Parenting Cubed: July 2011

We just got back from a great vacation at Parlee Beach!

We stayed with friends (Mary and Gary) at their cottage and as always had lots to eat and lots to drink and a crazy amount of fun!!

...did I mention lots to drink?

The first day we arrived, Isabelle managed to wade into a pile of jellyfish and got stung all over her legs! I think she was more shocked than hurt. I offered to pee on it, but she wouldn't let me!

Watching Isabelle's shock, Lily then went into full panic mode and refused to go anywhere near the water's edge! Abigail arrived a short time later and took her for a long walk down the beach and talked with her and by the time they got back, Lily was over her fear and had moved onto a complete obsession with Jelly fish and racing into the water, tried to catch and hold as many as possible, which sent me into a full panic mode, wishing she wouldn't go anywhere near the water!

Another bright and hot day followed on Tuesday, and Frank brought down his windsurfer and tried teaching the bigger girls. Abigail had a good couple of tries, but then managed to fall off the surfer and into a pile of menacing jelly fish that stung her. The stingers wrapped around her upper thighs and got her good! She managed not to show Lily what happened, so we avoided another panic /obsession attack with her! whew!

Honestly there wasn't very many jellyfish in the waters, almost none actually, but for some reason both girls managed to find the 1 "swarm" of them in a huge ocean!

The rest of the week was Sting free!

We had a long, hot day on Wednesday and the kids begged not to go back to the cottage to even eat! Mary (our hostess) thought they were going to get sunstroke! We threw on t-shirts and Frank ran back to the cottage and grabbed extra refreshments, (aka beer) food and sunscreen and we stayed a few hours longer! ...did I mention lots to drink??

I don't think my camera was out of my hands for more than a few minutes!

I love taking pictures at the beach!

Thursday started out calmly. The little ones were outside playing waiting for us to collect out things for the beach, and finish our coffees, when Hanlin came into the cottage and calmly said "Does this need a band aid?" I had my back to him, and yell.."shut the screen door" (he was always leaving it open), he turned shut the screen and asked again! I took one look, sat him down, asked someone to get some paper towel, thankfully, Mary came back with a towel!!

He had a HUGE gash on the top of his foot. He was playing around the fire pit and slipped on a rock and it sliced his foot. Frank, Hanlin and Gary went to a little clinic in Shediac. I offered to to go, but Frank said, "No, this will be a good bonding moment with the boys!"

Well, Gary left the room and the nurse offered Frank a chair when Hanlin started to howl while getting the stitches! yeah right, some bonding moment!! :)

For the first few hours, we thought he would be in lots of pain, and unable to walk so we set him up on the couch with movies, coloring and toys, and crafts (scissors, glue, boxes). He was in heaven!

... Notice the box around his foot?? yeah.. he kept hitting his foot or laying on it or rubbing it against things and although it didn't seem to bother him, I thought it couldn't be good for it, so I put one of his craft boxes around his injured foot to help him "remember" that he had, well..

a foot.

While he was crafting, he looked at me with this panicked look and a box in his hand. I asked him what was wrong and he giggled and said, "ohh, I thought I pulled my foot off!"

After a few hours he was definitely feeling no pain.

So since Hanlin wasn't allowed to go the beach we opted to do some touring. We packed everyone up and headed out to a goat farm. (Hmmm.. sand in fresh wound vs goat poop in fresh wound - we choose goat poop) maybe not the wisest choice, however....I digress..

We buy from this fellow, Patrick at our local market every Saturday. We love his cheese! (I'm sure he cringes when we show up at his counter, as the kids eat all the samples he has laid out).

The kids had a blast petting the goats and since they are bottle raised, they were super friendly!

Mary, we found out, is some sort of weird "goat whisperer". She would talk to them and they would follow her around like little lambs! This one tried to eat her coat!

That night we had a huge lobster and shrimp dinner and great wine!

ok, so every night we had great wine, but hey we're on vacation!

Friday was a cold and rainy day, and we even put a fire on in the cottage.

We visited the wharf and had ice cream and Hanlin had Frank do some daring diving off the wharf! **nice form Frank**

The girls were so excited to find starfish!

They were dying to get in more surfing and even though the winds were cold, and there wasn't a soul on the beach, and I had to wear a sweatshirt and long pants, they braved the chill and jumped in! fools

I wish I had of been able to get a picture of Mary and I sitting on the beach, jackets, long pants, hoods on and towels wrapped around us! Brrrrrr..... Meanwhile this was in front of us:

When I saw them running towards me, I thought "YES, they're finally freezing", but I was wrong, they grabbed goggles and turned on their heels and ran back to Abigail and the awaiting surf board! sigh...