It was a very good year...

2015 was a very good year. We used the word "fratricide" a lot less. We went on many adventures. We made decisions about our family and our house. Alice entered school and Isaac a swanky daycare. We bought a cargo bike. We traveled (of course). We laughed. We cried. We were silly and in times serious. I drank beer and Laura ate chocolate, and vice versa. The kids grew a bit and we were happy to meet the new versions of the people that we love so much, while being a bit sad about losing the versions that they were. It's cliché, but they grow up so damn fast - and Alice is barely four!

Professionally I feel I'm not the passionate person I was 10 years ago. As a person I feel I'm more relaxed and able to give people more slack for mistakes because honestly who knows what shit is going down in someone else's life.

I feel on average more tired than before, but I think that's just because Isaac isn't as good a sleeper as his sister naturally has been. But he's getting better. It's getting better.

As a couple I'm feeling that we're getting better at being a couple with kids. But like everything else, it's a work in progress. I don't ever want to get to a point of not trying, of thinking "meh, it's good enough".

Our social life... well, let's just say that it's neglected but one day we'll get back to working on it.

It's been a very good year. But I'm pretty excited about 2016. :-D

Star Wars ep 7

We did it. We made it out to see Star Wars for a 90% full 10 am showing. It was great. It met all my expectations: 1) it was a Star Wars movie 2) it had lightsabers in it 3) there were spaceships. Other than that, I'm was trying to not hope too much. I've been hurt before.

It was a pretty great day. The weather is abnormally warm. We saw Star Wars. Then a great lunch. Ran a bunch of errands and at the end of the night no child had bludgeoned another one. My favourite part was spending time with my Laura. It can't really get better than that.

Experiences Not Things

Experiences Not Things (ENT) is what I'm calling a goal for next year. Apparently it's science. It's going to be difficult to fight my natural tendency to hoard. We've been working on this for a while with our purges of stuff. We were looking at piles of the kids toys that they don't play with and were just aggressive with throwing out things. It felt good, but I know we've got a mountain of stuff still to move, which is funny being in a small house.

I've not actually read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, but what I did learn was that if something doesn't bring you joy, thank it and then get rid of it. I need to do this aggressively with my closet.

There are some things that I won't get rid of. Lego. Photos. Maybe some wooden boxes that I made. Almost everything else better keep working at bringing me joy or BAM.

Warmest December yet

In the past, as soon as the snow starts to fly I hang up the bike helmet. This year... well, it's Dec 14th and still no snow. None that has stayed anyways. And we keep on having highs in 6-11 range. That with how crappy all the construction has been has let to more biking than normal. I still have not biked in with Isaac for a while. I've regretted that. But I also don't want to be biking in the dark with him.

All that said, the other day Alice went to a kids birthday party at the Museum of Nature which has horrible parking. How do you get their in your party dress and looking like a million bucks? Why on the back of your chauffeured bike of course!

Don't be fooled. There's a party dress under those pink splash pants.

The converstations we have

[coughing coming from the 4yo's room who stayed home sick today from school]
[squeak of door opening]
4yo: Daddy? Guess what.
Me: What?
4yo: While you were at work today, I went to kiddy cob-a-ler and got new indoor shoes.
Me: Oh.
4yo: They are indoor shoes. So next time you come to after care, we need to bring those shoes home. So, keep that in mind.
Me: Okay. Goodnight.
[squeak of door closing. Muffled coughing]

Our princess and the little bear

It's been wonderful how well the kids are getting along (most of the time). Tonight Isaac was running around in his Nicholas Oldland bear jp's saying "roar!". Alice of course was a princess from Frozen or a generic Disney princess. Or villain. Who knows. But as pair, they are doing quite well. It's almost like the beginning of a story book. Maybe not the most interesting story book because the conclusion is teeth brushing and being tucked into bed. But I'm sure that you get the idea.

Tonight we had Alice's fourth fourth birthday party. I was a bit tired after the 3rd party, but... I'm hoping to go to work tomorrow and get some well earned rest. Without kids I spent the weekend recharging. With kids it's the opposite. Oie.

Post-haircut. Isaac was looking a bit blue. His hair of course.

Pirate Princess. Yaarrr!

A family day

Yesterday Alice was sick. Today we were going to send her to school, but her right eye looked a bit red and I figured they'd send her home anyways. So what did we do?

We went on an adventure.

We took the kids to get their haircuts - a first for Isaac. Isaac screamed which allowed me to find the family in the third hair cutting place in the strip mall. His hair ended up being blue. Alice sat very still and listened to the lady that did her hair.

Later we put up the outside Christmas lights. Who doesn't want to climb ladder and trees in the dark with two young children running around below?

Inside for stories, playtime, dinner, etc. We're now trying to get things cleaned up because of the family events we're hosting this weekend. Laura informed me while she was cleaning the bathroom she found something growing. You know, the usual stuff.

It was a good day.

Some of the family. Happy as children are with candy. :-D

I fell yesterday on my bike

Don't worry, I was fine. I was barely moving and somehow didn't strain or bruise anything. I still don't know how that works. I think what happened is I was on an incline on the path by the NAC and I stopped to look at a road closure on my route. I tried to do a break stand without thinking about it and all of a sudden my rear tire kicked out to the right and I was down on my left side. 

Honestly it was frightening. 

Things that I think contributed to it was I was on Laura's bike which I think has the original 8 (?) year old tires, the tires got a bit iced / snowed up on my way in, and there was a layer of ice on the path. 

Did I enjoy biking in the snow and cold? Yes I did. Will I do it with my route that has so many non-paths? No. I will waste my time and be slightly less happy because I want to make it through the winter alive and unhurt. 

Man, I'd be so much happier if I could teleport. 

Train!

We got Isaac a duplo train set. With a dog. He was so happy it was so cute. It was totally the right choice. Days like this make me feel that I'm slowly getting better at this parenting thing. 

That is all. 

The more I know, it changes what I know

Having a Florida vacation with multiple young children, it changes my memories of being here when I was 5. The pace, the self imposed calm, the limited tasks, and the seemly out of character treats. I'm doing what my parents did with us as small kids. I'm doing what all parents do with their kids. Not because of any planning, but because that's just how things happen. It's very weird to look back on a 30 year memory and see it from the opposite side.

You are the wheelman

Going around legoland, Isaac loves the rides that have a steering wheel. Most of them he has to be strapped in so he can't actually reach the wheel while the ride is in motion. Except for the tractors in duplo village. He totally drives that. His sister wants him to. He turns the wheel the correct way on the curves and straightens it on the straight aways. 

That boy has a significant amount of fun doing that.

Once he starts going on a big wheel or similar he will be difficult to catch. And he won't want to get off ever. 

What a difference a year makes

Somehow we've gone through a year and things are vastly different. Isaac is much more of a handful by running away with his pivot dodge. We no longer use the term "fraticide" on a daily basis. Alice is in school and learning so much that we never taught her. The kids are hugging and really caring for each other as long as they're not really tired or competing for a toy / object. 

Things are going much more smoothly. This is nice. I didn't know a year ago we would be here. 

Happiness. 

Contemplating the unthinkable

I'm debating about doing something that I'd never thought that I'd do. I'm thinking about going on a trip without a "real" camera. Just our phones.

I feel so unclean.

