Spiderman is our family's superhero. Why you may ask? Here are a few reasons off the top of my head...
* A stuffed version of Spiderman keeps Clara safe at night.
* Spiderman's likeness on Marc's T-shirt lights up Leo's eyes and begins a series of grunts and points in the direction of Marc's chest.
* His theme song helped Clara fall asleep for many months (along with Twinkle twinkle little star)
* He has sent Clara both a birthday card and an email.
* His larger than life depiction in an outdoor mural on Rue Marie Anne adds to the fun of a walk to the pool or La Tomate.
* Marc's Spiderman tuque has been the envy of both his children and many a stranger.

Yes, I am surrounded by obsessed Spiderman fans. It is weird but also very cute.

With one more official family Christmas celebration left to go, Clara and Leo are nearing the end of their holiday sugar high.

Christmas with kids has got to be one of the most fun experiences a parent gets to enjoy. Hearing Clara's feet padding down the hallway on Christmas morning and then running back to the bedroom at high speed squealing "Santa came, Santa came and he left lots of presents" was the first of oh so many memorable moments. Leo, ignoring all of his gifts in favour of his old ones was also pretty amusing - Clara especially appreciated it as she became his gift opener. Oh yes, and Leo dropping to his knees and crawling and barking after the remote controlled cars as they were zooming down the hallway was also pretty side-splittingly funny as well!

Of course, both kids were spoiled with beautiful and thoughtful Christmas presents from all the people who love them. I'm still overjoyed when Clara talks about Christmas gifts as a message of love: "Papa T and Cathy gave me this book because they love me." I don't even dare hazard a guess as to what the "favorite" gifts were this year because they all seem to have a place in Clara and Leo's hearts - from the mountains of playdough, to the cars, and the books that will make bedtime fun. They have more than enough new toys to stimulate them (and hopefully keep 'em relatively quiet!) for the rest of the winter.

I however, do have a favorite gift this year and believe it or not, it is NOT the totally amazing new digital camera Marc surprised me with. It is a new title... AUNTIE Laurel! Yippeeee, Patricia and Ashley annouced that they are expecting a baby at the end of July. I'm so excited and feel so full of love for this new member of our family already I just can't stand it.

How can next Christmas possibly be more fun than this... I'll let you all know in 12 months :)

I was playing around with the collage feature on Picasa this afternoon and came up with this...


These are some of my favorite pictures of Leo, they were taken this August I think. When I get a chance I'm gonna go back and do something similar with pictures of Clara... it is so fun!

How do you keep a 3 year old happy at Chirstmas time? Put Jingle Bells on the stereo and set it to repeat! We've been listening for 20 minutes straight.

The Christmas season has begun... this weekend we hosted our annual Open House, but not before a wicked snowstorm made its impact on Montreal.


On Friday, Montreal saw 41cm of lovely white snow fall, it was impressive. I took Clara and Leo out before the streets had been plowed. First we just made "standing up snow angels" by leaning against the banks made by the little sidewalk plow. Then we took the sled out and tried to walk around the neighborhood, it was pretty much impossible to get through the mountains of snow without tipping Clara and Leo out of the sled. Clara loved it all, Leo was less than impressed especially when the snow was falling directly into his face.

Last night Clara and Leo were great hosts. They let Marc and I have real, actual conversations!! It was amazing, both kids were able to entertain themselves (or more likely entertain their guests) and had lots of fun. Leo was quite amazing, he was up until after 11pm with only a total of 30 minutes sleep during the day. Thank goodness for cookies.

Today Marc and Clara went out back and built a toboggan run. It should be lots of fun this winter... Clara seemed to like eating the snow more than the sledding though!

Being proactive can really pay off. This morning at the Carrefour Christmas party Clara saw all the teachers and support staff in costume and decided she wanted to be dressed up too. She somehow got it into her head that Isabelle was the person to talk to, and repeatedly asked Marc and I where she was. When she finally located Isabelle, Clara asked if she could have a costume too. Isabelle went to check out what she could find and came back with a pair of reindeer antlers on a hairband - Clara was pleased as punch and the envy of several preschoolers.

Are they cute or what??

