Papa's Heroine

Earlier this week, Anissa and I had our first taste of "real" life in Dover - meaning Mehdi left us and went off to work.

Day One: Dropped Mehdi off at UNH then headed to Wal-Mart in one last desperate attempt to get blinds to fit each of the windows in this house. Mission unaccomplished. Shopping with Anissa is a marathon event these days. She won't stay in the shopping cart (and, unfortunately, knows how to take off the seat belt and will dive off if necessary) so I have to chase her around the store as she pulls whatever catches her eye off the shelves and asks, "Mama buy that?". Stuffed animals or boxes of tampons, it makes no difference to her. We found a few of the needed blinds (and, somehow, ended up with extras in the cart) and got out of there ASAP. After lunch and a nap, a slight feeling of loneliness set in. No one to call to ask if they want to join us at the park. But I was hopeful, remembering a little playground not far from our house that I had glimpsed from the car. So Anissa and I headed out to find it. I'm not exaggerating when I say my heart sunk when we arrived. There was not a single soul in sight. Not once in Montreal did I ever see a completely empty playground. Anissa was excited nonetheless, and after some sliding and swinging we started our way back home. All kinds of negative thoughts were going through my mind, "Are we going to make friends? Is poor Anissa going to be stuck playing only with me all day long? Where IS everybody???".

And then it happened. This wonderful tinkling music carried from down the street, and everything changed. The empty street was suddenly filled with children as they raced out to meet the ICE-CREAM TRUCK! I'm embarrassed to admit I was the most excited one there. Having grown up in the northern bush, I have never seen a real "live" ice-cream truck. Anissa and I bought a creamsicle and I giddily asked the driver if I could take a photo.



It made my day.

Day Two: A visit to the library, a little grocery shopping and a picnic in our yard. Not too bad at all.

Day Three: A day of phone calls with banks and insurance and a ton of other admin stuff. Anissa is such a trooper, putting up with all this.

Day Four: Happy Days are here, and "real life" in Dover is on hold. We picked up Mama Jo at the bus depot and, although I didn't see it, apparently their reunion was something straight from a movie. Anissa ran shrieking into a thrilled Mama Jo's arms.

Day Five: Mama Jo, Anissa and I visited Mehdi's campus then spent the afternoon in nearby Portsmouth.

Day Six: The beach, and the real memorable moment from the week. You would have to have been there to really understand it, but our darling Anissa is a true heroine. Let me explain.

Anissa loves the beach, but not the ocean nor the waves. She may dip her toes in the water, but then runs screaming away the moment a wave comes rolling in. This weekend, though, she decided that those waves are a serious threat. Mehdi and I were heading slowly into the water for a dip when Anissa came running into the water after us. At first, I was thrilled, thinking she was conquering her fear. But when I went back towards the beach to meet her, I saw that her expression was not playful in the least. She looked terrified. And as I got closer, I could hear her yelling, "No, Mama! No, Papa! Come back! Come back!". Mama Jo was chasing after her, trying her best to catch her but she was on a mission. I picked her up and took her to the beach, assuring her we were only swimming. But she could not be calmed. She yelled at Mama Jo and I that, "Papa come back NOW! The water scare me!" She pointed to the ground in front of her and insisted, "Papa here, no in water!"

We did our best to assure her everything was fine, that Papa would come back when he was done swimming. At that, she gave us the dirtiest look. Looking back, I can just imagine what she was thinking; "You people! If you won't do anything, than I will!". She took off running straight into the water. She leaped through those waves like an Olympic hurdler, so fast we couldn't catch her. We yelled at Mehdi and he turned and saw her running out to save his life. When he picked her up out of the water, her heart was pounding so hard he could feel it against his chest. She began to sob and, once back on the beach, clung to her precious Papa for ten minutes. We were all moved by her heroism.



Day Seven: A quieter day spent strolling through Dover with Mama Jo. This evening, we took a boat cruise down the river. The natural beauty here is truly breathtaking.

The sad news is, Mama Jo returns to Montreal tomorrow. The good news? Mariella and Natasha arrive at the same time. And when the sad day arrives that they must leave, more good news: my parents arrive. No time for homesickness around here!

