Thursday Thirteen: Parenthood the third time through. Thirteen things I don’t recall the other kids doing

Damn.

I have been maintaining this blog since just before the birth of our oldest son, Linus, which would be 2004, and at that time – as you can attest to – with your first-born you make note of everything from lack of sleep to rolling over, to loosing teeth.  Once the second child arrived, there were some comparisons made to the first child, but there were also situations where we had to think about whether Linus had done what Stewie was now doing.  Then came Berry, and it was forget about it.  By 3, you know they are not going to die if they cry for 5 minutes, and that rash… It’ll go away.  Oh, she threw up?  Let’s watch her and kiss of sleep tonight.

But there has been some things recently which makes me think back to Linus and Stewie to see if each child did this, or if it’s just for us the third time around.

13.  Germs and dirt: Either we have a germ-a-phobe on our hands or I forgot what it’s like have a 2-year-old, or possibly it’s just a girl thing, but Berry went through a phase where for about 2 weeks she refused to bathe because the tub was dirty, or sit on a toilet seat if the toilet was dirty.    Funny, yet frustrating it how I would describe it.

12.  Language: “Linus is an idiot!  He’s an ASS”.  I do not for the life of me recall Linus using language like this towards anyone.  Classmates, us, his brother or his sister, however little spark plug Stewie blurts it out daily now.

11.  Nutrition: “How much sugar is in milk?  How much fibre is there?  Iron?”  This was Berry to me the other morning as she was eating cereal and reading the box and the jug of milk.  She was quizzing me…  I don’t recall my boys at 2 1/2 doing this.

10.  Food issues:  Linus will stand beside a plate of cookies, without touching them, and point to them and politely ask if he can have one.  Stewie… Dives in and stops when we catch him.  I think with Berry we just keep her away so Stewie won’t influence her.

9.  Picky eaters.  Linus ate everything as a baby.  Urban Mummy made all his food from scratch and he loved spinach, eggs, fruits, veggies, and yogurt.  As he got older he got pickier to the point now that he’d be happy with plain noodles and bread.  Stewie, the human garbage can was always picky to some extent but when he likes something he inhales it, ie. 5 mini-pizzas for dinner, 5 green apples a day, 2 english cucumbers for a snack, but in the last week he’s off everything.  “I don’t like that anymore”.  Berry… Very picky and all over the place.  She starts eating what we have for dinner then when she sees the boys eating something else she wants that too, then after the meal is over she’s had 9 different things.  I honestly have no idea what her favourite foods are…

8.  Bathing.  Linus is a fish.  Stewie HATED the water and when him and I did swimming lessons, he spent the first lesson clinging to me keeping every inch of his body out of the water.  It terrified him.  Berry, hated the water too, having never done swimming lessons, and freaking out in the bath when I tried to wash her hair.  Now she likes it but I recall both boys hating to have their hair washed… I believe.  It’s the bath blur.

7.  Motoring (or motor-mouth): All 3 of my kids walked late – 15 months – nd talked early, in some cases stringing together 2-3 words before the age of 1, but I have the feeling that Berry’s vocabulary is the best!  She strings together smart sentences and they surprise me most of the time.  The other day I took the many decorative pillows off our bed and placed them on the floor.  In walked Berry and said this; “Oh, why are all the pillows on the floor?  Did you put them there, Daddy?  They don’t belong on the floor, they’ll get dirty… Silly.  I’ll help you move them”.  Whew.

6.  Sleep… Oh sleep.  Linus has always been a very sound sleeper – he slept through Stewie’s birth (a planned home birth)  at the age of 22 months.  Stewie slept for 2-3 hours at a time for 10 months which makes him a not so good sleeper.  Berry gets into bed and sings, talks and plays for what seems to be hours.  I don’t remember if the boys played like this because we were too exhausted at that time to pay attention and who knew there would be three of them to compare too…

5.  Sports:  My boys never liked sports.  I’m pretty sure getting them to try hockey or baseball was difficult but with Berry it’s different  She flips out not when I ask her to play but when she cannot participate.  She loves sports.  Granted, when there is sports on the TV, she says; “Daddy, is this basketball?  Hockey?  Wrestling?”  LOL.  She cannot tell them apart but she’s going to be a star.  Competitive and focussed.  Yay.

4.  Technology:  Linus’ first word was iPod.  Stewie iPhone and Berry, well it should have been iPad.  But Berry can open up and set up that iPad and get her games working and move through them with ease.  I can’t recall if my boys were as proficient at that age.  Sure now, I’ll give my iPad to Linus to fix, but Berry gets it too..

