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Date Day with Sean

Jun 292010

I shot a gun for the first time today. A real, non-videogame gun.

Let me back up and put some context into those last two sentences.

Sean and I are on vacation this week. My sister offered to take her vacation at the same time so she could take Flora for a couple of days. We gratefully accepted her offer and Flora has been whooping it up with her auntie and grandma since yesterday afternoon.

This left Sean and I with some alone time on our hands. So we decided to take advantage of it by going out to do stuff we can’t do when Flora is here. Sean has recently taken up target shooting as a hobby and joined a gun club to practice his craft. Sean has asked me several times to come shooting with him, but I kept reminding him that we would need a babysitter (something we don’t have outside of working hours when Flora goes to daycare), so I wouldn’t be going with him any time soon. With Flora away, and the range being quiet during the day, we decided to give it a go.

Those first sentences could make me sound tough and adventurous in certain circles, but I was a nervous wreck once we entered the shooting area. Sean was very patient as he explained the preparations he needed to make for each round of shooting.

Then he fired his first shot. And I nearly shit myself.

Gunfire is *loud*. Even with ear protection. Movies don’t get that point across, no matter how good your home theatre set up is.

I don’t do well with loud noises at the best of times – I scare easily – so I don’t know why I thought target shooting would be a good idea. Trying to bond with the husband I suppose.

Then Sean wanted me to shoot. I was starting to get really anxious and initially refused. Then after some convincing, he had me holding the gun and taking aim at the target.

Despite all the safeties the gun had (it had three: a trigger safety, and two internal safeties), it amazed me at just how easy it was to pull the trigger. I didn’t expect it to yield to my finger so easily.

When I finally pulled the trigger, the recoil scared me nearly as much as the noise did. It made me afraid that I was no longer in control of the gun and that made me fear for my safety. Once I had complete control again (it was only a few seconds that I didn’t feel complete control), I put the gun down and told Sean I would wait for him outside. He talked me out of that, and I spent the rest of our session with my hands over my ear protection every time he lifted the gun to shoot (that didn’t help).

Sean talked me into trying one more time, and I felt a little more confident the second time now that I knew what it was going to feel like. After my shot, I put the gun down and returned to my spot several feet behind Sean, well out of the shooting bay and waiting for him to finish shooting at his targets. His marksmanship is getting better. (Mine was terrible in case you were wondering – I didn’t even hit the target.)

I don’t think I’ll be going shooting with him again anytime soon. I think with practice I could get over my anxiety with the gun itself. But honestly, the noise kept me on edge the entire time and I’m not so sure I could get past that. I’m grateful that we were the only people in there shooting, although I’m sure the staff got a big laugh out of me on the security video covering my earmuffs and even squealing once.

But I took two shots. That’s more than I ever thought I would. At least I tried it.

I’m thrilled that Sean has a hobby he enjoys and can do on his own or with friends. We just won’t be the couple that shoots together.

I’m also thrilled that we spent the rest of our date doing things we both enjoyed: eating lunch and visiting the Harry Potter exhibition at the Ontario Science Centre. Seeing the props and costumes from the Harry Potter movies up close made me realize that set, prop and costume design truly makes a good movie into a great one.

**Since guns and gun safety can be a hot-button topic, I feel I need to say the following. I’m not a big fan of guns. The guns Sean owns (legally, with proper paperwork) are stored very safely in my house in locked safes with locked cases and trigger locks. Proper safety measures are always taken around them. They would not be in my house if they weren’t stored that way. Canada’s gun laws are strict and we follow them to the letter. No thugs around here.

Back Seat Driver

family, flora, funny, life, parenthood, sean 2 Responses »

Jun 142010

Flora and I were out and about yesterday. I needed to pick up my Maple Leaf prize pack from Emma (thanks again!), and since I met up with Emma in front of a grocery store, I decided to pick up a few things. (Full disclosure: I put the prize pack in the car, then went into the grocery store to do my shopping. I forgot that there were coupons in it – whatta bonehead!)

