Vive le Printemps!

We're getting pretty excited about spring over here - and a lovely afternoon spent playing in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on the Champs de Mars (see Josie trying to catch a new pet) gave us a glimpse of how lovely it will be to spend more time outside!

We've had a busy winter - Music Together class for Josie every Saturday morning, which she loves, music playgroup every week, story hour at the American Library, lots of playdates with Millie and Constance, two of her little pals, and jaunts to the Louvre (for mommy!) every other week or so. We've been to a couple of nice Sunday lunches at friends' houses in the neighborhood -- our weekends are becoming quite social! We had a terrific Valentine's Day at Itineraires, a cute little restaurant in the Latin Quarter... and look forward to our gift to each other - a subscription to New York Magazine!

Josie went to her first birthday party here in Paris, Nathalie's second birthday party at Gymboree. It was a lovely party and so terrific to spend so much time with Melissa's parents, Gloria and Alter, that week. Lots of cute pictures in the new slideshow!

The highlight of the month, obviously, was a visit from Papa Lew! He came and stayed for a week and we had a wonderful time traipsing around Paris, eating great food and seeing the sights. We went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and strolled along the Champs Elysees, did a fascinating walking tour of the Old Marais (topped off with a falafel at L'as), explored Montmartre, hit the Luxembourg Gardens and the D'Orsay. Jeff and Lew also took a day trip up to Normandy where they had a guided tour of Utah Beach and the surrounding areas. They were presented with a medal in honor of Jeff's Grandpa Herman's service. But we were happy to have them back afterwards for truly delectable meals at a new Asian Fusion place called Ze Kitchen Galerie as well as a storied brasserie called Balzar (it's described in detail in Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik!). We even met the Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten!) sitting outside Cafe Flore when we stopped in for coffee and tartes tatins!

And what can we say about Josie... she's taught herself how to Ring Around the Rosy, loves to walk up and down steps proclaiming "good girl!" after each one, and can say about 50 words! She survived her first gastro bug (no fun for anyone) and has cut almost all her teeth at this point. In fact, I have to sign off to wake her up from her nap so we can go to music playgroup soon. Au revoir for now!

Groundhog Day

Well, we hope Paris isn't listening to Puxatawney Phil, 'cause we sure don't want six more weeks of winter here! True, Paris is always lovely, and seeing the top of the Eiffel Tower disappearing into the mist looks just as romantic as when it sparkles at night. But Josie and I have a bit of cabin fever (along with all our other recurring illnesses!) and we're dying to get out into the park to run around in the sunshine.

Even in the chill of winter, our social life is warm and buzzing with activity -- still meeting lots of friends through Message, the ex-pat mom's group here in Paris, and have something to do almost every day... between French classes, play groups, Music Together etc. there's a danger of feeling overscheduled -- sometimes I just bag the scheduled activity, as I am today. Waiting for Josie to wake up from a long nap so we can saunter over to the Louvre for an hour or so. We got a family membership, which is terrific. Josie can take it for about an hour (while tourists take her photo!) and I can see a wing or two of French or Italian paintings. I figure at this rate I should be able to see most of the museum in a year!

Jeff has been very busy with his job, traveling to Jakarta, Indonesia, Mexico City, Barcelona, even Brussels later this week. He's finding it really interesting, traveling to places in the world that clearly need affordable, nutritious food... and he's racking up the Frequent Flyer miles as he goes! We're keeping our date night almost every Saturday, seeing movies or checking out local restaurants... we've even been to our first Parisian party! Well, it was mostly Brits, but fun anyway. We're looking forward to Lew arriving this weekend, and have lots of activities -- both educational and fun -- planned for him. As well as lots of delicious meals!

And what's new with Josie? Something every day. Almost every day she has a new word... cracker, baby, "love you" etc. She's running around full steam, climbing on the couches, and still singing and dancing up a storm. Not a bit shy -- she greets everyone in our local Starbucks, waves to other museum-goers, barks at our neighboring pooches. She's so much fun -- we're having a blast together.

I've been delinquent in posting photos and video, so there's an update "film" of our activities here, as well as lots of new pics in the Jan-Feb gallery. xoxo