Josh

...or Matthew if you ask Robert. This is the big news in our family, the new bundle of joy that will arrive at the end of May! I am now 20 weeks pregnant and aside from a rather large and uncomfortable ovarian cyst that was detected on my first ultrasound and subsequently removed (no fun at all), the pregnancy has gone very well and I feel totally amazing and so incredibly happy. I do not know the gender with certainty, as I have decided to wait until its birth for that, (against Robert's desires!) but that being said, I am 100% convinced I have a beautiful little baby boy growing inside me and I am quite happy with that notion for many reasons. There is not one iota of a difference between this pregnancy and the previous two, so I guess that is the main reason why I am convinced of the gender. I am desiring all the same foods; olives, oranges, fruit in general, salty stuff, Coke, rotisserie chicken, asian food. I have the same (lack of) sleep habits. My hair is thick and shiny, my skin is smooth as silk. The hair on my legs does not grow. I glow! I started feeling the baby a few weeks ago and it's the same euphoric feeling as before. I love being pregnant! I guess actually there is one difference with this pregnancy and that is that I am behind on weight gain, but after indulging for two weeks straight over these holidays, I think I am well on my way to catching up by the way my jeans are starting to feel! And also, I attribute this lower weight gain to the cyst, as I probably lost 5 or 10 pounds after surgery.

I am not really sure if it's because of the hormones running through my body or if I have just found total peace with our stage in life, but I am just so at peace and content with my life. We still don't feel that France will ever be our permanent home but we are truly happy living here and I have learned to really adjust well to those things that drive me nuts. (I STILL have some days though...and doubt that will ever change!) There are days though when I really miss family, for my own benefit and also for that of the boys. And wish that France wasn't so far away. Susie is due with her second baby 3 weeks before me and how awesome would it be to be able to share her maternity leave with her. However, I will satisfy myself with frequent phone calls, like her last leave where we talked pretty religiously. This summer was one of the greatest ever, as we got to spend a month of it at the cottage and Andrew really got to know, and fell in love with, each and every one of his cousins and I really hope we can find a way to replicate last summer again even though Robert is rather opposed to me travelling on my own. He would join us of course but would have to come later and leave earlier than us. We shall see! With respect to the baby's name, it is all a joke really, as Robert claims he will never accept Josh, and I cannot see myself every accepting Matthew for the name. But Andrew mentions Josh daily now so I wonder if it will ever grow on Robert??? And should it be a girl, there are so many names that I love that I am pretty confident we would be able to come to a quick agreement, unlike with Ryan where he was named at the last minute practically!

