TWELVE years ago, we met at Rice University.

TEN years ago, we went out on our first date― Cafe Adobe on Upper Kirby.

SIX years ago, he proposed on a yellow submarine.

FOUR years ago, we got married.

THREE years ago, we became parents.

LAST YEAR, we confirmed that we’re really good at producing cute babies.

And THIS YEAR was the BEST. So many adventures, big and small. I have a feeling this NEXT YEAR will be the best, too. Because all the years we’ve spent together have been the best years of my life.

Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday, Adventure Buddy!

Your ladies love you. A whole HECK of a LOT!

Our friends invited us to their lake house for the weekend. It was amazing. Great weather. Great company. Great food. We ate, slept, lazed, went in the water, and totally unplugged from our city life.

Drex tried windsurfing without the sail. His triumph didn’t last long.

The lake was a magnet and Sonya was drawn to it. She even fell off the board, bobbed up gasping for air, in shock, screaming, but in less than thirty seconds, she proudly called herself a “fishie fish” who had gone under the water! She’s a brave one. She even swam out with Drex to hug a buoy.

I limited my lake activities to the rowboat. One time. The water was too cold for my ankles. But I enjoyed watching everyone else in the water from my lawn chair with a glass of red wine.

A couple weeks ago, I got a call from the McGill Faculty of Medicine HR office about a temporary project. I went to an interview last week, and got the impression I was hired, but I wanted to make sure, because it just seemed too good to be true. Today was my first day of work! Despite coordinated smoke bomb attacks on the Montreal subway (how crazy is that, by the way?), I finally made it to my downtown office.

I’ll be putting together a newsletter for the Rossy Cancer Network, a brand-new comprehensive cancer treatment network among all the McGill-affiliated hospitals. This opportunity combines my background in medicine with my new career direction as a writer. At the interview, I decided to be honest and mention my reservations about returning to work because of my two little girls. Family always comes first. (Will it ever not hurt my heart to be apart from them?)

My boss said that I could work Monday through Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. How sweet is that? I almost hugged the guy, but remembered to be professional. So that’s it. Until August, I’m going to bask in the glory of being a paid writer three days a week.

This could not have been a more perfect offer at a more perfect time. It’s just what I need— a little something to keep me spry in the work force. Not too much to make me feel torn about being away from home. More up my alley than research on Crohn’s disease.

Perhaps the best part is that Sonya is really excited for me, too! She’s looking forward to next week, because “Molly Ann is going to come over!” Now I have no worries at all. Molly Ann has been a steady presence for Leena’s entire life and nearly all of Sonya’s too. They love her. And she loves them. And she’s going to be with them while I go to work.

I went to get everything sorted out today— payroll, office, passwords. When I got back home around four-thirty in the afternoon, Sonya gave me a huge hug and told me she’d had a great day with Molly Ann. Leena was all grins. So I’m all set for next week. I’m so psyched. I feel ready for this. I hope that it opens the door for other opportunities, too. Who knows? After all, one good thing usually leads to another.

Starting work means that I’ll probably be absent from this space for awhile. I aim to produce the best newsletter EVER in the history of newsletters. Then come back home and really focus on Sonya and Leena with renewed appreciation for the role I play as their mom. And continue writing. And… learn even more about Crohn’s disease.

I am so grateful for this chance and for Molly Ann stepping up to watch the girls. I know my daughters will be in excellent, capable, loving, steady hands while I’m working away from home.

I’m a very sound sleeper, and last night I stayed up past midnight working on this story that needed to come out on paper, so I wasn’t eager to get out of bed this morning.

I vaguely recall hearing a dull thud, but there wasn’t any baby cries, so I think my subconscious filtered it out as house noise. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep. Eventually, I realized there wasn’t a warm body next to me anymore. Sonya must have gotten up! I launched out of bed to go find her and almost stepped over my two daughters in the kitchen.

Sonya casually looked up and said, “Good morning, Mom! You all done sleeping?”

My brain was having trouble processing what I was seeing. Leena had been sleeping in her play pen in the toy room! She can’t climb out! Drex isn’t here!

“Sonya, how did Leena get out?”

“I help her, Mom.”

I was still confused. Excited to share the story, Sonya lead me to the toy room.

Here’s what I think happened. Sonya dumped all the stuffed animals out of the giant zoo bucket. She turned it upside down. She pushed it to the edge of the toy bin. Then she tried to get Leena to climb onto the bucket.

