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I don't know where the term terrible twos came from but its outdated.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

Batten down...

the hatches! I've been thinking of topics to write about since the end of last week. We had a great Fri. night evening cruise with some friends and then by Sat. am the weather began to change.
On Sat. morning we had planned to skip gymnastics (Marley's favorite activity!) for a Huggies baby contest at windreach which had pony rides (Marley's other favorite!).  We spent so long preparing the boat for the winds ahead, and then waiting for Mark to prepare everyone else in the marina that we were too late to make Windreach.  Instead we opted for the S.P.C.A. fair at the Botanical Gardens with for what it lacked in pony rides made up for with a dog parade with one dog as Marley's namesake.  When they called up "Marley Rose" to enter the ring Mark, Abbie, and I all thought that someone had played a trick and entered our child Marley into the parade! So there is a little terrier out there sharing the same name as my little terror LOL

We made it back Sat. afternoon to a blustery Dockyard! Marley kept commenting on the wind and the boat was really rocking. We were glad we put everything away and sorted out the lines before we left as it was really getting nasty.  We raced the rain and had an early dinner at Frog and Onion then went into hibernation for the night (all together in our bed!).  It was a sleepless night for most.  Jacob actually slept his first solid 7 hours (apparently he likes a lot of disturbance!), Marley tossed and turned and fought between Mark and I all night and Mark and I listened to every creak and moan in case something went. 

We were ok the next morning however there were a few slight casualties in the Marina.  The scariest was the large 55/ 60footer behind us Spellbound which had actually broken the finger dock it was tied onto in half!  Mark and the marina manager as well as the boat owners moved it to the hard dock but now we have the wind blowing straight up our stern without any protection.  Our little work horse the Scout also didn't make out well in the blow as one of the commercial boats broke a cleat and smashed into the bow of her but its only slight and the Scout actually made out better than the commerical boat!

Getting on and off the dock has been a bit tricky and requires both parents.  I put Jacob in the Baby Bijorn carrier and then Marley has to be carefully lifted onto the dock and hands held tightly.  Usually I can manage on my own with the two but the real trick it aligning the moving boat with the dock and making a graceful step down (or up)!

Both kids seem unbothered by the rough seas and weather and a little quiet time in our cozy little home was well deserved over the weekend however this is supposed to keep up all week and I'm not looking forward to that.  In the mean time I am connecting with some new mommy friends in the east end of the island while I hide out at Nana's doing laundry and waiting for Marley to be picked up from Nursery.