Leo is in transition. I am encouraging him to wean which means no more nursing to sleep! He's created a new falling asleep technique which is kinda cute - the death grip. Basically, he must have his arm under your neck and hooked around to the other side. Then he pulls you as close as he can possibly get; nose to nose and then he dozes off. The issue at present is getting out of the death grip without disturbing him too much. Marc and I have discovered replacing ourselves with a sizable stuffed animal seems to work.

Clara's (early) Birthday Party

We had a Jungle Tea Party - I'm not sure how it was a tea party as there was no tea or sandwiches with the crusts cut off but, none-the-less that was our official title. We did stick with the jungle theme and had so much FUN! I organized a few games for Clara and her guests - nine kids total and the weather was in our favor this year (finally). We played throw the ball in the hippo's mouth, pin the tail on the monkey, and the kids went on an "animal safari". The safari was the highlight of the afternoon as far as I could tell. Each kid got a set of binoculars and the name of a jungle animal they had to find in the backyard. They were so cute trotting about holding up their binoculars to they eyes. When Clara went to bed that night I asked what the best party of her day was and she said "all of it was great Mama" Awwwww

For her Champagne birthday, the lady of the afternoon drank ginger ale!

A zebra stripped cake, with four sides, and four candles ;)

Leo heading out on safari, he was looking for a cheetah.

Opening presents, with help of course!

Happy Fathers Day Papa!

Clara, Leo and I tried all week to snap the perfect photograph to give you this year. Here are a few of our attempts!


And the winner is...


Have great day today, enjoy the soccer game! We love you. xoxox

Chloe is here right now having a movie night with Clara. They have been hunkered down on the couch for about an hour and a half and as far as I can tell they have no intention of going anywhere else until Mike comes to retrieve his daughter! This has been the easiest "playdate" ever... even Leo watched the movie (Fairytopia) but that was because he was feverish and sickly. Chloe is on the tail-end of a rather sneezy cold and whenever she sneezed (which was often) Leo would perk up out of his fever induced fog as say "bessu" (bless you). Tres cute.

Today, while discussing our full names Clara made an absolutely adorable mistake. When I told her my last name her eyes light up and she said "Oh I love those... the little round things.. we ate them in the car..." She was talking about Timbits!

My daughter called me sweet pea tonight!

Oh, and we have a new pet, Violet Beauregard a purple-blue beta fish. Here's hoping she doesn't attack Nemo! While Clara looked in all the tanks at the pet store trying to decide who would be a good friend for Nemo, Leo just shrieked "fish" over and over again.

It has been a Circle of Life kinda day.

This morning we woke to the news of new life; a close friend of Clara's is a brand new big sister and a wonderful friend of mine is now a Mama of TWO! We were very excited all morning... well, Clara and I were excitedly talking about babies and Leo kept chanting "Lala, Lala, Lala" (aka Mariella) so I think he was psyched about something as well!

Unfortunately, as with theproverbial circle of life, with life comes death... Our black goldfish Dory died sometime today. Marc took the role of bearer of bad news and he did a fantastic job. He was matter of fact and let Clara watch while he fished Dory out of the tank. She looked at Dory and said "goodbye" and they flushed her down the toilet. Then the tears came. I hugged my grieving daughter (again) and listened to her, what she said was incredible, it tells me so much about my sweet girl's loving nature.

(With tears streaming down her cheeks)"I'm sad Dory died, I'm gonna miss Dory, she was my pet." (Then big sobs started) "Now Nemo is going to be lonely, he's all alone without Dory, I need to draw a picture of Dory and put it behind the tank so Nemo can see it and so he won't be lonely. Soon we'll get a new friend for Nemo."

So, as you can imagine out came the water colours and Clara drew a picture of Dory, complete with Dory's arms, legs, hair, and tummy! I swear that is what she told us as she painted. By the time the painting was complete Clara had worked through her feelings and was ready for bed. I couldn't have asked for a better first experience with death.

FYI, Dory is in the middle of the water and seaweed. The blue circle in the middle is her "tummy", the yellow lines are her "legs", and the purple fins are in fact her "wings" according to the artist!

Clara, Leo and I trekked out to the Eastern Townships (and I don't use the word trek lightly) last weekend to see Rachel perform the role of the Cowardly Lion in a youth performance of The Wizard of Oz. We had a blast. Not only did both kids sit and WATCH the performance but I was even able to give the show my full attention too! Rachel was an excellent lion with a roar that could not be ignored. Clara was a bit impatient waiting for Rachel's arrival on stage, asking "is that Rachel?" when every character appeared on stage, but once her hero was performing I hardly heard a peep from her again.

We were in Bromont for about 24 hours and in that time the kids played in the backyard driving around the Explorer, making and serving "tea", taking tricycle trips, and generally making themselves at home out there. Clara got to see a movie which seems to be a requisite for her visits these days and she also went swimming. Leo played a fair bit of piano and mastered all the stairs in the house! A good time was had by all :)

I asked Clara what she's like her birthday cake to look like this year. Her response was quite unexpected: "I'd like a BIG Square cake because squares have 4 sides and I'm going to be 4 years old."