December 20

The folks at Karin’s work must like her. They keep inviting her to staff functions — parties, meetings, and other gatherings with food and such — despite the fact that she’s still on maternity leave for another nine months.

Day 20: Little Miss Grumpy, fighting The Sleep Monster once again.

Today, yet again, they asked her to come downtown to the office so that she could attend a short meeting and have a pre-holiday lunch with the crew. Mostly, though, they just wanted her — and that meant Claire and Dad had some free time wandering around the pedways in the heart of the city.

I won’t claim it was entirely exciting. There was a lot of patient pauses to fill time. But I do very much enjoy the city myself — countless memories of wandering the caves of steel and concrete — being a very urban-bred bloke. So, it was an odd-sort-of experience to bring my daughter downtown and show her some of the sights, and for her very first time, too.

In a short two hours, we:

- got lost in the library parkade whilst attempting to find an elevator that would bring us up to the street level. It’s not as easy as you might think.

- checked out the plants and flowers at the Citadel, slowing weaving up and down the path-slash-ramp between the main and lower floors. They’ve put in pointedsetters for the holidays.

- watched a fountain in Canada Place for about ten minutes with quiet awe. Her, moreso, than I — but fascination tends to be contagious.

- talked to the ladies at the passport office who were very helpful and told us everything we needed to know about getting a passport for a three-month-old child. They gave us forms, too.

- played a game of “see how fast dad can eat before the baby cries” with lots of spectators watching on from the sidelines. It was a tie game.

- made friends with a few friendly food service staff who wanted to meet Claire. Methinks babies are ch1×0rmagnets.

- rode on various elevators a total of sixteen times in the span of two hours, encountering a vast variety of people, some courteous, others very much not. I’m a guy with a stroller and a baby, not a shopping cart full of garbage — jeeeeeze!

- visited the eighteenth floor of mom’s office tower, where we got to see a bunch of mom’s co-workers. Dad’s ears popped — but Claire wouldn’t tell if hers did too.

Alas, she slept for a while, too.