Palmer's World

The headline might suggest that I have the virus named COVID-19 but that’s not the case.  Perhaps a more appropriate title for this post would be “What are we up to now that the entire world is on high alert to prevent COVID-19 from taking over?”

For anyone reading this in the future, there was a virus outbreak in the year 2020 which made society halt in its tracks.  Schools and daycares are currently closed for a period of three weeks in Ontario.  If people are able to work from home, they do so.  Citizens of Canada have oddly stockpiled toilet paper of all things which is odd.  You would think they would have stockpiled beer.

Here are some things that are going through my head after a week of ‘social distancing’.

Leaving work

Last Friday it was becoming apparent that this was getting quite serious.  We were hearing rumblings of the virus over the past few months as it made its way from its origin point in China.  I was still going to work but adopting some ‘more hygienic than I usually am’ procedures.  For example, I washed my hands after going outside or for a break around the work building.  My hands have become more dry.  If you want to understand how my hands felt just look at this hilarious picture from Terminator 2 that I saw on Facebook when someone asked how their hands felt.

My ongoing joke at work was this virus didn’t make people more hygienic, it just made society realize that they weren’t even up to the norms of what we SHOULD be doing.

I made the decision on Thursday evening to ask to work from home for the foreseeable future and asked my manager about it the next day.  I packed my bag and headed home with all my work equipment.  In hindsight, me asking for permission to work from home was a little premature as we all received notice  to work from home on the Sunday.  There were still a few people going into work due to the critical nature of their job but I was at home.  However, the network could only handle so much of us at a time so we were ordered not to connect to the network at all in the first week.

Daycare closing

I’m not one to chat about work too much on this blog so let’s switch gears.  On the same Friday afternoon we received word that Sierra’s daycare would be closing for three weeks.  This was unprecedented.  Parents everywhere were scratching their heads wondering how they would deal with their kids for an extended amount of time.

Vero is still off on maternity leave with Ezra so me being home would only help her with the burden of looking after two kids.

After the first two days I was really struggling with this new reality.  What were we to do with Sierra during this time?  We have to practice social distancing which involved not hanging out with friends and making sure we were two meters apart for no more than 15 minutes at a time.  Kids don’t understand that concept so it’s just easier to keep them inside.  But how were we going to do this for three weeks?  In fact, as I type this, all indications show that this won’t be over in just three weeks.

My change of attitude

It was pretty early in the week that I changed my entire attitude to the whole thing.  Reports from Italy show a lot of the population dying.  I took a cold hard look at my reality and thought to myself “What would I be doing right now if I had won the lottery?”  The answer was clear: “I would be spending time with my family.  As much time as I could.”  I realized that I had been presented a blessing.  I could spend time with Vero and my two kids.  This really shook me up and gave me a little hope in this strange time.  If the worst thing that can hit me is I have to spend time looking after my kids every day for the rest of my life…is that really a bad thing?

My routine

Other than working, I decided that Sierra really  needed to burn off some energy each day so I tried to figure out how to do that while maintaining social distancing.

Day 2 – It was raining outside so I moved the cars out of the garage and set up some soccer goal posts.  We even had a chalkboard to mark the score!

Day 2 – Ty and Dana were putting on a St. Patrick’s day livestream as all the pubs were closed.  It was a great time and Ezra really seemed to enjoy it.

Day 3 – Wednesday morning we learned the fun of kicking a piece of hard snow down the road and how it reduces in size.  That morning I also introduced Sierra to a beloved past time of all kids in Canada….breaking the thin ice on puddles!  We also went hunting this morning…we were on the hunt for birds, squirrels, elephants and giraffes (real ones, not the one on the balloon that I was carrying).

Day 3 – Ezra and Maman sleep in quite late in the morning generally because Ezra doesn’t sleep well through the night yet.  So when the afternoon hits we go out for a break together.  Here is Sierra on her bicycle.

Day 4 – I was getting bored of walking up and down the street each morning and I realized that we live near some pretty great forests.  Sierra and I ventured out into Larose Forest one morning.  We were on the hunt for the big bad wolf and Swiper the Fox.  We didn’t see either of them.

