23 minutes

we passed a milestone today.. yes, yes, we had lucas 3rd birthday party - and it was a great time. in th park with many neighborhood friends, my homemade home-decorated carrot cake, a dump truck, a helium ballon, singing the b-day song with party hats and the whole deal - was just super.. and it was beautiful outside too.

but the amazing thing was... about 630 pm the kids were just finished with dinner, and we had an hour to kill before bath. so i suggested a quick family bike ride to the river, and lucas said "truck few minutes" meaning he wanted to play with his truck for a few minutes, so i started to crochet. philippe sat down and checked his email ,and ruby was approaching lucas to play with him. lucas told her "i'm busy ruby" meaning buzz off ~~and i was SO proud of him using his big-boy-words instead of pushing her away~~ so i got her interested in the train set instead.. and then,

LIKE MAGIC, it was quiet in the house! for an outstanding 23 minutes everyone was busy doing their own thing, minding their own business, compelled by their own thoughts. it was a dream come true for me, and i hope we get many many more opportunities to explore this dimension of our household.

whats the hold-up?

sorry for the big delay on the end-of month pictures and videos. i know i have some die-hard fans out there... so we'll be getting them up as soon as possible, thanks for your patience.

the weather continues to be very agreeable,. and we have visitors again! fabienne (ph sis) and xavier are here from paris.. we celebrated fabienne's birthday, by making a nice dinner at home, completed with champagne and some locally handmade sorbets. and its really great getting to spend some time with them, hanging out every evening.

the kids are having a blast with their "sevens" (lucas cant really pronounce xavier and fabienne, so he compromised on calling them both "seven"), and i am very happy to hear him speaking more french too. they went to NYC for 1 night, and lucas keeps asking when is "seven" comming back?,. so cute. and ruby fell in love with fabienne, we think because she looks so much like philippe. she rarely lets strangers hold her, but she practically jumped into fabienne's arms upon arrival.