Week 22 - Back from the Dominican

Hola Amigos,

We have arrived back from our wonderful tropical vacation and are feeling tanned & relaxed. I miss the buffets, bahama mamas and palm trees already. We are freezing our asses off after the incredible heat and humidity that we became accustomed to and promptly went out and bought a space heater to create the same tropical environment in the comfort of our living room. Unfortunately Liam picked up a cold bug in one of the germ tubes (a.k.a airplanes) so we are all nursing the sniffles at the moment. Poor little guy - there isn't a whole lot you can do for a baby except offer comfort and the occasional q-tip up the nose to remove the giant green bogies.

After achieving the impossible task of cramming the house into our suitcases we made off to the airport without a hitch. At the check in counter we gave the not so bright agent our itinerary, handed over our bags and set off for security. 10 seconds later a guy came running after us with our itinerary, boarding passes and passports which we had left on the counter. Duh - might need those. After boarding the small turbo prop and setting off for Seattle we had an uneventful 30 minutes in the air with Liam being in high spirits. The 5 hour flight from Seattle to Philadelphia was pretty much a breeze since it was night time - we simply put Liam on the floor of the plane where he slept the entire way - tubulence and all (we stayed awake and watched him sleep since we were paranoid that he was going to freak out). Luckily we had a bulk head seat and a lady next to us who loved babies. Bonus.

What wasn't a bonus was when we arrived in Philadelphia and upon checking in for our next flight to Punta Cana discovered that the not so bright agent in Victoria had looked at our return flights instead of departing flights and tagged our bags to arrive in Puerto Rico instead of the Dominican. Trying not to panic we sent the baggage claim guy running all over the tarmac (could see him from the window running under the planes and searching through various baggage carts) to try and intercept the luggage so it would arrive when we did. Unfortunately we found out the luggage wasn't even on our flight from Seattle. In fact, it wasn't even on the same airline. Wrong airline, wrong country, no diapers. Holy crap. Luckily for us we had 2 days worth of clothes, diapers and other various supplies but that was it. By day 3 we were out of luck. It's not a good feeling boarding a flight for paradise not knowing where your luggage is.

To make matters worse the next flight from Philadelphia to Punta Cana was not as easy since it was now daytime and Ian and I had not slept at all (equals cranky) while Liam was over tired from not sleeping enough (doubly cranky). Since you are not allowed to stand up on US flights (except to go to the washroom) it made things extra challenging. Plus Ian and I were sitting opposite each other instead of next to each other because the flight was full. All people at the back of the plane could see was a cranky baby being passed back and forth like a ping pong ball. Trying to bounce up and down in your seat with a lap belt on and a baby over your shoulder is no easy task either. The entire scenario was made way worse by the fact that a couple behind us had their 2 year old with them who was equally as cranky as Liam. The two boys took turns screaming their heads off while us parents tried not to pull our hair out. The best part was that we were at the front of the plane and there was NO ONE in first class. Not one single person. Hello? Heard of upgrading people? What ever happened to service? The flight attendants refused to allow us to use the washroom 2 feet away and instead we had to walk the entire length of the plane to the washroom at the back (we would use the washroom as an excuse to get up and walk Liam and Ian would rock him up and down in the washroom).What the hell! Eventually after 2 hours of screaming the attendants gave in (hallelujah) and upgraded the people next to us to first class so we could have an extra seat between us for Liam. They did the same for the people with the 2 year old who looked like they were about to launch themselves out of the emergency exit door. After that things calmed down (somewhat) and we arrived to sunny skies and soaring temperatures. After being ushered through customs, grabbed by girls in long skirts with fake fruit on their heads for a souvenier photo (rip off) and paying $30 for three "tourist cards" (I told the girl that was a rip off for a baby) which we had to hand over two seconds later to another girl (again - rip off) we finally made it out the doors to our waiting air conditioned (thank God) bus after barelling through the swarms of airport bus boys trying to grab our backpacks and screaming "No Gracias!".

The scenery on the way to the resort reminded me a lot of Mexico - shacks & garbage interspersed with jungle foliage and dotted from time to time with small stores whose owners sit lazily in the sun waiting for customers. One thing you notice everywhere is construction. Apparently you don't pay taxes while your property is under construction, but once you are complete you have to pay. So everyone just keeps their property under various stages of construction. It's a bizarre sight. Concrete jungle within the tropical jungle. Literally. After about a 30 min ride listening to loud Dominican tunes, our guide deposited us at the door of our resort where we were greeted by my parents & Caylin who promptly grabbed the baby and headed indoors. Apparently they missed Liam. We checked in, threw on our bathing suits and went straight for the pool. 4 drinks later (compliments of Grandpa Derek) I was feeling much more relaxed despite the luggage fiasco. Being a mega resort we were relieved to find that the gift shop carried every item you could possibly imagine including diapers & diaper cream (thank God), toiletries and prescription drugs such as Viagra right off the shelf. Interesting. Only in the Dominican. $200 and 10 minutes later in phone calls (we were shocked when we saw our credit card statement) we were able to get the Dominican airport baggage guy to track down our luggage in Puerto Rico and have his "friend" arrange to send it back. 2 days later we were back in action and Liam had his 110 diapers & floating turtle for the pool.

