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