Summer in Canada

Here we are back in Kenya again! I’m writing this with the terrible screams of Toby ripping through the house – we have decided to start training him to sleep alone in his crib. So far, not good. But leaving him with anyone else for the night is problematic – kind of an imposition to ask someone to sleep WITH your baby!! Tips on getting him to sleep in the crib would be helpful – but it’s too late to tell me that I should never have allowed him in my bed in the first place! I don’t actually regret it, as it has worked thus far in our family situation, and I feel closer to Toby for it, but I do hope he can also learn to sleep on his own. Poor little guy is seriously jet-lagged too.

The trip was (mostly) excellent, and though a poor sleeper, Toby is a great traveler. The only un-excellent part was coming down with malaria as soon as I got to Norway. Actually I had a fever the night before we traveled, and the thought crossed my mind that it could be malaria, but since I already had a cold, I misdiagnosed myself & dismissed the thought. I was fine on the plane, but when we landed in Norway, the fever came back but worse. The sickness went up and down, so one day I thought I was recovering, and the following day I was bedridden. We finally got some malaria medication – unfortunately, it was the kind that the Sudanese malaria parasites are resistant to. So that was another 3 days of hell, then Finn & Aslaug finally checked me into the hospital. I was quarantined and shipped by ambulance to a different hospital that had the correct medication via IV. Two nights later, I was all fixed up & ready to leave. Unfortunately, I did not have much time to enjoy the beautiful island of Sandoya, but Toby did! He was happy to stay with Finn, Aslaug, Anniken, Sikoi, and baby Alex for the duration, and I am ever so grateful to them for taking care of him.

Landed in Halifax in time to get to the Nickelback concert on the hill for Canada Day – what a fantastic rock show! Great songs, great musicians, great view, great concessions (no line-ups – even with 25,000 people there!). Glad I got to that one, because the Aerosmith production was not as F.I.N.E…. nothing on them, they were beyond excellent, but the stage & production in PEI left a lot to be desired – like being able to see the stage, or at least the screens, and horrendously long line-ups for every little thing. Like they didn’t know people would drink beer, and then (shocker) – go to the toilet!! So the trip was bookended by those shows – the Nickelback one reunited me, V, and Jake, together with Devon, Ian, and a few other of Jake’s friends, over many ice-cold cans of Keiths generously donated by the ROV guy. The Aerosmith show got 13 of the Persuaders crew over to a fabulous cottage on the island, stuffed us all into the band van to get to the concert, and made for lots of beer, laughs, and music throughout.

In between concerts, Toby & I went to a gay wedding; hosted the cottage party (where I fell asleep before midnight with the baby); visited his great-Oma in Cape Breton & great-Grandaddy in St Margaret’s Bay; visited many other babies, cousins, and friends; partied at Jeff & Donna’s; went to the zoo with SherBear and crew; hot-tubbed in Mahone Bay; had fabulous Greek food at Tom’s with the Florida aunties; and shopped in between (but not nearly enough!). We didn’t get to visit as many people as we would have liked to – many apologies. I have a few more gifties for Jenn O’Brien, Tracey Gant, and others that I never got to even dispense! But fitting Pictou, CB, Valley, Mahone Bay, and PEI into the trip meant a heck of a lot of logistics, and as much as I like to believe I can do everything… I can’t. Next time!!

Shannon & Philip’s wedding was classy & elegant – we all thoroughly enjoyed being part of their day. However, somehow I managed to completely forget about wedding tears, and cried through the whole freakin’ ceremony… and I was standing for Shannon!! And he thought he could look to me for support..! It was so nice that my Mum & Dad got a last-minute invite, and V & I took Jake & Devon as our dates – plus Donna, Jeff, Angela, Winston, Tracey, Ronnie, and lots of other good friends were there as well. I also had a great time the night before at the rehearsal with Shannon's & Philip's friends & families, walking along the pirated & tall-shipped waterfront to Hamachi steak house, and the very fine teppenyaki.

sonJa, V, and I skipped out at the end of the evening to dash to Pier 23 where Pogey was playing – a fun celtic rock band featuring none other than Warren Robert. We even managed an exclusive invitation to the new Common Ground studio – the former Solar Audio, now under Chris Mitchell’s ownership!! We stumbled back to our suite at the fabulous waterfront Marriott, just in time for Jake & Devon to pop over for one last beer (…or 2). All in all, a very fun day – and btw, Toby had left much earlier with Mum & Dad!

Everything else was hectic & fun… too much to go into here. I already write long enough posts! But I must tell you about my welcome back to Kenya – 2 bags delayed, and the one that arrived on time had stuff missing out of it! Get this – 3 single shoes of 3 pairs. Someone must have opened it on one end and reached into the bottom, each time pulling out an unmatched shoe, until they had to give up. Little did they know I bought 10 pairs of shoes while in Canada! I am thoroughly pissed off that I never even got to wear my new Reeboks, only wore my black strappy sandals once, and my favourite blue crocs are no more – they were perfect for Sudan, and of course you can’t even get them over here! (hint hint, they are very light so wouldn’t cost much to ship! ;-) I already got compensated for the delayed bags (which I received 2 days later, all intact), and will get further compensation for the missing items. But what a piss off. The whole reason I buy all of our shoes in Canada is because they’re bloody expensive over here, and the selection is very limited. ARGH!

Thanks to everyone who actually checks up on my little blog – I am surprised & pleased every time someone tells me they read it! Will let you know how the sleep training goes… (he has finally fallen asleep IN THE CRIB!)