Category: Uncategorized

Another beautiful morning at the Castor River

We have the most amazing outfits in this house for the summer

Who is helping who?

On my birthday, there can never be enough sprinkles

Teaching appropriate hand gestures

That’s a BIG puddle!

Sierra and I played a new game.  She think it’s a form of soccer.  I think it’s a form of “Oh, hey, the hallway is the perfect width so I can sit with my back against the wall and just hang out while Sierra tries to get a ball past my 200 pound body.”

A cold windy morning at the beach

Strummin’

Dancin’

The creature emerges onto the land searching for food

Taking in the sun

Hanging out on the hill

I had a good laugh at this photo.  The kids were playing hide and seek and this is where they chose to hide.  Two feet from where they last were.

Waiting for the creature from the Black lagoon

Hanging out with Maman at the beach

Art time

Hunting bug time

Sierra’s first time using the bike pump

Sierra must have taken this photo while we were reading her a story.  This is a typical view from her bed around 7:30PM in the summer.

The summer of never ending cake making!

Wow, that’s an intense face Sierra!

My uke cheat sheet

Helping Maman set up the tent

Big night of Sierra camping out for the first time!  Maman and her started off with some marshmallows.

Shadow puppets!

Here they are before settling down for bed.  Vero told me she didn’t get much sleep that night due to someone tossing and turning!

We heard about Prehistoric World from our friend so we decided we should check it out.  Pro-tip, always have enough facemasks in the car during a pandemic and while you’re at it, carry some cash!  Because we  needed both when entering Prehistoric World near Morrisburg.

This place ended up being amazing.  It looks like some guy has just made dinosaur statues over the past 40 years and charges admission to his property.  It’s fantastic and a good hour with the kids.

 

I would hate to see what would happen if Sierra did manage to pull on his tail!

I believe this one is entitled “Dad, do a scary face!”

Look who wanted to sleep in the tent again!  I can concur with Maman that it’s quite hard to sleep in a tent with a four year old!  Plus it was quite cold!

Only professionals can walk a curb without falling off

Kapuskasing special

The greatest thing about our summer was not our deck, it wasn’t our swimming pool, it was the tent we set up!  We left up there for the rest of the summer and many adventures were had with both Sierra and Ezra bouncing off the air mattress, reading books, finding bugs.

Corn time!!!!  I can’t understand how she likes eating it raw.

This is entirely true.

It was nice to have some visitors near the end of the summer.  Here is Grandpapa playing with Sierra

The hoarder in me always kept a lot of scrap wood for projects.  But we had an electrician coming over to do some work for the new hot tub.

Bam!  A decade of scrap wood was brought to the backyard firepit.

Picklin’ time!  Last year we waited until mid September and the pickings were slim.  We didn’t fall for that trap again this year.

I was in the backyard with Grandpapa and heard a jingle down the street.  My eyes lit up and I went running to the street.  Then I ran into the house saying “EVERYONE OUT!  THERE IS AN ICE CREAM TRUCK HERE!!”

To put this into a little perspective, at 42 years old, this is probably the first time I have ever seen an ice cream truck come by my house.  I think Vero ran a block to catch one when I lived in Orleans, but this was arriving right outside our doorstep.  This was quite the treat for everyone involved!

Vars must have been quite the customers because this truck came back at least three times in the next few months.

Rule #1 of a water pistol fight – the other opponent always has to have a water pistol

The garlic is insane!

Quite the spicy concoction

Cheers!

I think this might have been the last sprinkler session of the summer

My picklin’ partner

Getting some corn ready

I can only assume they were checking to see how the pickling process was going

Grandmaman made a whole bunch of lasagnas for us to freeze and what was the first thing Sierra wanted the day after she left?  Lasagna!

This time we remembered to bring some water shoes

Fetching some apples!  There were tons this year

Now that some restrictions were loosened, we headed over to the Limoges park one morning.  I quite enjoy that park!

Sierra wanted me to put on a princess dress

It was a year late but I finally got it!  When filling out the form to receive my 15 years of service certificate, they asked which name I wanted to have on it.  I had to go through some hoops but I’m quite happy that they printed this name!

 

 

 

 

Context: We’ve been getting her to go to the bathroom by herself, including wiping.

Sierra: “Dad, come and check!”
Dad: “Ok, so…if there’s nothing on the toilet paper when I wipe you, that’s a good thing. So…what do you want if there’s nothing on it?” (insert positive reinforcement ploy that rarely works anyhow).
Sierra: “Uhm…I DON’T want the iPad at quiet time.”
Dad: “Don’t you mean that you do want the iPad at quiet time?”
Sierra: “No, I DON’T want it at quiet time if there’s nothing on the toilet paper.”

I stood there trying to figure this out and then it dawned on me.

Dad: “Wait, that means that if there is something on the toilet paper (which 99% of the time there is), then that means you get the iPad for quiet time?”
Sierra: “That’s right!”
Dad: “Nice try. That’s not how it works.”

Five minutes ago I had a great discussion with Sierra about He-Man so I wanted to capture it while it was fresh in my mind.

Yesterday I got word that the new Masters of the Universe Origins toyline had hit Wal-Mart stores in Canada so I was quite excited.  These things look pretty  much like the toys I collected as a kid.

With that, I figured I should introduce Sierra to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.  It’s probably been 35 years since I’ve watched the show.  Would it stand the test of time?

