On fan service

At Margo's request, here is a fan service account of Désirée's first birthday party. As previously mentioned in this blog, I bought a rocking moose from Ikea for my niece. The night before her birthday, I assembled it for my bit of pleasure. I give you my work:
The morning of her birthday, I assembled a single child bike trailer from MEC. This was something that Dominique had asked for from the parents. For reasons that are essentially irrelevant, I was asked to do the honours of assembly. This I happily did. I rather enjoy putting kits together.

Having had wind of this present, I had inspiration to buy additional quick release hitches for said trailer at MEC. There are now sufficient hitches for Mummy, Big Sister, Granny (Already Installed By Yours Truly or AIBYT) and Papy (AIBYT) to be able to share the task of hauling Désirée around by bike. There is an additional hitch left over for guests, likely to include yours truly.

The party itself was a relatively subdued affair, with Désirée's Mummy, Daddy, big sister Eowyn, uncle Daniel, Granny Susan, Grandpa Hugh, her maternal Grandmother Monique and step-Grandfather Serge. It was the first time I had met the latter two, so it was quite an interesting evening, with quite a number of photo ops such as the one below.
Among the topics of discussion was Philip and Dominique's upcoming (July 11) wedding. They are, very sensibly, trying to keep it a low key affair of only about twenty invited guests to be held at Robin Hill (the family summer house for those less intimate). About a month or two ago, I had been at a party where my father was saying how some of his siblings wanted to attend. I subsequently told Dominique that she should ignore him and only invite those persons whom she and Philip wanted to invite. I then jokingly undermined my own advice and stated that I would like to be among the select few!!! ;-) Dominique accepted my advice and assured me that I had always been among the few.

Getting back to the party, Dominique's stepfather recounted how he had been the one to officiate one of his sons wedding. Apparently in Quebec there is some process or other that you can apply to be the person who administers the vows at a given wedding even if you are "lay person". (By a "lay person", I mean someone who has no qualifications such as being a priest, justice of the peace, etc.) The suggestion was made that Philip and Dominique might want to that. There was even the vague idea tossed around that I might be the person in question. In a much later (viz the next day) conversation between my father and myself, I admitted that I had no problem with the concept of a lay officiator but that I didn't feel that I wanted to be the one as I don't see myself as having the moral authority to do so.
As can be expected, the Grandmothers were in full doting* mode.

Incidentally, the date of Philip and Dominique's wedding was moved up from August on the news of Margaret's pregnancy. Furthermore, we found out recently that it will be a boy. Thus, in the event every thing goes well, I will have a nephew to uncle!

There are a few more photos in my photo site under "More gratuitous baby shots".

* In the process of writing this entry, I looked up the verb "dote" in my Concise Oxford Dictionary. I was somewhat disappointed to see that the official usage of word is to "be foolishly or excessively fond of" which isn't quite the meaning I intend. I will have to find a superior, less potentially pejorative word to describe their affection.