Make mine a Shirley Temple!

So I'm thinking that the hairdresser took the whole "gee, doesn't she look like Shirley Temple" thing a bit too far. But what's cute is that Gabrielle has gotten so used to people remarking on her resemblance to Shirley Temple that she's developed a response that goes something like "yes yes Shirley Temple I hear that a lot."

Plantin' time again...

Somehow managed to get it together to order seeds from a seed catalog in the late winter, buy some soil, and find some little potting containers - let's plant some seeds! And even though I was much better organized this year than last, the seeds actually haven't been doing as well. We have transplanted the cherry tomatoes and larger ones into the garden now, but the strawberries and cucumbers have been disappointing. So now I'm thinking it's like when the goldfish dies and you run to the store to get a new one before your kids figure it out - similarly, am thinking of running to the garden centre to get some little plants and exclaim to the kids: "well looky looky what happened to those strawberry plants overnight! We must have green thumbs...."

Big boy bed

We waited longer than most to transition from the crib, but we wanted to make sure he wasn't going to get out of bed every 10 minutes. Make that every 30 seconds, which is what he would have done 6 months ago.

It's been great having him in a bed he can get in and out of. The funny thing is that he still won't walk over to our room in the morning. He just lies there and calls for me to come get him. The one time he did just walk over, he had a huge grin on his face. I believe that was the sweet SWEET taste of FREEDOM he was enjoying.

Chez Safta

We spent a weekend at my mother's place (5 weeks ago! Catching up on my blogging, but slowly...), giving Mark some time to himself and spending some time with Safta and Grandpa Shalom (and Marie! But we need a cute name for you too...). We did some fine dining at my mother's place, enjoying smoked salmon (at least she and I did) as well as delights like soft-boiled eggs, which Gabrielle was happy to try but Isaac would NOT. Thank god for bread and yoghurt.

He doesn't eat much but he smiles like an angel...

A little game we call Knee-Lap

Besties

I debated internally whether to title this posting Besties or Beasties. But here's a sweet moment - they actually set themselves up like this, with their identical drawing tablets, without Mark or I knowing. Such sweetness. They must have seen those military school brochures I left lying around...

;-)

Our little star

As Mark mentioned below, Gabrielle has been doing ju jitsu quite regularly for the last few months. We signed her up because she had shown some interest in karate, as a restaurant we frequent is right next door to a karate dojo. Unfortunately, the hours of their classes aren't very convenient for us. I heard about a mixed martial arts academy (Hello Ultimate Fighting!!) nearby that had a great kids' program with, of course, convenient hours. A magic combination.

At first, it was nearly impossible to get G to try it out: "Ju-what?? Never heard of it! I want to do karate!!" I assured her it was basically the same as karate and even BETTER. She grudgingly agreed to try ONE CLASS. After meeting her doppelganger, Sensei Mackenzie, she was basically hooked. 

The brilliant part of all this, is that she gets stars on a fairly regular basis, which are ironed onto her gi (white outfit). These stars are given out by Sensei Mackenzie based on merit, listening to the teacher, and trying to follow along. The kids never know if they're going to get one and they're not allowed to ask for one. Once she gets 8 stars (below is star 7), she moves onto tape stripes on her belt. 8 stripes and she gets a whole new coloured belt. 

It's motivating for her and for us to shlepp her there 2-3 times a week. Who doesn't love getting a star?