Chocolate for Breakfast & Sad Movies

On an average day it's not uncommon for my kids to make me smile at least a half dozen times. Of course there are always a few that stand out enough that you'll share it with the other people in your life so that they can smile as well. Here are a couple of Nicholas and Juliette moments that I've been sharing with family and friends.

It was a Saturday morning before Christmas and I was sleeping in because I was out late Friday night playing Ultimate. At around 7 AM my wife had told me that she was going shopping. Instead of waking up with the kids at 8, I slept right through until 10. By the time I went downstairs mom had returned from her Christmas shopping to find a complete disaster. Apparently if you leave a 2 and 4 year old to their own devices they can make quite the mess. At one point we asked Nicholas what he had eaten for breakfast to which he responded "Chocolate". Now, normally we don't have junk food lying around the house so I was a bit surprised by this response. Then I noticed an advent calendar lying on the floor. The word advent originated from a Latin word meaning 'arrival'. With the advent calendars, you countdown each day until Christmas by opening small compartments which hold a chocolate. Out of curiosity I picked up the calendar to see how many paper tabs he had opened to get to the chocolate underneath. Since most of the tabs were closed I assumed he had eaten 2 or 3 max but each tab I opened was empty. Nicholas had meticulously inspected every tab and found every chocolate in the box. Considering most of the tabs were closed he must have checked a few of them 2 or 3 times. I was amazed by his dedication, thoroughness and capacity for sweets (20+ chocolates in one sitting, he definitely take after his dad).

Last night I was eager to watch the Return of the King (the extended version) that I had received for Christmas but the kids were still awake. I decided to show them the ridiculously long yet completely non-violent ending to the movie as a compromise. Juliette, like anyone who is thrust in the middle of a storyline was asking lots of questions of who was who and what was happening. She really like the "princess" but when I asked her if she would have kissed the king at the coronation ceremony she told me that she would have asked him to shave first. At the very end when Bilbo and Frodo leave with the elves for a distant land never to return I saw Juliette's eyes tearing up. I asked her if she was crying and she grudgingly admitted yes. And it wasn't a little kid sobbing but a very quite and subtle tearing up that an adult would do during a sad movie. Of course Juliette hadn't seen the 10+ hours that led up to the point in the plot line for the Lord of the Rings but the combination of the sad music and the tears of the actors were enough to get her all teary eyed. It was very cute to see my little 4 year old have a very adult style reaction to a movie.
P.S. We saw the Incredibles with the family on Boxing Day. It is a great movie and should be seen by everyone especially couples with kids. Juliette loved it and Nicholas slept through most of it (as planned).

Hockey Night in Canada

There is no NHL this year and there probably won't be one but come on, this is Canada. Hockey is all over this country at various levels available to anyone who wants to pay the price of admission. So when I scammed 2 free adult tickets, thanks R, to the most talented team still playing in our hockey crazy city I knew it would be a fun outing for the entire family. Juliette loved the "ice girls" who used cut off tee-shirts and pompoms to cheer on the home team. Every time the music came on during "down time" Juliette would hop up on her feat and dance. At this point her dancing involves a lot of hip movements which drew lots of smiles from the fans around us. Nicholas on the other hand sat in his seat and casually ate popcorn. The loud music and noise didn't faze him at all. It was like he had done this all before a million times as he clapped when the crowd clapped and rose in his seat in to cheer with the rest of the crowds. Other highlights from the night were: finding a puck, eating hotdogs, popcorn and ice cream and running around the concourse. It was a fabulous night with our young family that I will not soon forget (even if we did leave 2 minutes into the 3rd period).

Christmas 2004 "Spectacle"

Before I begin this post I just wanted to tell everyone it's cold in Ottawa today. How cold? With the wind chill factor, try -44 Degrees Celsius (that's -47 Degrees Fahrenheit for those south of the border). That's too cold even for most Canadians I know.

Last Weekend was the kids Christmas "Spectacle" which can be translated as Christmas show for the daycare that they attend. The event was organized by the daycare providers at no extra costs to the parents and includes a very impressive spread of food, a visit from Santa Clause with gifts and a performance by each daycare group. My parents attended the event not wanting to miss Nicholas' first and Juliette's second ever performance on stage. The first group was the youngest and the cutest. Nicholas was very brave (1/3 of the kids were crying) and he delivered a stellar performance. I can't remember what the song was but you could tell that the entire group had spent hours practicing the performance since, those that were not crying, knew every word of the song. When the curtains went up to reveal 15 little kids, not one of them over 3 Ft all wearing paper reindeer crowns, a chorus of "awwwww" could be heard from the parents. Juliette was in the next group, which not only had paper crowns but also red noses (painted) and pyjamas. Last year, Juliette spent her time on stage crying but this year she very energetically belted out the well-rehearsed song (I know the song but not the title, ask Juliette to sing it for you, it's become one of our family favourites in the car). She even made a bow on cue with the rest of the kids. The other three groups were more complicated and less cute the final being group of 5 kids delivering a Christmas Rap in French (very brave). Nicholas liked the food but loved the present from Santa Clause which was toddler friendly Lego. To entertain him (and myself) I settled with Nicholas outside the gym where it was a little quieter and spent half an hour building and destroying Lego buildings and animals. One mother past by and said I had a lot of patience to be playing so long with my son but really I was enjoying myself immensely and patience had nothing to do with it. Juliette loved spending time playing with her school friends. They ran all around the gym with their toys (the 4 year old girls got Barbie dolls) while the mothers chatted. Overall it was a complete success and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year.

P.S. I'm trying to do one post a week that would come out on a Friday so tune in then.

Christmas 2004

It's almost Christmas and I have been asked to create a message that we can send to our friends and relatives via snail mail. So I've decided to kill to birds with one stone and make the message this week's blog entry. Happy Holidays to all, from my family to yours. It's been an exciting year with radical new developments the biggest being the announcement that we are expecting a new baby sometime in May 2005. Everyone is very happy and excited and I never thought I'd be saying this but I think 3 kids is a perfect number. Mom to be (3rd time around) is doing fine. We haven't found out the gender (and probably won't) but we do have a few names in mind. If you have any suggestions please send them to us via email or comment on my Blogger at (http://www.ultimatedad.blogspot.com/). Juliette is a talkative and beautiful 4 years old who loves school, movies, TV, playing with her brother, running, eating (especially ribs & steak), visiting both sides of the family and play fighting with her uncle. Nicholas is a very energetic and cute 3 year old who loves music (Baby Beluga & Butterfly Kisses), copying his big sister, giving kisses and telling us "I lub you" as well as play fighting with his uncle. We've kept them busy in activities such as soccer, swimming, dance, Chinese school and skiing. Juliette got the equivalent of straight A's on her first ever report card and Nicholas seems to be fitting in well in an all-French daycare. Counting in three languages is something we do in the car as well as singing our favourite songs (the littlest worm, on top of spaghetti and 3 little monkeys). To make room for the new addition we've moved the kids into the same room. They love it and it's much easier to put the kids to bed. Children under the age of 5 are amazing and part of me wants them to stay this age forever but every year I say that and every year it gets more fun. I can't wait to see what's in store for us next year.

I hope you and your families all have a wonderful holiday season and a very happy 2005.

Juliette's First Report Card

So a few days ago we got Juliette's report card. She's in junior kindergarten 4, which means that they don't actually grade you on anything, it's more of an adaptability assessment. You know, does she play well with others, does she listen to the teacher etc. I am proud to say that she got (the equivalent of) straight As. This should come to no surprise considering her mother still holds the record for being the most desirable student at every school she's ever attended. If there were a Hall of Fame for students for being the best behaved, it would be named after Juliette's mom. To follow up on the "report card", we went in to school for an interview with the teacher. It was a short meeting considering everything they said was positive and parents like that sort of thing so we didn't ask many questions. Some of the highlights were "Not only can Juliette dress herself without assistance from the teacher, she then proceeded to help other kids get dressed as well." And "Not only does she do what she's told, but she also tells the other kids to do what their told". See a trend here. I'm just happy she's having a good time in school and seems to be adapting well to the all-French environment. Now I just hope that Nicholas is more like his mom then his dad in which case I'd expect the same review for him in a couple of years.

Fahitas & Fighting

On Saturday we spent the evening at the outlaw's house. The parents are away visiting the homeland and that left a house chalk full of adult siblings eager to play with my children. The first order of business was supper. Nicholas ate almost an entire fajita. The boy just doesn't eat much, you'd think he was adopted or something. His sister on the other hand is an entirely different story. She made her first fajita and gobbled it down like it was some sort of sports drink and she had just run a marathon. While she was preparing her second fajita, one of the aunts told her that she had way too much steak meat. So before anyone could react she removed about 4 stripes of steak, put it in her mouth chewed 4 times and swallowed it whole. Needless to say we were in shock. Such behaviour is expected from her father but to see it in a 4-year-old girl caught us completely off guard. Of course I'm not sure if I was more impressed with this display of carnivorism or the fact that she ate 3 loaded fajitas in a single sitting. That's pretty much what I ate and I was stuffed. Oh well, she might not look much like me but she definitely eats like me. Another highlight from the meal was when she tilted the bowl that the steaks were in to get at the "juice" (otherwise known as blood) to put on her fajita.
After dinner, the kids spent almost an hour beating the crap out of their 20 something uncle with the rest of us adults watching. Ever since I've known him I've seen him play fight with kids where he pretty much lies down and takes whatever punishment they wish to dish out. The show was very entertaining and cute. My kids suck at fighting and inflicting pain but that's not a bad thing. The only time Juliette came close to hurting him was when she continually bounced from the sitting position on his back. At 40lbs. she's not a little girl anymore.
Everyday, there is something that my kids do that makes me smile ear to ear. If I was a better writer and if I had unlimited time I would post something everyday. But I'll just have to stick to this once or twice a week posting for now. BTW if you haven't read the blog in a while check out the entry "A new addition to the family".

