Urban Wanderer

Papillons 2009

Saturday February 28, Botanic Garden

Awake in Shiodome

In theory this blog covers Montreal, but I seem to better at writing my sporadic posts when I am somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand miles away. It may be because when we travel with the Giraffe there is enforced hotel downtime for such things as naps and 7:30 bedtime and when I travel for work there is no Giraffe. It's probably a good time to mention that the sporadic nature of posting is likely to get worse as there is some big news...

Child #2 is on the way - tentatively named the Cashew (that was the size of the foetus when I decided on the name). We are excited and once again I appreciate the fact that pregnancy is not always fun. K has had nausea since 4 weeks (and she is now approaching 19 weeks pregnant). And the first time round, there's the advantage that there's no other child to focus on but this time we have the Giraffe and so I have more respect for how well she's coping. This time, I'm not finding out the gender before birth but K has already done so. If you want to know, ask her.

Since New York (my last posting) I have been to Phoenix, Houston, Calgary, and for the first time in my life to Tokyo. I have been here since Wednesday afternoon (it's now Friday lunchtime) and I leave in a few hours. Thanks to meetings, I haven't seen much but I'll share a few pictures. I have had some good Japanese food and been reminded that while I can manage Europe without much jetlag, Asia can be really tough.

As to Montreal, well it's the year for a mayoral election so we'll see what that brings. Winter has been bearable so far - snow is way down on last year's almost record level but January was cold and I was exposed to -28C for the first time in my life. Once again I was impressed with how everyone just gets on with life (though we do all talk about how cold it is). February has been milder with freeze-thaw cycles and the early return of numerous and deep potholes. To show how much cold weather gets to you, I prefer days of -5C and nights of -15C (23F and 4F respectively) to days of 2C and nights of -5C. It's drier and crisper at those temperatures and cold damp weather feels much worse.

Enough on weather - the Giraffe is doing well. He's now 28 months old and definitely quite a character - talking so much, repeating much of what we say and being a 2 year old at various points in the day. Of course, just when you get so frsutrated with your child, he does something so sweet that you forget all that, although one aspect of teenage life that I wouldn't mind showing up soon is the tendency to get up late. Even though your child waking you at 5:30 is better than any alarm clock, it's still not good.

Catching up

Happy New Year. I'm still alive and so is the now clearly 2 year old Noah. I am now getting the experience of being embarassed by your child in public. In the last month the Giraffe has mastered the public tantrum and I have mastered ignoring it but I could see how this could be construed as child abandonment. The scenario was best illustrated on a metro platform. We had walked from home in -15C weather over the 10 blocks and my stubborn son had first refused to wear gloves and then started crying inconsolably halfway there. I'm not as intuitive as K regarding the Giraffe's needs so in the couple of minutes it took me to figure out the new desire for gloves he made me feel I was destroying him.

But once I'd had my revelation and we made it to the metro station all was redeemed and we had the chance to 'ride scalator' and 'go train'. But as this was my first

Last view of autumn

Frankfurt, November 4 2008

Letter to the Giraffe - #2

On October 15th, the Giraffe turned two and he is lucky enough to have three sets of birthday celebrations this year – one in Chicago with family just before his birth date, one at his garderie the day after his birthday and the party we threw the weekend before Halloween. This year he enjoyed the events more than he did on his 1st birthday (a day that was more celebratory for us than for him and separation anxiety led to him spending the latter part of his party climbing the side of the bath). And he can now tell you when you ask that he is “TWOO” (and if asked about Mummy and Daddy, we are twoo also). 

Once again, I want to take this opportunity to write an open letter to the Giraffe that he will get to read when he is older: 

