First visitors

Gathering wood for the back yard fire pit

 We are loving our new house. Everything about it is perfect and it feels just like home. We had our first visitors this weekend - Grammie Maureen, Grampie John and Aunt Teresa. They got right to work helping us unpack, reupholstering some chairs and cleaning up wood debris in the back yard. It is so nice to finally have room for company - so feel free to come and visit us this summer!

Go Mooseheads Go!

 Some friends were also able to stop by and check the place out this weekend. Baby Kai Fudge came by and we got to have the photo shoot that I've been dreaming of for years. Lydia and I with our baby boys - in none other than matching tie-dye Bob Marley shirts! Amazing.

Photo op!

Future BFFs!

New home, new priorities

Lichen!

A new chapter of our lives is about to begin. It feels like buying our own home is something we've dreamed about for so long, it is hard to believe that it is actually happening in only a few short days.
We have been lucky enough to live in some beautiful homes over the years, but none of them were truly 'our home'. Now we get to finally settle and build our life in a place that is all our own.
I'm feeling so excited about so many things, I thought I'd share some of my hopes and dreams for our new home.

1. Develop a true sense of community. I can't wait to get to know our neighbours, and become an active member of our new community. I'm ready to join an association at the local school or community centre, and just get involved and feel a part of something long term.

2. Grow our own food. We have never had a space to garden so this will be my first ever attempt at getting to know an outdoor space and learning how to grow and preserve my own food. Putting in some raised beds will likely be our first step this summer.

3. Keep our house more organized and clean. No more clothes not being put away or beds not being made, it is time to give all of our belongings a permanent home and take responsibility for our space. I'm going to try and get Caleb to help out with this goal, and I'm planning on giving him some of his own responsibilities. Just last night we decided that one chore he could take over is clearing and setting the table. We've officially given him the title of  'table captain', which he seemed excited about. We are going to try and give him an important role and make it seem as exciting as possible!

4. Stick to a family budget. This will be a really positive (and necessary) step for us to take and I actually can't wait to crunch the numbers and create a plan for us to stick to. Geez, that truly was an adult statement!

5. Have my own space to get creative. We'll soon have a home office (!!) and a workshop in our basement. I can keep all of my supplies in one place and hopefully I'll be inspired to take on lots of craft and DIY projects. I have big dreams in this department and I can't wait to get started.

6. Sort out our night time routine, once and for all. It's time for me to admit it - Caleb, at 3 years and 3 months, still isn't sleeping though the night. I think it is partly our fault, partly Caleb's personality and partly the various living situations we've been in over the past 8 months. I shared a bedroom with Cale in Jamaica for 4 months, then things didn't improve too much during our time at the glass house. We have one bedroom which is an open loft, so our sweet little fella sleeps only 1 meter away from mom and dad.  We take turns putting him to bed each night, which means we actually lay in bed with him until he is asleep and then we sneak away for a few hours before heading to bed ourselves. Every night, Cale wakes up crying and I roll out of one bed and into another, and end up sleeping with Cale for the remainder of the night. Every night. I'm ready for this to end and to finally get a good sleep routine going that will benefit all of us. Uninterrupted sleeps are still a fantasy for me, but I know we will get there. I think since Cale has never had a 'comfort item' he still uses me as his security blanket. When he wakes up in the middle of the night and his beloved blankie (me in this case) is not beside him, he starts to cry. Time for him to learn to self soothe once and for all. As always, I'm always up for hearing advice from others who have dealt with similar sleep issues. I know it can't just be me who has found themselves in a less than ideal sleep situation 3+ years later...surely!

Bring it on mom, I'm ready!

Mommy, is this Spring?

I have some time to share a few photos tonight because both of my boys have been asleep since 7:30! They are both recovering from a round of illness that struck our home over the long weekend. We still managed to squeeze in some fun, and an Easter egg hunt, in between all of our cuddles. This Easter, the bunny was very thoughtful and brought lots of raisins, stickers, new crayons and bubbles - along with just the right amount of chocolate to share with mom and dad.

