Christmas 2006!

To summarize:

1. Birthdays for the Christmas Kids: Ridley turns 2 and his Mom ...um... suffice to say that she's considering a bulk discount for hair colour.

2. Trucks! Cars!

3. Ridley had a great time at his Grandma Pearl's as he engaged in a prolonged wrestling-match with cousins Ethan and Emma. No children were harmed during this spectacle, though I suspect one cat was deeply traumatized by the ensuing noise.



4. Trucks! Cars! TRAINS!

5. Within one-hour, Ridley learned both the word and concept of "present", as in "Christmas present". Any wrapped box or decorative bag that crossed his path was enthusiastically greeted with a chorus of "Out! Out! Out!" (the word "open" has yet to join his vocabulary).

6. The fact that Ridley is obsessed with all toy vehicles with wheels -- be they cars, trucks, trains -- was widely circulated throughout the family as he received enough of these to open his own mini-car rental agency. You need some Hot Wheels? He's got 'em. Thomas the Train? No problem.

7. Never leave a box of chocolates within reach of a toddler. Really, just don't.

8. The stop-motion animated version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" that I watched as a kid (the one from the 1950's with the in-the-closet gay dentist elf) is actually quite frightening to a 2-year-old. It was the Abominable Snowman, and not the aforementioned gay elf, that caused Ridley to cry with alarm.

9. If our next child is a boy, we won't have to buy him any trucks. If our next child is a girl ... she's gonna hafta like trucks. ;-) (No, we didn't inquire after the gender of the baby during the ultrasound). The irony that an individual such as myself, who is very cognisant of gender-stereotyping, should become parent to an über-mensch such as Ridley has not escaped me. Further proof, I suppose, that genetics play a major role in shaping personality and preference.

10. No matter how many toys, books, etc., a child receives for his birthday or Christmas, he will always exhibit a much greater fascination for the laptop computer.

Three curious Google searches that three curious strangers performed that -- curiously -- brought them to this blog:

1. werewolf transformation of feet
2. theron eyebrow piercing
3. mistress milena / feet

A big "shout out" to my friend Milena (a.k.a. Mistress Milena the Foot-Fetish Queen*) for giving me the idea for this post.

*I can neither support nor deny this claim.

(grin)

A curious story as seen on today's CBC News web site -- Jen:

Woman with 2 wombs gave birth to triplets, says hospital in Bristol, England

LONDON (AP) - A woman with two wombs has given birth to triplets, in what is believed to the first case of its kind, a hospital official said Friday.

Hannah Kersey, 23, gave birth to three girls in September, said Richard Dottle, a spokesman for Southmead Hospital in Bristol where the babies were born. The children spent nine weeks in the hospital.

The girls, identical twins delivered from one womb and a third fraternal sibling from the other, were delivered by Caesarean section seven weeks early, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.

Kersey and her partner Mick Faulkner said they were "over the moon" at how healthy and happy the girls were.

"They are three lovely and incredible children, all with very different personalities," the BBC quoted Kersey as saying.

"There haven't been any similar account where three healthy babies are born of two wombs," said Yakoub Khalaf, a consulting gynecologist at Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospital. He said that multiple pregnancies tended to be risky, and that delivering triplets under such abnormal circumstances was even riskier.

Separate or partially joined wombs are uncommon, although not rare. About one woman in 1,000 has them, according to Khalaf.

The condition would have occurred before Kersey was born when the two sides of her uterus failed to completely merge. The condition mean the separate wombs tend to have a considerably smaller volume and their contractions are weaker, said Michael Heard, a consulting gynecologist at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.

Pregnancies are possible, although they tend to result in premature birth more than half the time. Heard said that in the case of a Caesarean two operations would have to be performed.

Simultaneous pregnancies in two separate wombs are almost unheard of, and Khalaf said he had identified only 70 cases over the past 50 years worldwide. The delivery of triplets from two wombs has never before been recorded.

"This lady was extremely lucky," said Khalaf.

