Michael, The Squirrel

Michael sometimes does resemble a squirrel.

His hair is chestnut brown...and for a while he had kind of long bushy hair that hung over his collar (now, it has been trimmed).

He's got lots of big front teeth, perfect for gnawing nuts (that he's not allowed to have until he is 3).

He's got the chubby cheeks to store nuts in if needed.

He takes his food, hides it around the house, and then finds it a couple of days later and eats it.

He chirps/barks sometimes just like a squirrel once did to Brian at tu.

He gets around on all fours but can balance on his legs if needed.

I think that's it. Luckily, Michael is a human despite all these similarities to the animal kingdom.

Love,
P

First Haircut

With Thanksgiving finally over, we can now have time to play with Michael instead of say, cleaning house or grocery shopping/etc. Yesterday, Brian gave Michael his first hair cut. He snipped off Michael's rat tail that hangs over the collars of his shirts. Nice!

I brushed his hair for the first time today b/c it was wild and wooly.

Love,
P

Lusting...After...Home...

Well, it's the holidays...and Brian and I are a bit homesick, although we probably wouldn't admit it outloud.

Just a couple of days ago...we google.mapped Austin. You know, with the really cool map that you can hybrid Satellite and street and actually SEE your house/car on it. No nerd jokes...please.

Anyways, we popped over to my friend Renee's house and stared at her roof, wondering why we couldn't see her tree house. We ran over to the Arboretum and said hi to our old Barnes and Noble. Then we popped over to Scofield Ridge, our old apartment. Thought we could see The Dart in the parking lot since the map was old, but we aren't too sure of that.

We'll probably never end up in Austin again...but it was a great 4-5 years for us there. I really miss it there...so much so that just looking at a google map and pretending to drive in the old Blueberry was enough. For today.

Don't know if you guys are aware of us schlepping goods home from the US (our family does!). Here's an article that hit a bit close to home!
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-druckerman14nov14,1,1090368.story?coll=la-news-a_section&ctrack=1&cset=true

Love,
P

Who needs a pool when you can have a STRIKE!

During Michael's nap today, the French decided to further punctuate their transportation/government workers strike by holding a demonstration.

The march started at Place D'Italie, which is about 10 minutes south on our street. They marched up our street and all the way to Les Invalides. All 350,000 to 700,000 of them. Yup...no typo with the zeros there!

The strike lasted from about 2:30pm to 5:30pm. Here are some aspects of their strike that DID not wake Michael up from his nap:

• Guys with percussion equipment: snare drums, timpanis on their chests...etc
• Girls shrieking at the top of their lungs
• People singing/chanting
• Leaders on their bullhorns
• Loud....VERY loud music
• Air horns

The noise lasted all 3 hours and it was SO LOUD. I can't imagine what it was like on the street. At one point, I looked out my window and couldn't see anything but smoke from the flares. Yup, they had red flares too.

But Michael slept through it ALL and didn't wake up until he was done with his 2 hour nap at 3:30. But as you know...the strike still was going on.

Here is a link to a newspaper website if you are interested:

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-823448,36-980685@51-979908,0.html

This is FRANCE! Gotta love workers striking b/c they can't retire at age 50!

Love,

P

SHOPPING I SAY!

Today, I spent the day shopping at La Defense (A MALL) with a friend of mine to celebrate weaning Michael. I left with an empty carryon suitcase and came back with it PACKED and with a tube of tablecloth that was bigger than me.

The French are SERIOUS about setting their table. They have really gorgeous paper table linens that you can get anywhere! I got some nice ones for Thanksgiving at a hypermarket called Auchan. Although they did not have turkey ones...

I found Brian a pair of boxers at the Gap with turkeys all over them. Can you believe there were 30 of them there??? What were the French thinking passin' these beauties up??? I bought them in deep red.

Today, Michael walked the entire length of the couch (about 10-12 feet) WITHOUT falling down or holding on to anything!!! WAY TO GO MICHAEL!

Love,
P

Filthy Bug

I was waiting for the metro yesterday and decided to sit down on one of their nasty chairs. There are usually four chairs and they are spread about 18 apart from each other. So a bit later, some dude comes and sits down in the chair to my right. So I look at him to make sure he's not too weird and I see this cockroach looking bug leave from under his chair and come towards me. I wasn't having any of that so I started blowing at that bug just to you know scare him a bit and send him away from me. It worked! The bug did a 180 and started back towards the other guy who was giving me a 'what the hell are you doing, idiot?' look. Luckily the bug veered behind the other guy's chair and I made it home safe and sound.

