Thriving vs Surviving

Graham turned 27 just about two weeks ago and I never did put up a Happy Birthday post, horror of horrors! I don't get much screen time these days (is that the hip term?) We are the proud owners of only ONE computer, a laptop with a cracked/damaged screen, and a now functional keyboard thanks to my bringing it in for checkups at the PC Dr. Oh, but I will add that I did manage to take the laptop apart ALL BY MYSELF and remove the old keyboard to see if I could figure out the source of the problem. I'm talking bits and pieces all over the kitchen kind of apart. Ok so maybe I had my engineer brother on the line walking me through the process but still, I was the one doing the dirty work! Not that it fixed the problem or anything...Anyway.

So we only have one computer and Graham gets first dibs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays because of school and schoolwork. Unfortunately, these seem to be my only free days to blog which means very little blogging occurs which saddens me greatly. I'm not trying to complain, more just explain my absence (and maybe why a PC Book will be making an appearance on my bday wish list).

But back to the title of this post. My mother-in-law wrote a little note in Graham's bday card saying that her prayer is that we not only survive these next couple years but that we thrive. The timing of these wise words couldn't have been better as this has been an almost-daily topic of conversation in our house.

We are busy, so busy. Graham hasn't been able to kick the feeling that he is drowning in assignments and papers since we arrived home from France. Between him working three 12 hour shifts a week and spending two days of about the same length attending class and doing homework, us girls don't see him very much. I've been doing my best to hold down the fort and take care of minor Mrs. Fix-It kind of things around here (hence my taking apart the laptop). I do ok at some things but certainly do not remember everything as shown by our Jetta that we thought was going to need a new engine due to running on no oil (Oops! We later learned that a leak was the suspected culprit while we were away in France but I couldn't help feeling somewhat responsible). Life is crazy and not only in a we-have-a-new-baby-and-we're-adjusting sort of way, although I'm sure that's part of it.

We continue to talk about how blessed we are to have each other and a precious daughter, jobs, health care, enough $$$ to pay for grad school and still have a little left over for fun. But so often we take all the Lord's blessings for granted. We really want to cherish these years. There certainly are moments where we wonder whether school was the right decision for us, whether it is worth spending so much time apart from each other and from Isla, particularly when we don't quite know what Graham's career path will be when he is finished.

This is an ongoing conversation. How do we thrive in this busy, busy phase? It won't last forever (we hope!) but we definitely don't want these next two years to go by "wasted." We continue to cling to the knowledge that the Lord practically flung the doors open and shoved Graham through to be accepted into this program right now. We don't know how all the pieces will come together and thinking about it overwhelms me. So for now, I'm working on ignoring the big picture because that remains a mystery, and instead focusing on each day, savoring the special moments I do get to share with those I love.

So there you have it, a few thoughts that have been running through my head.

48 Weeks

If she's 48 weeks, that means she is also 11 MONTHS (as of Sunday)! I can't believe she can possibly be that old already. That means birthday cake is just around the corner for her, as an e-mail from Baskin Robbins reminded me yesterday (the corruption begins at a very young age...) Long gone are her open-mouthed, tongue-out cheerful expressions the instant a camera appears. She has taken a more serious approach to these photo shoots and prefers to remain straight-faced.

Isla is getting so big. I won't repeat the obvious, but if you've been following my blog, you'll know that Isla went camping over the weekend. I couldn't believe how LONG she looked lying in her pack n' play as she slept. She's definitely outgrown 9 month pants but 9 month tops still fit.

Isla has figured out how to pull herself up on a few objects around the house that are closer to the ground. She particularly loves her toy baskets but also the basket of magazines which she likes dump out and page through by the window. She can pull herself to a standing position but can also "stand up" on her knees which she is doing a lot these days.

I love this age! She is just so curious. She wants to grab and pull and shake and talk to everything. I've noticed she can entertain herself for longer and longer periods of time now that she can move around and get the things that she wants.

She discovered our curtains this week. She crawls over to the sliding glass door and starts laughing. This is your clue that she wants you to pull the curtain around her and ask "Where's Isla?" She'll pull the curtain away and giggle and shriek. Then the process repeats. It's become a fun game.

Isla figured out another "new move" a couple nights ago. I call it the Fish Flop. When she gets really excited (or maybe scared?), she throws herself backwards and flops around like a fish. It was loads of fun when she was on our bed as this video illustrates but she seem rather shocked to find that it wasn't nearly as enjoyable when she did in on the hard floor yesterday.