Today was Clara's last day of preschool before the Christmas break. We prepared gifts for Emanuelle, Alexandra, and Melissa and Clara was really excited to give them out this morning. On our snowy walk to the Carrefour I asked Clara why she wanted to give the gifts to her teachers. Her reply was simple and warmed my heart "I love them and I want to make them happy."

Clara: Are you proud of me for sitting on Santa's lap?
Me: Sure, but I don't think you sat on his lap...
Clara: Okay, I stood beside him, are you proud of me?
Me: Of course I am.
Clara: Okay, me too.

Sitting beside Clara in her dark bedroom this evening I asked her what her favorite part of the day was. Before I give up her answer I'll tell you about her day. She went to a concert with her class, made a secret bricolage (that she really won't tell me anything about!), came home, watched Dora the Explorer and ate pizza for dinner. And what was Clara's favorite part of the day? "When you and Leo came to pick me up after school" Man, I love my daughter :)

Leo likes climbing on things...

According to Clara "Papa is psychological". She told me this after he went to work this morning.

Explanation: Clara heard me asking Marc if he was feeling OK this morning, she quickly piped up "do you have a cold, Papa?" His highly sarcastic response was "No, I'm not really sick, it is just psychological, I don't want to go to work".

And, here she is, the performer herself singing Jingle Bells at the top of her voice this afternoon.

Clara gets just about everything she wants, or so it seems.

After seeing this caricature of Marc at age 3 drawn by his own Papa, she requested one too.
Marc decided to go to the original artist and asked Grand-Papa to draw a caricature of his grand-daughter in the same style. This is what he sent us.

Now I can look forward to Leo's third birthday so that we can commission a second masterpiece. It is so cool to artists in the family!

Leo is so cute. Here is why (in no particular order)...

- He is learning to jump. He bends his knees, swings his arms up in the air and never leaves the ground. It is hilarious... he gallops and "jumps" around whenever the mood strikes him.

- He says "bye-bye" as soon as someone puts on a coat or heads toward an exit. This is not reserved for people he knows; strangers are bid farewell whenever the opportunity presents itself.

- He dances to just about any music. Dancing means bending your knees and bobbing, sometimes with an additional two arms raised above the head.

-He tears off his diaper whenever he gets the chance and grins and giggles while he yanks at himself.

- He brings books to my lap all the time.

- He steals moments with the spiderman scooter whenever he can and stands on it and talks to himself for ages (never moving an inch).
- He points and barks at dogs

- He roars at the lion puzzle piece

- He greets his Papa with a "ehhh" and a smile at the end of the day (kinda like the Fonz on Happy Days).

- He gives kisses to Clara, me and Papa whenever we ask.

- He wrestles with his big sis.

- He nods or shakes his head enthusiastically when asked a question.

-He pretends to stir and drink a coffee while I have my morning mug. And heaven forbid I don't give him his own mug and spoon, he'll go after mine it its absence.

- He loves wearing his Papa's spiderman toque and looks dashing in it too.

Clara was really tired after school today. She fell asleep in the stroller one block away from the Carrefour. When we got home I carried her - none too gently, up our front stairs and deposited her on the floor. Leo promptly crawled over her while I ran back down to retrieve the stroller. Despite the flurry of activity going on around her I still was able to grab this pic before I started undressing the near comatose preschooler!

Last night at about 11pm Leo started crying. He was sleeping next to Clara in "their" room which has become the norm for the first part of the night. I've learned that Clara can sleep through just about any noise Leo can make so I was in no rush to quiet him. But, about 10 seconds after Leo let out his first cries Clara came darting out of the room. She ran halfway down the hallway, turned around, ran back, then she ran down the hallway again. I caught her in mid dash and picked her up. She was shaking. She said "i'm scared", "I thought Leo was a monster... I was having bad dreams." Poor girlie, once Marc calmed her and I quieted Leo she happily climbed back to bed and fell back asleep.

Leo woke up and chatted with the stuffed dog for ages before I couldn't help myself any longer and swung the door open with camera in tow.

Clara and Leo both LOVED Rollande's budgie. Leo really wanted to squeeze it but we manged to keep him under control!

