Happy New Year! Year of the Ox

Here's Keira 's pika-pika version celebrating chinese new year. 

Best wishes for wealth in family, friends and 

health. xoxo

The cousins come over!

credit: Helen Dardik

This is so like Keira! Whirligirl...

Thank you Keira!

It's finally Friday! And it's been a weird week. I have to say a big Thank You to my girl, the Keikster...for waking up on time for the past 2 days, not having a big attitude and putting on her boots and winter coat and getting out of the house ON TIME. The past 2 days has been glorious for this mama! I got to walk to work and not run, I got to stop and get some breakfast too (albeit eating it at my temporary desk at work) and I've been ON TIME!! I don't have to leave later or work through lunch either.

So thank you my little girl. Mama's gonna take you out to dinner ce soir!

Hope & Change

The coming of change? A leader prepared to hunker down, work hard, persevere and stop the blame game? I believe in Obama, that things will get really bad before it starts to get better. Hope, Courage, Change!

 

Mama and me @ 4 years old

"Hey mama! How come you hands like dat on da table?", uh, cuz I was forced to pose by ppl who grabbed me from my class. The photo snatchers! 

Official Uniform Day - Martin Luther King Day

Dress up day to honour Martin Luther King Day at school. Otherwise, Keira loves to wear her skirt uniform and I just substitute the white shirt to the orange cotton one.

Marimekko!

artwork courtesy of Marimekko

Well, the photo session from my work that involved Keira and a couple of other kids with my coworkers are finally being put to use. The toy catalogue is almost finished and I've been creating some collateral for the upcoming CGTA show in Toronto (Canadian Gift show). Here's some of the images being used. The kids are all so cute!


You can check out the line of toys on the Pierre Belvédère website (which is horrible btw! v.confusing site)


Set of 4 banners I created for the upcoming CGTA show in Toronto. This will be presented in the toy division section.

A Grill Cheese Kind of Day

Great day to spend outside in the backyard!




Papa! S l o w l y...ok, fast!


Soup+grilled cheese+celery=yum! Kiki & Loulou on their way to grandma's house for fun and a little Wii.

The Tale of Despereaux

Here's a recent movie Keira and I went to see: The Tale of Despereaux. Based on the books... Very fun, gorgeous stylized animation. Some scary parts (i.e. the underworld of rats!) but such a cute little mouse! The story isn't hard to figure out but has good meaning to little ones. Check out the trailer here but go watch it in theatres. I just love our cinema dates...

So there is a boy...

UPDATE: Ok, so I got a chance to see this "benjamin" Mr Coat Hook Hanger Neighbor this morning and as Keira politely pointed out to me, "c'est pas la même benjamin". lol. Darnit! I knew it was an older boy...

---------------

So...there is this boy at Keira's school that she always mentions. His name is Benjamin. She always refers to this guy like, "mais mais, Benjamin veut pas ca..." etc. I asked Keira's teacher's assistant who is this Benjamin and she made a face and said, "eh? lui, mais c'est un peu un peste". Grrrreat.

During the weekend, Keira kept blabbing away and suddenly said to me, "I love him". I asked who and she replied, "ben, Benjamin!". hoboy.

Yesterday, I picked Keira up from school and while we were walking outside, we passed by the window of the door leading to the small gym where the some kids waiting for their parents were playing. And suddenly, Keira sighs and says, "il est la! c'est Benjamin." with a smile on her face. There he was, some blond kid.

Should I get a spy-cam and hook it onto Keira's forehead? I never noticed but apparently, there is a "Benjamin" who has a coat hook right next to Keira's. Hm... Maybe I should remove his name tag and replace it with someone else's... I want to know this guy's full name, his social security number, where he lives and what toy car he drives!

Happy New Year!

Well, it's taken me awhile to get on to the computer for more than just posting some pics on fb. I've been sick for the past 3/4 weeks now and only felt good for 2 days. Then I got hit by something more sinister than a regular cold... a sinus infection! That coupled with a hacking cough, I had the worst night ever last night, felt like someone was hitting on my head all night long. Poor Keira... stuck at home with a sick mom. I just can't face the thought that I have to go back to work tomorrow and Keira goes back to school. I'm getting an anxiety attack just writing about it! Anyways, I haven't been this sick in years...

Well, as Keira goes back to her school tomorrow, she'll also take back her homework book as well. The teacher let her bring hers home during the holidays to show us what's she's been doing, how she's been progressing during the school year. We already took a peek during the parent/teacher meeting but it was nice to show the grannies her book too.



Here I thought that her school was just a glorified daycare. Nope! The teacher actually has activities that may seem to us like just plain drawing and colouring but it's actually to sharpen their listening skills, hand coordination, the beginning of the alphabet etc. The teacher even has them listening to her reading a story and then getting a paper with all kinds of illustrations on it. They then have to circle the things they heard in the story. We could see that in the beginning, language being the barrier, Keira didn't get it. She circled everything! Then we see the last 2 sheets in the batch and you know she's learning cuz she circled only what was read out loud. Apparently, the teacher still finds her having problems drawing a face figure. She can name and place what's on her body but not on a sheet of paper. Ah well, to each their own timing and strengths.





To our surprise as well, just about everyone from the hall monitors to the teacher's assistant and front desk secretary has told us that Keira LOVES music and dance. lol. They love the fact that she's a smiley sweet kid. Awww, this is just one big bragfest! Can't help it, we're just so proud of her.

Have a happy belated new year everyone! I'll get enthusiastic about it once I've gotten better...