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Mike and I had a pint of Nord-Est at Le Troquet before walking over to Bluesfest.  It was looking to be a perfect night weather wise!

Mel recommended the Bluefest special slice of pizza from Gabriel’s – bbq sauce and chicken with some onions.  Tasty!

I had forgot that KISS was in town for Bluesfest this year!

This was my first time in the Barney Danson Theatre.  I expected an actual theatre with theatre style seating but it was not as expected.  While I appreciate some air conditioning and a spot to sit so close to the band, I find this isn’t conducive to good interaction from the crowd.  Even the band commented on how nicely we were sitting in our spots.    But we were pretty enthusiastic for my favourite band from Ottawa…Loon Choir!  They played a bunch of songs from their new album and they still got the magic that hooked me when I first saw them at CityFolk years ago.  Do not pass this band up!

Sidenote about their new LP: I picked up their vinyl album and it came with a digital download.  First off, I don’t really agree with bands not putting CDs out because I’m an old dinosaur.  But I’m alright with it if they provide high quality audio to download and this is exactly what Loon Choir.  PLUS they snuck in a bonus track which wasn’t on streaming media or on the vinyl record either…a song called Heartache.  Sneaky!

We also checked out Busty and the Bass which seemed entertaining with their horn section and Blakdenim who were all kinds of awesome and they are from Ottawa so I will have to definitely check them out again.  I did not manage to snap photos of them.

We stumbled into old volleyball mates…Wes and Amanda!  Screaming Banshees reunite!

The Offspring still got it!  I was surprised at how good the show was.  Noodles (guitarist) made me realize how good we have it with Bluesfest when he said he had never seen a 10 day festival before in his life!  I also love how he referred to Ottawa as Awfuckyeahttawa.

Here’s the deal with Alexisonfire.  I only know a couple of tunes.  They are just a band that escaped me in the 2000s when I was focussed more on learning about classic rock.  But they were all kinds of awesome and the crowd was loving them.  They broke up a few years ago but they are back at playing a few concerts here and there through the year.  I’ll have to dive into their discography.

I didn’t realize a picture was being taken.

I snuck over to see Guided by Voices during the Alexisonfire set.  I’m not entirely sure what I witnessed.  It was weird…it was like they had a medley of 12 songs and the lead singer escaped from a nursing home.  I was glad when it was over and I went back to Alexisonfire.

While it wasn’t the gauntlet of 10 days in a row like years before, it was nice to get out for a few days, see some friends, have some beers and enjoy the music.  We are lucky here in Ottawa to have festivals like this.  Here’s to another 25 years of Bluesfest!

 

 

Well at this point, even if I might not feel ready, there’s nothing much else I can do!  The baby is coming quickly and life will never be the same.

Let’s be honest…it’s the lack of sleep that is the ultimate fear followed by the question of how Sierra will be around the Sequel.  Sierra is quite hard headed like someone else in our family and I can only imagine how her tantrums will be when she starts realizing she can’t get her way anymore.  Ah well, every other family lives through this and it will be an adventure!

The Sequel’s room is nearly set up.  We can hold off on the crib for awhile since the baby will sleep in a bassinet.

I’m very interested to see if our tricks with Sierra work with a second baby.  For example, other than Sierra’s allergies keeping her up, I feel we didn’t have a whole lot of trouble on the sleeping front.  Now…was this nature vs. nurture?  My theory is that a baby doesn’t know what a world outside their mother is so nurture can help the baby adapt.  Let the kid sleep in a noisy living room with the TV on.  Much like me moving to Bayshore in 1998 and I couldn’t sleep with the OC Transpo buses driving by all night long….I got used to it.  Humans can adapt so I theorize that babies can too.  But who knows…maybe I’m off my rocker and this kid will be completely different.

I believe having another kid is exciting because you get to see if the experience is different.  It’s like playing a familiar video game but some game mechanics change slightly.

We are both pretty excited that we installed air conditioning this summer.  It’s helped out Vero quite a bit.  I noted that Vero seemed to grow larger a lot quicker this time around but at the same time I was looking at her face and it didn’t seem to really change this time around compared to last time.  Let’s do a comparison shot!

Here was Vero around April 2016, a month before giving birth.

