Viva Italia!

Although my Acadian heritage is much more prominent, I am also very proud of my Italian lineage. There are few times that is on display more than spaghetti and lasagna night. It is plainly evident in this picture that when I get my hands on (and in) some pasta that I don't stop halfway. Some may say using utensils is more civilized but what's the point, the sauce washes off. I'm a carpe diem kind of a girl, so I'm not about to stop having fun with my food.

Where did Gribouille go?

Gribouille and I typically see eye-to-eye on most issues. For instance, we both think it's fun for me to kiss his nose but for some reason he's decided he no longer wants me to pull his tail. In protest, I've decided to take over his chair. As far as I'm concerned this is a fair form of retribution. Seriously, it's just a tail, how annoying could it be? I'm sure he'll come around to my line of thinking soon enough.

Chillin' at Bella's

Sometimes I just can't believe my luck. When I arrived at Bella's the other day, I discovered she has a new toy, a brand new tent to play in. We used to have one of these in our playroom but a certain somebody -- ahem, maman -- decided it was too big and "accidentally" left it outside. But now Bella and I can play hide-and-seek at her house. We're pretty luck girls.

Living for the weekend

Weekends are always jam-packed with activities. Some days we venture to the farmers market to buy samosas or bread, other days we walk around the mall and most weekends we go out for dinner.
Now that Izzie is getting older and a little stronger, she's having more fun hanging out in the swing and her hop'n'pop. It is also great to see her communicating more with us and watching what we do. Now if only she could learn to stop putting my toys in her mouth.

Almost every weekend we make our way over to the Regent Mall and in recent trips I've discovered the endless amusement that little, coin-operated vehicles can give a two-year-old. And I don't even need papa to toss in the coin in order to have fun, I get to hit all the buttons and play with the steering wheel for free!

Let us eat cake

I know, I know, my birthday was more than a week ago but I still have cool pictures. When maman told me that we were having cake at my party, I was ecstatic. But as you can see in this photo, she didn't tell me that I actually had to share it with all my guests. I was hoping to dive into it with both hands and my face and enjoy a cake like it was intended. Alas, I was forced to be civilized.
In the end, I'm glad I relented because Bella and I had oodles of fun eating birthday cake together. It was just as good as the cake we had for Izzie, but this one had my name on it and a big picture of Dora. That little explorer has one heck of a good marketing guru behind her. I should take some lessons. Think about it, not only did I eat a Dora cake but my food was on a paper Dora plate. It was simply amazing.

All of my friends

Although the dancing and the cake were memorable moments from Saturday's birthday party, the very best part was having all my friends over to visit. Here are some of my best friends that made their way on a cold and snowy day to celebrate with me.
As most people know, this is Bella. She and I play together every day because her mom, Connie, looks after me when maman and papa are at work. What's shocking is that even though I'm older than her, she's almost as tall as me. It appears, sadly, that I have maman's genes when it comes to my height. Bella and I always have tons of fun dancing, singing, laughing and playing together. It would have been rather odd to have a party without her.
Zoe is my big cousin. She and I always have fun playing together. When Izzie was being baptized a few weeks ago, she and I decided it was more important to run around the pews and have fun when all the adults weren't looking. Whenever we make our way down to Bouctouche, Zoe always comes and visits me. It's great having a big cousin that can show you really how to play. It appears that she's going to teach Izzie how to play when she gets older.
Adam and I have hung out together since way before I can remember. He's about a month older than I so it's cool just to play with someone around the same age. We've played in a big gym together, we went to see the Santa Claus parade together and we've gone to birthday parties together. We had fun playing downstairs, but I think Adam's favourite part of the day was when we went upstairs and he saw Belle playing outside on the deck. He thought she was pretty funny.
This is my little buddy Nate. When we go to school, he's supposed to be in the same grade, so we make sure to play together as often as possible. His big brother Gabriel also came over for my party but he seemed to elude papa's camera. His maman and my maman worked together before I was born, they must be pretty old because I'm two now and I feel rather aged at times.