I would like to thank John and Maureen for having the He-Man episodes available on Plex because they weren’t on Netflix.  They saved the day!

I fired up the episode for the family and Sierra was skeptical at first because it wasn’t her new favourite show called Fancy Nancy (on Disney Plus), but soon enough, the show hooked her in.

There are so many incredibly cheesy moments but everything is super interesting to a kid and so after the show her and I went to her bedroom for storytime and instead of a story, we got to have an extended question period about He-Man.

Here are some questions that came from a four year old’s brain after seeing their first episode of He-Man.  Sidenote: I don’t even know if I’ve ever seen the first episode of He-Man but I have to say that it did a really good job of introducing the good and bad guys.

Sierra’s questions about the first episode of He-Man

• Why did He-Man not disappear from the ray?
• Why was the skeleton man laughing?
• How did the sword not disappear when the ray hit it?
• Why did He-Man go into the crack?
• Who was the floating guy with a wizard’s hat?
• Why did the kid of the King and Queen hide?  (this prompted a really interesting discussion about secret identities and heroes but I think it went over her head)
• Why does Prince Adam and He-Man not look the same (didn’t we all have that question?)
• Why did He-Man hit the guy on the blue flying thing?
• Why did the lion have He-Man riding on his back?

I can’t even remember all the questions but they were great questions from a four year old after watching He-Man for the first time.  Honestly, I was contemplating setting up a video camera to capture this moment because I knew they would be great and hilarious and thoughtful questions all at the same time!

I think I wasted my favourite series of Thundercats on her at 3 years old.  She breezed through them but didn’t have the brain to ask questions about it.  I think she just liked the fast moving pictures.

I’m really excited for the toys to hit the shelves and maybe her and I can play with them!

How do you celebrate a first birthday within a pandemic situation?

With lots of friends!  We drew inspiration from this comic strip from Calvin and Hobbes:

The day before Sierra and Maman worked hard on a cake

We started out the morning with the king sitting in his mighty throne

We hung up some photos of the past year of his life

Sierra hid a few gifts for him downstairs.  This firetruck was from Sierra.  Back when she had her birthday she was so impressed by the gift that Ezra got her that she said “I want to get him a firetruck for HIS birthday.”  He seemed to enjoy it!

Here’s how excited he was!

After the firetruck we decided to take a bike trek around the village

Happy Birthday song!

Maman took some nice photos of Ezra on the front lawn

Birthday smiles

We asked some friends around the house to come join the party after Ezra’s morning nap.  Yes, that is a Mr. Zucchini head!

A lovely cake before Fredo and Ezra tore it apart

Some friends dropped by with some gifts and balloons!

Sierra is getting pretty good at taking photos

The birthday boy arrives!

Always the polite host, he thanks everyone for coming to his party

Everyone gets a birthday hat!

Mega balloon

Snapshot with the parents

Nabbing Maman’s hat

Maybe having the ceiling fan on wasn’t a good idea

Looks like he is enjoying it his first birthday cake!

Of course Maman will take some cake!!

Playing with a new gift

Hanging out on the playset

Baby Yoda from his great grandmothers.  I should let them know that this is what they purchased for him.

In no way did that gift enter this house for me to play with.  None whatsoever.

All in all, if his smile were an indication of how he enjoyed his birthday, it must have been a hit!  Thanks to all who phoned, Facetimed, dropped by and sent gifts.  It was much appreciated.

 

 

 

 

Clearly we have a music lover in the house because whenever a good beat comes on he just bops along with the greatest squat dance move there ever was!

Ezra has been a fun person to be around in his 12th month here on Earth.  He is generally a happy kid and plays well with his sister for the most part.  Sierra does have her moments that she likes to play with Ezra (like in the tent) but other times she likes to play on her own.  Ezra is the same though…there are times where I just sit and watch him chewing on a sneaker near the patio door and other times he loves horsing around with us.

While not walking yet, he is very steady on his feet (he can pick up a ball by squatting down and then picking it up) but he doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to start walking.  When we try, he just resorts to going on his knees again.

Bopping to the music!

I can’t remember the story clearly but I’m pretty sure Vero and I found this set at a garage sale years ago and it was the same set that she grew up with.  Here is Ezra and Sierra enjoying it as well.

Ezra had the privilege of having Grandma, Poppa and Nanny Sybil spend some time with us this summer.  It was extra special because it has been awhile.

Getting ready for a walk

Ezra and Sierra wanted to show Grandma the trails in Russell

We thought it was hilarious that Ezra would just lie down if we fell over.  Maybe he enjoyed the sun?

Ezra was in awe of seeing a balloon blown up!

Playing around with Poppa

Everyone was patiently waiting to dive into some cake!

This was before the silly faces photo

Silly faces!

We put this photo up above the fireplace to replace the winter themed one

I can only imagine they were playing an intense game of Carcasonne on the iPad

A common sight around these parts…not actually riding it but pushing it along as a walking aid!

The first time he sipped water from this cup we found it funny.  Then he decided that this was the proper way to drink water at all times and proceeded to douse himself with water every time he took a sip!  I’m pretty sure I changed him 23 times one day!

What kid doesn’t love hiding behind curtains?

Maman got to join us one morning at the Castor River

Like every kid on Earth, he does enjoy things that light up and make noise

Double fisting like a champ!

