Too big to fit anymore

Boat mama...run aground

Well, if you were wondering, "How long will Ari and Sarah really live on the boat with the baby?"  The answer is 18 months (and only 15 of them with the baby).  Each of us has our own version of the story, but it comes down to our life being a bit to big to live aboard right now.  We both like to joke that it was the other one's idea to move off the boat.  But in reality, it was both of us, I think, for different reasons and some the same.

We still have plans to go cruising in the future, but for now we want to enjoy life in our new home.  We found a cute little house, on a quiet street, in the quaint town of Port Townsend, WA.  We're not sure if Macha will come up or stay in the Bay Area until an eventual trip to Mexico.  I miss her sometimes and hope she is okay without us for now.

Yemaya loves our new home.  There are a number of wonderful and fascinating things that she did not have on the boat including: stairs, doors, a bathtub, her own room, kitchen cabinets, and a yard.  She misses all the birds on the dock, but is making fast friends with the deer that roam our neighborhood.  Yemaya and I left many good mama and baby friends back in Alameda and Oakland.  I miss the women who so quickly and easily became a regular part of my life, and Yemaya misses the fun and activity of all of her playmates.

Ari and I are making a few friends here and both enjoying the larger bed and running hot water.  In particular I am loving the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer, hot shower (that is not a ten minute walk from my bed), table that I can leave stuff out on, garage with room for a bike and trailer, my art studio (in the garage), and an amazing and large kitchen.  I don't know how long it will be before I stop looking for the foot pump at the kitchen sink, or how long it will be before I miss the cozy simplicity of the boat.  But for now, I am basking in the space and room in our wonderful house.  As I write this I am waiting for trick-or-treaters to come to the door.  So simple for someone to come to our door.  It does not require a phone call and a 10 minute walk to meet them at the marina gate.

But if you find yourself in Port Townsend, as many people seem to from time to time, we are just around the corner from Aldrich's Grocery and would love to have you over to share stories of life on sea and land.

She walks!

Yemaya and I spent a long day waiting for things to happen at our loft.  It was hot and super boring with a big long hallway, so Yemaya decided (at last) to walk.  She's not always this sad when she walks, but this is the only one I could capture on camera.

Yemaya does shapes

Playing in the cockpit

She now climbs the companionway ladder like a champ! Her reward is
playing in the cockpit.

Eating with a fork

Where did a year go?

Well, we made it!  She turned one last week.  We had a great time at a house in Sonoma with friends and family.  Thanks to Hop, Sue, Kate, Owen and Becca for making the long trip to celebrate with us.  Pictures have been demanded, so here they are.

Big girl slide

She can't walk, but she can slide.

Parenting choices

Do you take a picture or help your child? Yemaya got my shirt and was
trying to put it on. She wasn't crying, but was a bit stuck. So, I
took a picture.

"Hi"

Words

Yemaya knows a lot of words now. She says "hi" and waves from the
moment she wakes until she falls asleep.
In addition she knows: dog, moon, bird, dada, mama, (ba)nana, no, and
baby.

-Sarah

Mama enjoys bed time

My view:

Ari's view:

I love my husband.

Playing in the cockpit

It was a failure. The water too cold, the breeze too much, the baby too cranky. It is hot. We are both sticky with sweat. The drops of it beading up on the bridge of our noses. I thought how nice it would be to close off the sea cocks, put a little water in the cockpit and have a little pool time in our always available kiddie pool. I put up some shade, filled it up, got the baby naked and plopped her in.

Whahhhhhhhh!

She hated it. She tried to climb out. Her little skinny legs not long enough to get out. She stood on her tiptoes to avoid having any contact with the water. Besides the crying baby, I was kinda enjoying myself. A light breeze, afternoon sun, cool water on my feet, and the quiet sounds of halyards blowing around.

So now we sit down below, breastfeeding and sweating. At least one of us seems happy with the afternoon activity. Enjoy it while you can baby.

Jumping on land

She is a great jumper and is thrilled to have friends who let her jump
at their places.

Eating beets and bath in the cockpit

Well, Yemaya loves beets!  (But they are very messy for little babies)

One of my readers suggested a folding baby bath tub for the boat, and it finally came.  And just in time, because the family that gave us our baby bath tub is expecting another baby and needed it back.
So it seemed like as good a day as any to try it out.  It was still warm enough after dinner to take a bath outside.  I took about a million cute pictures and here are a few.

Also, Ari wrote a great post about a race we did last week.  I recommend you take a look.

Playing on the sole

That's the floor to you non-boaters. Also, please note her super cute
boat outfit.

Sailboat race

"Breeze in the face, breeze in the face, just enough for a sailboat race."

