The Canada Annual.

As is custom, we ventured to Canada for a month - earlier than we usually do, but the timing felt right. Brandon joined us for the first week of our trip and then had to go home and make some money - one of us has to, right?

I love my family and I love visiting them for as long as we do. Teagan's old enough now that she doesn't take long to get reacquainted with everyone and I think the time decreases with every trip - this time we were down to zero. As we met my Mum and sisters at the airport (bless their hearts, they have to take two vehicles now...should we stop having kids?) Teagan gave hugs all around and requested to be in GG's car. Her love for GG only grew when she realized she'd be fed Cadbury's Mini Eggs every few seconds on the hour drive home. I was also a happy beneficiary of the deliciousness.

Shortly after we arrived, Mum graciously offered to take care of Mason so we could take Teagan to the Toronto Zoo - a zoo so immense that a 6 month old, even a cute one, would slow us down entirely too much. It was the perfect day for us at the zoo - and by "perfect", I mean, rainy and cold. And for socially anxious folks like us, that translates to perfection. It was almost empty.

When we arrived, there was a fleet of school buses which made me a bit nervous, but t hey were on their way out as we were on our way in. Phew. We actually had more than half an hour completely to ourselves in the Canadian Domain - perhaps because no one saw the need to visit a section of country they were already in, and perhaps because they had the good sense not to descend an enormous hill, remembering they'd have to ascend it. But gravity aside, we really enjoyed our alone time with the grizzly bears. Teagan noticed the No Feeding sign that depicts an animal opening its mouth toward some pellets of food with a strike through it and asked me, "why is the dog making bubbles not?" Very observant. We loved observing the grizzlies, watching them play and poop and lumber about. They were fascinating. As was the Humphrey, the baby polar bear born days after Mason. It was fun to compare the milestones of the two - I'm getting the raw deal, as he was much better at entertaining himself than Mason and is already walking around. We really haven't done much with Teagan since Mason was born so this was a wonderful outing. She is the perfect age for the zoo, excited to stop at every enclosure, able to recognize most of the animals, asking questions and talking about some of the animals long after we'd left. I hesitated taking her because it costs a fair amount of money - you start to pay when they turn 3, so we squeezed a trip in last year while she was still free - but as a very pleasant surprise, the cashier that sold us the tickets gifted us Teagan's ticket, even after we told him she was 3. It was a lovely surprise. We had a really nice time together with minimal meltdowns - which is what qualifies as really nice these days.

We had a ton of fun with my family. Since we don't get to see them much, they really turn it on when we do. My angel mother gave herself blisters sharpening pencil crayons because she knew Teagan loves to colour. She knew Teagan likes to watch videos of people playing with Play Doh and opening Kinder Eggs, so she gave her some Play Doh (wisely, the day before we left) and at least 10 surprise eggs to open and eat (I helped with the latter.) She was always making sure Teagan had something to do and that Mason got the attention he craved. Love her!

 

We celebrated Mother's Day whilst in Canada, which meant I got a sweet homemade T-shirt, complete with an unexpected drawing of a dinosaur that I was always cherish. It was lovely to get to spend it with my Mum and my daughter at the same time. Love them!

G-Pop has developed a green thumb and recruited a wee apprentice in his granddaughter. She helped him plant some cute flowers and water them each day. She was very proud of herself, and I was very proud of G-Pop's patience, suffering in silent agony while Teagan trampled his flowers to get a better view of her own. He also planted little flowers on the sly and told Teagan that the fairies were planting flowers too. Good man. They gardened, had deep existential discussions and watched Toopy & Binoo happily together all month long. 

He bonded with Mason, his first grandson, whom he lovingly refers to as "Chunky". Aptly named. G-Pop was kind enough to share his remote and introduced Chunky to the great outdoors, happily sharing his perch on the porch with him. Love him!

 

We visited my sweet grandparents and got to introduce Mason to my Grandad, since Grandma was the only one who could make it to his blessing in Vegas. It was really sweet. My Grandad's health has taken a turn for the worse lately and he hasn't been doing well. It was so nice to see my children interacting with my grandparents. As one of their oldest grandchildren, mine are 2/3 of their great grandchildren and since Brandon's Grandpa passed in 2010, mine are the only great grandparents my children have in this life. It was really special to bring them together.

Bless their hearts, Kristina and Pablo scooped Teagan up for a day 'o' fun to give me a break and score some major cool points with their niece - missions accomplished. They took her to African Lion Safari, where you drive through a safari and have animals come to your car, allowing you to get up close and personal with all sorts of wildlife. I've never been, but the photos Kristina sent me made me want to go. She had a ton of fun and came home with a huge smile on a painted face and souvenir - stuffed Capuchin monkeys that velcroed together when they hugged.

And my sister took a photo of me minutes later:

Before they had pulled out of the driveway, I collapsed on the couch and remained there for an undisclosed amount of time. It was a beautiful day all around.We went to their house and basked in the glory of the incredible basement Pablo transformed into a movie theater, complete with stadium seating. They even treated us to a private showing of whatever we wanted and took Teagan to the park. Worried we'd fall asleep for something as lengthy as a movie, we opted to watch episodes of Modern Family we missed last season. It was awesome. Hoping to get Pablo out to visit and ask for his "help" on a few projects while Kristina scores even more Cool Auntie points. They are so thoughtful. Love them!

