Welcome to New Smyrna Beach

The shark bite capital of the world. No kidding.

But a lovely place nonetheless. Most importantly, it's warm. Well, it was yesterday and will be tomorrow. Today was chilly -- just the break in the sunny weather we needed for an excuse to go shopping. We shopped 'til we dropped, which wasn't actually that long but not bad for a couple of moms with their babies. Cross-border shopping out of the way, we can now get on with the vacay.

Yesterday we strolled on the beach, and I went for a dip in the ocean while Julie watched the sleeping babies in their strollers. The water was beautiful, though the surf was quite strong so I didn't go in far. (I'm all responsible about safety now, you know.) And I'm pleased to report that I did not get bitten by a shark. The pool was unheated and very cold, but we expect that to be remedied by tomorrow. There is a kiddie pool!

Also, I've been for a run already -- hopefully there are a few more to come. Discovered that running on a beach sucks. Even though the sand is firm, the slant of the ground is too much for the ankle. Guess I could've seen that one coming. Instead, I explored a nearby residential area.

Admittedly, it's pretty strange to be away from McPie and the kids. I'm pretty sure that this is the first time Tim has been apart from his Dad since he was born. Even with my mom and sister here to help (and help they do), I feel sort of oddly alone and bit anxious, I guess because I'm on my own for once as Tim's sole caregiver for the time being. But he's a great companion, and we're having a good time together. I'm even kind of not minding sleeping with him in a single bed (long story, and don't worry, the mattress is on the floor for safety).

Which is all good, because when we get home next week, Dad will be in China, and we won't see him for another four days. Yikes! I hope Tim is ready to take on the role of "man of the house."

Working in the workouts

I may have mentioned this before, but I realized in the first couple of months after Tim was born that "baby weight" probably actually refers to the weight you gain AFTER you have a baby, caused by not having the time or energy to exercise, and being stuck at home and prone to snacking. Luckily for me, Sweetie McPie took a leave from work just in time to help me get off the baby weight path, and back into a habit of regular activity. It was easy with two parents at home.

Then, when McPie headed back to work in September, I knew it was going to be challenging to keep up the workout regimen that we'd developed over the summer. Not only would I not have a co-parent, but I'd lose my workout partner. Not to mention that many of our workouts consists of hauling weights and other equipment out to the backyard, and the increasing cold weather was going to prevent that soon.

So I set a modest goal of "four workouts per week". No specifics on what the workout needed to consist of -- it could be anything that either made me a little stronger or got my heart rate up (ie: walking doesn't really count, even though I'm doing a ton of it these days.)

I've actually been doing pretty well at achieving my weekly goal. It's helped that we played frisbee up until last week, Sundays and Wednesdays. So I really only had to worry about two other days. (Technically, McPie and I were alternating Wednesday games, but he gave most of his to me, to give methe opportunity to get out of the house.)

For those two other days, I had to get a little creative. I did a few stroller-runs, which are quite awkward but did the trick. (Tim only barfed from motion-sickness once.) A couple of times I was able to lift weights in the living room while Tim napped. Constance helped occasionally after school, keeping Tim while I ran madly around the block. And when nothing else worked, I just held him in my arms while I did squats, and laid him on the floor under me while I did push-ups. These were Tim's favourite workouts -- he loved the up-and-down of the squats, and giggled like made and grabbed my hair when I lowered myself into the push-up.

Now, frisbee is over until spring, so we must hatch other plans. Last night, McPie came home and sent me on a 5K run. I was a km or two into the run when I realized how long it's been that I did a night-time winter run (years -- I was pregnant this time last year). Sticking to my planned route led me down the path beside an unlit parkway... and here I am wearing completely head-to-toe black. I was like a ninja, only at half-speed. I had to keep my eye on the yellow line of the bike path to see where I was going; not only was it very dark, but I wasn't wearing my glasses (not usually a problem in daylight!)

Ah well. The run was a success, and I expect that I'll be able to do an after-work run weekly. Later in the evening, I was complaining about how stiff I was from workouts earlier in the week, and McPie suggested I find a late-night yoga class that I could sneak out to weekly after everyone was in bed. It took a bit of surfing, but I found this. A 9:00 pm class is perfect! I plan to sign up when I get back from Florida, where I'm heading next week.

So, yoga, a run, and surely I can fit something in on a weekend day when everyone else is around to help... That leaves just one or two days during the week when I'll need to fit Tim into my regimen. I'm all set for the winter, and I'm saving plenty of $$ since I let my gym membership lapse last month.

Did I mention the vacation we're about to embark on? Tim and I are flying down to Florida and meeting up with my sister and nephew, and my mom (Baba Jr) for a week of baby fun in the sun. We're staying in some condos on the beach (the ocean side), with some family friends that we never get to see. Friends -- sisters -- we've known all our lives who also happen to have new babies. I think the condos have wi-fi, so I'll be sure to post updates. Check here for maximum cuteness. (Plus, my mom will be babysitting, so I'm planning some warm weather workouts!)

Little Andy

Mostly we skipped Halloween this year. The kids were at their Moms', so we just gave out candy to neighbourhood kiddies (and luckily had none left over).

Although too little for trick-or-treating, Tim did get into the spirit of dressing up. His taste in disguise was a little more sophisticated than we expected:

I am free!

It would be more precise to say: I am mobile. I finally got a membership with CommunAuto (the Quebec version of VirtuCar).

