Happy Birthday, Lucky Daddy !

Toute la famille réunie pour un gros brunch au Pistou Déjeûner pour fêter l'anniversaire de l'heureux papa!

English scones for a birthday breakfast

Following a special request from the birthday boy, Rachel made some delicious scones for breakfast, which Lily proceeded to devour with great delight as a true English girl, with upraised little finger and all... When asked by her father: "Es-tu une petite fille anglaise, toi?", she answered "Je ne suis pas une petite fille anglaise, je suis une petite fille en fraise!" — a reply that made everybody laugh except Alice, who knew the fruits inside the scones were not strawberries but cranberries, and they were too sour to her taste.

What powers the Universe ?

Mother love ! (of course)
[photo from this summer]

Is someone spraying baby Alice ?

Why is baby Alice running away ? The answer is here.
(photo from this summer)

Tour-o-manie

Bravo Alice, encore une tour ! La plus jeune architecte de la famille applaudit son plus récent ouvrage, étrangement sérieuse (a-t-elle des doutes quant à la solidité de cette tour à 5 étages?)

Double trouble

Alice pushes ever onwards into the depths of our kitchen recesses, while Lily refuses to come in from the backyard upon returning from daycare... and guess what time of day it is ? you mothers guessed right: it's supper preparation time ! ;-)

Costume design by Fofo

Flor loves nothing more than the opportunity to dress up her little sisters. Here she had all of 8 seconds at her disposal. Whoosh... shazam !

Like mommy like child

Amy isn't falling asleep yet, but her mommy (the lady wearing the stripy tights and the pink coat) sings her beautiful songs and tells her nice stories and is always very patient... and that's why Amy has become such a good sleeper...! :-)

Merci pour la famille

Petite famille de bonne humeur ce matin, qui mange son gruau avec appétit. Dans le très court laps de temps qu'il reste entre deux de ses bouchées, Lily me sort une perle de son cru sans lever les yeux de son bol: "Papa, merci pour la famille!"... Rachel et moi sourions, légèrement estomaqués par les curieuses observations qui émanent parfois de cette "grande petite personne". Je lui réponds que ça m'a fait plaisir de faire cette famille :-)

A visit to the pumpkin farm

Enzo, Lou, Lily and Noah pose for Rachel on their day-trip to the pumpkin farm in Île Perreault, under the watchful eye of Anne-Marie, their ultra-competent and beloved "educatrice" from Les Ateliers.
P.S. I think Noah likes Lily ;-)

Premier dessin figuratif

Lily a toujours aimé dessiner. Elle demande régulièrement qu'on lui fournisse du papier et des crayons, ou des pinceaux pour peindre. Cette fois-ci, c'est la première fois que je la vois produire une oeuvre figurative. Une surprise qui a dû germer à la garderie avant d'éclore sur notre table de cuisine...
P.S. "It's mommy."

La tête dans les pommes (2)

Up on the ladder, Lily contributed to the apple-picking effort. We had five bags to fill, and the whole operation was completed in very little time, because the branches were bursting with ripe fruit and the apples were very large.

La tête dans les pommes (1)

Notre visite annuelle au verger de St-Bruno a été bénie d'une température exquise, comme la chair de cette pomme Courtland géante qu'Alice tient entre ses petits doigts. Nous en avons rapporté cinq gros sacs pleins que Rachel a promptement transformé en délicieuse compote.

Pre-teen friendship

Gabriela's second birthday party with a second piñata about to be destroyed by her good friends, the fearless Lily and herself.

Lily in the Sky with Diamonds

Favorite dress, favorite necklace, favorite sunglasses... no lipstick (yet!)

Le bonheur d'une cascade au fond des bois

Let me dive into the bubbles, daddy!

Les meilleurs jouets du monde

beding, bedang... et toujours à portée de la main!

Oubliez la Coupe du Monde...

... le bonheur, C'EST ÇA !

A surprise for Gabriela

Daddy installed a new "hammack-chair" in Gabriela's room and mommy and I are trying it out for our evening suckle. I hope Gabriela likes it when she comes back from New York tomorrow because it's daddy's third attempt to find a comfortable one. At least I think it's comfortable — as does (and is) my mommy! :-)

102°F in the garden

Lilyboo was feeling under the weather today. She started feeling feverish in the morning and got hotter as the day went on. Flowers, books and food were served around an improvised bed that daddy set up for her in the yard, to make things more fun than lying in her bedroom while life (i.e. baby Alice) was going on around her...

At last, a Tricycle !

Enfin, enfin, enfin, j'ai mon tricycle!! Ça fait des semaines que j'en parle avec mon papa et ma maman, à tous les jours, et ils n'avaient pas l'air de comprendre que c'est VITAL pour un enfant de mon âge. Ce n'est pas juste un caprice pour avoir un autre jouet parmi d'autres (je ne suis pas du tout comme ça) — c'est LE jouet par excellence quand on a 2 1/2 ans et qu'en plus c'est l'été! Comment suis-je sensée me rendre à l'école, comme Gabriela, si je n'ai pas mon tricycle !?
[Ne riez pas, la langue sortie c'est juste pour la concentration...]

