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!

Catch up... tour

Well its been a while, but I can't really think of all that much that has taken place.  We still haven't been out for a weekend sail.  We have had pockets of blustery weather and now its just cold.  Night before last it got down to 49 deg F.... well it's not snowing but its damn cold!

Marley does not feel the cold however and we have to trick her into sleeping into full feeted pyjamas and then check on her every couple of hours to throw a blanket over her.  Jacob on the other hand has no say in the matter yet and has been wearing a cosy teddy bear costume that is extra warm.  I'm sure he will kill me for that one day!

I thought in this time of limbo between summer and fall I would explain a little more about our boat.  First a tour;

Its a 1987 45' Gulfstar.  When we bought it the engine was shot so all we have to move her are the sails and our tender the Scout.  Below deck once you enter from the companion way there is an open plan dinning and sitting area where we spend most of our time.  We eat at the rotating table on one side of the boat and Jacob's two chairs, his lounger and his feeding chair take up most of the other side of the boat and couch.  There is a cute TV DVD where we mostly watch Disney movies with Marley.

Up forward is Marley's quarters.  She has her own bunk which was originally the king size V-berth but we took one side of the mattress out to make her room special for her with all her books and toys.  She has her own access to her own bathroom (head) which also opens into the living room.

Marley's room



Heading aft from there is the galley (kitchen)  We have a large drop down fridge with a small freezer, lots of cupboard space and a gas oven and stove top (2 burners).  There is also a small round basin for the washing up.  That is probably the main thing I miss about the house... the dishwasher!



Heading aft is a small hallway where we have our computer centre, engine room and some cupboards filled with miscellaneous items.



Jen in Galley



All the way aft is our sleeping quarters.  It is a spacious room with a full size bed, two shelves on either side that act as storage for clothes and then our own private head and separate shower.  Jacob sleeps on one of the shelves with his own mattress next to his small plastic containers that store is clothes.



Jacob on main cabin bed



Jacob in his bog boy bed!



Weekends on a boat

First of all highlights from the week!
Most recent- for the last two nights Jacob has slept through the night!!! Please Please let this stick.... going to bed at 10pm and waking up at 6:00am with no feeding interruptions in between is all I want for Christmas! :)
Secondly, Marley was a STAR in her Christmas Concert.  She truly stole the show and had us all cracking up. Videos to be posted to facebook soon.
Finally, Mark and I had a successful date night for the first time in probably over a year and a half.  Our last one was the summer before last on our anniversary.

We live in paradise!

This weekend (Sunday night) I realised I had not driven my car since Wed! Thursday night Grammy and Popop picked up Marley and brought her home and on Friday Jacob and I took the ferry into town to Marley's concert where we met daddy on the Scout (the work boat), on Saturday oh no wait.... Saturday we drove the car to pick up our Christmas tree (the last Cedar Tree for sale on the island and def the runt of the litter). Either way, the point is we finally spent some time actually behaving like we lived on a boat!  On Friday we had the tender in town for Marley's concert and the weather couldn't have cooperated  more for a beautiful moonlight cruise home after a celebratory dinner with the family.
On Saturday after our decorating errands Mark and I had our first date night where we took the tender into Flatts for a wonderful dinner and then home again.  Although we should really have 1) taken part in the boat parade or 2) at least gone to see the boat parade by boat; we had decided on this weekend weeks ago and were determined to spend some time just the two of us.  It just happened that it was the biggest boating weekend of the winter as it was the Bermuda boat parade and that it was a perfect weather weekend.  Really we should have taken Blew Horizon out and anchored off somewhere with the kids but i'm glad we finally took time for us, it was well over due.  Don't worry my steady followers, all jokes aside, we are not expecting anymore for a while.  Having an almost 3 yr old and a baby on a boat is plenty for now!
Yesterday we also decided to take the boat in to visit with Nana and Pa before a beautiful tribute to Adam and others who have died.  There is a World Wide Candle Lighting that takes place for children who have died and will never be forgotten.  Friends of Mark's family who also lost a son the month before Adam invited us round along with another family who recently lost a son to take part in this event.  If there are any readers following this who have lost or know someone who has lost a child it is a beautiful ceremony and worth reading about if you don't know about it already. 
The ride back along north shore home was a little different than the calm weekend cruises we had experienced.  The wind had picked up a bit and the wind direction was not in our favour for a smooth ride home.  With a worn out toddler on one knee and a zonked baby on the other I clutched them for dear life while holding my food against the cabin door to keep it from slamming back and forth.  Mark at the helm, kept glancing over and asking if I was ok, all I could do was grind my teeth and smile and give him the one thumb up, after all this is what its all about; riding the seas both rough and calm because as a very famous person once said; "You can never cross the sea, unless you have the courage to loose sight of the shore".

Birthday Weekend

The weather finally eased up for the long weekend.  Unfortunately we didn't get to go out for the sail we had been hoping for.  Fingers crossed next weekend!
We started off on Fri. with family and friend visits on land.  I have been an Eastender most of my life so moving all the way to Dockyard (on a 21sq mile island) means that we don't see family and friends as much during the week as we usually did. However their are the few loyal friends who will make the drive occasionally to visit us!
Saturday was the best day of the whole weekend.  The wind dropped right out, although it picked up later in the day (hence why we didn't take Blew Horizon out) so after gymnastics we took the Scout to town to run some errands.  Namely birthday gifts for Nana and myself (we share the same birthday- Nov. 13th).  As we headed out Marley recalled 'white caps' and named the types of boats we saw; sail boats or motor boats.  She was really switched on and having a great time on our outing.  Her enthusiasm for everything we do always surprises me.  Once in town we wandered around and got our last min gifts; her and daddy helped me pick out a new pair on sunglasses, it was great.  On the ride back since she hadn't had a nap all day we thought she might go down for one in the cabin while we cruised but both kids wanted to see the sights.  All in all an excellent family boating day yet still accomplishing weekend errands.
An art walk about night in St. Georges inspired me to get back into creating my own artwork again, maybe a new years resolution for 29! Ha!
A swim and brunch with great friends old and new was a brilliant end to my birthday weekend this morning.  How much love I have in my life, I only hope I can pass it on.
Back to the grind already as Mon. is around the bend before we know it. More on the week soon to come, with all this weather last week was quite an adventure :)

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.