Let the world know that as of 4:23PM on July 28, 2017, Sierra successfully navigated her first flight of stairs upwards!
She started out with one step, then back down. Then one step, then back down. Then about five steps, but then decided to come back down. It was a riveting show of ‘will she or won’t she do it?’
In the end, she did it! She got up half way and I figured she would head back down, but she just kept trekking up to the landing. I also had left the gate open so she went up two extra steps and boom! She’s in the kitchen!
Like any other champion, I smothered her with kisses which she denied.
Vero’s sister Andréane wrote a novel which is available in bookstores in Hearst (or we can obtain a copy for you if you would like!). It’s an entertaining read so far, but I have to say I’m only on Chapter 4 after a few months because it’s in the French language! The iPad is quite handy to translate words on the fly for me.
Anyhow, she was hinting about having a promotional video for it so I whipped this one up for her.
All is well around these parts but it started out with a hiccup!
Our daycare provider’s mother unfortunately passed away so we had to make alternative arrangements for the month of July for Sierra. I thought she was old enough to stay at home but Vero had other ideas.
Luckily, a hero emerged in the form of Danielle. Gaetan, Danielle and Andreane were coming back from Portugal and Danielle offered to look after Sierra for a couple of weeks during July. This was a gift sent from the Gods and while I understand that she had a great time getting to spend one-on-one time with Sierra, we benefited from this visit greatly and we thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for helping us out. It was great having her here and I liked it for other reasons other than the babysitting. It was great to get to know Danielle outside of visits for a few days. Once you’re in a house for weeks on end with a person, you need to not interrupt your own life. So we watched some Star Trek while I was on the elliptical, we shared our common love for adventure games (wait until I get her into Gabriel Knight!) and we had fun going around town to see the Canada 150 events! Merci encore Danielle!
Sierra has become a walking machine nowadays this past month. She rarely falls down anymore. It’s great to have a little person walking beside me down the path of life. She’s also at a great point in her life where she can’t run full tilt down the driveway towards the road so I at least have a few minutes to grab her. Why is it that kids seek out adventure down at the end of the driveway instead of closer to the house? I can’t fault her for having an adventurer’s spirit!
As of writing this entry on July 28, 2017, she is now drinking 3.25% milk instead of formula. She was intolerant/allergic to it when she was little so we stopped giving it to her completely. Around the one year mark it was suggested we try and introduce her to it again. It started out with a 10%/90% split between milk and formula. Then upwards and upwards to a milk only diet. So far, so good…we haven’t seen any adverse reactions like we saw before (crying for hours on end, interesting things found in diapers) but we aren’t going to get our hopes up until a month after. Andreane says things like intolerances/allergies may take awhile to rear their ugly head. After that, I guess we will try products with soy in them!
Sierra likes going into the drawer with the pots and pans this month.
Sierra is, for the most part, a great kid in our opinion. Everywhere we go we hear stories of how much she smiles. We’re not sure if people are just saying that or she generally is on the upper echelons of the smile factor. Every kid is different so I guess it’s better than a kid with a scowl.
Sierra likes running around the yard and is trying to figure out if she likes cold water from sprinklers and splash pads. While she doesn’t cry around them, she doesn’t scream in delight either.
She likes taking rides in her car around the block and she LOVES the swing set and slide at the park.
Onto the pictures!
I’m not sure who is happier? Gaetan, Danielle and Andreane arrived back from Portugal in fine spirits. Gaetan was definitely better as his sciatic nerve wasn’t hurting as much as when he left the country. The poor fellow even needed a wheelchair for part of the trip!
Sierra got a backpack from Portugal to carry her comic books around!
Andreane with her favourite niece.
Sierra with Grand-maman. Danielle tried for two weeks for Sierra to say ‘grand-maman’. She said them the moment Danielle left for Hearst! (I am kidding. She still has yet to say it).
Check out this fabulous creation found down the road from us!
Chilling out on Canada Day with Jonas and Maelle
JF and Victor Von Dubé taking it all in
Great Canada Day BBQ with the kids!
