Just an everyday normal web geek trying to figure out how to live life. I thought I would document the journey and help those who might be doing something similar. 
Cathedral Grove
Old growth forests are amazing, hard to believe this island was covered in them. Now, the only place you can see 800 year old Douglas Fir trees is if you got to Cathedral Grove. We went as a family, with my parents to check this place out. Worth a stop for sure, this popular stop is pretty cool.
Learning to crawl
Oliver has been a handful lately. He is no longer satisfied staying in one position and has found that he can move around. Currently he only moves backwards, and only by pushing himself with his hands (which isn’t really crawling).
Vigorous self imposed exercise routine
Oliver has taken it upon himself to teach himself how to crawl, and he will spend about 4 hours a day working on it. Grunting and moaning, you can tell that he is trying hard to get it. During his sessions, Tanya and I will gather around him cheering him on like he is a top athlete competing at the olympics.
‘Way to go Oliver, you can do it!’
Did we do this?
It is amazing to see how determined he is to learn this new skill. Everyone that walks today likely went through the same experience and it is amazing how hard we are willing to push ourselves at that age.
If you learned how to crawl, you can learn to do anything.
From the past
I got my hands on a photo from my Aunt. It is a photo of when I was just over a year and my two uncles came to visit me while we were out fishing up in Prince George. When I saw the photo I couldn’t believe it.
A real retro photo.
Grandpa Jack and Oliver
My folks came for a visit and Oliver loved hanging out with his grand-folks. Here you can see Jack and Oliver having a blast hanging out.
Exersaucer
Friends of ours gave us an exersaucer, and when they gave it to us they said it was a great way to get a few things done. As soon as we put Oliver in the exersaucer, his eye lit up with joy and curiosity. New toys and new sounds, it kept him thoroughly entertained for about 10 minutes (a hard 10 minutes to find).
Video Games
When I was a kid I used to play a lot of video games, however I gave them up years ago.
This winter I found myself getting dragged back into video games. For the past 7 years I used to come home and play around with Drupal and other web coding projects which are completely different than video games. But since Oliver has come around, I get less sleep and I have had less energy to tackle challenging technical coding problems after the dust settles. I have really enjoyed relaxing with video games in the little spare time I manage to find.
I enjoy playing games that are puzzle based and not that violent. There are two games that I played this winter that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Machinarium
Every scene in this game is enjoyable to play and wonderful to look at. The puzzles are complex and there are just enough hints to help you along without getting to frustrated. I loved the story of how ordinary robots are triumphant over the bully robots.
Swords and Sorcery
A modern game with a retro feel. This game was challenging and a lot of fun. It brought me back to 1992 when I played what I would consider to be my all time favorite game Quest For Glory 3. Although S&S isn’t a role playing game, it does have the same look and feel and it was a blast to play.
Spring-time
Spring is just around the corner and I am finding that my want to play video games is starting to ween. Now that Oliver is over 6 months, I am looking forward to spending more time outside in the wonderful summers that we get here in Victoria.
Nicer Weather
The weather has started to turn for the better here, and that means we can leave our house to venture outside.
One of Tanya and my favorite places to go is Red Fish Blue Fish. This food truck (actually it is a container with a kitchen and a living roof) on dock that serves up some of the best fish I have ever had. This place is amazing and often worth the 30 min wait that it takes to order.
This was Oliver’s first trip to the dock to wait in line (you can see it in the background) and we ate some great sustainable seafood.
I wish I new the source if this image, but it was emailed to me and it looks great. I would love to have a poster just like this.
Update
You can get thisa poster, if you are interested head over to http://popchartlab.com/products/the-various-varieties-of-vegetables.
Getting outside
The weather is starting to turn for the better. Lately we have seen more and more sunshine and that has lured us outside more and more. The other day we decided to get an Ergo Baby Carrier which is a great way to get outside. This is our second carrier, we have a less structured one (it is basically one big piece of fabric) and it doesn’t work as well as this one.
The Ergo Baby is basically a nice backpack with out the pack. The baby is held next to the parent and it seems to work very well. Oliver was happier than he is with our other wrap and it is easier to setup and put Oliver into it.k
This was our fist excursion outside and it went fairly well. This actually makes it just a little more feasible to play a round of discgolf.
How to take a great photo of your kid
If before we had Oliver you told me that it would be hard to take a great photo of a 4 month old, I am not sure I would have believed you. How hard can it be. You create the scene, put Oliver in the shot and fire a couple of shots. Done.
But, it just isn’t that easy.
Both Tanya and I have tried countless times to capture the moment with a happy Oliver. Typically
- You get a great photo of Oliver, but everything else in the shot is horrible
- You get a nicely composed photo, but you missed the smile
- You capture the moment, the scene was perfect, but that lighting was so horrible that your ISO was set at 3200 and your shutter speed was so slow that everything is blury
Steps for great shots
I have figured it out, not that it is easy or reproducible, but here are the steps to taking a great shot of your kid:
- Make sure the child is in a good mood, not hungry, but happy and ready to play
- Make sure you have good lighting
- Setup the photo so that the main focus is on the child in front of a non-distracting background
- Set your camera to continuous shot (takes a shot ever 1/2 second or so)
- Get the child excited about the toy
- Take as many shots as you can
Like I said, I have tried this a number of times, and you don’t usually end up with too many great shots. For me, the biggest problem is dealing with light. Maybe I will have to wait for summer and take more shots outside.