If this video doesn’t make you smile, you are dead inside.  Ezra likes playing a game where he lays his head down and everyone follows.

Another day, another visit to the Castor River trail

Who needs park equipment when we have a perfectly good hill?

Ah yes, the ole ‘fetch the gas can toy’ game

It’s fun when Sierra can snap a photo of Ezra and I

It’s rare that we see an actual bird have a bath!

It’s rare that he isn’t putting his hands on the fretboard and preventing me to play!

I brought Eric and Mike out for a drink at the Castor River one evening.  Definitely the highlight of the summer!

Trying to find dinosaurs

Sharing a rubber ducky is a sign of love

Enjoying a summer treat

Wrestling with Fredo

Enjoying the backpack

Here is the poster we ordered for Ezra’s 1st birthday party

Future curling champion

We drive by this giant rooster every once in awhile so it was time to get a picture with it!

Can’t forget the giant cow down the road

Dipping our toes in the Ottawa River

I asked Sierra to take a video but she took some photos instead.  This was Ezra air drumming to Thunderstruck.

Pushing Sierra around

Nap time

Nom nom nom

Smoothie The Serpent decided to make a home in the tunnel

Who wants milk when you can eat ice cream?!

I had a good laugh at this photo

Teaching the kids how to play piano on my birthday

This was definitely a highlight of a gift

Mmm boy!

A nice stroll with the family on my birthday

Vero took a few weeks off before I returned to work on August 10th.  We decided to head to the Petrie Island beach one morning.  It was quite cold and windy!  We didn’t stay too long.

Vero even had to steal one of the kids towels to warm up!  It’s not the end of the world…considering Ezra naps around 10am, we don’t get much time to spend at the beach

The next day looked a little sunnier so we went back and I took Ezra home for his nap so Sierra and Maman could spend some time together

Must have been a good joke!

I’ve lived in Ottawa over twenty years and I never knew that Petrie Island was more than a beach.  They have some really neat trails to walk around as well!

What better treat than watermelon at the beach?!

Enjoying the piano, clearly!

We dropped by Uncle Mike and Aunt Melanie’s place to check on the house and had some fun!

Look at the size of this thing!  It was a seven pounder!

He doesn’t look too impressed!

 

 

With a four year old, sometimes they look at what of your tabletop games on the shelf and say “Let’s play this!”  This is kind of impossible when the game has strategy involved and is meant for kids over the age of ten.

But Dad, it looks fun!  Let’s play it!!

I realized that with the power of creativity we could create a brand new game using whatever pieces are available to us.

These instructions are for a 2 player game but I’m sure you can use creativity to adapt to a multiplayer game.

What do you need to play this?

1 Splendor game

1 child who wants to play the game with you

What is the objective?

To have the most chips of each colour (minus the gold, we don’t play with them) at the end of the game.

Look at all those chips!

How to set up

Take out all the chips from the box except for the gold ones and put them on the table somewhere.  It’s like a money for Monopoly, it’s off to the side somewhere.

Now take all the playing cards and separate them into the green, yellow and blue cards.  Put the green back in the box.

Deal all the yellow cards between the two players.  You should end up with an equal amount of cards.

 

Two piles.  They are pretty neat.

How to play

Each player takes a card from the top of their deck and flips it.

Whoever has the largest number on the card wins the round.  In this game, we are looking at the number which appears in the top left corner.  Ignore all other numbers.

The winner of the round picks up a chip which corresponds with the gem that appears in the top right corner of the card.

In the picture above, the player that has the 3 wins the round against the 2.  The player gets to pick up a green gem chip for their collection.

In the picture above, the 3 card wins the round against the 2 card.  The winner gets to pick up a white gem (aka the diamond) chip.

Go onto the next round by flipping cards and battling it out to try and win the most gems!

What happens when there is a tie?

In our house, a tie breaker is battled out using rock-paper-scissors!

Only rock-paper-scissors shall determine the winner of this round!

What happens when we run out of yellow cards?

This depends on your kid.  Some days the kid is really tired of playing and you can move onto figuring out who won the game.  But sometimes they want to continue on so that’s where you can deal out the blue deck.

Ok, we’re done playing, who wins?

Now it’s time to put your gems against the other player’s gems and see who wins!

Each player moves their stack of gems against the other players, according to colour.  Whoever has the larger stack wins one point.

In this example, I had a lot more white gems compared to Sierra’s one gem.  Therefore I win one point.

What happens if there is a tie when counting the gems?

Rock-paper-scissors of course!

Who wins?

In the example above, you can see that we have battled it out.  Sierra had the most brown gems (1 point), and the most blue gems (1 point).  I had the most red, white and green gems (1 point each for 3 points total).

I win!

What skills does this game teach my kid?

• Dealing cards
• Understanding numbers and how they relate to each other.  “What number do I have?  A three.  What number do you have?  A two.  Which is the higher of the two numbers?  Then who wins this round?”
• Counting gems
• How to revel in the happiness of winning a game
• How to deal with the feeling of utter defeat when you lose a game and Dad dances around the room

Why do we put the green cards back in the box at the setup stage?

The green cards don’t seem to have numbers appear a whole lot so it was getting tedious to always have a tie.  If you want to play with them, go for it, but you’ll end up with a lot more rock-paper-scissor challenges!

Is it fun?

I think so!  I’m sure others may come up with variations they enjoy more.  As long as you’re having fun with your kid inventing a game, that’s what counts!

