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.