3.  Wrestling:  I love wrestling.  It makes me laugh and no one is allowed to watch it, but if it’s 0n sometimes they catch a glimpse.  Until recently Linus and Stewie had zero interest in wrestling.  Now it’s somehow become part of their lives as it did mine growing up.  Linus asks if Mark Henry can life our treadmill, Stewie compared a distance of 7-feet to the height of the Great Khali and Berry runs around my house making the hand gestures and sounds that Kane does before he sets the ring post on fire.  She also loves Brodus Clay’s theme song, and we’ll catch her singing “Gonna call my momma… ya ya ya ya!”

2.  Religion:  Linus goes to a private Jewish day school.  Stewie went to public school last year and is at the same school as his brother.  Linus thinks the world started by G-d when Adam and Eve were placed on the earth.  Stewie said, no its the big bang and evolution and dinosaurs were on the planet first.  Berry, on the other hand is going to a very religious Jewish nursery school and is the more religious of the 3 of them and that makes me laugh since we’re not that observant.  At least they’ll have each other to speak Hebrew to, since I have no idea what they’re saying.

1.  Respect.  It might just be the mob mentality, but when the three get going we fear for our lives.  LOL.  But seriously, Linus was respectful growing up, testing the limits every now and them but understanding his place.  Stewie on the other hand has no qualms about telling us how much he dislikes his brother or me for “wanting to kill him (read sending him to his room where he won’t get to come out ever or eat or drink water).  He’s a little dramatic.  Berry has been observing her brothers and we’re kind of hoping she stays happy and loving and follows neither of her brothers.  I doubt that will remain the same.

Tell me about your kids… If you have more than one does the memory fade away or what have you done to preserve it?

Related articles

• Are you hungrier than a 5-year-old? (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• Ah, those kids and the things they say… Was I this clever / funny as a kid? I doubt it. (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• Stuff Stewie Said This Weekend: Random Comments of a 5-Year-Old Boy (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• About the Urban Daddy (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)

Stuff Stewie Said This Weekend: Random Comments of a 5-Year-Old Boy

Just wanted to post the 5 best comments thrown out by our 5-year-old boy Stewie this weekend;

1) We went to karate this morning however it was closed for a friendship tournament.  When I suggested we grab me a coffee and get a car wash, Stewie blurted this out; “Will Mummy be terrified when we come home early”.

“Terrified”.

LOL.

“Not exactly”, I told him.  “Surprised, maybe, but certainly not terrified”.

2)  On our way to get that coffee and car wash, we passed a house being torn down and from our view on the street we could see that much of the house had been taken down and that a big chunk of the roof was still there.  Stewie had this comment;

“Man, if I lived that the roof of that house and the rest of the house was being torn down, I would not be happy”.

To which I replied, “I would not be happy either”.

3) Last night before bed, Stewie stormed out of our bedroom, into his room where he slammed his door and was VERY upset.

Why?

He wanted a band-aid for a cut on his hand.

He wanted to use a panty liner for the band-aid.

After being told by my wife, his mother, that these were not band-aids, he got very upset, saying yes they are, until he got fed up and stormed away.

Note to self:  Make sure he doesn’t use one as a band-aid going forward – and that it is not a school day!

4)  In the car on Saturday heading up to the cottage, Stewie blurted out this wisdom; “Do you know what the biggest thing on the earth is?”

“The earth”.

… and lastly;

5) As we were on our way to get our plum tree from Home depot to take to the cottage, a cyclist passed up on the street.  He was cycling with no hands on the handle bars, he had headphones on, no helmet and was looking around – clearly because he could not hear the traffic.

I said; “Man, that is a dangerous way to ride a bike!  No helmet, headphones and no hands.  This guy is dangerous.”

Stewie then said; “You know what is more dangerous that this cyclist?  Riding without a helmet, with headphones on, no hands and doing arts and crafts!  That is way more dangerous.”

“Yes.  Yes it is, Stewie.”

 

Stewie sometimes gets his thoughts tweeted @littleboypurple whenever my wife remembers to.

How Mitsou made my day!

Mitou on CBC Newworld (Photo credit: Elijah)

If you have been following this blog you would know that I like hard rock music… a lot.  If you’ve been following me for a long time, you would also know that I like female artists too, especially Canadian ones, but in general I like female artists such as;  Shania Twain, Jewel, the AM’s (Amanda Marshall, Alanna Myles, and Alanis Morisette), Kelly Clarkson and Mitsou (now known as Mitsou Gelinas).

