Month: October 2019

Sierra caught wind that Hallowe’en was sometime in October so every night after supper she asks for her bonbon d’Hallowe’en.  Luckily she never ate any of her candy from the year prior so there is still some decent candy in there that hasn’t expired.

The key this year will be to see if she will wear a costume or not.  Sierra LOVES Dora the Explorer so we are going to outfit her in that and see how it goes.

Sierra is quite the independent soul around our house.  While she does insist that we help her put on her shoes and clothes from time to time, for the most part she refuses any help with anything.  She is also getting used to playing on our own.  The other evening I had to take care of Ezra on my own so I asked her to go play downstairs and she didn’t encounter any issues with it.  Saturday mornings are quite fun as I can just set her down in front of Dora the Explorer for a few hours while I catch up on things that I haven’t been able to do throughout the week.  Then we typically hit the road and do something with Ezra during the morning.

Sierra is still taking afternoon naps and we are quite lucky she does.  I don’t know how we would function if we had to work with Ezra AND Sierra without getting a nap!

I will write more about the creation of this music box I built for Sierra but for the time being, I can say that Sierra enjoys being able to choose her own music to play out of this box.

Having fun outside in the rain!

Sierra was a fantastic helper for me on Sunday morning.  For years we never did anything around our fire pit and we ended up with a layer of pine needles that we cleaned up last spring.  Now that it’s Autumn a new batch have fallen down and I decided we need to get ahead of the game and pick these needles up!

It’s interesting not having a hot tub for the moment.  We have made a lot more campfires this Fall.

Sierra was having a grand old time drinking a giant mug of apple juice.  She didn’t care for the onion rings at all and we had to go back and order some fries for her.  Also, I can’t believe Vero didn’t know I don’t like root beer!  She shows up with a mug of it and I’m thinking “I’ve been with you over a decade and you don’t know this about me?!”

People, don’t forget to lock up your car at night!  Someone ransacked our cars and the neighbours cars.  I have officially hit old man status when NOTHING was taken from my car.  I guess CDs and GPS systems aren’t in vogue for thieves?

With the mornings getting darker and darker, you get to see some really great sunrises from our front lawn.

Spaghetti supper!

Here’s a typical Saturday for us.  Hanging out on the shopping carts at Canadian Tire.

We scored some great Halloween decorations from Canadian Tire!  Sierra really liked putting these up in the window.

Last year all Sierra wanted to watch was It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.  This year she watched it for a week and switched back to Dora.

My friend Nat came back to work after a year of maternity leave.  Here she was excited to go back.  Two hours later she was wondering why people have to sit inside cubicles all day.

It was school picture day so I worked extra long on her hair.  I decided to take a photo in case she destroyed it before the photo session.

Still some beautiful lunch hour walks to be had with Etienne!

Vero bought a tool that helps slice up vegetables into spaghetti like noodles.  I have to admit that it was pretty neat eating zucchini spaghetti!

I’m not sure why the photos are reversed order, but Sierra thought she could escape a photo taken of her but AHA!  I managed to capture her joy on riding her little scooter.

Happy Hallowe’en Jason!

This photo was taken on a BEAUTIFUL Friday lunch hour where Marijo and I found a sunny spot on the patio at Le Troquet (best bar ever).  Could it be the last patio day of the season?

Here is Sierra strumming the ukelele at the campfire.

This is the birthday card we prepared before the party.

The birthday girl and Sierra checking out something interesting on the Internet.

Getting some cake is always fun!  For some reason Sierra did NOT want to sing Happy Birthday when the cake came out which was strange considering she had been singing it for a few days prior.

The piggyback rider lives again!  Sierra really likes hopping on this thing now.  I’m enjoying the fact that she likes hopping on it.  In fact I was at the shopping mall the other day trying to figure out how to finagle a baby stroller and a toddler and she saw the piggyback rider and wanted to hop on around the mall!  Problem solved.