This is the little song that Ari sings to Yemaya when it is windy.  She loves the wind, it makes her laugh and kick her feet.  I like to think that it reminds her of home.

Ari and I did actually go out for a sailboat race a few weeks ago (before life became too busy to do anything).  Our boat was not the fastest, and in fact we thought it might be the slowest, until we heard the horn go off for another boat 10 minutes after we finished.  It was dark by then so we couldn't really see them.  Ari says we need new sails to go faster, I think we should save money and not worry about winning.  Different philosophies I guess.

Walking with dada

Standing Up and Family Comment Winner

She can now pull her self up to standing all on her own!  Are we in trouble or what?  The baby cloth has to be all the way up now because she can pull up and lunge herself over it. 

She loves standing, but it really makes her mad when she falls or can't quite pull up to see something she wants.  She will just sit and cry and whine until she get what she wants or can pull herself up.  Did I mention that I think we have a stubborn and tenacious daughter?  We have no idea where that came from.

 

 

Also, we cleaned out her toy bag, and this is her laying in the middle of all of her toys (minus the singing dog that lives in the car).  I think this may be one of the best moments of her life.

The family comment contest has come to an end.  Thank you to all of you who participated. Congratulations Pop, you came in first place with seven comments, and will be receiving a Yemaya photo album (hopefully before she turns one).  Kate, you were a close second with five comments and will be receiving a good second place prize (I'll come up with something good I promise).  Thanks to all the non-family members as well for your thoughts and ideas.  I love hearing from you all on my blog.

Also, we had a nice visit with Grammie, but didn't take a single picture to post here.  Thanks for coming out!

Kids aboard books

One of my readers (yeah!) Lara asked about what books I read about having kids aboard.  I've been meaning to post my list for awhile and to see if anyone else had other suggestions.  I read them all when I was pregnant and we were thinking of living aboard.  They are now somewhere in storage, so I will have to recall from memory what I liked about each.

Adventuring With Children: An Inspirational Guide to World Travel and the Outdoors by Nan Jeffrey


I really liked this book a lot. Nan Jeffrey had twin boys, and another baby later I think as well.  They traveled by sailboat as well as many other adventures.  This book definitely made me feel like there was no reason to be afraid of giving it a try.



Cruising with Children by Gwenda Cornell





Babies Aboard by Lyndsay Green






Kids in the Cockpit: A pilot book to safe and happy sailing with children by Jill Schinas



 The three listed above have somewhat similar advice, but each has it's own gems.  They are quick reads, and were worth it to me.  I like to be informed!


All in the Same Boat : Living Aboard and Cruising by Tom Neale

 This is the only one I found written by a man.  It was good to read about kids aboard from a father's point of view.


Cruising for Cowards: Strategies, Boats and Equipment Preferred by Experienced Cruisers by Liza Copeland

We read this one in the beginning of our cruising dreams.  It is not all about kids, but I think there is one chapter in there that was really good about kids aboard.  The rest of the book was a good read for someone who has never been cruising before (like me).  Simple and practical tips and some good stories.

If anyone else out there has suggestions of good books I'd love to read them.  I figure I can't be too prepared. 

A day at the beach

Yemaya loved the ducks, digging with the tools, and her very first
taste of sand!

Baby Safety (Part Two)

This post is for you Dad.

Part one was the baby gate cloth, and lee cloth for her berth (which does need some redoing already, now that she has figured how to poke her head out and look at us when she is suppose to be asleep, which lead to the worst bed time ever last night, but that is not the point here).

 Baby gate cloth half up.

Part two took place today and over the weekend.  I installed baby latches on our only two cabinets.  They both have things in them that it would be best for Yemaya to keep out of.  In addition, the latches they have on them are not the best underway, and have been known to open up when we are really healed over on port tack.  The new baby latches should help serve as a nice back up when the primary latches fail.  It is strange that I live in a world where I need secondary latches.  Yemaya and I learned an important lesson during the instillation, she hates power tools.  I had to stop after each latch to comfort her, so it took quite awhile, and I'm glad it is done.

 Baby Latch

We also purchased a kid harness and tether from West Marine this weekend.  There was a brief discussion in the store about how we could make our own and maybe save a little money, but we quickly came to the conclusion that it would never happen while our daughter was young enough to need the harness.  Today, I tried out the harness.  It took a bit of fussing, on my part and Yemaya's, but once I got it on, it looked good.  I could pick her up from it in back, and she played on deck harnessed and tethered.  I still have to work out exactly how long her tether can be and where the best place to tether her is, but it seemed like it will work.  Her harness is now ready and waiting by the companionway hatch for the nice days of spring.

Happy harnessed baby!

 

Baby Bath?