I witnessed Isla's first real tantrum this week. It was over cheese, of course. I never did figure out what the big issue was but I'd given her a string cheese to gnaw on and next thing I knew, she was rubbing it all over her face and head and crumbling it in frustration. I figured she just needed help tearing it into smaller pieces (as she still as NO TEETH) but when I did this, she chucked the pieces into the grass and made a horribly defiant face. Ok, so that wasn't it. I gave her back the whole stick of cheese and she chucked this too. I tried the smaller pieces again but she was most displeased. Then she threw herself back and started crying and flailing her limbs and kicking the ground. I decided that was enough so I took the cheese away and told her that she "couldn't have it if she was going to behave like that." As I threw it in the trash, it occurred to me that I just tried to reason with an 11 month old...

Now that Isla is almost a year, we are trying to phase out bottles and instead teach Isla to drink out of a regular cup without a sippy top. It actually is going much better than you might imagine although she usually creates Lake High Chair at some point during the meal. For the most part though she can grip the cup and tip it back appropriately to get sips of water. It's the getting it to and from the tray that is the challenge.

I'm also working to teach Isla to use her spoon all by herself. We haven't been too successful just yet as this video illustrates. Enjoy!

Until next week...

Campity Camp Camp

This weekend, we took Isla for her very first out-of-the-womb camping trip. This time last year, I was 8 months pregnant and went on 3 camping trips, two of which were on consecutive weekends (I don't know what I was thinking!) Anyway, this past weekend was the maybe 30th-ish (Wilsons, help me out here) annual Wilson Family Campout. Our gathering place was Alta Lake State Park, near Chelan, WA. The Wilsons used to come to Alta Lake a lot but this was the first time we'd been back as a family in about 10 years (although Graham and I were here just last year with the Crozier Clan). I have so many memories of this place so it was great to be back.

The weather was hot and the lake was warm which made for lots of beach time for the kids. Isla spent the majority of the weekend with her first-cousins-once-removed (my cousins) and her second cousins which was great. They are all a lot shorter than me so were able to walk Isla around for extended periods of time without getting a backache, at least to my knowledge. Lauralynn and Georgia took her out in her little floaty boat but she wasn't too sure...

When Daddy arrived late Friday night, he brought along her inflatable starfish with sunshade and that was a real hit! She was actually making "Weeeeee" sounds as we pushed her back and forth between the two of us. Her legs dangled down in the water but she didn't seem to mind because it was plenty warm.

The lake was so green!

It was a rough weekend, can you tell?

Isla provided plenty of mealtime entertainment, particularly the time when she ate probably about a pint of blueberries. I'm not joking. All the cousins thought it was so funny how she could pack the food away.

I counted and I think there were 35 or so of us present at one point of the weekend (which is a much smaller crowd than usual). Quite a few of the rowdy boy cousins were unable to be there so there was significantly less spontaneous bucket-of-ice-cold-water-dumping and squirt gun fights than usual. I was informed that I was no longer considered a cousin now that I'm married and have a baby (thanks Evan!) I guess I got old.

We still managed to have a good time, hanging out in the shade to get away from the 90+ degree heat....

Chilling at the beach... (This is cutie pie Miles, Isla's 2nd cousin. She really liked playing with him and his trucks. She kept trying to grab his fingers so he could help her walk which was hilarious because he's only 2 1/2 and is not tremendously bigger than her!)

Going on walks to the beach in the cool of the evening....

Modeling... (what a stud muffin Uncle Ben is!)

Isla even had her very first outdoor bath. I thought she looked funny and baldish with her hair all flat against her head so I gave her a new do. Check out the before and after shots!

Her floaty toy doubled as a bathtub-genius!

There's just something too cute about a Grandpa with his Granddaughter...

But no words can describe a Grandpa, his Granddaughter, and Great Uncle Bob (with whom she shares the same bday)!!

This was the first camping trip without either of my grandparents present so that definitely was a bit hard on everyone. My Grandpa used to always tell me about the Wilson Family Campout when I was about a year old where he walked me around and around until his back ached. It made me smile that, a generation later, the story is repeating itself.

Now that I'm all teary, I'll finish this post on a lighter note! Isla definitely perfected "the look" this trip. There were two instances where she gave my cousins the absolute stare down. Come to think of it, both involved liquid. The first one occurred when Brian spilled his beer on her new travel seat. Check out her response!