A new addition to the family

That's right, we are happy to announce that there will be a new addition to our family. The baby is due May 14, 2005 (that's the year of the rooster for those of you keeping track). Our little family is very excited, especially the parents. Nicholas isn't quite sure what it all means while Juliette is used to having new additions to the family every couple of years (see Nicholas), so even though she's happy and excited it's no more than she would be for a new bike. We don't know what the gender is yet and I'm not sure if we'll find out this time. I wouldn't mind knowing but it's up to mom since she does most if not all of the baby making and delivering. Now I know what's on most of your minds, it's a question we've received almost from everyone upon the making this announcement. Was this planned? The answer is yes. I know after the Nicholas, I told everyone that having a girl and boy was the perfect family and there was no reason to have any more. There was only one thing I didn't take into consideration. That is Love. I love kids. I love everything about them. I love having an ally so that we can eat the raw cookie dough together while baking. I love running through a toy store taking all the toys off the shelves and playing with them. I love singing (I'm a horrible singer by the way) at the top of my lungs about speckled frogs, jumping monkeys, little worms and meatballs on spaghetti and I love running everywhere all the time. But, it's my love and my wife's love for children that has made our lives so filled with meaning, purpose and the feeling of being truly alive. I already know Juliette will make a great big sister to the new baby and I’m sure Nicholas will make a great big brother. Besides, you only live once and as a result you should try absolutely everything while you still can. Sure I would have been happy with 2 but with three in the house life will be that much more rich and exciting. Juliette is already catching and throwing a disc at the age of 4. With three of them I’ll always have someone to play with when we go to the beach and my wife will always have someone to fish with. My wife swears this is the last one. Pregnancy for her is hell and every time she swears that it’s worse than ever. I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure it was this bad every time. It’s just that women are blessed with pregnancy amnesia. The fact that she can go for months in a state of nausea where everyday is a challenge to eat anything at all and then a year later completely forget about it and want another is an amazing if not cruel trick that mother nature plays on women. All I know is if men had to give birth, there would be a lot fewer babies out there. As for myself I won’t make any predictions on whether it is our last until we do something surgical about it. If I were to make a prediction I’m almost guaranteed to prove myself wrong. So in preparation for the new baby, Nicholas and Juliette are sleeping in the same room. They love it. I have also picked out a few names but if anyone has any suggestions let us know in the comments section of this blog. Here are some guidelines I like to use for the name selection process (can you tell I’m an engineer): It should be three syllables long; it should be bilingual (French, English); and I would like it to be slightly unique. “Juliette” meets these conditions very well, and “Nicholas” meets the first two. So put on your thinking caps and who knows perhaps the new baby will be named after your suggestion.

Juliette update

Things Juliette says:
-"Daddy, I want to change my name to Diamond Wendy" I'm not sure where she got the diamond from the Wendy came from a radio commercial advertising the fast food chain.
-Juliette looking worried "Daddy, we have to go to the hospital", "why Juliette", "I swallowed my gum".
-In a frustrated voice, "Nicholas, stop copying me". That boy wants to be like his big sister so much that he not only follows her everywhere but he also repeats every word out of her mouth sometimes.

Things Juliette does:
-She can do all the 2-7 year old puzzles by herself.
-She's great at languages (English, French & Cantonese) except when it comes to counting.
-She's started taking showers in the morning (which I think will soon come to an end because we just don't need another activity to fit into an already stressful chaos that is our workday mornings).
-She eats at least two if not three servings every meal and follows it up with as much dessert as we give her. When it comes to eating she's too much like her parents for her own good.

Little Voice

It's truly amazing how cute children under the age of 5 can be. The other day Nicholas did something that made his parents laugh out loud. Juliette was doing her usual running around the house thing when she fell and hit her head on the corner of a wall. She began to cry, but the tone of the cry was not a hysterical "I'm in a lot of pain!!!" cry, it was more of a "I just hit my head and I deserve some pity" cry. As a result neither my wife nor myself moved a muscle to console her. Nicholas on the other hand was very concerned so he walked over to his big sister and in his most parental/sympathetic voice asked, "What's wrong Juliette", "Did you hit the wall?” "Bad wall"(Nicholas hits the wall with his hand). Now what he said was cute enough to bring a smile to my face but his tone of voice was hilarious. He was doing his best to mimic what parents do when they ask their little one if they're OK. Of course his soothing voice came out so high-pitched I thought he was perhaps a squirrel sucking on helium.

Halloween 2004

I know this post is a little late in coming but what do you want. As a working parent of 2 there is only so many hours in a day, and any extra time is usually dedicated to washing, drying, folding mountains of laundry... So much laundry :(

Anyway, Nicholas was dressed as a dinosaur and Juliette was dressed as a gorilla. We managed to convince the kids that being warm was more important than wearing a favourite dress up outfit (princess dress or Spiderman pyjamas). Juliette left the house first with her entourage of 3 loving and doting 20 something aunts. One of them even wore a costume. They did a grand tour of the neighbourhood that resulted in quite the haul. For highlights of the trip you'd have to ask them but apparently the trip to the senior citizen home was cute. Nicholas went out a little later with his old man. We did the equivalent of 3 blocks being very selective with the types of houses we stopped at. Those houses that had no lights on outside we passed by and those houses that had amazing decorations that set a truly frightening atmosphere Nicholas would not approach. So, if you wanted a visit from Nicholas, ensure that you had some lights on, and a few decorations (preferably happy ones like smiling pumpkins). The average visit from Nicholas went something like this:
(Nicholas using is small 2-year old legs to climb the stairs)
(Daddy knocking on the door)
House owner:” What do we have here?"
Daddy:” Say trick or treat Nicholas"
A shy Nicholas:(barely heard)"trick or treat"
House owner: "Oh, it's a cute crocodile"
(House owner gives quality candy to the cute kid)
Daddy:” Thank you"
The highlight of the outing was the excellent holiday spirit showed by neighbours in how they decorated their houses.
Lowlights of the outing included visiting a few houses with so much second hand smoke coming out the front door I almost choked and an appearance from a scary lady with tons of tattoos that said "only take candy from me tonight, don't do it on any other night” I believe she was drunk and this was the only house that Nicholas became scared of after someone answered the door. For those of you that have read my Blogger before you can find this scary character mentioned in the entry entitled "Weirdos".
By the end of the night we returned to the house to count and divide all the candies, chips and chocolate bars. Overall, it was a big success since daddy got tons of his favourite treat, Reese’s Pieces.

Running Errands

I'm the running errand guy. You know, in every relationship jobs end up being divided up amongst the parents. Like my wife being in charge of family organizing (macro & micro), washing dishes, planting gardens and doing homework with the kids. I tend to do waste management (garbage), yard management (lawn duty), financial management, human waste management (accidents) and errand running. All the other jobs such as cooking, cleaning and laundry are more of a team effort. I like the errand running, I enjoy driving and getting out of the house. Since Juliette was born I've asked whether she'd like to join me on these outings and usually the answer is no. This weekend I went on two errands and Nicholas kept me company on both. This blog is about those adventures. Mission 1, go to the grocery store, purchase two whole chickens and bring it back in time to cook them for dinner with the aunties on Halloween night. Nicholas is always ready and readily volunteered for the mission. We secured a shopping cart close to the car and after convincing him that he would be more comfortable sitting in the kid area as opposed to the grocery area we were on our way. The boy loves to talk and ask lots of questions. Going down the aisles he usually asks, "What's that?” When you tell him what it is, he repeats it the best he can. Something like "Nicholas, that's olives", "Owives?” "Yes, olives". He also asks, "Where we're going?” "To by chickens", "Chickens, buk, buk?” "That's right chickens". After the chicken we picked up crackers and cereal. He loves repeating everything I say especially the boring stuff. The line was really long but I let him run free and he always came back, usually without some candy in his hand. Overall the mission was a success and we returned home with our chickens as heroes. Mission 2, go to the shopping center and exchange a TV antenna. Nicholas again volunteered for the job. Except this time it was late afternoon, he hadn't had his nap yet and there would be lots of toys at the store to distract him. Mission impossible started with an entertaining car ride. It's so easy to make 2 year olds laugh; it's like shooting fish in a barrel. All you need to do is say "Nooooo" with the tone of voice like what the child is asking for is crazy and he will laugh his head off. As we walked to the mall it was raining and he kept on asking where my hood was. I told him I didn't have one and I pulled his off his hood and asked him where his was. These types of games never get old. At the mall I had three challenges. The coin-op mechanical rides, the toy store and the electronics store. I convinced Nicholas that the we'd play on the coin-op toys on the way out and he bought it. The toy store was a little more challenging. He loved the Thomas the train display and we had fun fighting with small to-scale rubber animals (the best being the dinosaurs). It also didn't help that the electronics store was taking forever with the exchange. To keep Nick distracted I pulled a giant remote control fire truck off the shelf and handed him the remote. The truck didn't work but wouldn't you know it a low-rider race car vaulted off its shelf into an unsuspecting customer about 20 feet away from us. Sure enough the fire truck remote was controlling the race car. So I brought the race car over to entertain Nicholas. This worked for a little while until Nick, not quite understanding the concept of "remote control", started using his foot to direct the vehicle where he wanted it to go. After a few kicks to the car and an evil look from one of the workers I picked him up and showed him the fire truck again. I can't believe how long they took to do the exchange. When it was finally done both of us were tired and wanted to get out of the mall ASAP. So I put him on my shoulders and started for the door. Nicholas kept lifting his shirtfront and putting it over my head until it covered my eyes. Not only did Nicholas laugh hysterically when I said I couldn't see, but everyone else in the mall that saw us smiled as well. We were almost home free when the coin-op toys got his attention. I had to let him play in them. Now the key to leaving anywhere such as a park or toy store without your kid kicking and screaming in the process is not to tell him/her "If you don't come right now quietly, we'll never come back! I can't believe this is the thanks I get for me bringing you here in the first place!" What works way better is "OK, Nick 5 more minutes and we have to leave", followed by "OK, 1 more minutes", then an "OK, this is the last ride". Is this spoiling the kid? Perhaps, but this way you leave on time with a child who is not kicking and screaming. Especially if you start the routine early you can leave exactly when you wanted to leave in the first place. Overall it was mission accomplished. Nicholas was finally tired enough to take his pre-Halloween nap and I accomplished what I wanted to do. I hope I continue getting volunteers for future missions.