Mitsou, for those of you unfamiliar with her work, was a very popular singer from Quebec who had some monster hits in the late 1980′s with songs like Bye Bye Mon Cowboy, Dis-Moi Dis-Moi, Spooky, Les Chinois, and La Corrida.  Dis-Moi Dis-Moi was actually banned from Much Music not too long after Madonna’s Justify My Love was and the station had to create a live nightly show called Too Much for Much in order to show these videos and talk about them.  In Dis-Moi Dis-Moi there was a naked shower scene and I don’t recall ever seeing anything worth banning the video, but those were different times we lived in back in the late 80′s and it got Mitsou a lot of press.  Plus being really hot didn’t hurt her either.

Yes, Mitsou was hot.  She was risqué and she was one of the very few French Canadian artists – especially female ones, who made it throughout the country.  I have all her CD’s and yes, I follow her on twitter with the other almost 50,000 fans.  I’m not ashamed.  She’s doing a lot nowadays and you can find a lot through www.mitsou.com, her website.

So here is how she made my day today;

Friday night I was at our Temple’s Tot Shabbat service and we were sitting with the kids singing songs and having fun when my friend Eric @campusdiscs - who knows I like Mitsou - turns to me and says to me out of nowhere, ”I have Bye Bye Mon Cowboy” tattooed on my left butt cheek.

So I took to Twitter;

@mitsougelinas my friend @campusdiscs said he has “bye bye mon cowboy” tattooed on his left butt cheek.  ‪#DismoiDismoi

Then I got his wife’s account number and posted this;

@mitsougelinas @campusdiscs #DismoiDismoi his wife just confirmed it to be true.  C’est vrai!

(I took out here address here as I didn’t get her permission to post it, yet.)

Then about mid-day Saturday I got this;

@urbandaddyblog @campusdiscs. I will believe it when I see it!!

I think he’s got to get that tattoo now, or at least get out the marker and then we can make the left side of his butt popular(ish).

Thank you Mitsou for making my Saturday.

Eric, start inking… Marker, I’m thinking.

If case you have never heard of Mitsou, you can find her @mitsougelinas, and her are some links to her videos;

http://youtu.be/8aI0QTEJjIg  – Bye Bye Mon Cowboy

http://youtu.be/wbDpR5jTmqs - Dis Moi Dis Moi

http://youtu.be/H_odYGS7S50 - Les Chinois

http://youtu.be/ugJkI1u2kZ4 - La Corrida

http://youtu.be/qG14xIMW164 - Deep Kiss (in English!)

Related articles

• Alanis Morissette Will Breastfeed Until Her Son Is “Weaned”. (wdok.radio.com)
• Kelly Clarkson Does Kick Ass Cover of Shania Twain’s You’re Still The One (perezhilton.com)

We slept at the Toronto Zoo!

We had plenty going on this past long weekend – Victoria’s Day here in Canada.  On the Saturday night, my two boys and I went to the Toronto Zoo with a bunch of kids from their Beaver Troop (Boy Scouts) and we spent the night there at their Serengeti Bush Camp.

Here is a picture from the camp site itself, which was very clean and centrally located near the African pavilion – the camp was meant to emulate a night in the African wild.  as you can see, there was plenty of room for running – that is Linus tearing around the site.

Our tent was called Ngiri.  It was a 4 person tent with 4 cots inside – 2 adult sized cots and 2 kid sized cots.  Honestly the worst experience by far occurred here as we got into the tent to sleep at 10:30pm after the campfire – where we ate smores - and it was pitch black save for a flashlight the zoo provided.  I didn’t notice the cots came in 2 sizes so both boys were in the big cots and me, all almost 6 feet and 230lbs of me settled into a kids sized one where I couldn’t move.  In addition, it was 30 degrees during the day, but got down to 5 degrees at night, which made me very cold in my shorts and t-shirt snuggled into a sleeping bag on a kids-sized cot.  Oh, and I had to pee but was too cold to get up.  All this means, I did not sleep a wink.  Did I fail to mention the animals scratching at our tent during the night…  There were raccoons, chipmunks, squirrels, groundhogs and peacocks on the loose.

Our neighbour said she heard the velcro on her tent open, and when she flashed her light she saw an animals hand opening the zipper on her tent.  It was a raccoon.

The probable culprit…

Our tent with respect to the campfire before the activities;

The cool thing about being in the zoo for this program is the fact that we were setting up camp and walking the site an hour before the zoo closed for the dayd.  The troop received a detailed walk through of the African pavilion and we got to see many animals up close, and ask questions of the dedicate Bush Camp staff, Jennifer and Shannon.

