It's February 11th today, and while most of our friends and family have been buried under inches upon inches of snow amidst a polar vortex for over a month now, we have had the joy of a winter in France. It as been a beautiful winter, with mild weather, a lot of sunny days, and only a handful of days below freezing. With the addition of your brother and being at home most days, it has been such a blessing to be able to take our daily walks and get out some bottled up energy in the beauty that surrounds us here in the Alps. You love being outside exploring the world around you, and I love watching you find new things on each and every walk and the happiness that oozes out of you!
The ranch down the road is our favorite place to visit, and the horses are your favorite friends along with the chickens that we pass on the way. The little creek that follows the road is full of bull frogs, muskrats, beavers, and other exciting things for you to discover. There are almost always puddles to jump in, rocks to be thrown, sticks to go poking around with, and horses to be fed. You have no fear when it comes to the horses, and I am always astounded by your fearlessness with big beauties. In one of the pastures there is a particularly mean brown horse that bullies the others when we bring carrots and apples for them to eat. He is constantly nipping at the others, headbutting, and throwing hooves their way. You always make sure to yell at him, and let everyone know that he is "MEAN!!"
Our walks are filled with Zaylee conversations, and I can never get enough of your stories. They go something like this, "Walk. Mamie. Orsie (horse). Chinens (chickens). Mean!! Bite. Papi. Yah Yah. Rock. Wayer (water). Jyump (jump). Anna. Fog (frog)." You remember EVERYTHING and love to relive your walks through your every growing vocabulary to tell and retell your stories to whomever will listen. It is my favorite thing to listen to you and watch your very expressive, entertaining facial expression and hand gestures that bring the stories to life.
Marcel is a lover of walks as well, and is usually tucked in close to me in the carrier. This week we started putting him in the stroller, and he seems to enjoy looking around and feeling the fresh air on his cheeks. You liked the fact that my arms were free to pick you up when you were tired or heard a car coming. "Vroom! Vroom! Hold you. Hold you," is what you say as you stretch your arms up high for me to pick you up. You are so cautious when a car is coming and immediately run to the side of the road and stop while you watch it pass us by.
I am so thankful for our time together outside, and can't wait for you to have Marcel to explore with. For now, I will enjoy having him close to me or staring up at me from the stroller while watching you run free exploring.
When we decided to move here to France, Grandma and Grandpa knew without a doubt they would be coming for the birth of our little Marcel. I couldn't wait to show them the home of your father, and the place I had grown to love so very much. It was a big deal for them both to take off of work, fly across the Ocean, and be surrounded by people that speak a language they have no knowledge of. (Grandpa D tried to use his Spanish in hopes people would understand what he was trying to say. HA!) I prayed that baby boy would come a little before they arrived to allow for plenty of activities as there is so much to see here in the beauty that I call home. Marcel decided to come the night they arrived, and I was so thankful they were here for the birth regardless of my hopes that he would have come a bit sooner. It was perfect. I was home two days later and didn't miss a beat the whole time they were here. We explored, ate out, went to Italy, and tried to squeeze in as much as we could in the short amount of time we had together.
We started out with a Thanksgiving celebration with a few other North American friends in the area. It was nice for them to see the way a meal is done here in France, as it is one of the things I like best about life here. Mornings were slow going, and lunches were spent with the Tabailloux family around the table. We had dance parties, lots of pictures were taken, quality time with each other was had reading books, watching Elmo, and just being together. Grandpa LOVED the cheese and wine, and spent for too much money spoiling our palettes. It was so fun to see him so excited, and just what I needed to erase my feelings of homesickness. Grandma just loved being with you and your brother, and I was so thankful for the instant bond you two had with one another as if you hadn't been away from her at all.
It was so great to have my two worlds together, and for them to see what I have fallen in love with here in France. To see where you sleep, play, and all the nooks and crannies you are constantly getting into in our home here. It is so special to me that I had BOTH sets of Grandparents here for the birth of our Marcel. I am so thankful that you have two sets of loving Grandparents to love on you. What a blessing it truly is! We sure do miss Grandma and Grandpa D, but know we will see them again soon. I'm so thankful for the memories we made in those two weeks we had together here in Crolles. They sure do love you and your brother, along with your 12 cousins, a whole heaping lot, and I am so grateful for it.
In the first two weeks of your brothers life we went up in the mountains, had pizza and gelato in Italy, visited Napolean's castle, watched you on your first horsie ride on the carousel and eat your first handful of snow! We are blessed to be living in such a beautiful place and I can only hope to capture each and every moment and memory for you to hold onto in the years to come. As much as I miss home and family, it already makes me sad when I think of leaving our home here in France.
Darling boy,
You are the sweetest baby boy! Everyone that meets you is completely charmed by your gentle spirit. People are always referring to you as kind, and my prayer is that as you grow that will continue to be true. You are quiet, content, smiley, and just our favorite little guy around! :)
Every day we look at you and see changes that happened over night. You are growing and changing so fast we can hardly keep up! One thing that doesn't change is our extreme love for you and the blessing we feel to have you in our lives. You have made us so very happy, and we thank the Lord for you daily.
Each day we are noticing you being awake more and more, interacting with us, and smiling with such purpose and joy for life. Sleep is something you are extremely good at, and eating is something you greatly enjoy. Your strength amazes us, and makes us forget that you are just our little two month old baby.
We love you Petit Marcel and are loving watching you grow and become more aware of us and the life around you. You are greatly loved and bring all those around you so much joy.
A few facts about you at two months:
Food: You nurse every three hours during the day and eat for about 7-10 minutes on each side. We have to be extra diligent with burping you, as you get some major gas bubbles that don't seem to settle well with you.
Sleep: During the day you take great, long naps. You eat, stay up for about an hour to hour and a half tops and are back to sleep for a good chunk of time. In the morning and late evening you prefer to be in our arms, but we are trying to break you of that habit as much as I may love the snuggling, it is getting hard with your big sister and housework to be dealt with. I have started putting you down when you are close to sleep, and about every other time you are able to settle yourself into a sleep on your own. Its a work in progress, but we will get there in your own timing. At night you have started to stretch longer up to 8 hours, but not in a consistent fashion just yet. Again, in your timing little buddy. You "wake" most nights at 4 am, but sometimes only eat on one side before you are back in a deep sleep. I say "wake" because you never truly WAKE up, but rather squirm and grunt waking me. Eventually I will let you work yourself up to a cry to see if you in fact are waking, or just repositioning, but for now I will keep feeding you :)
Travel: You are growing more used to the carseat, but we have to time it perfectly. It seems if you are fed and near sleep you do great, but if it is anywhere near feeding time it is a very sad, very loud cry fest and it breaks my heart! Your sister gently reaches her hand out to you and say "bateau" which is her way of soothing you. She loves you deeply.
Smiles are becoming more and more frequent and so full of life. We can't get enough!
You are weighing 12.7 pounds (5.8kg) and are 23 1/4 in long (57.5 cm), the size of your sister at SEVEN months! :)
You LOVE bath time, and have started kicking like crazy while in the water.
