When a box of Kreo Star Trek toys arrived this week, the boys were excited because it was “Lego”. They saw big ships, and lava, and cool dudes and were excited to build away.

But they didn’t really know what Star Trek was. Sure, Zacharie (and Charlie by osmosis) is a huge Star Wars fan. He’s a DOUBLE Jedi, don’tcha know, but the boys had never really seen Star Trek before.

“Star Trucks?” Zacharie asked when I told him what show the stuff was from.

We built the Genesis ship, and the boys longingly stared at the bigger Enterprise box (with more than 400 pieces) and asked to build that too.

“Let’s save it for a day when Daddy has a few more hours”, I said.

I showed them the minifig Kirk, Spock, and Sulu.

“Where’s Darth Vader?” Charlie asked.

This was going to take a little more effort, so I flicked on the Apple TV, dialed in to YouTube, and pulled up original Star Trek episodes. And then, just as they were captivated by the original 60s Batman series, the boys were lost in a dream of imagination.

We watched The Immunity Syndrome, and the boys devoured it.

Then we went out side and had light sabre fights in the backyard. Some habits die hard, it would seem.

Zacharie’s birthday is coming up in 2 weeks. So he’s talking a lot about the day he was born, how he was born, and all that fun stuff.

When it comes to the birds and the bees, we have been keeping it pretty straight with the boys. I’ve shown the pictures of my pregnant sister, and we’ve steered clear of mythology including storks and the like.

He knows that babies come from Momma’s tummy and that Daddy’s are involved in the process.

Jen has explained to him that a daddy gives a mommy sperm and that helps make a baby. This happens when people love each other very much. The baby then grows in the Momma’s tummy and is born through her bagina. The fact he can’t pronounce it is hilarious.

Last night, more comedy was added to our ongoing birds and the bees discussion as in Zacharie’s translation, he has a squrim in his tummy.

Last night he declared “I have a squirm in my tummy and I want to give it to Momma because I love her so very much.”

Jen and I shot each other an OMG.

Well, we’re trying to give it to him straight, anyway. Perhaps we could use a collection of Beaver Babies to get the point across?

Image via One Classy Motha

In suburbia, we are insistent on building fences to divide our 30 ft line in the sand. 6-8 ft of wood paneling divides what we own versus our neighbors. Sometimes we peer over the fence to say hi, more often than not we’re content to have our own version of the Berlin Wall to separate us from everyone else and create a personal oasis.

This weekend, my backyard neighbor and I tore a hole in our backyard Berlin Wall.

Since they moved in last summer, we have talked about having an easier way to get the kids back and forth. Our oldest sons go to school together and often yell at each other over and through the fence. In the winter, we set up a ladder on either side so we could climb over for family dinner dates, saving each other the long three block walk up, down, and over to get to each other’s house.

So, now, there is a hole. We ripped out two of the fence panels, bent another, and created a convenient path for the boys to go and play with each other. The idea was to have backyard free time together. Soccer in their larger yard, water squirting fun in ours, but something entirely different happened.

The moment the hole appeared, my son went to their house and let himself in. Their son came to our house, and let himself in. Then our youngest son followed, and soon the boys had entirely switched homes.

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Zacharie had never wanted to have his face painted – until this weekend.

To be honest, I was fine with this. I can understand that kids like to get all painted up and it’s fun, but I was cool with the fact my son didn’t want to get makeup all over his clothes. We’d ask and offer every time there was a chance to get something done, he would always say no.

That changed this weekend when we made the annual visit to A Day Out With Thomas at Heritage Park. Zacharie not only asked to have his face painted, he was willing to wait nearly half an hour in line to get it done. The game changer? Spider-Man.

Zacharie saw half a dozen boys wandering the grounds with Spider-Man paint and was adamant he have it done too.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “Yes!” He immediately replied.

“But you’ve never wanted to have it done before,” I responded. “Yeah, but I didn’t know you could be Spider-Man!”

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I don’t ever remember being over scheduled for summer camps growing up. I’d go to sleepover camp for a week, that was about it. For summer camps in Calgary 2013, however, a stack of pamphlets and booklets crowds our kitchen table as we plot out activities for the boys this summer.

