june big post

well okay.. where to begin?

we forgot to upload the may pics of lucas until now, so go get your eyeful now... because we will upload june just a day or two after.. we went on vacation - is the reason you hadnt heard a peep from us.



first, one long long weekend we rented a car and drove up to see the meteora. it was absolutely gorgeous! there are about 6 monasteries built in the 1400s by monks on top of ridiculous mountain peaks all within a 5 sq.mile area. the first monks went up to these peaks to escape the wrath of the ottomans, and to preserve the greek language, religion and ancient heritage. if you would have gone in the last century (er, uh the PREVIOUS last century,, you know), you would have been lifted by means of a basket and rope .. and as one adventurer wrote about it, a monk sharing the basket ride told him they only replaced the rope after it broke! hehe. but now those monasteries enjoy the income of the tourist industry, and they built bridges and stairs to get up there.



Philippe's talking: the same long weekend we also went to and around Pilios mountain, the feet of which are in the mediterranean sea. For me it is the best place in greece so far. Remote enough to keep the tourist buses (and the prices that go with it) at distance. We also spend a late afternoon/early evening in karditsa, which is so pedestrian and bicycle friendly that we were ready to move there. At the end, Athens keeps looking uglier and unfriendlier. Back to bethany:

then, we came home for all of two or three days before we left for france. we spent 10 days in brittany with philippes family (and had a marvelous time.. visiting, eating, napping and playing with lucas) we also saw ludo and his girlfriend christelle, erwan & natalie who are recently married and expecting a baby this year, and our friend max had a bbq on the summer solstice. Good o'timess.



in brittany, you could hear lucas range of syllables increase.. partly because of his age, and partly from having a whole new set of sounds to choose from. he has started imitating our actions alot, and seems to learn things VERY quickly.. you show him how to do something twice, and the third time he's got it. among his new skills are: putting on sunglasses, eating with a fork or spoon, blowing, (Lu also started learning to play flute), and driving pappy's mowing-tractor... well, at least vigorously turning the steering wheel, walking on grass, answering the telephone (hehee.. almost EVERYTHING is a telephone for lucas and he says something like: mah-na!) he has continued to say "words" where you KNOW what word he's trying to say, but all the sounds are jumbled.. it's pretty funny .. and cute.

and lucas' cousin fabian (who is 2 years, 2 months now) just loved "bebe 'ca" (he has a hard time saying the "lu" part, aww!) and he asked for him all the time, and was quite disappointed whenever lucas was taking a nap. but when he was awake, fabian followed him around imitating the way he walks giving and taking toys like a regular 2-year-old,,, we could tell they both really enjoyed each other alot.



me? as far as MY words ? well i didnt make any progress on my french this visit, but i dont think i did any backsliding either.. i learned a few new words i guess... for example a passoir is a colander. so, try not to get too overwhelmed with my rapid advancement ... I designed and made a space costume with genevieve. which i dont mind telling you was the best costume of my niece's school parade.

in paris we saw fabienne (philippes sister), connie and mehdi (about to get married), perrine and joe (expecting a baby!), and eric (our friend we met in athens who is now at the paris observatory) all in less than 24 hours!. we really wanted to see the mc cavana family too, but our time in paris was too short to make it happen.. and i heard we missed agnes by a day, benoit by a day, maxime and vincent by half week, joel by a week or so.... paris's such a hub

so, now we're back in athens... trying to get back on schedule. waiting for my cousin rebecca to arrive for a visit in july... making some plans for the future that i dont quite feel ready to discusss, but i promise some new news coming along soon.

what a day, what a day

lucas woke up at 5 this morning - that's early... usually he's up at 6. we were out of cereal.just before his morning nap, he hit his head on the edge of the coffe table and now has a cut on the bridge of his nose. ow! he seems fine, but I almost passed out! i started seeing black and feeling dizzy, and sweating profusely, all i could do was keep rocking him until i got my head back on. an hour later we went to the pharmacy & grocy store & on the way down the stairs i slipped and bounced down two steps (i'm unharmed, more surprised than anything)... and THEN somehow i dropped my wallet on to the sidewalk on the way to the store. i made a big scene in the produce department asking if anyone had seen it, and found it while retracing my steps (it was UNTOUCHED - wow, imagine my luck!! there was 75 euros, two bank cards and my passport inside) . when we got back, the mail had arrived & we finally got a box from santorini with lucas' beloved "mutton noir" (a black sheep stuffed animal he loves best) that he left in the hotel room there, and a big fat envelope from the american embassy... seems we have som MORE paperwork to do. but that's a whole other blog entry, no problems, just a pain in the you-know-what. so, later today, we will go to pick up some mail at the old address, and go for lucas' monthly checkup and vaccinations. i hope nothing else happens today, or i'll have to go dig out my railroad train pyjamas.