We're going to an amusement park with 2 small children. I don't expect that there will be anything that I'm really going to want a big camera for. Maybe with an exception of a possible trip to a aquarium, but our dslr doesn't do very well in low light. I've already got a lot of blurry pictures in aquariums.

Now, having said that, my phone's camera is pretty awesome. If you're just counting megapixes, then it has 2 more than our dslr. It does pretty well in low light too. Oh, HDR, slow-mo, etc. Our dslr only takes awesome pictures. Who needs that?

I love taking great photos that I'm proud of. It just becomes a decision of weight / bulk / durability vs being able to do stuff with the kids. Maybe that means for the next camera I should be focusing (pun intended) on a smaller camera. :-/

Isaac words

There is no way that I'm going to remember how Isaac says things. But like all kids around 1.5 years, it's super cute and makes me so happy. Yay he's saying words!

So, without delay, I'll try capture some words.

• Ray ray... preeee-ease! (raisins please)
• Ahh-ya (Alice)
• Mine (mine)
• Doooonnne (done)
• teese (cheese)
• That (that)

I had a ton more, but my brain had decided to check out. That should be enough for now.

The best commute ever

It's been a while since I've been on my bike. Being sick, getting over being sick, poor weather, etc. I've avoided it because I didn't want to get sick again.

This week I started to bike again. It's also has been abnormally warm, so that helped. And I really enjoy biking by myself. It's super fast, no one talking all the time, don't have to be super-paranoid about every car or pedestrian doing something that would bring me to certain death, etc.

But I miss biking with my little guy sometimes. So much. It just bums me out to think about what I am missing. It's like if you eat hamburgers all the time and you really enjoy them. But then you try prime rib roast or something likewise fancy, no matter how much you enjoyed burgers before it's a bit hard to go back to them.

Yesterday got up to 19C (feels like 23), so on the bike home no mitts or neck warmer for Isaac. And no cold wind either. He was going "weee!!" and ring ring ringing the bell as we biked down Laurier. He made many people smile, and at least a dozen people laugh. Happy children have that effect on people. We pointed about ducks, dogs, etc. that we saw. He pointed out bridges. Like, all of them. We talked the whole way home.

I missed that today. My ride today was too fast. No one was talking the whole time. And I had no one to keep me safe from every car or pedestrian doing something that would bring me to certain death.

These things seem to be inconveniences at first - loading a wiggly person on my bike, dealing with the extra weight, etc, soon become the best part of my day. How often can you have your arms around your child while you talk about all the things you see and experience for 20-30 minutes twice a day?

I'd like to take a selfie with him on the bike but 1) it doesn't feel safe 2) I've got a new fancy phone that I'd sad and much poorer if it got damaged. Just know that we're awesome on the bike.

I would like to be independently wealthy

I think that I could deal with that. Don't get me wrong, my life is awesome. So awesome. But wouldn't it be just a bit awesomer if we had a staff? Someone to do shit like take out the trash and mow the lawn? Someone to do the grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning? Clearly when I say "staff" I'm talking about a team of people that would take care of our needs in the background.

I might be fantasizing about this a lot. Perhaps too much.

Now, I could get up and go do grocery shopping now. Or clean up the house. Or... well, anything else on the long list of things to get done. What am I actually doing? Blogging. Then perhaps I'll eat a cookie and go to bed (yes, I already said my life is awesome).

I can't see the goal of "independently wealthy" being reached unless we seriously downgrade our living standard to something like being in a tent with a 30yo coleman cooler for a fridge. At that point what would you ask staff to do? "Jeeves, be a fellow and shake the ants out of my sleeping bag. Thank you good man."

The other way I see us like this is if we win the lotto. Now, I don't play it, but I figure that still gives us about the same likelihood of winning if I did play it, but at much lower cost.

So, I guess until someone dumps millions of dollars into our laps I'll just have to work at training the children to wait on us hand and foot. Currently that training is going... poorly.

Being super rich I'd eat a tiny cake every night. Candles only on Wednesdays though.

To my darling daughter

To my darling daughter (30+ years from now),

I hope that you are well. I'm sure (and hope!) that you have done well for yourself. You probably have a lovely home high up in the mountains, or on a tropical island with an active volcano, or deep undersea with all the mysteries that reside there. Where ever your lair is, I'm sure that it's nice and your henchmen professional. I can only assume based on your almost four year old self this is the life that you chose for yourself. Almost 4yo you requires that everything is done Just So™, that you almost reflexively choose the opposite of what your parents suggest, and the role models you've chosen are Maleficent, The Evil Queen, the step sisters and mother from Cinderella, and Aurora. I'll leave it to the reader to figure out which one is not like the other.

We both love you, so much. For the first almost four years of your life you've been a child of extremes. Either super happy and playful or... not. And you are clever. Often times I find you far too clever for your age. To be honest, your mom and I are terrified for your teenage years. Hopefully we won't choose to call them The Dark Ages, but only you will be able to decide that.

Don't think that I'm calling you evil. I don't believe that for a moment. But the cleverness, the desire for everyone to do as you command, the ability to play independently so well for long periods, and your choice of role models does suggest a certain career path.

You'll find as you grow up that stories in books usually only show us one side. Our side (good) and the other (bad). But every story has many more sides to it. Bad people are never really bad... or at least didn't start to be that way. They've just made choices that we don't agree with. Means that we tell ourselves we wouldn't have taken. We are all a White Knight in our own story.

Having said all that, we wish you the best in your presumed quest of global domination. We love you very much. Always have, always will.

Your Dad.

The pasta is in my pants!

Everywhere we go Alice starts singing the music from Frozen. It's awesome to hear her get better with the lyrics over time, but there is one part that I really enjoy her mistake. It's where Elsa says "the past is in the past!", but Alice originally heard it as "the pasta is in my pants!"  We are not only not correcting her, but we're actively encouraging the misheard version. I really enjoy it. I think that we all do.

The doom of the cottage

The family cottage has played a big part in my life growing up. Lots of fun times, growing times, times visiting with family (you get to know people much better when you sleep under the same roof). However now that my grandparents who built / owned the cottage are gone, it feels like we're a system of planets revolving around a star that is no longer there. Shortly we will all go our own ways.

It's difficult since it's 4+ hours drive away from here. It's too long to just "pop up for a weekend", so that takes a large pool of the users away from the "frequent users" group. One cousin doesn't seem interested in the family or want anything to do with us. He does use the cottage, but doesn't come to the work weekends. My other cousins partners have their own family cottages. My folks aren't really interested in going. Pretty much no one can afford to run it by themselves. I don't want to have the upkeep on the cottage - I can barely keep our own house maintained. (Please don't ask Laura how many years some of the items on the "honey do" list have been there.)

I think that the doom of the cottage is already decided. Just no one wants to acknowledge it or discuss it. I think that something will break down, mostly like after a funeral, it will be put up for sale and exit the family.

This makes me sad. This means that I won't really see my cousins anymore, have those family weekends, share special events like thanksgiving. But this is what I see coming.

The worst part about it? I think that I'll be sad to lose the piece of wall by the bathroom which marked everyone's height as we grew up. The piece of freaking wall board is what I'm stressing about.

We shall see. Maybe the cottage will be improved. Changed. Maybe revenue generated by renting it out. I don't know. Every holiday seems like one step closer to a cliff.