Hike for the entire family

It was thanksgiving weekend here in Canada and we decided to take the kids hiking in Gatineau Park. As a general rule I don't like to hike unless there some kind of reward at the end so my favourite trail is Luskville Falls. The only advantage/problem with this trail is that it's a 2 km climb up the side of a hill to some very picturesque lookouts. In fact at the top you are 100 meters in elevation. Considering we would be hiking with a 2 year old, a 4 year old and a couple of grandparents I wondered to myself if this was really a good idea. Nicholas spent most of the hike in a baby carrier but Juliette, amazingly, did the full 4 km hike all by herself. It just goes to show you that kids can accomplish anything if they put their mind to it. It was a great day spent with the family and I hope we can make it an annual outing.

Juliette by the Sea

Recently my aunt sent me an email with some stories of her own regarding my Juliette. As usual any submissions about your experiences with my kids are more than welcome.
July 2004
On a clear summer day I received a call from Juliette’s mom that she was coming to Halifax for a work related conference and asked if we would like Juliette to stay with us for four days. I thought it was wonderful and agreed with only a little concern that a four year old child who had never come to our home before would be lonely and fearful without a parent. I had faith that Juliette’s parents knew their daughter better than I, and it would be an adventure.
July 13th - to July 16th, 2004
The plane had landed and passengers were in the airport by the time I parked the car and found Juliette and her mom by the luggage turnstile. Juliette was carrying a small back pack and ran with open arms to greet me. Her mom was all smiles and managing her bags like a pro. Juliette has the best hug – small strong arms and solid kisses.
We arrive at the house and here Juliette looked around with pleasure at the gardens and the ocean view. But her response to her bedroom is the most charming of all. She walked into the bedroom and saw the television. She asked incredulously “is this all mine?”.” Yes.” I confirm.
She turns to her mother and says with a wave of her hand, holding it aloft as though supporting a wand “this is my room, and I have a TV!” Then she proceeds into the walk through closet with tub, and asks again “is this mine too?” I assent again, and she states emphatically with ownership now “this is my bathroom and closet!” Her mom is gracious and calming, pointing out to Juliette that she is not to watch TV unless requesting me first. Juliette has brought some of her own videos to watch, so is well prepared.
The first evening passes quickly and Juliette’s mom goes to stay in Halifax as she prepares for the conference.
Our days are filled with little girl activities, and Juliette never is tired or bored. Neither did she express feeling lonely except for one morning, about day three when she awakened slowly, saying “I am sad!” Touching her softly and asking gently “why”, she said “I miss mommy and daddy.” Nodding I agree “it is sad that they are not here to play with us.” Immediately, she brightened and said “well – let’s go play!” In the spirit of a child she simply could not dwell on the things she had no power to control.
There were many outstanding moments when Juliette made discoveries in her new world by the ocean. One day we went to The Range; a long stretch of flat sandy beach where her great-uncle was windsurfing with friends. It was cool on the beach and after searching among the rocks a world of small sea creatures living there, we walked up to the grassy area for protection from the wind off the water. To our delight we found wild strawberries. Juliette enjoyed eating them and would punctuate her picking with “oh yumm!” I kept walking on a bit to see if there might be more strawberries and it appears we had discovered a bounty of them. As we would come to a new patch, Juliette would mimic me with exhuberance, “oh, look at these ones – they are so big and juicy!” I noticed after almost an hour of this picking and wandering to bigger and better patches that Juliette was laying flat on her stomach to pick. When she stood up her pants and shirt were covered with bright pink stains of strawberry juice. She looked like a walking advertisement for fruit bliss. Her cheeks were rosy, “like her father” I thought, and smiled to myself, hoping the stains would come out from her clothes in the wash or her parents might think she cut herself. We walked back to the car happily filled with the juice of wild berries in our cheeks. I would not have had this day without Juliette – too busy doing chores around the house to claim such small pleasures. Now I take the time Juliette taught me never to ignore.
Another little gem is after watching a movie, cuddled in HER ROOM, we kept singing the refrain of the movies theme “everybody …everybody…every….body - wants to be a C…Cat!” As we continued this we started to dance to it. When she would wiggle her bum, as though shaking her tail or sing it to Magic who was a cat, looking at him with her shoulders raised, I would burst out laughing. It was sheer pleasure to enjoy her spirit. I fell head over heels in love.
Still we had our moments of tears. On her last day while walking to the beach she fell and dirt got into a cut on her hand. I washed it out with fresh water I found in a container near the beach, as best as I could and suggested we go home to put on a bandaide. “No, let’s stay here on the beach awhile.” That was fine with me, and after collecting old logs, sticks, shells and seaweed we made a modern sculpture from all our findings. In the end, we adorned it with wild flowers and stood back to admire our creation. I flashed back to the many Sundays that as little girls, my sister (Juliette’s grandmother) and I, made many such beautiful constructions at Westfield Beach.
When Juliette and I returned to the house after our walk her mom was on the deck, and Juliette was totally happy to see her mother. It was the sad duty mom had to clean the wound from the beach. I was a pathetic nurse. Still Juliette was brave and repaired quickly. The next day my new friend left for her home and I was left a richer person.
Love always,
Her special great aunt from Nova Scotia

Questionable Parenting Technique

I've never claimed that I have all the answers when it comes to parenting but I do always have an opinion. Besides, it's not like parenting is an exact science, it's more like a trial by error sort of thing. Of course it's better if you can minimize the errors by identifying them early and remembering not to do it again. So when I noticed a pattern of my son hitting my daughter and pulling her hair I came up with a theory and put it in place. The theory goes that when faced with an adversary (her 2 year old brother) who will not listen when you ask him to stop hitting you need to be able to defend yourself. Of course you could always come running to mom and dad or some other authority figure but the theory is if the perpetrator respects her fighting ability he won't do it in the first place. Most parents I tell this theory too visibly cringe but I thought I’d give it a try and see what happens. So on Monday, Juliette and Nicholas were fighting in the kitchen while my wife and I were in the living room. I've been trying to teach Juliette how to fight back for a while so I was hopping she could take care of it herself. As the fight got worse I kept waiting to hear Nicholas start crying but instead I only heard Juliette and it was getting louder and louder. Finally I had to go in, break it up, give Nicholas a huge timeout for hurting his sister and comfort my daughter. I told her again that mom and dad won't always be around and if Nicholas doesn't respect her fighting ability, he will hit her whenever he feels like it. So yesterday I heard them fighting in the basement. As usual Juliette started crying first but then I heard Nicholas start crying. Then Juliette said, "OK, let's stop now and play". At this point both of them stopped fighting is started to play again. Yippee!!! When Juliette got upstairs I asked her what had happened. She looked at me with big teary eyes because she thought I was going to get her in trouble. She proceeded to tell me that Nicholas hit her and she hit him back. To which I responded, “Just like daddy told you to do yesterday?” Juliette with a smile from ear to ear nodded yes and then she gave me a huge hug. It was a classic daddy daughter moment. I didn't even need to lift a finger during the whole thing. Of course the only way I think this has a chance of working is because Juliette is twice the size of Nicholas and Nicholas is almost always the aggressor. If this backfires and Juliette becomes the bully then I'll have to try something else (and Nicholas will have this blog as evidence when he visits his therapist years from now), but for now I think my daughter is enough of a pacifist who's more interested in playing princess than beating up her little brother. Wish me luck!

Not ready yet

Just a quick blog today about the kids.

Nicholas for the past two mornings will refuse to get up in the morning. He just sleeps in his crib and in a very sleepy voice says, "I'm not ready". When I try and convince him to go sleep in bed with mommy, he just repeats the same words "I'm not ready".

Juliette will only wear clothes that have pink on them or pictures of flowers and/or butterflies. Of course dresses that flare our when she twirls are still her preferred apparel.
Apparently Nicholas enjoys watching his father dance to Baby Beluga and both kids have picked up the habit of playing Game boy. There's no way they're old/coordinated enough to actually play but they like to pick up the machines turn them on and mash the buttons just like daddy does.

The Weekend

Yesterday we played ultimate at a city field that had tons of seagulls. The kids love running into a crowd of seagulls and having them fly away. Knowing this my wife encouraged Juliette to run at a large flock that had come to eat some seeds a lady had been throwing. We watched her run off to play until the game started. Next thing I knew Juliette was sitting on the sidelines crying her head off telling us she wanted to go home. Apparently the scary lady had grabbed her and told her what she was doing was cruelty to animals. One of the spectators who was watching our game saw this ran over to rescue Juliette and give the old lady a piece of her mind. By the time I found out about it the lady had taken off. This is a good thing because I'm not sure what I would have done but I guarantee it would have involved excessive amounts of intimidation and lots of colourful words.