I want to see Fofo and Gabriela

Lily s'ennuie de ses grandes soeurs... qui sont en train de se la couler douce sur les plages de Long Island en compagnie de leur grandmaman Lastenia, leurs tantes Flor Mercredes et Irene et leur super-tonton Juancho!
[¡ Gracias Juancho por la foto !]

I want to see Meo

Meo told me on the phone that she couldn't come with us for a stroll to the park... she said she would have to take a plane and wouldn't be able to make it on time. "Could Meo see this?" I asked instead to my daddy today when I finished my painting... and he said "Yes, on the Internet, she could!". So here it is.

Hot Canada Day in the pool

Thanks to the infamous gang of back alley cats that keep congregating in our yard at night and who've ruined both small inflatable pools mommy bought for me and Alice, daddy finally had to get a BIG non-inflatable pool and now our whole family of six can sit in the water at once! Youpi!

P.S. Contrary to what the colours of my suit might lead you to think, I am not a supporter of the Swedish national football team. In fact, I'm rooting for France at the World Cup and despite what my big sister Gabriela and everybody else thinks, I assure you France will beat even the mighty Brazilians this afternoon!

Portugal wins !

Lily: "I'm not sure what happened exactly but we were all happily enjoying ourselves in uncle Paul-Antoine's living room, Alice and I playing with toys on the ground and the others watching something on the television, when suddenly they all yelled and bolted out of the house to go invade the streets on their bicycles! Gabriela was on her new yellow bicycle, wearing a funny flag fixed onto her new helmet... I stayed put, thinking my game looked like more fun than theirs."

Argentina wins !

"Lily is dancing, Lily is a dancer" says Lily every day these days... This particular performance is given for the admiring eyes of aunt Paula and mommy Rachel, while Paul-Antoine and Gabriela are hitting a soccer ball with their heads and daddy is cooking supper on the turkish grill... all in celebration of Argentina's 2-1 victory over Mexico (or maybe in celebration of happy family gatherings).

Summer solstice

"Fun season" is with us again... are you ready for take off? Alice is, anyway, and the big girls are planning an all-nighter in their sleeping bags and in Alex's parents' tent in the back yard. Oh what glee!

School's out! (part 2)

Lily: "Fofo is hosting a supper + all-night-camping-in-a-tent in our backyard garden to celebrate with her best friends the end of their second year of high school, and Alice and I are right in there, not missing a beat. Who says I can't take part in a teenage conversation in French — as a matter of fact, I'm leading it !"

School's out !

Alice: "My big sister Gabriela is showing daddy the new dress she and her mommy made for her graduation ball and I'm making sure everything is spanking clean and perfect, right down to the shine on her shoes!"

Just watch me

A look of determination in her eyes, Alice thinks: "My two older sisters walked at 10 months, my hypercautious third sister Lily walked at a whopping 14 months... I'm only 8 1/2 months old and standing strong already. Just watch me!"

Alice upright

From squatting up and down everywhere she can to standing up aided and unaided, our little Alice is fast aquiring the upright posture of a soon-to-be-walking baby... [Alice seen here in our backyard and at a picnic during the Bal en blanc organized at Lily's daycare.]

Lily's tea parties

"Let's have a tea party", proposes Lily almost every other day. She then whips out her finest plastic china out of the transparent backpack she received for Christmas, and sets the table for many guests, most notably mommy (and sometimes daddy when he's not washing the real dishes or taking pictures like right now). "Would you like some milk in your juice lemonade, mommy?" asks Lily on this one.

p.s. Lily's English has improved immensely since her trip to Meo and Doco's house. To the point where her mastery of the tricky English prepositions is now leaving her dad confounded. She says things like "Lily is serving up some supper"... what's the use of that "up" word, I wonder - I've never used that phrase, yet I sense she's got it right! :-)

p.p.s. the person in pink is just a GC (gate crasher), she's not yet on Lily's official guest list...

Mommy's garden

This is me, Alice, playing with my super high-tech cellphone. It's got great features: it's saliva-resistant and the antenna can handle any amount of pulling and pushing. But let's forget the cellphone, this is all about the GARDEN. This is a wonderful place my mom has created in our backyard where Lily and I can play for hours. To give you an idea of how much space we have to play with, look at this aerial shot my father took from the third floor balcony! Isn't it nice? all this green lawn to roll around in...
and thank you again, Doco, for believing in our lawn and grooming it so well last year... it is really happy now. Just like me 95% of the time. [the other 5% is when my big sister Lily grabs toys away from me, but I don't stay sad for very long... maybe we're talking more like 1% really].

