E, M, J & A au K'nada

Thanks for visiting our blog published to share our Canadian experience with our family in France and our friends all over the world.You’ll find the most recent news bellow this intro.Don’t forget to check our pictures gallery and to leave us a few words in each post’s comments or on the guest book page.For more information on how to browse the site and how to participate, please check the « About » page in the above menu. Enjoy your visit, and see you soon!(Vous pouvez lire ce message et le blog en français en cliquant sur le drapeau français en haut à droite de cette introduction)

Yesterday Ms M started grade 2. I just can’t believe it. She is growing so fast and I can see the tween years are going to come way too fast.

Here she is, my beautiful girl, ready to go yesterday morning:

Check there the posts from the previous years.

The difference this year is that her little brother wanted to go to school too and be in the pic as well. So here they are together!

She seems to love her new teacher and I liked that there were no mistakes in her first letter to the parents

On the news front:

• Maybe you’ve seen from the pics from the previous post, we have been busy: my nephew and A’s niece came for 3 weeks in July. We did something almost everyday, museum, pool, water park, walk in the forest, play dates…the kids enjoyed each others and it wasn’t that complicated to manage all these pirates. In fact it went very well and we’d love to have them back again.
• We have had a great summer weather, enough rain not to worry about watering the yard and enough sun and heat to enjoy pools and water parks and cold drinks and evening bike rides at the sunset. The backyard has given us a lot of lettuces and now we are enjoying red peppers, eggplants and tomatoes…lots of tomatoes!
• Ms M went 2 weeks in camp including a Chinese one and it was really great! There was a show done by the kids at the end of the week. The Korean classes also participated. It was really interesting and the kids in their costumes were beautiful. I wished I could have taken pics but with my 3 years old wanting to participate it was impossible. Anyway I hope Ms M will go back next year for at least 2 weeks because she seems to get a lot from it. And she will see again some of the friends at Chinese school on Saturdays. If you want to learn the song we are singing since she did it at the show check it here: It is about the white dragon horse from the Journey to the West which is based on Chinese mythology.
• We went to Toronto for a weekend and were able to see a lot of our friends and introduce Mr E. It was great. We also went to Montréal and saw more friends and my cousin that I had not seen for more than 10 years!! She is coming in a few weeks over here too. A’s parents are planning to come in November to meet with E and my parents and my little sister will spend Christmas with us here before I finish my parental leave. We are very happy!

I am sick so you won’t get more. That’s it for now. We’ll be back soon in the routine with Piano, Ballet, Swimming lessons etc… so yes, it will be busy like usual.

Bye!

I’m late for sorting our pictures, but here is a big update for July and August 2010.

Juillet / July

Aout / August

Our little man is 3 years old today!

It’s been only 2 months and half we are together and we already have this big milestone to celebrate…

Little Mister E is everything we had wished for and even more. He has a very strong personality and willing. Always wants to do everything by himself. He has learnt a lot of French words and can already speak small sentences. He still calls himself Ge Ge and like to have the last word (like his sister ). He starts to love reading books with us now, and more often asks for colouring. He still loves to dance with his sister. He is now able to play a little by himself with a truck or a doll. He still loves to dress up and to sing. His favourites are ABC and Old MacDonald.

Mr. E still loves eating a lot and almost anything and by himself. He is now almost 14 kg and 93 cm. So he is between 25 and 50 % for both which is very good. We can see how well taken care of he was… He sleeps well as well and still has a 2 hours nap almost every day. He is almost fully potty trained. He is getting better with his bicycle, still a little « lazy » to push for the wheels to move. He likes to try to use scissors and doing a mess of small paper everywhere.

E is very affectionate (when he wants) and likes to hug with us and kiss us. He loves to be held in the arms so it is good for attachment. We usually have a pretty good eye contact outside the « troubled » times when we have to go to time in or when he knows he did something wrong.  He is very mischievous and knows exactly when he is doing something he is not supposed to. But most of the time he is just a fun little boy who has an infectious laugh and likes tickles and doing funny faces.

