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!

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

Long time no post!

Its been over a month since I last posted.... i think of posting often and the following posts have all come from my early morning awakenings with Jacob. Poor child still is not sleeping through the night!  Since I last posted Dockyard has come completely back to life... it started with a slow trickle of boatsmen preparing their charter vessels for the season and finally our first cruise ship has arrived blocking one of the only two channels we receive of local TV! Welcome back LOL! We have also had Easter and celebrated Mark's big 30!!! I will try to get better about posting more frequently... to be honest it would help if I knew I actually had followers. (feel free to join the blog folks!) Although one day in my blogging hiatus a friend ran into me and asked me about the blog, saying he'd heard it was quite humorous to follow... that was motivation enough to start up again! Thank you!