I feel that this post may be a long one so fair warning!

With two weeks left until I return to work after four months on parental leave, I figure I should document my thoughts surrounding my parental leave during the spring/summer of the year 2020 considering everyone under the sun will be asking “Well, how was it?”  I also feel that it’s always good to document this type of thing for future generations.  If Sierra or Ezra or any other future children that I don’t know about are wondering how my parental leave was, read on!

What I was thinking about when I was approaching parental leave

My original plans were shaping up nicely.  I was going to go on parental leave in April which is the start of the fiscal year at work.  All projects were neatly finished up or passed along to more competent folk than I.  Everything was in its place.

In the month approaching parental leave I had visions of hanging out with Ezra and getting to know him a little better.  It was still winter but I had visions of visiting a different brewpub each Wednesday of the week.  We were going to find a different park to try out every couple of days.  We were going to learn different skills like passing a ball across the floor and how to hold a bottle up with our own two hands (he witnessed me doing this quite a bit on my own during parental leave).  We were going to take off to Kapuskasing for at least two weeks and heck, while we’re at it, why not head down to Gaspe at the same time?  He was going to take two hour naps in the morning and the afternoons where I would work diligently at finishing up recording some music that has been sitting in unfinished forms for the past decade.  If the muse hit, I would write songs each day.  Daycare was still an ongoing activity for Sierra so we would drop her off each morning and walk around Vars to get some exercise in.

A month before parental leave and I can already see how amazing it would be!

It was going to be a glorious four months of bonding and learning what it takes to ‘parent’.  I already knew what parenting was…we already had Sierra under our belts.  This was going to be a different beast but not impossible.

The impossible happens

Enter: Covid19 pandemic.  Aye aye aye.  What a gong show.  As I type this I’m still in the thick of it.  No live concerts.  Still haven’t seen half of my friends yet and it’s August next week.  Things are opening up more than they were in the beginning but still, the spectre of a virus still lingers on.

It was getting bad enough that I decided to work from home in mid-March.  I packed up some things from the office and bid adieu to my colleagues as I had no idea when I could drop by to a pub with Ezra to see them again.  When I left I knocked on my director’s door and jokingly said “See you in August?” thinking I would definitely see her before that.

The day I start working from home we get the word that everyone will be working from home.  Ok.  Things are getting a little scary around these parts.

Bam.  Daycare shuts its doors permanently for Sierra.  People are stockpiling toilet paper.  I’m trying to figure out how much beer and pepperettes I currently have in the house.  I have to hand it to Vero, she was a trooper during these times and went out to stores and stocked up the garage with essentials.

Vero, every time.

Bam.  My parental leaves starts a few weeks later and my day has morphed into taking care of a four year old along with an 8 month old.

One of the first days on the job and I forget to actually strap him in.  Note the lack of straps on top!  Good thing I didn’t bend over too much and thank the Lord for his giant snowsuit holding him in!

A typical morning for us.  Have breakfast, rush out and rush back so Ezra can have a nap at 9;30am.  It was pretty brutal getting them dressed and running out to give them 15 minutes outside and return.

I doubled down and thought “Ok, what do I need to do to be the greatest parent ever?”  Activities!  Every morning I would bring these two outside after breakfast but then have to return quickly for a nap.  Then I would think of something to do with Sierra.  Then before you know it I would have to think of what to do for lunch.  The days went by fast with this schedule.

This routine only lasted two weeks.

My only reprieve was that nap time around 2Pm but I can’t even remember if Sierra was taking naps at that point of it we had transitioned her to quiet time then.  Either way, it gave me an hour.  Gone were the thoughts of making music, watching a tv show, or doing something I wanted to do.  Here were the days of just taking a nap along with them to regain my energy!

I still tell my friends that my first month was a real shock to the system.  Gone were my ideas of travelling around with one kid and having fun.  Now I’m stuck with two kids and one of them had a real stubborn streak to them not unlike any other four year old!  I felt (and still feel) that 90% of my attention is now devoted to Sierra and Ezra is an afterthought.  More of a “hey, I’m keeping an eye on him so he doesn’t lose a hand, but other than that, I have other things to deal with here!”

The first month was Hell, would the second one be the same?

I’m not entirely sure what changed my attitude come the second month but it was a complete opposite direction for me.  I felt elated (not gassy!) and I was the happiest any human could be.

Perhaps it was seeing this Guy Smiley every day?

Perhaps it was seeing these two interact each day for all hours on end instead of maybe 30 minutes if Sierra went to daycare every day?

Perhaps it was because Spring was in the air?

Perhaps it’s because I finally got some spicy eggplant for my sandwiches?

Whatever it was, I was a changed man.  I didn’t care if I didn’t get any personal time.  My time was 100% devoted to my kids, my wife, and trying to maintain the chaos in my house.  I tip my hat to my good friend Holly who I drew inspiration from.  I can only imagine she had moments like these raising three kids for five years.  Maybe I’m completely wrong and she was hanging on by a thread every day.

The last two months

I felt that the last few months balanced out a bit.  I wasn’t riding a high of being with my kids and spending time with them on the back porch all the time.  It was still amazing and I still cherish the moments I have with them.  I had more time to do simple things for myself like return phone calls to friends.  Claude still was surprised to hear my voice after me telling him I would call back the next day (that was two months ago).  I started finishing some books that were on my nightstand for years.  I even started a new book called The Stand by Stephen King.  It was new to me at least.  Who knew it was about a pandemic?  I had no idea.  I’m only a few hundred pages into it so a lot more to go.   I started watching movies more and more.  I started watching special features of movies.  I can tell you a lot about the first Hobbit film.

