Tuesday, July 23, 2013

5 Moms, 5 Babies!

2nd Annual Moms and Babies camping trip!
What a fun past few days Caleb and I have had. We started our weekend with an evening of babysitting Lydia's little boy, Kai. Caleb was a wonderful helper, who did most of the entertaining and kept insisting that we 'check on the baby' after Kai had gone to bed. Lyd and Nick have helped me many times with Caleb so it felt great to give them the precious gift of a date night. 

Holding wiggly Kai
We then hit the road for our 2nd Annual Moms and Babies camping trip. We had a great group consisting of 5 moms and 5 babies - Lyd and Kai, Nina and Maria, Cate and Elias, Rae and Gus. We wanted to stay close to town so we headed to Porter's Lake Provincial Park for the night. The weather was perfect, the campsite was great and the kids were wonderful. They even managed to fall asleep in their tents so the moms could have some quality girl time by the campfire.

The happy campers - Cale, Gus, Elias, Maria and Kai
It happened to be 'Canada Parks Day' so there were some activities set up in the afternoon, including Potty Toss. Must be a Nova Scotia thing??!
Of course, curious Caleb needed to check to see if their were any pipes under potty!
Our adventurous weekend didn't leave much time for packing or finishing up work related things, so I was ready to hit the office on Monday morning with a full 'to do' list. I was on a roll when I received a call at 10 am from Caleb's daycare - he had fallen from a play structure and landed on his arm. From the amount of crying he was doing, his teachers thought I should get him checked out. So, we headed off to the IWK Emergency Room. Caleb was an extremely tough little guy, staying very brave while doctors looked him over and took x-rays, and 5 hours later we left with Caleb's fractured arm wrapped up in a plaster splint. He's feeling fine now, and we should be able to take the splint off in a few weeks. Phew, what a day!

Showing off his injury
Happy about the signatures, much less happy about the news that he can't go swimming for awhile!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

On the road again

Well, I have some news. The Sprague/Jeffries family is on the move...again. Only 3 months after moving into our beautiful dream home, we are once again packing up and starting a new (unexpected) adventure. I've accepted a job with the provincial government as Coastal Coordinator - and my new office will be in Cornwallis, NS. So we are moving to the Annapolis Valley, and we just found a house to rent in downtown Annapolis Royal. We are going to rent our Bayside home because we just can't quite bear to part with it so soon. Annapolis Royal was voted 'The Most Liveable Small Town in the World' by the United Nations in 2008, so that can only be a good sign. We are feeling good about our decision and although we will miss our friends/life in Halifax, we think Annapolis Royal will be a great place to raise Caleb and actually settle down. For real this time.....I hope! In the past 11 months we have spent 4 months in Jamaica, 4 months in Duncan's Cove, 3 months in our new house in Bayside and now, another new place to call home.

Here are some amazing photos taken by Grampie John while Caleb was in Fredericton last week. I'm sooooo glad to have him home, but from the looks of things, I don't think he missed me quite as much as I missed him!


I love this photo! Cale and Monica enjoying a laugh over snacks. 
Jeffries family meal - 5 cousins reunited!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Home alone

Caleb is spending a full week in Fredericton. He's 3 and a half now, and it turns out that big kids can go on vacations without their parents! He's been with Greg and Linda for the past few nights and will move to John and Maureen's tonight. I know he is having action-packed days filled with swims at the 'waving' pool, parks, popsicles and visits with friends. Alan and I have been having fun, too, but I must say that the excitement of having an empty nest wore off very quickly. I miss my little sidekick and absolutely can not wait to have him back home.

At first I was excited to make an efficient trip to the grocery store without having Caleb push the cart, or to drive to work without listening to the same 3 David Myles songs on repeat, or to sleep in until my alarm goes off. But I can tell you that I can not wait to for him to come home on Sunday, and I especially can't wait  for Monday morning when I hear his little feet running into our bedroom and I help him up into our bed for some early morning cuddles, even if it is an hour or two before my alarm goes off.

Here are some photos of our grown up boy.

Learning a new trick

Aly and Ava came to visit last week

Stretching during his first ever soccer practice