lucas is 4 months today!

and he's a big little boy, too! apparently he's tall and thin, just like pop (66cm, 6.5 kilos = 26in., 15lbs).. no hair yet though.. just a little peach fuzz, it looks like it will be a very light reddish blonde. but really there's just not enough of it to tell definitively. we tell him he has the same haircut as grampa.

he's discovering his hands, and gradually making progress with that. he can pick something up if he decides to, and usually it goes straight to his mouth. he also tries to put his pacifier in by himself but cant always find the nipple side. it's fun to watch and difficult to not "help" him.. i just tell myself that i already know how to pick things up, and it's his turn to learn! but i dont let him get too frustrated, or else it wouldnt be fun.

i just started going to an anglophone mommy group. it's very nice, i look forward to it really.. 2x a week, and it's only a 15 minute walk from my house. the 1st time i went, lucas was sitting in my lap while all us ladies were talking around a large table, and after a few minutes he wanted to participate. he started whoooing and haahhing like he was saying his piece too. it was too cute, and now he has a bunch of new girlfriends.

and he rolled over by himself! he didnt do it again for a few days, but then did it twice in 15 minutes.. i think he's really getting the hang of it!

ive started having dreams about taking care of him too.. as if my every waking hour isnt enough. they're very tedious dreams, that i never actually get where i'm going, but the processes involved in doing it with him are worked out in minute detail.

my heart is a category 5

we are thinking about y'all in houston. i am so worried for all of my friends and family!!! the barometer in my heart has reached 898 milibars from worryin! we hope you will be safe and well or have friends and family to visit outside of the danger zone. if anyone wants to come to greece while it blows over, bring it on... there's no hurricane season here!

seriously, after this passes, please post a quick note here or email us telling us you're okay.
much love, bb, ph & lu

in case you forgotor weren't thinking about it - lucas is THE CUTEST LITTLE BOY IN THE UNIVERSE!!! 

new pics r up

the "bzh 2005" & the "laurence & stephane wedding" photos are up on the "ph&bb pix" link.

be sure and check out the baby pics of philippe too - in the bzh folder... theres some old family pics too.
206= genevieve's parents,
221=noel's parents,
225, 227, 231= philippe,
228= ph & noel,
229=philippe's parents (genevieve & noel) ,
232= philippe + his 2 sisters on the left, with 2 cousins on the right,
288= therese and lucas - his new girlfriend

3 weeks with family was great

the family came visiting with more gifts for lucas, (we came with one suitcase, and left with 3!) and i got a very personal and sincere thank you from philippe's father for bearing the first grandchild to continue the family name. it's a tad ironic actually, since this is the end of the bartran name on our branch of the family tree. it turns out lucas is the first son of the first son of the first son.. so i guess that makes him heir to the throne. haha. this distinction wouldve been very important about 200 years ago or if we were royalty, but in todays modern society it amounts to the worth of the paper it's written on. funny enough though, i always told ph he looks like the little prince (francis de st exupery)..

we went "out" one night and it felt wierd being out socially as a mother. i felt like i couldnt relate and felt odd and i didnt know what else to talk about.. and after 2 hours i was ready to be back home with my baby, because i couldnt stop thinking about him anyway. i guess my new skin is a bit too fresh still.. - ever wear a bandaid too long?

on vacation, I did not make any meals, clean the house or do any laundry.. I recovered from lucas’ first 2 months, took some crash courses in mothering from genie, therese and laurence, and rested. genie made me take a fruit or yogurt every day at 10:30am and 4:30pm for good nutrition, and would only let me make the evening tisane or wash a few dishes. She was always (as usual) 2-steps-ahead of me whenever I would try to do any housework.

I tried to wash my laundry, sneaking down to the laundry room unnoticed, because she already does so much for us that it’d be unconscionable to let her do anything else for us .. I started the load, and came back an hour later to find it already hung on the line and the second load started… thought I’d come back later to beat her to the finish of the first and hang the second. ~ NO~ when I went back, the second load was already hung and the first load was already ironed! But, I DID get to the second load before she could iron it. ha! I win! Heheeh.

AND she made lucas another dou-dou (a stuffed animal, his name is dou-dou-deux) and a quilt… did some alterations on some of our clothes, and loaded us up a doggy-bag of cheeses, bread, and homemade preserves to take home with us. and that’s just the stuff she did for us! she made 15 homemade breads, did the alterations on laurences’ wedding gown (a beautiful and daring red!) and made the flower-girl’s dress too. god knows what else she did.. i wrote more about this fantastical wedding in the following post.

is anyone else incredulous like me? I just adore her… and told philippe I wish not to ever be compared with her as a homemaker.

breton wedding

*pix are going up on the ph&bb pix soon.

Philippe’s sister got married near the end of our visit and had a very traditional 3-day Breton wedding. yes, that’s right – THREE days. It was incredible, really, I’ve never seen so many consecutive meals, dancing and singing with so many people. It started at the civil office at 11am friday, walked across the street to the church (which was beautiful and had high gothic arches) with the bells ringing at noon.

By 2pm the caravan of cars and people drove honking with flashers on to the party hall. There were aperitifs and the full assortment of cheeses and snackies, and a cousin taking photographs and information to complete his genealogical tree. Then dinner. Where, over only 5 courses of food, the tables took turns singing out of the Breton song book. And periodically, everyone would ring their glasses with their spoons to instruct the bride and groom to stand up and kiss again.

The wedding cake was an enormous tractor (the groom is an agriculteur). After dinner was more singing and traditional breton dancing where the bride and groom start dancing around the room “picking up” everyone in a dancing chain and turning in to form a huge spiral around the room. Later, it turned into more of a disco, but we were pooped and left by midnight thirty.

the NEXT 2 days, was a barbecue in the bride and groom’s “backyard”, which is really one of his pastures for his cows. But the cows were moved off to another pasture to provide space for parking and the huge rental tent. They served the whole hog, literally. It was gross and huge, but delicious. More singing, and then they played some game I couldn’t understand what was happening.. because lucas needed to sleep so I went for a walk with the baby buggy. After eating, some played breton petanque, others spread out on the grass in groups, and basically hung out until DINNER. But i went home just before dinner. And only came the next day for lunch. But Philippe kept his party hat on, stayed for dinner again, and finished about midnight sunday.