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gateau des rois - a brioche topped with candied fruit

We went to Aix en Provence for the day on Saturday (please don’t pay any mind to the photo as I cannot seem to do that city justice with my camera) and had a nice time walking around.  The city is so pretty and alive and the weather was just fabulous.  Little Marie-Axelle had a little “accident” and needed a full change of clothing. Of course we noticed this after we had just parked in a parking garage and of course I had not brought a change of clothes. Luckily it didn’t take long to buy her another pair of tights and a dress but next time I’ll be better prepared.

Sunday morning was spent by my boys at the pool while I stayed home with my girl to tidy up. Later in the afternoon we had some friends over and ate a special cake called a gâteau des rois which is made especially to celebrate the Epiphany. I personally like the northern version of this cake better but I must say that the northern version does nothing but expand your waistline…and I say this while eating ice cream and drinking champagne. Yes, that’s right, ice cream and champagne can be a wonderful combination when you are an exhausted mother of a toddler and two month old! Why not?

Love and light,

Danielle

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May you two always be good to each other, love each other and be buddies for life.

I love you.

Love and light,

Mama

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I received the package that I ordered from an online Finnish shop today (it’s listed in my blog roll)!!! Now I have to make the trip out to IKEA so that I can buy frames for my new posters.  In the meantime, I’m trying to really identify the items that I use and the items that I just “store” in our home. I really want to downsize and only keep what we use – everything else needs to either be donated or perhaps sold.

Baby update – Marie-Axelle is getting stronger every day and she’s really able to hold her head up now. Also, her little face is getting rounder as she has started to fill in a bit. Oh, and Théo’s great too – the boy did the moonwalk today while dancing to “Billy Jean” by Michael Jackson.

Love and light,

Danielle

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My baby girl is growing (she’ll be two months old soon) and I can’t tell you how much I enjoy our “talking” sessions. Her coos are so sweet that I just want to eat her up. Also, isn’t it nuts how we can’t stop staring at our kids when they are this young?

About my boy- I put on my makeup while seated at the kitchen table with him this morning. I  then left and came back to find him stuffing my makeup (including badly closed mascarra tubes and eyeliners) back into my makeup bag and telling me, “C’est ‘fine’ mama. C’est fini.” Which is a mixture of French and English where he’s basically telling me that, “everything is fine and he finished.”(Yes, there was makeup all over his little face and even in his hair) Hmmm…guess that means that I have to hide my makeup bag from now on.

Love and light,

Danielle

riding his "moto" today

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all cosy in her baby björn

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I’m not the first, nor the last, person to stay at home with more than one small child and although I feel that I show a good amount of patience with my children, I also know that they are both very mellow and sweet kids, which makes taking care of them that much easier. Still, it’s hard work and there are days like today when I feel like I could use a break.

I met another woman at the park a few weeks back that has three young ones and they’re all a year a part… She told me that she has it so hard that she tends to cry at home from time to time. We’re women that love our children, we’re not super human. Personally I’m happy that the tough days  are so few in number and I’m also happy to have a husband that helps out.

It’s crazy though, because as soon as I start to feel overwhelmed or tired I think about the fact that my boy will be starting preschool this September. I already know how September will creep up on me with such a rapid pace that I’ll wonder how all the months in between could have flown by without me noticing. All of this means that I have to remind myself that this short chapter in my life will soon come to an end and although I am allowed to feel tired or overwhelmed once in a blue moon, I’ve also got to appreciate the fact that I do have this time with my two kids.

After all, life is short but our childhood is even shorter and I’m very thankful that so far, I haven’t missed a thing in their young lives.

Love and light,

Danielle

(pictures were taken this afternoon – mr.T was soooo happy riding his moto that it was difficult to get him to leave)

mr.T on the right

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I’ve never been one to worry about my age. I’ve always thought of my age as just another number but for some reason this birthday is different than all the previous ones. I’m 35 today. My father says that I’m now almost 40…(seriously Papi, I’ve got five more years until that happens!) but the thing that really gets me is the fact that I cannot believe that I’ve been around this long. Wasn’t it just yesterday that I was getting ready to go to a club at 23:00? Now I’m lucky if  I can keep my eyes peeled open at that late hour…

Still though, there is something very charming and womanly about 35. I can’t help but feel that this age is going to be good to me.  So here’s to 35 and to a great year with my husband and two kids.