Happy New Year Part 2

Ryan is 2 years and 4 months old and continues to be an absolute angel. He is just sooooo easy! He goes to bed shortly before Andrew (around 8PM) and doesn't wake up until we go into his room to get him and can often be around 9 or 10 am if I don't have to wake him earlier. (he is often already awake, and just lying there happily snuggling his many doodoos). We have given significant thought to moving Ryan into Andrew's room but he just sleeps so well now for naptime (usually 3 hours) and at night time and Andrew is actually sleeping better than he has in a while too, so why fix it if it ain't broke as they say! Eventually we will set up bunk beds in Andrew's room (which I know both boys will love) but for now, things are working out pretty well status quo. Ryan pretty much potty trained himself right after he turned 2. Once we got back from Canada, I put out several potties around the house and told him that if he had to do a pee pee or caca to go in the potty and he did...just like that. No accidents, no more diapers, even for naps and night time. He does eat everything, but he too has a sweet tooth, and unfortunately eats way more sweets than Andrew did at this age. With Andrew, I did not even introduce him to much in the way of treats until well after 3, but Ryan sees whatever Andrew is eating and wants it and quickly realized that the treats taste better than the meal being served and has often frowned at his meals and requested "ikey" (aka ice cream) instead, so funny as he doesn't know the difference, obviously, in nutrition between his chicken and broccoli and an ice cream cone and is unhappy to say the least when his request is turned down! But as I said, he loves to eat what Andrew is eating so fortunately he sees Andrew eating a proper meal and he follows suit. He also helps himself to Robert's breakfast every morning which is either muesli cereal with fruit or ham and eggs and Robert has now learned to serve himself enough for the two of them! When we are at baby groups, he is never the child instigating trouble and does his own thing and loves to paint and do play-doh and crafts, etc. He goes to creche two days a week and loves that also. We were so incredibly lucky to have had the good fortune of both boys getting accepted into this creche, considering how difficult it is here in France to get in. It is such an amazing atmosphere and so different than the usual style of creche whereby every child is somewhat forced to adapt to the rhythm of the rest of the children. I like that he gets an early exposure to French among many other things. At home, his favourite toys are cars, balls and Lego. Funny that to this day, Andrew still has zero interest in cars and it is Ryan's favourite thing to play with. But he also loves to play with whatever Andrew is playing with. We have gone through countless markers now, as that is the only writing instrument Andrew wants to use (that is what he uses at school) so Ryan doesn't want anything to do with regular crayons. The problem is that Ryan doesn't put the lids back on, so after each use, they dry up, unless I catch it before they are put away. Ryan also has a tendency to draw on all things not paper and has decorated several of our furnishings and walls with his own personal artwork. As much as I look forward to living in a nice house, with nice furnishings, I am so glad that there's really not much of value in this place and am therefore not worried about all the spills, and stains, etc. that take place on a daily basis. As I type this, the boys are hard at work with Play-doh and I know full well there will be some smothered into the carpet when they are through with it...and the carpet is pretty much all ready for the dump now so who cares?!!! Just like Andrew, Ryan LOVES to help. Whether it's me in the kitchen or doing housework, or Robert taking down the recycling and trash, or assembling a toy, or fixing the sink, whatever, Ryan (and Andrew too) are right in there, with their own tools and supplies, helping along. I love to have their company though 99% of the time, it takes 5 times as long to accomplish a task, and usually involves more mess, but their look of pride on the finished product is always worth the efforts. Ryan's vocabulary is slightly ahead of Andrew's at this stage but only marginally. For the most part, only the three of us can decipher his language. For example, Spiderman is "biya", Mickey is "Miya" and Andrew is "Ya-ya". Over these holidays though, he's added several new words so I think it's on the verge of coming together. For now, I adore the way he communicates, and aside from the occasional frustration on both parts when I can't guess what he's saying, it's absolutely precious. Like Andrew, Ryan loves, loves, loves the water and always has. We try to go to the pool as often as possible and I have stepped down from the water wings to the swimming belt and will soon remove that altogether as I did with Andrew. We are very excited about the new aquatic facility recently built in this area which will open on Jan. 4th and will likely get a lot of business from this family.

Happy New Year!

I truly cannot believe how long it has been since my last post. I have given some thought to discontinuing this blog entirely but then when I read back on previous posts, it inspired me to keep it going. The problem is time. Admittedly, I could find a way to find the time for periodic updates, as I am a stay-at-home mom and I am not in an office 8 to 10 hours per day. But over the past year, I have found my life has become busier than ever, by choice for the most part. It doesn't help that my "baby" is no longer taking two 3-hour naps per day. But I have found that our weekly schedule is filled with children's activities; baby groups, birthday parties, sporting events, social gatherings and other activities in addition of course to the endless stream of errands, loads of laundry, dealings with the houses in FL, etc, and when we are home together, my attention is dedicated largely to one or both boys. I enjoy this. Thoroughly. I have my bad days, don't get me wrong; but for the most part, I savour every second of every day I have with the boys. Both boys are fully capable of playing independently now but I enjoy involving myself in new board games, helping Andrew to read and write, helping Ryan achieve new milestones, etc. And I don't want to feel any guilt about NOT sitting in front of the computer loyally and filling in my blog updates. So, I won't. And if my next update happens to be in another year, then so be it. But I won't quit entirely.

