metawidget: A "palatable" icon with happy face licking lips and captions in both official languages.. (palatable)
I'm writing this from the kitchen table in my new place — I am in the process of moving out from the home I shared with Elizabeth since 2008. We got to a place where we had a big gulf between what each of us thought our relationship should be and I decided I needed some space and concordance between what our relationship had become and what the infrastructure looked like. So here I am, a kilometer and a half away in a little 1940s house with a bedroom for me and each kid, a woodstove (landlords promise to inspect and clean it before it gets cold) and a certain amount of distance. The kids seem pretty positive and practical about moving in; they'll be in on a supply run on the weekend to kit out their rooms while Elizabeth and Doug go to Toronto for a gig. Unless things go terribly, they'll have their first night here then, and then I'll get Vivien to the bus really early for her school trip to Quebec City.

What this all looks like emotionally going forward... is still up in the air. I was pretty unhappy with where things were going. Elizabeth seems to want to go straight to friends and I'm feeling more like getting the practicalities of co-parenting down, being fair while standing up for myself, setting some clear boundaries. I'm lucky to have a broad circle of support and some really good people close to me. Andrea says I'm brave, and has been there for me all through this. My parents are understanding. My peer group is proud I'm taking concrete action. Lots of people are offering help, even the kids (I'll make sure they get some choices about their space and also carry some boxes). It feels weird but maybe I do need to assemble some kind of separation registry and insist that people only contribute things they have doubles of or don't use -- partly to help get over the hump of expenses (and in to paying rents of the current era and child support) and partly so I don't just say "come to the housewarming" when they ask what they can do.
metawidget: Chicks in the grass by a clapboard wall (Chickens)
It's the Sunday after the Wednesday Elizabeth and Vivien took off for Europe. My general strategy is to keep myself and the kids here busy. We rode the Cycle for CHEO (15 km edition, to keep it manageable for Ada on a one-speed kid BMX bike) and it went pretty well — Oscar zipped off ahead despite my admonition to stick together but we didn't have too much trouble finding them. We took some time to hang out with Simon (who had done the 35 km on their own), chowed down on the included BBQ and wandered the activities — Ada sat in the driver's seat of the OC Transpo EV bus while Oscar assembled a cardboard O-Train and double-decker bus in one of the passenger seats (and took some prompting to dislodge).

We've been eating things that Elizabeth and/or Vivien don't (sushi! pancakes! meat sausages!) and on the PD day Oscar went off to the library after the bunch of us had sushi with Andrea. Yesterday Ada and I met up with Andrea and Morgen for a visit to the Ottawa Art Gallery at the speed of four-year-old attention span (we can get away with that because admission is free!) followed by Byward Market ice cream and a community barbecue at the Children's Garden.

One unsettling thing that happened on Thursday night was that someone was skulking around the yard and went into our garage, smoked in there, moved things around and, as far as I can tell, didn’t take anything — might have borrowed Elizabeth's bike helmet for a bit, and I thought they stole the digging fork but then it turned up inside the garage (it had been leaning against the fence). I think I saw the guy putting back the bike helmet. Odd — at first I thought Elizabeth had left her bike and helmet somewhere and the guy (not a familiar one, but I'm not at every open mic…) was bringing them back? They also moved the chicken feeding station out of their coop and unplugged the light in there. It wasn't hard to put things back and the garage smoke smell has dissipated but it was pretty unsettling.

This coming week I deliver the presentation on our unit's specialty to the recruits at work — I've delivered it last decade but it's been a while so I've spruced it up and am looking forward to it. I think, with me responsible for the kids in the evening, I might book a morning off for a second 32ish km run before tapering to Race Weekend.
metawidget: Oscar in a bucket, smiling (oscar in bucket)
The rest of August went by quickly, but left some evidence behind. With the help of Oscar and the neighbour kid, I built some garden boxes out front. We still need some dirt and then to transplant a few things in, but the boxes look good.

I've been taking the older two out to bang in campaign signs for our local MP, who we'd like to keep. We've ring doorbells and knocked on doors, learned about politeness, chatted with friendly Hullians, been fed and watered, tried a stair elevator and talked nicely with dubious landlords — along with learning how to watch and march in political marches, I feel we're starting their civics lessons early. Oscar and Vivien also like hammering stuff and tightening zip ties, so it's interdisciplinary learning. In other learning activities, Oscar isn't totally reliable on spotting house numbers yet, but he's keen to try.

Elizabeth and I (and Ada) got out on a date to Les Promenades de Gatineau, where we ate food court food and acquired nice underthings at the newly-opened Simons. Shameless fun in getting things is okay sometimes, I hope :)

We had some fun park time with [livejournal.com profile] lady_phi and her family, swapped tomatoes and had tea and scones. She also brought some baby stuff for us to rifle through — yay, less-ratty cloth diapers!

Oscar had his last library story time — Dominique looked a little weepy wishing him well in kindergarten. Oscar has been going since before Vivien was born, so she's seen him grow up quite a bit. The fall is going to see a lot of me getting Viv alone to activities. I think she's ready to graduate to star attraction at kid activities!

Tomorrow Oscar hits Kindergarten — just an hour and with Elizabeth hanging out in the background, but whoa, our firstborn just made it to school! We're grappling with the fact of it, and the list of stuff, all labelled, and the un-Waldorfy discipline and pedagogy, and will he learn French and will he decide to play the game by getting along or with all his rogue skills… well, we made it and he made it and school and Oscar will happen to each other starting tomorrow at nine.

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