First (Half) Day of School for Kelden

Kelden started school this afternoon. I was a little anxious because he's been telling us he didn't want to go and had lots of excuses preventing him from not going. My favorite was: "I can't go because I work at Wal-Mart." (He chose that store because it has a toy section). One morning he went outside, to go to work, but quickly realized he couldn't get to the store on foot and needed a vehicle. After that he decided he would go where the truck goes, and work with his Dad!
Eventually, he realized there was no escaping his fate and he decided to try and show some enthusiasm.

He even let me take pictures of him around the school (he liked the blue crayon).

He was a little shy at first, but he went with the teacher without crying or looking back for me so Zack and I just left.

I now wonder if his smile was just for the first day, like Julia. On her second day she had already complained about a sore throat and was crying at the secretary's desk when I came in for my interview with Kelden's teacher. I brought her back to class where (the teacher told me later) she cried most of the morning. She cried herself to sleep in my arms last night and woke up crying this morning. The teacher told me she cried most of the morning again, even if she let her hold her (the teacher's) teddy bears. Julia is already crying that she doesn't want to go to school tomorrow, but she realized that Kelden should be with her at recess since he goes in the morning this time, and that seemed to calm her a bit.
I find it so hard. I feel guilty and wonder if I shouldn't try home schooling!

Happy Birthday Aunt Emily

Aunt Emmy is from California, where it is sunny. That's our inspiration for the cake this year.

Julia added a princess, because Aunt Emmy went to Disneyland for her birthday she said!

We hope she had a good time!

Back to School

Today Julia got up early- before anyone else- as she was excited to start school.

She had chosen her favorite outfit (the white skirt with a Barbie T-shirt -she's slowly moving from princesses to Barbie).

She tried but couldn't hide her stress.

A good thing the whole family was there to give her moral support.

A last hug to Kelden, who doesn't go on the bus with her until next week.

And off she goes with Mr Fern.

We anxiously waited for her all day.

She finally came back and no, she had not cried at all! We're very proud.

We had gone over to the school yesterday to find out who her teacher and classmates would be. She is with Mme Lucie and she is with the friends she wanted to be, so it's all good.
I don't think it will be as smooth with Kelden on Thursday (he starts with half days, that's why he won't take the bus this week). We'll see...

Last Day of Vacation

Tomorrow, Julia starts school again. I think she had a good time this summer, between family visits, the cottage, the library, the YMCA MobYle, the pool, the playgrounds...

One of her favorite park is the "dinosaur park." It takes her almost an hour to get there, but we still went a few times.

 

The library is even further, but she can walk all the way! One time, we went to see their presentation about snakes.

And we also walked a few times to the playgrounds the YMCA MobYle were touring. I think it was a great idea; YMCA staff would come and play with the kids for two hours -for free- in a playground in town and the Red Cross would come by and give a healthy snack. We only made it on time for the snack once though. Hopefully they do it again next year and we're faster!

Julia also played quite a bit with her brother at home, and this time, she will be taking him to school with her!

Good luck for tomorrow Julia!

Zack, 16 months

At 16 months, Zack measures 31 inches for 24 pounds, which puts him below average for both height and weight. I guess he can keep eating snacks...

Apparently, he's also "below average" for communication. According to the nurse's questionnaire, he should know at least 5 words by now but he only says one: "maman." "Maman" also stands for "Papa" and basically everything else. Any other word he tries to pronounce is either incomplete or to be guessed. For example, he will go to the fridge and ask for milk by hissing: "sssssiiiiiiii" which is the beginning of "s'il-te-plaît." I know, he's at least trying to be polite. He actually says "thank you" a lot, well, his version of it: "taime." A contraction of "je t'aime," it stands for "thank you" as well as "je t'aime" of course. "Bye" and "hi" are also interchangeable, especially since he pronounces them the same way: "I"
Oh well, he will learn...

He's not late as far as walking goes (at least compared to his siblings).

And now, for the many people who ask me if I choose the Mohawk style on purpose, the answer is no. It's totally natural and I don't mind it.

I like him just the way he is.

The Canadian Museum of Civilization

After dropping my sister in Montréal, we returned to Ottawa. It was nice to go back to our old ward and see all the people we love there! Our friends the Schulzkes, who I have to say are really wonderful, let us stay with them. On the Monday, they brought us to the Museum of Civilization. Their daughter Geneva, who, like her two older siblings, volunteers at the museum, got us in for free! Thank you!!

As its name indicates, at the museum you learn about civilizations, peoples and countries, which, of course, we rule!

Before touring our empire, let's read at the library and learn some of the customs so we don't offend anyone.

And off we go. Any type of transportation is good.

You can even go on foot, wearing the traditional clog (I think that's the word in English). It reminded me of my dad, who used to own a pair.

You can really tour the world in that museum, but here is just a few examples of the places you can pretend to be in.

At least you don't have to climb that Eiffel Tower...But still, after so much travelling, we'd better stop for some food.

Now that we're full, let's go do some work. Crafts, sewing, painting, shipping, there's no time to waste!

There's so much to do and see at that museum that I think our kids could have stayed the whole week. Hopefully we'll go back soon!

(And just in case you were wondering, the pictures of that day are no so great because we had to use phones, and we're not used to that. Our waterproofed camera got full of water after the water park...)

Granby, QC

My sister was meeting a friend in Montréal and they were going to tour Québec. We had decided to bring her down and thought we would visit some places too. Since Keld hates driving in Montréal, we chose to go to  Granby (which is supposed to be close to Montréal but which feels quite far away with all the construction going on right now). There is a zoo and a water park in the same area and that's where we went.

Zack had a very hard time, but, after 12 hours of mostly crying, tooth #8 was finally visible. After a night in Ottawa, we left for Granby for two days. The first day was, of course, not a nice day, but at least there weren't too many people in the zoo and we got to stroll around undisturbed and see lots of animals.

We even went on a camel ride.

Julia was too scared for the camel ride, she preferred animals who didn't move.

She was brave enough to touch the snake though.

Her favorite animals were the pink flamingos. (I wonder why).

They both liked the little farm.

Even if the weather wasn't our friend, we still went swimming both days. Well, Tata Carole didn't go on the second day. Too cold, she stayed with Zack.

Kelden really enjoyed the little pool.

He also went on the lazy river with me and we joined Julia and Keld at the "little wave pool" 

(they were too scared of the big waves at the other pool)

We went to Sherbrooke for the night. Of course, I forgot to take pictures of our wonderful hosts, the James' but I did take pictures of my kids' favorite activities there.

The two days went by so fast and it was time to leave and say goodbye.

Goodbye zoo...

Goodbye Tata Carole...

Come again soon!!!!