Nate's third Christmas

How things have changed in the year between Christmases. While Nate was clearly more interested in Christmas last year compared to his first year, he was quite happy to wait till Christmas morning to open his presents. Not so this year.

We brought our tree home on the evening of the 3rd. Our old Christmas tradition involved us walking up to the Lion's tree lot at Oak and 25th, hoisting the tree on our shoulders and walking it the twenty-two odd blocks home. We'd sing carols along the way, to the amusement of the people that we passed. This being Vancouver, we usually did this in the rain. Luckily for us, a tree lot has taken up residence at 12th and Main, making for a much shorter walk home.

The first present under the tree was for Nate. It came in the mail from our friends Lori, Paul and Sosi, who moved from Vancouver to Charlottetown PE last year. From the moment it arrived, Nate could not wait to open it. He'd start the day by saying:

"Can I open my present today dad?"

As the days passed and it got closer and closer to Christmas, the pile under the tree grew larger and larger, and Nate's morning greeting to me evolved into:

"Hey dad! It's Christmas today! Can I open my present?"

My attempts to explain to him that Christmas was still some time away didn't seem to be making any impact and the morning greeting soon became:

"I'm going to open my presents today because it's Christmas!"

More a statement than a question.

When Christmas morning finally came, I thought that he'd be so wound up that his head would pop off or something! Imagine my surprise when I wasn't greeted by the usual morning declaration of his intent to free his presents from their gift-wrap prisons. Instead he was quite subdued and seemed in no hurry to open his presents at all.

After unwrapping his first gift, a Hot wheels monster truck, he announced that he was going to play with it right there and then. Never mind that other gifts under the tree. We actually had to talk him into putting it aside and continue with the unwrapping of gifts. Even then, he would stop after he'd unwrapped a gift, and pick out a gift for either Patty or myself and bring it over to us to unwrap.

Perhaps all that waiting finally wore him out. In any case, I think it all worked out for the best. We had a very relaxing morning unwrapping gifts and got to spend the rest of our Christmas in the company of a few good friends.

I can only imagine what next Christmas will be like.

Maybe we already moved to NS and I just forgot...

It is snowing outside as I write this, on the first day of winter. We've had snow on the ground in Vancouver now for more than a week. This in itself is something of a rarity. This evening, as I left work and walked home, I realized that I could not tell the difference between the road and the sidewalk anymore.

Poor old Snoopy, when I took him out for his evening walk, he could hardly get through the stuff. In fact I think he peed on the sidewalk, or where the sidewalk would have been if we could see it.

Everything is covered under a nice thick rolling blanket of white. It really is quite beautiful. In the ten winters I've spent here in Vancouver, I've never seen anything quite like it. And there is still more to come. The forecast is calling for more snow on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I may finally get a white Christmas, and I didn't even need to move to Nova Scotia!

Just when I thought it was over...

We've had our townhome on the market for some time now. As expected there hasn't been much activity on it. We've had about 3 to 4 showings per week on average, but it's tapered off to 1 or 2 in the last couple of weeks.

The plan was to take it off the market on the 15th of the month, so that we didn't have to deal with people traipsing through the place over the holiday period. It would be an understatement if I said I was looking forward to the 15th.

Well, it's now the 17th, and wouldn't you know it, we're still on the market. As luck would have it, the people who came to see our home on the 14th called and requested to come and see it again yesterday morning. They made an offer yesterday afternoon, if you could call it that. Their realtor called our realtor to follow up later in the day and the conversation went something like this:

Their realtor: Did you get my email?
Our realtor: I did, weren't you sending us an offer?
Their realtor: You didn't get my email?
Our realtor: No, I got it. I thought you were sending us an offer.
Their realtor: Oh.

No, we were not impressed. What does this all mean? Who knows? Except that maybe this is going to drag on for more than I would have liked, and we'll probably have strangers traipsing through here right up to the holidays.

Snow day

We had our first real snowfall of the winter Saturday evening. It started to come down after 9pm, and by the time I got off work at 11.30pm, there was layer of white over everything. It made for a nice late night walk with Snoopy.

Sunday morning, and there was still snow on the ground. Not as much as I would have liked, but still enough to get Nate all excited. He wanted to go outside and play, and he wanted to make a snowman. As we left home, he suddenly said to me: "Hey! We need to go back home to get some treats for the snowman!". He'd remembered that we had used dog treats to make the eyes, nose and mouth of his snowman last winter!

