The Bans in Van

Peachland - Bansies en mass

2015-10-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

It appears a whole year has gone by since we last posted anything - and a year later, we find ourselves back in beautiful Peachland, this time with Mike, Helen, James & Eve in tow.

Here's the highlights of our time with them in Vancouver and Peachland. (click here if the link doesn't work)

One small step for mankind

2014-07-21T22:41:00.002-07:00

After watching the Greece vs. Costa Rica penalty shoot out, Dylan keeps the excitement going by taking his first few very wobbly steps. Go Dylan! My personal highlight of the world cup so far.

Peachland

2014-07-21T22:29:00.001-07:00

We spent a great week in Peachland again this year.
Highlights were:

Charlie learning to swim (by pretending to be a dog fetching a stick...)
Two great nights out at the vineyards (thanks to a great babysitter we found)
Dylan getting better at his walking

A video Beck made is below

Dylan's First Birthday

2014-05-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

May 18th saw us celebrating one whole year of Dylan - with pizza, panda cupcakes and an outing to the farm with best bud Sanna. This little guy learnt to smile when he was just a few weeks old, and hasn't stopped yet! (Well, other than a few grizzly long nights of teething etc of course). What a fun (exhausting) year it has been with you our little man.

P5185133 from thebans on Vimeo.

Not to be forgotten, here is big brother Charlie performing his version of Elton John's classic: Your Song.

Charlie's Song
20140501 191434 from thebans on Vimeo.

Away in a manger

2013-11-14T21:44:00.000-08:00

click to view

https://plus.google.com/photos/108801322298490049825/albums/5946342279280151153?authkey=CLnF87a5j-2-Ow

Autumn Fun

2013-10-31T20:32:00.000-07:00

An opportunity to dress up the kids in animal costumes, meet lots of new neighbours in our new (ish) neighbourhood, and eat all of the treats Charlie so diligently collected.

More Aunty Love & Peachland (the return)

2013-08-28T15:02:00.001-07:00

In early August Ruth and Dan flew in for 3 fun weeks of (mostly) sunshine. After a couple of quiet days in the back garden recovering from the flight and jet lag, we drove 4 hours east to Peachland, one of our favourite spots in the Okanagan, and returned to the same vacation rental we went to last summer for Dylan's first vacation! Four glorious days of beach time at Sun Oka, eating fresh fruit pies, drinking beautiful BC wine, enjoying Dan's cooking (amazing malaysian curry and greek souvlaki!) and relaxing poolside (where Charlie eventually plucked up the courage to get in and start "wimming" as he called it - this involved holding onto the side and kicking his legs, which was huge progress as far as we were concerned!) Charlie also spent many hours playing "bat and ball" or "bat and birdie" in the backyard, selecting one of us at random to be his lucky partner.

A highlight of the trip was a trip to Mission Hill Vineyard for a wine tour, lunch and open air concert by Pink Martini. This was a contest prize that our clever friend Joel had won, and kindly given us since he was not going to be in the Okanagan to enjoy it. We certainly did enjoy it - thanks Joel!

On returning to Vancouver, Nick went back to work (boo) while the rest of us enjoyed sunny days at Granville Island, Stanley Park, Jericho Beach and Kits Pool. Being on maternity leave in the summer is awesome! Thanks for visiting us Ruth and Dan, we had a blast.

Grandma and Aunty Love

2013-08-28T14:51:00.003-07:00

Per the previous post, Beck's mum's prearranged arrival date was as perfect as it could get with her flying in the afternoon before Dylan arrived. We enjoyed 3 weeks with an incredibly helpful extra pair of hands and Charlie had a lot of fun hanging out with Grandma - although he took a bit longer to warm to the new jacket she bought him. (On arrival, she gave Charlie 3 gifts to open - one was a book (which he loved, and read straight away), one was a wooden fire truck - also well received, the third a jacket (which I loved!) which he unwrapped, turned his nose up and said "Charlie no like this jacket". Looks like social graces are still to be learned.)

A week after Dylan arrived, we also welcomed Susie to town for a few days from Ontario. Sadly Vancouver decided to live up to its reputation and poured with rain for most of her visit, but that just gave her more time to perfect her train track building skills (truly impressive) as well as the perfect excuse for a cozy lunch at Burgoo. And of course lots of cuddles with Dylan.

Susie and mum also had the honour of giving Dylan his second bath (the midwife did the first one for us) as despite this being the second baby this still felt like a terrifying prospect for me.

Family Photos - June 2013

2013-06-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

The return of our talented photographer friend Alysha to Vancouver in June gave us the opportunity for a family photo shoot. Miraculously we managed to get all of us fed, happy and clean for at least a few minutes simultaneously - no easy feat at this stage of life! (And it did require bribing Charlie with stickers throughout). We loved what she was able to capture of our newly expanded family in our new (ish) home.

