Happy Birthday Bertrand

It was Bertrand's birthday while we were there. The only candle he had in the house was this rather large square one. Whatever! We stuck it on his birthday tart and sang to him anyway.

 

We didn't bring many toys with us, but it was no problem for Malo. He easily occupied himself with a roll of masking tape.

 

He also got lots of hugs and kisses from his uncle, which more than made up from the lack of toys. 

Lucie helped out with making pasta.

On our last day in Belgium, Bertrand said to Lucie, you're not a real princess and I'm going to take your castle just to prove it!

 

She responded by quickly scaling the castle and yelling, I am a real princess! And you'll never conquer my castle.

 

Hey Sinatra

What do you think about these blue eyes?

Swinging in Brussels

After the Halloween party, we took the train to Brussels where we spent the rest of the long weekend visiting with friends and Greg's brother. 

The leaves in the park were beautiful.

 

Extra hug beautiful!

Lucie pushed Malo in the swing.

Greg and I kept saying, Gently! Gently! Not too high!!!

For the most part, they both ignored us.

 

And Malo LOVED it!

Spooky Antwerp

Our good friends invited Lucie (and of course the rest of us) to an American-style Halloween party in Antwerp. Since we already had train tickets to go to Belgium for the weekend, why not go! 

The party was hosted by a not very scary vampire named Vanessa.

 

And her very sweet little vampire. (Who is just as beautiful as when we first met her but look at how much she's grown-up from the first time we went to visit her!) 

 

Malo went to the party as a pumpkin.

And Lucie as what else, a PRINCESS!

There were about nine kids at the party and Vanessa had organized lots of fun crafts for them to do. While all but one of the kids only spoke Dutch, this didn't seem to bother Lucie.

And of course there was lots of candy, cake, and even a homemade pumpkin pie. Hey Lucie! What's the Dutch word for gummy worm?

Lucie's Balloon Party

The weekend after her birthday, Lucie invited six of her friends over to help her celebrate turning four. I surprised her by filling our living room with around forty helium balloon and loads of normal balloons that bounced around on the floor. In the US, helium balloons are really common but here in France they're almost non-existent, which makes them very, very special.

 

Filling the balloons... 

Lucie was thrilled by her surprise!  The kids spent the first 45min of the party squealing and giggling over all the balloons.

We gave away a lot of the balloons to her friends as they left to go home. But we still had enough that Lucie could run up and down the hallway in her tutu and crown for the rest of the evening.

Even Malo enjoyed the balloons!

 

It being a French birthday party and because I didn't have the time to make another chocolate cake, we had a strawberry tart. Lucie LOVES strawberries.

We sang to the birthday girl...

 

Lucie, Fanny, and Julie eating cake...

Of course, Lucie's favorite boy friend came to the party. Does he look a little less than enthusiastic to be there? In the beginning he was because the other two boys Lucie had invited couldn't come at the last minute. Lucie was obliviously thrilled to have him at her party.

 

Happy Birthday Lucie! I hope you have as much fun in your fourth year as you had at your party!!

Lucie Turns Four

Lucie's birthday fell on a school day this year. Her and I had made chocolate cookies together over the weekend and she took them to school that day for her birthday treat. She opened presents in the morning and Skyped and spoke on the phone with her grandparents in the afternoon. After dinner, we sang to her and she had a homemade chocolate birthday cake with strawberry candies on the top. 

 Malo asked, "Can I have some cake?"

 

"Don't worry, I can reach it myself!"

 

"Yum! This is delicious!!"

 No just kidding. We did not let Malo eat any cake. Not yet, but the photos are pretty funny.

Indian Summer

It was unseasonally warm in Paris for the last two weeks (25-30C). What does a family to do on a hot September Saturday? Go eat ice cream of course!

And it was dance in the streets good too.

 

Malo was asleep in his stroller.

But then... Hey! Where's my ice cream?

 

Sorry little guy. It's still applesauce for you.

  

Don't worry. It was belly laugh good.

While we were at Abbesses, we found a clown that was making balloon animals for the kids.

Here's Lucie's snail! How very French (the clown is Spanish-speaking, but he adapted).

Lucie made us go into her favorite gallery to see their new show. We were glad we did too. There was this interesting piece that turned the gallery into cartoons. Here's Greg and Malo looking at it. It was difficult to take a photo, since it followed your movements with only a slight delay...

 Lucie loves art. She's a particularly big fan of performance art!

 After ice cream, clowns and art, we headed to the park. The guys took a break on the benches.

 While Lucie had a swing with her friend, Lou.

Some funny differences

Lots of people ask us if we see differences between Malo and Lucie. It's funny from the beginning the two of them have had very different personalities. I don't think it's a boy versus girl thing as much as they are just two different kids. Here are a few of them...

Malo can't stand a dirty diaper whereas Lucie never complained about them.

Malo is very sensitive to temperature. When he was a newborn he wouldn't sleep in his bed unless the sheets where warm. Now his food has to be not to hot and to cold or he doesn't want it (he's getting more flexible). Lucie for the longest time ate everything straight from the fridge cold or at room temperature.

Lucie loved sitting early and only once she could sit up on her own did she start crawling. Malo has no interest in sitting. All he's interested in is crawling.

Lucie would get tired of toys quickly and then would cry for a new one. When Malo is tired of a toy he crawls around looking for new ones.  

Lucie had to be rocked and rocked and rocked to get her to fall asleep. When Malo is tired we lay him in his bed and he falls asleep (sometimes...). At the same time, Lucie slept through the night at 2 and a half months and Malo still doesn't really do that (or really doesn't do that, as the case might be).

 

Some things they have in common is they are both really healthy kids, they both love to eat and eat and eat, they are easy and fun to travel with, they're great about taking baths, music helps both of them fall asleep, and they both love their mommy and daddy very much (which is really the most important).