Dog pile on papa...

A week ago -- also known around our house as Harry Potter Weekend -- papa, Izzie and I jumped into the van and travelled to Bouctouche. This impromptu vacation allowed maman an entire weekend to get lost at Hogwart's. One of our mornings we visited marraine, mon oncle Steven and Olivier. The best thing about going to new places is there was so much to do: we hadpuzzles to connect, toys to play with and songs to sing. I'm sure it doesn't come as a huge surprise that it didn't take long before the cameras began to emerge. Marraine and Steven were about to get a nice picture of me and then papa showed up and wanted in the photo. Moments later, Olivier was sitting on his lap too, smiling for the camera. As if a trio wasn't enough, Izzie decided she wanted to say cheese. As many faithful blog readers will know by now, I'm not a big fan of sharing the spotlight with Izzie so you can understand my shock when it became a massive group shot. The upside was we all got to tickle papa after!

Kids these days

Izzie had a friend over for dinner a week ago. Now don't get me wrong, I like Liv too, but kids these days just need to have everything explained to them. Take for instance, using this cat toy. It's quite simple. It's a circle and has a ball that swirls around when you hit the ball. Let's be honest for a second, if Gribouille and Toulouse can figure it out, you'd thing smart little girls like Izzie and Liv, would be able to as well. But as you can see, I had to be a big sister to both girls and demonstrate how to properly make the ball whizz around the track. I'm not sure what would have happened if I wasn't around. Phew, let's hope, for their sake, that I don't go too far.

Summer time fun

Summer is great. It's finally nice enough to go swimming. For example, we went to the lake
this weekend . I loved it. I'm not sure Izzie liked it as much as I did. Maybe it had to do with the fact that maman and papa let her go under the water. Poor thing. She will learn. In the evening, we even went to the park where I got to meet a new friend. I hope we get to see her again. She even has the same bathing suit as I do. OK, with all the bathing suits I own, it is going to happen that someone will have the same one as I do, but still, this girl was in style.
Back to this picture, this was taken at my bestfriend's Bella's house. We had a blast. Connie filled up the swimming pool and let us go in. I think Bella was afraid of something in this one and I had to reassure her that life was ok. Bella is still so young sometimes. And you can see my little sister Izzie in the back. She loves swimming too.
We will try to put up more pictures of summer swimming adventures soon.

Where is my horse?

To be so cute,

Yesterday was dressup day at Connie's. I decided that I would dress up as a cowgirl. Now most babies could never pull off such a look. But I can. With the help of my friends, I got all dressed up. Now all I need is to find the horse that maman keeps hiding on us because it keeps talking in the middle of the night. I think that a talking horse is great because it gives me someone to talk to when I wake up at 12:45 and at 4:30 in the morning. But maman and papa seem to think I should be sleeping at that time. Silly them.

Now I need to look for my lasso so I can go and catch the mice hanging around the house because the cats are not catching them.

Just hanging out with my big sister

Life is constantly evolving, so our forms of play must change just as fast. With each passing day I'm learning how to move a bit more freely, as the two yellow bruises on each side of my head will attest. Now Elle and I are finding new ways to spend time together. She and I are always playing in our little tent that's in the family room. Although I'm still rather jealous that she can open the yellow door and walk in and out without the possibility of an injury, she's showed me out I can crawl underneath the sides to escape. Now I would just ask her to stop suddenly pulling or pushing our little house when I'm leaning on it, her balance is still a heck of a lot better than mine.

On the phone with grandmaman

Our house is packed full of routines. Papa runs the same routes all the time, Izzie wakes up at the same time every morning and maman calls grandmaman every morning. When I was Izzie's age, maman would hold up the receiver to my ear and I'd do my best to vocalize my thoughts at the time. Normally, it wasn't more complex than stringing together a few vowels. We've had two winters since those old days and now she and I have full-fledged conversations about complex subjects such as what songs I've been singing or what Izzie and I did the day before at Bella's house. I'm sure as I get older, likely when I turn 16, I'll discover many other benefits of the telephone

Two buddies

Belle is fun to run around with. Gribouille cracks me up when he lets me poke and prod him. It's always a laugh when Toulouse walks into a room. Izzie makes me smile, while maman and papa are always a pleasure to play with when I'm bored. But Bella is my buddy. Every morning when I show up at her house, whether she's still in her PJs, eating breakfast or playing with Bear, she's always happy to see me. During the day, we dance and sing together, sometimes we paint funny pictures or even read stories. There are times when we could get along better, but even then we are still the best of friends. As you can see, we even like to dress the same, I can see her being my buddy for a long time.

Will you play with me?

Gone are the days when all I wanted to do is sit by myself, chew on a few plastic toys and wonder when my next bottle would come. Now, I'm a much more avant-garde baby. I treasure the times when I can team up with maman or papa and walk around the playroom on my two, wobbly, albeit steadily strengthening, legs. I never miss out on an occasion to rush over to Belle or Gribouille and roll on them or pet them until they decide playtime is over. Each time Elle and I have a moment to spare, we eat cake and drink coffee from Second Cup with her special plates, cups, cutlery and pots. In reflection, I may one day miss those joyous days of my youth but there is something to be said for this newfound freedom and growing independence.