A butterfly day

Today we went out in the cold with the kids and waited in line for a long time to see the butterflies at Carleton. It was neat to see so many. Isaac really liked them. I think that Alice did as well but she was also a bit afraid of them.

One of the more amusing parts (for me) was when I handed over the dslr and let her take some photos. She did a pretty good job considering the heavy camera that's way too big for her. Maybe she'll inherit a love of photos. That would be a nice thing to share with her. 

Inversion of enjoyment

It's funny how some things have changed with the kids. The things that I used to really enjoy now fill me with dread while others that were always such a chore are quite enjoyable.

For instance, I used to really enjoy making dinner and having it ready for Laura when she came in the door. It felt like a fun dance that I was making up as I went along. Now it feels like falling down stairs while juggling bobcats that you're trying to pose in Anne Geddes-esque photos. At the end of it is often a poorly done tepid meal with horrible presentation. That coupled with Alice crying and saying it's the worst food in the world and she'll never eat it EVER AGAIN (eats 3 plates) and Isaac enthusiastically asking for more because he's so hungry (throws it all on the floor, pours full cup of milk down shirt), sometimes I get a bit discouraged.

Other things like commuting can be the highlight of my day. Just today I got to walk Alice to her bus stop and we played until her bus came. I rode from downtown with Isaac while we pointed out every dog, bike, truck, river (ra-raa) and dog. Did I mention dog? Yes, dog. I used to enjoy my bike rides before, but these rides make my day.

There are tons of things like that. Everything is topsy turvy.

Who is upside down here, her or me?

So tired

Lack of sleep can really mess you up. Currently I am messed up. I'm angry, sad, tired, irritable, tired, twitchy, and oh ya tired.

I need to get back to the whole "sleep when they sleep" thing. 12 solid hours here I come! Just not tonight. 

One point five years

Well, it's been 1.5 years since our 3 person family expanded to a four person family. It's a lot more complicated with 2 kids. Mostly because it requires you to keep them more than arms reach from one another during bouts of hanger or sleepiness. It's also really cool. Today Alice was showing Isaac where there were puddles to splash in and playing with him on the bed.

1.5 years old is also a really good age. The kid is a lot more interactive, you can go for walks while they hold your hands and you can describe what you see to each other. I think that when I'm out with just Isaac I get +20 social points while walking around. Everyone loves cute little kids.

Sometimes I get frustrated with things, but I look at that as a failing on my part rather than the kids. You can't expect a little kid to not throw food on the floor. I have no idea how the daycare does it.

I'm still having fun. And that's huge.

Out for a walk with mommy

It's up to us to save the world and put out this huge fire before it spreads!

Sunshine in her fancy clothes on the swing

Supermoon lunar eclipse

I don't find myself looking at the night sky as often as I think that I should. I'm totally aware that there is currently a rare lunar eclipse going on right now but I'm inside sitting on the couch. Hey, it's a bit cloudy.

The next time a lunar eclipse happens when the moon is close like this is supposed to be like in 2033. That's... so far away yet I'm sure it will go by in a blink. What will we be like? Where will we be? How much fun will have had? How much loss? It's funny how an infrequent celestial event will focus your thoughts. Will I be staring up at the sky in Star Wars crocs with Laura while we sip tea and complain about the clouds? That seems the most likely outcome.

Here's to many more laps around the local star and the dance of the planets and moons.

Jim's Theory of Assholes

When reading the news, people usually self identify as a member of a group. When someone from another opposing group does something they don't like, they inaccurately paint the whole group with the same brush. I'm sure there is a fancy name for this. Groups include race, bikes vs cars, religion, political lines, etc.

But I have a theory. It's that people are people, in about the same ratios, throughout time, race, religion, or any other diving factor. I call this: Jim's Theory of Assholes™

 If the broader group you self identify with has 5% assholes, they you can assume any other similarly sized group would have about 5% assholes. Same with selfless people, mean people, happy people, etc in their own specific ratios.

So the next time you see someone from another group doing something you think is horrible, don't assume that everyone is that group is horrible. Just think that you're seeing one of that groups Asshole Representatives (AR). Any sufficiently large enough group has a well staffed AR group. They probably liaise with your AR group and go to picnics together.

Sword of Testocles

Many people are familiar with the story of the Sword of Damocles and how Damocles had a sword hanging over him by a single horse hair and felt in constant danger. That's how our ibert child seat bracket makes me feel when there is not actually a child seat on the bike. It's a metal spike about 1 cm square (but ends in a bit of a point!) that attaches to the steering column and points straight back. It feels and looks like a 10 inch dagger pointed straight at my junk when I bike.

To say that I bike a lot more carefully might be an understatement.

The other day Laura asked to switch bikes on days she's off so she can have the bike with the ibert attachment. I might have been a bit enthusiastic when I agreed to it. I prefer my junk unskewered.

How quickly we get used to it

It was for only a very short time that I was taking the kids downtown for daycare. Now I'm just taking Isaac because Alice is in school. We talk about what we see, I try to get him to say more words, we point out every duck, dog, or squirrel. Maybe it's my imagination, but I think he says "DAK" for duck and "DAW" for dog.

Today was a normal Tuesday where Laura was off. Today was her first day alone with him and I had the freedom to bike in all by myself. It was great. At first. Then I started to miss him. There was no one to point out every dog. I had to say "Daw. Daw. DAAAWWWW!" in my head. Of course Alice wasn't there either. There was no one to sing "Do you want to build a snowman?" over, and over, and over.

It made me a bit sad.

Biking by myself... I'm not sure it will be the same.

First day of after school program

Today was the first day of a new normal: me picking up Isaac and then heading to Alice's school to pick her up. I left work on time, took my time to be safe, had good weather, and everyone was happy. I'm looking at today being a longer case scenario. Started to pack up at 4pm at work. Set up my bike with the ibert, biked / walked over to Isaac's daycare, packed my bags, picked him up, loaded him up and biked home. Put him directly from the ibert into the van (he runs off to play otherwise), put the bike away, tossed my bags into the van and drove off. Aprox 4:51 (!). Got to Alice's school 5:07, parked too far away, found were she was, took the kids back to the car parked too far away, got home aprox 5:40. Started a "fast" dinner, then bedtime routine.

I was actually thinking that it would be a lot closer to an hour than 1:40. :-/ The good news is that I think (hope) that it will just get quicker. Maybe not a lot quicker, but a bit. I made a "fast" dinner tonight of tofu and bok choy, but it's still slow. I'm considering having a ready-made meal of leftovers.

That is all for now. Now is time for hugs.

What's the lie?

Alice isn't even 4 and I'm having a hard time figuring out if she lying sometimes. For her first day of school she said she saw her old playschool teacher Jen. It's possible, but I would be surprised. So we don't really know. 

Her lies are coming faster and faster. Sometimes the only notice you have is the delay or the smile. We are probably going to have to crack down soon before it becomes a big problem.

Who should I blame for this bevaviour? Her mother clearly.

Wait, no. Maybe me. I like telling her "stories", which can be viewed as a lie. She'll ask if I'm telling her the truth and I'll ask her what she thinks. She usually gets it correct (because I'm lying). What I'm trying to develope is her critical thinking skills and for finding the truth. I think that's an important life skill, but maybe I'm just messing her up and shooting myself in the foot.

