LP has recently entered a new phase of his language (and I guess self-definition) development, one that I thought would only happen later. I am talking about the referring to himself at the first person. So lately, everything has been about "moi!" (me!) and "à moi" (mine!)...
Up until recently, when we were asking him a question like "Whose... is this?", he would reply by saying his first name, then after a short pause, adding in his last name -just in case, you know, we could have been talking…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on February 20, 2009 at 2:19pm —
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The birthday boy has been quite happy in the last few days. First, we gave him what he seems to consider the greatest thing in the world: a nearly-as-big-as-he-is recycling truck. That's pretty much all he's been thinking and talking about. We thought a fascination with garbage collection was a bit quirky too, but then we told ourselves, if they mass produce those, he's probably not the only little boy who's into them.
On Monday when we came back from daycare M's car was in the driveway already…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on February 4, 2009 at 2:46pm —
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Your grandmother always told me that at each of my birthdays, she was reliving the moment I was born as if she was still there. I get it now. I'm pretty sure I will forever do the same.
You made an appearance shortly before lunch. Although not a piece of cake (especially without drugs), labor had not been very long or unbearable or traumatic in any way. I pushed for longer than necessary, because in my painful haze I couldn't understand what M and the amazing nurse were instructing me to do. M…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on February 2, 2009 at 10:57am —
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The other day I bought potato chips, which are a rarity in our house. LP loves them, though, and the purchase did not go unnoticed. We came back home and as I put the groceries away, he fell down again and hurt himself a bit.
I hugged him and tried my best to comfort him while he sobbed and sobbed. Then, in his tear-filled, whiny, this-is-the-end-of-the-world voice, he said (or rather pleaded): "Des chips... Des chips..."
…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on January 26, 2009 at 3:00pm —
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Interesting fact.
The latest statistics reveal that here in Quebec, 62% of babies are now born to unmarried parents. Within this percentage, there is undoubtedly a certain number of unfortunate situations you find everywhere, like very young/single/underprivileged mothers... But the vast majority of those are certainly people like us, in committed relationships, but who have yet to take the plunge. Some will do it later, some never (although within our immediate family and social circle they ar…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on January 23, 2009 at 11:00am —
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LP had his 2-year check-up this week. Lots of good news (remember to thank whatever's out there EVERY DAY for your children's good health). He now weighs 12.1 kg (26.6 pounds) and is just about 89 cm (35 inches) tall. In a year, he's gained over 4 pounds (which is on the low side, but is not surprising given his dad's long and lanky figure) and has grown 12 cm (4.7 inches). He's maintaining his position on the chart beautifully: a little under average for weight, a little above average for heigh…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on January 22, 2009 at 9:30am —
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No, not the movie... I figure it will be 2018 before I can regularly see movies at the theater again.
I recently came across the most interesting and fascinating
New Yorker article about breastfeeding. Not its day-to-day mundane mechanics or practices, but rather its historical, legal, and political aspects.
…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on January 19, 2009 at 11:45am —
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"Bonjour matin!" (Good morning morning!) is what LP now says every day when we open up his bedroom's curtains.
He doesn't care if it's cold and dark: once he catches a glimpse of a bus, or even better, a snowplow or a garbage truck, his day is made.
The alphabet is the source of endless fascination for him. "Des chiffres!" (Numbers!), he recognizes enthusiastically when he sees some.
One of his greatest thrills is to run, run, run like there's no tomorrow, without being careful about where he…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on January 15, 2009 at 1:27pm —
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LP is definitely a bit more of a pickier eater these days. All normal and expected, we've been told. Even the mini-foodies have this kind of phase around two. The odds are, since he's always been really good at trying and eating basically anything, he'll soon be back to it. He's still…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on December 9, 2008 at 12:30pm —
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I know I’m a good parent, and I would literally give my son my life in a heartbeat, but I’ve had several moments of questionable judgment since having him… I thought maybe writing about them would make me feel slightly less bad. Or prove everyone how much of a terrible person I am. You’ll be the judge.
-I’ve knocked him over several times. In addition, I’ve opened the fridge door on him, I’ve stepped on his foot with my stiletto heel at least twice, I’ve closed a drawer on his little fingers… Y…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on December 2, 2008 at 10:09am —
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Dear MO,
I instantly fell in love with you when I first saw you yesterday. You were so tiny and so new, wearing that irresistible glazed look of the first few hours of life. You were this little wonder, continuing the next generation in our family.
