Kickin' it East Coast style

I have many stories and photos to share from the blissed out holiday that just keeps on giving, but it's going to take some time to sift through them all. I'll kick it off with our lobster trip on Christmas Eve. 

I work with a wonderful girl who just married a lobsterman. They live and fish off Tancook Island, a 50 minute ferry ride from the town of Chester on the south shore. The population on Tancook is roughly 150 year-round residents and they still have a one room schoolhouse. The first ferry ride over every morning brings the teacher to the island and picks Christen up to take her the first leg of her long commute. I love to hear her stories of the island...  their magical Christmas pageant where they use cardboard cutouts for many of the characters as there simply aren't enough kids to fill the roles. She's a great writer and I hope that she one day writes them all down, it's a life quite different from what most of us are living.

I arranged to get our lobster from Vincent her husband and so on the big day my dad, Olan and I headed off to meet the Tancook Ferry. The snow started falling and by the time we got there it was the thick, drifty stuff that Christmas cards are made of. Christen met us, as scheduled, with a big tub of huge, beautiful lobster, 2.25 pounds average!!! Olan was so excited to see them and we had to keep cracking the container open for him to take a look. Christen offered to take us on the ferry before they made their way back, so much to Olan's delight we climbed on. The magic didn't stop there, we got to go up to the bridge (or whatever it's called) and Olan got to sit right in the Captain's chair and pretend to steer the boat!!!  When they were readying to go we found our way onto solid ground and watched the crane lift the big boxes of groceries and supplies for the island, though Olan was quite sure that they were full of presents! 

It was a wonderful morning and we'll remember it always. I couldn't have planned a better day for Olan if I'd tried! As for the lobster? Let me just say that it was the best lobster of my life... the meat exploded from the shells, not a drop of water on anyone's plate.

Boarding the ferry

In the Captain's chair

Watching the crane load the hold

"I want the crane to pick me up and put me on the boat" says the small fearless boy

Headed back with the blast of a horn

A small Santa entertains as we drive home through the storm

The lobsters, obligingly lining up in front of the pot

All the trappings of Christmas

We've been so busy with Christmas madness. Olan is enjoying the lead-up so much and I am loving seeing all the magic through his little eyes. All the firsts... a candy cane, the visit to Santa, the music, the lights... there's just so much FUN to be had. He's putting his personal touch on it all, for instance he's come up with a punk rock version of Silent Night, which involves much screaming with his guitar interspersed with yelling out "Silent Niiiight!". 

I have a million new photos to upload but here's the last ones on my camera, from our gingerbread house building on Sunday.

Getting all set up... Olan eyes all the candy with interest

Here he goes!

An experimental lick. He was really good about not shovelling it all in his mouth, but every now and then he was overcome and just leaned over and gave it a good lick :)

Ta-Da!!!

This boy knows Santa Claus!

Tonight was the Santa Claus parade. It feels a bit early to me, and I hadn't  really discussed Christmas with Olan yet so last night I figured I'd better start planting the seeds.  Little did I know how easily he would cotton on to the whole deal. He was immediately very excited about seeing this Santa dude in the parade and decided that Santa should give him a yellow dump truck. There were a few minutes there where I needed to negotiate around the whole gift issue, and avoid any confusion there might be about Santa giving him said gift at the parade. Phew.

But thanks to my little pre-bed Santa chat guess who was bright-eyed and bushy tailed and babbling away about Santa Ho-ho-ho at 5 frickin' thirty am this morning??? It sure as hell wasn't me. So we basically spent the day waiting for it to be time to go to the parade. And while it was so nice and toasty warm, 15 degrees, it was also pouring rain. After dinner, we made our way downtown and found the perfect parade watching spot, complete with hot choccies and cookies. 

Olan had a blast. He was SO in to it! The favoured line of the night was definitely "what next mommy?" as he peered down the street anticipating the next float. I'm so excited for Christmas, he's going to love it. I didn't think that he'd be this into it at such a young age, but he's all full of talk about reindeer and Santa and sleighs, etc. Hopefully we can sustain the level of excitement until the 25th. :)

Total awe at the madness that is a Santa Claus parade

"What next mommy?"

