The games we play

I thought I'd write a little post on some of Caleb's favourite activities these days. I try to come up with things that are engaging and creative, and can keep Cale busy on days when I'm working from home. Here are some of the games we like to play at our house:

Treasure Map

 This is by far Caleb's favorite thing to do. We make several maps a day. Make one, find the treasure, flip the paper over, make another map and repeat. We hide one piece of lego at each clue, then a bigger prize at the final stop which can be a toy (that he already owns, but acts excited about), a sticker or a little treat (cheerios, piece of fruit or a little chocolate if it is a really special day). 

Road Map

This map even has a rotary (bottom left), and ants on the runway. Yikes!

Yes, there is definitely a map theme going on in our house right now. We love to draw roads for his toy cars to drive on, then add houses, grocery stores, airports, libraries, train stations...whatever we need until we've created a giant city. This is another great way to use the back side of old treasure maps! Lately we've been covering our maps with stickers, which is something Cale can do completely independently if I need to spend time on my computer.


Fun with Cardboard Boxes

We've been burning a lot of energy efficient logs in our wood stove, which means we have a lot of cardboard boxes floating around. They make great kindling, but I have been trying to do something with them before tossing them in the fire. Here are a few things we've had some success with.

Robot head! Buttons for on/off, volume, talk in a funny voice, etc. make for lots of laughs. 

We had more fun making these masks than actually playing with them, but I still think they are cool, especially Caleb's owl mask. 

Animals and airplanes!

Cards

 

What? Can a toddler play cards? Apparently so! We started playing 'black or red' in Jamaica and Cale loved it. Just take turns guessing if the next card in the pile will be red or black. If you are right, you keep the card and get a point. If you are wrong, move to the next player. First one to 5 points wins. Super simple, but good fun. 

Hope this has given you a few ideas of what to do next time you are stuck inside the house with a toddler! I'd love to hear any other crafty ideas you have, especially ones that use lots of cardboard!

Three

Birdwatching at the Glass House. Such a special place to call our (temporary) home.

 Can it really be? My little baby is turning 3 tomorrow? Wow. In many ways it seems like he has been with us forever, but in other ways it completely blows my mind that he is somehow THREE years old. But what a wonderful three year old he will be. 

Caleb is smart, funny, kind and very loving. I'm sure all parents say those things, but it is true. His little personality is also revealing itself to be very detail oriented. He loves to draw and play lego, and can play for hours on his own, completely absorbed in the task at hand. But he does want things done a certain way. If he draws a circle, the ends must match up, or else he'll start again. He is super imaginative. We now have our first official imaginary friend - a tiger that sleeps on our stairs who we need to be very quiet around and always tiptoe up and down the staircase. We've decided that he is a friendly tiger and have named him 'Silly'. We also play games like 'make up a song about .....' and he is great at it. He's written some hits about stop signs, trees and dinosaurs (here is a classic - dinosaur, dinosaur, I love you, ya. You are so big, dinosaur, I want to hold your hand, but you don't have a hand, dinosaur ya, I will hold your tail, yaaaaaaa). 

We had a wonderful birthday party for him this weekend in Fredericton. Lots of family and friends. I had asked that people not worry about bringing gifts, or just something small if they really wanted to. Then, in walks our family friend 'Uncle' Eric Leblanc with a tractor, and not just any tractor (see below)! It is HUGE, but amazing and Alan admitted that was the exact toy he had wanted for most of his childhood, so I'm sure it is something that Cale will love for many years to come. 

Tomorrow we are hoping to do something special for him, but he is quiet sick with a cold today. I knew it was a no school day, when he broke into tears after refusing to eat some apple sauce and said 'I just don't know what will ever make me better'. Poor fella. If he does feel better, I think we'll take him skating on one of the many small frozen ponds around Duncan's Cove. 

Let us know if you need your driveway plowed!!

Blowing out 3 candles

I'm also super excited to announce the release of Alan's debut solo album. He had a great turnout at the Shivering Songs Festival in Fredericton this weekend for his cd release show, and I'm really, really proud of him and his record. You can check out his new website to hear some tunes (and order the cd if you'd like!). www.alanjeffries.ca  Here's a little video that Alan did for the New Brunswick Nature Trust.

