Day 80: Parental Leave Is Starting to Crawl

pl-daily
The PL stands for Parental Leave, which I am currently doing for six months.

For those following the daily battles, you probably have noticed there has not been an update in a week. I will do a full blog post on it later, but I seem to have hit a parental leave wall. As I approach four months in, I feel fatigued from many thing, one of which is the daily blogging about it. Not to worry. I have been blogging long enough to know that I always bounce back after being recharged. The same can be said for the parenting. I am trying my best to add some new things each day and looking forward to more changes with the kids. But for now, the last few days of July, I am just coasting on the same old, same old. So thanks for being patient with me. A lot is happening. I just can’t be bothered to sit at the computer and rehash it.

Let’s try to start it all back up by looking at today, Day 80 on the PL.

Grilled Pizza On The Big Green Egg

pizza5

Updated January 26, 2026

When grilling, smoking, or barbecuing on the Big Green Egg, meat is usually the way to go. Tasty dishes like beer can chicken, chicken thighs, ribs, and steak are all great choices. But what about other options to feed a hungry crowd?

How about grilled pizza? Yes please.

This past weekend, we had some friends over, and I wanted to try out the new pizza stone I got for my birthday. So, the wife and I teamed up to make homemade grilled pizza on the Big Green Egg.

The plan was that my wife would take care of the pizza dough and the homemade sauce, and I would take care of the grilling. I was pretty excited as the one fun part of grilling pizza on the Egg is that you get to ramp the heat up to over 600 F. This helps to replicate what a brick oven would do and make it feel like you were eating at a fancy pizza joint.

Now this was the first time for us to make homemade pizza dough and cook pizza like this. So, we were hoping that it would all turn out.

A Change In The Force Is Coming

charlie-nap
He sure does not look like a happy morning napper eh?

Charlie, I am your father. Please, don’t stop napping in the morning just yet. Stay on the dark side (meaning your room).

Yes, there’s change coming for this dad on parental leave. Slowly and surely, our baby boy, is starting to not enjoy or want his morning nap.

That has me cowering in the corner, daydreaming about having quiet breakfasts and having some time to myself each morning.

Charlie has never been as good a sleeper as our first boy. Hell, Harry still has a solid two hour nap each day and he is almost four. Yes, he loves and needs sleep.

Charlie, well he seems to enjoy being up a lot more.

Over the last few weeks, the morning nap, which is usually around two hours, has been becoming shorter and shorter. He does not go to sleep easy and fights it with all his might. Finally he crashes and sleeps for 45 minutes.

My wife has opened my eyes to the realization that his morning naps may be coming to an end.

Nooooooooooooooo.

Day 75: Fortifying The Home Base

pl-daily
The PL stands for Parental Leave, which I am currently doing for six months.

Yesterday was an adventure and I hardly left the house. Why? We have a crawler! It was only a few days ago where it was okay to plop the baby down wherever and take care of something. Now, you can’t look away for more than a few seconds before he is wrapped up in cables. We don’t remember our first son being this active this soon and we are slowly getting back into the mind-set of having a crawler. The first step, fortifying the home base, or in our case, the living room.

Never a dull moment on the PL, here is Day 73.

Day 73: Crawling, Teething, Excusing And Mowing

pl-daily
The PL stands for Parental Leave, which I am currently doing for six months.

Wow, where do I begin? With our family vacation last week, it has been some time since I did a daily wrap up. So much has happened with the kids and their growth over the last 10 days, I will do my best to catch up. I will also be doing other posts on the vacation highlights. It is nice to be home and back to the normal challenges of parental leave. Although a few things have changed which will make my days a lot more fun and busy going forward. Manners are a hot topic in our house as we are teaching Harrison to say “excuse me” or “pardon me”, instead of “what did you say”?

So please excuse me as I slowly get back into the swing of things. It is great to be back and telling you all about Day 73 on the PL.

Video: What Is Your LifeProof Story?

I have had a Samsung Galaxy IIIS for about six months and I have yet to get a protective case for it. I know, I know, I am just asking for trouble. But so far so good.

But now that I have seen this case from LifeProof, I am starting to think it is time to get one.

First, what is your LifeProof Story?

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We all want to protect our iPhone or Galaxy from water, drops, sweat, dirt and other hazards of daily living. That is a given. Who wants to lose their little buddy due to outside elements

The trick is finding a case with the full touch experience that does not feel like a plastic cover?

How We Survived Flying With Two Kids

This is not a blog to tell parents how to do stuff.

This is simply a place to share our parenting experiences, advice and how we somehow did something right.

There are so many theories and suggestions when it comes to flying with young children, that you just have to try it out for yourself.

Have a plan, hope you can stick to it and remember that your kids are really the ones in control of the situation.

We recently flew from Halifax to Ottawa with our two sons. One is three and the other just turned 9-months old. So that is a handful for anyone.

My wife has flown with the boys before all by herself to Toronto, so I let her project manage the adventure as she had real-life experience.

Now, granted, the flight was a short one. Only a few hours. So take that into consideration as we list off how we managed to survive the trip (both ways) without any meltdowns, ordeals or stand offs.

Do You Have High Expectations For Your Kids In Sports?

An article I wrote that was originally posted on the Dads Round Table.

With the first pick in the 2027 NBA Draft, the Toronto Raptors select Harrison Cusden out of the University of Michigan…..

A dad can dream can’t he? All of my favourite things culminating in one glorious moment that will shape the life of my son and our family.

No pressure right? No expectations at all. Just go from a kid in the driveway to the biggest stage in basketball. Now that a Canadian has become the top pick in what is still a very American sport, as witnessed by Anthony Bennett and most likely Andrew Wiggins next year, there are no limits. So, let’s keep the party going for many years to come. In particular, 2027 and 2030.

Pretty high expectations right?