Tallulah

The Wee Tikes

Halloween!

I know it's been forever. Sorry everyone. :)

Jon took the kids to the Halloween festivities at UNO today. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so the timing was good.

Have you ever seen a cuter Harry Potter!? In the picture below, he's pulling back his hair so that you can see his drawn-on lightning-bolt scar.

Michaela saw Cleopatra (or Cleopatra's zombified ghost) in a Scooby-Doo movie and was determined to be that for Halloween. I could only find a adult sized costume, but I pinned it up and I think it turned out pretty well.

She Wants To Be a Zoologist

If Michaela looks a little nervous in the above picture, it's because that snake she's holding bit her a few minutes before I took this picture. I'm quite proud of her for being brave enough to still hold it afterwards.

Same snake, different day. As far as I could tell, this was the same snake that bit her a few days before, but it was much calmer and Michaela expertly caught it, gently holding it behind the head so that it couldn't bite her. As I watched her catch it, she kept whispering to it, "You're alright, you're alright." If any of you have watched the Crocodile Hunter, that what Steve Irwin used to always say while handling wild animals. I don't know if she was even aware she was mimicking her hero. I thought it was adorable.

Michaela never keeps the snakes she catches long. She usually hold them for a bit, then we have a moment where she thanks the snake for letting her hold it, she tells the snake how beautiful it is, then she asks the snake to come back and play sometime soon, before letting it go in a safe place. It's really quite sweet.

Michaela caught this beautiful moth, not once but twice, two different days in two completely different locations. I took pictures of it both times and the markings were identical, so I'm fairly sure it was the same one. Michaela was very careful not to touch or damage it's wings, and after the moth had rested for a while, it eventually flew away.

Major Yay for Me!!!

I got my license this morning! Took 32 years, but I did it. The test was actually surprisingly simple. You don't have to make an appointment or anything. I just showed up at the DMV at 8am and a super nice lady took me out to the car we'd rented for the occasion. She and I drove around the neibourhood for about 15 minutes while chatting like a couple of old friends. We talked about weird things that have happened to her during tests, how we came to be in Nebraska and all about life back home. Before I knew it, the test was done, and I'd passed with a near perfect score.

I didn't sleep much last night worrying about it, but I'm sooooooooooooooo happy and relieved that it is over. I love having a license!!!!!!!!!!!! Now if only I had a car...

Heehee.

Here are some recent pictures:

This is the garden I share with my wonderful neighbour, Lisa. It used to be her garden, but since it's partially on my land, and since we get along so well, we decided to garden it together this year. So far we've planted beans, tomatoes, peppers, squash, strawberries, a blueberry bush and several different herbs. It's awesome!
Michaela caught another snake and played with it for a while before letting it go in the garden where we found it. Nate's wearing the hat that some elderly neighbours whom the kids have befriended gave him.
Michaela biking without training wheels. She's sooooooo proud of herself. :)

Happy Mother's Day

To all the mom's in my life, Happy, Happy Mother's day!

To my sisters, Meghan, Heather and Sharon, you are all an inspiration to me.

To my own Mom, there is so much I want to say, but I think most of all I want to say I love you and thank you for being my mom.

And Yet I Write...

The tornado sirens are going off right now. I heard that I'm supposed to go into the basement when I hear them, but it doesn't look particularly windy today. They go off surprisingly often, so I've started to ignore them. It's reminiscent of The Boy Who Cried Wolf... although at the end of that tale, the wolf actually shows up. Haven't seen a tornado yet though, so that's a good thing, right?

Monday night we were witness to the most spectacular lightning storm I have ever seen. There was no more than a second between each flash and that went on for what felt like hours. The flashes were so constant that each one ran into the next as though a group of paparazzi were stationed outside our window with their flashes firing again and again. There also wasn't any pause between thunderclaps. There was so much lightning that the thunder was one steady, angry rumble in the skies. It was unbelievable.

Sirens have stopped... roof is still intact. Yay!

Nate's 4th Birthday

Nate turned four yesterday. Four years ago he was being born, and I didn’t even know. I didn’t know he existed or that he would one day be ours. Since we adopted him at eight months old, we’ve been there to celebrate each subsequent Birthday, but we missed that first one. It’s funny how a day that went from having no significance became so important months later.

I was lucky; I happened to remember exactly what I was doing on that day. I was driving home from La Beauce after a weekend with relatives at their cabane à sucre. I remember it well because it was the first time I’d spent April Fools around my husband’s Francophone relatives.April Fool’s is called poisson d’avril (April fish). The tradition is for kids to colour fish on paper, cut them out and tape them to people’s backs. I think the more fish you tape to a person’s back without them knowing, the more of a fool they become. I of course, not being accustomed to this tradition, had lots of fish taped to my back.

