Port Stops - Stockholm and Helsinki

Our cruise port stops started in Stockholm. We considered going to see the original Ikea but instead opted for the Absolut Vodka Ice Bar. It was very cool (pun intended).

When we arrived, everyone had to put on parkas. Thank goodness they had one child sized one.



Dougie was cold and not too thrilled to be there.


He started to perk up quickly though.


We turned in our drink tickets and got some drinks. Something with vodka for Scott and Dougie and I split a cranberry juice.

The ice glasses


Though Scott is not a big drinker, he thought the flavored vodka is pretty good.


We were only at the bar about 30 minutes and then we had to get on the bus to tour the rest of the city. It was a great time though!!


The rest of the tour was a talking tour of the old city. There were some interesting sites, including the Noble museum but nothing particularly interesting to photograph. The only thing was this:

This very tiny statue is apparently world famous. You're supposed to rub his head for good luck. In the winter, people send little hats for him so he keeps warm. Scott and I each took a turn rubbing his head and then Dougie gave it a shot.


After a day at sea, we stopped in Helsinki. Since Scott and I had both already been there, we decided to take a tour to a small island to see a UNESCO site. The site was interesting but a challenge to see with a toddler. He did enjoy the boat ride there and back but would have enjoyed napping more.

Just call me Mimi

Anyone who has spent any time with Dougie lately knows that he has learned the word "Mama." It's very southern but not a term that we use or had planned to use. I was so happy that he was calling me something though that I went with it. We continued to refer to me as "Mummy" in hope that someday, he'd start too.



We're not quite there yet but we've made progress. Dougie has started to call me "Mimi." Dougie has some trouble changing sounds in the middle of a word so we think he's picked up the second part of Mummy and just doubled it up. It's pretty cute and occasionally, very rarely, it comes out as Mummy.

The Cruise

The next step in our vacation was to get onto the cruise ship. This was a special trip for us because we were celebrating out 10th anniversary (it isn't really until September but I'll be too pregnant to cruise by then). We opted for a room with a bit more space because it was such a special time and because we'd have Dougie with us and knew he'd need a bit of extra room. Much to our surprise, we then had our room upgraded. It really was a thrill!

The Room












It turned out that it was great to have the space. With Dougie's naps and early bedtimes, we did end up having a lot of time in the room.

We did manage to escape from the room though. Dougie invented a new game of golf. It involved hitting the ball once with the putter and then picking the ball up, putting it beside the cup and rolling it in. Tiger Woods he is not but Scott is looking into getting him on a junior tour.

Dougie also played some basketball. Being less than 3 feet tall, it isn't quite his game yet but, with Daddy's help, he managed.







We also made several trips to the buffet. Dougie learned they had "cook-kee-kees" which he requested every time we got near the buffet or any time he just thought about it.





Not to worry though, the cruise wasn't all about cookies, there was ice cream too.







You can see why we enjoyed it so much. We'll cover port stops soon.

Vacation - Copenhagen

After our quick trip to Canada, we had a handful of days at home and then we were off to Europe for a family vacation. As you can imagine, we were more than a bit nervous about having Dougie on a very long flight across the Atlantic not to mention our concerns about dealing with a toddler and serious jet lag. Overall, we all did exceptionally well with the trip. We had a few early flights that taxed all of us but we pulled through and made it to Copenhagen without any major international incidents.

Our first day there we spent mostly in recovery mode. It was raining most of the day and we were all very tired so we napped and didn't wander too far from the hotel. Fortunately, we were very close to a lot of the action of the city so even with just a short walk we could experience city life.

Day two we decided to get out and do some real site seeing. We took a boat tour in the morning. It was a great way to see the city and Dougie enjoyed the experience of being on the boat enough that he was happy to sit through the tour.



After some lunch and a short nap, we headed to Tivoli. It's a small amusement park right in the center of Copenhagen. I think that may have been the highlight of Dougie's entire trip. There was a large children's area that had an inflated mattress like thing that the kids could bounce on.





There were also slides and other more standard play things.



It was a challenge to get Dougie away from that area but eventually, we did. We decided to try him on some of the rides. Daddy took him on the first one.

It looks like he's screaming there but he's actually saying "Hi Mama."

I drove with him in some little cars and then we moved onto the carousel.



Dougie loved the carousel so much, we did it again. This time, he wanted to ride the giraffe.

It really was huge. Scott kept a hand on him the entire time though.




It has been a long day by the time we finished on the rides so we had some dinner in the park. Scott decided to get some ice cream but Dougie felt that he should share.







We decided to finish the day by burning off a bit of energy back on the bounce thing.



There were a lot less kids the second time so Dougie was able to run without worrying about hitting someone else.



It was a fabulous day. The next day we headed for the cruise ship. More about that soon.

SmILE Program

This week, Dougie started his group speech therapy program. He was initially a bit nervous about going but I walked him to the room and then he seemed happy to go in with the other kids. There are 4 children in the class, all boys. Interestingly, they are also all left handed.



This week, our theme is "At the Beach." We're working on beach based words - fish, sun, sand, wet, dry, dig, find, etc. Dougie did exceptionally well. He has a greater vocabulary (at least with beach words) than all but one child in the class though he is one of the hardest to understand.

The best part was that I was able to watch the entire class, except for gym, from behind one way glass. The program looks like it will be a great step for Dougie to get a bit more vocabulary. We continue with it until late July and then will determine if we should continue with it starting up in early August. We've now had our second apraxia diagnosis so it's possible we'll switch classes to something that will more directly address that need.

Finally Back!

It has been a long month of traveling but we're home! We've had a great time and plan to post lots of pictures.

To start, we went up to Toronto for Pauline's wedding. We worked in a few extra days so we could spend a bit of time at home. We only had a day before we headed up to North Bay so we had a quiet day at home. Dougie spent some time playing with Grandpa and showing him his soccer moves.





Dougie became a bit distracted with the various interesting things outside so their game had to be cut short but they enjoyed themselves anyway.

Later that night, Scott flew in and we drove up to North Bay the following morning. We got in pretty late and Dougie was tired so we just looked around town a bit and then called it a night. Dougie did manage to get some time playing in the lake though.

At first, he was just happy to play in the water


Then he discovered the joy of throwing sticks (I believe Daddy had something to do with this discovery)


Tired and a bit wet, we finally convinced him it was time to get some dinner


Dougie wore his suit for the last time to the wedding the next day. He looked cute but it clearly was a bit small.



The wedding was lovely but we were glad to change into some warmer clothes after the ceremony. Once we were all warm, we grabbed Pauline and Theresa to get a quick picture.



Dougie then tried his best to stay entertained, even if it meant finding someone to help him out.


In fact, Theresa did such a good job that he decided he would show her his soccer skills as well. Unfortunately, the ball had no air, but Dougie made do.


The next morning, we headed back to Toronto. On the way, we met up with Mike at a park not too far from his house. Dougie had a great time playing ball with Uncle Mike.

Yet another person to observe his mad skillz.


When he finally tired of traditional soccer, Dougie and Uncle Mike invented a new game. I don't exactly know the rules but it involves a swing and trying to catch a soccer ball.







We ended the trip with a great day at African Lion Safari. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery at that point so I don't have any great pictures from that but I can assure you that Dougie very much enjoyed it. Especially the monkeys climbing on the car.