It’s been a rough month with Sierra as she has caught a couple of viruses from the daycare. This year was the worst the daycare has seen in a decade. It even wiped out some of the staff for close to a week!
I remember hearing Sierra over the monitor saying her bellybutton hurt. I went in and asked if she rolled onto her doll’s head and she said yes. Then I went back to bed and she kept complaining that her bellybutton hurt. It dawned on me….she wasn’t talking about her bellybutton, she was talking about her belly! I rushed back in but the damage was done as she had vomited in her bed. Poor thing. The rest of the night was spent over a bucket and watching Dora the Explorer. Pro tip for parents: if you notice that there is a really bad stomach bug going around the daycare, don’t decide one night to pound back a couple of beer, and head to bed around 11pm when there is a high probability that you will wake at 2am and have to stay awake helping out a poor girl being sick!
Sierra really enjoyed Halloween and is gearing up for Christmas now. It’s great to see that she fully grasps these things and now it’s up to us to figure out what sort of traditions we want to have. Sierra’s already forced us into the “let me have a Halloween candy after supper!” tradition! We are starting to let her know about Santa Claus visiting the house at the end of December which has always been a welcome visit in my house!
Sierra is 95% self-sufficient at 3.5 years old. Saturday and Sunday mornings consist of me getting some hummus and crackers for her, going downstairs and turning on Dora the Explorer for her. I can go to the office and do things like updating this blog for you all!
I’m not sure why I took this photo one morning but I must have been proud of the work I put into her hair that morning. These days it’s rare that she wants a lulu or clips so when I manage to convince her it’s a treat. I’m trying to think of what a lulu is in English…hair elastic?
It was an exciting day at the daycare as everyone got their nails and faces painted!
Halloween! Sierra’s Dora outfit came out pretty good!
Our team decided to have a clown theme this year. Nick put it best “I really enjoy how all of us came as different versions of clowns!”
So here’s the thing…Halloween was a wash. Literally. Torrential downpours hit the Nation’s Capital this year and it sucked! Vero was nice enough to head out with Sierra and I stayed at home with Ezra handing out candy. We ended up giving only half of the regular amount (around 45 pieces) which must be because of all the rain. Kids weren’t venturing too far outside this cold, rainy night. Vero did come up with a genius idea of putting Sierra in her parka but with a Dora apron.
Ezra and I watched An American Werewolf in London while handing out candies. Did you know the director of that film also directed Michael Jackson’s Thriller video?
What a haul!
I think these poppy stickers are a great idea (except they didn’t really stick to this type of jacket).
Bahaha! Facebook has some gems sometimes.
The neighbours missed Halloween due to illness so a couple of days later they managed to score a LOT of candy considering we had boxes of it left!
I get a call from Vero saying there is a water leak in the basement. GREAT. Luckily the leak was not to the boiler as I had originally feared. But it still was a pinhole leak spraying water in behind a wall. Vero said the latex paint had a giant bubble forming out of the wall that she has to poke with a fork to get the water out!
I took this picture to show all home renovators what NOT to do. When you have an unfinished basement and are thinking of putting some walls up, please don’t build a wall where it’s impossible to get to some shut off valves! Ridiculous! I actually ended up having to cut a piece of the joist out of this because after I fixed the actual leak down the line, when I went to turn the water back on this valve wouldn’t stop leaking! This was happening to me at 9pm at night! I managed to get the valve into a spot where it was dripping once a minute. I put a towel in there and decided to wait until Dad showed up that weekend to give me a hand.
I have to thank my parents for giving me the skills to repair things in the house. Generally I can wait for someone to help me but this was one of the first times that I looked at the issue and said to myself “I have the skills required to fix this. Just get it done no matter how long it takes.” It was a pain working on the piping in behind the wall but I managed to get it done with the help of some Sharkbites.
I also love how I just realized I spoke about this already on the blog!
Sierra is a big fan of Passe-Partout so I took this photo at work for her.
Troy and Connie sent up these nice earmuffs for Sierra. She wears them all the time!
We’ve always had this doghouse on our property.
No more! Dad was itching to get outside and do something one morning so we decided to take down this doghouse. What a pain. It had this really sturdy rooftop built with shingles that we had to take down and cut up into manageable pieces. What a job! I’ll probably find a bunch of things in the spring that need cleaning up. I am thankful I figured out there was a Vars dump just down the road to drop things off to! If anyone needs 50 feet of chain link fence and some of the accessories, they are yours!
Sierra’s getting pretty good at putting her snowsuit on.
First snow of the year came quite early in November this year! Sierra wasn’t too excited about going to the daycare until I mentioned we could go on the sled.
A typical Saturday morning for Sierra.
Heading out for a walk.
Sierra is really nice when it comes to letting Maman have a nap.
At least the snowfall let us get some holiday photos done in time for Christmas.
I died of laughter for this one.
Sierra trying to catch Maman.
Sierra is now understanding the concept of what cashiers do.
The snow left us as fast as it came in! Sierra and I took a walk around the neighbourhood and ended up at her daycare’s playground.
Krista and the kids came out for a beautiful Sunday afternoon so we could see the Russell Christmas parade.
Fire trucks!
Merry KISSmas! Vero couldn’t stop laughing at this float.
Nor the dinosaurs!
The main man and lady themselves!
I hadn’t been to a Christmas parade in years. I had forgotten that the kids get A LOT of candy.
Sierra surprised me a few days ago when she drew this picture and said “This is for your friend Etienne.” She must hear me speak about him a lot. She’s only met him once in the summer. How nice of her! She also drew another bunch of pictures for him later in the weekend so I suggested they go to my other friends. What a pleasant surprise my friends have in store on Monday morning!