As a child, the idea of ‘tricking’ someone was equated to the idea of surprising them. Every April first, I would round up my younger siblings, wake up early doing our best to be quiet, and we would make breakfast for my parents. I can’t remember what we were able to make them at that age, but I remember how happy it would make me to surprise them.

So, four years ago we were driving home from this weekend away and back in Montreal Nathanael was being born. I must admit, for the birth of my son, it was quite painless on my part, but I do wish I could have been there on that special day… I don’t have any pictures, any memories of him on his birth day. After adopting him, I asked the family he was living with since birth if they had any pictures I could have. They had five – five pictures is all that was captured of his first eight months of life, but I treasure each one. But he’s with us now, and he’s ours and we love him… and I take faaaaaaaaaaar too many pictures of my little guy, if that’s at all possible. ;)

Nate and Michaela LOVE the swing set we bought them as a joint gift for both their Birthdays. Some of you might remember that we wanted to buy them a swing set for Michaela’s Birthday last fall, but couldn’t find any, it being too late in the season. So we waited and bought it in time for Nate’s B-day. Thank you to everyone who contributed! We were able to get a very good quality swing, and hopefully it will give them years and years of fun. Thank you all!

We also gave Nate a tricycle, because we thought it was about time!

And Dad asked for more pictures of Lulu. She's doing so well, and we love her to bits!

Long Overdue Zoo Pics

I meant to post these last fall after we actually went to the zoo... my bad. Better late than never, right? We got a membership to the zoo, so I have far more pictures than I could ever throw at you, but here are a few of my favorites.
Poor Michaela tried to hard to get this chicken to eat out of her hand. It kept coming close, but never quite got there.
Storybook Gardens anyone???
Well, who could resist, when faced with a giant statue of an animal with an large gaping mouth, grabbing their kid, sticking 'em in and taking a picture? Personally, I think it's humanly impossible. Nate however wasn't impressed, and while he couldn't quite vocalize it, made it clear that using kids as props for funny pictures is grossly irresponsible. Two seconds after the picture, he hopped out.
No they didn't fall in, but if they had, I would have taken video... Am I a great mom or what!? ;)

Anyway, hope these make up for the scarcity of pictures from us lately... when something remotely interesting happens, I'll post more. Nate's Birthday is the next big event, so you can expect pictures then.

Bonus:

I overheard this the other day and it gave me giggles:

Michaela to Nathanael: Do you know what cotton candy is? It’s like a hairball but made from cotton… (pause) Cotton is a type of fruit.

After a Snowfall

This wasn't taken that long ago, but the snow's all gone now. I can't wait for drier weather though; coming inside now after a walk is a pain since both kids and dog are, more often than not, muddy.

Christmas

This awesome castle and all the neat-o accessories were thanks to the generosity of family back home. Thanks!!!

I just love the look on Nate's face here.

My little Christmas elfs! Aren't they beautiful!

Michaela's Holiday Concert

Consistent with Missie's usual precociousness, she barely paid attention to the music teacher, preferring instead to make cutesy faces for my camera and waving at Mommy and Daddy. It was pretty darn cute!

Thought I'd also include this picture of Nate and me. It was a nice moment.

Halloween - That's Right, I said, Halloween

I know, I know - I'm not the most consistent blogger. Sorry!!! ;) I don't think I ever posted the picture of the kids at Halloween, so I thought I would rectify that now.

I think it would be very, very hard to find a cuter outfit than what Nate's wearing! Heehee.

Introducing...

We are very proud to be able to introduce the newest member of our family,

Tallulah

(LuLu for short) Today we drove over to the Humaine Society where this sweet girl was waiting patiently for a family to take her home. Tallulah is a two year old St. Bernard/Collie mix. She is calm, quiet and completely unfazed by the excited bouncing and over-enthusiastic petting from both Michaela and Nathanael. She is now officially ours! She has looked at the cats with curiosity, but has made no move to enter their personal space. Lulu seems to be the perfect fit for our family and we already love her very much. After twelve years of waiting, it still seems a little surreal to have a dog, but we're very, very happy!

Stained Glass

I was talking to Mom yesterday about my recent stained glass project and I mentioned that I had posted pictures of them on the blog. Turns out I only thought I had posted them, but never actually got around to doing it. Here are most of them, there's one I made for Auntie Donna that I don't have a picture of.