We saw zebras.

Did you know zebras have stripes so they can stick together and protect themselves from lions.  Lions have traditionally poor eyesight and when they see a bunch of zebras they see one giant moving stripe and they move on.  Smart Zebras!

The Grévy zebra was named after Jules Grévy, then president of France, who, in the 1880s, was given one by the government of Abyssinia.  Nice.

After the zebras we got right up close to the hyenas, this vile animal is depicted as being the villain in the Lion King and for good reason.  These guys are bone crushers and when they catch and eat an animal, they eat the whole dame thing, bones included.  The kids wanted to stay away from these, for sure, and at night when we were running through the zoo – in pitch black – with flashlights in hand, we were all hoping the noises in the bushes were NOT the hyenas.

After the hyenas, we saw hippos!  They were cleaning their pen since our tour took place the next morning before the zoo opened so there was a whole lot of stink involved in this showing.

The other really cool animal we saw up close and personal was the penguin.  We saw them swimming, playing and our troop got to see a special feeding of them from above the water and then below the water.  We also got to see the babies they have at the zoo.  Here is a picture of them playing in the water.  It was really hot ans sunny outside so they are hard to see but there are 3 of them on this picture.

(Oh, and Linus was convinced he was going to be sleeping with the penguins at night).

 

Our last main animal we got to learn about was the giraffe.  Once the zoo closed they took us into the giraffe pen and we were 5 feet away from them.  We hung with the female giraffe’s and they were very curious about our little beavers possibly wondering if they were food, lol.  But seriously, we go to see them eat carrots with their 2 foot long purple tongue (purple so it won’t get sunburned).  They guys spook easily so the kids had to be as quiet as possible.

We also got to see baboons up close and personal and first thing in the morning while they were eating.  One of the baboons took an empty burlap sack and placed it over his head, the n rolled around to entertain everyone.  Silly monkey.

We also caught a glimsp of the white lions.  Also real cool and we found out that the zoo is going to have a naming contest in the summer.  We saw warthogs and snakes and porcupines.

We also saw cheetahs and jaquars.  Did you know that black cheetahs also have spots on them like the regular cheetahs but from a far they just look all black.

So, all in all the overnight was incredible.  We all learned about the animals, the accommodations were great, the bush camp leaders fantastic – we were their first of the season – and the food surprisingly good.

.   

I wanted to do it because I camped as a Beaver, Cub, Scout and Venturer and I hated it.  I didn’t want to pass judgement on camping to my kids, they needed to experience it themselves.  As it was they got to stay up real late, run through the zoo morning and night as the only non-animal guests, they ate, drank juice, tons of chocolate milk, made smores and got to sleep with their daddy between them as we all held hands.

I loved it.

They loved it.

We’ll be back!

Thank you Jennifer and Shannon our bush-camp leaders and thank you Toronto Zoo.

Stepping outside the box, TT13 style! SPAM.

I’m a scheduled kind of guy.  I matured late in life (some would say I have yet to mature and for those people you do NOT need to comment that, thank you) and a big part of the maturation process was getting myself scheduled.  I need that to remain focussed, but for one week I’m stepping outside the box once again.  I’m going to walk the edge of the cliff, dive into the ocean full of rocks and dive into a volcano.  I’m going to life my life according to my spam!

With special thanks to the Monty Python folks for creating the term SPAM, here are some of the items sitting in my inbox I intend on getting through this week – wild and crazy guy I am going to be!

Sit back, with your Spam sandwich, Spam cooking on the stove and your green eggs spam, with spam, spam, spam and spam.  Here we go with this week’s Thursday Thirteen;

13. I going to finally get moving on that penis enlargement.  I’ve ignored way too many emails already but the price is right and who wouldn’t want to be hung like an elephant?  Right?  Everyone is doing it, and it’s going to give me confidence!

12. Next, I have to get moving and finally send money to my friend stranded in Europe.  It must be so tough for them there – I’m not sure which friend got “stuck” there but they need my help!  I’ll also have to make a note where in Europe they keep getting stuck so I can stay away from there. 

11. I will finally send TD Bank all my details that they have been requesting from me via email.  What an efficient and effective way to deal with customers – through insecure email.  I’ll just have to find my SIN card, account number and address to include in that email.  I’m sure nothing will go wrong, but incase it does, I won’t have to worry because…  

10. I’ll be collecting on that lottery I won!  Woo Hoo.  I just need to forward all my details to the lottery corporation and pay that very minor processing fee, and I can collect my $12.5 million I won.  Party at my place!

