Like Father, Like Son

"Lazy days, man. Lazy days."


"Word."

Date Night!

While François was visiting, he offered to come over and babysit so we could have an evening out. To which we said, Woohoo!


Here we are just outside our building, giddy with disbelief that we don't have a baby and a dog in tow. In fact, we were so consumed with getting out quietly that we were halfway to the metro before we realized we could stop whispering!


We headed to the Butte aux Cailles neighborhood (that means, Hill of the Quails, but that was a long time ago) which is a trendy spot in Paris right now.




Bottles! Filled with not-milk!


But we had Sprite. (Yeah, right.)


We realized, after trying to bar hop in the area and not finding another bar to our liking, that perhaps we are not that trendy, so we headed back to our neck of the woods.


Can you read what's on top of the awning? It's very, very important.


Meet our friends, Jack and Jack.



Soon enough, it was time to head home. So down a quiet rue Mouffetard we went, back to our cozy and loving home.

Wild Thing

Here's Jake on his first day at the crèche (day care). He and his cute socks made quite an impression.


(He'll eat you up, he loves you so!)

Dada!

Jake's Hat, 33 and 1/3

(If you get the title of the post, then you're a geek like me. And by geek, I mean totally tuned in to the early 90's.)

And now, back to Jake's interior monologue...


Merlin, tell me, where does she keep getting these "hats"?



Oh man, this one is going to be hard to chew. When are my teeth coming in?



Off it goes! Wait, what?



Really, you actually think I look cute as a frog?



Uncle Dave got me this one? Give me a minute.



Hold on, still thinking.



Okay, I'll give it a try. This pom pom is kind of cool, actually.

In A Nutshell

Here's Jake reducing over a century of psychoanalytic research to its most basic principle, in four easy steps.


What's this over here?


Cool! Want!


WANT!


WAAAAAAANNNNNTTTTTT!!!!

Quite fittingly, he's using Françoise Dolto - a French psychoanalyst famous for her work on infancy and childhood - to do so.

(For the record, she's really brilliant. But not as clear and concise as Jake!)

The Franfather

Over Christmas break, Jake received several visits from his godfather, François. Here are some snaps of them reacquainting with each other.


Bonjour, le parrain. Maybe next time, less garlic?


Eskimo kiss! You're franny, I mean, funny.


Where'd you guys find this dude? He cracks me up.

File Under: Button, Cute As

Jake's Hat, Part Deux

Jake has developed a complicated relationship with his Jacobin hat.

On second thought, maybe it's not that complicated at all.


Do not like!


I. Take. It. Off!


Ha!


Noooooo you put it back on nooooooo...


Hmmph.


I will eat it and then there will be no more hat.


Nom nom nom

Joy to the Food

Is it too late to post about Christmas? To tell you about the sinful amounts of food and drink and presents? No? Excellent!

Note: Colin and I have different family holiday traditions that mesh quite well. In the Stelmach household, the Eve is a big deal because that's when the baby Jesus was born. We commemorate the event by eating a lot. In the Blundell household, the Day is a big deal because that's when thoughtful gifts are exchanged. They commemorate the event by eating a lot, of cookies. So you can see how this works out well for us. Our desire to honor family traditions and to eat ourselves into oblivion dovetail quite nicely.

Some highlights:






Not pictured: before-dinner champagne cocktails, shrimp cocktail, the bottle of white wine, scallops in a white wine sauce over fresh linguine, the bottle of red wine, chocolate truffles, blue cheese salad, smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels, mimosas, roast duck, the chocolate chip cookies, the butter cookies, the wafers...how are you going to make a sober New Year's Resolution if you don't indulge beforehand, I ask you?

The witnesses to our gluttony, however, were appalled.


Take that, you greedy father figure man!


Ha ha just kidding I think you're fun. Also who am I to talk just look at my bib.


I didn't take many photos of presents or the opening thereof simply because, with all the cooking and other family duties, the apartment was a mess and only got messier as we ripped into the gifts (laying the groundwork for New Year's Resolution #2). Also, we were still in our pajamas and had bad hair. Except for one guy. He woke up looking adorable, as usual.



The rest of the day was spent lazily, what with the whirlwind of cooking (and eating, and drinking) the night before.


I post this picture of me in my pajamas with the big butt and bad hair only because I love Jake and Merlin so much.

A Merry Belated Christmas from ours to yours!


(I'm cute and I know it!)