One Month

On the day of my last post, I received a phone call in the afternoon letting us know that my Dad in Spain went into hospital on June 25. As a lot of you already know, he had been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis for the past few years and it had most recently developed into pulmonary fibrosis which got to the point where it was so difficult for him to draw breath that he was on a portable oxygen tank. One side effect of his condition was a weakened immune system and he ended up with pneumonia which is when Marina called the ambulance. Of course, since he was never one to admit weakness or a need for help, he was still protesting 'No, no, I'm fine' as the paramedics removed him on a stretcher. Despite my initial gut reaction to get on the next plane out to Las Palmas, I decided to stay home when we learned that he had been unconscious since he arrived at the hospital. I know that my Dad would not have wanted me to see him so incapacitated and I thought that I would fly out when he did regain consciousness. That never did happen, and he passed away one month ago today on July 11.
I still can't believe that he is gone and it feels so strange to update this site when one of the main people I created it for is no longer here to read it. He made many decisions in his life that many may find difficult to understand, but I do know that his one regret was the way his lifestyle resulted in such distance between himself and his children. Despite that physical distance we remained very close, and as I look around my home he is here in so many mementos and memories from the times we did spend together. I'm very appreciative of the wonderful people surrounding me who have supported me so much. I still expect to see that he's on facebook, or to receive a humourous email from him. I knew that when he sold his motorbike - his Yellow Bumblebee - recently that he was feeling increasingly imprisoned by his illness. He believed in and lived 'A lifetime of chance for a breath of freedom.'

We're baaaack....

So, seeing as it's been a year since I last updated the site there's no way I'm going to try to sum everything up since the last post. The most important update since then would be Coen's arrival on December 19th (exactly as I'd planned!).
Now he's just over 6 months old and is growing so fast. He's able to stay sitting by himself and is desperate to begin crawling so he can keep up with his big brother! Caleb is adjusting well to having a little brother, although he is getting quite possessive over his 'big boy' toys.
So, what have we been doing most recently? Charles has been off on parental leave with me since the beginning of May which has been fantastic. It's allowed me to get together with some friends that I haven't seen in ages! Nicole, Jackie and I got together for the first time since completing the CITE teacher's ed program (10 years ago!)and Lisette brought Annika over to play with Caleb (they hadn't seen each other in over a year - which is a loooong time for a 2 1/2 year old!). We've been able to see the Tingstads a fair bit since Rina is off on mat leave as well (Owen was born in early February). Now that Caleb and Mattias are getting older they actually play together rather than just playing independently in the same area. Their temperaments are so similar that they make fantastic playmates. Coen and Owen aren't quite there yet, but I'm sure their time will come; it is so neat that the Tingstad boys are the same ages as our two. Caleb just completed his second session of 'SportBall' through Surrey Parks and Rec and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Basically they teach sport related skills (soccer, baseball, golf etc.) through a storytelling context to make it more accessible for the little ones. I'm pretty sure we'll be signing him up for SportBall Soccer in the fall.
As far as Charles and I go, we've been able to start having people over a bit more regularly since Coen has established a really consistent sleeping pattern at night. We've been spending a lot of time with the Tingstad and the Storness-Bliss families as well as with Steve and Cheryl. Board games (Apples to Apples, Catan) and Rock Band usually appear at some point in any given social evening! We've also had Kelly and Tomy over, and have even managed to see Mandy and Kevin from time to time!
Now, the actual summer break is here and we're looking forward to a relaxing couple of months. We have a few upcoming concerts (Mother Mother, Death Cab for Cutie, U2)and no summer would be complete without Bard on the Beach. This year we'll be seeing Othello with about 12 of our friends so we'll take up quite a large section! In August we'll be off to Kauai for Cristi's wedding. Caleb is really looking forward to going on an airplane and playing with diggers in the sand. Maybe we'll even be able to convince him to go into the water...
I'll be posting some of our most recent photos and will hopefully be updating the site more regularly, but we'll see :)