I was looking at your mom, puffy-eyed and tired, still taking it all in. My amazingly brave little sister, having just done that singlemost difficult thing a human being can do: bring a new person into this world. Performing nothing less than a mira…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on November 27, 2008 at 10:01am —
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It's Sunday morning around 10. M is working at a Sudoku puzzle in the living room, I'm baking cupcakes for M's sister birthday, and LP is buzzing around, helping me with the paper liners one minute, taunting his dad the next, then playing with his toy train.
He decides that we should all wear hats. He returns from his bedroom with his beloved Red Sox baseball cap, hands M a too-small golf hat, and gives me my old black beret. Here we are, the crazy hat-wearing family, on a typical weekend morni…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on November 26, 2008 at 9:30am —
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One of the things I enjoy most about being a parent is watching LP link stuff together, making connections between things that happened a while ago, or things we've told him way back and that he stills remembers. The joy it brings me is hard to explain: it's part a wonderful reassurance that he's developing normally and showing signs of intellectual vivacity, part humbling awe in front of life's preciousness, and part motherly pride as well as limitless love.
Sometimes, even if we've had a bad…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on November 19, 2008 at 9:00am —
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Yesterday when I picked up LP at daycare and was putting his coat on in the locker room, all four little girls in his group suddenly came over, surrounded him, and took turns at kissing him... On the mouth! All the while he was giggling.
Despite all my efforts at raising a well-balanced man who has nothing but the utmost respect for women, I have no choice but to admit that my son is a player!
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on November 14, 2008 at 8:45am —
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Last weekend was really fun: we took LP to a tiny wildlife park right on the Island of Montreal. M had read about it in photo forums, but otherwise we had never heard of it, since it's a small non-profit place maintained by volunteers who mostly shelter animals that had been injured or found when they were babies and had to be fed by humans (usually, as they explained, these animals start to identify with humans and cannot be returned into the wild). It turned out to be perfect for a young kid,…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on November 13, 2008 at 9:00am —
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Snow. There was a very thin blanket of it on the ground this morning. Not everywhere, and already in the process of melting, but still. Even for here, that's friggin' early!!! I have four large pumpkins spread out on the front lawn, waiting to be decorated tomorrow night, and I'm not even sure they will be salvageable. It's October, for god's sake! Oh well, I've seen on CNN that some parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and upstate New York (which are all, hello, several hours south of here) had on…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on October 30, 2008 at 9:00am —
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What do you want to do, LP? Change your diaper and get dressed? Have breakfast? Go play with your beloved matchbox cars?
No. "
Read" the National Geographic.
What a wonderful ride it will be raising this one.
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on October 27, 2008 at 12:07pm —
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Before LP was born, I was spending a lot of time daydreaming, trying to envision how he would be like. I hoped he would have certain traits, of course, but I was being really careful not to get carried away. It's just that I've seen a lot of parents disappointed: fathers who wanted a ruff little boy who would play all kinds of sports, and had a shy, intellectual kid instead, or mothers who dreamed of a little girl they could play doll with, only to end up with a tom-boy who never, ever, accepted…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on October 23, 2008 at 7:00am —
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We’re gradually seeing a new trend occurring at our house: the long weekend nap. I still can’t rely on the fact that it’s going to happen for sure (case in point, two Sundays ago when I decided to launch a big cooking initiative and LP woke up crying after 35 minutes when I had my hands full with 5 things at once), but his naps are becoming more and more normal.
Up until then, I simply didn’t know what it was to have a child who slept. Naps? Starting at around 4 months, my son stopped sleeping…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on October 20, 2008 at 1:28pm —
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On Saturday afternoon LP refused to nap like he sometimes does when he's out of his routine, so when we made it to the restaurant for dinner he was both cranky and restless. Unfortunately, we reverted to our well-rehearsed strategy of taking turns distracting him and walking him around, while the other wolfed down the presented course.
I immediately noticed that old couple at a table nearby, intensely looking at us. They were certainly in their eighties, but looking robust and alert, and were o…
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Added by Marie-Ève Laforte on October 14, 2008 at 1:30pm —
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