Interest piqued? Read on.
First, a week ago today, whilst awaiting Estelle's return, our little friend Tina came over. She's 48 hours younger than Lena. I met her mom while pregnant at the pool. She sucks her thumb. I am very jealous of her mom that she has a thumb-sucker! Her Mom is an actress and runs her own Theatre workshop for teenagers. She just performed Lysystrata at the Internationally famous Avignon theater festival, whist breastfeeding a less than 2 month old baby. RESPECT.
When Estelle walked in the door, she gave me flowers and a hug and a kiss.
Then she wanted to see her sister.
The next day she enjoyed playing with all her toys she hadn't seen in 2 weeks. Here's her picnic hamper from Aunt Joanie:
And here's a playdough meal lovingly presented on my new vintage placemats from Joan.
Her first morning back meant naturally a trip to the beach at Villefranche:
Wait, I am MARRIED to this man? I think he's got a Bono from u2 look going here....
One thing Estelle brought back with her is a bag of hazelnuts picked from the family grounds in Calvinet. Here's Thomas taking them out of their pods and into the bowl with just their shells.
They are clumped in 3's it always seems.
Then you pop them out and this is what the inside looks like.
That was Sunday. Monday for lunch and the whole afternoon, Melanie, still on vacation nearby in Grasse, came with Maxence and Berenice. Estelle and Maxence coindentally have the same dress in a different color. This was the source of much giggling.
Remember they have not seen each other since New Year's in Paris. Estelle is 4 weeks older.
So excited to be 3 now - Maxence shows us how many 3 is...or..whatever.
The serious pose. Here Estelle looks so much like Thomas' mom Andrée it's amazing!
Meanwhile, let's not forget these two cuties - 15 days apart - Léna and Berenice.
So happy to be Big Sisters now. This photo shoot included a lot of squealing. Melanie and I were laughing our heads off. You had to be there.
Here the older girls pretend to be teething. Cause that's funny. When you're 3.
The babies didn't know what hit them.
Playing involved Maxence exploring every toy Estelle owns, and them fighting over the Snugli BabyDoll carrier. I had to keep setting the timer to take turns.
Here's Maxence when it was her turn to carry the "baby". All she would say was "Moi, j'ai un gros ventre." = "I've got a fat stomach".
Some downtime. There's a lotta leg goin' on there - these girls are TALL.
Then they jumped back into it by playing school (Estelle starts in 6 days!)
Tuesday I recuperated from Monday. Starting Weds Thomas was off again with comp time days and we spent the day with Melanie at her rental villa. Dead batteries so no photos (I'm sure you are all relieved) but suffice to say it was a lot of poolside fun.
Thursday we all went to visit Chantal and co., my friend from Amiens (in the north) who has a vacation place in nearly Biot/Antibes.
Ice cream by the pool! And here's Pierre, Chantal's grandson, whose been featured before on the blog.
Chicken fight in the pool - Thomas and Estelle against Pierre and Paul.
Then Paul and Pierre got carried one on the other by their mom Nathalie. This was like some kind of acrobatic routine. Estelle thought it was fantastic.
She also enjoyed walking in Paul's flippers.
Friday (yesterday) morning Lena went for her 4 month check-up and vaccines. I had been worried the past 10 days thinking she wasn't spending enough time at the breast all of the sudden. Everybody said "It's a heat wave- do YOU want to eat cream and milk?" So yest. the pediatrician (who saw her 2 weeks prior) weighed her again and informed me she had gained exactly half a kilo in 15 days. About a pound and a quarter. I decided to stop worrying. Here's the sausage baby:
Today, Saturday, is/was my Aunt Eleanor's memorial service back in VT, 4 months after her passing. I decided we should go to someplace different and beautiful. Here we are at the Plage Mala at Cap D'Ail this morning at 8:45 a.m.