9. Once I have all my money, I can begin to help that tribe in Africa that needs desperately my assistance.  The email states that all I need to do to begin helping is to flip them my bank account number.  That should help!

8. While saving Africa, I need some me attention to go with my soon to be supersized package.  Even though I already have 3 children and the shop is closed, I guess I do need to keep my sperm count up, so I’m going to have to buy that super-formula being offered exclusively just to me to do just that.  I can hear Big Balls by AC/DC in my head…

7.  I’m going to be smart about my money and new-found confidence by keeping an eye on my security.  I recall seeing an email that my account was hacked and I would need to follow the link in the email to fix it.  I’ll attend to that and then…

6.  Paypal is in need of my attention too.  They also want me to update my information.  Another simple link to follow and I can check that off my list!  Wait.  Do I even have a paypal account?!?  Aww, I must.

5.  Next I’ll need to claim my prize I won.  I love prizes.  I don’t recall entering any contests, but I’m getting a TV and an iPad  I’ll just have to send over my processing fees to them through my PayPal account and I’m golden.

4.  Whew.  By Wednesday, I’ll be able to quit my amazing job and start to work from home because someone emailed me a no-fail work from home opportunity to make $5000.00 – $7500.00 / week.  Sweet.

3.  Without a job, I can turn my attention to finally losing those extra 30lbs of pregnancy weight I gained with Linus.  I am on an exclusive list to purchase a miracle weight loss pill.  No exercise, no dieting.  YES!

2.  Financially, my credit is in amazing shape but I saw an email the other day that will get it into ever better shape!  Who wouldn’t want perfect credit…

1. Finally, I can spend the rest of the week clearing up  few items.  I have surveys to complete for cash, free lip gloss samples to collect, free airline tickets to order, free gift cards for pizza, Canadian Tire and for lip gloss and then I can get my lap top.  I should go through the spam folder more often.  This shit’s way more interesting than my regular email.

How do you like your spam?!?

It must be difficult to be a Republican in the US. Especially when some candidates are stupid, ignorant morons.

Earlier this week US President Barak Obama became (shockingly) the first US President ever to support gay marriage.

I’m shocked not because he did it, but because he was the first to do so.  Even though during his campaign to become President he believed that marriage was a “union between a man and a woman” he came to his senses and realized this term of “marriage” is just a tradition carried on through the years and as people evolve some of our outdated practices change too.  Marriage is not for everyone.  Marriage could have easily not also been just between a man and a woman, but it was not.  To some people and some religions, none of this matters.  It’s about being good people and contributing to society and not fitting into a norm that your religion expects you to. 

And to those religions who firmly believe it’s immoral, yadda yadda, you are entitled to your own opinion – not the point at all.  Please continue to feel that way, preach and practice as you like, however, this term called “marriage” was not created by you, and is not governed by you.  

This is not a political issue.

As a result of “coming out”, Obama’s popularity rating in the US is declining. Why exactly is that, I ask as a Canadian.  Why are US media outlets calling him the “gay president”.  How can this hate be tolerated?

Well I think there has to be opposition not because people or agree or disagree, but because the US is essentially a 2 party system, the Democrats and the Republicans.  If the Democrats say white, the Republicans HAVE to say black.  If the Republicans say yes to the right to bear arms and carry around gums (a concept very foreign to Canadians) then the Democrats have to be against it.

In order to further their agenda’s each side seeks out the most radical, most extreme view and promotes it.  I mean after reading this below quote, I would vote for Dora the Explorer too.

Check this blog post from former Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol – who has her own baggage – titled, “Hail to the Chiefs – Malia and Sasha Obama.”

Bristol actually suggests that the reason for Obama’s change-of-heart was caused by his daughters watching too many episodes of television show ‘Glee’. Are you fucking kidding me? Can she be that stupid? But it gets better…

She then goes on to quote the president’s interview with ABC in which he says, “You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples.” By offering him parenting advice, “In this case, it would’ve been helpful for him to explain to Malia and Sasha that while her friends (sic) parents are no doubt lovely people, that’s not a reason to change thousands of years of thinking about marriage.”

I’ll get to this but the moronic part comes next;

“I guess we can be glad that Malia and Sasha aren’t younger, or perhaps today’s press conference might have been about appointing Dora the Explorer as Attorney General because of her success in stopping Swiper the Fox.  In this case, it would’ve been nice if the President would’ve been an actual leader and helped shape their thoughts instead of merely reflecting what many teenagers think after one too many episodes of Glee.”

