Keeping up with Clara and Leo

2009-11-01T21:05:00.003-05:00

Halloween 2009, also know as the year Clara dumped us to go off trick or treating with her friends! As a result, not a single picture of Clara the ballerina was captured :(

Luke Skywalker at school

Luke and a tough Cincinnati Bengal football player

Clara's cat pumpkin and Leo's Jack O'Lantern

2009-10-24T16:21:00.003-04:00

Clara watched Marc distribute some caramel popcorn for our viewing of Superman 2.

Clara: Hey, you are not counting them!
Marc: What???
Clara: to keep it even.
Marc: (laughing) that goes on the blog!
Clara: ok, whatever, put it on the blog... that bowl has more!

2009-10-21T18:59:00.002-04:00

Lets just recap for a moment...

3 weeks ago Leo had roseola. He was off school for a week.
1 week ago Leo had scarlet fever. He was off school for 3 days, it would have been 4 but Thanksgiving Monday was a vacation day - not that he got to really enjoy it :(
Today Leo's "cold" has turned nasty. I'm even wondering if it might be "flu" He's got a fever, a terrible, wet cough, headache, and not much energy. It could be just another random virus but the cough and sound in his chest make me wonder. I guess I'll wait to see what tomorrow brings before I decide how to deal.

Poor guy, he really just can't catch a break. Send him some strong immune system wishes - please?

2009-10-20T22:08:00.002-04:00

This blog is usually reserved for Clara and Leo and our life as it revolves around them but I can't not post about Marc's most recent accomplishment. Last Sunday he ran his first 10km race! He's been working towards this particular race all Summer and Clara, Leo and I were so proud and excited to watch him cross the finish line with a final sprint.

With another loop of Parc Lafontine to go...

Sprinting to the finish line

Next year Clara is very serious about running the 1km or even the 2km race. Now that she's seen what a running race is all about (and the loot you bring home) she's planning on following in her Papa's footsteps. Leo, on the other hand seems pretty happy to cheer people on from the side lines. Maybe he'll feel differently in a year or two!

2009-10-09T23:29:00.000-04:00

Leo's 5th birthday!

The Death Star cake

Leo wanted a Star Wars birthday cake, this is what I came up with!

Cupcakes at school

Dancing with his classmates

2009-10-06T23:39:00.000-04:00

After 3 weeks of walking back and forth to school Leo asked to take the school bus home. We'd always discussed taking the school bus later in the year but I did not think he'd be the one to initiate the change in plan. After just one day on the bus he was sold. I haven't picked him up after school since. He tells me he likes waiting for the bus at the end of the day, apparently a teacher waits with them and they sing songs together and he likes riding with his new friend Fahim and his new girlfriend Maielie. The school bus drops him off right in front of Clara's school about 5 minutes before the final bell, the timing couldn't be more perfect. All around, the bus is a big, fat WIN!

First day taking the school bus

2009-09-18T15:11:00.001-04:00

If you'd have asked me yesterday I would have told you we could stand to get rid of about 50% of our toys. Board games and books we use, but toys not so much. Of course, there are a few things that get played with regularly like the animals and the Star Wars figurines. Things like Clara's collection of Littlest Petshop and Polly Pockets don't see much action anymore.

Today, at 3pm on the first ped day of the school year I can report that every toy has been touched at some point over the last 6 hours. Clara and Leo have been playing non-stop all day with just about everything we own! The train set is out, the mini Barbie castle is set up, there are princess and fairy figurines carefully placed (in a Little People garage), and the Littlest Petshop animals are lined up. I can't follow the game even a little bit but it is clearly fun and imaginative and has taken them both to another place.

By all accounts school is going very well for both kids, they've settled into their new routines beautifully. However, what has become very obvious to me over the course of the day is just how wonderful it feels to stay home (wearing pyjamas in Leo's case) and loose yourself in pure, imaginative, unstructured play. I'm forever thankful that we can provide this luxury for our kids. They are thriving.

2009-09-12T11:13:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone!

I've entered a contest by a Montreal Photographer. She is offering a FREE photography session and a CD full of digital images to the family that gets the most votes. So, if you wish to see more (beautiful) pictures of Clara and Leo (and Marc and Laurel) please go and visit her blog and vote for family #2 in the comment box. It really is in your best interest!

