"PIlou"

Estelle's school class has a mascot named "Pilou". Every Friday afternoon the teacher draws a name at random and that kid gets Pilou for the wkend. He comes with a nice carrying bag & a big notebook filled with photos/stories/drawings from every weekend he has spent with each previous student so far this year.
When I went to pick up Estelle Friday at school, she was brimming with excitement because when they all closed their eyes and the teacher drew out the name, it was.....Estelle!
Here's Estelle eating lentils and carrots with Pilou Friday night. Someone else in the family is also quite interested in Pilou.
Friday bathtime:
By the way, she has a little scrape under her nose that is scabbing over, no that is not a nosebleed nurse Martha!
Warming Pilou up to the idea of getting a cleaning in the washing machine
"Clair de la Lune", which Estelle shows Pilou she can play, she just picked it out on the keys all by herself!

Making savory crepes at lunch today (Sat):
Then Pilou went to swim lessons with Estelle. We found him a bikini bottom, an old swim cap that we cut some holes in for his ears, and Thomas' goggles:

Eva, who is not in Estelle's class but knows who Pilou is, thought it was pretty funny that Pilou was at swim lessons with them on a Saturday afternoon.

Waiting for his turn:

After the pool, I threw Pilou into the washing machine. He needed it - in fact the teacher actually said to me Friday afternoon when everyone else had left "Would you mind washing him. I think he's a little ripe!"
Here's Pilou, drying out on the radiator in Estelle's room, surveying her while she sleeps. His overalls are hanging separately elsewhere, drying out too! What will Sunday hold for Pilou?
And just to close with a few shots from Thursday night's bath:
Here's 2 photos with a lot of teeth coming at you:

We're hosting a Galette de Roi party tomorrow with 10 adults and 8 kids. Lordy lordy. And my cleaning girl was out sick this week with the stomach flu. ! !! ! ! !

Good Enough to Eat

I know it, darn it. She does look good enough to eat!
Meanwhile, Tuesday's mail included a new 100 piece puzzle from TaTa Yvette. This kept Little Missy #1 busy all evening....
Opening it was half the work!
When I saw this photo, I thought, who is that big kid? Who is that long lanky girl? Wow, that's Estelle, who sometimes seem so grown up to us...
Later, after the bath, she was right back at it.

Let's take another gander at this little cherub:

I used to say about my nephew/godson Wayne that I just wanted to pop his head off like a dandelion, put it in my pocket and take it out whenever I needed a smile or a cuddle. Léna is at that stage. When she's not saying "No! Pas ça!"
Yesterday, France went loony, as it does every 6 months. The 2nd Wednesday in January, the whole country goes koo-koo. Why? Sales. Every store everywhere by law puts their stock "on sale" to get rid of it, on the same day - the 2nd Wednesday in January. People act nutty. It's kind of like Black Friday after Thanksgiving except it lasts 3 weeks and kind of drags itself out, but the first day is that same insane feeling.
Anyways, for the equivalent of about 9 bucks, I got Estelle some great bib snowpants. When she tried them on at home, Léna decided to get into Estelle's other green snowsuit that is a Size 5. This resulted in 20 minutes of screaming laughter from both of them as they walked around swishing away, nylon against nylon.
This morning at 5 a.m. Estelle suddenly appeared at the head of my bed in the dark, speaking softly to me and said "Is today the day I go on the plane? I want to put on my new snowpants."

Wedding Bells are Ringing Today!

At 3 p.m. today (EST), my nephew Jesse and his fiancée Sarah will tie the knot on the sandy beaches of Jamaica. That boy has come a long way, baby - so great to see him plunging in (maybe into the Caribbean?)
Sending lots of well wishes to them across the blue waters!

New Year News, Post Christmas Fun

Dying to know what we did between the 28th and the 30th? Here's a little glimpse of the back end of our week in Angers.
Finally, I met Maya Beuchard!

