bonjour from Paris

Stay tuned for more about our fun week in Paris...

Those I look up to

There are few women that I see each day that I really admire.

One in particular has three small kids, (that in itself blows my mind), she works part time as a teacher, is really involved with our school, and has been an integral part of a project that we've been pitching to the school board all year long.
I couldn't do any of what we've been trying to accomplish without her.
She's so on the ball and together.
She's always even keeled, even in the face of all kinds of life's daily obstacles.
She never seems to get sick, and even if she does, never complains.
I seriously don't know how she manages.
She's super sporty and fit.
In fact she's running a marathon this week in California- just because.
How awesome is that?
She's just an overall really nice, positive , enthusiastic person.
I've never once heard her say a negative thing about anything or anyone for that matter.
Always seeing the positive in every situation.
I really respect her for that and truth be told, wish I was a little more like that.
And trust me, that's not always an easy thing to do in the school yard clusters of gossiping moms.

Then there's another woman that I know.
She also has three kids, ( I swear those mothers of three are such over-achievers ;) is SUPER involved in the school and does a ton of extra volunteering.
She's really funny, and also manages to follow her passion as a stage actress and recently I had the pleasure of watching her perform.
She was fantastic!
Who knew?
Not only that, but the performance was for charity, which is so amazing.
I think it's so great when you get to see someone doing something that they love besides carrying backpacks and carpooling each day.
And what's not to love about all that glamour?

And of course there are all the women I've met from the gym.
They are a huge inspiration to me.
These women range from their twenties and up (as in 70- doing kick boxing classes no less!)
and I love working out along side of them regardless of how old (or young) they are.
Last night in fact, I was partnered up with a women who is 68 years old and could kick any 20 year old butt in class.
She is A-mazing. Even more amazing is that she works out with her daughter.
Talk about setting an example and being inspiring.
Not to mention a certain "someone" who is always there to motivate me when I start to slack off.
(Hi M ;)
Her dedication to fitness and being positive is astonishing.
Age is just a state of mind, and for most of the women I work out with, I swear it must be their motto.
I love how we all inspire one another to stay "strong, fit & healthy". (inside joke)

There are so many others.
They are all so positive and energetic.
They manage the balance of being a mother and yet maintaining some sense of self so effortlessly.
(or so it appears to me)
Being a mom isn't easy, but being true to yourself and taking time to follow your passions is essential.
It's easy to forget to do that when you are so focused on your kids.
I know I sometimes get too caught up in Lulu's life without a doubt.

So I am feeling inspired.

Of course it goes without saying that one of the women who inspires me the most, is my own mother.
She was (is) one of those women.
Managing to juggle a career with a family and still being really involved in the community.
She was always there to help others out whenever they were in need.
She is definitely one of the most generous and kind people that I know.
She always looks great and takes care of herself.
I love that she's discovered the benefits of yoga at aged 60.
She is THE best grandmother and Lulu is so close to her which I am so very grateful for.
Sure things were a bit crazy at times growing up, but most of the time she held it all together.
Held us all together.
She is also one of those people that never has a bad thing to say about anyone.
Regardless of the situation, she is always a "lady" and tends to not get involved in a conversation if it is disparaging towards another person.
I love and admire her for that more than anything else.

It may not be for a couple more weeks, but Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing moms out there.
It's one of the hardest jobs I've ever had, but so completely worth every second.

Oh and speaking of inspiring....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=NScs_qX2Okk

make sure you have the tissue box handy. sniff sniff.

seven years ago

It's hard to believe that seven years ago today, I was rolling around on a Pilate's ball, trying to breathe and naively thinking "that this isn't that terrible, I can have this baby right here in the comfort of my own home".
"I can do it!"
"It can't be too much longer now."
Little did I know, that after almost 24 hours of being in labour at home, that I would be begging for some serious pain meds, barfing into a recycling bin in the hallway of a hospital in the middle of the night and swearing at a student doctor sipping his Starbucks while I was in what you would call a very "vulnerable position".
Something about "who the F. let Doogie Howser in here?" and "Get him the F. out NOW!!!!!"
That part I don't really remember because by that time the epidural had worn off.