Getting some inspiration to write music again

I tried my best during all of this to find activities to do with Ezra and Sierra during the mornings.  I mentioned how when we started out I tried to take Sierra and Ezra out on activities in the morning before Ezra’s nap.  That crashed and burned after two weeks on the job and I convinced Vero to take care of Sierra during the mornings.  She could take care of breakfast and have her watch TV until Ezra took a nap.  That was definitely the modus operandi of the first couple of months.

But after awhile I started seeing Sierra sneaking into my routine again.  I would prepare her some Cheerios if I had the time.  I would let her watch TV upstairs instead of watching Your Morning on CJOH.  She was starting to become part of the morning team of Ezra and Dad.  As I type this, a typical day consists of getting up with Ezra, giving him 8 ounces of formula while watching the news (unless Sierra is up and then we watch something on Disney+).  Ezra and Sierra then get fed and we figure out what activity we want to do before Ezra’s nap.  He’s old enough now that I don’t need to get him back around 9:30am.  I can push it to 10:30am without any major repercussions and we’ve also pushed it to 11am a few times and there’s nothing earth-shatteringly different about our schedule.  I have searched out good forest areas to explore.

Searching for dinosaurs, crocodiles and bird houses was our adventures in Tweed conservation area

Du Moulin park, while small, offered up some great view of the Ottawa River

Barnett Park was a quick favourite as it got our feet into the river.  We didn’t end up here a lot but we were happy when we found a spot of our own to have a snack.

There was one area that I fell in love with so much that I had to bring Eric and Mike one Thursday evening so we could have a beer while sitting in the river.  As of July 28, 2020 as I type this, I have deemed this to be the night of the summer.  Ezra, Vero and Sierra love this spot as well.

After our morning activity Ezra will go down for a nap and Sierra and I will find a small relaxing activity to do.  If it’s sunny outside that may be learning new words.  If it’s rainy or really hot outside, it will be playing a computer game.

Lunch comes and goes and then we either play in the living room for awhile or go for a bike ride.  Ezra’s nap comes along with Sierra’s quiet time and I either have a nap which I don’t really need anymore (I suppose I have gotten used to the chaos which is two kids?) or read a book.

After quiet time Sierra and I have a snack and wait until Ezra wakes up and generally Maman is off of work during that time which gives me time to make supper while she plays with the kids.

That’s a typical day, of course!

What did I not enjoy?

It was ridiculous how much stress could come from making lunch and supper every day.  I don’t know if it was the thought of making something extraordinary or not, but I would say this was the major headache of each day.  But let’s be honest, I’m living a pretty good life if that’s the worst part of my day!

Ugh…suppertime.

I do have to admit that I didn’t get to spend the time I wanted with Ezra.  Even when I found myself alone with him from time to time, I was either exhausted or there were bottles to be washed or activities to plan for Sierra who I knew would be coming every two minutes to demand our attention.  Can’t blame her…a kid living within a pandemic needs something other than TV to entertain them.  Wait, is that true?  I’m not sure.  I’m pretty sure if I armed her with a TV and an iPad for three months she would be happy!

You might think this is an adorable picture, but she constantly stole my hat and ice cream.  COME ON!

I didn’t enjoy being a man taking care of kids full time.  You get no sympathy from anyone.  It was a very strange experience.  I would talk about some of the hangups to various people and most people would offer up a response like  “Well, women have had to do that forever and I shouldn’t complain!” or something like that.  I realized early on that I should just shut up when trying to express how frustrating my day could be taking care of two kids.

I tip my hat to my pal Ben who was a stay at home dad (SAHD) for many years on his own and he also told me tales of weird things that would happen to him while taking care of his kids.  My favourite story was being at a public library and his kid needed changing but the kid’s changing table was in the women’s washroom and they told him he couldn’t go in there so he said “Well, can you find someone who can change my kid’s diaper for me then?”  I could be mixing up the finer details of this story but I do remember laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.

I didn’t enjoy how sometimes I would feel that I didn’t accomplish much personally.  If all I accomplished during the day was make my kids laugh, keep them fed and unhurt, and not have the house burn down, is that an accomplishment?

What did I enjoy?

To respond to the question above, I would say yes.  I did accomplish a lot while on parental leave.  While I didn’t come up with amazing activities each and every day, I did try my best to get the kids out and do an outdoor adventure each morning.  Whenever it was windy we would try and fly a kite.  If it was rainy, we would play pretend we were the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs (this morphed into a daily fun activity for awhile).  When the days were 40+ degrees we would jump in the best pool that $15 could buy.

Mom taught me how to fly a kite

I would spend time with Sierra learning new words and looking at videos on YouTube about apples and acrobats and any other word with the letter A.  We finished King’s Quest together which was a big moment for me.  I taught her how to use a mouse on Mixed Up Mother Goose.

Ezra can now roll a ball pretty well across the floor.  He has managed to stand up on his own quite a bit and is almost ready to walk.  He is always after my beer or glass of wine.

They play together quite well (although Sierra can be pretty rough on him!).  They are learning to be a brother and a sister.  That wouldn’t happen as easy if they only had evenings and weekends together.