Wiggle Wiggle

It is impossible to encapsulate all the fun things that happened on Saturday afternoon at my birthday party. I hope over the next few days to illustrate through some fun photos of my friends and I how we celebrated my second birthday party. It didn't take long for the event to flow into the play room so we cranked up the tunes -- which turned out to be Christmas music for some reason, but hey if you want to dance you can dance to anything.
And within a few moments Bella and I were showing everyone how to wiggle, wiggle.
There is a definite art to performing this kind of dance. You have to feel the grove and throw your body in several directions all at the same time. When you're doing that, make sure to have a big smile and laugh really loud. Popular variations of this dance include, wiggling your waist until your diaper almost touches the floor, spin around and around until the room spins faster than you can move and jump as high as you can.
Once you start to tire, if that ever happens, then you have to grab the hand of your nearest parent and start swinging off of them. Now if you have a rhythmically-challenged papa like I do, then you must be very aggressive in make sure he follows the beat or you can just tell him to swing you around until you're both super dizzy.
Bella and I performed several of these feats on Saturday. Sadly the boys didn't seem as interested in dancing with us. I think they though were rather crazy. Perhaps they weren't completely incorrect, but we had tons of fun nonetheless.

I'm cute too you know

My big sister Elle always dominates this blog, so I instructed papa to put my words in italics in order to differentiate between the two of us. I really don't have much to say, well, I just don't have the same things to say as Elle. I'm far more simple than my big sister. I'm content in grabbing my toes, playing with the fishy on the changing table, jumping in my Hop'n'Pop and hugging the glowing Winnie the Pooh doll. I love maman, papa and Elle, while I don't love the cold or long naps during the day. I'm puzzled as to why the white cat won't play with me and am frightened that the grey cat is six times my size. I like when Belle licks my hand, but I'm scared when Elle jumps in my crib and tries to lick my face. I adore the small things in life. I hope things never get more complicated.

Last-minute party preparations

My birthday party is almost here and there is still so much to do. While maman and papa are frantically trying to clean the house and get everything ready for Saturday afternoon's party, I'm continuing my art projects so I can show off all my beautiful pictures. As you can see, I've got my thinking toque on right now. It's impossible to fully embrace the painting experience without a pink toque. Now if only I can find where papa hid the finger paints my life would be perfect.

The frozen tundra of Fredericton

As the frigid air has ushered in an unwelcome blanket of snow, our quaint city of Fredericton has disappeared. Where once stood a proud city on the banks of the St. John River, a place where descendents of the old loyalists would show off their heritage to all that would grace their fine home, has been replaced with this frozen wasteland. Mother Nature has once again turned her back on these fine settlers in a way that only Samuel de Champlain and his fearless lot may have experienced in 1604. Izzie and I have had little choice but to bundle up and take our chances in this brave new world of ice, snow and plunging temperatures.
Left to fend for ourselves, I have deputized myself to be the provider of food and shelter for our home. My Acadian ancestors were once forced to survive in potentially lethal situations -- mainly caused by my English ancestors, but I digress -- so I will simply call on those past experiences and transform myself into a hunter and gatherer. How hard could that be? Sadly, all the things that can be hunted or gathered seem to be covered by this snow and I may not be able to complete my task before naptime. Perhaps I better call maman, she'll know what to do.
Although clearly the smaller link to our fight for survival in this intolerant world of snow and ice, Izzie has risen to the challenge. Not long ago she was innocently cooing in her crib, she is now in charge of ... well, she's in charge of laying in the snow and begging the clouds not to create any more snow. I've tried to explain to dear little Izzie that snow is created when water vapor is cooled so much that it turns into solid ice crystals and so it would be a lot easier to get rid of the snow if warm air invaded Fredericton. But she's decided eating it is more fun.

I knew the kid was related to me!

There have been times in the last five months or so when I questioned whether Izzie was related to me. As we all know, she clearly doesn't like to sleep as much as maman and she laughs at all of papa's lame jokes. For those and many other reasons, I admit that I thought there may have been a mix up at the hospital. But no longer. She proved that she is my sister this week. How did she manage that feat you ask? Well, she put her feet in her mouth, literally. How could a sister be any more proud?