Ya, I'm sick, but I'm still going to play outside

Glass house in the sun!

Car Talk

Just scooting along!

Cale and I headed to Fredericton this weekend for a mini vacation. Alan is touring in Saskatchewan and I had just finished up a really busy week at work, so we decided a road trip was in order. I'm not sure how most 3 year olds handle 4.5 hour drives, but Cale is turning into a great little travel companion. We chat non-stop about his current favorite topics - cars, machines and radio djs. He pointed out and named every large truck, tractor or machine we passed - 'Look mom - a big rig!', or my favorite quote, as we were passing a construction site 'I saw a builder with his head down.  He must have been looking at the building plans'. Amazing. He also asked questions about every single button or gauge in the car. He now knows what everything in the dashboard is and exactly how it works. My favorite game this trip was the radio request game. I would use my imaginary phone to call the radio station and make a request. DJ Caleb would answer and sing my song, unless of course, he was busy and he'd answer by saying 'Sorry, the radio dj is not here right now. Please leave a message after the beep - Beeeeeeep!'.

Evolution of Cale's drawings: The Monster Phase (with fingers and toes, sometimes called 'claws'!)

The countdown is officially on - only 3 more weeks until we move into our new house!! It is on Prospect Road, just outside of Halifax, on the loop to Peggy's Cove. It is a beautiful 3 bedroom house, with an amazing studio that will soon be Alan's music space. The best part of all - it is on the coast with an amazing ocean view. This will be Caleb's 4th house, and all of them have been on the ocean. I'm so happy that 'Caleb's Coastal Life' will continue and that we will finally have a place to call our very own!

Sold!

Cousins!

My brother and sister-in-law are off enjoying a March Break trip to Cuba, so Aly and Ava are spending the week with my parents. And what does that mean? A road trip to Halifax!

Caleb had been waiting for weeks for Greggy, Linda and his cousins and to come and stay with us at the glass house. He couldn't quite believe it when the big day finally arrived. We packed in as much family fun as we could handle - Peggy's Cove, Natural History Museum, restaurants, beachcombing, concerts, a candy store and visiting with our amazing neighbours Tom and Bev (here is how amazing Tom is -he built the glass house by hand!). Alan and I even managed to have one night away to celebrate his 30th birthday. The only sad moment was when the Greg, Linda and the girls dropped Cale off at daycare on Monday morning. Apparently, with his head hung low and his lower lip stuck out, he very, very slowly shuffled his feet down the hallway and into his classroom. Mom said it was a heartbreaking (but also hilarious) scene.

Cale is a lucky boy to have such wonderful cousins. I really hope he gets to spend some quality time with his other cousins soon. Hopefully there will be a big reunion this summer...maybe even at our NEW HOUSE! Details to come once the final papers are signed!!

Peggy's Cove with Linda

Best beach finds - seaglass, pottery and a clay pipe fragment (likely made in the UK the 1800's). I've been searching for this particular beach treasure for years!

Notable quotables

Skating on a  perfect Caleb-sized pond in Duncans Cove. 

Life has been busy at the Sprague/Jeffries house. Work, a sick boy, a wild weasel loose in our bedroom (which seems to have shown itself out), and hunting for our first house!! Wow. It's definitely the first time I've posted a sentence like that!

Caleb seems to be bursting with questions and hilarious quotes these days, so I wanted to make sure I captured a few of them. During our morning commute, Cale has decided to play a game "Guys, I have 3 questions for you" he'll say. "First question, (and this is an actual string of questions from last week) how do boats stop? Second question, what does a bees nest look like? And last question, why do you have to work to make money." As you can imagine, these questions give us lots to discuss while sitting in traffic at the rotary!

A couple other of my latest favorite quotes are:

This morning before breakfast - "Mom, quick, I need an appletizer!"

He loves words, spelling and sounds so I was impressed when he said "I can spell machine - p...p...p...p..pachine. It's starts with a p." So close!

And when he was feeling particularly sick he woke up and said "I just don't know what will ever make me feel better." Heartbreakingly adorable.

Family fun with Photobooth

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.