Parental leave has been great.  If I won the Lotto Max tomorrow I wouldn’t say that my life would be much different than this and that’s pretty awesome.

 

Of course, I can’t end this without mentioning the other parent in this equation.  Let’s be honest, the pandemic has actually been quite nice to me (I say this now while giving my deepest, deepest condolences to all those who had a hard time during the pandemic), it allowed Vero to stay at home with us while she worked.

A common sight after 4PM hit.  Vero taking the kids off of my hands.

Let’s be honest here, being on parental leave when you know another parent is in the other room if you REALLY NEED THEM is a pretty easy job.  I didn’t have to rig up any elaborate hoist mechanisms to hold the baby while I took a shower.  I just asked Vero if I could take a shower while she took care of the kids.

After lunch, Vero would give me a break for a bit before she returned to work.

After work, she would take the kids off of my hands so I could do whatever I wanted to do (typically this consisted of preparing some supper in silence which was awesome, downloading some new bootlegs that I stumbled across during the day or listening to Rebel Force Radio (best podcast ever)).

“Whatchoo lookin at?”

After supper she would give the kids a bath so I could relax.

I suppose what I’m trying to say here that if Vero was a piece of music, she would be the part in Mind Flood by the Sam Roberts Band after the song slows down and then explodes with the energy of a hundred typhoons…she’s the one that gives me the most energy and keeps me going each day!  THANK YOU!

She’s also the one who puts up with the hair that I haven’t cut in seven months.

Short version elevator pitch of this entire post: Before parental leave if someone would have asked if I would like to take care of my kids during a summer I would have said no.  Put them in day camps.  

After parental leave, I have completely changed my opinion and if I had the opportunity to do so in the future, I would do it every time.

It’s been a parental leave ride and I encourage anyone to take time with their kids whenever they can!

50 months old!  What a milestone!  I can’t believe I didn’t even write this blog entry until August 19 which is nearly a month after I should.  I should have properly reflected on this milestone.  50 months, wow!

Someone can’t handle the tickle monster!

On the hunt for the hidden birdhouse which mysteriously changes position each time we visit this trail in Russell

Sierra loves running up and down this hill!  It’s nearly July and she is still wearing long sleeved dresses.  It took awhile to convince her that she would find short sleeved ones a little more comfortable.

Trying on a mask that Grandma sent up

A rare moment hanging out in the front yard

What’s the term where you’re an easy going dad until your kid does something dumb?  Hard love?  Here’s Sierra wiping away the crayon marks on the door.  I wasn’t going to help her one bit!  She definitely cries a lot after ten seconds of hard work!

Showing off the PERFECT strawberry at Rochon Gardens

Showing off her strawberries

Sierra and Maman have been working hard on the garden this year

Our swimming pool sometimes becomes a whirlpool!

Sierra instructing me how to use chalk

Look who found the birdhouse!

A typical sight after our morning excursion…snack time on that back patio!

I took this photo to show the irony of how she loved putting her footprints on the cement pad AFTER it’s done, but the day that we asked her to do it when the cement was drying, she didn’t want to have anything to do with it!

Smelling the flowers

Have I mentioned how I struggle with figuring out lunch each day?  I am perfectly fine with a sandwich each day, but I know my family deserves better!  This is clearly one of those days where I ran out of ideas so I said “Nachos it is!”

Admiring the Ottawa River

I’m not sure why we took this photo but perhaps it was to document our Summer of 2020

The first time we went to Barnett Park I forgot our water shoes and I noticed glass on the shore.  I didn’t make that mistake the second time around and Sierra enjoyed walking in the water.

Sierra found a cardboard unicorn that we built one morning.  She was very excited.

I was super impressed that Uncle Greg built this rocking chair and it just happened to fit the exact width of my vacuum cleaner!  Genius.

Date nights are definitely different with two kids at home during a pandemic.  But we paid $20 to watch a livestream of Adam Baldwin down in Nova Scotia so date night was on within the confines of home (or the back deck).  Adam Baldwin had been providing free live streams during the past four months so $20 was quite a steal to pass along to a musician I’ve been following most Friday nights.  I have to say that I’m a fan of livestreams.  Sure, it’s a different experience but I kind of like the beer lines and the lineups to go to the washroom.

Big girl Sierra was nice enough to offer up her bedroom so Nanny Sybil could have a spot to sleep while she visited.  In order to move downstairs we needed to fill up Sierra’s suitcase with some clothes and books!

The Pied Piper?

Quite the dance routine!

Sierra going onto a dock for the first time at the park in Rockland

I’m pretty sure the first thing Sierra asked Grandma when she walked in the door was “Can we make some jell-o?!”  It was really great to see my parents and Nanny Sybil for a few days.  It was a strange yet great feeling to have people in the house after many months of just being ourselves.  However, that meant we had to clean up the house after four months of surviving!

Video proof that Grandma can still run!  It was great to have her along for our morning walk in the woods as I usually have to keep Sierra close by with me and the stroller.

Mom needed a footstool so I improvised

It was still a few weeks away from my birthday but considering everyone was here, it was a good time to celebrate.  Here is Sierra and Grandma making an orange cake.

“The best part of baking with Grandma is she lets me lick the spoon!” – Sierra

The Mighty Tarzini Brothers porketta made it to Ottawa!

