Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Yesterday, Santa Claus arrived in Montreal! And to make the special occasion, Montreal had its annual Le defile du Pere-Noel or Santa Claus Parade. Since this was the 60th year for the parade, it was a pretty big deal. We decided to take the train into Montreal instead of driving and fighting with traffic or finding a place to park. It worked out perfectly since we only had to walk 2 blocks and we were right in the middle of the action and it was really cold and windy!! We arrived early, so we checked out the animated window at Ogilvy (a department store) and then decided to to so "window shopping" inside to get warm from the cold. After that, we decided to grab a late breakfast and then stake our claim on the sidewalk for a prime, front row seat of the parade. Once we were all bundled up and Arabella was in her stroller with her down foot muff...I actually wish I had it to sit in...we waited for the parade to start. Once it started, it was great. Arabella loved every minute of it, except for the life sized snowmen - they freaked her out - and she was asking for more once it was over! We had so much fun and it is a great way to get into the holiday spirit, I think that this will be a family tradition for us!

Ogilvy's Window

Arabella & Giacomo

After music class yesterday since the weather was horrible, Arabella and I decided to head over to Zig Zag Zoo and meet up with a few of our friends. Zig Zag Zoo is a great indoor play area for kids where they can run all round, climb, slide and burn off energy and where mom can relax and enjoy a coffee and girl time with her friends. Arabella loves it, she runs off with her friends and then will come back and check in every so often to say Hi and grab a quick drink or snack and then she is off again. We spent about 3 hours there yesterday and when we left, she was wiped out! Right before we left, she and Giacomo (a/k/a GiGi) decided that they wanted to take a ride on the jeep. It was so adorable and thankfully Cynthia had her iPhone and was able to snap these super cute pics! When I asked her when we were driving if GiGi was her boyfriend (like she even knows what that is) she responded with "Sure", it was so cute.

Never Again

I am really good about looking at and reading the ingredients on food labels. We try to eat as much unprocessed and organic food as possible, which is not as easy living here in Canada as it was when we were back in the States. We don't allow Arabella to eat chicken nuggets on a regular basis, but after seeing this, she will never again be allowed to eat them! And the first thing I did before reposting this, was run to the freezer to make sure we don't have any of that CRAP in there...and luckily we didn't or it would have been in the garabage. You decide for yourself if you will eat chicken nuggets again....

">

Fall Clean-up

Since this is our first Fall here, we had no idea what it would be like when we started to clean up the yard in preparation for the snow that is sure to come. And, we have lucked out when it comes to having to rake leaves, unlike some of our neighbors who have tons of trees and have been out doing yard work every weekend now for what seems like the past 6 weeks. Since all we have in the back yard is pine trees, there was no raking that had to be done. And we only have 5 other trees that will drop leaves and they are all fairly close to one another in our front and side yards so it was pretty easy to do all the raking. When the raking was done and the piles of leaves had been made, Arabella had a blast playing in them!

Skating With Dad

Arabella has been doing good with her skating lessons even though she only lasts about 15 or 20 minutes of the 30 minute lesson. Usually she will say "All done, too hard" and we explain to her that it is hard since she is learning, but that over time it will get easier for her. She also asks for Jay to skate with her sometimes instead of me, so this week, he broke down and went and bought new hockey skates! Yesterday, he went on the ice with her and she had fun, but when she was done, she was done.





Hopefully, now that they have the rink up at our neighborhood park and once the ice is ready, we can go up and practice when we want. It still boggles my mind that a town park would take on the liability of having a skating rink that is unsupervised and open all the times on public property...must be the litigator in me!

Busy Butterfly

Arabella has been keep busy and now that the weather has turned colder, a lot of our activities are now taking place inside. She loves to do arts and crafts so we have been painting, practicing our new skill of using scissors and lots of other fun crafts. She also loves to dress up in "princess dresses"!







She has also been doing great at her Art Smart class and this week after reading a story about the farm, we made a barn and animal project, it is too cute! Each week after class, we bring home her project and she gets to hang it up on her bulletin board, she is so proud of her work.



She has been having a lot of fun at playgroup on Friday mornings as well. Yesterday, she and Giacomo (a/k/a Gigi) had a blast coloring.



One morning this week, she wouldn't eat anything for breakfast. I finally asked her if she wanted "princess pancakes" since she is all about everything princess. She helped me make the batter and I added fairy princess dust a/k/a pink sanding sugar for baking. I wouldn't normally have her eat something that sweet for breakfast, but I was desperate to get her to eat something and we really didn't add too much.



Arabella has also been getting really good at brushing her teeth. She does in every morning and every night and she even wanted to brush her teeth before she takes a nap. I guess she takes after me (and Grammie and Uncle Mike and Auntie Jonna) in the tooth brushing department, since we are all fanatics about brushing and flossing our teeth. At least she is picking up on the good habits!

Fuzzy Friend

While doing fall yard cleanup, I found a fuzzy caterpillar. As soon as I showed it to Arabella, she got all excited and wanted to hold it. When I put it in her hand, he started to walk around and she immediately said, "It tickles", it was so adorable. We made him a home in a large container based upon some research that I did online. That was about 3 weeks ago and we still have the fuzzy caterpillar and he is still alive. We keep his "home" outside by our back entry and every so often, she will check on him. This morning while I was getting ready, she was outside with Jay and she decided to bring him inside and upstairs to show me. She just picked him right up and held it so gently in her hand. It melted my heart when she was holding him and talking a mile a minute about "mine fuzzy caterpillar".

Thursday's Thoughts

Hearing: The sounds of Fall yard cleanup - leaf blowers and rakes in the yard outside (and as soon as I am done with this post, I will out there raking as well).

Tasting: Pomegranate seeds, I love this time of year when they are in season!

Seeing: The hokey rink being put up where the tennis courts used to be at the neighborhood park...I guess that is a sure sign that Winter is coming!

Smelling: Beef stew that I have made for Jay and Arabella from scratch...they will be enjoying it while I am at yoga tonight.

Feeling: That great (at least for me) pain in your muscles when you know you have had a good workout. I love that feeling!

Art & Music Classes

Arabella is enrolled in an art class, as well as, a class called Movin & Groovin. She likes going to both, but I think that her favorite is the music class. It is so cute to watch her dance around and learn all of the moves (clapping, stomping, etc) that go along with the songs. Yesterday, they got to play with xylophone and she loved it. As soon as we got home, she took hers out and played with it. She likes the art class too, but sometimes, we have to leave before it is over. I am still trying to figure out why...is she tired, bored, frustrated, is the class too long (it is 40 minutes). This week was one of those times, she just started to meltdown and she wasn't calming down and wouldn't listen so we packed up her unfinished project and brought it home to finish later. The class started out great, she enjoyed the story that we read and then seemed to like doing the craft that went along with it, so I don't know what happened. We finished it at home that evening without a problem. Even if we don't make it through the whole class, I am still proud of you Arabella and the beautiful art that you make! Keep up the good work!

Gymnastics Update

Gymnastics is going great! Yesterday, we got to bring Auntie Lori with us and we had so much fun! Arabella really enjoys it and her teacher this semester is really starting to challenge her to try new and advanced (for her age) moves. She continues to love the uneven bars and has started to take more of a liking to the beam. I am so proud of eveything that she has accomplished in her classes and for what she continues to do - Arabella is one amazing little girl and one budding gymnast!