Author Archives: Larissa Sevenhuysen

About Larissa Sevenhuysen

Born and raised on the West Coast, I went from a single working girl there to a stay-at-home mom on the Prairies in 2.5 years. Life comes at you fast, and you just gotta go with it!

Live Post: Travel Day

This post is probably more for my own entertainment than yours, but here it is anyway! I thought it would be fun to live blog our travels today, so here we go!

4:28am – Victor wakes up to be fed. It’s pretty much perfect timing since I had my alarm set for 4:45. I feed him and myself then get us both dressed at which point I wake Tim up.

5:12 – Calvin wakes up and is chatting away and is super awake for such an early hour. I dress him while Tim loads up the car.

5:32 – the car is loaded with everything, and we hit the road!

6:48 – Tim is tired of all the pop music on the Christmas station so it gets turned off, and Calvin falls back asleep. I assume Victor is sleeping too since he is silent.

7:11 – Calvin gets a breakfast of dry Shreddies and water. Yum! And if we were still living in Victoria, we would be in Nanaimo around now.

7:40 – first gas and Tim Horton’s stop. And also breakfast for Victor.

8:00 – back on the road and we started our audio book of “The Magician’s Nephew”.

8:55 – spotted: mountains!

10:11 MST – we cross over into BC. The past hour has been fairly uneventful. The weather is cloudy but mainly clear of any precipitation. Currently Calvin is reading “the Nose Book” and I am reciting the pages to him as he flips through. Victor woke up a little while ago, but I popped a soother in his mouth and now he is asleep again.

9:29 PST – spotted: a train.

Thrilling, hey? I told you this was mostly for my own entertainment!

10:12 – we stop in Valemount for some food. The first place we see is A&W so we get some fast food breakfast. Not my favourite, but Calvin is happy to be free of the seat. The past couple times he has been whiny, I asked him what he wanted and all he would say was “up!” A little heartbreaking since I couldn’t do anything about that! But the whiny moments are thankfully short lived.

12:58 – we finish “The Magician’s Nephew”.

1:09 – we play the alphabet game. In winter it’s extra hard since the signs are all covered in snow.

1:47 – we are only at the letter S. Victor got cranky and there was nowhere to pull over to nurse, so out came the bottle. Who needs hands?

2:19 – we are close enough to Kamloops to have service so text messages, from people wondering how our progress is going, flood in.

2:48 – we stop on Kamloops fill up our car and Victor and make the decision to take the Coquihalla.

3:39 – spotted: blue sky!

3:48 – I take a photo of the sun setting.

4:46 – Calvin is getting whiny again, but it is too dark to play with toys so I pull out the iPad for the first time. He is loving Endless Alphabet these days!
I should also note that the Coquihalla, which is famous for awful winter conditions, has the clearest road conditions so far! What a great blessing!

5:31 – Calvin drops the iPad between his seat and the door where nobody can reach it. Unhappy toddler until we stop to feed Victor! He can deal.

5:42 – both boys are crying for sustenance but we are going to hang on until we get to Chilliwack.

5:58 – spotted: a Tim Horton’s!
Tim says, “Oh yeah, snowballs! That is a thing people can do here,” upon seeing a gaggle of teenagers with snowballs.

7:06 – we are passing the exit to my parents’ house. They live about two minutes from the highway so it is weird being so close to them but not seeing them for another handful of days. These specific Golden Arches (my iPhone automatically capitalized that…) were always a sign to me that we were so close to home, whether coming from a short visit with my Oma and Opa in Abbotsford or coming back from a road trip to family in Manitoba.

8:02 – we arrive at the ferry terminal in time for our 8:15 sailing, only to be told it is running an hour late. Not always the best form of transportation but it’s the only option. And the destination is pretty great.

8:27 – we are in the terminal as Calvin sees a hockey game on the screen. He points to it, pumps his arms and says, “woo woo woo!”

8:52 – we get onto the ferry.

9:11 – Calvin is far too happy and awake for it to be 2 hours past his bed time.

10:50 – “It is now time for all vehicle passengers to make their way to their vehicle deck.” We did this about 40 minutes ago in hopes that Calvin would settle down and go to sleep. It did not work. Currently both boys are crying because they are not sleeping.

11:22 – we pull into Tim’s parents’ driveway.

Biiiiig sigh!

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Preparing to Leave

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we hit the road for a couple weeks spent with our families.