Day 4 – I really contemplated ordering these things so Sierra could play with her friends.

Day 4 – We took a walk in the Larose Forest again in the afternoon.  We checked out a new trail which was quite icy.

Day 5 – It was raining this morning and was cool.  Sierra and I walked onto a ski trail in Larose Forest which was mainly ice so I don’t think there will be any skiers there for the foreseeable future.  We have been learning about the world during these walks.  The other day we talked about pirates and here in this video, you can see that she had been asking about rain and why did it rain on us.  Hilariously I think she was talking about ‘fruits’ but I misheard it as ‘frites’.

Day 5 – Snacks are always the best part about our walks.

Day 5 – It was 17 degrees outside on Friday afternoon.  Here was Sierra taking in the wind as it was too hot with her hat on.

Day 6 – Where is Sierra?!  We checked out the conservation area in Russell which was pure ice the entire walk but it’s still a lovely area to explore.

We have definitely explored a lot outside in the past week.  It’s been fun!  Some days Sierra is more excited than others.  It’s great when Ezra wakes up and we can all go exploring together.  We also spend a lot of time on the swing set in the backyard and have made a few campfires.  Vero and I try and squeeze some television shows in together during the evening when the kids are sleeping.  Generally Ezra’s naps range from 20-60 minutes so it’s a lot of pausing television when he gets up and needs something.  We are currently watching This Is Us, season 4.

What else are we doing?

I am playing a lot of Carcasonne on the iPad against Mom.  We video chat a lot more with family these days.  I had a video conference with some friends last night over a beer which was fun.

How am I feeling?

I think I generally have a positive attitude of the whole thing but the spectre of fear is always creeping in.  I worry sometimes about supplies.  “Do we have enough food?”  I went out on a Tuesday to Shopper’s Drug Mart and got one thing off my list of seven items.  Is this the new norm or are we just in a weird spot where everyone stockpiled their pantries and it will take a few weeks for more supplies to come in?  We are planning on going to Costco this coming week where we heard they limit the amount of people going into the store.  Will this results in hour long lineups?  We don’t know yet.

Facebook is an interesting wealth of information and misinformation at the same time.  One good thing that has come from it is I saw a video by Dr. Andy Thompson of London, ON and he makes short, informative videos about the virus.  I check out his videos every day to keep up to date.

A lot of the information needs to be fact-checked.  The other day we read an article saying that the World Health Organization says ibuprofen is bad if you have the virus.  Then a few days later Health Canada says that this isn’t scientifically proven yet.  But we just took it at face value considering an article mentioned the WHO.  We never even bothered looking at the actual WHO website to see if they had in fact said this or not.  So…all information has to be analyzed.  Even Dr. Andy Thompson’s videos could be fiction and I should double check his stats.

Vero is wondering what her return to work in three weeks is going to be like.  Will she have to report to work?  Can she work from home?  What will it be like with me looking after a baby who doesn’t sleep through the night and a toddler? (my theory: it will be just like my own mother back in the 1980s!)  Will we encounter pay issues in having me transition out of work for parental leave and Vero transition back in?  All these little questions are in our heads right now along with the constant ever changing landscape which is the world right now.

But for now, we’re doing really good.  I guess I have to figure out where we are going to explore today.  Bonus note of the day: I obtained a leaked copy of the new Pearl Jam album and it’s pretty great so far!

 

 

It is day of historical significance.  Perhaps there shall be an annual event commemorating this day in history?  On March 16th, 2020, the day before St. Patrick’s Day, our son slept from midnight until 7am.  Even at that, he probably woke from his slumber because Sierra got up around that time.

Let us hope this is the mark of a trend!

I imagine this is how he slept all night

Ezra is a great kid while he’s awake.  But we wish he would sleep a little more!  We are lucky if he gets a stretch of 3 hours at night.  When I say ‘we’, I really mean Vero because she’s nice enough to let me sleep so I can work the next day.  That will soon change when Vero heads back to work in mid-April and I take care of Ezra.  For both of our sanity I hope he starts to sleep through the night by then!  For reference, we found notes that Sierra used to sleep a good 5-6 hours when she was five months old.

