Neighbours

Everybody needs good neighbours!
Although our plan is to one day get off the dock for now we are tied up.  That doesn't mean we can't make the most of it though.  We have some really great times and great people all around us in Dockyard.  Yesterday I reflected on this as we played before dinner.
We got home and Jacob was still asleep in the pumpkin seat in the car so Marley and I decided that a picnic snack on the grass while mummy washed the car was in order.  (OK Mummy may have decided!)
We parked on the lawn in front of our gate and laid out our blanket (which I always keep in the back of the car) I ran Marley and Jacob down to the boat (she insisted on staying on the dock with him) while I quickly got together grapes, crackers and cheese.  We set up camp next to the car and I washed as Jacob slept and Marley snacked.  This was much to the amusement of the tourists walking by who asked for directions back to the ferry, and to the cruise ship workers who have taken up fishing at our gate.
As in all good car washing you must first rinse... 1 bucket of water, then wash.... 2 buckets.... and then rinse again....3 buckets! That's all fine if your hose reaches your car, or the tap is next to your car but I had to keep running back down to the dock to fill my bucket.  I also had to carry Jacob in the car seat and get Marley to follow along all three times.  (I couldn't exactly leave them there having a picnic even though I was only feet away!) Marley has her stubborn trait which meant I had to keep waiting for her to finish "just one more grape", or "last three crackers"! We got the car cleaned and Jacob woke up just at the end.
We packed up and headed back to the boat where Marley saw her toy box still on the dock from the last time we went out and attempted to wash the boat.  She insisted on playing and since we still had an hour before dinner I allowed.  We pulled everything out and enjoyed our time playing on the dock.

Our neighbours probably have no need to read this blog as they are an intricate part of this.  As we picnicked on the grass Henry- Jacobs new boat buddy arrived home from the ferry.  Tom, Marley's biggest fan also arrived back from the ferry and stopped by to play a little and our closest neighbour gave me great inspiration to not only wash my car but our boat as well.  He has begun wiping everything down and putting up his old canvas and bimini from last year.  Marley also made a point of letting our newest neighbours know that leaving trash behind is not acceptable either.  She gasped as we went up the ramp on one of our bucket trips as there was trash in the water and exclaimed for all to hear "the trash in the water is VERY BAD, it will kill all the fish especially plastics bags for turtles, this is VERY BAD mummy!". I guess the summer season has begun; cheers to longer days and more outside activities!

Everything is Relative

When you're having a bad day, everything is relative;
If your kids have kept you up all night and the dishes aren't done and the laundry is piling up then someone not putting their beer bottle in the recycling bin at the end of the day might be enough to send you to bed without saying goodnight.
If you've had to wait for a ferry that was delayed and then canceled all together, seeing an entire year group of 7 year old school kids and half a boat load of tourists waiting to get on the next ferry might not bring a smile to your face.
If your fiancée has put you through the ringer for the last 10 years when all you've wanted to do was get married and then a friend picks the same dress as you, you may see it as grounds to never talk to them again.
But everything is relative on a good day too;
I always think of this when I'm at school and someone says in their prayer in assembly; "thank you lord for waking me up this morning as I know there are some that did not get to see the light of this brand new day" I'm not religious by any means, no prayer, no God, etc. but that idea is so that is so true!
And today as I drove home while witnessing something that almost caused me to have an accident I had a revelation.
Today minus all the drama of the last two months, the heart ache of the last two years and all the mindless mello dramas I post here on this blog, I respect that everything is relative to where you are in your life at that point in time. What may seem like a mountain to me may seem like a mole hill to you; agreed. But how do you ever get to the point where shooting someone else up with Heroin in the middle of the day, out in broad daylight is acceptable?! I observed a former student of mine doing this as I waited in traffic.  It put for me back into perspective what I have always felt my purpose was here on this earth in this life. I love to teach, I am passionate about it because down to my core I believe the children really are our future and if we teach them well the world will be a better place. I also know that 'you can not save them all'. For the one I lost today there may be 3 more I help save tomorrow. I can not give up on that. I am excited to go back to teaching in September, until now I have been nothing but anxious. How will I leave my baby? How will I juggle it all? Will the laundry ever get done then?! It will, I will, Jacob will be fine because I am capable enough to manage it. I must find a way because my kids future also depends on it!

Determination

This is from May 7th and May 8th 2012!
Jacob is determined to walk and has been for quite sometime. Today though he pulled himself up to a standing position on our cube stools and then turned around took my hands and took his first assisted step! Now, a day later he is trying to climb out of the boat!

Jacob pulls himself to standing and takes his FIRST assisted step!

Jacob now thinks he's ready to conquer the world!