The little pumping arms as he yells "Santa where are you???"

Some of the floats

His blessed little cookie crumb face JUST as he spots Santa. It just doesn't get any better.

Poppies for all

We woke to a beautiful day so Vitamin-O and I packed up the car with snacks and hit the road. We decided to attend a nice small remembrance day ceremony at a little seaside town near the cottage. The ceremony was perfect, Olan size. He got to march along with the band, and has a new interest in the tuba as a result. "Mommy I HEAR tuba... you hear TUBA???". It was beautiful and sunny and we watched it all from a nice mossy stone wall. The water sparkled and after the moment of silence at 11:00 the bagpipes started and a huge helicopter flew right over our heads. It made every hair on my head stand up. Olan was enchanted.

When we were planning the day Olan specifically insisted on "go cottage Mommy... NOW" as part of it all. Of course it wasn't until we got to the cottage that I realized that he thought that Grandpa would be there and that it would be warm enough to go swimming. Whoops! Lesson learned: Cottage does not exist in perfect bubble where leaves are always on trees, lake is always waiting to be jumped in, boat is tied to dock, cottage is full of people and fun. Once it all sank in he still had a pretty good time racing around and rediscovering toys he hasn't seen in WEEKS. He even ran around with a barenakedbutt once I turned the little heater on.

Watching everyone warm up

Picture-perfect ocean day

Watching the parade

At the cottage, "swim duck... go swim!"

Happy that his big sandpile was EXACTLY as he's left it.

This boy could swing here alllllll day

"No pants Mommy, no more pants!"

commuter-comedy with the O-man

On our drive in this morning we spotted a logging truck ahead. Big news. The level of excitement in the car skyrocketed. Then, we somehow caught up with the logging truck! And not only that, but we were BOTH stopped at a red light, SIDE BY SIDE. Olan was beside himself. So beside himself that when the big burly driver started waving at him Olan started blowing kisses like crazy. What else can a two-year-old in that state do??? Needless to say, both the big burly driver and I were cracking up like mad. 

Then tonight there was a big accident and we were stuck in traffic FOREVER. Olan started whining and complaining "all done... no more car... want this, want that, etc.". I explained that I was all done too but that there was lots of traffic so I had to just keep on driving until we got home. He was quiet for a moment and then said "one person  drive, one person play guitar". I handed him his little "coustic" guitar (read acoustic) and he strummed away for the rest of the ride. What a sensible idea.

Hooray!

"Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk, Martin Luther King walked so Obama could run, Obama's running so we all can fly."

— Jay Z

Still my gentle giant

Just back from the doctor and two-year-old Olan is 82% for height and 72% for weight. Still a tall boy, but his growth has slowed. This makes me happy, I had visions of trying to discipline a 7-foot 16-year-old. ;)

He impressed the doctor with his chatter and tried to get her to help him take the apart the weigh scale "just one time". She wouldn't go for it so he sat down and pretended that it was a "fast race car". She left to get his flu shot ready and when she came back in the room, trying to hide the needle behind her back, he announced "give Olan needle in arm" and tried to pull up his own sleeve. He watched her do the whole alcohol wipe and needle and then said "thank-you". She told him that he was a beautiful, beautiful boy and could come back anytime.

Excuse his "bling" in the pic, it's to go with his Adidas track suit, courtesy of Aunty Mer. :)

Boo!

Halloween was magical. When we woke up on Halloween morning it was pitch black downstairs. As we rounded the corner of the stairs, Olan actually gave a little gasp. My wonder-mother had snuck down before us and lit the pumpkins that Mer and I had carved the night before. He was totally blown away. He spent the remainder of the time before we left for school re-enacting the moment. He'd go over to the stairs, bang on them and say "Olan come downstairs... WHAT Olan see? Olan see PUMPKINS! Olan see ELMO!!!". It was priceless.

