Left Coast Mama » Gwen

January (So Far) in Photographs

Gwen — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:37:40 +0000

I have been playing with both my iPhone camera and my T2i a lot in the last couple of weeks. I have especially been playing with Instagram (my user name is Gwen Floyd) and with my macro lens on the T2i. I got a new camera strap and I am amazed at how much of a difference it makes on my photo walks with my boys. I also love that Aidan is getting so excited about walking around with his dad and I taking pictures.

This picture of Quinlan was captured by Aidan.

Quinlan and Anthony at the Aquarium.

Wonder

Watching the sea turtle.

Playing with my macro and the water drops.

Neon

Unintentional heart bokeh.

Wrought Iron, peeling.

First Family Photo Walk of the year.

Hail

Industrial

I am so happy with the photo and I am not sure why. It just works.

Playing with focusing through a frame.

My companions on the Floyd Family Photo Walk.

I think this may be one of my new headers.

Farewell 2011, Hello 2012

Gwen — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 07:14:30 +0000

Like the last few years December has gotten away from me. I was so busy writing Advent letters and planning for surprises and trying to get something that might actually be a surprise for Anthony that it left me with little other time to write. Of course we have also had two bouts of intestinal illness go through the family as well.

Christmas was wonderful in many different ways. The best was Quinlan’s reaction to Christmas morning. He got up pretty early but we managed to keep him in our room for a few minutes so we could get upstairs with him and give the surprise guest a few seconds to get up as well. When the boys saw Grandpa sitting at the dining room table they were thrilled. When Quinlan saw the cookie that Santa took a big bit out of he was absolutely flabbergasted. I tell you I wish I had been awake enough to have my camera set up for his reaction as it was classic. He had the biggest round eyes and open mouth, and the hand to the cheek as he exclaimed “Santa ate the cookie!” Once Quinlan saw the presents under the tree there was absolutely no turning back. It was all we could do to open our own presents. I have never seen anyone open presents so fast in all my life. He was so excited that he even “helped” Aidan with the opening of Aidan’s presents.

Having Grandpa John come to stay for 5 days was fun, but went really quickly. We were able to have a small family get together on the 27th, and I am so glad we decided to have the turkey then and not on Christmas day.

There have been a lot of great things about 2011. The start of preschool for Quinlan has been a highlight. He loves school, and ballet and swimming. Aidan is growing up so very much. He is getting so grown up and he is so interested in learning about everything. It was especially acute during our road trip. Aidan was so interested in figuring out about everything. He found out about so many of the parks and their geological features. He got to look at the night sky and actually see stars.

This new year I am hoping to keep up with all the boys activities including theatre, swimming, skating, piano and ballet. I am also hoping to keep up with writing and photography for me. We want to keep up with our geocaching and keep going to events like the few that we took in this year. The Geo-monster ball and the best of the bad events were fantastic and really helped to give us the best caching year ever.

In 2012 I am going to try to get to Blogher in NY again. I won a conference ticket and as soon as I get the confirmation I plan to figure out the rest like hotel and airfare. I also want us to take the boys camping this year, it is about time we used the tent.

Those are my goals, simple and easy. No worries about losing weight or being a better person. I like who I am and I think that I will be much happier if I stop trying to change myself. All I want is to be happy.

© 2011 Left Coast Mama | Permalink | One comment
Related: Aidan, family, Family Time, goals, Gwen, Holidays, hope, My Boys, New Year, Quinlan.

Hello World, I’m Back

Gwen — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 06:36:08 +0000

In the last few days I have been extremely busy. I am not sure it is any busier than November was, but I have a lot of writing tasks upon me at the moment as well as the usual hubub of our daily life. We had school, preschool, swimming, ballet, and the last week of piano. I also managed to get to Metrotown to get nose pads for Aidan’s new glasses, a coat for me and boots for Quinlan all between the end of swimming and time for school pick up. We have also been experimenting with having Quinlan in underwear. So far, mostly good. It would be better if he were not a little bit sick. We also managed a trip to Ikea without breaking the bank too much. I did buy myself a beautiful rug that is so soft that the boys play on it as much as they can. All this and real meals, early bedtimes and putting together my December Daily book. So far it is only letters to the boys, but I have been making sure to take pictures. Now I just need to print them out.

