Xavier is really into baseball…

… and hitting the ball to the sky !

Orléane enjoy a sunny day

At the park

Orly with her dad

Romane and her mom Ge

Yahoooo !!

Xavier sliding with his friend Romane

By the St-Lawrence river

Xavier saw a boat, right there !!

Orly and mom

• …that Orléane is picking up a lot of words recently?
• …that she repeats and mimicks, especially her big brother, like a little monkey?
• …that she’s laughing more and more?
• …that we started reprimanding her sometimes, but it has absolutely no effect: she just laughs at us, and we are having trouble keeping a straight face?
• …that she’s starting to enjoy books a lot more, and requests stories by sticking a book in my hands and plopping down in my lap?
• …that she has about a dozen pacifiers and that she often going around with one in her mouth and a spare in hand?
• …that she still loves fruit, any fruit?
• …that she really likes playing with us, but she also plays well just by herself?
• …that she doesn’t put objects systematically in her mouth anymore, but the tendency is still there?
• …that one of her favourite activities is drawing, but her bad habit of tasting crayons is often cutting down her drawing time?
• …that she’ll dance as soon as there’s an air playing, whether on the radio or just sung?
• …that she does the moves for “Head and shoulders, knees and toes…” but the only song she really sings is “P’tite tortue têtue…”?
• …that her hair is getting thicker at last? (Though not enough for tying, yet, dang!)
• …that she is still our little fairie, spreading a little magic everywhere she toddles?

• …that Xavier can now count (really count) to 16 in French, and 11 in English?
• …that the first grown-up song (ie. not from a kid album) that he liked was “Why don’t you get a job“, by The Offspring? (He really likes “I like to move it, move it“, also, and “Pokerface“.)
• …that he sucks at catching a ball, but he’s tough to beat at memory?
• …that he can assemble a 48 piece puzzle?
• …that he has a passion for books and visits the library regularly?
• …that he likes eating his “pitamin” each morning, in the car?
• …that he’s always very careful not to knock his sister when running around the house?
• …that he tells his daycare friends to be careful of his sister, when they are running around together?
• …that he loves riding his tricycle, but doesn’t use the pedals yet?
• …that he likes “Cars” merchandise and pirates?
• …that his drawings are starting to become more precise and that what he most often draws are fishes and cucumbers?
• …that he’s not in underwear yet, but he started to use the potty now and then?
• …that he sometimes throws a fit, but mostly he’s a wonderful and loving young man…!

Remember when I said I would like to take a photography class? But I did not, because I’m too lazy to work the logistics of an evening class into my preschoolers-centric routine? Remember that?

Tom Ang: Digital Photography Masterclass

My BFF Amélie gave me this book for my birthday. It’s a class! In a book! Isn’t that perfect for me? It is!

What is neat about this book: after each chapter, it gives me an assignment that makes me experiment on what I have learned. Last week, I completed my “homework” by standing next to a boulevard at night and freezing. Yay! Except I took my camera (a Nikon D60) and my tripod with me and took a series of shots. It helped me understand the photo settings better, and I practiced handling my camera’s controls and menus (with numb hands, w00t!).

30 secs – f/32.0 – ISO 400

I juxtaposed the shots, added the photos’ specs and ended up with a little cheat sheet for photo settings. (It’s 800k, so click the thumbnail if you want to see it for real.)

Here is another fun shot: a car’s trail of light. This was 2.5 secs at f/5.6, ISO 400.

I’ll spare you my Ludoplex series, but here is the best one — 0.077 secs (1/13), f/5.0 at ISO 1600.

If you’ll let me squeeze in just one more (erm, two), this is another one I took through our speeding car’s windshield. I fell in love with my DSLR’s shutter speed then. Quickly, too! I even added in the lens flare for interest — there wasn’t any in the original picture.

0.002 secs (1/500) – f/6.3 – ISO 100

Here is the same shot, with Pioneer Woman’s “Vintage” Photoshop action applied. Creepy cool!

I might be back with more after my next assignment. Photo is fun!

Time to give the blog some love again!

First things first: I got rid of the snowy trees header picture, and brought in some hot sand. I’ve matched it to my favourite of the Kaleidoscope theme nuances (original theme explanation here) — and this is the first time I’ve used this one: the “Rainbow” nuance!! It’s a kid-coloured theme that is perfect for summer, and features chalk drawings by Xavier.

Now, let’s talk about what we’ve been up to. This is the first free weekend we’ve had in a month or two!

April weekends were busy with: 2 out of town funerals ( , 3 “cabanes à sucre” (maple sugar feast/fest ) ), 1 children birthday party, some additional viruses (we’ve stopped keeping track) and other miscellaneous activities.

Basically, I stored two relatives in my heart, ate enough maple syrup to stop enjoying it, am sick of germs (huh) and am looking forward to this new month. The first thing I noticed on the May calendar page was the lack of events. A WHOLE. FREE. MONTH. Woah. D

Back later with other stuff.