Other than his sleep patterns, he is a very happy kid these days.  He loves eating most foods (although the faces he makes are hilarious for some foods!) and he likes hanging out in his circle of neglect, his jolly jumper and his high chair while we eat supper.

As I type this we are currently in lockdown due to the COVID19 virus.  It’s only Day 2 of a three week closure of Sierra’s daycare.  Here’s to hoping we find a lot of fun things to do (like update this blog!)

Look at how happy this kid is with food!

I saw this pop up in my notifications and I thought “That is the craziest pairing of two bands I love!”

Tante Andreane helping out

Mid-February and these were the only clean pyjamas we could find!

Playtime with Maman is always fun

This was the first time I strapped Ezra into this and I’m pretty sure it was the last time as he was already too big for it!  But it was a good spot for a nap.

Nice day for a walk out near the cemetery

Avocados!  Vero chooses a food and then feeds it to him for three days and then switches to another.  He seemed to enjoy these.

At the Embrun Community Center for family day

Pretty sure he is in training to be a river dancer

We gave some clothes to our friend who was expecting a baby girl and we got this baby Yoda in return!  It’s currently hanging in the car.

Ezra likes playing catch!

Never a dull moment at lunch!

Vero made some balloon animals for the kids

Sierra playing catch with Ezra

It’s really great to see them starting to play together.

Hanging out before some evening television

Look what I can do Ma!

Went to lunch for my good pal Clive’s birthday.  Kelly picked up this choice gift for him along the way.

Ezra always loves when Eric comes over for a visit!

Posing for some photos

Our plans to go out to friends fell apart but we had a babysitter lined up so we decided to leave Sierra at home and head out for supper.  Vero is a master at multi-tasking; breastfeeding and eating at the same time!

Horsing around in the booth at Eastside Mario’s

While I had fun in Rob’s hot tub, Ezra got to visit with Aunt Jan

Ezra always enjoys seeing Mon’oncle Jon

We went over to Victor’s third birthday party which had a great dinosaur theme

Every kid  needs a Spider-Man toy!  Word on the street is that he carries that thing around with him everywhere!  Good pick Vero!

We can’t tell if he loves or hates chickpeas judging by his reaction!

Would you sell this gentleman a firearm?  I had to renew my firearms license and we weren’t sure if they would accept this highly suspect individual.

Fun with Maman!

Not sure if the kid likes apple sauce either judging by his reaction!

Ezra has upgraded to the large backpack!  He definitely is getting bigger in the last month as we have had to adjust the jolly jumper height as well.

Ezra definitely enjoys his bathtub

Peek-a-boo!

Hanging out on a Friday night.  I also love how my clothes rack is in the background.  For historical reference, Ezra was in the process of flip flopping between sleeping in our room and his own room.  I got caught with my pants down (or no pants at all!) one morning when I got ready for work and all my work clothes were in his bedroom and I didn’t realize Vero was putting him there overnight!  I had to hobble together some clothes lying around with the house.  From that point on I moved a lot of my work clothes into the front closet and this clothes rack that sits in our living room.  Ah yes, life of a parent is always interesting.

It was a such a beautiful Saturday afternoon that Ezra and I decided to take a walk in the woods while Sierra took a nap.  Ezra loves this backpack!  Also, it’s springtime so the R2DToque makes an appearance!

It’s great that we have the woods all to ourselves most of the time.

When we got home from our walk Ezra wanted to get some sun.

Having fun in the backyard

I’m not sure if I would want to be in Ezra’s position but he seemed to like it.

Taking Ezra for a spin.  This was the first (and possibly last?) time he tried out this sled.  It’s interesting how depending on when a child is born, they aren’t big enough for certain activities during the winter.

Sunday afternoons when Sierra naps are always good for a campfire!

When snapping photos of kids, you always stumble upon those ones that become your all-time favourites.  This is currently mine.  I find it hilarious that I took the photo right when he blinked.  He looks like a zen master practicing some yoga!  He is starting to crawl backwards at this point.

 

For years Jean-Francois and Marie-Claude have been telling me to listen to The Lumineers.  I didn’t bother for a couple of albums and then when I started I told them “Why did I wait this long?!”  When we saw they were coming to town we knew we had to go see them.

JF managed to get some pretty great seats as seen in the photo above.  I arrived around 7PM, just in time to catch J.S. Ondara.  This would also be the maiden voyage of recording a concert inside an arena with my iPhone.  All in all, it turned out quite good as a keepsake of that night!  I’m really excited for the future of recording live concerts that I’ve been too.

J.S. Ondara was interesting…three string players coupled with him singing.  

not my photo

I listened to Mt. Joy a few days before and I liked what I heard.  After seeing them live they now have an instant fan.  They have some catchy tunes that vary between folk to some jamming psychedelic tunes!  Also, anyone who can segway into Gorillaz’s Clint Eastwood is worthy of praise.  Special shout out goes to the woman on the keys!

This photos demonstrates some fancy footwork I need to work on while playing guitar for an audience

The Lumineers hit the stage around 9PM and put on a great two hour show.  With three albums in their repertoire they have enough time to play all the new tunes as well as their hits.  They had some great interaction with the crowd along the way and the musicians are top notch.

The crowd at the Canadian Tire Center did not disappoint either

I think that the music of The Lumineers is better suited for a small theatre but considering the amount of fans they have, they had to transition to a larger arena stage production.

Merci pour l’invitation!

All in all, it was a great show and while I was a hurting unit getting to bed after midnight and waking up around 5am (thank you daylight savings time coupled with a kid who doesn’t sleep in yet!) I managed to survive on the power of good music from the night before.

Mt. Joy setlist:

Jenny Jenkins
Astrovan
Let Loose
Dirty Love
Sheep
Strangers
Come With Me
Julia / Ain’t No Sunshine / Clint Eastwood @Info[One of Sotiris’ cymbals fell off during Clint Eastwood]
Silver Lining

The Lumineers setlist:

Sleep on the Floor
Life in the City
Flowers in Your Hair
Dead Sea
Gun Song
Subterranean Homesick Blues [Bob Dylan]
Ho Hey
It Wasn’t Easy to Be Happy for You
Slow It Down
Angela
Gloria
Jimmy Sparks
Gale Song
My Cell
Left for Denver
Leader of the Landslide
Cleopatra
Democracy [Leonard Cohen]
Big Parade

Donna
Ophelia
April
Salt and the Sea
Stubborn Love

 

We registered Sierra for maternelle (pre-kindergarten?) this past month.  It was an interesting process.  In my head registering a kid is as simple as filling in some forms and bam, they are accepted.  I almost felt like the process was an interview of her.  The principal was taking notes when asking what she is interested in and if she can do certain tasks.  I wasn’t entirely sure if this was to take a look at what activities the school offers or to see if she was ready to enter Hogwart’s or not.

Speaking of Hogwart’s, I thought it was interesting that they had her get a gumball out of a machine and whatever colour you received decided your fate for the rest of your time in that school.  She is now part of the yellow team and every once in awhile the entire school splits up into different coloured teams for activities.  Much like a wizard’s academy.  Neat!

Because of the upcoming transition to maternelle there are certain things that we have to work on.  She is supposed to go to the bathroom on her own without much assistance.  I am happy to report that after hearing that we had her do a lot of the work herself and she’s 99% self-sufficient in the bathroom which is great!  Just in time for Ezra to swoop in and hit the reset button on all of that for us!  Haha.

Vero and all of her cousins grew up playing with this little toy schoolhouse that used to be at Grandmaman Cantin’s house.  She had to move into an extended care type facility so had to pass along a lot of her fun toys.  Sierra and Ezra got this as a nice surprise.  I hear Vero playing with it at night.

Future curler?

