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Sierra at Seven Months

Sierra will hit the eight month mark in a few days so it’s a good time to reflect on how she has changed in the past month.

The most important things that have happened in the past month are something called two bottom teeth and the ability to crawl!

In fact, on January 23rd, Sierra managed to finally figure it out.  I would say it was about three weeks of tough mapping of new neural pathways in order to get to this point.  At the beginning of the month, she was pretty good at sitting up herself and scooting around in reverse.  But moving forward was an enigma.  I always assumed it was because the floor was too slippery with her PJs so I bought some foam pads.  Then I took her PJs off to see if she would get more of a grip on her knees.  Nothing was a knock out of the park, but it was close.  You could see her figure it out.

Then Vero said that as soon as I walked in the door, she was crawling!  It was quite amazing to see her figure it out.  I don’t even think she knows what’s going on with this newfound mobility.  She has taken a small step into a larger world.

Anyhow, onto the pictures because we all know that’s what you are here for.

On New Year’s Day, we headed over to Melissa and Jeff’s to show off Sierra.  That’s not true, we went to see Felix!

Sierra started crying when she first saw Jeff which was very abnormal for her.  I think it’s the glasses.  But she got over it pretty quickly.

Clearly Sierra loves Tante Carole and Oncle Michel!

Sierra loves playing with the strings on my sweatshirts.  She has a tendency of yanking them out completely when I’m not paying attention!

Sierra likes reading and when I say reading, I mean eating the books.

She hasn’t met a food she doesn’t like.

Happy Birthday Danielle!  Here is Sierra in the jolly jumper after we moved it outside the pantry.  She loves it!

We tried out the Instant Pot for the first time to make some pulled pork.  I would say that other than the sauce not being thick enough, it was a great success!  Too bad I bought pork shoulder the week after for when we had guests over.  It was hell to pull it apart and it was quite fatty.  Stick with the pork roast.

Sierra’s first taste of an apple.

Sierra had a friend over for some play time.  She is a girl who lives a few doors down.  Imagine if this will be the first picture of lifelong friends (or enemies, dunn dunn dunnnnnnn).

I came home and Sierra yanked the hat off my head!

Sierra trying to figure out crawling. 

My friend Etienne trying to hide in the woods on a beautiful day in Ottawa.  It’s great to walk down near the Ottawa river at lunch.

We tried out my new snowshoes on a beautiful day of -5 degrees.  We checked out the Vars cemetery trail and surprisingly ran into another couple out there.  That’s a first!

Winter is fun!

Maelle dropped by to see Sierra and when I say see Sierra, I really mean she wanted to play Barbies with me downstairs.

Uh oh.  This was how Vero found Sierra after a nap.  Time to lower that mattress in the crib if she can sit herself up!

Vero and Sierra went to the movie theater one day for the ‘Stars and Strollers’ day.  Vero told me that the cinema has change tables and stuff set up for parents with babies to go watch a movie together.  They had a great time and Sierra was blown away by the large screen!

We started preparing for the renovation on the basement bathroom.  We are hoping to eventually have a new shower, new wainscotting, new ceiling, new paint and hopefully a natural gas connection for a dryer.  We’ll see if we can get all that done while my parents visit in March.

Vero always knows how to get Sierra laughing.

Abigail taught Sierra this trick over the Christmas break!

 

 

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Vinyl exchange

For Christmas, Etienne, Benoit and I decided to put a little spin on a gift exchange and we decided to exchange vinyl records.  While I collect some vinyl records, I have to say I am not in the same league as Etienne or Benoit.

We met at Le Troquet last night for the exchange.  Unfortunately for me, I ended up buying Benoit a Barbarella soundtrack which he had picked up two weeks ago, but no matter, I would like it for my collection so I ended up with my own copy!

Etienne ended up picking me up this album from Plants and Animals.  I love listening to bands that are new to me and upon first spin, it was a pretty good listen.

Benoit ended up picking me up the latest Lisa Leblanc album.  It is primarily (all?) English songs compared to her usual french albums.  I am excited to give this a spin as I had caught her playing a fierce version of Motorhead’s Ace of Spades at Folk Festival a few years back.

Etienne surprised Benoit and I with our very own copy of the Reverb Syndicate’s Odyssey album.  Our friend Mike plays in this fine, fine group of musicians and I have to say, this is my favourite album of theirs.

All in all, I would have to say that the vinyl exchange was a great success and a fun after work event with Etienne and Benoit.

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Working it at 6am

With Sierra sitting around the seventh month mark, I know what’s coming down the line…it’s called daycare.  With daycare, I’m assuming the days of waking up at 6:45 are over and I’ll have to start waking up earlier.

You know what that means…it’s time to train myself to wake up earlier!  Faithful readers of this site will remember my crazy plan of weaning myself off of sleep when Sierra’s due date grew closer.  No more sleeping for 9 hours…I started going to bed later and later so my body could grow accustomed to less sleep.  Well, it’s time to get back on that horse again!

This time around, I’m waking up 45 minutes earlier but I figure since I have a few months until Sierra goes to daycare, I may as well make good use of that time…so the unimaginable has happened and I am watching Star Trek: The Next Generation while on the elliptical each morning.  I never thought I could do anything physical in the morning, but here I am and I have to say it isn’t too bad at all.  Plus, hanging out with my friends of the starship Enterprise is a good way to start the morning.

Sidenote: I’m loving when I stumble upon an episode that I have never seen before!  I’m on Season 4 and it’s happened twice so far.  It’s a fantastic feeling when you get to see something you’ve never seen before.

I’m sure when Sierra hits up daycare, this time with the elliptical will be non-existent and be replaced with feeding her and clothing her and all that jazz…but for now, time to take advantage of it.