farewell

my uncle tosh loved the hot weather, so it seemed fitting for him that we said farewell on the hottest day of the summer (so far). i don't know if many churches are air conditioned, but the one we were at definitely wasn't. it must've gotten close to 40 degrees in the chapel...and unfortunately mid-service the heat claimed a victim. one of the elders in attendance passed out and had to be taken to the hospital. by the time she left in the ambulance, she was conscious and seemed to be ok. phew!

it was a really long day today...the morning service, reception lunch, cremation service, and then dinner at the riverrock casino. there's a story behind the casino, and it's cute :-) july 12 would have been my uncle's 3 year anniversary since he received stem cells from one of his sisters. he really had hoped to be released from the hospital by this date, and wanted his friends and family to join him at the casino for some gambling. sadly, since he passed before this could happen, my aunt decided what better way to honour his memory than dinner at the buffet and some gambling after dinner. the "joke" would be to see who would win big tonight...i was hoping it would be my auntie joyce. the latest update from my parents was that my uncle terry was up $90.

since we knew it was going to be a long and emotional day, chris and i were armed with all of gabe's favourites: goldfish crackers, puffed wheat, mangoes, animal crackers, juice, raisin buns, and most importantly, the ipods :-) the service itself was an hour-long, and gabe was a real trooper. since we had to get there early, we let gabe run loose and burn off his energy and explore, until we absolutely had to be seated. once the service started, so did the ipods :-) for the most part, gabe sat quietly in the pew and watched his cartoons. occasionally he would look around the church, decide it was too quiet, and yell out "ma!".

while it was never my intention to turn gabe into a tv junkie, on days like this it's come in extremely handy :-) as long as he has kai-lan to watch, he's a happy child. even if there's no sound accompanying it, he'll be ok. it's gotten us through this funeral, flights to/from vegas and toronto, car-rides when we need to keep him awake as we run late for his naptime at home, and long (social) meals!

everything else we've tried hasn't been met with as much success...stacking cups, leapfrog junior (even with a kai-lan book!), crayons...he just loses interest rapidly...they have about a 3 minute lifespan :P and now my mom's caving in...she might be buying an ipod for her outings with gabe. this, in addition to the weekly "gabriel" shopping of 3 books and 2 hats she just bought for him :-)


how did our parents raise us without modern technology?!