And then there were FOUR - Welcome Dylan Joshua!

2013-06-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

I (Beck) wrapped up work at the beginning of May, and a week later, our contractors finished renovations and we finally had a slightly more peaceful and less dusty home ready for the arrival of baby number 2. The due date (May 15) came and went, and with Charlie having been such a punctual baby, I did start to (irrationally) panic that this baby would keep us waiting. Grandma (my mum) arrived from England on May 17, which turned out to be impeccable timing in hindsight.

Around 6am on the morning of May 18, having spent much of the night awake with the usual aches and sleeplessness of late pregnancy, I had a couple of strong contractions in quick succession. Despite lots of previous "false" contractions over the past few weeks, this time around I just knew "this was it." I woke Nick up to suggest he make me some breakfast while I still felt like eating something. For the next hour he then ran madly around the house trying to meet my every need (run a bath, pack the last few bits in the hospital bag, call the midwife etc) while the contractions quickly became stronger and more frequent.

By the time the midwife arrived around 7.45am, I was in agony, and when we found out I was already 6cm dilated, it was no wonder! The midwife suggested a speedy exit to the hospital, where on arrival we were taken to an assessment room. The speed that things progressed meant that we didn't even make it to one of the nice birthing suites. I was very grateful for the gas and air which relaxed me somewhat and helped me get through the next couple of hours. At one point I do recall asking for an epidural - though my request was pretty much ignored by everyone (I can't imagine there would have been time anyway!) and in hindsight it was definitely better for me to have managed without in this case. Things got a bit dramatic right at the end when the baby's shoulders got stuck, which meant lots of shouting for help from the medics, panic buttons being pushed, and me being asked to flip over onto my hands and knees to deliver the baby (I'm still not sure how I managed that?) At 10.41am Dylan Joshua arrived - all 8lbs of him.

We were taken to a room to recover for the afternoon, and realized the hospital was packed to the gills! (We were later told that if we'd arrived later that day we would have been sent to a hospital further away to deliver). This motivated us to try and get home that evening, which given I was able to be on my feet (albeit in quite a limited fashion) by that afternoon (in contrast to day 3 after Charlie was born) we managed to do.

Charlie had had a great day with Grandma while we were at the hospital, including a trip to the park and dinner out with Jacob and Benjamin. On Sunday morning he met his brother for the first time. Our friend Sarah had made beautiful "Big Brother" and "Baby Brother" dogs for the boys which we had saved for this moment. Charlie was given his dog, and then gave Dylan his Baby Brother dog. Charlie loved meeting his brother, though it had to be explained that Dylan couldn't play trains with Charlie, nor could he sit in the high chair that Charlie dragged from the kitchen to the dining table for him.

Charlie is proving to be a great big brother.

Sometimes however his desire to do everything that mummy is doing is taken to the extreme....

Renovations Renovations Renovations

2013-05-31T10:28:00.000-07:00

After three months of dusty and noisy renovations (and numerous occasions where contractors arrived at the house while I was still in my pajamas), we are now the proud owners of a brand new two bedroom basement suite! The "plan" altered somewhat as things progressed - our initial proposal of just adding a kitchen and bathroom to the original 2 bedrooms was not feasible, therefore the entire space was gutted and a new floorplan created, including re-positioning the main entrance into the suite, and adding a new furnace and water heater. We are especially pleased with the polished slab floor (hopefully a practical choice that will stand the test of time), the exposed brick fireplace and the wooden doors throughout. Our tenants moved in on June 1st, and one week in we all seem to be surviving as neighbours. The rental income is especially welcome having watched our savings drain away as the renovations progressed! Huge thanks and kudos to Atura Contracting (aka Tim and Cameron) for the fantastic work.

Other house updates include the demolition of a wall that split the main floor entryway and the entrance to the original apartment upstairs, re-positioning of the staircase including new banisters and ballasts, and a smart new front door.

We were also fortunate to have a week of help from Beck's dad in April, who efficiently knocked out the kitchen upstairs to transform what was a kitchen/diner into a 3rd bedroom.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Dad also had time to fence in several "gaps" in our backyard and built us 2 gates so we can now enjoy having Charlie and friends playing in the back garden without fear of escapees.

While the downside of our new place is a busy back lane shared with the shops and restaurants of West Broadway (although if you are a toddler, the numerous garbage trucks that arrive each day are not necessarily a negative) we enjoy a spectacular view from the front of the house on sunny days - every day as we open Charlie's curtains we ask him "will we see the mountains today?" And sometimes we do!

Keeping Us Amused

2013-02-17T13:46:00.000-08:00

Listening to kids music in the car is sometimes the lesser of two evils - but it does become more bearable when Charlie sings along. It's not always tuneful, but it's usually very enthusiastic. Here's his rendition of Mary had a Little Lamb.