It wasn't quite snowman building snow though. Much too dry and fluffy, but it did pack into good snowballs, and that's what we did. Nate had a great time making and throwing snowballs, and running around with the dogs in the park. 

As we were about to leave for home, he stopped me and said: "I want to bring a snowball home for my mama.". So he packed a snowball and carried it home for 5 blocks, all the while talking to it, and telling me how it was thirsty and we needed to get the snowball a drink of water when we got home. At one point, I pulled out his water bottle from my bag to give Nate a sip of water, and he promptly stuck the snowball to the spout after he had had a drink. It made people walking past laugh.

We were just a block from home when he dropped his snowball as he went to push the button for the pedestrian crossing. I'm not sure I have ever seen him look so sad as he stood over his fallen snowball, now covered in grit and sidewalk dirt. As I started to tell him we could make another, he burst into tears and sobbed as we hurried across the street. It took some convincing, but he finally accepted another snowball I made as passable, and carefully carried it the rest of the way home.

He was all smiles when he presented it to Patty.

"I got you a snowball mama!"

And that, is why we now have a snowball in our freezer.

Nate's blue jay

On our morning walk to daycare, I pointed out a bunch of birds to Nate.

Me: Look at those birds Nate.

Nate: Oh yeah!  I see a blue jay!

Me: You see a blue jay?  Where did you see it?

Nate: On the grass, and on a car.

Me: How do you know about blue jays?

Nate: I went bird watching.

Me: You went bird watching?  Who did you go with?

Nate: With you dad!

Now, I don't know when this bird watching took place, but I have no recollection of it!  I've only ever seen a blue jay once, on the Sunshine coast, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't me that showed him a blue jay.  

Interesting the things he comes up with.  A few days ago, he was playing in his room and tripped and fell over.  I was in the other room and heard him start to cry, so I went over to see what was the matter.  

Me: What's wrong Nate?

Nate: I broke my leg.

For one brief moment I actually thought he might have broken his leg!  I had a vision of his little leg dangling uselessly from where the break was.  I was almost afraid to touch his leg.  But of course he hadn't broken his leg.  He'd barely scratched it, but he does have a flair for the dramatic.

I may need a name-tag

The following exchange took place at work. To protect the innocent, all names have been changed except for the author.

The cast:

Beth - a customer I've know for at least 2 years

Wanda - a co-worker

Justin - myself

The Scene:

A busy cafe in a hip Vancouver neighbourhood. It is night. The cafe is full, but most of the customers have been there for some time. There are only a few customers at the till placing orders. Justin and Wanda are manning the tills.

Beth (to Wanda):
Medium soy mocha to go please.

Wanda (to Beth):
Medium soy mocha to go. I'm sorry, but your name escapes me.

Beth (to Wanda):
Beth. It's OK, I can never remember any of your names.

Justin (to Beth):
But you remember my name don't you?

Beth (to Justin):
Of course I remember your name. You have the same name as my brother, I could never forget your name. You're the only other Moses I know.

Justin (to Beth):
What? What did you say?

Beth (to Justin, somewhat flustered):
Nothing, I didn't say anything bad. I just said you're the only other Moses I know.

Justin (to Beth):
But that isn't my name.

Beth (to Justin):
Your name isn't Moses?

(to Wanda) His name isn't Moses?

Wanda (to Beth):
Justin.

Justin (to Beth):
Justin.

Beth (to no one in particular):
Justin?

Justin (to Beth):
Justin.

Beth (to Justin):
But I've always known you as Moses, from the first day we met! Your name isn't Moses?!

And so it was revealed to me, that for the last 2 years or so, Beth was under the impression that my name was Moses.

This, of course, isn't the first time I've been called other names. For the longest time, strangers would call me Mike. Eventually, I found out that the Mike in question worked in the same neighbourhood. Apparently, I was a dead ringer for him. Curious, I went by his place of work one day and sure enough, there he was. There was no mistaking him, it was like looking in a mirror! It was surreal. I didn't dare go and say hello because I was sure the universe would implode.

In a curious coincidence, one of the regulars to the cafe also called me Mike. At first I just let it go, it didn't seem like a big deal. Before I knew it, a couple of years had gone by, and this person still thought my name was Mike. I didn't have the heart to tell him otherwise. How could I? So much time had passed, I didn't even know how to begin to explain that my name was not Mike.