On the way there, I discovered that Flora is definitely listening to her father during their car rides together. On the way to the store, I was stopped at a light. The light must have taken its time to change, because I suddenly hear Flora say “MOOOVE!” in a surprisingly firm voice for a non-driving toddler. She sounded just like her father, who can get a little….impatient when he drives.

Fortunately, the light changed, and were able to continue on our trip without further incident or commentary from the peanut gallery in my back seat.

When the time comes for Flora to drive, I’m not sure which one of us should take her out. Sean and I have very different driving styles. It took me years of living here to get the courage up to drive in Toronto, and I still don’t do the 401 past the exit to our house when we’re traveling back from seeing the family in Prince Edward County. Sean on the other hand, was driving into the city (a two-and-a-half hour trip at the time) almost as soon as he could drive on his own and his mother would let him. (Buddy had concerts to see!) So needless to say, he’s a little braver than me, and does most of our driving when we are traveling as a family.

I think back to when I learned to drive. After a few bad outings with my mum where we both ended up crying thanks to nerves on both ends, we decided that she would not be my main experienced driver. So I went out with her friends and my soon-to-be-stepda and everyone’s nerves calmed down. I still drove with my mum, but not as much. It was a big moment for us when I was driving to the mall and she started cleaning out her purse.

Now my mum is just relieved that she doesn’t have to do all the city driving when she comes up to visit.

Being home on mat leave was what really got me driving in this city. It was either get brave and drive or be stuck at home. Yes, there’s public transit in Toronto and we used it too, but strollers in subways don’t always mix and doing errands is much easier with a car, especially with a young baby.

I can’t predict what kind of driver Flora will be at this age, but I do hope she takes the best habits from both of us, and we’ll do our best to teach her the rest (with the help of a capable driving instructor).

Some sorely-needed perspective

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May 242010

Last week, I started keeping a gratitude journal. I haven’t been super consistent (only a couple entries in the last week), but the perspective I’ve gained by writing down the good things in my life has been illuminating.

The whole gratitude journal thing feels a little airy-fairy and like I’ve been watching too much Oprah or reading too many self-help books (I haven’t done either). However, taking the time to write down five things that went well during the day makes going to bed and actually falling asleep easier.

I started doing this because we had a rough week last week. Flora was sick on two different (non-consecutive) days and Sean and I each needed to take a day off to stay home with her. Struggling with the logistics of who’s staying home (all families with two work-outside-the-home parents have this issue right?) made me question the decisions we’ve made as a family to take care of our daughter. I’ve since gained some sorely-needed perspective and I’m feeling more confident that we’re doing the best we can for Flora by doing what we’re doing.

And I’m grateful for that too. Remind me to write that down before I go to bed tonight.

I’m also grateful (while the feeling is real, the word is feeling overused now) that the three of us had a great Victoria Day weekend together. We worked, we played, we hung out as a family. Here are some pictures.

(click the picture to view a larger version)

I really am a lucky woman to have such a great little family. And I don’t need Oprah or any self-help guru to tell me that.

Well, this is a rare occurrence

life, sean, silly 2 Responses »

May 112010

Sean and I: pretending to like each other since 1996

Hey look! A picture of Sean and I where we both look happy and not goofy. Well, maybe I look a little goofy. But I think that’s my thing so I just have to live with that.

Video post: Goodnight Daddy

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Apr 172010

Sean is away tonight, and since I couldn’t catch him on the phone at Flora’s bedtime so they could say goodnight, I thought I’d shoot a little video and send it to him so he knew that his daughter was thinking of him. I ended up with some unexpected, lowbrow comedy.

The video quality is not-so-great, but I did shoot it with the camera on my iPhone in low light (it was bedtime after all). Sorry for the sniffling midway through – I’ve caught yet another cold.

If you get to the end of the video and can’t figure out what surprise was (it may be hard to hear), use your mouse to select the white text below this sentence.

After I tried one last time to get Flora to say “goodnight daddy” in one sentence, she looks up at me, farts, smiles and says “toot”. This kid announces her farts and everyone else’s every time she hears one. We laugh every time, but we probably shouldn’t. She’s going to give us away at the completely wrong time one of these days, and we’re going to be known as “The Fart Family” to everyone in a five-kilometer radius.

