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Doing a Happy Dance

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On days like this it’s hard to remember that only a couple weeks ago I was wondering what to do with all my spare time. The lack of preschool combined with the absence of grandparents (who normally babysit a couple times a week) has gradually been driving me crazy — the kids are home all the time and I’m running out of ideas for things to do. Brayden is also going through a phase involving lots of tantrums and not listening to Mom, so I’m approaching the end of my rope. But both boys start their preschool summer camp tomorrow! They’ll be out of the house from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every day, so I’m looking at a beautiful week. Harmony has been restored.

I’m also celebrating the birth of my new niece. Serenity Dawn Kingwell arrived right on her due date, which also happened to be Canada Day, so she’s always going to have a special day for her special day. I’ve been a mom for five years but I just became an auntie, which I suspect is way more fun, and which is certainly a lot less work. Serenity is that rarest of creatures — a Kingwell girl! (She has the same middle name as me, too, which is kind of cool.) I’m looking forward to meeting her at Christmas.

Here’s to happy times!

Yay Summer!

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With school over and most of our regular activities done for the summer, I thought I’d have a tough time keeping the kids occupied (particularly with our babysitters out of town for three weeks — since when do grandparents get summer holidays? Sigh.) Fortunately, that hasn’t been the case so far. We did a road trip to Kamloops on Saturday to see Dave and Tanya’s new place, which was cool. We hardly ever do road trips, so it was kind of nice to get out of town without getting on a plane. Dave and Tanya don’t have kids, but they do have a dog, and Brayden actually spent much of his time playing with the dog’s toys. Both boys performed well overall and both of them fell asleep in the car on the way home, so good times all around.

The next day we went to a neighborhood BBQ where there were 75 guests, 25 of them children. By now I’m used to Justin being the only kid his age who can do certain things (like read at a third grade level) and also the only kid his age who can’t do certain things (like ride a bike, zip up his coat or use the potty consistently), so it was amazing to see him blend into a crowd of kids he’d never seen before. Brayden was right in the thick of things, too, which was no surprise, but I was amused to see some of the older kids who’d been hired to oversee the little ones trying (and failing) to keep him out of trouble. Such is life.

I don’t know what it is about water that fascinates kids, but I love the fact that all I need to do every afternoon is fill our little paddling pool and let the boys run wild. Between the pool, the hose and the trampoline, they stay busy for hours. For an added bonus, they generally wear themselves out so much that they crash early at night — a couple times Brayden has been lights out before 6 p.m. and slept straight through to 6 or 7 a.m. NICE.

A Big Occasion

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So Justin graduated from preschool this week. (Before we left for the ceremony I found myself uttering a phrase I never thought I’d say: “Make sure you go potty before you go to graduation.”) The ceremony itself touched me more than I thought it would — seeing my little boy walking down the aisle in his cap was pretty poignant. (I might’ve been tempted to cry if I wasn’t so busy keeping Brayden from fleeing the yard/turning off the music/getting into the sandbox.) After all the anxiety issues he’s had this year, it was amazing to see him standing there with his class, smiling nervously. I knelt down beside him to get our picture taken and he reached out and put his arm around my shoulders. I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud.

The kids all got diplomas and a little card from their teacher, who quoted Dr. Seuss:

You have brains in your head
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself any direction you choose
You’re on your own, and you know what you know
And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go

Congratulations, buddy. Hats off to you!

Thank God for iPod

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At least that’s usually our motto. We finally joined the 21st century and bought an iPod Touch about six months ago; it’s been such a hit with the boys that we ended up buying two more to meet our household demand. In some ways it’s great: it’s very portable, it stores all kinds of songs, games and videos, and (best of all) Brayden is more than happy to stay in his room with it for an hour or so for some “quiet time” after lunch. The downside is that Justin is addicted to one particular game that gets him upset every time he plays it — but he gets equally upset if you don’t let him play it, so it’s a no-win situation. We were in Saskatoon for a few days last week and the iPods were a great thing to have on the plane and in the airports, but by the time we made it home I was ready to smash Justin’s into the wall. Sigh.

Frustration levels are high when it comes to Justin these days. His meltdowns are getting more frequent and more unmanageable, and it’s taking more patience than I possess to deal with him. We now know a lot of his frustration stems from his perfectionism — he gets very upset if he’s playing a game (mostly on the Wii or the iPod) and he doesn’t win. He’s also more likely to lose it if he’s hungry or tired, naturally, so we have to be vigilant about giving him snacks even when he says he isn’t hungry, and giving him time to rest even if he says he doesn’t want a nap. He goes for his Asberger’s assessment in about three weeks and I’m really hoping to get an official diagnosis soon so we can start getting him the appropriate help. The kicker is that he behaves just fine for preschool, for babysitters, for Grandma and Grandpa…but he goes squirrelly at home. I know that’s probably a good thing — at least he can control it when he needs to — but it’s very, very, very frustrating.

