On Sunday we had a slew of visitors pop in for a visit. I felt like I was at the cottage down in Gaspe!
First off, Mom and Dad stopped by on their way to visit to Gaspe. They were heading down there later this year but they managed (read: Sierra convinced them) to drop in for a day to check in on things.
Sierra cried for seven days and seven nights after her grandparents left. Clearly she misses them! I am kidding of course.
Oncle Michel, Melissa and Felix dropped by shortly after to check in on Sierra. I heard Felix cry at one point and I think Sierra might have scared him? Not sure what happened but it was an interesting scene with both of them crying at one point!
Oncle Michel having some fun with Sierra.
Then Lynn and Sue dropped by for a quick visit!
“Yes, I am that awesome. Soak it in.” – Sierra
Perfect weather to hang out on the deck. No flies and not excruciatingly hot!
Lynn, here is the beer you liked. I picked it up in a mixer pack in Quebec back in the spring. I also love how Crazy Jerry’s Boot Scootin’ Garlic Mushrooms makes an appearance in this photo!
Sierra is very lucky to have so many visitors and it’s not over yet. My sister is coming up this coming week and after that we’ll get around to booking some other people who have been asking to meet her!
Gaetan and Danielle showed up on Friday and the entire Cantin Clan descended into the house for a few days this past weekend. It’s great to have everyone around.
On Saturday when it was raining, we surprised Gaetan with a trip to Escape Manor which is a pretty cool event to try out. They lock you in a themed room and you have 45 minutes to try and figure out the clues to escape. This time around, we were cat burglars on one last mission and I accidentally tripped the laser alarm system so we had 45 minutes to get the necklace and get out of the room. We almost made it out and if we had one more minute we may have made it out. I did cheat a little with 2 minutes left and just tried random combinations on the combination lock and it actually worked and opened up! But it was still too late in the game to get out in time. But Escape Manor is a fantastic event to do with a group and I highly recommend you try it out! Everyone definitely enjoyed their time.
I ended up heading over to the Comic Book Shoppe and picking up the Ticket to Ride – Europe board game with a gift card that my old team mates had given me awhile ago when I left the team. Evan, Andréane and I tried it out that afternoon and it was pretty fun. We didn’t end up finishing it but perhaps another day we will.
This was Andréane after I had her taste horseradish for the first time. She was NOT impressed.
Saturday evening we all headed out to a Chinese buffet place called Mandarin which had just opened in Orleans. I never knew these places were so popular but we showed up for reservations for 7PM and we didn’t get our table until 8PM. I did personally make best use of the buffet and filled a good five plates. I have to say that I don’t generally enjoy buffets anymore these days as I just don’t have a large appetite but everything there was great tasting so I was fine to put more and more on my plate. Thanks to Grand-maman Payeur for paying for the meal! She always sends some money at Christmas for the family so each year we decide to go out together and have supper.
Note Evan with his cantaloupe. He had approximately 63 pieces of that stuff at the buffet!
Because Sierra had been sleeping for most of the afternoon, she didn’t want to go to sleep that night so I unfortunately got whammed with a baby who didn’t fall asleep until 2:30am. Even at that, I think I just passed her to Vero and told her I think she was hungry and I don’t remember much of what happened after that! When we both got some energy later that morning, I helped Gaetan start to put a backslash up in the kitchen while Danielle made some shepard’s pies.
Italian Spider-Man stare down. If you haven’t seen Italian Spider-Man…what are you waiting for?
I would like to thank Princess Auto for having awesome prices on awesome tools. I picked up a ceramic tile saw for a cool $60. Gaetan couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw that.
Where the Sapporo bottle come from?!
Gaetan had to recruit some help when I went back to work for the day.
Not too shabby. Note: yummy shepard’s pies on the counter!
We installed a new backsplash as Vero didn’t really like my idea of just leaving some drywall with holes in it. I suppose she had a point.
A few months ago we had the new kitchen counters installed in and that was quite the job to take them out. I am glad to see that the kitchen is finally coming together.
