New fun for the raccoons!!

You might remember last year when we put new sod down in our backyard that the raccoons kept tearing it up. Since then, they've been pretty good little neighbours until last night. You all know my dream house has a stunning pool in the backyard, but for now, our pools are the rubber blowup kind. Yesterday, I found a nice big rubber pool on sale at our local drugstore and spent over an hour blowing it up with the bike pump and filling it with water. The kids had a blast. We covered it up last night with a big plastic tarp to use again today. This morning, we look out in the backyard and the pool is torn to pieces. It's flat and I can see little pieces of plastic here and there. It looks like the raccoons decided it would make a delicious midnight feast... my kids are not thrilled with raccoons today!!!lol

You're going where??

We've got a couple of quick vacations lined up later this year. A few days in Prince Edward Island in August and Florida in December. I spent a good long time today booking flights, hotels, etc. I'm at the point where everything is done except for the rental cars. So, I look up the H&rtz website and dial the number listed under "USA and Canada". I speak to a guy who has no problem booking a car for a few days in Florida. Then I tell him that I also want to book a car for a few days in Prince Edward Island. A long silence and then "For where" he asks? Prince Edward Island, P.E.I., I repeat, S-L-O-W-L-Y. He then tells me "just a minute, I have to transfer you to international rentals". I thought okay, I guess the number is only for the US. I wait a minute or two and he comes back and says "Is that in Canada?"....ummm...yeah, it is. He says "Well, you know I'm in the US so I don't know that"... excuse me?? I'm sorry, but if you're working for a rental company and you only deal with Canada and the US, is it really too much to ask for that you at least recognize the names of 50 states and 10 provinces - I don't expect knowledge of any and all cities, but come on, at least have a vague clue as to what the states and provinces are you're dealing with!! I was so annoyed that I called Av1s, where they had indeed heard of both Florida and Prince Edward Island, and I rented both cars there!!lol

And speaking of travel, can I share a recent pet peeve. If you've booked any flights lately, you may have noticed that many airlines are now charging you to book your seat in advance. This so annoys me. Because airlines have often tried to convince me that I don't REALLY need to sit with my 2 year old (yeah, because strangers are really clamouring to entertain my kids on long flights!!), I do book seats in advance as I don't want to have to deal with trying to get us all seats together at the gate, but it annoys the hell out of me that they're now charging you just to ensure you can get a seat with your child. And you know how often once you get to the gate they try to change your seat? I just paid $30 to pick my seats, you just try telling me at the gate that I'm in row 5D and my 2.5 year old is in row 14C!!! Ah, I love to travel!!lolol

College life

My brother is a college professor in Montreal so we got to visit with him on our trip. My parents, who live much closer to Montreal than they do to our hometown, also came to visit. Anyhow, my brother was recounting some funny stories about his students. He was telling us about this one student who hand delivered a research paper and explained/apologized for the fact that when her paper was all typed up, she had handwritten by pen the Roman numerals enumerating her headings because "her computer doesn't have Roman numerals on it"!!!! ROFL Talk about unclear on the concept!! Yeah, because where ever would one find I, II, III, IV, V, X, L, C etc. etc. on a computer!!!! And on a totally different note, while I love Cartier watches, one thing that drives me totally crazy is that they insist on doing the number 4 on their watches, which should be IV as IIII... it's almost enough to make me not like their watches... almost!!lol

The time has come...

Emma will be 3 at the end of the year. In 2 weeks, she is starting summer camp (2 weeks, daily from 9:00 to 11:30) and then in September, she starts nursery school, same hours as camp. Now she's never been dropped off anywhere so that's a whole new issue that we'll have to figure out, but the more pressing issue which we will deal with starting tomorrow, is p0tty training. While she doesn't HAVE to be trained for either camp or nursery school, it is much preferred by staff and honestly, by me as well. I would prefer not to have "strangers" dealing with my ch!ld's pr1vates (and yes, I know it annoys the hell out of some people when we bloggers substitute letters, but let me assure you that I don't want any pervert doing a Google search for "ch1ld's pr!vates" making their way to my blog so ya'll will have to deal). Anyhow, it only took Thomas a couple of days to be fully out of d1apers, and I'm really hoping his little sister will follow in his footsteps in this area! Wish us luck! Updates to follow.