All the while I was pleading with big daddy to PLEASE  PLEASE not ever make me do this again.
He kept that promise.
I guess I'm far too wimpy to do that craziness all over again.
I hate to admit that it's definitely one of the perks of having an only child.
At least I won't ever have to go down that road again.
Thank-you Jesus.

But 36 excruciating and exhausting hours later, it was all so so worth it.
I had a tiny bundle of healthy perfection in my arms.
Well technically she wasn't put in my arms right away since she had a bit of trouble breathing on her own at first.
Big daddy wanted to stay with me (north of the border for the record) but I told him to quickly go to Lulu and make sure she was okay.
She was.
Thank G-D.
Once I finally got to hold her, my first words were "oh my g-d...she's a a a Human!"
Umm duh..
I was delirious, what can I say?
And I know it's such a cliche, but I would do it all over in a heart beat.

But whoever said that you eventually forget the pain, is such a liar.


So here we are, seven years later.
I can barely believe that Lulu was once even a tiny baby.
It really feels like a life time ago already.
She is so mature and such an old soul and she is constantly surprising us with her stories and ideas.
This year has been especially amazing.
I know, I say this every year.
But it truly has.
I love being her mother more than I can ever put into words.
I have to admit though, I'm happy that she hasn't changed physically too much since last year.
She's already practically up to my shoulder!
Can't have her towering over me before grade 3..
Much to her dismay, she still hasn't lost any baby teeth.
Not even a wiggler.
I'm for one am glad she still has all her perfect little baby teeth.
The poor thing went through hell getting her them in the first place, might as well enjoy them for as long as possible.
And just wait until we get to the training bra stage- if she's anything like me she'll be the last in that department as well.
Lucky girl.

She's also still wearing a size 13 shoe just like this time last year.
This is a good thing, because I went a little crazy buying her shoes.
So many cute ballet flats for girls these days!
Don't even get me started on all the cute clothes.
Bonus that she completely lets me pick things for her to wear.
In fact she usually loves what I choose.
I so hope this lasts until she's at least 21.

But her sense of self and who she is, has come so far in just one year.
She really knows what she likes and what she doesn't.
Her awareness and sensitivity towards others always leaves me feeling so proud of her.

Seven.
Wow I have a seven year old. (or at least I will by 3:28 tomorrow afternoon)
It's sad to say good bye to yet another year.
And boy, do they slip away faster and faster the older she gets.
But I am looking forward to watching her continue to blossom & grow, just like the tree in our back yard.
I love that it flowers on her birthday every year.
Because she really is my special flower.

Happy Birthday Lulu.
I love you so very much.

Mama xo

happy belated EasterOver

Yes, another gratuitous photo of my lovable puppy.
The poor little thing puts up with so much shenanigans around here.
She never protests even when we do completely ridiculous things to her.
Like for example dressing her up like the Easter Bunny.
But how cute is that?

Lulu & her friends treat her like one of their toys, and she never makes a peep.
Mind you I'm always near by to make sure it doesn't go too far.
I am uber protective of my little pooch.
I can't believe how dog obsessed I've become.
I honestly can't imagine our home without her in it.
She is completely a part of the family and we truly won the doggie lottery and found the sweetest dog in the world.
Getting her was the best decision ever.

Moving on...
Last weekend was a bit of blur.
Between Matzo & countless amounts of chocolate mini eggs, the weekend was jammed packed.



This has to be hands down one of my favorite times of the year.


I love Seders and I especially love how Lulu is really starting to understand some of the traditions and participates in them.
We always have one here at home and then go to friends for a big fun (often very loud) Seder.
Easter is usually spent with my family.
Traditional "kosher" ham and of course an Easter egg hunt.
So much fun.

