National Day of Action

"You better find yourself another bike path."

St-Jean-Baptiste

A little known, (and surprising), fact is that the ancient Hebrew words for "lobster, succulent lobster, with garlic butter" and "head of John the Baptist" are strikingly similar. Salome, pleasing King Herod with her dance, asked for the former, but got the latter. One can only imagine the disappointment. Nonetheless, Quebecers to this day mark their national holiday with a ceremonial lobster in rememberance of the gaffe.

Oscar was looking for trouble with his politically-charged T-shirt.

Grand-Papa's birthday

We ducked out of the city on the Saturday before St-Jean to celebrate Denis' birthday (only a couple of days late). It was a scorching 19°C, warm enough for a dip in the pool at Yan's place - that is: if you don't have your own pool and and you're motivated enough.

On the way

Yes, Emma is wearing a UV suit. Somewhere behind those clouds is a sunny menace. Probably.

Did I ever mention how much Mao hates swimming?

Don't worry, that stressed look on Oscar's face is pretty much normal for him.

France is happy not to have had to swim.

Dessert was a white chocolate poppyseed cake. Except for Emmanuelle, who just ate a mountain of whipped cream.
Denis deciphering his gift.

First haircut

Today, Emmanuelle got her FIRST HAIRCUT.
Bye bye ringlets. (That tore us up!) We would have liked to keep her hair long, but she won't keep barrettes or a pony tail in, so we had no choice.
It went fairly well. It started with tears and ended with smiles. (Emma's in both cases.)

The finished product:

The thing about blogs like this

is that you can keep up to date with what we're doing. You can see Emma and Oscar growing up before your eyes. It's almost like you're here with us.
Only thing is, you're not here with us! We don't have any idea what's going on in your lives. Some of you, (not to single anyone out, but especially the Germans), haven't sent e-mails in a while.

Now don't take this as a lecture! Feel free to continue to browse and follow the little ones. But don't forget to drop us a line every once in a while.

Mimi's Birthday!

Ying-Jie and Wen were nice enough to invite us to Mimi's birthday at the Kidnasium. Emma had a blast. Particularly in the ball bin, from which it was nearly impossible to extract her.
The pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

Cake.

Looks good.

Didn't taste it.

(We had to split at 6:30 on the dot...)

Everything in its place

Emma in the holding area getting a slap on the wrist for attempted robbery of a patrol car.

Mimi's party ROCKED!

You are never getting me out of here.

Take 150 photos and you get lucky sometimes.

Mimi demanding OUT of the ball bin

Ying Jie and Mimi about to dig into the pizza

This tunnel leads to Face-plant IslandNext photo edited out for Emma's dignity.
Emma in the Mega Baby Cage (inflatable jumparoo thingy)

Oscar looking for a peaceful corner.

A bunch of exhausted parents looking for pretty much the same thing.

Couldn't help noticing the poplar fluff blizzard outside.

Bring. On. The. Cake.
THE BIRTHDAY GIRL!
Hope you like Sam I Am, Mimi.

Mega Gros Father's Day!

I'll divide this day into two because it was chock full o' fun. We slept in today until around 6 or 6:30. That still gave us plenty of time to prepare for brunch with Denis and France at 9:15. (We invited them to our place as young kids aren't necessarily the most fun in crowded restaurants on Father's day.) Annick took care of the spread and Emmanuelle took care of the entertainment, which mostly consisted of making her duck puppet poop into a mesh bin. Most of my photos from this morning didn't work well because of low light, but I can show you the craft that Emma made for me.

Another hodge-podge

Ok, a little more exposition for this post. Annick wrote an exam for provincial attorneys or some such thing today. I only ever half understand what she's up to. What I did understand, though, was that it was a 4 1/2 hour exam and that Oscar feeds every hour and a half. Which makes for some complicated math, but we soon figured out that we had a wee problem on our hands.

We did a trial run with a bottle last week, but Oscar would have nothing of it, even going so far as to gag on it. Annick made an urgent phone call asking for "une accomodement raisonable", and to our our delight, Justice came through.

They provided us with an adjacent room while Annick wrote her exam solo the day before the main session. I was lucky enough to have to juggle the two young 'uns while Annick wrote next door. Fortunately, sleep stalked Emma like a cougar tracks a wounded deer, and she soon curled up on a blanket in the corner. That saved our bacon, because we had already been through two DVDs and the laptop's batteries were kaput. Similarly, Emma quickly bored of my drawings and songs and began testing her crayons on the board-room table and chairs. (Sorry court house. If you don't like it, sue me. Wait. Check that...)

After occupying an office in the Court House, we ate at (ugh) McDonald's.

Emma waking up. (This is from a photo Annick took last week, but pretty much sums up newly-awake Emma.)

Emma has the attitude, even if she wears the shades Dubya-style.

Tour de Jarry

Annick and her hen friends took the little ones for a saunter around Parc Jarry. Hot and humid, but with enough sunscreen and gazebos, a good time was had by all. Especially dad, who stayed home (much to his delight).

(Yes, Emmanuelle has another shiner. The result of a wipe-out in Oscar's room.)

Your daily smile

For some reason, Mao and Oscar are more relaxed and well-rested when Emma's at the daycare.

What you should know about Oscar.

Ok, it has been said about Oscar that, as with other two-month-olds, he's pretty much a lump and doesn't do anything other than eat, sleep, poop and pee. Is that fair? Absolutely. Nevertheless, he does have one or two other tricks up his sleeve. A couple of things we've noticed.

1. He startles while he's sleeping.
While he normally sleeps peacefully (see Cherub) occasionally ambient noise (read: big sis) disturbs his slumber. This sets in motion a vicious cycle that is, in fact, pretty amusing to watch. His little hands go flying in the air and flail around for a minute, though he doesn't actually wake up. What's funny is that, as he relaxes, his arms slowly lower down to the bed (or wherever he is sleeping), and eventually they touch the blankets. Which startles him again, and sets the whole process in motion once more. Good times.
2. He laughs.
He doesn't laugh while he's awake, and he doesn't seem to enjoy the zerbutting that had Emma giggling away as of May 23rd, 2005 (date of her first laugh), but he does laugh. It happens while he's sleeping. He makes a little noise like he just stubbed his toe, and when we look at him he's got a smile on his face and he's clearly dreaming about something hilarious he saw us do. (Or so we speculate.)
3. He's a bit on the pukey side.
Doesn't like pacifiers. They make him gag. It is also not advisable to raise him to a vertical position too quickly. We're thinking about labeling him "Contents Under Pressure." Note that this label might prevent several kinds of unpleasant surprise.
4. He smiles when he sees his sister.
Despite the fact that she's usually close to him solely so that she can grab his toys, Oscar consistently smiles when he sees Emma around.
5. He has little fat rings around his ankles.
I've never seen such a thing before, but he's got rolls. Tiny little fat rolls around his ankles. He's not malnourished, I tell you.

Play mat

We finally broke out the play mat that cousin Kaya sent us (thanks cuz!). It has convenient Mao-repellent bars.

Unfortunately, they don't keep big sis out...