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Archive for the ‘Alice’ Category

Wow! Life must be very busy because we haven’t updated thegirards.com in a lonnnnnng time. I will try to catch you all up on some of the highlights (and low-lights) as of late…

– We are moving to Montreal! Très excitant! Rob has just accepted a great job with Maples FS as their Infrastructure Architect and will start in mid-April. While he is sad to be leaving the World Wildlife Fund — it is such a great working environment with so many great people, and such a great cause! — this is a global opportunity that promises lots of challenge and growth, and we’re ready for the new adventure. We will miss our friends, our neighbours, our home… but we are looking forward to the new people, culture, experiences (et les compétences linguistiques!) that Montreal will offer.

Hanging with Dad

– Alice is already 10 months old! Everyday, she seems a little bit less of a baby and more and more like a little girl. 🙂 She now has a second tooth, crawls, and walks around — as long as she has something to hold onto! Funny — as long as she has both of my hands to hold onto, she almost runs… but if I let go with one hand, she seems to think her feet won’t move anymore. It’s just a matter of a little more confidence, I guess! She has been discovering a love of books, and usually falls asleep cuddling with one. Like her dad, she also loves computers and gadgets — although she did manage to short out our laptop by drooling on the keyboard while playing with kneebouncers.com… oopsy!

At the Spaghetti Factory

– In sad news, we lost our beloved Sally recently. We will remember her fondly as our “Marley & Me” dog… She was a wonderful girl, full of love and sweetness, but also such a little terror!! I’ve never before met a dog who could break into a bank vault just to get to an old cheerio. 🙂 What started off as a bladder infection that we just couldn’t seem to get rid of, turned into something with her kidneys that made her very sick and in pain, unwilling to even eat… and, for those of you who know Sally, that’s a bad, bad sign. When we realized that she wasn’t even able to take medication for pain without vomiting, we knew it was time to let her go. She passed away very peacefully in Rob’s arms, and will be remembered always with love. Rest in peace, Sally… we miss you! <3

Our beloved Sally...

– I was featured on an MTV Impact segment for “Let’s Talk,” Bell’s Mental Health Day! Here is the video, which MTV has now posted on YouTube. I’ll be adding it to my website soon, which I’ve also updated recently. As always, thank you all for your support and enthusiasm! I’ve been doing a lot more speeches lately, which is great. This week, I was at Convenant House in downtown Toronto, doing a presentation to homeless youth (many with mental health issues). I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to deliver my message: I have a great family. I have great friends. I have a great resume and a great career. I have a great past and a great future. I have great health, and I am a “totally sane crazy person”! I love being able to pass on these messages of hope and ‘normality’… 🙂

– Rob is officially a VCAP!! That stands for “VMware Certified Advanced Professional,” and essentially means that he is one of the geekiest-geeks alive!! He is the 137th person in the world to achieve this designation. He worked very hard, learned a lot, studied a lot… and I’m very, very proud of him. Congrats, sweetie. xo!

– Jackie (my younger sister) spent a couple of weeks with us in Toronto! It was great to have her here… Miss you already, Jack. Thank you for making the trip!

The next few months promise to be just as busy as usual, or busier! Let’s try to find time to connect, though. Love you all!!

I LOVE Ontario Early Years Centers. These are places where moms/dads/grandparents/imported-nannies-who-get-paid-terribly-but-seem-neat-o can take the kids in their care to play, sing, read, and interact with the world. They’re free, in the I-pay-taxes sort of way, and they typically have once- or twice-weekly programs specifically for kids younger than one. I shied away from them at first, mainly due to some circuitous and somewhat contradictory logic. The Beach, you see, is a rather wealthy neighbourhood. The moms I saw out and about were on their way to “Belly Bootcamp” exercise classes — to banish their already non-existent pregnancy tummies — pushing designer strollers worth more than my car and looking exquisite. These moms not only washed their hair, they styled it. They not only got out of their pajamas, they put on clean, matching clothes and accessorized. ACCESSORIZED! They wore makeup and had manicures and their children wore a brand new outfit every day. I did not wish to interact with these people. They would judge me; I would feel ashamed. Alice would feel my shame and turn to drugs, or cookies with preservatives. It just didn’t seem worth it. I also thought, however, that none of these moms would be at the OEYC, because (BECAUSE!) it is a free resource. Nay, if I went to the OEYC, I would be surrounded by the poor moms, the destitute moms whose sad babies desperately eyed Alice’s round tummy and stared wonderingly at my flat chest. We would talk about how the moms’ jobs — all three jobs, per mom — where they hide their babies down their pants to avoid paying for childcare and steal toilet paper from Wal-mart washrooms, and I would feel ashamed of our near-designer stroller and in-house laundry. Alice would feel my shame. Our choose-your-own-adventure story once again leads to drugs and Oreos. Egad.