Kersey was not immediately available for comment on Friday but the Southwest News Agency based in Filton, England, said it had bought the rights to her story. It would not disclose the amount.

"Ya mon."

The above expression perfectly encapsulates the feeling of Jamaica. Laid back. Easy going. People as warm and sunny as the climate. As the Rastas are fond of saying: "No problem".

Our vacation in Jamaica was sublime. Sure, we has some rainy days, but even these were quite warm and the rain often short-lived. It's a tropical climate, after all. We stayed at FDR Pebbles, a resort located 30-minutes outside of Montego Bay which caters to families. This all-inclusive resort offered many family-friendly attractions including a "vacation nanny"; each family is assigned their own nanny to provide one-to-one care for your offspring so that Mom & Dad can relax.
























Our "vacation nanny" was a delightful woman named Sheryl. Here's a photo of myself, Sheryl and Ridley sitting inside of the Yellowbird Kiddie Centre (imagine your basic neighbourhood drop-in centre) on a rainy morning. Ridley seems too preoccupied with the video camera he's holding to acknowledge Dad taking his picture. (What is it with the male gender and electronics, anyway?)

This is the first vacation that Richard & I have ever taken to a resort. We're not your typical "resort people". We're more your "grab your guidebook, backpack and go" type of travellers. As you can imagine, this was quite a different experience for us. However, as travel with a toddler is challenging at the best of times, a resort-style vacation made sense. Granted, you're isolated in a little turista American-centric bubble. But, hey, the beaches are beautiful and the ocean warm and inviting.

We did manage a couple of day-trips off the resort. The first of these was to the nearby town of Falmouth, reputedly the oldest town in Jamaica. Perhaps not surprisingly, it also appeared to be one of the poorest towns, too. Stray dogs. Street kids. Visible signs of poverty. This is the Jamaica that most tourists don't see. Prompted by our shuttle driver, who assured us that "it's safe, except by the market", the two of us ventured into the town. The photo of the old women and the blue shed was taken during this small exploration. We wandered into a local shop to purchase two toddler-sized white t-shirts (for tie-dying back at the resort) and boarded the shuttle once again. The driver then delivered us (pun intended) to a very old Anglican church where an elderly matron beamed with pride as she told us about the restoration of this lovely old building. We deposited some dollars into the collection box and were off back to the resort.

The second day-trip was a bit of a naïve blunder. We took the free "shopping shuttle" that the resort offered into Montego Bay, realizing that the shuttle would usher us into the most outrageously-priced tourist trap. What I hadn't counted on was the fact that this tourist trap would be located in a strip mall in the suburban outskirts of Montego Bay and no escape into the city would be feasible. Ah well. There ain't no free ride, as they say.

The photo to the left was taken from the balcony of our suite at the resort. That red-roofed structure was the Oceanside Bar & Grill and the swim-up bar (the pool is in the foreground). Incidentally, the ocean water was always much, much warmer than that of the pool, so we tended to confine our swimming there. Richard mostly confined his consumption of beer to the Oceanside Bar & Grill -- regrettably, I was (and still am) pregnant and therefore sans alcohol.


























To wrap up this rambling post-vacation post, I'd just like to summarize some of the interesting things I learned whilst on my Jamaican adventure:

1. "Calaloo" really is spinach (I've long suspected).

2. "Malta" is a malt, hops and molasses-based drink that should be disgusting but is actually quite tasty.

3. If you complain* enough, the manager of the Pebbles resort will arrange a special "ackee and saltfish" breakfast for you.

4. The most interesting, friendly and genuine people you'll meet in Jamaica are Jamaicans. Go figure.

*Our only real complaint during this trip was the scarcity of good, authentic Jamaican food. Sure, the Grill served a rather tame jerk chicken (if you asked for jerk sauce on the side, you got the real spicy deal) and the Dining Room dished up acceptable Jamaican fare on Saturday nights, but there was a significant lack of Jamaican food in the daily buffet. We didn't travel all the way to Jamaica for pasta anymore than we would fly to Rome to sample the Oxtail Stew.