When I left work over a year ago, I meant to sign up. But I never got around it; there was plenty of stuff to do around the neighbourhood and at home, and I could easily take the bus when I needed to go further afield. And even when Tim was new, it was a big enough deal to get to the grocery store.

But after a summer of traveling and getting out and about, now that Tim is older and curious (yet difficult to take on a bus), I am getting restless and need more to do. Enter car-sharing.

It's awesome. There shared cars parked in a few different places nearby. I can pop the carseat right on the stroller base to take Tim to the car. The world is suddenly our oyster! We've only been on a few independent outings so far. Today, we applied for our passports -- a renewal for me, and a brand-spanking new one for Tim. Good times. We are slowly branching out, and will start to maybe even socialize!

To start, we have plans in the next few weeks to start a new routine: weekly lunches in Kanata with Dad.

Missed another anniversary

When les Mamans asked us if we could take the kids for a Saturday night so they could celebrate their first wedding anniversary, Sweetie McPie and I realized that we'd completely forgotten about our own wedding anniversary, which had passed a few days before that. (This was back at the beginning of August.)

Oh well! we shrugged. Luckily, we find a reason to celebrate on most days, so we probably celebrated something that day (it was a Monday, but that is no impediment), and now we had an excuse to set aside some day in the future for an extra-special celebration.

So, about three weeks ago (August 29th, specifically) was my anniversary of Not Working For The Man.

Oh, how much do I *not* miss going to the office everyday? How much do I *not* miss technical writing? (Those are rhetorical questions, but you knew that already.)

In fact, it occured to me that I should maybe now update my profile to remove the "non-aspiring tech writer part". (I could also maybe add in something about "mom" and change "apprentice knitter" to "wish I were knitting"...)

I have been lucky enough to enjoy a few "professional" (if not necessarily paid) projects over the past year -- the editing, the interview and profile writing -- and I'm looking forward to doing more of the same in the coming months. In fact, I'm almost starting to look forward to the time when Tim's old enough to maybe be taken care of by someone else (aka "daycare") for a day or two so I can dedicate some time to actual work. But I'm not in a super-hurry for that. And I count my lucky stars every day that I don't have a deadline for deciding.

What I will dare to say is, I don't think I'll be going back to an office in the forseeable future. If at all. Really maybe never.

I think that's something to celebrate.

Whiling away

So, the Bible Study is proceeding, um, very slowly. I've read the introduction to the Pentateuch, skipped the first creation story (because, it turns out, it's pretty familiar), and am up to the part in the second creation story where the Subtle Serpent is sweet-talking the natives. (Also very familiar.)

That's not to say I'm not getting any reading done these days. I'm just a bit scattered. Besides the Bible in the bathroom. I've got Love in the Time of Cholera in the stroller for my morning reads while Tim sleeps; there's Why Gender Matters by the nursing pillow to read while feeding; Eats, Shoots and Leaves is on the bedside table, and up until this past weekend's book club meeting, I had an online version of Gertrude Stein's Three Lives up on my laptop for fly-by skimming. (NB: Do NOT ever attempt to read Three Lives. It is terrible. I assume it's only in print because it's Gertrude Stein. I can only guess that her non-fiction -- which I haven't read -- is more intelligent and engaging. These novellas are pretty much the worst published document I've laid eyes on.)

I need to add Frankenstein to this line-up (again for book club), but I've found an audio version that might do the trick for when I'm puttering around and can't sit (or stand still) to read.

Ya do what ya can.

With luck, I may finish the lot by Halloween... At which point I have a loverly new hardcover copy of the new Alice Munro to dive into. Yay!

Meanwhile, my sister and nephew are visiting for the week, and we are doing not much of anything other than childcare. But it's more interesting with company, I can assure you. The boys are quite hilarious together -- aware of each others' presence when placed in proximity to each other, but not quite sure what to do with each other. Other that grab at each other's faces. I will post pictures as soon as I can.

And it's not even Lent

I'm thinking about maybe reading the Bible.

In my first year of university, one of my English Lit profs -- an stodgy old fart who claimed that English literature went downhill after Alexander Pope -- gave the class a list of all the works that we needed to read if we wanted to consider ourselves true literature academics. The Bible was at the top of that list. (There were also many Greek and Roman philosophers/poets there.)

To be honest, I don't think I did much of the reading for that class (Aristotle, Virgil, Cicero, Homer -- are you kidding me?), let alone the rest of the classics he recommended. I've been a pretty poor student of literature in that way; I've lost track of the Dickens I've abandoned partway through. It occurs to me that that paper I wrote in grad school on Paradise Lost may have been easier to accomplish if I've been more familiar with the reference text...

But ever since I visited Israel (years and years ago), and used the New Testament as a tour guide through Nazareth, Galilee, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem, I've been pretty interested in the historical context of both the event described in the Bible, and the writing of it (the events and the writing being separated by hundreds of years, of course). I figure if I want to learn more about the context (partly so I can argue my case for my agnosticism), I should be familiar with the text itself. Also, it does figure pretty huge in much English literature old and contemporary, so it feeds the geek in me.

So, I've replaced Jack Newman's Guide to Breastfeeding with the New Jerusalem Bible beside the toilet upstairs. I figure that since I managed to scour Dr. Newman's book cover to cover over the past six months just by keeping it by the toilet (and I didn't even have any breastfeeding issues that needed attending to; it was just there), it's a good place to put the Bible to ensure I actually delve into it.

(We also now have a copy of the Tao Te Ching there, for when spiritual needs are more pressing than literary geekiness.)

I'll try to remember to post my progress in this endeavour. If I make any.