Random

1. Etienne and I were in the kitchen prepping lunch today, while Addie played on the floor and Eva sat quietly reading in a chair.

Suddenly, and with no apparent reason, Eva said, "You know, sometimes we all have stress in our lives. But that's okay. We can't help it. It's not our fault"

Etienne and I just sort of stopped working and stared at each other...wondering what psychoanalyst's ghost had possessed our elder child. Or what problem she was working through at school. Or what the heck she was talking about.

But that was it...she just quietly went back to Geronimo Stilton.

2. Had a brief but heated debate with Adele tonight, as to whether a camel in a book was a CHAMEAU or a CAMEL. Sorry kid. Check whose lap you're sitting in; that'll tell you if it's a chameau or a camel. And considering your bony little butt is currently destroying my upper thigh muscles, I'd suggest you just accept the fact that AT THIS PARTICULAR MOMENT IN TIME, IT'S A CAMEL.

3. Took Adder to Tim Horton while Eva was at dance class this morning.

We bought an old-fashioned glazed donut and got ourselves settled to share.

We were sitting by the window - a cold, grey day with rain pelting down. The donut was soft and unbelievably fresh and I was so happy to share such a sweet little moment with Adele.

I broke the donut into four parts and handed one to her.

She didn't even finish it. Took two bites and set it down, disinterested.

REFUSING TO FINISH A DONUT??? THE HECK???

My child, how you disappoint me.

4. Went to Evita's "Green Day" at school (well, it's actually called something else but I have no idea what the direct translation is). Everyone is supposed to send in old skates and coats and clothes and books and homemade cookies and so on to sell, raising money for a school in Nepal. We sent some stuff last week and then made four dozen cinnamon snap cookies this morning (Holy last minute, Batman!) and Etienne went off to volunteer at the sale while the trolls and I were at Eva's dance class.

We stopped by afterwards and watched Eva cavort with her friends and compete to see who could jam the most baked goods into their mouths.

Disturbed but also somewhat impressed by Adele's unrelenting efforts to escape our evil clutches and melt into the crowd. That kid will make an excellent spy one day.

5. Had to laugh at the playground, despite my distaste for graffiti on CHILDREN'S TOYS.

Some jackass had taken a magic marker to the slide and drawn male and female private bits on it.

There were some little lines between the two, as if to indicate motion or something, but the whole thing looked like it was done by some blind kid during an earthquake, so it wound up looking vaguely like an ice cream cone talking to an amoeba.

Kid, if you're going to go embrace danger and anarchy and start making your mark in the hood by scrawling graffiti on playground equipment, KINDLY FINISH THAT ART CLASS FIRST.

6. Swimming tomorrow. It's my turn to swim with Adele in her parent-child class. Gotta go make myself presentable - i.e. scrape my legs. They're like Christmas trees.