The Move

The calm before the storm - reading books with Manou on the eve of the move.
Also Sunday afternoon Estelle had a birthday party to go to. She was excited:
If I had any more energy I'd compliment these pictures with witty commentary, however, loading photos is all I can muster.
Below, the "monte-meubles", the machine they used to get our stuff out of the apartment, over the balcony, and down 5 floors to the street where it was put in a truck.
This is what is looked like from the street:He looks scary but he was really nice. He made a lot of jokes that I couldn't get. I laughed at each one to stay on his good side.
These "valises" are foam lined and it's what they used to move all our breakables - dishes, glass, lamps. Very cool. We didn't do a thing, no wrapping stuff in newspaper!
There's the owner waiting for the machine to descend with another load.
Just a sample of what the place looked like - this is part of Estelle's room.
There's the fridge about to make the plunge down.
Here's the chocolate cake we had after our lunch at the Brasserie in between the loading and the unloading. That's what you gotta lunch about the French - no eating cold cuts and chips on paper plates. No way. Take an hour and a half for a proper hot lunch, start to finish. And Pastis.Here's the truck, after it was unloaded, driving away from the new place the wrong way down a one-way street. Love it.
A little video - not much, but you get the idea. Sorry the 2nd one of the fridge is horizontal.


Today is a national holiday so Thomas is home and his parents are here for one more day.
No shots yet of the new place, can't find the box with the batteries.
Good news is the heat and hot water got turned on yesterday. And the new washer got delivered. Then Estelle threw-up all over in her bed at 10:30 p.m. last night. And I almost burned her in the bathtub cause I'm not used to the way the faucet is yet. Also we hadn't hooked the dishwasher up correctly thus had two huge floods in the kitchen, couldn't find the box with the rags, etc. You get the picture...... It's an adventure!

Ignorance is Bliss

There's one person in our family who is oblivious to our upcoming move. All she needs is milk, mommy, and something to chew on:


Her big news is that she no longer needs a late-night 11 p.m. feed, and so is sleeping from 7 p.m. thru to give or take 6 a.m. We are happy to put her down before dinner and not have to attend to her until the next morning!
...though, if you HAD to attend to somebody, isn't this the baby you'd want to be saddled with? Is it me, or is she cute or WHAT?


A little video of nothing this evening whilst dinner was being prepared in the kitchen by Thomas and his Mom.

TOO BUSY TO POST

The Sheriff says "Get Packing, Mommy!"
Just back from Vacation in Angers and now 4 days away from moving = busy!
So just these 2 photos to remind you all of us over here.

7 Years Ago

Wednesday October 23rd, 2002. My English roommate Melissa and I left the apartment at 6:30 p.m. dressed for fun and headed to our colleague Paula's for pizza and Pictionary. There was a good crowd, a dozen or so.
After several thin-crust wood-fired pizzas and as many bottles of red, 5 of us headed for the Old Town at 9 to experience Ladies Night at Nice's legendary anglo bar, Wayne's. Our Scottish colleague, Alan, the lone guy in the group, begged and pleaded that we make a pit stop at a pub for a beer before being subject to Ladies Night.

Us girls finally gave in. "One beer, and then we leave." The pub was deserted except for a table of people in the corner. We hunkered down in a booth across the room, ordered a round, and gibber gabbered away. After about half and hour, a guy from the other booth got up and crossed the pub to go to the toilettes. I had conjunctivitis and so was wearing my Armani glasses, so my peripheral vision was not up to snuff, but I sensed, without looking directly at him, that they guy was taller than me. A rarity in Nice. When he returned from the toilet, I got a good look at him, and decided he was cute, to boot. I made my move.

So here we are, 3 weddings (French civil, French religious, Vermont) and 2 kids later.
I think often, every year on October 23rd, what if someone had whispered in my ear that day, before the pizza and the Pictionary, "tonight you will meet your husband". Or if the whisper included all the joy, and stress, of planning 2 weddings across oceans. The thrill of watching your husband score a goal across the ice! Of the heartbreak of a honeymoon that never was. If someone had whispered: "you will do everything you can think of and you will have girls, not boys, and it will just about kill you, and then you won't care in the least." Your husband will tell you that he thinks he knows your father because of the way you lose your temper and holler, even though neither he, nor your children, will ever know your father.

If someone had said, you will start your own free-lancing business, birth 2 children in a foreign culture, one coming in 34 minutes while you are screaming in a language that is not your mother tongue. You will miss out on countless milestones of family and friends back home, events big, and small. Your heart will ache at Halloween and the 4th of July. You will love being the novelty, the foreigner. If they had told me all that, while I was getting ready with Melissa, sipping a cosmopolitan, layering on my perfume, listening to the Jackson 5, tonight, 7 years ago, I probably would have stood in amazement, not known what to think, and then put on another coat of lipstick and skipped out the door.

Rainy Day Wednesday

Happy 3rd birthday to Miranda Sullivan in CT today! Hope she has a great day!
Yesterday we had some yucky weather. Since it was Wednesday (no school), we just relaxed at home in comfy clothes. (Until it was time to go sign the papers for our NEW APARTMENT that we are renting and moving into in 2 1/2 wks - another story).




It's all so much work. 2 kids, I mean. But it is starting to get fun. Estelle is amazingly patient, caring, and sweet with her sister. Clearly traits she gets from her father.