Alas, at the urging of my treatment team, we finally went, and it was fabulous. The moms in The Beach OEYC were awesome — friendly and polite, accepting and funny, and our children exchanged cooties whilst alternately poking each other in the eyes and kissing. I learned that I was doing all right, mom-wise. I learned that Alice could benefit from a bit more time on her tummy, but that she was a pretty awesome sleeper. I had some coleslaw and life was good.

Today, Alice and I went to our new OEYC, in our new neighbourhood. The demographic here is decidedly less wealthy, but the programming at the OEYC was even better. A librarian from the Toronto Public Library came in and talked with us a bit about literacy, and we sang songs and read books together. Then, there was painting! With infants! It was messy and begged for generous artistic license, and an adorable little boy with long brown hair and unsure steps ate a lot of the blue paint (but it was okay, because Alice and I were SO done with the blue by then), and next week when I bathe Alice, I’m sure she’ll return to a mostly normal colour again.

And, most of the moms were friendly and polite, accepting and funny.

The exceptions to this rule were Lame Social Skills Mom and Queen Mama.

Me, to LSS Mom: Hi! This is Alice, and I’m Kim. <smile>

LSS: Oh. Hi. <awkward pause as she fails to introduce herself>

Me:  <smile> How old is… uh… your little one?

LSS: Five and a half months. <silence>

And then she took the toy Alice was playing with and gave it to her kid. I congratulated Alice on her great sharing skills, and found a way to move us to the other side of the play rug. If LSS was offended… uh, I don’t care.

And then there was Queen Mama. She was LOUD and very keen to share. She changed her daughter’s outfit three (THREE!) times during the hour we shared. She stared at me, horrified, when Alice spit up on herself and I proudly wiped at her face and shirt with an already semi-soiled bib hanging from our diaper bag, and left  her puke-stained shirt on. We heard about her crisis at home, as she has just discovered her baby has been sucking on her crib rails and thus will probably evaporate soon. And her baby wasn’t allowed to paint. 🙁 And you know what? I’m so glad she was there. She reminded me that there are 1,000,000 ways to raise your baby, and they’re all right, if they’re done with love.

I can’t wait to go back.

Long time, no update from me (Rob) on the Girards.com. I have loads of pictures I want to post from the summer, but just haven’t had the time. As most or all of you know, I started a new job recently…. OK, it’s been a couple months now. I’ve been super busy with work, and really enjoying it. Love being engaged in a complex project with lots of moving parts again 🙂

But apart from work, the home front hasn’t been all that calm either. If there’s anything that Kim & I are well known for, it’s that we’re constantly in a state of change… whether that be changing jobs, getting married, having a child, etc… this time, among other things, it’s MOVING!

We found a great new place to move into…. a small bungalow that we’ll be the sole occupants of! A great house to raise a family in, if you ask me. Or at least a great starter place until we get everything in order to build our dream home up north.

We spent the weekend in our new home painting and getting it in order so we can move in next weekend. Laura (my sister), was kind enough to come up this weekend to help us paint and keep us company. We had a great weekend and got a lot done!

My original intent for this post was to share a picture I just made with you. Last week, in the new house, Kim took a funny picture of Alice in her Jolly Jumper, wearing my boots. She posted it on Facebook and our friend Greg made a comment that we should photoshop out the jumper and give her an Elmer Fudd Hat. Greg: Thanks for the inspiration! 🙂

Alice is getting so big, so fast… hard to believe she’s:

A) Already 5 1/2 months

B) Only 5 1/2 months!