Thanks for helping us out!

2009-09-09T22:39:00.004-04:00

Clara brought home this picture from school today. She told me it is the bedroom she wishes to have.
Of special note:

There are stairs leading to the room which indicates it is on an upper level.
There is a loft bed with no other bed below it, bottom bunk seems to have been replaced by a desk.
There is a large tv screen and a pile of DVDs stacked beside it.
There is a small animal cage (including wheel) beside the bed.
There is a bookshelf, I can only assume it is filled with Théa Stilton & Winx Club books.

Yes, the begging for her own room (and a pet) has officially begun. Marc and I always knew this day would come but we are still not prepared for it. We certainly can't do anything about it right now anyway - and I'm certainly not giving up my room!

2009-09-04T10:12:00.002-04:00

Grand-Maman Annette's 90th birthday party

Grand-maman, Laurel, Grand-Papa, Marc, Uncle Alex, Clara,
Grand-Maman Annette, and Leo.

2009-09-04T10:03:00.002-04:00

La Rentrée Scolaire 2009!

First day of 2iem année

First day of pre-maternelle.

2009-08-31T23:04:00.000-04:00

Purple party on Saint Laurent Blvd thanks to Kids Pop Montreal.

funky hair do

rock star stare

showing off a tongue trick

not to be outdone, this guy has tricks of his own!

pretty angel in allstars

2009-08-07T02:14:00.012-04:00

Leo is having a sleep deprived EEG test at 8am. We were given instructions to let him sleep from 10pm-2am and them keep him awake until testing time. Clara is sleeping over at Chloé's so we've got the house to ourselves for this great adventure. Here goes...

2:08am - We are UP! Leo just needed a bit of prodding but he woke up with a smile on his face. It is a good start. Now we are eating cereal. We figure we may as well try to confuse our bodies into believing that it is morning.

2:22am - Tap Tap revenge anyone? I love my new ipod touch.

2:36am - Marc is gonna teach Leo how to play Lego Star Wars on the PS2 and then Leo tells me he's gonna teach me how to play later. He's been very excited about this since we first talked about partying all night long. I have a definite impression we'll be at this for awhile :)

4:15am - Leo is still going strong with Lego Stars, Marc and I not so much. We are tired. Yikes, Leo wants me to play now but I don't think my eyeballs will allow it. OK, now he's agreed to make banana bread with me for our second breakfast in few hours. That will get us moving around and awake a bit more. Marc has decided he needs a shower now, he's hoping the water will help him.

4:55am - Chess lesson commencing. I can't imagine it lasting too long, neither boy has much mental clarity at this point but Leo is insistent. I just offered him some lemonade (to help perk him up) but he politely declined. I think I'll pour some anyway and just set it in front of him and maybe some water too.

5:04am - That's it, I'm making coffee now.

5:35am - I didn't give them enough credit, they finished the game. It is getting light outside, we're going to head outside to see if Juancho the cat is out and to take a walk around the block. Leo is insisting in walking in his pyjamas. Oh wait, I have to stay home and keep an eye on the banana bread. It is smelling good.

5:45am - it was a short walk. The lemonade had Leo doing the pee pee dance so he came back. No Juancho so no good reason to hold it I guess either. Buddy boy is begging for more Lego Star Ward video game, but I think Marc is sick of it. Sounds like they are negotiating another game choice.

6:00am - Little Einsteins episode. There was a meltdown when Marc couldn't bear playing video games for Leo's entertainment (I'm told that the big problem is that Leo doesn't want Marc to play the games he likes). I'm watching him like a hawk, no sleep allowed!!!

6:30am - Eating yummy, warm banana bread. More little Einsteins to come, he was very alert during the whole episode.

7:15 am - heading out the door!

10:35 - We are home and EXHAUSTED. Test went fine, it didn't show any abnormalities. The specialist will review it later this afternoon but the doctor told us not to worry, everything looks great. Going to bed...

2009-08-01T10:01:00.002-04:00

Copy of my facebook status from last night: Laurel is getting over one of the scariest experiences ever, Leo had a seizure early this morning and we spent all day in the ER getting tests run to figure out why. We have a few guesses but no real answer yet. He's feeling fine now. I'm not.

