Month: September 2019

Lordy lordy, look who’s forty (months)!

Oh boy, I’m looking at these photos from the end of August thinking “Where did the summer go?  It’s freezing nowadays!”  Gone are the days where Sierra hops on her bicycle after work.  Gone are the days of lazing on the back deck.  It’s all gone!

But with the fall comes the rain and Sierra in a yellow rain jacket is a fun sight.

Sierra has been really good with her baby brother in the past month.  We have noticed she has regressed to a child who needs help with everything “Help me with my clothes.”, “Help me eat.”, “Help me exist on this planet you call Earth.”  But if that’s the worst that is happening, we are fine with it.  She really wants to help out with Ezra but knows the boundaries if we don’t want her to help out (aka, when she has a cold and we don’t want her anywhere near him!)

I saw this on Facebook and still can’t stop laughing about it.

These two jokers are up to no good!

Her and Abbey got to hang out in some indoor park in Orleans while Vero and I stayed home with Ezra one morning.  It was really great to see family for a few days.  It sucked for John because he came down with a cold so he slept in the van the first night he was there in fear that he would get the baby sick!!

Hanging out with friends

I love how this picture from daycare shows a blur of Sierra running!

One Saturday morning Sierra, Ezra and I hit the road to let Maman sleep a little.  Here is Sierra showing off her bicycle.  She quite loves this thing!

I remember last year Sierra couldn’t even hold onto these chains!

We were looking for some really nice rocks to bring home to show Maman.  I found this one and Sierra said “WHOAAAAAA.”  She figured she could push it home.  Sierra is quite stubborn when things don’t go here way!

I made the rookie mistake of not packing a water bottle for our adventures around the neighbourhood so we quenched our thirst with a Mr. Freeze when we got home.

While I sat out in the sun on the lawn I snapped some great pictures of Sierra.  The wind just whipped her hair up for this shot and I quite like it.

I also love the collage Google Photos made of the same spot.

My go-to song to hum to the kids is the theme song from The Friendly Giant.  Vero made me realize that I had never introduced Sierra to it so we put on an episode and she quite enjoyed it!

It’s always a good time when we get the cool cart at Home Depot!

These days, Sierra’s bedtime routine is as follows: Read a book.  Give her Froggie.  Give her the blanket.  Give her a sheet.  Give her the comforter.  Tuck her in.  Give her a hug.  Give her an Eskimo kiss.  Say good night.  Say I love you.  She’s nice enough to respond ‘I wuv you.”

Vero was super excited to show me that she could fit in non-maternity clothes again!

While out for a walk one morning we stumbled upon a new food truck in Vars…Mr. Panino!  It was quite odd to see a food truck parked in someone’s driveway but sure enough, they were open for business!  We had a great panini from them.  We will definitely go again!

We didn’t plant much this year but here was the jalapeno plant near the end of the summer.

So here is a picture of the start of my new career…children’s entertainer!  Now, a few months ago the daycare workers caught wind that I play music and they suggested I drop by one morning to play some children’s tunes.  This generally isn’t a huge request but singing French songs is a whole new ballgame!  I didn’t practice too much at the beginning of the summer but I realized that while I was off on parental leave I should make it a point to drop in.  I brought my dulcimer one morning just to double check a few things on how to sing certain songs…how many verses in ‘Au claire de la lune’?  Things like that.  So this was my test run at 7am one morning.

I find this photo from daycare hilarious because it was captioned “Sierra decided to play dentist and measured everyone’s teeth.”

Ready to cruise!

Sierra was wondering what headphones were all about so I plugged them into the stereo and let her listen to some Stan Rogers.

I felt this sign at St-Hubert in Casselman was made for me.

Sierra came up with a new concoction…coleslaw mixed with the St-Hubert sauce.  Yum?

Piano recital

Saturday morning and both Ezra and Maman are sleeping.  What should we do?  Superball!

We were going through the garage and Sierra yelled ‘piggy back!’.  I’m excited that she is loving this thing again considering the amount of money we spent on it!

Max came over for a visit to show off his drumming chops.

Post-gig picture

I’ve been getting Sierra to play Kirby on the Super Nintendo and Vero said “That can be your thing.  I don’t need to hang around and play video games.”  Vero hates video games.  She thinks they are useless.  You can see how amused she was when I said “But Vero she really really really wants YOU to sit with her and watch.”  I really like the Kirby game where there are no enemies for her to go against…she just races against an opponent and can practice her walking and jumping skills.