It has been a wild ride but it is getting better every day. We all are adjusting well and feel more and more like a family of 4.

We hope your first family could know how well you’re doing. Because you are such a delight and a joy to be with and we are oh so glad and thankful to be with you.

Happy Birthday little man!

• Someone lost 2 teeth and the fairy (or mouse in the French tradition) had to be generous. The adult teeth are both in the back, not sure if we will need a visit to an orthodontist one day. 2 of 4 molars are almost completely out…my baby is definitely becoming a big girl

• I am starting to get used to being a stay at home Mom again but it’s tough. Not that I miss work, just that I need to organize my days differently. And I also have to get use to parent a boy. Not that easy!

• We have been having a great weather for the garden (rain and sunshine) so we are already enjoying our tasty strawberries! We should also have lettuces (soon thanks to Nina!) and cherry tomatoes, eggplants and red peppers.

• Ms M is an amazing big sister but she starts to realize it’s not always easy and she needs a lot of patience. She sometimes goes to her room and posts some notes on the door for her brother not to come in. The cat wishes he could do the same…

• Little Mr E needs to learn patience as well. He also needs to learn to follow some essential rules in his new home (like not trying to hit) and it’s a difficult process sometimes…but getting better days after days! He is adjusting and we are too. He is learning French very quickly and repeats a lots of words. He goes to Baba and Mama and he cries less and less when I leave the house. He sleeps well and still eats very well even if we can now see his taste is changing. I cannot believe he has been with us for only 4 weeks!

• We are starting to see friends again and Friday Mr E was introduced to his JieJie’s class. He loved the attention Next weekend will be another introduction to the the community since we have our parish’s annual picnic. But most of the time we just enjoy being together and we have a lot of fun!

… we can find all kind of colorful things… Can you find the odd one? (click on the thumbnail bellow to get to the gallery)

Not much to say today: the admin part is completed, so we just need to wait for the papers to come back before we can take off back home. In the meantime, we’re visiting, and today was the Summer Palace for daddy, while mommy and the kids were resting in the room.

[Show as slideshow]

We are now in Beijing with the rest of the group. 22 families! We arrived on Friday evening and settled into our room. Saturday we did some paperworks for immigration and we went to the Zoo. I think the animals think the zoo was in front of them… just crazy how the people can be.

Today was the Jade factory, the Great Wall, the Cloisonnés factory…a Sunday…I have to say I kind of miss our 2 previous weeks because even thought we could feel China is very populated I think this week here will overwhelm us. 5 years ago we came in November and it didn’t seemed to be that crowded.

We had a wonderful week in Xinjiang despite the very controlled environment. It is a beautiful province, full of mountains and desert areas. The people are beautiful too and the pilaf rice, lamb kebab and flat bread helped us too quickly catch the weight we lost last week I hope we’ll be able to see more when we go back, one day…

Our little pirate is adopting us slowly, and we are all adjusting to a life as a family of 4. Little Mr E is very strong willing and testing us of course, but most of the time he is a very happy little boy full of energy and eager to learn. He gives us kisses already and can go to both Mama and Baba. We love him already to pieces and cannot wait to be home with him.

Sorry it is so short, we are pretty tired and at night our brains go blind…More when we are back home for sure.

(click on each picture to see them big)

Someone forgot to turn off Internet today in Urumqi We’re all well and will post more soon.

Quelqu’un a oublié de couper Internet ce matin à Urumqi Nous allons tous très bien, et vous écrirons plus bientôt.

Our wonderful trip in Hunan comes to an end, and we are taking off to Xinjiang today to meet with Didi tomorrow. We might be off line during the next 5 days, and if it’s the case we will post again from Beijing.

Traditional Chinese breakfast / petit déjeuner traditionnel Chinois

Wonderful people… / Des gens merveilleux