hello forty

so, we started celebrating early. one of the advantages of having a birthday close to canada day (and also st-jean) is that people get days off, which, if you have a flexibl-ish schedule like b, you can bundle up into long weekends and etc. so, free day all day on friday the 3rd, and the kid in daycare! we didn't go that far from home, but we had a nice walk in the posh part of the neighbourhood (not sure if that's not technically ahuntsic :( ) and we went to have lunch in a restaurant!!!! how adventurous.

one of the best surprises of the day: linden trees! there were whole blocks we walked bordered by lindens in bloom, such a perfect scent, and i hadn't smelled it in a long time - last i remember was in 2014 in villeray. maybe it's a good year for them here (last year, walking around this neighbourhood, i haven't noticed, and i think i would have) - anyway, it was so good it inspired us to buy linden syrup at the italian store :)

i actually think the picture above was way too flattering, you can barely see i'm pregnant, so here's a more realistic look. yeah i laugh like a maniac, but i never remember to hold my hands gently and properly below my belly just so, like i've seen in hundreds of blogger pics. also, and i see this in real life too, not only on instagram, what is it about all other pregnant women's dresses cupping their belly tight like a glove before going tight on the legs/hips? do those dresses have more...ruching? for the record, mine is supposed to be a maternity dress too....or is my belly simply incompetent?
i have also been told the following:
- that it must be a boy, from the look of my belly (scared me into checking once more with the ultrasound lady)
- that it'll take at least 2 more weeks til i deliver, cause the belly hasn't dropped yet. i guess i'll take that. but how does it drop? did it drop the other time? no idea. i guess i was covered in too many layers back then to care or notice. i've always thought i had a weird belly shape.

disadvantages of anniversary week, specifically cutting my cake on july 4th: Rada has no idea it is/was my birthday, and strongly believes the cake was for her. i mean ok, she thinks everything we get, or whatever she can get her hands on (e.g. my tablet, headphones, papers) is rightfully hers., and i always think, gosh, is this kid going to have a rude awakening when she gets a younger sister just like that!

this is the face i always make when i see Rada attacking some food with a spoon. i know i have to let it go, and that lots of cream/ other stuff has to land on various surfaces in the process before she masters table skills, but....eh.
parenthesis:
me: Rada, what will mama do if you kick that plate and put the apple [slices] all over the floor?
Rada: scold me, and yell at me, and say to Naina (her father) "look at her, what she's doing!"
a very accurate prediction indeed.

obviously she couldn't tell whose birthday it was: her tricycle arrived this weekend, and there was much rejoicing. sadly, the kid is too short to push the pedals properly, so i think we'll have to let that wait for a couple of months at least. when are growth spurts happening again? i was sure she was tall enough for her age. (tricycle is for kids aged 2.5 - 5)

evening walks are one of the great perks of the pandemic, especially since nice weather. i know they're pandemic-influenced, because if b. weren't working from home, he would be dead tired coming home from commute and would just eat and sleep. but like this, he finishes work and cooks (!) then we walk around the time dark starts setting in, i.e. pretty late. especially as we start out, or when it's not so dark yet, Rada (with her bag always on hand) walks pretty far ahead of us, so sometimes neighbours have thought she was walking alone.
the neighbourhood is very interesting at night - mostly people are out in pyjamas watering their plants, or there are porch parties with various types of loud music. and the moon.

(Rada:
"the moon will give me cheese, cause i told her stories about cars and buses."
"the moon is full of car air, and if Naina unties her, the air goes out and she'll die"
"the moon is crying for her mama"- ('but where is her mama?") - "the skunks came and took her away."

i mentioned last year that we had skunks somewhere in our backyard. i don't think they really live there, because there are no seriously thick bushes (unless they have a tunnel to our shed, which is...pretty possible). but they like playing around here, i think, cause we've been keeping it not-so-tidy, i.e. tallish grasses compared to other yards. anyway, one night there were 3 (!) skunks just running around in the yard, very cute. we went for a walk and when we came back they were gone. with the moon's mama, apparently.

picture taken at a Dairy Queen on a nightly walk. i'm not sure how visible the small texts are, i tried to crop it  (as leonard cohen says, i did my best, but it wasn't much). the idea was to show a very "this is montreal-nord" image: the instructions are in french (of course), but then - no english, no spanish! creole and arabic. this is how we roll here.