Juliette and Nicholas were upstairs Saturday making very little noise. When they came down they were both wearing "princess dresses". Nicholas was in a pink silk evening gown, with no sleeves and a hair clip. He was even wearing princess slipper that must have made walking down the stairs a dangerous ordeal. He actually looked very beautiful dressed as a girl and he had on the proudest smile. This pictures I took will be sure to haunt him at future events such as his wedding.
Nicholas and Juliette had a fight yesterday but it was different from their usual fights. Juliette has no idea how to fight physically. I always thought that it was peculiar but I never thought it was a problem until now. Juliette accidentally kicked Nicholas while wrestling for something. Nicholas then proceeded punch her in the face and pull her hair! He did this in front of his parents and several aunts, uncles and grandparents. Everyone was shocked. Nicholas at the age of 2 and a half can beat up his 4-year-old sister who is twice his size. We then proceeded to remove our children from the outlaw’s household kicking and screaming. This was probably the only time the outlaws had ever seen the kids take all out fits. Up until now they thought of them as angel children. I think we are probably transitioning into a new phase of the of the brother sister relationship. Oh well my theory is if they want to fight together then their day can be spent in their rooms. If they can manage to find a common enemy to focus their attention on (i.e. me) which will push them closer together, than I think I've done my job.

Hard Questions

So Juliette asked me in the car yesterday some tough questions. "Daddy, how do you make stickers?", "Daddy, how do you make a building/house", "Daddy how do you make a house". Well I thought I was doing pretty well but the sticker question was a bit tougher than I thought it would be. I didn't know how glue was made. I thought it was from horses and other livestock that are sent to the "glue factory". It looks like that type of glue is an acrylic compound just like the post-it-note stuff. I guess it's more of a chemical soup. Then I had to figure out how to make concrete. That was pretty tough too but luckily there are lots of online resources to look up this type of info. Other highlights from yesterday were Juliette catching her first Frisbee at a jog. Her hand eye coordination is really improving not to mention her forehand flick. Soon I'll be able to take this show on the road.

Father & Son outing

Nicholas and I went to Loblaws yesterday to pick up his pictures from the photo studio. They are great pics so the next time you see us ask for one and you'll have your own pocket size Nicholas to carry around with you all day and brag about. During the outing Nicholas walked beside me and we talked the entire time. It's fun just getting him to practice his words. I even made him in charge of carrying the honey to the cash. He dropped it only once but since it was in a soft plastic container there was no damage. Overall it was one of the most enjoyable trips to the grocery store I've ever had. So the moral of the story is spend time with your kids no matter how trivial seeming the time is.

Chinese School

Juliette started attending Chinese School on Saturdays. Her knowledge of the language is very limited so we were a bit worried that she would have a miserable time. As it turns out she had a great time. She even told us: "I love Chinese school!” One of her favourite things was the fact that the teacher let her speak English in class if she didn't know the Chinese word (unlike her French daycare). I hope she ends up loving school just like her mom did who was and still is the most perfect student who ever attended class. The story goes, one report card she got back straight As but along with the As she got back straight "A pleasure to have in class" in the comment section of the report card. If Juliette is even half as dedicated, school should be a breeze. To celebrate her first day of Chinese school we went to Chinatown for bubble tea and noodles.Today is her first day of school. I'm sooo glad she didn't take a school bus to get there. I think it would have broken my heart. I can't believe how much food we had to pack for her. It will be interesting to see what she thinks of school and if she managed to finish all her food.

Odds & Ends

Here are some entertaining things that I've had the joy to be around for:
Dad: "Juliette, I'm so tired of playing princess, I don't want to be the King and Nicholas doesn't want to be the prince."
Nicholas: (Crying)"Play Cars, Cars!!!"
Juliette: (wearing an evening gown, a tiara and a veil) "Pleease daddy, please!"
Dad: "Ok, pull out the tea set"
---
Dad: (while driving)"f@#$@! you a@#$!!!"
Juliette: "f@#$@! you a%#$#!!!.... what does that mean daddy"
Dad: "Don't ever say those words again or you'll get in big trouble ... and so will daddy."
(Frankly I'm amazed that this was the first time I slipped up in front of my kids while driving. It might have been the first time but it will likely not be the last time...)
---
Nicholas: "Pizza!!"(He loves the stuff, and yesterday he realized all the good stuff was on top so I watched him as he proceded to eat only the toppings off the crust.)

Home Alone

So this past weekend I was home alone with the kids while mom took some well earned alone time on a trip with her sister to a wedding. Here are some of the highlights from the quality daddy daughter/son time:
- Eating breakfast at an expensive Bistro downtown
- Building towers and pyramids with the creamers while waiting for the food
- Dad finishing off everyone's breakfast and gaining 5 lbs. in the process
- Visiting the "Dinosaur" museum and growling at the stuffed animals
- Trying to guess when Nicholas needed to go to the bathroom (and usually succeeding)
- Picking up 3 expensive bubble tees on our way to the Outlaw's house
- Showing up at the Outlaws house for free food. They are always so worried that their precious grandchildren will starve when mom's not around that they are always quick to invite me over for a visit. Actually the Saturday visit is more of a tradition but I'm sure the other reason influenced their decision as well.
- Playing who can fall off the couch the funniest. Nicholas won hands down (2 year olds are so cute)
- Going out to a restaurant with the other grandparents for dinner
- Trying to get a glimpse of the Bride who was also at the restaurant. Juliette adores the long beautiful dresses they wear.
- Going down to the market to check out the nightlife
- Eating Beavertails and dancing to some buskers.
- Nicholas being terrified of the buskers who's show involved posing in extremely scary poses while wearing a combination of blue paint, scary contacts, and ragged clothes. Even days later he asked that we not return to the market.
- Sunday was all about a very hard to find b-day party with a Winnie the Pooh theme.
- Then getting the kids exhausted playing at a water park and dry park. Nicholas found a huge bug (June beetle) and kept it prisoner for a while
- Visiting the grandparents for supper where we took out the old Lego that daddy used to play with. It was a big hit and now that the kids are old enough not to swallow the pieces we'll be playing with it way more often.
- Mom arrived that night and the next day was all about spending time with mom and the outlaws again. We did watch 13 going on 30 with the kids and I had an interesting conversation with Juliette. For context you must understand that the movie is a painfully embarrassing one about a 13-year-old girl who wants to be 30. There are so many painfully embarrassing moments in the film that it makes the movie not very enjoyable. One thing it does do is it makes you realize that 13-year girls can be scary. So this is what we discussed:
Daddy: "Juliette, promise me you will never grow up."Juliette: "OK, daddy I promise"
Daddy: "Let's shake on it."
Hands shake
A young aunt from another room "Juliette, don't do it!"
Daddy: "It's too late, the deal is done" followed by a devil laugh
- Another highlight (more like a low light) is Juliette spent about an hour crying because she lost some kind of race with her brother. She's almost as bad a loser as her dad. Note to self, get mom to teach the kids all about sportsmanship because if dad does you'll get kids who are bad losers, bad winners and lots of trash talking. On a more positive note at least they'll win. A study came out that letting your kids win all the time teaches them nothing. They will expect life will be served to them on a silver platter. That's great, I hate losing even to my kids so they will either have earned their victory when they play me or they won't win at all.

Things you can learn from Children

1. A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 3 bedroom house about 4 inches deep.
2. If you spray hair spray on a nylon duster and then run over it with roller skates / blades, they can ignite.
3. A 3-year olds voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.
4. If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a large room.
5. You should not throw balls up when the ceiling fan is on, using the ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can then hit a ball a long way.
6. The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't stop a ball hit by a ceiling fan.
7. When you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh oh," it's already too late.
8. Brake fluid mixed with Bleach makes smoke, and lots of it.
9. A six-year old can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old man says they can only do it in the movies.
10. Certain bits of Lego's will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year old.
11. Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.
12. Super glue is forever.
13. No matter how much Jelly you put in a swimming pool you still can't walk on water.
14. Pool filters do not like Jelly.
15. VCR's do not eject toasted sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.
16. Rubbish bags do not make good parachutes.
17. Marbles in petrol tanks make lots of noise when driving and very expensive to remove.
18. You probably do not want to know what that smell really is.
19. Always look in the oven before you turn it on. Plastic toys do not like ovens.
20. The average response time for the fire brigade is about 20 minutes.
21. The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.
22. It will, however, make cats dizzy.
23. Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.
24. 60% of men who read this will try mixing the bleach and brake fluid.

Lunchbox

Juliette the other day came to us and said:” I’m going to brush my teeth, wash my face and go to bed with no whining today." I was amazed and so was my wife. So we asked the obvious question: "Why?” and Juliette responded with "So that tomorrow you will let me bring my new (Princess) lunchbox to school." It was a very cute moment that I won't soon forget but the next day the daycare told us that they were only allowed plastic bags with their name on them :(

Nicholas has had two incidents that are pretty scary. Yesterday when I was holding his hands he threw himself down to resist me. It was at this point something happened to his shoulder. For the next hour he wouldn't move his arm at all without crying out in pain. He did request that we put a ban-aid on it (which we did), but it still didn't help. The last time this happened it was all better within the hour. This time I put him to bed and sure enough this morning he was fully recovered. He even wanted me to swing him around by his arms (Crazy kid).

Other highlights of the week are:
Nicholas pointing at everything and asking, "What's that?” This also includes the flags of the world depicted on a map.
Juliette bugging her brother just to hear him scream.
Mom re-organizing their toys for the millionth time.
Juliette complaining whenever we ask her to do something just like a full-fledged teenager.
Nicholas requesting that he wear his Spiderman outfit (which look a bit like pyjamas) out of the house.Nicholas completely in love with fireworks.

Terrible 2s

Juliette never had a terrible two stage. She was terrific. If anything she was more difficult in her threes than her twos. Now Nicholas on the other hand is a little different. I think it must be a boy thing. That guy can throw tantrums like nobody's business. It's an all out throw yourself on the ground, scream, kick and punch your way until you get what you want. Yesterday I carried him to his room for a time out and told him to come down when he finished crying. He came all the way downstairs and was still crying so I had to do it again. The second time he came down he was done. Juliette could take her time outs on the stairs. Of course Juliette is getting a little bit of an attitude with us. We have to work hard at curbing some of the talk back that she does and refusals of carrying out basic requests (like pick up your toys). It's so easy to do things yourself that the kids just assume you are their personal servants.

