Tag: Fatherhood

Bookstore Recommend

Today was my first Wednesday playing the role of Sox. She worked while I had the kids out of daycare. The plan was to meet up with Sox, then head down to Tall Tales Bookstore for story time. Every Wednesday at 11 am they have someone from the story tellers guild come and entertain the kids. They also provide some coffee for the parents.

Elliot and Amy really enjoyed the stories. In fact Elliot was completely involved with the story teller, answering questions, singing along with the songs, offering information, and listening intently when she was talking.

For the most part Amy sat still on Sox’s lap. She too listened and enjoyed the stories. I might try to get out there again with the kids.

I also highly recommend the store to anyone shopping for kids books. Lots of selection for all age ranges.

Purple Slippery

Today the fam headed off to the Purple Hay park (Elliot likes to name parks on his own, and this is the name he and I came up with). It was cold this morning, around 4 or 5 degrees, so we all bundled up.

This is all of us having a snack after playing for a bit.

The kids played on the swing, ran around, and went down the slide countless times. Amy was wearing fleece overalls which were pretty slippery on the twisting slide. Half the times she came down she got turned around backwards which caused all sorts of giggles.

At first neither of the kids had gloves on. When Amy got off the swing, I was alarmed at how purple her hands were, so I insisted she start wearing gloves. No fight there, and Elliot even wanted his on too.

Design Halloween

Yesterday my son Sprout helped me carve our Jack O Lanterns. Well, I did the carving. He helped me clean out one of the pumpkins while I did the rest. He also helped design the first one. By design I mean I showed him a website with some stencils and he chose one I could actually carve.

Anyway, here are the Jack O Lanterns that were outside our house for Halloween. The first one was Sprouts chosen design.

I’m very happy with how they all turned out.

I also have to say that Halloween in our neighbourhood was pretty lame. Sox and I figured we would have lots of kids coming by so when we were at Costco the other week we picked up 2 150 count boxes of candy. We had about 15 kids come by. They each got a big handful which was about 6 pieces each, meaning we still have 2/3 of what we bought. Woops.

Municipal Tunnel

Yesterday felt like a busy, busy day. In the morning the whole fam was outside in the sun, and we got a bit of yardwork done. We trimmed back a couple shrubs, and hauled all the debris to the municipal yard. While I was trimming, Sprout was helping move some of the branches around with his dumptruck until he got tired of that, and then started running around the yard. Also, it wasn’t just me that took the yard waste to the yard, Sprout and I hauled it there. He loves to go for truck rides, so we do this once in a while.

After the work was done, he and I headed down to Macaulay Point Park. Sox and I had heard about some proposed changes to the park which would affect the off leash access there. We wanted to learn more. The tent they had set up was pretty loud, but I managed to convinve Sprout to let me read a few signs. I grabbed a couple comment forms, then he and I were off for a walk in the park. He wanted to run through the tunnel.

After the tunnel he had a play on the beach. It was lots of fun to watch him running around in the water and playing in the sand all by himself. By the time I decided it was time to go (it was close to lunch time and I was starving) his pants were soaked, and I had to pour the water out of his boots.

Once lunch was done we did some more things around the house including hanging a mirror in the master bedroom, something that has been on a to-do list for probably 10 months.

I love days that are lots of fun, yet feel like we got a lot accomplished.

Fun Playing

Some family fun at Bamfield Park this morning. Yesterday was a very wet and rainy day so we never really got outside for anything. Today it was sunny out, not cold, and pretty much a perfect fall day.

We spent a considerable amount of time at this park, and the kids had a great time playing, climbing, sliding, throwing leaves, chasing each other, watching the ocean, and talking to other park go’ers.

For a break we headed to a nearby cafe. We got some coffee’s for Sox and I, and a hot chocolate for Sprout. Something happened that caused Sprout to have an outburst. Sox got him settled then waited outside for the drinks. A moment later a couple at the next table who were talking had a slight pause, and the lady said to her companion, “Sorry, I was distracted by the tantruming child.”

I almost started laughing. The one outburst was not a tantrum. I considered saying something like “if you think that was a tantrum then you are in for a shocker when you experience a real one”. It was pretty funny. She came off as a snobby mid 20’s college girl who hasn’t spent any time around kids. On to the pics.


Parenting Slack

This morning was not a good morning for me and I didn’t feel like I was a good parent. All my parenting skills and patience had flown out the window. I just could not cope with whatever either of my kids threw at me. Maybe it was a lack of sleep, maybe it was a lack of coffee, maybe it was something else.

Thankfully Sox was able to pick up the slack and we made it through the day.

This was frustrating for me. I usually have lots of patience and to lose that on the weekend, was not good. Sox and I usually trade off and this keeps us sane. Today she picked up the slack and we made it through the day.

Actually, it was a pretty fun day. Mattick’s Farm this morning then homemade pizza for dinner. Tonight Sprout is having a campout in the backyard with Sox. I hope tomorrow is better.

Highlight This

As a parent this evening was not a highlight. I was grumpy and tired. I mostly wanted to be alone in a quiet place. Contrast that to our household. We had to tired and grumpy kids who were either crying, screaming, playing the drums, or playing with some other toy that made a loud noise and was getting on my nerves. Toss in a dog who was either in the kids way, or in my way. More than once I had to remind myself to calm down and chill out. Once I almost went outside to escape what felt like insanity.

I was not a happy camper as I made dinner, and thankfully Sox took the kids for a wagon ride. This allowed me to finish making dinner, and clean up a little. More importantly I was able to cool off a little bit, and my patience level was restored.

It was just the last few hours of the day that were hard. I don’t want this difficult time to ruin my memory of the day. I always knew there would be days like this.

Midway Donuts

Sunday we wanted to go see the midway for the Tea Party. Actually, Sox and I really wanted some mini donuts, and we thought it would be fun for the kids too.

Sprout went on his first fair ride ever, and he had so much fun that he went a second time. He also played one of the games were you pick a duck that is floating by, and it tells you how big of a prize you win. He won himself a medium prize ( he picked a pink tiger), and won his sister a small prize (he picked an orange whale).

After the fun at the midway we got some donuts and went to play on the beach for a bit. Good family fun.

Of course I had my camera there and couldn’t resist some midway action shots. Not many rides were going yet, and the sun was high and bright. I left my polarizer at home too. Grr.


Sand Sight

I finished off the sandbox yesterday. At 8 in the morning, as we were thinking about getting ready for swim lessons, Sue thought I should call the sand place and see what time they opened. They were already open, so I went and picked up a half yard of sand.

In the afternoon after assembling our new wheelbarrow, I hauled it from the truck and dumped it in the sand box. Success!

We were having some friends over for dinner that night, but before they arrived, Sprout was out playing and digging. After dinner my son, our friends two kids, and the neighbours daughter and her friend were all in the sandbox diggin and playing.

It was a glorious sight! All my worrying about a less than perfect sandbox flew away.

Here is the final construction pictures.