The trees are starting to blossom, it's been sunny and nice out for weeks and everyone seems to have a little extra spring in their step.
'scuse the pun...
Bonus that the week kind of flew by and once again it's the weekend.
Spring has sprung!

my current obsession (aside from Mad Men)

Gosh, when was the last time I posted about food?
I guess I've fallen into the busy school year/ fast & easy midweek/ same ol' same ol' meals.
I never thought it would happen to me.
Meatless Mondays.
Taco or rotisserie chicken on Tuesdays.
Tofu, rice & greens on Wednesdays.
Fish on Thursdays
Pizza Fridays.
You get the point.
But time is of the essence these days and I rarely get to peruse cookbooks and food magazines for inspiration like I used to.
So nothing really exciting to post about I guess.

Not that fast, easy, tried & true dinners are a bad thing.
In fact we still eat really well here at casa petite gourmand.
But I find I tend to make many of the same things through out the week.
Especially when it comes to breakfast & lunch.
We consumed copious amounts of homemade chicken soup this winter.
I'm pretty sure we had it at least 2- 3 times a week for the past 4 months actually.
Not that much beats a good homemade warm bowl of chicken soup in the middle of the day.

But now that it's spring, I've been craving something new, healthy, fresh and most importantly-tasty.
Not to mention super fast.
I love salads, but I rarely have time to do all that chopping in the middle of the day and I'm never organized enough to plan it the night before.
Besides, we usually have some sort of salad for dinner.
I feel super guilty if I eat sandwiches or wraps everyday.
Not that I'm carb free, but I try not to eat too much wheat especially of the white variety.
The only bread I usually buy is for Lulu and it's the high fiber white chia Cobs bread.
Which is healthy and fresh, but I like my bread much darker and denser with lots of seeds.
Which brings me to my newest obsession.

Toasted rye or pumpernickel (European style the denser the better) Topped with sliced Avocado & thinly sliced Radish, sea salt & pepper and a squeeze of lemon.
Open faced.
YUM.
or my other new fave- Toasted rye with Avocado & Sardines.
Double YUM.

I can't believe I had never tried sardines until now!
I've been missing out all this time.
The thought of them kind of grossed me out, but after reading something about sardines being SO good for you and considered to be a super food along with avocados I figured I would give them a try.
Delicious.

how about you, what do you eat for lunch everyday?
Inquiring minds want to know..

april fools

I snuck downstairs this morning and put blue food colouring in the milk container.
So fun to play a prank on a six year old (not to mention a 41 year old!)
Big Daddy & Lulu were perplexed.
"What the heck?...momma the milk is BLUE!!! quick come and see!"
hee hee.

oh and bonus that the milk was almost empty so that we don't have to drink blue milk for a week..

luck o' the irish

A farmer named Muldoon lived alone in the Irish countryside except for a pet dog he owned for a long time.

The dog finally died and Muldoon went to the parish priest, saying "Father, the dog is dead. Could you possibly be saying a Mass for the poor creature?"

Father Patrick told the farmer "No, we can't have services for an animal in the church, but I'll tell you what, there's a new denomination down the road apiece, and no telling what they believe in, but maybe they'll do something for the animal."

Muldoon said "I'll go right now. By the way, do you think $50,000 is enough to donate for the service?"

Father Patrick replied "Why didn't you tell me the dog was Catholic."

tick tock

I'm pretty lucky in that I don't have to wake up to an alarm clock.
Those days are far behind me.
Thank-g-d.
I find it all so unnatural and cruel.
Then again, that's life I suppose.

Instead, these days I have a built in alarm clock.
Actually I have two.
One is 6 years old and full of energy and loves to come skipping into my room first thing on most mornings.
The other is my bladder.
Note to self- must stop drinking so much chamomile tea right before bed every night.