Vero was definitely the expert during the installation as she had grouting of tiles in the bathroom along with my Mom a few years back. Gaetan and I had an idea of what to do but Vero came in with the expert touch on what we should and shouldn’t do.
If the backsplash falls apart in three months from now, we can blame it on these three people!
All in all, with four people helping out, the job wasn’t too painful at all. My main job was cutting the tiles and getting rid of the dirty water while Vero and Gaetan applied the grout. Danielle was taking care of the baby and preparing some food for us which is arguably the most important job of us all! There were a few bulges in the drywall which make some tiles stick out, but there’s no way we can avoid that at this point!
Sierra helped out Grand-papa when Dad was at work for the day. He said she was a better helper than Dad was!
We did also put a new range hood fan in as well. It was kind of a pain as the air vent did not line up exactly so we had to trim some of the metal back. I also found out that LED bulbs are not useful in all situations, especially this one where when you turn the lights off, they still glow a little! I ended up buying halogen PAR20 bulbs instead and they are supposed to absorb heat a lot better as well. I have to say that the bonus of having a new range hood fan is to have a lot more light on the stove.
All that’s left to do is to put the electrical plates back up and touch up some paint. Mental note for future: Always keep your paint colours written down! Otherwise years later you are scratching you’re head trying to figure out what kind of yellow you used!
It’s been a great week with Anne-Marie and Evan up for a visit to help out. We all have a good routine going…I go to work, Véro wakes up and takes care of the baby for a bit, and Anne-Marie swoops in during the mornings when Véro needs a nap and helps out with supper and cleaning up around the house. Once the afternoon hits, she and Evan can run off to Calypso or go shopping for the afternoon. It’s a good system considering Véro doesn’t feel top shape some days until around noon. It’s been great having them up for a long visit and I get a glimpse of how awesome it will be to have a seven year old run around the house. My highlights so far of my visit with Evan are:
His persistent questions of “Have I ever seen Poltergeist?” and then when I download it, he gets scared to watch it as Mom told him he couldn’t. Was he trying to use me to get to the ultimate prize? Probably not! He’s a good kid….right?
Seeing the couch being used as a personal gymnasium.
His frequent requests for me to steamroll over him.
His love of board games…we’ve played Zombie Dice and Wide World for most of the week. We tried out Ticket to Ride Europe edition the other day as well but never ended up finishing it.
His chaotic love of superheroes. Years ago his favourite was Spider-Man, then Hulk. Now they are lame and Wolverine is what the cool kids love. Hey, I felt the same way at one point.
We call this her Supergirl pose. She does this constantly with her arm!
Onto Sierra…at six weeks old she is turning into an interesting character. A few weeks ago when Véro went to the doctor, they figured she had colic and they would also schedule an appointment at CHEO to see a specialist about her reflux. Two weeks later, she is pretty calm most evenings! I’m pretty sure she was just getting bored with seeing my face every evening and started crying a lot because of it! But as soon as new visitors came into the house for a week….she calms right down! What a sneaky devil.
This may or may not be a farting face. Hard to tell.
Either way, she is turning into what people probably refer to as ‘a baby’. As in, she’s got hambones for legbones, she grunts a lot (I wouldn’t say she coos) and she smells like a baby after a bath. All telltale signs of being a real baby instead of an ET look-alike!
She’s starting to interact a lot during my playtime with her. I’ll put her on her back in the play structure and introduce her hands to her feet so she can figure out the connection between the two. I also have her touch different things so she can see how different things feel. She also finds stretching her arms over her head to be interesting.
Look at the Buddha belly!
She definitely likes hopping around and we have called her Louie le grenouille. I hop her from one spot to the other with a ‘boinggggg’ sound. She seems intrigued by this. When I say intrigued, I mean that she hasn’t started laughing or smiling much yet so I can only assume that if she doesn’t cry, she must be enjoying something!
This is how we stay in touch with family for the most part when they aren’t visiting.
We are starting to see little smiles creep out of her face and we think it’s not gas related at this point. We like to try and capture these smiles on camera but they are hard to come by but I’m sure that will change in the weeks to come.