Final Farewell to Jamaica

Glass House

I'm back! After overcoming illnesses and a lack of internet at home, I'm finally back with a new blog post to share. We are now settled into our new, although temporary, home in Duncan's Cove - the amazing Glass House. It feels so good to be back in this wonderful little community and surrounded by the stunning views. We've gone from watching the sun set over the ocean in Negril to waking up to the sun rising over the ocean in Nova Scotia.  Caleb's first home was in Duncan's Cove so it is great fun to be rediscovering this special place with him.

Sun rise

As a final farewell to Jamaica, I prepared this short video. I hope you enjoy it.

Home

A quick disclaimer for this post - it was written last night during our flight home from Montego Bay, before we were swept up in the joys of winter travel and ended up stranded in Toronto. We are now back in Fredericton and all is well.

After four wonderful months, our time in Jamaica has come to an end. I'm writing this while sitting on the airplane back to Toronto. It is always a very nostalgic feeling when something you have looked forward to for so long comes to an end, but our time away has been an amazing experience and I'm so glad we got to share it with so many friends and family.  Mom and dad, John and Maureen, Teresa, Patricia, Jen - thank you all for being part of this adventure. And a big thanks to the Robin Rigby Trust and Ecology Action Centre for supporting my work and making this whole journey possible.

 

I'm excited to go home, but I have to admit that I'm slightly terrified of being thrown into the depths of winter.  I had to put on pants and a long sleeved shirt for the first time in months and I'm not feeling particularly good about it. I can't quite bring myself to think about a coat, hat and all the rest of it. But, I'm going home to share the rest of my Christmas holiday with my family in Canada and that feels great. Caleb is also excited to see everyone and of course, to be on an airplane! I think he was been a bit worried yesterday morning when, out of the blue, he asked 'Do they have juice in Canada?'. I assured him that they do, and he has been happy ever since.

Christmas morning headbands and airplanes!

 We had a wonderful Christmas in Negril filled with sunshine, good food and not a moment of stress. Caleb was as excited as we could have hoped and although he didn't get much, he was delighted to find gifts in his stocking and under the tree on Christmas morning. He also helped to make 16 Christmas cards and we had a great time hand delivering them to all the friends we have made. Our entire celebration was set to the very popular Jamaican carol - We Wish you a Reggae Christmas.

 

There is so much I will miss about our time in Jamaica:

 - the warmth, constant blue skies and sunshine

 

- the beach - swimming, snorkelling, building castles, watching the crowds

- perfect sunsets every night

- the food (jerk, patties, coco bread, fresh fish, rice and peas, Ital and limitless fresh fruits and veggies)

- the spirit of the Jamaican people who have an amazing appreciation and love for life

- the Jamaican language spoken with a rhythm and intermixed with proverbs and wise words of wisdom

-  feeling almost like a local in a new country and embracing the term 'Janadian'

And of course there are a few things that I will not miss quite as much:

- the steady stream of ants that seemed to appear no matter what we did. They were small enough not to be a huge problem, but contant enough to be a nuisance

- random power outages (although the candle filled evenings were quite fun)

- doing four months worth of laundry by hand
 

- mysterious bug bites that I was never quite sure if they were from mosquitos, jelly fish or another mysterious organism

All in all, I'm very happy to be home and will always feel like Negril is a second home to my family. Thank you, Jamaica.

Christmas vacation

I am officially on vacation - with my family in Jamaica! I now get to spend my days relaxing on the beach - building sand castles and sand tunnels, snorkelling, watching sunsets and sneaking away for afternoon naps (if I get tired from all the fun). The other members of the research team are leaving Negril today so we wanted to have a few adventures, and take advantage of our rental car, before they left.  

First up was our Christmas party on Sunday evening. Cale and I spent the weekend making decorations, singing carols while being accompanied by Alan on mandolin and getting excited about the holiday. I am happy to spend a year away from the overly commercialized Christmas in North America, but I still want to make it a festive and special time of year for Caleb. We invited the research team (from Jamaica, Trinidad and Canada) over along with our friend Octavius and his kids. We decorated cookies, made crafts, sang songs and let the children run wild. It was tons of fun and Cale was asleep by 7:00. Perfect. I really want to make this Christmas about giving more than receiving for Caleb, so we had a great time hand delivering tons of leftover cookies to people on the beach the next morning.

