Une promotion / Moving up in the World

Louis-Pascal a eu une promotion de l'évier de la cuisine (Voir le texte du blog en 11-2007 "Vaisselles sales") au comptoir. Puisqu'il peut s'assoir tout seul maintenant, mais pas encore se trainer, il aide Christiane avec son déjeuner et café le matin en s'assisant dans le coin du comptoir de la cuisine et s'amuse avec des trucs de cuisine (les jouets de bébé sont plates dernièrement). Depuis la semaine passée, il a découvert qu'il peut cogner des choses et faire un vacarme incroyable...
LP has been promoted from the kitchen sink (See blog entry in 11-2007 "Dirty Dishes") to the kitchen counter. Since he can sit up by himself now, but not yet crawl, he helps Chris with her breakfast and coffee in the morning by sitting in the corner of the kitchen counter and playing with kitchen stuff (since baby toys are just not cool lately). Since last week, he's discovered that he can bang things and make an incredible amount of noise...

J'ai des pieds! / I Have Feet!

Louis-Pascal a trouvé ses pieds dernièrement quand on change sa couche! Il s'amuse même avec les velcros de sa couche et réussit à la détacher lui même... il aime ben être tout nu celui-là!!
LP recently found his feet when we change his diaper. He has also discovered how to play with the velcro on his diaper to undo it... this little one loves to be naked!!

Premier vidéo sur le blog! / First Video On The Blog!

Le premier vidéo sur le blog! Mais le son n'est pas trop bon...
The first video on the blog! But the sound isn't very good...

Soirée de fun à maman / Mom's Night Out

Written by Amanda.... so it won't be translated (sorry!).

Last night, Chris, JM, & LP came to support Uncle Max play with Kevin at the 5 à 7 at the James Joyce Pub. LP started his evening with some old fashion baby food/apple sauce as the music got started. Once the crowd grew and got louder, it was time for LP to head home with Daddy.


















Christiane decided to stick around and enjoy the music & fun. We're not sure what she was doing in this picture...























Christiane and Gigi getting their slow dance on...























The full fan club (minus LP & JM). Ginette Fowler, Grand maman, Grand papa, Joyce, Doris Anne, Noelle, Fran, Amanda, Chris and Gigi.
















The three girls... goofing around.


















Gigi & Chris dancing funny, so funny that the boys couldn't concentrate. You can see them in the background laughing. To be continued... after the next 5 à 7 on April 4th!

D'autres photos de natation / More Swimming Pics

Voici d'autres photos de Louis-Pascal à ses cours de natation. Gigi était là pour prendre plus de photos... et il y en a des pas bonnes ou on peut voir comment gros sont ses "muscles". Il va attirer les blondes sur la plage en Républic Dominicaine (notre vacance en famille au mois d'avril)!
Here are some more pictures of LP at swimming classes. Gigi was there for the second lesson to take more pictures.... they're prety cute, and there are great shots of his rolls. He'll attract the girls on the beach in the Dominican Republic (our family vacation in April)!

Et Louis-Pascal a six mois aujourd'hui!! On a commencé à aller à la bibliothèque à toutes les semaines et participer à un groupe francophone de jeux... des photos à venir!
And LP is six months old today!! We started going to the library every week and a francophone play group... so more pictures to come!

YMCA Lit'l Dippers

Le premier cours de natation à Louis-Pascal était adorable! J'croyais peut-être qu'il allait pleurer car l'eau serait pas mal plus froide que l'eau du bain... non, pas du tout; il a RIT AU ÉCLAT pendant un gros cinq minutes (on a malheureusement pas photographié ça). C'était tellement mignon. Il faut croire que les éclaboussures étaient trop drôles, il ne pouvait pas se retenir même que les autres trouvaient ça drôle qu'il riait si fort! Il n'a même pas pleuré une fois, il aimait plutôt essayer d'intéragir avec les autres. Il y avait à peu près 10 autres parents avec leur bébé et ce fut une belle demi-heure à relaxer dans l'eau. On a déjà hâte à la semaine prochaine!
Oh my goodness, LP's first swimming class was so funny. I thought he might cry because of the water being colder than at bath time... Nop, he LAUGHED HISTARICALLY for the first five minutes (we didn't get that photographed unfortunately). It was so cute. The splashing was just too much, I guess he couldn't contain himself and the others thought it was pretty funny that he was laughing so hard! He didn't even cry once and loved trying to interact with everybody else. There are about 10 other parents with their baby and it's a nice relaxing half hour in the water. LP loves it and we can't wait for next week!


Voici quelques photos... Enjoy the pictures...

Dr. DeVink

Nous avons reçu ces photos dernièrement de la graduation à JM. Je voulais les mettre sur le blog quand même parcequ'on est tellement fiers! Voici les photos de la convocation à Jean-Michel à l'University of Saskatchewan en octobre dernier pour son doctorat. T'es pas mal beau Dr. DeVink!
We received these pictures from JM's former supervisor, and I though I would post them on the blog because we're very proud of JM! Here are his convocation pictures at the University of Saskatchewan for his doctorat, in October 2007. You look pretty good Dr. DeVink!

Ci-dessous, Jean-Michel et son superviseur Bob Clark.
Here is JM with his supevisor, Bob Clark.

