Yesterday we watched a movie together and I can not recommend it highly enough – if you haven’t yet seen The Waterhorse, I urge you to run to the nearest rental store and get a copy of it. It’s charming, it’s funny, and it puts a spin on the origins of the Loch Ness Monster. Breanna probably didn’t really understand most of it, but she enjoyed watching the sea creature running around (especially with the dog) and Hayley absolutely loved it.

What’s additionally great about it is that it’s not just a kids’ movie because George and I really enjoyed it as well, although I missed part of it while cleaning up the kitchen – I’ll have to see the parts I missed.

You might want to screen it first if you have kids who are particularly sensitive because I can see how it could be scary. Hayley jumped a few times but had no residual side effects (no trouble sleeping or nightmares) and Breanna is very much like me. I’ll watch horror movies in the hopes of being terrified – Breanna is scared of eyes in the dark (such as when a cartoon character is looking around a dark room and the whole screen is black except for a pair of blinking eyes) but she loves them too.

Definitely a hit and it will probably be a regular rotation movie over here.

(I was really amused that a couple of hours after we had all watched and enjoyed it, I got an email from my sister saying that we absolutely must see the movie. I guess good taste runs in the family!)

When I was in grade seven and thus in the world of high school, I decided I really resented having to wear a winter hat. My mother insisted that I wear one to keep my head warm. My solution seemed obvious – wear it until I was out of sight and then take it off my head, not putting it on until I was almost home again. This would have been a dandy solution except for one thing.

We lived in an upper duplex and my mother would watch me leave in the morning. I chose to take my hat off when I got just around the corner, concealed by a large hedge on the corner property. Naturally, the hedge was not higher than the living room window. My mother saw me take my hat off every morning and stuff it into my bag as I walked up the street. If she happened to spot me coming home she would also see me stop and pull it back out of my bag to put it on my head before coming around the corner.

She didn’t tell me she knew my little secret for years. But I do know now how amused she must have been, because Hayley is starting early.

Today she tried to tell me that she didn’t need to wear a coat. I explained that she could go out at recess and lunch without it and she certainly didn’t need it after school, but that the mornings were still chilly. She debated for a bit but I held firm, especially since she was wearing a t-shirt. We did compromise by agreeing it could remain unzipped.

We stood in the schoolyard waiting for the bell to ring, and when her best friend got off the bus, they walked off together towards the Kindergarten entrance. Because I’m just like that, I always watch until she goes around the corner to the doorway before I leave, just to make sure she goes in – once she gets to that point, there’s a teacher standing there to make sure everyone goes inside.

I guess she forgot that I stand there and watch every morning because when she got halfway across the schoolyard she stopped her friend, then she glanced over her shoulder to look for me. There was a crowd of kids streaming off the school buses and into various doors so she didn’t see me. Then she quickly shrugged her coat off and stuffed it into her school bag before smugly strutting off towards her door in the chilly morning air in her short sleeves.

I just stood there, laughing in disbelief and remembering my little hat trick.

I still haven’t told her. Maybe I won’t for a few more years, just like my mother. I’ll just let her think she pulled one over on her mom instead.

If you are, you can check out my post reviewing Kellog’s Special K Bliss Cereal Bars. And then run to the store to buy some because they’re THAT tasty.

Bigger post coming later!

I Twittered about it a bit, but George has been working with this guy Mark Henry. Mark wanted to do a Gospel album and even though I’m not inclined to listen to a lot of Gospel, I love his voice and his songs have been beautiful.

George grew up in a household that celebrated black musical artists and with his dad being from Barbados, there was a lot of Calypso/Soca going on. George HATED it growing up. As an adult now and a musician, he can appreciate it more but he doesn’t listen to it. I think *i* might know more Calypso song lyrics than he does.

Anyway, all that to say that much to the shock of many, one day George just up and wrote this Calypso song. He wrote and played everything except the bass. Mark got a friend of his to come do the bass two days ago and then Mark came back this morning to sing the vocals after writing the words over the weekend.

The song kicks serious ass. Even though it’s got the Gospel lyrics it will easily cross over to be played on local stations that play Calypso and I’d love so much to hear Mark do this live at Montreal’s Jazz Fest or Carifiesta.

I’d love to have you listen to it and give me a bit of feedback. And honestly, if you don’t find yourself at least *wanting* to dance, I fear you may be deceased.

Here it is, called “God’s Promise”

Muchas gracias!

I think these pinhole cameras look like a lot of fun to make.

I am so embarrassed, so incredibly embarrassed to be a part of this city. Last night I was ecstatic to see the Montreal Canadiens win. They played a horrible game on Thursday and Saturday was a great game but we lost. It was the last chance to stay in the playoffs and Montreal played so well, kicking Boston’s ass in a five-nothing shut-out game. It was exciting, it was inspiring, it was awesome.