Anyhow our day starts around 7-7:30 am which is pretty respectable I think.
The morning routine is pretty calm and easy.
I'm pretty grateful for that seeing as I'm really not a morning person.
I like to ease into the day slowly and not feel rushed first thing.
How I ever survived getting up at 5:30- 6 every morning to go to work in my twenties & thirties I'll never know.
I do know, that I don't think I could ever go back to that.
I already mentioned how lucky I am right?

But it's amazing that a mere hour time change can make it so much more difficult to get out of bed in the morning.
I'm thrilled that it's light out longer, don't get me wrong.
But for some reason every year I have a hard time adjusting to the whole "spring forward" thing.
I could have kept on-keepin'-on this morning.

Is there anything better than a good nights sleep?
After all...

Sleep is the best meditation.
Dalai Lama

Can't argue with him..

international house of

Lately dinner has become a bit of a geography lesson around our house.
Monday we had Middle Eastern - Falafel & Tabbouleh Quinoa salad
Tuesday we had Indian- Chicken Tikka, basmati rice and green beans
Saturday we had Japanese- sushi take-out plus Italian Panini's for lunch (see previous post)
And one of my Favourites- Korean on Sunday.
Yummy Kimchi.
We found an amazing new Korean grocery store that has everything you'll even need to make the perfect Korean meal.
I'm dying to do some BBQ Korean short ribs now that the weather is getting nicer.
I think it would be great to have friends over (not the ones mentioned in the previous post of course) and do a traditional Korean Barbecue.
Its all so simple and delicious.

I love that Lulu is pretty adventurous when trying new types of food, and quite honestly prefers Asian, Middle Eastern and Italian food to typical North American food.
The bonus is that it's all so tasty and healthy.
Over dinner we discuss where the food is from, where it is on the map, what the culture is like etc.
It makes for great dinner time discussions.
And it's such a fun way to teach her about the world, yet not have to get on a plane and go anywhere.
(not to say I wouldn't love to take her to these places some day)
But for now it's geography 101 here from the comfort of our own dinner table.

How about you, what's your favourite food and country of origin?

miss manners

Is it just me, or are kids becoming increasingly rude these days?
I've really noticed a complete lack of manners lately.

For example, a few weeks ago I had a bunch of Lulu's friends over for a special Valentine's day lunch.
The place was decked out with cute decorations, I had heart shaped sandwiches, special cupcakes, heart shaped cookies, the works.
Out of all six kids, only one actually said thank-you for having her over and for the yummy food.
One girl actually jumped up on the furniture with wet muddy winter boots on.
Did I mention most of our furniture is cream coloured and not exactly from The Brick.
I mean seriously?! WTF?
What kid does that?
I could maybe see if the kid was like...Two.. but Seven? really?
Do her parents let her do that in her house?
Or should I say, does the nanny let her do that at her house?
Lulu was a bit horrified by it actually, and kept apologizing on her behalf to me later in the day.
I'm so glad that she gets it.
At least I'm doing something right.
I will also add that Lulu couldn't say thank-you enough for throwing her the impromptu lunch party.
Bonus that she is also grateful.

Then this weekend we had some friends over for lunch.
I made Panini's and homemade tomato soup.
For the girls I just kept things simple with Ham & Cheese.
The grown-ups had roast beef, arugula, apple wood smoked cheddar with a horse radish aioli.
Pesto & buffalo Mozzarella.
And brie & royal gala apple on fresh Epi walnut raisin bread.
mmmm paninis.....

What was I talking about?...right...rudeness.
Well when I gave this kid her fresh pressed sandwich, she freaked out.
"I don't like my grilled cheese with lines on it!!!!!! wahh!!! wahhhh!!"
Lulu just looked at me in shock.
I was totally taken aback as well.
This kid is almost EIGHT! Crazy right?
Mom just kind of told her to settle down (in a pretty wishy washy way I might add)
I had to leave the room I was so insulted.
She also kept freaking out over our puppy who is super mellow & calm and pretty much not bothering her at all.
Interesting, considering that they were dog sitting a big dog at their place for the weekend.
Poor Lulu. I felt so bad for her.
She just adores Chelsea and gets pretty upset when anyone insults her puppy.
Not to mention her mom's cooking.
Thankfully she handled the situation with a maturity way beyond her six years and I couldn't have been more proud of her.