Language is a complex thing, just ask Clara. She uses language her way. For example, everything to her is a "recipe". When she does a puzzle she looks at the "recipe" on the box, when Marc is reading the instructions for the fish tank (did I mention our new pets??) he's looking at the recipe. You get the picture. Personally I kinda like the mix up; makes me feel like cooking is important to her, which is my job, so in some weird, twisted way I feel like she is validating what I do, recipes are important!

Language is complex for Clara in less sweet ways too. She has just begun some speech therapy sessions with our friend and speech therapist, Lisa. Marc and I have known for several months that Clara's articulation was not on track but we had decided to ride it out, to see what improvement she'd make on her own. We threw that philosophy out the window when poor Clara B. showed major signs of stress over our occasional inability to understand what she was telling us. It is absolutely heartbreaking to try and decode a 3-year-old's excited chatter and not have a clue what she's going on about. What is worse is when she knows you don't understand and flies into a rage of tears and screams. After two particularly emotional episodes for Clara and myself it was clear that she would appreciate the help as much as we would so I called Lisa for guidance. And now here we are, meeting once a week until we decided to re-evaluate. I'm very encouraged by the information Lisa has provided; Clara is fine, just delayed in terms of articulation. All other aspects of her speech/language development are normal. This is what a parent wants to hear, "yes, there is a problem but we can fix it!"

With all this going on, add in 2 days a week completely in French and you know that language is a huge part of Clara's life right now. She is doing great, she's adding new words to her French vocabulary and seems proud of herself when she uses them. Recent additions to her vocabulary (that I know of) are: "poubelle", "doucement", "arret", "bonjour", "aide moi". I've gotta say, as someone who has been working on learning a second language for way too many years I proud of her for jumping in with both feet. But really, does Clara do anything half way? Nope :)

Clara fell down our front stairs today. She just lost her balance and tipped forward. I saw it happen in slow motion - not a good feeling. She went head over heels and landed with a pretty loud wail. Luckily she only ended up with a cut lip and a scrape on her chin, I was left with a pounding heart and the shakes for at least half a hour.

The rest of the day was fun, we went to the Jardin d'Hiver, an indoor playspace this morning and met up with Jayne and Max. I predict it will be a great destination spot this winter when we need to get out of the house. Then Catherine treated us to a visit and some new books for Clara and Leo. We spent a nice quiet (thanks to a nap and some Tivo) afternoon catching up.

Today should have been a day in pictures entry but I didn't know it until too late so I'm going to recount our day in words instead.

When we said good-bye to Papa this morning (Leo licking and banging on the front door window) we had no plans. Our one appointment had been cancelled and laundry wasn't piled up enough to warrant a day revolving around washing, drying, folding and putting away. Clara asked to watch some cartoons and we agreed to two cartoons, one of which was her favorite - Poko. She sat with a grin on her face while she watched Poko and silly Minus, Leo enjoyed the 'toon too which was kinda cute in a brain numbing , turning to mush sort of way. Anyway, I'm glad we watched because the show gave me an idea for a morning activity; a science experiment!

After the cartoons were finished and Clara B had turned off the tube we set up a big bucket of water in the living room. We spent the next 45 minutes guessing and then testing if things would float or sink. It was so fun, Leo of course loved plopping things in the water, fishing them out and tossing it back in. Clara seemed to enjoy the anticipation of finding out what each item would do once she dropped it in the water. Our major discovery was this: most of the things we were willing to dunk in water floated.
After testing and re-testing our hypothesis Leo crashed; science is exhausting! While he slept, I showed Clara how to bob for apples. Since we had a floating apple in a bucket it seemed the obvious thing to do...

Then while I was working in the kitchen, Clara suggested we make ants on a log. Had I not been watching the cartoons this morning I would have been completely lost but luckily I has seen a Kids CBC personality show Clara how to make Ants on a log with celery, cream cheese and raisins. We substituted cream cheese for peanut butter and whipped up a fun snack.