The long explanation is; Leo had an early morning seizure right beside me, in my bed. He seized for a short time, maybe 30-45 seconds and then was unresponsive until after we'd called 911 and taken an ambulance ride to the Children's Hospital. The seizure itself was horrible; his lips were blue, his eyes rolled up and the whites of his eyes were grey but the 20-30 minutes of unresponsiveness was worse. I can't explain with words the relief I felt when he "woke up", looked straight at me and said "Mama?"

We spent about 12 hours at the hospital because the seizure was not fever induced so we had to look for other possible explanations. Leo was a champ all day long. Every nurse and technician praised him (and me) for his bravery and great attitude - he had blood tests, an EEG, a CAT scan, and an EKG. The EEG showed some slowing in the frontal lobe and it was this result that warranted the CAT scan.

After all the tests were done a neurologist came down to examine Leo and ask me a million questions. Then a second neurologist (a head honcho type) joined us and he explained what he thought was going on and said that we'd need to do a sleep deprived EEG in the next couple of weeks to try to confirm his suspicions. Leo will also be scheduled for an MRI and that should round out his use of the medical system.

The doctors think that the seizure is a symptom of a syndrome associated with migraines (BECRS). It is benign and typically is outgrown by the age of 15. The chances are high that he'll never have another seizure but if he does have more there are meds that are very effective in treating them. Overall prognosis is great, now that we've seen inside Leo's head we know there are no lesions, or tumors or other frightening possibilities. We did however confirm the size of Leo's head, the neurologist measured it and immediately commented "he has big head." He then measured my head and said, no, it is not from you. Does his father have a big head? I had to call Marc and get him to measure his own head so we could compare. Turns out Leo doesn't have a genetic good reason for the size of his noggin and this is the reason for the upcoming MRI (I think).

So, Leo is acting perfectly fine and normal now. Marc and I are still a bit gun shy. We are staying home from camping at La Minerve with everyone which is a huge disappointment. Hopefully we'll figure out a way to camp and or at least have a campfire soon since the kids are both very disappointed. I'll be waiting for phone calls next week giving me the dates for the upcoming round of testing which means I don't even know if we are going to be able to go to Toronto at all. I'm bummed. I'm glad my boy is going to be fine but I don't like being afraid and I don't like being forced to stay in town during the time I'd intended for "vacation." I'm sure I'll feel differently in another day or two, we'll figure stuff out, we always do :)

2009-07-29T09:44:00.003-04:00

The weather has not exactly been what we'd expected for July but we have not let the never ending "risk of thunder showers" dampen our Summertime fun. We've managed to do all sorts of fun activities close to home, swimming, however has been the staple of the Summer of 2009. We've made multiple trips to Piscine Laurier and Levesque and we've visited Piscine Schubert, Jean Drapeau and the Beach on isle Jean Drapeau one time each. The kids seem to spend more and more of their time underwater, either diving for treasures (Clara) or doing flips and corkscrews (Leo). We've spent time with Chloé and Zaco, Ruby, Max and John. We haven't seen any of Clara's school friends but she has not requested that I set things up so I guess spending the Summer with her family and her old friends suits her just fine :)

On Sunday Marc suggested we do an experiment à la Mythbusters. We showed the kids a Youtube video of the infamous diet coke and mentos eruption. Leo seemed pretty sure that the myth would be "busted" but Clara though it was possible. They headed off to the pharmacy to buy the necessary items and were home again in no time ready to test what they'd seen. As you can hear in Leo's voice, he was pretty impressed that it worked, Marc and I were kinda disappointed, we though the fountain of coke would be higher. It was fun and I think we'll have to pick another experiment to test soon, any suggestions?

On Saturday I finally convinced the kids to join Marc and I on a mountain walk. There was quite a bit of whining at the outset but it did dissipate with the help of trail mix and secret paths. In the end we walked for over two hours and Leo only fell twice and managed to either get stung or pricked by a trail-side plant once (I still don't know exactly what happened, I do know it hurt and caused his hand to swell briefly) . Considering how stumbly he was, his final stats are actually quite good!

