Nothing Christmasy

I've been enjoying the first of my 3 weeks (well-deserved and earned!) vacation!  First trip to Grandma's house with the kids over the weekend.  Bunked in with Jillian, who unfortunately was getting a cold, so I know I got sneezed on at night.  Good thing I have Kleenex with lotion stocked everywhere in the house and 2 in the car!  Call me paranoid, but nothing drives me bonkers more than having a runny nose, and nothing to catch it with!  (oh no, I just punned!)

Today, I bussed downtown, hung out at Chapters, got a massage, then hung out again at Chapters, before bussing back to pick up the family.  Heaven!  Did I mention that I was alone?  And that I was on the Express bus, which is full of serious (and quiet) commuters who are still waking up and heading to work, eagerly awaiting their caffeine fix?  Then tired at the end of the day(the caffeine crash probably helps also), so they're quiet again?

Today I picked up Susan from the daycare and she was giving a bottle to a baby (the baby is a year old, and I saw the baby slap away the bottle when she didn't want anymore).
Ahem...anyway, Susan was being very careful holding the bottle, and kept on stroking the baby's hair and cheek.  Then Susan looked at me with a look of utter contentment, telling me. "Maman, c'est mon bébé (Mommy, it's my baby)".  She would have made a great big sister!  It's funny, she's such a bundle of energy all by herself, but with a baby, she'll calm right down and be super-gentle and sensitive!

I picked up a couple of Kumon workbooks for Jillian, and was excited about giving her the Addition one because during the drive to Grandma's, we did mental math (9+2, 11+3, etc).  I picked up the Telling Time as well, since she's been nagging us incessantly to tell her what time it is!  So when we got home, I told her that I had a surprise for her.  She went to my bag and fished the books out, then examined the Addition one.  After a few minutes of looking at the pages, she turned to me and asked,
Jillian-"Where's the take-away?"
Me-"You mean subtraction, Jillian?"
J-"Yeah!"
M-"It's at the store, but I can get it for you later.  You can practice adding with this book."
J-"Oh."

I am depriving my child of the thrills of subtraction-the HORROR!

Then she continues to scrutinize the Addition book, looks at a page near the end, and declares, "But I don't know how to do this one!"  (It's the 17+8 kind, where she'll have to carry a number).  I reassured her that I would help her, and that we would do the easy ones first at the beginning.  She didn't look convinced.

Lest you think I forgot I have a 2nd child, I picked up the Tracing book.  I think that's all she'll have the patience for at first!  Plus, Susan loves copying whatever Jillian does, so why not?

Is it really a week away from Christmas?  I have to find the presents that I've hid before I can wrap them.  Last year was a bit of a fiasco, as I have the nasty habit of hiding things where I won't forget, and promptly having NO clue as to where I put them!  Finding them in March wasn't as fun as you might think....

Jillian-ism

I was out with Jillian yesterday and we went to the same mall where we saw Santa.  As we walked past, I pointed out Santa to her.  Her reply?

"I saw him already!"

Same thing when I was trying to get her to write to Santa about what she wanted for Christmas... "I told him already!"

She doesn't like doing the same thing twice...

Sad Susan

Jillian made cookies today and brought 2 home to share with Susan.  Susan was so excited at getting a cookie for dessert!  That is, until Jillian picked a cookie for Susan.  One of them looked like a Christmas tree, and nicely decorated (for a 5 year old).  The other one looked like it *wanted* to be a tree and not as pretty.

You guessed right, Susan's cookie wasn't as pretty.  She sobbed, wanting to have the 'good' cookie.  Jillian didn't notice and kept on munching away on the cookie. Then when we asked Susan if she wanted to put the cookie down and go play, she cried, "No"  *sniff*.

I've never seen a kid looking so sad eating a cookie.  I also had to hold in my laughter!  Should have taken a picture!

Getting ready for Christmas

December 1st was the beginning of the Christmas season for us-I just can't bring myself to decorate before then.

Yesterday, we went to visit Santa and enjoyed the decorations at the mall.  We got there early in the morning, so the kids were in a prime spot when Santa came down the escalator ringing his Christmas bells.  Susan insisted on wearing a tiara with her dress, and both kids were fine sitting down with Santa.  Not too much conversation, but at least they weren't screaming in his ear like a few other kids I saw!

Then we headed to look for a decoration for the Christmas tree.  Both girls get their own ornament each year, and when they grow up, they'll be able to decorate their trees with the ornaments they've grown up with.