Ok...so it's been almost a month since we posted...but it's not for lack of effort. It's for lack of anything really interesting to talk about. Now, if you are an avid reader of Michael's blog, you will see we have spent much time documenting Michael's monumental moments (like his 1st steps!). So it is no surprise that the rest of the things in our life pale in comparison to our baby's transition to toddlerhood! Toot for that little guy!

Monday, it was my birthday. A whoppin' 29 years old. And to be honest...it was about as exciting as that middle sentence there...but it was really great none-the-less. Brian and I are really low maintenance birthday people. We don't expect much! Brian got me some things that I needed (ear muffs while I run, mortar and pestle (don't ask)). Brian came home EARLY!!! And we got Thai takeout and watched Grey's Anatomy together. It was really PERFECT. Relaxing and getting to spend the evening with my favorite person was exactly what I needed.

And Michael gave me a great birthday present...and is still giving both Brian and I are birthday presents! He was SUPER GOOD on my birthday, even when I forced him to go shopping with me since it was my birthday. He didn't cry at all and even ate a croissant and danced for me in Zara. It was precious. This week, he has been his normal awesome self, playing, terrorizing, and climbing in our laps for hugs. This was QUITE different than his week last week where he was clingy and wanted to be carried all day. It was a welcome change!

And then today! Our babysitter came (despite the metro strike, GO HER!) and Brian and I went on a 4 hr date (kind of like the 3 hour tour on Gillian's Island, except we came home). Brian and I took off walking towards the 5th arrondisement, which is very nice and near us! We popped over to Starbucks and grabbed a Vanilla Latte and Creme brulee latte to go and went exploring near Place Contrescarpe and rue Mouffetard while on the way to the Cluny museum.

The Cluny Museum is a museum of middle age history. Due to the strike, they were closing early at 4pm and admission was FREE. SCORE, TEAM BESANCON PARIS! Highlights:

• Stained glass that you could see UP CLOSE from Sainte Chappelle...which as you all know you can only really admire stained glass from pretty far below so to see it less than 1 foot from your face is pretty neat.
• A carved statue of Mary holding baby Jesus....common you say right? Throw in the fact that Mary's right boob was hanging out and baby Jesus was breastfeeding from it while caressing it. GO NURSING MOMS!
• A modern photographer took some VERY UP CLOSE pictures of the stained glass and it was amazing. A small mistake/blip was as big as a football and was the focal point of this one picture with the brush streaks of red coming down it from the glass. VERY different.
• Tapestries with Lady and unicorns. Apparently very famous and in this very dark and light controlled room as to properly preserve them
• I bought a book about all the magnificent cathedrals in France. It's neat b/c it describes all the vocabulary for cathedrals/architecture in French, has pictures of ones that we should visit and ones we have visited, and also has cool cathedral photography which serves as inspriration for me when I go visit too. Cathedral shots are all the same so some of the angles are very cool.

Afterwards...we just wandered around...by the Luxembourg Gardens, to a cool toy store called Le Ciel Est Tout le Monde (http://www.lecielestatoutlemonde.com/us/page1.html), down around Claude Bernard...then to RUE SAINT JACQUES (VOILA BILLY!), another toy store over there, and then to Glaciere, then home. Totally relaxing, totally fun, and totally what we needed.

With Brian's 30th birthday nearing and my 29th birthday over...it was refreshing to take that leisurely stroll. To reflect on our life. To embrace and appreciate the beauty of our life here in Paris. Being among all these old buildings, gorgeous parks, lovely scenary everday makes us take it for granted. It is just a blur in our existence as we run from work, to the poste, groceries. Sometimes...it is necessary to not have plans...to just wander where we feel like...and to recognize as we gained one more year in our lives that ALL we could ever want...is what we have right now. In this moment. Always. Nothing more and nothing less.

Friends and family...thanks for always checking in, for your birthday wishes, for your birthday blessings, for your prayers, and for YOU including us in your lives. It is what makes OUR lives so whole.

Love,

B&P&M

Michael has his first runny nose today. I think he caught it from our nanny who had a runny nose last week but she didn't run a fever so I figured it was ok. Guess not!

Michael got dizzy for the first time today. Brian was holding him and spinning around and around. Michael couldn't even stand up when Brian put him down.

Michael had his first dim sum breakfast on Sunday! He LIKED IT! I mean...who doesn't?? ;o)

Love,
P

Michael got his first pair of shoes this past Friday! They are blue. And 61 euro. OUCH.

We went to Square Rene Legall and Michael practiced being a toddler in his new shoes. I put him on this abstract horse thing that was on a huge spring and he liked bouncing back and forth in that. It was no Radio Flyer RawHide though. Then, we bounced a bit on this see saw, which wasn't really a see saw. Just two seats on springs connected by a wooden beam. So I just put Michael in the seat, sat in front of him and bounced him around. Then, I let him slide down the slide with a little help. He liked that. There was thing silver ball that spun so I sat him on that and went round and round with him until I almost fell over.

