Hola from Habana

We arrived safely after a long fairly uneventful trip. After trying to negotiate a lift on one of the tourist buses we gave up and jumped on a local bus that pulled up at Varadero airport about 10 minutes after we got outside. The two hour drive was fine with beautiful coastline with crystal clear water to look at. Brendan became increasingly pale and then threw up all over all three of us and didn't look too good on another bus we took so we've come to the conclusion he gets bus sick. After getting off the bus and working out the map we realised we only had a 5 minute walk to our Casa. The casa was pleasant and the family were very friendly and played along as we tried out some phrases from the phrasebook. Paddy appeared in our room at 9 am the next day and then Jo and Jo arrived that afternoon. Highlights in Habana included walking round the old colonial part of town and stopping in various plazas, trying some street food that Paddy bought with the non convertible currency (his Spanish is a lot better than ours), the Museo de la Revolucion, swimming at a hotel pool, walking along the Malecon (seafront), Plaza de la Revolution with its big monumant and Che wall art, trying to imagine 1.2 million people in that square at a political rally. WOW. HAd a couple of good dinners but we are glad we brought the dried fruit as the sum total of available dishes is basically beans, rice, fried chicken and spaghetti. Although the bananas are delicious but too many may not be a good idea.
We are now in Vinales, about 3 hours west of Habana. Caught a bus yesterday morning and stayed at a campismo last night. It was in a hut but basically camping. No water, frogs, geckos and ants in the room but the surroundings were incredible. Beautiful limestone scenery. Went for a walk yesterday and asked a farmer to show us to a cave where we walked in 300m and then Steve swam in the underground pool.
Enough for now, we are heading out for tea. We'll write more later but just wanted to check in.

Slings and airports.

Here is a photo of the sling I made the other day. I made one in a different style last week but it is more of a winter one and will be too warm for both of us in Cuba. So this was my next attempt. It should do the job.

You should also be able to see that we still have quite a bit of snow here in Fredericton. Hopefully spring will have kicked in by the time we get back. We can't wait for warmer weather, sunny days, and lots of time spent outside.

So we are off to Cuba in about half an hour. Have to drive to Halifax first, catch some Zs in the airport and check in at 3am. Will post as often as we can while away.

What is CISV anyway?

Last September I was introduced to Judy, the chair of Fredericton's CISV chapter, and an hour or so later I had committed to volunteer as a Program Chair and to help coordinate an interchange between 16 thirteen year olds in Fredericton and Austria. So what is it? CISV is an organisation that aims to promote peace and understanding through global friendships. Sounds a bit naff but basically it is about making opportunities for kids as young as 11 to meet others from around the world and get to know each other and share ideas and learn about each other's culture. It's the kind of thing I hope Brendan will do when he is old enough. They plan different kinds of programs but the one I'm helping to organise is an individual interchange. The kids are paired up and spend 4 weeks living with their partner in Austria this year then the Austrians come here for 4 weeks next year. They do lots of activities and the focus is on learning from each other and not just sightseeing.

So basically I am a local organiser who doesn't get to go to Austria but does a lot of paperwork and liaises with my equivalent in Austria. Jackie is the other organiser but is about to have a baby any day now so it'll be down to me for a while. The first few months didn't involve too much, a few meetings, and some emailing, then we went crazy on the recruiting and I spoke to loads of interested families, received applications, did home visits and met the teenagers at a minicamp. In the last few weeks it has all been quite exciting. I enjoyed giving the families the good news that they had been accepted and hearing their excitement. We had our first meeting with all the parents, kids and the leader all together and have got started with the more detailed organising.
I'm enjoying it a lot and having something to keep my CV current is a bonus. No plans to go back to work yet. I love being at home with Brendan and don't have time for work! Might have to do something part time soon though. Especially if we want to keep having holidays! Cuba is looming.

The month of March.

What else have we been up to? A few girls and I have started a book group and have had two meetings so far. We all live within a few streets of each other so it's really just a chance to get together and have a few glasses of wine and chat. I can recommend The Kite Runner if anyone is looking for a good read.