Nicholas' favorite story right now is "If you give a mouse a cookie". It's a clever little book about a mouse and the consequence of certain actions (such as if you give him a cookie, he'll ask for milk and then he'll ask for a straw and then a napkin ... then he'll want a cookie). I've read it enought now that I can recite it from memory which comes in handy when I'm trying to calm Nicholas down and get him to do something I want.

Nicholas has also found a way of falling on his face on a regular basis. He's had a few bleeding noses as a result. I remember Juliette falling at this age but I don't remember her falling so hard. Yesterday we were reading the story "from head to toe" where the kids imitate animals and when Nicholas attempted to kick his feed in the air from a crawling position like a donkey his arms collapsed and he broke his fall with his face. Now there's a bruise just under his nose which always makes me a little sad when I see it but he's gotten over the ordeal. Good thing they have short memories.

Talking is cute

Nicholas is a talking machine. He will repeat everything you say including words on command. For some reason nothing sounds cuter than the words "Apple Pie". He will also repeat the last word of every sentence you say to him so be carefully.
Juliette is growing up like crazy. At the age of 4 she wears size 6. She can throw and catch a Frisbee but is more interested in being a princess :(
Nicholas needs more timeouts than his sister ever did. But they work, you just have to be willing to listen to an all out fit for a couple of minutes, and only then will be do what you asked.
The kids are still running as much as ever. Nicholas is still falling and scraping knees and hands but all of Juliette's practice is really paying off. She's the fastest 4 year old I know.
Nicholas is so eager to be just like his big sister that he is fearless at the big kid park. Climbing ladders and going down the big slide are just a few examples of what he can accomplish.

Camping at Sandbanks

We wend camping at Sandbanks this past weekend. It was fabulous. The three-hour drive up was great. The kids slept the entire time. Due to a mix up our site for Friday night was different from our site for Saturday night. This meant setting up and tearing down twice in two days. The kids again were very cooperative. The weather started off a bit cold but with the trailer and a campfire it was pretty easy to stay warm. Saturday and Sunday warmed up enough to spend on the beach (and what a beach). In my own personal opinion Sandbank has the best beaches in Canada. I've only seen beaches that come close to this quality in the Caribbean. That would explain why you need to reserve 5 months in advance for these sites. We went with another family that have two kids the same age. Here are some highlights:
- Juliette swimming like a fish (those swimming lessons are really paying off)
- Juliette with her friend and the moms trying to skip
- Juliette being very sad when her friend scratched up her leg
- Making sand castles with amazing sand (with tunnels)
- Making a very deep whole for Nicholas to climb in
- Playing Frisbee with daddy
- Eating ribs & chicken off an open fire
- Taking lots of pictures

I've said this before and I'll say it again. The joy I get from my children is what makes my life as great as it is. Before kids I used to beg, borrow and steal kids to play with, now that I have my own it's everything I've dreamed of and more.

Cottage Trip

The kids went to the cottage yesterday with their mom and family. I wasn't there but some of the stories I heard were way too fun to keep to myself.
Juliette was the first to be given a fishing rod with a hook and bait (because she complained the loudest) and she was also the first to catch a Bass. By the end of the day, the family had caught 9 Bass and cooked and eaten them. The rest of the kids didn't catch any Bass but they all caught son minnows. The cousins from Hong Kong who are like 10 and 8 refused to touch anything gross but Juliette didn't have a problem. So when it came time to touching worms, catching frogs etc... The HK kids would use a net and call Juliette over to do the dirty work. That's my daughter! Other animals included baby snakes and turtles. Nicholas tried to fish but he spent most of the time making a mess of his fishing line. They had tons of fun and arrived home at close to midnight. Luckily they were already asleep, as was I.
I would like to dedicate today's blog to Canada's ultimate teams currently out in Finland. So far we have one World Champion team in the Women's Junior division and a Canadian team in the finals for the other 5 divisions (Open, Women, Mixed, Junior Men & Masters).

Kindergarten

It's been awhile since my last blog and I'm not sure why that is.  Funny things happen every day and the kids are as cute as ever but for whatever the reason I've been lacking the motivation to blog.  Whatever on to the next chapter.

There are many firsts in a child's life and one of them just snuck up on us totally unexpected.  This week was Juliette's first week in kindergarten.  The daycare didn't even warn us it was coming.  One day I got to daycare (attached to the school and providing before and after school care) and I was informed that Juliette would be with the big kids from now on.  Juliette was so excited to be a big kid that she has had no problems with the change.  Nicholas however, who is going through separation anxiety since his mom left for a week long business trip is now losing his sister during the days as well.  I hope soon he will let me drop him off at school without the waterworks.  This morning I even had Juliette give him a pep talk.

Juliette: "Ok, now Nicholas you be a big boy and go to the daycare and I'll be in the big kid room next door.  I can come if you need me."
Nicholas: said nothing and continued crying in my arms :(

Other things that happened since my last blog include: Nicholas doing an amazing job at potty training, now if I can only get him to stop playing with himself so much (I've been told all little boys do this). Juliette confessing to us that she loves practising writing letters.  She will even write a few on a piece of paper and ask us what is says.  Since half the "letters" are not from any alphabet I recognize some of the answers are pretty creative. Juliette riding her bike with training wheels on at high speeds.  She's still very scared at the beginning of each ride but every time we go out she gets more and more confident. Nicholas talking French and English.  The French daycare is really paying off for both of our kids so far. 

Kids Fighting

OK, so my kids are too young to really fight just yet. Sometimes my son picks on my daughter but we can usually find a middle ground without too much trouble. Then the other day during breakfast something happened that reminded me of what my mom used to always tell me. I was doing the standard "First one to finish their breakfast wins the race." trick and my daughter did her standard "It's not a race." response. Usually that's the end of that except this time my son responded with one word, "Race". Which my daughter interpreted that this was a challenge to her authority so she became a bit more animated and said, "It's not a race!” Well my son was so impressed with his new power over his sister that he repeated the magic word that caused such a strong reaction and sure enough my 4-year-old daughter fell right into the trap of reacting even louder. This continued for a little bit with me enjoying things from the sideline. I realized that this is the first time but definitely not the last that my son will go out of his way to annoy his sister. It was at this point that I remembered my mom telling me that my brother was doing (insert annoying thing here) just because he knew it would bug me. For some reason I couldn't quite grasp the idea but now that I'm on the outside looking in I can't believe how obvious it is. Also, my son idolizes his big sister and follows her and imitates her in everything that she does. They are great and I love every minute with them.

Yesterday my daughter saw a guy with long hair in braids (with tons of tattoos). She told me how funny he looked and asked me to put it in my Blogger; I told her that I only put funny stories about my kids in my Blogger and besides, that guy was more scary than funny. Then in the bathtub she started folding herself in half and then asking me if it was funny enough to put in my Blogger. At the time I said no but she managed to get the story in here anyway. Boy do I fell like I've been duped or what.

Dad, put that in your Blogger

Kids are way more observant than you think. Yesterday during supper Nicholas (like any child) wanted to imitate his parents. At the time his parents were using hot sauce to spice up their food. Nicholas insisted that he should get some as well. We told him several times that it was not a good idea but he was becoming more and more difficult. At this point we had a choice, let the boy try the hot sauce or let him work himself up to the point where he would be screaming and crying. My parenting theory has always been if it doesn't hurt them let them do it. So I put a little bit on the end of my chopstick. He tried it and asked for more. So I gave him a little bit more and he immediately stuck out his tongue and started to blow zerberts. He then picked up his water and blew bubbles. It was very cute and very funny and probably the last time he will be trying hot sauce for a while. Juliette was laughing and proclaimed "Daddy, you have to put that in your Blogger". I guess she's heard me talk about it to my wife. I always though I'd tell them about it when they were much older, kind of like a surprise birthday present, she probably doesn’t know exactly what it is so I should still be able to keep it a secret. Another thing that happened yesterday was Juliette got a hold of a bicycle horn. She was honking it over and over and over and over again. My wife and I asked her nicely several times to stop. She would stop for 30 seconds and then honk it over and over and over again. At the same time my wife and I were trying to prepare things so that we could go out to the airport to pick up some family. Finally the honking and the stress became too much and my wife exploded with a very loud JULIETTE. I don't like it when the kids are yelled at. I tried immediately to repair the damage but it was too late. Juliette started crying quietly. Don't get me wrong; I have no problems disciplining my kids. I can sit and listen to them cry longer than most people but I'm a firm believer that you should never discipline them when you're upset. That's why mom apologized right away and we tried to explain to Juliette that we weren't angry but it was the very loud constant honking that drove us temporarily insane.

Things Kids Say

Just a quick post to highlight some things that my kids have done in the past couple of days that I want to try and remember.

Juliette: I want to speak English
Dad: You can speak English and I'll speak French, it's a free country.
Juliette: Well, I'll get the Government of Canada to make a rule that everyone has to speak English
(when mom and dad try to explain to Juliette what we do for a living we say we work for the government of Canada. The government makes all the rules in Canada)

Juliette (from the 2nd floor washroom): Daddy, daddy, daddy.
Dad (from the basement): Yes Juliette.
Juliette: Mom farted, 3 times.
Dad: Tell her to cut that out.

Nicholas just started at Juliette's daycare and boy is he sad. But it's OK Juliette is there to hug and hold him through the entire ordeal. In a few days he'll be fine but for now the guilt on his parents is almost unbearable. Let's hope today went better.

Shopping Mall

It's perfect really, I play with the kids and my wife does the shopping on her own. That way I don't have to walk, my wife gets her errands completed and the kids have a great time. What is there to do at a shopping mall you might ask? Well any toy section at any department store is great distraction (please see previous blog for details) or even a ride on loonie machine. We found two machines close by that the kids spent all their time on. One was a fire truck and the other a Tonka dump truck. The kids played on these two vehicles for almost an hour. Juliette was making a loud DING DING noise and Nicholas was always driving (just like his father). Juliette would even pull out the imaginary hose and put out the imaginary fire. I'm actually amazed the kids could spend that amount of time playing together without fighting and without me spending even a single loonie to make the ride move. My wife was able the shop in peace and I was overjoyed to see my two children play so well and so imaginatively together.