Enjoying a hot chocolate at the Governor General’s residence at Winterlude

Sierra and I went for a horse and sleigh ride.  I was pretty sure that the person taking the picture would have her finger in the shot.  Sure enough…

Dancing in front of Rideau Hall

Grandpapa helping Sierra learn how to skate.  When Sierra and I arrived that the morning the two guys who have a contract to clear the rink were hard at work.  I grabbed a shovel and help them for half an hour before Sierra could hop onto the ice.  She was quite patient!

I got to go see Kevin Smith at Algonquin College one night and it was fabulous!  He came out and introduced the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot film, then we watched the film and then he had a Q&A for a couple of hours after.  He is a great public speaker and there were really funny stories.

After the bath

Sierra managed to scale the snowhill!

Enjoying some time with her friend at the Vars carnival.  It was very cold outside this day so we spent the morning in the gymnasium.  I believe Vero and Sierra did venture outside for some activities when we left but I was with Ezra during that time.

Sierra helping clean the high chair that we pulled out of storage for Ezra

Matante Andreane dropped by for a quick visit before heading to Florida.  Sierra and her made some Valentine’s Day cookies.  Someone didn’t read the instructions correctly and set the oven at 125 F which didn’t do a whole lot.

Whenever there is a lot of snow I tend to work from home which results in a sled ride to the daycare!

Vero picked up this thing for Valentine’s Day.  At first I was really scared of seeing instructions written in Chinese and I thought “Is she trying to harm me?!”  But this thing is amazing for my eye condition!  I love this thing so much.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

If you didn’t know already, I collect concert posters.  99% are from concerts I’ve been to, 1% because I just really like the design.  Anyhow, I started to look back into my past of concerts I have been to when I didn’t think of picking up a poster.  I went to the see The Tragically Hip in 1999 and I stumbled upon this poster on expressonbeans.com  I was chatting with a guy asking what condition it was in.  He said it wasn’t mint (note the tape marks in the corners) but it wasn’t overly bad either.  But it was signed!  That was quite interesting.  He didn’t have a story of how it got signed by four of the five members as he had snapped it up in an Ebay auction years before.  No matter, I had to have it so I treated myself ($250 ain’t cheap for a piece of Hip memorabilia).  But now this sits in my office as is a great conversation piece.  I tend to switch up my posters every month at work.

I was trying to figure out how to use this heated eye pad at work and Matt suggested that I just put it on one eye at a time.  For the past couple of weeks I have been either called Captain Palmer, discount cyberpunk or 2 of 6 (which is knockoff of the Borg Seven of Nine).  I’m glad I enjoy working with these jokers I call friends.

Mom and I play Carcasonne against each other on the iPad.  When I beat her I tend to send her a photo showing my victory face.  This is the one she sent me when she finally beat me.  She’s getting pretty good!

Always a great helper on a Saturday morning

I had a great night out at the Orleans Brewing Company for Michel’s birthday party.  It was great to chat with the brewmaster and he even let me fill up a pint glass straight from the brewing kettle!  Very nice.  I even met a fellow gentleman from Kap who lives in Vars.

The lonely trail.  Not so lonely when you have a toddler talking to you all the time.  This was our first outing in the Vars cemetery trail this year.

At least someone packed down a trail for us!

This is what happens on Family Day when you forget that the daycare is closed and you have to work from home.

Vero did go out to the Embrun Community Center where they had some family day activities and Sierra stumbled upon some friends from daycare!

Mina was proud when he saw that his gift to Ezra was getting some good use in the house

Maman and Sierra hanging out in the transmogrifier

Sierra and I enjoyed some cake at Jona’s sixth birthday.  She wasn’t entirely sociable so there aren’t many photos with her and friends.  I think when there are large crowds she likes to hang off of my leg.

One Sunday morning Sierra and I went to watch Jenna play hockey as she is the goalie for her team.  I think Sierra was quite interested in seeing people skate around but she was also interested in eating her bagel and having a hot chocolate!  The funny thing about this photo is the gentleman sitting next to us.  Rob came to me after the game and said “Did you know you were sitting next to Chris Neil?!” and I said “Who dat?”  Rob laughed and said “I have to remember that you know nothing about sports or any of the Ottawa Senators roster.  It must like how I could be sitting next to David Bowie and not know.”  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he would be sitting next to a dead guy.  Anyhow, this Chris Neil fellow was eyeing up Sierra’s bagel the entire game.  I suppose we should have offered him a piece.