The game finished just past 9:30 pm and I went to bed just before the local news at 11:30 pm. During that two hour period I took some pictures of two girls in Canadiens shirts standing on the median of our street, arms in the air, screaming and jumping up and down. Cars with Canadiens flags honked their horns all up and down the street, some of them yelling to each other from their open windows. It was great, it was a huge celebration and although I did hope the kids would sleep through the noise (they did), I was happy to hear so many people who were so obviously thrilled that we’ve moved up to the next level. Great team spirit, great city morale.

And then I woke up this morning. I always watch Canada AM in the morning because it’s a great national news show. While I was getting Hayley’s breakfast ready, I heard something about hockey riots. I figured they were talking about concerns of a repeat of 1993′s riots after Montreal beat L.A. for the Stanley Cup. Except when I got to sit down for a few minutes to watch the local segment I discovered they were talking about last night, where people in the downtown area smashed store windows, looted some stores, jumped up and down on police cars, ripped the cars apart, and then as a final touch, set several police cars on fire.

They arrested 16 people ranging in age from 14 to 25. I hope they fine them a ridiculous amount of money and give them jail time too. Those are the people who are ruining Montreal’s reputation all across Canada today and they’re the ones who destroy everything for the normal fans who make noise and jump around without destroying things. They also took away so much from the team that worked so hard to play an incredible game last night. As one of the CTV reporters pointed out this morning, one of the newspapers that had a late enough deadline to cover the story had a huge picture of the destruction and story about the riot, with a tiny little corner down at the bottom mentioning that we won. That’s disgusting. The game itself should have been an enormous headline with a gigantic photo to accompany it but it’s the lesser part of the story after what happened. On the local news reports, the riots are reported first; the outcome of the game is nothing more than an afterthought – ‘oh yeah, and we won”.

I hope the team will make a formal announcement condemning this type of behavior. It’s not supporting your home team in any way.

You can see the ridiculous footage of what happened right here.

Update: Steve has more photos of the disgusting display or mayhem.

I need to say that I’m very sorry if I disrupted anyone’s evening. If you were sitting comfortably with a book or perhaps watching a movie and you were interrupted by loud screaming and shrieking, that would have been the moment when the Montreal Canadiens scored a fifth goal in their shut-out final game against Boston, at which point I went and pulled a Crazy Tom Cruise by pretty much leaping up on my couch and hooting a lot.

Way to go Montreal! Suivant, next!

Since the park is currently covered in all kinds of branches (they don’t clear and set up the parks until May usually), I’m eager to make these fairy beds with the kids.

Being two must be so hard. I asked Breanna if she’d like a cookie as a treat. She said yes, so I went to get it from the kitchen. While I was in there I offered one to Hayley too, and she also said yes.

Breanna walked in the kitchen and I handed her the cookie. She recoiled and basically reacted as though I had just offered her a delicious cup full of broken glass and rusty nails.

“NOOOOO! I DON’T WANT COOKIE MOMMY!” Then she crossed her arms and frowned and informed me, “I mad Mommy!”

Okay, fine. I turned away from her and gave it to Hayley. Almost immediately I felt a tug on my shirt. I looked down and she was peeping up at me with big, round eyes.

“I have a cookie too Mommy?”

I gave her one and before she ran off with it she squealed, “Oh! THANK you Mommy! You the best!”

From the living room she hollered, “I love you Mommy!”

I love you too, Bi-Polar girl.

Now I’m not going to say it too loud, but I think Winter may possibly finally be over. It was only about 8 or 9C today, but it still felt fantastic. Tomorrow should be 11C, Wednesday 17C, and Thursday is calling for 18C. I am ecstatic. As a bonus, there is also no rain being forecast over the next few days.

We celebrated this by going outside after Hayley got back from school. We took her out for her first bike ride of the season (which started off rough since she fell off trying to get off the sidewalk). I tried to teach Breanna how to pedal her tricycle but her response was basically the toddler equivalent of a “HELL NO” so I ran back upstairs with it, and she just walked with me, looking for birds, while George walked with Hayley and her bike.

We ended up at the park and although there’s still a bit of snow here and there on the sand and on the grass, it’s nothing like it was before. It was such a beautiful day and my mood pretty much felt like Hayley in this picture:

We were only about an hour or so, but Hayley was really tired. She didn’t want to come home, but she had woken up last night and couldn’t get back to sleep until sometime around HolyShitO’Clock, so she was more exhausted than she would admit. I did get her to walk to the store with me so at least that made her happy about having to stop the bike ride.

I don’t think I ever really realized until this year just how much my mood is tied to the seasons. I do okay at the beginning of Winter but it just drags on so long here that by “Spring” I am just crabby and not quite depressed but almost. Today I almost bounced as I walked along and I am so happy with the forecast for the rest of the week.

Please, please let this be it for snow and cold.