Here she is in 2019.  Hmm…quite a bit larger actually!

Just kidding of course!  Here is Vero on Canada Day which is about six weeks before the due date.  This was the only full body shot I had.  Most other pictures are of her on the couch! 

Here’s the sequel around the end of June.

Here we are listening for signs of life.  Sierra said she was humming Star Trek!

The Sequel and Sierra hanging out at the beach.

I’m not sure why Vero took this photo.  It was either a shot of her swollen foot or a picture to send to the pedicure…office?  Centre?  Pedicurist? to see if she was eligible or if she was too far gone.

The Sequel went to see the Backstreet Boys when they came to Bluesfest.  I had about a dozen people lined up to help out Vero if she went into labour!

Sierra is getting excited to be a big sister.  I think she likes the idea of it, but the reality will hit her soon enough when she realizes that she has to do things on her own from now on and get a lot less help from her parents!

You know what I’m finding annoying these days during the summer?  Ticks.  We even got word that there was a confirmed Lyme disease tick found in Vars after it had bit a two year old.  Great, just great.  So now I always have to put bug spray on Sierra and search her carefully during bath time.

Sierra and I suffered from a five day fever which was something I had never experienced before.  I even went back to work after a week and was still pretty weak but now I’m tip-top shape.  Hey, want a fast weight loss program?  Don’t eat for three days!

Sierra received a fun talking dinosaur from Uncle John, Aunt Maureen and Abbey!  She loves it!

Here she is learning how to pick up the mail.

I don’t know what they were doing but whatever it is looked really fun!

She’s getting really good at holding onto this tire.

We were trying out a new game called Junkart.  It’s quite fun and easy to learn.  You have to build ‘art’ without it falling apart before all the others.

Someone got a new swing set for her birthday!  She is pretty excited about it.  I put a step stool under the swing so she can get on it herself instead of asking me!  Pro-parenting tip (or parenting fail depending on your point of view!)

It’s always a fun time when Tandreane visits.

I really love the Old Hull quarter and what they do to spice up the area.

Let it be known that regardless of it being 25 degrees outside, someone wanted to wear her winter coat.

 

I feel left out and need a parka as well.

I don’t know much about trees but I like what happens in the Spring.

Every time I play music in the car all I hear from the backseat is ‘Loud.  LOUD.”

On a lovely day in June, we got to go to Perth to see Tyler and Amy get married.  It was a beautiful day but let me tell you, I definitely chose the wrong seat to sit in.  The sun was directly in my eyes the entire ceremony!  Doh!  Ah well, it was a good ceremony.

Obligatory post-ceremony drinks in Mike’s hotel room.

We got to hang out with some great people at the supper table.  I ended up chipping my front tooth on my fork because I was so hungry!  I went to the washroom and it didn’t look too bad (thankfully!).  

Shenanigans were starting once the Tom Collins drinks came out!  All in all, it was a great night!  We headed home around midnight as we knew we had Sierra waking up at Lynn and Sue’s house around 6am.

Sierra hanging out with her friend Ryleigh.

Sierra was helping me out with the assembling of her new dresser set.  What a great helper!

She was having the time of her life running around the car trying to avoid the camera.  She wouldn’t smile for me except for this one time when I caught her by surprise.

Testing out her new seat.  The other one was a bucket style and her legs would angle upwards.  In hindsight I’m not sure if I would purchased that one again but no matter, it’s purchased now and she enjoys her new one as well!

Vero’s sister signed her up for some Tupperware starter kit so Sierra had a fun time tearing it all apart.  I still don’t really understand how a company can send a starter kit for free and not expect anything in return.

Sierra discovering some trickling water.

Air hockey is always a fun time.

All this girl wanted for her birthday was a photo with me.

I think I need one of these for myself!

JF and I had a good laugh when we realized we were wearing inverse colours.

Watching Shrek

“Not just any man…but a Spider-Man!”

I find it neat when Sierra pulls out a random book and peruses it.

We were going to head out to Franco-Festival and found out that it was pouring rain.  Wal-Mart is the best option for a rainy day!  While Vero went and shopped Sierra and I roamed around the store.  She was really interested in touching each bicycle seat.  She did this a dozen times.

I thought this was a weird tag to put on a toy.  It’s bilingual but then it says it only speaks English.