There’s hockey camp, baseball camp, cheerleading camp, overnight camp – those are the ones you’d expect to see. There was even this one time, I thought about sending my kids to band camp .. wait, never mind.

Point is, summer camp in 2013 means unique, specialized experiences to highlight your child’s interests. Check out some of the unique summer day camps in Calgary this year:

Lego Camp

LEGO isn’t just a toy, it’s a tool to grow imagination, and learning. Think of all the engineering skills kids can pick up just by trying to piece together bridges, buildings, and all sorts of figures. Bricks 4 Kidz summer camps cover everything from animal biology to amusement park physics with a dose of robotics.

Camera Camp

Calgary Camera Camp will teach the kids the basics of photography composition and technique. They may be handy with an iPod, iPad, or iPhone, but what about a point and shoot? Calgary Camera Camp includes one for them to keep and they’ll actually learn how to take proper photos. These skills will be vital as they grow in a world of selfies and Instagram.

Olympics Camp 

Ski Jumping, Luge, and Bobsleigh may be winter Olympic sports, but at Winsport Canada, kids can slap rollers on the bottom of the gear and get a taste of the Olympic Spirit.

Pioneer Camp 

Laura Ingalls Wilder isn’t just a character in a book, she really lived in a house on the prairie. Home On The Range Camp takes that experience and makes it real life. High schoolers spend a week living at Heritage Park and experience life as settlers and ranchers at the turn of the (previous) century. They live and sleep in a restored barn and work the land just like they did 100+ years go.

Dinosaur Camp

 If you’ve got a kid that can pronounce all those dinosaur names in their favorite bedtime books, let them dig for real bones. At Dinosaur Camp, kids live in at The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller and spend their days prospecting for dinosaur bones and learning the science of palaeontology.

Princess Camp

Your 5-8 year-old princess will explore the full range of what it takes to be a real princess – elegant manners, leadership by example, and all the skills involved to prepare for a Fancy Dress Ball. Yes, Princess Camp. Color me glad to have had 2 boys.

Here’s a longer list of unique summer camps you might find inspiring.

The issue of fertility is one that causes anxiety and concern for a number of prospective couples in the run-up to pregnancy. There is support and help available, but some find themselves concerned with the process and the steps they may need to go through in order to conceive. Learning more about fertility is one way of quelling these concerns, and with the right professional guidance it can be a streamlined, sensitive process that can deliver the family unit so many parents long for.

There are a variety of treatment methods that can be used to help improve the chances of successful conception. Understanding how these treatments and processes work can help give parents-to-be that essential comfort of mind. Medications can be used initially to encourage ovulation in women, although surgery may be necessary to help alleviate certain more specific conditions.

Couples can find conception difficult for a number of reasons. Timing is a big factor in conceiving, an d those that find it difficult to get pregnant over time may wish to seek further medical assistance. Often, these issues are minor and can be quickly resolved with medication. In some cases, surgical options are also open to help assist with the process.

Infrequent ovulation can be a factor in frustrating pregnancy attempts, and women occasionally require medication to encourage the ovulation process. For those with more physical problems like endometriosis or blocked fallopian tubes, matters turn to surgery to identify and treat these conditions.

In some instances, there may be health issues on the male side with the conception process, and this can require medical intervention on both fronts. Insemination and in vitro fertilization (IVF) can be used to more directly aid pregnancy, allowing those couples that have found conception difficult hope that they might still give birth.

There are a number of different fertility treatments available for both me n and women, and consulting with a fertility specialist is the most direct route to accessing these fertility treatments. While many couples may feel apprehensive about the process, getting in touch with a fertility center can help allay these concerns and provide more information about the route ahead to pregnancy.

For more information on fertility treatments and processes, fertility educational resources provide a non-invasive first step to planning your approach. With plenty of materials available, it is recommended that parents firstly consider their options before consulting with a relevant medical practitioner.

There are two seasons in Calgary: snow on the ground and no snow on the ground.

Last year the first snowfall was October 25. It didn’t all disappear until late April. Soon after that, we experienced a blast in temperatures above 20, which was a welcome change from last year’s Cinco de Mayo when our Corona chilled in our backyard snowbank – #truth.