Today, we put up the tree, played some Christmas music, and the kids decorated.  The upper end of the tree is a bit sparse, but it's cute.

Jillian decided on her own to write a letter to Santa.  I told her to write down what she wanted, and her response?  "I told him already!"  She had me there...

The girls are sharing an advent calendar.  It was fine today because we had forgotten yesterday about giving it out.  But tomorrow is Jillian's turn, and Susan will have to wait until the 4th...this could get interesting!  I'll let Michael deal with it-ha ha!

I have 2 girly-girls

The other day, I was at home with the girls.

Susan decided that I *had* to put my earrings on-I had them on my nightstand because it hurts my head to sleep with them on.  She handed them to me and waited until I had put them both in.  Then she was happy.

Then I was brushing Jillian's hair for school.  I put it in pigtails, and she got really upset!  She kept repeating, "I don't like it!" and was trying to pull them out.  So I took them out and she put on a headband with a big flower glued to it.  Then she went to the mirror and decided that she was happy.  (she never does this when I get her ready for daycare!).

That day when Jillian got home, she asked me for earrings.  Oy!

Pre-K and Reading

Jillian loves the days when she waves goodbye to Susan and me, and goes with Michael to school together.

Susan, on the other hand....
On Tuesday, we all left the house at the same time, and as we were heading in different directions, Susan started wailing.  I hit the brakes (wasn't going that fast) and was concerned that she was hurt.  Turns out she wanted to "go with Daddy and Jillian."  I guess that makes me liver, right?  Susan was not her normally bubbly self...she was quiet all the way to the sitter, and plodded up the steps.  She then hugged the babies when she got in, but was pretty bummed!  I didn't have the heart to tell her that she's got a year and a half to go!

Jillian gets to take library books out once a week and has reading for homework.  She loves reading as much as I do-phew!  She reads and re-reads the book* until she can read it all by herself-hooray!  I asked her if she wanted to write out the words in the story too, and she was happy to do it...for a little bit!

And now Susan wants to get in on the action too, just like big sister.  When Jillian was done, Susan wanted to read every word out loud, and I was happy to oblige.  Jillian settled down with Michael to read some books that he had picked up just for her.

This was awesome perfect, and it was exactly what I had imagined when I thought of becoming a parent.

*The book goes something like:
The cat is on the hat.
The cat is on my lap.

Jillian's First Day of School!

It was awesome!  I think I wasn't emotional because Michael brought her himself, and he's nearby teaching another class, so really, easy peasy!

Last weekend, we went shopping for a backpack.  When we got to the store, she immediately asked for a purple backpack.  She was so proud of herself once she saw what it looked like on her.  Michael asked her why she picked purple, and she replied that it would be just like Dora's backpack!  What a kid!

We went on Monday to meet her classmates and she was so excited to go there!

She was playing in the sandbox and accidentally threw sand in her own face-ouch!  The kindergarten teacher helped me clean it up as she saw how panicky I was getting.  Jillian calmed right down-awesome!

Today, she was waiting and ready at the door for 15 minutes-we had to tell her to take her boots off!  Then both girls said good-bye to each other, which is a rare thing, and it's not usually all day like that either!  Susan was quiet and pensive in the car, which is not usually her trait, and as soon as she saw me tonight, she declared that Jillian and Daddy were home.  It was cute that they missed each other.

Jillian had a huge smile on her face, and did her homework with excitement-reading a book!  I read, then she read, then we looked at the spelling of the words, then she wrote out a few sentences in the book.  (the last 2 things were me being hyper-excited, but I made sure not to pressure her, and kept it fun.)  It was so cool to hear her read to me!  Kudos goes to Michael for reading to the kids every night before bed.

The next class isn't until next week, but I'm happy that she's had such a great start!

Baking with Susan

I made some cupcakes for Michael's class for tomorrow, and Susan was very interested once she saw the cake mix box!  I decided to let her help me crack a few eggs.  First she helped me, then I let her do one herself.  I could feel Michael cringing at the thought of splattered egg across the kitchen but Susan was pretty good with hitting the egg against the edge of the bowl.  And only 2 small pieces of egg shell that I had to pick out!

Then she wanted to eat cupcakes right away-and the batter was still runny!  I got her shooed out of the kitchen, and returned with Jillian in time to see the first batch of frosted cupcakes.  Of course they wanted to eat cake right away, but we told them that they had to eat dinner first.

