Sunday, November 12, 2006

Miraflores

This afternoon I did a little sightseeing in Miraflores. It's an upscale area and I felt perfectly safe walking around by myself with my camera. I wandered down the Avenida Largo to Largo Mar, a shopping centre perched atop of the cliffs, overlooking the beaches and the Pacific Ocean. The fog was still in and it was fairly mild - warm enough for a tshirt and fleecy vest in which to hide my camera and wallet.

(clicking on the images should make them larger!)

... and yes, those are instructions in the bathroom - don't throw your toilet paper in the bowl ("water" is the spanish word for "toilet bowl", who knew? There is a basket provided for used toilet paper!) The elephant ride was in the shopping mall, it was a completely mechanized elephant walking all by itself!!

I had a delicious lunch of paella with Inca Kola overlooking the ocean, and did some window-shopping to get ideas for Christmas shopping. Later I found churros con dulce de leche - yum!!


On the way back to my hotel, I passed a procession of carnival walkers playing traditional Andean music. It turns out it was a candidate for the upcoming Municipal election, Pilar Brescia, walking the street and getting attention. What a way to say "vote for me!".

24 hours from Vancouver to Lima

0630 Arrive at Vancouver Airport and check in (thanks to Sarah for the ride!). I'm early for my flight but I wanted to leave lots of time for airport security screening. I have 2 large bags, a carry-on with my laptop and both recorders, and my microphone tube that is 3 feet long and makes security screeners very nervous!

0630 Security screening - I have to unpack my carry-on and place all the electronics in separate bins. They don't mind the microphone but my hiking boots and belts set off alarms and result in the full body frisking. Lovely.

0900 Flight to Calgary. I'm delighted to find that my carry-on actually fits under the seat!

1100 Lots of banking and a bumpy landing into Calgary, where we pop out of the clouds only a few hundred feet above a snow-covered landscape. I only have one hour to collect my luggage from the transit carousel and pass through US Customs, then drop off my luggage again. It was pretty tight!

1145 The US Customs agent asks what's in the tube and where I'm going with it. I reply that it's a microphone and I'm going to Peru to record wildlife. He asks what I do and I tell him I'm a marine biologist. "OH!" he says, "like George on Seinfeld! You saw that episode, right?" I lie and tell him of course I saw that one. This is now the 6th time I've been asked that question by a US Customs agent and they never say "like Jacques Cousteau"...

1200 Calgary Airport security screening - this time I am prepared and put everything into the bins, including my belt and boots, and get through with no problems - except I am made to drink the very expensive bottle of water I had just purchased in Vancouver!

1245 Flight from Calgary to New York. I watch a fascinating documentary about manta rays and the movie Water, about the injustice and deplorable conditions faced by widows in India. Everyone should see this film!

1900 Another bumpy landing into New York's JFK airport. I could see the lights of New York stretching below me as far as I could see.

1945 I check into the LAN Chile desk amid throngs of travellers from all over the world, many in traditional clothing from countries as varied as Kuwait, Indonesia and Jamaica. I stop for dinner in Bar Avion and feel replenished after a long day.

2100 JFK airport security screening. This time the screener wants to know if the tube contains a light saber. I play along, joking that my kids sure wish it was. I let her know it's a microphone and she assumes I'm in the film industry.

2230 Flight from JFK to Lima. I manage to get a couple of hours of sleep.

0500 Dawn breaks as we begin our descent along the Andes Cordillera. The fog bank is socked in tight along the coast, as it always is at this time of year, but I see the mountain peaks soaring up through the clouds like a chain of islands.


0615 We land at Jorge Chavez airport in Lima. Surprisingly, not one of the officials asked me any questions about my gear or what I was planning to do in Peru. They probably assumed I was heading to the jungle for an ecotour. I’m bombarded by taxi drivers as I exit the secure area, and rescued by my friend Susana who leads me to a waiting cab.

0645 Lima is humid!! We drive through the blue-collar port of Callao and make our way to Miraflores, the upscale district. Along the way we pass workers and students, minibus taxis, and when we get to the coast, long sandy beaches backed by cliffs covered in purple and blue flowers – la Costa Verde.

0730 My hotel is delightful and has everything I could ask for – a bed, a bath, free internet and a huge bottle of drinking water. I get another four hours of sleep and I’m ready to go!

... there's that crazy microphone tube!

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is

Happy Halloween! All 3 boys had so much fun!!