Cap d'Ail (Garlic Cape) is the last "town" on the French border before Monaco on the western side. All the breathtaking beauty of Monaco but less built up and less hype. We were meeting friends at this beach who recommended it because a big part stays in the shade until 1 p.m. Above: Thomas and Estelle at the water's edge. That green thing you see is a jelly-fish protection net that stays in place just in case - there weren't any today.
That's me! Out on that floating raft equipped with a diving board. Note the racing boat moored behind me. Wish I could have taken a photo of the cliffs and the villas from that raft. Quite stunning and what a way to start your day at 9:30 a.m. Here's a view for the beach's bay from the very very long winding path/ steps that take you down down down from the road to the beach. It took us almost 10 minutes to get down.
There were 2 "private beaches" at this beach - meaning you can rent a chair/mattress etc and get served by their waiters. Interestingly, all their food, beverages and supplies get delivered each day by boat, because the "down down down" part I mentioned before makes the whole place very inaccessible. So here's the food delivery boat leaving:
And here are all the guys without shirts pushing the dolly trucks of food off the boats.
Thomas' friends who met us have a little 19-month boy, Mael. He and Estelle enjoyed each other's company. At 12:30 when the sun started to come around the cliffs, we left.
What an absolute delight to be at the beach for 4 hours and not slather Estelle with sunscreen and not worry about the baby. Fresh and cool in the morning air, totally protected from the sun, Lena had 2 lovely naps in her little portable bassinet.
This is the last photo I took as we made our way back up up up like pack mules.
When we got up to the top and the access road to go towards our car, who walks right by us but Bono, lead singer from the Irish band U2. He was with a friend and they were heading down, down down, surely to go lunch at one of the private restaurants whose food we had just witnessed been boated over. There wasn't a soul about - just him and us. I simply could not react quickly enough to ask for a photo, but I watched with a quickening pulse for the good minute as he continued down the trail. I did hear him speaking with his friend and that lovely Irish accent. He lives in Eze-Bord-de-Mer, which touches Cap d'Ail thus there is no doubt it was him. I am a big u2 fan and have seen them in concert so it was a bit thrilling, I must say.
A little bit of glamour for me on a day when the rest of my family is remembering a woman with a
lot of glamour, inside and out.
Too bad my own hand-eye coordination is so poor right now, maybe I could match my daughter.
Thomas drops her off on his way to work. I should mention that tomorrow (Wednesday), she stays home. That's the way it works here. No school on Wednesday. A little break in the middle of the week. Hence many many women do not work on Wednesdays. Including MOI.
Today when she got home, Winnie the Pooh had to eat all his vegetables. I think I can imagine what's going on with her in the cafeteria ("la cantine") at school. Incidentally, children cannot bring their own lunch in France. Either you eat what they serve in the cantine or you go home for lunch. Verdict is still out for me on how I feel about this slightly "red" policy.
And my new thing is a Medela electric pump. My sister Mary always raved about hers, and since Léna is slowly starting to work up the time she'll be spending at Cathy's 3x/wk, I thought it might be good to move into the high-tech world and go electric instead of manual. Also, here in we-pay-for-everything-you-might-need France, it is FREE to rent one for as long as you need it. So, I thought, why not?
Result: BOO!!!!! Slow and noisy. Not any faster than my manual Avent one - in fact, slower, and takes up space and makes noise. The only advantage is you don't have to squeeze and unsqueeze but who cares. And the manual one is smaller and goes anywhere more easily.
Go away Paparazzi!
Today at 8:45 a.m., walking along the tram way to school after leaving Léna with Cathy for the first time. VERY excited. Announced to several complete strangers on the street along the way the following: "Moi je vais à l'ècole" = I'm going to school (and) "Moi j'ai mon sac à dos" = I have my backpack on. This was repeated many many times. Old grannies found it adorable. Young professionals lit their cigarettes and smiled out of duty.
In front of the school.
In the "classroom". This is not her desk, she doesn't have one but just where she sat when she walked in momentarily.