We've had a few days/nights out. Went to the St. Patrick's Day "Stew and Brew" celebrations in the Fredericton Market building for some green beer and fairly bland stew. Good fun was had by all though. Brendan had on a pair of proper shoes for the first time and refused to walk even an inch. It was as though they were made of cement. He has since taken a few steps in a different pair so we should be alright for Cuba.
This photo was taken by a fairly well known Fredericton blogger and included in his blog. This is us with Shane, Amy and Andre at the Stew and Brew.
The Multicultural Association of Fredericton put on an event also at the market. Some international food offerings and lots of entertainment. There was an excellent teenage band of fiddlers and some entertaining Irish dancers. Still looks silly to me.
Everything, I mean everything, closes on Good Friday here so we called up some friends for an impromptu afternoon tea party. Steve and I kicked everyone's butts at scrabble (it was a definite fluke).
Went for dinner for a friend's birthday. Shane made a yummy lamb curry. Brendan and their wee one Andre played till they dropped. Shane and Amy are two of the few people we've met here who like to eat interesting food and try new things as much as we do. We've had them round for haggis, neeps and tatties this month too.
Steve and I managed to get out on a date. Ryan and Jen babysat to get in a bit of practice before their baby arrives in a few months. Brendan was still up when we got in at 10.30 though. Sleeping is not one of his favourite things at the moment.
What else? Cancelled our TV subscription because we don't watch it because it is mostly rubbish. Siobhan has made a couple of different baby carrying devices. If they weren't so fiddly and time consuming I might try to sell some. Our typical day at the moment includes watching the squirrels eat from our bird feeder, feeding the fish, going for a walk to the park or to Amy's, "doing the duck" with Boogie Beebies (his only telly watching), reading numerous books, eating a lot of food, throwing a lot of food on the floor and going into town a couple of times a week to the library or to meet up with someone.

Brendan's favourites at the moment include learning parts of the body and doing "heads, shoulders, knees and toes" and other actions to the "Sticky kids" music. Toys of the month are blocks and fridge magnets. He likes to try to stick them on the wall and then laugh like crazy when they don't stick and fall on the floor. Favourite books include Babies on the Move and various flap books. He likes nose rubbing, eating cheese and grapes, climbing on the futon with a good book and coming into mummy and daddy's bed at 5 or 4 or 3 in the morning. Arrghhhh.
No, we love it really!

Still breastfeeding about 5 times in 24 hours but hoping to cut that back a bit when we get back from Cuba. We want to be able to ask Granny and Grandad to babysit for a while so that they can have fun without us around and Steve and I can have a day doing something. Not sure what yet.

Alberta trip

We went over to Alberta last month to see Jon and Katy and take a peek at the Rockies. First time for Siobhan and Brendan so it was very exciting.
We flew in to Edmonton and were picked up by Jon and Katy. It was a beautiful sunny day but the -37C temperature really hit the lungs when we stepped outside. It makes you open your mouth and gulp for air! Luckily that was the coldest day of the whole trip so we did lots of dog walking and got some sun on our faces.
Jon and Katy are well and have a new addition to the family. Angus is a gorgeous german shepherd puppy who they adopted (rescued) from their next door neighbours who didn't really look after him and complained that they couldn't handle him. Needless to say he is doing much better with Jon and Katy's love and attention. Tilly is as lovely as ever of course.

We borrowed the car and headed off to the mountains for a couple of nights. We spent the first night in a small hotel right on the main street. The next day, after going to the train station, the tourist info place and a few gift shops we headed south along the icefields parkway. The scenery was pretty spectactular and the road was traffic free. (Only we were silly enough to drive it in that weather!) We stopped for a couple of walks including to the mostly frozen Athabasca Falls.

At the highest point of the road we passed tha Columbia Icefield which had it's own little microclimate. Very dramatic with strong winds blowing the snow across the road. We couldn't see the road very well at some points. We will definitely get back there in the summer sometime. The visitor centre was closed and there was no way we were venturing out onto the ice in that weather!

That night we found a B&B in Banff and walked in to town. Brendan had an interesting fall while we were out for tea in a pub. Mummy (foolishly, perhaps) let him play on the pew style bench next to her and he fell forward with outstretched hands which missed the table and left his forehead to take the impact, narrowly missing his nose, so it could have been much worse. To top it all off I got the most evil of evil stares from the English woman sitting at the table next to us. I just smiled sweetly.

Anyway, went up on the gondola the next day. The view was spectacular. Unlike much of the Alps there are huge, forested valleys in the Rockies without roads or settlements and I was just trying to imagine all the bears and elk and other wildlife out there. Brendan had another good fall on the ice which we caught on video but I won't post it here because it will just make you cringe. He is getting around well on his feet though. Almost running!


Did some geocaching and then then drove back to Edmonton via Calgary. Spent a few more days together before Steve headed off to Arizona. He'll post about that soon I'm sure. I extended my stay a few days and enjoyed a few bargain hunting shopping trips with Katy, explored White Avenue, ate out a couple of times, played with the dogs, went to the base Family Day event. Oh, and watched numerous episodes of Prison Break. I refused to dance with a belly dancer in a packed restaurant. I should have done it just to entertain Brendan but I just hadn't had enough wine.

All in all a great trip. Now we're getting ready to head off to Cuba next week. Meeting Paddy and Jo there and planning to both relax and explore a bit. Looking forward to seeing how backpacking is different with a wee one in tow!