Preparing to go away involves more than just packing for me. I have a set of rituals of sorts that I always do before we leave in any trip.

1) I think about everything I need to do and get excited!
I can be very productive, but only at the last minute. I do not make lists of what needs to be done or set out a suitcase and slowly start filling it a week in advance.

2) I clean the house!
This is probably my number one travelling tip, and it doesn’t even have to do with travelling! It is so nice to know that we will be coming home not only to our own bed (which in itself is quite wonderful!) but clean sheets on that bed, empty laundry baskets to sort our suitcases into, a fresh bathroom, clear kitchen counters and clean floors. Yesterday I vacuumed and mopped our floors. I was also going to clean the bathroom, but like I said, I’m a procrastinator. I’ll do that at nap time. Or tonight after baths…we’ll see how far the procrastination goes this time! Right now I am on laundry load 3 of 4. That includes all our clothes, sheets and towels. Later today I will throw in all our diapers since we use disposables when we travel.

3) I pack!
I don’t start packing until I have done all the laundry. I like to start with all my options. Oh, and when I do the laundry, I make sure we are wearing things that we won’t be bringing. That way I don’t have to pack dirty stuff. Since I don’t make a list of what to pack, my method is to mentally go through our day and grab everything we use, such as toothbrushes and other toiletries, a bib for Calvin and burp cloths for Victor. I usually don’t forget anything. The toiletries I leave all out on the bathroom counter the night before then slip them into a bag the morning we leave. And then I put everything I have piled on the bed into luggage, leaving out the clothes we will wear on travel day.

And that’s how it works around here. It’s kind of my happy place, cleaning, tidying and packing.

Do you do anything specific before leaving on a trip?

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Calvin Quickie: Weirdo

Toddlerhood is a special age.

Throwback Thursday: Paraguay

Today our backyard looks like this:

And I didn’t open the door to take the photo because the temperature looks like this:

Who wants frostbite on a Thursday morning? Not me!

So I decided to warm things up today by doing a throwback to a trip I took with my Oma to the other side of the equator, where winter is still very far off.

In early 2010, I learned that my Oma was interested in going to Paraguay to visit her family members who were still there, but being 75, she did not want to go alone. I gladly volunteered 6 weeks of my spring to head down there with her! I was interested to learn about my Mennonite roots that came from down there (this post isn’t a history lesson. I am not good at those. It’s just a pictorial account of our time there).

We mostly stayed in Asuncion where one of her brothers and his family lives. They have a couple girls about my age (he was a half brother), so we got to hang out and they showed me around town and stuff.

Oma and me in the backyard of the house where we stayed.

Afternoons were spent on the back patio enjoying terere, ice cream and frozen mangoes from their backyard tree. Delicious!

My uncle manning the BBQ that we enjoyed multiple times.

Oma and her brothers who still live in Paraguay. The age difference is because of a second marriage which is a story unto itself.

My cousins and I on a downtown excursion. This is their government building, if I remember correctly.

A street merchant made our names out of wire. I never felt so tall in my life!

Some of our time was spent in other little towns around the country, where my Oma’s brothers live.

On the road to Volendam.

They have large anthills.

Can we take a moment to compare the home of a Mennonite…

…to that of a native Paraguayan?

I milked a cousin’s cow.

Love this one.

Next up was Friesland where my Oma grew up. This was her home (now vacant), which they shared with the livestock.

She showed me how as children, they painted the bottom of the house with mud.

We made a trip to the cemetery where her young sister was laid to rest.

Interesting story: See the really old plot amung the newer ones? It is the grave of an adulterer or a murderer or something, and was originally outside the cemetery gates. Over time they had to expand and that is why it is now inside the gate.

We also went to the Chaco, which was the land that was originally given to the Mennonites when they immigrated to Paraguay,

These trees and camels have something in common.

We visited the little museum. I believe this photo is the group of immigrants my Oma’s dad came over with.

We did act like regular tourists for part of our trip too. We visited Iguazu Falls! It is probably one of the most beautiful places I have seen in person. When I first heard that we were going to do a two day tour, I was a little skeptical. What on earth would we do at a waterfall for 2 days?! But when I got there, I understood. One day you spend on the Argentina side walking along paths and bridges that are through the jungle and on top of the water and the other day you are on the Brazil side looking across the river at the falls. It was amazing!

Day 1: Argentina side

There were many friendly butterflies.