Andrew had his 5th birthday 11 days ago. Hard to believe that I entered motherhood FIVE years ago. He has grown from that wee baby that nursed at least 3 times a night for 16 months straight to a very tall and slender, handsome, intelligent and energetic, B-O-Y. He is ALL B-O-Y. He loves dragons and castles and knights and scary beasts and getting dirty, and play fighting or wrestling (drives me nuts and has resulted in countless amounts of time-outs), playing with guns, (I caved this Christmas and let him have a toy gun that came along with a cowboy costume that came from Santa but it doesn't seem to matter because he makes a gun out of whatever toy he happens to be playing with anyway, or uses an imaginary one if he doesn't happen to have a real toy at the time). He is also very creative and can spend hours in front of his Playmobil castles making stories up about the little men and animals, etc. (he STILL enjoys playing with his animals!) and also loves to paint and play with play-doh and do all sorts of crafty-type stuff. He has developed a keen interest in colouring and drawing and spends at least some time each day with his markers and paper. (finally, some quiet interests!) Every day when I pick him up from school, the first thing he does is open up his backpack and present me with a drawing that he did for me that day. Christmas time was truly magical to me this year, because of him. The countdown for Christmas started the day we went to the supermarket and bought advent calendars for each member of the family. He could barely wait until December 1st was upon us, and what a thrill it was each and every night to open up that day's window and get the chocolate treat from inside. Each time we passed a Christmas decoration or light, his whole world lit up. Because the French are really quite lame when it comes to decorating for Christmas, there are very few decorations outside of the individual old town villages. But because Andrew does not know anything otherwise, all the lights and decorations he did see were such thrills to him. And decorating our apartment, in addition to the gingerbread house and cookies, were definitely hightlights of his year. We attended many Christmas parties and Christmas-themed events and we absolutely loved going into the old town of Antibes where Andrew skated numerous times on the fake ice and drove a jeep on fake ice as well (free activities offered at this time of year by the city) and also ended up doing other rides there and usually topped the activities off by trying out a different restaurant for lunch each time in old town. Robert was off almost the entire period of school holidays and I have him convinced that never again will he work the week during the Christmas holidays, at least as long as we are here in France and he has copious amounts of time off! Marineland, where we have annual passes, was loaded with Christmas-themed shows and decor and we went several times, usually followed by hot chocolate and yummy waffles and churros, which are specialties of this time of year. The weather has been PERFECT. Cold enough to feel a little Christmassy and to enjoy a warm cup of hot cocoa but your hands and toes aren't freezing off; it would indeed be nice to have a white Christmas but at least all we have to do is stand on our balcony and look at the pristine snowy alps in the background. The morning school routine for Andrew has become smoother over the course of this year. That said, he is still not real keen to get dressed or leave the house in the morning, but once he is there, he is happy and always claims to have had a good day when I pick him up. His French is good, but the teacher has advised that it still needs improvement so I will focus on this in the new year by having play dates with French-speaking friends, French tv and reading French stories at night. But at the moment, my motivation is to continue reading skills as all of a sudden, he became extremely keen to read. It started with flash cards we've had forever and when I discovered he could read every single one, we moved up to books. Nowadays, it does take a little encouragement to get him to read but like almost everything new that Andrew attempts, he has very little patience to learn and needs a push and then once he's crossed the first hurdle, he flies! A perfect example is bike-riding. We had a family outing to the park yesterday as I was keen to teach him how to ride his bike now that we have finally