We haven’t really decorated for Christmas yet, but we have started. The kids have their Advent calendars and I got them some cheap window clings so they could decorate the windows. I discovered we need new lights for the windows, unless we just use the tree lights that we no longer need. Come to think of it, I think that may be the best idea. The mantle is decorated, but that is only because the mantle garland is never un-decorated and therefore takes only a couple of minutes to put up when we find it. I think we will try to find enough time this busy weekend to put up the tree.

I have a couple of things that I need to write in the next couple of days and I promise to get Aidan to get his video log finished by this weekend. Just FYI Oz is selling out so if you want tickets you need to get them soon. It is a fabulous production.

How is your December so far?

Do You Believe in Santa? I do.

Gwen — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 06:54:24 +0000

When I was growing up we were poor. I look back now and I am not sure how my mother and father managed as well as they did. I think for the most part my brothers my sister and I did not notice how poor we were. We had clothes and we never went hungry. My parents never let us know, until much later, how close we came to losing the house. If there were nights when we had pancakes many days in a row we didn’t notice or for that matter care. Pancakes for dinner was a treat. I understand why we had regular milk mixed with powdered milk.

One year when my dad lost his job and my mother was at that point still home with us, things must have been quite bad. I didn’t know how bad things must have been. I remember being asked to help out a family at school. All classes brought all kinds of canned food for this family and we did as well. What I didn’t realize and neither did my parents that the family they were supporting was us. I remember the surprise and I admit a little excitement when there was a knock on the door. Our pantry, well the shelves on the stairs going down to the basement was filled to over flowing.

I am not sure if it was the same year, or another when there were three deliveries to our door. One was anonymous where someone rang and ran. I still remember that there was a huge Christmas colouring book that kept us well occupied. That year there was also a visit from a Santa’s helper in a Santa suit bringing wrapped presents for all of us. The most surprising was when the doorbell rang and Papa Smurf was at the door helping out Santa.

When we were better situated we were happy to help out other anonymous families who were in the same situation at Christmastime. Being a helper to Santa was a big part of feeling good about Christmas for our family. Even when we didn’t have much, we always found a way to help others. I am not saying this to brag, but it helped us to feel less guilty about having things when we knew there were other people in bad situations.

My back story is part of the reason I want so badly to get Aidan and Quinlan to understand that since we are in a better situation that we need to help as many people as we can. Donating to the food bank with money and canned goods is our biggest focus for the season. There are so many families who are not making it in BC, especially in the lower mainland. I want them to see that we are in a very good situation and it would be really good to help other people. Aidan really gets it. He has a philanthropic plan for the Aidan company already. Quinlan is starting to get it and by the time he is Aidan’s age he really will as well.

My hope is that by helping others my boys will grow up to be empathetic and enlightened men. That they will not look down on people for their monetary situations. That they will be generous human beings. I think we are on the right track.

Uniquely Me, Uniquely Mommy, Uniquely Gwen

Gwen — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 06:00:34 +0000

When Nadine Silverthorne put out the call for parent bloggers with a unique voice in Canada to write a post for a chance to become part of the Today’s Parent team, I struggled to see what is unique about my story as a parent and a person. I am not a parent who blogs in the north, or from a small town. I am not a parent who is single and takes care of their children by themselves, I have a committed partner who makes my life possible. I am a Maritimer in exile, living in Vancouver with no chance of ever buying a house. I like to think I am culturally rich and house poor.

I love being a parent living in Vancouver, even though I struggle with not having family near. I love that my days are full of theatre, piano, ballet. I love that my boys have a different childhood than Anthony and I had. I hate that my boys have a different childhood than Anthony and I had. I am conflicted.

I hate that we are so far away from family. I hate that my boys don’t have a chance to stay at their grandparents house for the weekend. It would be nice to be able to go out for a full night and not have pay a fortune for a babysitter, if you could find a babysitter that you would trust with your children overnight. I feel guilty that my sons don’t know my family as well as they should. I miss the big family get togethers and it makes me sad that it doesn’t happen very often because we are 6000 km away from home. I love that we have made our own family of friends here in Vancouver. I love that we have friends we can call on in an emergency. I love that despite difference our family is close and our boys feel those bonds.

