Changing of the Guard

Yesterday (Saturday), Thomas' parents took their leave of us after a wonderful 10-day stay and lots of help! My sister Lisa arrived at the airport in the morning to pick up where they left off. Here we all are after sharing a tea together - Lisa fresh (ok, maybe not so fresh? ha ha) off the plane and Andrée and Guy ready to hit to road for Provence.Lisa brought with her out Christmas gifts from my sister Joan. Readers may ask themselves "huh? Christmas at Memorial Day?" My friends, you've heard me rant in the past about the postal service over here. Without too much of a deviation, I'll just say that I can carve another notch in my "Ridiculous Encounters with the Nice Post Office" paddle. At Christmas, a package from my sister was first misplaced and then sent back to America after she had paid $60 to mail it. She then was expected to PAY again to get it back, which thankfully the local USPS office said "oh forget that!", and so she then gave the gifts to Lisa who brought them BACK across the Atlantic for a 3rd time.
Thus, here is Estelle, opening her 3 books about Rudolph.
Lisa holds Léna for the first time:
Thomas surprises us with a bottle of champagne! (we are all drinking so little that it's still in the fridge)...

After everyone napped, we took a walk up to the Chateau, where some friends were having a birthday party for Eva who just turned 3. Here's Eva's dad Ludovic with Thomas on sandbox duty....
Fransiska, me and Marie (Eva's mom) and Eva's new little sister Louise:
Marie and I were like an ad for the La Leche League!
Meanwhile, in the sandbox, Eva, Estelle and Eliott get messy with some other little Polish girl who spoke to everyone in English and joined in the fun....
Eva is wearing long sleeves and pants due to her chicken pox - since Estelle's already had them we had nothing to fear!
Everyone played Dad to Eliott as his real engineer dad Arnuad is away for a number of weeks working on an off-shore platform somewhere off the coast of Angola (which I nod and pretend to know where it is ).Don't mind that silly hat on Estelle, her real very trendy hat is somehow temporarily misplaced so this had to do in a pinch.Léna enjoys her playmat:
This morning, Lisa stepped outside for a brief moment on the balcony to show Léna the Mediterranean sun and sea.

"Sisters, sisters, never were there such devoted...."
Estelle thought this was the greatest thing in the world, to have Léna in her bed.
I made French toast this a.m. using brioche from the bakery.
Estelle enjoys a Curious George book and CD from America!
Late this afternoon we took a quick trip to a park. Here's a photo of Estelle when, after just finishing her snack, she looked up the hill and saw the merry-go-round that she had forgotten was located there....

.....and so here we are approximately 2 minutes later!

Back at the ranch, some (supervised) cuddle time....
Yes, yes, I cracked 3 days ago and broke out the pacifier. I tried to resist! But my oh my that girl will latch on to anything and it certainly does have a calming effect!

Ascension

Yesterday was Ascension Thursday - Christ went up to Heaven and the French have yet another national holiday this month. Like the day after Thanksgiving, nobody works today either so it's a nice 4-day weekend over here. This is a mother-with-a-newborn's dream!
Here's a few photos of today's action:
This a.m. we hit the beach, leaving Léna at home with her grandparents. This was a big step!
What a delight to be baby-free for a few hours.
Plage Passable on St. Jean Cap-Ferrat:
Met up with Eliott & Fransiska and Loup and Veronique.







Estelle and Loup enjoying themselves....
Like three little beach bums, and a cruise-ship behind them...
Back at the ranch, Estelle played "baby":
This afternoon we went out for ice cream with our neighbor who kept an eye on Estelle two evenings so Thomas could visit me in the hospital with Léna. She also insisted on ironing our laundry during this period. Which is a riot, considering I don't iron.
This delight below is called "Fraise Melba".

Here's my indulgence - Banana Split! Heaven!
Tomorrow marks the end of Papy & Manou's stay and the arrival of Auntie Lisa.

Week 3

Tomorrow Léna will be 3 weeks old. Here's what we've been up to during the 3rd week of her life. Rather, what Estelle has been doing..........
First off, Estelle makes sure Papy knows what he is doing holding Léna:
Estelle plays with Manou:
Saturday afternoon Estelle goes to the park with Eliott, who tries his best to break the springs on this piece of playground equipment:
Estelle goes to the park in Villefranche with Daddy on Sunday morning...
Joan, that is the dress you bought her in Hardwick!These playground photos are really for the benefit of Estelle's young cousins, who like to see what playgrounds in France are like:







Back at the ranch, Estelle serves everyone food from her kitchen, wearing a Ben & Jerry's t-shirt and underwear:
Estelle shows her grandparents what to do with maple syrup:Estelle gets taken to an outdoor festival in the Roman ampitheatre ruins in Nice, and rides on a merry-go-round:
Estelle shoes how to rock Léna's casbah, uh, cradle:
Estelle holds Léna while she hollers with hunger:
Estelle shows Léna how to stretch:I, meanwhile, do nothing except nurse the baby and eat strawberries on a spear:
A little video from the festival yesterday that Thomas took as I didn't go.... wait until Karen Carpenter stops singing in the background before you launch the video, that way you can hear the audio that goes with it.