Vero’s family came to town for Thanksgiving so we went out to the Mer Bleue bog for a walk.  We had to park a kilometer away due to all the traffic.  Someone said there were no spots available ahead but lo and behold if we had just kept driving we would have seen that they were not speaking the truth to us!

The bog is neat as it has a boardwalk stretching through the entire thing.

Clearly Danielle didn’t want to be in the photo.

There were only a million people in the trail with us.  We were lucky to get a second to take this photo without people cutting through!  For historical reference this was also the weekend when the Gatineau Park had to close their doors to car traffic early in the morning!  Beautiful day for a hike though.

Sierra was pretty sure we could push this tree down.

This was a shot before we ate twenty pounds of turkey.

I’m not entirely sure what happened here but it sure looks like Sierra and Grandpapa are fixing some closet knobs.

I really like what they did on the walking path behind my work.

I wish I had seen this particular photo last weekend when I spent 30 minutes looking for our rake.  Grandpapa and Sierra left it in the leaves near this tree!

I was really intrigued by this macabre artwork we saw at lunchtime.  Turns out that each piece is inspired by a children’s tale.  They had a gruesome one of a dismembered hand being eaten with a fork and knife.  Turns out it was Captain Hook’s hand!

Dana’s hair is quite versatile.

Oh boy oh boy, we got to go on a tractor ride for an excursion to Ferme Drouin!  The daycare kids loved the entire day.  I was quite tired at the end of my day which ended around 2PM.

After the tractor ride we got to pick out one pumpkin to bring home.

SOMEONE wanted to get back to the tractor before all the others.  Someone amongst us says “Wow, Sierra is quite independent.”  In my head I’m thinking “Yeah, if you call a kid running away from her Dad when he’s wanting her to stay next to him independent…then yes, she’s quite independent!”

After the tractor ride we entered the spooky woods and looked at the spooky creatures hanging out in the woods.

Let’s be honest, the best part of any farm is the park they have set up.

Sierra was nice enough to give this goat some lunch.

This farm is well set up for kids to come and visit.  After the park we had some lunch and then visited the barn.  Afterwards we go into another barn/hall and they have a bouncy castle and some fun things like this alien picture to play around with.  Ferme Drouin is a great spot to bring the kids!

I would like to thank the daycare for inviting me along for the trip!  It was a cold but fun day outside with all the kids.  Next time I’ll have to figure out how to sneak my way onto the bus because that always seems like the best part!

It will be a costly day when she realizes that if I put a toonie in the machine the horsies actually move!  But until that day comes, she is content with just sitting on them and saying hello and goodbye to them.

Sierra and I spent some time at the shopping mall one Saturday morning when Ezra was still sleeping in.  We put a dress on and went looking for some new shirts.  We also found a popcorn stand and sat on the bench watching people while we ate some popcorn.  A small bag of popcorn could probably last 2 weeks with a kid eating it!

We unfortunately have a new critter giving us a hard time in the house….a lobster!

Saturday afternoon was a beautiful day to start mulching up some leaves on the lawn.  Before that we needed to hit up the pumpkin patch!

Sierra having more fun playing with Maman than actually picking out a pumpkin!

This was the moment immediately after Sierra tried to pick up the pumpkin by it’s top and the top fell off in her hands!

With a little wash this will be the perfect pumpkin.

Saturday night brought me to Mike and Melissa’s place for Mike’s birthday party.  I really love this picture as it looks like I’m the head of a group of evil masterminds!

My team at work are dressing as clowns so I this was my attempt at a minimalist clown costume.  I feel I need to find a coloured vest to make the outfit work.  Also, wearing lipstick for the first time was weird.  My lips were always super dry!

Nanny Ruth and Beth came for a visit on a rainy Sunday.  We had some soup for lunch and then we carved a small pumpkin with Sierra.  She was very excited to see a pumpkin come to life.  We still have two more to carve out in the next few days.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sierra!

 

 

Sierra emerges from the bathroom two seconds after she told me she had to go on the toilet.