Life Lesson

Life is a little different from Montreal here in New Hampshire, but we're doing our best to do like the locals. Instead of going for an evening stroll in Parc La Fontaine, we wandered down Dover's Riverwalk and through the covered bridge. Anissa ran screeching up and down it in excitement many, many times before we could convince her it was time to go "home" (which she's still calling "the new house").




Another difference: back in the Plateau, Anissa and her Papa used to head out in the morning a few times a week to get some breakfast goodies at the nearest bakery. We happily discovered a nice little bakery near the house here, so Ana and Papa did their usual routine this morning (and, even more fun, it was raining so Anissa got to wear her precious raincoat!). Only this time they came back, not with a bag of croissants and chocolatines, but bagels from Dunkin Donuts. The bakery, apparently, is not open on Sundays. I guess Saturday will be bakery day and Sunday we'll do waffles from now on.






Yet another change from our old lifestyle: driving. We do it. A lot more of it. Anissa rarely got in the car in Montreal, and when she did she was usually accompanied by Mariella (who kindly entertained her by making rasberries or passing her snacks most of the trip). Here, she's alone back there, which she's not too fond of. On Friday when we headed to the mall to buy a barbecue, though, I finally understood why. We've had our suspicions, but a recent incident on the way to the zoo with Mama Jo and the barbecue trip confirmed those fears: Anissa gets car sick. And really car sick! She threw up all her afternoon snacks and then some. She was crying the whole time, but still managed to have a sense of humour about it. When I said, "It's OK, sweety, it's just a little puke", she stopped crying and replied, "No, BIG ONE!". Once we had her cleaned up (and changed into an extra outfit that, by some miracle, I had in the car) we felt so bad to put her back in the car we abondoned our barbecue plans and took her to...Chuck E. Cheese! She forgot her misery by riding the train with Barney, playing kiddie arcade games and helping Papa shoot teeth off a clown. (I think Mehdi was having more fun than she was. In fact, he swiped many of her tokens to drive race cars. And he bought a Chuck E. balloon, although he says it's for her.)

It may take us some time to get used to this new lifestyle. But one thing we can count on: Anissa is always living it up, reminding us that life is a blast no matter where we are.

Bathing Beauty

We're off to test-drive an SUV this morning (Mehdi's reward for all those years of hard work - an SUV, not just a test drive), but before we go here are those beach shots I promised. Sorry about the bad layout. No time to work on it.




Wow, age two and already writing her name! ;)





Now, why won't this darn thing work???





The best part about the beach is the icecream on the way out.

Kangaroo

I managed to dig the camera cord out from our mountains of boxes (yes, still!) but then the camera battery died as I was trying to unload the photos. My apologies, Mama Jo!

Today we had a little taste of normal day-to-day life might be like for us in Dover. Anissa and I went to the library this morning to catch a magic show, then signed up for library cards. Anissa really really wanted Mariella to come to the library too (because, of course, that's the way it always is) but was cheered up when she discovered a lovely playhouse and train set in the toddler room. On our stroll home, we lucked out and crossed paths (twice!) with the mounted police who patrols downtown Dover. Then, as if this day could get any better, Mehdi assembled the trampoline from Memere and Pepere that Anissa has waited so patiently since her birthday to jump on. Let's just day she made up for lost time! If our neighbours hadn't noticed yet there's a toddler living on the street, they certainly know now - her shrieking and laughing could surely be heard a few blocks in every direction.

Seacoast Living - So Far

Brace yourself. This could be a long one.

So we made it. Late Wednesday night, after a severely exhausting and emotionally-draining week of packing and goodbyes, we set up camp in the living room of our rental house in Dover, New Hampshire. We were feeling lucky after a chance meeting with our movers at the border: they were missing a paper they needed to get our stuff into the US, so if we hadn't run into them and provided the crucial document they may have gotten stuck there for a while. We could still be camping out in our living room! But alas our possessions made it safe and sound to Dover early the next morning.

For those of you who don't know where Dover is, it's in the southern tip of NH (called the Seacoast), just an hour and a bit north of Boston and a very short drive to the scenic Atlantic coastline. A lovely place for a vacation, hint hint.

How's life in this part of the world? So far, it feels more like this is a vacation than real life. Mehdi is at home all day long, we're living out of suitcases, keep getting lost and get a funny look whenever we hand a store clerk our Canadian Tire Mastercard. We've spent two lovely afternoons at two different beaches (the one today was amazing) and went out for a delicious seafood dinner. Of course, it hasn't been all fun in the sun. We've managed to do some shopping for the necessities and unpacking, but our little house is still a jungle of boxes and unassembled IKEA furniture.