As for Beth, I told her she could still call me Moses if she wanted to. It's only a name, and there are far too many Justins at work anyway!

The bed

This morning, I took the gate off of Nate's crib, and effectively turned it into a small bed. It's been something we've been meaning to do for awhile now, but obviously we were in no real hurry to implement it. I guess you could say we had thoughts of him falling out of bed, or getting up in the middle of the night and wandering around the house unsupervised.

Nate seemed pretty excited that he could get in and out of bed by himself now. He christened the 'new' bed by pulling off all his toys, pillow and blankies. Then he climbed on and proceeded to jump on the mattress, yelling 'I can bounce!'.

Needless to say I was a little nervous when it came time for his nap. But there was no bouncing. He just climbed on and lay down and said goodnight. I'm not sure how long he napped for, I had to leave for work. I wonder if he woke up and let himself out of his room?

I half expected to come home this evening and find him downstairs watching TV or eating a granola bar!

But I was only met at the door by Snoopy.

I guess we really didn't need to worry.

I'm your best friend

It's occurred to me that I have not mentioned Nate for some time now. Since he is the primary reason for this blog, I feel I am failing in my attempt to record the day to day happenings in his universe.

Recently he has taken to telling me that he is my best friend.

"Dad, I'm your best friend" or "I'm your best friend dad!".

Occasionally he will even tell me "Dad, you're my best friend".

I'd like to think that the latter is what he truly means, rather than the first two variants. Those kind of make it sound somewhat ominous, like I have no other friends or I really don't have a choice in the matter. It's all really very sweet though and makes me laugh every time he says it. Sometimes it makes other people who are within earshot laugh too, which is always fun.

I think it's special that he thinks of me and Patty in this way. He tells her this too, but I haven't heard him say it to anyone else. He probably won't admit to it when he is in his teens, but that's OK cause I have this blog to remember it! I of course tell him that he is my best friend. After all I do spend quite a bit of time with him, and we usually have lots of fun during those times. I say usually because it's not all fun and games. We do annoy each other every now and again.

On those occasions when he frustrates me to the point where I have to step back and just let it go, he'll usually come up to me and say "Dad, are you sad?". On one occasion a few weeks ago, he even said "I'm sorry, I make you mad". How can you stay mad at that? Plus, I do make him mad too so we're even in that department.

At the end of the day though, I guess I'm still his best friend. Or is he my best friend?

Sometimes nature really sucks

I found an injured bird on my walk with Snoopy this morning. Well, it was Snoopy that found it. I didn't notice it at first. Snoopy of course was sniffing around and I saw him pawing at something in the grass. Then I saw something move and I pulled Snoop away and saw it was a little sparrow. It was obviously hurt, lying on it's back and not able to get up. It had an odd red tinge to it's feather, blood maybe, I never did figure that part out.

A passerby held on to Snoopy while I picked up the bird. I haven't had much experience with birds. My parents-in-law have a cockatiel, and most of my interactions with it have consisted of it trying to eat my gold chain or earring. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I didn't expect it to be so light. It was so small and delicate, and it barely weighed anything. I could hardly tell I had anything in my hand.

It seemed incomprehensible that this was a living thing. And yet I could clearly feel it's heart beating against my hand. It still felt strong, and yet the poor thing could not move, and was breathing rather raggedly. Every now and then it would open it's eyes and look up at me.

It was a beautiful morning, the perfect fall day. The sun was out, the air was cool, and the light was just amazing. I sat down on the front stoop of a building, bird in one hand and Snoopy's leash in the other. I didn't quite know what to do.

I didn't think there was much that could be done for the bird. Part of me just wanted to put it out of it's misery, but I wasn't sure if I had it in me to do it. I thought of letting Snoopy have it. He'd been sitting very calmly next to me the whole time, he was obviously interested in it, but he was listening to me and being very well behaved. I wasn't sure if I wanted to see Snoopy kill a helpless little bird, and what if he didn't finish the job?

A small part of me just thought I was making a big deal out of nothing. After all it was just a little sparrow. It wasn't really anything special right? But I had picked it up, and I had it cradled in my hand, and I could feel it's heart beating. It was a living thing, it was hurt and I couldn't just leave it to die by itself right?

So there I sat in the sunshine, holding this poor bird, talking to it and stroking it. I don't know how long I sat there, but it seemed like a long time. Finally, someone walking by stopped and said as much as he hated it, he thought I would have to let nature takes it's course. I didn't want to just abandon it, but I knew I couldn't just sit there forever holding it either. So I placed it under some bushes, and walked home with Snoopy.

