Playing dress up chez nous... as usual, they both ended up being cats again. I should just get them a couple cat costumes and be done with it!

Well, I guess I can now start reporting silly things my son says. Just now he told me "nose broken" when I said I smelled something... something like a stinky diaper! This is evidence that he is indeed always thinking up new strategies to avoid diaper changes. What a little stinker. By the way, the little smart Alec comment follows weeks if him yelling "NOOOO" and shaking his head wildly at the mere mention of a dirty diaper... I guess he finally realized that the tactic was not terribly effective.

First day of school! First day of school... weeeee

Clara and Leo all ready to head off to the Carrefour. They were so excited, getting them ready to go was a relative breeze.

Clara in her classroom getting settled in.

Arriving back at school on the "serpant" at the end of the day. "I made a new friend" was music to this mama's ears!

We had a super day. Clara felt supremely comfortable back in Emmanuelle class despite being without Chloe. Separating them this year was a hard decision for me to make but I really feel it was the right thing to do. When Clara told me Mathilde was her new friend and Mathilde pointed to Clara and said "copain" I was thrilled beyond words. Leo also picked up where he left off at the Carrefour regardless of the new animatrice and the new gang of kids. He dutifully started cleaning up the toys at the first notes of "On a bien jouer" and adored being back in the gymnasium. This Fall is going to be such fun - I can feel it!

Little Leo went to bed at 5:45 this afternoon. He just can't go a whole week without napping. Poor babe was a wreck, he fell asleep finally clutching a cheetah and my neck! Of course, today is the day Clara decided to take a nap at 5:00... she slept for about 40 minutes and was shocked when I asked her "did you have a good sleep?" She looked at me with an incredulous expression on her face "I fell asleep, did I?" She really thought she'd just been lying in bed for a few minutes... what a silly. Now she and Marc are playing Guitar Hero behind me. I keep hearing "we rock", "that was awesome", "cool maaan!" This is what Friday night has become at our house :)

Lately Clara has been getting dressed all by herself in the mornings, sometimes even before announcing she is awake. This morning she added a new trick to her morning repertoire; she got her own breakfast. Marc had poured Clara's cereal into a bowl when he and Leo first got up in the morning (before Clara had risen for the day). It seems that both Leo and Marc went back to bed after their early snack and Clara found her cereal sitting on the table when she tiptoed out of her room in the morning. She did what any one would do, she got the milk out of the fridge and poured it in her bowl! Such a simple act but there was so much pride associated with it when she bounded into our room to tell us about it after she'd eaten her Rice Crispies.

This mornings events just reminded me of another morning over a week ago. Clara woke me up by whispering in my ear "I've got a surprise for you Mama... I followed my dream." I was pretty foggy at first but the word surprise caught my attention and I had a brief moment of panic before she went on "I dreamed that the living room was all clean, so I decided to clean it up." Once I understood what she wanted to show me I got right out of bed and it was true, Clara had cleaned up the whole play area. I remember what it looked like the night before; toys strewn all over the carpet, puzzles and stuffed animals mixed in with Little People and jungle animals. But when Clara lead me out it was all put away - even in the right places!!! I of course loaded her with praise for an excellent job and I remember spouting "you should always follow your dreams." It seemed like a funny thing to say at the time despite the fact that I really do want her to follow her dreams, I just expected a different kind of dream I guess.