a day in the life

The bug and I woke up this morning cuddled together. As much as I long for the day he will stay in his own bed until dawn, I also adore our morning ritual. Usually I wake before Sebastian and Andrew and take a moment to watch them sleep, my waking will usually cause Sebastian to stir - so I drink in all the adorable I can before closing my eyes again and willing us both back to sleep. At some point, Andrew gets up - it is usually mid-shower that Sebastian notices his absence and gets up. He wants milk. I open the door for him (which he politely closes behind him every single night when he comes to bed), it sticks and he can't get it open on his own. I have taken to crawling back into bed while Andrew fixes Sebastian's breakfast and (usually) does dishes, getting out of bed as late as I can possibly manage. My small boy will come cuddle back in bed for a little bit some mornings, and will dance on the bed until I get up on others.

This morning, however, Sebastian and I found ourselves waking up nestled together. Neither one wanting to move - afraid of losing that comfortable one-ness that is lost as soon as you try and hold onto it. He smiled, I smiled, Andrew came in to say a quick goodbye. He had done all the dishes and made breakfast. Late I found out he had skipped his ritual shower to get it all done. I love him so much sometimes for those small things.

After a yummy breakfast (mine was low-sugar and included an egg for protein due to my close call on my gestational diabetes screen) - we got ready to head to Science World. The original plan was to bring a picnic lunch and take the bus - too bad I forgot to get bread for sandwiches, nor did I have anything else remotely "picnicy" on hand (save some fruit - which is great but can no longer comprise entire meals). After some deliberation, during which I also cleaned up, made coffee, changed a poopy diaper, got a toddler dressed and clothed and primped myself, I decided to get sandwiches from the grocery store. This meant driving. I am not a fan of driving in my area, it sucks, getting to my local grocer is a stressful experience at the best of times. I therefore ended up at the high-end organic store, where I spent a little more, but got a nice tofu salad and some other yummy munchies.

We then headed over to the "big ball" to meet up with our family centre group. We arrived just after 10 and immediately ran into a mom I had talked to before and her kids. Her eldest is Sebastian's age (give or take) and they had fun terrorizing the lobby together while she and I made small talk. Another mom, who I met last week in a Stress and Relaxation workshop, found me and we also got to talking. Chit-chat is so hard when you add toddlers to the mix, mine is always making trouble as soon as he figures out he doesn't have my undivided attention. Thought the science world lobby is a fairly dull place to hang out - save for the pay parking stations and piles of brochures and maps. I am just thankful he didn't spot the gift shop.

Once we were herded inside, Sebastian and I bee-lined to the toddler pit. There he spent a good hour, before getting restless. Since the place was (relatively) quiet, I let him run around the main displays and helped him figure out how to make things work. We made music by slapping rubber paddles, resembling small beaver tails, against big tubes, he rode the spinning disk, where two older boys gamely rolled a ball to him for a bit, he quite vividly remembered the bee hive from our last visit and was mesmerized by it for a little bit, we found things that made lots of noise and he asked a steady stream of questions.

The only drama came when we had lunch, rather than leave the building, I decided we could sit on the outdoor patio. It was lovely and we got to see the dump trucks fill a barge with Canada Line dirt, the day was sunny and the breeze was cool coming off the water. The problem arose when, upon finishing our lunch, I decided we would avoid a series of meltdowns if we just left. I stand by my decision, I think that one big tantrum was preferable to the series of escalating ones I know he would have had, considering his increasing fatigue.

It was right around this point I remembered we were supposed to bring the car in to have the paint looked at. We loaded up in the car and started off towards Surrey, Sebastian fell asleep within moments - confirming my hypothesis. The car shop was a bust, our paint problem is not covered by warranty. But we did go to a cute little coffee shop where Sebastian charmed the pants off the woman behind the counter and her friend - they were so sweet I almost forgive them for dishing out a dozen HP spoilers (I might care more if I had read any of the books yet). We also managed to find a very strange playground with no slide; in fact it looked more like some strange, colourful, army training site than a playground. With all manner of monkey bars, a climbing wall, parallel bars and this strange rolling barrel set-up. Sebastian found great joy in hanging from the lowest bar we could find for as long as he could and then falling onto the gravel. He was having such fun I had to bribe him with dried fruit to get him back into the car.

Andrew finished day two of working the late shift - two of his work-mates are off on sick/personal leave. Considering his team consists of him and two other guys, he's a little fucked. He has, however, promised me he will not be working this shift all week. This is good news because as much as it pains me to admit it, I don't handle working overtime well at all. He came home today with a special present for Boo - a "blackbox" t-shirt from the EA studio that Andrew works at, Sebastian loves it - because it is just like dad's. Plus it is HUGE on him so will fit for-freaking-ever.



Tomorrow morning Andrew is going to work late and wants to take Sebastian to the park first thing - I think this means I get to sleep in!!!