WOW.

I would be ashamed to be a Conservative south of the border.  As a fiscal conservative, I am socially democratic and I feel that as an American you have to be all in or all out.  You can’t be a Republican yet for Pro-Choice.  You have to be a Democrat is that is the way you feel.  As a Conservative, if I was American and was being painted with the same brush as some twit named Bristol just did, I would be insulted and looking to create a new party.  The Keep your stupid opinions to yourself party, where Americans can work together to improve the economy, achieve racial harmony – you are all american’s afterall, right?  and find a way where everyone can live freely, contribute to society and not be discriminated on based on race, religion or sexual preference. 

And the next time a reporter sticks a microphone in the face of a Palin… Just remember where it is coming from.

To my American friends… Am I off base here?

Toilet Humour from a 2-Year-Old

Berries (Photo credit: SeanMcTex)

My 2-year-old daughter Berry has quite the personality and being the third child, she seems to have picked up the seriousness of Stewie, and the goofiness of Linus.  This was her conversation with a member of this urban family today when she whipped open the bathroom door and found them on the toilet.

Berry: “Are you peeing and pooing?”

Anon “Yes, can’t you tell?”

Berry: “The poo is stinky but the pee is okay.  It’s fun.”

Anon: “It’s fun?”

Berry: “You can play with pee, but you cannot play with poo.  It’s yucky.  You can make eyes with pee, and smile with pee and play with pee.  Put a hat on pee and take pee to the park.”

Anon: “You cannot play with pee, you cannot take pee to the park and you certainly cannot put a hat on pee.  On a pea, maybe, but not on pee.”

Berry: “SILLY!  Yes you can.”

Upon overhearing this conversation, I think I need to investigate this further.  I’m glad she knows you don’t play with poo, however I’m not sure if someone has been telling her it’s okay to play with pee or if she’s just showing her toilet humour.

Crazy kids!

Related articles

• Toilet humour (learnermom.com)
• The Worst Conversation Ever Overheard (convergentjourney.com)
• Ah, those kids and the things they say… Was I this clever / funny as a kid? I doubt it. (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)

Urban Daddy Investigates: What happened to the patio at the Starbucks at 1740 Avenue Road?

On Wednesday of this week, I was asked by the community – my former community of 8 years, actually - to investigate the disappearances of the patio on the north side of the Starbucks at 1740 Avenue Road (at St.Germain) and right across from the fantastic Safari restaurant (the best Chipotle Corn Chowder in the city and amazing lamb burgers!)

This patio means a lot to the community. There is a Facebook page devoted to making this patio and the locals who frequent it into a reality show. I could totally see that. Students, local residents, real estate agents, all kinds of people flocked to that patio to sit, chat and consume Starbucks products. This patio is one of a kind in that upper-middle class area of Toronto and It was the place to be seen… And heard.

Our urban family, often spent time hanging out there with our real estate agent, Mr. Real Estate himself, Marshall Cohen or with my in-laws where the kids would watch the world go by eating oatmeal, yogurt or mint frappuccino chip (oops, that last one was me).  More common was myself with a grande Americano while the kids covered themselves in yogurt or ate the pre-packaged egg, apple, cheese snack.

Ask anyone who has sat there or walked by and they will tell you about the characters who hang out there.  Some seem to be there ALL the time.  One common memory was of the guy with the full-length fur coat (but not a real fur coat, that’s cruel) smoking his cigars, of the elderly couple who meet there every day to chat with the neighbour and their family before everyone heads out to the office or for a stroll. 

I checked online to see if the City of Toronto had posted some patio guidelines or amended the official plan to prohibit patios from the West side of Avenue Road and found only one possible link to a draft City-wide zoning bylaw amendment to the official plan relating to Patio’s, drafted by Toronto City Planning department. 

Outdoor Patios

Proposed rules under the draft City-wide zoning by-law

Area 2 (part of the Former City of Toronto): -rear yard patios are not permitted in CR zones -side yard patios are permitted up to a maximum 50% of the building depth and -maximum size restriction (the greater of 30m2 or 30% of GFA) -separation from Residential zones (40m if elevated & 10m if not elevated) -entertainment uses not permitted

Since it is not clear to me whether or not these proposals were made permanent, or even if there was a public consultation, or if the slightly raised patio was within 10 meters of the residential property to the West of the location so I reached out to my friend, Ward 16 City Councillor Karen Stintz to ask for an update as to why the city asked Starbucks to remove the patio and why one cannot be added back to that spot.  I explained the value of this patio to our community and the fact that Tim Horton’s which had just opened up further north on Avenue Road asked for and was granted a permit for a kick-ass patio, yet this Starbucks location was not.