Rudolph decorations! Alan even got into the fun and made his own! Can you guess which one??

Decorating cookies and ice cream cone Christmas trees with Dante and Gisele

We then decided to hit the open road to see some sites. Monday's stop was Mayfield Falls, a beautiful, remote area where a guide leads you up through the river and over (and under) several small waterfalls. Cale was literally squirming with delight the entire time. We were also followed by a site photographer who took some nice shots, but it was the incredibly cheezy shots that convinced us to buy the cd at the end of the trip. See below, and maybe, just maybe, I'll send out another cheezy one as our family Christmas card. 

This was probably the most serious photo shoot Alan and I have ever done, wedding photos included. He did capture some nice ones, but it also felt a lot like being chased by the paparazzi.  Cale loved it, however!

Warning: Squealing child with amazing hair ahead.

I can't quite find the words to caption this one!

Yesterday we headed to a 'sorrel and organic agriculture festival' in the small fishing village of Bluefields and although we were actually one day early for the festival, we got to meet some nice people, buy a few handicrafts, eat amazing jerk chicken and try our first sorrel juice - a red fruit juice that is very popular in Jamaica at Christmas time. We then drove on to Black River for the crocodile safari and stopped for a great Rastafarian Ital meal in a tiny, one table, roadside restaurant on our way home. Again Cale was soundly asleep at 7 pm after a day filled with wonderful adventures.
Now to rest on the beach. No plans are the best plans!

Bluefields

Crocodile nursery in Black River! 

Coconuts and classrooms

Catch of the day in Orange Bay- Barracuda

My work in Jamaica is quickly coming to an end and my tropical vacation will soon begin. Over the past few weeks I have been interviewing fishermen and people involved in the tourism industry to understand the changes and challenges they have been facing. The environment in Negril has changed drastically over the years, and these changes are being accelerated by climate change. It is very interesting to talk directly with people who have been impacted by these changes and hear how they are adapting and what they think needs to be done to protect the future of their industries. If you'd like to learn more, you can check out the project's website here - Partnership for Canadian Caribbean Community Climate Change Adaptation (PARCA).
I've also been busy trying to do a few personal projects, like helping some inspiring locals I've met prepare grant applications, creating somes short films and giving a presentation to the local school.

Talking to the Environmental Club at Negril's All Ages School. We talked about the importance of a healthy coastline and ways to protect the beach in Negril.

Female Streamerbird resting on our clothesline

I've said this before, but one of the absolute best parts of my experience in Jamaica has been having the opportunity to meet locals and hear their stories. There are many people who have become familiar faces on the beach and through my interviews, I've had a chance to really learn about their lives. One of my favorite people on the beach is Gemma (who we also call Mama Fruit). I couldn't believe it when she told me that for the past 22 years, she wakes up at 4:30 am and travels over 2 hours to get to Negril to sell fruit on the beach to tourists seven days a week. It is not an easy life carrying a giant basket of fruit on your head and walking through the sand on days that are often incredibly hot to make a few dollars of profit. But she still feels blessed and thankful for her life and is always cheerful and singing when you see her. I didn't realize that the songs we hear her sing each day are originals! She was very happy to have me record a video of her singing one of my favorite songs - Coconut Woman. 

Now to finish decorating for our Christmas party tonight. The research team and a few local friends are coming over to make cookies and have dinner. Should be tons of fun and a great way to kick off the holiday season. 

West End Adventures

The 'Office of Nature' in Bloody Bay is actually a bar

Alan has been here for over a week and we finally found time this afternoon to explore some sites around Negril. First off, Cale and Alan joined me while I interviewed some fishermen in beautiful Bloody Bay. We then went to an amazing, organic restaurant in the West End called 'Just Natural'. With no advertising at all, word has spread about this out of the way place and it was recently named 'Top ranked restaurant in Negril' on Trip Advisor. The sisters who run the place had never even heard of Trip Advisor until they received the certificate in the mail! The tables at the restaurant are hidden away behind fruit trees (lime, ackee, orange, banana, breadfruit) and wild flowers which made for prime hide-and-go-seek territory while we were waiting for our food.

