The Great White North

 Tate and I are in Ottawa visiting one of my best friends and her family. Susan and I have been friends since my junior year in college!!! We've been through college, sorority drama, graduations (law school-her, dental school and residency-me), boyfriends, break-ups, engagements (both of ours), broken engagements (mine), weddings (hers), child birth (I was in the room for the birth of her first; she was with me for the birth of Tate) and everything in between. She and her husband have lived all over this fabulous world of ours...Kosovo, Berlin, Miami, Washington D.C., Houston and now Ottawa (and I'm pretty sure I missed a place before or after Kosovo). I've visited them in each of the places they've lived save Kosovo (I would have gone, but civilians were not allowed due to safety concerns). I actually made it to Berlin 3 times and Miami twice as well as D.C. two times. My first visit to visit them in D.C. was actually only 3 weeks after the tragedy of September 11th which decimated the Pentagon. I was on the first flight out of Houston to land at Reagan National Airport which was newly re-opened that early October. I still remember the quiet and stillness of that flight...it was eerie..

Anyway, I've flown all over this world to spend time with Susan and her family and gladly have done so. I've seen more of this planet than I probably would have had I not had such a good friend to hang out with while doing it.

So, we're here in Ottawa, Canada. We left Houston yesterday morning, albeit 40 minutes later than we should have as our plane was missing a part! (Seriously, how is this possible when you've loaded every single person on a fully booked flight at 9 o'clock in the morning). Tate did really well on this leg of our trip; yes we had two legs as there are no direct flights from IAH to Ottawa sadly...this was to be our first time navigating connecting flights. I even got about a 45 minute nap out of him towards the end of the flight. But as we started our descent into Newark he lost it. He cried and moaned and whined and screamed for 10 straight minutes...all because when I offered him his one M&M he was not allowed to put it on the tray table because it had to be kept in place as we were descending...you know "Please return your tray tables and seats to their upright positions in preparation for landing". He was furious, and then refused the M&M. Nothing worked...not 3 M&Ms, not the promise of anything he wanted, not me getting angry, not me hissing in his ear to stop it, nothing...he insisted on having a major meltdown (And yes I bribe my kid to take a nap with ONE M&M, and it works when I have the proper vehicle to administer said bribe). Anyway,  he did finally calm down and we landed without incident, but it was the longest ten minutes ever.  We were then at Newark and ready to wait 2 hours for our  next flight. 

Thank goodness for his Leappad.  It kept him completely occupied :)  No tears, no fussing, no complaints...nada. 

We made it to Ottawa both in one piece.  He did great on that flight as well;  he actually colored for about 45 minutes straight allowing me the opportunity to get a short nap, albeit one interrupted every 5-7 minutes when he needed a new page to color, but hey I got some rest!  I had been up until midnight the night before in preparation for our journey!  And we were up at 5 thanks to Tate who had gone to bed late (around 845pm on Thursday night).  He still wakes early if he goes to bed too late, but we needed to be up by 530am anyway to leave at 7!  (My fantastic parents drove us to the airport!)

Susan and the kids picked us up and Tate was in heaven.  The kids played and played all evening...outside in the snow which thrilled Tate and downstairs in the huge playroom.

Thus my little guy was exhausted as was his mama.  And we both bore that exhaustion badly.  He fought going to sleep like crazy and I fought the urge to completely lose my patience with him just barely.  There were alot of hurt feelings and anger as I worked to get him down.  This was far from my proudest parenting evening.  And Tate was so upset, exhausted, frustrated and certainly hurt from my upset that he could barely speak before finally going to sleep around 8:45pm.

But this morning he slept until 7am!!!  I haven gone to bed at 930 last night was in heaven even though I woke up 3 times fully overnight!!!

Today we had a really great day.  We lounged around the house til about 1030, while the kids played outside in the snow, played in the basement and watched some Tate-friendly tv. 

By the way Tate loves, loves, loves the snow.  He is constantly asking to go play in it and when he does he does so with absolute gusto.  He runs around, falls down, makes snow angels and just enjoys it greatly.  He cannot get enough of it.

We then got everyone dressed in the snow needed clothing...good grief that takes absolutely forever!  We headed out to go sledding!!  It was awesome!  And Tate loved walking to the hill we sledded on;  as he walked he talked to himself happily, walking in the new snow while the rest of us walked in the previously walked path (which makes it much easier).  He chattered away to himself with joy!   He was hesitant to sled first, but after his first foray with Katherine he was hooked.  He didn't even seem to mind having to walk back up the hill too terribly much, though he had some difficulty when he would end up on icier patches.  I was really proud of him.  After a few runs down the hill, he decided to go it alone.  What a big boy he is!!  I joined him at the base of the hill and the two of us walked over to some 'new' snow and made snow angels and played in the new snow for a bit.  We then headed back up for another run for him.  This one he did on his own, but on a sled with 'steering' capabilities...the first run he did well.  The second one, well...

He had a spectacular face plant when he was about 3/4 of the way down the hill.  He let go of the steerer and only slightly flew off the sled and landed on his way.  It sounds way worse here, as he didn't really 'fly' that far, but he landed on his little face which was covered in snow when he looked up as was his hat and gator around his neck.

Needless to say he was done. 

I made my way down to him and we made it back up the hill.  The tears stopped and I got him as dry as I could.  Alex and Katherine were finishing up their sledding and we headed back to the car.  And again my sweet boy started humming and talking to himself as we walked, lagging behind Susan and her two older kiddos.  On the way out of the sledding area we came upon 3 huge ice drifts that we let the kids climb for about 15 minutes.  Tate was in there climbing away with no fear!! 

Once home we got some lunch and let the kids play.  Susan and I headed out to the store while Dan stayed home with the kids;  I got Tate situated with his Curious George video downstairs while the older kids watched some non-Tate-friendly shows.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and hanging out.  It is so nice to be on the kind of vacation where I can just sit and do nothing.  It's too cold to really do any sort of sightseeing, and personally I don't really want to.  I'm sure there are tons of places to see and museums to visit here in lovely Ottawa, but I cannot be bothered to care.  I just need a few days when I can just hang out.  And go to bed early which is where I'm headed now!

Tate's been asleep since 730!  No nap for him and some sort of allergic reaction necessitating some Benadryl around 5pm, and he was exhausted, though he handled it very well tonight. (He was breaking out on his face and scratching the back of his head and ears alot...we think it's from the dog;  they have a yellow lab who is so sweet, but Tate was letting her kiss/lick him for the first time this afternoon).

So in anticipation of our excursion to ski tomorrow I'm going to head off to bed.  Oh, I have taken pictures, but I don't want to download them onto my friends' computer which I'm using, so I will post them when we return home!!

Happy Saturday Night!