We registered Sierra for maternelle (pre-kindergarten?) this past month. It was an interesting process. In my head registering a kid is as simple as filling in some forms and bam, they are accepted. I almost felt like the process was an interview of her. The principal was taking notes when asking what she is interested in and if she can do certain tasks. I wasn’t entirely sure if this was to take a look at what activities the school offers or to see if she was ready to enter Hogwart’s or not.
Speaking of Hogwart’s, I thought it was interesting that they had her get a gumball out of a machine and whatever colour you received decided your fate for the rest of your time in that school. She is now part of the yellow team and every once in awhile the entire school splits up into different coloured teams for activities. Much like a wizard’s academy. Neat!
Because of the upcoming transition to maternelle there are certain things that we have to work on. She is supposed to go to the bathroom on her own without much assistance. I am happy to report that after hearing that we had her do a lot of the work herself and she’s 99% self-sufficient in the bathroom which is great! Just in time for Ezra to swoop in and hit the reset button on all of that for us! Haha.
Vero and all of her cousins grew up playing with this little toy schoolhouse that used to be at Grandmaman Cantin’s house. She had to move into an extended care type facility so had to pass along a lot of her fun toys. Sierra and Ezra got this as a nice surprise. I hear Vero playing with it at night.
Future curler?
Enjoying a hot chocolate at the Governor General’s residence at Winterlude
Sierra and I went for a horse and sleigh ride. I was pretty sure that the person taking the picture would have her finger in the shot. Sure enough…
Dancing in front of Rideau Hall
Grandpapa helping Sierra learn how to skate. When Sierra and I arrived that the morning the two guys who have a contract to clear the rink were hard at work. I grabbed a shovel and help them for half an hour before Sierra could hop onto the ice. She was quite patient!
I got to go see Kevin Smith at Algonquin College one night and it was fabulous! He came out and introduced the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot film, then we watched the film and then he had a Q&A for a couple of hours after. He is a great public speaker and there were really funny stories.
After the bath
Sierra managed to scale the snowhill!
Enjoying some time with her friend at the Vars carnival. It was very cold outside this day so we spent the morning in the gymnasium. I believe Vero and Sierra did venture outside for some activities when we left but I was with Ezra during that time.
Sierra helping clean the high chair that we pulled out of storage for Ezra
Matante Andreane dropped by for a quick visit before heading to Florida. Sierra and her made some Valentine’s Day cookies. Someone didn’t read the instructions correctly and set the oven at 125 F which didn’t do a whole lot.
Whenever there is a lot of snow I tend to work from home which results in a sled ride to the daycare!
Vero picked up this thing for Valentine’s Day. At first I was really scared of seeing instructions written in Chinese and I thought “Is she trying to harm me?!” But this thing is amazing for my eye condition! I love this thing so much.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
If you didn’t know already, I collect concert posters. 99% are from concerts I’ve been to, 1% because I just really like the design. Anyhow, I started to look back into my past of concerts I have been to when I didn’t think of picking up a poster. I went to the see The Tragically Hip in 1999 and I stumbled upon this poster on expressonbeans.com I was chatting with a guy asking what condition it was in. He said it wasn’t mint (note the tape marks in the corners) but it wasn’t overly bad either. But it was signed! That was quite interesting. He didn’t have a story of how it got signed by four of the five members as he had snapped it up in an Ebay auction years before. No matter, I had to have it so I treated myself ($250 ain’t cheap for a piece of Hip memorabilia). But now this sits in my office as is a great conversation piece. I tend to switch up my posters every month at work.
I was trying to figure out how to use this heated eye pad at work and Matt suggested that I just put it on one eye at a time. For the past couple of weeks I have been either called Captain Palmer, discount cyberpunk or 2 of 6 (which is knockoff of the Borg Seven of Nine). I’m glad I enjoy working with these jokers I call friends.
Mom and I play Carcasonne against each other on the iPad. When I beat her I tend to send her a photo showing my victory face. This is the one she sent me when she finally beat me. She’s getting pretty good!
Always a great helper on a Saturday morning
I had a great night out at the Orleans Brewing Company for Michel’s birthday party. It was great to chat with the brewmaster and he even let me fill up a pint glass straight from the brewing kettle! Very nice. I even met a fellow gentleman from Kap who lives in Vars.
The lonely trail. Not so lonely when you have a toddler talking to you all the time. This was our first outing in the Vars cemetery trail this year.
At least someone packed down a trail for us!
This is what happens on Family Day when you forget that the daycare is closed and you have to work from home.
Vero did go out to the Embrun Community Center where they had some family day activities and Sierra stumbled upon some friends from daycare!
Mina was proud when he saw that his gift to Ezra was getting some good use in the house
Maman and Sierra hanging out in the transmogrifier
Sierra and I enjoyed some cake at Jona’s sixth birthday. She wasn’t entirely sociable so there aren’t many photos with her and friends. I think when there are large crowds she likes to hang off of my leg.
One Sunday morning Sierra and I went to watch Jenna play hockey as she is the goalie for her team. I think Sierra was quite interested in seeing people skate around but she was also interested in eating her bagel and having a hot chocolate! The funny thing about this photo is the gentleman sitting next to us. Rob came to me after the game and said “Did you know you were sitting next to Chris Neil?!” and I said “Who dat?” Rob laughed and said “I have to remember that you know nothing about sports or any of the Ottawa Senators roster. It must like how I could be sitting next to David Bowie and not know.” I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he would be sitting next to a dead guy. Anyhow, this Chris Neil fellow was eyeing up Sierra’s bagel the entire game. I suppose we should have offered him a piece.
At this point in the game Sierra was more interested in the wheelchair ramp than the actual game
After the game we got to go for a visit at Aunt Jan’s and Uncle Rob’s and play with their dog
My friend Kelly gave us these excellent snowshoes that we tried out in our back yard
Sierra has some issues when we pick her up from daycare. As in, she doesn’t want to leave. Madame Eliane came up with this list to see if it would help. It did and eventually I snapped a photo so she wouldn’t have to deal with Sierra when it was time to leave. Madame Eliane has to go home too! So now every time I pick her up Sierra asks to see the list of things she needs to do in order to get ready to leave.
For the past decade I have been looking for a comic book rack that spins. The Carleton Cards at work was closing their doors and I manage to snag this beauty for $25!! What a score! These things are generally $300 new. The only issue at this point is that it was meant to hold calendars and not comic books. But calendars are the same size as a vinyl record! I’m still unsure if I am going to put my vinyl collection in this rack or figure out a way to put comic books in them without falling out.
Boy am I glad I don’t have to stare at this ugly fellow at work all day! For the past five years my styes were always on my left eye. This past month it transferred to my right eye as well and it hit with a vengeance. I remember a similar thing happening when the styes first formed on my left eye. I am currently on antibiotics to try and control everything but as I type this I think it did some permanent damage as there is still a bump in my eyelid and a piece now droops down into my line of vision. I’ll be going back to the optometrist for a follow-up in a few weeks. Not fun!
It was quite the snowstorm when I brought Sierra to daycare one morning!! I believe we got 30 centimetres that day. I can’t complain about the amount of snow we have received this winter. I even see tons of snow machines going by all the time.
