Rocky

Wading in the stream:

Happy to feel the sunshine:

Snow Much Fun!

Last Friday, we woke up to this:

Sophie and Pascal built a snowman:

Sophie gave him a kiss:

Our angel made a snow angel (that is Pascal's angel below her):

And then Pascal pulled out his childhood sled and pulled us around the village.  Unlucky for you and lucky for me, THERE ARE NO PICTURES :)

P.S.  We have since purchased bona fide snow boots for Sophie and I located a coordinating scarf to avoid the explosion of patterns and colors that she has going on . . .

19 Months

Here she is, in her static-haired glory, playing on her car seat:

She is a hoot, as we watch her personality emerge.  She loves to say "no, no, no", even when she doesn't mean it!  Her vocabulary is exploding, and she can follow directions, putting something in the garbage, looking for something, etc.  She can also ignore directions :)

Ladderback

Like most toddlers, Sophie loves to climb.  Our kitchen chairs have rungs on them so she is able to easily and quickly scramble onto the seat before easily and quickly scrambling onto the table.

This is why it's hard for me to cook dinner.

Before we left, as we were eating lunch, Pascal felt Sophie's fingers and thought she was tickling him.  He turned around to find that she had climbed up the back of the chair, just like a ladder:

 What a little monkey!

Operation Christmas Card Photo: Take Two

This morning, I put the red dress back on Sophie, determined to get a decent Christmas card photo.

Here are a few that I got to choose from: 

Well, huh.  Since it wasn't raining this morning, we (Kellie, Isabel, Sophie and I) headed outside.  Kellie's job was to distract Sophie and encourage sweet faces.  Let's face it, though, at 18 months old, Sophie is interested in anything BUT the camera.

Operation Santa Photo: FAIL

Last year, it was so easy. 

This year, we stopped by a few days ago to say hi and Sophie was fine.

Today, I gussied her up (sans black hair bow, which she kept pulling out) and we got in line.  I truly didn't think she would have a problem, but hey!  Guess what!

She didn't even want to be near His Royal Jolliness.  Santa suggested perching her on my left knee, so he could read the story to her.  She twisted her body to the right, grabbed my right shoulder and would.not.let.go.

At one point, she was ready to burst into tears.  AWESOME.

So here it is, in all its glory, because this photo will NOT be our Christmas card this year (and I love the way my glasses slid down, partially obscuring my eyes. MORE AWESOME.):

Spoon Fun (Taken November 15. Note jaunty ponytail to keep hair out of eyes!)

A Little Post-Bath Yoga

(Taken November 11)

Moulin d'Orincles

The word moulin means "mill".  So, Le Moulin Rouge is The Red Windmill.  A pepper grinder is a moulin à poivre.

And here in Orincles, there is Le Moulin.  Our new friends, the Philadelphians, are renting this furnished house which used to be a grain mill back in the day.  The mill was operated by water, as it was built over a river.

Inside the house, there are reminders of those days.  For lack of proper terminology, I won't even begin to describe what they are but I do know that two large pulleys have been re-purposed as end tables by putting a piece of glass on top (does this remind you of the "stupid wagon wheel coffee table" scene from When Harry Met Sally?)

But the coolest thing is that at some point, someone cut a hole in the floor and installed a trap door of heavy-duty glass to watch the water flow underneath!  Sophie wasn't too sure of walking over it but once one of the sons did, she followed suit: 

 

 

P.S.  Cathy and Laurent are very nice.  They want to practice their English so that makes them even nicer.  Total sidenote:  the French do not do the "th" sound.  So, Cathy is pronounced Ca-tee (basically, two words, not like catty) and her full name is Catherine, which the French pronounce Ca-treen.  WHATEVER.  I call her Cathy with a "th", which I'm sure she is used to after living in the U.S. for five years :) 

Red Sauce, Four Ways

And all of them are tasty :)

(Blogger has some new formatting buttons and I can't get the pics aligned to the left . . .)
 

 

Addicted To You Tube

Now that I've figured out You Tube, here is one more (older) video of Sophie.

My disclaimers: Sophie had her bath before dinner that night, hence a shirtless Pascal and a diaper-only Sophie, and my apologies for my rambling commentary. What can I say?

Gimme Those Keys

Sophie is clutching - count 'em: one, two, three! - different sets of car keys in her hand, while clinging to Pascal (note: I said "smile!" and that's the face he made. Mr. Photogenic, he is not.):

We Know How To Have Fun On A Friday Night

Giddy Up

One of Sophie's recent obsessions is our shoes: she loves shuffling around in our slippers, flip flops, tennies, whatever:

Test

Just trying out the email feature to update the blogs . . . Happy Rainy Sunday from France!

Basket Case

Sophie pulled down her toy baskets and was perched on the ledge when she leaned back too far:

Please Ignore The Dirty Face

And instead notice Sophie's new shoes . . .

Kiwifest 2009

It's done: we harvested a lot of kiwis. We've already shared quite a few and I will be scouring the internet for creative ways to enjoy kiwis! Sophie was a huge help this year.

Handing the pruners to Daddy:














Moving the flat:




















Taking her job as quality-control inspector very seriously:














Climbing the stepladder to help Pascal:

Warning! Dragon On The Loose

But Pascal caught her, with a little help from Chouchou:














See? She's harmless :)

I Knew This Would Happen Sooner Or Later

Sophie finally figured out that she could wedge herself into her baby's stroller! Pascal humored her and pushed her around the kitchen a little bit:

Pre-Harvest Kiwi Assessment

Our little assessor:

Yoseikan-In-Training

Do you see Pascal's foot in the upper left corner? He was doing air kicks in the kitchen. Sophie was grazing on a baguette in the bread drawer but stopped long enough to copy her papa:

Another Cheesy Day

Here's Sophie enjoying a piece of brie in Pascal's arms. Notice the foot nonchalantly resting on the edge of the table . . .

Got Yogurt?

Another adventure in self-feeding:

Ready For School

She won't go to school until she's three, but this backpack was too cute to pass up. So, it's stashed until September 2011, but someone found it and insisted on putting it on! It's hard to tell in the photos, but it truly is huge on her:




















Moving in to give WK a pat:

Mademoiselle Universe

Training with Daddy for the next competition:

Happy Fall!

Taken yesterday, of Sophie on her pumpkin rocking chair:

Footloose

She splashed in a few puddles, inspected a few snails, looked at the grapes and then it was time to go home:

16 Months

And they've passed quickly.

Sophie got an A+ at her checkup, weighing in at 10.8 kg (23.8 lbs, between the 50th and 75th percentiles) and measured 83 cm (32.7", between the 90th and 95th percentiles).

Our tall girl, with the wind in her hair:

Little Maman

Sophie loves her new baby from Alivia and since she is always trying to push her own stroller around (which is too big and heavy), I splurged and bought a Sophie-sized version:














The minute Pascal pulled it out of the box and popped it open, Sophie was all over it, pushing it between the kitchen and the living room. Money well spent, I say!

Spaghetti In Seattle

Enjoying her first tray of spaghetti:

Thermobaby Babytop

This is the portable chair that Sophie received as a gift:






It's quite functional and versatile, as it can be used without the tray so the child can eat at the table.

Yesterday, while looking at a grocery store flyer, I also learned that it's more functional if one ACTUALLY LOOKS AT THE BOX IT CAME IN, because I learned that it converts into a chair:






Sophie is thrilled, and loves climbing on and off!

I don't know if she'll be sitting like this though:

At The Car Wash

Pascal was washing the car so Sophie grabbed a scrub brush to "help":














She took her work VERY seriously, following Pascal as he moved around the car :)