Charlie also kept us amused last weekend in a sushi restaurant. We had ordered some noodles, and I put some on a plate for him. He pushed them away, looked at me and said "no more snakes". (We've been making a lot of playdoh 'snakes' recently so this was perhaps the closest thing he'd come across that resembled the noodles).

New House

2013-02-03T08:14:00.003-08:00

After many years of saving up hard, a previous two failed attempts to take a foray into the real estate market, hours spent wondering if we would ever be able to get onto the property ladder, and almost eight years to the day of arriving in Vancouver, we signed a contract on a house in October 2012! We are thrilled to be staying in the neighbourhood of Kitsilano (where we were previously renting for 5 years) as we love the proximity to beaches, bike and running paths, shops and restaurants and have also built up a good community of friends here (as well as it being well located for Nick's work). We've moved a few blocks south and west and now find ourselves one block from the West Broadway corridor of shops (very handy) and almost equal distance from Jericho Beach and Kits Beach.

We moved in on January 30th, 2013. Some initial renovations included taking down a wall in the entrance hall to convert the main floor of the house and a separate upstairs 1 bedroom suite back into a two-floor family house (this gives us 3 bedrooms upstairs). The larger project is to gut the basement (currently 2 bedrooms and an unfinished workshop space) to create a 2 bedroom basement suite, which we intend to rent out for at least the foreseeable future to help out with those mortgage payments. Thankfully we are in great hands with our good friend Tim being an experienced contractor, and currently have a crew of workers onsite in the hope that a suite will be ready to rent in a couple of months all being well!

Exhausting but exciting.

Photos from the realtor's posting (we are not this tidy or organized yet!)

Currently Charlie's bedroom

The 'upstairs' kitchen - soon to be knocked out, carpeted and made into a 3rd bedroom

The landing - one of the things we fell in love with was the wide staircase, entrance way and landing

Back deck (currently filled with renovation junk)

Back of the house and garden (need to get it fenced in for the summer - and buy a lawnmower - eek, how grown up!)

We have 2 parking spaces at the back (currently occupied by a huge concrete bin and our contractor's truck), and share a back lane with the shops on Broadway. Not sure if we will keep the veggie patch area to the left, would be nice to think we could grow a garden there one day, but lots to learn about gardening if we do attempt this!

View from upstairs front bedrooms (on a good day! We have only glimpsed the mountain view once so far)

It's official!

Moving day

Renovations start in the basement

Concrete is removed and the earth dug out to provide a few precious extra inches of headroom (thank goodness we are not doing this ourselves!)

Work on the main floor - the bottom 5 stairs have been re-positioned back to how they would have been originally. We are still waiting for the actual stair treads to be created (using original wood floor from one of the basement bedrooms) along with the banisters - makes for interesting times with a toddler and no way of fixing up a stairgate.

The wall between the main and first floor has been knocked down. The floor will be sanded so it hopefully matches, and we plan to replace the front doors with one central door flanked with side light windows. Definitely still a work in progress at this point.

Charlie's Brother!

2013-01-05T07:45:00.000-08:00

After a really lovely low key Christmas at home with friends (although a little sad not to be celebrating with family of course) we set off for our second scan on December 27th eager to find out if we were having a boy or a girl. It's another boy! (Or so we are told). Due May 15, 2013. We are excited to meet you buddy.

In the meantime, a few shots from Christmas which, for the first time in years, felt truly exciting again as Charlie learnt all about presents, crackers, party hats and of course hit the big milestone of turning two on December 28th.

Wrapping his head around snow just before Christmas. (Not such a big fan of being out in it though).

"Lights on tree, lights on tree" - we heard this a lot.

Post-Christmas snow shoeing venture at Mount Cypress - not wildly successful.

Who on earth thought this would be a good present? (Daddy)

Thrilled to find this in his stocking.

Skye and Charlie tackle Granddad's Christmas quiz

Family Bansback on Christmas Day - baby bump not in shot (20 weeks)

Loved pulling Christmas Crackers ("more bang, more bang")

Big two year old boy

On the Trail of Uncle Tony in Palm Springs

2012-11-07T21:41:00.001-08:00

After a week of sunshine in Vancouver with Nick's Mum & Dad / Charlie's Gran & Grandad, we all flew to Palm Springs for a 5 night stay over Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. The main purpose of the trip was to find out more about the final years of Great Uncle Tony, who was apparently quite well known in Palm Springs back in the day.

Along with lots of Uncle Tony research (including eating in a restaurant which had a photo of Tony with Albert Einstein on the wall - or at least we think it did) we also found time to ride the Ariel Tramway....

...which some enjoyed more than others....

....enjoy a couple of scenic hikes....

...and of course lots of time for lazing and splashing in the pool.

