Sundays...

 

  

 

Just a regular, plain old Sunday morning on Granville Island... A wander through Emily Carr, a jaunt through the public market, a little bird feeding and macaron enjoying.

ferry to and fro

we took a jaunt on tuesday to the granville island market.  we tried to go on monday but i only got as far as science world because i forgot a) money and b) a debit card, so we couldn't actually get on the ferry...

so on tuesday we started over.  we hopped on the skytrain downtown and then took the little blue ferry across false creek.  once there, we shopped for a birthday gift at the paper shop, picked up some fresh cherries at the okanagan fruit stand and gathered the makings of a tasty lunch from various other vendors.  we stopped at la baguette to get buns (a croissant for cole, who was most insistent!) and then we watched some flamenco dancing in the square in front.  cole was really into it - he stood dancing in his zombie sway move and then he ran up to put the tip into the hat.  i suppose while he watched he realized he'd seen something that needed another look because when the dancing was all done he asked to go back into the bakery for a pink cookie.

we went back for a macaron and then went to find a shady spot (with grass, per cole's instructions) to eat our lunch.  we even managed a quick no-tears stop at the kids market.  i narrowly avoided buying a red plastic snake and all manner of other things that cole was impressed with.  all in all a wonderful trip!  next time i'll have to bring another adult so we can stop at the granville island brewing co!  ;-)

come down! we have the only gack in town...

just a random reference to the doctor seuss obsession of the moment for cole - one fish two fish. he loves that book and reading it many times a day certainly does keep it in your head.

those words were what i thought today when we hopped on board the free olympic line trolley to granville island. it was a lovely ride - so silent and clean and european - it reminded me of the seamless luas system we rode in dublin, minus the temporary confusion about which side of the tracks to stand on. ;-) not necessarily super convenient to get to for us, since we had to walk along the olympic barricades on quebec street and then along noisy west 2nd to get to the starting point at olympic village skytrain station. but an excellent concept and addition to our public transit system - i'd love to see more of this kind of streetcar here. it was so stroller-friendly, being at street-level compared to the skytrain and not having those bus stairs (or bus drivers and their nauseating gas-brake-gas pedal situation) to deal with.

we wandered at granville island, buying cards at paper ya, fruit & veggies in the market and stopping for a treat. i must admit, i bought cole a powdered donut hole from lee's just because i thought it would be cute to see him covered in white sugar. it was very cute. he was certainly very pleased to reach into his paper bag and find such a treat.

oddly, a whole group of tourists came over to say how cute cole was and then they started taking his photo. weird! i didn't have a problem with it for any particular reason, but if it was a sign of the crowds to come i'm not sure about that. i always wish to take photos of interesting locals when we travel - people that capture a place, like the stereotypically quaint look of like an old irishman sitting on a stile smoking or a group colourful gypsies having a full-on cookout, complete with caravan, on the side of the road to stratford-upon-avon, but i end up feeling like that would be rude and intrusive, treating people like sightseeing landmarks, so i don't... sometimes i just don't understand folks.

but it was a lovely day for being outside and in jolly spirits. we sat out behind the market where cole ate and then chased birds in the sun. we had to go back in after the kids sitting beside us had bagels - "bagel, bagel, bagel" was all i heard from cole after he was done with the birds. he's had a cold lately and not been eating well, so of course i dutifully took us to siegel's (which is the bagel company i think i like until i buy half a dozen and remember that solly's is my actual favourite). of course, bagel in hand, he promptly declared "no this one" and threw his piece away. ah well, another trolley ride was in the cards.

we rode back and then hopped two skytrains to connect us back home. cole had a blast pointing out all the things people were doing with very to-the-point descriptions: "banana lady" and "drink water" guy, "big people, stairs" and so on... it was quite the fun morning.

random wellness

we spent the last week lying low. cole had some cooties, so we had to cancel plans with all our baby friends to keep from sharing... the doctor told us that he may have caught coxsackie virus, a scary-sounding but common childhood illness that's "going around". cole had some odd red spots on his inner lip, spots that we couldn't figure out and drove us to consult the doctor. thankfully no coughing or sniffling, no fever and he seemed generally in high spirits during the day, but not hungry at all and at night he cried a lot and woke up more than ever (!)...

his lip looks fine now and he did seem to get up to more than his share of fun this week while on the mend. the moments i have photos for:

we've been playing a lot of dress-up lately. cole's dress-up suitcase is not very full yet, but it does contain all the pride parade beads that i had laying around, a kukui nut necklace, a crown, a cape, one leather glove and a few other odds and ends. he loves the necklaces - putting them on and taking them off - so cute.

we took the boat over to granville island, just for fun. cole loves the ride, waving at the boaters and the birds... i got a chance to try out our new umbrella stroller, scored on craigslist last weekend in preparation for future travel - brand new, in the box, crazy deal... i have seen the light of the small baby carriage. i folded it in seriously five seconds and just slung it over my shoulder - ahhhhhhh! (that was angels singing, not me having a spaz.) we were polite to and then irrated by the crushing, gawking tourists and i'm so thankful that it will be september in a few days and many will go home. so i can enjoy buying fruit (and beer and tiramisu) in relative peace...

we revisited for the 1000th time the many playgrounds of our area, always bringing chalk. i am in love with sidewalk chalk, you might have noticed. it's so vibrant! cole loves colouring with it - and he's not eating it as much, so that's good.

and we made fun stuff out of our recyclables. my favourite , the beer-carton hat that jamie fashioned for cole:

and, because of the poor nighttime sleeping, we spent a lot of time overnight on the couch, like so (thanks jamie - it's not as bad as i pictured when you woke me up by taking it):