Big Stuff

Hey, what up internet? Long time no... nothing­. Two weeks actually. I wish I could say it was because I've been too busy working on something important like a cure for cancer or even canker sores but that's not it.

My blog silence is due to a number of factors. Here they are in order of significance:

1) Since I irreperably broke the Cybershot (on my sock foot, remember??), let's face it, I haven't been taking as many photos. Not having photos makes me insecure about posting since you're all here to see the kid, right?

2) The child is teething. Wake-up-at-all-hours-and-ONLY-falling-asleep-on-Maman-if-we're-on-the-couch-and-definitely-not-in-your-comfy-bed-holy-cow-how-much-Baby-Tylenol-can-she-TAKE teething. To the point where I have found myself wondering lately if a person can DIE from lack of sleep. Not even from the fallout that comes from not sleeping enough like getting run over by a bus that came out of nowhere or falling into an uncovered manhole or dozing off at the wheel or any of those things. Just from not sleeping enough. Thoughts?

3) We are house shopping! Yes indeed, we are looking for a place to buy so that we can move out of our apartment and fast. About three weeks ago, our elderly downstairs neighbour (who actually used to be our landlord, long story but suffice it is say, we are familiar with her trickery)complained about the noise Liliane makes when she runs around. She in fact attempted to shamelessly draw a direct connection between the frequency of her migraine headaches and the level of boisterousness of our 1-year old. I don't know about you guys, but telling my baby to keep it down when she's only 1-YEAR-OLD is not my idea of a good time. It's not my idea of reasonable or SANE actually.

I don't want to get into a big rant about how we're not even here all day long for 5 days out of the week plus it's our home, where do you want her to play, etc, etc, so let's just say that we are SUPER EXTRA MOTIVATED to move on. We have lived here since 1998 and the rent is dirt cheap. Even for Montreal it's dirt cheap. BUT the walls and floors are really like paper. I can hear aforementioned she-devil snoring in the night. Seriously.

ANYWAY, we are now officially addicted to MLS.ca which is how we've been spending most of our evenings. Plus talking to our agent and making plans to look at some places which is what we will do on Sunday! The Baby Guru reminded me to bring my camera so hopefully I will remember and I can post some of our options.

In the meantime, I notice that Liliane is making more of an effort to use a spoon when she eats, but with varying success. Meat and vegetables? Not so much.

This yogurt?

(Also known as delicious ambrosia from heaven it's so good am I dreaming or just delirious from lack of sleep?)

SCORE!


Dexeterity: I haz it.




Note to my Mom: even you would like it, tastes just like the frozen lemon stuff!

So there you have it. While we are working on all this big stuff for the month of March (we'll have to give our notice by April 1st so we're really going for it) I'll try to keep in touch.

Off to eat yogurt. Oh yeah, and get to sleep.

Happy Valentine's Day! (Whoa, Keep Scrolling, It's a Long One!)

I had a case of blogger block this week. It happens to me sometimes when I'm catching up on other really well-written blogs that make me feel like, "Gee, I can't write anything cool and witty like Flotsam" or "Gosh, that Amalah sure knows how to sling adjectives" not to mention, "Wow, Linda at All&Sundry writes the best milestone letters to her boys. I clearly don't love my child like she loves hers." And then a little voice in my head says, "Yo, post photos of the kid and it's all good."

The thing is that I would really like to get back to flexing my writer muscles (see, overused metaphor! argg!) so I yearn to bravely author a post of only writing. My thoughts on a subject. A few ideas keep rattling around in my head, kind of like marbles in a tin can - (marginally better imagery) so I will hopefully just do it. And soon.

But in the meantime, I bring you photos! (I can hear your sighs of relief from here you know.)

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day so I put up a decoration or two:

(This one with the foldy-outy 3-D heart is in honour of my Honey Grandma who taught me that it's not a celebration until you have a foldy-outy 3-D decoration!)

Liliane MADE THIS FOR US today in daycare! Our very first card made by our offspring!

Hey, if parenting has taught me anything, it's that it's all about the little things. Especially if they're handmade :)

Tomorrow Liliane is going to hang out with her grandparents for the afternoon while my Valentine and I go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Then we're all heading out for dinner. In public. Speaking of which, going out for dinner with Liliane these days reminds me of when you see people running marathons and grabbing cups of water and energy bars from the volunteers as they go by. Whatever they succeed to ingest is strictly for nourishment, they don't even break their stride. Plus it's messy. Pretty much sums it up. In case you were wondering, we the parents are the volunteers in this scenario, Liliane is the marathon runner. OK, marathon toddler. Although the messiness extends to anyone within the sphere of our table, so that's flexible.

ANYWAY, here are a bunch of photos from last weekend and possibly the weekend before. It's been extra chilly out here in the hinterland (I only like that word because it sounds like it should mean cold, like winter. ) so we've been hanging out inside...

I got your crazy right here.

Hooligan-in-training.

Our friends Pierre and Ariel came over for brunch one Sunday and then came back the next week to babysit so Stéphane and I could go see Slumdog Millionaire. Liliane doesn't even notice when we're gone if Pierre is around. I'm not even joking.