Saturday, October 28, 2006

dichotomous key

How to tell me and my brother apart, by Kieran:

Kieran wears glasses and is a Big Boy.
Liam wears No glasses and is a Little Boy.

--------------------------------

After Movie Night last night, I realized that there is another way to tell them apart:


Kieran ----------------------- Liam

Monday, October 23, 2006

Liam 2.5

Liam turned 2 and a half on Sunday and I wanted to record his milestone. It turned out to be a bit of a challenge amidst all the puking though. So here it is, a couple of days late!

My sweet Liam is not a baby anymore. Ask himself yourself and he will tell you, "Meemee NO baby! Meemee BIG boy now!". Of course, if you apply this logic to him in the form of "big boys pee in the potty", or "big boys all done numble-time", he gets himself all tied up in a big existential knot about it.

He's finally talking! Even though his first word was BALL when he was about 15 months, he really didn't have more than a handful of words for the next year. This summer he really started experimenting more with making English words (as opposed to signs and Liamish words), and since September he has really taken off. I'm sure he has all the vocabulary tucked away, just for some reason he never wanted to translate those into spoken word before now. It is so hilarious to hear some big words come out (like Darth Vader) while he's still using 3-word sentences!

He never said any numbers before this month, and suddenly he can count to 10 - wan, doo, dee, boor, bye, diss, debben, ade, nine, DEN!! He's learning his colours too, and I think he knows red and blue the best.

He loves his "school" (daycare) and he goes four days a week with "Miss Dinney" (Miss McKinney) while Mummy attempts to play at marine biologist. It's wonderful that his daycare is onsite and integrated with Kieran's school, as they get to play together after school, and several of Kieran's classmates have little brothers or sisters in the daycare too, so we socialize with all the same families. In fact, he has three playmates in his daycare room that will be starting Kindergarten the same year with him, so he'll know these friends for a long time!

At home he has pretty much given up on his Thomas duplo and trains in favour of playing big kid Lego with Kieran and his friends. He is relishing his role as kid brother and wants to do whatever the big boys are up to. Which is probably why he can't say his alphabet, but he can say knight, lego, darth vader, star wars, yoda, dragon, pirate, keyai (karate), and yight saber. I keep remembering Taking a Stance back when Kieran was 2 about no weapons in the house. How times change (introducing Kieran to Disney's Robin Hood, The Princess Bride, and Episode I the year Liam was born was the end of that little quest for moral high ground!).

He loves to play dress-up and he plans to be Yoda for Halloween. This is causing me significant amounts of angst since this means I have to actually take the glue gun out of its package to make the head thing with the green pointy ears. I have actually gone to Fabricland and purchased felt, people! These things, we do for our kids!

He's still nursing!! From the outset, I of course was committed to nursing for at least 2 years, but since Kieran weaned at 17 months, I was quite prepared for Liam to be weaned by now. But he seems to really enjoy the attachment and comforting aspect of it, and in the last three days of stomach flu I've been grateful to be able to get some fluids into him any which way. I'll be gone for 3 weeks in Peru next month, and I'll be taking some homeopathics while I'm down there to reduce my milk supply so that I don't get mastitis, and so that perhaps when I get back there won't be anything of interest to him anymore... But until then, it's nice to have that special snuggle time, especially as the stress mounts as I'm preparing for my trip. I know that I am so fortunate to have been able to have this experience with him for so long, and I am going to miss it.

He is such a sweet little snugglebug. Happy half-birthday, little dude! Love, Mummy xxxx

Sunday, October 22, 2006

If you give a 2-year-old a tummy bug...

