oy…

Posted on June 13, 2007 by Mike

you know those sayings of “sleep now while you can, because when the baby comes, you’ll never sleep again”?

yeah, right.

who’s been sleeping nights? definitely no one here! it’s almost like our bodies are saying, “hey, you’ll have to go through many sleepless nights soon, so you may as well get started!”

seriously.

got to bed a little after 10pm last night, after about 90 minutes of Chantale getting contractions every 25 minutes. by midnight, she was in a lot of pain, especially her back.

by 3am, we had to get up. way too much pain. in fact, after timing contractions every 10 minutes, we started getting our stuff ready to head to the hospital. just before being ready to go, we called First Contact and talked to admissions. she had us try a few things (like a warm bath) and although the pain eased a little, contractions had gone from every 10 minutes to every 7 minutes. since she couldn’t lay in bed, we went downstairs and tried the couch (based on how the pain eased from the position she was able to sit in the tub – we wanted to try that on the couch). by this time, 5am was rolling around and i fell asleep about 15 minutes later. Chantale fell asleep at around 530am so obviously the pain subsided.

right now, Kyle is at daycare and we’re trying to have a bite to eat while shaking off the zombie-eyes/ body. no contractions for 2 hours, but now that we’re awake, they’ll more than likely start up again.

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Starving for Info

Posted on June 12, 2007 by Mike

So. This weekend was the Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon, of which The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards were handed out (on Saturday night) for works appearing in 2006. This was the first year I could not attend and, as part of the Nominating Council, I wish I could have found a way… c’est la vie (and LIFE is exactly why I couldn’t make it, as all of you know 🙂 )

At any rate, here I am two days into the following week and am just starving for information on how the convention went! Sure, I know the results (and pretty much expected Darwyn Cooke’s reactions 🙂 ). I enjoyed the personal accounts from Cecil Castelluci, Tara Tallan, Raina Telgemeir, but it’s not enough! Stuart Immonnen’s photos are nice, but not enough of a feel (yet). Jaime Colville, I can’t wait until July 1st to read your report! I won’t care by then!! 🙂

*sigh*

I feel a little lost…

Back to searching.

Edit to add: Just found a quick recap (with a picture of the shy Cooke) on JPKComics blog at http://www.jonathankuehlein.com/?p=789 talking about our boy’s JSA Hat Trick 😉

And hey, how come I hadn’t thought to look for Blake Bell online? Duh. Here’s his blog with some reporting on the convention: http://www.bestofmostof.com/07jun/index070611.htm

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Quick Update!

Posted on June 11, 2007 by Mike

All my updates have to be quick these days… just too much going on and too much still to do! 🙂 Take this weekend for example. We knew we had a hospital tour to go to on Saturday, but I didn’t expect that would ultimately be the only thing we did on Saturday! At least we managed a quick morning shopping spree to tackle some last-minute items before dropping Kyle off at his grandparents. Lasalle Hospital, however, I must state, is quite a facility! We were so impressed with it that it felt like a big weight coming off our shoulders. After all, our experiences at the Jewish General when Kyle was born were slightly dramatic. Thus, seeing the care and attention that we will receive at Lasalle, plus the general ambiance of the place, fully reassured us that we will be receiving great care. It was almost like, “okay, NOW we can have this baby in peace!” 🙂

Obviously, by the time Saturday ended, there had been no time for renovation work (I did, however, manage to paint one side of all the doors for the baby’s room on Friday night).

Sunday also went by the wayside after a morning of garden work followed by an afternoon of installing a gazebo on our lawn. I just verified my last posted to-do list and noticed it wasn’t even mentioned there. Which again goes to show how to-dos multiply at the same rate that socks are lost in dryers…

Again, before we knew it, Sunday was over. Try as we might, neither one of us was able to sleep very well, comfortably, or for any length of time. I should have just given up at 4am and put Moulin Rouge back in the DVD to finish from where we left off last night… (Not having seen it in a while, it still amazes me that I sit there and just watch with a smile on my face… what an incredibly inventive and entertaining movie!)

And now, back to Monday Reporting! Eeep.

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Can’t. Stop. LAFFING!

Posted on June 8, 2007 by Mike

Thanks to for pointing this link out:

LOL80’s Picture Thread

I really am cracking up at these pictures! Reason? The absurdity. AND the fact that I recognize ALL those bloody groups/ acts/ singers, etc! 🙂

Too much….. but not enough! 🙂

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A Little Sore…

Posted on June 6, 2007 by Mike

Finished painting the baby room last night. Yay! Cleared off all the tools and then brought back the changing table and assembled the crib. Very nice! I brought out the pieces of the commode and tonight we’ll be putting that together and figuring out how the furniture will be arranged around the room.