It was so great to know that she was having fun with them while we were out enjoying ourselves. Thanks again you two! We are looking forward to one day returning the favour! (wink, wink)

A rare soother-less photo!

We finally figured that we should get some fresh air so we went to the park across the street one weekend when there was lots of snow around and it wasn't super freezing. Hilarity ensued.

Her favourite part was watching the hockey players. Think that's because she's been watching Canadiens games since she was, oh, 2 weeks old?

That brings me to the end of this super-long catch-up post.

Hope your Valentine's Day is a cozy, chocolate-covered, smoochy one!

Favourite Sound EVER

An express entry on this my Friday off with Liliane. Stéphane makes that kid laugh like nobody's business... I will never get tired of hearing it!

I get to go to the movies tonight in exchange for Stéphane going out on Saturday. I will likely have finished Book #3 by then (see previous post) and promise to make an attempt at rejoining the real world by writing a real blog entry with photos and everything!

Until then, just try not to giggle when you watch this. Warning, nausea-inducing camera movement ahead...

I Have a Good Excuse!

Vampires.

It's the dang Twilight series! I can't stop! I flew through the first book last Saturday, read the second book this week and am desperately waiting for the third. These are not great works of literature (believe me), but it's such fun to read.

It's weird because I'm not really interested in vampires, or teen romance novels for that matter. But we aren't in Sweet Valley High territory (remember those??)! I have not seen the movie (BTW any preteen girls in the Montreal area need a chaperone? Call me.) although I am tempted to go. Even though it's Oscar movie season I'm STILL tempted to go.

Such is the hold that Edward and Bella have on me and my free time.

No, I'll wait for the DVD which is coming out March 21st. Not that I checked or anything.

Busted.

Anyway, all this to say that I have a bunch of pictures to post and I'll try to get those up soon.

To tide you over, here is my current favorite.

À bientôt!

Dolly Parton, Gotta LOVE Her

Hey y'all.

So I don't really talk about my professional life here on my "All Liliane All the Time" blog, but I would like to let you all know about one of the projects we are working on right now. It's a movie called "The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom" and Dolly herself has approved it all and has even agreed to help us out with her music and whatever else we need. Super cool.

Anyway, I set up a blog so that the writer/director of the film could write about her first feature film experience. We are in the process of financing right now and if all goes well, we'll shoot at the end of summer. The goal is to update the blog at least once a week with all the juicy bits and pieces as they fall into place. Or something like that.

If you've always wondered what it's like to make a movie, add us to your blog list! We also have a Facebook Fan Page so if I haven't already sent you an invite, just email me and I will.

Have a great weekend!

http://theyeardollypartonwasmymom.blogspot.com/

Forgot a Few + Obama Rocks

What a way to start the new year! Good job USA, you really kicked 2009 off with a hopeful, optimistic BANG by electing Barack Obama and putting on a big ol' patriotic party today. I watched the inaugural speech live on the CBC website (way to go public broadcasting!) just so I could tell my grandkids that I saw it. Wow.

So, speaking of the new year, I have a few photos still kicking around from the end of LAST year. I know, Christmas is so 2008, but this IS a Mama blog and posting photos of Liliane is kind of my whole raison d'être. In blog terms anyway.

We saved a present for Liliane to open on Boxing Day. We bought her this Little People farm back in September for her birthday, but ended up keeping it for Christmas.


She looks concerned, but actually she's having fun. Really.

I take my farm seriously. Very seriously.


On Dec. 27th she got some MORE great stuff from her godmother/aunt/uncle/cousin who came in to visit for the day. Among her gifts was this super cool big wheels/future tricycle that she loves to be pushed around on. Not so clear on the whole concept of pedals yet, but we'll keep working on it.


I can't remember when I took these... Our Christmas holiday is one big blur of pajamas and cocooning and eating and visiting. Liliane has shown a keen interest in the broom and dust pan which is something we are encouraging.

Do you think it's too early to show her how to load the dishwasher?

Random winter wear fashion show photos. She seriously grabs this stuff and puts it on her head and gets me to put the mittens on.

Maybe I just need to turn the heat up.

Perfecting the blue steel.

Oh yeah, and somewhere in there it was New Year's! We had Jean-Michel and Laurence over for a multi-course meal, then toasted 2009 with champagne at midnight.

Good food, dear friends, a little bubbly - a perfect evening. Merci mes amis!

I think it was the Saturday before going back to work when we decided that it was time to get Liliane's hair trimmed. We took her to a salon in our neighborhood that has a special section just for kids.

Antonio, her stylist, promised to trim of the old, dry baby hair but not make her look like a boy.

I look FABULOUS darling!

She had a little crush on Antonio I think.

Oh, speaking of kisses, Liliane has just started bestowing them on us. It started with her stuffed animals, then we convinced her that we deserved a peck or two. I caught her in action giving a bisou to Baby:

Just when I thought she couldn't be any more loveable. Sigh.

Well, this entry may be a little slapdash, but it's done. I'm going back to the news now to watch more of the inauguration highlights.

I'll write more soon about my work blog and whatever else is going on. What else IS going on? I'll think about that tomorrow...