Sunday, November 25, 2007

Thanksgiving in London

Pascale's friend Serena came for a play date the other day. When I brought out the markers, Serena said, "They're coloring pens." I realized that what I really need to do is spend more time with 3-year-olds. Adults never correct my Americanisms, and I could really benefit from someone to adjust my vocabulary.

Josephine is starting a new phase. For the past week, she skipped her nap for 3 days, her vocabulary is exploding, and she's getting much more headstrong. She officially a Terrible Two.

We had Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, since Bernie had to work on Thursday. A colleague of Bernie's from New York was stranded in London, so we had him over. I think he appreciated a home cooked meal.

We had a hedgehog theme going on this week:




More makeup play:
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It rained a lot (imagine that):



Here's Josephine fending off the paparazzi:


Here's my beautiful turkey:
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Tom was our guest for Thanksgiving dinner. Notice how Josephine jumps in anyone's lap, but Pascale is a little more reserved.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

The Start of the Cold Weather

We were in an elevator at a store today, and it's one of those that talks to you. Josephine was repeating everything it said. "Going up." "Going Down." It was really cute.

Pascale will be an angel in the school play. Luckily, the school is selling DVD's of the show. I'm glad that we can put off buying a video camera for a little longer. I'll try to post the video on YouTube when I have it.

Here are some pics from this week:
It was cold this week, but Josephine was a trooper at the playground. I'm a big believer in fresh air and exercise, but the cold weather sorely tested my resolve to get Josephine out and running around. I was practically begging her to leave the playground because I was too cold.


Pascale brought a Diwali candle home from school, so we celebrated Diwali last week:


Pascale practicing for her future princess career:


Josephine just loves Aunt Carin:


Pascale got some play makeup, which looks just beautiful on her:

Monday, November 12, 2007

Trip to Paris

Aunt Carin is visiting this week! We're all having a great time with her. She ran around with us last week, taking Pascale to school and Josie to the playground. And best of all, she watched the kids so Bernie and I could go to Paris! We had a wonderful weekend there. We stayed on the Left Bank near Les Invalides and wandered around the university sector in the evenings. The first night, we ate at this amazingly cool-looking art deco restaurant that was totally touristy and the food was mediocre at best. The next night, we ate at more of a neighborhood place where the food was much better but the service was slooow. They simply could not conceive that anyone would want to spend less than 2.5 hours eating dinner. We went to the Musee D'Orsay, which is my second favorite museum in the world, not least because they have Pompon's polar bear there. Then we crossed the Seine and went window shopping at all the fancy stores, and bought berets for the girls. We got ice cream at this gelato place, and it took them like 5 minutes to put the ice cream on the cones. I was wondering how it could possibly take that long, then they handed us the cones and the ice cream was arranged in the shape of a flower. It was so cool.

On Sunday morning we took a ride on the ferris wheel that's located at the end of the Champs Elysees. It was absolutely terrifying. I kept thinking that if we all die, we can't even sue. We lived through it, though, and it was a good time to be there because the Veteran's Day parade was going down the Champs Elysees, and the ferris wheel was a good vantage point from which to see it. After the parade, the soldiers were walking around, and quite a few of them had a sword in one hand and a mobile phone in the other. It was an interesting contrast.

Today, we went to St Paul's (which was closed due to some possibly terrorist-related issues) and across the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern. At this moment, there's a 20-foot-high sculpture of a spider in the courtyard. The girls really like sculpture, and they especially liked this one, since they could walk under it and touch it.

Here's Les Invalides, right by our hotel:

Here we are with the bear sculpture at the Musee D'Orsay:


Here I am looking dramatic:

I bought a hat, which they put in this neat box:

This is our funky hotel room:

Veterans Day Parade, as seen from the ferris wheel:

Back in London, Josie liked my hatbox:

Here's Aunt Carin at the playground:

Here are the girls outside the Tate:



And the girls and Carin on the Millenium Bridge:

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Parties Galore, Fireworks

It was Guy Fawkes Day yesterday, which is the fireworks day in England. I heard that the big fireworks in London would be in Battersea Park, which we can see pretty well from our window, so I told Pascale that she could stay up for them. She could not manage it, though, because she was just too tired. But if I had known how amazing they would be, I would have forced her to stay up. They were really incredible. Next year, we'll have to have a party for Guy Fawkes so we can share our view with others.

Pascale had a whopping FOUR parties to go to this week. The first 2 were halloween parties. She wore a ballerina costume, which was quite fetching on her. The other 2 were birthday parties. I think we may get a respite from parties for a couple of weeks at least.

Josephine was sick for a lot of the week with a bad cough and a fever. I took her to the doctor, who said it just needs to run its course. At the same time as all this illness, her bottom molars came in, too, so she was doubly miserable. She's feeling better this weekend, though.

Here is Pascale at various Halloween parties:


Here the girls are petting a bunny at one of the birthday parties:

I love it when Pascale reads to Josephine:

Here's the cake at another birthday party:

Josephine's current favorite book is Go Dog Go:

Here are the fireworks, as viewed from our living room window: