About a week ago some guy thought I cut him off (really - he was driving twice the speed limit) so within seconds of me turning in front of him (with plenty of room) he was on my tail, then pulled out, drove around me and almost hit me while cutting back in front of me. This was followed by us both rolling down our windows and him giving me the bird followed by a bunch of 4 letter words and some very sexist comments about womnen drivers (his wife/girlfriend was sitting beside him). Then just as I was about to respond, the light turned green and he squealed away (before I could say a word).
okay... so I wrote down his license plate #, tried to explpain "road rage" to the 4 kids in the car and carried on.
Fast forward to 2 days ago. I'm riding my bike down our street with the kids when I see a car that looks just like Mr. Rage's car. I check the license plate and it looks familiar - go home and check and sure enough it's HIS!!!. Turns out this fuckwad is my f'in neighbour. We live on a small cul de sac and he lives in one of the 20 houses on our street.
So, what would you do? I want to go have a little chat with him. I need closure. I need to tell his what a f'in ass he is. CJ says I should let it go. what would you do???
Life these days is feeling pretty good. It kinda feels like all the star are finally aligning.
• Kids are really enjoying the summer. I am glad we didn’t have them in full-day camp/daycare all summer. They love riding their two-wheelers (we are now past training wheels altogether in our house), playing street hockey, grounders at the park, chalk on the driveway, or just playing with little toys while being outside;
• We are all enjoying friendships with our neighbours - the kids love playing with all their friends on the street, and CJ and I really like hanging out on the street, talking to our neighbours. I love the fact that Seb and Kenzie can just go door to door asking if Matthew and Lucas, or Jacob and Jordan, or Olivia, or Zuhal and Adris can come out to play.
• CJ and I have started a new approach to parenting. We have started to be tougher on the kids but in a more patient and less reactive way, if that makes sense. So far (knock on wood) the kids have been reacting well. For example this morning Sebby brushed his teeth with no complaining, helped fill the bird feeders, and helped tidy his toys. Kenzie has done two loads of laundry, tidied the shoes and helped CJ fold laundry.
• I love the way our friendships here have growth into such relaxed, supportive and fun relationships. I love that the adults are all friends (the boys go mountain biking together, the ladies get mani’s and pedi’s together, we all watch movies together and love to get together at each others houses or out at a local pub etc)
• Work is going really well for both CJ and I. He just finished a huge project that he has been working on for other a year and is getting many commendations from around the company. I have had the opportunity to work with some great people in my company and to work on some very cool projects. I’m challenged and getting a lot of satisfaction. It’s a great place to be.
So all in all… I am happy. Life isn’t perfect - it never is. But I have very few complaints these days. I am not ready for the summer to end. We have another camping trip in a couple weeks that we are looking forward to. We even rented a pop-up trailer for this trip. I have a feeling we might just love it!
Last weekend it was CJ’s birthday weekend. It started off with Zoe sleeping over on Saturday night. First we were invited to Andrea’s for a bbq. We took Zoe with us and had a nice evening (despite the cousins fighting and egging each other on – ugh).
Cutie Jordana
CJ’s birthday cake
The kids were worn out from the day and ended up falling asleep pretty quickly. In the morning, CJ, Brian, and John went for an early morning mountain bike ride. When CJ came home the kids were super excited to celebrate CJ’s birthday . Here is a little video of the kids singing happy birthday. It all went great until Seb went to give CJ and hug and spilled hot coffee all overt the two of them.
Luckily they both recovered well and we were able to open CJ’s gifts outside. Sue and the girls were going for a run and stopped by on the way – they ended up hanging out with us instead and were there for CJ’s gift opening.
After playing outside for a few hours, Zoe was picked up, and the Ingram’s all came inside and had afternoon naps – LUXURY!! Shortly after waking up, we took the kids to Gay’s house and headed over to the Hunt Pub. We met up with Bev and John and Sue and Brian and enjoyed some appetizers and drinks to celebrate CJ’s b-day.
And to top off a fun evening we all came back to our house and watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall – a hilarious movie!!!
So this week Kenzie and Seb had swimming lesson with big Seb and Sophie. They each had private lessons – two kids and two instructors in the pool for two 30 minutes lessons It was quite a week for both Sophie and little Seb - both of whom decided that this was the week they were going to learn how to swim. All four kids did great and they each got badges at the end of the week. I brought my camera yesterday.
Kenzie’s lesson
Seb’s lesson
Is this not the best setting for swim lessons – sure beats the local parks and rec pool. Too bad it wasn’t summer all year long.
We have really been enjoying the summer the last few weeks. We went camping last week and had a great time. Despite the rain in the evenings/at night, the weather during the days was wonderful. We were able to spend time at the beach every day and the kids had a blast swimming. Kenzie has really become a water bug and I can’t keep her out of the water. I am very proud of how well she is swimming. She’s come a long way from a year ago when she couldn’t swim at all. And Sebastian – just this morning – learned how to ride a two-wheeler. This little video shows the first time he did it this morning. Since then he has become an expert – he can go fast and slow, turn, stop etc. He’s so comfortable now that he and CJ just went for a bike ride together.
The kids have been having a pretty good summer. They have gone to a few different camps – Toronto Montessori, Appleby College and just last week they went to the Summer Institute camp with Sophie and Big Seb. After camp they were picked up by Sue and Rachel and Rachel had her first foray into babysitting. I was pretty impressed with her patience with the young kids. She did a really good job.
I love the kind of lazy pace of this summer. I have been trying hard not to schedule anything besides what is essential (i.e. camps and babysitting while CJ and I are work). Take this morning for instance. CJ and I were able to go outside and just hang out drinking coffee and let the kids play on the street on their bikes and scooters. At one point CJ and I were playing on the street (my on my bike and CJ on a scooter) and Kenzie, Seb and Koda were sitting on the grass playing with little stuffed animals and playmobil stuff.
Here is a picture from this afternoon. It totally shows our lazy “do whatever’ kind of day
Koda is very patiently letting them drive their stuffed animals and motorcycle toys down her back (note: Koda is a giant mountain)
This afternoon we are going to Andrea’s house for a barbeque. We have Kenzie’s friend Zoe with us today. She is spending the night. Tomorrow Kenzie and Seb are going to Zoe’s house in the evening so that CJ and I can go out for appetizers and drinks for his birthday. We want top go to a local pub called the Hunt Club near our house. They have an awesome rooftop patio and live music too. Sue & Brian and Bev and John are coming too. So I am looking forward to it.
I wanted to post a few pictures from camping.
Shannon, Kenzie and Soph at the beach
Bev taking the kids and Coco (dog) for a walk
All the kids (Kenzie was sulking cause things weren’t going her way)
Sunset swim on Saturday evening
Coming over the top of the sand dune and running towards the beach
CJ playing at the campfire
This was the first time we took Koda – she had a blast! She loved chasing chipmunks, going swimming and eating marshmallows