The Clown

Here's Estelle going to school in the morning:
And here's what she has to say when she comes back from school in the evening (get ready, it's a 4+ min video, dust off your French skills):

Weekend Fun

On Saturday, Marie came over to play with Estelle. She's a year older and they were at Cathy's together (the nanny). They see each other at school for recess, etc.
Marie's grandfather is the one with the pomengranite tree. Marie has incredible natural ringlets. She is my little Shirley Temple. I love her.
Notice Estelle's Green Eggs and Ham shirt from my friend Jane in Florida, which of course no one has any idea what the heck her shirt is - they all think it is some crazy graffiti shirt from a rap band or something. How exactly can one "explain" Dr. Seuss? I don't even try. I just say "It's a thing. From America." Not like you can translate Hop on Pop. Talk about lost in translation. Gheesh.
And here's our little Roller:
She thinks sitting up in the corner of the couch is FUN:

Recently Estelle has become fascinated with the quilt on her wall that Joan made for her when she was just a few months old. I often find her standing on her bed examining all the squares to see just Who is Who.
This is funny for us as she usually is talking to herself, outloud, in English, identifying characters on the fabric. I am so happy to hear her talking to herself in English, I could care less what it is about, I practically faint. It's a miracle I had the wherewithall to grab my camera (Thomas says "yeah, right" to that comment).
And finally, a little video with some playmat rolling action and squealing:

My Princesses, and Prince

Princess #2:Both her highnesses:
Hello, Kitty - or is that Tiger?
Princess #1 looking calmer:
Prince, the rock god, is in France at the moment. Last week he played Monaco and brought down the house - Sunday night was in Paris, and tonight he was on live for a cable channel's evening show. I put up Post-Its everywhere so as to not forget to watch.
Here's me rockin down with Prince in my living room. I kept thinking "this is live!" In my time zone!"
He did 3 songs and "1999" for his encore.
Here's a video that Thomas decided to film while I was having a nostalgic moment during the encore.
It's good for a laugh. Or twenty.

Comments surely will abound.

Living Room Action

It's 3 p.m. on Friday and somehow we have all made it thru another week on this roller-coaster ride of life. Fridays I stay home with just Léna. So relaxing! And I even managed a 30 min phone lesson and a hour-long face-to-face here while she napped! Thanks Lena!
Before we go pick up Estelle at school, thought I'd post a few recent videos - first one is long, the 2nd short but there is singing and dancing so watch out.

Bumbo!

Here's Léna new Bumbo seat - always wanted to try one out with Estelle but could never get my hands on one over here. Finally found one secondhand yesterday.It seems just right for this age where she wants so much to sit up but isn't capable yet. This way she can see all around without toppling over and without relying on something to rest her head on like in an infant seat. I think it will help strengthen her neck. [Have no idea what I'm talking about but trying to sound like a mother-in-the-know].

On Wednesday afternoon, we checked out a new park we had never known about called "Paradisio". Unfortunately I only took 2 photos, so here you are:This parc had an ampitheatre which the kids loved. That's Estelle in the blue hat sprinting out of the theater, with our little friend Loup close on her heels. Eliott and Eva were also running around. Today at Parc Vigier, Thomas and Estelle duked it out on the horses. Notice the shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops. It ain't no New England over here.
I keep including these videos for the grandmothers and aunts out there cause I know you like them.

And the little one said "ROLL OVER!"

Remember that old finger-play rhyme, "ten in the bed and the little one said roll over"?
Léna has become a roll-over pro since turning 5 months. Can't stop her!
Very proud of herself:
Like a water plane coming in for landing:
At Léna's 5-month check-up, she tipped the scales at 8.5 kg (18 3/4 lbs) and 69 cm (27 1/4 inches). It's almost 3 pounds heavier than Estelle at the same age. Datz won big bébé! No wonder my back hurts all the time.

Meanwhile, Estelliot on the move. Don't get in the way of these two on their way home from the chateau park on Wednesday afternoon last week (remember, no school on Wednesdays).
Here they are shouting French nursery songs at the top of the lungs, much to the delight or alarm of passers-by.
What else does Estelle do on Wednesdays? This week she played almost all morning by herself in her room with her building blocks. Here are some of the things she did while I was doing laundry, dishes, blending baby food, making the bed, and stopping all those things so as to turn a hollering Léna back over and back over and back over:

This next one was a village, she told me:
This tower she did all by herself and it stayed in her room for 2 days and we all managed to walk around it and not knock it down.
Our musician neighbors came up for dinner Tuesday and here is the cake they made, which is filled with something called "CaramBar" (caramel taffy candies very popular here and very old school). I think it would be like melting down Werther's Originals and putting them in a moist cake filling inside the cake. The decoration on top is thin hardened leaves of melted CaramBar. This girl don't mess around with her cake-making. One of the reasons why I love her. 2 quick videos: the 2nd one is just sisterly fun on the playmat. In the first, however, Thomas catches Estelle celebrating Léna's birthday 7 months early. He eventually (with my reminder) remembers to turn the camera the right way. Please note that Estelle is watching herself in the mirror the whole time, which is really what she finds very fun. Like mother like daughter. Many a time I was accused of watching myself in the huge picture windows at our house in Jericho. Listen, I know I good entertainment when I see it, always have.