Talbot's Girl

Here's Estelle in one of her 400 cute outfits that we got as gifts. Luckily we also got lots of bibs, because otherwise this outfit would look like one big spit-out of carrot purée.
The good news is that as of Tuesday, Estelle has a new cousin, Heather, who will inherit all of Estelle's wardrobe, whether my sister-in-law likes it or not! Heather joins brothers Wayne and Cole, who can't decide what is better: Christmas, or their new sister.

5 months

Another milestone: Estelle eats something other than milk and her toes i.e. homemade apple purée. She devoured it.
To celebrate, she partied with her friends LuLu and Maxence.

I Accept

Sometimes all it takes is a college roommate's boldface dare on your very own blog's commentary to get you to do things your husband never knew you were capable of. Touché!

No Plantar's Warts Here

Don't tell this girl she can't have her toes AND eat them too.
I think this counts as Milestone #2 but who knows. I'm impressed with the flexibility, frankly. I can do that too, but I'm not quite as graceful about it.

Milestone #1

It's official. She rolls over on her own, all by herself, and can prop herself up and look around. She was pretty interested in that other baby she discovered in the mirror.However the glee doesn't last too long, as after awhile she starts to drool or shreik or both - see this last photo for a visual of that kind of moment. Bit frightening look to tell the truth.

Electrolux? No.....Fire!

Last night at 8 pm, I came out of my kitchen where I'd been cooking up garlic and onions, thus had the range fan on and the kitchen door shut, oblivious to anything else going on in the apt, and this is what I saw. Thomas in his pyjamas with this man. Who is he, you may ask? Why, one of our local firemen, naturally.
Each year around this time, they go door to door, all over the country, selling calendars. Ours is complete with photos of the French Riviera on fire and various states of disarray. Note the wallet in Thomas' hand. By "donation", you get one of these lovely calendars. I wanted to invite the guy in and hear his life story. 8 pm, going door to door! Can you imagine?
Just one of the many things that make life interesting living over here. Plus, let's discuss that uniform. He was proud as a peacock to have his photo taken by an "American".

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Estelle's new boyfriend, Alessandro, half French, half Italian.
Born about a month before her; they got together at a holiday tea yesterday to check each other out.
Bellissimo! And below, Estelle's new favorite thing, a "Teething Bling", looks like my jewelry but is secretly a teething ring. A gift from my friend Shannon in where else, the land of opportunity and creativity, the good ole US of A.

Papa Content

I don't know who is happier - Thomas to see Estelle again, or me to have a computer and broadband.
Alive and well as of yesterday afternoon, back in Nice after what can only be called a whirlwind Queen's tour of Vermont. For those I never called, I apologize - but when you have 10 siblings, and your mom is one of 16 and your dad was one of 6, well, you get the picture.....