After several nights of cough induced interrupted sleep, Leo slept in his bed all night again last night! He's only done it a handful of times previously but today was an especially big deal. I heard him crying - you know, that kind of half asleep pitiful cry at about 7:25am. I was half asleep myself and didn't think to do anything about it especially since he quieted within 30 seconds. I figured he'd nodded back off to sleep for a bit more. At 7:30 I heard 4 little feet padding into my room. I opened my eyes to see Clara holding her arm around Leo's shoulders leading him toward our bed. They climbed in and Clara told me that Leo cried when he woke up so she went down to his bunk and snuggled with him for awhile. Can I just get an "awwww"? She went on to say that he gave her one of his patented big hugs and left her ears alone (this is more shocking than anything else).

So, as you can imagine, Marc and I were full of praise for both kids accomplishments; Leo for being a "big boy" in his own bed and Clara for being such a loving big sister and comforting her brother when she heard him.

Now, this my friends, is how this Mama likes to wake up in the morning!

4am Sunday morning, Clara appears at my bedside. She says "my body is distracting me, I can't sleep" and promptly barfs on me! Whew, what a way to wake up.

When Marc came home from work on Friday, I informed him I was Super-Mom. Why? Because I managed to whip up an Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer costume while make a delicious home cooked meal.

Clara seems to have a little obsession with Rudolph, it started earlier in the week when she coloured all the pages in her Christmas colouring book that had a reindeer on them. Then, at the Carrefour Christmas party the spectacle was an excellent play about Rudolph which really caught the kids attention, and finally as a gift from Pere Noël she got a little stuffed reindeer. So, needless to say, by dinner time Clara was in full-reindeer lovin' mode.

Note the bell around her neck, the antlers and, well, the obvious nose :)

The very next day was the Christmas party at Les Ateliers (another community center we've been going to this Fall). Clara got a beautiful face painting, she asked to be a sapin. The artist double checked, "une sapin de Noel?" Clara nodded seriously. A friend commented that Clara may grow up to be an environmentalist, she certainly has enough of an interest in trees!

The party was loads of fun, Santa made another appearance and each child was called up one by one to sit on his lap and recieve a gift. Leo astounded me, when he heard Santa call his name he hopped off my lap and pointed to himself saying "Yeo, that's me" as he walked right up to the big guy!
Clara was also a super-star, she waited patiently for at least 20 minutes for her turn to sit with Santa. It was obvious that she was excited and you could see it in her eyes every time he called a name that she was hoping it would be hers. But she was content to chant the names of each child while they made their way to the front and when her turn did come you should have seen her leap to her feet with a huge grin spread across her face!

Leo's vocabulary is keeping us laughing these days. Just yesterday when Clara and Papa brought in the Christmas tree he looked at it excitedly and yelled "pumpkin patch!" "No Leo, it is a Christmas tree, a sapin." "OK mama, a Kima Teeeeee"!

Basically Leo's rule of thumb seems to be this, if the picture or item has anything birthday related or any imagery of fire he insists it is a "Birthday Party!" All pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, and orange coloured squash alone or in groupings are considered "Pumpkin Patches."

Now, why the Christmas tree fell into that second catagory I will never know.

Leo has it all figured out:
Me: Are you my big boy
L: No!
Me: Are you my baby then?
L: No!
Me: Well, who are you?
L: (with a big smile) I'm LEO!

Playing at Complex Desjardins

Clara and the Amarylis

Auntie Dorothy sent us home from Toronto with an Amarylis bulb ready to force. We planted it and have been watching it grow. It is impressive how much it grows in just one day. We thought we should take a picture of it today to record how much more it will grow before it blooms. I took the picture of but she took this one of Leo and I with her hand covering the flash creating a very cozy effect!

Clara and Leo spent almost an entire hour at the table today. They we not eating, colouring, or painting they were playing with BUTTONS!

A mama and baby caterpillar

On our way home from the Carrefour Leo was complaining that he had not pushed the button on the elevator. I told him I'd let him play with lots of buttons when we got home but they would be different from elevator buttons. When we got in the front door Leo was literally chanting buttons, buttons, buttons! So I helped him into his booster seat and pulled out a ziplock bag of mixed buttons we'd bought months ago (for a project I never did). I poured them all out on the table and Clara quickly scrambled up beside Leo. They sorted buttons, arranged them in shapes, gave them voices, and just played and played and played. I joined in from time to time but for the most part they took care of themselves. There is something to be said for the simplest of pleasures.

Road Trip to Toronto

I had to squeeze into the bed after taking this pic at Natasha's!

Leo with some cute girlies (Antonia and Mariella)

Surprise birthday party for Auntie Dorothy.


Baby Malcolm being the cutest thing EVER.

Hanging at the pet store with their new APU friend.

The last day was spent in their pjs!













I caught this on video at the Timmies just outside of Montreal on our way home.