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Sierra’s 18th Month

We’ve officially hit the point where we’ve realized we are taking less and less pictures of Sierra!  I was compiling them for this post and thought “Wow, we didn’t pull out the camera all that much in the past month!”  That is probably because life has settled into what I like to call ‘post-deck building/winter is coming’.  We have become lethargic and entered into a routine.  Pick up Sierra from daycare, get home, make supper for all of us, give her a bath, play with her a bit and then put her in bed between 7-7:30PM.  Nothing much photoworthy there!

Notable events in the past month:

  • We switched the car seats from rear facing to front facing.  This kind of blew Sierra’s mind the first couple of days!  She didn’t know what this new world was all about.  Now she can see the front dash stereo instead of the back of a seat!  She does have a tendency to kick off her winter boots and socks during the ride now which is always interesting when we get to our destination.  “Hey, where did her sock go?”
  • Sierra really likes helping out with things around the house.  She now helps with the dustpan and broom.  She helps put clothes in the washer and dryer.  We are starting to unload the dishwasher with her which is hilarious when we pass her a cup and she proceeds to try and drink from it.
  • She is starting to drink straight from a cup and actually prefers it!  She would rarely be drinking milk and we were wondering if she didn’t like it anymore but as soon as we took the top off of the cup, she gulped it down.
  • We are starting her on different foods in the ‘soy’ category right now and so far, so good.  We have given her soy milk with no issues and she also had a grilled cheese sandwich and some Kraft Dinner in the past few weeks.  It’s getting closer and closer to her being able to eat from our plates.  I had a good laugh last night when Vero ended up with half a meal when Sierra ate all her asparagus, mushroom and most of her rice!
  • There has been some snowfall that has come and gone, and come again.  Winter is officially here!  I’m not sure how much Sierra likes getting bundled up and riding in the car, but she’ll have to learn to tough it out on her way to daycare.
  • She gets really interested when she hears some piano or accordion music playing.  The past few mornings I have been playing Les Cowboys Fringants and some classic french accordion tunes on YouTube and she bops along and claps along.  I took a video but it doesn’t seem to want to upload to Google Photos so I’ll have to see what’s going on there.

Uh oh, looks like something bad happened with that batch of beer of mine.  I’ve read online that it can still be salvaged.  I transferred everything to a carboy and put it into the fermentation chamber and I haven’t seen anything else growing in it.

Sierra loves her ‘How to Speak like a Wookiee’ book.  She even has it in the car now so I’m pretty sure I’m conversing with Chewbacca most of the time while in the car.

Mom and Dad came up for a visit and helped finish off the rest of the deck.  It was greatly appreciated!  Sierra clearly loves hanging out with Poppa for story time.

I thought it was hilarious to see her like this so I figured I should get a video of it for historical reference.

Unfortunately when Mom and Dad were visiting Sierra got sick and then we all proceeded to get the stomach flu.  Not fun!  However, it was a blessing in disguise for Mom who had forgot her passport in Kapuskasing and couldn’t go to the United States on a trip.  If she had gone, she would have been pretty sick on the train down!

Vero and Dad working hard at putting some boards down.  They were flying that day!  After a bunch of days of rain we ended up with a really nice day to do some work.  I also remember the day before I leaned over to put a board down and my body said “Nope.  Not gonna happen.”  Then I crashed for the rest of the day with the flu.

My drill was faster.

Smashing Pumpkins!

When I bring Sierra shopping, I try to do so when I’m not in a rush so she can have some fun along the way.  She LOVED going down the freezer aisle and laughed every time she opened and closed the freezer doors.

Not exactly sure what we were doing here.

We managed to get the garage cleaned up before the winter hit.  It was the first time Sierra could walk around in there.  Granted, I’m not going to let her do that alone considering there’s still a lot of dangerous stuff…including flame! 

We decided to get some wood ready for a fire and Sierra was a great helper.

I was joking with the daycare provider that she probably had her kids raking up her lawn!  I also enjoy how there is a picture of a person under these leaves.  Is this supposed to be a creature of the woods?

 

I really love this photo I was sent of Nanny and Abbey making ginger snaps together.  Hopefully Sierra will get the same opportunity one day!

Vero sent me out for five bags of macaroni for a salad for Marty’s 40th birthday party.  In my head I was thinking “I’m pretty sure this is way too much.”  But then my other side of my brain said “If you don’t come back with five bags, she’s going to be upset.”  Anyhow, the first voice was correct and I didn’t have to buy club size bags of macaroni to feed an army.

 

Rob, Janice and Jenna were nice enough to hang out with Sierra one evening so we could attend Marty’s 40th birthday party.  Sierra reported back in saying she quite digs these people.

Speaking about the excellent party, Victor was having fun with my beer.

Not a whole lot to report back from the party other than it was a killer time and I met this hot mama.

Sierra sure loves her Cheerios.

I would also be screaming if this was chasing me around.

Google makes some funny animations.

I would hate to be the 103 year old who isn’t allowed to play with this toy any longer!

It’s a rare sight to see Salt and Vinegar chips available at Costco.  Sierra insisted we stock up.

Here’s another photo from the series “It’s not always fun and games!”

I wonder if everyone has the same issue we have in getting a decent shot of the family?

Somehow Sierra had her first grilled cheese sandwich without me there!  At least Vero filmed it for me!

This is our new game downstairs.  It’s also coupled with the game of “DO NOT TOUCH THE FIREPLACE!”

Sierra calls this one “Bob Ross, eat your heart out.”

Sierra’s first Kraft Dinner!  Saturdays will never be the same.  Or actually, I guess they will always be the same?

Winner for the most out of focus picture of the night goes to my camera.  I went to Saint-Lazare with Etienne, Alex and Alex as part of the Magical Mystery Musical Event…an event where Etienne, Mina and myself auction a night out on the town where the winner doesn’t know what they are in for.  Granted, I screwed up this years mystery and emailed the winner asking him details about the band we were going to see.  Doh! 

A recurring theme in our Mystery Events is that Etienne and I look for a hotel that has some really bad reviews.  It’s all part of the adventure!  This place did not disappoint.  We were not sure if it was better to sleep on top of the covers or within them!

I also love how we had stopped by Beau’s Brewery on the way to Vaudreuil and the guys, upon arriving said “Our craft beer is too good for this place!  We need something else!” and they showed up in the room with this.

 

It’s always a great time seeing Les Cowboys Fringants on stage.  This was my second time seeing them and they do not disappoint.  The crowd was super into it, the place was quite small so we had a great view wherever we went and it was easy enough to get a beer whenever we wanted.  Excellent night!

Wow, that’s a lot of people on stage!

On the way home, we had the craziest cab ride.  The cab driver cranked the tunes but the radio stations were primarily static.  So you would be sitting there listening to Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer at high volume and then have static blare into your eardrum.  The woman wouldn’t even talk to us when we asked a few questions.  As you can see by my message to the other guys in the cab, I thought it was my last night on earth.

All I can say about this motel is that I went to bed without pink eye, and somehow woke up with it.

Sierra is quite good at handling the dustpan.

She quite enjoyed the giant mittens!