The weather looked so confusing this morning, but when I realised it was grey but it was 15 degrees I took the kiddos to the park after lunch. I guess it was nap time because we had the whole place to ourselves. It was Leo's first trip to the park as a walker and he had so much fun walking (and falling) in the sand, he followed Clara around and they swang and went down the slides together. To be honest, today's park trip seemed so much more fun than the ones this Summer when Leo was confined and often frustrated.

After a very brief "quiet time" Clara and I made pumpkin cookies while Leo slept (yes, it was a two nap day not the norm anymore) and then I convinced her to play on her own a bit while I made chili for dinner. Too bad the day didn't end there. Soon after the chili was on the stove and Leo woke up, our idyllic, fun day came to an end. Clara was obviously tired and her exhausted, grumpy, defiant alter ego appeared. The last few hours between then and bedtime were a bit harrowing but thankfully sleep came and took my daughter to where she needed to go. Leo on the other hand was wide awake much later than the usual 8pm bedtime (the shortfall of a double nap day) so I've only just gotten to sit down now, at five to ten to post this little snapshot in time.

Halloween was FUN! I've been working on Clara's costume for about two weeks so seeing her in it yesterday and today was very gratifying, especially since she looks so cute as a puppy dog. All the sewing and late night phone calls to Auntie Dorothy paid off, Clara loves the costume and I'm excited for her to play with it whenever she feels like barking or chasing her tail.

Leo dressed up as Farmer for the Carrefour Halloween Party although he didn't dig the hat at all. I did manage to catch a few pics of him in his full garb.
For Halloween itself, I took Clara and Leo out trick or treating. We went very early because we were having guests over for a pot luck dinner. The timing worked out fine and she got to have her first taste of the trick or treating without overloading on the candy. We knocked on 3 doors and she was thrilled with the outcome.

Cohen, Max, Dorothy and their entourages joined us for a Halloween dinner, I wish I'd pulled the camera out because they were all so cute (they don't have to wear costumes to be cute!)

Today Clara had her Carrfour party and came home with a few more pieces of chocolate and candy; this holiday is getting better and better according to my girl!

Those big feet belong to Clara B. Leo also made a ghost footprint but I guess Clara did not INSIST that we photograph it :)

Clara and Leo were both entranced by our glowing Jack O'Lantern. We enjoyed its light indoors several times before putting it outside to invite the trick-or-treaters to our door.

Where does she get this stuff? This evening Clara said I couldn't do something because I was a GIRL! What??? I of course set her straight and told her the reason I couldn't reach the stuffed puppy behind the couch was all about the length of my arms and had nothing to do with the fact that I'm a girl. I'm hoping she brought up the girl thing as a result of a conversation we'd had earlier about who were girls and are boys (Leo was walking around buck naked at the time of that discussion)

Yes, Leo is walking now, he's working on perfecting his skill and spent about 15 minutes this afternoon concentrating on how to stand up without the help of furniture or people. In fact he practically broke out into a jog when following a squealing Clara down the hallway!

Dancing the afternoon away!

I gave Clara the camera after our dancing session to see what kind of pictures she would take. After a quick lesson on holding the button down long enough for the camera to take a picture she took 38 shots of our living room - mostly of the floor!

Here are a few of my personal favorites...

And the one keeper; a portrait of her brother

Leo spent a lot of time on his feet this weekend. Today we found the key to getting him to walk... give him two duplo blocks to put away. He happily trotted back and forth from the duplo buckets with both his hands full. Every time he dropped the pieces into the bucket he'd stop and clap giving Marc, Clara and I a big smile :)

Playing on Mount Royal. Leo did eventually wake up and enjoy the leaves as well and Clara loved being a "reindeer".

I picked up Clara and Leo from the Halte Garderie this morning. I had been volunteering for the Carrefour bazaar. When I asked Clara how the morning had gone she said, with a disgusted look on her face "they didn't say en francais!" I guess Catherine and Marie Josee don't insist on the kids speaking French like Emmanuel and Alexandra. She seemed thoroughly opposed to this new freedom of language and I just laughed and told her she could have spoken French anyway, even if they didn't remind her. That was the end of the conversation.

