You've Got Mail

The day started with her teacher handing her an envelope.  A sealed envelope with her name on it.

Immediate excitement, eyes wide.  "What IS DIS?" In English.  

An invitation to a fellow Panda's birthday party.  But she didn't want to open it.

"I will look it tonight with you and Alice and Papa," she declared and then placed the envelope carefully in her cubby.

OK.

That afternoon on the way home, nothing but chatter about the party.   All the Pandas were invited. But not everyone got their invitation yet.  The birthday boy likes trucks so we should get him a truck.

She brought the envelope inside and put it on the table.  Me, casual.  "So, should we open it?"

"NO Maman."  Sternly.  "We have to wait for Papa."

I raised my eyebrows.  "Well, maybe he won't mind - "

"NO.  I don't want him to MISS it."

This is not her first birthday party invitation or anything, but the big, sealed envelope put this invite in a class above the rest.

After dinner we cleaned off the table and obediently gathered around Liliane's chair.  First, a squeal of delight at seeing her classmate's picture on the front.  This means that the invitation is now lovingly perched atop all her other treasures on the bookshelf beside the bed.  She sometimes talks to it.

Once I read her all the information, she took the card back and smiled.  Maman, I LOVE DIS.

Let it be known that my oldest child has a profound sense of occasion not to mention a heartfelt love of stationary.

I love that.

One Point Five

Eighteen Months old last week.  Le sigh.

The good news about Alice getting older is that her opinions are EVEN MORE pronounced which makes it SO MUCH MORE fun to uncover all the layers and complexities of our littlest family member!  

The bad news is... all of the above.  Also, the screaming.  Oy.

     

LIKES

Books.

And more books.

Movies and TV. Particularly enjoys the Disney logo. Will reach excitement Defcon 5 if there are kitties or puppies onscreen.

Dressing up.

Her daycare teacher.

Vaccuuming.

Bathing.

Clementines. 

Horses.

Luana.

Sitting and colouring, all by her onesie.  

Getting her sticky hands on my iPhone.

Doing exactly what her sister is doing.

Dancing!  I could watch her do this all day. 

DISLIKES

Smiling for the camera.

Being held by Papa for family photos.

 Being held by Maman for family photos.

 Bringing out the camera before 9AM.

Carseat.

 Getting shots.  Although she was a total trooper.  

Taking pictures again instead of READING TO ME.

On the fence about party horns.

Pretty clear about New Year's Eve.

And... this:

"No Alice please don't..." 

(INSERT DANGEROUS/INAPPROPRIATE/ANNOYING ACTION HERE) 

while Alice howls and Liliane huffs impatiently in the background.  In this case, I think I am telling her that not ALL the presents have her name on them.  The injustice of it all!

But, my sweet girl, most of the time you are a delight, a cuddly little coconut monkey (as you are known around here). And I'm sure we'll all get more sleep when your teeth finish coming in.  

Only the molars to go!  

You crack me up every day.   That may be due to exhaustion on my part, but rested or not, you are lots of fun.  You talk a lot.  Some of it we understand but when we don't get it, you just turn up the volume! Some of the words we hear regularly are: NO! Encore? Ouch. Owwwww.  Hot. Socks. Banana. De l'eau. Ça. Regarde. Capable. Maman! Papa! Assis (SIT). 

I love you, babboo.  Let's slow down this growing up thing just a little, mmmmkay?

Maman xo

Looking Back

Instead of rushing to post my holiday pictures, I like to let them marinate for a while. You know, like a month or so.  It really lets the flavour shine through. And the flavour of Christmas 2012 was AWESOME.

These are my favourite things from this year (Fine, last year. Don't rub it in.):

Our tree was so much prettier than yours. 

Liliane's last year for daycare song pestacles *sob*

Oh look!  The Christmas turkey! Also pictured, our dinner for the 24th. 

Grandparents! 

Auntie Jaime!

This may have been the only time Stéphane and I sat down for more than 5 minutes.

THESE TWO.

Goofball central.

They are hilarious together.

Christmas cracker treasures.  The best.  

Homemade presents.  Now I KNOW I'm old.

Introducing Alice to the concept of gift opening.  

She was a quick study.

I got another make up lesson with all my new eyeshadow from my talented sister.

So much couch time.

New Year PAR-TAY!

The short one discovered colouring.

BFF Luana!

First Star Wars.

And so many more great moments!  Unfortunately it took us the entire ten days after Christmas to recover from that marathon of eating/merrymaking/drinking/presents and my camera arms were so, so tired.

It was wonderful having my Dad and sister with us.  It was not wonderful trying to get them to the airport during the storm of the century, but they eventually made it out after spending waaaay to much quality time at the airport.  

Looking back, I have to say that as much as I love going back to the west coast for the holidays, it's pretty wonderful just staying home.  The girls are entering that era of perfect, magical Christmases and I know that those years are going to be over too soon.  Le sigh.

ANYWAY!  Enough looking back, moving on to 2013!