Sierra’s 13 month

Lucky number 13 turned out to be pretty lucky…Sierra has started to walk, but not until later in the month.

Things of interest:

• It’s very interesting to see her take 13 steps and then stop.  Then try again.  Then stop. I’m confident that next month we won’t see her crawl around that much anymore.
• I’ve also seen her handle Megablocks (aka, large Legos) quite well.  She is a curious little person who isn’t afraid of a whole lot.  She even flipped out of the floating duck into the pool (don’t worry, I was there to catch her) but she didn’t cry, she just looked a little shocked.
• I love how she mimics my fake laugh.  I go “ha ha ha ha” and she will do the same thing.
• She says words like “Ba ba” and “Ma ma” but we’re not entirely sure if she is associating them to an actual thing or not.  I think ‘ba ba’ might be water but it’s hard to tell.
• She seems to be enjoying daycare quite a bit.  My only test for that theory is that she is comfortable going into Madame Orette’s arms in the morning and she seems happy to see us when she leaves at night.

We were lucky enough to spend a morning at the Great Glebe Garage sale with Trish and Aaron.  The GGGS has a special place in our hearts….we go every year we can to celebrate our first date over again.  Last year we had to miss it because Sierra decided she needed to be born that day!

Aunt Trish teaching Sierra the benefits of a remote control.

 

 

At the beginning of the month we headed out to the Vars community garage sale.  Sierra wanted these sweet bongos so we picked them up for $3!  Also, I have to say I love this backpack for Sierra.  While I thoroughly enjoyed the sling that carries a baby in front of you, I have to say a twenty pounder gets pretty heavy so it’s pretty marvelous that I can just switch and put her on my back.  We bring that backpack everywhere as we feel she likes riding up high compared to being in a stroller.

Sierra and I were looking for Mom at Wal-Mart and we decided to give this tricycle a try.  She might be a little too young for it.

Sue and Lynn introducing Sierra to Ryley.

Mina, Etienne and I at the Charitable Campaign relay race.  Mina appreciated the pepperette I brought along after his race!

Sierra and Mom are enjoying the summer days. 

A typical lunch hour with Etienne generally involves a walk around the Ottawa River and finding something to eat.  On this particular day the lunch gods has blessed us with this scene: the Gatineau Festibiere Festival was setting up and we found these chairs down by the river for some reason.  They, along with this amazing view of Parliament on a sunny day, were calling our name.  Might have been the best day of the summer!

Andre tipped us off to the fact that his workplace (Library and Archives Preservation Center) had an open house.  It was quite an amazing trip through the center – they store all types of artwork, artifacts, film, etc.  Anything Canadian makes its ways to this temperature/humidity controlled center.

 

A sample of the goods.

Restoration.

Check out the old equipment Andre has to play with!

Since I was already in the area visiting the preservation center, I dropped by Etienne’s house for Raphaelle’s birthday party!  It was a great party and it was great meeting all of Etienne’s family.  Let’s be honest though, I really was there to check out the new keg fridge he had purchased from Costco.  If I had to do it all over again, I would just buy one of these things.  They are fantastic.

Sierra has some East coast blood in her.

Sierra hanging out Grand-papa et Grand-maman before they headed off to Portugal. 

Cheese!  June is always home to the Sparks Street Chicken and Rib festival.  Robin invited us over to indulge in some pulled pork and managed to book a boardroom for lunch.  I spent the hour hanging out with Ethan watching some trucks go by, spinning him around in office chairs and basically doing the things I’ve always wanted to do in a boardroom but am not allowed to because I am an ‘adult’.

 

You never know what we’ll find on a lunch hour walk!

Trying on some new shades.  This lasts for approximately 3.2 seconds before she takes them off.

Father’s Day with my girl!  We tried out a smoked meat sandwich from the pizza shop in Vars.  Not bad!

Hanging out in the pool.

Neckties ARE relevant if they appear in a Father’s day card!  I also loved the book of photos from the past year of my life with Sierra.  Very thoughtful!

Uncle Mike dropping in for a visit.

I crack up every time I see this photo.

The front lawn is their favourite spot.

Mike and Melanie had a post-wedding/birthday celebration and they roasted a pig for the event!  Here’s Dad and Mike placing the pig.

Prepping the area.

The aftermath.  I had a good laugh when someone posted on Facebook ‘Great pig roast!” and Uncle Fred replied ‘Not for the pig!”

Showing some love.

Sierra’s first pig roast!

“Hey lady, check out my ride.”

Lawn games are incredibly more fun when you figure out a way to involve the kids.

Mom and Andre discussing the best way to roast a pig.

 

Sierra and Dad racked up the kilometers on this thing.

Busted!

After my bad batch of beer last month, I decided to improve my brewing process and I created a fermentation chamber out of a mini-fridge that was hanging around the garage (aka, it’s Andréane’s old fridge that she left here after finishing university.  I’m pretty sure there is a statute of limitations surrounding these kind of things.  It’s mine now!).  For those not in the know, a fermentation can be any type of box (fridge, freezer, insulated box) that can control the temperature so the beer properly ferments.  In the past, I would simply store the beer in my storage room and hope for the best.  The storage room is also the spot where my boiler is so the temperature fluctuates quite a bit.  This is NOT what you want during fermentation of beer.

I bought a temperature controller (seen here).  You tell it what temperature you want, and then you plug in your cooling (the actual fridge) and heating (I bought a 25W heating mat used to keep reptile aquariums warm) and the controller bounces between the two to ensure the temperature stays fairly steady.  Hopefully I’ll see some improvements in my beer in the future!  Honestly, I love my beer as it is, so it can only get better.

Bam!  Another month gone by!  Vero originally wanted to take these monthly photos with the blackboard up until the 12th month but I want to see how long we can go!  Here’s to seeing 100 months!