removed the training wheels. He was very opposed to trying, and freaked out if I would let go and break down into a hissy fit! And then once he discovered he could ride for a few seconds on his own, he then asked me to let go and off he went! It was a thrill for all of us, even Ryan was clapping! So, we will go back again today and keep up with it on Wednesdays and weekends once school resumes. We celebrated Andrew's birthday this year with 3 different birthday parties! One was for the school friends and exclusively in French, one was on his actual birthday with just the family and the third was during the Christmas holidays for his friends that aren't in his class/the children of my friends. Andrew plays handball, a somewhat popular sport in France, every Saturday morning. We started the year with soccer too, but I found it far too serious and intense and long (2 hours every Wed. afternoon) for a then 4 year old and will probably revisit it again next fall, but will likely try out a different soccer club. I attempted to get him into the swim club but alas he was not accepted! Although he definitely passed the "test" with flying colours, the problem is high demand and lack of supply, as is the case with practically everything here in France! I have called the swim club to see if any spaces have opened up for the winter term and still waiting to hear back. Andrew continues to be the best eater out of every single child I know. He loves the food at school and would far prefer a dish of salmon and spinach with rice over chicken nuggets and fries. His only weakness in this regard is his sweet tooth! Once his meal has disappeared, he is instantly requesting dessert, and let me tell you, a bowl of fruit salad or yogourt does not suffice; he wants "junk" like ice cream or chocolate or cookies or cake and the like. This is my fault as I started giving him a treat as a reward for eating a healthy meal a long time ago and now it is an expectation. But I guess since he definitely gets in his daily nutritional requirements and by no means has an ounce of fat on his body, this is not killing him! In my personal opinion, Andrew's greatest attribute is the big brother that he is. He ADORES Ryan. He has gained new friendships over the past year and solidified others, but RyRy is without a doubt his best friend, and the only person he really cares about being in attendance wherever we go. Pretty much since day one, Andrew has been very protective of his little brother and does not let anyone mess with him! He talks to Ryan in such an endearing tone that it melts my heart. When Ryan is upset, he brings him soocies and teddy bears and the two of them are forever hugging and kissing. Not a chance that Ryan will go to bed at night without giving Ya-ya (aka Andrew) a kiss. Even though Ryan still isn't really talking, they manage to communicate with each other just fine, and it's adorable to see them dress up and play superheroes together, etc. They often burst into giggles together, one egging on the other, usually relating to some sort of mischief, or the fact that one of them did a big burp or toot! Andrew will wipe Ryan's bum when he does a poo, help him get in his clothes or jammies and get him a drink or snack when asked. They love to dress alike, so I have started buying similar outfits, particularly pyjamas. All that said, I would be kidding myself if I didn't admit that they fight all the time too. I think the biggest problem is that Andrew does not know when to stop. Andrew will be playing with him, tickling him, etc. and Ryan will laugh and ask for more. But when Ryan finally pipes up with a "POP" (aka STOP, he can't stay "stop", so he says POP instead and it's the funniest thing when he shrieks it out as he really is about to pop when he says it!). But of course, Andrew carries on and then my involvement (or Robert's) is necessary to resolve the conflict. And they fight over toys, obviously. Just like all siblings, they usually want the one that their sibling has. Robert and I found ourselves often asking Andrew to give in and give Ryan the toy even if he had it first, which Andrew often did, just to shut up Ryan! And then I realized that this was totally unfair to Andrew and not teaching Ryan a very good lesson, so now Ryan is learning to wait his turn and share and if necessary, Ryan is given a time-out as he will act out if he doesn't get his way by hitting his brother, etc. but he is getting better, finally!

