Lordy lordy, look who’s forty (months)!
Oh boy, I’m looking at these photos from the end of August thinking “Where did the summer go? It’s freezing nowadays!” Gone are the days where Sierra hops on her bicycle after work. Gone are the days of lazing on the back deck. It’s all gone!
But with the fall comes the rain and Sierra in a yellow rain jacket is a fun sight.
Sierra has been really good with her baby brother in the past month. We have noticed she has regressed to a child who needs help with everything “Help me with my clothes.”, “Help me eat.”, “Help me exist on this planet you call Earth.” But if that’s the worst that is happening, we are fine with it. She really wants to help out with Ezra but knows the boundaries if we don’t want her to help out (aka, when she has a cold and we don’t want her anywhere near him!)
I saw this on Facebook and still can’t stop laughing about it.
These two jokers are up to no good!
Her and Abbey got to hang out in some indoor park in Orleans while Vero and I stayed home with Ezra one morning. It was really great to see family for a few days. It sucked for John because he came down with a cold so he slept in the van the first night he was there in fear that he would get the baby sick!!
Hanging out with friends
I love how this picture from daycare shows a blur of Sierra running!
One Saturday morning Sierra, Ezra and I hit the road to let Maman sleep a little. Here is Sierra showing off her bicycle. She quite loves this thing!
I remember last year Sierra couldn’t even hold onto these chains!
We were looking for some really nice rocks to bring home to show Maman. I found this one and Sierra said “WHOAAAAAA.” She figured she could push it home. Sierra is quite stubborn when things don’t go here way!
I made the rookie mistake of not packing a water bottle for our adventures around the neighbourhood so we quenched our thirst with a Mr. Freeze when we got home.
While I sat out in the sun on the lawn I snapped some great pictures of Sierra. The wind just whipped her hair up for this shot and I quite like it.
I also love the collage Google Photos made of the same spot.
My go-to song to hum to the kids is the theme song from The Friendly Giant. Vero made me realize that I had never introduced Sierra to it so we put on an episode and she quite enjoyed it!
It’s always a good time when we get the cool cart at Home Depot!
These days, Sierra’s bedtime routine is as follows: Read a book. Give her Froggie. Give her the blanket. Give her a sheet. Give her the comforter. Tuck her in. Give her a hug. Give her an Eskimo kiss. Say good night. Say I love you. She’s nice enough to respond ‘I wuv you.”
Vero was super excited to show me that she could fit in non-maternity clothes again!
While out for a walk one morning we stumbled upon a new food truck in Vars…Mr. Panino! It was quite odd to see a food truck parked in someone’s driveway but sure enough, they were open for business! We had a great panini from them. We will definitely go again!
We didn’t plant much this year but here was the jalapeno plant near the end of the summer.
So here is a picture of the start of my new career…children’s entertainer! Now, a few months ago the daycare workers caught wind that I play music and they suggested I drop by one morning to play some children’s tunes. This generally isn’t a huge request but singing French songs is a whole new ballgame! I didn’t practice too much at the beginning of the summer but I realized that while I was off on parental leave I should make it a point to drop in. I brought my dulcimer one morning just to double check a few things on how to sing certain songs…how many verses in ‘Au claire de la lune’? Things like that. So this was my test run at 7am one morning.
I find this photo from daycare hilarious because it was captioned “Sierra decided to play dentist and measured everyone’s teeth.”
Ready to cruise!
Sierra was wondering what headphones were all about so I plugged them into the stereo and let her listen to some Stan Rogers.
I felt this sign at St-Hubert in Casselman was made for me.
Sierra came up with a new concoction…coleslaw mixed with the St-Hubert sauce. Yum?
Piano recital
Saturday morning and both Ezra and Maman are sleeping. What should we do? Superball!
We were going through the garage and Sierra yelled ‘piggy back!’. I’m excited that she is loving this thing again considering the amount of money we spent on it!
Max came over for a visit to show off his drumming chops.
Post-gig picture
I’ve been getting Sierra to play Kirby on the Super Nintendo and Vero said “That can be your thing. I don’t need to hang around and play video games.” Vero hates video games. She thinks they are useless. You can see how amused she was when I said “But Vero she really really really wants YOU to sit with her and watch.” I really like the Kirby game where there are no enemies for her to go against…she just races against an opponent and can practice her walking and jumping skills.
Sierra helping with the ribs we made in the instant pot. Mega success with this recipe!
I had a good laugh when I saw this in Vars.
A photo of my first gig as a children’s entertainer! I even got to record it which was great. The twenty minutes flew by. Let me tell you…playing for kids is hilariously chaotic. At one point I’m playing an easy ABC alphabet song and when I’m at the end of the song and need to refer to my piece of paper I notice that Sierra has already taken and thrown it away! We also had kids asking for other songs while I was mid-song on another song! Oh man, it was hilarious! I think the fun part was when I was singing Michaud est monté dans un grand pommier and we would just sing the song again put insert a different kids name each time. They had a good laugh at that, especially when I tried to cram three kids names in it at one time! Thanks for the opportunity to come and play for the kids!
Sierra, future ninja?
Grandma and Poppa came back from Gaspé and stayed a few days to help us out.
The Tickle Monster attacked Poppa!
Figuring out a complex puzzle.
We went out to the Cumberland Market one Saturday morning in search for everything to make some dill pickles.
Poppa and Sierra eating some carrots and beans.
Our friend was super nice to invite Sierra over for a few hours so these two jokers could play together. It’s a whole new world thinking Sierra has friends she can go hang out with!
Other than Grandma forgetting her recipe, I would say the pickles turned out to be a success! There is a good photo of the entire family around the pickles but I believe Mom has them still on her camera. Mom, time to send those over!
Bonne fete Maman!
Tandréane dropped by for an hour while in town with her friend. Sierra loved showing her her bedroom.
Saturday morning lounge time.
A year ago I don’t think she was navigating these as well!
I pulled the Lite Brite out for Sierra one morning. She quite enjoys it!
Lately when I pick up Sierra from daycare she insists that I sit on the opposite side of the bench. “Dad sit HERE (points at one end), moi sit HERE. (points at the other end)”
Hey.
So here’s something I did for the first time…I marched for a cause. This part of the Global Climate Strike. I had heard my manager was heading to it so I decided to tag along for the good cause. It was quite interesting to see the amount of people assemble for a cause. It was quite moving. It really hit me when we all converged onto Portage bridge and you could see the amount of people on the bridge. It was a slow moving march and I suppose that’s what happens with tens of thousands of people. Ironically right before we headed out for this march we grabbed a bite to eat and the person serving us was against the march and we weren’t exactly sure how to respond considering we were literally grabbing a sandwich and joining the thousands of people outside. We didn’t say anything and it’s always good to remember that everyone is entitled to their opinions.
The crew
I grabbed a screenshot of the Hill cam at the moment we arrived.
I was disappointed I didn’t think of making a clever sign! There were some decent ones out there.
My submission for the caption contest.
Sierra was pretty excited that we got to hang out with some friends after daycare one day for a BBQ. Could it be the last BBQ of the season? Probably!
Approximately 15 pounds of half eaten food was left after this gathering of kids at the dinner table.
I’m pretty excited that Sierra and her friend was sweeping up all the cobwebs around the area! Next stop: my house!