Jillian clued in first, shouting, "I want dinner please!"  We laughed and they had the tiniest serving of dinner before they were hollering for cake.  Turns out they weren't interested in my baking...it was the frosting and sprinkles!  Gah!

How old are you?

Jillian likes to announce that she's five years old now.  The other day in the car, she asked me how old I was.  I replied "32", then she burst out laughing.

sigh.

Away for too long.

And I do apologize. A lot has happened over the last year.

Our move this past summer went smoother than I thought.  Luckily, a lot of stuff was packed because we were prepping the house for sale, but I was still astounded that we had a living room composed entirely of boxes!  Thank goodness my brothers, mom and her husband were there to help!  On the quest to free our living room, we got rid of over 20 boxes of stuff.  Funny thing is, if you asked me to name things I gave away, I would really have to think about it.  Oh hang on, first thing that comes to mind is some extra measuring cups.

I really do like the new place.  It's closer to town, and our driveway is a smaller, more shovel-able too!   The girls are sharing a room, and although I was apprehensive about it at first, they actually settle down to bed pretty quickly.

 Jillian is getting ready to start kindergarten in a couple of weeks. She's excited about starting school and meeting new friends. Her speech is coming along nicely, and we'll even speak together in French once in a while. She tried skiing this past winter, and although it was a bit of a rough start, she's looking forward to hitting the slopes next year! I'm looking forward to doing it as a family activity. I must admit I was a bit jealous sitting on the sidelines!

Susan is a little bundle of energy. Anything Jillian does, Susan's right behind her. And the kid laughs at everything.  Eating breakfast, running in circles, singing songs.  And if she does cry, it's rarely for more than 5 minutes.  Susan liked skiing as well, although she didn't like walking back to the chalet afterwards!

Together, the girls play and communicate well, which I enjoy watching.  They love their Disney princesses, and will dress up at any opportunity.  We took them to Disney on Ice and they went bonkers over it!

Michael started work at the school where he started kindergarten!  I think it's cute how he's come full circle.

I'm still studying French full time, and I'm proud of my progress, although with my naturally impatient nature, I wish I knew it all immediately!  I do love being able to have conversations in French now and not fumbling the way I used to over grammar and vocabulary.  Naturally, I still make mistakes, and I think I confused the poor girl at the gym I go to, due to mixing up some verb tenses.  But it is appreciated that I do try to speak French to Francophones.  Just please don't ask me to speak any Mandarin...I've forgotten what little I've learned!

Okay, that's us in a nutshell.  Have a good weekend!

First Hockey Game

For the girls, that is. We took them to the Ottawa 67s game today, and both girls enjoyed themselves for different reasons.

Jillian had a lot of fun watching the game, cheering on the players, chanting along with the crowd. Michael was in heaven!

Susan had the attention span of a gnat! She managed to stay still for the anthem and the first 5 minutes of play, then I ended up walking around with Susan for 1/2 of the first period, and most of the second! We left after the second period, while the going was good, and the kids were still happy. Jillian ended up chanting the 67s song all the way home!

Christmas

It is so wonderful to be wished a Merry Christmas by your children. They say it with enthusiasm. They both love Christmas. We decorated our Christmas tree tonight. They both were so excited. I would tell them to be careful with an ornament that was breakable. Then anytime they saw any shiny ornament, they would say, "You have to be careful." Jillian kelt saying Merry Christmas. I would hand out ornaments to the kids to hang and Idania would be taking pictures and video.

It was a really nice moment. I hope the rest of Christmas is as wonderful.

Apple Zombie

...or Apple vampire?

Anyway, long story short, the whole family is hooked on the iPad, including the kids. Let's just say that I think that the crayons are obsolete now....but...the funniest part was Susan. She would draw a line with her finger (lets say in blue), then she would look at her index finger in amazement to see where the blue ink came from. She did it a few times, and it was hilarious every time. I'll be sorry when she takes it for granted though. It's too cute.

Speaking of vampires, we went trick-or-treating last week and the kids were really good! We went to 3 streets and we only stopped because I was tired of carrying Susan up the stairs of all the houses. Jillian had her routine all set; ring bell, say "trick or treat", then "merci". We are in a bilingual neighbourhood after all! I hope the neighbours appreciated it.

I was saddened to learn that Popeye cigarettes are now Popeye's candy sticks-they even removed the red tip! I don't think that they influenced me much though...I still think cigarettes are gross. But the candy version...yummers!