I was curious to hear what she has to say on this matter.  She is very alert to issues within her ward.

As of Friday morning I had not heard back from Karen or her office, which is fine – she’s busy with some other things too, like the TTC and aggravating the Ford brothers, but I did receive word early this morning that last night the City of Toronto swept in and re-installed the patio!

Success.

Could it have been related?  I’d like to think it was an oversight on the City’s side and one phone call from Karen got the ball rolling.

But none of that matters… The patio is back so summer can begin!

Now off to enjoy the sun and try something off the Starbucks hidden menu that I posted about last week!  Wonder if someone from the community will buy. 

 

Above is the St. Germain location and the patio was on the right.  Below is the Roe location – on the other side of the street which also lost it’s patio.

Related articles

• Are you hungrier than a 5-year-old? (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• http://urbandaddy.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/the-not-so-secret-secret-menu-at-starbucks-revealed/ The Not so Secret Starbucks Menu Revealed.

About the Urban Daddy

I update the about me section of this blog and thought it might be time to post it in order to answer questions I frequently get sent to me via email and twitter.  Who I am and what I do…

About me

I am the urban daddy because my wife of 11 years who got me into blogging in 2004 was calling herself the urban mummy. It only made sense.

I am a father of two boys, Linus (because he carries around a security blanket and a white stuffed cat which is my avatar) who is 7 and Stewie (because we feel he’s trying to kill us) who is 5. Our baby girl, Berry (who makes us laugh) is 2-years-old. We live in mid-town urban Toronto where we live our lives as a laid back, no fuss family. We eat healthy (my wife was a vegetarian for 12 years when I met and converted her – but she has recently returned to the land of veggies). She is studying to be a holistic nutritionist.

Both her and I have our Master’s degrees, her in education, me a MBA which we completed with newborns preventing us from sleeping. Crazy, eh?

I love politics, especially Canadian, and have fundraised for Councillor Karen Stintz and was approached by the Conservative Party to run municipally or provincially in my riding. I would have, except I love my job as a taxation executive.

I’m also a sports junkie, love playing ball hockey (21 years in organized league play), and watching it on TV. I also love wrestling and Star Wars so my nerd side gets equal jock play too.

I have always been on the slightly more than I should weigh side, gained that with Linus’ birth and have yet to shed it.  Yes, it’s my pregnancy weight!  I have been described as being freakishly strong and can run 5K in my sleep, now.

I’ve been blogging since 2004 and have made some year-end award lists, been mentioned by CBS news, asked to be on a local Canadian TV show as their daddy blogger expert and been ripped for my views by some really great people and some real jerks. My views.  My opinions.

You’ll find a lot of posts about my kids, about politics, coffee, Toronto, sports, pop culture, current events and things I endorse for free, and things I think people should steer clear of.

Everything here comes out of my head and this blog is meant to allow me to empty my head of thoughts and opinions and if you choose to read and like it or if you find something offensive let me know. Just nothing personal, racist or rude. I can delete them… And block you.

I also blog for money, but I won’t ask, it’s a bonus and not the reason I blog. If you want an expert opinion, or a family opinion on a wide range of things, drop me an email at realurbandaddy@gmail.com. I have a large pool of contacts and connections who can assist too. I’m on twitter @urbandaddyblog and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Urban-Daddy/109554365740659?ref=ts . Find me, drop me a note, like me, vote for me… All that jazz!

Those who do not call me “Daddy” or “Urban Daddy” call me Warren, but as Linus liked to tell his teacher when we have to meet with her / him, “His name is Warren but they call him the urban daddy”.

Read on… You might actually like something here…

Related articles

• Ah, those kids and the things they say… Was I this clever / funny as a kid? I doubt it. (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• Should I be concerned that my kids are smarter than me? (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• Are you hungrier than a 5-year-old? (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• As a Father, if you’re going to disappoint some of them, you might as well disappoint all of them… (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• A Daddy Blog’s Greatest Hits! (adaddyblog.com)

Why You Need to Support the Toronto Rock Lacrosse Club!

I cannot stress enough the importance of supporting the Toronto Rock lacrosse club. 