Sierra helping with the ribs we made in the instant pot.  Mega success with this recipe!

I had a good laugh when I saw this in Vars.

A photo of my first gig as a children’s entertainer!  I even got to record it which was great.  The twenty minutes flew by.  Let me tell you…playing for kids is hilariously chaotic.  At one point I’m playing an easy ABC alphabet song and when I’m at the end of the song and need to refer to my piece of paper I notice that Sierra has already taken and thrown it away!  We also had kids asking for other songs while I was mid-song on another song!  Oh man, it was hilarious!  I think the fun part was when I was singing Michaud est monté dans un grand pommier and we would just sing the song again put insert a different kids name each time.  They had a good laugh at that, especially when I tried to cram three kids names in it at one time!  Thanks for the opportunity to come and play for the kids!

Sierra, future ninja?

Grandma and Poppa came back from Gaspé and stayed a few days to help us out.

The Tickle Monster attacked Poppa!

Figuring out a complex puzzle.

We went out to the Cumberland Market one Saturday morning in search for everything to make some dill pickles.

Poppa and Sierra eating some carrots and beans.

Our friend was super nice to invite Sierra over for a few hours so these two jokers could play together.  It’s a whole new world thinking Sierra has friends she can go hang out with!

Other than Grandma forgetting her recipe, I would say the pickles turned out to be a success!  There is a good photo of the entire family around the pickles but I believe Mom has them still on her camera.  Mom, time to send those over!

Bonne fete Maman!  

Tandréane dropped by for an hour while in town with her friend.  Sierra loved showing her her bedroom.

Saturday morning lounge time.

A year ago I don’t think she was navigating these as well!

I pulled the Lite Brite out for Sierra one morning.  She quite enjoys it!

Lately when I pick up Sierra from daycare she insists that I sit on the opposite side of the bench.  “Dad sit HERE (points at one end), moi sit HERE. (points at the other end)”

Hey.

So here’s something I did for the first time…I marched for a cause.  This part of the Global Climate Strike.  I had heard my manager was heading to it so I decided to tag along for the good cause.  It was quite interesting to see the amount of people assemble for a cause.  It was quite moving.  It really hit me when we all converged onto Portage bridge and you could see the amount of people on the bridge.  It was a slow moving march and I suppose that’s what happens with tens of thousands of people.  Ironically right before we headed out for this march we grabbed a bite to eat and the person serving us was against the march and we weren’t exactly sure how to respond considering we were literally grabbing a sandwich and joining the thousands of people outside.  We didn’t say anything and it’s always good to remember that everyone is entitled to their opinions.

The crew

I grabbed a screenshot of the Hill cam at the moment we arrived.

I was disappointed I didn’t think of making a clever sign!  There were some decent ones out there.

My submission for the caption contest.

Sierra was pretty excited that we got to hang out with some friends after daycare one day for a BBQ.  Could it be the last BBQ of the season?  Probably!

Approximately 15 pounds of half eaten food was left after this gathering of kids at the dinner table.

I’m pretty excited that Sierra and her friend was sweeping up all the cobwebs around the area!  Next stop: my house!

 

 

 

Let’s talk about radon shall we?

Vero works at Health Canada and last year she was working on some information regarding radon in

your house.

The Government of Canada defines radon as:

Radon is a radioactive gas that comes from the breakdown of uranium in soil and rock. It is invisible, odourless and tasteless. When radon is released from the ground into the outdoor air, it is diluted and is not a concern. However, in enclosed spaces, like homes, it can accumulate to high levels and become a risk to the health of you and your family

Wait, why would you read something when you can see an awesome video?

With that knowledge, we decided to buy a radon tester off of Amazon and put it in the basement.  It came out to around $45 which I suppose is a small price to pay to find out that I’m sucking in some odourless gas and I should do something about it.  We put the radon tester in a spot out of the way in the basement and left it there for six months to see what happens.

Six months later we received a report and it said that we had higher than suggested levels of radon.  Not by a lot, but still, it may be a concern.

The maximum recommended level of radon is 200 becquerels per cubic meter.  We had 207.

So, we’re not OVERLY worried considering the infographic shows we should fix our home within 2 years, but still, it’s something to look into.  The first thing we have tried to fix is our sump pit cover.  It wasn’t sealed up so there could have been radon gas leaking out through that.  Dad sealed it all up with tape and we will buy another test to see if it made a difference.  If it didn’t then we are dealing with another issue that could be cracks in the walls or floor.