The unpacking is almost done- we have a living room now! We've all settled in pretty well to the new place, including the girls. It still feels weird having neighbours again after spending so much time in the country. The guy down the street has his Christmas decorations out already! I think I'll settle for an indoor tree myself.

Last time at the old house

Just a little bit of cleaning up in the basement. It was so odd seeing the house so empty. And a big change from when we moved in, because it was d.i.r.t.y. and the people we bought it from still had some of their....stuff...in the house.

Anyway, I am proud that we left the house in better shape than when we received it.

I took in the view one more time from 'our' property, and enjoyed the sunset and the quiet. I said Hello to Bobby the Dog next door, and went to the post office to talk to the lady there. I was there without Michael and the kids, so it was pretty peaceful.

Oh, and I found that damn cricket! It was making noises 2 months ago-it snuck in somehow-and it was in a bit of a sorry state when I found it. It was crawling around it's friend, who had died earlier. I happened to have a box on me...cricket pancake. Mean? Possibly. But it's out of its misery now.

In other news, the kids are great at mimicking me now. The other day I called Michael. Similar to a yodel... "Michael!" And both kids decide to copy me, same tone and everything!

What do I call this?

The mountain?
The carnage?
The Before picture?

Well, as you can tell, we've sold our house and moved. One of the things that is recommended before you sell a house is to de-clutter so your house seems bigger, more airy, etc. So we did(or so we thought!), and threw what was left over in our garage. How handy was that? A large chunk of our house was already pre-packed!

Then it all got moved into our living room. Hem. The good(sad?) thing is that the pile was *bigger* when we moved in!

What's in this pile? Well, that massive box on the left is empty...I call it a recyclable, but recycling day isn't for another 10 days. The rest? I'd like to call it a little bit of high school, some university, and my twenties- ha ha!

Hm, off the top of my head, I'd say books, DVD's, CD's, and my iPod circa 2004 is hiding in there-it still works and I still use it, even though my co-worker laughed at me when I proudly announced that it had a *colour* screen! :)

Halloween costumes, photo albums, paper...I have an odd fascination with paper. Paperwork, notebooks, receipts, cards, and the odd paperclip. Oh, and random things we brought back from Taiwan!

Anyway, now that I've publicly shamed myself, Michael and I will be picking away at this pile until we get our living room back! But the good thing is, it's in our face, rather than hidden in the basement, so we have to deal with it now, instead of scrambling next summer before we move again.

Anyone want to make any bets as to when the last box will be dealt with? Is one month too optimistic? Is two months more realistic?

Advice? A large yard with a match? (I kid! I kid!)

Wish us luck!

End of summer already?

Hm, the summer has passed in a flash of French. I can laugh at the version of myself that showed up March 1st, declaring that she would be finished before the end of August!

Today was a bit of an emotional day; we said goodbye to Jillian's speech therapist. She's been with us for the last 2 years, and I give her a lot of credit for the progress that Jillian has made. We have made arrangements with a new speech therapist, and I hope that the next year will go well.

Next, we got haircuts for the girls, and I'm pretty happy with the results-I admire anyone that cuts hair for squirmy kids!

After that, we wandered over to the sports store, where there were bicycles on sale. The girls tried a couple of them out, and immediately liked the 2-wheeler with training wheels. Michael was in another part of the store, and when I saw him coming, I got Jillian to start riding towards him-and she had a huge smile of pride and accomplishment on her face. How can you resist?

The funniest thing about today, was that their bicycle helmets cost more than their bikes! Safety first, eh?

Next stop was to buy a digital conversion box for our TV. I swear that we are the last of the rabbit-ear people! So we hooked it up, and we are the proud owners of ...ONLY 2 STATIONS? Well, the deadline for digital conversion doesn't happen until next week, so we'll just check it again next week. I figured that it will pay for itself in 2 months, and truthfully, if we do get cable/satellite, I *know* that I will spend too time watching HGTV!

Also, our house has been officially sold for a while now. We found another house to rent this year; it's close to Michael's work, and I can Walk.To.The.Bus.Stop! A 5-minute walk beats 1/2 hour drive to the bus stop any day of the week!

There's probably a few other things that I have forgotten to mention, but I'm tired and cranky.

Happy weekend!

5 months and counting...

Of French! Well, 5 months and 11 days. I still can't believe that I'm learning something new everyday. It seems to be mostly made up of exceptions to the rule. It really shows the mathematician in me when I am constantly asking my teacher, "So this is the rule all of the time, right?" with a hopeful look on my face. Then he smiles and says not 100%. I think I am starting to accept it though.