In case you live under a rock (pun intended) The Toronto Rock is the lacrosse team which plays in the National Lacrosse League (NLL).  The franchise was originally founded as an NLL expansion team for Hamilton which begin play in the 1998 season, known as the Ontario Raiders.  The Raiders finished that season 6-6, barely missing the playoffs and at the end of the season they were sold to a group of investors led by Assistant GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Bill Watters, and Tie Domi and the team moved to Toronto to become the Rock.  They played out of the historic Maple Leafs Gardens beginning in the 1999 season.

It was that first season in Toronto where I took in a game with my colleagues from Equifax and we were hooked, purchasing season’s tickets which I still have to this day! 

It’s hard not to love this sport.  It’s fast like hockey, back and forth like basketball but it is also rough and tough and there is no taking a shift off.  I regularly bring along someone new to lacrosse to join me and I have not had one person leave after a game and think it was boring.  The game is great the atmosphere is incredible, there are activities, music playing the entire game and loads of beer consumed – meaning loud, rowdy fans in a family environment – so it’s safe to bring your kids, and there are a ton of kids at each game. 

All that mentioned above, plus when you have teams like the ones the Rock put out from 1999-2005, which were a dynasty as the team appeared in six league finals and won five championships in those seven years. From 1999 – 2003, the Rock appeared in an NLL-record five straight championship games and have a 14-5 record in playoff games all time. Geez, they won the NLL Championship just last season for a record-tying 6th time.

So with much optimism I look forward each year to a competitive team with expectations of playoffs and hopes of a championship – both which are rare in Toronto’s other professional sports teams not named the Toronto Blue Jays (see 1992 and 1993).

But this year’s team suffered some early setbacks with injuries to Blaine Manning and Colin Doyle and with the retirement of world-class goalie Bob Watson.  They had a goalie named Matt Roik who looked great sometimes and disinterested at other times.  In a particular difficult 2 game stretch, the talent-challenged Rock were pressing hard against their opposition during most of the game and getting robbed by the other teams goalies and when they were rewarded with a goal, the other team would march down the floor and the first shot would go in.  That is a tough way to play and the team, the coaching staff and the fans were frustrated.

So I missed the Rock’s last home game this year – it was Passover and the Rock’s next 3 games were on the road and the I believe they went 3-1 in that stretch which was great heading into the playoffs, and I was shocked when I came to the game this past Saturday night to find that Roik was not in the Rock’s net, nor on the bench, but instead there was a new goalie on the team, #66 Rose. 

Rose looked confident, engaged and agile.  With his timely saves, the Rock came back from a 4-0 1st quarter deficit to defeat the Buffalo Bandits 7-6 to advance to the semi-finals against the Rochester Night Hawks this Saturday night, May 12th at 7pm at the Air Canada Centre.

Sources close to the team have advised me that there was a confrontation between Roik at some key members of the Rock coaching staff which led to his release – not trading – and that Roik was as frustrated in the team as they were in him.

So where did Nick Rose come from? 

Turns out #66 helped the Orangeville Northmen to Canadian junior championships in 2008 and 2009, was drafted by the Rock, but spent his first three pro seasons as a backup with the now defunct Boston Blazers.  His first professional start was as a member of the Rock when he led the team to a 13-7 win in Rochester.

Nick Rose was drafted by the Toronto Rock in the third round, 28th overall, of the 2008 NLL entry draft and attended the training camp held before the 2009 season, released after the fifth practice.  Boston invited him to try out and he made the team until the Chicago team folded and in the dispersal draft Boston got a more experienced goalie, leaving Rose third in line. When Boston folded last year, Calgary snagged Rose.

The underperforming Roik prompted the Rock to make a call to Calgary on the Sunday before the March 20th trade deadline where they swapped their 2014 first-round entry draft pick for Rose and then the Rock released Roik.

Rose made the most of his first NLL start and got the win.  He’s got the size, he is 6-0 and 285 and it looks like he has the poise to be a good goalie.

How far can this team go?  A championship would be great.  In a year when the Leafs failed, the Raptors are rebuilding and the MLS Toronto FC just set a record for the most losses to begin a season with a 0-8 record, Torontonians need the Toronto Rock to show fans how a successful, hard-working team operates.  Let’s just hope MLSE, or the Rogers / Bell conglomerate don’t get their hands on this team and take them down into the valley of despair.

In the meantime, the semi-finals are this Saturday at 7pm at the Air Canada Centre.  Get your tickets, I have mine, and come support the Toronto Rock!

You can also follow the team on twitter @torontorocklax.  You should follow Shannon Kelly, the host of the team @shankell, and heck follow me too @urbandaddyblog.

Go Rock go!