Sierra instructed to do scary faces for this photo

Sierra was very happy to help me unwrap some gifts.  Considering my birthday wasn’t for a few more weeks we decided to wrap up a few existing things around the house.

Grandma teaching Sierra how to fly a kite.  She was proud to say that she taught her 41 year old son a thing or two as well!

Grandma and Sierra decided to make some bread because she had learned about it a few weeks ago.  She lasted a few minutes until she had to put her fingers into the bread to knead it and she asked to wash her hands immediately after.  I stepped in and learned how to make bread.  Here’s a neat timelapse.

Hanging out

Sierra taking a photo of Poppa before leaving

It was a very hot and dry summer for a long time so when it did rain, it was always fun to hunt out some puddles!

I had a good laugh at this

Not sure how far this rock moved, but I’m sure it moved a little

The dam at the Castor River is always a nice spot to have a snack

It’s nice when Maman comes out for an adventure with us because we get more photos of Sierra and Dad fooling around

Trying on her new mask!  We found that her ears were too small for the other masks so Grandma made one with ties on the back.  In order for Sierra to get used to it, we implemented a ‘you can use the iPad every day during quiet time if you wear your mask at the same time’.  I would say it wasn’t a great success at the beginning but it’s been getting better after a few weeks.

Out on the Castor River, our new favourite spot

Pretty impressive skills!

Having a snack

Sierra is getting pretty good at taking photos!

lovely!

A common sight on our back deck 

It hasn’t been often that I leave my house during the evening but I should do it more if it means I’ll end up seeing a nice sunset like this

Prepared to go bird watching

We checked out a conservation area in Casselman.  It was a nice enough spot for a picnic but there wasn’t much else to it.  It had a boat launch, some picnic tables and a dude who looked like he lived there permanently.

Hanging (literally) with Maman

Probably the 674th time we danced this summer

This must have been after a run (or twelve) down the hill

What kid doesn’t love climbing rocks?

I’m really enjoying how Sierra is taking some decent photos where she doesn’t cut off our heads.  It allows me to be captured in some adventures we go on.  Here I am enjoying a wavy morning in the Ottawa River.

Splash!

 

 

 

 

 

The final stretch before Ezra turns one year old!  Pretty crazy to think that the sleepless nights almost a year ago are long behind us and we have a kid that hits the sack around 7:30pm and wakes up between 6:30-8:00am.  I have no complaints.  I’m pretty sure if I wrote that comment on Facebook I would have dagger eye comments coming at me from other parents, but this is my domain and it’s all about historical facts!

There’s quite a bit I can chat about but I feel sometimes if I get right into the pictures the stories tend to come out so let’s go on the journey.  I try and write these on the tenth of the month but I’m sitting here on July 22nd thinking “I should get around to this!”  Let me tell you, being on a parental leave is no piece of cake and there are friends who I haven’t responded via email in six weeks!  But hey, the kids are my focus.

Now here’s a happy eater!  Ezra generally likes a lot of the foods we give him and he hasn’t had any issues like Sierra had with dairy products or peppers.  He’s taken it all in like a champ!  In hindsight, if all goes along the same trajectory I would say the first year with Sierra was a trial by fire with all the issues she had, whereas Ezra is smooth sailing for the most part.

This is a typical afternoon for us after lunch.  Our routine has become: Breakfast and then zoom out the door to find somewhere fun to explore outside, then come back by 10am for Ezra’s nap time, then lunch, then hang out like this around the house before Ezra’s naptime at 2PM, then Maman is usually finished work by the time Ezra wakes up so she takes over while I prepare some supper.

A Palmer and his piano

It’s not often that we spend our evenings outside after bath time but Sierra and Ezra insisted on hanging out on the front porch.

The face of patience while Dad and Sierra run around with a kite and leave Ezra sitting in the middle of a field

Judging by the eyeline of Sierra, she is probably watching TV while feeding Ezra

There are so many things to talk about concerning this video.  1) This was around the time that Ezra started to bounce his bum up and down whenever a song came on which is amazing.  2) This is a video of a very typical time for us during this summer.  We tried to get onto the deck as much as we could.  There were a lot of 40+ degree days so Ezra couldn’t really last 15 minutes in that, even with us feeding him water.  But we tried to get out as much as we could.  3) I am now realizing why Dad was asking us why we didn’t cut the tags off our cushions.  We flipped them over because it rained on them but now I’m realizing how silly they look!  4) The end of this video is classic Sierra taking care of Ezra…as in she’s hauling on him to make him do something.  I swear the second child in a family learns a lot about balance and surviving a situation after being yanked around!

Ezra isn’t the biggest fan of crawling up stairs

The pool was in full use during this summer.  Ezra is always chewing on something as seen here.  The kid still only has four teeth but uses them up!

Ezra and Sierra testing out the new binoculars from Abbey

A typical morning walk

On the real hot days we hang up the tarp

Whenever Ezra sees an open door, he motors for it.  Here we found him climbing into Sierra’s bed so we had some fun with him

Ezra is really starting to enjoy the pool

What a great way to start Father’s Day!

Ezra really gets excited by this fridge magnet toy that Aunt Holly and the family gave him

I’m not entirely sure the pool we bought is rated for this many people!

This speaker that is in Ezra’s hands is his best friend while out on the deck.  You can see his slobber on it from where he chews it while there is music playing from it.

Ezra could be in a different town and as soon as he hears the water run for the bathtub he would zoom over like the Road Runner!