Maya is daughter to Guillaume and Caroline - who were both at our French wedding and most notably Guillaume was one of Thomas' two "temoins" - best man. Maya is 4 months younger than Léna.
Group shot #1: Thomas looks like a gangster
Group shot #2: Guillaume is now the gangster. Incidentally Léna did not like seeing another little girl on her daddy's lap!
Playing cards:
Wednesday 29th: Lison comes to play for the day. Lison is 5 months older than Estelle, and is daughter to Celine, childhood neighbor to Thomas. p.s. yes i did those 'French' braids myself!
They were just perfect playmates.
Lunch, ham and pasta, can't go wrong!
4:00 gouter: crepes made by Manou (Andrée). YUMMY. Lison's younger brother Merlin makes an appearance with his grandmother Myriam. You can see all the toppings we had to choose from! Also note Estelle's reindeer headband from family friend Virginie....
Then Lison/Merlin's dad Nicholas comes to collect his charges - he is a "sommelier", which means a wine expert. As in that's his job!
Two happy grandchildren with their Manou!
Reading stories with Papy at bedtime:
Thursday 30th: we had an amazing raclette lunch, joined by Virgine (who escaped being photographed????) and we also had a visit from "Che" (pronounced 'shuh') otherwise known as Olivier Cheminet, Thomas most eligible bachelor friend. Love him!
Che is recently back on the market, ladies! He does computer support for a humanitarian doctor's group in Paris, and recently lived in Burma for over a year. Like I said, love him! And bonus: he breakdances!
Moving on - back here in Nice, the New Year has meant obsessions with building forts. Here's some photos of a recent fort:

Before packing away the Christmas things, the girls enjoyed one last reading of their family-voiced recorded book "Twas the Night....".
Today, Thomas went to Marseille for hockey and I manned the fort (literally, as there was an enormous fort built in Léna's room before he left). Later my friend Marie came & took the big girls to swim lessons while I had the little girls at home.
This was Louise's first sighting of the piano so she was quite enraptured:


Lots of fun for these 2 little squirts:
Look how we can touch our toes (this is easier for Louise than for "Her Tankiness")

Speaking of tankiness, I should add that we saw the pediatrician yesterday: so at 20 months, 29 1/2 pounds, 35 inches, or 13.4 kilos, 89 cm. Chart? What chart? We've been far off that ever since Day One.
5 quick videos:
First, yesterday I went to the P.O. for a package and it was Xmas DVD's from my brother Paul. George, YOU ROCK! Still no pkg from Mary B, :-(
#2: 2 under-2's tinkling the ivories: things were fine until I complimented Louise and Léna immediately furrowed her brow with consternation.
#3: New Year Musings
#4: Estelle listening to her "Twas the Night" book recorded by my family. After a while I realized she was able to imitate the intonation of certain pieces, specifically certain family members reading their lines. One afternoon she spent a half hour cozied up on the couch, whispering the lines of the book over and over and matching the inflection of the recordings - I tried to catch it on video but the clip doesn't do it justice. She was pretty incredible, for a 4 year old.
#5: When you're not even 2, things are silly.

Happy New Year!

Each new year brings me the same memory: 3rd grade, and how difficult it was for about 2 weeks to remember to write "1979" instead of "1978" on all my papers. Once I shared that with my dad and he said he had had the same problem from '39 into '40. We swapped these stories while filling all the bathtubs in our house with water on Dec 31, 1999, since on that day he wondered if our society's infrastructure would break down as we entered the New Millenium and there'd be no water. In the end, all was well and the next morning he ordered me around draining tubs and sinks. It was his last healthy New Year's and remains a great memory for me!

Last night, after flying back to Nice, we had an impromptu aperitif with our friends Marie & Ludovic whose own plans had fallen thru at the last minute, which worked out perfect - they are 2 blocks away. No photos of the adults, but a few shots above and below of the "ELLE" brigade = Estelle, Léna, Louise & Eva. We enjoyed some champagne and foie gras and had those girls home in bed by 10:30.
Eva is 2 months older than Estelle.
Louise is 7 weeks older than Léna.

Happy New Year to All! And to my mother and all 10 siblings who are all together today in Vermont to ring in the New Year together in the snow.