I don’t know how widespread this is, but for a couple of years around here, shops have been marking “family” parking spots close to the front entrance in their parking lot; sort of like handicapped spaces, but painted white with the pictograph of a pregnant woman w/stroller. There is no vignette needed to park there, however – the “children on board” sticker and the baby seat in the back of the minivan will suffice.

I’m not one to head for these spaces particularly, I don’t mind walking three more cars’ length and I’ll often rather choose a spot close to where I can leave the cart after shopping at superstores. Today when I got to the mall, though, and one of these family spaces appeared, available, just in front of the entrance, well I figured with no accompanying boyfriend, my 8-month-belly and Xavier-in-stroller, I fit the pictograph so well, it would be a shame to park at the end of the lane. Two hours later, after a couple of errands and meeting Frank for lunch, Xavier and I were back in the parking lot.

Just when we got to the car, an (oldish) man with a fur hat drove up to where we were in his luxurious sedan. He seemed to signal me – at the moment, I figured he wanted to let me know he’d seen the toddler-in-stroller and wouldn’t be driving into it. I made a pleasant/busy face; the stroller wasn’t in his way in any case, so I wasn’t worried about it, really. I resume the operation of loading everything into the car.

It all took me at least five good minutes, which is a pretty long time in a parking lot. I had bought foam padding boards for the floor of Xavier’s playroom – big items to lug around – and the car doors are not electrical, so unlocking them all and loading all the shopping, the stroller and Xavier (who was very reluctant to get into his car seat) into the car took me a good while.

The man waited to get my spot the whole time. He had to manoeuvre out of the way of other circulation two or three times and eventually put up his 4-flashers to claim his ground.

When I was almost done – and had figured out what he was up to – I pointed quickly at the ground to indicate the white-painted asphalt underneath my car, to which he nodded in a “take your time” benevolent manner. He was parked before I’d cleared the lane.

Exactly one month later, we are back with some content. Of course, the most interesting days and weeks of the year are the ones where one is too busy to post anything.

Holidays
I have a couple of things I’d like to post about, but for now I will start with a recap from the holidays, which were quiet and nice – ie. not too crazy. We didn’t travel too much – ie. we skipped on my family reunions in Beauce this year – and kept to simple and cozy celebrations with my close family and Frank’s relatives in town. Xavier was wonderful throughout, even when we woke him up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve to celebrate. But let’s cut to the chase… pictures and video.

We have a full album up of Christmas with my (Émilie’s) family, and Frank’s mom put up her pictures of Christmas with both of Frank’s extended families. The complete albums will be more interesting for relatives, but here are a couple of favourites for everyone:

Xavier learning to unwrap gifts:

Serious negociations between boy and uncle:

Learning guitar:

Xavier’s not the kiss-kiss type:

Merry Xmas:

Little elf:

Most (all) pictures from the holidays with Frank’s family were taken by Frank’s mom and dad, since we were pretty busy filming the event. Frank edited a video of the holidays; it’s a little long, but for interested relatives, you will find it here.

Manon’s birthday

Right after the holidays, we had a family dinner to celebrate my mom’s birthday (Jan.9), and an album of pictures is up for this event as well. Of course, Xavier stole some of the spotlight with his face full of chocolate icing:

I don’t think mom minded, seeing as she was his main provider of cake:

Funny videos

And if you’ve made it this far, well surely you deserve a little treat. Here are two funny videos of (you guessed it) Xavier.

Xavier dancing:

Jumping Xavier (w/Frank) – they’d been at it a while before I started filming, too:

What Xavier is exclaiming during breaks is his version of “encore” (again)…

That concludes our very long post for today. We’ll be back (quicker than last time, surely) with more family news. Meanwhile, please receive our warmest wishes for 2008!