He walks!

At 4:28PM today (Aug 31st) I received a phone call from Sabrina telling me that Matthew had walked. By the time I got home, it was 5:15PM and I got to see him take between 8 and 10 steps before sitting down. It would appear that he took a few walks before I did arrive. While Sabrina was in the bath, he walked again. He was quite proud of himself.

We are too. He's twelve days shy of 11 months.

A few notes: his first steps were taken because he was angry at Sabrina, wanting a toy she had in her hands. He walked towards her. He wobbles a lot, so he still has a road to travel before he gets there. But it's looking good.

Matthew walks

Matt did something amazing a few nights ago (August 23td). He was mad at Suzanne because she didn't want him to have Sabrina's toothbrush so he got up, started yelling at her, then telling her off in his baby language (I don't understand what he's saying but I'm sure it's foul and I fear that he's going to sit on the bench very often that little one). He then took two steps towards her, unaided. He was so mad he did not noticed he had walked.

Sabrina is three years old.

Wow, I can't believe our little girl is now three. She is so amazing, so bright, a real little princess. She is so intelligent, so full of life that spending time with her is a gift I thank God for. Happy birthday my love.

Disparition de Cédrika Provencher

It's important to remind people
Disparition de Cédrika Provencher (1997-08-29)- Disappearance of 9 yr old
Cedrika Provencher from the Three Rivers, Que. Canada area

La Ronde on Sunday

Thank you Nuance for a great day at La Ronde Sunday (Aug 19th, 2007). Sabrina had a real good time, even though she was a bit scared on some of the rides. Matthew also had a lot of fun as he got to hug a lot of my coworker and their girlfriends (I am not responsible if your girlfriend's clock starts ticking after holding him). Here are a few pictures.

Sabrina on the monorail, assessing the situation.

Matthew having a great time on the monorail. 10 months old and no fear (yet!!!)

Now that's a face!

Maybe this ride is a bit much for Sabrina.

Mom's Daemon

Suzanne's Daemon

My Daemon is a snow leopard. His name is Pereus

My daemon

Her name is Haythia and she's a tiger. She's modest, shy, a leader, assertive and responsible. She's with me all the time, but I am the one who sees her mostly in this world. The Golden Compass is appearing in theaters December 9th. It's Harry Potter for adults. If all goes well it will be Suzanne and I's first child free date together in three years.

-Martin

Addictions

This morning Suzanne told Sabrina everything they were going to do, and everywhere they were going to go. She wanted to do something (you'll find out later) so she started to cry. Eventually Suzanne got her excited in the day's plan.

I went upstairs to make a coffee and Suzanne ask Sabrina to tell me what they were going to do today. To which she reply "I am going to play on the computer?".

Sabrina is another word for persistence.

Nice weekend

Saturday night, Nathalie and Dan came to have supper at our place. Since Dan is becoming an inspector, he evaluated our house. Let's just say there were some interesting findings but a lot of it is OK. The bathroom however could make Mike Holmes cry.



Today was a busy day as we went to visit the "Fort Chambly". As you can see from the pictures the kids had a lot of fun. We would have liked to stay a bit more and read everything that was in the museum but with Sabrina yelling "Let's go there" non-stop, it's quite hard. She was stopped short on the second floor where they have a few scenes with appropriately dressed mannequins. It looks a bit ghostly and it scared Sabrina so much she was trying to get inside of me, yelling, crying, that she wanted to go home. I feel for her, she's probably having nightmares as I write this.




Next I took 1/2 hour to clean the pool and we <<>> took a dip. Mathieu is already a pro, enjoying it so much he was trying to jump out of Sue's arms into mine (a rare occurrence) to swim with me. Sabrina didn't want to go at first, but she had a great time afterwards as well.


All in all a pretty good day. The kids were sleeping by 7:00pm

Matt a World Wonder ...

"WONDERS OF THE WORLD Peru's Machu Picchu was chosen as one of the new seven wonders of the world in a worldwide online poll, it was announced."

We call Mathieu "Machu Picchu" all the time. He is one of my three wonders of the world.

A trip to La Ferme Angrignon

Martin worked from home today. Since I had the car, I decided to take the kids to La Ferme Angrignon. Sabrina was so excited! She kept asking "Are we at the farm yet?" Sabrina's favorite animal was the pig. She saw two pigs, a pink one and a spotted one. They're names were Spot and Spok. Mathieu's favorite animal was the rabbit. He loved watching this cute black and white baby rabbit hop around it's mommy rabbit. We only had one "incident". The llamas are kept with the sheep. The sheep were very hungry and they kept going baahhhh baahhhh through the gate to get our attention. It's interesting to note that different sheep have different tones. The baahhh's kept getting louder as the sheep were trying desperately to get our attention. This frightened Mathieu like I've never seen him frightened before. He screamed and clung to me with such a grip that I don't think I would have been able to pry him off me even if I had wanted to. We had to leave the sheep area to get him to stop crying. Sabrina thought this was quite interesting. When we talked to grandpapa, through video conference on MSN, she immediate said "Mathieu was afraid of the sheep, grandpapa" when he asked her how she enjoyed her visit to the farm. We can't wait for Brome Fair!

Mathieu the shrieker / Sabrina the master negotiator

We had a good first day to our long weekend. Max cleaned the pool (we're getting there!!!). We also did something we haven't done in a long time... we ate in restaurants. We had breakfast at IKEA and then bought a few things and we had supper at St-Hubert. It was actually quite pleasant with the kids. Sabrina is really good in restaurant settings. We were not sure how Mathieu would act. He was good, except that he was so excited that he started shrieking at the top of his lungs. Imagine the highest pitch shriek you've ever heard, such as in a horror movie. It was quite embarrassing but what are you going to do?