When I left the house this morning to bring Clara to the Carrefour I knew what I would be blogging about tonight. She insisted on bringing her "umbrella" along on our walk in the rain. You may think, "excellent idea - that Clara is a smart one" until you find out what her "umbrella" is. When you discover it is nothing more than a stick that we've been harboring in our closet since last Spring you may laugh, but when you see her walking along Saint Denis St. holding her stick high as if it were in fact, a true umbrella you may just fall over laughing.

Sadly our umbrella story does not end there. On our way home this afternoon the umbrella met an unfortunate demise, it got stuck in and then fell through a grate in the sidewalk! You can not imagine the utterly horrified and sorrowful wail that Clara B. produced. She was devastated. She cried and cried and I felt so sad for her. She's been taking that darned stick out in the rain for months, when other kids had real umbrellas, she was happy with her stick. So what did I do? I decided then and there that we would go directly to Pharmaprix to buy Clara a real umbrella. As you can imagine, the sobbing quickly subsided and was replaced by many repetitions of "yeah, yeah, lets go to the pharmacy Mama" and even though she was still doing that pitiful breath catching thing that follows any serious crying jag we walked to the store excited by the idea of a new purchase.
And here she is, with her brand spankin' new Winnie-the-Pooh umbrella and a grin that says it all.

Our fun didn't end there. We had a late snack after our shopping expedition and Clara found something extremely funny...
Oh yeah it was this...
and this...
Who is he calling a loser???

This is what happens when I try to get a picture with both kids! Maybe one day we'll succeed.

Darn it, Leo is gonna be walking before I know it... he may even start without me noticing! That is what happened during his birthday party this afternoon. I didn't even realize until someone pointed out that he'd just taken several steps!!

Here is the walking timeline so far:
Tuesday morning at the Carrefour - Leo takes two small steps three times in the gymnasium. All three times, he stepped tentatively looking towards the person egging him on, stopped and clapped at himself wearing a huge grin then sat down and crawled the rest of the way over.

Thursday afternoon at home surrounded by our friends - Leo walks to Jenne who is holding a juicy red apple. Yes, Leo is very motivated by food... I wonder where he got that from???

Of course, regardless of the fact that the party today was for Leo and Cohen, Miss Clara B. maintained her place in the spotlight. Here she is modeling some birthday present ribbons.

October 9th 2005... Where has the past year gone? Yes, there were months when time seemed to be at a standstill and I wasn't sure that I'd ever get the hang of parenting two kids but for the most part I look over the past 12 months and ask that same question over and over again. Where has the time GONE?

Leo will likely be my last baby - there I've said it; so I've been savoring his babyhood even more than I did with Clara's. Every first of his, is a last of mine... first bite of food off a spoon - last time I exclusively nourish my baby, first tooth - last gummy smile, you get the idea.

Leo's first year has been thrilling; it was scary, exciting, funny, frustrating, and oh so emotional. As far as babies go Leo has been relatively easy. As an infant, as long as I was willing to keep him close and nurse when he wanted he was happy. There were many late evenings with him in the pouch while I swayed in the dark livingroom but those moments were so different from the late nights with baby Clara... Instead of wondering "will he ever sleep through the night, am I ruining him with this kangaroo care" I was content (well, relatively) knowing that this was a phase and he would get through it and that yes, eventually he would sleep longer periods away from my beating heart - just not yet.

At one year old Leo is not what most would consider a champion sleeper, he still needs a warm body snuggled up with him during the wee hours of the morning but he does sleep alone for several hours in the evening. Our nighttime routine is this; change into pyjamas, read several stories, nurse, and rock to sleep (not in arms mind you, but in his stroller!). Depending on the day the routine can last as much as an hour or as little as 10 minutes.

Watching Leo grow up this year has been a completely wild expereince. He went from a helpless baby, to an infant that light up when his big sister put her face in front of his, to a baby who played and followed big sis around, to an almost-toddler who not only follows Clara but is very capable of getting into fights and stand-offs with her too! Can you tell what a huge influence Clara has had on Leo? He seems so in love with her and it has been this way since the very beginning. Leo would ONLY laugh for Clara for several months, nothing Marc or I could do would get more than a drooly smile. As he got older, Leo could sit and play contentedly on the floor if Clara was close by playing as well. And, now that Clara is in school two days a week he obviously misses her. He looks around the condo for her when he wakes from his naps calling "Ca". Of course Leo loves Papa and Mama too, we know this from the head butting, open-mouthed kisses we both receive daily!

