Valberg

Last wkend, Estelle took her first ski lessons of her little life!


We were in Valberg, which is about 1h30 from Nice
We stayed in a renovated sheperd barn, owned by my friend Philippe R. (as opposed to Philippe C that I go to theater with). Here's Thomas on the 3/4 km walk from the car to the grange.

Down in Valberg village, both mornings we drank hot chocolate and played in the snow while Estelle was in her lesson for 2.5 hrs.
Meanwhile, just 5 minutes away, the views around our lodgings...

Back on skiing....


Playing games after Estelle's first morning on the slopes:
The whole kids' learning area of the ski station:


Saturday we had our lunch at this place with the great shutters:




Saturday night, after a bath, look what happened in front of the fire before dinner:
Sunday, back to ski lessons:
...while we did some sliding!


Sunday breakfast:

This is where we all slept together
The bergerie/grange where we stayed/froze as seen from the outside:

There were a few "challenges" due to the extreme cold: pipes freezing, heat not working, chains needed on car tires. But it was all fun, nonetheless! Too bad we picked the coldest weekend of the century to go!

Miss America

Today while Estelle was at piano, Léna and I finally got into a electronics store for me to handle some cameras that I am eyeing on the internet. I didn't buy one, because the prices in France are so ridiculous compared to those in America for the same product that I can't bring myself to buy one here. Yet.
So here's a film from 10 days ago or so. I'm just sitting here breathing thru my machine so thought I'd put this up.

And for anyone who cares, my lung update: have been not well for a week, finally got in with an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist who stuck a camera up my nose (so freakish) and declared inflammations etc but no infection.
Then I met my new favorite guy, Dr. Bensa - my new pulmonologist who is easier to access than the nice lady lung doctor at the hospital. He spent almost 45 minutes with me and even put me in this super cool glass box I keep seeing at all the pulmonologists that I've been wanting to get into since November.
You get in and they seal you in, with this exciting and mildly terrifying sucking sound when the door shuts. Anyways, they did a bunch of tests while I was in the box, while talking to me thru a microphone that was piped into the box. It was surreal. So Brave New World meets 1984 and the Miss America contest & the soundproof booth for the final question. I kept joking with the Doctor, when he told me to "breathe like a dog" (first of all, what?) I responded with "Well, Doctor, my idea of how to bring about world peace would be to start with the children. Right after I finish my baton lessons" This needed explanation and interpretation, but once he got my joke he thought it was great and called in the other doctor for a repeat. It was like my own kind of Vaudeville, behind glass. The Freak show at the Champlain Valley Fair.
This is my kind of audience, I thought. I made the same joke to Dr. Lung-who-tried-to-kill-me-with-too-strong-Horse-shots back in November when the pleurisy was crippling me and it was like Rodney Dangerfield: "hello, is this thing ON?"
Anyhoo, verdict: Post-Infectious Persistent Asthma - PIPA. That's me, Pipa Middleton.
Now I have a machine, again, with tubes and masks and medicine and a portable inhalor too. They think it'll take a good month to calm things down. I'm not teaching for the rest of the week.
Meanwhile, "are you a citizen of state, country, or world"? (this was the final question for last year's Miss America)....

No more diapers!

2 weeks ago on a Wednesday, Léna just said "I'm going peepee in the toilet". And that was that.

We had this little chart that came free with diapers in the US last summer. Léna went from 0 to 60 in 1 second. There was no middle-ground or accidents or anything. Just like that, snap your fingers, she decided to use the toilet (not even a little potty - I mean the real deal) all day long, for everything.
At first I thought I'd need to reinforce the good behavoir with stickers - I soon blew thru my stickers! (hey mom do you recognize those? You gave them to me, they were on rolls...)

Meanwhile, we went to a housewarming with friends last Sunday. Here is Basile, Eliott's little 3-month old brother, with Rose, who is Flora's 5-wk old sister.


There was some costume fun - Flora, Eva, Estelle & Celestin.
Another day, I found Estelle playing "teacher/school".
These 2 are good friends. Mostly.


Saturday Thomas made us a marble cake- yummy. Even tho he forget the baking powder.
Wednesday afternoon, Léna took her nap, I layed down on the couch, Estelle played quietly, then came to lay down with me, and fell asleep. I got up, Léna woke up, and calmly stood guard over Estelle until she woke up.

Here's Estelle & Léna Skyping with cousin Heather in America.

So much fun to have together on Wednesdays when there's no school.
Monday night - whoops! Out came Estelle's tooth!
Well guess that's all for now. I'm in a lung relapse that I'd rather just not get into for lack of energy but people are watching so hopefully and almost certainly it's not all going to spiral like before.
It's cold as can be over here! Below freezing. Quite unusual. Not helping the lung issue but we've seen cars with snow on the roofs which is shocking around here. Tuesdays they cancelled school at lunchtime and Thomas was let out - all we had in Nice was rain but all around was snow.

Peanut Butter Cookies

There really is nothing quite like them. We made some this evening with Louise. Thomas is away (almost) overnight for hockey, and Marie took Estelle to the pool with Eva, so I had the younger L & L brigade. Nothing like two 2 and 3/4 yr olds to keep you on your toes.
I'm quite sure Louise has never tasted peanut butter in her life. She was VERY skeptical. Until she tasted the batter.
Meanwhile, I got a diagrammed explanation from Estelle about the Treble Clef, Bass Clef, and all the names of the notes in an octave in French, and, I had a quarter, half, 3/4 time and whole note broken down for me this afternoon. Pretty sure Mrs. Gallagher wasn't teaching me THAT when I was 7 and taking piano in Pinehurst Acres.
And in between batches, here's what was happening....
Terrible light quality on this video, sorry. Soon, soon, the new camera. I promise.
Basically, Lena keeps repeating "Put down your Barbies. Give me your hand!"
And Louise says "Naw, I don't feel like it."