At this point in the game Sierra was more interested in the wheelchair ramp than the actual game

After the game we got to go for a visit at Aunt Jan’s and Uncle Rob’s and play with their dog

My friend Kelly gave us these excellent snowshoes that we tried out in our back yard

Sierra has some issues when we pick her up from daycare.  As in, she doesn’t want to leave.  Madame Eliane came up with this list to see if it would help.  It did and eventually I snapped a photo so she wouldn’t have to deal with Sierra when it was time to leave.  Madame Eliane has to go home too!  So now every time I pick her up Sierra asks to see the list of things she needs to do in order to get ready to leave.

For the past decade I have been looking for a comic book rack that spins.  The Carleton Cards at work was closing their doors and I manage to snag this beauty for $25!!  What a score!  These things are generally $300 new.  The only issue at this point is that it was meant to hold calendars and not comic books.  But calendars are the same size as a vinyl record!  I’m still unsure if I am going to put my vinyl collection in this rack or figure out a way to put comic books in them without falling out.

Boy am I glad I don’t have to stare at this ugly fellow at work all day!  For the past five years my styes were always on my left eye.  This past month it transferred to my right eye as well and it hit with a vengeance.  I remember a similar thing happening when the styes first formed on my left eye.  I am currently on antibiotics to try and control everything but as I type this I think it did some permanent damage as there is still a bump in my eyelid and a piece now droops down into my line of vision.  I’ll be going back to the optometrist for a follow-up in a few weeks.  Not fun!

It was quite the snowstorm when I brought Sierra to daycare one morning!!  I believe we got 30 centimetres that day.  I can’t complain about the amount of snow we have received this winter.  I even see tons of snow machines going by all the time.

 

Life has become infinitely better with Ezra as he no longer screams at us in the evenings!  This guy is a genuine happy camper!  Who knows what was making him uncomfortable for those past months…babies are human beings in development so you never know if they are having stomach issues, growing pains, or something else altogether.

For historical reference I should outline what a typical day is for him (from my point of view…I’m sure Vero can add a lot more details!).  Ezra still doesn’t sleep through the night so every 2 hours Ezra moves from the bassinet to the bed to get a feeding and then put back into the bassinet.  Vero tells me that he could be feeding for a long time since he’s half asleep!  There have been a few nights where he sleeps from midnight until 5am but those haven’t been the normal routine.

From midnight until 9 or 10 o’clock he goes through the routine of sleeping and eating and then arises from his slumber in the late morning.  Then he’s all smiles wondering what the world has in store for him.

A typical routine for him during the day is to feed and then hang out in his jolly jumper for awhile.  If we hang out near him and interact with him he can last an hour in there.  If we are around the room doing other things he may want out of there in 15 minutes.  At this point it’s all about moving him to different stations of interest…jolly jumper, toy area, hanging from the ceiling fan, etc.

After an hour he sometimes gets cranky which is the queue to put him in his crib.  Sometimes he goes down well, sometimes it’s a struggle. Sometimes he sleeps for an hour, sometimes twenty minutes.  I have this weird trick where when he’s in his sleep sack and I hand him the soother I make him fight for it a little so when he sucks that thing in he seems to fall asleep 80% of the time!  Maybe it’s because he had to work for it?

That’s basically our routine for the most part.  We’ll try and get him outside if it’s nice and he dozes off in the stroller or on us.  We’re pretty happy he’s not screaming his head off much anymore and is coming into a routine!

He also loves playing peekaboo right now and it’s a good game for Sierra to do with him as it doesn’t involve touching him.

“And this is when artificial intelligence became too smart for the humans and when Skynet was born.”

Ezra showing me how to eat a slice.

“Ah, Sunday morning when I can hang out with the kids, watch some TV, check the weather, realize it’s the year 2020 and these are the kind of alerts we are getting!”