I can see that I've come a long way, but OMG, am I smart enough yet? Nope.

Will I get there? You betcha!

I got a fortune cookie last week that was awesome: "La patience triomphera." (Patience will triumph.) I have actually kept it in my wallet as a reminder.

3 months and 16 days later...

....and I'm still learning French.

Don't get me wrong, my co-workers (I guess they're still classmates at this stage!), and my teachers have been awesome, and I'm still learning something new every day. Just call me impatient, I thought I would have been super-star awesome by now. But I have reached the level where people don't automatically switch over to English when they hear me talking. (have I said that in a previous post? I have no idea.) I shouldn't be so hard on myself, since I still have a lot of time. Patience, Iago, Patience!

In other news...less than 2 months to go before I see NKOTBSB! I've started practicing my moves, but keep on falling down the stairs when I practice "Step by Step"...hahaha!

We are seeing the end of the tunnel when it comes to diapers!!! The kids are almost dry during the night. Awesome times.

Gymnastics are almost done for them too. They do a warm-up where they run in circles, then we do stretches together. For the last month, it is like pulling teeth to get the girls to do the movements at the same time as the coach. Today, we were in the living room, and we held hands and made a circle. Then the girls started to the stretches and movements that they've been shown all year...buggers! Why don't they do that in class? Jillian will do it if she feels like it, and Susan likes to run away...

Michael's school year is almost over, and he's looking forward to dusting off his golf clubs.

Alright, at the rate I'm going, I will be making my next post in July, so Happy Canada Day! I have yet to determine if I will get to Parliament Hill with the family when Prince William and Princess Catherine show up. (and yes, Buckingham Palace did approve calling her Princess Catherine, so yes, I am a nerd, and yes, a Royal Watcher too!). lol.

Weekend

Apart from the rain, the kids have perked up considerably since that dash to Ottawa to see the doctor. It's almost like their bodies decided, "Ok, mom went through enough trouble to get us to a doctor, so we're going to get better now!". Although there is some coughing still, the moderate fevers are gone, and they have discovered the fascinating arena of body art. Whether it be with markers or ink (any ballpoint will do!), they enjoyed themselves. Let's just hope it all gets off in the bath!

I believe that in April we 'graduated' Susan to her toddler bed-Thomas the Tank Engine. She loved it; she sleeps in. a. train!!! Since then, she has decided that she is done with diapers at night. It took me a week of picking up dry diapers off the floor the next morning to finally get the hint. She's not doing too badly; I would guess a 67% success rate? This also means that I now do the kids' laundry about 2-3 times a week. Thank goodness for Costco and the large sizes of laundry detergent that they sell!

Let me describe Susan's room. Her toddler bed, a double bed, 2 dressers and a nightstand. Did I mention that her bedroom is the biggest and Michael and I have the smallest? Long story...

Another side effect of the toddler bed is her increased mobility. No problem, we have a baby gate in case she decides to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night and 'borrow' the car. The issue at hand is the double bed in her room. It does come in handy a lot, but the last week or so, she's crawled in there about 3 times and went to sleep. I don't have a problem as long as she's sleeping, it's just her 33% fail rate at keeping the bed dry! Easy solution though; a plastic sheet underneath to protect the bed. But it seems like a waste because although she takes up 1/2 of her toddler bed, she takes up 10% of a double bed? I am not looking forward to laundry day in the foreseeable future!

Spring sickness?

It's times like these that I wish that we lived closer to the city!

We've been sick on and off in the house for the last couple of weeks, and it seems to be making the rounds again. Susan had a cough, and then Jillian got it, and in between, Michael was hit pretty hard as well. I just got over 2 weeks of motion sickness as well. That does not sit well when I commute over 2.5 hours a day!

Tonight I picked up the kids at the sitter's around 5:40, and the sitter told me that Jillian was not herself at all today. By the time we got home at 6:10, she was heaving like she was going to puke. In retrospect, it was probably my driving skills that attributed to the heaves! Luckily, our family doctor has an after-hours clinic, so once I made the call, I realized that the appointment left me exactly 1 hour and 15 minutes to get there. Did I mention I live 80km away?

So, back in the car, and luckily for all of us, there is very little in the way of winding roads, so there was no gagging noises from Jillian. We made it with 10 minutes to spare for our 7:25pm appointment. Did I mention that the girls usually go to bed at 7pm? And that the doctor was running a little behind?