It was, I guess, fine. Who really knows since we got the boot after 20 minutes and when we picked them up later all I got was "she was fine". No welcome, no introduction, no "I'm the teacher and my name is.......". no letter in the mail sent home telling parents what to expect, not a single thing with her name on it like a coat hook, nada. The only thing I got handed was a federal flyer about swine flu. Um, thanks. I knew school started today because I walked by the school and saw something stuck up in the display window outside the size of an index card that said "9-12, Friday." So I made all kinds of arrangements for someone to watch Lena at 12 so I could go get Estelle, only to be told at 9:30 this morning that I was to come at 11:30 and get her, pronto. Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore. I'm trying to remain open-minded. Or.....something.
In the midst of preparing for Estelle starting nursery school tomorrow, apartment-hunting, getting ready to have Léna go to the nanny's a bit, the Univ. calling me for the courses I'll be teaching, and many other stressors, we have some very nice news: Léna's eye has healed!
Anybody who has met Léna knows that she has had a blocked tear duct since birth, causing her to look like she has a bad infection and an oozing eye 24/7. All of the sudden on Tuesday, it stopped, just like the Doctor said it would. This means the duct opened up. Yeah!
Particularly pleased since everything I had read said if it's not open by 3 months it often stays closed until 10-12 months. So I had mentally signed on for the long haul. I was hesitant to believe it but now after 3 days we know it's over. It feels strange to not be incessantly cleaning her eye - it was such a habit!
Meanwhile, Estelle still wants to wear her "running" outfit every day. Thanks Lillian and Zutano! Léna is wearing BabyGap in these photos, courtesy of Skip and Dayne from SMC.
Yep, she's just that pudgy. And only on breastmilk!
Doesn't Estelle look like she can do no wrong in this last one....
Monday was Thomas' last day off using up some comp time. He relaxed with the girls.
Estelle again playing "nap".
Monday afternoon we went to visit our friends/landlords Xavier and Valerie and their son, my student, Quentin. They gave us fresh zuchinni and tomatoes from their garden and here's what Thomas did with some of them tonight:
Xavier and Valerie's older son and my old student Thomas had just left to go back to his naval academy where he has just been accepted through a competition. His good grade in English is what made the difference and got him in - one of 25 students accepted in the country. I'm not kidding about the English making the difference either.
That is the Mediterranean you see in the distance - and our apartment is essentially in that little "dip" in the background.
Soaking the pasty legs.
Here's Quentin, fresh off 2 weeks in Paris touring the music scene (he's a rock-star-in-the-making), showing Estelle how to use a skateboard (with no wheels!).
Estelle thinks it is boring.
Okay, off to bed. With the rest of the country. (so weird).
When Estelle walked in the door, she gave me flowers and a hug and a kiss.
Then she wanted to see her sister.
The next day she enjoyed playing with all her toys she hadn't seen in 2 weeks. Here's her picnic hamper from Aunt Joanie:
And here's a playdough meal lovingly presented on my new vintage placemats from Joan.
Her first morning back meant naturally a trip to the beach at Villefranche:
Wait, I am MARRIED to this man? I think he's got a Bono from u2 look going here....
One thing Estelle brought back with her is a bag of hazelnuts picked from the family grounds in Calvinet. Here's Thomas taking them out of their pods and into the bowl with just their shells.
They are clumped in 3's it always seems.
Then you pop them out and this is what the inside looks like.
That was Sunday. Monday for lunch and the whole afternoon, Melanie, still on vacation nearby in Grasse, came with Maxence and Berenice. Estelle and Maxence coindentally have the same dress in a different color. This was the source of much giggling.
Remember they have not seen each other since New Year's in Paris. Estelle is 4 weeks older.
So excited to be 3 now - Maxence shows us how many 3 is...or..whatever.
The serious pose. Here Estelle looks so much like Thomas' mom Andrée it's amazing!
