personalized recipe book

A really lovely and thoughtful gift.  

Make a personalized cookbook from Tastebook.  You can add your own recipes and personal photographs or you can choose from their database of recipes. You also can customize the cookbook cover, title and colors to suite your theme.  

I made one for Kaity as a graduation gift and was really pleased with how pretty it turned out.

Photo courtesy of Merrimentdesigns.com

day at the zoo

Yesterday was our first trip to the zoo.  It is not huge, just a small outdoor Zoo, but it happens to be conveniently located near our apartment.  A nice fifteen minute walk and we're there.

We were all really impressed with the Gibbons and Jacob watched them swing and jump from branch to branch.  We also happened by while they were feeding the elephants.  Amazing.  It was a neat thing to watch but was a little crowded so we only stayed at that exhibit for a short time. 

Jake seemed to watch all of the bigger and brighter animals with interest.  Still a little too young to follow the smaller animals or the ones that really blend in with their surrounding.  All in all, it was quite a nice way to spend our afternoon.     

camera shy

Jacob has not really taken a liking to our video camera yet.  Every time I turn in on he will completely stop whatever cute thing he was doing,  freeze and stare.  

To capture him "talking" to his farm animal friends I had to hide behind the computer.  It turned out to be quite the process as he caught me on my first two tries and after each failed attempt I had to let him settle and wait for him to start up again.  The result is a video that is a little distant and fuzzy, but a nice change from the camera shy stare we usually capture.      

big blue eyes

 Jacob is happily getting ready for a stroller ride to help mom & dad get groceries.  With these big blue eyes he often looks exactly like Kaity did when she was a baby.  I wish I had one of her baby pictures to put up side-by-side.  The resemblance is astounding.  

As you can see Kait you don't have to worry, his eyes are still very very blue.  Maybe even bluer then when you last saw them.  

first bites

We are almost at the six month mark now and have introduced solid foods.  Jacob has taken to rice cereal very easily and is starting to get the hang of things.  It is a lot to take in and hard to focus on just one thing.  Jake divides his time focusing on the food, the bib, the spoon and the bowl.  All of which are extremely fascinating.  This bib was such a huge hit that I had to put it on inside out  otherwise I could not get him to raise his head and take his eyes off the anchors (Marnie, it was so cute to watch, he absolutely loves this bib).

For some reason Billy is much better at feeding Jacob solids then I am.  He is extremely precise and patient.  There is a lot less mess involved when Dad is leading the feeding.  It is a nice together time for the two of them and nice to finally let Billy get in on some of the feeding action.  I have been monopolizing this for far too long. 

I have been looking forward to making Jake's baby food myself for ages now and have yams baking in the toaster oven as I type this. We have already slowly started to introduce avocado in the evenings and so far it has been a success.  Hopefully the same will hold true with the yam puree.  One thing is for sure, it will be messy.     

so pretty

Ida Pearle makes beautiful collages out of silk-screened paper.  All of her artwork is hand cut and glued making each print unique.

Among other things, she makes these lovely custom name prints where you select the print, skin tone and hair color and receive a one-of-a-kind picture for you child with their name.  What a wonderful keepsake and beautiful artwork. 

pictures from GOOP.com

happy halloween

We had a few friends over for Halloween and in an attempt to do things as North American as possible, we ordered pizza from Pizza Hut.  It was delicious and provided a much needed break for our toaster oven.  We also ended up having four trick-or-treaters which added a little authenticity to our night.         

 

 We couldn't find a costume here in France so we improvised.  

Jake had a friend over to dress up with and they enjoyed
looking at each others costumes.

First family Halloween was a success.

We also carved our first Halloween pumpkin.

We actually realized that in the last nine years Billy & I have never carved a pumpkin together so it was a fun first.  Especially because we both had different ideas as to how to go about it.  We soon realized that it is pretty hard to carve a pumpkin with a large bread knife and a dull paring knife, but our pumpkin had character.  And most importantly, Jacob loved looking at it once it was lit.