Mommy's Boy

He is 9 MONTHS old today. I call him Gorgeous. Cuz he is. And he is still my perfect little baby. But he's getting into a lot more mischief lately, and he does NOT like to be separated from Mommy. The top photo is his favourite place to play: the oven! The bottom photo was the result of me leaving the living room for two seconds to put his plate in the dishwasher!

I remember vividly when separation anxiety started with Andrew. It was when Abuela came for a visit, when Andrew was 10 months old. I remember feeling a little bit stressed by it all, by that strong attachment Andrew had to me, and me only, and only I could soothe him. With Ryan, it's totally different. Although at times it can be a little exhausting having your baby in your arms 24/7, the truth is I am kinda relishing in it this time around. I've already witnessed how quickly the phase passes. I'm just enjoying this bond that has been formed now.

Last stop of the day...birthday cake and cocktails

One of Robert's favourite things in the whole world is my banana bread. So of course that is what he requested for his birthday cake. I made it in the morning before we left for Italy and Andrew had to taste test the first piece before we hit the road. We ended the day with cocktails after we put the boys down...Robert went a little crazy in the liquor store (while I waited in the car with the sleeping boys) and was keen to try out some new cocktails from his favourite bartending book. These were called Avalanches and were delish! We then watched 4 episodes of Survivor, one of Robert's favourite shows (the only tv he actually watches aside from soccer) and went to bed past midnight...a very rare event.

To the beach to throw stones

This whole area is so beautiful. Sometimes I still can't believe that I actually LIVE here.

My meal

Robert laughs at me whenever I take photos of our plates. Can't help it. I LOVE food! (good thing I love to exercise too!) Here's what I ate for lunch yesterday: marinated mussels to start, then a big plate of penne carbonara, then veal escalope in a mushroom sauce with fries, then profiteroles with a cappucino (which you can tell I enjoyed cuz I ate the whole thing before even thinking about snapping a pic, and of course I had to sample some of Robert's tiramisu. The best part is that the whole thing, drinks and tips included only cost 14 euros!!! I'm heading to the gym tomorrow morning to start working it all off!

The little ones were such angels throughout our entire lunch. Andrew remained amused with his little animals while Ryan sat happily in his high chair, flirting and smiling with the waitresses and the people passing by.

Italy for Daddy's Birthday

Instead of our traditional Mother's Day celebration in Ventimiglia, this time we celebrated Robert's birthday there. We all had such a fantastic time. Hit the playground first, (and merry-go-round) as per usual. Then our favourite restaurant. The staff all know us there now and treat us like family (Italy is SO different from France in that regard!) Then we throw stones into the sea. Then a leisurely walk along the boardwalk. Then we head to the liquor store to stock up on alcohol, which is supposedly much less expensive in Italy than France, before heading home. One day, I will update my blog to a more sophisticated level. Until then, I'll post the rest of our pics from that day in subsequent blog entries, since I'm limited to 5 photos per post on this thing!

May Holidays

The top photo was taken Wednesday afternoon, when Robert got home from work: the start of our long weekend. May is a great month in France, because there are lots of holidays! Sadly, I still have no idea when they are or what they represent, but Andrew has lots of time off school and Robert has lots of time off work! (although this year, some of the holidays fell on a Saturday and unlike the US, they do not give the Friday prior the holiday a day off work) In any event, this past weekend was a long one for Robert since Thursday was a holiday and Robert took a vacation day on Friday. We've been very busy, but have had some great times with great friends and some great weather for a change! Above photos were taken at Ludiparc (that I discovered from reading a friend's blog), where we went on Thursday morning, a wonderful place for families with a river, all sorts of bouncy castles and trampolines, and a restaurant, for which the entry fees to the park are waived if you dine there. We had a nice lunch on the terrace that is covered in fake grass and beautiful weather, until out of nowhere, the black clouds rolled in and torrential rains and hail caused us to locate ourselves inside the restaurant for dessert. By the time we finished our meal and paid our bill, the heavy rains continued and with no end in sight, we decided to make a run for the car, which was a good couple hundred metres away. We got soaked, but Robert got the worst of it, since he made an initial run to the car to collect the umbrellas for the rest of the fam! The drive home was a tad bit scary, visibility was extremely low and worst of it all, was what appeared to be a slight mudslide along the way, the only road back home being almost completely blocked, and for a moment or two, I had a vision of being stuck there, with two wet and unhappy little boys in the car, but we made it through and arrived back home to discover not a drop of rain had fallen in Antibes!

Grandma comes for a visit!

Her visit was short, but so, so sweet. Unfortunately can't say so much about the weather we had during her visit, unseasonably cold and rainy, but we still managed to pack in a lot of fun together nevertheless.

Her flight was scheduled to arrive in Nice at 1:05 PM, so I left the house around that time (with Andrew) to head to the airport. Figuring approx 20 minutes to get there, and minimum 20 minutes for her to get off the plane, go through customs and collect her luggage, I thought (erroneously) that I had plenty of time. Turns out I didn't! So when we walked into the airport and I saw her anxiously trying to figure out how to work the pay phone, looking like a nervous wreck, I figured she'd been waiting for some time. Of course she thought something terrible had happened to me (why else wouldn't I be there?)....but she got over it real fast and I find it all pretty humorous now!!!

Andrew was THRILLED to have Grandma here and asked to go in and wake her up every morning as soon as he got out of bed. Since Grandma puts her earphones on and listens to stories on her CD player when she goes to sleep, she couldn't always hear him and Andrew was very curious about the funny things Grandma keeps in her ears at night! On her last day, he woke up real early, and instead of coming into our room, he went right into Grandma's room and told her it was time to get up. Grandma didn't even bother to look at the clock, she just took his word for it and climbed out of bed...only to discover some time later, that Ryan and I were still in bed and it was NOT yet time to get up!

Ryan, on the other hand, was a little, OK a lot!, apprehensive about this strange woman in his house! The first day I left him with Grandma for a half a day, while I did the weekly shopping, etc. and he was none too happy about it. The separation anxiety phase with Ryan has begun MUCH earlier than it did with Andrew. It's been a while since I've left Ryan in the gym daycare while I go work out, but I'm already starting to dread the drop-off tomorrow morning for my aerobics class! But it didn't take all that long for him to warm to Grandma, and once he did, he was his smiley, happy self in her presence. I've been telling my mom for months how perfect a baby he is...it was wonderful to introduce him to her and for her to see for herself, which she most certainly did.

I was hoping to get some serious gardening work done with my mom (she is the expert) but the weather (pouring down rain) prevented us from making any headway at all. (dying for my own vegetable garden, tomatoes, herbs and plants for the balcony but I'm afraid I'm just plain useless when it comes to that...hopefully when Gia gets back here, she will lend a helping hand :-) )

But we did manage a wonderful afternoon at one of Andrew's favourite places (Petite Ferme) and on Thursday when all the boys were in school/work/creche, we got to enjoy an absolutely delicious lunch at my favourite restaurant in Cagnes-Sur-Mer.

The good-byes were teary, as always, but hopefully it won't be too long til we're together again in Canada.