Vancouverish Tribe - August is hot Hot HOT!

[dawncayden]

Welcome Lower Mainland Mamas!
(and Mamas to Be)


All local mamas are welcome here! Visitors are welcome to pop in too. We are brought together by our passion for conscious/thoughtful/attachment/respectful/wholistic/natural parenting, not always agreeing on the path but agreeing to respectfully discuss, share, and learn together. Feel free to join in the conversation and introduce yourself!

This is our thread for chatting online, discussing issues relevant to the Lower Mainland, and arranging meetings in real life. If you have issues and questions that are not specific to the Vancouver area, please start a new thread in the appropriate MDC forum (e.g. breastfeeding, discipline, health, etc.). You can also post a link to your topic in this thread if you are requesting input from your tribe members. This allows us to
1. adhere to MDC guidelines;
2. keep questions and responses organized; and
3. reduce thread traffic and allow readers more control over which discussions they engage in.

Meet-ups are sporadic and include gatherings at parks, Science World, and people's homes. Anyone is welcome to suggest a gathering time/place. Meet-ups are either announced in the meet-up thread in the Canada Forum or here.

Remember that to get email notification of new posts in this thread, you can post to this thread to subscribe or you can use 'thread tools' and click 'subscribe'.

Please note that our Vancouver(ish) Tribe has other threads in the Canada Forum, including:

* Vancouver(ish) Meet-up thread
* Knitting Group Thread: look in the Canada forum
* Vancouver(ish) Doctors for Children
* Vancouver(ish) Dental Resources for Children
* FAQ: Greater Vancouver Area Liveability and Affordability

[Intuition]

Subbing.

[artparent]

hot, hot and i love it i have been swimming in the ocean every single day since i got here

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[Storm Bride]

Today was insane. DD1 was invited to a birthday party at Cates Park. To make a long story short, I spent almost an hour trying to find a parking space, and eventually left the kids without me - ds1 took them out and escorted them to the party, then got back in the van. During the ensuing confusion (passing over sunscreen & swimsuits, and finding out if ds2 could stay without me, etc., while trying not to block traffic), I forgot to pass my phone number to the host. The birthday girl lives in our complex, and we don't know each other's phone numbers. When we picked ds2 back up, we lucked out and got a parking space. So, we walked down, and found out that ds2 had managed to slip away from the adults and gone all the way from the playground to the beach. He was found happily throwing rocks in the water. I'm okay with it - I know this happens. But, he sure threw a scare into everyone there...and we lost his shoes.

Wow. Birthday parties aren't usually this exciting...thankfully.

[tiffani]

today is a beautiful day, and our morning gymnastics class was canceled, so the kids are doing some yardwork for me (paid ), taking trampoline breaks, and digging up bones (roots) in the dirt under the trampoline. I am getting a lot done and figuring out logistics of our next adoption moves, which I posted about in the adoption forum... being kind of lazy, I'm cutting and pasting to share with you guys...

we're busily figuring out the logistics of how we'll do the travel -- with the new orphanage we're working with, the director requires an initial visit to meet you, and so you can match with the child (or children in our case), and you are essentially volunteering there for a week or two. It can be a month or longer before you can get a court date (and we all know how those types of things can drag out) so I think I'm going to go for my initial visit as soon as our criminal checks come back and our social worker can put the dates of those clearances in our homestudy -- she can send me a copy of the homestudy (which I think will be finished in the next couple of weeks) and then I'll have everything I need to go and be matched with two kids! I'll stay for two weeks, meet them, volunteer at the orphanage, take the kids for medicals, and probably buy anything we're hoping to have from Uganda then, so I'm traveling home with it by myself instead of with two traumatized children, and then head back to Uganda once our application to adopt is approved by US citizenship and immigration and we can get a court date. It will be so hard to leave the little ones there, but they are in good hands there, it will be *home* for them still, and it's better than my dh trying to hold it together for 2 months by himself with working and having our two homeschooled kids along for the ride... two short trips seems better than one gigantic one... we had hoped that we could all go as a family, but that's just too much airfare when we're paying for the adoptions of two kids -- plus any time dh takes off from work he doesn't get paid for, so...

I'm super excited that things are falling into place! : we found a minister in our local homeschooling community who will write our letter of recommendation from a church or religious leader, so we have almost every single piece of this gigantic puzzle!!!!! not to jinx it or anything ... better eat some chocolate to appease the adoption gods...

off to hang laundry in the sunshine!!! : I'm jealous of your heat there, but I can't complain about a winter day like this!!

