There's something in the water

Now that Max is a little older, we have been more comfortable taking him out into the Caribbean sun.  It's been a real connundrum because sunscreen isn't recommended for infants under the age of six months but to take my little `ginger` baby into the sun here without it could be called child abuse.  A few weeks ago, we spent a couple hours at the pool with some good friends and Max stayed in the shade the entire time and still ended up with sunkissed cheeks! 

Obviously I had to do something....

But I was curious about the sunscreen so I grabbed my 'baby' sunscreen to see what was in it.  Have you ever looked at the list of ingredients in your sunscreen?  What is Isohexadecane?  Dibutyl Adipate?  Tocopheryl Acetate?  Phenoxyethanol?  Methylparaben?  Ozokerite? and the list goes on and on and on.  When it comes to our groceries we try really hard to eat healthy and when I check the list of ingredients, if I don't know what it is.....then it's probably not good for us.  So I was thinking, why should sunscreen be any different. 

So for now, we will just have to protect Max from the sun ourselves and treat him with some good old Aloe Vera when he needs it.  A little bit of vitmin D is good for all of us.

Here's some pics of us enjoying the sun setting over the Caribbean Sea!

I can`t figure out if Max loves the ocean or he just likes being naked in the ocean

'He's the whitest Nevisian I've ever seen'

I would like to introduce everyone to our little Nevisian baby......Max Avery Poliakiwski.  He was born on April 19th, weighed 6lbs 14ozs and measured 21inches long. 

He arrived safely after a long labor and many thanks go to my amazing friend Tanya and my wonderful husband for helping me through it!  The next few weeks went by in a blur as we were learning how to be parents and trying to share our new bundle of joy with Baba and Gido and Grandma and Grandpa.

Since then, Max has been growing.....

...and growing......

.......and growing!

Max and I have been vernturing out as often as possible here.  We have been to the beach, the pool, out for walks and playing tennis.  The locals at all our regular spots always look forward to seeing Max.  Just this week we were downtown and a local lady walked up to see him and couldn't believe it when I told her Max was born here.  Her exact words were actually "He's the whitest Nevisian I've ever seen!" 

Happy Canada Day at the Beach!

So, I know that I have some catching up to do, but first I have to share a few photos of Max from this weekend.

On sunday Kris took a break from studying and we took a trip down to the beach. 

Max enjoyed the water so much that he fell asleep while I was holding him!

"C'mere de white guy i'lift you up!"

It seems as though Breadfruit is a staple on the island, and our trees in our yard seem to be the only ones producing now.(Breadfruit is more than a vegetable than a fruit, it is used like a potato with meals)  Every week we have different neighbors that ask to pick some.  The first week they came prepared with a 25ft long stick that they used to pick the fruit off the high branches....yesterday the stick must have gone missing!

(This is a Breadfruit Tree)



A neighbor lady came into the yard to ask if she could take some breadfruit, of course we said 'yes' but she had no way to reach them because the only ones left are now higher up the tree. It didn't take her long to formulate a plan and she hollered at one of the local boys to come over so "the white guy i'lift you up"! Kris came in the house shaking his head and smiling, "did you hear that?". So Kris politely obliged and lifted the boy up to reach the breadfruit.

More Wildlife

A few weeks ago I joined a few of my friends at Oualie Beach for a Sunday afternoon.  Most of them have kids and this beach is perfect because it is in a cove where there isn't a strong tide and the water stays very shallow, even a long way out. 

A few of the girls decided to walk down the shorline to an area full of rocks, to try and find some shells.  Instead of shells, they came back with a Sea Slug!!!  At first glance(from a distance) I thought the girls had a handful of seaweed and the slug was probably on top of it....but as they got closer, I realised that the entire lump of green slime that they were holding was the actual slug!!!Gross!!!

I think I will take the cold Canadian winters anyday, over the insects and critters you live with everyday in the Caribbean!

Wildlife on Nevis

I didn't mention it in my last blog post, but at our party we had couple uninvited guests(and I don't mean the local kids!).  We were all enjoying a spot around the fire when a huge commotion broke out and people started screaming.  I was sitting on the other side of the fire and couldn't really see what was going on until it was over.  When I made my way through the crowd that was gathered around our cement parking pad, this is what I saw..................

A giant centipede!

This one was squashed by our friend Brian and he had to stomp on it three times and twist, before it actually quit moving!!! Scary....considering that they are poisonous too!!!

Here's a photo with Katelyn's foot in it so you can see the size of this thing!

Party in Barnes Ghaut!

Kris and I have been waiting for the opportunity to have a campfire while we're here on Nevis.  The weather is so great it has just seemed like such a waste to not be able to sit outside around a fire and make smores! 

Well, we finally have that opportunity now that we've moved to this house.  We have a huge yard with a large cement parking pad.  Kris managed to commandeer a metal barrel that had been cut in half and he consrtucted seating out of cinder blocks and a couple 1 by 6's.  I have been collecting firewood, from wherever I could find it, for a couple weeks and finally this weekend it all came together for our own Weiner Roast!   

Kris wrote his exams on Monday that week so we invited all our friends and a neighbor over on friday to celebrate.  We ended up with a few more neighbors than planned but they weren't entirely unexpected!  We live in a small village and everyone here is always very curious and very aware of everything that Kris and I do.  Our neighbor, Josh, has been the only one so far that has actually come over to introduce himself...so we invited him and his son, Keon, to the party.  But as expected, Keon told all his friends in the neighborhood that he was invited to the party and they all showed up as well.  One of the boys even made a t-shirt advertising that he was going to the 'PARTY IN BG'(Barnes Ghaut-the village we live in) and on the back of the shirt he wrote 'CRIS'!

It's a good thing that I bought extra marshmallows because they loved them!  These kids had actually never enjoyed a fire, like we do back home and they had never roasted a weiner or a marshmallow over a fire either!  We spent some time with the local kids before we sent them home for the night and then enjoyed the rest of the evening with our friends. 

Thanks to all who came over, it was a great night!

(Again I tried uploading photos and I have had no luck, check some of them out on facebook in the mean time)