Picking Food Up Off The Floor

The Party Bus…

Yesterday was a very busy day. In the morning we hopped a bus to the North part of the Island to the Parish of St. Lucy (the island is divided up into parishes). We got to see the waves crashing against the rocks. It was really beautiful! We also paid to go into the Animal Flower Cave. It was kind of cool, but not worth the money. Apparently there are sea anemones in the tidal pools underground. They are quite abundant in the summer, and not so much in the Spring (we saw 2 of them). But the view out into the ocean was super cool. We also got to see lots of Bajan homes and farms on our bus rides. We saw folks out planting in the fields and passed (while walking from the bus stop) fields of tomatoes and squash (a common veggie here). On the bus we saw horses (polo is a popular sport here and many people raise horses for that reason), and cows and goats which were both tied up like you would tie a dog to a tether and stake it in the ground. There were no fences in these fields, so we’re not quite sure which came first, no need for a fence or tying up the animals because you don’t have a fence.

The bus experience is quite interesting. On our trip up North we took a city bus. You have to give exact change ($1.50 Bajan=$.75US). The bus drives really fast and it’s quite bumpy. Because there are so many bends in the road, the bus has to slow down (i.e., slam on its breaks) and honk so other drivers know it’s coming. Often it will have to slow down for a work vehicle that’s blocking the road, but no one is upset, they just wait. Sometimes the bus driver will beep at someone he knows.

Then there are the Party Buses. These are buses not affiliated with the city bus system. I don’t know if any of the following is true, but this is what it seems like. Some guy either owns or rents a bus (it has to be part of a co-op or bus system because they are all the same color on the outside), he decides when he wants to go to work, he gets a friend to come help (this guy takes the money and gives change as necessary), and out they go looking for passengers. The friend sits up front and calls out to people on the street to see if they want a ride, they also beep at you to let you know they’re coming in case you want to get on. You don’t have to be at a bus stop, just hail them down and if they feel like it, they’ll pick you up (they always pick you up if you’re at a stop). I had a vague feeling I was in some kind of video game about a bus trying and pick up and drop off as many passengers as possible in a given time. Now take this and add thumping Reggae music, some mood lighting, lots of chatting with people on the street, and you’ve got yourself a “party bus”. Some busses are more decked out than others with painted ceilings, a tail fin, and exterior painting (like racing flames; see picture). Sometimes the driver and his buddy haven’t decided what route they’re doing so they start polling the people on the street to find out where they want to go and they go where the majority of them want to go. It’s quite entertaining. I’m looking forward to my next trip on the party bus. We saw so many tourists taking a taxi or using a car service; they’re really missing out!

We took the party bus to and from Bridgetown yesterday, where we ate dinner at the Waterfront Cafe. They had a Bajan buffet and steel drum music. It was pretty funny though because most of their music was contemporary cover songs. The buffet was awesome. We started with a split pea and sweet potato soup and salads, then we had hot pot, corn and okra casserole, corn and sweet potato casserole, local veggies, pork, chicken, cajun barracuda, and deep fried corn and spinach, and corn and salmon fritters. Followed by a dessert of fruit and banana bread and some kind of bread pudding. It was so yummy! Con, you would love it!

On the way back to the bus station, before we got picked up by the party bus, we passed St. Mary’s church. It was a beautiful church, but the coolest thing about it was that it was lit up with purple lights. The entire church was bathed in purple. I thought it was the coolest thing. Unfortunately I was too tired to take a picture and couldn’t convince Mike to do it. So you just have to take my word for it.

If you’re ever in Barbados, don’t forget the party bus!

