dragon

Dear Dragon – Welcome to Level 4

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Dear Little Dragon,

It’s been a big year for you.

Since your last birthday you’ve:

  • Potty trained to a point of no accidents;
  • Learned the alphabet in English (working on french);
  • Learned to count to 10 in English (working on french);
  • Learned to write your letters (better than me);
  • Graduated out of a booster seat at the dinner table;
  • Gone to Disney and your first rides;
  • Been an excellent if over-enthusiastic big sister;
  • Watched a lot of movies
  • Started école
  • and a lot of other fantastic things.
Dragon talking to fantastic FadhiliTheOne for a birthday video chat with Princess Tiana.

One of my favourite memories from this past year is the long-weekend we spent just you and me. You’ve already forgotten most of it, so you say, but it was fun. It was Halloween and we hung out, watched Phineas & Ferb, went to the cinema, played video games, and of course trick or treated. It was nice to have time just you and me.

On the bus on our way home from seeing Abominable in cinema.

Another great memory is you dictating your Christmas letter to Santa and making sure you told him what Pegasus wants. You truly love him and want to take care of him. It’s sweet and I hope that love and the adoration I see in his eyes doesn’t go away as you age.

One of your favourite things right now is to snuggle into someones lap and play video games with them on their phone. I’m not sure if it’s the game or the bonding you want but I’ll take the snuggles. (You’re already asking for your own phone by the way.)

I guess I can’t talk about this year without talking about Covid-19, or as you call it The Virus. You love being around people and last year you went to conventions with us, parties, and Disney. Then March came and everything stopped. It’s been hard for you and I’m so glad we podded with your grandparents.

I miss going shopping with you, I miss going to the park, I miss not panicking every time you touch a package. You have been great though. I’m not sure how much you get the concept, but you seem to understand it’s important.

One great thing about it, is that you have me home. I still hope you’ll be able to go to école for your first grade but everything is up in the air until a vaccine.

You’ve grown physically, mentally, and emotionally so much since you turned 3. (Oh man am I glad you’re no longer having full-on sensory overload tantrums anymore.) I can’t imagine what you’re going to be like next year, but I look forward to being there and finding out.

Happy Birthday, love you!

Your sappy Papa

Busy, pumpkins, and tired

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

Work is starting to ramp up for the return of parliament (I do layouts for government reports, a lot of them are tabled in parliament). So I’m really busy. Especially with work, the preparations for the JenEric Advent Calendar, and Dragon going to school.

Pegasus is really into stacking things. Here he’s stacked 2 blue cylinders on my shoulder.

I’m also really tired from the last hurrah of this season’s seasonal allergies (apparently that means I have different allergies each season) and Pegasus having issues sleeping (more teeth and growing pains). All that to say that I haven’t had as much time to dedicate to writing or blogging. Sorry about that.

In other news, pie pumpkins are in stores here which means I’ll be going all out on pumpkin stuff. I’ve already roasted two of them and eaten the seeds. This weekend I’ll attempt Pumpkin & Spice Doughnuts if I have the time and energy.

Hope you’re all doing well.

Stay Safe and Be Kind!

Éric

Week 1 – Tangled Results

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Dragon’s first week of Jr Kindergarten went well. There were some hiccups with technology for her virtual classes for her real school on the first day, but after getting a new link (and downloading new firmware for the camera) the second day went much smoother – other than several meltdowns from a very tired Dragon. We’re trying to figure out how to have her be part-time (one day a week), with the teacher’s assistance.

As for the part of her week taught by me, that also went well, for the most part.

Dance

Ballet was a big hit

Music

We listened to a bunch of French music. Coeur de Pirate was the favourite.

Crochet

We managed to get a few stitches in.

Printing words

Worked really well. The blank sheet was used on the second day with the filled in sheet as a guide for spelling.

Writing words

Counting objects/math-type activities

The download sheet worked really well. She got to practice writing numbers and she counted well.

Counting

Storytime

She enjoyed the books, but I’m not sure she understood them

Activity

Baking – cake – talked about mixing colours and measurements.

  • The cake!
  • How do we make purple? Red and blue food colouring (and blueberries).
  • Stuffing yellow icing into the piping instrument
  • Piping the yellow sun
  • The sun!
  • Look what I made!
  • We had leftover yellow icing, so Papa added to the design.
  • Perfect cake.

Painting – free-style with Crayola washable paint on paper – talked about mixing colours.

  • The sky
  • Adding grass…
  • Rapunzel’s tower
  • Rapunzel’s hair
  • I’m finished, mum!
  • Completed picture

Make a paper lantern – need construction paper, paper bag, stencil (in download material), cardboard box, paper towel folded in fourths, and screwdriver thumb tack, and pen (instructions are Number 11). Put the paper bag over the cardboard box, and slide the folded paper towel in between the box and the bag. Place the stencil over-top of the bag/paper towel. Use the screwdriver to punch holes in the stencil/paper bag. Be careful not to move the stencil, or you will mess up your design. (Edited in italics after attempt.)

  • First attempt at the lantern – the push pin was too small for her to hold, and the cardboard too stiff to push into. She pushed on my fingers as I made the pricks – not as much fun for her.
  • It worked REALLY well, but better for an older kid.
  • Attempting to get a good picture of the lantern without the mottling of the construction paper.
  • Using the screwdriver and a paper bag was much easier for her
  • She did the whole thing by herself! (I held the paper in place.)
  • Completed paper lantern!