Home Sweet Home!

We drove back home yesterday after spending 4 weeks in Montreal. It really is nice to be back amongst our own stuff! I hadn't realized how frustrating it can be to live in someone else's house... you can never find anything, they may not have appliances or supplies that you consider a "must have" - like a garburator or a rice cooker, how can you live without those??lol And BBQs with tanks are for the birds, you never know when you'll run out in the middle of cooking...at home we have gas heat and therefore we have an outlet on the patio to plug our BBQ into - no tank, no refills and you never run out - is that setup common or unusual? We also mainly used paper plates and plastic glasses. Perhaps the owners take away the good stuff for the summer, but the dirty chipped glasses and 6 cracked and/or chipped plates they left just didn't cut it...then again, that could be my issue since I use Wedgwood every day dishes and even my 2 year old uses them - I figure the "good" stuff should be used, not stuffed away in some boxes somewhere. Oh but I did love that huge, huge kitchen window all along the counter above the sink - so nice to be working in the kitchen and getting fresh air and seeing the lovely greenery. As for Montreal, it really is a beautiful city. We had some great meals, got to hang out with friends and family and generally relax and explore. I won't miss the one way streets and the no turning right on a red, but I will miss the wonderful architecture and quaint shops. Many of the houses in our neighbourhood dated from the late 1800s and were maintained in such a lovely manner. It was fun to explore the neighbourhood and check out these old homes with their lovely intricate facades. They sure don't build them like they used to! It was fun to live in a rambling old house that was over 100 years old when our own home is a modern linear home.

I have to say though that it took me a good 2 weeks to adjust to a new home and neighbourhood. I guess I'm really a creature of habit. We may well do this again (either in Montreal or another city) and we'll have a much better idea of what to expect.

BTW, this woman from whom we rented the house must be one of the most relaxed people on the planet. She mailed us the key to the house and we let ourselves in. She called once or twice (she was living at her summer house a couple of hours away) to see if we were settling in well or had any questions about anything. She called the day before we left to tell us she wasn't coming into the city but a friend of hers would pop by to give us back our damage deposit. I told her we'd be happy to have them come through the house and she told me not to bother. Sure enough, friend came, refused to even step into the house, quickly handed me a cheque and left. How trusting is this woman?? She says she figures anyone who can afford the rent is trustworthy...that sounds like a pretty iffy strategy to keep your house safe, but she says she's been doing this for 5 years and has never had a problem. While it's true that most of the furniture is older and has seen better days, she does have lovely antiques and artwork...you'd just think that after allowing a family with 2 kids (and 2 cats!!) to live in your house for a month, you'd check it out... man, don't I wish I could be that relaxed about life!!!lol

Out of their minds!

The kids run to the bedroom to find me this morning. They're looking for one of the cats. There's a bug in the living room, can the cat come catch it. Sure, why not I say as I grab one of the cats and head downstairs. So, point us to the bug I innocently say and they run over and point to this thing that's HUUUUGE folks, it's one of the biggest bugs I've ever seen. Upon seeing said bug, I'm not sure who ran out of the room faster - me or the cat!!lol Can the cat eat the bug, are you kidding, that bug would more than likely eat the cat!! I know kids learn from their parents and Emma wasn't freaked out by the bug at all until she saw me run screaming from the room at which point she declared the bug to be gross and said she was scared of it. I guess I'll have to work on my "keeping my cool" expression next time they show me their finds - but really, that bug was almost as big as my cat!!lol And in case you're wondering, the bug has found a new home - and the cat and I were not involved! (as the cat and I ran out of the room, I kept expecting him to jump into my arms, a la Scooby Doo when he's frightened!lol) And no, there is no photographic evidence - not a chance I was going near that creature again after the first viewing!

A trip to the beach!

Here are a bunch of pics of the kids. Some blog readers who fancy themselves comedians have made comments on the lack of photographic evidence of the kids on this Montreal sojourn, wondering if perhaps we'd even brought the little tykes along. So for you, here they are - I took 242 pics over the course of a couple of hours. DH thinks this is "wasting"... he doesn't quite get the concept of digital photography!!lol

It was a gorgeous day so we headed off to a nature park on the West end of the island known as Cap St. Jacques. It contains one of the apparently few beaches in the area. Given that Montreal is an island, you'd think there would be a ton of beaches - you'd be wrong!lol Apparently, many people do their swimming in cottage country, not in the city. Anyhow, this was a lovely beach and the kids loved it. It was a particularly great beach for kids because you could walk out a good distance and still not be much more than waist deep - very gentle slope and great sand.