Meanwhile, let's not forget these two cuties - 15 days apart - Léna and Berenice.
So happy to be Big Sisters now. This photo shoot included a lot of squealing. Melanie and I were laughing our heads off. You had to be there.
Here the older girls pretend to be teething. Cause that's funny. When you're 3.
The babies didn't know what hit them.
Playing involved Maxence exploring every toy Estelle owns, and them fighting over the Snugli BabyDoll carrier. I had to keep setting the timer to take turns.
Here's Maxence when it was her turn to carry the "baby". All she would say was "Moi, j'ai un gros ventre." = "I've got a fat stomach".
Some downtime. There's a lotta leg goin' on there - these girls are TALL.
Then they jumped back into it by playing school (Estelle starts in 6 days!)
Tuesday I recuperated from Monday. Starting Weds Thomas was off again with comp time days and we spent the day with Melanie at her rental villa. Dead batteries so no photos (I'm sure you are all relieved) but suffice to say it was a lot of poolside fun.
Ice cream by the pool! And here's Pierre, Chantal's grandson, whose been featured before on the blog.
Chicken fight in the pool - Thomas and Estelle against Pierre and Paul.
Then Paul and Pierre got carried one on the other by their mom Nathalie. This was like some kind of acrobatic routine. Estelle thought it was fantastic.
She also enjoyed walking in Paul's flippers.
Friday (yesterday) morning Lena went for her 4 month check-up and vaccines. I had been worried the past 10 days thinking she wasn't spending enough time at the breast all of the sudden. Everybody said "It's a heat wave- do YOU want to eat cream and milk?" So yest. the pediatrician (who saw her 2 weeks prior) weighed her again and informed me she had gained exactly half a kilo in 15 days. About a pound and a quarter. I decided to stop worrying. Here's the sausage baby:
Today, Saturday, is/was my Aunt Eleanor's memorial service back in VT, 4 months after her passing. I decided we should go to someplace different and beautiful. Here we are at the Plage Mala at Cap D'Ail this morning at 8:45 a.m.
Cap d'Ail (Garlic Cape) is the last "town" on the French border before Monaco on the western side. All the breathtaking beauty of Monaco but less built up and less hype. We were meeting friends at this beach who recommended it because a big part stays in the shade until 1 p.m. Above: Thomas and Estelle at the water's edge. That green thing you see is a jelly-fish protection net that stays in place just in case - there weren't any today.
That's me! Out on that floating raft equipped with a diving board. Note the racing boat moored behind me. Wish I could have taken a photo of the cliffs and the villas from that raft. Quite stunning and what a way to start your day at 9:30 a.m. Here's a view for the beach's bay from the very very long winding path/ steps that take you down down down from the road to the beach. It took us almost 10 minutes to get down.
There were 2 "private beaches" at this beach - meaning you can rent a chair/mattress etc and get served by their waiters. Interestingly, all their food, beverages and supplies get delivered each day by boat, because the "down down down" part I mentioned before makes the whole place very inaccessible. So here's the food delivery boat leaving:
And here are all the guys without shirts pushing the dolly trucks of food off the boats.
Thomas' friends who met us have a little 19-month boy, Mael. He and Estelle enjoyed each other's company. At 12:30 when the sun started to come around the cliffs, we left.
This is the last photo I took as we made our way back up up up like pack mules.
When we got up to the top and the access road to go towards our car, who walks right by us but Bono, lead singer from the Irish band U2. He was with a friend and they were heading down, down down, surely to go lunch at one of the private restaurants whose food we had just witnessed been boated over. There wasn't a soul about - just him and us. I simply could not react quickly enough to ask for a photo, but I watched with a quickening pulse for the good minute as he continued down the trail. I did hear him speaking with his friend and that lovely Irish accent. He lives in Eze-Bord-de-Mer, which touches Cap d'Ail thus there is no doubt it was him. I am a big u2 fan and have seen them in concert so it was a bit thrilling, I must say.