At her last checkup last week, she’s now in the 90 percentile for length and weight! At this rate, she’ll tower me before she can even say her first word!!!! I’m so happy she’s healthy, happy, and brings us so much joy 🙂

Hope you’re all doing well… The Girards are doing great! Enjoy the pics!

This post is a quick one. Using my iPhone, I’ve captured a few shots of my favorite girl that I’d like to share. The quality isn’t great — it’s a phone, afterall, not a camera — but they’re just so darn cute.

Opa & Grandma: the shots of Alice in the fuzzy pink outfit and raingear are especially for you. Alice will be putting these to good use at the Nutshell this weekend!

Sally had an accident in the house today, and we’re out of paper towels. Here’s a snippet of the resulting exchange between myself and the man that I love:

“Why are we out of paper towels?” asks Rob.
“Because I used them all, honey,” I reply.
“But why didn’t we get more?” asks Rob.
<pause>
“Ah. Well, darling, that’s because I’m lazy.” Big smiles from Kim.

Anyway, I mopped up the spill with a couple of Alice’s cloth diapers. They’re incredibly absorbent and someone else cleans them. I love our diaper service even more, all of a sudden. 🙂

In other news, Alice is gigantic, in the cute and healthy way. She’s asleep in her crib right now, wearing a super-soft pink-with-polar-bears patterned fleece sleeper with polar bear heads on the feet. I’m a bad parent because I totally just tiptoed into her room, turned the light on, and snapped a picture of her… with flash. <grimace> And then I took another one because I didn’t like the way the first one turned out. Ha ha. 🙂

Alice in Polar Bear PJs

The significance of the sleeper, though, is that it is for babies 6-9 months old. Alice fits not into this range, but fits nicely into the sleeper: she’s 4 1/2 months old, and 16 1/2 lbs. Nicely grown, team. Earlier this week, I went to an “Ontario Early Years” center for an infant play group called “Infant Acttion” (aka “Infant I-Can’t-Spell-Action” or “Put Your Baby on a Mat with Toys and Talk to the Other Moms about Drool, Poop and Rolling Over”) (ooh, side note! Alice has started rolling from her tummy to her back all on her own!), and there was a 13 month old baby girl there who weighs 15 lbs. I joked with her mom that I’ll bring in Alice’s hand-me-downs next time. (Admittedly, that little girl was born three months premature, but STILL).

In other news, we gave our landlord notice tonight that we’ll be moving out at the end of September. We don’t know specifically where we’re going yet, but we’re determined to get a place with a yard (for both Alice and Sally’s sakes) amongst other features. I’d really like this next place to be the one we live in until we make the big, permanent move up to the Nutshell.

And, for my next trick, a few pictures. Oddly, I don’t think I got any pictures of Jackie or AJ meeting Alice. Oops. <sigh>

It’s been almost a month since the last update and since most posts have been about Alice (who’s now 4 months old!!), you can probably guess why there have been no updates!

A quick recap of the last month:

1. Kim & Rob celebrated their first anniversary on August 1st! 1 down…. MANY to go 🙂 Things just keeping better and better…. I am truly blessed to have such an amazing partner to go on life’s many voyages with!

2. Rob’ s back to work. I started at WWF Canada (wildlife, not wrestlin!) as their new Infrastructure Architect. Lots of fun server virtualization in the works as I design and build out a new infrastructure. For the geeks out there: HP Blade System (C3000 enclosure) w/ latest gen BL460c’s, loaded w/ CPU & RAM, Flex-10 virtual connects, LeftHand SANs (2 for multi-site) and more! Busy times ahead… so unless Kim’s doing the updates, don’t expect too many 🙂

3. We have a new brother-in-law and are happy to welcome Steve Scott into the family! Kim’s sister Yvonne & Steve got married on July 24th. Beautiful ceremony and a great time! 🙂

4. Trip to Alberta – Although the wedding was the primary driver for the trip, Alice’s Opa, Aunts, and Uncle hadn’t met her yet. She traveled really what a trooper! I had never seen the Rockies before, so while we were out there, we took a very casual 900 km one day road trip to “tour the surroundings” 🙂 Got some great pics, but haven’t had a chance to put an album together yet.

