Max's First Adventure - Part 3

Hello again,

After hanging out on the ranch in Grand Forks and living it up in Vancouver, we had one last stop to make: Vancouver Island. After checking out of our hotel, we needed to grab a bite to eat so we hopped a couple of doors down to Wings on Granville (see Max and I checking out the menu at the bottom of our previous post). The place was kind of bar-ish, so there were bright lights and rock music playing....even at 1 pm. We grabbed a booth and ordered our food. While waiting for the food to arrive, Max got cranky and started rubbing his eyes (I suppose I forgot to mention that about a week before the trip, Max started rubbing his eyes when he got tired. Until that point, we had to kind of guess when he was tired - not always all that difficult - but now, we had a clear sign. And a really cute one too. We'll have to get a picture sometime), so I threw him on my shoulder and shushed him to sleep. The fod eventually came though and Holly suggested that we try to put him down on the booth so that I could eat. I was dubious, as the vertical-to-horizontal (or vice versa) position shift is almost a sure baby-waker. But lo, Max stayed asleep. Despite the Rolling Stones blaring over the system. Holly even scooted over to block the overhead lights. And so we ate in peace.

When it came time to leave, we resolved ourselves to waking Max up to go. I popped Max on my shoulder and hit the street. He squirmed a bit, but conked out again. We got into our cab and he stayed asleep for the whole trip out to the Tsawwassen terminal. I handed him off to Holly and she handed him back in order to sneak in bathroom breaks. Still out cold. Eventually, the ferry arrived and Max woke up just as we were boarding, capping the most mobile, jostling nap of his short life. Amazing.

I should also mention that, prior to boarding the ferry, we got Max an infant ticket. It was free, but I guess they still need a body count in case everything goes all Titanic...or Pacificat... Pictured his Max holding his "pink" ticket. Look at how excited he is to hit the open seas for the first time!! OK, so in general, he was pretty unaware. Oh well.

Once aboard the Spirit of Vancouver, we claimed seats right by the front of the boat, as there was a lot of space on the ground there to set up a play area. We spread out Max's blanket and gave him a couple of toys to play with and he went to town for about an hour. Holly go to plow through most of the Globe and Mail and I polished off a crossword while Max cooed and flirted with some women sitting next to us. This, in fact, is the look he was giving the ladies. It sparked a debate among them about whether if they could still have a baby, would they? Some "Absolutely" responses, followed by "just look at him!". We patted ourselves on the backs in private later on.

Eventually, we docked and were greeted at the Swartz Bay terminal by Holly's Auntie J. We went through the rigmarole of installing the car seat in Maxmobile IV and piling all of the bags into the car and then headed off for our new temporary home. We were welcomed at the house by Holly's uncle and their two dogs, Buddy and Ruby. Ruby was quite energetic, as always, while Buddy seemed very tentative, lethargic and not quite his usual frenetic self. After meeting the pups, we were treated to a yummy dinner and repaired to the lounge to watch the hockey game and play pass the baby. Max settled in just fine and was particularly excited to see that his sleeping arrangement was so similar to the one he had at home. Well, of course we're assuming that Max remembered his good ol' Ottawa home. In any case, he picked up where he left off in Vancouver and slept well - many thanks to Auntie J and Uncle B for letting us use their master bedroom. It was perfect!

Unfortunately, the next day marked a very sad day for Holly's aunt and uncle (and everybody who has met their dog Buddy). Without getting into details, it turns out that the cause of Buddy's lethargy from the previous night was a serious case of cancer that was advanced enough that surgery would have been complicated and might not have bought him too much extra time. After a very tough deliberation, Buddy was put down that night. Holly and I enjoyed many memorable times with Buddy back when we lived in Vancouver, including frisbee in the backyard, swimming for sticks at the beach and an unforgettable Thanksgiving pilgrimage to Ucluelet. We were very sad to see such a good dog go and we know he will be sorely missed.

Our next day on the Island marked my last full day out West. I had previously arranged to come home early while Holly and Max would spent some extra time visiting. We all started by taking Ruby out for a walk in a provincial park bordered by Butchart Gardens. Then, we went out for lunch at a delicious Italian restaurant with some friends of the family and Max was (no surprise) on his best behaviour. Better yet, because the restaurant messed up on the size of pizza I ordered, they decided to fix it by making me two pizzas. Awesome. We took a quick tour through the new landscaping projects around the house (pictured is Max, who is simply enthralled with landscaping theory) and then wrapped up the evening by spending some time with Holly's best friend from high school, Jenny K, in Victoria (Holly adds: It is super cool that Jenn now makes Victoria her home as she was our maid of honour back in the day when we got married in Victoria so it is a special place for all of us). The best part about our visit was that it happened to be her birthday so we got to meet a bunch of her new Victoria-based friends and catch up with some old friends at a Mexican-themed extravaganza. Max definitely got to snack on guacamole- and salsa-infused breast milk the next day. We felt really fortunate that timing worked out just right so that we could all attend the party.

The next day, I got to have one last Ruby walk before packing all of our bags up, giving Holly's aunt and uncle big hugs, smooching my baby and baby goodbye and leaving on a jet plane for home. All in all, I thought it was a great trip and I was so pleased to see that Max flew well. Hopefully this bodes well for future Max adventures around the world. I also hope that the bad car mojo stops when we eventually get ourselves a car. Baby is going to do road trips and go camping with his parents, point final. The prospect of spending a work week without Holly or Max at home was equal parts thrilling and terrifying. Stay tuned to see how that went for me.

Finally, I want to leave you with a couple of tidbits related to Max's new sleeping habits. Starting in Grand Forks, Max seemed to not be in the least bit interested in being swaddled in order to get to sleep in the middle of the night. To rememdy this, Holly came up with the brilliant idea of feeding him in bed. I didn't think this was such a hot idea at the time, as previous attempts to feed him in bed (and this goes back to before he was giving us 6-7 hours a night, so WAY back) tended to yield 45-60 minutes of mediocre sleep. Well, it seems that Max has a new take on bed feeds as he would routinely give us 2-3 hours of good sleep after getting up at 5 or so and having a bed feed. This carried on in Vancouver and Vancouver Island. Now, even that we're back at home, this seems to be the best way to coax a good dawn-greeting sleep out of him. It's interesting to note how his sleeping habits change, and to think that they're going to keep changing until, well, I'm not sure. I"ll have to keep you posted.

Here are some more Island pictures: