alright, now that i have my mouth filled with peanut butter goodness let me tell you about my easter weekend visit. aaron, laisha and jonah all came down for a few days. as always their weekend was jam packed with visiting, luckily i only had to participate in the visiting that involved me, which was an afternoon spent at the vancouver aquarium on friday and a dinner at grandma's on sunday. to say the aquarium was busy would be like saying that sap is a little sticky (and that anaolgy is quite apt in this case). having been there dozens of times over the last year i can say with certainty that i have never seen it so busy. little children running amuck, strollers jamming into one another with force, crying and whining and above it all the pleasant woman's voice announcing that the dolphin show will be starting in 5 minutes. still, we managed to have a good time with cohen chanting "ish, ish" as he pointed from tank to tank, and jonah wide eyed and grinning at all the commotion. the day rounded out with a birthday cake for marko, complete with sparklers and singing (that's right, he is finally 21). it was a long one, but worth it just the same.
dinner at grandma's was much quieter and relaxing which was nice. the only commotion of the night was when jonah decided to bite my nipple while i was in the middle of a conversation. here i thought he was just relaxing on my lap, but it turns out he had other plans. when i yelped in pain his little face went blank and he started crying, poor guy! isn't that what teeth are for? i had to laugh when laisha's face sank as she asked, "oh did he just bite you?" i guess it is his new thing, better not let strangrrs hold him until that one passes!
hands down though, the highlight of the visit for me was the way jonah and cohen interacted with each other. marko was quick to comment that the two of them would be good friends if they lived closer. jonah was in awe of cohen, and cohen seemed highly interested in playing with jonah, he even gave him big kisses and hugs on more than one occasion. it was great having them there together. i already can't wait for june when we all get together again.
and we were given shoes (well they sort of look like shoes?). the guide would stop us along the trail and share moon folklore and then at one point we were each (16 in all) given a recipe card with a moon fact to read aloud, a flashlight passed hand to hand in replacement of the actual moon. my fact was something about ants and how even though they are busy and hard working they take the day off during a full moon. nicole's was about surgery and increased blood flow in relation to the fullness of the moon, how some surgeons won't perform due to an increased chance of complications. i won't say the facts were fascinating, because they weren't (although nicole's was at least interesting), but i will say that being out in the forest in the pitch black with all of the snow and the glow that came from behind the clouds, well that was something. plus, snowshoeing was kind of fun and afterwards we were all rosy cheeked and glowing as we sipped our perfectly sweetened hot chocolate and spoke of returning for more of the same, sooner rather than later.
this time i brought the stroller and cohen was able to see more from it then he ever had before. he is also a little older and more engaged in his environment which made for a great outing. his jaw actually dropped slightly while watching the tropical tank. he was computing just how expensive it would be to have a tank like that at home and then he went all serious, no doubt trying to figure out the best way to convince me to buy him one. we decided to walk a little after we left as both boys were sleeping in their strollers. cohen and i ended up walking the whole way home in the end as it wasn't so bad out and we both liked walking along the water. when we got home he had dinner and then slept like a baby. an added bonus for me!