November 23, 1999:
 
Well, well well... it has been a while since we had an update, and what a bunch of things we have done, what a lot has happened!!! First, we hope you like our new colour scheme, marking the start of the second year of our presence on the web.

We are teething on and off, and it looks like we will be for a long time (until we get our wisdom teeth!). When we have a bit of pain, Mom uses homeopathy and teething gel to alleviate it. If you have other great ideas to soothe teething pains please email Mom. You can follow our progress via our teething table or the image map of our teeth. Mom does try to keep them as up to date as she can.

August 13: Mom & Dad took us on our first trip to Perth today, coïncidentally, it was the day of our tenth month anniversary. It was a flying visit, Mom had some business to take care of regarding her Residency Visa application, she needed x-rays done, which she couldn't get done while she was pregnant. X-Rays are a way to check for Tuberculosis, which Australia doesn't want! Who can blame them! That trip to Perth was also the first time since Mom's trip back from the hospital that she was in a bus, not to mention anything with wheels! She didn't get car sick! Neither did we, we actually quite liked the bus.

 
We are both walking now!!!
September 11: Two days before our eleventh month anniversary, Véronique started walking for real. She had spent the last few weeks standing, taking a couple steps and stopping but that first weekend of real walking was very exciting for Mom & Dad. That same weekend, Cordelia made progress in the standing department. Cordelia is a bit taller and heavier so it is a little harder for her but the weekend after that she made great progress. She had a completely different style than Véronique's. Cordelia would leap from one chair to the sofa, then run along the sofa then run along the playpen until she stopped before hitting the buffet. Mom & Dad would hold their breath hoping she wouldn't fall, and if she would fall that she wouldn't hurt herself. It was as if she couldn't really stop, thinking that going faster and faster would keep her upright! Véronique had a safer way of taking her first steps! It is very interesting how differently we do things sometimes.

By the week of our first birthday we were both good enough that Mom & Dad would let us walk on the concrete part of the backyard, though they much prefer when we play on the lawn!

October 8: A very exciting day for us, we got to meet our Canadian Grand-Maman! She is very nice. She visited for one month. She took the plane all by herself, it was her first plane trip alone and her first time overseas! Isn't that wonderful, she chose to come visit us instead of going to Europe. We love her! We have to admit that it took us a day or so to get used to her, we are a bit shy with newcomers, but we are getting better. We thought she'd sleep for a week when she got here, from jet lag, but she got no jet lag at all!!! Thanks to homeopathy. Either it is homeopathy or she is just a wonderwoman (which we suspect).

On the second day of her visit, we went for a pram ride in our pram, the one you have seen on our pictures, and we broke a wheel, actually the second of four wheels at the back of the pram! Luckily our aunties and uncle in Canada wanted to get us a BIG birthday present so we got a new pram!! We love it, it is very comfortable and we tend to fall asleep much more often now, when Mom (and Grand-Maman while she was here) walk us. Life is cushy!

By the third week of September, when the weather got a bit nicer, we played in the grass more often, we would try to eat it when neither of our parents were looking! Véronique tried to eat just about anything, and still does. We haven't eaten anything gross yet, like a fly or a snail! Though Mom doesn't know it but Véronique did almost put a snail in her mouth, good thing Grand-maman and Dad were there and put a stop to this feast.

We developed fun new habits in the last little while: mostly when playing outside, if Véronique is going where she shouldn't go and someone tries to stop her, she squats down, sits and refuses to move. We wonder if maybe she'll be arrested at a protest rally one of these days. Cordelia's habit is a bit more neat, if you'll pardon the pun, she very often likes to put things in boxes and put toys away. She is very funny, we thought being so neat was a trait of Virgos... Mom will have to research Libras a bit more!

We got two lovely round balls to play with, but we wonder why the lemons and oranges in the backyard don't bounce like the balls do! Cordelia is now in the habit of running towards the ball and manages to kick it (or stumbling upon it, not falling and making the ball go forward!)... a real tiny soccer player!

We don't speak French or English yet but we have started communicating with each other. We also have our favourite words: Cordelia likes pointing to herself and saying "da, da, da", that probably comes with the name the person game we play with Dad and Mom. She is probably trying to say "I am Cordelia". She has more "sayings" but that is her trademark sound these days. Véronique's favourite saying is "tocah-tocah-toc" which our parents think may come from "tickle tickle tickle". She also often shows happiness by shaking her arms and saying "bwee-bwee-bwee" (boui-boui-boui for the francophones), that always brings a smile to people's faces!

October 29: A tragic day, the most serious accident to date. Cordelia tripped in he lounge room and hit her head on the window sill. It was a real accident, a silly accident. Her forehead swelled up so quickly! Thankfully all is well and only a huge bruise resulted (which has vanished by now), no concussion, no dizzyness, just lots of tears! She was lucky! We had planned to go to Fremantle that day, and since Cordelia was looking and feeling well, we went. We had a wonderful day. We went to the fisherman's warf, we both slept in the pram for a while while Mom, Dad and Grand-Maman were walking. We then went and ate at a restaurant for the first time, some fish joint on the warf. While the grown ups were feasting on Fish and Chips, we were feasting on the fact that we were somewhere we had never been, and on the lunch Mom had prepared. But the fun didn't stop there, after lunch, where we behaved like angels, we headed a few meters away and dipped our feet in the Indian Ocean (another first, growing up is full of them isn't it?). Cordelia was not as interested in the water as as Véronique, who had a blast with Grand-Maman, splish sploshing in the waves, they both got very wet and loved every minute of it. Grandma took a picture of the four of us on the same spot where Mom and Dad had their picture taken almost two years before.

November 2: As Winter rears its ugly head in Canada, we lucky girls, had our first paddle in our wadding pool. We love it and it has been warm enough lately to go almost every day!

November 23: We really enjoyed our swim today as the thermometer rose up to 34 celcius this afternoon!!!

Well, time for us to go for a pram ride.
Come back soon!

Véronique & Cordelia