First day of school

Well, I guess we did it. We successfully raised a child to put her on a school bus and have her at school for the day. With the screaming and fighting to get her out the door (how she often reacts to new things / things that make her nervous), I have to say I was quite happy for her to be on the bus. But around noon I was really starting to miss her. Our baby, now going to school. Where did the last almost-four years go?

You can tell she had trouble too. She said "Did you miss me? I didn't miss you. [Unintelligible] asked if I missed my mom and dad and I said no." Ya... she'll do fine.

I think that Alice really does well in a classroom setting. Much better than for just us. People say that kids behave worse for their parents than anyone else. I believe them.

Today they had just half the kids there. Monday it's the full group. I'm assuming that she'll have some ups and downs, but I think that she'll do well. I'm expecting the longer days where she stays for the after school program will be the hardest. I'm guessing Thursday will be the crappiest because she'll have been going to school for 4 days in a row, second late day in a row.

I think that a lot of parents have a super difficult time with the first day. I'm... fine. Totally fine. Weird. Not what I was expecting.

Excited about getting the the bus

Ran on the bus so fast had to be called back for a photo

Dinner in time

I enjoy making my family dinner. Sometimes I'm just too tired, too late, the kids crying too much to do a good job. Last week for dinner they are crackers, scrambled eggs and nuked mix veg. The veg ended up on the ground. :-/

Tonight I had more time. I awoke from a nap and made dinner all bbq'ed since the humidix is high 30's. It was glorious.

Sweet potatoe pre-cooked in microwave, grilled Swiss chard with kidney beans and feta and a custom dressing, and soy sauce chicken theighs. Alice said "This dinner is super banana good. You should do this again". That of course is high praise from a 3yo.

It feels nice to have enough time to cook a meal my family deserves.

I can make time now

I know I should spend more time focusing on work, but sometimes when Laura and the kids are close to my office I take off a little early to hang with them. Why? Well because when I see Alice she runs towards me and says "Pick me up and 'ping me around!". Isaac walks / runs over to me and demands "na na na!".

They are little but won't be for long. I'm sure before I'm ready to stop doing it, they won't want to dance "na na na" (a waltz), or "wheee" (outwards facing seated spin) or "bwa ah ah" (flipped upside down in a fake "drop"). I can always work more later, or when they are in bed. I never thought that I'd say this, but they are growing up too fast.

Tempus fugit.

Time flies unless you can stand on a rock in a lake. Then you're good.

Waves of sadness

It's my fault really. I do stupid things like check the news. Now, this information isn't widely known, but "the news" generally is just a bunch of bad shit that doesn't happen often.

Right now the thing playing out is the Syrian crisis. Specifically about how all these people are trying to leave their country any way they can, including in boats. When this kind of thing happens, people usually die because something always goes sideways.

Right now it's a photo of a 3 year old boy named Alan Kurdi. The picture... Alice is 3. The boy on the beach looks like how our kids sleep sometimes. I... my brain... I can't process it. I feel like I'm just crushed by a wall of sadness when I see that. I try to avoid the news, but at some point I look again.

It's so horrible.

The worst part is there are about 200,000 other horrible stories.

I'm going to go shut off my brain as a defense mechanism.

Seems to have been the right decision

I've been so doubtful of our decision to buy the yuba. Was it too expensive? Would we use it more than on just weekends? Has she already outgrown it?

Well, after a bump on how to get it adjusted for both of us, I think that we've figured it out. And we're really enjoying it.

The kids aren't fighting, we can talk and point out the things that we're seeing, we don't have issues with "narrow" spaces. Short story: everyone is having fun.

How awesome is that?

Of course you have to put your arms out and say "wheee!" on every down slope

A good day

This was a good day. Got to the cottage and it didn't take 8 hours. Got a meal, swim, and paddle around the lake.

It was great to go for a paddle with the 4 of us, but then Isaac decided he wanted to stand in the canoe so we turned around. Then Alice really wanted me to take her out so, despite what I thought, I took her out. It was very successful and I didn't want it to end so I kept on going. Her smile was... magical. So happy about the special Daddy / daughter paddle. We watched the sunset, talked about where Shipwreck Beach was and how Captian Hook is there with Smee. The we paddled around the island and came back. 

Today was a good day. 

Because my heart tells me so

You know when you make a big decision that's pretty difficult and you feel so calm about it? That's when it feels like it's the Right Decision. Even though it will make life a lot more complex? Ya. That's what I feel.

So for lunch I'm having peanut butter and strawberry jam. Not honey. That's one less life decision down. 

Can't help but be sad

I finally read Good Omens and I really enjoyed it. But that doesn't mean I'm not awash in sadness. I still can't believe that Pratchett is gone. It just seems... wrong.

In Defence of Mother Gothel

Now, this is about the Mother Gothel from Tangled.

This woman finds a plant and discovers how to use it to extend her life for at least hundreds of years. Does she ruin it? No. She keeps it safe from other people that might not. Selfish? Yes, but isn't immortality one of things that people have sought throughout the ages?

Eventually her secret is found, and the people destroy the flower to save a single person and and her unborn child. The flower could have helped millions of people, but it was destroyed selfishly.

When the child is born, Mother Gothel tries to just take some hair, but that is not enough. So in an act of desperation she takes the child and lovely raises it as her own, if in isolation. Why would she do this? Because she realized that without the child she was going to shortly die. It was a desperate act by a desperate woman who felt she had no other options.

How would I have acted in her place? How would you?

Who really was the bad guy in that movie? Just about anyone can be the bad guy... from a certain point of view.

Remembering to plan to forget

It's funny, but for events that happen in my life I come to the blog to check the dates. I simply don't remember, but I probably blogged about it, right? That's a Jimish thing to do.

The last 10 years have gone by so quickly. At this point I figure that I've forgotten more than I remember. Who will remember? The Jim of the past: The Jim Of The Blog. The current Jim of meatspace simply can't. Not. Enough. Sleep. I blame the small children.

Know a problem about Past Jim Of the Blog? He didn't always write things down. At least not in the way that Current Meatspace Jim can find.

Frack it. I'm going to bed.

Self Identify As...

A lot of online handles I'm seeing have people self identifying as... something. Mom, Father, husband, wife, from a particular part of the city, bicycle advocate, politician, etc. However, I don't have anything like that. Looking at the handles I've made for myself, I've always identified as... Jim. Some form of Jim at least.

Was I me before being a father? Before I biked to get around? Before I was married? Yes. A different version of me of course, but still me. It seems like it will be the one constant in my life. It seems restricting to add a label on top of my name.

I guess that in the end I will diminish, and go into the West and remain Jim. As all good Jim's do.

Functional but seldom used stuff

There are some things that are really helpful when you need it, but rarely get used: a car jack, Christmas tree, camping equipment, etc. But in the end of the day, they still take up space. Space is at a premium in a small home. Things that take up space remind me that I'm collecting stuff. I don't know what's worse, the fact that I'm collecting it or the reminder that it's there.

What I need, in addition to my teleportation ability, is the ability to fold reality to put these things out of sight. A storage room of requirement if you will. More seasonal items, less horcruxes. But alas, I am just a lowly muggle.

Ah well.

Decision Number Three

There are so many decisions that are hard. You usually feel better one way or another when it's made. 