Vero found a book that her Dad must have left Sierra.  It was a book that answered life’s questions.  It was really interesting to see what a book from the 1970s talked about.  Its section about robots was intriguing.  But when it got to this page I said to Vero “I somehow don’t think this book would exist in the year 2019!”

Embrun had a community day on Father’s Day.  There were a few inflatable structures that we had fun on.

It takes Sierra awhile to get used to new adventures.  She didn’t want to go into this bouncy castle at first so we went and did other things.  But when we walked by later she decided to go inside and had a great time.

Check out this foam bath!

Here is Sierra petting a (unscented…I hope!) skunk.  I had a good laugh when we put her in line to pet the skunk and she just proceeded to go up a few spots in line.  I suppose we haven’t taught her the concept of waiting in line!

Sierra and Vero were nice enough to bring me out to Etienne Brule for lunch.  Cheers!

After our afternoon nap we hung out on the front porch.  Here we are trying to get a photo with the sun shining in our eyes.

As you can tell, it was getting to be too much for us.

A very nice card.

“Higher, higher!”

Chest-burster scene from Alien.

Dana, Etienne, Nadine and I braved the rain to go to the Ottawa Ribfest.  I had a quarter chicken, 1/3 slab of ribs, beans and coleslaw.  Let me tell you, I didn’t even need to eat supper after that much food!

The rest of the elementary school were graduating that day so they had the daycare make their own graduation caps.

My second excursion to Ribfest consisted of the entire team going for lunch.  Les 3 Brasseures had an amazing Gose beer that I had while we sat on their patio eating our ribs.  I had a good laugh when someone stopped me in the street saying “You can’t take a photo of them.  None of them are eating ribs!”

We had the honour of having Felix show up on Friday night for supper and some fun!

Vero’s cousins and sister showed up for the weekend to spend some time relaxing at the spa.

These two loved their dessert!

Jamming.

Reading ‘The Karate Kid’ before heading to bed.

It was five years ago that Carol and Danny got married.  I remember being the MC of that event and starting to get the hang of being an MC.  I had been an MC…I can’t recall…five, six times in my life.  My first couple of gigs weren’t the best but I felt I started hitting my stride by the time this one came along.  Here is the beer koozie they gave out that night and some lyrics to the song I sang as MC.

When Vero headed out to the spa with her family, I decided to make a giant day for Sierra.  First stop…visiting some friends!

It was interesting to see how Sierra interacted with a baby.  Definitely need to teach her a few things like “Don’t take the toy from the baby.”

Nat was nice enough to let us park our car at her house and then we walked over to the Limoges community day where THIS appeared.  Sierra was super excited so I said “Alright, let’s go and buy the $5 bracelet so you can go on this ride.”  We bought it, then returned and then she didn’t want to go in.  Of course!

We did have a good time on the teeter totter though.

And the skateboard ramp.

And the water park.  Sierra insisted she needed to change her shirt before going into the water.  I had a good laugh at that.

But she managed to surprise me and while walking past the Dora bouncy castle she said she wanted to go in!  The $5 bracelet was not a waste!

Every parent has these moments where your kid surprises you.  Case in point, I’m watching Sierra climb up this mountain with kids running by and I’m thinking “Oh no, she’s going to take a tumble” and she didn’t tumble once in the four times she went up!  I was super impressed.  All in all, the Limoges Community Day was a hit and I tip my hat to that community for the activities they had set up.  I also tip my hat to Marc who had a Heady Topper beer from Vermont on hand for when we arrived back at their house!

The next day we went out to Kanata to have some lunch.  Here we were taking a walk to pick up some groceries.

Trish and I went to Almonte on Saint-Jean-Baptiste day.  I had never been so I wanted to see what it was all about.  Check out this awesome toy store!  Too bad it was closed.

We found these great wind chimes next to the river.  Almonte is quite beautiful.  Imagine having a house in the photo?

The entire downtown is surrounding these beautiful sights.

Hanging out with Dr. James Naismith, inventor of basketball!

It was a beautiful morning to walk around Almonte.  I bought a Stan Rogers album at a beautiful book store.  We also found a fantastic antique shop where I perused some old toys.  I had always thought antique shops were full of OLD things but here I was finding things that I had grown up with as a kid.  I now realize that I am officially old if antique shops hold things I once possessed!