Standing in Argentina, looking at corners of Brazil and Paraguay.

Day 2: Brazil

My Oma has another brother who lives in Brazil, so we spent some time there as well.

Interesting trees on the way there.

Oma, her brother and her nephew.

The street on which my great uncle lives.

And we will conclude with just some miscellaneous photos.

Me in a mango tree! I was very sad we went at the end of the fruit’s season.

Red dirt road.

Why not nap while travelling from point A to point B?

I had a wonderful time, and am so thankful for this opportunity I had to travel with my Oma to a place that is so familiar to her.

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Calvin Quickie: iPad

Over the past month Calvin has gotten addicted to screens. It was getting so bad that I couldn’t even take out my phone to snap a photo of him without him flipping out and grabbing for it. I have been putting my phone away/keeping it out of sight and reach for the most part during the day, but we did cave and delete the important stuff off the iPad and let Calvin have full reign on that. Don’t worry. I do make sure we have lots of no screen time during the day too.

We just got the new Bible App for Kids app, and he loves it! What else would you recommend for toddlers?

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Nursing Two

Some of you have asked me how it is going nursing both Calvin and Victor. Some of you are probably curious, but haven’t asked. And some of you probably had no clue I was still nursing Calvin! So here I am, to tell you all about it.

I didn’t have intentions one way or the other of weaning Calvin before Victor came along or not. I just followed his lead. I was hoping he would continue until the baby came because I wanted to know if still nursing one child would keep the new one from tearing me apart. I was completely OK with using my children for an experiment of sorts.

So October came and Calvin was still nursing two times a day. When he woke up and before going to bed for the night. He is always fine skipping a feeding if he gets up with somebody else in the morning (like visiting family) or if he is put to bed by a babysitter. No complaints!

So along comes Victor. Calvin actually only had to skip one feed while I was in the hospital because I nursed him Wednesday evening before going in, he got up with my mom Thursday morning then we were home that afternoon! I was told that some nursing toddlers self wean when a new baby comes along because they don’t like the taste of the colostrum. Calvin didn’t bat an eye. And after a few days, I think he enjoyed the abundance of milk!

My little “experiment” turned in positive results! I didn’t have to use any lanolin, and never had to shield myself from the shower spray. There was just a little initial latching pain, but even that was minimal. So that was wonderful.

And now Calvin still has his two-a-day. Unless he sleeps in a tiny bit and we go straight to having breakfast instead of hang-out-in-bed time. There are times throughout the day when he will ask for it, mostly when I am nursing Victor, but I never let him. I am not going to let him go to having more! And I am not going to let him steal Victor’s share! I try as often as possible to nurse him right after nursing Victor so he just gets leftovers and doesn’t mess too much with my supply.

I used to be in the “if they can ask for it, they are too old” camp, but it is recommended for up to 2 years old, so whatever. Calvin just feels massive to me now, when I have him across my lap!

And yes, there have been times when I nursed both at the same time. In case you were wondering.

Brothers

I had no idea what to expect from Calvin when it came to having a baby around the house. I was preparing for the worst, but Calvin has mostly just been loving on his brother. He calls him “Baby” since there is no way “Victor” is coming out of his mouth. For the first couple weeks he was actually saying something like “Ditdo”, but hasn’t for some time. He also loves to hold him, so I wasted no time teaching him to use the cradling action to tell me he wants to hold him. Otherwise he would grab Victor by the zipper and drag him away. Calvin learned that sign in about 30 seconds. What a quick study. The hard part now is trying to teach him to say/sign “all done” when he is done, instead of just pushing Victor off his lap. It’s gonna be a few more months, but I am very much looking forward to the time when they can interact and play with each other.

I am also looking forward to when Calvin knows that it hurts to poke eyes and “burp” the baby with a closed fist.

In regards to Calvin’s attitude, he doesn’t seem too jealous or angry with me about having another child to give my attention to. His cranky times are a bit extra cranky, and he gets upset if I don’t let him nurse while Victor is nursing (I will do a post on how nursing the two of them is going), but for the most part he is still a happy, content boy. These guys make my job way too easy! Although he has been pulling the tantrum on the floor act sometimes. I just ignore him, and he forgets what he was angry about pretty quickly.

My boys:

As soon as we stepped in the door from the hospital.

Poke!

Want a bun?

Soother thief!

Cuties in the morning.

So many kisses!

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