glamor shots

The keeper photos from our Christmas card shoot

Sylvie's birthday and Christmas

It's late tonight and for these pictures, but anyway here's Sylvie's second birthday party.

 

I think we did Christmas Eve at my house and Christmas day at Beau's and Katie's, but these may be from another random play date at my house.  I love the Einstein hair that Sylvie and Iman are sporting in the car

Christmas Day... maybe. I at least have Iman in a festive dress which I rarely do, so it must have been Christmas.

pants on the ground... lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground...

The cousins... chillin'

I am not sure but I think Iman may have a case of food coma here.

I repeat......pants on the ground... lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground...

My dad has a ridiculous smile for the camera, but these family shots are few and far between.

Ephram

I am skipping ahead to this week.  I will go back and post about the Christmas visit with Memere and Pepere, but gmail wont let me send videos, so I here are very current videos from Ephram at our house today.

If you can get past my singing, these are pretty cute videos with Iman starting to dance with the songs and Ephram applauding my efforts and dancing a bit too.

Ephram just started walking a few weeks ago, and I wasn't sure if his mom had seen the beginnings of spinning, so I thought I would post this as well.  He is learning very quickly.

I will post the pictures as well, but they will have to wait.

Paris flix

Some long overdue videos from Paris.... I know I have mentioned this before, but I really am a terrible videographer, sideways again, will I ever learn?

Baby dance party at Hanane's apartment in Paris

Some of the window displays at the fancy department store

a cute splice of Paris with little French kid running by... not sure what he is saying

The Babies B seem to have this slide thing a little bass ackwards, or they just like to take everything to the next level.

a few tidbits from a carousel ride at the base of Sacre-Couer

Reviewing these videos tonight, I think the trip was worth all the travel trouble, but I stand by my statement to Amine on our Hellish overnight flight on the way there, I am not doing it again anytime soon.

Ahh Paris... I love Paris in the Fall

Ok new editor strut your stuff, supposedly all the things that drive me crazy on blogspot are magically fixed in the new editor.  If that is truly the case... we shall see... why the hell wouldn't they automatically update everyone or at least notify us that such a magical solution exists?  Anyway, onto Paris, the kids were good little travelers and we arrived at Hanane's apartment only missing one of Iman's shoes, thankfully I packed another pair as Iman tends to take her shoes off.
     Although the weather was chilly and damp we spent our days walking the kids around the sites of Paris.  I thought we would be much more laid back and not see nearly what we did, but thanks to the double stroller the kids cruised the Champs Elysees, were strolled from there to the Eiffel Tower and had hands warmed by a lovely carousel while their parents ate "the best french fries in Paris" and a lovely Belgian waffle loaded with Nutella.  Doesn't Nutella make everything better?  They toured various car showrooms and visited a very beautiful science museum.  They frequented many cafes, strolled through Notre Dame, ran around the playground at the base of Sacre Coeur and shopped till they dropped.  Those babies had a busy few days in Paris and we have the pictures to prove it.

Children's Science Museum

Champs-Elysees

Renault Showroom

I am omitting the fifty pictures Amine took of me waiting in line for balloons with all the little kids, but as you can see from this shot, I was successful at acquiring said balloons

Arc de triomphe at Sunset

OK, so in Paris, Toyota has this most adorable car ever, which happens to be electric, available.  I saw many on the streets of Paris to prove it.  When will the U.S. get this little bundle of Joy?

Tour Eiffel

One minor accessibility issue with Paris, while the sidewalks and metro platform were very accessible, the only way to get to each platform seems to be four flights of stairs at every stop we encountered which is the other reason the kids were strolled for miles

The babes shopped till they dropped

Still dropped as we walk along the Seine

Still dropped as we reach the original Notre Dame

and awake strolling through the Latin Quarter

My postcard shot of the Seine

The Macy's of Paris

They have gorgeous window displays and whimsical animated ones to wow the kids (see videos)

The central atrium at Lafayette looks more like an opera house than a department store

The more we walked, the more we bought the kids to keep warm, here they are hugging their new bunnies, Bibi is still sporting his new hat (Iman protested the hat more-surprise), and snuggled in their new fuzzy sleeping bag stroller accessory.  Finally, by our third day, we felt confident that we weren't going to have Benali popsicles by the day's end.

Getting dressed at Hanane's apartment

The courtyard of Hanane's apartment building- how beautiful is Paris?

The Carousel at the base of Sacre-Coeur

I am not sure, but I don't think this is how the slide is supposed to work

Pretty interesting "statue" person who sprung to life and danced a little jig while playing a flute, he was also very cute with the kids, but they were not impressed

Sacre-Coeur

The Babies B are waking up from their nap, so the videos will have to be yet another post.... until then Au Revoir.