8

May 15th is here again, and with it the memory of my Dad, gone 8 years ago today.
Last year's post on this date held photos of my father's infamous trip to Florida as a young man engaged as a "driver" to a wealthy but not healthy local man. Remember this photo?
Last year in researching that story, readers may recall I had turned to my Aunt Pearl, Dad's sister-in-law (wife to his older brother Warren). Pearl has always lived in Cabot (as in the cheese) and has always been a character (as in I mean it, a CHARACTER).
I called her up and she said "Girl, whadyou callin' me from FRANCE fer?" She told me some about Dad's adventure "down south" with Mr. Bruce Young, etc which is what I wrote up for last year's remembrance on today's date.
But she also talked about another clear memory she had of her and Warren, and Dad, and Elaine, one of Dad's sisters. Pearl's other story to tell me over the phone that day was about a drive to Ascutney, Vermont. Here are a few photos to go with it:
Just before Léna's birth, in my mad frenzy to clean out and tidy up, I ran across my notes from that phone call with Pearl, 84 years old. She told about one day when her and Warren took Dad down to Ascutney for a summer job he had there. Elaine came along for the ride. Pearl said the whole time Elaine was singing a song she had in her head "I had the craziest dream". Pearl noted "Wayne and Warren were hollerin' at her to STOP, thought they's gonna pitch her right outta the fool car! Warren said we was gonna leave her right there with Wayne down to Ascutney if she didn't change her song. Wayne and Warren were always trying to get folks to use a little reason."
So the 4 of them embarked in a little adventure that day, in Warren's old car. They stopped and had a picnic which you see in the above photo. Below, clearly Elaine was behind the lens on this one, Dad probably ordered her to get a photo of the car!
Pearl also told me that day over the phone that she always remembered my Dad during those years fondly "fore he was married" cause when he came often to work on their farm in Cabot he helped with the dishes, which "was astonishin'", said Pearl "Warren never done a dish! Then we'd play cards and I'd get to winnin' and Wayne'd say 'Aren't you sick of this yet Pearl?' just cause he was knew he was licked!"

Last week I myself got the astonishing news that Pearl had died, which after losing Aunt Eleanor took my breath right away. Call it post-partum hormones or who knows what, but I broke down into hysteria the second I saw the email subject line. Pearl, blind and with many many other health problems, just kept ticking for many years now and was sharp as a TACK. Joan and I went to visit her with Estelle and Cedric in my last visit home and when we arrived she had made us CHICKEN SALAD in little pastries. Even blind, she had adapted to life as it came to her. We were all shocked that she had put on that little spread for us in her accessible and adapated assisted-living apartment complex where she lived alone in Cabot. And needless to say, there was cheese.
Here's a photo of Pearl and her sister Ruth, with fish:

WWII days, Warren leaving on the train to go to his deployment.
The family gets larger - cousins Gloria and Judy, and there were 3 more kids to come....One thing Pearl said to me more than once in recent years was how she, during her decades at the Cabot creamery, always wanted to perform dairy tests on mother's breastmilk. She was fascinated by this and thought it would be so interesting to perform a study on the fat contect in mother's breastmilk. I thought of her in my late nights 2 weeks ago in the hospital, grinning to myself in the dark recalling her saying "Oh geez, how I'd like to have done some testin' on that milk right out of the teat! I'm sure you've got a high fat content, lookit Estelle, she's tall as a bean!"

A very rare shot of my phantom grandfather, the one none of us in my family ever knew. A pipe clenched in his mouth, and a fish in the other. Pearl knew him well, I always envied her that.
Pearl's son Joe, named for my grandfather, said that the day Pearl died last week, she woke up at 4:30 a.m. and announced, after having not eaten for several days, that she wanted eggs, bacon, toast and coffee. The night before she had her granddaughter wheel her around to the others in her complex to say goodbye as this time she knew it was the end. Here's is a quote from my cousin Joe's message about Pearl death, which is spot on:
"Because she never got Warren’s wedding ring back from the undertakers (they “lost” it), she asked for help getting off her rings as she said “I don’t want these to go with me” but because her hands were so swollen they couldn’t get them off and told her not to worry about it. After supposedly resting in her room for an hour she called for them to come get her rings, which she was holding in her hands".
A character, right to the end. All those stories, gone. Luckily we've got many on tape and on paper, but so many more lost. At Dad's funeral I had shared a quote that "when a old person dies, it is like a library is burning", and thinking of Dad and Pearl today that is certainly never more true.

Enter: The Grandparents

Thomas' parents, Guy and Andrée, arrived yesterday afternoon. They came by car from the Auvergne, where their second home is. They brought many gifts for both girls (that is still super weird for me to say!) AND lots of yummy treats for us....all kinds of various meat parts in cans that I have no idea what they are called nor what animals they come from (probably prefer not to know) - but they are GOOD!
And here is a "fouasse", like a brioche, brought directly from the bakery in Calvinet in the Auvergne. It was our breakfast today, and Thomas took a big hunk with him as he went out the door to go back to work.
Girl #1 and Girl #2:
Manou Andrée trying to keep Estelle in check....
Papy Guy and his granddaughters!

They sure are a big help!