Goodnight Daddy from Melissa Price-Mitchell on Vimeo.

Flora says goodnight to Daddy (and tells him something else too). Shot with my iPhone right as she was going to bed, which explains the low light and general low-quality of the clip.

Turn your sound up for the surprise ending.

Picture Post: Easter Weekend 2010

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Apr 082010

We spent Easter visiting our famlies. The advantage of marrying your high school sweetheart is that it’s easy to visit both sides of the family during holidays. My parents and Sean’s mum live about 35 minutes apart, and since we all get along (our mums actually worked together when we were small), Sean’s mum usually comes down for family dinners.

The pictures really tell the story best though. The weather was perfect for taking colourful, vibrant pictures outside.

Flora and Sean’s mum check out the new abacus.

My stepdad makes my sister’s dogs sit for their treats (Leia and Flora are cropped out, but they’re sitting too.)

Say hello to the Easter Duck. My mother picked this costume up for next to nothing at a thrift shop. I’m hoping it makes it to Halloween. The tail is a little dinosaur-esque and it makes me giggle.

First go at my sister’s piano. We may have to invest someday.

That duck (stolen from the bathroom) got me soaked and taking it away caused a mini-meltdown.

Flora discovers that yardwork sucks, especially when your lawnmower only blows bubbles.

Flora is really starting to get attached to her dollies/babies. I can’t believe how early that starts.

Fun was had by all. It’s going to be a great spring!

Whee!

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Mar 242010

Seeing Flora and Sean together like this makes me so happy. I’m truly grateful for the relationship they share. However, it’s hard not to be wistful sometimes as I watch their relationship grow and develop. My own father has been dead for nearly 19 years, and while he was alive until just before I became a teenager, I wish I could have known him as I continued through my teens. As I became an adult. As I became a parent.

I wish I could picture him as a grandfather, but I can’t.

I pray that Flora never has to go through that. I want all those things for her. I want all those things for Sean.

I want them to always be this happy together. I know it won’t always be smiles and giggles, but a long, loving relationship is something for them both to strive for.

(click for larger image)

Sneakin' Around with You

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Feb 272010

While Sean was napping, Flora decided to do some sneaking.

Digging around.

Really digging.

Success! But I think she really wanted his iPhone.

Sean says he didn’t really wake up while this was going on, which surprised me. After all this pickpocketing, she spent time poking his face (I did stop her and tell her no every time, but she was quite intent on checking him out while she was sleeping.)

Modern communication between a husband and wife

life, sean, silly, web 2 Responses »

Aug 292009

This is Sean’s new tattoo. The bull is the old logo for the Belleville Bulls, the OHL team closest to our hometown.

Here’s the story of how he ended up getting it today, and how I found out about it.

Sean and our friend Jason had made plans to go to Toronto’s Fan Expo today. They got all the way down there and discovered hordes of people in long lines that weren’t moving anywhere. They walked through various open doors to find more lines of people (many dressed up as their favourite character from whatever fandom they enjoy best). There were lines to buy tickets. There were lines to get in after those tickets were purchased. They decided that waiting in all those lines wasn’t worth their time. So they left.

What’s with all this buildup? I’ll get to that.

So apparently they wandered around downtown for awhile, visiting the Silver Snail, having a couple of beers at The Bier Markt, and buying cigars at Frank Correnti Cigars. So, it was a good guy’s day out. After a quick visit with a friend of Jason’s who works in the area they were in, they ended up in a tattoo shop. Sean has been considering getting a tattoo in commemoration of Flora’s birth. He’s been struggling with the image as I don’t think he’s keen on getting a flower (the meaning of the name Flora) tattooed on him, and wanted to make sure any tattoo he did get was the right one. (I’ve tried to veto the use of a fireflower for Super Mario Brothers with her name and birthdate underneath, but I need to remember that it’s not my body – I just have to look at it.)

