Mid September Now

Hello Everyone,
Well, Gena's mom is here so we have been a bit too busy to write and post many pictures in the past week or so. And, sorry, I didn't bring any to work with me so there won't be any today either...

Oh, wait, I did bring the photo that we are going to try and use for Julien's first PASSPORT!! I'm not sure if they will take it 'cause his head is slightly turned and Gena's hand is in there, but what do they expect - he's an uncooperative baby! Especially 'cause he got woken up to have his mug shot taken.. after reading the rules and whatnot about the photo, we had to take a special one. Imagine, 3000 photos of a baby and none conforming to the passport rules!

Well, I tried a few times but it's a no go to upload anything from here. Oh well, we keep taking pictures so eventually they will get here!

Things are going well so far. Julien is eating a lot, hungry all time time, and has apparently gained about a pound. The scale we use isn't so precise or calibrated, so there is a pretty good margin of error. We think he has grown, lengthwise, too, maybe half an inch or maybe an inch. Our tape measure IS calibrated (ha!) but I don't know how they measured him before (tip of head to heel or to toe?), plus we don't like stretching him on the rack too often.

He sleeps.. off and on. I have Julien Duty until midnight which is usually when he needs the most attention, and then Gena takes over. Last night was super easy for me and from 2-5AM I think he was not as peacefully asleep. If we follow the schedule we have it tends to be more predictable and he does better at night, in my opinion. It's hard to follow when we go and do things, like Saturday we went to Champagne and how do you keep a kid AWAKE in the car?

Ah, Champagne. We toured Tattinger around lunch time, had lunch at a cool cafeteria thing, and then drove along the Route du Champagne - this time in the Côte des Blancs part, south of Epernay. Unfortunately we didn't really see a whole lot more Blanc de Blanc for sale than in the other parts, but the visits were good and the Champage portion of our electric cave is now full! We stopped at a little pizza place on the way home, where Julien started breaking down. Just a hungry boy!

What else is going on? Marvel is helping us out a lot, Gena and I got to go outside by ourselves yesterday to buy some cheese, fish for dinner, vegetables, bread, ect. We took advantage and stopped and had a coffee (hot chocolate for Gena - we learned about coffee about day 5!) at a café and relaxed a bit. We have been eating mostly at home, and Gena and Marvel usually get out at least once a day, Gena with the baby in her Baby Bjorn, usually to the store or around the park near us.

Tomorrow is our appointment at the Embassy to make Julien officially an American, and request his first passport.

I guess that's it for now. Hopefully more soon!