“I see Jween, I see Jween!” Excitedly said my older daughter from the backseat of our car one afternoon when my wife picked me up after work. My older daughter was three at the time. My wife cracked up as normally my daughter called me “daddy” but she knew my wife called me “Gene”. She wanted to be like “mommy” and say that she saw me standing at the side of the road.

I still say “I lujz you” to my girls when I wish them good night or before I leave for work. My older daughter couldn’t say “love” for the longest time. Instead she said “lujz” where the “jz” sounds a J in French when you say “Je”.

Now that my girls are older and articulate words without the cute the pronunciation errors, I still hold on to the words, only words we as a family know and cling to. I so loved the toddler age, watching them develop, explore, refine their language skills, and enjoy their silliness.

One of my daughter’s used to say “hebbo” instead of “hello”. 

Here are a few other words:

– Shwicken is chicken

– Chwweese is cheese 

– Tuck is stuck

– Quid is kid

– Dwy is dry

My younger daughter used to say “May I please be a scuse” at the end of dinner.

If you ever hear me say “hebbo” to you… then you can assume you may be getting pretty close to us. 

It is just our family’s language of ‘lujz’ (love).

Winter brings crisp, cold air to the Ottawa Valley. It is an opportunity to dwell in the basement or thrive on the ski trails.

Today I chose to dwell in the basement with the company of my Cervélo, my Tacx trainer, and FulGaz.

With Christmas behind us it is now time to get fit again.

Be careful funny looking man spotted going for a run on the trails of the Gatineau Park! If you see this guy stay away! He hasn’t showered today! 😂🏃🏻

Every day my beautiful family inspires me to live, laugh, and love! And when I run I think of them!

I love ❤️ this time of year.

I love running in the autumn evenings, under the canopy of fall colours and into the setting sun. 🏃🏻🍁☀️

85km with great roads and friends! This was the Garmin photo generated for the return ride from Ashton.

Perfect day for a run 🏃🏻

Today I am rejoicing in the memory of a beautiful Sunday afternoon picnic in the “Parc Georges Brassens” in Paris with four families and ten kids.

Coincidentally three of the families, including mine come from the same Ottawa West neighbourhood in Canada. We met one of the families in 2007 at the Westboro beach in Ottawa. We each had daughters around the same age that played with each other at the beach. I remember the fun summer evenings on the beach back when our first daughter was just a toddler. Eventually we lost track of them until they resurfaced in Paris 10 years later. The second family we met through our kids’ school in Paris. The third family comes from the USA and we met in late 2015 as we overheard them speaking English with their kids at a local crêperie on Rue Montparnasse and we immediately became friends.

Sunday presented a beautiful occasion for all of us to gather, catch up, for some to meet for the first time, and to let our kids run freely in the park on the boulders, on the playground, and through the trees. The “Parc Georges Brassens” is one of the only parks in Paris that lets kids wonder freely, play on the grass and in the trees without it being “interdit”!

We thoroughly enjoyed the sunny afternoon in the park chasing and searching for the kids whenever they disappeared out of sight.

Had we not had kids we would have never met any of these couples whom we’ve thoroughly enjoyed meeting, becoming friends with, and building community together.

Our kids have brought so much joy and so many new, interesting, and inspirational people into our lives.