We had lunch at the Barley Mow pub.  It was a shame the patio was packed but we’ll get there next time!

While I thought my entry was clever the winner won with “I’m sorry, I’ve been burned too many times.” which was clearly the better choice!

Mom and Dad came for a visit on their way down to Gaspe.  Sierra was having fun with the bubble gun!

 

 

 

 

I received this fantastic photo book from Sierra for Father’s Day!

Then I open it up and we realize that Costco didn’t perform their quality control check and I now own a photo album of some dude’s trip to Las Vegas!

 

Here’s a recording of last year’s spectacle.

Spring is here!  Then it leaves.  Then it comes back again.  Then it leaves.

Everyone feels a little nostalgic when a birthday arrives and it’s no different when you start looking back at pictures of your kid over the past year.  Sierra has really grown up in the past year, both physically (of course!) and mentally.  It’s weird to think that she has been at the new daycare for the past seven months because it feels like forever.  She has new skills that she has learned at the daycare that I didn’t even think of teaching her.  You can count to ten in French AND English?  Wow!  You can button up your own shirt?  Where did you learn that?  You can beat Contra without the Konami code?  Incroyable!

Unfortunately we all know that this is the end of the good years.  She will become more self-aware and then lose a little magic each year.  I witnessed this when she walked downstairs to see her third birthday party set up.  She marvelled at the balloons, the banners…EVERYTHING.  When’s the last time I stared in wonder at the balloons someone hung up for me?  Probably 37 years ago!

But as we lose a little bit of the magic we gain a small human being who is able to speak in sentences and express her thoughts to us.  The questions about the world are starting.  It makes us look at the world differently.  I listen for the birds chirping now so I can point it out to Sierra.  If I hear the train in the distance I will make mention of it (if she doesn’t beat me to it!).  I realize that Sierra is still at an age that playing with the bird bath in the front yard is as fun as going to an organized activity.  Life is wonderful to her (except for when she doesn’t get her way which can happen quite fast.  Oh wait, you wanted the blue spoon and not the yellow one?) and in turn it reminds me of how wonderful it is as well.

Sierra has had a great run of three years with us all alone.  Now she’ll have to witness life with a new sibling coming in soon enough!

I figured I should write about a typical day in the life of Sierra for historical purposes while I’m sitting here thinking of what to write about.

6am – I get out of bed, roll up the blind and Sierra usually has her face still buried in her pillow but she sticks out her hand so I can grab it.  She then pulls herself out of bed using my helping hand.  I ask what she wants for breakfast.  Lately it’s a combination oatmeal and cheerios.  She always asks for hummus and ‘acquelins’ (crackers) which is generally reserved for the weekends.  Her and I sit and eat while I read the news.

6:20 – 6:40 – I generally leave Sierra eating on her own as she takes her sweet time.  While I hop in the shower Vero is handling trying to get Sierra to go to the bathroom and change her clothes.  This generally has a 30% chance of happening before 6:50.  That kid is slloooowwwww.

7am – Get into the car, go to the daycare, go inside and chat with the folks in there and leave Sierra in good company and friends.

The general schedule of a daycare day involves some snacks, some outdoor activities, a long nap after lunch and then some more activities until Vero and I show up between 4:45 and 5:30 to pick up Sierra.  Six months ago it was IMPOSSIBLE to get her to leave!  Now I would say some days it’s easy and others is kind of a pain.  We can’t complain if she loves the place so much!

5:30 – 6:00 – Play time and then supper time.

6PM – Currently, if it’s Monday through Wednesday, we will put Passe-Partout on for Sierra to watch.  It’s interesting to see a new version of this show many years after the original.  Vero even knows one of the actresses in the show.  Sierra really loves that show.  She doesn’t really care for the old one though which is a shame since I got those from Maureen and I can play them at any time.

6:15-6:45 – Bathtime which is always a pain to get into, but then she never wants to leave!  We then brush our teeth and get some pyjamas.  Sierra is really good at putting on her own pyjamas these days…she can even handle putting the buttons on!

