Eating Popsicles All Day Long! (End of August 2008)


Maya loves popsicles!!! She wakes up and the second word she says, after Shadow of course, is popsicle.

Look at this smile! She can eat them all day long.


If she had it her way, she would not be eating anything else!


Maya finally got to see Tante Jojo and Julie and swim in their water hole.


She had a lot of fun chasing after Simba...


and playing with Jojo's twin nephew and niece Amélie and Antoine.


We went once again to a small fair with inflatable toys...but with less success. Maya got stuck in the maze. She was too afraid to go down a steep slide. A lot of kids were trying to help her but she could not do it. Finally an older kid went in to pick her up and rescue her.


Maya was really glad to be in daddy's arms afterwards!


We just find out that we are getting the house we made an offer on. Have a look on MLS if you are curious and let us know what you think! Keep in mind it's a fixer upper with a huge backyard in a nice neighborhood.

MLS®: 1456981


Mommy is also starting to worl as an ESL teacher in grade 10 and 11! Ironic isn't! She is in a huge school and has a contract until Christmas. It should be fun.

Maya will start daycare next week officially, also very exciting for her.

We will let you know how everything goes.

Hot Air Balloon Festival (August 10th, 2008)

What a summer! It has been busy busy busy! The weather is awful but we manage to get out for a few hours a day without getting soaking wet.
We went with my cousins Geneviève (her two sons William and Felix), Mélanie, my aunt Nicole and Grand-Maman to a wonderful Hot Air Balloon Festival. The activities were perfectly geared towrds the little ones.
Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating and we did not get to see the hot air balloons go off... We will have to go back next year for sure. The site was muddy but had all kinds of tents to protect us from the rain and still be able to play.
Maya and William had so much fun playing in a giant sand box with all the cool toys that are need to build amazing sand castles.
Maya got the chance once again to play with inflatable giant slides. She even decided to have a little cat nap before sliding down...
Felix was a pro at all the games and was on his best behaviour.

Maya stayed a long time playing with all the balls. She even threw one directly in the face of a parent... oups! She has a good aim for a 21 month-old.

We celebrated aunt Stéphanie's birthday with a great barbecue and many exciting games of horse shoes.

Maya was cheering all night long Bravo Papa, Bravo Pierre, Bravon Papie, Bravo Terry, Bravo Chris and Bravo Jay. We wished we had recorded this hilarious and ever so cute moment on video... oh well it will stay in the memory of the ones that were there to witness it!
Maya had a good time with Uncle Chris as well. What a smile Uncle Chris!
Pierre lost his horse shoe in the huge cedar hedge...it was so funny to see all the Clarkes going head first in it (in spite of all the spider webs and insects) to retrieve the precious item. The good news is that Stuart found it!

Maya went inot the hot tub 4 times in a 24 hour span! She loves it needless to say.and so did precious Elizabeth. She is an angel that little girl.
and so did mommy!

The bubble machine is an amazing toy! I never get tired of looking at the beautiful bubbles constantly being made and destroyed by Maya! YAYAYA!
Wink wink have a good week and we are waiting to hear from you all Vancouver friends and we want PICTURES!
Maya loves bathing in the sink still. She has the weirdest games... and I let her to them! I am a bad mom, I know!

Happy birthday tante Stéphanie!

City Fair (August 2, 2008)

We went to the town's summer fair over the weekend. Maya truly enjoyed herself. Here is a few pictures for you to see how much Maya has grown over the last few weeks.

Maya found the courage to climb up the back of a stegosaurus ...


and then sit down and smile...

and weeeeee go down the slide! She was by far the youngest daredevil to do this! Bravo Maya (she says that to herself all the time!)


For a second Maya was scared of that boa constructor...


but soon found the courage to touch an aligator! At least mommy did on camera.


Maya went bouncing in the inflatable toys.

She really liked the little maze as you will see her go go go on the little video clip.



Ahhh and let's not forget the highlight of the day... a blue balloon that she played with all evening long.


Maya got to see her first rainbow at 21 months of age. She had the potential to see one before but I think they were too faint to be noticed by her. This one was beautiful. There are a lot of storms in Montreal compare to Vancouver. We get to see lightning and hear thunder every couple of days.


We have a more recent family portrait! It has been nice to see all of our family members and friends at different outings.

Mommy is done teaching for the summer, that's great! She will enjoy playing with Maya a lot more than teaching math!

Daddy on the other hand is working so many days straight that we have stopped counting. Poor daddy... he has to make money for the new house we are looking for!

Another good news! We have found a great 7$ day daycare for September. Maya will be with 8 other munchkins in a family daycare with two nice ladies taking care of them all. These women are saints, I will never say it enough.

Enjoy the last month of the summer and you will hear from us very soon.

July 2008 Busier than Ever...

Let me inhale a deep breath before I start this blog... We have been so busy it feels like I forget to breathe. My asthma is acting up a lot lately, probably partly because of that! I have a lot to tell you, so let's get started...

Maya just turned 21 months today... and Daddy 33 yesterday.


Maya is a very busy toddler (they all are I know). She is climbing, running, screaming, dancing, singing, talking, eating and pooing all at once!



