I did not really want a kid but got one, the second one was wanted, the third one a surprise.

I am lucky to be in a good place in life and with a partner that is a great mother and we are a good team all around in regards to raising a family. Our kids get a lot of love from both of us and I like to think we provide them with an environment in which they can thrive.

But let’s be frank, raising kids is rewarding but still can be hard even when your situation is good. It takes a massive amount of time, energy and money. Having childs is often portrayed as a somewhat easy heavenly thing, which is not true.

I can only imagine the amount of work a disabled kid requires and to be honest I don’t know if I could make it. You have my respect for that.

I have kids, 3 of them, did not want any. It gets better! It’s normal to not fall instantly in love with them, even for the mother. It’s a new person in your life and require that you adapt and change a lot of things.

It’s not clear from your post what is exactly going on with your wife but postpartum syndrome is a reel thing and may be affecting her.

If you need help reach out to family and friends if that’s possible. Depending on where you are in the world you may be able to find local support for new families, or even dad support groups.

I guess we will now have to drive through pot holes or damaged road instead of around it? What a stupid idea…

Here are my readings for my outdoor Airgradient Open air and indoor Airgradient One.

Doors and windows are closed since yesterday afternoon and my HVAC uses MERV 13 carbon filters. I have set the fan to run a bit faster in order to filter out more PM. You can also turn off the air exchanger a bit but you need to keep a eye on CO2.

I have the heavy duty relay on my water heater, their water main valve and a bunch of leak sensors.

They are not cheap but the build quality is good. And you probably won’t find many Canadian, energy metering outlets that will be priced cheaply.

Sinope is Canadian and have zigbee smart plugs. https://www.sinopetech.com/en/collections/all

They will try to push you to their platform but their Zigbee stuff is well supported in Zigbee2mqtt and ZHA.

https://github.com/esphome/wake-word-voice-assistants/blob/main/m5stack-atom-echo/m5stack-atom-echo.yaml

These are the latest official configs for the echo.

I have a surface 8 pro too and the easiest way to set it up was to use Aurora (or bluefin if you prefer Gnome). All the drivers were preloaded and if you want to use luks with the tpm it is a breeze to setup.

https://universal-blue.org/

You can achieve the same with other distros, I’ve done it with Arch and Nixos too but if you don’t have a solid Linux background I strongly suggest Aurora or Bluefin for an easy and solid installation.

This works very well for tech enthusiasts and people who self-host nextcloud at home.

The issue is when you are a government or university, it becomes harder to get all your users (which are probably not all tech savvy) to install a third party app store deal with the Android warnings about installing from third-parties, etc etc.

And this is probably the user base Google are targeting with this move (assuming it’s malicious) . When the higher ups complain that their files are not syncing and need to install things with a special procedure they sometimes wonder why they are not using M365 or Google which seems hassle free.

https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/2025-03-12/fruits-exotiques-en-serre/des-bananes-de-saint-eustache.php

There is this company who started growing bananas on the north shore of Montréal. Their initial testing went very well and they are planning on increasing their production right now. Very interesting stuff.

The two options I know of are Headscale and Netbird.

Gcompris is pretty good for kids. https://www.gcompris.net/

I am doing this with my personal and work laptops. I have two dell docking stations and a KVM to switch between the two.

It will work, probably not well. There is a ton of factors to take into account.

1- When switching the KVM input, depending on the KVM, the screens just get disconnected, meaning that the screens get re-detected each time you switch. Sometime it works well,sometimes not. Your laptop may also enter sleep mode since it is closed without screens attached. You may have to open it and press the keyboard if the USB from the KVM and docks are not re-detected.

2- If you use Displayport MST to connect your screens you have to make sure both the dock and KVM will support it.

3- When switching the KVM USB also gets disconnected and reconnected, it can be problematic with your dock, also see end of point 1

I have both high quality (and too expensive) docks and KVM that I took time to research and it works ok most of the time but still glitches. The docks and multiple screens add complexity to the setup and fail points.

If you go this way you will want to take your time and make sure all the pieces work together, I would steer clear of cheap Amazon stuff also.

• KVM : iogear GCS1964
• Docks : 2 WD19S
• Screens: 3 Dell U2415 connected through HDMi

To answer the last part of your post:

So far my experience is that the RCS-iMessage feature is working (or not) depending on the Apple user’s provider. I’m on Android with a “cheap” provider in Canada and RCS-iMessage work with my iMessage contacts that are on major providers but those on cheaper providers don’t work yet.

So if you are on Android and your basic RCS works you should be good.

I have had Zwave Yale locks for almost 10 years now and am pretty happy with them. I have the assure SL (mentionned in another comment) on 3 doors right now and they are rock solid.

The battery is reported to Zwave but you will also get some beeping and flashing on the lock itself when the battery gets low, so even if you don’t see it in HA it is hard to miss and end up with a dead battery.

As a side note, I always bought the push button variant of those locks and stayed away from the touch pad version. Living in Canada it seemed like a bad choice to deal with touchpads in the winter with the gloves and snow possibly melting on it.

S’ils ne sont pas géographiquement bloqués en France vous pouvez utiliser ceux du CIRA. Ils ne devraient pas être censurés. Reste à voir la latence transatlantique.

https://www.cira.ca/fr/bouclier-canadien-de-cira/configure/summary-cira-canadian-shield-dns-resolver-addresses-2/

If you are using zigbee you should check Sinope Sedna Walter valve with the optional water flow sensor. It is supported in zha using quirks from claudegel on github.

Just make sure you select the ZigBee one since their WiFi one need their proprietary hub to work.

Canadian here who used both small and big providers with pixel phones (3, 5 and 7 pro) bought directly from Google (not financed through the provider).

Not all smaller providers provide 5G but they all have LTE or LTE+. I had 5G working with my Pixel 5 without issue when I was with one of the large providers. I’m with a smaller provider now on my Pixel 7 pro and have no issue connecting to LTE(+).

But, you also mention the Pixel watch. I never used a watch with a sim card and I have to say that it is not always clear from the provider’s website if they are supported or if they will provide a esim for them or not, and at what cost. This is something that looks a lot more straightforward when with Apple than Android.

AKA a rocket stove