I can't tell you how many times I've had to stop myself from running over there to see if it's still there.

Let nature take it's course. It got me thinking about myself. If nature took it's course and no one intervened, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it much past 5. For one thing I was half blind as a kid. I kept falling down the stairs at home and it wasn't until I was 5 that they figured out I needed glasses! If we let nature take it's course I'm pretty sure half of us wouldn't be alive today. How come we hardly ever let nature take it's course when it comes to us?

I am not proud of what I did today, but I'm not sure if there was anything more I could have done. Then again, if I was lying hopelessly broken under a tree, I suppose I would want whoever found me to put me out of my misery. Given the way people are in those situations though, I suppose I would have better luck if a bear found me instead.

Fracking nature.

Because that last post was a downer...

A photo of Nate and Bree in the corn maze at the Pumpkin Patch, taken by Jaqueline Jacattack. Yeah, this makes me happy!

If I've seemed a little distracted lately, it's because I have been

I have not been able to keep much in my head of late. My mind is a jumbled mess of things that need to get done, things that should have been done, what lies ahead and the possibilities they bring.

I am alternatively excited, scared, worried, frustrated, and depressed. Occassionally I feel all those things at the same time. If I've looked stunned lately, it's probably because I was at the time.

This whole business of selling our condo and buying a house has been emotionally draining, and we still have no sale or a house! We've gone from being super excited about one house, to not wanting anything to do with it once we found out how much work it needed.

We have found another house, one that we are trying hard not to get attached to. But how do you not get emotionally involved when you're buying a house? What would be the point if you weren't? But we are running out of time, and it seems less and less likely that we will be able to sell our condo and secure this house before the deadline set by the sellers. So this morning we talked about the possibility of having to take our condo off the market and wait till the new year to sell it. It's been at the back of our minds for some time now probably, but it was the first we actually talked about it. Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic, but maybe it's better that way and I won't set myself up for a bigger fall.

Amidst all this, there is the the everyday things that still need to get done. I'm still trying to figure out where everything is in our place following the cleanup. We are living in this space, but trying to make it look like no one is living in this space. And we've still got a bunch of boxes in the living room of our neighbour Jean. She's been super this past little while, letting us store our stuff there, watching Snoopy while our place was being showed, and even letting us crash there.

It's all been a little chaotic, and I guess that's worn off on me a little. I feel like I'm swimming underwater most days. Swimming underwater in slow motion. I hope I get to come up for air soon. Maybe I need new drugs?

This makes me happy

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Bree took Nate to the pumpkin patch. He came home with very muddy clothes, muddy boots and a couple of pumpkins. I don't know why, but just looking at those muddy boots makes me happy!

The address is the same, but it doesn't look like I live here anymore

The last few days have been incredibly hectic here at home. We've been getting our place ready for showing. Yes, we're putting our home up on the market and planning to pull up stakes and move East. East to Halifax, NS. I will spare everyone the details now, but let's just say that this has been a really stressful last month.

Anyways, a big thank you to all our friends who came over on short notice to help us pack and cart stuff out of here. And to friends who let us store our stuff at their homes.




So now our home looks amazing! Except it doesn't look like I live here anymore. That and I have no idea where anything is anymore.



So now we wait to see if all that work pays off in dollars. It's probably not the best time to be a seller in Vancouver, but we're keeping our fingers crossed.

The love of friends

These last few days have been a whirlwind of emails, long-distance phonecalls, excitement, stress and disappointment. Did I mention stress? Some of you may already know that we are planning to move to Halifax, NS in the next little while. We've put our place here in Vancouver up for sale, and we've been looking for a house in Halifax. Not the easiest thing to do from Vancouver.

Patty left for Halifax Thursday evening to check out a house and be on-site for the building inspection. As it turns out, this particular house will require far more work than we feel comfortable taking on at this point. A disappointing end to what had been till then, a mostly exciting, if somewhat stressful time.

I've been home with Nate and Snoopy. Of course I usually work Thursday through till Sunday. The first 2 days weren't too much of a problem since Nate was in daycare. But who was going to spend hours with him on Saturday and Sunday while I was at work? Some fabulous friends of ours of course.