Dear Dragon – École à maison

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Dear Dragon,

What a wild year. It’s been quite a historic and interesting time. I’ve been lucky to work from home and be with you, your Mum, and Pegasus full time.

You’re clever, stubborn, and passionate. You’re also an extremely social kid and this has been tough on you.

Last February you visited your école. This is a new virus and there are all kinds of worrisome side effects being reported. It’s possible the threat of that and the threat to your grandparents is over-exaggerated, but we don’t want to take the chance.

With Mum working from home and the travel business being a little slow, we are in the perfect place to help you learn from home. We haven’t decided exactly what we’re doing. It’ll depend on what the école has planned.

Mum has some fantastic ideas and I hope you get as excited as mum has been about her ideas.

Overall, I’m not too worried. You’re already a little ahead and we mostly need to build on what you already know and encourage you to learn more French. Again, I’m sorry for not speaking to you more in French.

We’ll see what happens. The year is only three quarters done and has lots of surprises left for us.

I love you little Dragon,

Papa

Tom Cavanagh

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Tom was a delight to meet. Most of the people in line were there for him because of The Flash, but not us. (You can find him on Twitter here.)

We were there because he plays Santa in our favourite Christmas movie: Snow.

So we asked him if there was a chance of a third movie (because there’s already a sequel). He said that if there’s a good enough script, he’d do it. Nice.

The sign on the back of our daughter’s shirt has our business name, our table number, and Eric’s cell number, just in case she got away from us. She never ran away. What a great little 2.5 year old! 😀 (P.S. I was pregnant with Pegasus at the time of this picture. He’d arrive in a little over a month and a half from this day.)

Matching Mommy-and-me Captain Marvel shirts by Popsquatch Designs.

Gaming with a 3 year old

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Hello Imaginary Friends,

When Dragon gets enough days with no toilet accidents she gets a reward. We started in July and one of her rewards has been “Video Games with Papa”.

We’ve done 3 or 4 sessions now and she’s starting to get the hang of it. We’ve mostly played in the toybox of Disney Infinity and the PS3 Phineas and Ferb Game.

I’ve noticed huge changes in her abilities every time we’ve played. She started the first time no understanding that the remote controlled her character to actually participating in the combat and knowing what buttons to press.

Her hands are still a little small for the controllers, but she’s doing great. Saturday we played hide and seek in the toybox and she started to understand how to find me. Once she’s good enough, we’ll start playing the playsets.

She still gets stuck in corners now, but she’ll get there. She seems to like it and that’s the important thing.

We’ll see how it goes next time.

Éric

Covid-19 and Me

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

I’ve been pretty silent about the state of the world the past few weeks. Part of that was being overwhelmed and part of that was being busy.

Ottawa called for people to start self-isolating and working from home starting March 16th. My first day of work after just over eight months of parental leave was the 18th of March. I work for the government in a communications area so I’m considered essential.

I’ve been dealing with going back to work (although I do enjoy working from home), a baby that is teething (AKA not sleeping well), the pandemic, and everything that entails.

My family is in a good place. We have a house, I have a job that will continue to pay me (barring some sort of pheonix crap), and we’re all pretty used to being at home. Our house is filled with movies, games, books, and comfy furniture.

The kids are still too young for school and like I said, I just finished ~8 months of parental leave so we’re all kind of used to being at home. I do miss having people over for D&D, movies, and to chat. I miss going to the cinema, and going for walks with the kids to Walmart or the park. My daughter and wife miss church and we all miss our conventions.

Those are minor inconveniences and I know we are extremely lucky.

My wife asked me to cut her hair. This was right before.

It’s still been hard. I’ve felt like I was on high alert for the past three weeks. I’ve felt terrified while shopping and I’m scared for my friends and family.

I’m starting to calm down but I’m still teary and worried.

This will become normal and when things get better we’ll have hopefully spared much death and heartache.

The implications of what this will change in our world are staggering and a little scary. But that’s another post all together.

Stay home and wash your hands!

Éric

Dear Dragon – Story Time

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Dear Dragon,

You are a clever and adorable child. In your current bedtime routine, I tell you a story while Mum feeds Pegasus. I give you three options and make something up. Sometimes you insist on telling me a story. Last night you did something new.

Dragon wearing a beautiful Beauty and the Beast themed pocket scarf.

Dragon: I want to tell you a story.

Papa: Okay, go ahead.

D: *Looks sternly at me* I have to tell you the options first.

So you gave me options and I settled on a “Sheep that wants to eat blueberries”.

D: I don’t know how it starts *Gives puppy dog eyes*

P: Well, there was once a sheep who wanted to eat blueberries.

D: Okay

P: So what happens next?

D: I don’t know.

P: *Happy to talk about story structures* What’s stopping the sheep from eating the blueberries?

D: I don’t know. *Smiles and settles in to listen*

P: *Oblivious and still thinking I’m helping* Well, maybe there’s a rabbit protecting the only blueberry bush. How does the sheep try to get by the rabbit?

D: *Grinning widely and looking innocent* I don’t know… How?

P: Maybe the sheep tries to… *finally catching on* Hey, wait a second. Are you trying to get me to tell you a second story?

D: Cackles madly. (Seriously you could give a Bond villain pointers.)

You spent the next five minutes laughing and asking for the rest of the story. I’ll tell it to you tonight. I have to say I’m impressed with your ability to guide me toward what you wanted.

You’re going to be great at getting people to open up and talk about things.

I love you, my clever little Dragon,

Papa