Apparently, that didn’t work.

So then Sonya climbed onto the radiator next to the playpen, and pushed the top of it with her legs, trying to tip it over. It just slid on the floor. She kept kicking it and managed to unlock and collapse one of the sides. She was then able to assist Leena to freedom.

The two of them went to the kitchen. Sonya got the box of Cheerios down from the counter, poured it into a bowl, on the table, and all over the floor.

“I not reaching the milk or peebub butter,” she told me. I got them for her.

“You can go now, Mom,” she said.

I gladly went to take a shower. I listened to the pleasant clatter from the kitchen as I was getting dressed. No running water. All the cupboards are locked. Excellent. I went to reread what I wrote last night. Turns out, it was pretty awful.

“My stove not working,” Sonya said, coming to find me in the living room. I heard Leena crawling towards us down the hallway, making her endearing little huh huh huh huh noises.

Finally, my lack of providing quality adult supervision came to bite me. I knew it eventually would. Following the trail of slime Leena had left in her wake, I saw that all around the toy kitchen and into her wooden pot, Sonya had managed to crack half a dozen eggs.

“Leena and I making scrambled eggs for you, Mom.”

I took a deep breath and tried to think of the right thing to say.

I went over and turned the knobs on Sonya’s burner. “Your pilot light is out,” I said. “Better use the big stove. Let’s scoop these eggs into my frying pan and we’ll scramble them up. Then we better walk over to Miss Katya’s daycare! It’s almost 8:30!”

On July 8th, 2011, exactly a week before Sonya’s 2nd birthday, NASA launched STS-135, the last mission of the American Space Shuttle Program. I cried when I watched the webcast in my living room that morning, whispering the countdown along with Cape Canaveral.

Since I grew up a mile away from Mission Control in Houston, the mystique of astronauts, shuttles, rockets, and space were such an integral part of my everyday life. As the Atlantis shuttle left the atmosphere, I felt a very important part of my childhood shrinking from view, something intangible and profound that I wouldn’t be able to share with my daughters.

But then I won a make-your-own space pod kit and a bit of that dream was stirred in my heart again. And in our living room, we began to build STS-136.

For awhile, the construction stalled after the first stage of the rocket had been built. But this weekend, we decided to make the final assembly push and get it launch-ready.

Sonya used a special saw-and-punch tool that comes with the kit from the genius Australian company makedo. You might think— well, I could just do that with a box cutter and duct tape. But you couldn’t— not so simply and not so quickly, and not if you’re as young as Sonya! She enjoyed putting in the special blue makedo connectors. And our finished hexagonal space pod was an amazing wonder to behold.

I can’t tell you how happy I am to see how happy Sonya is about her little space pod. She loves getting in, closing the door from the inside with a rubberband latch, and going on her space voyages with her Eeyores.

I think the truest expression of how much Sonya enjoys her space pod is the fact that she fell asleep in it. When all had gotten quiet in the early afternoon just after lunch, I tiptoed into the living room and peered into the pod.

When I look up at the night sky and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe, but perhaps more important than most of those facts is that the Universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up — many people feel small, because they’re small, the Universe is big — but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars. There’s a level of connectivity — that’s really what you want in life. You want to feel connected, you want to feel relevant. You want to feel like you’re a participant in the goings on and activities and events around you. That’s precisely what we are, just by being alive.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist

Because the connectors are reusable, I’m sure that when we have more time over the summer, we’ll rebuild or remodel the space pod. By then, Leena will be walking, and STS-137 will need to be large enough to house two astronauts.

I am so grateful to LMNOP magazine and makedo for having this fantastic contest! We really loved our kit!

She can stand on one leg without holding onto anything.

She can also help me with the dishes, washing all things plastic. This gives me a chance to read my latest young adult book from the library— right now it’s Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. A page-turner. I can’t wait to find out what’s happening next!

Here’s a close-up of my birthday flowers with Leena eating a plum in the background. Love that baby!

It was cold again today. Below zero. Come on, spring! Don’t do this to us! We had to wear our winter gear again. We went to the playground. Sonya went down the slide once and proclaimed, “My butt is freezing! We have to go home and be inside today! It’s too cold for my butt outside!”

I’m not sure if that’s actually funny, or if I’m regressing into a toddler-adult that giggles at butt jokes. I have been living on an afternoon diet of finger foods and tiny juice boxes at the playground while I read heavily illustrated books.

