Moment de tendresse

What's wonderful about having a baby, is that there are so many little moments like this. Even though there is also hard work aplenty, it's these sweet minutes that make it all worth it.

Chez MimiPops

Camille and I spent last week with my parents celebrating my Grandmother's 80th birthday while Rémi was in Canada for work. My big sister, her husband and their daughter, Camille's cousin Julia, came in town from Asheville. My little sister and her husband live just a few minutes from my parents, so we all got to spend some good time together. My grandmother was there the first weekend.

I hope that when I'm about to turn 80, I'm on my knees playing "kitchen" with my great grandchildren!

Uncle Nick provided some entertainment for the girls. It seems he and Rémi have been reading the same parenting books.

Then we went on a walk by the river.





Camille just LOVES her cousin. She was constantly hugging her and patting her and only occasionally stealing toys from her.


Here Camille is "helping" Julia with her bunny ears.

My parents are really such incredible grandparents. Both the girls just adore them both. Camille is lucky to have fantastic grandparents on both sides of the Atlantic.



Introducing her baby to Uncle Andy.


We took the girls to some awesome playgrounds near my parents' house on the sunnier days. It was great, we didn't even have to queue up to swing!















Camille has barely enough hair to justify this hair accessory. It was really cute for about 3 minutes. My mom made that awesome net to keep the girls off the stairs.



Walking on the street with Pops.


Since Camille is really into pushing her stroller, my parents got her this baby stroller to push. At first she really wanted to get into it.




Eventually she figured it out.





Then we got home to Papa and spent a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Central park.

All about Papa

Chillin.

Camille had some good Papa time this week. When you spend 90% of your time with the same old boring Mama, being with Papa is like the circus coming to town, no matter what you're doing. The three of us went to the playground on Saturday, Remi and Camille had fun on the swings,

and on the slides.




Then they danced around the apartment a little.

I gave Camille one of Remi's old credit cards with his picture on it since she's always trying to get my credit card. She carried it around all day.


And as a side note, this is what happens when you let a 13 month old feed herself a peanut butter sandwich.

Babar, a mini post

When we were in France we bought Camille some french dvds, they weren't supposed to come out of the package until she turns 2, but in a moment of weakness, Rémi played Camille a bit of Babar one day. You can see from the above picture the effect this magical show has on our little motion-addict of a daughter. She freezes with delight. And since that one moment of parental oversight, she hasn't forgotten her bliss and she requests it by name almost daily. If anything comes out of our mouths that remotely sounds like Babar, or if one of us starts humming the ridiculously catchy theme song, we're gonners. I've only caved in a couple of times, (YES I did read that NY Times article about no screen time before she's 2!) always with lots of guilt.





Last Thursday was a particularly tough day for us (bad naps, bad weather, etc. - our street looked like this!) so after staring out the window for a while, I let her get her fix. Boy was she transfixed.

13 Months Old

Even though New York City just got dumped with 20 inches of snow this weekend, earlier this week we had the tiniest glimpse of spring and we took full advantage.


Camille and I went to our neighborhood playground.


This jacket was a gift from Rémi's godmother. It's just beautiful, and hopefully big enough to still fit her next fall/early winter. (If not, I know a little Swann who will make good use.)








Walking along the river with Nate and some new friends, Fabian and Elisabeth.


Of course, we were cooped up in the apartment plenty also.

This bag had to weigh (at least!) 10 pounds. Bag lady.

Of course, this is not exactly how the monkey is supposed to work. Presumably, her next trick will be learning how to get me into that harness.



Drama.

This head banging against the couch is a new, funny but hopefully short-lived habit.


We went for a walk in a really crowded Central Park.


There were hundreds of kids sledding.









And we came upon this beauty.




Her eyes were limes.