Shayna Vacation 1 Comment »

Having a Lovely Time

After 10 years of marriage and 2 boys, Mike and I decided we needed a vacation, meaning nothing else to do but sit and relax. No conferences, no travelling, just relaxing. We left the boys with their grandparents, so no crying, no fighting, no getting up in the middle of the night either. Our destination of choice…Barbados. We’re staying in an apartment (bedroom, kitchen, dining area) at the Bellairs Research Centre, owned by McGill University (I’ve included a picture I took of the entrance to the facility, from our apartment). It’s a super neat place with lots of local culture. It’s been wonderful so far. Yesterday we went snorkelling. At first I thought it was just okay, interesting coral (which totally freaked me out at the thought of getting too close and touching it), and some fish. And then a giant school of thousands (no joking) of Bermuda Chubs swam right past us. We actually had to stop and wait for them all to pass! It was so amazing! We also saw what we think is a Sand Diver (a kind of lizardfish), hiding in the reef, a bizarre animal I must say. Then for dinner we walked across the street to Groots. Mike had Chicken Curry and I had Minced Meat Pie. It was really yummy. Sorry Con, I didn’t get any pictures of it! But I did get a picture of our lunch which was pizza with corn on it! It was yummy too.

We planned to sleep in this morning, but I was so tired last night that I went to bed at 10pm. I woke up at 8am. BUT no one woke me up, which is extremely important. The birds were chirping and a few kids were playing at the park next door. I took some pictures, we had a little breakfast from the Bellairs kitchen, then went back out for some more snorkelling. Thanks Dan, for the equipment, it’s so nice to just walk out to the reef whenever we want. Here’s what we saw today that we were able to identify:

• A school of Blue Tang (see picture; This was not taken by us, but looks exactly like what we saw)
• French Grunt
• Stoplight Parrotfish, both male and female (they are different colors)
• Bluehead Wrasse
• Bermuda Chub (this one follows us all over the reef, he’s now my friend)

This afternoon we took a walk, stopped at a bar on the beach for drinks and samosas and walked back along the beach. We took pictures of the oldest church in Barbados and are hoping to go there for church Sunday morning before we leave. For dinner we ate at the Bellairs. They have a cook who cooks Bajan food for the guests during the week (note: there are several students doing research here long-term, and almost every week there is a group of scientist here having workshops, we’re the only ones totally vacationing). We had macaroni pie (liked baked macaroni & cheese), potatoes, rice, salad, vegetables, and some kind of fish. The fish was so good! It tasted a little bit like and had the texture of pork. Yummy! More adventures await us tomorrow!

Shayna Vacation 4 Comments »

Violin…lin…lin

The boys had their first “violin” lesson on Tuesday. Our friend Dan graciously brought his violin over for the boys to have a little lesson. Drew especially is into music and he loves CBC radio. Lately we’ve been talking about what the different instruments are so I thought it would be fun for them to see a violin. Both boys stood fascinated for quite a while as Dan played some music for them. Then they got to try it themselves! Drew was a quick learner and even moved the bow back on forth with Dan guiding his hand. Brandon quickly learned how to pluck the strings, but got a little too agressive in his plucking so we had to find something else for him to do. I think we’ll try him out on the guitar next! I don’t plan on giving them any real lessons any time soon, but based on Drewie’s reaction we may have to let him try it out again in the near future. Anyone up for giving Brandon a guitar lesson?

Mike: If you don’t get the post title then I guess you’re not up on the hip two-year-old music scene.

Shayna Drew & Bran 4 Comments »

Sleeping…not so much

It’s 10:15 pm. Bran is still running wildly around the house, even though we put him to bed at 8pm. This has been the norm ever since last Friday when Bran decided to go on a sleepstrike at bedtime. Needless to say, all the work I plan to get done when the boys are in bed…*sigh*.

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The Boys

Playing Games

A few weeks ago Drew would say “Ahm” (his word for Amen) at the end of our prayers before dinner. He doesn’t do it anymore, but now he and Brandon hold hands. We never encouraged this, but Mike and I hold hands, so I guess they decided they should too! This led to a bright idea…I was looking for something to do with them the other day, so since they’ve been holding hands I decided to see if they would play “Ring Around the Rosy…” And they did it great! We all held hands and at the end fell to the floor. Drew kept asking to play more and more. After awhile I had them play by themselves while I sang the song for them. They kept it up and were having lots of fun! It’s always a good day when I find something new to do that doesn’t lead to fighting over something!

