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!