More signs of spring

With all the rain and cold weather it's hard to tell that spring is really here. However, two other important signs have surfaced to confirm the change of season...

Primeurs kick off next Monday but there are already tons of journalists in town tasting the 2006 vintage. They will note the wines that will go on sale (Chateau to wine merchant to importer/distributer to you) sometime in May or June. That same wine won't even be delivered for another two years but the wine Futures game makes money for everyone, so everyone's happy. Good things have been said about the 2006 vintage - a surprise considering all the rain we had and, as 2006 will forever be known as the one that came after the most amazing and most expensive Bordeaux of all time, the chateaux are letting out sighs of relief.

Read Thomas on Jame Suckling's blog for Wine Spectator: “If we had this year 10 years ago it would have been a very average year, but it is a different situation now,” said Palmer’s technical director, Thomas Duroux. He is one of the hottest new winemakers in the region and his 2006 is excellent, not at the level of his amazing 2005, but outstanding. “People have the resources to make excellent wines now in such years. We got rid of 10 percent of the grapes when we were picking. Plus we did green harvests and leaf thinning during the summer. We made a severe selection of wines as well. We didn’t do that in the1980s, or even in the 1990s.”

My husband? A "hot" winemaker? Ooh la la!

The second traditional sign of spring: Les greves. Strikes are announced for the national telephone company, the national employment agency, and the post office. It's a good thing the sun hasn't come out much lately or the public transportation agency would go on strike and then we'd all be in the merde.

More on the upcoming French election

The campaign continues with this week’s subject: Should every home in France have it’s own French flag? All politicians are idiots! For more on the terribly insipid presidential campaign trail check out this article in the Times.

Then the party got started

The girls dancing to the music from the Dora book Aunt Denise sent.

I think Lola was asking her daddy for more Champagne...

Here she is!

I finally had to go and wake her up.

Still no birthday girl

Left: Leopold (Lola's older brother)
Right: Paola(cousin)

They started sneaking cookies because they were so hungry. And Mia kept sleeping....

This is not the birthday girl

This is Lola. But since Mia slept through the first half of her own birthday party, we can start with a picture of her girlfriend.

Notice the pink Tinker Bell hat (party supplies sent by Denise). Lola was the only kid that kept her hat on for the entire duration of the party. And she was the only one who ate without getting food all over the floor - until someone gave her a chocolate chip cookie and then the pretty pink sweater you see was covered in melted chocolate.

Daddy de retour

He's back at home and life is back to normal. With the exception that Mia is even more of a Daddy's girl - she just can't get enough of her Dada. I left them alone the afternoon that he came home and Thomas said he couldn't put her down even for a second without her pulling on his pant legs.

Right now she's testing all of her wooden blocks, one by one, to see which form fits best in her mouth.

We just got back from the 1-year doctor's visit. This time we both got shots... But only Mia got the special numbing patches and the post-vaccination cookie. The good news is that she's now cleared for all of the fun things in life: chocolate, eggs, strawberries, kiwi, etc. Our doctor said Non to peanut butter before 4 years but I showed her my copy of What to Expect and she caved. She did find it funny that we give whole milk to little ones and not the lait de suit milk you buy here for toddlers. Now I just have to find a good receipe for a first birthday cake and have Mia practice blowing out a candle!

After a week of rain

the sun finally came out - all weekend long! Mia and I took full advantage of the warm temperatures to walk around town, feed the ducks in the park, and do our shopping at the Colbert Sunday market. The Bordeaux version of Elvis (who is only able to play 4 cords of his guitar) is still there, today sans shirt, but a new arrival has made an appearance on the Sunday Market scene: a real Irish fiddler. After buying our bread and pears, Mia and I spent about a half hour listening to his music and she practiced walking, although there were moments when you could have sworn she was doing her own version of an Irish jig.

Thomas comes home tomorrow… and was able to call today from his latest trip to Nashville and it was the first time Mia had seen him since his call on Wednesday. All week she kept pointing at the phone asking for "Dada?" So today when she saw him she just about went nuts, much to our amusement. It'll be interesting to see what her reaction is tomorrow. Luckily he's taking the afternoon to work at home so he can spend some time with her.

More Mia pics

19 days until our first birthday!

A night on the town

I think this is the first time that Thomas has had to play his "Dad" role with the babysitter. He's out driving Camille home (the 17yr old daughter of my work colleague) and I'm supposed to be turning the lights out. We had dinner with two friends of ours, Emmannuelle and Nicolas, who also have a little one at home. The dinner was good and we even went out for a drink but the babysitting bill was looming over our heads all evening; dinner for 4, plus beers, plus 2 babysitters: Ouch. An Adult-only evening: Priceless.

Back home to enjoy Mia

The trip was great, the flight back less so, but we survived with Kelsey's chocolate chip cookies.

Mia is fully recovered from her ear infection and full of pep. In fact, she is physically unable to stop moving. Yesterday I took her to the toy store to find something new for her to play with (other than my pots, because she's breaking my eardrums) and she picked out a push walker. She's been walking while holding on to our fingers (and will even kick the ball!) but hasn't done it on her own yet. I put her next to the walker and the next thing I knew she was on the other end of the store on her way out the door. I should get a leash.

I promise I'll get some new pictures up this weekend.