She has a little baby tub on the boat, but this worked just as well and did not require heating up any water on the stove.  I'm on the look out for a tub(and by that I mean plastic bin) that is big enough for her to lay down in.

Babies aboard everywhere

A few different blogs of sailing families that I follow are expecting children soon.  One family, SV Sereia, has put up their sailing for awhile and are returning home to have the baby.  Another, BoatBaby, is still living aboard on the East coast with her five year old son, and plans to continue life as usual.  I hope that they will all continue to share their lives with me through blogging because we don't actually know anyone (in our non-virtual life) that have babies aboard, and it is nice to not feel quite so alone. 

People seem to react to us when we tell them where we live with some kind of shock and horror.  Boatbay recently posted some FAQ of her own that inspired my own posting.  Thanks!

What's it like having a baby on a boat?
Well, it is small, and we don't really have any hot water.

How do you take a shower?
We walk up to the shower house and take her stroller into the handicap stall, or I go to the gym where there is child care.  I never have to clean a shower stall anymore, which is good, because I hardly ever did that in the first place, and it was expensive to have a cleaner come every week when we lived in an apartment.

Do you plan to travel on your boat?
Yes!  We have plans once Yemaya is older and the finances are in order.  They involve Mexico and beyond depending on how much fun we end up having and how long the money lasts.

What are you going to do when she can walk/crawl?
Well, it depends.  It is about a 10 minute walk up our dock.  Right now she travels that distance in her stroller (which I am also enjoying as a dock cart).  There is really no reason that she can't continue to ride in the stroller until she is able to be trustworthy enough and a decent enough swimmer that I am not terrified that she will fall in the water.  Of course, our daughter is already demonstrating some temperament traits that leave me to believe she will want to do everything on her own, so ridding in the stroller might not go down well.  We will just hope that the birds continue to be a nice distraction along the dock, enough to distract her from her own desire for independence that is.

Don't you worry about her falling over board?
Yes, and no.  Of course I worry about it, but I'm not worried about it.  We will see what we do, but just as you would not let your toddler play in the front yard near a street unattended, I don't plan to plop her up on deck and then do something else.  It always makes me want to ask don't you worry about your toddler darting into the street?  It is so dangerous to live in a house.

Things that people never ask, but they should.
How many pairs of pants do you have?  How many books fit on your book shelf?  How do you and your husband deal with each others messes from projects?  What happens when you need some space from each other?  How many people can brush their teeth at once?  How often do you accidentally kick or step on someone else?  What do you keep in your dock box?  Why is your car always full of stuff?  To me these are the more interesting questions about boat life, the ones that I actually ask myself on a regular basis, and tell you a lot more about life on a boat then, "Where do you shower?"

Birds

Yemaya loves birds.  They are the first animal that we ever saw her pay attention to when we were walking around.  On our dock nearly every time we walk up or down we run across a Great White Egret.  They let us get quite close and don't seem all that scared of us.  Sometimes they just slowly walk up a finger to get out of out way.  But, Yemaya prefers the Pelicans, ducks, and Seagulls because they move faster and fly over her head. 

Earlier this week we took her for a walk and there were plenty of birds for her to see.  She watches they quite intently, pulling herself forward in her stroller or craning her neck and twisting her body in our arms.  She coos in the cutest way and couldn't be happier then when we are watching ducks.

She, of course, has not learned to say duck yet, or even understand it, but when she does, perhaps I can use an old family trick to keep her awake in the car and tell her to, "look at the ducks,"even when they are not there.

Yemaya watching what are not buffle headed ducks, despite the buffle on their heads.

Family Comment Contest

I have decided that I would like more comments on my blog.  My most frequent, and generally only commenter is a very nice woman I have never met (Thanks boatbaby!).  I mean, come on family, step it up!  Either you don't read my blog, which makes me a little sad because I take all kinds of silly pictures just for you, or you don't know how to use the comment feature (which I am fairly sure to be the case for a number of you, but it is not rocket science). I do like blogging, but an, "awww, so cute!" or, "sounds fun" every once and awhile would let me know that you read my blog.

So, I am having a contest for my family to help increase comments and keep me motivated to keep taking pictures of Yemaya for you all.  The family member (by blood, marriage, or love) who makes the most comments on my blog over the next month can win their very own copy of Yemaya's photo album that I am currently putting together in iPhoto.  You can see the work in progress below. 

Pop is already winning with two comments on my previous post!  Sorry, no visit for the winner, but we will come visit soon, and you are always welcome here.  If you are one of my family members that needs a little technical support, just call and I'll do my best to talk you through how to leave a comment.  Non-family members are always welcome to comment too, and perhaps we can have a contest for you all later.  Let me know what you want to win.