5. Down to Windsor for a visit. I’m actually on the train right now, heading to Windsor. Kim & Alice left 2 days ago, but I had to work so I am taking the train to meet up with them. Kim sent me a great shot of Alice’s first swim! I really didn’t want to have to wait until she was as old as she is (4 months) before getting her in the pool…. but we had little choice due to scheduling conflicts! 😛 I guess I could have brought her in the river up @ the nutshell, but the water was a wee bit chilly for me…. Alice would have turned 6 shades of blue!

I’m sure a lot more happened over the past few weeks, but that’s all I can recall for now.

Alice is doing great, as are the rest of the Girards. See you back again soon for another update…. hopefully one that includes some pics!

Cheers!

Happy Birthday Kim! Today, July 11th (07/11 – aka Slurpy Day @ SevenEleven) is Kim’s birthday! Alice wanted to give her Mom something special so I helped her out using photoshop. For a 3 month old, she’s pretty impressive on the computer!!!!

I know

Happy B-Day Mom!

Kim, hope you have an amazing birthday! Lots of love from Rob & Alice!

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Non-birthday-related: We haven’t posted any updates lately, and we’re overdue for some! We were out of town last week, up at the Nutshell again for some family camping. I’ll post on that a bit later and include some pics from our time up there. Stay tuned….

Day by day, Alice’s vision gets a little better and her world gets a little bigger. Mommy & Alice are enjoying some sightseeing out our window.

Some quality mother/daughter time

Here are a couple more:

Confession: I am pretty darn proud of myself for having gone camping with Alice at eight weeks old. Seven weeks prior, when we brought her home, I struggled to wrap my head around how to take care of her, despite being surrounded by the conveniences of a modern home — electricity, microwave, baby monitor, etc. Less than two months later? We’re hanging out in an old motorhome with no heat (by night) and no cooling (by day), and bugs and mouse poop and a sack of cloth diapers making the outhouse smell even better. Good work, team!

It’s also safe to say that any of the baby blues I was dealing with have gone on their merry way — thankfully. That was ROUGH. I’d lie in my bed, staring at nothing and crying intermittently, while other people took care of the spawn I wasn’t sure I really wanted, wondering if those same people and spawn really wanted me. 🙁 Good news — we all really want and like (dare I say LOVE? 😉 each other. I am amazed by Alice and spend too much time staring at her. She is growing so quickly, I can probably see the changes if I stare long enough. At her last doctor’s appointment, she’d hit 11 lbs 2 oz (and was 6 lbs 11 oz at birth). Holy crap. Some of her clothes, that she swam in, no longer fit her. I know that those of you who are parents are laughing at me and those who aren’t probably don’t care :-), but it’s incredible. Really. She’s slowly becoming more interactive, too. When we smile and giggle at her, she’ll often smile and giggle back. She has taken to batting at things in front of her, instead of just flailing her arms aimlessly… okay, in addition to flailing her arms aimlessly. Her noises are more varied. It’s neat-o.

Oh – and for those of you anxiously awaiting the results of the formula switches, we’ve got her back to the original mix. Gas isn’t as bad, probably just because she’s older, and we give her Ovol drops when she’s struggling. The lactose-free formula made her poop uber-hard and dense. (You’re welcome).

A picture to leave you with, below. The cats are warming up to Ali a little bit; this is her nestled in my bed, with Jackson and Bonobo coming to say hi and risk getting their fur yanked. 🙂

much love –
Kim

AliCats

Last week, Wednesday to be exact, Kim & I loaded Alice & Sally into the car for a little R&R out of the city. Destination? The Nutshell! For those of you unfamiliar with what or where a “nutshell” is, it is the nickname we’ve given the property we bought up North last summer.

There are some cleared sections on the land, a beautiful view, and RV, and outhouse and a fire-pit. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell (couldn’t resist!).

Alice turned out to be a happy camper for the 5 days we were up there. The weather was mostly amazing, and the bugs weren’t TOO bad. OK, so there were some black flies, deer flies and no-see-ums to deal with, but they weren’t overwhelming.

Here are some pics from our trip…. enjoy!