Isaac is 1!

Finally.

What can I say - it's been a crazy year. It sort of flew by and it sort of felt like every day dragged by as if coated in glue and molasses. But Isaac is one and is turning into quite a little character. My prediction is that he turns out to be a concentrated, determined guy who's a picky eater. Or he may not turn into my father - we can only wait and see.

;-)

Pictures from the little man's party:



"Happy Birfday to Baby Isaaaaaac....."



One thing he's not picky about is dessert. Sugar is yummy.



The proud grandmother, trying to keep Isaac from destroying the house...



Gabrielle's best bud, Logan, always up for cake.



Gabrielle and a variety of her former caregivers, Susie and Erin.



G and Susie. Those two smiled through the whole party.

And the school learnin' begins....

This exchange between Mark and Gabrielle last night:

Mark, reading the book about chipmunks: "They sleep all winter long! Isn't that crazy?"
Gabrielle: "Yeah, they hibernate!"

Apparently, she learned it at school. She's also developing a fairly impressive vocabulary of sign language. To what end, I don't know, but it's part of the curriculum. Who knew that going to nursery school could be so educational??

Cat in the hat and sock monkey for Halloween

Gabrielle was decidedly undecided in the weeks leading up to Halloween. When I first asked her what she wanted to be (a month ago) she blurted out "Cat in the Hat." Brilliant! I thought. Then she said "no, I want to be a monkey." OK, I thought, she's been a monkey the last two years, maybe this could be her 'thing.' "No! Cat in the hat!!" she insisted. "But sweetie..." "No!! I want to be a monkey!!" "OK, we'll get you a ..." "NO!! I want to be Cat in the HAT!!" she interrupted.

And on and on it went for the next three weeks, a constant moving target of monkeys, cats, dinosaurs, etc... at which point I put down my foot and told her she was going to be the Cat in the Hat and she absolutely and positively refused until I told her she didn't have to go out trick or treating and suddenly it didn't seem so bad.



It turned out pretty well! She's actually wearing a borrowed skunk costume, doctored up with a long black tail, borrowed Uncle Sam hat covered in white satin with red ribbon, and a big satin neck scarf. Logan and Declan came over before trick or treating and showed off their amazing costumes, including this cool fire truck costume for Logan with a lit-up spinning cherry on top.



Later on, Gabrielle's friend Celydia came over with her mom and they went trick or treating in our neighbourhood. Celydia is the tiniest little elephant with little eyeglasses - extremely cute with a huge personality.



And Isaac got to be a monkey after all - sock monkey, that is. He didn't really go for trick or treating, so he and I went to one house with G and then headed home to hand out candy (and sleep).



First house: our neighbours. He opens the door as a salty old sailor. Then he bends down, in character, and gives them a classic "aargh..." and Gabrielle dives off the porch and into Mark's waiting arms.



Now you see her, now you don't! Unfortunately, this set the tone for the rest of the night - she was a bit cautious in all the rest of her interactions...

Nonetheless, she came home with tons of candy, which we let her eat her fill of that night. And Mark was thrilled to find out we didn't get too many trick or treaters (guess why).

Snow day!

Halloween snow man = delicious.

Standing! (for 8 seconds or so)

with Gabrielle in the background playing her favourite game, "you can't do that - you're just a baby."

Giving Thanks in Lennoxille

The night before the big Thanksgiving roadtrip to Lennoxville, G and I busted out the pumpkin pie recipe and made an awesome pie. She couldn't stop eating the liquid pie leftover after pouring it into the shell, and couldn't wait to eat it once we got there. Final verdict: she loved it. Seven slices later... Leave some for us!





Window art - this came as a bit of a surprise to us when we arrived there - who knew why she was being so quiet on the car ride??



Little Ms. Punkin' Pie 2010.



Junior Ms. Punkin' Pie 2010.



Learning man stuff.



Learning girl stuff.



Cousins! Girls happy, boys worried.



I don't care what anyone says - a plastic bag IS a toy. The boys took awhile to warm up to each other but there was enough interaction to consider it a success. I've been saying that this year is the "year of the girls" but next year will be all about the boys. Did I mention we volunteered to host Christmas at our house this year? Bubble wrap the coffee table!!