The weeks fly by but the weekends are family time. As such, here’s another weekend update…

We went and got Aidan’s hair cut yesterday. It wasn’t exactly planned; I mean he certainly needed it, but Gwen has developed a phobia about taking him to get his hair cut so it hasn’t been done on the weekdays. I desperately needed to get my hair cut too, so when I announced my attention to get my hair cut yesterday, Gwen & The Boy tagged along. We got to my barber’s shop, which was completely empty when we got there. Well, the barber and another hair-cutter (aside: what’s the noun describing a woman who works at a barbershop that exclusively cuts men’s hair? Barber? I guess, but it’s one of those nouns that I exclusively associate with a man. Weird.) were there but no customers.

So, we had a quick discussion (that involved the barber) and we decided that I’d get my hair cut while Gwen & The Boy watched, and then we’d get Aidan’s hair cut too. My haircut went well, without any tears. As soon as we tried to put Aidan in the barber’s chair, though, the hysteronics began. Once again, I sat him on my lap and the barber did the best he could. There were less tears than in previous times, but calm is the wrong word to use.

The haircut isn’t great, but it’s better than what it was when it was long. There are some pictures a bit further below.

On Sunday, we had brunch with our friends Ali and Nooshin. We biked over to Ali’s Yaletown condo and ate brunch while the Vancouver Marathon passed on the street below. Aidan had a chance to help with breakfast, and seemed to enjoy himself.

After brunch, we all got on bikes and pedalled over to Stanley Park. There’s a nice new playground there near Second Beach, and one of those old firetrucks-turned-into-playground-climbing-equipment that seem strangely popular in Vancouver.

After parting ways with Ali and Nooshin we took the Aquabus from the foot of Hornby Street to Granville Island and biked home. It was a nice way to start the day. The rest of the day sort of got away from us, but it started well!

This past weekend was rather busy. Saturday was a rare sunny and warm day, so we decided to try to take full advantage. We started with our regular video chat with Grandma and Grandpa, had breakfast, and then biked down to Granville Island for Ocean Construction Supplies’ annual open house. Last year’s open house was of mixed success. This year was much better.

Ocean is an oddity. It’s a fully functional and operational and industrial concrete plant in the heart of a tourist destination. It actually fits quite well into its environment, with brightly and colourfully painted concrete trucks. (Note: We didn’t actually take any pictures of the cement trucks, so the next shot is by Maurice Jassak as found at http://www.seegranvilleisland.com)

Unlike last year, Aidan was excited to actually get in the cabs of some of the construction vehicles, like this large front-end loader. The cab was ok, but he didn’t want anything to do with the tires, bucket, …

Mommy was allowed to do this, but he didn’t like it very much…

He also sat in the cab of this concrete truck (this photo also by Maurice Jassak)

Part of the fun is a big pile of sand that they put out in the middle of their marshalling yard. They sprinkle this sand pile with Tonka trucks, and it ends up being swarmed by mostly boys, aged 3-6. This shot shows a rare moment when there were no other kids on the edge of the sand pile. Typically it looks like a very confusing hive of bees.

Lastly, he went back to the Bobcat that he sat in last year. This year, the camera survived.

After biking back home, we grabbed some lunch and then headed out geocaching!

We headed down to Delta, just south of Vancouver. There were a number of caches that were placed as part of the BCGA’s Cache Blitz 2008. These ones were rated 1.5/1.5 and there were about a half dozen of them so we figured it was going to be easy going.

It was no such thing. The first cache’s ground zero put us in the middle of a parking lot, with various heavy machinery nearby (a wood chipper, for example). It was right beside Splashdown Park, which was preparing for the coming season, so there were lots of muggles around. And lots of trucks. After poking around for a short while, we stopped. We just weren’t comfortable, and it wasn’t an appropriate area for Aidan.

Our next stop was out in the middle of nowhere, beside a fence post, a drainage ditch, and a pile of discarded building supplies. We searched for a while — the GZ put us in the middle of a field-like area — and then another geocaching crew pulled up. They found it in short order, in the pile of rubbish. I was refusing to look in there, but had pretty much figured it must have been there since it wasn’t anywhere else. I mean, I hate digging through garbage to find caches. What is that teaching Aidan? And, once again, the coords were off.

The third stop was much more satisfying. It was a short walk along the edge of a ball field, and Gwen found the cache within seconds of arriving at GZ.

The last stop was next to the highway, in some trees, surrounded by more trash, in an extremely hilly area. All the found logs noted that it took them forever to find it. We DNF’d this one too. 1.5/1.5? Not a chance. Also not appropriate for Aidan. And the trash again?

I was quite steamed by the end of the caching — quite frustrated. So, we went to DQ, grabbed some ice cream and drove down to Boundary Bay park to overlook the marshes and mud flats and eat some ice cream. It helped considerably.

Back to Vancouver and cleaned the apartment better than it had been cleaned for quite some time! Put the boy to bed and then Carla and Tomer came over and we played Thurn and Taxis for the rest of the night. It’s an interesting 2 player game; I’m not sure if it’s better with 4 or not. Tomer won both times, I’m sure he enjoyed himself.

On Sunday, it rained.  We stayed inside.

After having ‘locked’ his mother into the hall by the washing machine (her exit was impeded in one direction by the stroller that lives in our hallway and in the other direction by the door he just rudely closed), I made a big fuss out of it.

After a short while, Aidan tells me:

This is a super big problem! We need to change the story!

It makes much more sense (and is quite funny) if you’ve seen any episodes of this!

It’s snowing again. April 21st. Vancouver. Snow.

It *must* be Monday.