Vivian was born precisely three months ago today. Hard to believe so much time has passed so soon, but on the other hand, it feels like Vivian has been in our lives forever. It’s amazing to look back and see how much the girl has developed. You really can see her grow. She’s also a lot more alert, able to reach out for things, starting to work on turning over, and is generally very, very bright. That’s all good things. The only drawback is that Vivian gets bored easily, and often requires direct and constant attention. We love her, but it can wear us down a bit.
Erin returns to work this coming Monday, and I start my job as a stay-at-home Dad. Erin is looking forward to returning to work, but is looking towards leaving Vivian for extended periods with considerable dread. This is the sort of thing you can’t prepare for, other than hope that things don’t go as badly as feared on the first day. This wasn’t something I had anticipated. I know parents can fret over sending their child off to school or, worse still, off to college, but separation anxiety at three months? Hey, it happens.
Erin and I have bought a car, a nice used Hyundai Elantra with good fuel economy. This will allow me to bring Vivian up to work so that she and Erin can do lunch. And much as I enjoy taking transit here in Kitchener-Waterloo (and still intend to), I am reminded yet again of how much this city is designed for the car. I have no objection to people buying cars as a luxury, but when an automobile ceases to be a luxury and becomes a necessity, something’s wrong with the neighbourhood. We can function without a car here in Waterloo Region, but the area still has some ways to go before it’s really transit and pedestrian friendly.
In honour of our last car, Freddy the faithful Ford, we have decided to name the new car. He will be Lance, the Elantra.
The baby bureaucracy continues. We’re only now able to apply for a birth certificate for our child, and will work on that presently. I have to do this before I give Vivian a Social Insurance Number. I have to get Vivian a Social Insurance Number before I sign her up for a Registered Education Savings Plan.
I didn’t get a SIN number until I was 14 and trying to find a summer job. That’s a change between then and now.
Erin has more Flickr images of Vivian here.
A couple of announcements: the Blogging Alliance of Non-Partisan Canadians now has its own RSS Feed, thanks to a program called Squish drafted by Andrew Anderson at Bound by Gravity. Setup was easy and the system seems to work. The output is valid RSS 2.0, despite looking a little bit… well, squished. Thanks, Andrew! This makes the BANPC aggregator a proper blog.
Also, Erin aced her citizenship test on the 31st, and will be on her way to taking her oath in about a month or so.