What will be left for the baby room: painting and re-installing the door and the closet doors, painting and installing the ogees, getting curtains. And voila! 🙂

What’s left for Melyssa’s room: painting and installing the door, painting and installing the closet doors, getting and installing curtains (hmmm… i see a pattern here!), some “finishing” work on the installed ogees, baseboards, and door frames (covering up the nails, sealing them to the walls), getting and installing a door/ cover to the fusebox, installing the closet rod/ shelves, and sealing the floating floor open joints (there are about 4). We also told her she’d be getting our armoire so we’ll have to move it out of our room and set it up in hers.

What’s left to the basement reno project: sanding and painting of the basement hallway walls, installation, plastering, sanding, painting, of the basement hallway ceiling, installation of the basement hallway floating floor, painting and installation of the basement baseboards and door frames.

What’s left to the basement stairwell reno project: sanding and painting of the stairwell walls and ceiling, installation of the stairwell hand railing, figuring out what to do with the actual stairs!

Are there more projects after that? Yup, but they haven’t been numbered in priority yet 🙂 (sealing, plastering, painting the garage walls/ ceiling, painting the garage floor, staining the backyard deck, painting the kitchen and dining room, painting the upstairs bathroom, painting the main hallway and stairway, etc etc)

I always knew owning a home was hard work… but lordy! A little break would be nice 🙂

By the way… have I mentioned that deadline for Comicopia 101 is the same week that Chantale is due to give birth to our baby daughter? 🙂 I’m either a complete glutton for punishment… or just insane! 🙂

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Early Talent

Posted on June 4, 2007 by Mike

How can you not smile upon coming home when you’re greeted by this?

(click on the image to see a larger version)

My son, plugging away at the Casio, singing “tinkle tinkle li-a tar…”

*melts again*

🙂

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Busy Weekend

Posted on June 4, 2007 by Mike

This weekend was a lot busier than I thought it would be! But then again, the week ended a lot busier than I expected it to so it’s more like a cascading effect! 🙂

My LDP Session (Thursday/ Friday out of town) ended early on Friday but the drive home took long mainly due to traffic and driving through storm points. Got into town almost 2 hours later and headed to Dumoulin to return rechargeable batteries (that we never wanted but ended up buying when we picked up our camera) followed by a quick run to get some cash and finally a hair cut! I can’t last more than 2 months between haircuts. It just grows that fast! 🙂

Got home and after a quick bite to eat, packed Chantale and Kyle into the car and headed off to pick up our new baby furniture that had arrived! Finally, the matching piece to the changing table we got last month!

Saturday morning was another whirlwind of shopping and returns (clothes clothes clothes! baby and toddler!) followed by a quick lunch. When Kyle went down for his nap, I headed into the baby room and finished prepping it for painting, putting on a coat of “Cotton Rag” white on the ceiling, plus a Pearl finish on the baseboards and door frames. A quick shower later and we headed to my in-laws for supper. By the time we got home, there was no energy for anything other than vegging 🙂

Sunday became a very physical day. After breakfast, I dressed Kyle and we headed out for another fun-filled bike ride. Considering it was supposed to rain all day, I wanted to get out before it started. An hour later (including a fun little visit to the Marina to enjoy the boats), we got back. Kyle wanted to play outside so we stayed out but while he played (mainly with the rocks in the driveway) I mowed the lawn in the front. (You never realize how much land you own until you try to mow it… ;)) We moved into the backyard and he alternated playing in the dirt and with his toys, to watching me mow the lawn. A couple of times he would run to the end of the fence and watch me approach him. As I got closer, he would scream/ giggle and run away. In effect, I “chased” him down with a roaring lawn mower 🙂 It was cute and he was SO well-behaved. A nice topper was calling him over to watch the frog that I had found hopping away from me. He came over and bent down to watch it. He kept trying to touch it calling “fog! fog!”. It was a nice little moment of watching him explore something new in his own back yard.

After lunch, he went down for his nap and I immediately got to work on painting again. Final coat on the ceiling, first coat on the walls, first coat in the closet (two colors). Looks really good! And the fact that all I have left is one more coat on the walls and closet is fantastic. After that, placing of ogees on the wall and we’re done! Then comes the fun part of assembling the baby furniture 🙂

By the time I was done, Kyle was awake from his nap and enjoyed The Jungle Book while having his snack. Chantale took him to play outside again and I took the opportunity to wash the dog. Finally, I was able to enjoy a shower of my own when the pup was dried! 🙂 During that time, Chantale’s parents had come over (we invited them for supper… lasagna!) so at least I didn’t have to rush.

Supper was nice but Kyle was definitely wiped from the day’s activities so he went to bed relatively early (7pm). Chantale’s parents left soon after and we settled in to watch Hotel Rwanda.

