Surprise holiday

Surprise, we're on holiday. No, really it's a surprise.  Just last Friday we talked about spending a few days in lake placid or trying a farm stay in vermont but this week we find ourselves in Bayahibe, Dominican Republic.  I say it's peter's fault that we're here and he says it was my idea.  Does it matter?  What matters is we are enjoying great sunny, hot weather and we are not missing the snow and chills of home.

Never say never.  I am not a spontaneous person (need my agenda to survive).  We booked online Saturday and left Monday (not surprising that lead to some confusion at the hotel check-in as they couldn't find our reservation).  As you can imagine, it was mad packing on Sunday ("Louis, try this on.  Does it still fit??").  I dug out my old bathing suits (note to self: get new bathing suits!) and didn't even get a pedicure (omg!  Actually I like going nude.  No worrying about my pedicure getting ruined on the trip!).   The real beauty of last minute traveling is there is no time to worry (and no time to shop which is probably why Peter agreed to this).

I said I wasn't interested in all inclusives.  I still don't think there is anything interesting about all inclusives but I'm not cooking any meals this week... Huge bonus.  I call this place the "compound".  We left the "compound" yesterday to visit a nearby tiny town called Dominicus.  There was a small coffee shop (latte was good as they used real milk and not the powdered milk as they do here in the "compound"), a few convenient shops (seeing the Fanta bottles made me reminisce about olden day travels to SE Asia), a few souvenir shops, a cigar shop and a handful of restaurants.  The town seems to exist to serve the ex-pat community working on the resorts.  We met a Tunisian man, Sofian, at the cafe who was running the diving shop in one of the resorts.  He spoke 7 languages, one of which was English so we were able to have a conversation.  Most people around here speak Spanish, Italian or French.  Very little English is used here.  Sofian described a very sad picture of Dominicans where the women will have several children with different men.  The men spend most of their salary on child support and the balance goes to drinking.  Not much is saved and there isn't a real notion of building a future.  He is obviously generalizing but the women I met working at the "compound" spend a good 15 hours working hard every day for maybe 7-10 days at a time before they get to go home to see their kids.  When asked who was watching the kids, they all said their mothers.  No mention of fathers at all.

We spent maybe 2 hours in the town but it did me good to get out into the "real" world.  If the kids were older, we would venture off to other towns.  The kids love the beach here (I think Sammy thinks it's all you can eat sand), the great big pool, and the pineapple juice!  Sammy seems to have my love for dance, rocking to bachata and salsa music in his high chair.  Louis is using "hola" and "gracias" as he makes new friends, young and old, every day.  Amazing to see how inquisitive and social he is at this age.  He made friends with an Italian boy, (their common language being soccer), a French Canadian boy (from Sherbrooke and doesn't understand a word of English) and lovely Dominicans who work here, Maira (he pronounces Maria and she wants a photo of him) &   Raymundo (the man who keeps reminding Louis that all the Louis he knows eats well).  Oh, btw, my little man is known as Luis here.

We are relaxed and probably more relaxed than any other vacation, near or far, that we've taken with the kids.  But a vacation with the kids is still relocation as there is a schedule to respect (+/- 2 hours!  Poor Sammy is exhausted), powdered milk to be given, and poopy diapers to be changed.  I see other couples here and I can't help but be a little envious as Peter and I are getting zero time alone (Luis demands that I sleep with him while Sammy demands that I be next to him every waking moment!).  The kids are happy, really happy so that makes us happy.  Perhaps next surprise vacation will be something for hubby and I?  For now, we'll enjoy the paradise we've found here at the compound.

I'm not sure if it's the boys who keep me busy or if it's me who keeps them busy. What I do know is it feels like we haven't stopped for days. Which is why I am writing about the weekend now. Which is why I just asked my husband what we did on Saturday.

Saturday was date day with Louis. Is is all boys who love buses and metros?? "mama, this is soooo fun!" as he was bouncing around on the bus like a popcorn. He is so light, he literally bounces off the seat. We went for a stroll downtown. When I told him we were headed a mall that was connected to the metro, he thought it was the most awesome thing. You have to love the fact that it doesn't take much to impress a 4-year old.

Sammy had his first sleepover at my parents' on Sunday. You would think that it would be easy to drop off the second child but I was still stressed.

Dear Louis & Sammy...

When I was pregnant with Louis (my first born), I picked up a sweet baby journal called "the First 1000 days" by Nikki McClure. It had cute paper cut illustrations and it wasn't one of those fill in the blanks journal (i felt like i was cheating buying one of those). In fact, I remember wondering if there was enough space in the journal for me to write about my baby to my baby. Well, Louis came along and we didn't sleep for the first six months. Just this week, he wanted me to read "his story" and when I opened up the journal, he asked why the first few pages were blank. I told him that no sleep equaled blank pages! It turns out, filling out the blank pages of the book wasn't that easy. Despite sleeping, motherhood, my full time job, is exhausting. I wasn't lacking material for Louis' story because every day with a child brings out something new and worthy of recording whether it's his first successful knock-knock joke (Louis' accomplishment this week), a little gourmand's plea to try foie gras (highlight of this weekend) or something major like walking ( my baby is finally walking this week!). Louis loves "his story", an often favorite at naptime. With two boys now, I barely can stay awake to kiss my husband goodnight, let alone write. I want Sammy to have "his story" recorded and I want Louis to have a second volume to "the First 1000 days" so this is it. At least I'm sure they will find the illustrations cute as they will mostly be featured in them.