(With some wearing less clothes than others while doing so).

A lovely relaxing way to spend time together in the Californian sunshine.

The Summer 2012 Bucket List

2012-09-03T16:23:00.003-07:00

At the start of the summer, Nick (during his regular Sunday night at the pub with friends) came up with a list of all the things he planned to do this summer. Last weekend, he realized he'd not really done any of them. Labour Day weekend was busy as he attempted to cram in quite a few....here's the list, as I remember it:

1. Go for a run followed by a swim in the ocean (TBD)

2. Superdogs at the PNE (tick)

3. Cycle to Deep Cove and back (tick)

4. Pitch and putt at Stanley Park (TBD)

5. Take a ferry to Bowen Island for dinner at the nice Italian place that does good pizza (TBD - maybe next weekend?)

6. Pick berries (TBD)

7. Carry Charlie up the Grouse Grind (tick)

I guess sometimes you can't do it all.

Flashback

2012-08-27T20:58:00.003-07:00

A video from a long time ago that a friend filmed while babysitting. Just Charlie doing his Charlie things.

Family Reunion in Ontario

2012-08-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

Alarm clock set for 4am, the flight left at 6am. Almost re-routed to Calgary due to a fellow passenger's refusal to sit next to Charlie any longer on the 5hr flight. One bag didn't make the flight. A ridiculously long wait for our car rental at Toronto's dodgiest rental place. A 2 hr drive to the cottage through heavy rain and storms. Eventually we made it to our chalet at the Blue Mountains, Ontario - and thankfully the trip got MUCH better after that!

A lovely week with the Gambles, the Durrants and Grandma. Lovely beach out at Wasaga Beach Provincial Park. Toasted marshmellows around the campfire. Lots of family meals and fun with cousins. Thankfully a much better flight back to Vancouver!

Perfect Peachland

2012-07-28T16:12:00.000-07:00

A blissful weekend away in Peachland, BC (4hrs east of Vancouver). A cute little vacation rental with a pool, sunny beaches, warm lakes, fresh fruits and good wine a plenty - oh, and a visit to a farm in Keremeos on the way home to keep Charlie happy. All the ingredients for a great summer weekend away.

Important Life Lesson: how to build a sandcastle

Charlie keeps the piglets in line

The Jubilee in June

2012-06-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

The fact that our trip back to the UK this year coincided with the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations was - well - a coincidence. However, having missed the royal wedding the year before (and with no plans to return for the London Olympics) it was actually really nice to witness British patriotism firsthand.

The trip started with a couple of much needed recovery days at LB - including a lovely day in the garden with all the cousins (unexpectedly scorching weather for England at the end of May).

Then up to Camberwell for fun with cousin James - Charlie had lots of opportunity to show Mike and Helen where they needed to improve their babyproofing in months to come!

Highlight of our time in London was a 14km run with Helen into London - a great way to sight see - with Buckingham Palace, Green Park and Westminster en route. Charlie had his first sleepover while we traveled down to Rob & Rachel's wedding. The Jubilee Weekend felt like an English version of Canada Day - lots of events in local parks, cream tea and Union Jack bunting galore. Helen's Jubilee Cake was a hit with all the cousins.

Then a very hectic train ride through London (accidentally timed for the start of the Flotilla Procession) for a few days with Ruth, Dan, Grandma and Lawrence in Lincolnshire while Nick headed to a conference in Berlin. The family portion of our trip ended with a very soggy visit to the farm.

Then a chance to squeeze in a reunion with old friends - the Sticklands, Hannons and Pickerings, in addition to being very well looked after by Sam for a couple of nights.

Friends

2012-04-06T14:34:00.005-07:00

Charlie learns how to share his toys (sort of) during a recent playdate with Skye, a friend from

daycare....

...and had a great trip to Maplewood Farm and Deep Cove on Good Friday with Nolan.

And let's not forget his friends of the stuffed variety....

Sick Day

2012-03-18T15:09:00.000-07:00

It was bound to happen at some point. A stomach bug raged through the Bansback household, starting with Charlie, then Beck, and finally Nick. A long and tiring week for all. Ugh!

Finding his Feet

2012-02-25T22:13:00.003-08:00

Within the last few days Charlie has begun to take a few, wobbly, hesitant baby steps. Very exciting!

Six weeks later Charlie is much more confident on his feet, and starting to experiment with steps and climbing....Still a lot of tumbles however.

Slide

2012-02-23T21:55:00.003-08:00

Next milestone reached: Charlie is now sliding independently - which is a huge relief for our poor backs.

First Haircut

2012-02-23T21:48:00.004-08:00

Nick deemed the gorgeous baby curls "too girly" and decided they had to go (sob). Charlie cooperated marvelously as long as he was plied with cheese and had baby Einstein videos to watch.