looking for a little rescuing, a better way. Jesus is truth. He is my saviour.

Summer

Ahh Summer. A time to relax. A time to sleep in...wait a minute, there's no sleeping in, not when you one year old still thinks 6:30 is wake up time. Oh, but that's right he's back to sleep now and I'm awake.
Ahh Summer. A time to catch up and blog a bit.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

3 posts!

Is that is really, only 3 posts in June? July promises to be better...I'm home a lot more.

I'm in love with Pad Thai

I know, I'm slow on the whole foreign food that is trendy thing...esp since I don't live near Vancouver anymore. I first had Pad Thai this spring at my friend Erin's birthday which she cleverly planned at Suwanna (the best Thai place in Saint John)...usually I get a curry bowl, which I did, but we did the "let's all order a dish and share" thing, which was great. Then, last week a bunch of us from work went to the Thai Hut(yes, Saint John has more than one place to get Thai food) and I had Pad Thai again...yummy! So since then I've been craving more of it. Last night we ordered food in because we were exhausted tired from our trip (more on that later) and fortunately Jonathan's favorite Chinese restaurant is almost across the street from the Thai Hut in Quispamsis, so once again...yummy! So now I've looked and yes, there is a Pad Thai recipe my favorite cookbook series (the Crazy Plates sisters) which you know I will try...I'll keep you posted.

Elijah Being 3

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