If you give a 2-year-old a tummy bug,
He'll throw up all through his bed at 7 am on a Sunday,
And then he'll come and crawl into your bed for a snuggle,
But then he won't feel very well,
And so he'll sit up and throw up all over you in your bed,
And then you put him in the shower to get cleaned up,
And you'll go in his room to find him some clothes
And then you'll notice the barf all through his bed,
And while you're calculating all the laundry you have already signed up for before 8 am,
You'll go through the living room and find 5 piles of cat barf on the carpet
And one pile of cat barf in the CandyLand box,
And then your 6-year-old will want waffles,
And he'll want some maple syrup to go with it,
And your 2-year-old will have miraculously recovered from his barfing,
And want waffles too,
And he will eat the waffles merrily, and drink some herbal tea,
And throw up all over his chair,
And while you're cleaning up the barf for the 3rd time this morning,
You'll go downstairs to put his bed linens in the laundry,
And that's when you'll find the 4 piles of cat barf on the stairs,
And while your toddler is in the shower for the second time that morning,
You'll get the Green Machine going on the cat barf situation,
And then after you've got him dressed again, he'll want to help with the Green Machine,
And while he's helping with the Green Machine, he'll puke all over it,
And while he's in the shower for the third time,
And you've got the second load of bed linens in the washing machine,
You'll start to relax because the kids are playing nicely in the big boy's room,
Until you hear shrieks of horror because the toddler has puked all over the Millenium Falcon,
And is being dragged out of the room by his shirt, dripping barf as he goes,
And while he's in the shower for the fourth time,
He's perfectly happy playing with his shower toys,
While you get the Green Machine out again,
And promise your 6-year-old that he will one day be able to return to his room,
After you have thoroughly disinfected it,
And when you dress your toddler in the fourth outfit of the day,
He looks perfectly fine and happy and full of colour in his cheeks,
So you rashly let him eat 12 grapes and a sip of herbal tea,
While you're helping your 6-year-old try on his Luke Skywalker costume,
And your 2-year-old will want to try on his Yoda costume,
And they will have a light saber battle,
And Daddy will get so excited that he'll rush off to the store to buy a Darth Vader costume,
And he'll drop off your 6-year-old for a playdate,
And you'll take your toddler down to get his baba out of the dryer, all clean and dry,
And you'll settle on the couch for some numble time,
And he'll fall asleep.......
And you'll realize it's 1 pm and you're still in your pyjamas,
Which have crusted puke on them,
And you'll eat a bit of lunch, and have a really long shower,
And do another 2 loads of laundry,
And clean up the kitchen,
And clean the kitty litter box,
And in a while you'll hear coughing from your toddler's room, followed by crying,
And you'll go in to find him sitting in a pool of puke,
And 12 grapes,
And you'll clean him up and take all his bed linens downstairs for the second time,
And he'll perk right up and do puzzles in the kitchen,
Until he throws up on the floor,
And you'll clean that up as Darth Vader and Luke arrive home,
And you'll watch in glee as a three-way light saber battle ensues,
And then you'll clean up some more barf,
And dress your toddler in his fifth outfit of the day,
And do another 2 loads of laundry,
And then you'll realize he hasn't peed or pooped today,
So you'll have a brilliant idea to make some fresh organic carrot juice to help clear out his system
And you'll put some beets in it because it's your heavy day,
And you would rather have spent the day on the couch wrapped in a blanket,
Dealing with cramps,
And you'll make scrambled eggs for dinner because they're easily digested,
And because your mother made them for you when you were sick as a child,
And he'll chug the juice and ask for more,
And he'll eat a nibble or two of eggs,
And he'll stand up and barf blood-red juice all down his front,
And your 6-year-old will freak right out thinking it's real blood,
And your 2-year-old will freak right out thinking it's a real problem,
And you'll be thankful it was all over the lino,
Even if it got into the cat food,
And then he'll get back up to the table and throw up some more bright red goo,
And then he'll have his fifth shower of the day,
And you'll put the big waterproof mattress cover from the 6-year-old's bed on his bed,
And you'll put the red sheets on his bed,
And you'll dress him all in red,
And he'll wander out into the hall and projectile vomit all over the light beige carpet,
And you'll realize you've been cleaning barf for 12 hours,
And you'll survey the bright red puke spread across the hall,
And your husband will don his shining armour and get out the Green Machine,
And clean it all up while you get your toddler changed into another red outfit,
And he'll bring you a towel when he throws up again,
And he'll sit with your 2-year-old, on a towel on his bed, under a red blanket,
And your 2-year-old will give up on the day and fall asleep in Daddy's lap,
And you'll read stories to your 6-year-old,
And Daddy will read more stories when you fall asleep in the middle of Paddington Bear,
And while you're cleaning the red puke out of the Green Machine,
Your 6-year-old will come out looking for pyjamas,
And tell you that his tummy feels upset,
And you'll remember that when you took the mattress protector off his bed,
That you knew this would happen,
And you'll put extra accident sheets under his sheet,
And pray that they'll sleep through the night,
And you'll go and run 3 more loads of laundry,
And just be thankful it didn't happen in the car.