Me: “Hey, where are you going?”

Sierra: “Je besoins quelque chose a lire sur la toilette!”

 

 

“How is Ezra doing?”  “How is Vero?”  “How is Sierra?”

All valid questions when you are two months into living with a newborn!

Life is Ezra is definitely easier than it was with Sierra.  We know what’s going on.  We are looking at a problem to solve (“How do I change a diaper again?”) and muscle memory comes back from three years ago and we know how to fix the problem.

Even going to the doctor results in amusing moments where the doctor asks if we have any questions and we reply “No.  Everything is good.” whereas with the first child we had a laundry list of questions!

Vero is still avoiding dairy products in case he has an intolerance and so far we think this is the good path to be on.  Ezra has split personality.  Some times he sleeps a lot during the day, is pretty calm and life is good.  Other days he doesn’t get much sleep at all and subsequently probably makes him quite irritable later on in the day!  I can’t speak for Vero who is with him the majority of the nights and days but there have been a few times during the evenings where I’m with him and he just won’t stop screaming at me.  Then there are other nights where he takes a bottle, settles down and passes out with me on the couch for four hours.  🙂  We are trying a few things like anti-gas drops for colic and all of that stuff when he gets irritable but we’re not sure if it’s making a difference.  So at this point, I would say 50% of his days and nights are great!  50% are not so great.  But considering we have a two month old human being in our house, I suppose that’s par for the course?  Although Vero tells me that her grandmother told her a story of how all her kids slept from 10pm until 6am!  Must have been the cow’s milk?

But Ezra is pretty amazing right about now.  He’s starting to smile!  That’s why people have children…to experience those small moments where they start smiling or talking or laughing.  It’s infectious!  It makes life worth living!  Ezra is doing great and we are doing great as well.  Who cares about sleep?  As many people have said before…I’ll sleep when I’m dead!

I took five weeks off (thank you Employment Insurance!) to help Vero out and I really appreciated the time I had with the both of them.  I had a good routine going on…when Vero would wake in the morning 9am, I would take Ezra off her hands for a few hours.  I would generally have a destination in mind like Best Buy or Wal-Mart and we would hit the road.  He quite enjoys the shopping cart and would fall asleep.  My ongoing joke when people would stop me and ask about Ezra is “I’m thinking of picking up one of these shopping carts for the house because this is the only way he sleeps!”

I realized my five weeks were ending soon so Ezra, Vero and I hit up the Casselbrew brewpub.

I think he enjoyed his first sip of beer.  I’m kidding!  Can I just point out I find this outfit hilarious because it has teeth on the feet?

This collage didn’t get the sequence right.  I find the sequence of these three photos hilarious if you start at the bottom left and see Sierra taking care of Ezra.  Then in the leftmost photo she takes her eyes off of Ezra and starts watching Dora on TV.  Then in the top right we see the consequences of her actions as Ezra proceeds to fall off the pillow!

It was a nice Fall day when I decided to hang out with Ezra near the fire.

Grandma and Poppa dropped by for a few days on their way back from Gaspe.  They grabbed Ezra for themselves and didn’t even say hello to me until a day later.

I get a sense from this picture that Dad must remember how it is to handle two kids at the same time and he’s thinking “Boy, I’m glad I’m not doing this full time!”

Just like his Dad…sticking his tongue out during hard tasks

Here is Ezra with his new toy called Ruth after Nanny Ruth who made it for him.  Hilariously when we asked Sierra what the dog’s name was she says “Ruth Ruth!” like “Woof woof!”

Hanging out with Maman on the deck.

Welcome to our life…staring at a baby trying to lift his head!

At least one of us is sleeping.

Ezra doesn’t look too sure about this situation.

Matante paying a visit with Ezra for the first time.

This is a typical spot for Ezra during the evening.  Cuddled up next to me trying to sleep while Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is on.

We decided to drop by the Buhr Clan for a visit.  It was a long time coming since Rob somehow came down with shingles a few weeks prior!

