We had a great Hallowe’en considering the Yoda outfit that Emilie bought Sierra fit like a glove (well, except for the hat that kept falling into her eyes). We decided to hang around the house and hand out candies with Sierra while she was in her costume. She was doing good for awhile and then I think the hat was starting to bother her so we stripped her from the costume.
For historical reference, we had 100 bags of chips and 120 chocolate bars and between 5:30 and 7PM we had just under 100 kids. I was freaking out thinking we would run out of candy so I want to get a bonus 50 bags of chips next year just in case. Vero was the calm voice of reason through all of this and she assured me no more than 100 kids would show up. She was right! I thought it was super odd that only two kids showed up after 7PM.
POW!
We ended up watching an old Hammer horror film called Scars of Dracula which was decent. Next on the block was A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master which was pretty good as well. We had never seen the entire Nightmare series so we are getting through them now.
Sierra turned five months old on October 28, 2016. Let’s recap what’s been going on.
This was Sierra five months ago.
At age five months, Sierra is super interactive with us. When I come home from work, I smile at her and she smiles back. It’s an amazing feeling.
When we pass her a toy, she can hold it and generally puts it in her mouth.
She is drooling quite a bit so I’m assuming she is starting to grow teeth.
Vero has seen her roll over onto her stomach from her back. I have yet to see this. This is clearly the beginnings of a super hero.
Speaking of superheroes, Sierra really loves with when we fly her through the house like she is Superman.
In the past month, we have introduced the jolly jumper and the activity chair and she is enjoying them. She has to get the hang of the jolly jumper but Vero says that she started jumping the other day.
The doctors currently think Sierra has an allergy/intolerance to cow’s milk protein. That’s not cool! So Vero is on a strict diet of no dairy and while she’s at it, no soy as that intolerance usually happens at the same time. So Vero is pretty much suffering (believe me when she says that vegan cheese has no place on a pizza!) for the past month. We will see next week what the doctor says is the next step as we don’t really see a difference in her after four weeks of this diet.
Vero is doing great at caring for Sierra while I am at work. When I say she is doing great, I mean that every night I come home I still find Sierra there in one piece and she is happy. Clearly Mom is doing a great job!
I think that this age might be the best…she is interactive yet not mobile yet. I feel that right around the corner is when things will get a little more tough and I can’t just sit and watch Star Trek with her to keep her entertained!
I help Vero out by sleeping in Sierra’s room on Friday and Saturday nights while Vero is nice enough to let me sleep in another room during the work week. This just means I have adjusted the nights where I want to have a beer or two!
Some nights Sierra wants to talk a lot, some nights she does not. Perhaps I am interrupting her too much?
I received some bad news that Mrs. Townson had passed away so it was time to hit the road and head up North for an impromptu visit. I will share two stories about Mrs. Townson.
The $5 Bet
When I returned home for the summer from college in 1998, Wal-Mart was nice enough to give me a job to get me through the summer (this was, of course, I found a better paying job at Ontario Hydro later on). Unfortunately, the only position they had for me for the first while was as a greeter.
Now, the Wal-Mart greeter is an interesting position and one that I took pride in. If my job was to greet people when they entered the store, by jove, I was going to do that! “Bonjour, allo, hello, goodbye!” was part of spectacular vernacular that month of May.
However, they had implemented an interesting new policy. If people were entering the store with a shopping bag, it was up to me to ‘tag the bag’ with a sticker with my initials on it. Someone must have believed that this would somehow reduce shrinkage (a hilarious retail term you should look up!).
While this wouldn’t be too much of a pain in a regular stand-alone Wal-Mart building, it did pose a problem for a Wal-Mart part of the Model City Mall. There were tons of other stores that you could buy merchandise from and then you would want to cut through Wal-Mart on your way out of the mall.
This was probably the biggest controversy to hit Kapuskasing back in the summer of ’98. In fact, I’m sure if someone has saved a copy of the Northern Times back then, there were probably public complaints every week about it. Now that I think about it, it probably worked at cross purposes of the goal of the store…to get foot traffic and sell merchandise. People went out of their way to avoid the store when walking around the mall if they had a bag with them.
How do I know this?
Because Mrs. Townson make it her life’s goal to avoid me at all costs. You would hear stories of her taking the back hallway to avoid having to get her bag tagged.
But it was my job to make sure it happened.
One fateful evening, I was sitting in the Townson’s living room.
Mrs. Townson: “You will never tag my bag. I will make sure you never get the chance!”
Me: “I will hunt you down and make sure that the security polices of Wal-Mart are enforced! I will send the hounds of hell to get you!” (My memory may be a little hazy as to what was actually said.)
Mrs. Townson: “I bet you $5 that you will never tag my bag.”
Me: “I’ll take that bet.”
The hunt was on! My eagle eyes were trained for one target and one target only that month of May. I would hear her cackle when she managed to rush by me when I was helping (aka tagging) another customer. I was shake my roll of stickers furiously at her and vow revenge each time she snuck by. I’m also pretty sure she would just camp out of sight and manage to swoop by when I was otherwise occupied. She was a valiant foe. She was the Joker to my Batman.
But then, a larger paycheque called and I decided to leave Wal-Mart and go work for Ontario Hydro.