I learned it from you!

Now, this post won't make any sense unless you've seen this old anti-drug PSA from the 80's.

Today, Alice was being quite silly and pretending to fall down over and over.
Me: Where did you learn to be silly from?
Alice: I learned it from you! I learned how to be silly from you daddy. You're my silliest daddy in whole world.

*tear of happiness*

Your father's light saber

Mommy-Wan Kenobi: I have something here for you. Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He feared you might follow old Mommy-Wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade like your father did.

Isaac Skywalker: THAT?

Mommy-Wan Kenobi: Your father's light saber. This is the weapon of a Silly Daddy. Not as clumsy or random as a pew-pew hand; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age. For over a thousand coffees, the Silly Daddies were the guardians of Silliness and Tickling in the Old Neighbourhood. Before the dark times... before the thunderstorm.

Today Isaac picked up my light saber while I was out bbq'ing. He picked it up and starts saying "whomm... whoom... ssshhh". I may have taught him that at some point, but not with my light saber (which is current broken!).

I can't help it if the apples doesn't fall far from the tree.

Spinning plates

Tonight I lost my temper. I didn't yell. I didn't hit. I just took away some toys and then comforted some tears. It was a controlled loss of temper. I was fair. Shortly Alice was happy again.

But I still feel that I failed.

I feel like I should be redirecting, not taking away. I should be asking for my Little Helper rather than ordering or asking. I shouldn't be looking at my phone (really, I've got to fix that). I should be making more games. I feel I should somehow be doing more. The problem is that I'm human and can't be an ideal. In my head I don't expect anything more than human from myself, but my heart is disappointed every time I miss the mark.

With the two kids I feel like I'm spinning plates. Moving between them both and keeping them on track. Sort of failing them both at the same time, but equally. You know, to be fair.

Tonight after picking them up from daycare but before supper I sat on the floor as I often do and asked Isaac to bring over a book. He did, then turned around and sat down in my lap with a thump. A book or 2 later I had a kid on each thigh. At one point Alice was sitting in my lap and Isaac sitting in hers. I think that on the 7th or 8th book I said I must start dinner. As typically happens, now they are too hungry to wait for anything to book and they need food now. I think that the only way I can make them a normal meal is if I start at 4. And that they only get cold plain toast with 3 raisins.

*sigh* Time to go to bed. I'm having a hard time reading the words I'm typing. Please forgive the lack of proof reading.

Am I being irresponsible?

I'm quite happy of our yuba cargo bike purchase. I think that it will be wonderful for the family. At some point it won't just be a weekend bike - we can use it for pick up and drop off of the kids. However every time I talk to my father-in-law he mentions about being worried about being on the streets with the kids on board.

Am I worried? Ya, sort of. I'm worried about me too though.

Am I so worried that I won't take them on non-paths / bike lanes? I'm not sure. This would effectively isolate us from the core.

I feel we have to balance the risks. Balance the time together. Balance the time doing things we are happy doing.

Am I happy to drive around in the van? Maybe not happy, but definitely comfortable.

I don't know. Unless the city puts in more paths, not just painting a line on the road or forcing parking cars through a bike lane, I won't be ever relaxed with the kids with me. To be fair, I'm not exactly relaxed when in the van either. I guess that "parent mode" just puts you constantly scanning for dangers. Oie.

Coming up on 10 years biking to work

I've been reading a lot about biking lately. Mostly it's the group of people that want biking to be safer. That's awesome. Reading about them makes me go "Wow, they are so hardcore! I'm not like that." That got me wondering: how long have I been biking into work (season permitting). Apparently it's almost ten years. Crazy.

This year there seems to be more people biking into work than I have even seen before. I totally attribute that to the bike lane, despite it being pretty short.

Maybe one year I'll even take up winter biking (new bike?). At this point it seems like it would be too dangerous. But apparently that's what I thought about biking downtown too...

Who knows. Maybe one day someone will look at me and think "man, he's so hardcore". More likely they'll just wonder where I got the funny hat.

Date-athlon

Today was another wonderful date day. We dropped off the kids at daycare, bike to a hidden lake / pond for some swimming, then off for a fancy lunch after a brief stop to change. That's the type of triathlons we do: bike, swim, eat. Boo ya.

It was a very good day. :-D

Third Life Crisis

Well, as I've discussed before, we got a new bike, our Yuba Mundo. I rode it home from the shop yesterday but have not taken the kids out in it. Maybe if there's time I can adjust it for the both of us and we can ride up and down the street. I assume that I'll ride in the pannier. Kids, or at least Alice, can test it out on the weekend.

The whole point is that it's a long tail bike, but boy is that beast ever long. I'm not sure how easy or possible it is to get it through the person door of the garage. But overall I had a fine time riding it home on the relive flat with no load. If anything, it's geared too low - I couldn't go as fast as I wanted at times. However I suspect that I'll soon be very happy with that gearing when kids + stuff is loaded.

I'm calling this a "third life crisis" because 1) I hope / plan to live to be 100-ish and 2) normally I would have never spent that much money on a bike. But I'm looking at it as an investment in our current and near future happiness. Hopefully it will also instill a love of exercise and the outdoors in our kids too. We'll see.

One side effect of this and posting the info on twitter is that I'm discovering a community of bike enthusiasts in town that I didn't realize. Now I don't expect that we will go car free or become 4-season bikers, but it's cool to know (at least online) these people. It doesn't hurt that bikes seem to go hand-in-hand with a love of beer and food.

People are generally awesome. You just have to look.

Van bike!

I've always been a city person

I was thinking about this the other day: as long as I can remember I've been a "city person". I've loved biking, I've loved cars compared to trucks, I've loved being close to things. I've lived almost equal amounts of time in suburbia, county (middle of no-where) and "centrally" aka ~ 5km of downtown. I'll admit that the neighbourhood we're in is more like a suburb than Right Downtown, but close enough.

So far, by far, I've enjoyed being central. Sure, it may be because I'm happily married but maybe, just maybe, it's because I'm in the city that allows me to be happily married. (See what I did there?)

Annnyways. I'm really enjoying being city folk. I don't know what we'll do one day where we won't have a requirement to be close to downtown. Will we move out by a lake somewhere? Not sure. I like being around for festivals etc. Who knows what the future will bring.

Fun family day

Today was a good day. It started off with coffee and bacon. Then a bike adventure to a newly discovered park by Lansdown. Home with some sleepy children. Beer in the garden with my lovely wife. Outside play time with the kids. Now I'm sitting by the BBQ listening to some sausages cook.

Really, how much better can things get because this is pretty awesome. 

The minivan of bicycles

Okay. We did it. On a lovely Date Day where we went out for a great breakfast, followed by a tour of landsdown as they were setting up a farmers market, found some more awesome parks, the a great lunch, we did it. We bought a longtail cargo bike. 

I think that it's going to be great for the family but it's very much more than I have ever paid for a bike. I think all the bikes that I have ever owned combined would cost less than this bike. That part makes me feel guilty. 

But do you know what? It's going to be awesome. 

We are getting it early next week. Hopefully it will fulfill the ideas in my head that it would solve. 