Reaching for bananas at Just Natural

We also climbed the Negril lighthouse, located at the Western tip of Jamaica, and made it to the top just as a helicopter was landing below! Unfortunately, my palms were sweating too much from the heights to really enjoy it, but as you can imagine, this was quite exciting for a two year old to witness. We wrapped things up by watching some cliff jumpers, who make a living jumping for tips, and were home in time for a sunset swim. Perfect family afternoon in paradise!

Karate chop!

Helicopter landing

The last time I took Caleb to a restaurant he suddenly realized that he had forgotten to thank the waitress for his pineapple juice. Feeling quite proud for raising such a well-mannered boy, I told him it was ok to walk over to the bar and say thank you. As Caleb sat back down at the table, the waitress came by to say that she would place his french fry order right away. Apparently, he did say thank you, but also thought he should take the opportunity to order himself some fries!

He's here!

So wonderful to have music in our home again!

As Alan said, "I feel like I'm finally at home, even though I've never been here before!" It's so great to have our family back together. Looking forward to an amazing final month in Negril. 

Jerk Festival

Jerk  - a style of  cooking native to Jamaica in which meat is dry-rubbed or marinated with a hot spice mixture called Jamaican jerk spice.

Negril Jerk Festival - an annual festival on the cliffs of Negril that offers jerk seafood, chicken, pork, veggies and very loud music. After reading about the festival online - cotton candy, bouncy castles, live music - I thought this would be a super fun way for Cale and I to spend our Sunday afternoon. When we arrived, however, the only thing that was set up for kids was this bamboo swing - no bouncy castle or popcorn machine in site. I was worried that Caleb might be upset, but in true Caleb fashion, he took it all in stride. "Oh well, mom." he said "that is not a big deal. We can still have fun." And we did. 

Bamboo swing at the Jerk Festival

I'm so excited to say that Alan arrives in 2 days!! Finally our little family will be complete again. Here are a few of the many changes that Alan will notice in his not-so-little-anymore boy:

 -  Potty-trained (!!!). This was a huge accomplishment for Caleb and I, but I'm really excited to have daddy here to share tips on how to pee standing up!

 -  No more naps which has lead to much earlier and easier bedtimes

 - He is very interested in letters and words and can spell his name, and two other essential words - mom and dad. He wants to know what is written on every sign we pass.
- He had grown! It is a tight squeeze to get him into his scuba suit now!
- He has added some hilarious words to his vocabulary - interesting, amazing, frustrated, holy moly, fantastic, wonderful, awesome (sounds a bit like his mother, I know). He also has started telling people on the beach that he is in Jamaica 'doing research'!

 - He has become a bit of a prophet uses his advanced reasoning skills on his mother. When he can see that I'm beginning to feel frustrated or tired, Cale will often tell me "Mom, remember what Bob Marley says? Don't worry about a thing, cause every little thing is going to be alright". I can't stay mad after that.

Alan may not be quite as excited to realize that Caleb has been sleeping in my bed every night. We only have two bedrooms, and with the steady stream of visitors it was easiest to just let Caleb sleep with me for the past few months. I'll admit that I'm afraid of how we are going to break this habit. Another challenging sleep journey begins.

Three more days!

Weekend explorations

Hello, gecko.

I've had a busy work week with a presentation to the Negril Chamber of Commerce, a live radio interview that broadcast across the country and trying to stay on top of a few Nova Scotia-based projects that I'm still working on. Needless to say, I was very happy when the weekend arrived.

We have a new visitor this week - Patricia, another member of Alan's family who took me up on my offer to visit us in Negril. It has been great having both Patricia and Teresa here to watch Caleb, and they are both always up for adventures, so we decided to spend today touring the mountainside and checking out some attractions that Cale and I haven't had a chance to see yet.

Our first stop was YS Falls, a really lush and beautiful area in St. Elizabeth with a 7-tiered waterfall and mineral pool. We then drove across a mountain range and through an intense rain shower to visit the Appleton Rum factory where we were greeted with umbrellas and a complimentary rum punch. On our drive home we passed through 'Bamboo Avenue', a 3 km stretch of road lined with an archway of bamboo trees. We made it home and went for a dip in the ocean just in time to catch the end of a perfect sunset. Truly a memorable day.

