1)
This is my first day home as a full-time mom. Wish me luck!
2)
We went camping at Sandbanks Provincial Park (outside Kingston)
this weekend. It was amazing. The girls were great. More to
tell about that later, but I have to admit, I expected the
worst.
<1:56
p.m. transcribed from my notebook - times like this I wish
I had a laptop!>
As
I write this there are two happy girls sitting on brightly
coloured beach towels, munching on apples. We're in the shade
of our maple tree. The wading pool is full of water and spilled
bubble juice. The garden has been watered. It's too hot to
do much anything else. We observe a starling pecking at the
long grass. All is good in our little world.
I
am drinking hot milk mixed with some of this morning's coffee.
A
small interruption from Emma's direction:
"Mum.
When I sleep a long time I see things in my eyes."
"That's a dream Emma. What kind of things do you see?"
"Barbie, and a dinosaurs trying to eat them. A T-Rex!"
Uh
huh. I'm not quite sure what to make of this.
So,
more about camping.
Honestly,
I didn't know what to expect. When I told people what we were
doing their reactions were mixed, but I am sure most of them
thought we delusional.
Camping
with a four and two year-old would certainly have its challenges.
Of that I was certain.
I
fully expected any (or all) of the following things to happen:
That
conditions for outdoor activities would be less than optimal.
That a deluge of torrential rain, snow, raging locusts,
or more likely, mosquitos and blackflies, would keep us
committed to the confines of the tent.
Although it rained a little when we got there, and a few
mosquitos took us for the fresh meat that we are, it wasn't
bad at all.
That
the change of scene/lack of routine would cause one girl
(or both) to turn into tiny whiny crazed monsters, prone
to collapsing into a tantrum at the smallest opportunity.
That things like sleeping in the tent, staying in the sleeping
bag, peeing in a strange toilet and staying away from an
open fire pit would be impossible. I actually brought a
kitchen-sized fire extinguisher because of the latter. Guess
what? None of these things happened.
That
weekend revelers would keep us up at night and annoy us
during the day with their ghetto blasters and drunken antics.
This didn't happen either.
Overall
it was a very enjoyable experience. One I am looking forward
to doing again.
On
the way to Sandbanks
we crossed over a huge bridge, the kind that seems to go up
and up but you can't see the other side. Mark decided to point
that out to the girls.
"Look
girls, the road just stops at the top of that big hill."
I
think he also may have said something about falling in the
water.
Of
course, the girls freaked out. Even poor Sarah, who can barely
speak in sentences yet, was clutching her face and saying
"Oh no, big water!" over and over again.
He
tried to explain that it was just a joke but the damage was
done. They didn't believe anything he said for the rest of
the trip.
"Look
girls, some cows!"
Emma would reply in a dry voice, "No, you're just
joking dad."
Our
trip was shared with our friends Jeff and Leah and their daughter
Devon. This made for good company.
When
we arrived it was cold, and even a little rainy. This was
all very mystifying because Mark said it was going to be clear
and sunny. And if ANYONE knows the weather it's Mark. He studies
it in his spare time. I would even venture to say that it
is his hobby.
It
was a little chilly. We set up camp and made dinner. It consisted
of traditional fare; hot dogs and carrots, and also the nontraditional;
couscous salad, and a cucumber salad with red onion and coriander.
It was all very yummy.
The
roasting of marshmallows and banana
boats were saved until later. The BBs were a bit of a
disappointment to me. They weren't how I remembered them from
my youth. In fact, it was just a bunch of hot mushy banana.
My
awesome snack discovery came out later as well, dehydrated
peas with wasabi powder made by Hapi Snack. If you like
something crunchy and spicy, well this is the item for you!
They go good with beer too. I bought it at our über-Loblaws,
but it's available in Asian grocery stores.
The
girls were very good about going to bed. The sleeping bags
were really toasty. This was especially welcome since the
afternoon had been so cold.
Unfortunately
I had a terrible sleep. Not only did I keep sliding off my
self-inflating mattress, but I kept getting twisted up in
the sleeping bag.
I
haven't mentioned the location of our camping site.
I
knew that we were in trouble when, as we approached, there
was a sign with an arrow that indicated that site no. 342
and the community comfort station (read: showers and washrooms)
were located in the same general area.
I
knew we were going to be close, but not that close. It was
across the street in plain view. But after awhile I realized
it wasn't that bad, especially with the girls. Also the map
of our camp site showed that it was larger than it was. It
was all a bit deceiving, but we made do with what we had.
At
some point in the evening a loud buzzing noise started to
come from the washroom area. It didn't stop until a maintenance
crew came to look at it long after we had gone to bed.
Every
single car that drove by, every snore and shuffle woke me
up with a start. I had a mild paranoia that someone was going
to come and stab us to death. It wasn't easy to sleep under
those circumstances. :)
A
cup of exceptional camp coffee got my blood flowing the next
morning. We had breakfast (bagels, cream cheese, smoked char
for some, little boxes of oversugared cereal for others) and
hit the beach.
By
this time it had cleared, and it shaped up to be a lovely
day.
Although
the water was very cold, the kids were happy enough to play
in the sand. They were fully occupied with the digging and
pouring and collecting teeny shells brought up by the tide.
Jeff
and Leah headed out soon after lunch, and we hung around the
beach a couple hours longer.
All
the girls fell asleep on the way home.
And
that was it. A great experience that I will remember as the
first time we went camping as a family. I hope there are many
more years of this to come.
andrea