Some time later, I remember sitting at the Townson’s house and she came in and said “So…where’s my five bucks?”
Me: “What do you mean?”
Mrs. Townson: “You lost the bet. You never managed to tag my bag.”
I stared her down for awhile and realized my villain had bested me. There was no way I could get out of paying this $5 bet.
Me: “Oh, you’ll get your 5 bucks.”
I went on a mission and that mission was to deliver her 5 bucks in the most grueling way possible. There was really only one option.
I decided to glue 500 pennies to a piece of wood and apply a nice coat of varnish to it. As Spock would say, it was the logical choice.
I found a piece of wood in the workshop that just happened to be an excellent size to glue 500 pennies to. I can’t remember the specifics of how many rows I had but I do remember that I figured I should put some effort into it and make one row as heads, and one row as tails. I also remember finding an older penny; I cannot recall the date on it, but it was very old so I remember placing it in a specific spot out of the ordinary in the tails row so you could see the date.
After spending an evening gluing these to a board, I varnished it and let it sit.
The next day I went over with my board and found that no one was home so I propped it up on a chair in the kitchen without a note. You don’t need a note pinned to a piece of wood with 500 pennies glued to it.
I wasn’t there when she received it, but I can only imagine the laugh she had at it as I have heard about the board of pennies for years later. It was our ongoing story. Every friendship has a story like that. In my heart, I know that a teenage boy earned some respect and love from a friend’s mother that day I paid my dues to her.
Christmas Eve
Hanging out on Christmas Eve
I found out early on that in Carol’s house, Christmas didn’t stick around too long. Mrs. Townson did not like Christmas and those decorations were probably taken down shortly after Santa visited.
I make it a point to visit their house every Christmas Eve when they have a little gathering of friends and family. Every year after church, I head over for a visit…sometimes long, sometimes short (if Mom and Dad were hosting their own party), but it is my one time of the year to visit the Townson household. With a rye in hand, we will watch the greatest of all Christmas films: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
While I know that Mrs. Townson didn’t have much love for Christmas, I would like to think that deep down inside, she loved Christmas Eve because of the people that came and visited. That’s why I made it a point to come and visit…to make sure she got a little Christmas cheer in her even for the briefest of moments.
Vero decided to up and leave us in the dust…and when I say that I mean that she only left for a few night so she could hang out a cottage with some friends.
Armed with a three day supply of pumped milk, I was ready for the challenge!
The Friday night was pretty easy as it was a regular routine. Feed the baby the bottle a few times, watch some Star Trek and go to bed. She was a decent sleeper that night. She generally spits out her soother at various points in the night and if I manage to get it back in her mouth in time, she doesn’t scream.
The next day I fed her in the morning and then that kid fell back asleep for hours. It’s weird when you have a day planned out for the kid and then she just decides to pass out for the majority of the morning!
See? She’s still alive which is the main goal of taking care of a kid.
Behind the scenes of the filming of when Fredo met Sierra.
My main goal for that Saturday afternoon was to head out to the woods and take Sierra on a trek. I was hoping to do so in the morning but considering I basically have a sloth for a child, we decided to head out after lunch.
With a diaper bag in tow with a beer in its pocket (among other child essentials), we drove over to the Vars cemetery and walked for awhile. I have to say I really dig this little baby carrier that you strap onto your chest to carry her around in.
Adventure!!
The kick ass Vars cemetary path.
Someone had WAY too many apples that they needed to get rid of. I’m thinking it’s Mike.
At one point I headed to ‘the spot’ which is a great little area next to a river. However, there was an ATV parked there so I figured I would leave the guy in peace and head out on another trail. While I have to say this trail was a little treacherous because I stumbled into a thorny patch, it also led the way to another path that I never realized linked up to the cemetery entrance. This means that I had successfully found a looped path! I showed this to Véro a few days later and she was impressed (but not impressed by the amount of time I was taking to cut down the thorny vines to clear the path!)
Sierra and I did manage to head back to ‘the spot’ when the ATV had left and she enjoyed a nap in the sun while I enjoyed a beer in the calm of the woods.
The spot!
Do-do time.
Clearly other people know about this spot considering the firepit I found.
Tummy time is very important!
That night Sierra and I headed over to Limoges to visit Nat and Marc for supper. Benoit and Cinthia were also there and it was a fun night to show Sierra to people because she has started to speak a lot. Aka, trying to communicate!
Benoit showing Sierra how a camera works.
Cinthia and Nat approve of the awesomeness which is Sierra.
It was a great supper with friends but we decided to hit the road after her bottle and head home to go to sleep. I don’t dictate when kids sleep, they dictate when I should go to bed!
That night was a little rougher than the night before but all was well when I snuck her into bed with me. Sure, Vero and I agreed to try and limit this action with our baby but hey, a nice warm bed may be what the doctor ordered sometimes!
The next morning was spent sleeping in for the most part and around noon Mom showed up! Thank the Maker! I have to say that I enjoyed having some one on one time with Sierra and I would like to say that it made me realize how hard it is to take care of a child and how much I think Vero is doing an amazing job…but I already knew that before she left me with her for a few days!
Yay, Mom is home!
They proceeded to dance together for 3 hours. I think Mom missed Sierra.