He had a great day at school, as a scary, scary skeleton. We popped our heads into a couple other rooms just so he could yell "Boo!". And although he has technically trick-or-treated in past years this year marked the realization that people were giving him candy and ALL he had to do was bang on their door and yell "Trick-or-treat!!!". Yelling, banging and candy... what gives? After the circuit, starting with Martha and John, who were his first Halloween visit two years ago as chocolate bear, we hung out at the end of the driveway in front of the toasty bonfire and had hot chocolate and smarties which made for a totally blissed out boy. And mommy got to have a cigar :)

The end of another chapter...

Well this week marks the close of my role as a breastfeeding momma. It's surprisingly sad.

In the beginning there was Joan the breastfeeding guru at the Mom and baby clinic. She showed me the wonders of breastfeeding lying down and made all the necessary adjustments to make sure that we were doing it the right way. Hell, these days you could pretty much hang me by my right toe from a crane 200 ft in the air with one hand tied behind my back and I could breastfeed at the same time, with ease. Pffft... someone SHOWING you how to breastfeed??? It's so eeeeeasy.

We've come a long way Olan and I, and its been an incredible thing to nourish this little growing body of his.

The week also coincides with Olan moving to the big kid room at school and he's quite puffed up and proud to be "a BIG boy". This has helped the transition immensely.

Happy Birthday baby Fenner!!!

Not a baby any longer but a grown-up girl of one! I explained to Olan that we were going to have to drop baby from Fenner's name but I'm not sure that he got it. his response was "Baby Fenner grown-up lady now?". However, he was thrilled to hear that there was more candle-blowing-cake-eating happening in the world, we just wish we were closer so we could have some. :)

Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday to Aunty Aly!

We would like to extend warm birthday wishes to a sister and an aunty and a momma-to-be (again!) in Ottawa tonight! We hope you have many chances to use these faces...

A shoutout to the hippest godparents around

Olan received a very nice package from Jared and Katie, all the way from their new digs in San Francisco. 

One of the fun things it contained was this very cool hoodie. Perfect streetwear for my little music lover.

He wore it to school, with the equally cool bubble/planet shirt underneath (can't be seen in these photos) and he caused quite a stir. One of his teachers would like to arrange to have new godparents in SF to send her cool books and clothes. So if you see any likely suspects coffeekids, send on their contact info. :)

You may notice his little twisted fingers in the pictures. Lately they are always twisted all up in the craziest of arrangements. I've been trying to teach him to snap on the drive to work. He needs an instrument for the car other than the guitar (which I sometimes forget). He was trying SO hard to figure it out this morning and finally in an exasperated voice he said "Olan need use mommy's fingers please". 

If only life were that easy... need to cook a gourmet meal? Borrow a chef's hands for the night. Need to write a book? Call an author you admire and arrange to borrow their hands. 

Apple time

This afternoon we took a trip to the valley to fill our car with delicious crispy honeycrisp apples... there is no greater taste in the world right now.

King of the haybales

"I drive Mommy" This would tractor 1 of the 4 he tried today :)

"Small apple-eating boy comes free with purchase of pumpkin"

Party central!

The party was all that it should be... screaming friends, presents of all sizes and shapes, icing smears on the floor. It was two-year-old bliss. The topper was running outside to see the swingset Grandpa made for him. He still doesn't quite believe that it's his for keeps,  he keeps saying "one more time" as he flies down, as if we're at the park and have to leave.

The pre-party clean boy shot

A tool belt and hardhat, watch out Grandpa!

Figuring out the kazoo

Katie the big-kid helps him out with the barn

His "cappillar cake". A favourite book right now is Eric Carle's "The Hungry Caterpillar", Olan can recite the whole thing. This is what he picked as a cake... and then I had to figure out how to pull it off.

Getting ready to dive in

"I like it!" ... No shit, icing and cholcolate, what's not to like???

The big swingset unveiling...

Happy, happy boy

Big boy swing

Climbing up for another go, and another, and another...

Cleaning up after all his friends were gone...