I am not sure if it makes me a unique voice in Canadian parenting, but I am sure that it makes me someone other parents can relate to. There are so many parents raising children away from family. There are so many parents who have parks and culture but no backyard. There are so many parents like me.

***

Want to read more? Here are a few posts I am proud to have written:

My Own Curves

Sometimes the Crying Doesn’t Stop

Talking to 5 Year Olds About Death

Confessions

Gwen — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 03:57:19 +0000

I am sometimes an emotional mess. Certain movies, tv shows and sometimes even soaps can bring a tear to my eye and lump to my throat. I often get a bit choked up when I hear live music especially when I am with my kids and they are enjoying themselves so much. The hip wiggle and jaw tapping that Aidan does when he is really enjoying music makes my heart skip a beat. Looking at the smile that Quinlan has while he is trying to copy the dancers around him, and when he is singing along gives me a pleasantly squeezy feeling in my stomach. Hearing both of my boys sing O Canada with the crowd at the Remembrance day ceremony moved me to tears.

I never used to be this way. Don’t get me wrong I have always loved music and making music, but it didn’t affect me the way it does now. I have always been one to be emotional about movies. I always cry at the same spot in Boys on the Side, a highly underrated movie in my opinion, but I wasn’t one to feel like crying because an audience is singing White Christmas. Aidan and Quinlan have changed me. Just wait to see what a mess I will be when Quinlan sings with his preschool class on the 15. It is a good thing I don’t wear eye makeup.

Light and Shadow

Gwen — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 06:06:11 +0000

I actually like the dark. I like the way the city lights up at night. I like the way that the stars shine and the planets flicker when there is enough darkness. I love to sleep in darkness. I love that the dawn is later in winter so I can sleep past 5am. I love the way the lights shine off the local mountains. The mix of light and darkness is beautiful to me.

Downtown Vancouver Skyline

A Blank Page

Gwen — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:48:56 +0000

Right now I am looking at a blank page. I am looking at blank page and wondering how I keep going for NaBlaPoMo. I need to write, and I like to write, but today has been a day and a half. Anthony is crazy busy at work. Quinlan and Aidan have school in two very different places at almost the same start time. Quinlan had his vaccine study appointment for a blood draw and flu shot. Our fridge was replaced today and the delivery window was 5 hours long. Anthony needed to come home for a bit because I forgot about the vaccine study appointment and because he couldn’t be home for long (see crazy busy at work) I had to get Aidan from school early.

Quinlan and the blood draw and flu vaccine. Well, there were lots of tears. Tears for the thought of loosing blood. Tears because the nurse put numbing cream and a bandage over the numbing cream. Tears when the bandage was taken off. Tears when the blood was drawn. Tears when the vaccine was given. More tears about 5 minutes later and the whole car ride home.

Aidan was quite happy to be home. He was able to make a really cool set of drawings for his Glow Book and make it look like a car was going down a road. I feel a little guilty that we needed to take him out of school so we could get our new fridge delivered, but sometimes we have to do what we have to do. I think that is my new mantra, sometimes we do what we need to do and forget about the guilt. Maybe that should be a new mantra for a lot of us.

CBC Food Bank Day Challenge

Gwen — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 06:24:29 +0000

A week from Friday CBC has its annual food bank day where people around the province give generously to the food banks of the province. Every year since Aidan was 8 months old we have gone to the food bank day for part of the day. It feels like the real start of Christmas to me. I love that Aidan is learning that it is good to be able to share with others. He has a philanthropy plan for The Aidan Company in the future including a work program that pays poorer people better. Quinlan isn’t quite there yet but I am planning some of the same things we do each year to make it more of a reality for him.

This year I thought I would put out a challenge to my Vancouver blogging buddies, make a donation to one of the local food banks this year. I will be making a donation. Aidan decided to take some money from his piggy bank this year. Together we can make a huge difference.

Buffy Time

Gwen — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 03:52:34 +0000

A few of us have been planning a Buffy the Vampire Slayer night with chocolate fondue, cheese fondue and lots of laughter. I fully expect this to happen. Friends, food and fun, I can’t wait.

This is the food I am bring to the table, it will be bursting by the time all are here.

Happy Buffy Night!