The boys have been learning the game “duck duck goose.” Only their version goes something like this…Drew walks around tapping (read: hitting) everyone on the head saying duck, duck, duck… In the mean time, Bran is tapping his own head saying duck, duck, duck. And then Drew yells Duck! and runs away, Brandon follows after and we have to chase them both. When it’s our turn, when we get to goose, instead of chasing us, they both run away so we can chase them again!

It’s apparent, though, that I spend too much time on my knees, playing, and mostly cleaning up, because our rousing games of “Ring around the Rosy” ripped the knee right out of my jeans. I’m terribly annoyed because I only have two pair of jeans and I spent extra money on these ones because I was hoping they would last longer.

Words

My friend Theresa was writing about her girls learning to read and asking lots of questions about how you pronounce words and what they mean. We’ve recently hit the stage of “what’s this?” I actually don’t mind it and enjoy helping them learn. (It’s a whole lot better than yelling at them for getting into trouble, again). But I’ve discovered that my vocabulary has dwindled over the past two years and I forget what some of the words are for the things they are asking. And it’s stupid things like a traffic light verses a street light, or what’s that thing that water comes out of in the bath tub, oh yeah, a faucet. When was the last time I had to use the word faucet! The worst thing is trying to remember what I called that thing earlier in the day so I say the same thing again!

Drew says “bless you” when he sneezes!

Bran has started saying “mine” when he’s playing with his toys.

Getting In Trouble

I’ve been starting to introduce a few things back into the living room at their height. The most recent was a vase of flowers. The first time they did great. The second time they seemed to be doing good so I went on with my vacuuming. When I turned around I saw them splashing in water on the end table. The table was covered in water as was the floor. The vase, which was completely empty of water, and the flowers were exactly where I had left them…I really wish I could have seen what had happened and the looks on their faces as they tried to put everything back.

Yesterday, Bran tackled Drew and stole a pretzel out of his mouth.

The Zoo

We took the boys to the zoo yesterday and they really enjoyed it. We took the stroller, but they walked most of it. They were so excited to finally see a real elephant (their favorite animal). We also got a good close up of a tiger which was both awesome and frightening even to Mike and I (the fear was mostly caused by the fact that the tiger liked to swipe the glass with his paws!). They even hooted with the owls. The funniest part of the day was the little indoor petting zoo they had set up (it is still cold here). They had rabbits, a ferret, a rat, some chickens, a tiny armadillo that was super cool and super fast, and some baby chickens in a cage. They boys squeeled with delight chasing the armadillo and Drew thought it was really fun to put his fingers in the chick cage and get a little peck from them!

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The Boys

Reading

The boys have some new favorite books. The first is a Boynton board book, called “Doggies”. Mike has been reading it to them in their room each night. It’s a counting book (counting the dogs) and each dog makes a different dog sound, like “Woof”, “Yap Yap”, etc. Drew has the book almost memorized so that when Mike says “one dog…” Drew follows up with the corresponding “woof.” At 6, it’s “six quiet dogs” and both boys put their finger to their mouth and say “shhh.”

The other morning when I went in to get them they were both sitting between their beds reading books. Drew had the doggie book and was saying “Woof” and “Yap Yap” and Bran was reading the Brown Bear book looking at the yellow duck saying “quack quack.”

Two other favorite books are picture books on colors and first words. Every day the boys want you to sit down with them and look at the pictures. Very quickly we stopped them from pointing to all of the pictures and asking “what’s this?” by asking the boys, “where’s the… boots? firetruck? balloon?” Now we’re also asking them, “what’s this?” Sometimes they can answer. Over the weekend Mike was asking them where something was that wasn’t on that exact page and they would look through the book to find it. They know what it is if you tell them to look for it, but getting the actual word out is still a bit difficult at times. They’re pretty good with truck, car, tree, banana, apple…for animals, they like to give the sound instead of the name. It’s amazing how much they love these books! Just wait Grandmas, they’ll be coming home with us!