6:45 – 7:15 – Dora the Explorer has been on heavy rotation for the past few months.  In fact she loves it so much that we are starting to use it as a bargaining chip.  “Oh, you didn’t go to the bathroom in the potty like you should?  No Dora tonight.”  “You didn’t come to supper when we asked you to?  No Dora tonight.”  She’s starting to understand her actions have consequences.  Am I evil?  Nah, I still let her watch another tv show, just not Dora.

7:15-7:30 – Bedtime!  This generally involves reading a book, a glass of water and hitting the sack.

Now onto the photos which every one loves.

I don’t think this is what you’re supposed to do with bubbles!

Hanging out with Jenna and Janice.

I saw this on the kitchen counter at work.  No joke!

If it wasn’t for the smile on her face, I could see this as a scene from a horror movie.

Sierra and I get spoiled by Maman when she picks us up some olives.

Sierra helping me make a cake from scratch for Trish.  I found out later that not even Trish makes her cakes from scratch!  

While I was tending to the fire, Ethan handled pushing Sierra on the swing.

The cake turned out pretty decent even though I forgot to add a cup of water!  It was almost like a brownie without it.  Also note the obligatory Star Wars shirt on May the 4th!

I had a laugh when Ethan asked me to take a photo of this stick on the couch.

Trish’s birthday was a hit!  She was pretty lucky this year…I think she went to a dozen different parties in her honour.

Vero and I spent Saturday and Sunday evening hanging up these new lights across the deck.  This photo has a few more strands than we ended up with.  It was WAY too bright.  But this photo gives you a sense of what it looks like.

I love how Sierra insisted on wearing her elf hat to the park.  I think this might have been the first time I saw her go down the big slide.

Having a good bbq with some friends.

Sierra was having the greatest time on the trampoline!

One day I’ll win the caption contest!  But not today.

Someone was VERY excited for supper.

Showing off her chalk-artwork.

Vero was gone to the spa one morning so Sierra and I decided to drop by some friends (aka we wanted a free lunch).  We played outside for a bit and I also played guitar for a few tunes.  Thanks for the food and company!

Pretty amazing that I caught this moment on video!  The first time she managed to get the top of a box put on correctly!

Picking up some new furniture for Sierra’s room.

Sierra sure loves her new raincoat.

I was dying of laughter when I realized that the farting noises from the other side of the room was Sierra making noises with her mouth.  I thought she may have snuck of plate of beans to bed!

The May long weekend used to be held at Matt’s cottage where copious amounts of beers were drank amongst college pals.  Now it’s spent drinking copious amounts of beers but with family!  We rented a house in Haileybury, ON to meet up with Vero’s family.  They brought the family tricycle down for Sierra (this thing has literally been everyone’s tricycle when they were growing up!) and here is a shot of Andreane helping Sierra before she fell over.  Luckily she is a trooper and got right back up!

This photo doesn’t even do justice to the moon that was out during our campfire on Friday night.

We headed out for a hike to Devil’s Rock.  I was struggling to figure out a way to make an hour long hike up a mountain a fun affair for Sierra as well as for myself (aka, I don’t feel like carrying her up all the way).  Awhile ago on Facebook I spied this fantastic device called the piggyback rider.  I was a little scared of spending a lot of money on something that I didn’t know if Sierra would enjoy but she did!  I would say she rode half way up the mountain with me and a quarter of the way on the way back down.

As you can see in the photo, Sierra can hop onto my back by putting her feet across a bar and then she holds onto a few straps on my shoulders.  Don’t worry, there is also a safety harness on her that clips in so if she jumps off, she’s not going too far.  I give this device two thumbs up.  I can see us using this in a variety of spots…going downtown, going grocery shopping.  It makes travelling around fun.  It’s also quite lightweight…nothing much to it so it folds up quite nicely.

View from up top!  I had a good laugh when I was taking in all this scenery and I felt my phone vibrate.  My friend was texting to let me know that we won $40 on a lotto ticket!  I wrote back saying it would have been a better interruption if she texted to say we won $40 million!

Out of nowhere we hear this helicopter come over the mountain and it was hauling a piece of equipment that I cannot identify.  Does anyone know what the heck this is?  It was pretty incredible to see.

The hike down consisted of many breaks and playing with sticks.

I’ve been trying to convince Andreane that this should be her dating profile picture.