As much of an adventure these past 12 months have been I forsee many more adventures in the future. Leo will continue to be my "baby" and he will continue to grow and learn and laugh and love. What more can a mamma want on her son's first birthday? I've got a beautiful, healthy, loving, sweet little guy to enjoy and there is nothing more exciting for me than to see what the future holds for him.

Leo's first birthday! Our boy is hardly a baby anymore...

Yesterday Clara, Leo and I went to an apple orchard and pumpkin patch with Clara's class from the Carrefour. Sadly I have no pictures to share because it appears I've lost our camera! I thought it would turn up today while I was cleaning but so far nothing. I have no idea where I might have lost it... the last place I've to search is the car.

After a long day out in the sun picking apples, pumpkins and gourds and an equally long and exhausting bus ride home, I asked Clara what her favorite part of the day was. She said "eating apples". Then she elaborated, "I liked when you picked the apples and I ate them." Simple pleasures :)

You think your are careful, you think you can keep your kids safe, you think all these things until you find your baby sucking the tip of a very sharp paring knife!

Ugh, while I was distracted by the mess under his high chair Leo helped himself to the open dishwasher and pulled out the only sharp thing in there. It was also the only black handle sticking up out of an ocean of stainless steel so obviously that made it an interesting find. My heart stopped when I realised what he was holding and believe it or not, other than tears of anger that resulted from my careful extraction of the offending knife Leo is none the worse for wear.

I'd like to just note that normally I am highly paranoid about Leo playing with the dishwasher and I always close it if he is on the floor (even if I'm coming back with more dirty dishes). But this time he'd made such a mess eating dinner that I becasme focused on the need to clean it up immediately, which apparently provided Leo with an opportunity to explore uncharted territory. Yes, I've learned my lesson; leave high chair messes for Marc to clean up!

OK, it is 8:35am and I have already been up for hours (it seems). What is with the new 6:30am wake up time? Where did the days of 8am wake ups disappear too? Oh well, at least we can get places on time now, there's got to be a bright side to every bleary eyed morning right?

Clara just set a handful of toys on the floor for Leo to play with and informed us both that she would be playing with her hands so she didn't need them. Right now one hand is Dora and the other is baby jaguar, characters from Chloe and Zach's Dora The Explorer story book. What an imagination :)

I just sent this in an email to Ann Marie, seems like it should be a public fact not just kept between the two of us :)

"Can I just tell you... Leo is so SMART!!! I can recite a story from one of his books and he'll crawl off the bed to the pile of books in front of the bookcase (where they tend to reside) and pull out the one I am reciting!!! It is not luck, we tested him this evening, he knows Goodnight Moon, Mr Brown Can Moo, and Wibbly Pig as well as I do!"

Leo seems to have his first crush. I caught him gazing deeply into someone's eyes during our impromptu brunch on Sunday. Yes, little loverboy was snuggled right up on Natasha's lap, looking deep in her eyes and then he PURRED! I kid you not, he was courting her. Problem is, the crush may be mutual... I think poor Natasha may have fallen for his charms.

This past weekend was a whirlwind of fun. On Saturday we all attended Kate and Rory's 3rd birthday party. Check out the cute hairbands the girls recieved!
That evening Marc and I were able to sneak away for a dinner alone while Papa T babysat Clara and Leo. Then we came home just long enough for Clara to ask "why are you here" in a very unimpressed tone and whisked Leo off to Trina and Mehdi's farewell party. Leo was supposed to sleep most of the time but his cough was really bothering him so he ended resting on my lap instead. The couch was comfy and the conversation entertaining so I really wasn't too disappointed.

Today has been grey and wet so we did nothing but get groceries. That is what an outsider might think anyway. But in reality I read books out loud for a good portion of the morning. Clara is really, really into Dennis Lee poetry right now. She has one book of her own and we just borrowed Jelly Belly at the library last week. Now I'm deep in sing-song rhyming and it is a lot of fun! The better the beat of the poem the more we both seem to like it.