Go Habs, Go!

Note Clara's home made Canadians jersey. It is a Spiderman jersey with a Canadians logo safety pinned to the front! Her Papa made it for her. Leo is squeezing into a jersey we got as a hand-me-down last year, it is a size 2. Trust me, Leo does not wear much in the way of size 2 anymore. It takes some wiggling to put on and off but it is worth it for our little fan.

Random pictures from the past month...

From left to right:

• Snuggling on the couch
• Blowin' bubbles after school
• All set to go to the insectarium and butterfly pavilion
• Marc's head is a landing pad
• Clara and Leo's creation; a castle
• Corking
• Rawr!
• Me
• Evening teeth brushing.

At 7:15 today...

Marc: I'm getting ready to go running now.
Leo: OK Papa, watch out for Montreal tigers. Look for orange and black stripes and... teeth!
Marc: (smirking) OK, I'll keep an eye open for them.
Leo: (in whispered seriousness) No, two eyes.

PS: I am short one tooth in my mouth tonight. I brought my extracted wisdom tooth home to show Clara and Leo. Clara had it tucked under my pillow within minutes of getting to the house. I wonder if the tooth fairy will visit?

Leo told Marc he was a "huggy player" This was while he was giving his Papa one of his famous ear grabbing hugs tightly around the neck. Our boy is turning into quite the comedian. He is the king of the one-liner in our house.

We are fair weather fans.

Tonight we watched the Habs play their first playoff game. I ignore hockey all winter but if the Canadians make it to post season play then I can get enthusiastic about the sport and our team. I began the tradition of playoff hockey fan when I was very pregnant with Clara. Matt and Angela, our friends and neighbors from New Zealand came over for pizza and drank beer and cheered along with us and the people at the sports bar across the street. Even though the Habs eventually lost that year I know Marc and I had lots of fun following the playoffs and making a festive event each time they hit the ice.

Since 2002 the Canadians have made it to post season play at least once or twice - I'm not going to look it up. Clara has certainly seen hockey on tv before and still calls penalties "time-outs". However, tonight seems to have been Leo's initiation to the televised version of our great Canadian sport. In fact, he really got into the game; he reenacted plays with his own version of sports commentary, he pushed a ball around the living room with a plastic hockey stick (or is it a golf club?), and he chanted Go Habs Go whenever he felt like making a bit of noise. Clara was cute, often she got confused and called the team "Canada" as in, Go Canada, score Canada, etc. Marc and I kept trying to correct her; "You can say Go Montreal, Go Canadians, Go Habs, but Go Canada just doesn't work". I do think she'd got it all straightened out by the end of the game which, by the way they WON!

I put my tired fans to bed at 10pm, right after the players got off the ice. As I tucked Clara in and whispered my goodnight in her ear she asked; "what is Saturday in French again?" "It is Samedi" I replied. "OK" she said, "two sleeps until the next hockey game" :)

Toe to toe

Clara came tearing out of her room the other night, she was SURE she'd seen a red ant crawling on her bunk bed. She could not be convinced otherwise. Despite my attempts to calm her and get her back into bed Clara was NOT climbing her ladder to sleep with red ants. Out of desperation I asked, where do you want to sleep? She quickly said, I'll sleep with Leo. It was quickly settled, I pulled her pillow down and she snuggled up at the foot of Leo's bed. I figured one or both of them would be at my bedside in the middle of the night complaining about being kicked or something but nope, they both slept fine and woke up all smiles the next morning.

I know where the idea of red ants came from, Clara is studying les insects at school. I'm quite sure the lessons and stories about bugs and creepy crawlies have made quite an impact on her imagination.

I had the kids laughing until tears were rolling down their cheeks this evening. Leo asked for a story right as I was getting ready to tuck them in and turn out the lights. I told a story about two kids named Clara and Leo and what they did today (it was a true story) and I used lots of sounds effects. The reoccurring swish swish of Leo's rain pants every time he walked somewhere had them rolling and holding their bellies with laughter!

The reason I recounted the day for them was so that I could make sure Leo knew how proud I was of him for walking all over town with me today. I'm really trying to dump the stroller, half the time it is more trouble that it is worth. It causes arguments about who gets to ride, and it is a pain in the patootie on public transit. So anyway, today was Leo's first tantrum-free metro trip and I wanted to make sure he knew what an amazing job he did of following my safety rules, and keeping up when we had to move a little quicker than usual. The story really helped me tell him one last time that I appreciated his behavior and hopefully he'll remember his accomplishment the next time we hop on the metro or bus. Clara also got a pat on the back during story time because when Clara's Mommy arrived(a wee bit late) to pick her up from school in the story, Clara was all dressed and ready to go and was not at all nervous or anxious about Mommy not being there on time.

Clara B is so cool, she told me when I arrived (5minutes late maximum) that everything was fine; two other mothers were there and Liliane was there (the after school monitor) and she knew that she could stay with them until I showed up. It is comforting to know that she feels so comfortable with these adults whom I also know and trust and that in an emergency situation I know that she would be attended to.

So, other than the bad new that I have to have a wisdom tooth extracted (wahhhh), it has been a fine day :)