Emma checking out the water...as you can see, not the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean... and look at those arms, she is one muscled kid!lol

But it is nice and warm, Emma approves!
Thomas and Emma checking the water
Thomas is heading for the deep end
I think I should name this picture "Shoulderblades x 2"!
Thomas is putting on the goggles and heading off for a swim with the fishies
Emma looking cute

Here's Thomas swimming in the lake and looking for interesting creatures at the bottom of the lake

Emma looking for her brother
Playing - Emma forefront, Thomas background

A visit from old friends

Here are Elyan, Nathan, Joran, Emma and Thomas

The boys
Joran

We had such a lovely visit with old friends on Saturday. In November 2005, we were joined in China by Rachelle and Stephane who were there to adopt their beautiful daughter Joran. They left China a day before us and headed home and we hadn't seen them since. As with most of our travel group, they don't live near us. Anyhow, they happened to be passing through Montreal today and we got to hang out for a bit. We got to see them again, see how wonderfully Joran has grown since we'd last seen her and we also got to meet Rachelle and Stephane's sons who hadn't made the trip to China. Playmates for both Emma and Thomas! :-) It's always so wonderful to see the people who shared that most amazing experience in China with our family. Our travel group seems particularly spread out but many of us do make an effort to keep in touch, if only by email... it's so wonderful to see how these girls are growing up. :-) Sorry the pics aren't exactly inspired...had my camera on the wrong setting and didn't notice so most pics came out totally overexposed!

Hope Floats

A few days ago, we found ourselves back in Old Montreal. We checked out the Science Museum and then went on the ride Thomas most wanted to try - one of those "land and sea" bus rides where the bus gives you a little city tour and then heads into the river - yeah, you read that right, the bus slides right into the St. Lawrence River... nice eh?lol I know a few cities have this type of tour, but I must admit, it made me rather nervous!!lol The tour itself was rather limited and the tour guide wasn't the most informed, but it was fun, if nerve racking. At one point, you just head down a ramp and suddenly, your bus is a boat - or you sure as darn hope it will float!! You do get a nice view of the city from the water. I settled down a bit once I saw that the bus was indeed floating, but I must admit to getting a little nervous again when the guide pointed out some rapids and said we'd be doing a Uturn soon as the bus couldn't handle the current from the rapids... yeah, could we turn, like, right NOW!!!lol Thomas loved it and Emma thought it was cool to be in the water with a bus.

As I'm sure you've all noticed when you take guided city tours, well, they are not all created equal. I must admit that the best tours we've ever been on have been in London and in Chicago. The Architecture Foundation in Chicago has amazing walking, bus and boat tours and the guides are so knowledgeable about every inch of the tour. With this land and sea tour, knowledge was somewhat lacking. The absolute funniest thing was when the guide was pointing out the building known as Habitat 67 and she said it was designed by famed architect Sa1man Rushdie (yes, the one from The S*tanic Verses fame)... excuse me???lol DH and I just looked at each other and hoped she'd just had a slip of the tongue but no, again and again, she referred to him as the architect behind the Habitat 67 project!!lol The famed architect in question is M0she Safdie, not Sa1man Rushdie!!lol

And finally, here's an Emma-ism from yesterday:

Emma: Mommy, you have attitude!

ROFL... excuse me?? This from little Miss Attitude herself!!lol

Parks and Steaks!

We had a relaxing Sunday. The 4 of us went to another lovely park. Many of the parks in this part of the city are really amazing - huge and with great equipment, for both younger and older kids, pools, wading pools, splash pools, loads of green space, tennis courts, soccer fields, etc. We are renting in a swanky part of the city and this may well not be indicative of the parks in Montreal overall, but the neighbourhood parks we've been to here are certainly nicer than anything we find back home, no matter how swanky the area...better urban development I guess.