Our friend Lauren offered to spend Saturday with Nate. She took him out for a sushi dinner, sang sea-shanties with him, and probably had to endure monster-truck TV. I'm sure she could have just come and hung out with Nate and done nothing else and he would have been just as happy, mostly because he just loves spending time with his Aunty Lolo.

On Sunday, my friend Bree took Nate to the pumpkin patch, and by all accounts he had a blast. How could he not? He got to hang out with his Aunty Bree, ride tractors, see farm animals, tromp through mud in his rubber boots and pick apples and pumpkins!

And in the days prior to me finding a sitter, one of Patty's co-workers Shona offered to hang out with Nate for a few hours on Sunday, and my co-worker Manuel offered to come and watch him during my Sunday shift.

All these people have busy lives, and yet they offered to help me out and spend their days off with Nate. It could just be the sappy father in me, but I think that's pretty special. So thank you all my friends, I feel so loved.

Thanksgiving on Main Street

I have much to be thankful for, I always have.  Sometimes it's easy to forget this.  Other times I struggle with the random nature of my good fortune.  I wasn't born into a third world country, or a war ravaged country.  I got a head start right off the bat.  I didn't choose to be born where I was, it just happened.  But who gets to makes those decisions?

This thanksgiving, my workplace decided to donate all our tips from the Thanksgiving weekend to some charities in Vancouver.  The money collected from all the JJ Bean stores in Vancouver would also be matched by JJ.  If any of our patrons needed reminding that they had lots to be thankful for, they didn't have far to look.

I guess even those of us who get a head start fall behind sometimes.  And who am I to say that this person hasn't lots to be thankful for?  I once asked a homeless person how his day was going, and he told me it was great.  He woke up that morning, and he was still breathing.  

Happy thanksgiving Canada.  We have much to be thankful for.

FREE ART ?

Thus read the scrawl on a strip of masking tape attached to a rather large piece of plywood. If that piece of plywood were not so easily recognizable as a piece of art, I would have questioned what the sign really meant. Was it art? Was it free? Who was this Art, and what did he need to be freed from?

In any case, it was just sitting there on the sidewalk on Main Street, just a block and a half away from home, and Nate was clearly taken by it. It was coming home with us. No question about it. See how happy he was?

Sometimes your kid will bring home rocks, feathers, leaves and other bits and pieces he finds out in the world. And sometimes he will bring home huge pieces of art.

The Csar of the bar

These photos were taken on a Thursday evening at work. The hands belong to my colleague Robert Csar, and these are some examples of his work. I feel I must apologise to Robert for the title of this post. I am a weak man and have little self-control.

Ghosts of Afghanistan

Downers from the week past

1. The new American Express ad running on TV features Jim Henson and his muppets and it makes me want to cry everytime I see it.
2. The number of new people sleeping on the street in my neighbourhood. On one morning walk with Snoop, I counted three new people I haven't seen before. Since then I've seen a few more new faces.
3. The death of Paul Newman. I grew up with his movies, and lately I've been watching Cars with Nate over and over again. It sounds silly, but sometimes I just take for granted that some people will be around forever. I think it's so I don't have to deal with the passing of time, and my own mortality.
4. A person suffering from mental illness came into my workplace one evening and spent a few minutes walking around the store yelling to no one in particular, then walked out and continued down the street yelling. It made me sad then and it makes me sad just thinking about it now.
5. The ghosts of Afghanistan. Someone had planted a small tree in the dog park we go to. From afar, it looks like a small Christmas tree decorated with white streamers. On closer inspection, the white streamers turned out to be paper tags bearing the inscription ghosts of Afghanistan. I took some time to explain to Nate what was happening in Afghanistan. I'm not sure he understood, and to tell you the truth, I'm not sure I did myself. Sobering stuff. My brother will be leaving for Afghanistan next month. I haven't seen him in four and a half years, and part of me worries I might never see him again.

I don't want to go

That's twice now I've heard those words from Nate on the mornings when I wake him to go to daycare. I don't know why, but he just wants to stay home when I tell him it's time to go to Kristi's house. Last Friday, it took us almost an hour and a half to convince him that he could not stay home by himself. Thankfully it wasn't nearly as difficult this morning, but it still took us some time to get out of the house.

Of course once we got there, he quickly forgot he didn't want to go in the first place. As we pulled up to Kristi's this morning, he said to me "dad, are you going to come and play with me at Kristi's house?". Well, with an invite like that, how could I possible say no?