The last time we had this kid over (Halloween) she pulled the same crap.
I made home baked individual Mac & cheese. Nothing fancy, just kind of cute.
Special meat and cheeses cut into bat shapes and some little tomato, bocconcini & basil bites.
She was so rude and refused to eat any of it.
What's not to like here people?



If I went to someone's house when I was a kid and they served me this (see above) I would have been thrilled.
Not yelling (or maybe it was screaming) "I hate this kind of macaroni & cheese!!!"
"I don't want to eat this stuff!!!"
Really?!
wow. I was flabbergasted.
I have yet to meet a child that does not like Mac & Cheese.
Though apparently that was a first according to her dad.
Was it all an attention getting act?
Like I said- Drama is this child's middle name.
What really gets me, is that they didn't even apologize on her behalf.
On the contrary they kind of ignored it and made us put up with her nonsense all night.
Thus ruining Lulu's Halloween.
grrr...just thinking about it makes me so mad.

The only reason I keep having them back is that these are old friends of big daddy's so we kind of put up with it.
This kid keeps getting progressively worse and they keep turning a blind eye.
No wonder they have such a hard time finding play dates for her.
I end up feeling kind of bad for them and keep getting sucked into inviting them over.
Anyhow, I don't think I'll be inviting them over any time again soon.
I'm done.
Oh and do you think they would have maybe sent a quick email to say thanks for a lovely lunch and afternoon?
They are after all, completely attached to their blackberries being the "uber fabulous power career couple" that they are..
Nope.
nothing.
I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree in the manners department.
So maybe I shouldn't be too surprised by all that rude behaviour.

So last but not least.
I'm needing to vent so bear with me.

On the way home from school today we were walking with another girl from school and her dad.
Her dad & I were chatting about the school play last week etc..
I even complimented her on her performance.
Great job etc.
The girl starts yelling "stop talking daddy! I just want to walk alone with you!! no more talking!!!"
wow..
I mean I get it when you just want to walk alone with your child and they want to have you all to their selves, but really?!
Lulu would NEVER pull that crap.
In fact she just held my hand and looked at me wondering what in the heck was wrong with this "friend".
Worst of all is that the dad said nothing.
We live on the same street and go in the same direction, so what were we supposed to do?
Lulu & I kind of said adios and walked as fast as we could to get away from this manner-less and clue-less duo.

Anyhow I am just floored that so many parents let their kids act so rude and disrespectful.
Whatever happened to being polite.
Not interrupting.
Being respectful and showing gratitude?
We are not perfect in any shape or form, but there is a zero tolerance for that kind of behaviour in our house.
Lulu would never, I mean NEVER get away with acting like this.
On the contrary, she is a pretty sweet and polite child.
Perfect. no.
But she knows how to behave and be respectful and gracious especially towards adults and when in someones home.
I kind of insist she's that way.
It's not really an option not to be.
And if she's not always on her best behaviour, Big daddy & I don't waste any time setting her on the right track and reminding her what is and isn't an acceptable way to act.

I will add that there have been many times that we were at someone else's house for dinner or lunch and Lulu didn't particularly like what was being served. But rather that blurt out "I don't like this!" we have taught her to just quietly wait until everyone else is finished and say she isn't really that hungry. I get it when kids are little and they are just learning proper meal time etiquette,
but I think by the age of at least six they should have a handle on how to act.
That's just my two cents.

So is it just me, or are the majority of kids just completely without manners and rude these days?
What is happening to our society?
And are the words "Thank-You so hard to say?
Or at the very least, email?

Oh and it goes without saying that if I know you and your kids and you read this blog, I am obviously not talking about you.
Most of our friends have really sweet & polite children, except for the above mentioned of course.
I guess at the end of the day, I just find it all so disappointing and unfortunate.