Emma's birthday

Little Emmanuelle is four years old! Having moved recently, Emmanuelle doesn't have quite the network of friends she had in our old apartment (so no pool party this year), but she held on to one friendship in particular, so Maeva and her family were with us to celebrate with a brunch the weekend before her actual birthday.

Then it was on to birthday supper with Yan, France, Denis, and a special guest...

Plenty of presents. This one came sideways.

Opening the presents is half the fun!

Nothing for poor Oscar, but he was satisfied holding onto one of Emma's gifts.

HUGS!

Time for cake!

On Emma's real birthday, there were more presents. Still none for poor Oscar. Only two months before your turn...

The house at Pooh corner, eh? Bet it's a log cabin...

Modeling new clothes from Grandma and Grandpa. Ice cream stains due in 30 minutes.

What's this? Could it be...

a digital camera!

Excellent!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa. Can't talk because the supper is burning and Oscar is crying...

Cake just wasn't going to happen mid-week (besides, she had some on the weekend at Denis & France's), so it was ice cream with marascino cherries. And four candles...

Four years old!

Oh my goodness, how the time flies!
My little Emma is four! She's a real little person, smart and charming and lovable. More photos will follow, but for the moment let's just say that we were very happy to be able to make Emmanuelle happy on her (pre)birthday weekend. Thanks to her friends and family who contributed to that big smile!

Spring is in the air...

Aside from working on my project in the laboratory, cleaning the garage, and helping around the house, I have been planning the garden. One of my most precious plants seems to have the same idea, as it has perked right back up after its winter nap.
Above you see a one-year-old Kaki (persimmon). It may not look like much, but it's a very important little treelet.

Last year when Annick and I were house hunting, we finally made the decision to have a house built. I think it was on the same day that we were eating kakis from Jean-Talon market, and we were discussing various projects and plans for the house. I had been holding off on establishing more house plants the entire time we were in our apartment, because we were kind of cramped. Anyhoo, the idea of planting a kaki came up, and we speculated about what a kaki seed might look like. We had noticed the little black specks inside the fruit before, and both figured those were the seeds.
It was then that we cut into another fruit, and what do you know, found a real kaki seed inside. In all those dozens and dozens of kakis we'd had over the years, we'd never seen a kaki seed, but this fruit had one.
Naturally - even though we were months from moving into our house - I planted it. And I've managed to keep it alive since then.
When the leaves fell off last fall I decided it was probably going dormant, so I put it in the garage for the winter. Brought it in a few weeks ago and it is breaking buds already. 1 year down, 24 years to go until we get fruit. (Assuming I can find a way to drag an 80 foot tree into the garage when I'm 60...).

To bee or not to bee...

Oscar is talking more and more. And unlike Emma, he's incorporating the occasional English word (though he seems to favour "nanard" over "duuuuuck" now).
But when it comes to yes and no, he has been very good at pronouncing the latter word for some time now. "Yes" (or "oui"), on the other hand, has always been denoted only by a nod of the head.
No more! Oscar is now says, "bee"! (which means "oui" of course).
Thus, a typical conversation with Oscar sounds like this:

Oscar (yelling from his crib): TaTA!
Me: Oscar, did you do something in your diaper?
Oscar: TaTa.
Me: Did you caca?
Oscar: Bee.