Back from the beach!

Week one of our vacation is now over. We just spent a week at a beautiful cottage on a quiet lake near Algonquin Park (photos to follow once we buy more memory for the computer and I can actually download the pics). I think that it was the laziest week we've spent since before baby boy came along.

Here are a few cottage highlights:

- Every day we went for a nice long canoe ride. Last year baby boy was terrified of the canoe so we were delighted that he turned over a new leaf. He even helped with the paddling! On our first canoe ride he was overwhelmed with excitement. With heartfelt emotion, he kept saying "Thank you for the cottage!" and "Are we on vacation????"

- When we told baby boy that we would be going to the cottage, it came with the promise of seeing lots of frogs. At first he was disappointed -- where could they all be? But we soon discovered their secret hideout - in the grass and rocks near the front of the cottage. On one of our frog encounters, he said "He's real hungry mom. He needs a peanut butter sandwich."

- Lucky for me, Daddy was the only one who saw any snakes at the cottage. He just about stepped on one while crossing the deck one day. I asked him what it looked like and he said he'd never seen one like that before and that it was "plaid." The next day he encountered another plaid snake. I kept teasing him that it must be some distant relative of the plaid lochness monster from that crazy pinochio/wizard of oz show we used to watch when we were kids. Does any one else remember the plaid, tea drinking lochness monster????

- The little guy's imagination knows no boundaries. While outside with daddy he said, "I saw a snapping frog (kind of like a snapping turtle, only a frog) and a hammerhead tee tee (tee tee is the name of his favourite blankie)." When asked for some additional details about what the snapping frog was up to he replied, "He was pumping and scrunching." So, to all of you who are reading this, beware of the elusive pumping and scrunching snapping frog -- it's very dangerous!

On the morning we were set to head back to the city the little guy was very disappointed. I assured him that we would go on a little adventure on the way home. That idea seemed to appeal to him, so he gave it some thought. When we got loaded into the car he proposed his own idea for an adventure.

"We're going to Constanchayo," he said.

"Where's Constanchayo," daddy asked.

"It's in Canada."

"What do they have there?"

"Things."

"What kinds of things?"

"Ummmm....horses. Grey horses, black horses, and orange horses."

"Are there people in Constanchayo?"

"No, just horses."

Unfortunately we weren't able to find Constanchayo on the map...


- I may have mentioned in an earlier post that the little guy is terrified of moss. We have no idea why, but he stops dead in his tracks whenever he sees it. The cottage grounds were full of moss, which turned out to be a good thing. The continuous exposure made him relax a bit.

"Moss is a plant," he kept telling us. "Moss can't hurt you."

To prove he was right, I made a point of patting the moss and telling him it was soft and fuzzy like a cat.

"You pat the moss, Mommy?" he asked every time we came across a moss patch. I must have patted moss a thousand times a day. When I invited him to try, he refused (he's still not completely cured). But, he did stomp his foot on some moss once, and touched some lichen on a stump near some moss. That's progress, isn't it?

- Hubby and I decided that we were going to put toilet training into full action while on vacation. So far we've failed miserably.

Daddy taught him how to pee in the woods, figuring it was a skill that all young lads should acquire. Unfortunately, baby boy thinks that the peeing is not limited to the side of a tree. He figured the middle of the deck and on the floor of the cottage were also good pee spots. And every time he would do a little sprinkle, he'd come up to us with a wide grin and demand a candle and a treat. One step forward, two steps back (again!!!). At this rate, he's going to be in diapers until he's a teenager!