On the up side, potty training is going better for both boys, so that’s a major step forward. On the Saskatoon trip, Justin actually started telling us he had to go (which I thought would never happen). On a visit to Uncle Rob’s house I heard him go down the hallway asking “Is there a potty around here someplace?” and I just about fell over; he also asked to use the potty on the plane. Hooray! For his part, Brayden has given up the special potty seat and now uses the regular toilet like everyone else. I’m starting to believe my life won’t always involve diapers, but we still have a ways to go, so I won’t get too excited yet.

Both boys are at Grandpa’s house this morning…ahhh…

Looking Ahead

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We’re back into the swing of things around here after our trip, although I’m still having sinus problems and I’m starting to think it’s an infection (sigh). The boys are feeling better and everyone is at least getting enough sleep, so that’s positive.

We’ve suspected for a while now that something was different about Justin, but we had to wait six months to get in to see a pediatrician — we finally had the appointment the day after we got back from Europe. Anyway, he thinks Justin has Asberger’s (a sort of high-functioning autism), which we had kind of concluded anyway, but now we have to start the long process of getting him officially diagnosed, which requires a psychologist and a speech pathologist and God knows what else. If he does get the diagnosis, then a world of resources opens up for him, so I’m anxious to get this done, especially since he starts kindergarten this fall. We’ve always said Justin’s a lot like my brother Rob, and once we started digging into Asberger’s we realized Rob very likely has it too. Huh.

Brayden is doing great and continues to move like a flea on speed (that’s my new favorite phrase for him, since it describes him so perfectly). He’s talking a lot more now and amazes us with his whole word recognition — it’s not exactly reading, but he recognizes words he’s seen before. He knows his alphabet and can count to 10, which is good, but since Justin was counting to 40 at this age our standards have been set a little high. He begs to go to preschool whenever Justin goes, and fortunately I have them both signed up for some preschool summer camps, so we’ll see how that goes. Brayden will start preschool twice a week this fall, and Justin will be in kindergarten every morning — I’m going to have so much time on my hands that I won’t know what to do with myself. I’m not looking to get a job, but I suppose I’ll have to do something to stay occupied.

We’re off on our annual Saskatoon trip in a few weeks. Rob and Janettte’s baby is due shortly after we get back to Kelowna, but I’m sort of hoping she has it early. Otherwise we won’t see our niece/nephew until at least Christmas. But the important thing is for everyone to be healthy, of course, so we’ll see how it works out.

Home Sweet Home

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Actually, we’ve been home for five days now, but it’s only in the last couple that I’ve started to feel vaguely human again. I picked up a nasty cold on the flight back from Rome (I couldn’t complain, though, since ours was pretty much the only transatlantic flight to leave Rome that day, albeit four hours late — stupid Icelandic volcano), and combined with a nine-hour time change I’ve felt absolutely wretched for most of the past week. The boys also have runny noses and there was one night this week that Justin was up all night with a sore throat, so it’s been loads of fun. But everyone seems to be on the mend now.

I can now conclusively say that I enjoy cruising. I’d been wondering if it was the mode of travel that bothered me — I didn’t particularly enjoy the two cruises before this one, but that’s because I didn’t like the destination (Alaska and the Caribbean are just not for me). Cruising in Europe was amazing. I did a camping tour of Europe just after finishing college, and I remember being annoyed at having to unpack everything (tents, air mattresses, sleeping bags, cooking gear) even if we were only staying in a place for one night, and then having to pack it all up again in the wee hours of the morning so we could spend another five or six or seven hours on the bus. Granted, it wouldn’t take much to beat that, but being able to eat a meal, enjoy a show or sit by the pool while the ship moved on to a new port was pretty darn cool. I’ve even got my eye on another cruise, this one to Scandinavia, a couple years from now, but we’ll have to wait and see how things work out.

Enjoy the pictures in the photo gallery!

Walking Through History

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Location: Naples, Italy

The body casts impressed me the most. Everyone knows the story of Pompeii: how Mt. Vesuvius erupted early one morning in 79 AD and buried the city under 20 feet of volcanic ash. Almost 20,000 people suffocated from volcanic gases, and many of the victims’ skeletons remained intact under all that ash. Archeologists have since added plaster to the bones to make casts of the people who died. We saw a dog, a young boy, a pregnant woman…all frozen in time. More than anything else about the site, the body casts made it all real.

Pompeii is larger than you might think. The site covers 125 acres, and although we walked around for two hours, we barely scratched the surface. We saw entire streets lined with the remains of old shops, including a bakery with its original oven. We saw the gladiator barracks, the forum and city hall, the law courts…and let us not forget the red-light district with its 25 brothels. The buildings in that area actually had carvings of penises on them to lead prospective patrons to the right place. Classy.

There are sites here in Naples I wouldn’t mind seeing, but I have vacation fatigue and all I really want to do this afternoon is relax by the pool. Tomorrow morning we dock back in Civitavecchia and are scheduled to fly out of the Rome airport just after lunch. I hear volcanic ash is causing problems in the Atlantic, but I’m crossing my fingers that our flight to Toronto won’t be affected. Wish us luck!