One thing you have to love about all-inclusive resorts is the fact that you don't have to lift a finger except to spoon mouthfuls of yummy food into your yap from the buffet three times a day. Since the grandparents were all too willing to take Liam off our hands we would drop him off each morning for a visit 4 doors down and have a nice quiet breakfast. The buffets were fantastic, especially at breakfast time. I'd load up on papayas, mangos, guavas, croissants, bacon & yoghurt washed down with a papaya or banana smoothie and a good 'ol cup of strong Dominican java. Yummy. After breakfast we'd pick up Liam and head down to the pool for a day of absolutely nothing but floating around and listening to Dominican tunes. Liam would loll around in his floating turtle wearing his little UV swimsuit and sun hut & looking super cute. No one looked twice at us heading for the swim up bar with baby in tow. In fact, my 9 year old sister would swim to the bar and order drinks for us. The rocking water was a great way to put Liam to sleep and keep him cool at the same time. When not in the water he'd hang out on the lounge chair and play games with his granny & grandpa. What a life. My mom & I did attempt to do the water aerobics Dominican style once which consisted of 30 minutes of sexy exercise moves followed by fun and games with the big buff black Dominican resort staff. Grandpa Derek and Ian ventured out and did a scuba diving course which consisted of a pool lesson (I followed the two of them around the pool and took some shots with Caylin's underwater camera) and a 45 minute ocean dive. Saw a couple of barracuda (I hate those things - never forget bumping into one of them in Mexico - Ian left me in his dust to save his own ass). The ocean life is pretty cool in the Dominican - lots of your typical bright tropical fish. Ian, Caylin & I took a snorkel cruise and spent an hour swimming around and feeding the fish with bread we took from the snack bar while our guide took a snooze in the water taxi. Caylin is a natural water baby and would dive upside down between the coral reefs while sticking her tongue out at me. I got trigger happy with her camera and took a gazillion pics. Since there is not much to see right off the beach the cruise was worth it to explore some of the ocean life. The guide threw in a quick tour of the dolphin area and a natural pool nearby (not sure what the natural pool was all about but it looked nice). What cracked me up was watching the other guides trying to haul the big fat tourists out of the water and back into the boat by their life jackets after their snorkel. Apparently not all the water taxis had a ladder like ours.

Speaking of the beach - it was nothing short of gorgeous. Beautiful pink & white sand and turquiose water. We did not spend as much time in the ocean as it was easier with Liam to hang out by the pool, but we did get some time in to bob between the luke warm waves which was lovely. Ian and I took a water taxi (aluminum boat run by the locals to transport tourists between resorts) one afternoon to a flea market 15 mins away. Did not end up staying too long because the sales people were so aggressive I was afraid to approach their tents (they would literally run down the beach and try and grab you to bring you to their wares) but it was fun to take the boat ride and the local guy gave us a complimentary tour of the nearby shipwreck (a big freighter that had sunk some 30 years before). The water taxis go so close to the shore you feel like you could reach out and touch the edge) - swear they zip over only a couple of feet of water with jagged reef below. Everyone seems to have a system of who goes where since there are tons of taxis going up and down and weaving between sail boats and kayaks. Also got a look at some of the other mega resorts lining the stunning beach. Each resort tags their guests with a different colour band so unfortunately you can't run between resorts for free food & drinks (bummer - it is tempting).

The only real downside to the resort for a parent with a baby was the night life and incredible noise from 9:30pm to sometimes 5am. Unfortunately for us the resort was under renovation so the theatre was out in the open next to the pool and the music was so loud sometimes your room would vibrate. Coupled with the loud German girls to our left and super loud Dominicans to our right and I invested very quickly in a pair of ear plugs. Liam did not seem affected at all and slept right through everything - even the nights when the drunk English guy was slamming into the walls looking for his imaginary room and the drunk Dominican guy was singing at the top of his lungs . The rooms were comfortable enough and only minorly affected by ants. Half way through our stay the staff decided to fumigate the rooms (I guess this is part of their regular pest control) and something died in our air conditioning vent. The smell was so putrid we felt sick and had to move to another building. Mould is another problem in resorts such as ours and my parents had to move rooms due to the intense mouldy smell. Despite the mould and dead smells the rooms were decent enough (you got used to the lack of water pressure, no hot water at times and having to remember to brush your teeth with bottled water). We asked 3 times for a crib for Liam but never got one and had no idea what "crib" was in Spanish so we ended up pushing our double beds together and putting him between us like a little king. No wonder he slept well. Did little for us feeling the love though but when it comes down to sleep it's all about the baby. We simply said goodnight & waved to eachother from across the room.