So this morning I got to hang out with Nate, Aiden and Vivienne, and play with toy cars and planes and watch them bounce around on the mini trampoline. Everyone shared or took turns, and at one point when they each had a toy car, Nate made sure I had one too. "I go get a car for you dad!", and he did.

After the initial struggle to get him to Kristi's, it was nice to see him enjoying himself there and being part of a larger group. And when it was time for me to go, he ran over to give me a hug and a kiss. Invisible I am not.

Summer in a bowl

Nate, Snoopy and myself stopped by our next door neighbour's yesterday morning and Nate got to go up on the roof deck and pick tomatoes. I think he really enjoyed doing that, there were so many different tomatoes and it was quite the job to keep him from picking them all.

For awhile it seemed like it was still the middle of summer. The sun was out, we were picking ripe tomatoes off the vine, and Snoopy and Mika were stretched out on the deck. And this is what we came home with, a bowl of lovely tomatoes and some basil to go with them.

I decided to make a little tomato salad for dinner with our little bounty. So a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some of the fresh basil, and voila! Summer in a bowl.

Thank you Jean. They tasted heavenly!

Not for my vegan friends, or the faint of heart

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/ linking to your results.

1. Venison

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos rancheros

4. Steak tartare

5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding

7. Cheese

8. Carp

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari

12. Pho

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn, or head cheese

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters

29. Baklava

30. Bagna cauda

31. Wasabi peas

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl

33. Salted lassi

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar

37. Clotted cream tea

38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat

42. Whole insects

43. Phaal

44. Goat’s milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more

46. Fugu (pufferfish)

47. Chicken tikka masala

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut

50. Sea urchin

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal

56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV (Fin du Monde in Quebec)

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin

64. Currywurst

65. Durian

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

68. Haggis

69. Fried plantain

70. Chitterlings, or andouillette

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini 

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost, or brunost

75. Roadkill

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail

79. Lapsang souchong

80. Bellini

81. Tom yum

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.

85. Kobe beef

86. Hare

87. Goulash

88. Flowers

89. Horse

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish

95. Mole poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

Snippets from the walk home from daycare

Fridays after a shift at the cafe, I pick Nate up from daycare and we walk home. This is what he had to say yesterday:-

• on what he did at daycare - "I went to the park and I saw bugs and ants on leaves and ants on tree!"
• on seeing a dog crossing the road - "That's a poodle! Over there, that brown one! That's a poodle!"
• on having a friend over for dinner - "I know Noah! He's my friend!"
• on leaving the parkade under our building - "Shhh! The cars are sleeping. Quiet, don't wake the cars, they're sleeping."

Occassionally, I am not invisible

Most days when I drop Nate off at daycare, he barely bats an eyelid when I say goodbye and go to leave. He's usually playing with some toy or his friends, and will yell 'goodbye!' without even turning his head. It's almost like I'm not even there, invisible, already gone.

This morning, we were running a little late and when we got there they were getting ready to go for their morning walk. I was pulling my shoes on and getting ready to go when he came and snuggled with me and said 'I love you dad.', quite out of the blue. What a nice surprise. But he wasn't done yet.

As Snoopy and I made our way from the house, the kids all emerged and started heading off on their walk. I heard Nate yell 'Goodbye dad!' and then 'Wait, I want to get you a hug!' So I run back over, and he runs up to me and hugs me. As he heads back to the group he says 'I get you a kiss' and comes back and plants one on my mouth. Then he's off again. yelling 'See you later!' as he rejoins the group.

Today, I was not invisible.

I suppose it was inevitable..

I've been toying with the idea of a blog now for some time.  My son is now two and a half and I'm increasingly finding myself wishing I had a place to record the things he does or says.  Sure, I have hundreds of photographs of him, okay probably thousands.  Yet it doesn't seem enough.  I fear that the time will past and all these moments will be lost.  I'll look back at the photographs one day and wonder where they were taken, what he was saying or doing.  I know I won't be able to record everything here, but it's more for the moments that stick out.  My friends tell me those are the moments I will always remember, but I can't even remember what I had for breakfast most days, or what I did the night before.  I find it hard to believe I will remember something that happened 30 years ago when I am in my senior years.

So that's the primary purpose of this blog.

Of course I'm sure there will be other posts as well, where I will probably make cynical pessimistic and downright depressing observations about the world around me.  I'm sure you can hardly wait.