Honestly, six weeks in, Véro and I feel pretty lucky for all the help we are getting from family and friends and we are lucky to have Louie le grenouille in our life.
On my way to a meeting the other day, I figured I should walk across the bridge instead of taking a taxi. I also decided to try out the BierMarkt as I had not been there yet. Lo and behold, there was a lot of foot traffic on Sparks Street and I found out why…yoga was happening over three blocks on Sparks Street! Yoga Wednesdays generally happens on Parliament Hill from what I know of but maybe they were doing something else up there.
By the way, the Bier Markt was quite fantastic and they had a sausage platter I give two thumbs up to. I also enjoyed their beer bible as it explained the origins of different types of beer. This prompted me to buy some Radler beers from Rickards’ the next time I was in a beer store.
Anne-Marie very nicely offered up to look after Sierra for a few hours in between feedings so that Vero and I could escape the house and go for a quick date. We thanked her profusely and ran out of the house towards Embrun where we went to the newly opened Etienne Brulé brewpub where I had already fallen in love with their beer. Would the food be another winner?
It’s a nice place and you can’t go wrong with a smoked meat panini and side salad for around $10. Plus the Citrale might be my new favourite beer but anything with a hint of citrus hops always wins my heart.
Date night with new parents is hilarious and we deservedly laughed at ourselves when we realized that the majority of our conversation revolved around the baby’s poop patterns!
Thanks for letting us out of the house Anne-Marie!
Man alive, it’s hot around Ottawa these days. It’s a good thing that a few years back my body finally acclimatized to living here and I don’t mind the heat one bit (except for sleeping in the heat…not a fan!)
When I arrived home from the wedding in Perth, we decided to hit the road to the nearest mini-putt course! Mini-putt is the cat’s meow and we had a great time playing. Anne-Marie, Evan and I actually ended up in a three way tie by the time we hit the 18th hole so it was down to the wire….and of course I managed to squeak by and win the game.
Vero had an interesting time trying to putt with Sierra strapped to her. Strapping a baby is quite useful for the most part, unless you have to bend over and pick up a golf ball.
Getting some Dad time with Sierra before leaving for the day.
The day after Canada Day is usually one reserved for nursing a hangover but this year it was a time for celebration…my cousin Shawn was celebrating his marriage to Erin up in Perth, ON.
After hanging out with Anne-Marie, Evan, Vero and Sierra for the morning, I packed up my gear and hit the road. I wasn’t sure what the dress code was for this particular event as it was a celebration after the wedding in Saskatchewan. I figured I would play it safe with shirt, no tie. That looks relaxed enough. Turns out it was full blown casual and I could have shown up in my bathing suit and people would have accepted me!
With my Pearl Jam Live at the Gorge box set in the car, I hit the road. It was a great afternoon for a drive to Perth and I have to say that the 2005/6 tour of Pearl Jam is one of my faves to listen to…probably because I really like their Avocado album.
The Perth Plaza was a great motel to stay at. A good indication of a great wedding is when the entire motel is booked by wedding guests! I met up with Uncle Johnny and Aunt Aggie, had a non-Keith’s beer (I still can’t believe my eyes when I see that Uncle Johnny has moved away from Keith’s!) hung around a bit more and then got a ride over to the curling club from Stephanie the Uber driver.
The curling club was a great spot for a celebration. They had the bar and music upstairs and they had an area downstairs for a photo booth and just a general area to escape the masses upstairs. I had a good chuckle when Shawn mentioned how hard it was to chat with everyone as Audrey was running around the place. It was a glimpse into my own future, no doubt!
I met a lot of Gaspesians that night, most of which I would need a family tree to figure out how they all fit into the picture…but one thing was for sure, we were there to celebrate the union of Shawn and Erin as well as a surprise 39th wedding celebration of Lynn and Sue. I would like to say that the Gaspe crowd cleared the bar out of all alcohol but someone must have tipped them off that there was going to be a big crowd coming so they had a well stocked fridge. However near the end of the night my common request was just ‘a cold beer’ because they couldn’t keep up with the demand of Keiths!