So they were looking at the different designs in the shop when Jason (ever the good friend), points out the sample of the original Belleville Bulls logo. Sean has always said that if he won the lottery, he would buy the Belleville Bulls – he’s that big a Bull Booster. So he was excited to see the Bulls logo in tattoo form, and once he saw that artwork, made an appointment right away to get it put on his calf.

Keep in mind that I don’t know any of this is happening right now. I’m home with Flora thinking that these two are spending too much money on GI Joe action figures and getting their pictures taken with Star Wars characters and Transformers.

At about 6PM, Jason and Sean come in. Jason is in first and gives me a very low-key “hi”. I ask what’s going on, and he kinda points at Sean, mumbling that something happened to him. As he hobbled through the door, I see that Sean is all bandaged up. “What the hell happened to you?” I ask (it was more sympathetic than it sounds). Sean then tells me that he was hit by a cyclist while walking downtown and it scraped up his leg really bad. They flagged down a paramedic driving by and he bandaged it up. Shocked and worried, I ask if he’s all right and if he needs stitches or followup care. He says it needs to be wrapped until tomorrow, but he’s essentially okay – the pebbles have been cleaned out and the wound looks dressed enough that it won’t leak all over the couch or sheets.

The evening progresses and I put Flora to bed. Once she is down, I go on my computer in the next room to kill time while making sure that Flora is really going down for the night. I open up Facebook and I see that Sean has updated his profile picture. To the picture you see above.

I know Sean is a big Bulls fan, but I think to myself “it’s tacky to use someone else’s tattoo as your profile photo”. When I looked closer, I thought to myself “holy shit, that’s *my* couch in the background of that photo”. I go downstairs and make the following statement:

“I had to find out you got a new tattoo via Facebook?”

Big laughs all around. They wondered how long it would take me to find out. Turns out I found out about two minutes after the photo was posted. There was no teenage cyclist who ran my husband down. The two of them concocted that story on the way home.

It’s a good thing I checked Facebook tonight. I had planned to write a Twitter status, complaining about assholes on bikes who run down people and don’t even stay to apologize or help the victim get up. And that would have been posted to Facebook too.

And that would have just looked silly, given what I know now. Our friends would think we never talk to each other.

Sean and Flora are away, and doing just fine

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Jul 222009

Earlier today, Sean took Flora took a spontaneous trip to visit our friends Jason and Amanda and their six month-old son Thomas. They live a couple hours away so Sean and Flora are spending the night. She and I have never been separated for this long before, and never overnight. Judging from the phone calls I’ve had with Sean, it’s been harder on me than it has been on her.

During the first phone call, I could hear her babbling with Jason and Thomas while Sean told me he packed everything she needed and that everything was just fine. Once I told him that I planned to spend some of my free evening cleaning the tub, I received a verbal honey-do list of chores to do during my evening to myself. (Which interestingly enough, almost all involved poop: litter box cleaning, emptying the diaper pail and walking the dog. No one shits in our tub yet so cleaning the tub was a poop-free zone.) The second phone call was me calling to check in. I spoke to Jason as Sean was putting Flora to bed. I was worried because I do the whole bedtime routine unless I’m out of the house as I still nurse Flora right before I put her to bed for the night. Jason reported that he didn’t hear any screaming through the monitor and that she had had lots of fun all afternoon and into the evening. Jason said he saw Sean go up with a book so that meant that Sean remembered the book I read to her at bedtime. I heard him address Mr. Bunny while on the phone with me earlier so I knew she had the soft toy she sleeps with. Like he said, he had everything they needed and everything was just fine.

I just talked to Sean a few minutes ago and after some fussing, Flora finally settled and went to sleep. Considering she is sleeping in a playpen at someone else’s house and her mummy wasn’t there to help put her to bed, it doesn’t sound like she did too badly. I’m happy that she wasn’t being cranky for Sean, but sad because it felt like I was being left out of the fun. I am proud of both of them, but am looking forward to their return home tomorrow. The house is very quiet and I miss them both terribly. I do think this trip was good for all of us, and I hope Sean does it again while he’s off. It would just be nice if he did it on a weekend so I could sleep in the next morning!