If I had the time...

If I had the time, I would tell you all about the teething and the sleepless nights. About the days that feel too short to cross out even a third of my to-do list. And how I wish I could be a better friend. Or how I decide to finally jump in the cold waters and go for it. And about how much Olivia is turning into such a wonderful-of-a-mess, most-adorable (me, biased??) little girl. And how Maddie has found her feet and spends her time hanging out with them. And there is also our trip to Canada...so many words in my head, so many things I'd like to write about.

But you see, right now, time is one thing that somehow seems to escape before I have a chance to hold on to it. So until I find the time to tell you all about those other things, I'll just share these two pictures of my growing growing little girls. Because, if there is one thing I have time for, it is to tell my girls how much I love them. And how much I love their daddy.

pomme de reinette et pomme d'api

We went apple picking. Yes, how very American of us. Because, you see, there's nothing like organized apple-picking in europe. If your uncle is a farmer and has apple trees on his farm, then you might go pick or or two. That's as far as it goes.


And when we arrived at the orchard, Troels and I looked at the full parking lot, looked at each other and grinched. We don't really like crowds, you see, especially in the countryside. And we thought "what did we get ourselves into with this apple picking business?!".



But turns out, if the parking lot was crowded, the orchards weren't at all. And we had a blast, running around, picking fruit with Olive and Maddie. Apples. Pears. Plums. I can still smell them.


The sight of rows and rows of tree gave me butterflies in my belly. I've always been a sucker for trees.

And so, it was so much fun, that Troels and I decided that we need to find ourselves some friends with an orchard. Might as well, right, if we're gonna do it every year :D So come on, friends, get yourself a little orchard - we don't need anything big, like, a field or two of fruit trees. Oh, and if you happen to own a vineyard too, that wouldn't be too shabby ;)

Happy birthday ma patate!

Je t'aime trop trop trop d'amour ma Soaz. Vivement qu'on puisse fetes tes 30 ans ensemble :)

Remembering

That tragic day. Will never forget.

Big girl, small girl

I know they will always remain my littles girls. No matter what. that's not even up for discussion. But some days, they both seem so big to me. I wish I could just stop time. And then, the next minutes, they look smaller than I remembered them. It's like magic. Time is a funny thing like this. One day you want the kids to be big already so they can do things on their own, and the next minute wishing to get back to the day at the hospital when I first looked into their eyes.



All of the kids in NYC are going back to school today, and that made me feel weird. Made me think about the day, not so far away from now I know, when Olivia will have her first real school day. My baby girl. Reading a book on her own like she doesn't need her mama no more, and then the next minutes, reaching for a little mouse and her pacifier.


And my little Maddie. Getting too big too. Trying to grab her feet or anything that gets too close to her, for that matter. With a tiny little fists. Looking at the world with her beautiful big blue eyes. How I hate the lack of sleep at night, but how I love everything else about having a little baby girl to cuddle with.


And, it won't be the first or the last time that I say this, but I love. LOVE. seeing how they are getting closer and closer as sisters. Granted, their hugs look more like a wrestling match to me than anything, but they have their own thing going on and I just let them be.

Love you both to pieces.

Canadia

That's how Troels likes to say it :)

He called me on Friday morning and said "We're leaving for Canada in three hours, pack our bags!" Well, mmmmm ok, yeah, like, Why? How? When? First thought that crossed my mind "OH NO! The US is kicking our pretty little butts out of the country!!". turns out, not. The US still likes us. It is just that our friends Y & Y invited us last minute to go celebrate Labor Day weekend in this little town a couple hours outside of Montreal. And, well, we're not really the type of people to pass on a trip with friends :)


Oh, and the best part of the weekend? It had a theme. As in a "let's-not-listen-to-people's-advice" kinda theme. Cut one. We want to go walk on a local bridge, claimed to be the longest pedestrian bridge in the world.


The people there tell us that it's going to be hard to get to it with a stroller, the path is quite narrow etc. But of course, do we listen? mmmm nope, I don't think so! SO there we go. And of course, the guys had to carry Maddie in her stroller almost the entire way. 2 or 3 miles that is. Not need for them to go to the gym after that one, hehe. But aside from that, it was a great little excursion, we played some music along the way. And some music was played to us. All was happy :)


Take two in our themed weekend. The day after we want to go up the gondola to go check out the view at the top of the mountain. We buy our tickets, go to the gondola, and here is how the conversion goes with the gondola guy that's there:
Gondola guy: "We don't take people anymore, it's starting to storm up there, too dangerous".
Troels: "we just bought our tickets. Are you sure you can't just let us go up and down? We won't come off the gondola"
Gondola guys checks with his boss: "Ok, you guys go, but don't come off at the top"

And of course, you know it, half way through our way up in the gondola, winds start picking up like crazy, there's lightning, rain pounding on the windows. We arrive at the top "get off now!!!! We're stopping the gondola right now, you can't go back down, go under the tent over there and we'll take you down with the pick up truck". Well. At least we can't say we didn't try to see the view! And, on top of that, we got a free trip in a pick up truck ;)


But moments like this make the best memories, among with the great (and some not so great) food, swimming at the lake, the wine festival, seeing the girls play together, watch postman per together....thanks for inviting us to Canadia Y & Y!