The long tail of familynomics

With the city moving into an even worse traffic phase for the next three years while they install light rail, I'm trying to think of the best ways to get kids to / from the soon-to-be downtown daycare. The simplest would be to just load them up in the trailer and bike with them. I could take extra stuff (their clothes, etc). We already have all the parts. It will nicely (mostly?) protect them from the elements.

The biggest part, and this is a pretty big part, is that I'm not sure how safe it will be to bike with them downtown. Sure, I can get to the bike lanes, but there is still small stretches that would be on a road. What would I do if I was forced out of the lane by construction (or parked cars) like I often am?

I keep on thinking about getting a long tail bike like a Yuba Mundo. Do I need a new bike? No. Would this be safer for children? Possibly. Would something like a ibert be a better choice? I don't know. With something like an ibert I could take it with me and not have to leave it locked to the bike rack. I don't know how good an idea it would be to leave a 1500 $+ bike sitting outside. I'm actually pretty sure that's not a good plan.

What should we do? Hell if I know.

You'd think that being "an adult" would mean that you'd have things figured out and have an easy time making decisions. That's a lie.

Do I want a shiny new bike? Sure I do. It's been close to 8 years. Despite treating it roughly it's held up quite well. Sure, I've had to replace gears. And a wheel. Two rear axles. A bunch of tubes and tires and some cables and a chain. Oh, handle grips, seats and brakes. Really what's original is the frame and peddles at this point. So don't I already have a new bike, one piece at a time?

*sigh*

Update: Family bike options in Ottawa has been super helpful.

Sleep, what is it good for?

Oh man. The kids are sick. Again. I just don't know when we'll have a normal sleep schedule again. It feels like it's been years. Oie.

I'd like to blog more. I come up with ideas of what I'd like to blog about like 6 times a day, but by the time it comes around, I've forgotten it. Must be brain damage.

On being sane in insane places

Sometimes it's difficult to deal with 2 kids. Sometimes they drive me a bit insane. I think that's by design on their part too. But you know what? They are pretty awesome. They make me laugh every day. They show me things I know in new ways that I don't think that I would have thought of.

Is it a picnic every day? No. Absolutely not. We mostly do picnics on the weekends.

BYOP - Bring Your Own Picnic

I miss Mr. Bunny

There. I said it. I miss Mr. Bunny.

Alice used to play with him a lot. Mr. Bear too. The fact that she doesn't really play with them just means that she's moving to another stage. Doesn't mean I don't miss the old Alice. Doesn't mean that I don't love the new Alice. It's just... well... a bit sad.

I think that tomorrow I'm going to have to lay all her toys on diapers and just see if she notices.

Getting Mr. Bunny into a clean diaper

Without focus and traveling with sadness

I don't know what it is. Maybe the headaches from yesterday and today. Maybe the lack of exercise today. Maybe something else, but my focus is shit. Well, I feel that my focus has been pretty crappy in general lately. Some times I blame it on lack of sleep or coffee. Maybe too much coffee. Either way I've been having trouble focusing on tasks to get them done. I find I do everything like 80% at most and stop.

Then I start to feel blue. Which makes me really not finish. Then I feel sad that I've not finished...

Ugg.

It will be better tomorrow I'm sure.

Tonight had a lovely sunset. Quiet pretty.

A child capable of extremes

If there's one thing about Alice is that she's capable of the full spectrum of emotion / behaviour in a short length of time. Wonderful joys and happy cries of "Daddy daddy daddy!" while running down the street. Also horrible screaming when she's hangry and has discovered that the she has humus, but it's not on a wrap. Or the wrap is rolled rather than folded. Or cut. Or not cut.

You get the idea.

It's sometimes hard not to scream in frustration. But luckily you just have to wait a little bit and she'll probably switch again. It can be tiring though.

Then she smiles and the rest melts away.

A properly snacked Alice

The Daddy Chair

It's awesome that our kids want to sit with us. Alice demands it most days. Now Isaac actually brings books over and tugs at my sleeve to indicate it's Story Time. It's the cutest thing.

Right now I'm feeling a bit under the weather and having the kids sit on me in a bit uncomfortable. But how do I really tell them "no"? I know that this is a really short window where they will want to sit and cuddle. It's hard. I want to balance the cuddles and the stories with feeling okay.

*sigh*

The challenge of trying to take a nice group shot with a 3.5 year old

12 Years a Couple

Well, it's been a dozen years. Wow. How did that happen?

We are doing pretty much the same things now that we did then... well, sort of. A little bit. *hangs head* Not really. I guess we are doing different things. But still awesome. Why? Because it's in our nature.

;-)

Surprising moments

It's funny how Isaac is sometimes. He will seem to be a very serious kid sometimes, but then you do something new or unexpected and his face lights up like the sun and gives out such a hearty laugh. It's really like if you flipped a switch. Today I picked him up and danced him around using the na na na NA song, as you do. He loved it. It's fun, what can I say. I must do it more often, but it becomes a source of jealousy.

Tonight when taking him out of the bath, he reached up and grabbed the curtain bar with a hand. Well, of course I have to be silly since it's in my nature, so I pretended he was doing a one arm pull up. Cue face lights and laughter. Then he reaches up with his other hand and actually pulls himself up. He's a strong little fella.

He's also starting to figure out blocks (mega blocks) and actually stacking / connecting them. He seems to be figuring out how things roll, connect, smash, etc quite well. Often doing this while standing too.

I think that I need to make more of an effort at doing the things that will make him smile and laugh.

I love the little guy. I just wish that he'd sleep at night. And not be sick.

Serious Isaac

Fun and laughing Isaac. It can be a quick transition

Eight Years

Well, it's been 8 years. Almost. The time has just flown by. Like anything there has been ups and downs, if I'm being realistic. But all I choose to remember are the ups. I feel so lucky, privileged. More than anyone has a right to be. A bunch has changed in during this time, but like aged wine I think that it gets smoother every year. How does that work? I have no idea. 

Great times. 

Public school

Conversation with Alice while I was driving the other day:

Me: And that's what the school you'd go to is called. [redacted] public school. It's the type of school everyone pays for so everyone can go.
Alice: Okay
Me: They also have private schools where people pay extra to go to.
[30 second pause]
Alice: Is that where you take off your underwear and show everyone your private parts?
Me: What? No! Huh? Why would you think that?
Alice: It's a private school.

I come to realize that I will never fully predict how she will string different concepts or word associations together.

My rainbow thinker

Spring into my heart

Spring used to be my least favourite season. Everything brown, 6 months of dog poop uncovered by snow and dissolving into the grass, bug. Lots and lots of bugs, specifically black flies. Kind of like this.

Anyways. Then I moved into the city with Laura. Flowers. Bike rides. Tulips and lilacs and blossoms everywhere.

No dog poop.

Yes, a few bugs, but nothing that you could mistake for a coat.

Then we married in the spring. Ah, so many happy memories and we keep on making more. Now, I'm not saying that spring is now my favourite season, but it's definitely moved up in my ranking. Definitely top four.

Which one is not like the other...

A photo series of one of my favourite people. Top 3.

I love these photos that I took the other day. I need to use my 55-200 lens more. Fun.

Trying hard to not smile

Biting her lip to not smile with her new facepaint

The smiles start

Laughter of my girl

Showing how she sparkles - literally

All done

Handcoats and spacelight

The good days I can come up with words without too much of a struggle. Most days aren't those. Usually it's just a pause or two while I try to remember the works. On bad days I can't come up with my words at all and it's really frustrating. Someone described this happening to them and how scary it was.