[MaybeGracie]

Wow Tiffani, how exciting to have everything coming together!

[weliveintheforest]

Yikes Lisa, that sounds like a crazy morning. That sucks you lost his shoes... interestingly I lost my nephew's shoes at the beach a few days ago. A big pain in the butt when you live in Hope and there aren't a lot of shoe buying options!

Glad things are all coming together Tiffani

[beckajayne]

Hello!

It has been a long time since I've been hitting the forums in here due to being busy and general family craziness, but I'm back and excited to get to know more Vancouver-ites.

It has been crazy hot, thank goodness we live so close to Casa Gelato! Yum. Also, thank goodness its much cooler today because my house has gotten out of control due to heat induced laziness, haha.

Tiffani, thank you so much for sharing this. Adoption is something my husband and I plan on doing whether we can or can't have children (there is a possibility we won't be able to get pregnant, but aren't trying at the moment) and so I'm now realising that we should probably start looking into it and figuring out how it all works so we're more ready at the time we decide to go ahead with it. I'm so glad that everything is working out for you and your new wee ones!

[widemouthedfrog]

subbing - and storm bride, ack! Cates was dd's first choice for a birthday location, but I refused for exactly that reason. Luckily, she really enjoyed her second choice.

and welcome again, beckajane!

[Ellp]

Just subbing in because I wondered why it was so quiet on the other thread all of a sudden!:

We went to the Barnet Marine Park today to take the heat off. Glad we got there before noon though as it was a zoo in the parking lot after that. Great place to relax, they have a concession stand, lots of shade and picnic tables.

[sew_crafty_girl]

Hi, I'm new here.

I live in Maple Ridge. Just found out I'm pregnant for the 7th time. I have 2 bio kids and 2 step-kids. My second husband and I have been trying for a baby together since Nov. '07 and have had 4 miscarriages.

I've been put through the wringer at BC Women's Recurrent Loss Clnic. Have had a couple traumatizing experiences at Ridge Meadows hospital and now find myself in the care of Dr. Farquarson at RCH and my wonderful Ridge Meadows Midwives.

[tiffani]

welcome sew crafty girl! so sorry to hear of your losses, and the ordeal you've gone through with the medical community, . congratulations on your pregnancy, and best wishes!!!

trying to figure out travel logistics... trying to get there as soon as possible, but since we're still waiting on a few things, it's really hard to plan anything concretely... did manage to score a whole bunch of little boy and girl clothes at two sally anns... anything that's too small we'll donate to the orphanage when I go... it's all getting very real!! I have to go get a yellow fever vaccine, and need to decide about cholera (outbreaks there, but I kind of figure that wouldn't be too hard to avoid, would it? anyone know? erica? ) and malaria meds... mark and the kids aren't going (too expensive) and I was planning to go for two trips, but today I'm thinking one might make more sense, since I'd potentially only be home for two weeks before needing to go back... so excited and freaked out at the same time!!! I have all this weird buzzy energy, but at least the house is getting clean!

[Ellp]

Welcome Sewcraftygirl!

Sorry to hear about your miscarriages. I've had a few myself and went for genetic counselling at BC Womens. Apparently I didn't "qualify" for counselling.: They didn't find anything wrong in the end, so I guess it was just luck of the draw.

We went with the Ridge Meadows ladies too. Really nice. Unfortunately for use both kiddos were born in RCH, but the 2nd one was a VBAC so that made things a little better. The nurses at RCH were aghast though and wrote a report on my MW about attempting a homebirth. : They're not the most up-to-date folks there...

Good luck on your pregnancy!

[Piglet68]

Wow, ya go away for a few days and look at all the newbies that show up! A big ol' WELCOME to all the newcomers.

We came back yesterday from 4 nights in Vernon at the Komasket Music Festival. Man, it was HOT. I think it hit 39 degrees one day. Thank GOODNESS there was a lake right on our doorstep. We swam at least twice a day, often more. The kids got lots of water time.

I have learned that too much heat just renders me USELESS. It's like someone has sucked all the energy out of me and it's all I can do to get through the day. Back here at home it's a beautiful 20-something and I had a very productive day!

Very exciting news, tiffani. Boy, things are moving fast aren't they? I'm so excited for you guys. And what an amazing adventure for you - even if you weren't coming home with kids! - to spend time volunteering at an African orphanage!!