Sleep Walking and Talking

So Marleys teacher stopped me the other day after I dropped her off to ask me if she ever sleep walked. She never has on the boat thank god! Can you imagine?! How would she even get out of her bed?!! But aparently she got up out of her bed at school and started walking around, the teachers just gently guided her back to her bed but now I'm seriously concerned- this isn't something I have ever considered, but for now its just a one off thing. My girl does however talk in her sleep. Its so cute you can just hear her in there jabbering away. I love her age right now as she can talk about her dreams.
I am passionate that dreams are our deeper connection to the outside world that so many of us have sheltered ourselves away from, that deeper place, maybe spirits or ghosts, or just something more than what meets the eye. So the other night she dreamed that dinosaurs came into her room and were roaring so loud they woke her up and that's why she ended up in our bed in the middle of the night. (She told me this account the next morning). Last night she also had a dream about crocodiles; that they came into 'mummy and daddys room' and ate our eye balls but not Jacobs, he still had his. She wasn't though at all freaked out about the whole eye ball attack, she was very matter of fact- like yah that's what happened. I end with thinking; at what point do we taint our children to fear such a dream, where does that come from?

Round the Sound

This post is now two weeks old but I have them all saved on my phone... eventually I might figure out how to post from my blackberry!

In order to de stress a little last Tuesday I decided to do a walk around the sound. (Harrington Sound that is for my International Readers- I think there are one or two of you. Harrington Sound is approximately 7 miles) I've walked it before so I was prepared for the challenge and really felt I needed it to get myself out of this rut. A few things went very wrong that day. First of all my sneakers are starting to look like Marks shoes and are the same walking/ running shoe I've been using for the last 2 years, secondly I ended up going in the middle of the day in the blazing heat, thirdly I had no i-pod (I really need someone more itunes savvy than me to hook me up with a wicked workout mix; I'm still listening to Collie Budz!), forth I have never done round the sound pushing a 20lb baby in a carriage (much less in the heat of the day), I didn't take enough water, and I left from nanas house which meant two giant hills at the end of the walk! YIKES!! I started off with a good walk/ run pace with a few sprints here and there as I tried to clear my head. I just couldn't turn it off until I got about halfway round and then it was like a switch went off and I stopped thinking about all the drama. By then I was totally regretting the no ipod move.  At Shelly Bay Jacob woke up and I was well past exhausted. All I could think of was the two hills at the end of the route I would need to conquer! That just wasn't happening, I think emotionally things have taken their toll lately, plus lack of sleep, plus a 7 mile walk! I was just done, over it and wanted to go pick up Marley and go home. Sheepishly I called Nana who was at a friends house visiting a new baby but not before I snapped this great picture of Jacob at the Aquarium dock. Love these days with him.

Middle to End with a great Ending!