G, I write this one week after you turned 2 and I am on a plane on the way back from a day away in Winnipeg. I have to say you have changed our lives in such wonderful ways and there are moments when we are glad you have no idea how much we love you because you could wrap both Mummy and I around your little fingers so easily if you had any concept crazy we are for you. When I am taking an 8:15 flight or even a 7:00 flight in the morning, I am so lucky to have a son who wakes at 5:30. We would love it if you slept a little later but I have to say that waking up so early on cold dark mornings is only tough until I walk into your room and you smile and jump up in your crib and ask where Mama and “Misster” are. As you will learn, you have developed so much in the last year. One year ago, you crawled and climbed up so well, but now you are running around (and running away) so quickly. One year ago you babbled, and now you talk – single words have become two or three words together and you can explain much of what you want. You smile and laugh so easily and your charm and enthusiasm are infectious – to Mummy and me, to your grandparents and to all the shop assistants to whom you love to say Bye. And when you want to read a book or want to do a puzzle or want to have “uh ohs” – well we find it hard to say no and the pleasure you get is the pleasure you give. Of course, being 2, you have developed a tendency to know what you want and the act of throwing yourself onto the floor in protest isn’t that charming any more. But you recover so quickly we know we are lucky that you have such a sweet temperment. Your excitement about buses has been well documented in my blog but as the transportation geek in the family I am glad that we are now the majority of the family who find trains and planes fun. Travel has been a mix this year – as a baby you were easy to travel with but you weren’t so aware of where we were. This year the long trips have been challenging because we chose two weeks to travel when you weren’t feeling well and I think we all came home in need of another vacation. But in our last two trips to Chicago you have been great – you have been so aware of your surroundings and you have enjoyed my former employer’s great variety of bus routes that converge in the Loop. But the best discovery for you has been what adults are supposed to call the Crown Fountain (in Millennium Park). For you it has been a source of delight on our last two trips and I don’t think we will ever see it again as anything other than the ‘Puddle and Shower’ that you deem it to be. And whatever magic spell has caused you to sleep past 7:00 every morning on those last two vacations is one that you have to capture and keep – these have been vacations for the family. But the best part of travel in this past year is that you have been able to see your grandparents so much. It is tough to have Ima and Apu 2,200 miles southwest in Phoenix and Maga and Papa 3300 miles east in London. But you have seen Ima and Apu in Phoenix twice, Montreal and Chicago, and you have seen Maga and Papa in Philadelphia, Phoenix, London, Montreal, Chicago, and Montreal again. All of them love you so much and the joy you bring to them brings so much happiness to Mummy and me. You have a great family and it’s great how much you love them. With each day your mischievous and extremely curious personality becomes clearer and your vocabulary in two languages keeps expanding. The garderie was a challenge for the first few months but you now you are excited to be there (and excitement when Mummy picks you up) and you have made new friends as well as learning a second language – for now, we know a bit more French than you but we are going to have to work to keep up. But that’s great – you are always teaching us something, and be it about love or a foreign language we love you so much for it. Happy 2nd birthday.

Fireworks over Lake Michigan

Montreal does it better for the summer, but Chicago manages more firework displays during the course of the year. And when we were there earlier in October I managed a couple of photos (without any clever firework mode) thanks to a well place hotel room that I thought were worth sharing:

And then, this one:

Beautiful colors in Parc Lafontaine

  We have had a beautiful fall until recently and the park has shown another face in this season.

Where now?

So, I am getting worse at this and I even have an Ipod Touch to make updates more easily. My latest story is that I wanted to wait until the post below would unequivocally appear to be true and and I think we are at that point. I am pretty certain that the vice presidential nominee for the Republican party has been a significant reason in the change of support levels for the two parties. It doesn’t compare to the economic crisis that has exploded since early September but the lack of judgment and the cynicism of Sarah Palin’s selection is now clear to far more of the voting population. It has created great opportunities for Tina Fey and she has done a great job capitalizing on them. Sadly, I find her impersonation of Palin a more palatable character than Palin herself.

But other realities intrude – for those who don’t pay attention to less exciting politics; we had a federal election here in Canada. It started and concluded in the 7 weeks since my last post which makes for a refreshing contrast to the semi-permanent campaign in the US. And nothing much changed – Stephen Harper’s still prime minister in a minority Conservative government and Quebec

is the reason that it’s still a minority. The tone-deaf choice of making arts cuts (and pretty minor ones at that) weeks before an election was called had a result that most could have predicted. This province does need federal arts subsidies more than the rest of Canada because the market for francophone productions is much smaller. After an administration where Harper had shown he had a good understanding of necessary actions and symbolism to recognize Quebec’s uniqueness, this move allowed the Bloc Quebecois to argue, somewhat fairly, that the Conservatives could not be trusted to protect Quebec’s interests. We’ll see what happens next – I think we are fortunate to be living in a country that is in a relatively good position with respect to the current global economic crisis. Before the election, Harper was unwilling to admit that  Canada faced significant economic risks, but he’s now willing to admit a recession is possible – I’d sat highly likely is a better guess.

Palin - I'm sorry but why?