FUN FUN FUN!!!

School holidays are upon us once again, and we've been having loads of fun. Every morning we leave the house shortly after 9AM and don't generally return til Ryan's naptime. Then once Ryan wakes up, we head out once again for an afternoon play. We've been getting good use of our annual pool passes, my gym membership (the kids LOVE the daycare there!), our Marineland park passes as well as plenty of playground visits. Sometimes we join a group of friends, and sometimes we do our own thing, but I'm finding of late that even if I join a group of friends, I don't get much time to converse with anyone. My hands are full with both boys, and at the moment, they are both full-on demanding of my attention. With Ryan, it's because he finds mischief anywhere we go...wanders off...empties trash cans...insists on climbing UP slides while others are waiting to descend, etc. With Andrew, it's one question after another, and even if I am engaged in a conversation with a friend, he is constantly interrupting, (though politely says "Excuse Me") only to find out what it is we are talking about! It's IMPOSSIBLE to talk on the phone when he is in the room..."Excuse me mommy, excuse me Mommy, why....?or what....?" It's all quite comical really, but can be excruciatingly frustrating when there is something I am really trying to discuss! When we're in the car, he now asks questions about every song that comes on the radio. "Who let the dogs out" song, resulted in "Who let the dogs out mommy?" "What dogs?" "Why?" "Did they go to jail?" "Did the dogs have big teeth?" Message in a bottle..."what is a message in a bottle?" What does SOS mean?" AAAHHHHH!!! But all in all, it's extremely enjoyable to have this time with the boys together, especially knowing that in a quick two weeks, one of them will be back in school full time. My mom asked me why I go out so much and the truth is, as I think most moms of more than one child would attest to, is that it is EASIER and more enjoyable for everyone. Yes, we can certainly have fun at home, playing games, puzzles, play-doh, painting, drawing, toys, etc. but each activity lasts a maximum of 30 minutes, generally involves a huge mess to clean up afterwards, and can be utterly exhausting! If I'm being honest though, another thing I absolutely love about the school holidays is that Andrew does not nap when he's home; therefore bedtime is a very strict 7PM for both of them, and it is an absolute relief at 7:05PM when I get to pour myself a well earned glass of vino, knowing that both of them are out cold for the night, and I have a couple hours to myself before going to sleep. During school, Andrew takes a "sieste" every single day and is therefore very alert and wide awake until pretty close to 10PM which is actually past my desired bedtime. But at the end of the two weeks, I have a heavy heart when Andrew returns to school. The house is too quiet, and Ryan bores easily without his big brother around to entertain him. And it doesn't help that Andrew is not keen, to say the least, about the prospect of going back to school. Perhaps we have too much fun over the holidays...and maybe if he had time to get slightly bored at home, "la rentree" (return to school) would be easier. But no regrets...it's precious time we get to share together, that I will treasure always.

My omission

One key omission in my lengthy blog update was my Momma. Several have asked in emails and it's possible that I have either not replied to your email yet (sorry) or forgotten to answer your question about my mom. The bottom line is that she is FINE now. She's already in her paradise (Florida) golfing and being the social butterfly that she is. On her last chemo at the hospital, they have some big bell-ringing ceremony where each cancer patient gets to ring the bell indicating they are through with chemo. That evening they celebrated in style with Lo and Susie and partners at a dinner and show place in Toronto. I think it's all quite amazing really. To think that I had nightmares of her being terminal in September based on the incorrect diagnosis of the prior year's mammogram. That there was hardly a complaint out of her mouth; even on the worst of days, she kept a positive attitude that the pain and weakness was short-lived. That to this day, I still forget she is bald cuz she hardly mentions it. That thanks to the many friends she has and my sisters, she was well looked after, transported, etc. etc. etc. throughout the whole journey. That thanks to the many amazing physicians, researchers, professors, etc. there is a CURE to breast cancer now.

