Have Baby, Will Travel

Traveling with a baby was a great idea. I know there are still some of you that have your doubts, that think we're nuts for taking our 8 month old across mutiple latitude and longtitude to some of the areas of Africa most people consider "unsafe". I too thought this might have been one of my more ambitious international leaps of faith. However, my gut instinct seems to be working out. Cian is a huge hit over here - not just among African people but among the international delegate crowd as well. I'm well aware that he is too young to remember our first big adventure as a new family of three but I do think that exposing him to all sorts of different faces and for him to not be afraid of people that look different than he does will serve him well. Keith and Cian went on the "accompanying persons" Cape Town city tour on Tuesday and a group of Iranian women held him and played with him on the bus. They don't even speak the same language but it's amazing how far a distance a smile can travel. :) On Tuesday evening FIGO had an "Evening for All" with local food, wine, music and dance and people from Keith's tour kept coming up to me to tell me how they had been on the tour with him that morning and they'd all had their picture taken with him. Albeit, an obstetrical conference has a bit of a selection bias when it comes to kid-friendly environments but nonetheless it's so nice to see people my parents and grandparents' age get down to his stroller, hold his hand, pat his head or kiss his cheeks and for their faces to light up when he smiles his big, drooly grin at them.

Another fun part of traveling with Cian this week was our trip to the Two Oceans Aquarium on the V&A Waterfront. It's a wonderful aquarium with lots of variety and it completely blew his mind. It put the little fishtank at the Assiniboine Zoo to shame. We'll post some pictures but he was a particular fan on the clownfish tank, the giant turtles and the jellyfish. He jumped when he saw the solefish scuttle along the bottom of the sandy tank and mostly looked with wonder at all the tanks. He can also sort of stand holding on to things now so he likes sitting on all the ride-on toys.

Keith and I (we're here too!) are doing well. The conference has been interesting with lots of thought-provoking talks on topics I'm interested in (HIV, fistulas, FGM, human rights) and there have been nice evening receptions to take the family to (tonight there was one for the Canadian bid for FIGO 2015 and Joe Clark was there!). Keith has been doing a great job taking care of Cian and the apartment and teaching me things he's learning on his "spouse tours". All in all we're enjoying Cape Town immensely and if you ever have the chance to visit this beautiful city take it, with or without baby :).