You know, it didn’t seem like a good idea, but it actually turned out to be fun. We built a snow castle, besieged it with plastic shovels, and packed the ruins in our hands. All next to the comfort of our warm kitchen radiator. Leena ate a few fistfuls, shivering with each bite. There was absolutely no stopping her. She couldn’t resist. Then, those tiny cold hands approached my face. Brrrrrr!

Special thanks to Molly Ann for (1) coming over to help me hold down the fort and (2) taking these lovely pictures.

Life with two small children is full of motion. It’s exhausting and I look forward to the weekends— Drex absorbs some of the energy in the house. This morning, in an attempt to relax, I sat in my desk chair and propped my feet up on the sofa.

That way, I could also get a good look at the disorder in the living room. Yes, there is a dining table in front of the fireplace. Yes, it’s loaded with a bunch of crap. Yes, the mantle is stacked with more crap. And don’t even ask about the floor. There is a lot of crap everywhere. While I was wearily and sardonically taking it all in, Sonya turned my legs into her personal jungle gym and slide.

Overall, though, the weekend was rejuvenating. On Saturday, we had brunch with friends and met a precious seven-day old named William. Then we went to an iced cider festival in Rougemont, about an hour’s drive east of Montreal. It was our first trip as members of Communato, an urban auto-share program. We’re really excited about the other possibilities that access to a car will give us!

Today, I taught quilting at Emeline & Annabelle again. After next Sunday, I’m going to teach special workshops once a month. I look forward to being in the creative space, and don’t want to give up the chance to dress up, interact with wonderful people, and get paid with cash money, but now that I’m a legit writer, I’ve got to start seriously leveraging weekends for drafting my novel.

Boy, have I got ideas! Now if only people would stop climbing on me.

That’s polymer clay Sonya. Isn’t she cute?

Needing something to do in the winter, we visited nearby 4cats Art Studio.  We met the fabulous owner Miss Tamsin, who guided Sonya patiently through this adorable art project. I was so impressed— with the bright studio space, with Tamsin’s explanations, and with Sonya’s concentration and abilities.

First Sonya picked out a color for the skin.  Tamsin showed her how to warm the lump in her hands using “dragon breath” to soften the clay. Then Sonya rolled it into a ball against the table.  She did the same thing for the pompom, eyes, nose, body, mittens, and feet.  Then she rolled tubes for the hat, hair, arms, and legs. (“Look, look! These are squirms!”)

While polymer clay Sonya baked in a little oven, Sonya painted the canvas, using blues and purples.  Then Tamsin and Sonya blow-dryed the sky. Part of it was covered with paper so that Sonya could paint the snow.  Then Tamsin hot glued Sonya into the winter wonderland scene. The whole project was very well-explained and organized for someone Sonya’s age.

Even so, I was pleasantly astonished by how well Sonya did the project by herself.  I thought it would be a mangled blob like most of her Play-Doh creations at home. Just goes to show what expert guidance can do for creativity!

Sonya had so much fun! She’s been talking about going back and seeing Miss Tamsin again! I enjoyed watching the creative process, soothing and bouncing a congested and cranky Leena. A very uplifting way to spend a gloomy winter day with a sick baby.

(In general, I’ve been feeling grumpy and lonely the past few days. I miss the friends who moved away. I miss the grass. I miss going to Molly Ann’s knitting store with the girls).

“Daddy gonna take little Sonya to his office,” she said proudly at home.  “Won’t he be suh-prized?”

And he was surprised.

Yesterday evening, after Drex picked Sonya up from daycare, they stopped at Sports Experts to buy her a pair of new mittens and came home with a pair of size 27 hockey skates. I couldn’t believe it. Actual real lace-up skates? Could she possibly be ready for that?

“I gonna play hockey,” Sonya announced, proudly showing me the brand new skates with their gleaming blades. “Just like Daddy.”

During their first lesson, Sonya practiced standing up by herself from the ice. She’s basically got the concept but still needs a hand up.  Then she and Daddy skated around the empty rink (no one else wants to be out on the ice that early in the morning).

Such a tender father-daughter moment. This could probably be some sort of sappy Canadian commercial.

I also found out that montrealzen got third place for Best Ex-Pat blog in 2011. Pretty exciting to get even the teensiest recognition!