We had some fun at the park right next to our house.  1-2-3 Go!

Evan showing Sierra how to swing.

Having fun at the park before the rain came back.  It rained Saturday evening, and then poured Sunday afternoon and all day when driving home.

Vero will kill me once she sees that I put a video of her practising the fiddle up for the world to see.

Sunday afternoon we decided to celebrate Sierra’s birthday a few weeks early.

She received a dog which eats and poops.  I don’t know if I think this idea is marvelous or hideous!

She winked at the camera without being asked!

When Maman asked why kind of cake she wanted she replied “Blanc et ‘ocolat!”

She was pretty excited to get a slice of birthday cake and have everyone sing for her!

Why do we even bother trying to get a good photo?  Kids photos are hilarious.

I can’t believe I didn’t record this night!  I had the equipment and everything.  Was it my best night ever?  No, but there was some good moments.  I had to start the night off with more rocking tunes for the kids and then mellowed out with the older stuff.

Setlist: Happy, Spider-Man, Hail to the King, Crazy Train, Another Brick in the Wall (Gaetan requested this out of nowhere!  I had never even tried to play it before.  It didn’t come out to bad!), Money (another hard one to pull out without practice!) Copperhead Road,  Bongo Bongo, Island in the Sun (first time I attempted this one and I think it went quite well!), Hash Pipe (I abandoned this one as it was too hard to do without practice), Back to the Sea, The Gambler, Sylvia’s Mother, Sweet Caroline, Midnight Special.

Here’s Gaetan playing some accordion the morning before we headed back to Ottawa.  It rained most of the way but cleared up around Deep River.  Quite amazing how the entire weekend hovered around six degrees and we found ourselves back in Ottawa with 20 degrees!  But we had a lot of fun.  We hiked, we played in the park, we had way too much food and drink, we had a hot tub in the rain, and we managed to sneak in a night of guitar playing.  All in all, a success!

Sierra couldn’t wait to eat the corn after she husked it!

Abracadabra!

The Great Glebe Garage Sale was a major success.  Vero found some doll clothing at the second house we visited and shortly after Sierra found this Dora The Explorer lunch box…brand new!

Dance time!

We only spent a few hours at the garage sale but hauling around a wagon slows us down these days anyhow.  It was a beautiful morning and we filled the wagon up which is what counts.  Vero and my first date was at the garage sale so I’m glad to see that she is still by my side after fourteen years and hasn’t found some hot Australian firefighter who likes garage sales.

Mom and Dad were touring Canada and the United States of America during the month of May and I had a good laugh when I saw this picture of Mom riding a jakalope!

Yum yum!

Nine years later we finally got air conditioning installed into the bedrooms.  Since we don’t have ducts in the house we had to install ductless ones.  The savings account took a hit of $7,000!  But the world is warming up so we may well stay cool when we can.

 

 

 

 

 

Uhm…we only have three months to go?  That’s a little alarming!  We need to get stuff ready!

Sure, we had my parents paint Sierra’s bedroom but it still doesn’t have any furniture in it at all.  Kijiji and Facebook marketplace has so far been a bust on kids furniture.  Maybe people just throw it to the curb after their kids have destroyed it?

The main issue we have been having at the moment is finding clothing to fit Vero!  She is constantly on the hunt for things that will fit her, buying things online, returning things online.  I tell you, it’s pretty exhausting watching her go through all of that!

We’ve bandied some baby names around a few times but haven’t hit about a top three selection yet.  Maybe we have an old list somewhere but I feel that’s kind of strange…shouldn’t we start from scratch much like the Sequel has started from scratch?

We have felt the Sequel kick a few times which is neat.  I guess Vero probably feels it a lot more but I have noticed it once or twice.  Sierra is cognizant of the baby in the sense that she will include it in conversation like “Maman et Dad et Sierra et le baby mange le souper!”

No pictures to show off this month of the Sequel.  We are going for a doctor’s appointment next week so perhaps there will be a third ultrasound picture to share, perhaps not.

At the moment I’m trying to figure out if I should start putting myself through my old training regimen of staying up later than usual so I can get my body accustomed to lack of sleep!  Trish volunteered to phone me at odd times of the night since she works the night shift at her job.  She’s a great pal.