Saw quite a few other babies at the resort - Liam made friends with a chunky 7 month old named Emily from Miami who's parents fed her coke through a straw. Crazy! No wonder her diapers were the size of depends. While Liam was covered from head to toe in his UV suit (with all exposed parts coated in baby sunscreen) other babies were dressed in nothing but their diapers and I highly doubt they had any sun protection. That's what you get when you live in a tropical environment. Speaking of limited clothing, breastfeeding was a non-issue since half the Europeans in the resort were topless. I fugured what the heck - if you can't beat 'em, join em. No one gave me a second look for feeding 'o naturel. Was rather liberating, not to mention convenient. The Dominicans LOVE children and would oogle over Liam wherever we went. At dinner time the waitresses would walk him in his stroller or rock him for me around the restaurant while I had dinner. Wish I could have hired one of them to be my nanny - they were just amazing. A lot of the girls had babies younger than Liam at home while they worked. No one year maternity leave like in Canada. I suddenly felt very fortunate to have the opportunity to spend a paid years leave with my little guy and not have to be forced to go back to work right away because of economic circumstances. The average Dominican monthly wage is a meagre $400 and they work super hard. You'd see the same staff members every single day for hours on end and they were always smiling and friendly. Us whities have it good.

After a wonderful 10 days of fun, food & sun it was time to pack up (somewhat lighter due to the diaper consumption) and head back home. This time we had 4 flights but were smart enough to break it up and stay overnight in Philadelphia which was totally worth it even though we only had from 11pm to 5 am to sleep (Liam slept the entire 6 hours, what a champ). The flights started with a rather bumpy descent and landing in Puerto Rico (landed rather sideways and I had to hold onto the front seat and Liam for dear life - Ian later told me that the same type plane had crashed in the Andes in the 70's and people had to eat eachother to stay alive - if he had told me that before we took off I would have smacked him) but were uneventful otherwise, just long. Liam once again pulled his "I'm a frequent portable flyer by now" attitude and was a real trooper considering how exhausting it was. I wonder how the pregnant girl next to us on the 5 hour flight back to Seattle felt about kids after hearing him freak out a few times. Her husband looked a bit scared. Didn't help that Liam decided to crap his pants right as we were taxing onto the runway to take off and we had to madly scramble to change him. Stank too. Have you ever seen the size of a change table in the airplane washroom? Oh my God, it's tiny and flips down above the toilet with no straps to hold down your baby. Call me nuts but wouldn't this be the one washroom you would think would have a change table with straps. Ever heard of turbulence? Once major bump and your poopy baby would ricochet off the walls and land splat against the opposit wall. Not to mention that Mr. Twisty is almost impossible to change as it is. I simply stood with one foot on either side of the walls as an anchor, shoved the wipes package under his head, held him down with one hand and changed him with the other. I am officially a member of the mile high baby changing club. Finally it was down to the last 30 minutes back to Victoria where Ian entertained the passengers by bouncing Liam rapidly up and down on his knee while he cooed at the top of his lungs. Unfortunately I got barfed on right after Ian handed him back to me. Thanks Ian. Another bumpy landing later and we were home - luggage and all - yippeeee!!!!!

So life is resuming back to normal despite the colds. Liam learned how to scream to express himself while away (fuelled by teething & the heat) which was interesting - especially on the planes. Gets a few raised eyebrows for sure. Thank God for Orajel - it numbs the gums, teething area and everything else. Poor Liam gets droopy lips and drools out the side, but at least he's comfortable. Coupled with baby Tylenol and your little one is a happy lunch bucket. Yesterday we bought him a teething ring shaped like a raspberry which he loves - soothes his irritated gums. We also bought him a couple more toys to add to the entertainment collection in our living room; the Jumperoo (exersaucer and jolly jumper in one) and of course the good old classic Jolly Jumper - between the two new gadgets he's a happy camper - even if he is drooling and snotting all over them.

Me gusta la cerveza (beer pleases me!)

Barcelo Punta Cana...the West Coast Wards home away from home....