“Look ma, no hands!”

From the looks of it, Ezra isn’t too impressed with Passe Partout.

Jumpin’!

PJ time.

I was showing Ezra some Pearl Jam videos that evening and teaching him how to stage dive off of my neck.

Spinning around

Vero and Ezra got to see Dr. Doolittle one afternoon

After a walk

Obligatory family photo when Ezra is awake

This is what we see when we got out on a cold day

Peekaboo!

Etienne was wondering if it was a good idea to walk onto this ice jam.  This was taken before he attempted it.  He was a good soul.  I’m kidding!  He wimped out.

Sierra helping out

Sometimes Ezra helps me type out things while I’m working from home

Hanging out with Grand-papa while they were visiting before their trip to Thailand

This is a photo of Vero having some real cheese for the first time in months.  She gave up dairy and lactose products before Ezra was born in case he had the same issues as Sierra.  She has been eating some cheese products and Ezra doesn’t seem affected by it which is great!  Also, this leads to having a very happy maman!

Winterlude kicked off on a beautiful winter day so we decided to check out the festivities at the Governor General’s residence.  It was pretty neat and we’ll go again!  They had different booths set up with food from different cultures and they had different winter activities (like curling and skating) set up.

Here’s a nice shot with the Ottawa river in the background.  I’m sure all Gaetan could think about is “I can’t wait to get out of the cold and get to Thailand!”

We got to sneak over to the Superbowl party hosted at Alan and Joelle’s place.  Good food, great friends and I was in a kitchen that had a brand new dishwasher which has never been fully connected.  Just when you think you’ve seen everything…

I love how the lighting in this photo shows us what Alex will look like in twenty years!

Fans of Grandpapa et Grandmaman

Saturday night fun times!

A day shy of six months, we tried some oatmeal.  Can’t say he was a huge fan but he seems to be coming around a week later.

 

Sierra brought some Nanny Ruth-made socks to the daycare and we didn’t see them at the end of the day.  We didn’t even see them for an entire week.  They ended up in someone’s backpack.

(On Day Four)

Me: Today we have to keep looking for your Nanny Ruth socks.  They have to be somewhere.  We can’t lose them.

Sierra: Maybe they are at the beach?

Whoa, it’s already the end of January?  Where has the time gone?!

We’re really happy that the weather has changed for the better and we actually have some SNOW around Ottawa these days.  But it’s touch and go sometimes.  Hovering around zero degrees brings forth the freezing rain and currently everything is quite icy.  Did I ever tell you how much I hate freezing rain and ice?  It doesn’t let us play outside!

But at the same time, we have been walloped with some good snowstorms so the forests are full of snow and the front yards as well.  Snowmen have been built, sleds have been used and Sierra is learning how to shovel snow!  She also is smart enough to know that once she feels she’s done, she just lets me finish the job.

Sierra continues to be quite hard headed and not listening to what we have to say.  We will have to nip that one in the bud soon enough!  I think she’s just complacent…”No TV?  It’s ok Dad, it’s ok.”

A typical routine with Sierra starts with some oatmeal in the morning, brosse, brosse, brosse les dents and getting dressed.  Sierra LOVES dresses these days.  She is quite upset if she doesn’t have a clean one to wear.

We then get into the car (usually with a baby or Froggie in tow) and arrive at the daycare.  She knows to take her boots off, hang her jacket up and put her shoes on.  Lately she hasn’t been hugging or kissing me goodbye which is fine.  She used to have a hilarious routine which I swear would expand each time.  The last time she hugged me the routine was give a hug, kiss on one cheek, kiss on the other, kiss on the lips, rub each others noses, give one high five, give another.  Quite the routine!  But nowadays she’s content with going to play with her friends.

Speaking of her friends at school, I suppose the class will be divided when September hits as we are going to be registering Sierra for kindergarten next week!  That shall be fun.  Registration that is…I’m not sure if I’ll be happy when the next level of parenting comes our way…PD days, making lunches, homework!  Actually, I hear that the school she is going to doesn’t give out homework so we will see how that works out.  I suppose kindergarten probably doesn’t usually have homework to begin with.