Camping with Kids

Well we had our first camping trip with the entire family last weekend including grandparents and it was a great time had by all.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Nicholas calling all juices"apple juice".
- Nicholas calling everything yellow when asked what color things were.
- Juliette sprinting faster than her mom to the campsite. That's impressive, at 4 years old she's already faster than her mom. Thank god she's got my speed.
- Nicholas, from a standing position, bending over and dipping his head in the lake.
- Juliette, swimming like a fish in the very cold lake without even a 2nd thought to it being too cold.
- Nicholas and Juliette, helping daddy collect firewood from the forest for the ridiculous fire that we had burning 24/7 while we were there.
- Mommy, finding tree segments too big for the fire pit that we burnt anyway.
- Juliette, swelling up like a cooked marshmallow every time a mosquito bit her.
- Juliette, telling scary stories around the campfire.
- Juliette, crying all of Sunday due to pain from canker sores on her tongue.
- Everyone, eating marshmallows by the fire.
- Juliette, grinding her teeth so that Pepere (who snores) complained he had trouble sleeping at night.
- Mommy, fishing as usual with Juliette but not caching anything worth keeping.
- Juliette and Nicholas, making enough bubbles for everyone on the beach.
Overall it was a smashing success. We were exhausted when we got home but it's nothing a little mid day nap didn't fix.

It's not a race

Morning routines are difficult to say the least. My children refuse to wake up before 8:00 AM regardless of when they go to bed. Even this morning when Juliette happened to be sleeping in my room (due to a bedwetting episode) right beside the clock radio she refused to wake up and the radio was practically blaring in her ear. I told her, when the radio wakes up, you wake up. I think it's time to buy her an alarm clock of her own. It can be pink and fuzzy with lot's of princesses as long as it makes a very loud and annoying sound that even she can't ignore. Nicholas is not so bad, he can wake up with some convincing. At least I can sleep in on the weekends, but I don't because I'm a morning person. So this morning, like most mornings I say "Let's see who can get dressed the fastest?" and whenever I ask that type of question Juliette will always say "Daddy, this is not a race!" at this point Juliette puts it into overdrive and always finishes the activity, in this case getting dressed, first and proceeds to tell Nicholas all about it. I find encouraging "races" works well for us, I'm wondering if there will be a future negative impact that results from using this parenting technique but for now getting the job done quickly is the top priority. Other expressions we use is "Last one there is a dirty rotten egg". I've been using that one since I was a kid. The funny thing is I don't think I've ever seen or smelt a dirty rotten egg. Highlights from my night alone with the kids yesterday are watching the movie Cinderella, having fun with lotion after bath time and exploring new words with Nicholas (his vocabulary is changing daily).

Father's Day

We had a very quite weekend. Nicholas and Juliette's swimming lesson's are now over. I don't get to see Juliette swim anymore since I'm responsible for Nicholas during this time. I have seen her take sink toys off the bottom of the pool though. Nicholas on the other hand can barely get through a lesson without asking to go for a long hot shower. The only way I can distract the boy is by throwing a ball ahead of him and "racing" him for it (he's in my arms at the time). I tell him during the "race" that it's my ball and once we reach the ball I attempt to rip it out of his hands. It's a great game that always gets him to squeal in delight. Other favourite pool games include pour water on daddy's head, push daddy's head under water and touch the flags.

After nap we went to a small fair that was set up in the IKEA parking lot. Our kids loved the train ride but we had to stop the little kid roller coaster ride because they were crying. The turning strawberry was also a big hit, for the kids, they don't seem to have a problem spinning in place at high speeds. Daddy on the other hand was glad we had run out of tickets. We let the kids play one game and as usual Mommy managed to scam the girl manning the booth to give up bigger than expected prizes. Nicholas got a great Caterpillar with sneakers and Juliette got a simple purple seahorse. Both kids love their toys and couldn't be separated from them for the rest of the weekend.

Father's day was great. We went to the park and played with my new father's day toy, an Air Hog. Juliette is getting to be very good on her bicycle (with training wheals). She is very determined and is very proud of her new found skills. Nicholas wants to be just like his big sister, as usual.

Juliette and Nicholas got some late birthday presents. Including a T ball set, a kids sprinkler system and adorable kitten cushion covers that they hug and kiss before and after they go to bed.

Hi Lanna

I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish Lanna a Happy Birthday. She was born last Wednesday after 30+ hours of labour at 7lbs 6oz. I've seen the pictures and, luckily for her, she looks nothing like her father. I will be using this event as an excuse to visit Oakville as soon as the family has a chance to adjust.

There is something special about being a new parent. I remember when Juliette was on her way I didn't miss a single doctors appointment, we painted and decorated the baby's room and spent hours making sure everything would be just right. Then labour starts and goes on for 30+ hours, your wife is exhausted and in our case there was a C-section. During labour there were scary moments like when the baby's heartbeat slows down and the nurse calls in a dozen staff to lift your wife and turn her on her side to speed it up again. Sure to them this happens all the time; to you it's the scariest thing you've ever lived through in your entire life. Then the baby comes out and the real fun begins. You learn from the staff how to bath, nurse, burp and change your baby. Breastfeeding turns out to be more difficult than you ever imagined. The pressure parents put on themselves to nurse your child is ridiculous but one way or another you get through it. I'll never forget the first day we brought Juliette home, she was sleeping in her car seat and we looked around the house and asked ourselves, "Now what?” For some reason I expected for my brain to shift gears and I would become a completely different person. I thought I would get home with a new baby and become busier than a beaver in a lumber shop. But instead all that stuff like thinking like a parent and running around like a chicken with it's head cut off came only after years of parenting (and from what I hear it only gets worse). I was kind of disappointed that at the end of the 9 months I didn't just transform into a father like a caterpillar transforms into a beautiful butterfly but instead it's the journey of years that makes the difference. Oh well now that I know, I look back on the pre child days and think, boy I didn't have a clue. I guess it's all part of the master plan and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

So Matt, enjoy the ride and take care of your little girl.

Happy 2nd Birthday Nicholas

Nicholas turned 2 years old on Sunday (13th of June). Happy birthday son. To commemorate the occasion we invited 33 of our closest friends, half, of which being kids between 1-5, to the Beach/Park close to our house for a family BBQ extravaganza. On the BBQ we served 4 racks of ribs, 2 packages of hotdogs, and a dozen burgers. The in-laws showed up with a veritable Chinese buffet that included shrimps fried noodles, spring rolls (well over a 100) and some drumsticks. Also available were shake and bake chicken, salads, bagels and of course a cake. Everyone agreed that there was too much food so everyone did their best to eat it all. For entertainment we set up a tent, provided sand toys, rented a helium tank for balloons and all kinds of bubble making accessories (the favourite being the sword for giant bubble making). For the adults there were Frisbees, and Bocce balls. All of the kids ended up spending some time in the water where there was at least 1 adult for every child (and since there was at least a dozen children in the water it made for quite the sight).

As you can probably guess the day was crazy with so many people helping and so many things going on there is no way I could capture everything in this blog, so here are a few memorable moments.

My sister in law and her boyfriend sat at chairs handing out helium balloons for at least 5 hours straight. They never left their post even when all the kids had been given two each. Some parents didn't do such a god job tying the balloons to their children’s wrist so at least 15 or so disappeared in the skyline. Good thing there was an unlimited amount of balloons.

A father and I took turns manipulating a giant bubble-making sword at the delight of all the kids in the park (not just ours). At one point Jim had to take control of a potentially dangerous situation: "Alright now, everyone put their sticks on the ground and nobody will get hurt" at which point all the kids put the sticks in a pile. I guess they had figured out pointy sticks were the best way to reach those high bubbles but they hadn't figured out that it was also the best way to put out the eye of a friend/playmate.

My mother did a fantastic job at the face-painting booth. She produced tigers, flowers and a magnificent Spiderman. My parents are always great at events like these. They love children and as long as they're around I don't have to worry about my own so I'm free to man the BBQ or talk to friends that I haven't seen is forever.

At one point we had left a dozen beach toys in the sand at the playground. My wife told any kid that was around that they were available for anyone to play with. At one point I looked over and there were at least 8 parents with their kids playing in a small group with the toys and I didn't recognize a single one. I was just happy the toys were being used.

Somehow, in the middle of all the chaos that was the day we managed to sing Happy Birthday as a group and Nicholas (with help) blew out the candles. He can say the word "two" but he has trouble holding up the right number of fingers. The boy finally has tons of boy toys. No longer does he have to push around doll strollers in public. After receiving a Tonka Dump truck (click on title), I don't think he'll ever have to resort to playing with anything pink again.

There were so many people who helped out that there is no way I could thank them all. I would just like to offer an extra special thank you to our family for running errands, watching our kids and cleaning up after the party was all done. We couldn't have done it without you.

This is the 2nd annual family BBQ that we've held. Both events have been huge successes. We will probably do it again next year. If you didn't get an invite to this year’s event it was probably because we didn't have your email or we weren't sure if you'd be interested. Please contact me any time within the next 51 weeks to make sure you don't miss out on next year’s event (if there is one).