Well, last Friday it looked like a somewhat inspired if very cynical choice. But five days later...it looks like great news for my preferred candidate. Let's see - lack of experience, investigations into abuse of power, member of a secessionist party (should play well here in Quebec but most residents of the province don't get to vote in US elections even if they want to) and believer in the ridiculous parts of social conservative doctrine. Well, if you don't do any vetting that's what happens. And the funny thing is that I have friends who told me in 2000 that even if Bush wasn't that smart, he'd surround himself with smart people. He surrounded himself with smart people who weren't vetted and a number didn't look so smart later. I'm not sure the US can survive more years of this way of doing business.

Summer in Montreal

Now that I am spending far more days at home*, I can reflect more on Montreal in the summer. We have had the second best football competition in the world and as the North American city with the most diverse recent European immigration mix, you can't go too far wrong during football events.Spain's win didn't lead to the excitement that would have followed a French, Italian or Greek win but it still provided some signs of excitement and the 21 days certainly allowed a few more flags to appear on cars. The Olympics are interesting but they don't seem to have much effect on this city.

As a parent, much of the joy of summer is in parks. We are fortunate because we live next to one of the best although the second half of July and first half of August were not exactly warm and sunny so a few afternoons saw no visit for the Giraffe or a hasty retreat in the rain. But this past weekend was delightful. I spent Saturday morning in the playground with a Giraffe in a wonderful mood. Sunshine and the laughter of my child make almost everything else in the world seem unimportant. And the father-son bonding time gave K the chance to cook up a storm (tomato soup, tomato sauce, some peeled garlic ad a few other items from our morning Jean-Talon bounty). And then yesterday, we made two trips to the playground. The picture above is from the patageoire - but the Giraffe no longer goes there (it's a paddling pool in English) because all he wants to do is run around the edge. So we go to the playground and the Giraffe enjoys the sand and the swings and (assuming K or I will follow him) trips down the slides. It's so much fun to be out in this weather with a child having this much fun and seeing all the other children playing in the pool or in the playground. And we haven't even made to the gay village's summer pedestrian mall yet.

* Subject to the whims of my job

Back on the plane

So, after the trip to England that put the fear of God into us concerning family travel, it took 9 weeks before we'd get back on an airplane together. But last weekend (July 26 to be precise), the three of us enjoyed a 2 hour flight (included a missed approach - a first for the Giraffe) to Chicago. The flight was easy and we had a great stay.

The difference this time was a healthy child who was a great travel companion. Chicago has one huge advantage over Montreal if you are the Giraffe - more buses. I know I have mentioned this before but he's my son and he has developed the same deep unhealthy interest in public transport (though fortunately at these oil prices, not yet in airlines).

We had a great time catching up with friends, including attending a third birthday party for Kalaya, blowing bubbles with Ailani, meeting Lilah, and going to foodlife with Charlotte. We had a Giraffe who seemed to enjoy all this and slept consistently later than he has ever done in his life (6:45-7:30 every day) which really made it feel like a vacation.

The longer it has been since we lived there, the more that Chicago trips seem like holidays rather than returns. But of course they are holidays with a lot of social interaction and the more intimate knowledge that extended exposure to a city provides. I continue to read about Chicago on various web sites and obviously having friends also allows us to keep up with life there. As we enjoy food, it's a great city to visit. We missed out on good Thai food this time, but we did have brunch at Frontera Grill (I'd recommed it but not with a tired child) and Sweets and Savories (this restaurant came highly recommended by LTH Forum but I found brunch disappointing - it was good, but it was expensive and it wasn't good enough). We also managed to have dinner at Foodlife in Water Tower Place which was is a food court that is better than it needs to be (that's intended as a compliment, not a criticism), and at Volo in Roscoe Village which was very good but not exactly the Giraffe's taste (we went at 5:00pm on a Tuesday so his antics only disturbed the staff, as we were the only customers).

And we had beautiful weather which meant we enjoyed time in Seneca Playlot Park (which is a great downtown playground that seems realtively unknown) and the Giraffe loved his first visit to Crown Fountain in Millenium Park. I still find the amount by which the city of Chicago overspent on that park to be incredible but it is a wonderful amenity for downtown Chicago and I suspect it will bring in enough revenue to the city and its retailers/hotels/restaurants to justify all that.

Media stardom

A quick update - after the joy of being filmed 15 months ago we made it to TV. In Canada, we were Buy Me 8106 and in the US, we will be episode 2 of upcoming season 8 of the show. And if you are elsewhere, come visit and we'll show you the DVD.