It’s easier to win the lottery than to get a photo with all kids looking forwards.
Who’s her favourite guy in the world other than her Dad? Note: this was the only time of Canada Day 150 that there was enough sun to go outside. What a rainy day! We had a bunch of people over and it was quite the loud party with us all stuck in the house!
The next day we decided to head down to the Mosaic Garden which had opened up in Gatineau. We found a unicorn along the way!
I’ve travelled the world and have seen many great sights. But I was blown away by this Mosaic Garden they set up for Canada 150. I couldn’t believe some of the floral/plant sculptures they had created! You must go see this.
On the way there, Danielle said something like “Oh, it’s nice to get out and just go visit a garden for a few minutes.” A 45-minute line in the sun awaited us. Luckily Sierra was in good spirits!
The RCMP were on our tail!
This fisherman had a nice catch!
The gentleman behind us was searching for gold.
The sculpture in this picture was donated by China in honour of Canada 150.
Joe Muffaraw!
This piece of art was the best at the garden. The woman in green wasn’t that bad either!
Another view of the final sculpture. This one literally took my breath away. I felt I was in Middle-Earth.
Gardens need water and boy, did they get some water. Torrential downpours came down on us on the walk back to the car!
Sierra eyeing up someone’s poutine at St-Albert Cheese Factory.
I think Sierra may take after her old man in terms of loving fruit.
Etienne, Andree and I enjoying the Ottawa river at lunch
She was getting the hang of walking.
Vero was somewhere in this Bluesfest crowd watching Pink on stage. What a crowd!
Bluesfest fun times
Great times were had on the final night of Bluesfest with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers! It felt like a night around a campfire singing tunes with friends.
Rob and Janice were kind enough to take care of Sierra while Vero and I went to Bluesfest for a few nights. Sierra LOVED her time with them and she especially loved the trampoline! Thanks again guys! We definitely appreciated it.
Jenna and Sierra having fun.
Having fun at the park with Rob.
Vero had to take the third week of July off to take care of Sierra so I decided to take the Monday off and go check out this fry stand in Orleans that Jonathan had told us about. It wasn’t bad! Sierra enjoyed walking amongst the picnic tables trying to steal people’s fries.
I couldn’t resist the temptation of letting Sierra roam around the toy store. She’s at an age where her attention span is the size of a mosquito so even if she cries when we took her away from this toy, she stopped three seconds later once seeing another one.
My work picnic lunch. We got rained out a little bit, but our team managed to win the trivia challenge! Go Team Stella!
Who doesn’t love how she tries to get into the basket?
Sierra and Vero hung out at the splash pad one day. Sierra seems to be on the fence with splash pads. She isn’t overjoyed with them but she isn’t sad either.
Just wandering around
Andree’s going away party. That was a killer good day until the bill came and I realized our manager took the day off and I was acting manager along with Etienne. 🙂
After a visit to the park, it’s time to wash those feet in the sink!
Trying out the lifejacket before we headed to Calypso Water Park.
A big gang showed up at our place for a few days…Anne-Marie, Steve, Evan, Jenny and Kayley (Kayleigh?)! It was a great party.
Everyone was having a great time at Calypso!
Including yours truly!
Evan showing off his Friday night dance moves.
Older cousins are meant to crawl over
I swear I have other photos from the weekend but I guess that’s it for now. We made t-shirts of whatever design the kid wanted. They thought it was the coolest thing ever. Evan wanted to promote his new YouTube channel called EASS. We also went on a scavenger hunt around the house which was great fun to set up! We were really happy to have everyone up for a few days.
The fourth week of July had me look after Sierra. On the Tuesday I headed up to Perth for lunch and hung out with Sierra’s two favourite people – Lynn and Sue!
We also enjoyed time at the park!
And rides around town!
And slides!
And visits with Ethan and Ellie!
Another month gone by and I’m pretty sure I’m missing quite a few pictures from Vero’s phone. I’ll be updating this soon enough!
