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.

Barometer of the family

Well, apparently a spirited child will act as the barometer of the family. You know, acting out when there is a big change. Today Laura went back to work. Oie.

Other than recording that this day happened, I'm going to try to repress large portions of it. The rest was great though. Yes... only good parts today.

Pictures later.

The First Fifteen Lives of Jim

I recently read The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and I can't get the concept out of my head. It's kind of a Groundhog Day, but for an entire life. What would you change if you could relive your whole life again, but all knowledge and choices were open to you? Would you stay in the same work field? Would you keep changing professions? Would you just spend your time traveling and learning languages? Would you take a "break" life and just sit on a beach the whole time?

I can see trying to fix the world for the first couple of lives, but after always returning to square one I can see giving up on that quickly.

It was such and interesting read, but I'm still conflicted about parts. If you don't want to know anything else about the book, stop reading here.

Okay, possible spoilers ahead.

The books pace was a bit slow at times, but I still found it engaging. My feeling about the protagonist is that over his lives he slowly turned from being the hero into the villain. Sure, he was saving the world and doing it the only way that he thought was possible, but... The part that really tweaked the "villain" part for me was essentially the monolog part at the end. Don't only villains monolog? And isn't that were their plan fails and the "hero" is able to use the knowledge they gain from that to ultimately save the world?

Still interesting. Anyways, back to playing with foam blocks.

Three of the horsemen of the apocalypse

Well, I might have mentioned Malice and Crysaac before, but this is about the third member of the group: Grim. He frequently violates Wheaton's Law, especially when experiencing hanger or headaches. I don't like him. I ask him to leave all the time, but he hangs out with us a lot more than I'd like. There are just some people that are difficult to get rid of.

So, for my lovely wife: I am so sorry whenever Grim shows up. I do my best to keep him away, but sometimes I fall short. Please be patient with me. And him.

Two firstborns

I feel that Alice and her alter ego Malice are really two people. The first I love with all my heart. The second... well, when Malice is around I hope that Alice will return soon. It usually only take 10 seconds with Alice to realize how much I love her. She's fun, smart, and works hard at having fun and being silly. Helping her dry her hair which results in some tickling brings that thought to the forefront.

I really am super banana lucky, in some many ways.

Striking a pose for the camera