 

Uncle Daniel was really sweet to his niece and nephew and both enjoyed his impressive musical abilities. He sang the ABCs countless times with Teagan and was very patient with her adding extra letters and missing lines altogether. Mason was absolutely riveted with his singing and guitar playing. Even if he could have moved I don't think he would have. One day my brother will be famous. Love him!

Auntie Nicola had the unfortunate opportunity to be at home the most while we were visiting. Which meant she took the most selfies, put up with the most tantrums, smelled the most diapers and I appreciated her doing all of the above. Whenever I needed a nap, I could always count on her to step in and take care of the littles. And they didn't seem to mind, perhaps because she's a younger, more spry version of me.

She also treated Teagan to trips to Chuck E. Cheese - one with me, one without. Both were amazing. Nicola is so darn likeable that even though she hasn't worked there in years, anyone she knows still working there is happy to bend over backwards to help her show her niece a fun time. Teagan was vehemently opposed to associating with Chuck E. Cheese himself, but was perfectly happy sitting and staring at Robot Chuck E. Cheese.

We loved spending time outside - something we don't get to do much during Vegas summers. Scootering was a particularly favourite pastime of Teagan's. It's a lot harder than it looks, though my Mum and sister made it look easy.

 

Sleep was a funny and elusive thing this trip. Bless their faces, Daniel and Nicola both vacated their rooms for the duration of our stay and set up camp on the couches so that my little family had ample room to sleep. So it would have been nice if they'd slept. Every night, Teagan started out in Daniel's room and tiptoed into my bed in the wee hours, more often than not, rolling over onto Mason who had joined me from his crib a short while earlier. So the three of us "slept" on Nicola's queen bed. I ended up crammed onto one side, mere centimetres away from falling out. And they adjusted to the three hour time difference in the morning and woke up at 7 every day. But at nighttime, their usual 7:00 bedtime proved too early, so they were up until 10. A recipe for an unhappy mama. Fortunately, my family was very kind to me and allowed me to sleep in most days. On one instance, I had a noon lunchdate with my aunt and uncle and went with pillow lines on my face. I've still got it when it comes to sleeping in!

A few funny things that happened in the month we were there...

•  Teagan was more than a little wary of one of the TSA agents at the airport's security checkpoint. Another agent noticed her hesitation and asked her, "Do you want me to beat the S#!* out of him for you?" While I appreciate the gesture, perhaps we could have used a different word around my toddler...
• Nicola walked into the room and Teagan immediately put her hands behind her back. "What are you doing?" asked Nicola. "I was just sharing with my friend Daniel," Teagan replied and pulled a half-eaten chocolate bar out from behind her. 
• She asked Nicola, "Why don't you have glasses?" Nicola replied that she has "things in my eyes that help me see." "Oh, contacts?" countered Teagan. She's smarter than I thought.
• Teagan was struggling with the computer, so G-Pop asked her, "Is it frozen?" "No, it's Sofia," came the reply. (If you're reading this in the future, Frozen was a Disney movie that came out in 2013 and kids are still obsessed with it. Sofia is another Disney show.)
• Sharing a room with your 6 month old, you hear a lot. Mason woke himself up tooting numerous times.
• Teagan drew a family picture on the path in front of my parents' house. There were 5 people. She told us it was "us and Lemonade and Nowherea." G-Pop asked if Toopy and Binoo (cartoon characters) were there. "No, they're not in my family" she said. 
• Toopy and Binoo is a cartoon, but they've also created puppets of them and run 5 minute segments between other shows. Teagan saw them for the first time and exclaimed, "They are very alive!"
• A 10 year old girl from down the street saw that we were riding scooters and came over to ask my Mum if Teagan could ride with her - around the bloc or down the street. She didn't know Teagan was 3. They went down the street.
• Later, Teagan introduced her to me. "This is my best friend, Mom." "Oh! What's her name?" "I don't know." It was Abigail.
• Sitting down to dinner, Teagan blurted out, "Nicola. You're missing teeth" to my poor sister who is already self-conscious about her orthodontics. T brought it up weeks into our trip out of the blue. Charming.
• Speaking of charming, Mason really turned it on and smiled and cooed at everyone (he loves people), resulting in him being held by no less than 5 different people at Stake Conference.
• The most popular comments were admiring his cheeks, thighs, eyes and "that curl".
• This trip was brought to you by the questions "What?" and "Why?" used after every. single. sentence spoken to my 3 year old.
• A major meltdown led to Teagan not being allowed to go to the park with Uncle Daniel. When asked why she wasn't allowed to go, she replied that she was whining and crying. Correct. "Why were you whining and crying?" I asked. "Because Mummy hurted my feelings." Ouch. A few minutes later she asked me, "Why did the bird fly away?" I told her I don't know. To which she responded, "I don't know why Mummy hurted my feelings."
• On a different occasion, she made it to the park and there was a little boy there who she kept trying to speak to him and he wasn't talking back. She told  him, "Mason doesn't speak." "How old is he? Six months?" she was asked. "NO! He's zero."

Short story long, we had a fantastic time with my family and are always sad when it comes to a close.So grateful we can visit for as long as we do (and that they put up with us for more than a month at a time) and build relationships with my family and maintain them through incredible technology. Love them!

* May 7 - June 4