Why am I bringing this up with you?  Well, I figured that if I have radon in my basement, then you may as well.  What’s the harm in spending $45 to get yourself a test?  I suppose it’s not the end of the world if you don’t spend any time in your basement but if you do, do yourself a favour and get a test done.

This photo isn’t even from Wal-Mart but I would say it sums up my experience.

Last week Sierra mentioned that her shoes were tight.  Sure enough her toes could probably pop out the front if there wasn’t some sturdy leather in place.

Sunday morning I packed up Ezra and Sierra to head out to Wal-Mart since I didn’t have luxury of checking out second hand stores for some shoes on a Sunday.  Speaking about luxury, I would like to say that I truly, truly, truly appreciate how Maureen has hooked me up with three years of shoes before this point and I had never had to go shoe shopping before.  Thank you!

But the day finally came that we had to enter into this new world and so with the two kids we headed to the shoe aisle.

Now, this post isn’t going to focus on a constantly crying Ezra or a Sierra who promised to behave but then realized that trying on shoes is a fools’ errand and she wanted to run around instead of help take care of her brother.

I’m going to focus on the sheer insanity which is trying to find kids shoes at Wal-Mart.  Imagine before you five shelves filled with shoes of all sizes and colours with no actual order to them.  Good luck trying to find a size 10 shoe.  EVEN MORE good luck trying to find a Size 11 after you wonder if the size 10 is still a little too small.

Out of 1000 pairs of shoes I think I stumbled upon two pairs of Size 10 and to this day, I still haven’t found the elusive Size 11.  The size 10 we tried on were some high tech light up ones that I swore were probably overpriced so I balked at getting those.

Of course I made the ultimate mistake in actually telling Sierra we were going to get new shoes so when we left without any it was the end of her world.

Seriously Wal-Mart…are you like this in every store?  After speaking with some colleagues, it seems like the answer is a resounding ‘yes’.

I never will go buy shoes at Wal-Mart again.  It’s chaos.  It was well worth it to walk into a Carter’s see their shoes hanging up according to size and bingo bango, I paid $5 more then I would at Wal-Mart and walked out of there in fifteen minutes.  I wasted a lot more of that in terms of time spent looking for that elusive size 11.

Wal-Mart, I love you.  Heck, I used to work for you.  I will always argue in your favour.  But not when it comes to your kids shoe aisle.

Mom and Dad were nice enough to come help Vero babysit while Etienne, Benoit and I hit the road to see Massive Attack in Montreal.  We were originally going to see them in the Spring but they postponed that tour and rescheduled right after Ezra was born.  FANTASTIC?

21 years of Mezzanine!

I’m not the hugest Massive Attack fan but I (along with everyone) fell in love with their Mezzanine album from 1998.  It’s a perfect album…one of those that you can listen from front to back.  In honour of the album they were playing the album in full 21 years after they released it.

I would have to say that musically, I thought the show was fantastic.  They mixed up the tracklisting of their album and played a few songs I didn’t recognize but found out later that they had used samples of these songs in the building of Mezzanine so they decided to play those samples in full song form which is interesting.

Visually I’m not sure what to say.  It was quite the spectacle!  Considering I don’t know much about Massive Attack I didn’t realize they were a hyper political band.  Images of Saddam Hussein and Iraq bombings still flash into my memory banks.  As Etienne put it “I didn’t realize my Saturday night in Montreal would consist of me seeing images of dead people in a warzone.”  I’m still not sure what they were trying to portray with a lot of their visuals.

But all in all, I was really excited to hear one of my favourite albums from the 90s played in a live format and we are very lucky to have caught it!

I can’t complain about our seats!

Hanging out with these two jokers.

Decent light show.

End of the show.  

We’ve made it to the tenth of the month and have survived!

There were fears going into this that he would inherit the same digestive problems that Sierra had in the first year.  He doesn’t show any telltale signs yet so that’s hopeful!  Vero has adopted a dairy free diet to help just in case so we really won’t know until she decides to start eating cheese again.

It’s been a frustrating month in that I feel I haven’t figured Ezra out yet.  I haven’t stumbled upon tricks that help him fall asleep or calm down.  In the past few days I have stumbled upon the trick of letting him suck on my pinky finger for 15 minutes and that seems to calm him down.  Vero asked that on her birthday we introduce the soother to him!  I had a good laugh at that and it’s a great idea.  Time to introduce something that may make all our lives easier!