Anissa? She's been fabulous. She's been having a blast rediscovering her toys as they come out of the boxes, and has suddenly become really into pretending that she is someone else (usually Dora, her favorite TV character) and making us pretend we are someone too (usually Boots, Dora's monkey sidekick, or Swiper, the sneaky fox who steals things). She seems to like the new house and has only taken one tumble down the stairs so far (add to ever-growing list of things we need to buy: safety gate!). She's asked a few times, when overtired and on the way home from the beach, to "go home now", not to the new house, but when we explained the new house was home now she seemed OK with it. Tonight when she got a little crabby all we had to do was check out photos of Mariella, Chloe and Zach, and Clara and Leo on their blogs and she cheered right up. We watched the camping and Lala's birthday slideshows over and over. She couldn't get enough.

(By the way, I apologize for the lack of photos with this entry. I have some beauties from the beach I wanted to post, but I can't find the darn cord to download them from the camera. It's packed somewhere in a one of the kazillion boxes stacked in a closet. Soon, I promise.)

In a nutshell, life here seems fine. There are a lot of things I know we'll miss about Montreal: mostly our friends and Mama Jo, and just the liveliness of the city itself. The tough days in Dover are yet to come, I realize. But, in an effort to think positively, there are certainly things here I could get used to: driving without fearing for my life, hearing crickets outside our house in the evening (and we live downtown!) and of course the beautiful beaches less than a half hour from our house.

Come see for yourself!

A La Prochaine, Montreal

I really don't have time to be doing this, but I just had to sit down and write one final entry before The Big Day (Wednesday, in 2 days!). Everything has come together this past week: we sold our condo and Mehdi got his work visa, so reality has hit. We're moving. Leaving this city that we've grown so attached to, and the people here that have made it home. Not only that, we are leaving my country. As you can imagine, the emotions are running high around here. I've been blessed to spend 8 years in this vibrant, colorful city and I know it will always hold a very dear place in my heart. And I will not forget the wonderful people I have met here.

This was supposed to be a light-hearted entry...oops.

Needless to say this week has been exhausting. Packing, packing, cleaning, making phone calls, more packing. I had naively thought it would take a few days, but I guess this is the first time I've ever lived somewhere so long (besides with my parents) and accumulated so much stuff. (6 years, and so many things have happened here: Mehdi and got engaged and married, Mehdi and I both finished a Masters and Mehdi finished his PhD, we had Anissa...so many great memories). Yesterday we took a break and took Anissa to the zoo with Mama Jo, who has been a God-send during this moving ordeal. Anissa has been so very lucky to have such an adoring, fun grandma living nearby for these past two years. I know it's going to be tough on both of them not to be able to see each other as often. Our whole family will miss Jo a lot. Thank you, Jo, for being there for us all these years. Even though we won't be able to spend as much time together, you will always be a huge part of our lives.







Last night I packed up Anissa's room with her. She doesn't totally understand what's going on, of course, but she helped me put things in boxes. Watching her play so sweetly in her room one last time really got me. She will never remember this home but for me it will always be the place we brought her to from the hospital, the place where she learned to walk and first said "Mama".





Au revoir Montreal. Thanks for all the happiness you've brought us.

The Latest

Anissa's newest hobby: Making lists. She takes her notebook and scribbles on page after page after page, and every now and then delivers one to Mehdi or I with a, "There you go. Ana made list." (This is not a surprise, since I've been known to make lists of the lists I need to make...)

Favorite thing to say: "Ana like it. Mama like it too?"

Favorite toy: A doctor's kit. I got tired of her stuffing various toys in my ears and my mouth ("Say AHHHH, Mama.") after she was inspired by her two-year check-up at the pediatrician, so I bought her the kit. She LOVES giving check-ups, especially the part where she checks our reflexes with a whack to the knee.

Favorite treat: Choc-O-lat (French pronunciation)

Latest discovery: Fireworks ("Wow! Flowers. Oooh, stars!")

What she has to say about spinach: That blah!

What she has to say about asparagus: That blah!

What she has to say about icecream: C'est bon, ca!