They had a concussion.

Now, my brain might be permanently addled from when I was younger. Who knows. But I find it funny that people have a bad side effect from a concussion, that frightens them, but it's just an average day for me. Yish.

The summer starts

I swear just 2 weeks ago it was around freezing each morning. Today was like over 30 (feels like 32) so it's a bit of a shift. I still have not gotten the winter tires off the rabbit. :-/

Isaac is almost walking. Which means that he doesn't want to just sit on a blanket outside, nor can he walk and keep himself clean. We'll see how it goes, but at this point it's looking like a lot of laundry. At least kids clothes are small.

Today I feel like I'm starting to get sick. I've had a headache all day and a gross throat. Yay summer? Bah. (This is me making excuses for a non-entertaining blog post)

*sigh*

The old man at work

It's funny. I still feel young. I am just not actually young. We have a big group of co-ops in - about 7. We usually have 1. Well, some of them just finished first year so that would put them around 18 or 19 years old. One of the frameworks that we use at work was created in 2000, so that puts it pretty close to the c-ops age. Crazy.

I look at them and see the confidence that I once felt. The confidence that you really know something when you've just had a light intro to it and really know jack-all. One of the guys said that he really knows java. We asked them if they had used annotations and no one had. That's one of the main features of version 5 which was released way back in 2004. So funny.

Today we gave them a firehose of information hoping that they'd retain 5%. It's funny how different school is from a job.

Hugs of CRUSH

It always takes a bit to figure out things with kids. "Ohhh... that's the sign they've been making for 3 weeks and it means X! Now I get it". That kind of thing. Well, the other day Laura pointed out how Isaac hugs her. It's a crushing-arms-around-the-neck squeeze. It's a hug from a little man who loves deeply and doesn't quite understand his own strength yet.

So if I'm ever talking on the phone with you and I suddenly sound like I'm being choked, it probably just means that my children love me very, very much. Windpipe crushingly much.

Here they are clearly plotting my early demise after their discussions on how to divide up my lego fortune.

Twitter dating

Because it amuses me.

Nervous about my date tonight. What happens when she finds out that I have 2 kids? Am married??? I'll just play it cool. #clivebixby

— Jim S (@jim_i_am) May 2, 2015

Date is going really well. Hopefully it works out with this Julianna chick. Maybe I can convince her to go home with me! #clivebixby

— Jim S (@jim_i_am) May 3, 2015

I think that this is happening! The bill is paid and next stop my pad! #clivebixby

— Jim S (@jim_i_am) May 3, 2015

We're at my pad! Now just to turn on the charm. No woman can resist the Clive Bixby! #clivebixby

— Jim S (@jim_i_am) May 3, 2015

Oh no! Julianna is falling asleep! [looks in mirror] You can do this Clive Bixby! #clivebixby

— Jim S (@jim_i_am) May 3, 2015

I'm not quite sure what happened last night. I have a vague memory of dealing with a screaming midget all night.Where's Julianna?#clivebixby

— Jim S (@jim_i_am) May 3, 2015

@jim_i_am Do not lose heart, Mr. Bixby. I stayed and made you breakfast. Hmmm... or could it be... Bikes-by! #clivebixby

— Dr Lorrible (@Dr_Lorrible) May 3, 2015

Date night

It's been a while since we've had a date night. Before last night the babysitting was always done with family which leads to a certain amount of guilt because everyone refuses money and I'm sure that's not how they'd like to spend their evening.

Last night we had a sitter over, someone that a friend uses, and it seemed to go well. After a brief 2 hours we were able to leave the house and be on our way. A beautiful evening to bike along the river on our way to downtown. The sky was pinks and purples. The birds singing and the squirrels frolicking. We saw 3 bunnies on our way to dinner.

After we got to the fancy fancy restaurant we ordered wonderful tasty food with wine pairings. It was good. Some might say oh so good, but we all know that place is down the street. A quick ride back home in the dark and only 1.25 hours late for the babysitter. Ah well. I hope that she wasn't too put out.

It was really nice to go out. Long overdue.

Flap flap clap flap

Alice at the age Isaac currently is (from my blurry memory) had quiet a lot of signs she could do. Very precise. Isaac, while seemly able to understand a lot more seems to have 2 sign: flap and clap. Arguably he can express a lot with that binary language, but it isn't quite the same.

What does this mean for the future? Who knows. Probably nothing.

I find my kids fascinating. I also find the similarities and differences between them fascinating too. I can't help it. I love them so.

MORE cheerios

I'm flapping as hard as I can! I'll throw this and then I'll clap! WAIT FOR IT!

A pleasant fiction

This morning started off well. The kids had slept all night. They do that even when they have colds! I woke up and Alice was preparing me eggs, bacon, fresh squeezed orange juice (just a little bit!) and scones with jam and devonshire cream. Laura was making us both a latte. Isaac is healthy and was quietly playing making towers and knocking them over then clapping.

On my ride in, the sun was shining and it was a pleasant warm - not too hot to make you sweaty, but just enough to let you ride in shorts without a coat. I was early of course so I had time to admire the tulips and watch the swans and ducks in the river. The construction is all done so I rode on the nice bike-only paths while strangers greeted me with a smile and a nod.

At work I was able to get the work that I wanted to and help a couple of other people solve their difficult problems too. Since it was a nice day and we were ahead of schedule my boss took us out for lunch with a beer on the patio. We discussed how management had seen the presentation my boss had worked on and we had their full support. Other groups were offering whatever we needed. They were even proactively fixing issues we had not had time to look into!

I left early and decided to meet up with Laura and the kids at Hogs Back. We played for a while and then ate a nice snack before a leisurely ride home. We had bbq - beef and tuna steaks, as well as a nice greek salad and some Crème brûlée we had already in the fridge. We ate outside listening to the birds and enjoying the lack of bugs. The kids were so tidy we didn't even have to wipe them down!

After that we read each child a story while they patiently waited for their turn. At that point the baby sitter came over and allowed us to pop out to watch the latest movie we were dying to see. Afterwards some drinks and second dessert allowed us to catch up on each of our day and discuss the upcoming trip that was already planned and taken care of. It will be lovely.

Then home to bed and to get ready to start another wonderful day.

Twitter

Well, I have finally gotten a twitter account. Not because I'm pretty fed-up with facebook (but I am). Not because I find google+ pretty useless. Not because I'm trying to engage in conversations on the web. Nope. I've done it because the school Alice will go to has a twitter account / feed and I expect that will be a nice way to get info and I want to be familiar with it before she starts in September.

I remember Ryan urging me to get an account and he died in 2009, so it's been a while that I've been mulling around the thought.

So. Now I've got a new social networking tool with a different set of rules and expectations. Do I stop posting on facebook? Probably not. But I expect that I will surf less since already I'm more amused by what I've seen on twitter. I might have been able to see similar posts if I had subscribed to more people that I don't know in FB, but... Let's try to keep different types of messages on different types of social media. The medium is the message and all that.

I have to learn all the new rules and in's and out's. I subscribed to a bunch of people including Felicia Day. Shortly after I had done that "Felicia Day" added me back. My first follower was Felicia Day! But she's only got 3100 people following her... and I'm not following her? Huh? Turns out it was a fake account that must watch who's subscribing to @feliciaday and add them back. Darrr...