Ezra was lucky enough to have a few visitors in the past month and there are still people lining up to see him!

I’m in the final week of my time off helping out with Ezra and it’s been a fun ride.  My typical day has consisted of bringing Sierra to daycare then coming home and waiting until Ezra and Vero wake up.  I then take Ezra out for a ride for a few hours to give Vero a break.  At first I didn’t know how long he could last so I would just zip into Canadian Tire and come home and watch Friends or Star Trek.  I then started to realize that he was easily falling asleep for 2-3 hours after a nice car ride so I got to take longer drives with him.

Here’s a weird thing that has happened over the past month…Google Photos is thinking that Ezra is Sierra!  I haven’t figured out how to switch it to recognize a different person but I suppose artificial intelligence has confirmed that they do look alike!

Onto the photos!

Tante Mern came for a visit!  Got the kid to sleep like a pro!

Ezra is as photogenic as his father.

Here he is trying to lift his neck up.  Some hard exercises at one month old!

 

While we had some great help from the midwife, our doctor wanted to take a look at him as well.  He enjoyed the visit to the doctor’s office!  It was interesting to see that he was in the 50th percentile in terms of height and then two weeks later he was in the 90th percentile!  The doctor said that at this age that could just be user error in terms of measuring.  Even a few centimetres can throw the percentiles off.

Ezra was lucky to have Aunt Maureen come and visit!  

Cousin Abbey inspecting Ezra.

I love both Abbey and Ezra’s reaction in this shot!

Staring into the void.

Cuddle time with Maman is the best time!

Good looking family here!

The inaugural Costco visit.

I busted a gut laughing at this one that I saw on Facebook.

I don’t wear many speciality socks but when I do I wear them high!  Thanks Trish!

Trish is back from PEI and excited to hang out with us!  We went to some new Mexican place for a late lunch and their stove was broken so we went to the Clocktower Pub instead.  Turns out they had 1/2 price appetizers!  Score!

This is how breastfeeding in the pub starts out before she can pull the cloth down.  I had to take a photo of this bandita.

Another great visit!

Trying to get the perfect shot!

Ah, the pinky finger.  My last ditch effort to calm the kid down.  Nothing else works at this point but this sometimes works.

Aunt Sue (let’s be honest, it was really Uncle Lynn) made this great blanket and octopus for Ezra.  Thank you!

More visitors!  Ezra is a lucky guy.

Mike and Melissa were gracious enough to come over for a photo shoot of Ezra.  He cooperated pretty good!

Here’s my favourite photo of Trish with Ezra.  She looks very impressed.

Vero was excited to show me that her old shirts were starting to fit again after her pregnancy!

Here’s one for the “Man and his sandwiches” blog!  We were taking Ezra for a walk and stumbled upon a new food truck in the middle of Vars!  I had a porketta sandwich and it was yummy.  We will definitely go again.

Nat is still on parental leave so we dropped by for a quick visit.  Clearly Ezra loves her!

Ellie wasn’t falling for my ‘Take a selfie while I steal your cracker.” trick.

Nat made a lovely blankie for Ezra me.

We don’t have a vegetable garden this year but Vero picked up a jalapeno plant for me and they are coming in pretty good!

Enjoying a little nap on Maman’s lap.

Sierra is starting a career in photography.

Sierra coaching Ezra through some tummy time.  Speaking about coaching, this reminds me how every time I was taking Sierra for a bike ride this summer she would yell out “faster, faster!” and I would have to say “Thanks coach!”

The Losier clan dropped by for a nice visit.

Vero really wanted to figure out how this thing worked with Sierra but we didn’t bother.  We decided to give it another try and it’s quite amazing how well it holds Ezra in place for a walk around the block.

15 minutes of the pinky finger and bam!

Ezra has been around for a month now and he has been eyeing up some key items in the house.  I figured I should take some photos for historical reference.

Good taste in music!

Psh, can’t forget the Pearl Jam of course.

Thundercats….HOOOOO!

TK-1908 reporting for duty.

With great pooping power comes great heartache.

One month later, he is starting to smile!  Vero did point out that he had the biggest burp of his life two seconds before this.  

 

 

 

 

Google Photos is a hit and miss for their automated assistant stitching photos together.  But they knocked it out of the park with this one of Sierra entitled Then and Now!