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.

And I'll Huff and I'll Puff

Here's Estelle going to school one morning:

Speaking of school:
Last Friday I went to get Estelle at school at the end of the day alone - it was raining so a neighbor ("French Grammie" - resemblance to my late grandmother) offered to watch Léna so I could fetch Estelle unencumbered.
This meant less rushing and harriedness for me at the school, and so I lingered to be one of the last parents in line (you wait in a line and your child is sent out of the room to you, you can not enter the room) in the hopes of having an exchange with her teacher that would last more than 3 seconds.
My plan worked and thus I was able to engage in a brief chat with Estelle's teacher, who didn't offer any comments about Estelle in the classroom, but simply stuck an mp3 player in my hand and headphones. I was treated to a recording of Estelle re-telling a story whilst looking at a picture book they had read earlier with the whole class.
Then the teacher let Estelle borrow the book for the weekend. We were treated to MANY recountings of the story in 48 hours. Here is a LONG one. Really if you can't understand French it will be boring probably (Thomas says I should change "probably" to "most certainly"), but the word "loup" (pronounced "lou") is the word for Wolf. Over and over and over.

And here's Ms. Roly-Poly with her squawking cube from Paul/Lesley/Chelsea/Lauren which is her favorite toy at the moment:

Birthdays Far and Wide

A week ago Saturday we attended the usual September birthday bash for Estelle's old daycare pals, Marie, Carlo and Mila. Same place, same people, same kinds of cakes - just kids all one year older. We had a blast, and I got to see a pomegranate tree up close and personal. Very interesting!

Meanwhile, here's our great nanny Cathy holding Léna...
The cake table. Estelle is a year younger than all the rest of these kids. Which explains why she was teary eyed about not getting the first piece of chocolate cake!
Below: Marie, Mila & Carlo. The little pig-tailed girl and Spiderman are not kids we have met before but rather classmates of the other 3. Notice Estelle is just as tall as the other kids.
There were costumes for everyone to try on throughout the party. Below: Marie as a tiger enjoying an old slot-machine game that her late grandmother had brought back from a trip to Vegas. This thing was fascinating to the kids and REALLY ANNOYINGLY LOUD.
Everyone dances the techtonik. It had rained so at this point Estelle is wearing mudboots.
Back at the ranch, time to get busy with the Duplos.
And Léna, much to our delight, starts eating puréed vegetables. Eating = sleeping better = saving my sanity.
She loves the vegetables, but for the moment won't take any fruit compotes whatsoever. Hmmm....
Just a few days later, on Tuesday the 22nd, my beloved turned 32. What he thought was just an impromptu let's-go-out-for-a-burger was really a carefully orchestrated surprise by yours truly. About a dozen guys from the hockey team showed up. I managed to get a photo off my phone:
That's a VT Fish and Wildlife hat from my brother that I had jammed into my purse, along with tape, string, ballons and scissors so as to fashion an appropriate headdress once the surprise was out of the bag (or purse, as it were). I left around 9:00 to go home a relieve Oana, who is expecting herself a little girl in January.
Here's my cake that I was frantically frosting when Thomas arrived, so we just slapped the candles on before I finished and sang him Joyeuse Anniversaire just th same!
He had a fun night out with his buddies.

Meanwhile, backtrack to a few shots from our weekend near Avignon with my old boss Michael from DC. You've seen the amazing mansion before both last yr and the year prior, so I'll just include some shots of other/new stuff:
The pool has these 2 slides with water that runs down them. Estelle thought it was VERY fun. Thomas and I catapulted down the larger slide - that was wicked fun, as we say in VT.
Snacks in the poolhouse, set quite a ways away from the mansion. Below, a star is born:The other side of the poolhouse was like a nurser's paradise. Total privacy, beautiful billowing white all around, a view to the pool and the grounds, calming water running down the slides was like an automatic milk let-down reflex, and the maids bringing me fresh cold bottles of Evian. Don't worry I photoshopped this picture into a blur to eliminate anyone thinking they were seeing anything they shouldn't - even though you couldn't, but this way no one thinks they have to look away...ha ha!One fun thing we did was dinner out in Carpentras nearby. The restaurant owner has gotten to know Michael over the past few years, and we were treated to a 6 course all-truffle menu. These are "summer truffles" so are lighter than the heavier truffles to come later in autumn. 6 courses with mushrooms, essentially. Can you imagine? Topped off with truffle honey apple tart. It was WILD. Thank you Michael! Here's a view of our group (the other couples are Michael's friends who were also at the mansion).

One morning we walked around the village of St. Didier and visited its many fountains.

There is a well-known nougat producer in this village and I couldn't get there - next year!
Our first night the staff served us dinner out on the back terrace.
New addition: the tree house (below you see just one part of it), which has 2 long zip lines along the back line of the property for the daredevils amongst us, will soon have a water-wheel clock complete with water piped up through bamboo. This photo below is Michael up in the tree house turned the wheel/clock and trying to figure out how it will all work. He's actually quite far away and I'm using the zoom....
Here we are with Allan Wynn and his wife Susan. Allan is Michael's lawyer in DC for the past several decades and one of his best friends. I spent many many hours on the phone with him whilst working for Michael.
And here's me with Michael and Richard Becker, Michael's best friend and lawyer. Richard lives in Louisiana but he made regular trips up to DC and I spent more time taking care of these 2 guys back in the day than I care to remember- ha ha. I haven't seen Richard in 9 years. What a delight! I adore him.
We are laughing in that photo because Léna had a VERY smelly diaper and so there were a lot of jokes while Thomas was fiddling with the camera.
What a nice weekend, being taken care of all the time, but best of all to see old friends.