Big Changes at Chez Meeks

Today was the first time Sarah and Lucy were away from Sherri and I and not with anyone we knew. Actually let me rephrase that slightly so you don't think we are terrible parents. Today was the first time Sarah and Lucy spent time with their new day care person. Sherri is back to work on Tuesday and I am back to work next Monday, so we are trying to introduce them slowly to the concept of not being with Mummy, Daddy or either of their older sisters.

We got a few names of day care people in our area via a service called WeeWatch, which puts families in contact with day care people. They vet all of the providers and do the necessary background checks. The two we interviewed were in our area, but the one we chose is just 2 streets over from us, so I will walk the babies over in the morning and Sherri will pick them up after work.

Today we left the babies over there for just an hour, which was still a bit of a wrench when we had to leave, but they seemed happy enough. The hour flew past. When we went to pick them up, it was like we hadn't left. In fact they seemed happy to staym but we are going to the Ottawa Ex today, so wanted to make sure they had a bit of a nap before we left. The Ex is like a big fair that happens in Ottawa every year. We haven't been for a few years now, so it will be nice to see how it has changed. I'm sure the babies will enjoy seeing all the people and fun things to do.

So there you have it, big changes at Chez Meeks. Oh by the way, I'm now using Google's PicasaWeb to upload new photos. I'll try to get them amalgamated into the main site soon, but in the mean time you can view them by clicking HERE. Let me know what you think.

Down Town!

Had an absolutely great day with Sherri and the babies today. As is usual for a Sunday I woke about around 7am and got the babies breakfast. Mornings are a fun time. I have to admit, it's almost like being a kid, the amount of children's TV I've been watching lately, but it's all strangely comforting. I suppose it's just my inner child yearning to come out.

Anyway Alanna was due to go to work for 10am so I had the choice of putting the babies to bed early or taking them with me to drop Alanna off. I chose to take them with me, as there's no point putting them to bed if they aren't tired. On the way back I stop off at Timmy's (Yes Mark another reference to my favorite coffee chain) and got a large coffee with milk, a steeped tea (the closest thing you can get to a decent cuppa in a shop) for Sherri, a toasted bagel with cream cheese and a toasted bagel with strawberry cream cheese. I also got the babies a couple of chocolate glazed tim-bits (like the centres of a doughnut) each.

Anyway after our breakfast and the babies snooze, Sherri, Lucy, Sarah and me went down town for a change. It's funny, I've been living here for 6 years and still don't know down town very well. Fortunately I'm down town quite a bit with work and managed to get a rudimentary understanding of how to get around and also know a car park that is a stones throw from the Parliament buildings and Sparks Street, which is probably Ottawa's closest thing to Covent Garden. There was an amazing busker, who the girls just loved. He was covering songs from the likes of the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and Cat Stevens. His sound set up was incredible, considering it was just him and his guitar.

Most of today was intended for Sarah and Lucy as they're never been downtown before, but as is always the way, Sherri and I ended up enjoying it just as much. I managed to take some great pictures, which you can see at our experimental Picasa Web Album page. There's a couple of heartbreaking pictures of Sarah having her face painted. I think she was just unsure as to what was happening. She loved it after though, once she saw Lucy having her face done too.

We rounded the day off at McDonalds, with Sarah and Lucy having a hamburger and nugget happy meal with chocolate milk. Sarah managed somehow to get her trousers covered in milk, but what the hell, she was having fun. After McDonalds it was straight back home for a bath and boy did our babies look ever different after the fun of the day had been washed away.

So another Weekend passes, but a wonderful memory will always remain.

Kids Today!

When I was younger, were things really that different. Yes we didn't have computers and video games, that was until I was 8 or 9 and even by the time I was 16, a full bloodied PC was over £3,000 and remember we're talkig about something running between 8 and 16mhz with 640K of memory, which is in start contrast to the 3gz machines today with 512mb of memory, which you can probably pick up for about £400. Anyway they were way too expensive form most families to have at home and centrainly too expensive to have the keys pounded and pummeled with a version of MSN, that was all but a twinkle in Bill Gates' eye. In fact even the Internet was only being used by big business, education and defence departments.

Back in my youth and we're only talking about the 70s and 80s(so it wasn't that long ago) , we made our own fun. During the summer 6 weeks holidays, apart from the odd sleep in, we were up, watched a bit of TV, especially "Why Don't You" and were out. I spent many a time with my friends at the Science Museum and Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London. We also spent a lot of time in the Commonwealth Institute (little did I know that I would be marrying someone from another Commonwealth country) in Kensington High Street. I look back and like to think I was expanding my mind, but if I'm honest we were all trying to pick up girls. I don't remember any of us being that successful, but remember exchanging the odd flirt and most of all having a laugh. I can actually remember a funny story. My mate Steven Forsdyke nicked 10 or 20 quid from his dad and brought along his little brother Jamie (Little Spud) for a day out with me and Stephen Kerr (Kirby). I don't think he told us he nicked the money, but anyway we had no trouble helping him spend it.We did all the usual things, but with more money. We ate Kentucky Fried Chicken till it came out of our ears and spent money like it was going out of fashion. Remember that was a ton of money back then. It came time to go home and we went vak to Stevens. He was through the door and his Dad pounced. Needless to say Steven's dad found his wallet a bit light and put 2 and 2 together and closed in on the culprit. Me and Stephen were ou of there sharpish. I remember geting a call later from Steven asking me to pay back my share of the ill gotten gains. I don;t think I ever did give hm any money back towards it. Oops.

Anyway kids today rarely seem to want to get out of bed. That's mostly due to the fact that they've been up all night chatting on MSN to friends. What an earth they can have to chat about that long, I don't know. I can understand it, if it's that special someone, the time can pass by like lightening, but just your common or garden snotty friend... I don't know.

Today is a beautiful day. The sun is shining, the pool is warm, clean and clear and Alanna has yet to step outside. I have just come in to make this blog entry and to get a break from the sun. I can now hear the babies begin their waking rattle, so will sign off. Needless to say I shall be getting more sun and making the most of the summer. Oh yeah, I'm off for 3 weeks, so my summer holidays start here. Waheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!