Morning Person

So last night the kids got to bed at 10 PM! That's almost 2 hours past their regular bedtime. Needless to say I was a bit worried about their reaction to waking them up this morning. So, I tried Nicholas first. He jumped right up out of bed with a huge smile. Next was Juliette, I sat on her bed and asked her to wake up. Nothing. I got Nicholas' clothes and dressed him on her bed. She still didn't move. I asked her a million more times and she still didn't move. I got her clothes and dressed her while she cried the entire time. Meanwhile Nicholas was in the bathroom brushing his teeth. I brought Juliette to the bathroom and demanded she brush her teeth. Still crying she went through the motions. I carried them downstairs and put Juliette on a couch and asked Nicholas to prepare breakfast. He fetched the cereal and sat down in his chair with his bib on. I hugged Juliette for a while and attempted to explain (again) that I had an important meeting today that I couldn't be late for. Juliette was still whimpering on the couch. I sat her in her chair and asked her to eat while I got ready. When I returned she was sulking and Nicholas was done. I told her we were leaving whether she had eaten or not so she took a few spoon fulls and I dragged them to the car. Nicholas was happy to be dropped off. Juliette argued with me that she wanted to return home and get her sandals (it's only 13 degrees today) and she insisted that I not take the Queensway to her daycare (yesterday when I did she cried for the entire car trip). When we finally got to school I hugged her until she seemed at least happy to see her friends. What's the moral of this story? If you never want to deal with unhappy crying children who do a very good job of driving you crazy, don't have any of your own. I've talked to other parents and it's usually times like these that you do something you regret and feel guilty about for the rest of the day. I think my biggest regret of today was when I was brushing Juliette's hair and she was complaining that it hurt I said "Well you’re already crying, I might as well give you something to cry about..." I did apologize afterwards as it wasn't a very nice thing to do.

Running Laps

Our kids most favorite game is running laps. If your house has a few rooms connected to each other in a configuration where the kids can run in a circle then my kids will love visiting. Both my house and my parents have such a design. We have spent hours since the kids could first walk, running laps around the house and occasionally hiding around a corner to scare the living daylights out of them. The screams of joy and fright are very cute and usually impress any visitors that may be around. Juliette, being the faster runner, is very careful not to knock Nicholas over when she passes him and Nicholas is old enough that I don't have to run with him in my arms when a grandparent or uncle scares him. I'm not sure at what age they'll stop doing this but at my parents house it's suitable for the entire family (grandparents and all). If you google "running laps", you will find another parent writing in a blog about the same thing (click on title). I guess my kids are normal after all :)

Big Sister

I'll say it once and I'll say it a hundred times, if you have a choice (which we don't), have the girl first and then have the boy. I'm sure there are lots of people out there who will have a million reasons of why the boy should come first but at least for now (when the kids are 2 and 4), this combination is the best for family bliss. Why do you ask, well here are some stories as proof:

The other day, while driving in rush hour traffic, the kids were eating their snacks quietly in the back seat. Once Nicholas had finished his snack he proceeded to cry at the top of his lungs. At which point Juliette gave him her snack, which got him to quiet right down. After giving up her snack she proceeded to entertain him with songs about spaghetti and lost meatballs. Upon reaching our destination she stated "You know what? I love Nicholas. I gave him my snack when we were in the car so he would stop crying." This story was told to all who would listen and I was very proud of her. Is this a girl thing? I don't know for sure but I suspect it might be. Juliette seems to have that nurturing instinct that little girls show when playing with dolls. It's not the first time she has tried to help Nicholas and it won't be the last.

Nicholas enjoys biting and pulling hair. Whenever Juliette's hair gets too close to him you can almost guarantee that he will pull it. He will also bite anything that gets near his mouth. The other day he bit into my finger (at the knuckle) and didn't let go until I had pried is jaw open with my other hand. Is this a boy thing or is it just Nicholas. From talking to other parents I think it's probably a bit of both. I think it's this boy persona that was the inspiration for the website link which is the title of this blog.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of boys and am overjoyed to have another mindless ball/Frisbee thrower in the family. Only a boy can get hours of enjoyment by repeating the same motion over and over again without the need of conversation. Juliette enjoys different games that usually involve talking. It was also a primitive instinctual urge to have a son. This always defied all logic for me. It's common knowledge that Father's are usually closer to their daughters. And when you’re old and grey, it's usually the daughters who come home to visit the most. I could never understand why, regardless of what my brain was telling me, I craved to have a son. I've talked to a few other fathers and have found this to be a common thing (whatever). All I'm trying to say is I love both kids equally and that the mix of girl then boy works for us.

Rocks & Sticks

Why is it that kids love rocks so much? I'm usually pretty good at understanding kids, being a big one myself, but I swear, I'll never understand their fascination with rocks. If they were throwing them at targets or skipping them across water perhaps, but no they just pick them up, examine them a bit and put them in their pocket (or somewhere else). At least when they play with sticks they usually hit trees, the ground or in the case of a kid I say yesterday roadkill??? The only problem with sticks is that they can poke their eye out. The other day Nicholas was playing with a stick so I had to take it away from him. Almost immediately after I removed the dangerous item he proceeded to trip over some shrubs and just miss poking his eyes out with some sticks that were lying on the ground. What's the moral of this story? I guess it's like the new Polysporin commercial, no mater how hard you try to protect your children they will always manage to hurt themselves. It's a part of growing up.

Getting back to rocks, last week my wife was flying to Edmonton on business. While she was preparing to leave I told Nicholas to put a rock he was playing with in her suitcase as an item to remember him by (without her knowledge). Well the good folks at passenger screening saw the rock in her suitcase and asked her what she was doing with it. I guess rocks are on their list of banned items (even though I can't find it on their website [click on title]). Luckily she was a quick thinker and concluded that her 2 year old son had placed it there. If she had said she had no idea the good people at CATSA would have assumed that she had not packed her own baggage and torn it apart looking for dangerous items. In the end they confiscated the rock and let her board. What's the moral of this story? Don't use rocks as a souvenir if you're flying considering how easy it would be to use one to take over a plane.

A Conversation with Nicholas

Nicholas is really turning a corner. His vocabulary is expanding in leaps and bounds. He will make an attempt to repeat words as complicated as hippopotamus or as simple as "beer". Now, when we're driving our usually game of yelling "Bus" at the sight of one has been expanded to yelling "Truck" (pronounced Druck) and "McDonalds" (pronounced Donod). His favorite thing to yell is actually Mcdonalds. We can't get into a car anymore without him yelling it out whether there's one around or not. Other cute things he is doing is smiling on command "Where is Nicholas' smile?" and trying to wink on command. He understands everything that's asked of him and is so happy when we understand what he says in return. The other day when the babysitter got him to repeat the same word 50 times and finally understood what he was saying "McDonalds" he was soooo happy he jumped for joy (and almost got off the ground). It shouldn't be long now until Juliette and Nicholas will be able to entertain themselves on all levels. That also includes coordinating a planned resistance to our parental decisions a la Simpsons (click on title).

Fighting Princess

The other day Juliette decided to tell me a story. By the end of the story I decided to do a better job of monitoring what she sees on TV. The story went something Like this:

Juliette: "Once upon a time there were 8 princesses... No 10 princesses... No 12 princesses... Daddy, Is 12 bigger than 10?"
Daddy: "Yes Juliette."
Juliette: "How about 17? Is seventeen the biggest number?"
Daddy: "It's the biggest one you've mentioned so far."
Juliette: "Daddy, what's the biggest number?"
Daddy: "...Infinity."
Juliette (confused): "OK, so there were 17 princesses and they put on makeup and dresses and went out to fight bad guys. They found a bad guy and shot him and put a bullet in his body and he died."

That's pretty much the end of the story. What's the moral of this story? Is it don't be a bad guy and you'll avoid getting shot by the fighting princesses? No, the moral of this story is don't let your child pick whatever video they want the next time you visit Rogers Video even if they're in the kids section where everything is rated G. Can you figure out what video I let her rent? Click on the title of this blog to find out.

Boo

Something my kids love doing is hiding and scaring people. They hide so well now that it takes up to 5 minutes of searching to find them is a not very large upstairs floor of our house. It used to be that if you had trouble finding them you could just say "Where's Nicholas" and he would call out "Here". But now they hide in closets, under beds and in bathtubs. If you happen to be babysitting them one night, beware, they will hide and they will jump out and say "Boo!". It's gotten to the point where now even my wife is in on the act (this is from the girl who threaten to leave me if I didn't get ride of a motion sensor activated dinosaur that I had hid in a bathroom). Scaring people in general is not well received on my wife's side of the family but it was always part of my upbringing (thanks dad).
The link of this blog will direct you to the character the aforementioned toy was based on.

Play Fighting

Nicholas loves to play fight. I used to try and play fight with Juliette but she always seemed a bit awkward and reserved. It was almost like she was worried about hurting someone (or herself). Nicholas doesn't have that problem. As discussed before we fight over the ball during swimming lessons and lately we fight for the fun of it. Usually a good fight will end up with him upside down and laughing his head off. Unfortunately he picks on his sister as well and, being a princess, she doesn't usually fight back. She usually tells the King or Queen about how naughty the prince is. Today's link will guide you to the movie our family watched together last night, it was very good.

Stinky Bum

I couldn't think of anything to write in my blogger today and then I received a humorous link by email (click on the title). It reminded me that Nicholas loves to tell the world he has a stinky bum. The next time you're around, and he needs a diaper change ask the room "Who has a stinky bum?" and Nicholas will proudly proclaim, in a loud toddler voice "MEEE". It's adorable. Now, whenever the boy needs a diaper changed, I ask him the question at least 2 or 3 times just because it's so damn cute.

Chinese Zodiac

Ever since I told Juliette that she was born in the year of the dragon she has been fascinated with the scary creature. At one point she insisted that we all turn into our Chinese zodiac animals because she wanted very badly to be a dragon (and who can blame her). I proclaimed, I wanted to be a dragon as well but she responded that I should be a Rat instead (which is my sign). Her mother is an Ox and Nicholas is a Horse. When I told her that you can't just turn into an animal and it doesn't matter how much you "want" it to happen she wasn't impressed.