Andrew and I continue to share what we are thankful for every night before turning out the lights. It goes without saying that I am so thankful for the above outcome. Last night, Andrew said, "I am thankful for the tomato and olive and cheese salad in the cantine (school cafeteria)"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Splendid ski semaine Jan.8-15th Montgenevre

The countdown for our ski trip began immediately after Christmas as we had marked it down on the calendar (an awesome Melissa and Doug one that I found at the great kids hair salon in Canada) and excitement was at a peak by the time we set out in the car. The trip started out a little rough, my boys have never been good car passengers, but the excitement didn't help as Andrew was a little out of control, the drive was long (5 hours), scenic, but long, and when we finally arrived in the village of Montgenevre, the snow was coming down hard, the fog was so thick you could barely see 5 feet in front of you and the roads were getting icy, not to mention the parking lot. I got out with Ryan and headed straight to the hotel and when Robert walked in with Andrew about 15 minutes later, we had discovered that we'd left Andrew's winter ski jacket at home! This was a Saturday evening, around 5PM, the snow was coming down harder and harder but we knew the stores would be closed on Sunday so as I checked in, Robert and Andrew took off to go find a ski shop to buy a jacket. As I was checking in, I was advised that the ski school and daycare sign-up were open until 7PM and that Robert and I had to get our ski rentals fitted and picked up by same time. And then Ryan takes a poo. An enormous one that went all the way down his legs to his shoes. And Robert and Andrew are gone, in the car, along with the diaper bag! So there I am, walking around the resort feeling in major need of a glass of wine after the hellish car ride, with Ryan reeking to high heaven, signing him up for daycare, getting my snow boots fitted and ski bindings set and everywhere I walked, people picked up their little ones to smell their bums...and I just felt like putting a sign on me, "IT'S MY BOY'S POO"...but I carried along and managed and it all turned out ok after that! Not sure what was the highlight cuz there were so many. Andrew loved, loved, loved "ski camp". So much so, that he was jumping with excitement when he woke up in the morning and barely wanted to take time to eat his breakfast. The ski/camp instructors were absolutely incredible with the little ones and upon picking him up the first day, he was loudly stating the group mantra, "PUMP IT UP"!!! They did all sorts of activities with the kids in addition to the 2 hours of ski instruction per day. Sledding, building snowmen, games in the snow, face-painting, dances, crafts, toys, movies and on the second last evening, they put together a show for the parents which was fantastic and Andrew loved it and was so proud. He was also very proud when he received his ski diploma and had to stand on the podium and yell, "Pump it Up"! He had such an amazing first experience with skiing and is very keen to go again. Parents could watch their children during lessons but we had to hide so that they could not see us and therefore be distracted from the lesson. It was adorable to watch him...one thing he didn't manage to succeed on was picking himself up after a fall, and I don't think he even tried, he just waited for his favourite female instructor to come along and pick him up. If you ask him the favourite part of the trip, he would say "Alex", who was the female ski instructor and I think it is Andrew's first crush!!! Robert and I got so much time together on the slopes, which was probably the best skiing I've done in my life, in terms of snow conditions, variety and length of slopes and scenery. Ryan went happily, for the most part, into his daycare and it helped that he bonded with a little girl in the group, and that he's already adjusted thanks to the awesome daycare we have for him here. And again, the daycare providers were superb. Our room was very comfortable and even had a separate area with bunk beds for him, where he loved sleeping on the top bunk for the first time. Each day when we returned from skiing, Robert and I had a little more time to ourselves to read or rest, have a glass of hot chocolate, before we went to pick up the boys. From there, we went immediately to the "piscine a balles" which was a little room filled with a jungle gym, ball pit and foam mattresses. We then proceeded to dinner, where we fed the kids in their separate kids dining area and then dropped them off again at 7PM so that Robert and I could go peacefully to the main dining room to eat dinner and drink a couple glasses of delicious wine alone. The food was good, and not cooking it or cleaning up afterwards was GREAT. I think this time around, we were now familiar with most of the French dishes, so we knew what we liked and what we didn't like when choosing from the buffet. Every night, there was at least something that we really enjoyed. The breakfasts were probably our favourite meals of the day though, and we usually prepared a picnic to eat at the lodge on the mountain for lunch while the boys ate with their "camps". Each evening, they had some sort of family entertainment going on, both before dinner and after dinner. Sometimes the four of us listened to the live band before dinner but we chose not to participate in most of the after-dinner events as we were all pretty knackered by 8:30/9PM and went straight to the room with the boys. But one night, I took Andrew to the show they put on, The Beauty and the Beast, (and Andrew corrected me, "it's La Belle et la Bete maman") and it was extremely well done. I would so highly recommend this place to anyone looking for an affordable all-inclusive ski vacation with kids, in France. Of course it came with a few French idiosyncrasies though. Like the lights in the corridors of the hotel were on a timer, to go off after about a minute, so half the time we were walking to our room, all of a sudden it would be pitch black, and I couldn't even see Ryan in front of me, let alone find the switch on the wall. (which is so common here, all lights go off after 30 seconds to a minute, doesn't matter where you go!) And the elevators could hold 3 people comfortably and 4 if you really squished in which was particularly fun on arrival day and leaving day when everyone had all their luggage to shlep in and out! But we came home rejuvenated and thrilled with our holiday that had exceeded our expectations in practically every way. Before we went to bed that night, Robert was surfing the net and when I peeked at what he was doing, I found him searching for cruises...our next holiday!