Today I walked the middle to end for the unknown amount of times.  My dad and I usually do it every year, he was an End to End walker but recently has been doing the middle to end.  For my foreign readers, this is an annual fund raiser in Bermuda where people are sponsored to walk from one end of the island to the other (aprox 20 miles) or from half of the island to the other, or make it to the end in a variety of different ways including swimming, biking, at one point skateboarding or horseback riding... check out http://www.bermudaendtoend.bm/ for more details. Somewhere on there you can also pledge me, I'm under the Sandys Secondary Middle School team.
Anyway, after a fairly early hen night in town I arrived home to Jacob ready for some love and attention.  His teeth are still bad, and all he really wants at this point is to be up and have a bottle. So with about 4 hours of sleep Mark, Marley and Jacob dropped me off at the ferry to town where I was meeting my dad for the start of the race.  He is very competitive and does not like to start with all the 'novice walkers' as you then spend half the walk over taking them so we had agreed to meet outside HSBC to get ahead of the mob.  Unforuntatly miscommunication meant I was at the wrong HSBC and we started just before the mob.  Even still it seemed a lot of people had left early this year anyway ad we were overtaking people most of the way.  Including at first my cousins who cheered us on and mocked my dads competitive nature.  He is just over 6ft and me just over 5ft has to do double the work to keep up with him but I was feeling good at the start.  However this did not last long, my dear mum who is a sucker for a gimmick bought us all 'gravity defying sneakers'.  I had practised with them on my morning walks this week and them seemed fine, maybe just a little too roomy.  Once I got to Paget lights I knew I was in for trouble, I could feel blisters beginning and by 1/4 of the way there I had some for sure.  Funny enough it felt better to run.  However, I have not been training to run 13 miles, so a continuous run was out of the question.  I walked-ran for most of it and by the lighthouse I could feel my knee start to hurt.  This was also just after the funniest part of the walk when a group of vagrant men  (who loot the railway trail during the walk to 'observe the walkers') called out how 'fine i was looking'.... la la la... then said to my dad who was a few paces behind me at that point 'I can see why your walking... i'd be walking too if I was behind her!'.  My humoured dad gave them the thumbs up and said 'she looks good don't she?!' at which point I called back; "I'm his DAUGHTER, come on!".  Soon after that my dad got into a strong pace and took off, I just could not keep up with my feet on fire like that. I was so frustrated because physically I felt like I could run most of it but my feet just weren't able.  I guess this is how proper runners feel about a bad race they have, it was really heartbreaking in the moment.  Close to the end Mark had brought the kids along the route to cheer me on, Jacob was asleep but my ever enthusiastic Marley cheered me on and told me that they had lost yet another of Jacobs paccis on the way there! Mark said he was really chuffed with himself as so many people commented on what a great dad he was for bringing his kids out and having a picnic with them.  I agree but the funny thing is, why wouldn't he?  It is sad that so many men wouldn't do that and he gets such props for doing what should be a no brainier! I finally made it to Dockyard, just a little under my usual time with my dad of 4 hours.  Michael Jackson brought me in running to 'beat it' and my loving kids and Mark were there at the finish to greet me! I was in a pretty bad way with my feet after the race and needed lots of recoup time.  I had a nap with Jacob and then decided that handling both kids for the night was going to be a bit much for me to handle; especially as Mark was going to be out at the bachelor party.
When he headed there he took Jacob to Nanas and Marley and I had our very first, very own girls night.  The plan was to go to the Dockyard movie theatre and get popcorn then come back to the boat and watch Cinderella.  But when we got to the theatre, wouldn't you know that there was a PG animated PIRATE movie playing. I asked Marley if she wanted to see the movie instead and she agreed.  It was such an amazing night with her. My little girl is growing up so fast, and she is the most beautiful person I know.  So sincere and humble.  I was grinning from ear to ear at our little adventure, almost to the point of tears and I kind of think she felt the same.
Tomorrow is her first ballet recital.  Where is my baby girl going? AND what was life ever like before her?!  Its a fairly calm night on the boat, i've finished the dishes, bottles, and packing way.  Marley is fast asleep in her bed; she went down after a quick bath so easily.  I really am living the dream; and lucky to be.

Falling behind again....

Life really does move in cycles, I feel like once again I have fallen into a rut.  With my exercise, with sticking to "staying at home", and obviously with blogging.  Sorry to my fans, all 5 of you! haha!

An exceptional picture taken of Dockyard by someone on a cruise ship. Can you spot us?!

This week has been really busy with Marley getting ready for her ballet recital, everyone out sick at work at Sandys 360, and with the up coming wedding we are in next weekend. Top it all off with no money, dodge weather and two mega ships in Dockyard makes for a fairly unreasonable Jenny! Hahaha but i'm managing. Yesterday I kicked my butt in gear and did our morning walk plus a spin class while at work. Paying for it now but I am very lucky to have such a supportive partner who even when I forgot to tell him i'd be working late and nana arrived on the ferry with the kids for him to collect responds with "having to pick up the kids was the best kind of surprise!". I am one lucky lady and count my blessings everyday. Except of course when he is being hard headed and puts the new shoes that were bought for him away in the cupboard because the ones he is wearing now that have his toes sticking out through the front and the bottom "could still last a month or so".  We may be dirt poor but no need to look it buddy!!!