Yup, I was definitely achey at the end of the day, but kept telling myself that it’s nowhere near the level of pain and discomfort that Chantale is currently going through. Have you ever thrown a towel or cover on a kitten and watched it struggle/ fight to get out? That’s pretty much what it looks like looking at her belly! It’s like our baby girl is just trying to claw her way out! 🙂 Things have gotten a little worse in the past week but it was still an incredible surprise to find that she’s already dilated at 1cm!! She gave me this news on Thursday morning while I was out of town and she had just met with her doctor! Eeep! 🙂

In fact, the Doc moved her next appointment to tomorrow afternoon (instead of the usual Thursday morning). Considering the contractions Chantale’s been going through, we won’t be surprised if baby decides she’s ready to join us…

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So this is 40 ?

Posted on June 2, 2007 by Mike

Took me a while, and it’ll probably be replaced with a better shot soon (learning new camera after all), but here’s what 40 looks like right now 🙂 Clicking the image will take you to the gallery where my 33rd and 38th birthday shots are…



Mike @ 40
Mike @ 40
A little rounder around the edges, but 40 is not looking so bad 🙂




I do have a few pounds to shed which I expect to do through lots more running around in the next few weeks when my new daughter is due to arrive… 🙂

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Looking Forward.

Posted on May 28, 2007 by Mike

I just remembered something else about this weekend.

A while back, Chantale bought James a french YA novel to read in order to help him with his French reading/ comprehension skills. We thought he would get a kick out of it as (besides being recommended by his librarian) it seemed to be of a topic he enjoys.

Turns out, that getting him to weed the lawn is easier than getting him to read that book.

This weekend, we finally put the order down that regardless of how “bad” and “lame” he thought the book was, he was going to read 10 chapters. (he’s owned it for months and had only finished 1 chapter up to that point!). He grudgingly accepted but never missed a chance to share just how bad the story was or how stupid the characters were. We had various comebacks like (a- get used to it, you don’t always get to read books you like in school. b- keep complaining and you’ll have to write me a book report… and it’ll be marked by your librarian! etc, etc). He was even complaining that the mythical creatures in the book didn’t act like they “should” (for example, Gorgons with snakes that bite themselves… and then each blood droplet becomes another Gorgon!).

Finally, on Sunday morning, I told him straight out: “James, here’s what I want you to do when you’re finished the book: Write a better one!” He commented that he couldn’t write those characters because he’s not allowed to, etc. I told him to just go ahead and write a better book, using whatever characters he wants, make it whatever he wants it to be. I then told him that I would edit the book for him (for grammar, etc) and would gladly publish it for him!

After a beat, he asked if it would be for sale at book stores and I told him that if he wanted me to make them be sold in bookstores, I would. Heck, I would hire someone to draw a cover for the book, too! After another beat he asked if he would make money from the book. I told him that if he sold enough copies, yes, he would make money.

He “hmmmed” a bit and then walked away.

I laughed to myself and thought, “how much would I be willing to spend to have my son write a novel?” I realized the question had no answer because if he would actually do it, I would PoD it for him and make it available. And, strangely enough, I suddenly thought of how great the idea of PoD is in regards to seeing a special spark in a child’s (okay, pre-teen’s) eye. As much as I’ve encouraged him to let out his artistic side (in the past it’s been mainly in drawing), he’s not really the type yet to take on a challenge like this. But, if even a small seed has been planted…

…then, I’ve done my job 🙂

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Weekend Family Update

Posted on May 28, 2007 by Mike

How do you update when you don’t have/ can’t find/ can’t make the time to do so?

I still don’t know. At any rate, some quickies from this weekend because I don’t want to forget more than the ones I’ve already forgotten!!

Picked up James and Melyssa on friday night. It was really great having them with us on a friday again. Kyle was simply ecstatic with seeing them and basically jumped around squealed the entire car ride home 🙂

The weekend was made up of a lot of work around the house (yardwork (mowing, weeding, gardening, putting up a gazebo), prepping Melyssa’s old room with primer, buying paint, etc) but it was also a really nice weekend. Melyssa was extremely happy to be in her “new” room now that she kept thanking us over and over 🙂 She also came biking with Kyle and I on Saturday morning and afterwards I gave her my old bike so she retired the one she’d been using for the last two years. Kyle had an absolute blast playing with his older siblings outside all day and even got to enjoy “Finding Nemo” on Saturday night 🙂

I had a number of choice comments that I wanted to keep, but, as is usually the case, when it comes time to writing them, I’ve forgotten. There is one that hasn’t slipped my mind and it came during supper on Saturday night when we were all feasting on an incredible and tasty Linguine Chicken Alfredo that Chantale had cooked for us. James said to Chantale, “Have you ever thought of opening up a restaurant? You would make a fortune! This is fantastic!”

Nice ego boost, hm? 🙂

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