Today in the car she told me she wanted a pet. I asked her what kind of pet she wanted and she chose a dragon. I asked her what she wanted to feed him and she said horses. I asked her if she would prefer to get another pet like a rat (mom's most hated pet) or even a dog but she was pretty insistent on a horse eating dragon. I explained to her that a horse eating dragon would cost a lot of money so she decided to go for a miniature one like the dragon on Mulan "Mushu". At the end of the conversation I told her that dragons didn't exist but she didn't seem to upset. I think she had already figured that out. On a side note, I did find it a little disturbing that Juliette (the Dragon) chose the horse (Nicholas' sign) as food but I'm sure it was only a coincidence. They get along great.
My link of the day is a picture of a dragon eating a horse (click on the title).

The Easy Way and the Hard Way

Nicholas has been very difficult recently. The boy is getting over a cold. When our kids are sick we let them get away with murder. This makes sense, it's no fun being sick so it's OK to spoil them if it makes them feel better, Right? But, what we've noticed is that once they get better, they have no intension of going back to the status quo. You can kiss your bedtime routine goodbye because they'll have none of it. What I do if they don't cooperate is to put them to bed the hard way. That means no Song, no Stories, no Milk, and no cuddling time. In other words you drop them in their bed, walk away and let them cry themselves to sleep. Even though the sound of your child crying is heart wrenching don't kid yourself, this is a power struggle. That means if you give them an inch then they'll take a mile. The last time we did this to Juliette she was about 2ish. She was being very difficult one night so I asked her if she wanted to go to bed the hard way or the easy way. She continued to be difficult so I put her to bed the hard way. To this day she remembers. All I have to do when she becomes uncooperative is to ask her if she wants to go to bed the hard way or the easy way and she always chooses the latter (anyone who babysits for us can use this technique). I hope Nicholas figures it out soon. It's been 3 nights now that I've put him in bed without the routine. He cries himself to sleep and it breaks my heart. What he wants is for Mom to put him to bed but on nights when she's out it's just not an option. It's easy to feel guilty and quite sad about the situation but I'm still convinced it will be better in the long run. I know I like to pretend I have all the answers but really what I'm including in this blogger is stuff that works for me and in no way is the only way of doing things.
Today's link of the day (click on the title) will bring you to Suzette's blogger. She's lots a fun to hang out with and great with my kids.

Soccer Girl

As a parent you know what you should be doing but it's soooo difficult sometimes to actually practice what you preach. So when Juliette told us Saturday morning that she didn't want to go to Soccer (her 1st ever session). We told her, what we thought good parents would, that she should try it out and if she didn't like it then she could do something else. What I was really thinking was please, please don't just sit on the side and watch the other kids play (like ballet). So when the practice started I was prepared for the worse. What I got was a very happy and talented 4 year old playing soccer who even scored a goal. Sure there were a few kids crying with their parents holding their hands, but for once, my child wasn't one of them! During the practice I was afflicted by a strange sort of tunnel vision. All I could see was Juliette running around after the ball with a huge smile on her face while the other (14) kids slowly went out of focus and blended into the background. When she scored a goal I had to control myself from jumping for joy. Am I going to be the type of dad who yells encouraging things from the sideline? Probably. Am I going to be the type of dad who pushes my child to compete regardless of what they want? I hope not. Am I going to be the type of dad who gets into a physical fight with other parents or the referee? I think I'll personally ban myself from the games before that happens. I don't need her to be the next Mia Hamm (click on the title of this Blog if you don't know who she is), even though deep down I'll be hopping she is, all I want is for Juliette to get the same satisfaction from a sport or hobby that I get every time I step on the Ultimate field.

Color Blind

Children are color blind. When I say color, I mean race. Juliette and Nicholas are half Asian and they don't have a clue what that is and that's fine with me. Juliette's school is filled with a variety of races. One of her good friends is blond with Asian eyes. I love it. The other day we were looking at a ball with Barbie figures on it and I asked her to pick out the Chinese Barbie. She responded with "There are no Chinese ones daddy, they're all English" referring of course to the language she envisioned the Barbie's all speaking. You can hardly tell they're part Asian anyway. Most people can't decide if they look more like mom or dad but we all agree that comparing baby pictures, they look almost identical. I love the mixing of race and culture and I'm convinced that it will make the world a better place. To better understand the Asian culture (at least the one I familiar with here in North America), check out the link I've included in this posting, it does an excellent job describing the personality of 99% of the Asian girls I know (although perhaps with a little less swearing).

He's no wimp

My wife was stating how it was unfair for the second child to always be compared to the first. I don't see it as a bad thing, it's something all parents do. Even when there was only Juliette she was being compared to other kids her own age. Every parent does it because we need to have confirmation that our child is developing OK and will have a chance at being a great success in life. During the discussion we realized one of the biggest differences between our two children is that Nicholas is no wimp (unlike his sister). The boy can fall hard, scrap his knee and come up laughing about it. The other day he gave me a headbut so hard that I yelped in pain. As I reached down to pick him up and console the poor kid expecting a flood of tears, he looked at me and laughed! If that had been Juliette she would have cried for hours. I guess it's to be expected. Nicholas has to be a little tougher because Juliette is twice his size and loves to man-handle him. If Nicholas wasn't tough life would be much noisier in our little house. Juliette has always been a wimp, and an easy target for school-yard bullies. I'm hoping that Nicholas will defend his big sister and fight her battles for her.

Why?

From the time Juliette started saying her first words it seems she has been asking me Why? She would ask so frequently that we made her phrase her questions in the form of a sentence so I could make sure she understood what I just said, as opposed to the "Why?, Why? Why?" Routine. Last year her most favorite question was, "Why is it raining?", and every time I would explain the natural cycle of evaporation, clouds etc... I would have liked to respond "Because the Angels in heaven are crying, probably because of something you did." but that kind of goes against my unofficial rules of parenting (someday I'll right them down). My favorite questions recently have been: "What is a n-idiot daddy?", "Daddy, are you going to go hunt a deer?", "How does the baby get out of my belly?", "When am I going to die?", "Which team is Canada? (asked during any sporting event)" and "What is Earth". You become so use to answering questions all the time that it becomes second nature. I always try to answer them as truthfully as possible so that the answers remain consistent. Then the other day I realized something had changed in our relationship. At the ripe old age of 4 she's stopped asking questions about every single thing in the world. She's started to provide me with answers. Even when the answers were wrong, like when I discussed with her the meaning of being bored, she sticks to her guns and insist she is right. Do I miss the old Juliette, a little but the quite time is nice. Of course Nicholas is learning a new word every day so it won't be quite for very long and that's a fact.

Mother's Day 2004

Mother's Day has come and gone and the children were at their best. When I say best I'm not trying to claim that they were angels and they listened to their parents or that they made breakfast for mommy in bed or anything like that. They acted just like a 2 and 4 year old would and that's the best I could hope for.

Since it was mother's day I'd like to jot down a few of thoughts as to why my wife has earned to be spoiled by the kids at least one day each year:
-When Juliette was in the CHEO emergency with an asthma attack at the age of 1, we spent the night at the hospital and mommy spent some of her time sleeping with baby in the crib under an oxygen tent.
-When the kids get to choose who's going to put them to bed it's always mommy because she hugs and kisses them the best.
-When the kids need clothes that fit (and match), it's mom who makes them magically appear and always at an affordable price
-When the kids are crying themselves to sleep (until a solid bedtime routine is established), it's mommy who is two floors away shedding her own tears while daddy sleeps in the next room like a log.
-When the babies needed to be fed/changed/hugged at night mommy did it all
(Don't even get me started on that whole pregnancy and delivery mess, if men were the ones having the babies there wouldn't be any.)

I've changed the Blogger format that includes a comment feature. Let me know if you like it.

Rice

Our kids eat rice almost everyday. That's because their mom is Chinese and when it comes to cooking, she's taught me everything I know. So at the age of 4 my daughter is an expert on rice. So much so that she has complained to however will listen that the rice at her daycare is just not up to par. I assume they use some instant variety which can't possibly compare the high quality product of a half decent rice cooker. But come on folks, this is plain white rice we're talking about with a little bit of Soya sauce, not lobster or chicken Kiev. How important can quality rice be? Apparently important enough for my daughter to insist that we bring in a sample of "real" rice topped with Kung Fu brand Soya sauce for her teacher to try out in a blind taste test. This amuses her teacher very much and the next day the kids have rice scheduled on the menu perhaps I'll sent a batch to day care for everyone to try out.

Milestone & Radio Show

Milestone
Well the weather is getting warmer and the kids are playing outside more. Yesterday I saw Juliette help her little brother climb into a swing in our back yard and buckle him in. She preceded to push him to his and her delight. I thought is was great! My kids playing together and more importantly helping each other out while both having fun. The rest of the time Nicholas spent spraying water at various targets with a spray bottle (favorite targets are people, the BBQ and his mouth), while Juliette spent an unbelievable amount of time on the swing and then complaining that her hands hurt afterwards (no kidding).

Radio Show
One of our family traditions is to listen to Stuart McLean on CBC Radio every Sunday from noon to one. Our favorite part of the show is his telling of (fictional) stories based on a middle class family of 4 living in Toronto. This past Sunday it was a flashback episode to when Dave "the father" experienced his first pregnancy and birth of their daughter. It brought back memories of when we had Juliette. The kids for some reason caught on to the fact that the story coming from the radio was supposed to be funny (due to the fact that it was recorded in front of a live studio audience) and every time there was a pause in the story for the audience to laugh the kids would laugh hysterically. They were quite noisy but very cute. Near the end of the story the father mentions that upon seeing his baby for the first time he began to cry. The reason he gives for crying is the fact that someday that baby girl will break his heart. At which point I said out loud "I guess that's true, someday Juliette will break my heart." Juliette was not impressed and told me that this would not happen. I told her someday she would move out and get married. She insisted that she would stay at home forever and if she did move out she would make sure it was to the house right beside my own. The thought was very sweet but I don't think I'll hold her to it.