Grandma bought Marie-Hélène a raincoat, and it’s guaranteed to be the brightest thing you see on a cloudy day.
Summer wardrobe
April 8, 2011 – 11:21 am
Grandmaman went to Grand Forks this week and brought back clothes for Marie-Hélène. We played dress up this morning and she seemed to agree that they were lovely clothes indeed.
We’re just waiting for the grass to turn green before she wears them for the day!
Now, about yesterday’s post. I’m not saying we go about swearing all that much around here. I think the record for most swears in a month was when Christian backed into John’s car, with his brand new Honda Civic. That one sentence was Christian’s entire year’s worth of swears. Nonetheless, Marie-Hélène has become increasingly parrot-like in the last little while and we go about our day correcting our own French grammar before she learns it the wrong way.
Have a lovely weekend!
Swearing
April 7, 2011 – 7:00 am
On the subject of swearing, I read something hilarious and I’ve repeated it to at least two people. (Otherwise, I never remember jokes. Why did the chicken cross the road? I don’t know. And the blonds… there are only two I know, the one who puts white out on her screen, and the other who ice fishes on a hockey rink.)
My son, Sam, at three and a half, had these keys to a set of plastic handcuffs, and one morning he intentionally locked himself out of the house. I was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper when I heard him stick his plastic keys into the doorknob and try to open the door. Then I heard him say, “Oh shit.” My whole face widened, like the guy in Edvard Munch’s Scream. After a moment I got up and opened the front door.
“Honey,” I said, “what’d you just say?”
“I said, ‘Oh, shit’” he said.
“But, honey, that’s a naughty word. Both of us have absolutely got to stop using it. Okay?”He hung his head for a moment, nodded and said, “Okay, Mom.” Then he leaned forward and said confidently, “But I’ll tell you why I said ’shit.’” I said Okay, and he said, “Because of the fucking keys!”
(Anne Lamott)
Phonecall
April 6, 2011 – 7:57 am
Yesterday morning, the phone rang. Christian and I hadn’t even taken our showers and Marie-Hélène was still asleep, and the phone rang. Now, when the phone rings that early in the morning, it could mean only one of two things. Someone’s sick or someone died. So we rushed to answer the phone, at 7 in the morning. And do you know what it was? It was neither sickness nor death, it was a fax machine. The beep from a fax machine, with all the intensity of pages of information trying to get through the receiver, is not unlike someone kissing you in the ear (although much less romantic) the two leave you deaf for a minute.
Faxed messages on our phone tend to make me swear. Sorry Mom. But you know, when you are bilingual, and live in both English and French, swearing is a special grey area. English swears aren’t considered really swears in French since they don’t make any sense. They’re just vulgar. They make you look a little less polite. But pull out the big French words and you’ve just cursed yourself in the name of all that is holy and sacred. So, when a fax machine deafens me once, I swear a little swear in English (sometimes) (in the morning) because I know that there will be at least two more of the same call.
I mean if those advertisements for all-inclusive trips to Orlando for six nights for only 499 don’t get through the first time, the fax machine will dutifully try twice more. So the next two calls, you don’t even need to say “hello”… you just hold the phone a foot from your ear and wait for the beep.
And even though we don’t have call display, we’ll occasionally use *69… and by occasionally, I mean I ask my husband permission first, because it’s more expensive to use that feature than it is to talk to someone in Jamaica for 10 minutes. Yesterday morning he said sure. So I wrote down the number the *69 feature gave me and googled it. And here, “fax 905 819 4996″ belongs to Hill’s Pet Nutrition. So rather than a cheap trip to Orlando, I’m getting dog food? At 7 in the morning?
I call the place, and make my way through a slew of automated options in order to reach the reception. And a nice woman answers with a French accent. I start in English (’cause I only get mad in English), and switch to French, and our relationship improves. “Are you a company?” she asks. “No Madame! I am a house!” “Oh! That is not good!” she answers. “No!” I say ina barely controlled voice, “not when you have a baby!” She tells me she’ll find out who is doing the “blast” and we wish each other a good day.
At moments like these, I could kiss Google in the ear, and say that that expensive feature on your phone is actually worth it. One fax down… (who uses fax machines anyway?)
Circus
April 5, 2011 – 7:00 am
I’ve missed writing over here… Christian was on holidays last week, and rather than stick to my wake-up, exercise and write schedule, we mostly slept in, and brought Marie-Hélène into bed with us for her morning bottle. Then she’d play between us before we’d begin the day with showers and breakfast. I think we went for ice cream three times last week… I suppose you could call it a weakness.
We also went to see the circus. Marie-Hélène sat in rapt attention for the first half, then the intermission broke the spell, and she wanted a balloon! Balloon! Balloon! Unfortunately they probably cost 3.50 $ each, and so we brought out her stuffed dog, Milou. Her affection for Milou grows daily, and when the circus resumed, she took it upon herself to make sure Milou would look at the acts, just like we’d do to her. Look! Look! Look!