Ah well. I hope that it can keep me amused and is useful. Only time will tell.

Mother Knows Best

The idea of the bumbling incompetent father that can't figure out anything or get anything done - I'm pretty sure that's what Alice pictures me to be. It's probably due to the fact that I keep on playing up this idea.
Me: "Here's some prosciutto, your favourite."
Alice: "I don't like pro shoe toe!"
or
Me: "The sky is purple with pink polka dots!"
Alice: "No it's not. It's boo!"

I love being corrected by my girl. I'm sure that one day that will wear off. Maybe one day she will also see through my charade.

Out of the mouths of babes

Alice: Mom! There's a bird in a tree!
Laura: What colour is it?
Alice: It has an orange tummy so I assume it's a robin.

Yes, our 3 year old throws out sentences like that on a regular basis. I'm just happy when I can get words out in the correct order or not mushed together.

Best. Homecoming. Ever.

Here's what happened when I got about 1/2 down our street: Alice saw me and started yelling happily "DADDY! DADDY! DADDY!" while running full out (for her) to me. When she got there I picked her up and swung her in a circle.

I can't think of a better way to be welcomed home.

My life is pretty awesome.

Studying daddy's reference robot Eugene

So proud to be building a robot

MAlicficent

Yesterday we went out and got Alice a Big Kid Bike. Some assembly was required, so I did that last night and finished after she was in bed. The first thing that she did this morning was run to see me and ask to see the bike. She actually cackled when she saw it. She was pretty happy.

It's a Disney bike. A Malificent bike. Now, she's not even seen sleeping beauty, but she knows a bunch of the stories. Why was this chosen over any other princess bike? Simple. We were tired. The store was closing and it was the second store we had been to that afternoon. We had even been shopping at crappy tire twice before as well. And most importantly - she said she liked it. She liked it for more than 10 seconds. So we bought it.

Why did we get a non-gender neutral bike? This one has actually been bothering me for a couple of weeks. I wanted to get a gender neutral - or "boy" - bike so that when Isaac is bigger he's not riding a "girl" bike. Wait, isn't that pretty sexist? How do I know that Isaac won't be all over Disney "girl" stuff? Why am I trying to force my little girl who loves clothes, shoes, jewelry, fancy party dresses and taking care of babies to have a Spider-man or trucks bike? Screw it. We'll put Isaac on this bike too unless he cares so much we cave and buy a different bike. Will he be upset to use this bike? Who knows but I doubt it. He loves his sister very much and I suspect that he'll want to do everything that she does or has done.

More importantly, I want her to love biking. It's a cheap and easy way to be independent and healthy and I want her to learn that life lesson young. If she is excited to even see her bike, she'll be excited to ride it. She will be excited to go on adventures with it. She'll be excited to have some fun with it.

Now I just have to figure out how to attach it to the chariot for our long distance adventures. I'm thinking that bungee cords will be the answer. ;-)

Soon to be used to terrorize the neighbourhood

Headaches flatten me - or the meds do

It kind of sucks having headaches. But there's not much that I can do about it that I'm not already doing. The weird thing is that when I take some meds to help, I feel... flat. Humourless. I feel not happy, sad, or anything else. Flat and just existing. What's it like exactly? I'll try to show.

Boy this headache sucks. Hey, did Laura make a joke. Yes. Okay. Now I should put my food in my mouth. She is looking for a reaction. Mention that I was funny. Wait, it wasn't supposed to be a joke. Oh. I should read a book. Laura is still talking. Not sure what about. Huh.

Not fun. I can't imagine the suckitude it would be to be on meds like that all the time. :-/

The journey of our heroes

As our adventure continues, our heroes journey farther north. With winter slowing retreating, they are able to make great speed on their dual-wheeled mechanical horses. The taller one looks down at his traveling companion and knows that although he may have traveled similar routes many a time, he is the one that is learning. They are both master and apprentice. And together, this will be more.

Who is leading whom?

The Grocery Helper

Today I took a fed and snacked Alice to the grocery store. Man, she's a pretty good helper and I actually had fun. We chatted and did silly things, she stayed right with me and helped me remember everything and even unloaded the cart at the cash. 

I keep on thinking that she's pretty awesome. Then she gets a bit older and gets a little more awesome. What can I say? It must be genetic. (From her mothers)

Bubbles!

I can't really think of a witty post right now, so I'm just going to post a picture of the awesomest people ever.

In my top 3

Bike commuting, new season

Boo ya I'm biking again! It's funny what things that were automatic before I have to relearn. Like, how best to quickly get dressed and how to safely get from A to B. Some roads are worse (where they have a lot of construction), others are nicer where they have change a level "bike lane" into a raised "bike lane platform". I'm now less likely to be run over in front of city hall.

Overall I think that it went well. It was cool on my way in (but I was overdressed) and windy as stink on the way home. Currently I hear the wind and the rain outside - and Laura's biking in that. Boo to that!

It's funny how little exercise I need to actually improve my mood. Yippee yahoo!

Okay, now to stare out the window and worry about Laura.

Mobile Family Four

Today was a good day. The first day I got the bike out this season and left the street. We all went out after it did some minor bike repair. We put the kids in the trailer and biked 6 km to the not-nearest park.

This is a whole other realm for us again. Bike moble. Load the kids up, pack some snacks and off we go!

Don't get me wrong, I like our van for moving the kids around, but it's a different ball game being able to get to a park, let the burn off energy and allow us to burn off energy on the to and from. 

I'm actually a bit embarrassed this year. I think I'm the fattest that I've been for a while. At least last year I set up the exercise bike stand in the basement and used it occasionally. Not this winter. I need to exercise more, for my mental and physical health. We all know that I'm not going to give up pastry, lattes, beer, bacon or anything else that I love. So, biking once again will help fix these problems.

I enjoyed going for bike rides with Alice last year when doing daycare pickups, but I don't think that I will do it now we have a second vehicle. Not because I'm lazy, but because the route sucks. Sure, pulling 60 lb plus of kids and trailer isn't my first thought of what to do at the end of a long day, but the stress of wondering how safe I'm being and if it will be enough. I think that I'm more careful biking than I used to be, but pulling kids around roads makes nightmare sanarios through my head. Ah well. 

But, yay biking!

A new normal

Well, we finished (almost) the first week of our new normal routine. Daycare seemed to go smoothly for the kids. Alice didn't want to leave, but Isaac seemed quite happy to see me. Which is nice. I can deal with my son's face lighting up when he sees me. The applause doesn't hurt either.

The part that will be more challenging is getting home and making dinner. It wasn't too bad with her because I could leave her playing or plop her down in her chair with some peas. Now they are two, I don't fully trust Alice in case Malice shows up and Isaac isn't a fan of peas. I keep on asking, "won't you give peas a chance?!?". Maybe in 16 years he'll get the joke. Won't stop me from telling it everyday until then.

So, new normal. So far so good.

Making Mr. Giggles laugh

There seems to be no one better at making Isaac laugh than Alice. Whether it's yelling "BOO!" or just making silly faces, almost everything that she does get a hearty laugh. It fills me with joy to watch it. He loves her, and she loves him, very much.

The love of a sibling. Or riding a lion. Or both.