Then, Michael took over the playground. He tried to crawl up the slide and thought it was funny that he kept sliding down. I put him on the ground and he held onto the slide while walking around. He saw a girl playing with some sand next to the slide so he went over there, knelt down, and touched it too.

After which, a pigeon came into view and Michael attempted his best to chase after it. But as nature would have it, the pigeon escaped. He did this while just holding onto my finger!! He took his own steps and everything.

I carried him over to another section of the park and put him back on the ground. He was fascinated by the leaves on the floor so he would walk over to them while holding my finger, bend down, pick up a leaf, and give it to me! He chose 3 different leaves to share with me and then wanted to be carried because he was tired. So I thought it was a good idea to go to Franprix and buy orange juice.

Michael had a low fever yesterday (100.9). NOt sure why but he was ok today so I took him to the park. Weird.

Love,
P

More video

Now that I know how to edit the size and length of the videos, I am going back through some old ones we took. They kind of stink but I found this gem when Michael was first learning to crawl. This is from July 12, 2007.



Then there's this guy from October 30th, 2006, 13 days old. The background sound is classic with John Madden discussing what is and what is not a fumble. The baby is pretty boring except for those sneezes. He still sneezes in pairs!

Birthday Video

I've got this video editing down now! Almost.
Here is a clip of Michael at his birthday party eating his cake. He loves it. Not.
For background, he had been sitting naked in this chair without eating any cake for about 5 or 7 minutes. He was feeling really uncomfortable because everyone was staring at him, he was naked and he had a chocolate lump in front of him. Right before this clip, he dropped a chunk of cupcake into his chest between the restraints on his highchair.

The Injury

I'm in the bathroom and I hear Phuong going ballistic, yelling bring the bandaids. So I get the "Bob the Builder" bandaids and run in to find Michael with a red dot on his forehead. I put a bandaid on him anyway.

The other kid

Yesterday, Phuong had another mom over for French class. Her husband had to go on a business trip so I had to watch Michael and her son, Elyo, so they could actually concentrate on studying. Elyo is quite a bit larger than Michael, about 8 pounds and a bit of height too even though they're only 1 day apart in age. And he can walk really well.

Michael was funny, he looked very apprehensive when Elyo started playing with his toys. It was funny because Elyo took all the cool toys at first and Michael went and got out his books. Here's little Michael surrounded by 5 books and big Elyo "taking" his trucks and stuffed animals. I also played with Elyo a bit because he deserved some attention too. Michael didn't take well to this and would look at me like I was leaving him for another baby. He crawled over to me to read him his books and assert his rightful place as real son. That was great.

Since they were noisy and the kitchen is right next to the living room, I moved all the toys into Michael's room and brought out the cool electronic toys. Elyo started playing with the walker with the sounds, then Michael walked over there, pushed the toy out of Elyo's reach and positioned himself between the toy and Elyo. He never let Elyo take over that toy. Michael left a couple of times to play with other toys but if he heard Elyo playing with that other toy he would come and take it from him. Later, the boys were running and crawling around and Elyo was pining for his mom so I tricked them back into Michael's room with a bag full of toys. Elyo got there first but Michael came close behind and pulled himself up onto his crib. Then he kind of walk-lunged at Elyo and basically tackled him and took the toys. Good work boy.

Elyo was soon getting fussy, as it turns out he was running a fever due to his vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella. He had this pacifier in his mouth but he had been crying enough that his nose had started running. So he had all this snot dripping into his stupid pacifier attached to his shoulder. I'm sure he was eating most of it, and it was disgusting but what is one going to do? I didn't want to get his contagions and to contract lockjaw and nightvision. No thank you.

Later, Elyo and Michael were playing nicely in the living room. Elyo started crying, I tried to comfort him, but Elyo had had enough and he stood up to go and find his mom. He whirled around quickly and took off only to find Michael in his path. His giant rugby physique wasn't nimble enough to avoid Michael so he ran him over and fell on him. Michael starts bawling, Elyo intensifies his crying, and I'm hugging Michael and trying to simultaneously comfort Elyo and nothing is working. Fortunately his mom came out and calmed him down a bit but didn't do anything about those boogers streaming out of his nose.

I think we can wait a little while on having Bors or Astrid Pilar.

Today is the official day that Michael started to walk. He let go of us and took 5-8 steps all on his own. And he is also starting to walk to nearby things instead of dropping and crawling. We have video so we're going to try to post later today.

So today is the day. Today is the day my little baby turned into a little toddler.

Love,
P

Here is a video clip of Michael walking. He takes a good 5 or 6 steps.