Beautiful beach day!

I began updating this blog this morning and by the time the boys had eaten their breakfast, the weather looked a little iffy for a beach day, so I gave Robert the green light to do a bike ride along the sea. About 30 minutes after he left, it started to clear up, so when he returned from his long trek (went all the way down to the Promenade des Anglais in Nice and back), I was all packed up and ready to go to the beach. We first went to a restaurant on the beach for lunch and I have to say, I ate one of THE best meals of my entire life. It was absolutely to die for. Robert had a scrumptious fish curry dish (which I convinced him to order since I couldn't decide between that and what I chose!!!) and I had a "formule" which means entree, main dish and dessert, the entree being the best salad ever with warm goat cheese on top, the main being a chinese noodle and chicken/vegetable thing which was equally as good as the salad and the dessert was the biggest and best piece of chocolate cake I have ever experienced!!! I'm still full as I write this. The bad part was that the service was not good and although the kids food came quick (and fortunately they were both so well behaved the whole time) and my salad was there immediately, we waited forever to get our main dish. After having already asked once, Robert told our waiter that if it wasn't here in 5 minutes we were leaving! Seconds later it arrived and I have to say, it was worth the wait. I asked for my dessert to be served while we were eating our meals so that the kids could enjoy dessert while we ate our lunch. Fortunately, it was so big that we all got an ample serving of chocolate cake for dessert! And when the bill came, the waiter brought out 2 shots of limoncello for Robert and I, as it was obvious he felt badly, I think he actually forgot about us, which is why we ended up waiting so long. I will definitely be going there again, hopefully on a Thursday with Robert or else with girlfriends.

After lunch, we walked for 30 seconds to get to the beach area, parked ourselves and had an absolutely amazing afternoon on the beach in Juan-Les-Pins, which is one of the most beautiful and scenic beaches around, beautiful sand, calm, flat waters, not a cloud in the sky...the boys absolutely love it. They could easily play there all day long, and Ryan held his own as we didn't leave until 4:00 and his naptime usually begins around noon and ends around 4! (needless to say, he crashed pretty quickly in the car ride home) For the last couple weeks, the weather has been beautiful so we have spent our Wednesdays doing picnics and playtime at the beach and it's been immensely enjoyable. Last Wednesday I was reading other friends' facebook updates to discover they had enjoyed a sledding day in the snow. And it truly amazes me that we are fortunate enough to live in a place where I can enjoy a sunny day on the beach and my friends can drive one hour and enjoy a sunny day on the slopes. When I'm cursing the size of my closets in this apartment (or lack thereof), I must remember the good things of being here. These such things are among them.

All in all, this was yet another awesome weekend, it's now 7:27PM and both boys have been asleep for over half an hour and I'm very close to serving myself a glass of red, getting my book (or maybe more work on the blog first) and enjoying a couple hours of downtime before bed.