If you had a telescope you might see a chubby pale white fella wallowing in the surf. That's me (aka Daddy). Mommy's at the swim up bar calculating how many Pina Colada's she can ingest between feedings. And "Granny Ev and Grampa D" are asking where the heck we are since they've been babysitting for hours... ;)

Adios until the 23rd amigos....

Week 19

Happy Labour Day everyone! I love long weekends - especially with Daddy being around an extra day to help out. I really need a full-time nanny if I ever decided to do this again - one that babysits, cooks, cleans - the whole shaboogy. Even with all the sleep we get (Liam continues to go to bed at 7:30pm or thereabouts and sleeps for 7-8 hours - we're damn lucky) I am still ALWAYS tired. It's that "Mommy Give Give Give" syndrome. I've been tired for almost 5 months straight. 5 months down, 20 years to go. Good thing we are leaving in 4 days for the Dominican - I can taste the fruity cocktails and salt water already.

The biggest challenge of this entire trip is how the hell we're going to pack everything we need into 2 suitcases and 3 backpacks. Sounds like a fair amount of baggage space but half of that is diapers - all 130 of them. Since we are now into Size 3's they are getting bigger and there is no way for me to be able to vacuum seal them (my usual method of packing). I have resorted to the fact that between the 130 diapers and 11 days worth of baby outfits I have enough space for a swimsuit, set of underwear and a sarong. Oh and maybe my hairbrush (need to maintain somewhat of an appearance), toothbrush (fuzzy teeth is not an attractive feature) and deoderant (don't want my baby & husband avoiding me). Not to mention we have to bring the bouncy chair (essential "don't leave home without it" item), inflatable turtle, baby first aid kit, adult first aid kit and snorkel gear. Griswalds eat my shorts - this is National Lampoons Dominican Vacation - Ward Style.

Progress continues with Liam - besides his very good sleep routine (and the fact that we get a couple of hours in the evening to unwind) he has started playing a new game with his soother where he pulls it out with his one hand, hold it and looks at it and then attempts to put it back into his mouth. Most of the time he gets the wrong end in but he's getting pretty good at putting it back in the right way. No sooner is it back in his yap then he pulls it out and starts the whole cycle again. Once he's done with his "sucky" he tosses it aside and sticks his two fingers in his mouth. Everything he's interested in goes straight into his yap.

Saturday night he woke up after almost 9 hours - in my sleep haze I remember thinking that I needed to pump out some milk from my bowling ball before feeding him but was too lazy to get out of bed so I fed him straight from the keg instead. Once he was done super sucking I got out of bed and was en route to the nursery patting his back when he opened his mouth and projectile vomited a BUCKET of milk over my shoulder and all over the floor. It was quite spectaular. There was nothing I could do but stand still and wait for the cavalry (ie. Daddy) to rescue me from the pool of barf I was standing in. 3 towels, dry feet and a new outfit later we were back to bed. Unfortunately the lights and commotion revved Mr. Barfy up and he chatted at top volume for almost an hour before finally falling asleep. Yes - coffee was definitely a priority when we woke up 3 hours later. I would like nothing better than to wake up and instantly roll over to a giant java sitting next to my bed. Or maybe one of those hats that have tubes attached that I could stick on my head and suck away happily on while Liam has his breakfast munchies. I wake up tired, I go to bed tired. I'm perpetually tired.

From the funny corner Daddy has discovered that playing peek-a-boo (putting a blanket over Liam's head and then saying "where's daddy" and pulling it up quickly) makes him howl. That and saying WAAZZZZUUUUPPPPP!!!!!!!Cracks him right up. It's harder to make him laugh all the time, but ocasionally you'll do something random and he'll start howling (which prompts you to do it over and over and over again until he no longer finds it funny). One of the things that makes him laugh the most is Daddy's singing - Ian is totally tone deaf and for some reason Liam finds it hilarious. I must admit, he seems to find Daddy much more funny overall than Mommy. That doesn't surprise me though - Daddy is a pretty funny guy.

Liam is not a small, petite baby. He's robust and strong and loves to stand up on our laps while we hold his arms - can do it for quite a long time. We are working on putting him in his Bumbo chair more to get him used to sitting up. He spends a lot of time on his tummy now and is starting to try and crawl. He is very verbal in his attempts and makes loud grunting noises while waving his arms and legs like flippers. Looks like he's trying to swim. We try and encourage him and he yells in frustration while maddly paddling. He is so verbal in fact that he chats away when we're out and about and commands a lot of attention. The fact that he has beautiful big blue eyes is a lady killer - he is definitely going to be a hit with the women. Good looking and smooth talking!

Well this is it for a couple of weeks while we are on vacation - stay tuned - I'm keeping a journal while we're away and I'm sure I'll have lots to share when we return. ADIOS!