Love and light,

Danielle

(pictures were taken in Cassis where we spent the morning of my birthday (Jan.7) with friends)

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let's eat

wearing ALL of the crowns from our "crackers"

marie-axelle with another beautiful cousin

mr.T ate EVERYTHING that he "decorated" his cookie with...over and over again

driving at the beach with his papa

stopping to make a phone call with his mama

my babies

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new year's eve dinner

my pierre is ready for the next course

a rainbow after a lot of rain on the drive home

So we took our first real family road trip to visit Pierre’s family during the Christmas break and the only reason that I am still sane (as opposed to insane…) is that we bought our boy a DVD player for the occasion. Best-Gift-Ever!! He wasn’t cranky (because he was watching his Cars 2 movie), he wasn’t screaming to get out of his car seat (because he was watching his Cars 2 movie), he didn’t sleep all day and stay awake all night (because… you’ve  picked up on the pattern right?). Anyhow, if you’re planning a family road trip with a toddler I highly recommend making the investment, and yes, it is an investment (in your own mental health).

Sanity aside, we feel lucky to have been able to make that trip and spend time with our family. It was especially fun on this trip because our boy REALLY believes in Santa Clause so it was fun to go through that whole thing again, except this time, as a parent myself. Doing that actually brought back a lot of memories of my own Christmas experiences and all I can say is that my father (who I call Papi) was the best Santa ever. He made every Christmas extra special for me and I only hope that I am able to give Théo the same kind of gift. Now that my days of waiting up for Santa are over, I have come to realize that my father’s gifts weren’t the real gift but rather, it was the whole set up behind the affair that was.

He’d do things like make my mother and I wait in the car before leaving the house on Christmas Eve to attend a party while, unbeknownst to me, he was quickly placing all of my gifts from Santa under the tree – and he’d even put some IN the chimney too.  Or I also love how he’d wake me up, close to midnight on the same night, by running into my room and telling me that he had just heard Santa and asking me if I could hear the reindeers’ hooves on the roof (“yes Papi I can!!”) or if I saw the red light in the sky that was Santa’s sleigh flying away (“yes” again!!). No wonder why I love Christmas so much.

I love you Papi!!!

Love and light,

Danielle

marie axelle with one of her cousinsgood morning!!Christmas crowns"baby karting" on the beach this morningyes, I wore heels...

We are in Les Sables visiting Pierre’s family and if you have ever used a foreign keyboard you’ll understand the pain that I’m going through right this second ;)

Going to rest now, while I have the chance!

Love and light,

Danielle

our tour guide is also the man that plays the guitar for us on Fridays at mr.T’s open school :)

too excited by the pig to stand still

the fountain was turned into a mini zoo

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waiting for the fire and dance show to begin

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Mr.T’s open school put on a special snack hour (filled with music) and a personal  historical tour of our little town. To be quite honest, I didn’t pick up on almost anything that was said by our guide as we were outside and it was quite noisy, too noisy to concentrate on translating from French to English in my head…However, I think that both my boy and I (Marie-Axelle slept the whole time!) were just happy to be out and about enjoying everyone’s Christmas spirit.

After the tour we went to our favorite small square and were surprised to find it filled with animals! Odd but sweet.  After that we were off to a fire and dance show that was put on by the town.  I can tell you that my boy was very impressed with the show and so the day was, all in all, a hit.

Love and light,

Danielle

reading a bedtime story tonight, for the first time, as a group of 3

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I’m usually pretty healthy but every time I go through a big change in my life (a big move, relationship issues, new stressful job, a newborn…) I usually get so stressed out that I end up getting sick. I can totally remember the best and the worst periods of my life (because sometimes stress does attach itself to even positive things) and match them up to sickness so it’s no surprise that my immune system is down and that I ended up getting sick now.

Yesterday was a pretty crappy day as I woke up still feeling nauseous (as I had when going to bed) and I ended up vomiting about an hour into my day. That was only the beginning. At one point it go so bad that mr.T vomited while I was vomiting in the bathroom which made Pierre and I wonder if he was watching me so closely that he was now able to vomit at will… Noooo, he ended up having the same bug as I had and so this was later followed by a whole night of what I’d like to term “vomit fest” and “Elsie the Cow” night as I cleaned mr. T’s vomit and breastfed my baby girl. I was awake EVERY hour for the majority of the hour and funny enough, I think that mr.T’s being sick made me forget about my own illness to step up to the plate. It’s like the old story goes, moms are never allowed to get sick even when they are really sick.

We’re both a lot better now though. Still low appetites and headaches but no vomiting, thank goodness. As for the stress part, no one told me how much guilt I would feel while trying to take proper care of both of my children at the same time. I became so used to being able to give my son 110% that I now feel tormented by the fact that I can no longer seem to do that. My head tells me that it’s OK, that this is a normal process, that it’s good for him not to be “number 1″ forever, but my heart still hurts for him. I guess it’s made worse by the fact that he’s also such a sweet boy and that he’s taken so well to most of the changes that have come his way. On the flip side I also stressed about the fact that my baby girl is not getting the same kind of attention that I used to give my son at her age. It’s all logical, I now have two kids, but it’s going to take me some more getting used to and I’m definitely also going to need to become even more organized in my everyday life.  One small step at a time, here goes nothin’.

Love and light,

Danielle