Counting

The boys like to count. They will count to three and then run from one end of the house to the other or one side of the yard to the other. It usually sounds like, blah, two, two! They’re starting to say three now sometimes but they never say one.
Mike has been playing hide and seek with them. We’ve set up a huge process for their counting or there would be no time to hide. They have to sit on the floor in the hallway with their feet touching the spare bedroom door. They have to count to five which sounds something like this, “one, two, blah, blah, BLAH!” and then they come running out. Usually unless someone is helping them to count, they’re walking down the hallway as they count, which makes it hard to hide in time. But they’re getting better. Bran is really good at finding. Mike has played this game with Noah (without the counting)… and they boys are already much better seekers.

Bath Time

Bran has started floating in the bathtub, with his ears all the way under. He loves it! The only problem is that he gets so excited that he starts kicking, and Drewie being on the other end of the kicks isn’t too happy. It’s made washing his hair a breeze. Drew doesn’t want any part of floating though. He just wants to stay in the tub as long as possible. When Bran’s done, he’s done and will ask to get out. Drew on the hand could probably stay in the tub all night. So now we’ve been pulling the plug and he can stay in until the water empties out of the tub. He seems content with that.

Sharing

I’ve been emptying out the spare bedroom for the boys to use as a play room. One of the first things I did was bring down two chairs for them, one is a stuffed tiger and one is a bouncer seat turned toddler rocker. I thought they would fight over sitting in the tiger chair. Nope, it’s the rocker they both want. Yesterday I heard them screaming so I went in and found Bran climbing up the back of the rocker with his pants halfway down his legs. Drew was on the other end trying to pull him and his pants off of the rocker. It was really hard not to laugh at them. It’s just another opportunity to learn about sharing, right?!

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Heroes

So last night’s episode didn’t surpass last week’s, but it was pretty good.  I guess I was wrong on a few things.  Simone didn’t really come back to life, Suresh isn’t quite as much of an idiot as I thought, or is he? Is it worse not to recognize Sylar, or to recognize him and try to contain him yourself? I was also wrong about the identity of Linderman, but Mike and I guessed that the other person in Claire’s life had to be Nathan’s mom. Mr. Bennet’s new “partner” turned out to have crazy powers!  I wonder who will help him out in the end? And what… will Peter do to escape Sylar? Any ideas about the significance of that building they are always on top of?
Unfortunately we have to wait until April 23rd to find out more! I can’t believe that when the show first aired I wasn’t interested.  I told Mike it could be his show, I wasn’t watching. Ha!  At least I have a vacation to plan in the meantime…

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Heroes

I’m anxiously awaiting tonight’s airing of Heroes. Last week was so awesome! Hero’s dad, what!? Besides Hero, I think my other favorite character is the Haitian. And who is this other person in Claire’s life the Haitain said he was answering to? Based on previews it seems that tonight’s show is going to be equally as intense. Will we really find out who Linderman is? I have an idea who he is, so I’m curious to find out if I’m right. I called Nathan as being Claire’s dad, so maybe I’ll get this one right too. The storyline with Sylar and Suresh is really creeping me out though. I find myself wanting to yell at Suresh and tell him what an idiot he is.
Unfortunately I do know that Simone lives. I knew that she had some power because when Peter has his dreams about blowing up, the only other people in the scene are other Heroes. But I don’t really like her so I was kind of hoping after last week that would be the end of her. Maybe my opinion will change as the show goes on.

If you don’t know about the graphic novels, NBC puts out an online graphic novel that gives back story between the episodes and it’s been really interesting. We always “catch up” before we watch on Monday night. If you’re a Heroes fan, I highly recommend it. NOTE: Some aren’t as good as others depending on who’s writing and drawing them.
Here’s the link: http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/novels/

Happy Watching!

