Surfer girl

The Toussaint holiday weekend has been sunny and so warm that we decided to head to the beach for the day. It was Mia's first trip to the Atlantic and she had a great time, except of course, when I made her sit on the blanket to eat. I had made the mistake of letting her put her toes in the sand before giving her lunch and so her interest was elsewhere. Now that she's able to roll on her tummy and sit up on her own (since Tuesday) she was able to easily get all the sand she wanted into her hands, hair, and mouth.

We didn't go for a swim but there were lots of kids in the water. We did get some cute pictures though, and a short film of Mia tasting sand, so I'll post that as soon as possible.

Thomas leaves tomorrow for an evening in London so Mia won't be going to her Nounou on Tuesday. Instead, she'll most likely spend the day with Aunt Elodie who is on maternity leave. Francesca is en manque because Pascal is sick and they're both under quarantine. Hopefully he'll be better soon so they can see the grand-kids.

Looks like Papa needs help with Mia, who is tired and dechainee.

On all fours

 

Almost crawling

I noticed Monday at lunch that Mia is working the crawling thing out. For the past two weeks she's been pushing herself backwards in a circle in order to get the toy that is in front of her but just beyond her reach. On Monday she got backed up against the coffee table and pushed herself to a crouching position. When she realized that she had gained in height, she started rocking back and forth from excitement. This, of course, made her take a serious dive on her chin. But once she pulled her arms out, she was finally able to reach Elephant. And ever since, whenever she's on her tummy she works her legs under her and then takes a nose-dive into the floor. Luckily we don't have carpet or this could be a painful learning curve. As it is, she's polishing the floors to a shine.

When Thomas got home and saw what she was doing, his comment was, "We have to get the house baby-safe NOW."

Our Nounou is a pearl!

Mia had her first day with Nounou Delphine today. Every Tuesday she'll go off to work with Daddy (Nounou lives near the Chateau) and I'll go to work at the association. We found her through a friend of ours who will start working with Thomas in December and has decided to leave her little girl Lola (7 months) with Delphine. There's also another little girl that is two months younger than Mia who starts next week. Delphine is so sweet - after our first conversation over the phone I knew she was the one. She even put her 4 year old son Alexis on the phone because he wanted to say hello to the new little girl that was going to come and play with him.

Nounou sent back a note about the first day:

1er jour chez Nounou (par Mia)
Nous avons fait connaisance et visite la maison. Mes futures petites copines ne sont pas encore la; tous les jouets sont donc rien que pour moi... et Nounou aussi!
Pas de bol aujourd'hui cote meteo, on est sorties juste pour aller chercher Alexis a l'ecole maternelle.
Cote sommeil: une demi heure seulement ce matin et un peu pres une heure et demi cet apres-midi: je n'etais pas vraiment decide d'aller au dodo.
Nounou m'a dit que j'etais une gourmande car j'ai englouti mon midi et mon goute. Elle ma donne du bon pain pour soulager gens gencives: miam miam!
Alexis et un "grand" tres sympa: il a voulu me preter des jouets "de grand"
Voila, tout s'est bien passe, je veux bien retourner chez Nounou mardi prochain.

1st day at Nanny's (by Mia)
We met each other and visited the house. My future girlfriends aren't here yet; so I had the toys all to myself... and Nanny too!
We had bad luck today with the weather, we only went out to pick up Alexis at elementary school.
Sleep: only a half hour this morning and about an hour and a half this afternoon: I wasn't really into going sleepies.
Nanny said I was a gourmande because I gulped down my lunch and my snack. She gave me some yummy bread to soothe my gums: yum yum!
Alexis is a nice "big-boy": he wanted to loan me all of his "big-boy" toys.
So everything went well and I can't wait to go back to Nanny's next Tuesday.

Check out this posture!

She's getting more and more stable but can't quite be left on her own unless she's surrounded by pillows. If you look closely, you'll see that she also has a barette in her hair to control her curls. Such a big girl!

Mia will even start with her Nounou soon, now that I'm working part-time. Next Tuesday she'll have her first day at Delphine's house with another little girl her age, AND it's Daddy that takes her and picks her up in the evening. I think the best part is that, in theory, the government pays for all but 15% of our day care. No wonder France has such a high natality rate!