I can’t remember the name of this place we went to at the EY center…the Garden of Lights?  Palace of Lights?  The entire family headed out and I had a bonehead moment when I arrived with the tickets I had ordered the night before and the ticket taker said “But sir, these tickets are for YESTERDAY!”  That’s what happens when you are on holidays…you get your days mixed up!  Luckily a quick visit to the customer service desk allowed us to go in.

It was a fun activity to bring the kids to.  It was probably not the regular admission of $40/adult but Vero had scored a family pass from a friend which brought the price down significantly.  We needed to get the kids out and do SOMETHING considering freezing rain had kept us indoors most of our holidays!

During flu season this is what we all loved to see happen!

I can only imagine that Grandma is teaching the kids how to play a game.

Sierra showing Poppa how to play Connect Four

Bahahah!

Fun sled times!

A trip to school one morning

Vero got to go out with some friends one night while I just left the kids alone in their bedrooms to fend for themselves.  Vero, I’m kidding!

I smartly asked if we could bring a friend along to the park with us (aka, I wanted them to do all the work)

It was quite icy in the park so I was showing the girls how much fun they could have rolling down the hill.  They had so much fun that they decided to continue on flat land!

This would be Sierra’s second haircut.  Her first one was a year before at the hairdresser but she didn’t want to go so Maman decided to do it herself.

This photo was taken on January 5th.  It was the last day of us opening Christmas gifts.  It started out quick but Sierra (or us?) lost interest after a few days and Sierra was happy with what she had so we didn’t push her too much on opening gifts.  

Princess Sierra

I love how I didn’t realize my finger was holding the button down for so long.  Google made a hilarious collage of essentially the same photo.  I never get tired of the walk down by the river across from the Parliament buildings.

I can’t even remember the reason for this photo.  I would like to think that it was because Sierra chose my outfit but we all know that I probably put this on myself because I am very stylish.

I took back all my comments about Ottawa weather when I noticed this temperature forecast for Kapuskasing!

A big moment in Sierra’s life…her first attempt at playing an adventure game on the computer!  We were playing a remake of Space Quest II that had just been released.  I was showing her how to use the mouse to move the character around a room.  Her first attempt was decent.  She kept clicking the mouse buttons which would change the cursor’s function so sometimes she couldn’t walk around.  But it’s a good skill to teach her.

Hanging out at the park one morning

We will have to send this to Paul and Ringo one day!

And Maman says she doesn’t like computer games!  Here she was showing Sierra how to play Donald Duck’s Playground…a favourite of Maman and Matante Anne-Marie!

Sierra was nice enough to shovel the porch after a big dump of snow

We went out to Larose Forest and found some friends were heading there at the same time!

Other than the focus being off, I’m glad we got a shot of all of us out for a walk.  We had gone down a trail I wasn’t familiar with so we decided to come back the way we came in case it took us somewhere where it would take us hours to get out.  Poor Sierra’s hands were hold so she was anxious to leave.  We bought her some different mittens after this excursion so we are hoping they will do the trick on future treks.

I think this is called an ice jam?

Mom and I have been playing Carcasonne on the iPad.  I send her these victory shots from time to time after I win a game.

The snowbanks are getting high around the daycare so Sierra likes to climb them.

Vero and I are starting to eat less meat (after we watched a documentary called Game Changers) and this was Vero’s attempt at cauliflower wings.  I have to say I enjoyed them a lot more than I thought I would!

Sierra was quite well hidden during hide and seek!

I believe this may have been the second time Sierra had ever been on skates.  We assembled this skating aid that morning and decided to take it out for a spin on a very mild day.  I have to admit that I feel quite useless when it comes to teaching her how to skate because I don’t even know how to skate!

Fun in the snow!

The snow was incredibly sticky that we built the largest snowman known to man!

Frosty lives!  I love how the previous Frosty’s scarf and toque were buried in the snow and ice and I had to chip it out to use with his reincarnated form.