All About Leo
*He sleeps, he sleeps! Leo has started sleeping a solid 4-5 hours in a row twice per night!!!
*He speaks in complete sentences using words only he understands. He's got excellent intonation but his articulation could use a lot of work.
*Words that we do understand are: Papa, bye bye, hello, dat (that), uh oh!, ball, where-dit-go?.
*As soon as his diaper is off he escapes, runs naked from the bottom down to his bedroom. I find him sitting on his bed with a smirk on his face every time.
*He hugs kids his own age/size just because he feels like it.
*Whenever we say "doucement Leo" he softly strokes your cheek.

All About Clara
*She goes to bed every night at a very reasonable time with no arguments... it is a miracle!
*She loves to drink hot chocolate while I read chapters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
*She still loves cartoons and TV in general- what's a mother to do?
*Apparently her favorite colour is PINK.
*Her playlist on the iPod consists of I Like to Move It from the Madagascar soundtrack, and Whoo Hoo from the Kill Bill soundtrack.
*The other day when Marc was waving at her from the sidewalk on his way to work she turned to me and said "I love him".

Today has been a momentous day.

It was the first day I successfully carried Leo from his stroller at the bottom of the stairs inside, undressed him, and then moved him to his own bed, WITHOUT him waking up!!! WooHoo, this is big, and oh so exciting. It means I can let him fall asleep in the stroller and not have to walk around the neighborhood aimlessly if I want him to have a proper nap. Thank goodness he is learning Clara's ability to sleep deeply FINALLY.

Oh yes, I even got cocky, I dared take a picture of him with flash while he lay on the floor in mid-process.

We spent last weekend in Ottawa with Patricia and Ashley. Clara and Leo dutifully touched everything they were not supposed to had a wonderful time.

On Sunday, the four of us went to the Ottawa Children's Museum. As usual we had tones of fun and come back quite exhausted. Leo was running around at top speed most of the afternoon and even managed to run right smack into a mirror! Apparently, he was just kinda stunned and embarrassed. Instead of crying about his abrupt stop, he tried to distract his Papa by pointing in another direction and muttering something under his breath. These was a traveling exhibit of Clifford the Big Red Dog which both kids enjoyed, Leo kept hugging Emily-Elizabeth and Clara said her favorite part was making a conveyor belt work to drop bones in Clifford's big food bowl.

Last night during dinner Clara requested that we "hold hands and sing". What she wanted was for me to sing a grace like at Papa T's or Chloe and Zach's. So we put down our utensils, held hands and I sang Hark Hear the Chimes. The grace ends with "Amen" but Clara looked at me in all seriousness and asked why do you say "Aw, Man" as in "aw, man I missed the bus" or something equally upsetting. I clarified. She was happy.

Despite the fact that Clara insists that she and I are in love and Marc and Leo are in love she accepted that we all love each other for valentines day. We enjoyed the day and made it special by doing lots of sweet things for each other. Clara and I made brownies in the shape of hearts, Papa brought home roses, Leo loved his dinner of cranberry-orange chicken... love was in the air :)

Clara has seen a few of the Olympic events on TV. She's been quite impressed so far but one thing she has issue with is all the "time outs" the hockey players get. She's also become a fan of Clara (Huges) the speed skater for obvious reasons and can be heard saying "that is amazing" whenever a skater, skier, or snowboarder does a jump.

We made an impromptu trip to Parc Jean Drapeau to check out the Fete des Neiges on Saturday morning. We were inspired because the Doodlebops were going to be doing a "show". Clara watches the Doodlebops on Kids CBC quite often so Marc and I were pretty sure she'd be excited about seeing them "in real life". I'm not sure excited was the right word but mildly amused, interested, and entertained she certainly was. Thank goodness we made it on time because the "show" was 4 songs in length. Leo is standing in front of me in this picture entranced by the sights and sounds.
After Clara got a Doodlebops glossy picture with their autographs we headed off to see what else the Fete des Neiges had to offer.... first of all there was SNOW!!! All the snow is gone everywhere else in the city (and the burbs too I think) but I guess the organizers worked hard at making snow and the whole area was just beautiful. First we made snow sculptures with blocks of hard snow - Clara made a "sleeping polar bear" and Marc made a pretty impressive beaver head. Then Clara went sliding on an ice slide, and fishing for tin cans. You'd think that fishing for tin cans with a pole and string with a magnet on the end may not be the most fun you'd ever had but Clara and lots of other kids were having a blast. We kinda had to drag her away in order to see some snow sculptures complete with slides and tunnels.




We are most definitely going back next year... there was lots more to do but we were on a tight schedule, we were spending the afternoon with Grand-papa and Grand-maman Rollande to celebrate Marc's birthday!

Colour Theory

Leo tested the theory that blue crayon does indeed taste like wax while Clara proved that red and blue make purple! She remembered the combo all by herself when she wanted purple paint for Barney the dinosaur.

Mental Note: Leo is not ready to use a fork. I let him try yesterday and he did fine during the meal. It was only after he was finished eating and waving the fork around wildly that he stabbed himself in the temple.

That was the same day we had an explosion of small platic toys in our livingroom!

Leo in February 2006 (16 months)

Clara in December 2003 (17 months)

My kids like laundry, what can I say?!?

What Clara and I made today. The girl loves her cwafts. It is a unicorn by the way :)

We made our annual visit to the Biodome two weeks ago. It was at the beginning of our bout of t so I sort of forgot about blogging it. But today I downloaded pictures from the camera and lo and behold our fun was recorded and waiting to be shared.

As always, the Caillou play area at the end of the Biodome was lots of fun. This year both Clara and Leo were able to dress up. Clara liked the otter costumes and the baby stuffed otters the most while Leo enjoyed the traditional inuit costume.

I was wrong. The end may not be in sight at all. After a nice morning spent playing with Papa T and an afternoon being pretty grouchy Clara put herself to be at 6pm last night. She got up at about 12:30am and was scratching herself all over. Upon closer inspection she has clusters of what I can only assume were hives on her ankles, legs and arms. After a few initial panicky moments I searched the web, asked my friends at APU for late-night advice, and convinced myself that she was having an allergic reaction to the VIRUS she is harboring and went to bed myself. Of course, I lay awake for ever wondering if she has a food allergy, what it could be, will her reaction be worse next time she's exposed, etc. Needless to say I am very unrested this morning and of course, Clara seems fine again. All the info I found on the web says I don't need to take her to the doctor and I guess I won't since there is nothing left to show them but I have to admit I'm not happy with the situation as it stands. Its got to get better soon, right?