GRRRRRR!

This year, Margot was a lion and I was sporting my annual witch's costume:

A few people asked me  if Margot was going trick or treating this year. Really? At a year and a half? I don't think so. To be quite frank, I think it is strange for  kids under the age of three to go trick or treating. Who are the candies for? Yup! The ones who pay the mortgage ;)
I would love to say that Margot was excited to be wearing her smashing hand-me-down costume, rushing to the door every time she heard the door bell, and practicing her roars. But that would be a lie. She was cranky; annoyed with the head piece; and just wanted to left alone. She went to bed early

Simple Happiness

Being a Parent - Part 1

-Early wake-ups
-Rolling around in parks

-Quick dinners
-Messy house
-Receiving gently-worn beautiful clothes from France (merci ma belle!)

-"Being present" has a total different meaning when a little munchkin is climbing all over me during a yoga practice.
-Rediscovering the seasons

Colour!

This morning, Margot went on her first "walking all the way" hike. She must prefers treading the woods in her own boots than perched up on Simon's back. We are so very lucky to live less than 10 minutes from Gatineau Park. It's such an easy "hop in the car and into the woods we go!" jaunt (as long as we have snacks for Margot).

It was a rough week: Margot had a little cold; I had tons of marking; and the weather was grey.
But to cheer everyone up, this weekend is off to a great start: Hickory Trail; knitting club; planting crocuses and daffodils, and dinner tonight with dear friends.

Last weekend, it was Thanksgiving and we visited the Parhams in Newmarket,. The weather was stunning! The weekend is best described in pics:

Reading with Grandma and Ia:

Discovering Main Street:

Walking by Fairy Lake with Uncle Rich and Uncle Jonathan:

Playing piano with Grandad:

Picking a pumpkin:

Getting lost in the corn maze:

Exhilarating!

A standing ovation.

The set, the music, the performers, the themes - it was all so perfectly fused.Engaging, humorous, thought-provoking. I felt alive and energetic! Yeah! I left the theatre wanting to stomp barefeet.


p.s. There's another YouTube "official" clip that is a bit longer. Check it out if you're interested:  longer clip

Glorious Wednesday!

This is the first Wednesday since the beginning of the semester that I have enjoyed the morning and afternoon with my feisty lil' girl (who is napping as I write this).
As you probably know, my teaching schedule is rubbish this semester. The closest to a day off I get is on Wednesday when I only have 1 class (from 8-9am). For the last 7 weeks, I have stayed at school for meetings, auditions and prep. But today, I rapidly left school at 9 am. My tea was still warm...

The weather is gorgeous! (refreshing after a rainy and grey weekend and beginning of week). Went to the Marcel-Chaput park (our little street park) with Margot and stayed there much longer than anticipated. Suddenly, it dawned on me: what is there to do at home? Might as well be soaking in the rays of sunshine, breathing fresh air and getting visual stimulation from the colourful leaves.

Then, Margot and I had a rendez-vous at the Language Development Lab at the University of Ottawa. This research was on "The Effect of Stress Differences on Infants Learning Phonetically Similar Words". This is my second participation at the LDL at Ottawa U. The first one was when Margot was 13 months and was about being able to differentiate different accents: "Do Babies Notice when a Sound Influences its Neighbour?" I am proud to contribute to research, especially second-language studies. Margot gets a free t-shirt and an outing and I get free parking (!)
For those who are curious, this is how the "meeting" unraveled: We were met by a lovely young Ph.D student, Sophie (from Moncton), who explained to me the nature of her study while Margot played with toys (she especially liked the truck). Then, Margot and I were led into the testing room which had a chair, a screen, a hidden camera, and a set of headphones for me (playing 1990's Jann Arden hits). Margot was seated on my lap in front of a screen. A picture of an object was shown and accompanied with a gibberish word (in this case, they had two objects: a fennel "bica" and a stapler "capoul"), so over and over they show those objects with the words. What do they test? Margot's reaction to the stimuli by the amount of time she looked at the screen. There were two rules for the parent: no pointing and no talking (I did well).  The testing took about 5 minutes. Afterwards, we returned to the lobby where Margot continued to play (this time with the toy phone) and the grad student asked me questions about Margot's exposure to language.

 Tonight, Simon and I are going to see the dance company EASTMAN, original choreography by Cherkaoui and Jalet in their latest dance creation, Babel (words)

Saturday Morning

Autumn has shown its true colours. Woke up to a windy, grey and chilly (10C) morning.
Margot allowed us to sleep in until 8am, although Simon woke up at 7:30 and did a morning yoga practice. Very impressed by his dedication to do yoga twice a week (his week begins on Sunday; therefore, he needed to squeeze his second practice before the end of the day).

I like having a low-key weekend day. Nothing planned on the agenda. Those days are necessary, especially when one's week is "go go go" sprinkled with early wake-ups!

Saturday morning pleasures: classical music on the radio, pot of tea, curled up in the red chair with a book.

I also completed a pair of green arm warmers.