La Fête de Mai

After a very nice day at Taïtaï and Papi's place celebrating Papi's 75th birthday, we accompanied Louis, Louise, Raphaël and Charlotte to the annual May Fair at their Waldorf school. A very hot and sunny and festive affair it was! Lots of games, shows, craftsmen, healthy food and spring rituals, like this dance around the May Pole.

Bonne fête Papi et Vive l'été!

Comme c'était le cas à chaque année durant toute mon enfance, le jour exact de l'anniversaire de mon papa - le 24 mai - annonce invariablement le début de l'été. A l'époque, à St-Bruno, cela coïncidait avec la floraison du pommettier en face de la maison. Ici, dans notre cour sur la rue Fabre, on marque le coup avec un premier souper en plein air après deux semaines de pluie. Youpi, bonne fête Papi! - de la part de Alice, Lily, Gabriela, Flor, Rachel et moi :-)

Se tailler une place...

"Baby Alice come play with Lily" said she. But exactly what Alice was invited to play with once she had joined Lily in her room wasn't altogether clear. "No, don't touch, baby Alice", no to this, no to that, no, no, no. Yet Alice is slowly emerging from her "inert doll" status into a potential playing companion in the eyes of Lily, especially when nobody else is around to play with. In this instance, the nobody was me (daddy), too busy washing the dishes (between camera shots, that is)...

Youpi ! Lily est de retour !

Ma petite princesse est revenue. Elle a oublié tous ses mots de français mais en revanche son anglais est peuplé de nouveaux mots et d'impressionnantes tournures de phrases apprises chez sa Meo adorée. Elle a fait un merveilleux voyage, s'est comportée comme une grande dans tous ces avions, voitures et aéroports. Elle a savouré à plein sa semaine sous le soleil de New Denver et s'est découvert une fascination pour la danse en voyant sa mère performer pour la première fois dans un spectacle! Vive la vie!

Youpi ! Alice est de retour !

Elle a deux petites dents, elle est légèrement bronzée, elle a un peu plus de cheveux, elle mange de tout ou presque, elle se tient debout toute seule ou presque, ma chère Alice est revenu nous enchanter de ses gazouillis joyeux, de son large sourire et de ses "dadada" enthousiastes. Quelle charmante petite boule d'énergie positive elle fait, ma petite cocotte d'amour!

Bonne Fête des (belles) Mères, Rachelou!

Dernier concert de Gabriela

Les 6e années de l'École Le Plateau ont livré leur dernier concert de l'année, et de leur cours primaire, jeudi dernier à l'auditorium de l'école. Gabriela a joué, chanté, flûté, marché sur des échasses et interprété un court numéro humoristique avec ses copines Annie, Delphine et Romy.
L'ambiance était survoltée, à croire que l'école était finie et que tous ces jeunes n'allaient pas entrer en période d'examens du ministère dès lundi... Vive la jeunesse folle et insouciante!

Between two princesses: who gets to decide?

E-mail from Rachel: "Mum, Candy, Molly and Lily went to the park this morning while I was at the chiropractor having my neck worked on (I am amazed to say that she, the chiropractor, did wonders for my neck which is almost not sore anymore!). Lily and molly are doing very well together this year.
Thomson said to me the other day "Molly always gets to decide what they are doing" but Lily is quite happy to charge along in the wake of her big cousin. They were very excited at getting to ride in this wagon together though of course they both wanted to sit on the same end. Good for Lily to be on the receiving end of a bigger person who doesn't want to share. I am hoping that she will be able to understand Alice's frustration better. I may be too hopeful." Maybe... :-)

À Bellingham avec Montréal Danse...

Magnifique photo reçue à l'instant par un courriel de Rachel:
This is a picture of Lily and Annik at the picnik that was held for us at the house of the director of the dance department in Bellingham. The sort of place that reminds me of the Slocan valley with rather ramshackel constructions built here and there in a beautiful spot. Most of the dancers will stay there during the residency with fred and Peter living in the little house that you see on the photo. Lily was thrilled to be at a picnik and to explore around with first her ma and the meo and then Annik. In this picture she had just taken Annik to see the fish and they were heading off in search of flowers. The camera ran out of juice at this point so that was the extent of my picture taking. Alice slept through the party.
Yesterday, April 29th Alice pierced her first tooth though it will be a while before it is big enough to show up in a picture so you will just have to take my word for it.

Les petites voyageuses

Lily, vue ici dans une de ses activités favorites — la peinture — en compagnie de ses cousins Thomson et Molly, est enchantée de son voyage chez Meo et Doco. Tout semble baigner dans l'huile autant pour elle que pour sa soeur Alice et pour sa maman, à ce que Rachel me dit: le voyage en avion avec les deux petites, l'aller-retour Vancouver-Bellingham en voiture, les sorties à la plage au bord de la mer, les dodos, etc... tout se passe dans la joie et la bonne humeur! [soupir de soulagement du papa semi-coupable]
Grand merci à Meo et Doco d'être si disponibles pour encadrer ma petite marmaille! :-)