“I can do it!!”  I’m not sure what he was trying to do here but he seems pretty excited that he accomplished it.

3 out of 4 people looking into the camera isn’t bad!

After a good walk.

Guy Smiley!

Pretty sure Ezra saw a ghost walk by.

Franco-Ontario day!

This was Ezra at the neighbour’s BBQ.  Maybe he really likes white noise?

JF doesn’t look so sure in this photo.

Maelle has the knack for holding babies.

This guy does as well!

Either that ghost walked by again or he finally saw my face.

This guy looks content.

After six weeks of purely breast feeding we managed to get a bottle into the rotation!  Here is Ezra’s first bottle.  He took it like a champ.

Emeric managed to find this retro Star Wars toy for me at Toys R Us!  Sweet!  I am on the hunt for the other five figures if anyone sees them in the wild.

Dozing.

Laura knit this amazing elephant which we have dubbed “Laura the Elephant”.  

First Vars community supper for Ezra!

Sierra spending some time with Ezra before bedtime.

Here’s Mononcle Etienne with Ezra at Alex and Gisele’s wedding.  It was a little loud in there hence the earmuffs.

The wedding was held at a farm on the Quebec side.  We got to take the Thurso ferry for the first time which is neat.  I have to say this about fall weddings…when it’s nice out, you automatically get a 10/10 for a great wedding day.  But if it would have rained, it would have changed it to a 2/10.  Lucky for all of us, it was a great success of a day!  Also, you can’t go wrong with a wedding where I had a beer in hand during the actual ceremony.

Ezra isn’t so sure about flying through the air.

End of the night before we headed home from the best wedding of the year.

Ezra and Sierra watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”

After a year away taking care of her baby, Nat gets back to work!  We are going to try carpooling together.  We are already in talks to create a podcast which would basically just record whatever we are laughing about during the ride to and from work.

Look at that smile starting to form!

This Jedi seems a little scared of the Empire.

Bundled up for a walk.

 

I’ve been following Great Lake Swimmers for years now but have never been able to catch them live.  Until now!  Going to a concert while leaving Vero home alone with a newborn is a tricky feat but she had a great day leading up to that evening so I was able to escape for a few hours.  Thanks Vero!

I’m going to chat about two things here…the concert itself and the opportunity I had to record the concert.

The concert itself

Opening for Great Lake Swimmers was the touring keyboardist; Colleen Brown.  She played a couple of tunes on the guitar and followed up with more on the keys.  I really enjoyed her songs and while nervous at first, I think she found her footing after a few songs.  Who isn’t nervous when performing?

I am super freaked out by this picture as it’s like she is staring directly at me.  It’s like those horror movies where you see someone in a photo staring into your soul!

Next up we had a special treat in the form of Tanya Davis who recited a few poems of hers.  The lighting went down accidentally during one of her poems but she kept on going like a pro.  I ended up being a substitute lighting rig for a few minutes as the sound guy asked me to point a flashlight at the stage so people could see her!  It’s not often I hear poetry and I enjoyed her style and delivery.

Great Lake Swimmers finally took the stage to a decent sized crowd.  After the first song it was apparent that we were in for a treat and the band has a relaxed nature to them and crack a joke here and there.  It makes the moment more intimate.  They had a good selection of new tunes mixed with old tunes.  They are a top notch live act and I will definitely see them if they pass by in the future.

Colleen Brown setlist

You’re Only A River Away
Moncton, Flight 179
Love You Baby
I Remember
Will You Still Love Me? [Carole King]
Lead Me On

Great Lake Swimmers setlist

The Real Work
In a Certain Light
Side Effects
The Great Exhale
Put There by the Land
Everything Is Moving So Fast
Alone But Not Alone
Your Rocky Spine
Still
Something Like a Storm
Visions of a Different World
The Talking Wind
Come A Long Way [Kate McGarrigle]
Changing Colours
Pulling on a Line

The recording of the concert

Considering I was heading out to the concert alone I thought this might be a great time to try out my Tascam recording unit and try my hand a recording a live concert!  I love live music and I love bootlegs of concerts.  I scour the internet in hopes to find a recording of concerts I’ve been to in the past.  But I’ve never been the person who has attempted to record a concert myself.