I'm on the North Shore, for any of you newbies. Though my kids are not babies anymore so I'm not as in touch with what's around for them, except to second the Rec Centres and the Libraries, too. And whoever mentioned living in Lower Lonsdale - it did used to be a "non family friendly" area, lol, to put it politely. But if you haven't seen it in the last 10 years you won't recognize it. It's now very family-friendly, high density housing, totally walkable with a rec centre and all. My mum lives there and it's a nice area if urban living is your thing.

Oh, I'm also one of the LLL leaders for the North Shore group. We meet on the second Monday of each month at the Lynn Valley United Church at 10-ish (come late, it's okay!).

My garden: well, I basically ignored it. My salad greens bolted a month ago and grew to about 5 feet tall before I plucked them. The sugar snap peas yielded little other than passing snacks as I didn't plant enough vines this year. All that's left now are some carrots and cabbages. I keep forgetting to water so I'm amazed that anything is still alive. My eat-local, grow-yer-own plans just completely fell to naught this year. Ah well, there's always next season!

[sew_crafty_girl]

Originally Posted by Ellp

Welcome Sewcraftygirl!

Sorry to hear about your miscarriages. I've had a few myself and went for genetic counselling at BC Womens. Apparently I didn't "qualify" for counselling.: They didn't find anything wrong in the end, so I guess it was just luck of the draw.

We went with the Ridge Meadows ladies too. Really nice. Unfortunately for use both kiddos were born in RCH, but the 2nd one was a VBAC so that made things a little better. The nurses at RCH were aghast though and wrote a report on my MW about attempting a homebirth. : They're not the most up-to-date folks there...

Good luck on your pregnancy!

If all goes well I'll get discharged from the RCH Peri at 20wks and hopefully deliver at home. *fingers crossed*

[Autumn Mama]

Originally Posted by tiffani

I'm super excited that things are falling into place! : we found a minister in our local homeschooling community who will write our letter of recommendation from a church or religious leader, so we have almost every single piece of this gigantic puzzle!!!!! not to jinx it or anything ... better eat some chocolate to appease the adoption gods...

Wow, tiffani, I'm excited for you all over again! : This opportunity seems to be progressing really fast...

Originally Posted by Piglet68

My garden: well, I basically ignored it. My salad greens bolted a month ago and grew to about 5 feet tall before I plucked them. The sugar snap peas yielded little other than passing snacks as I didn't plant enough vines this year. All that's left now are some carrots and cabbages. I keep forgetting to water so I'm amazed that anything is still alive. My eat-local, grow-yer-own plans just completely fell to naught this year. Ah well, there's always next season!

We have lots to share!!! :

[Storm Bride]

I really need to start a garden. I can't do it here, but I talked to my mom, and we've agreed that we're going to clear some of hers up next year. Mom has a huge yard and hasn't really been able to maintain it for the last few years. So, we're going to clear her whole vegetable garden area, and allocate one plot to dd1 (and ds2, if he's interested). I'm sure dd1 would love to do some veggie gardening.

[Autumn Mama]

Hey, storm, that's exciting news! well, maybe 'exciting' is a stretch, but certainly something fun to look forward to, lol!

I remember starting our first garden back in Richmond around 10 years ago, before kids, and we were soooo excited to pick cherry tomatoes for our (store bought) lettuce salads. We grew them in wooden barrels I think, beside our gate. It has definitely become one of my main interests and all my men are happily learning and enjoying it, too! I will take all the help I can get on the heavy stuff, lol! :

Just think in 10 years you might have chickens, fruit trees, berry patches and a HUGE veggie garden!

[Storm Bride]

Well, I have no idea what I'm doing - always wanted a garden, but mostly haven't lived in places where I could have one. I've messed around with our little patch out front, but there's not much space, tons of rocks, and I can't figure out what I want to do with it.

We have a neighbour with a larger garden plot, and he has a veggie garden. DD1's interest has really been sparked. She seems especially fascinated by tomatoes.

[artparent]

i just got a picture of my tomatoes, they are coming along well, despite the english weather..i hope to get to eat some kale or something when we go back. i have to figure out this gardening but leaving the country for the summer thing maybe only plant things either really early for an early july harvest, or plant really long-growing things to harvest in the autumn? or what? sorry to hear your garden went to seed in the end, mariah, but i'm sure you learned a lot anyway and will have so much to build from. i cannot wait til my compost is ready and i can enrich the london clay further.

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