Sabrina was also quite sweet over the weekend. We went to the park to play and Sabrina brought back home a collection of branches. When we got home I told her that the sticks stay outside. I then proceed to take Mathieu out of the stroller and open the front door. I turn around, once inside the house, to make sure that Sabrina is following me. She has this peculiar look on her face (a little guilty? a little shy? a little cute?), her hands are behind her back and there's these branches sticking out. I say "Sabrina, what do you have behind your back?" She doesn't say anything. "Are they sticks?". She smiles. I say "Okay, you can bring 1 stick into the house." She starts sorting the sticks and then looks at me and asks "Can I bring 2 sticks in?". How can I resist such cuteness?!? Of course she can bring in 2 sticks.

Surprise visit

Today was a very nice and relaxed day with the kids. I helped Max put his C.V. together. It turned out really well, he has a nice C.V. for a 17 year old. Max is going to start job hunting on Tuesday, after the holiday weekend.

We had a surprise visit from my dad "Grandpapa" this afternoon. He was in the area for a funeral for his aunt, who died suddenly from a brain tumor, and stopped by to see the kids. We had a good time. Sabrina & Mathieu enjoy his company.

Sushi sushi and Mike Holmes

The kids are in bed early. Martin & I ordered sushi for a special supper with our favourite wine. We haven't had sushi is about a year! Yeah!
Also, I've submitted our master bathroom for a renovation project to Mike Holmes from Holmes on Homes. Keep your fingers crossed that we get chosen!

Sabrina ism of the day: "plush"
Translation: "pouf"

Mathieu vocabulary to date: Mama, Papa, Bye Bye, Hi, Yeah, Abaah (Sabrina), Maa (again)

Car accident part II

I'm fine but the car isn't. The other driver is OK too, even if his air bag deployed. I just didn't see him coming as I was turning left and we almost had a frontal. There was nothing I could do as I did not see him at all. I just remember hearing some breaking, and then going through a big crash.

The process that follows is very well defined. First the fire trucks come in, followed by the police and then a tow-truck. I am asked repeatedly if I'm fine, something I asked the other guy often. I call our dealership and they told us where to bring the car. Called the insurance but they were closed -- it did happen around 6:45AM. We brought the car to the garage, from there they brought me to a car rental place and then drove back to the garage to get the baby seats.

All in all, it was a relatively painless experience. I'm really happy both of us are OK.

Martin in car accident

Martin called me this morning at 8:00am, which right away worried me because he never calls me during the day when at work, to tell me that he was in a car accident. He's OK, the car is not in good shape. I'll know more later today.

Martin cleans the garage

Today can be summarized as follows:
Suzanne does groceries
Martin cleans out the garage (very well I must say!)
Martin works on pool (it's getting there!)
Suzanne takes kids to the park
Martin & Suzanne are exhausted
Kids don't want to cooperate in going to bed early and instead of sleeping by 7:00 pm as usual they fall asleep by 9:00 pm
Martin & Suzanne are even more exhausted
The end

Sabrina ism of the day: Opinol
Translation: Oatmeal

Bonne St Jean Bastiste

We had a wonderful family day on June 24th - La Saint Jean Batiste. We started out our day with the usual plans (pool, work around the house, groceries...) but then we decided to forget about all those chores and do something fun for a change. The initial plan was to take the Metro to l'Ile Ste-Helene and walk around the park and then come back home... but we ended up going with the flow and had a wonderful time. This was Sabrina and Mathieu's first time in the Metro. Sabrina was a little concerned at first because of all the noise, the smells and the hustle and bustle. Once on l'Ile Ste-Helene we saw a wonderful water fountain which Sabrina found quite amusing.
We then visited the "Big Ball" otherwise known as the Biosphere. Sabrina has been obsessed with this "Big Ball" since she was a baby. She used to cry in the car when we would pass it and she could no longer see it. She was quite happy to actually go into the ball and touch the ball. When she's older, we'll take her to visit the museum.
After the "Big Ball" we took a little break at park for kids on l'Ile Ste Helene. Sabrina had a great time on the slides and climbing the rock mountain.
We then proceeded to a wharf to look at the city across the St-Lawrence river when to our surprise a water taxi boat arrived. We decided on the spur of the moment to take the boat across to the old port of Montreal. Wow what a lot of fun!
At the old port we visited a schooner called Marie-Clarisse that was built at the same place and at the same time as the Bluenose. We then had lunch and proceeded to take the Metro back to Longueuil. We got back home by around 1:30 pm and we were exhausted. We then finished our day by going to see our good friends Melanie, Francois and Benjamin for a delicious supper. This was a perfect family day. :)

Sabrina ism of the day : Queuter
Translation: Computer

A walk in the park

On Saturday we went for a stroll at Le Parc Regional de Longueuil. It was a beautiful day, there was a cool breeze and no humidity. We saw a few chipmunks, some squirrels, some seagulls, a goose, a duck and several birds. Sabrina threw rocks into the pond and Mathieu had fun picking clover and trying to eat it. Martin continued cleaning the pool in the afternoon. We expect the pool to be ready by September. LOL. It was a pretty laid back day. We were all tired and went to bed at 7 pm. Today is La St-Jean Batiste. Happy Quebec Day.

Sabrina ism of the day: Kremmins
Translation: Penguins