We celebrated Canada Day in the Old Port. It was packed with kids and immigrants, it was great. Maya really enjoyed using the little cars for a ride and she liked jumping on the inflatable toys.

It was a very hot day and somewhat overwhelming for all of us! Can you find Waldo ( I mean Maya)?


Maya gladly inherited an old car left on the curb on garbage day... One wheel is oddly bent, but our little miss sunshine does not care one bit. Look at her driving skills, holding the wheel with her feet while holding on to a bubble maker (a fantastic toy by the way)!


Why are we so busy... Well Daddy is a camera man and an editor for a news station while Mommy is teaching grade 9 math summer course to a whole new crowd than what she was used to! Thank goodness the summer course is only offered from July 14 to August 1... It was insane of me to volunteer to do this job. Merci Grand-maman, without her the whole thing would not be even possible.



Grand-maman is the best babysitter in the world. She plays with Maya all day and teaches her tricks (good ones unlike Daddy!) Play-Doh is such a fun game, but one daddy pretends it's coming out of his nose when he sneezes... well Maya loves putting stuff into her nostrils now!

On the weekend or just before Mommy started teaching, we got to have playdates. Maya enjoys playing with Maribel's toys while Maribel is fascinated just to observe Maya playing! It used to be Maya doing just that a year ago!


Maya and Elizabeth got acquainted chasing Tiger (Stephanie's cat) around. Poor little Miaow Miaow... There is a nice videoclip about that later on.

We had a grand time going to a campground where my aunt and uncle were staying in Orford. It was beautiful by the lake. We also witness one of the craziest rainfall of our life. It was the longuest full on downpour I ever saw!

Another place we love hanging out at is at Mrs Nicol's! Here we were swimming with baby Aurelia and Mommy Marianna. It's the only pool Maya will swim in nowadays. It is heated to a perfect 86 degrees. Otherwise, she will only go into a hot tub! Maya is spoiled or cherished depending who you are talking to.


Maya is a talking machine now. We don't understand everything she is saying, but we are getting there.

We miss you all Vancouver friends and think of you everyday. Let us know how you are doing and what is going on in your lives. It's pretty hectic for now, but when we settle in I hope I get to phone all of you and catch up. We love you.

Here is two clips (by the way I got Jason a router so we now have access to the Internet even when Maya is sleeping).

On the first one Maya climbs a slide for the first time ans Shirley and Carson are cheering on. I know I'll have to teach her to go around the slide and use the stairs...I'll do that later!

On the second clip, Maya is feeding and chasing Tiger with Aunt Stephanie. Enjoy!

Moving Into Montreal (June 2008)

Sorry for the delay everybody! As you will soon discover, we have been pretty busy!

I have been blowing bubbles all by myself, that's very hard to do, at not even 20 months, you know!

We first moved in with Grand-maman and Grand-papa while we were waiting for Papa to cross the country to join us.

Jason drove all day during 4 days in order to successfully move here.

We have finally moved in into my tante Caro's house. We are so fortunate to have so many people to take us in. We have been really busy, we are sorry if you have not heard from us in a while. It feels like we are on vacation, visiting relatives and friends, just like in the past 8 years... but the truth of our big come back here in Motherland is sinking in.

We have been enjoying the heat and the sun!

Here are a few of Maya's adventures over the last two weeks.

Maya had her first professional haircut. Before that, Maman did a bad job at trimming the bang and the hair over the ears. She did not like it at first, but finally settled on mommy's lap and allowed the hairdresser to do her job. She kept herself busy with eating rice crackers as you can see. Mommy also got a mcuh needed haircut. Unfortunately, she still wears a ponytail 99% of the time!

Before the haircut... Maya still love wearing her tatoos!

The crying before the haircut even started...

The final reveal, tan tan! No noticeable changes!

Mammie and Stéphanie got to spend more time with Aurelia!

This little girl loves having her picture taken and the camera loves her back, that's for sure.


Chris, the proud father of Aurelia, seems really really happy to have his best friend back in town.

We have visited Christine twice since we have been back.

Maya adores the bunny (sneezy who is 12 years old, he should have died of old age a long time ago, but he is still alive a doing fabulously). Maya is a little rough with Sneezy, we will have to work on that with her, if we want him to continue breaking longevity records.

Maya has been playing a lot with Shadow and Tante Caro. We have been able to enjoy the hot weather by going to spray parks and visitinf friends and relatives that have pools!

Maya also had a playdate with Carson (mommy Shirley and daddy Jeff). They had a lot of fun at the playground, especially when Maya was able to climb up the slide by herself and Carson could not (it was all the in the soles of the shoes).

Maya is fascinated by the size of the TV screens everywhere she goes. Pappie has a very nice HD giant screen, where she can watch Nemo.

Meet Ryan, Maya's cousin who just turned 3 and can already swim by himself. We were all impressed!

Here are Eric and Sandy with cousin Holly doing an amazing family pyramid. We had so much fun at their house to celebrate father's day.

We have a little video of Maya's accomplishment! She was so proud of herself!