She Was Right

My longtime friend, Mundanemomma, told me once my son started walking, he would be bruised and scratched for quite some time.

She was right.

My son was a late walker; only within the last few weeks would I say he is walking – and falling.

I picked him up from daycare last week with a giant bruise on his cheek. He had slipped on a toy and hit the toy box.

On Saturday, he bumped his head on the table and there is a small bruise there. On Sunday, the other side of his head was bruised and scratched, with a few scratches on his nose, when he fell and hit the pavement on the neighbour’s driveway.

This morning I noticed he has a bruise on his chin, a bug bite above the scratches on his forehead and other bite on his eye.

Poor guy.

These Are The People In Your Neighbourhood

If you are looking for a way to meet your neighbours, I suggest simply getting pregnant, taking your year of maternity leave and walking up and down the street with your baby on a daily basis.

I have met more of my neighbours in the nine short months my son has been around than I did in the eight previous years.

While I have always said hello to my neighbours, most of whom live in the city and only come up on weekends, holidays and summer vacation, when you are pushing a baby stroller, people will come right up to you and stop and chat.

It has been wonderful.

I have met so many interesting people including one woman who has been coming to this neighbourhood since she was a girl in the 1940s. PG has three daughters and in the wonderful small world that we live in, I actually worked with one of her girls. I had never met L, who worked at my parent company, but we chatted on the phone a fair bit, and I finally got to meet her this summer when she popped to say hello.

So to recap: Baby equals great opportunities to meet new people.

Photographic Opportunities

Before our son was born, I spent a great deal of time taking nature photos and having them developed.

Now I see a lot of photo opportunities, but don’t grab them. And why would I develop a picture of a flower when I can develop a picture of my adorable son?

But on our camping trip, my parents were quite happy to take the stroller reins so I was able to take a number of great pictures. And I thought I would share some of them with you.

Fun Times at Provincial Park

I’m back.
My son and I had a wonderful time camping with my parents, sister-in-law and niece at Sibbald Point Provincial Park.
It rained - torrentially at many times - most of the week, giving us only a couple of days sunshine and warmth. But we made the best of it.

We walked, swam, walked, threw rocks in the water, walked, climbed, watched Dora (she is really annoying), walked, played at the park, walked, coloured, played games, walked, sang, had campfires, ate, walked, watched Franklin, cooked smores (SK, I am really developing a taste for these things. I had the best one Saturday night) and walked. My niece and I played in the rain, with me encouraging puddle jumping (now she can point out and enjoy the best puddles herself).

We saw a mother deer and her fawn, complete with spots, twice, and had a raccoon play in the woods behind our campsite. Otherwise, we didn’t see much in the way of wildlife.
We did, however, had many experiences with pigs.
We were disgusted about the amount of litter we found on the trails, left behind on campsites, at the beach and in the woods.
Note to the many weekend, first-time and city campers who go to Sibbald Park because it’s close to Toronto and not in the middle of nowhere:
* Park staff are not there to clean up after you. If you want maid service, go to a hotel. We saw one man ordering a park worker to clean up the litter in his campsite. While you do expect your site to be clean, if there is litter to be had, pick it up yourself.
* There is no curb-side garbage pick up at provincial parks. While it’s lovely that you have bagged your garbage, if you leave it at the edge of the campsite, raccoons, skunks and other wildlife will get into it.
* The only thing you should take out of the park are pictures. Leave the wildflowers, the berries, the driftwood where you found it.
* If you take it in, you should be taking it out. Plastic bags do not belong in the water, bottles do not belong on the trails and cookie wrappers shouldn’t be on the road. Aren’t people teaching their children not to litter?
* Radio-free zones are just that. Keep the music off.
* If you aren’t in a radio-free zone, your music shouldn’t be so loud I can hear it at my campsite. If you want to party, stay home.
* Don’t cut through my campsite even if it is quicker.
* The beach is not an ashtray.
* You are camping, expect wildlife.
* And just a question. Why patio lanterns and Christmas lights? When you go camping, wouldn’t you rather see the stars than create light pollution?

A Note to Drivers

Dear Drivers,

As you know, our street is a dead end; it’s not a busy road.

So can you do me a favour? When you see me pushing my son in the stroller, move over a whole lane. It annoys me when drivers sped past us, moving over only slightly.

If I can reach out and touch your car, you haven’t moved far enough away. If only half your car makes it over the yellow line, you still haven’t moved far enough over.

When drivers move into the other lane to pass, it makes me feel more confident that if something happened - a blown tire, a distracted driver - the car wouldn’t hit us. As a mother, that makes me happy.

So thank you to the drivers who move over to the other side of the road to pass me; who slow down when approaching me; and who wait until the car coming toward them goes by so they can move over a full lane to get around me.

These drivers get a grateful wave, a smile and a word of thanks. The others - not so much.