… Sibcations? Kidcations?

Last month, my daughter and I were very fortunate to be guests of the San Juan Marriott in Puerto Rico. While keeping my eyes open for all the hotel had to offer babies and toddlers, my daughter and I also got to experience all that Puerto Rico offers families. It was a great little break for the both of us, and baby brother was left at home in the capable hands of Daddy.

Or so I thought.

I learned via text message that my husband decided to take our son on a mini-break of his own – a road trip to Ottawa with Grandma and Aunty! For these journeys, I got the much easier traveling companion, but we both got something that’s admittedly been lacking in our family this past year: undivided time with our children.

We believe the whole point of a family vacation is to spend time together as a family, and now that means all four of us. But our Puerto Rico/Ottawa mini-breaks gave us the opportunity to truly connect with the one in our care.  Because the baby is only 15 months, he spends most of his time with me. His mini-break with Daddy (my husband calls it their mancation) gave him precious one on one time with his father, and said father got to experience firsthand how much is involved in a toddler’s full-time care (not to mention prepping for travel!)

My mother/daughter getaway was especially precious, as she hasn’t quite adapted as well as we’d hoped to becoming a big sister. In spite of our best efforts, and following all the advice in every publication, it’s clear she’s unhappy with the status quo.  This break together allowed me to fall in love with my daughter all over again. Being home with the kids, I experience day in and day out the rocky road of big-sisterhood, and the break from it did us both a world of good. I missed the baby terribly, and in spite of everything, she did too.

I would never in a million years have considered taking separate family vacations, but seeing how restorative it was for all of us, I can definitely see the value. If you’re having a tough time or a rough go with one of your kids, it may well be worth it to do mini-breaks apart.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Even, it seems, for baby brothers.

Corinne McDermott is the founder of Have Baby Will Travel - your online guide for travel with babies, toddlers & young children. From baby packing lists to tips on coping with jet lag in toddlers, Have Baby Will Travel wants to help you get away with your baby! For more, visit Corinne’s Have Baby Will Travel blog, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook, where Corinne welcomes your questions and comments.

©Corinne McDermott 2010

A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Forgotten Histories, and a Sense of Home
by Sadia Shepard¹

Reviewed by Dr. Janna Nadler

It seems that there are so many memoirs/travelogues/creative autobiographies these days.  How is a reader to choose?  There’s no way to be sure that a particular author’s journey will strike a chord with a particular reader.  So, when a story does leave an impression on its reader, as Sadia Shepard’s The Girl from Foreign has for me, I feel that one should “spread the word.�

In her book, Shepard writes about her journey to India on a Fulbright scholarship.  Her project is to investigate her ancestry – in particular, to discover more about her late Nana’s history.  We learn that when Shepard was thirteen years old, she discovered by chance that her Muslim Nana (and Sadia’s grandfather’s third wife) had in fact been born into a very tiny group of Jews in western India called the Bene Israel.

In an interview, Shepard explains, “I couldn’t quite fathom how my grandmother, who wore a sari and made what I thought of as Pakistani food, was in fact an Indian Jew. And I began to ask her more and more and more about her community and her origins…And this new knowledge was a revelation to me, and became a kind of catalyst in my life.� ^2 And it was this revelation, this catalyst that leads her to the writing of the book.

The Girl from Foreign is a hybrid book.  In addition to fictionalized characters and dialogue, Shepard includes photographs, maps, letters, and diagrams.  Once might call it a creative travelogue, or memoir, or history.  What I want to highlight is that the book is authentically complex.  It is not a linear narrative which simply takes us from “point A� to “point B.�  It is because of this that the reader needs to stay focused.  The beautiful connections made between characters, images, and setting can best be recognized and appreciated by a reader who avoids long breaks between chapters. 

There is a quiet beauty to this narrative.  Shepard’s descriptions of the landscape – especially Mumbai (her Nana’s Bombay) – are wonderfully cluttered with distinctive sounds, smells, and images.  A Bombay street in the morning “is lined with the compact parcels of sleeping men, arranged in columns along the stone walls that border the street, cocooned neatly in white cloths, like caterpillars� (133).  Underpinning these descriptions of Bombay are the references to the city she’s left behind: New York in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks.

Some of Shepard’s characters offer irony and comic relief, and others offer the possibility for romance.  Of all the relationships, however, Shepard’s relationship with her Nana is central.  The Girl from Foreign doesn’t just convey the experience of hybrid identities and the message of positive plurality.  Carried along with this message, ingrained in Shepard’s imagery and textual detail, is the depiction of a treasured relationship between a granddaughter and her Nana. 

If you have experienced that special relationship with an aging parent/grandparent – if you have had the responsibility of sorting through the papers, memorabilia, furniture, clothes, and other items left behind in the wake of a loved one’s death – Shepard’s story will resonate with you.

~~~

Dr. Janna Nadler has a B.Ed. and a Ph.D. in English Literature. She is the Director of BOOK CLUBS BY JANNA and lectures widely for book groups in the GTA. info@bookclubsbyjanna.com * www.bookclubsbyjanna.com

1 Published 2008 by The Penguin Group 2 http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/antisemitism/voices/transcript/?content=20090604

© Dr. Janna Nadler 2010 

Geronimo Stilton is the editor of the Rodent’s Gazette in New Mouse City, and the central character in a series of books published by Scholastic. Breaking News: Geronimo Stilton is top cheese with young readers.

Children and parents are attracted to the Geronmino Stilton chapter book series because …

• Geronimo Stilton finds himself on adventures, making the stories exciting. There is also generally a humorous side to the stories.

• Geronimo is very close with his family and they often embark on adventures and travel together (including his sister Thea, his nephew Benjamin, and his cousin Trap).

• Geronimo finds the strength to face his fears and confront challenges.

• The Geronimo Stilton chapter books are filled with wonderful illustrations.

• Geronimo learns from new experiences and countries, and facts and figures are included for young readers to learn as well.

Discover more about the Geronimo Stilton series and discover activities, reviews and more at:
http://www.scholastic.ca/geronimostilton.

This week’s blog posts will come to you from The Boca Beach Club in Boca Raton. I am excited to share a new warm-weather vacation option for families, in the nearby sunny state of Florida.

First impressions … Wow! Even after waking up at 4 am for an 8:30 am flight, one could not help but be overwhelmed by the beauty of the ocean (which I am listening to right now from my room), the beckoning stretch of beach (which resulted in soaked pants from giggling, wading kids), and three gorgeous pools (including a zero-entry family pool).

You can get a preliminary feel for the newly renovated property at www.bocabeachclub.com, but it doesn’t even begin to capture the dazzling view and casual elegance.

I look forward to a week of fun in the sun together with you.