Happy Birthday, Girl

Day 1.


Day 365.

Unbelievably, a year has gone by since Camille was born. There just isn't a new or fresh way to describe how I feel about that. What a year, is all I can say. What. A. Year. I'm not going to attempt a photo summary of the last year either, since we've taken 4,384 pictures of the girl to date, and I'm just not up for the edit. Here are some shots of her birthday. My parents came in town for the big event, and thoroughly spoiled Camille. Her gift from them was her "own room." For those of you who don't speak New Yorkese, that means we've curtained off a portion of our room for her to have a little nursery. I'll post pictures of it when it's done, it's so adorable. She also got a beautiful gold necklace from Rémi's parents and other presents from our sweet family and friends, we've had cards and packages coming all week. What a lucky, loved little-one-year-old.



Carrot cake, yummy.


This is one of her awesome presents, it sings and lights up and even teaches her Spanish! Trilingual baby.


Those three are so crazy about each other. We had so much fun with Mimi and Pops, can't wait to see them again in March!

Back home

And back to the business of growing up! Camille is changing so fast, she is getting to be such fun to be around. Watching her develop has become our favorite pastime, it seems that she is cramming so much into her brain right now, learning something new all the time. I love it when something clicks for her, she gets so excited (well, we both do). I'm sure those of you with kids know all about this stage, it's so amazing!

She had some snuggle time on the couch with her Papa.

The first couple of days we were home, Camille was walking nonstop, from the living room to the kitchen and back again. Every trip was a little steadier than the last. Of course she's taken her share of tumbles, but she always lands pretty well.



Here is a glimpse of some of the adventures we've had learning how to use a spoon. After flinging the cereal on her forehead, I tell her to gently put the spoon in her mouth, and that's just what she does.

All dressed up and feeling like a hug.



Camille surprised us with this little trick. She was playing with her spoon and playing with her baby, and I suggested she should feed her baby, and she did it! Proves she is understanding a lot more than she can say.

A few more pics from France

Well, I thought I was done, but there really are a few more pictures I wanted to share from our trip.


Rémi was in heaven after seeing the cheese plate at his grandparents' house.



Camille with her French Grandparents, her French Great Grandparents,



her Uncle Florain and her Aunt Chloé.

Oh yeah, and if you were wondering how Aubin got to be so cute, these are his parents:

Myriam and Lolo, our hosts for New Years.


Et voila, c'est fini!!!

France part 2, Chez Aubin, Steph's birthday and coming home

So this will be the last France trip-dedicated post, life is happening too fast and I have new things I want to blog about! So, in summary of the rest of our trip...

We spent New Year's Eve in Luxembourg, visiting one of Rémi's friends from undergrad, Lolo, his wife Myriam and their adorable son, Aubin. Rémi's other friends Seb and Baptiste also joined us, along with Baptiste's girlfriend, Catherine. All of these people came to the US for our wedding, definitely friends for life.

Aubin is a few months older than Camille, and boy does it show! He was like a freight train compared to her, so steady and fast on his feet. Camille spent the whole weekend in complete adoration of this little bonhomme, trying so hard to keep up with him! Her ardor was not completely reciprocated, but she didn't seem to mind. Man, he had some cool toys!

The adults rang in the new year as nature intended, with lots of eating and drinking and reminiscing (mostly it was the men doing the drinking and reminiscing, although I have never been known to turn down a glass of Nicolas Feuillatte, and I never intend to). We had a great time.

On the way home we spent an hour or so in "downtown" Luxembourg. What a beautiful place. You could literally drive across the whole country in less than half an hour, but you wouldn't want to, not without stopping to see that awesome city. We spent a chilly hour walking the cobblestone streets and browsing the shops. And we bought a cute hat for Camille.


Back in Lille, Rémi's dad and I share the same birthday, and we celebrated with a nice dinner and champagne. We ate a king cake for dessert, as called for by French tradition on January 6th. Camille is modeling the crown.


We headed back to Paris on the TGV with Rémi's parents, so they could have one last hour to play with Camille. She sat with her Papy and looked out the window (while talking on her cell phone, of course).


Then on the airplane back home, Camille got her own little bed to sleep in, she barely fit, but she spent a couple of hours in there asleep. It was a pretty nice way to travel. Merci beaucoup Air France!

France, premier episode

We have just come back from our three week trip to France, Camille's first world tour. We packed so much into those twenty-seven days, I've decided to blog about it in a series. This way maybe I'll have a chance of doing our trip justice on the blog, instead of being overwhelmed and not blogging about it at all. So here's part one, the first week or so.

We flew into Paris on December 15th after an overnight, uneventful plane ride. Camille slept on the plane when the lights were off and was sweet as a doe when they were on. We had to catch a train a couple hours later for Aix en Provence, where Rémi had a two-day conference.




Rémi's parents were waiting for us at Charles de Gaulle, they had taken the train from Lille to spend some time with us before our train left. It was such a pleasure to introduce Camille to her French grandparents!




Our time in Aix was brief but memorable. What a cool town! Camille and I got to explore a little while Rémi was in meetings, Camille got up to her same old antics in the hotel room (going through her diaper bag).




With Rémi we went out in the evening, and we all caught up on sleep. Then we headed back to Lille.




Our train ride was made longer by the snowstorm that hit France that week, but also lovelier. We passed the most picturesque villages covered in heaps of snow, it was beautiful.




Our welcome at Rémi's parents' house was warm, of course. We felt really embraced by his family, who put a lot of thought and preparation into our visit. We took a walk along the canal in the snow.

We celebrated Christmas in typical French fashion, a seven-hour dinner on Christmas eve followed by gift-giving at midnight.





Of course Camille was asleep for most of this, she opened her gifts before everyone else. She was spoiled!

On Christmas morning she played with her new toys.




Then we went to Rémi's grandparents' house for a Christmas day lunch, more spectacular food.