Under the Sicilian Sun

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Location: Trapani, Italy

Rival groups have fought over control of Sicily for centuries, and I can see why. Aside from its strategic location in the centre of the Mediterranean, Sicily boasts some amazing natural beauty. Rolling hills and small mountains covered in lush greenery…vineyards everywhere…lemon, orange and olive trees dotting the landscape…medieval towns perched on mountain tops…this is the Sicily of everyone’s imagination. To see it spread before you defies description. Scenic drives normally leave me cold, but even I was captivated by the countryside here.

Our destination today was the Valley of the Temples, a collection of ancient Greek temples strung out on a ridge near Agrigento in southern Sicily. The Greeks founded Agrigento in the 6th century BC, long before the Romans ever came to the island. They then defeated an invading Carthaginian force in 586 BC and decided to build some temples in celebration. Not all have survived, of course; many were plundered for their building material or destroyed by new groups who conquered the area. But some, particularly the Temple of Concord, are very well preserved, largely because they were converted to Christian churches when the Byzantines arrived in the 5th century AD. We walked through the area (now a UNESCO World Heritage site) admiring the remains of four major temples, the ancient city walls that once surrounded Agrigento, and a necropolis that once contained the tombs of local citizens. I’m not much for scenery, but looking at 3,000-year-old rocks is my idea of a good day. Awesome.

The four of us have agreed that we’d like to see the eastern Mediterranean sometime, but we also agreed that we’re glad we’re not doing it all in one trip. This cruise has been great, but we’re getting to the point of being ready to go home. After days of eating too much, drinking too much and sitting on our asses too much, we’ll be lucky to fit into the airplane seats. I’m exhausted from all this leisure.

Naples tomorrow!

Adventure in Africa

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Location: Tunis, Tunisia

It’s easy to forget this is Africa. Tunisia encompasses a lot of cultures, but the place is primarily Arab, and you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve landed in the Middle East. I can’t make heads or tails out of Arabic writing, so it was nice to see that most signs were also in French (since Tunisia is a former French colony). I always try to speak the local language a bit when I travel, but we were addressed in Tunisian, Italian and French at various times today, so I basically gave up.

We started our tour in the ruins of Carthage, ancient Rome’s great enemy. Carthage was utterly destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC, but there are a few original structures remaining, like the Roman baths from the second century AD and the aqueducts that brought water to them. We also saw the Punic cemetery that was here before the Romans ever were — it’s the oldest part of Carthage and dates from 814 BC. Cripes. That’s. Old.

We also walked around the marketplace in the city centre, called the Medina. Medina literally means “hidden city,” so named because the Romans built it to protect against incursions from the sea. It was also supposed to protect people from the insufferable heat (summer temperatures here can get to 45 or 50 degrees), so the buildings are placed extremely close together, providing more shade from the sun. Tunisia is famous for handmade carpets, so naturally we were led into a carpet store, and despite the very pushy salespeople we managed to escape without buying anything. Pushy salespeople were endemic in the Medina — if you showed the slightest interest in anything, a merchant would appear at your elbow and offer you their best deal. Bartering is common and acceptable, but I suck at it and didn’t bother trying. Tanya got a mosaic plaque for a third of the marked price, though, so good for her.

Next was the Bardo Museum. The building was more interesting to me than the displays of Roman mosaics inside — the museum is housed in the former palace of the kings of Tunisia, and we all know how I love anything to do with royalty. It was after 1:00 by this time and we still hadn’t had lunch, so I was too tired and hungry to focus on what the guide was trying to show us, but I was still impressed by some of the rooms in the palace.

After a lunch break the tour continued to a wealthy suburb of Tunis called Sidi Bou Said, a little village full of white houses with blue roofs. We didn’t even bother following the guide and instead plunked ourselves at a little cafe to try the local beer (which apparently tasted like horse piss, but I don’t drink beer, so this is just what the others reported). Coca-Cola tastes the same all over the world, and I’m grateful for that.

I have to go dress for dinner. On to Sicily…

Sailing on the Open Sea

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Location: Somewhere in the Mediterranean

I’ve never been good at doing nothing — excuse me, at “relaxing.” Even at home, when the boys spend a morning at Grandpa’s, I fill the free time with shopping or running errands, cause I need to feel occupied. I need to feel like I’m accomplishing something. So spending a whole day on the ship is a bit of a challenge for me. I was starting to get bored and a bit frustrated — but then I read an email from a mommy friend of mine who reminded me to enjoy being able to eat a meal in peace, go to the bathroom by myself and not have to base my whole day on someone else’s schedule. Point taken.

So how have I spent my day? I slept in, for one thing, but for me that means 7 a.m., so there were still many hours to fill. I sat by the pool reading the book I borrowed from the ship’s library while Chris relaxed in the hot tub (he chatted with one woman from New Zealand who explained that her journey to Europe involved 24 hours just in the air, which made our trip seem like nothing). We browsed the shops on board, sat for a while watching the sea, and went for an early lunch. There’s a magician’s show this afternoon and then someone’s giving a presentation on the ancient Mediterranean, so I might check those out, and then tonight there’s another sing-and-dance number on the main stage. Life could certainly be worse.

And at last the weather is improving! The sun peeked out of the clouds and I think it’s about 20 degrees outside, so I can put away the fleece jacket I’ve been wearing and think about summer again. Tomorrow will be my first time in Africa — it should be an interesting day.