Until now!

The band!

At first I was just going to bring my Tascam unit in and hit record and see what happens.  I had no idea if the venue would allow it or not.  But then I thought “Why don’t I email the band to see if they would mind if I recorded the show?”  It’s not like I’m going to be selling the show to anyone.

Sure enough, Tony of Great Lake Swimmers got back to me the next day and said it would not be a problem as long as I stayed out of the way with my equipment and it would be great if they could get a copy of it!  Fantastic!  What an opportunity to fulfill a dream!

I spent the next few weeks learning everything I could about the Tascam unit.  I even managed to velcro a portable battery pack to the unit so I wouldn’t be just running on double A batteries which may not last 2-3 hours.

My rig

I arrived at the 27 Club with fifteen minutes to spare before the opening act.  There wasn’t a lot of people in there and I could easily go chat with the sound guy.  I don’t know why, but I was super nervous going to the sound guy to ask if I could get a direct feed from his board.  Leading up this event I knew that there would be two eventualities…he says no and I just set up the Tascam unit somewhere and hit record and use the external microphones.  Or he says yes and I get the best quality recording ever.  He had no issues with it whatsoever and we chatted about what I was hoping to accomplish and we decided to run two XLR cables straight from the board into the Tascam unit.  Fantastic!

I had a couple of minutes to spare before the opening act started and I set up the recording unit on the edge of the sound board area so I could monitor the input levels to ensure they wouldn’t peak.

Not going to lie, this was my view for 50% of the night as I was constantly keeping an eye on the recording levels.  Recording a concert is work!

Colleen Brown came on and I could see inputs 1 and 2 bopping along and I adjusted the levels accordingly.  I think it was working!  Half way through her set I realized that I must have been still recording using the external mics and not the soundboard feed and sure enough, once I listened to my playback I found out that my hunch was correct.  What was I doing wrong?

I figured out that for whatever reason, the soundboard feed was coming on input 3 but not 4.  So I’m not entirely sure why this wouldn’t let me record two XLR cables but I had to figure out what I wanted to do.  In the end, I figured that one mono track of the soundboard feed was still going to be better than whatever the external mics were going to get me.  In hindsight, I have to admit that after comparing the two recordings the Colleen Brown concert still turned out quite decent in terms of an audience recording.  It picked up a lot more noise like the venue’s air conditioning unit and the chatter from the crowd but it wasn’t that bad.

I still don’t know what was wrong with Input 4 and I’ll have to do some more testing to figure that out.

What’s interesting about recording straight off the soundboard is that I must have been recording post-mixer so I didn’t even have to monitor for peaks because the sound guy was already handling that for me.  I did have to crank the input gain to the max and I’m not sure why that is.  Perhaps it was just a really low output coming from the board?  Either way, it all worked out!

It was really interesting standing near the ‘behind the scenes’ area of a concert.  There’s a lot to think about.  The sound guy is constantly keeping an eye on levels and how the sound is.  He’s also handling the lighting which was a disaster when the computer decided to crash along with the software handling all the lights.  But it’s neat to hear the band chat with him before the show asking for certain types of lights to create an intimate setting.

At the end of the night I packed up my gear, thanked Joel the sound guy for his help and went to the merch booth to introduce myself to Tony.  I picked up a few CDs and said I would send him a copy when it’s ready.  He seemed excited to hear that I got to plug into the soundboard.

I got back to the car and started listening to what I captured and I was overjoyed to hear that everything came out great!  My first outing with the live recording rig was a near complete success and I’ll troubleshoot input 4 before the next time I head out.

Special thanks to Joel for helping me out along the way and to Tony of Great Lake Swimmers for allowing me to capture a moment in time.

Until the next time!