Santa Baby

Finally finally finally! Sorry about the lack of updates - turns out Christmas is busy... go figure.

The photo above was taken by my Father-in-law while they were babysitting last weekend. Santa with ATTITUDE.

We got this video of Liliane combining her current favourite pastimes: walking EVERYWHERE and sporting this ultra-stylish Elmo-pelt scarf. Enjoy. (No muppets were harmed in the making of this movie.)



This is how I originally started this post a good two or three weeks ago:

Kamik winter boots, size 5, good to minus 32 degrees: $40

Socks from MEC: $8

Patagonia micro-fibre long underwear ensemble: $55

MEC polar fleece tuque and mittens: $25

Keeping your baby warm and cozy when it's minus 25 degrees: PRICELESS.


It seemed ever so much wittier then. Like right after we bought all that stuff and realized that our child is way more prepared for winter than we EVER will be...

Actually, right after I took the picture of the mittens and tuque, our trusty little Cybershot slipped out of my hand and landed, lens out, on my sock foot. This terrible fall (of two feet at the most) has so destroyed our camera, it will cost me more to fix it than to simply buy a new one. Guess who will be shopping for a new Cybershot after Christmas?! Maybe I can get a pink one this time :)

We got Liliane an advent calendar that is made up of 24 tiny books that can be hung on the tree once they have been read each day. It's really adorable and since it's re-usable, I'm hoping it will be a nice tradition that we've started. You know those beloved Christmas decorations that we remember from our childhood?

Once we read the book of the day, she knows to go into the bedroom to hang it on the little tree. It's crazy cute actually.

Gratuitous photo of having fun on Papa's shoulders...

My Dad came back for another quick visit last week. His suitcase was filled with presents for Liliane which are now taking up all the space under our tree. But we're not bitter. I would like to have a photo to show you of the tree, but please people, it's only December 23rd. The paparazzi comes out tomorrow.

Anyway, Liliane got a belated birthday gift from my Auntie Jean in B.C. and we took a few photos to show her that it fits!

It's almost midnight now and luckily I'm off tomorrow, (until the 2nd! Yay!) however my Christmas Eve TO DO list is pretty long... Liliane's presents are wrapped but Stéphane's are not. Got a couple of things to cook plus I have to make sure that our sushi place will be open late enough so we can order dinner from there. Plus we cleverly did an email Christmas card again this year although I still haven't sent it out. Unless you already got it in which case, you can thank my husband for that...

Hope visions of sugarplums are dancing in your heads everyone! As a still-rookie Maman I'm learning to enjoy a simpler, scaled down version of Christmas. So what if there a few items not crossed off the list? No big deal. It's still Christmas, it's still a wonderful time of the year, you can make it as important as you want. Or not. As for me, I am reflecting on 2008 and counting my blessings.

In case I don't get a post up for another three weeks, I wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Christmas Parade!

Montréal has a big fancy Christmas parade every year in November and while it seems like it would be a fun family outing, it was a little too cold for us that day. Luckily, there is a much smaller (but still cool) Santa Claus parade in our neighbourhood that happened last weekend when it wasn't minus 15. Always a bonus when you're hanging around outside with a 1-year old.

The parade started with horses, natch:

Followed by the official Christmas pooper-scooper!

Then we had all the usual suspects...

These guys are running in the provincial election we're about to have out here. Can I vote Obama?

Politics. Meh.

(Note her new to us Burberry snowsuit that Manon passed along. Nice, right?)

Liliane was into the sled dogs:

And these folk dancers:

And this guy:

Oh my goodness! It's Toupie and Binou! Our - I mean - Liliane's favourite cartoon characters!

I was trying to show enthusiasm for her sake. I mean, it's all about the kids, right?

There was even something special for the nerds:

Check out my festive red light sabre!

Nerd-in-training?

Look! It's Santa's accountant!  Her name is Scroogia McCrankypants.  She doesn't show up much in Santa's entourage...

And the big man himself...

Auto family portrait:

And that was the parade! Lots of fun, no frostbite, everyone was happy.

Otherwise, we're swinging into Christmas gear with lists and baking and parties and the whole thing. Stéphane's work party is tomorrow night already and he's excited and nervous about screening his project for everyone that he's been working on. I think it's going to go over BRILLIANTLY and he'll stagger in at 4AM full of compliments and all around good cheer. And relief. And red wine.

