Sketches of Quebec City (Post-Script)

It is the morning of our last day in Quebec City. We are in the car, on our way out of town.

Tristan asks, not for the first time, if we are going back to Canada today. “We are in Canada,” I reassure him. He has not asked this question when we have visited Toronto or Kingston or any other city. I launch into a lengthy explanation about cities, provinces and countries, which takes most of the drive to the outskirts of town.

We cross the soaring Pierre Laporte bridge in silence, and as we gain terra firma on the other side, Tristan asks brightly, “Are we in Canada yet?”

How is this possible? I am fervent federalist, and yet I have given birth to a separatist.

Related posts (automatically generated):

1. If you come to visit, I suggest you bring your own toothbrush. From upstairs, sounds of merriment. A little too much merriment. Beloved goes up to investigate. *laughter* *indignant sounds from Beloved* *silence* I look up as Beloved comes back down the stairs, his eyeballs visibly rolling. I’m almost afraid to ask. “Remember those new electric toothbrushes I bought last week?” he...
2. Random thoughts of a baby drop-in drop-out When Tristan was a newborn, our weekly highlight was a Thursday trip to the Well Baby Drop-In at the local community centre. He’d had weight-gain issues (though not as severe as Lucas’s) and the weekly weigh-ins provided me with an empirical validation that we were in fact doing at least...
3. Back on track – I think Okay, I think we’re back on track (touch wood) with the feeding thing. As of Sunday, Lucas was back up to 10 lbs even, which means he gained four ounces in four days. Not stellar, but certainly an improvement over the nothing of the previous week, and it brings him...
4. Birth story wordle Jody at Raising WEG always finds the coolest things! I first saw the wordle word cloud at her place. I made this one using Lucas’s birth story post. Neat, eh? Click on it to see the full-size version in the Wordle gallery, or to make yer own. Edited to add:...
5. Skim milk We’re sitting in the pediatrician’s waiting room, each admiring the others’ babies as they rest at our feet, each snuggled into their own baby bucket carrier. Hers is dressed in pink and is fleshy and plump and noticeably larger than Lucas. “He’s beautiful,” she tells me, admiring Lucas. I beam,...