For dinner, we headed off to a venerable Montreal institution known as Moishes. It's one of those steak houses that hasn't changed in 50 years, where a piece of meat is the size of half a cow and costs a day's salary for many!lol One of those places where they don't do fancy, you get a top quality slab of beef on your plate and that's it. Pickles, coleslaw and fries also abound on the table. Oh, and the onion rings... the really thin yummy ones... so good!! And then of course there's the pastry plate for dessert. The waiter came to take our orders and Miss Emma's order: I want pastries!!lol We suggested she might want a meal before dessert... she chowed down on chicken, steak, onion rings and fries... this kid sure can pack it away. Even Thomas, our light eater, totally filled up! Not an every day kind of place, but sure is enjoyable that once or twice a year you go to this type of restaurant. :-)

Old Montreal

Today, we spent a few hours wandering through the streets of Old Montreal...and no, the pictures aren't photoshopped, there actually were BLUE skies in the city today, although it should turn to rain later in the day!!lol We walked all over the Old City and had brunch there too... I had an apple, white cheddar and bacon crepe...ooh, it was yummy!! The croissants were great too!

Just a pretty streetscape in the Old City

Many buildings have colourful flowers hanging from the windows, makes it all look so pretty
The cool dude in the Carre who made balloon animals (well, a cat for Emma and a sword for Thomas)
Thomas and Emma showing off their goods
Notre-Dame Cathedral... very impressive!

An interior shot of the Cathedral
City Hall

Early in the morning

As I was sitting in the kitchen this morning, this is the view I looked out out... the view from the kitchen table opens through the dining room, through the entrance hall and into the living room... here are the kids sitting around in the early morning sun, and you know whatever Thomas does, Emma has to copy!lol

From Mies van der Rohe to the Big Orange!lol

Just a few more pics from Montreal... we did have nice blue skies this morning although that did turn to - can you guess - RAIN of course by lunch time! We're hoping to see Old Montreal tomorrow which should be loads of fun.

A pretty church and residential street with downtown in the background...as I've mentioned, parts of the city are quite hilly!

A view of the skyline from a lookout at a high point in the city.
The requisite Mies van der Rohe black box buildings...I like Mies van der Rohe, but not overly fond of the black boxes!


This is a Montreal landmark - The Orange Julep, aka The Big Orange!lol We took the kids for a julep (it's a drink that seems to be a mix of orange juice and milk as far as I can tell). The McDonalds sign you see is unrelated to the Julep, it's for the McDonalds across the street from the Julep. Also, if you can see the gas price on that sign, it's $1.11 - that's per liter which means about $4.44 per gallon...hello $70 refill!!

Here's a better view of the Orange, now isnt' that a sight??lol

It's the little differences...

Today, Emma and I headed off to do groceries. For a change, it was pouring out!!! As I'm going through the check-out, the cashier asks me if I want a car order...well, it seems in this day and age of zero service, the grocery stores in Montreal will bag and pack your groceries in your cart, give you a little slip of paper and you walk out, paper in one hand, baby in the other, leisurely saunter over to your car in the parking lot without being weighed down with bag upon bag of groceries or trying to maneuver your way with a cart through the potholes in the parking lot, drive up to the car pick-up area and a nice man takes your grocery bags and loads them into your car and off you go...they sure don't do that where I live!!

2.5 going on 25!

I have to say, Emma is quite mature (or immature as you'll see) in some ways. She's already leaps and bounds ahead of the curve when it comes to teasing her brother. I have no idea where she gets this, but lately she's been teasing him, going up to him and in a sing-song voice, doing the "Thomas has a girlfriend" thing... it's just hilarious and gets him going like you wouldn't believe. So yesterday, I thought I'd give her a little taste of her own medicine and do my own sing-song of "Emma has a boyfriend" to which, in the same tone, she immediately replies with "Mommy should be quiet!!!!lolol Ah, we do look forward to the teen years!!lolol