This last one I finished yesterday. It's a gift for Jon's secretary's son who is getting married next weekend. They are devote Catholics and when Jon talked to his secretary, she suggested this pattern because it was meaningful to them. I think they'll like it...

Juxtaposition - I just love that word

Last week's snow came so unexpectedly; my neighbour's flowers were completely unprepared. The result made for some lovely pictures. The snow melted away completely the day it fell, but the flowers never recovered sadly enough. We had a gorgeous day today. Jon mowed the lawn and it was warm enough for t-shirts. You know, the trees haven't even started to change colour yet. (And yes I wrote 'colour' instead of 'color'. I'm a Canadian and sticking to it!!!)

Michaela and I were forced to stay inside though because Missie fell sick yesterday; bad fever, cough, no appetite, chills and aches (Please don't say swine flu... I know you're all thinking it...) She seemed a little better this evening, but we'll keep a close eye on it.

As Aaron mentioned in my last post; we here in Nebraska seem to be serving as an early weather prediction system... if that's the case, get ready for some nice weather, because it's beautiful here today.

An Unexpected Day

I think these pictures speak for themselves. We were woken this morning by the kid's excited squeals of, "It's snowing! Mommy, Daddy! It's snowing!" We crawled out of bed begrudgingly because the house had cooled significantly during the night and ate a hurried breakfast. We had to bring up all our winter clothes from storage as the kids practically bounced off the walls in their excitement. I think I kept hearing the word "Christmas" whispered by both the kids more than once.

Nate seemed to realize that we'd skipped over another important holiday and he stopped saying, "Christmas! Presents!" and started asking, "Halloweenie? Mommy, Halloweenie?" I had to reassure him we hadn't missed it.

It's so weird. Yesterday we were riding bikes and watching the neighbours mow their lawns. The kids were even running around outside in bare feet yesterday. This weather came as quite a surprise!

Of course all good things must come to an end and by the afternoon this is all that was left of the snow. :(

It was fun while it lasted!

Sunny Skies

Can you spot my neighbour's house... I can't. Still, it's really pretty. I keep walking past trying to find the front door. All the windows facing our house are completely covered so I guess privacy isn't an issue.

This is our front door. I took this picture to prove a point. Take a good look at the sky...

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This is an exact recreation of a conversation Jon and I had on Thurday:

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Jon: It's supposed to be rainy this weekend.

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Cara: Oh good! That's nice.

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Jon: Really? Why?

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Cara: Well it's just so sunny here all the time... It's depressing!

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Jon: *looks at wife like she's crazy* Uh.. ok...

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Cara: *realizes what she's just said... thinks about retracting the statement... decides that she actually meant it and sticks by her feelings... is proud to be a Quebecer who is never happy with the weather, no matter how nice it may be*

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So, yeah... let's just say I miss clouds. It rained yesterday and I sat in the front porch and watched it for an hour with a smile on my face. It was lovely and reminded me of home. :)

Today

There's no specific reason for today's post. The kids were playing outside and I decided to get some pictures. The first one isn't Michaela taking a cat nap on the walk-way; she's actually examining a grub. She spent the better part of an hour like this. :)

Yes, Michaela's learning how to dress herself without any input from mommy. Still, she looks pretty darn cute.

That's my guy. The proud American. (do they put something in all their flags that make them flutter majestically every time they're held aloft???)

Moving Day!!!

I thought we should get a quick picture before the insanity of unloading the truck began. :)

Mom and I distracted the kids while Jon and Dad unloaded. They were helped by a wonderful woman named Marie who is Jon's new department's secretary and her two grown children. With their help the truck was emptied faster than I ever thought possible. It was quite something.

Unfortunately my previous 'guess' that Omaha has similar weather to Montreal was a little off base! It's HOT!!! And the week we moved in was insanely so. Although, according to neighbours this has been a uniquely cool summer. My response is always... WHAT!!!??? From what I hear, normal summer temperatures stay above 40 Deg. and the humidity is enough to give Montreal a run for its money. Sigh. Well, thank God for air conditioning!!! :D

By now the days are still quite hot, but the evenings and mornings are cooler, which is awesome. It still amazes me how blue the sky always is. We've had about two days with rain and other than that it's been sunny, sunny, sunny. But when it rains... OH BOY! Does it ever rain. Our street is a hill and when it rains, it looks like a river in front of our house. It pours and there's thunder and lightning. It's quite something to watch... which we happily do from inside our dry porch.