From Bad to Worse

Well this morning soon after I woke up late and rushed to get everyone ready to catch the ferry and just to add salt to injury it was Marleys first sports day and she needed to wear a yellow shirt and sneakers. This plus rushing caused one of the worst tantrums I have ever seen out of Marley. Mark literally hed her down while I put her sneakers and she screamed her head off. Later on in the day one of Marks co-workers asked him if Marley survived the morning as he had heard the tantrum from his boat! I also had a peanut gallery to face as we boarded the ferry with Marley still wailing. Once on the ferry I explained to Tom (who lives on our dock and is one of Marleys biggest fans and no doubt would habe loved to play with her on the ferry) that we were not in the best of shape and first needed to settle breakfast on the ride to Rockaway. I calmly explained to Marley (all the while fearing another meltdown) that she needed to get out of the pram so I could sit Jacob down to feed him. She did so without hesitation which was a relief but then began to whine again for her breakfast. I quietly pulled her to me and said in a stern voice how unexceptable it would be for her to act up on the ferry and that she needed to sit down and behave so that she could have her breakfast. I also explained to her that I was really upset and disappointed with the way she behaved on the boat this morning and that no one on the ferry wanted to hear any of that. She responded with an "I'm sorry mommy" and ate her breakfast perfectly while I fed Jacob. From the front of the ferry I heard "you should write a book", not thinking about what just happened I replied, I sort of am; I have a blog! Tom then explained; no a parenting book- you handled that so well. LOL if only he had seen me 5 mins before on the boat! The rest of the morning commute continued fine without incident and when we got to school I turned in her yellow shirt and wished her teacher good luck. Sports Day was great and a good laugh. Marley was in the spirit of it all in her yellow shirt with all her classmates. Pa and daddy even got into it by doing the wheel barrow race at the end of the day!
Mark brought the Scout (boat) into town so I left my car and we planned dinner and a boat ride in celebration of Marley's sports. We took advantage of a winter special at one of the restaurants and walked down playing as we went. Jacob took a little snooze in the pram as Mark flipped and twirled Marley down the street. It wasn't until we were almost at the resturant that we realized that both Marleys pink ribbon and Jacobs pacci had disapeared. Marley screamed and cried but luckily Jacob didn't notice the missing plug. Mark ran back along the last leg of our route to see if he could find either but instead all he brought back was someones discarded easter basket. That was no subatitute for Marleys pink ribbon but truth be told I was feeling more anxious about the pacci sisuation. Jacob isn't really fussy about the pacci as much as Marley was but if he has one there is only one kind that will do. And that was our last one of its kind! Once settled in the returant we managed to distract Marley with pictures from sports day and of her with her ribbon. "Even though we lost the ribbon we will always have this picture of you wearing it". We also found a back up pacci (although not the right kind, but a pacci at least).
Dinner was nice and we even decided on a walk down Front Street for the first Harbour Nights in town before heading to the boat. At home we docked the Scout at the end of the marina and headed to Blew Horizon by foot. Marley was super over tired and Jacob hungry to the tantrums and screaming started again as soon as the hatch was opened. When I couldn't find where the reserve pacci had gotten to I more or less lost it! I looked at Mark on the verge of tears and he calmly came up with a backup plan for the missing pacci. That was definitely a make it or break it moment and without his calmess we wouldn't have gotten both kids to bed and asleep within the hour. Thank goodness for opposites attracting!

Letting Go



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sailing away for the weekend

I don't know where the term terrible twos came from but its outdated. The threes are where the tantrums are at! After a week without her regular teacher she was all out of schedule and discipline the weekend came with me at my wits end with her. A whiney Marley does not make for a happy mommy!
This weekend was also the Ag Show which is an annual agricultural exhibition in Bermuda. There are vegetable critters, horse shows, live acts and my favorite the pigs. Its really our only carnival like event in Bermuda minus the ferris wheel. I look forward to it every year and in the past have entered different things for the exhibitions. Marley was super excited to go and on Friday we made the decision to take the 'house' into town and anchor off that way we could have an early start at the exhibition. Mark got stuck at work Fri evening so I thought our plans had fallen through and we would just drive up in the morning, however at 7:00 he came home still wanting to move. Its easy enough to go out on short notice- basically just let go of the lines and away we go.
As we sailed out on the beautiful evening Marley had meltdown number 8 of the day crying that she wanted to go home to Dockyard. It was Marks turn to have the patience and he handled it so well. He calmed her down and told her to go down below and check that her room was still the same. (Its a hard concept for Marley I'm realizing; that our house no matter where it is, is the boat and home is not necessarily Dockyard) He made her a deal; if her room had changed even a little bit we would turn the boat around and go straight to Dockyard. She clambered down the ladder still in a huff and came back up shortly after very pleased. Her room was exactly the same so she declared that we could stay in town for the night but then tomorrow we had to go back to Dockyard! Ah yes to creative parenting!
Waking up in the harbour with the sun rising behind the island free of the dock was so serene. Jacob and I sat up on deck and had breakfast- grant it a nice hot cup of tea would have sealed the deal and really if I wasn't so lazy that could have been part of the picture. However boiling water for a cup of tea VS the electric kettle was not appealing at that moment, haha my above 40 readers are cringing right now "oh the fast pace younger generation! They wait for nothing!". Marley woke cheary- looking for pancakes and then we geared up for the walk to the Botanical Gardens for the Ag Show. 
The Ag show was great and we went at the perfect time- right when they opened. We missed the mass of crowds that arrived as we were leaving. Marley enjoyed playing on the grass most of all while performers did a Zumba routine on stage.  We walked home (to the boat in town) and both kids crashed before we got out of the gate. Our friends Liz and Rich joined us for a gorgeous sail back to Dockyard as Marley continued to sleep down below. As Liz and I caught up, Mark sailed around playing with the wind and Rich learned a little more about the bodily functions of babies. 
Once back in our berth in Dockyard we packed away and began preparing for the Dockyard Old School party; celebrating the beginning of the cruise ship season.

Sunrise with Jacob

Great weekend with great friends