Day 43, 44, 45

I learned some tough news on Tuesday - the girls would be out of school for a "holiday and teacher planning" from Wednesday until next Wednesday!!! Another unexpected spring break. What's a mom to do when we have no friends, no extra-curricular activities and it's still freezing? Frantically search the internet for activities (and thank God for Sesame Street). Carly really enjoyed creating these paper towel water colors - Maggie participated - but she didn't care much one way or the other.

The girls had the most fun when we then set up an art gallery. I'm always throwing away art at night with a guilty conscience. This activity was a way to finally use the art Carly creates for another purpose. Carly was the dealer and Maggie and I were the customers. Carly created about 10 signs advertising her store which she taped in various places around the condo. She also really enjoyed pricing the artwork - usually $40 - $100. She sold me one piece for a penny telling me it was my "lucky day".  Maggie really enjoyed paying with a credit card and adding extra things to her shopping cart other than artwork. Carly even agreed to come to our house and consult with her customers on how to hang the newly purchased artwork. The activity was a lot of fun and gave me hope for seven days with the girls without school. Ofcourse, I quickly lost hope when I looked at the clock and it was only 9:00 a.m.

Day 42

Spring Time In Canada!

The temperature outside may still be in the 20's but there is a beautiful flower garden about 1/2 mile from our house. It's in a conservatory connecting the library to Victoria hall (a place where they have community events). There was every color and kind of tulip you could imagine. I hope they are still around when the Galbreths arrive in April.

Day 40, 41

On Friday, we decided it was time to do something touristy with the girls. The Montreal Biodome is on the top 10 list of all the guidebooks...Unfortunately, the city staff who apparently work at the biodome began striking on Friday - and our plans quickly changed. We found an add in a parent magazine for a children's museum in a suburb outside of town - about a 45 minute drive. We pulled into the parking lot and were the only car around - this was 20 minutes after opening...We were a little nervous but also excited about having the place to ourselves. It's much smaller and not quite as organized as the columbia or chattanooga musuems - but the girls were happy so we were happy...until about 100 school kids showed up about 10 minutes after we arrived. Mike and I were miserable fighting off wild unchaperoned children - but Maggie and Carly barely noticed. Maggie especially liked singing into the microphone on stage and driving a mini-car. Carly really enjoyed the cafeteria where she served pretend food to 100's of french children screaming who knows what at her. Mike and I have sworn never to return to this museum - Carly and Maggie are already asking us when they can go back.

Day 38, 39

Here's our little greystone while in Montreal. We are on the 3rd floor - it'a workout in itself getting

Carly and Maggie to the top.

Day 37

This is Maggie's new favorite activity. We strip her down and stick her in the sink with a bowl full of soapy water.

Day 33, 34, 35, 36

Carly and I took our cameras and headed out on Sunday looking for signs of spring. Here's what we found.












Carly took this picture. She was determined to get a close up.

We were pretty low key around here this weekend. Carly's appetite completely returned on Saturday. Maggie decided to eat right along with her. The girls pretty much ate all weekend long. We took them to the Atwater Food Market on Saturday. Carly chose strawberries, watermelon, cheese curds, and a crescent - all from different booths. The girls ate everything at the market accept a few pieces of watermelon.

Day 29, 30, 31 and 32

Our latest adventure - a visit to Monreal's Children's Hospital. Carly was admitted Monday night with severe dehydration. She had a gastro-bug since Saturday morning and could not keep anything - even liquids down. She was placed on fluids for 2 days and then monitored yesterday. We were discharged once she was able to demonstrate that she could keep liquids down. Now we are working on eating...it's slow going. She doesn't feel like eating anything - even her most favorite foods. Today's mini lunch (one roll and about 4 grapes) was the first meal she has been willing to eat in 5 days. She stayed on the couch all morning - but did some water play with Maggie after lunch - mainly just sitting and watching Maggie - but it was nice to see them interact again.





Carly was not a fan of the hospital - especially the IV. She was too dehydrated for them to put it in her hand - so they had to imobolize her entire right arm....Carly called it her cast. She started to seem like herself again once they removed the IV on Wednesday morning.

Carly was admitted to what they call a "Short Stay Unit" - do we have those in the US? It was a large room with 9-10 other patients - each patient had a hospital bed , one fold out bed/chair, and a TV that looked about 50 years old. The screen was only 6 inches big but the TV itself was probably three times that size. It was kind of like the one we had in our kitchen growing up. Our "room" was tiny - I had to leave the area when the doctors entered so that they could stand next to the bed - but we were lucky because we had two walls with a curtain pulled about halfway across the front of our area - many of the patients only had curtains for privacy. The nurses station was in the center of the room - there was no patient confidentiality - The doctors discussed the cases at the nurses desk or in the kitchen that we all shared, too. Carly had three doctors following her - since it was a teaching hospital - which was kind of nice because they were extremely thorough since each doctor did a history, bedside exam, etc. Looked like they were charting by hand - I didn't see any use of computers. I was very surprised how outdated the set up felt since we were in such a large city. I'm not sure this was the standard care - maybe just where they treated the foreigners!

Hopefully, our tour of the health care system is over. I think Carly and I have seen enough of the hospital for this Canada visit.

Day 27 and Day 28

We toured Notre Dame Cathedral last week. It was the first Catholic church in Montreal and holds about 3500 people.

Day 25 and Day 26

Olive and Gourmando - YUMMY!!! Mike and I went out for coffee Thursday morning. This place is in Old Montreal. We had a chocolate brioche - I have no idea what brioche means - but it might be the best pastry we ever tasted. Good thing I can not walk to this place - I'd weigh 200 pounds and we would be broke!

Day 24

More images from the park over the weekend and a great breakfast place called Em Cafe...It's in an area of town called Mile End. It was yummy!

Day 22 and Day 23 - Happy Birthday, Carly!

Carly's birthday started off a little slow since she was sick in the morning...but she finished strong with pizza, cake, and taking lots of pictures with her own camera.

Day 21

We have a new photographer in the family...Carly opened an early birthday present and got right to work taking pictures. She had taken over 100 pictures before lunch. Here's a few of my favorites.

Day 20 - Mont Royal

We played like the locals today...This really modern - really fun playground was discovered on our outing to Parc Mont Royal. The snow did not slow the girls down a bit...they were more distracted by the bright sun than the snow on the ground.

Day 19

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Balloons - What a wonderful (cheap) way to fill a long afternoon. These balloons have been super entertaining - kicking, throwing, using a decoration on the wall - and Carly's favorite "ballyball".

Day 17 and Day 18

Not much going on...I did drive and survive! Here's a row of houses that have a great view of the park where we like to sled.

Day 16

Carly entertained herself today by being photographed in crazy poses and then trying to draw them. I love that she still asks me, "What do you want to be when you grow up?". She explained to me today that she grows up she is going to be something different every week. The first week she will be a builder of buildings, week 2 a photographer, and week 3 a teacher - probably at Shandon Presbyterian. She had not thought past week 3.

Day 15 - "Frosty the Snowman"

Ok...this wasn't actually created today...but I'm still catching up from the weekends activities. After sledding on Saturday, we created our first snowman. It went together very quickly - the snow was very wet and rolled easily into balls. The hardest part was keeping Maggie from destroying our creation.

Nothing much to report today. The girls and I took a long walk around the neighborhood looking into windows, climbing lots of stairs, and basically just trying to physically wear them out. Maggie took a 3 hour nap - so I guess it worked!