Petite lecture avant dodo / Bedtime Story

Jean-Michel fait la lecture de "La lapine et ses lapereaux" à Louis-Pascal avant le dodo... trop cute. J'ai finallement pu prendre une belle photo de cette petite routine. Louis-Pascal adore se faire lire des livres.
JM reads "La lapine et ses lapereaux" (Mommy rabbit and her baby rabbits) to LP before bed... very cute. I finally got a nice picture of these two doing the bedtime story routine. LP loves to be read books, this is his favorite one for the moment.

Nouvelle caméra / New Camera

Notre nouvelle caméra fonctionne bien! Christiane s'amuse à l'essayer avec Louis-Pascal...
We just got a new camera. Chris experiments with it and LP is the guiney pig...

Bain de grand garçon! / Big Person Tub!

Louis-Pascal se baigne maintenant dans le bain de grand garçon, mais pas de jets tourbillons encore! Il s'assis dans son petit siège et adore s'amuser avec l'eau.

LP is now in the big-person tub (no jets yet though...). He sits in his little seat and loves playing in the water.

Et mercredi prochain, Louis-Pascal (avec Christiane) commence son premier cours de natation au YMCA - j'apporte ma caméra pour vous mettre ça sur le blog! Son maillot de bain est tellement cute!

LP (with Chris) starts swimming classes next Wednesday at the YMCA - I'll bring the camera so I can get this on the blog! You should see how tiny his trunks are... too funny.

Voici quelques photos dans le bain chez nous quelques soirs passés.
Here he is it at home a couple of nights ago.Le voilà chez Grand-papa et Grand-maman hier soir.
Here he is at Grand-papa and Grand-maman's place last night.

J'veux rester dans le bain! I don't want to come out!

Tout propre et prêt pour le dodo! All dry and ready for bedtime!

Écureuil(s) / Squirrel(s)

If you're following the blog on a regular basis, you probably remember how LP and Tache enjoy watching the birds and the squirrel on the deck. JM would feed the birds niger seeds on a regular basis, and the squirrel would come steel some, ok it was a "steeling" we didn't mind. But Grand-papa Norm came over for brunch last weekend, and being the big hearted guy that he is (those who know Norm will know the story to follow is totally a perfect description of his big-hearted style and will have a good laugh), felt bad for the "poor little squirrel who had to fight to open these tinny little seeds". So Norm brought over a HUGE 8kg bag of bigger seeds, sunflower seeds, for the poor squirrel. Yes, pooooor squirrel. Hm-m.

Well, once in a while there would be two squirrels fighting over the food, but there was clearly an alpha-squirrel who watched the deck. There was only one squirrel, but maybe they had different shifts, who knows.

Yesterday, Chris noticed THREE squirrels on the deck. Actually, Tache was the first one to notice as they were yelling at each other... and forgot there was a window between her and the squirrels. Yeah, she's bright, but sometimes she gets way too excited and she turns off her brain and ears.

So that was sorta cute and funny.

But this morning, there are FOUR squirrels on the deck eating the sunflower seeds. Yes. Poor squirrels. (insert more sarcasm here).

Now we have a whole community of squirrels to feed. And Tache is going crazy. I got a good picture of all five of them...

Noel en famille / Christmas With Family

Les vacances de Noel étaient vraiment relaxantes et plaisantes cette année. On était chez-nous au Nouveau-Brunswick, dans notre maison, pour le premier Noel à Louis-Pascal, avec toute la belle grosse famille! Voici quelques photos de plaisir en famille durant les fêtes.

Pépére et Mémére sont venu nous visiter quelques fois:Et la belle grosse famille à Pépére et Mémére, les Leblanc-DeVink chez nous le 23 décembre! On a eu ben du fun... va falloir faire de ça une tradition chaque 23 décembre la gang!

De gauche à droite, rangé du haut: Pépére (Paul) , Francis, Jean-Michel, Mark, Beeb. Rangée du bas: Michel, Mémére (Sandra), Nicole et Christiane. Il manque des gens... Carol et les trois beaux enfants (Zach, Chloe et Gabe) à Mark... le beau Trent à Nicole et la belle Ashley à Beeb... et Louis-Pascal bien sur, qui a fait un beau long dodo durant toute la visite!LP is already Lou's special "little boy"; the only acadien one, so we have to rub that in just a little. Lou is LP's Great Grand-mother, on Chris' side. She made it all the way from Québec for a few days. It was very nice to see her since we did not see much of her while in Saskatchewan, even when we would come back for visits. She was also able to see the quilt she started decades ago, finished on LP's bed.

And Aunt Amy surprised us!! She flew in from Red Deer Alberta for Christmas without telling anyone. We didn't see her much since we had to share her with her family ;) , but the visit was SO nice... even though she caught Chris (and LP actually) in aweful PJs the morning she knocked on the door to surprise us. The last time we saw each other was before we left Saskatchewan, when LP was just a few weeks old, and we thought it would be a really long time before we would see each other again. And of course there's her handsome husband Chad...

M'oncle Max and tante 'manda stopped by a few times... talked wedding and teased Max a bit (what's new).

...But LP is clearly in love with tante 'manda. She stops by without Max every once in a while, so LP and her have a little thing going... I think she'll fit in just fine with la gang de colleux...And this is Grandpa DeVink. We live a very short drive away from Grandpa, so we get to see him every once in a while. I'm sure LP will soon be his little helper in his amazing garden. And we missed the opportunity to have a picture with Grandma, so we'll have to get that on the blog soon! As well as Aunt Jenny and Aunt Meebis!!

D'autres photos à venir!! More pictures to come!!