I was digging this little thing happening with Uncle Johnny’s hair. Reminded me of my own cowlick.
I met Jack and Nancy who were providing the musical entertainment for the night. Jack had a really interesting set up that I was chatting to him about later on in the night. He had the mic/PA/acoustic guitar, but he also had a backing track to play along to! This really intrigued me and I definitely could see the benefit of having something like this for a dance. Everyone likes a good rhythm section (drum and bass) for dancing, whereas the acoustic guitar really has to get going for people to get up and dance to. So he found karaoke tracks for tunes from the Beatles, CCR, The Stones, etc. and plays that while sings and strums over top of them. I also took a look at my own OnSong app (best app ever) on my iPad and sure enough, I can add a musical track to any song in my music library. I also found some websites that offer up backing tracks where people have recreated a Beatles tune using their own instruments. Perhaps this is a way around the musical copyright issues that would come if you actually used a karaoke version in a professional sense. Anyhow, I’m going to play around with this and maybe I will try it out at the next Ajax party. I’m not sure if backing tracks would be a hit or a miss. There’s something lovely about just three acoustics going at it, but when it’s just me playing, it would definitely be a bonus if there could be some lead guitar playing.
Winners of the good looking duo award at the wedding.
Definitely an end of the night picture!
I did manage to meet Erin who is a lovely person to chat with. I also witnessed a very smart girl named Audrey. She wanted to sit on a stool near the photo booth area so I followed her into another room and she must have seen a stool in there before so she dragged it out into the photo booth area. Amazing! I wouldn’t have even known there was a stool stored in this other room! It’s really interesting to see how smart kids can be.
Considering the party had started around 3PM, it wasn’t a surprise that the party started winding down around 10pm. Stephanie the Uber driver graciously drove us back to the Plaza where we immediately bee-lined it across the street to get some McDonald’s food in us and then we all hung out in the parking lot for a few hours. I took full advantage of having a hotel room to myself and slept in quite well the next morning!
As always, it’s great to get together with the family and it was a great celebration put together at the Perth Curling club. Special thanks to all who were involved in the logistics of putting it together!
We had a great time on Canada Day. We started off the day by heading over to the Vars Canada Day celebration where we stumbled into pretty well everyone we know in the community! It helps that Vero is on the community association.
There were a bunch of bouncy castles set up and a fire truck where Vero insisted that she get a picture. I convinced her that she should bring her daughter into the photo as well!
Future firewoman!
I also had my first ever Pogo. Yes, yes, I know…how could I not have a pogo until I was 37 years old? Hey, I’m in no rush to try out everything on this planet. I have to say it was pretty darn tasty.
Later in the afternoon, Mike, Melanie and Max showed up with Melanie’s parents and we walked around the park for a bit. The kids were gracious enough to allow Mike and I to have a beer as well! Although I have to say that Budweiser was an interesting choice of beer on Canada Day!
Best buds or mortal enemies? Only time will tell.
Anne-Marie and Evan showed up just in time for it to pour rain for pretty well the rest of the afternoon. At least they postponed the fireworks until the next day! That’s a smart move. We hung around inside for the evening and played some tunes. Vero and I also introduced Sierra to the neighbours which was a great opportunity to meet them all.
Only apple juice was drank for this photo.
Sierra belting out some CCR tunes.
With the fireworks cancelled for the night, we decided to put on the film Labyrinth as it one of Vero and her sister’s favourites. We did have a scare with Sierra that evening though when Vero spotted her flailing her arms and legs around. She went to check her out and her lips were blue and her face beet red! Vero went into instant first aid training mode, trying to figure out what was wrong. Luckily we figured out that she was severely blocked up with mucus and we got that out of her right quick and she was back to normal. Whew. Quite the scary experience when you notice your kid not breathing! We’re not sure why there was a massive amount of mucus built up like that…it could be something that built up over the weeks, or perhaps it was being outside for the most she has ever been in a day. I guess we’ll never know.