My eyes, my eyes...finally, a sunny day!!lol

It's the perfect summer day today so we headed off to the Insectarium and the Botanical Gardens. I was totally grossed out by the Insectarium - really, I don't need to see cockroaches, scorpions, tarantulas and the such in their full glory... the place totally gave me the eebie jeebies but Thomas and Emma loved it. The Jardin Botanique was lovely, with gardens showcasing various styles, like a Japanese and a Chinese garden. In one of the pics, you'll notice the tower of the Olympic Stadium in the background. The stadium was built for the summer olympics in Montreal in 1976 and is known as the Big O or the "Big Owe" as the city paid for the cost overruns for decades following the Olympics! After all that walking, we headed off to a quintessential Montreal restaurant: St. Hubert BBQ. I tell you, nobody makes a rotisserie chicken like St. Hubert!lol I find most places have rather greasy chicken, St. Hubert's is just right and their BBQ sauce is delish... I'm also always tickled when they offer you ketchup, mayo or vinegar with your fries here!lol I must admit, while the mayo idea doesn't sound appealing, I've been to a few restaurants that make their own fancy varieties of dipping mayo and it's totally addictive!

Montreal pics...well, more like kid pics taken in Montreal...

Blogger is allowing me to post some pics so here goes... all pretty basic, and honestly, could have been taken anywhere...nothing very good of Montreal yet...it's been so damn wet here, I haven't even dared to take the good SLR camera out with me as the downpours keep a coming! Hopefully tomorrow we'll get to venture out a bit further afield and take some pics of Montreal's cool spots. So far, my favourite Montreal find is a beet, goat cheese and pinenut salad... don't scoff, it is truly delicious, really!!

Here's a pic of the kids sitting on a mantle near the fireplace in the entrance hall of our rental house... it's a house from the early 1900s and the woodwork is just amazing. And no, that's not a 3rd child standing beside Thomas, it's a decoration but it does make me do a 2nd take a lot of the time!lol

Here are the penguins at the Biosphere.
The kids on he swings in a neighbourhood park... Emma likes the big swings now and she can even pump and get herself going...not much stops this kid!lol
She does however at times still condescend to using the "baby" swings. Climbing up a steep hill, with a view of the foggy, muggy city in the background. I have to say, parts of Montreal are very reminiscent of San Francisco... your legs sure get a good workout with those hills!!

Thomas taming the dinosaur!

Having a rest in the sandbox...big brothers make good pillows!

Two cats, why not a llama too!

Blogger is being temperemental and not allowing me to title posts or to post pictures. All is well in Montreal, we even had a beautiful sunny day today which was great. As I sit here and type, I can look out on the city without a layer of cloud and fog...very nice. Emma had a request before bed tonight:

Emma: Mommy, on Friday, can we buy a llama?

Now, what does one answer to that... and why specifically on Friday??lol

Second verse, same as the first...aka: Still raining!

Well, guess what, it's pouring again!!! Perhaps if you live in the Pacific Northwest, a week of downpours is par for the course, but not on the East Coast in July!!! The poor souls in this city who took last week off got a really raw deal - rain and rain and more rain...but perhaps they had the time to take a course on how to build an ark!!!



We have gotten out and about a little bit, but nowhere near as much as we'd hoped. We went to the top of Mount-Royal and walked around, did some paddle boating on Beaver Lake and went down to St-Viateur to get some famous Montreal style bagels. The kids started swim lessons today, thankfully at an indoor pool. We've been to many local parks and wading pools which are quite lovely, and given the rain, we've become acquainted with a variety of shopping areas as well!lol



I do have pics but I don't have the proper software to download them - it takes forever to post a pic here and I will get to it at some point...but in the meantime, thank goodness this house is on the top of a hill and has 4 floors, if this rain keeps up, we should be safe and dry for a little while longer!!lol

Rain, rain, go away...

As we reached Montreal city limits on Monday, the skies opened up and a torrential downpour ensued. Yesterday, beautiful blue skies which within minutes turned menacing and guess what, a downpour ensued. Today, lovely morning, guess what happened in the afternoon and for the rest of the day: downpour. The weather forecast for Thursday is rain, Friday rain, Saturday rain, Sunday rain, Monday rain, Tuesday rain, Wednesday rain, Thursday sun... nobody told me Montreal was in the middle of a damn rainy season!!!lol This is ridiculous, July in Montreal should be hot and sunny, not wet and dreary!!! The kids and I have pretty much had it with being in the house so tomorrow we'll start checking out fun activities which take place indoors like museums and art galleries and such...no exploring cool neighbourhoods quite yet! If this rain really does keep up for another week, I'm packing up and going back home!!lol