On Sunday I got to hang out with my pal Deb who drove in for the day from Ottawa. We went to the mall to do some very relaxed Christmas shopping (a bizarre but completely enjoyable sensation! Try it this season!) and some very much needed girltalk/catching up. I also put up our new solar powered Christmas lights on the front balcony on Sunday which seem to work about half of the time so far. I'll get the good old fashioned electric ones up on the back balcony this weekend.

Our new cleaner came today! She is not only sweet but it turns out that she does a great job. She even folded our toilet paper into a fancy point! I can already tell that my naive plan of having her come once a month will be scrapped. I booked her to come two more times before Christmas. Did I mention that she will clean my oven?!! 

My plan was to now get the Christmas decorations up but it's already 10:30 and here I am typing away so I guess they will wait until tomorrow. Or the weekend. 

Liliane is walking around more and more these days and looking less and less like Frankenstein when she does it. She says Papa more and more and seems to be a little less crazy about me in that she doesn't freak out when I leave the room, etc.  Phewf.

Will do my best to keep up over the next month or so. I should have my other baby back from the shop soon (my Canon Rebel camera) so I'll breathe easier once she's all fixed up and ready to go for the non-stop photo op that is Christmas... Also Stéphane's birthday is coming up! If anyone feels like babysitting, please drop me a line!

One Small Step for Lilane, One Giant Step for Parental Pride

Breaking news! Took this last night. Sorry about the loud audio commentary....

Baby Reunited with Grandfather, Maman... Who?

Gosh it was hard to get Liliane to warm up to my Dad when he was here this week...

She wasn't really that interested in him, you know?

She only wanted to hang out with Maman, her hero.

Ah ha! He gave her some Perrier! NOW she'll want to get down for SURE!

Yeah, not so much.

I clearly interrupted an inside joke for this one. Of all the nerve.

She had ALL KINDS of things to tell him.

Not ONE MOMENT where she tried to get down and come to me. Not one.

Which is the goal, right? Independant and happy children? I guess :)

It was completely adorable watching the two of them hang out. After we dropped her off at daycare the next morning, she apparently didn't sleep a wink at naptime and babbled all afternoon. I'm sure she was telling everyone all about her GRANDPA and how he came all the way from VANCOUVER and brought her a new pink SNOWSUIT and some new PJs and a SPARKLY BIRTHDAY CARD and gave her some MINERAL WATER and CHANGED HER DIAPER in the morning and let her play with his BLACKBERRY and made her LAUGH ALL THE TIME and who knows what other baby details... She was a little sad when we got home that night I think. I was a little sad too, baby and Grandpa misses you already!

We had a great, albeit short visit but it was such a treat! I got to have TWO MEALS at actual RESTAURANTS with GROWNUPS. Sorry about the excessive use of caps for emphasis, but I REALLY MISS THAT. Really.

Liliane is on the mend, although we're skipping swimming lessons again this week just in case. It's pretty chilly out today, a good minus 15 with the wind. The cold that she so kindly shared with both of her parents is really dragging on although it's not as bad as it was. Is it possible that we will all be free of viral infections in the near future? Although, tomorrow she and I have our flu shots so I'm bracing myself for another round of random, barfy side effects...

I found these photos in my camera:

Delicious grapefruit, goat cheese and pecan salad from last week. It's like eating sunshine!


Also last weekend we opened up this doll that she got for her birthday and she went crazy! It's hard to see in this picture, but baby has a soother attached to her shirt that you can put in her mouth and Liliane is obsessed with it.

Baby also goes in the bath! Hours of fun, people. Thanks for her Aunt Danielle and Uncle André as well as to our pal Manon who each gave us the same one. The baby is a keeper!

So we went to our new pediatrician last weekend and were so happy with our experience. Sure we waited an hour in the waiting room, but it was tidy and sort of efficient and our doctor is really, really lovely. She took her time getting all of Liliane's information and her history, she didn't make us feel rushed, she was sweet with her and obviously LIKES kids. Her diagnosis? Overall, Liliane is perfect. I'm not kidding, those are the exact words she used! Her eyes are totally fine although she gave me a referral to an ophthalmologist just to put my mind at rest. (Cataract surgery will do that to a person).

This weekend Stéphane is busy editing so Liliane and I will be taking it easy. Aside from our flu shots we have a couple of social events to attend and I will be bringing my other baby, our Canon Rebel camera, to the shop again to try and fix the same flash problem. Grrr. I might have to get a little Piercy on them (as Stéphane would say) because I missed some great shots this week.

A few more errands to do on this my child-free day (already got a haircut and got the groceries) so I'm off! Enjoy your weekend everyone, do something that is relaxing AND Christmassy because soon those two things may become mutually exclusive...