The doctor was very nice and very fast. Turns out they have a virus of some sort, so we just have to let it run its course. 5 minutes and $90 later (yes, the doctor was quick!), we were out of there and back in the car around 7:50. Home around 8:50, kids in bed at 9:25.

Have I told you how much I love bananas and how they can make a great meal for kids who are under the weather? Add juice, and presto! Dinner in the car! I managed to finagle 1/2 a banana (due to the frantic run-around before we left the house), and 2 cups of water. Dinner for me! (hm, that doesn't seem right...)

So I figure I have travelled about 300km today in about 4.5 hours. But, to look on the bright side, the kids will be fine in a few days, and I will laugh at this post one day. One day...

Have I also mentioned that I wanted to study French after the kiddies were in bed at 7pm? Oy! Or, "zut alors!"

Well, I'd better sign off before my cold/virus/allergies?/whatever gets worse. At least the sun came out today!

Easter weekend

Phew! A busy weekend!

Low-lights: Shrieking and screaming-now I know why I am slowly going deaf!
-7am is apparently my new sleep-in time, :P
-realizing that Susan goes through toilet paper like hotcakes

Highlights: -great weather
-good times with family
-watching Jillian and Susan hold hands as they were walking across the backyard
-Susan saying "Mommy pretty!",
-watching the girls open my birthday present with the same abandon as when Cinderella's evil stepsisters tore apart her ball gown
-birthday apple pie and birthday ice cream
-getting a bunch summer clothes for the kids for $60 total, as opposed to $140 regular price before taxes! (they don't need to wear shorts, right? :) )
-watching pre- Royal wedding shows!

Here Kitty Kitty...

A friend of ours has 4 newborn kittens at our house and I wanted the girls to "meet" them-they are still at the eyes closed/stumbling around phase. We were able to borrow them for a couple of hours and I was quite excited!

Jillian reacted to them the way she did when Michael showed her the pumpkin guts from her third halloween-like they were icky! She did manage to pet them, but was not keen on holding them at all.

Susan reminded me of the Abominable Snowman from Looney Tunes..you know.."I'm going to hug you and squeeze you and call you George!"

Anyway, she was so excited to pick them up and pet them and hug them and kiss them...hee hee hee...Michael and I were kept busy trying to make sure she didn't squish one! She liked them on her lap at first, but that quickly changed when she learned that they have teeny tiny claws that don't necessarily hurt, but you can *feel* it.

I've got to say, this definitely makes up for being stuck in traffic for 2 hours this morning, and being stuck behind a scooter going 20km under the speed limit for the last 15km of my way home!

Bye Bye Crib

It was time to move Susan out of the crib. She was showing no signs of wanting to climb out (with the subsequent fall and crying that ensues), but the little voice in my head has been pestering me for a while. If I'm not mistaken, it's the same little voice that tells me that I want chocolate chip cookies at 9pm.

This weekend was also the end of their first gymnastics session; Jillian has made huge strides and loves following the same activities as the other kids; no fear on her end! Susan loves going there to play but I think she gets a kick out of running in a big circle, or simply running away so I have to chase her! They got ribbons for completing the course and they were quite proud to carry them around!

Ma Classe de Français

Wow. I thought I was a big shot with learning French. My accent is decent (in my own not-so-humble opinion), so I'll tear through the grammar and be fluent in no time!

Woah Nellie!

The more I'm learning, the more I find I need to learn. I would write a list of what I have learned, but it would take all night, and I need my sleep so my poor noggin can function in the morning! I have also attempted to stop blabbing and actually *think* about how to say things properly.

-By the way, Archie comics are just as funny in French as they are in English.

-When I read Selection (French Reader's Digest), I am as good at figuring out the meaning to obscure words as I am in English (which is to say, not very well...)

-Bescherelle is now online!!! It's a little green book that tells you how to conjugate every single French verb. I was so excited, I hit the like button on my Facebook account!

-And, I can type with French accents without having to think about it-woo! ´`ˆ¨and ç, watch out! I'm not afraid to use you!

Wiggle dance

We were getting the kids ready for their bath, and Susan would have none of it. Today when I reached for her, she ran back a few steps, turned around completely in a circle, then repeated this several times. I started cracking up when I saw her because:

-it's a perfect move because I can't get a good grip on her when I am trying to take her sweater off, and
-she looks like a little wind-up toy that runs straight, turns around, then heads off in a different random direction.

Then I decided to show off the "Daddy will pick you up and Mommy will take off your socks because she can" move.

Yeah, Susan wasn't too crazy about *that* stunt! :)