They actually thought I'd get tired

Saturday morning was way too much fun. I knew I was in for a good morning when papa dressed me in my funky orange track suit. I don't get dressed up in it when we're just going to the market on Saturday morning. We all bundled up in the van and drove over to play with my friend Adam. We had balloons, soccer balls, basketballs, hula-hoops, bean bags and mammoth room to run around in. I can think of very few things that could have made the morning more enjoyable. Did I mention, I got to dance!




Normally when I hope onto my little car, I have to steer around dogs, cats, little sisters and other toys that I haven't bothered to pick up. On Saturday, it was a wide open road for me to drive wherever my little soul wanted to go. Capitalizing on these newfound freedom, I think I logged more distance on those little tires in one morning than the last six months.

Only a week late

Izzie and papa apologize for the lengthy delay in posting her baptism photos. Izzie says it's all papa's fault and well, papa isn't denying so I'll go with her on this one. Being only about five months old, Izzie's memory of the big day is a bit disjointed so I'll do my best to help out where her recollection falls short. We started the day with a few visitors as we got ready for the church. Izzie's marrain decided that she should be the only person to hold her, I'm not sure anyone put up much of a fight.

Once we all unloaded from the caravan of minivans and cars parading out of Lincoln Heights, it was time for the baptism. Personally, I thought we should be running around the church pews and playing with the remaining Christmas decorations. So that's precisely what I did. As for Izzie, she was baptized. Although she smelled better than I did with that oil on her head, I think I had more fun.

It's just not fair, it doesn't matter where we go these days everyone wants to talk to Izzie. They coo at her. They grab her cheeks. They let her pull their finger. (I'm not going to warn her about grandpapa, everyone should discover the danger of that personally.) I realize it was her baptism day, but really she got to lay on the big fancy table all by herself.

Oh, this is much better. See, I'm special too. Grandmaman was very generous and saw the unfair treatment Izzie was getting, so she let me play beside her. Sadly, I'm not sure Izzie even noticed I was there. I wonder if we can get one of these tables at home, they are quite firm and they are high enough that Belle probably couldn't sniff the top.

There Izzie goes trying to be all cute again. Each day I keep trying to tell people that I'm the funny one and she's just following in my footsteps. But for some reason people just has some magnetic attraction to her and she can ham it up with the best of them. At this point, I opted to cut my losses and I went to play with Zoe. She understood my desire to run around the church.

Woe is me. Now she is actually getting people to laugh at herTalk about encroaching on my territory. I've told her repeatedly that I'm the funny one in the family. Day in and day out for almost two full years I've slaved a way on establishing my reputation as the family's comedian and within only a few months she's doing her best to unravel all that hard work. Sisters. Does anyone know how to get a brother? Perhaps they're more co-operative.

What can I say, the kid's got game

I remember back in the day, when I was only two apples tall, I had the ability to spit up on maman or papa when they least expected it. This week, much to my amusement, Izzie proved that she was up to the challenge. Seriously, in the last few days she definitely had her mojo working. Consider this: papa had five dress shirts in the laundry when he left for the office this morning and only two were ever worn to work. Enough said. That girl is bottled lightning. I need to find out how to market her.

It's all about attitude

What can I say, a few days shy of my second birthday, I've keenly honed a highly developed sense of myself. Never known to suffer fools gladly, I've taken to showing off my true self, the whole unvarnished truth. Why should I shield from my adoring public my desire to wear flashy sunglasses and ornate tiaras? Does the world not deserve to know my true feelings on anything but blue yogurt or papa waking me up in the morning? I do my best to leave my mark on everyone I come in contact with and so far I think I'm doing an admirable job.

I coloured on myself without papa knowing!

Papa left me by myself for five minutes last night and I grabbed a felt marker and coloured all over my face. I was so proud of myself. Really, when left to my own devices I'm quite an imaginative little girl. I could tell that papa was really impressed with me by all the nice words he was saying as he was washing the walls that I also coloured with my red marker.