Un peu de tout
A bit of everything. My kid smells like a skunk. I need to strip his dipes again. It’s the second time in five months, so I’m not complaining. Especially, because […]
Our quick trip to Brussels
We are back in France after a short trip to Brussels for the European Parliament film screening. We flew on low cost EasyJet, which is Tall Mountain’s new least favorite […]
Lovely London
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the UK. I rediscovered my [other] passport country that I honestly hated during my four undergrad years of university. Let’s face it: I was […]
Baby jetlag
Well, as uneventful as the flight was, baby jetlag has been pretty bad for the past three nights. At 3.5 months Ayo had no issues at all adjusting eight timezones […]
A few trip photos
As stressful as it is to prepare for a trip like this with a baby, our travels couldn’t have gone better. We’re so thankful. For my two mama friends traveling […]
Autumn 7.5 month packing list
It’s hard to believe that tomorrow, we get to fly to Geneva. (Sorry robbers, we do have guests staying in our home.) We’re in that last minute packing frenzy for […]
American dental skepticism
It all started as an innocent visit to the dentist for a cleaning and check-up late August. We brought Ayo to the dentist in his car seat and meticulously coordinated […]
A bilingual playdate
Given the size of our city, I feel really fortunate that there are enough francophone and francophile families to plan French Meetup playdates. I have probably been stalking this one […]
A walk in the park
Outside: Golden leaves glistening in the late afternoon sunlight on a warm autumn day. Inside: One baby-on-the-mend who had been quiet in his PJs all day. One papa that could […]
Digging deeper…
After several hours of looking into the Super Baby Food (SBF) diet, I broke down and bought my own copy on Amazon for $0.22. It turns out, 7 months is […]
Super Baby Food
Recently, I have felt a little out of my depth when it comes to feeding Ayo. He’s now tasted a good number of single foods like egg yolk, sweet potatoes, […]
On the International Day of the Girl
Some security experts noted that the countries that nurture terrorists are disproportionally those where women are marginalized. The reason there are so many Muslim terrorists, they argued, has little to […]
There’s no place like Asia…
except for downtown Los Angeles! Sometimes you just need an Asian day. That’s how I felt yesterday! So, we enjoyed a Korean BBQ lunch in K-town, home to the largest […]
Los Angeles at 6.5 months
We made our way to Los Angeles on Saturday. Tall Mountain had to be in the area for tonight’s screening of his newly released documentary film. We have also been […]
你会想到什么？
So, I finally got around to reading Ayo the Chinese children’s book entitled 你会想到什么？with the awkward English translation: “What would you imagine?”. We borrowed it from the library the other […]
Five.
It is hard to believe we got married five years ago. Since then.. -I have changed my hair color four times. -We made croissants three times – you’re lucky if […]
“I firmly believe that progress changes consciousness, and when you change people’s consciousness, then their awareness of what is possible changes as well.” -Bill Clinton
TCK goes to hoity toity hair salon
I got my hair cut on Saturday. I don’t cut it that often so it was a rare treat. It’s even more of a treat now that getting a haircut […]
Six month changes
I thought we needed to drop a feeding, but in fact it looks like we needed to drop a nap… and the feedings would take care of themselves. Ayo was […]
Simplicity is freedom
Simplicity is freedom. Duplicity is bondage. Simplicity brings joy and balance. Duplicity brings anxiety and fear. – R. Foster I’ve been thinking about this quote for about three weeks now. […]
Postpartum running
I have always loved to run. It’s so freeing and so relaxing. It’s one of those activities that frees my mind from whatever holds it captive that day. Or, it […]
Champignons de Paris
I found this glossy ad inside the front cover of a food magazine (left). It’s an advertisement for champignons de paris, or agaricus bisporus, also known as.. good ole button […]
Schedule and language update
Re-reading a few of my latest posts sure make me think that much of parenting child number one is very much experimental. Not at all accidental, but so very experimental. […]
The discipline of solitude
*7:30 am. Alarm clock rings* Cool, Ayo is still sleeping. Why am I so tired! Oh yeah, we went to bed late again. Will we ever learn? Sure. Tonight we’ll […]
A labor of love.
Wow. Birthday meal #32 was a roaring success. Special thanks to chefs TM & TJ and my sweet family of sous-chefs (not forgetting the birthday lighting and decoration specialist).
Solids
Would you believe it? I tried to trick Ayo by skipping his late night feeding last night. Thankfully, he woke me up and reminded me at 4:00am that he was […]
Beating those 5pm “what’s for dinner?” blues
5 pm has become an hour that I dread. It is about at that time that I peer inside our refrigerator and frantically start clicking around Epicurious for dinner ideas. […]
Élise meets Liza meets Liese
Unfortunately, Tall Mountain introduced me to the hick (TM’s qualifier), depressing Liza and Henry’s bucket hole the other day. Liza officially shattered my image of sweet Élise gallivanting in fields […]
All Americans speak French
Ayo and I went to our city’s central library this morning (pictured above). We sort of had to. Bringing up Bébé was due on Saturday (thankfully, there is a two […]
Bringing up Ayo
You know a book is popular when you are 67th on the library’s waiting list for one of the 60 available copies. After waiting nearly three months to secure my […]
Stripping stinks!
We’re on week 10 of using cloth diapers and they haven’t added much hassle to our diapering routine at all. Just recently though, we started to get more leakage, the […]
Language experiment
On Sunday, Tall Mountain himself proposed ramping up Ayo’s French exposure by asking me to speak French to him (to papa) when Ayo was around. Up until now, if you […]
From China with love.
This week we have a special guest from China staying with us. Coco was one of two people we knew when we moved to Shanghai in 2008. Since moving to […]
Birth: 10 Observations
My niece number two finally made her way into this world, bright and early on August 1, 2012. It was such an honor to be in the log themed room […]
Am stram gram
Am, stram, gram, Pic et pic et colégram, Bourre et bourre et ratatam, Am, stram, gram. I was teaching this French choosing rhyme (like “Eenie meenie miney moe“) to Ayo […]
Que les jeux commencent!*
I love the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, or the Opening Ceremonies as the Brits say. It was extra special to watch the 2008 Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony living in […]
Impending birth
Today, the sky is heavy and grey. Leaves float around in the air as the wind picks up. Lightening is a sign of what is to come. We’re on the […]
Blocked duct
Yesterday I felt really tired. I put it down to recovering from the weekend, baking this citrus pound-cake, cleaning the bathrooms, hanging two loads of laundry, shopping, translating a text […]
Packing list reviewed
We are back “home”, laundry is folded, suitcases are away and Ayo seems to have recovered from jet lag as of last night. Last night he slept right through and […]