By the second part, Marie-Hélène was copying the contortionist in her seat, and Mama didn’t catch much of what was going on. I’m pretty sure she was the most active toddler in our section.
Yes, her hair is a mess. We woke her up from her nap and told her we were going to the circus, which made her lunge for her clothes, as we’d been playing up the idea for awhile. We left the house in a hurry, without an elastic for her hair, and put a tuque on her head. Don’t worry Grandma, I don’t think the elephant noticed…
Snow sculptures
March 29, 2011 – 7:00 am
As I rounded the corner, going home, I noticed the snow on our lawn had melted even further. The temperatures have had trouble summoning the oomph needed to get past freezing. But the sun has been shining so brightly, and forming such interesting designs.
As I was walking around our lawn, I heard our neighbor across the street, as he was getting into his car.
“It’s not that interesting!” he called out.
“I know… you must think I’m crazy!” I laughed.
Yet, the rays make waves in the snow and just the right amount of warmth fuses and balances the cristals just so…
Our longhaired little girl
March 28, 2011 – 10:19 am
If people don’t first remark: “She’s so petite!” they’ll most certainly remark her blue eyes and blond hair.
Marie-Hélène has mastered the knack for brushing it away from her eyes, and every morning, it’s the same story. “Marie-Hélène, Mama’s going to put an elastic in your hair!” To which she always replies: “Nah!” Then I tackle her with a brush and gather all the strands into a poneytail and tell her how pretty she’ll look for Grandmama.
Weekly menu plan no. 6
March 27, 2011 – 4:52 pm
Since there’s no better time to procrastinate then now… I’m writing out this plan. Uh hum. Really, I should be writing the first act of a play for English, creating the photo album for 2009 (we’re a little behind since Marie-Hélène popped in) and getting on to the Travel Manitoba blog with gusto. But Christian is home, it’s Sunday afternoon and all bets are off. John’s reading on the couch, the sun is putting out its best efforts to melt the snow, and Marie-Hélène’s still asleep (naptime, her version: play in bed two hours, sleep one). Christian just left to get the ingredients for home-made pizza, which is a pretty easy meal once everything is chopped, and contrary to the already-made-version of Sobey’s pizza, requires 75% less hydration, post consumption (where do they hide all that sodium that has me convinced I’m a diabetic for an evening?).
On to the plan.
Sunday (Monday): Italian Wedding Soup, which sounds so romantic, I don’t know why Deb from Smitten Kitchen insists on calling it plain old Escarole and Orzo Soup with Turkey Parmesan Meatballs. Nonetheless, it is a soup I keep in my binder of printed recipes, and perfectly satisfied our craving for meatballs without demanding all the commitment Sweedish Meatballs entail. And rather than escarole, we used spinach. The soup always reminds me of the Campbell’s version my Aunt Carole once served me when I was visiting. I thought it was so delicious and exotic, she could have told me she made it from scratch, noodles and all, and I would have believed her.
Tuesday (Wednesday): Lamb Stew. I should elaborate a little here, but I’d need to go print out the recipe from the cookbook upstairs, and didn’t I mention, it’s Sunday afternoon? I’ll get back to it if you’d like. Encourage me a little… Write a comment…
Thursday: Smoked Sausage Sandwiches. I don’t know if you recall, we still have a whole lot of sausage in our freezer from over a month ago, and we try putting a dent in it when we can. This recipe is simple… Kaiser buns, cooked sausage, a good tomato sauce, grilled bell peppers and sautéed mushrooms… Assemble and enjoy.
Friday: Salmon, served with rice and asparagus. Christian bakes the salmon, then we convince Marie-Hélène it is pink chicken, and she stuffs her mouth with the biggest pieces she can find and complements the whole with soy-sauce imbued rice. The asparagus is daintily nixed.
So voilà… Hope you have a delicious week!
John’s tea kettle
March 24, 2011 – 9:57 am
I don’t know how to break this to you, but the ostentatious giraffe tea kettle is John’s! It kind of started with Marie-Hélène. She associates animals with people… a whale for Papa (we don’t know why) and the lizard is Anna (because of her pet bearded dragon). Chantal decided John most resembled a giraffe because of his long eyelashes. Marie-Hélène now associates giraffes to her uncle John. Then, Chantal found the perfect tea kettle…
It also has the most unique whistle… it sounds and we feel we should run for cover. Want to learn more about giraffe? Check out the video!
Tea drinkers
March 23, 2011 – 9:54 am
I’ve mentionned in the past that John, my brother, used to scoff at the idea of drinking tea. “Pfff… All it is, is flavored water….” he’d say. Then John’s best friend would hang out with his older brother and they’d drink tea together. John started having second thoughts about tea, and tea-drinking in general. Enter Chantal, John’s girlfriend, who found that his kitchen lacked a few essentials, and now our house has two teapots and two tea kettles.
This sober black set, that goes along with this colourful aray of sachets…
And this:
To go along with this loose-leaf…
So. Which set belongs to whom?