Rambling on Mount Royal

2009-07-04T21:52:00.000-04:00

2009-07-02T23:30:00.000-04:00

Our Farm Vacation in Vankleek Hill

2009-06-19T09:44:00.003-04:00

The specialists at Arc-en-Ciel (that means the gym teacher, music teacher and art teacher) organized and coordinated an end of year spectacle with the students that knocked our socks off! It was Cirque de Soliel-esque with music, song, acrobatics and dancing.

As always, Clara the performer enjoyed her time in the spotlight but she did gave me permission to tell the truth about my favorite part of the show "you don't have to say my part was your favourite mama, tell me the truth okay?" To be honest, I can't even pick just one act that was my favorite; the gumboot dance was excellent, the drumming on recycling boxes was fun, the music made by tapping different lengths of plastic tubing was funny, and Clara's class playing xylophones and singing Les Chansons Comique was painfully cute. All the kids had their faces painted to be insect like creatures and they came to school dressed in mono-tone colours. Clara was a little sauterelle, a grasshopper.

2009-06-17T21:26:00.002-04:00

Why today was exciting...

Two unrelated events sure shook up our street today. First, this morning a fire alarm was tripped in our building (on of the other condos) and three fire trucks came screaming to a halt at our front door; there were firemen with axes, with extinguishers, and walkie-talkies. It was all very exciting and it made Leo and I late for our park date with Stephanie, Mathieu and Gabriel. Then in the evening, just after I'd tucked the kids in to bed I went outside to toss the garbage on the curb and I was faced with a huge chunck of tree laying across the entire street! All the neighbors were out milling around and according to them it had just snapped off the tree. Earlier in the day it had been stormy and there had been some thunder and lightening but apparently whenthe giant branch went down it was not due to particularly bad weather. As far as I could tell the only casualty was a little Mazda 5 who happened to be parked in the wrong spot on the wrong day. Bad luck for someone :(

2009-06-16T14:53:00.002-04:00

No Summer move for us. Summer vacation plans here I come. Wohoo!!!! What a ride, we are feeling pretty good about the process though. Sure learned a lot.

2009-06-15T09:45:00.002-04:00

On Saturday we decided to back out of our contract for the condo. After the inspection we found a few problems that we were unaware of when we made our offer and we felt that the price was no longer fair. After discussing it with Jim and Jayne (current ancestral home owners) we decided we'd need to do about $20,000 of work to be able to use the space as we'd originally envisiioned. We told our agent yesterday (Sunday) that we'd still be interested in the property if the seller would drop her price by that much. We expected to be turned down cold but... we still haven't heard back!!! So, still playing the waiting game. If it is meant to be ours it will happen, that is still my feeling, same as when we started this insane journey.

2009-06-08T22:09:00.004-04:00

Condo purchase update:
Natasha has brought it to my attention that I've left you in suspense long enough. The counter-counter offer was accepted! We are on to phase two of the adventure which is to have the building inspected. Since we are talking about a 125 year old building we think it is pretty important to have it carefully looked over before we make our final decision to buy. I'm completely freaked out by the amount of work that is loming over our head if this all goes through as planned. We've got to get this place sell ready, pack up 8 years worth of stuff and move it 2 blocks away!!! Seems like an aweful lot of effort but I know it will be worth it in the end.

2009-06-06T21:12:00.002-04:00

We are lucky. Thanks to McGill's department of theology we have a whole new branch on our family tree. Cathy and Dad, or Papa T as he is better known on this blog, met at McGill while they were pursuing their second (or maybe third) careers. On Saturday we were invited to watch Cathy become an ordained minister of the United Church. Clara and Leo were thrilled to participate in the ceremony by leading Cathy out of the service carrying a pole with flowing ribbons. It was a glorious day and there were smiles abound :)

2009-06-03T21:37:00.004-04:00

Here is a little slide show of the coldest, wettest family camping trip we've undertaken. At least we were in great company, 24 other families from Clara's school joined in on the insanity :) In the end, only a camp chair and Leo's new raincoat sustained permanent damage, both flew into the fire in a rare dry (but windy) moment!

2009-06-01T00:06:00.002-04:00

No news on the condo front, they countered our offer and we've now countered their counter. It is complicated and stressful but Marc and I are remaining calm and hopeful. Clara and Leo sort of know what is going on, Leo expressed concern that we'd be leaving all of our stuff here if we move. He's much happier now knowing that he'll be sleeping in his bed no matter where we live!