One of the many tiers of the YS Falls 

Mineral pool relaxation. They say it takes 10 years off of your age - good news for me, but for Cale, not so much!

Need I say more??

And I have some amazing news to share - my best friend, Lydia, gave birth to her baby boy (Kai Alexander Fudge) on November 14th. I'm so incredibly happy for Lyd and Nick and feel like Caleb's bff has finally been born (that is a completely realistic wish, right?). I have already sent home a Bob Marley shirt for Kai that matches Caleb's and have been dreaming of their first photo shoot together ever since!

C is for celebration

To celebrate two months of living in Jamaica, and the halfway point of our adventure, I took Caleb out on a date. It was just the two of us, so we dressed up and headed to a restaurant down the beach. We 'chatted', laughed, built lego rocketships and ate delicious veggie pizza. Walking home, he greeted all his beach friends and told them all about his 'pizza party' with mom.

Today was an exciting Friday. Teresa, Alan's aunt, has arrived and she spent the day with Caleb while I headed out to the beautiful community of Bluefields. I was invited to attend the official launch of the Bluefields Fish Sanctuary, a marine protected area supported by the community. Jamaica has fish sanctuaries in different 14 villages that will all be receiving international funding to increase monitoring, enforcement and education initiatives. The celebration consisted of balloons, boat rides and speeches (including one by the British High Commissioner), and a delicious lunch of lion fish, rice and peas and festivals (fried donuts).

The mountains melt into the sea in Bluefields

I was excited to get home because we had another party to attend - the birthday party of a good friend we have met on the beach. Caleb was very, very excited about the party. He had already had a birthday card made and he couldn't wait to present it to his friend. I must say that Caleb has become a bit a legend on the beach. He is really happy to see his buddies everyday. He greets them with a 'respect' (fist pump) and tells them all about his day. They are amazed at how well adjusted he is and I think I can say that Caleb has officially adapted to Jamaican life.

Teresa, Alan's aunt, is now here, and without much time to adjust, she was thrown right into a rasta beach birthday party! We headed over to the abandoned hotel that Michael, the birthday boy, and his friends have made their home. We were greeted by incredibly enthusiastic welcomes and overflowing plates of jerk chicken and rice and peas. It was a ton of fun and made for a wonderful and very memorable Friday.

Caleb celebrates with the birthday boy

Learning to chat Jamaican

Locals on the beach were not happy this week - we were hit by a cold front. This was completely unknown to us, however, since the temperature only dropped to 24 degrees. But sure enough, people were dressed in coats and hats and a few even tried to convince us to buy them some rum because 'they were sooo cold!'.

Grampie and Caleb, barely surviving the cold

We've been having a great time with Grammie and Grampie and will be sad to see hem go tomorrow. We've had lots of adventures including almost getting stranded in the mountains when our taxi nearly broke down, spending an afternoon in the sun at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, beach mapping in Montego Bay...but I think the most memorable part of the past two weeks has been watching the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Each day has brought about new changes to the beach. As a coastal researcher, it has been fascinating for me to witness and document all that has taken place. I'm now working to provide good information to the hotel owners on the best ways to manage the changes on the beach, like how to deal with the mountains of seagrass that have recently washed up on the shore.

Wastin away again in Margaritaville

Another exciting development is that Grammie is quickly becoming fluent in Jamaican! After reading my 'Chat Jamaican' book she can almost decipher the local dialect when talking to locals or reading the Jamaican Gleaner. The 'Chat Jamaican' book is really quite amazing. Here are a few of the different situations described in the book where you may need to use an authentic jamaican phrase - although I admit I haven't found myself in many of these situations so far! Obviously I need to stay in Jamaica a bit longer.

Days of the week: Monday - Mondey, Tuesday - Choosdey
Dining: Give me a little more rice- Gi mi a lilly mow rice
Visiting the family: Where is my grandfather: Weh grampa?
A mother and her pregnant daughter: You are catching man: Yuh a ketch man

A few sections only have cartoon depictions, such as: A farmer on his donkey, a lady cutting sugar cane, A peasant running for his life and When a man's woman is giving him a hard time (yikes).