Maybe this is the birth of some better golfers than their father?

One of the great conservation areas within Russell.  Here we typically look for dinosaurs, foxes and grumpy old trolls under the bridge.

I think they  must be watching for the ice cream truck that never comes in the year 2020?

I love how all I can think about in this photo is that it was taken at 4:52Pm and he was having his snack that close to dinner?!  I am my own mother.

I bet Sir Elton John has a photo like this of him as a kid!

Hahaha!  The surefire way to get Ezra laughing his trying to eat him!

I laughed at this during the pandemic.  Maybe this was the reason it all happened?  

The monster in the tunnel!

We were cleaning up the closet and we came across this hat.  Let me tell you that while he reminds me of my good pal Etienne, I cannot stop loving him in this hat.  He is the cutest!  Is this because kids are cute if you dress them up like old men?

Ezra sure loves his music speaker but especially gets excited when Sharon, Lois and Bram come on!

I’m pretty sure if there was one picture that captured the happiness of our summer, this is it.  It is really a special opportunity to get to have the kids together this long.

“Whatchoo lookin’ at?”

Maman and her man

He sure loves this hat.  Also, I can see from this photo that this was when I trimmed my goatee.  I think I took a little too much off.

Happy Canada Day!

Probably the best of the 832 photos we took

But this one wins my heart every time!

We have been teaching Sierra to use the iPhone camera which is the birth of the ever-rare photos of just Vero and I.  I quite like this one.

Here was one of her first attempts where we are trying to teach her to center on our eyes!

No joke folks, we went for a bike ride and stumbled upon our very own parade on Canada Day!

We have started to notice the signs when Ezra is getting overheated so a nice visit to the basement (with a bonus Mr. Freeze!) is always welcome.

I went over to Mike and Melanie’s place on Canada Day afternoon.  It was a great yet strange experience to finally see friends after months of Zoom chats and funny email chains.  Mike’s birthday gift of tickets to see Corb Lund will have to wait until a future date!

We took our first step towards hanging out with others along with the kids when the neighbours invited us over for a fireworks display around supper.  I didn’t know what to expect with fireworks at that time but it was surprisingly great and the kids loved it!

Neat panoramic photo that Google photos stitched together from my separate photos

Ah yes, this was the day that I thought I would see if the Limoges park had a splash pad that was operational since I heard Ottawa was opening up theirs.  We showed up and all the park equipment was still ‘cautiontaped’ off.  What’s worse is that they had sprayed pesticide on the grass so we couldn’t even go on it!  We stuck to the path which had distance markers painted on it which was entertaining for Sierra.

End of the path!

Future superstar right there!

Must have been a hot day again if we jumped into the pool!

Where we spent most of the summer.  Vero and I are really happy that we decided to extend the deck like we did.  Now all we need to do is to find a sun shade that fits perfectly!

Great photo of the family when Nanny Sybil was up North

The two people in this photo had never been strawberry picking before

I will definitely go strawberry picking again.  It’s an amazing experience with the kids as it doesn’t take too long…maybe 20 minutes?  Plus they had fun!  This was taken at Rochon Gardens which wasn’t too far from us.  Can I also point out that for many years I thought this shirt was pretty cool and then Vero pointed out that the shirts I wear are ‘very geeky’.  The nerve!

Look at the haul!

The aftermath

I had a good evening with Eric and Mike.  There was a perfect moon that night that I will always remember.  Eric had just laid new sod down and his backyard looks mint!

Ezra and his first box of Kraft Dinner to play with

 

Zerbert city!

Before

After!  I’m trying to think if Ezra got a haircut before me in the span of 11 months.  I definitely didn’t care what my hair looked like during my time at home.

I was getting tired of him tearing off his big so I started trying the full shirt version.

Another pool day!!  This pool was great for the most part.  There were three rings to fill with air and the middle one never kept its air but for $15 I really wasn’t going to haul it back to Canadian Tire for a return.  A typical game we would play is “What’s under my hat?” where we took a toy from the pool and had the other person guess what it was.

Will Vero kill me for posting this picture?  Probably.  But I want it to be here to point out that exercising on a beautiful summer night it NOT advised and she had very sore shoulders for three days after!  I can only imagine it’s from this yoga move and not the slouch for eight hours in her office chair!

Oh boy this was a fun, quick trip to the Ottawa River.  I was missing the sea and I thought the closest thing I could get to is the Ottawa River so we ended up going to a park in Rockland which was great!

But I think the park in Cumberland beat the one in Rockland solely because we could dip our toes in the water.  This was the beginning of my thoughts of “OH man, I only have a month left on parental leave and it’s super hot all summer and my kids needs to get near the water so where can I go?!”

God bless parents cleaning out the house and finding gems like these.  Carol sent me this.  I believe it may have been from Remi Lake in the winter?

A guitar case.  A useful item in many ways, including keeping your kids occupied!

Yuk yuk!

 

One month until my birthday!!  I hope I get a Baby Yoda!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instant Pot 20 Minute Chicken Burrito Bowls

The first burrito bowl recipe I made was an instant hit with Vero.  Then I forgot to save it and couldn’t find it ever again.  Then I tried some others which were good as well but not as good as the first.

Today I stumbled upon the recipe which I think was the original.  I can’t be sure.  But we both loved it so this is it.  I’m not going to find another recipe again.