Eimear's visit

It was really lovely having Eimear to stay for a week. Even though she arrived in what is supposed to be the coldest month of the year it turned out to be not bad at all. Although despite a foot or two of snow on the ground, the lack of new snow was very disappointing for Eimear! We had a couple of crazy non-stop days of looking around Fredericton followed by a couple of days lounging around watching movies. We also went ice skating on a couple of outdoor rinks on a beautiful sunny day and played hockey with an OJ bottle for a puck. Eimear came to Brendan's babies in the library session and was there to comfort him when he fell and got a carpet burn while his mummy was chatting and not watching him at all! We went shopping in second hand shops and walked around downtown taking pictures of old (for this side of the Atlantic) houses. We also had a girls' night out one night leaving the boys at home. It was my first proper night out involving drinking a large amount and dancing a lot- very much appreciated and about time!
All in all a great week. We love having people to stay so... everyone else- get out here sometime soon!!

Miramichi Rotary Pond Hockey Tournament

What an awesome weekend. Shane, Darcy, Jamie and I entered the Miramichi Pond Hockey Tournament. It's a chartity event which raises funds for Rotary projects. This years project is the French Fort Cove Eco Centre. There were 97 teams competing in 7 categories. We entered the non-competitive category just for some fun shinny hockey. Our team name was "My Wife's At Home With The Kids" which won us the 'Best Team Name' award. The award ended up being four pairs of white and pinks socks for our wives. We won 3 of 4 games although it didn't really matter. We had our first two games on Friday night and the snow was coming down really good. The atmosphere of the Cove was excellent with music playing, bombfires lit, flood lights iluminating the rinks and the sound of hockey skates and sticks going at it. Our other two games where today. The ice was in really bad condition with massive cracks, ruts and pot holes. The only way to characterize it was that players on all teams had spectacular falls. All I know is that it was so much fun I've already marked my calendar for next year, 6-8 February 2009.

Skiing

We went skiing the other day at Crabbe Mountain. You drive towards it on fairly flat land looking around for a mountain and thinking it must be a tiny ski hill as there are certainly no mountains around and then suddenly you are in the car park. Once you hit the slopes you realise you have started near the top and you approached and parked on one side and on the other the land drops away to reveal a decent hill (still not quite a mountain) with some pretty good runs on it. 22 runs and 2 tows and a 4 person chairlift. Not bad. The snow was beautiful and powdery, the day was bright and sunny and not too cold. A few scary narrow runs through the trees.
Brendan came to and went into the creche for an hour then Steve and I took turns for a bit. So I got a total of 2 and a half hours skiing and then left with B to visit some friends and Steve stayed with our friend Ryan and skied for a total of 5 hours. All in all a great day.
Skiing was followed by two visits to friends' houses then a "Viva Las Vegas" party which entailed a bit of snacking, drinking and lots of gambling. I never want to go to a real casino involving real money with Steve- he is way too reckless with his money! (Although I didn't do much better)
Looking forward to Eimear arriving tonight. At least we hope so- we are in for some bad weather so there may be delays but hopefully not for too long. She is on her way and has been diverted to Ottawa instead of Halifax but has been upgraded to first class for her trouble- not too bad!

Brendan's first birthday.

16 adults, 7 babies, 3 children, 2 parents and the birthday boy! Busy birthday party. Chocolate cake all over the place. We made three different types of soup- leek and potato, carrot and parsnip and chorizo and bean- and nearly finished them all. There were presents and cards, toys everywhere, food everywhere... Everyone loved Brendan's biggest and best present- his play table made by his daddy.
It has been a long day so we are going to rest now. Here's a video, no sound unfortunately but you get the idea- singing happy birthday and clapping.

busy busy buses

We had a very busy week and went into town three times on the bus. Brendan absolutely loves the bus and gets very excited pointing out all the cars and buses on the road and shouting caaa, caaa, ba, ba. We went to the library three times for different reasons and have met some stay at home mums who are not going back to work like all the other friends we've made so far. So we have a playgroup lined up with them.
Brendan is walking well already and is very stable. We can't believe how quickly he has taken to it. His first attempt was 7 steps taken 5 days ago and already he walks all the way around the room and can stop and start and turn and stamp his foot. He dances whenever he hears a beat and finds it hysterical!
He is currently playing his favourite joke on me. He puts his head down on something and pretends he is going to sleep and then sits up and laughs loudly at me as if to say, "ha ha, only joking, I'm wide awake and loving your attention".

Favourite things at the moment? Playing follow the leader around the house. Hasn't got the hang of being the leader yet- if we try he just turns around towards us and laughs. Steve and I are a little bored of Snappy Little Splashers. I think we read it at least ten times today. Other favourite is Tails. Also bananas, grapes (as ever) apples, buses, cars and bigger kids.

Steve has started his distance learning University course. So far, so good. He booked flights today for us to go to Edmonton in a few weeks.