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Embarrassing Moments

I took the boys to the mall today, to get out of the house and to look for a book for the book club I’m in. It went reasonably smoothly. The boys got to look at fish in the aquariums next to Tim Hortons. They got a kick out of the lionfish. Then we saw flamingoes and sealions. After stopping at the bookstore and getting a Caramel Apple Cider the boys got to steer some ships wheels, the kind you pay money to steer a boat around the water. We didn’t pay any money, they couldn’t see over the glass into the water anyway! So, we were having a good morning. Then we stopped for lunch. Drew LOVES cucumber rolls (a type of sushi made with cucumbers wrapped in rice with seaweed on the outside), so I got those and a teriyaki chicken bowl with rice and carrots and cucumber. Drew sat in his high chair and ate really well. Unfortunately Bran didn’t do so well. He refused to sit in the high chair so I put him back in the stroller. I tried twice more and eventually gave in and held him on my lap which is what he wanted, I didn’t want to give in but didn’t think everyone else appreciated eating next to a crying child! The whole time he was sitting on my lap he kept flailiing around and acting like there was something wrong with him (to another’s person’s eyes, to mine he was just being bad). Toward the end of this exciting meal, Drew decided to keep climbing out of his seat (the belt didn’t fit) and then dump the rest of his food all over the table and then push it onto the floor. I got Bran back into his stroller seat with a great deal of trouble and crying and then went for Drew. While I was cleaning our mess off of the table and putting it back onto the tray and packing away bibs, Drew decided to start screaming (a very bad habit of his that I’m at a loss as to how to correct–any ideas? Please let me know). I finally got us all out of the eating area, whew! (usually we make it through a meal pretty well so this was unusual). Then as I’m pushing them back toward our entrance they start yelling “go” over and over “go” “go” “go”. Which I can actually deal with, that is until we stroll up behind a more elderly woman who, rather than noticing the frazzled mamma behind the wheel, takes this as an affront that she is walking too slowly! As she huffs away to the side, I just want to melt into the stroller. I quickly duck into Please Mum where it’s okay for kids to be a little bit loud, it is a clothing store for kids after all. An outfit each for the boys and I’m feeling much better. There’s just something about spending money…

I bribe the boys with a video (one of those times I thank God for a van with a DVD player) to get their coats on and we’re out the door. We get home, quick diaper change, and they’re happily sleeping upstairs. If I only had another Caramel Apple Cider…

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Beauracracy

We’ve been having a little bit of trouble with our insurance company. Now let me first start out by saying we have excellent care and more than I could ever imagine is covered without me having to think about it. The trouble we’re having is with our supplemental insurance. My complaint is not with what they cover (although I would really rather they forego the acupuncture and pay for massage therapy), but that, well, they (or their computers) are just stupid. This past October Bran was in the ER with pneumonia. We left the hospital at 4am and tried to get his prescription filled, the pharmacy couldn’t get it to go through and at 4am there was no one to call. The next day, in a state of exhaustion, I went to our local pharmacy. They couldn’t get it covered, either, so I just paid for it. I think it was a whole $16. Amoxicillin has been around for so long, you’d think it would be even cheaper than that. Anyway, I talked to the “people” at the University to get it fixed and they apparently did.

However, we ran into problems again last week. The boys had their first ear infections and were not happy wandering through the grocery store for an hour, simply for the pharmacy to tell me that Bran’s could not be covered again. Arghhh! (maybe I do say that alot) The pharmacist was nice enough to have the pharmacy eat the cost since, well, in his own words, ‘amoxicillin is so cheap.’ I called our insurance company to find out what was wrong. Because they are twins we now have to include their middle initial when filling a prescription (We used to have to give them separate birthdates… Drew was born a month earlier according to their computers… So, I guess it’s an improvement). The pharmacist put a period after the “N” and that, my friends, was the big mistake. Apparently it screwed up the whole system such that even after a phone call, they couldn’t verify Bran as the correct child and fill his prescription.

A period…

Now why couldn’t the person on the other end figure this out? Maybe it’s not just the computers… I’ll give them one more break since we’re not your “normal” family, though I may dread the next time I have to get a prescription filled for Brandon.

Shayna My Mon/Fayette Expressways 1 Comment »