This year the switch in seasons was abruptly from snow on the ground to party pool in the backyard. That’s the way it’s always been and it signifies the start of an oh too short summer with a family tradition: the party pool photo.

Many photo compilations have been made where people re-create the same photo year after year after year.

There were the lake buddies. There were the sisters. Dear Photograph is a great website where people mash-up then and now photos.

For us it started in the summer of 2010. Charlie was a beefcake worthy of the nickname Chooch and this photo of Zacharie and he in our party pool became an instant favorite. It hangs on our stairs amongst the other family favorites and it has now become tradition. On the first hot day of the year, the boys get in the chairs and pose in a similar style to that original.

Here’s how it has looked over the past 4 summers:

Jen has been back in the workforce for 19 months and we are on to Nanny number 4. Not fun.

You can read the drama about Nanny number 1 here. Nanny number 2 stayed with us for more than a year and gave us a 6 month warning she was going to leave to go traveling. She was great. Nanny number 3 lasted 2 weeks when she quit after realizing that the riches of Alberta’s oil industry provide more income than a live-in Nanny.

TRYING IT AGAIN

So, after 2 Canadian nannies bolting for greener pastures, we decided it was time to try and hire a foreign Nanny again. We were looking for someone who saw the greener pastures here, in Canada, and wanted a chance at a better life for their family.

Canada’s Live In Caregiver Program works like this: families sponsor foreign nationals (usually Filipina women) to come and live in their home as caregivers. After they collect a quota of hours worked, usually around 2 years, they can apply for an Open Work Permit that will give them access to other jobs in Canada. They can then become landed immigrants, and full-fledged Canadians if they wish after that.

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More often than not, I am very glad to have 2 boys. Very glad.

I honestly think having boys is easier. As one father of a daughter put it, “When you have boys you only have to worry about one penis. When you have girls, you have to worry about all of them.”

The stories of Amanda Todd, Steubenville, and Rehtaeh Parsons haven’t made me think the modern life of a young girl will be any easier. Yes, parents lay the foundation of an identity, but there is a time when you have to let them go into the wild, and I just wonder how any young girl will be able to successfully navigate the new world order. Any parent that gets them through that drama gets my eternal respect.

Having 2 boys has gone as smoothly as one could expect. The clothes hand-down with simplicity. When it comes to play acting out scenarios, they are both about Lego, Batman, Spider-Man, and Star Wars. They speak the same language and love each other dearly. Sure, there’s more wrestling than I would like to see in the living room, and I’m constantly perplexed why everything needs to be made into a gun complete with sound effects, but I’m happy with the life I have.

And yet, despite all that, I wonder about the daughter I never had – Amélie.

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The first movie I remember seeing in a theatre was Star Wars. I most likely saw some cartoony matinee thing before that, but first memory is going to see Star Wars in 1977. I was 7 years old.

Now, more than 35 years later, my two sons are just as big a fan as I ever was. Not yet 6, Zacharie has a bedroom with Star Wars logo in it, Charlie brushes his teeth under the watchful eye of Yoda and the movies will be watched around campfires this summer.

It truly has become a part not of popular culture, but of culture. Star Wars is one of the commonalities that bind us.

As you can expect, I’ve written a few posts about Star Wars, so today, for Star Wars Day, click through and May the 4th Be With You.

The Star Wars Moment – story about watching the movie for the first time with Zacharie

How To Decorate Your Kid’s Room With Star Wars Style – a great clickable collection of Star Wars posters, sticker, and orignal art from Etsy. If you love the movies, you’ll find lots of inspiration here.

Extreme Makeover Kid’s Room Edition: Putting On Star Wars Stickers - I may not be Ty Pennington or any other pro decorator, but I did my best doing up Zacharie’s room.

What Anakin and Luke Skywalker Taught Me About Being A Parent – the science behind Star Wars examines who we are and how we are raised and how Darth Vader‘s personality was born.

I’m A Double Jedi! – Zacharie visits The Jedi Training Academy At Disneyland and learns how to use the power of the force.

Vadering – a collection of #vadering pics from around the world featuring kids who have turned to the dark side against their parents.