Today was a ped day and I had the best time with Clara and her friend Loubecca while Leo was at the Carrefour. We went skating this afternoon for over an hour at the school rink and then we walked up to the café next to the Carrefour and each had a fancy hot chocolate before going to pick up Leo. Lou's ride was waiting for us when we got home which was kind of too bad because those girls had lots more play in them! I was overhearing them this morning and I realised how much of Lou's vocabulary and accent have found their way into Clara's speech. For example, sentances are now punctuated with "la" in Clara's world of spoken French... "c'est a moi la" "c'est pas juste la." It is very cute la :)

Clara et Loubecca

Marc is out at a poker night so I declared it pizza and a movie night at home. Leo asked to watch Cars which we haven't seen in quite some time, I only snoozed for about 15 minutes which is pretty good for me these days! Clara kept telling me this afternoon and this evening that I'm the best Mama ever because I do everything she likes. Yes, we had a really lovely day together.

A smile I'm still getting used to

Clara lost her big top front tooth at school yesterday, she was so cute striding up to me at the end of the day with her huge, proud, gaping grin. At bedtime she told me that she really thinks she looks prettier with the space - I think it makes her feel older.

We had a dinner party tonight. It was the first time we've had an official "kids table."

It was AWESOME.

Look at the five of them down there chowing down on lasagne and salad. That fold down table they are using is one of the best finds we've ever come across, Clara loves announcing that it came out of the garbage to anyone who will listen.

Yes, I plan on hosting dinner parties more often. Food + friends = fun :)

A couple of little odds and ends to note as we start 2009:

• Clara loves grapefruits, she is moderately obsessed with them.
• Leo want to buy a Yoda figurine to go with his other Star Wars ones, he plans on using the money he has in his "pinky bank" to make this purchase.
• Clara does almost all of her writing in les lettres attaché. She thinks it is just beautiful and seems to show a preference for letters that dip below the line (ex: g, j,q, p, y).
• Gosh, everything I have to say about Leo involves Star Wars. He re-enacts scenes, he makes up new episodes, he has light saber (light saver according to him) battles with invisible enemies, he uses "the force"on a daily basis. He is turning into a very serious fan and I'm starting to wonder if we should have named him Lucas after all (it was on my list of names when I was pregnant lol)
• Leo woke me up screaming his usual "MAMA!!" at the top of his lungs at 3:30am the other morning. When I stumbled in to ask what was wrong he looked at me and said "I need to take off my underwear" I asked why, were they perhaps wet and he replied "I didn't know they were dangerous" and promptly fell back asleep.
• Clara discovered just how talented her tongue is last night. She was sticking out her tongue all weird like and I asked her what she was doing. The she showed me that she'd flipped it over! Mark decided to look on Internet to see what over tongue tricks people do... turns out Clara can do almost all of themas well! She is thrilled that her talents extend even farther than simply touching her nose with her tongue, and now she wants to practice some of the other more challenging moves she's seen.
• Both kids have successfully be enrolled in swim lessons this Winter. I braved the cold and stood in line from 7am till 9am with my friend France to get them spots in the highly coveted swimming lessons. Normally the demand is not so high but this year 2 of the 5 local pools are closed for renovations... it would have been nice if they'd communicated and staggered the timing of their renovations though doncha think? Anyway, my determination paid off and my two little fishies are very happy.
  

A few more pictures from the holidays :)

It is too bad I didn't manage to get the camera out more often during the Christmas break but honesty, we were just too busy having fun to bother with it! This Christmas was full of family visits. We managed a boxing day extravaganza with the whole crew out in Bromont, a meal with Grand-Maman Annette and her gang at her nursing home (which she loves), dinner with Grand- Maman Diane, Fred, and Auntie Caroline, and afternoon with Grand-Papa playing hind and seek!

Clara and Leo were also treated to a mini vacation at Papa T and Cathy's house. Marc and I dropped them off one afternoon and didn't come back for them until 2009. Yes, it was a vacation for all of us, well, all except Papa T and Cathy I guess :) It sounds like the two night sleepover was a success on all accounts. But really, how could it go wrong? They watched Star Wars movies before bed, swam both days, saw Bed Time Stories at the movie theater and ate dinner at Boston Pizza!

Clara hugging Sheba or is it George?

Leo with Grand-Maman and Fred's "pups"

One of many homemade cards Clara made for us to send this year (there are still more to go...)