I'm not kidding, she didn't crack a smile or even blink an eye for over two minutes! Even after a crowd gathered to watch, she would not stop glaring. Really, can you blame her? Beer on her new chair? The second time she made this face was when Annarose handed her a cup of ice water which she proceeded to dump on herself. Man did she give Annarose the eye!

Day 8 - Carcassonne

Isla woke up at 6:30 again but this time I'd slept through the night so felt exponentially better AND she went

back to sleep after eating. I looked out the window and it was pouring down rain. The farm looked really cool all covered in mist. We enjoyed our buffet breakfast of the same foods offered the previous day, packed up and were on our way. Because we were deep in the countryside, the road system consisted basically of a lot of one-lane, windy roads. We didn't have a good map of the area so sort of guessed our way back to a main road. We gambled incorrectly and went left instead of right at one point which made for an extra LOOOOONG drive to get to Les-Eyzies (the closest town to the farm). Our goal was to hit up a market in a town called Le Bugue before we made our way even further south into France. But there was a detour and what should have been a quick 20 minute trip took us more than an hour. The rain let up (briefly) and we managed to find a parking spot and crossed the river to see the market.

We probably were only there 5 minutes when the rain resumed. As it turned out, Isla had outgrown the only closed-toed shoes her mama had packed for her and so she was stuck, socks-only in the rain. We tried to hold the umbrella just right to keep her feet/legs dry but we still had a few people pointing with horror.

Doesn't it look like a rainy day at Pike Place? Of course, the backdrop of old buildings here are the only slight difference. :)

We bought some fresh tiny strawberries, a peach, pear and some bananas for Isla. We couldn't resist the bag of 6 beignets either. I'd fallen in love with my first beignet in New Orleans as a child but these didn't come close to measuring up. I don't think they were fresh which was disappointing. When we returned to the car, we were completely soaked. I removed Isla's socks and stuffed them part way into the heater vent and blasted the heat. She had dry socks in no time. :)

We got semi-lost trying to make our way to a main road again and eventually made it to Sarlat, which was the biggest town around (and one that was on our map!) From there it took forever to get back to the autoroute and I was beginning to feel carsick after spending an hour and a half turning and winding on the tiny country roads.

We stopped at a truck stop and ate our strawberries along with an Asian soybean noodle salad and a chicken baguette sandwich we'd purchased for lunch. At around 4 PM, we arrived in Carcassonne, our final destination. We drove into a bustling, large, charmless city and were initially quite disappointed. Where was the medieval city on the hill that we'd been told popped up at you from out of nowhere? Ahhh, but then we spotted it, the giant fortified old city, looming ahead. Wow! (We soon learned that the city has now been divided into the "new city" and "old city" and we'd entered through the "new city," hence our initial disappointment).

We checked into our crazy modern hotel that must have an account with Ikea. I loved our room and bathroom! They were so neat and tidy yet modern. Check out the rest of the hotel--it was all quite fun!

We were so excited to have Internet for the first time since leaving Seattle over a week prior and got distracted checking our e-mail and reading all our friends' status updates. ;) (What has this world come to that we would "waste" precious time in such fashion!?) We learned that in two days, a chimney sweep would be coming through our place back in Kirkland and we would need to be there to let him in or suffer the cost of bringing him back on our own time, when most convenient. Awesome. Glad we got so much of a heads up! My in-laws graciously agreed to shuttle a key to one of our neighbors who was able to open up our place on cleaning day. Phew!

After literally tearing ourselves away from Graham's I-pod Touch (our Internet access source), we headed up the hill to the walled city, known as La Cite. The weather could not make up her mind but at least the rain held off and it was actually quite warm despite dark clouds! The fortified city was really neat. There were actually two walls protecting the inner city and this picture is taken between the outer wall (on the left) and the inner wall (on the right). The walls came equipped with slits for shooting arrows through and little notches above where city residents could dump buckets of hot liquid on invaders below. It was pretty amazing to see a city this old and realize arrow-shooting battles in draw-bridged stone cities really did happen.

We were able to walk along the top of the outer wall which eventually rose to be pretty high off the ground (and there were no guard rails! gasp!) Here is the view outside one of the walls, a lovely vineyard. Maybe it's just me, but this seems far too peaceful to be a place where "bad guys" would hide out.

Inside La Cite, we followed Rick Steve's walking tour which led us through the St. Nazaire Church which had a beautiful mix of Roman and Gothic architecture. The church no longer functions as a church as its priest left for another church down the hill given the dwindling population of people inside the city wall.

La Cite with a view of the the rest of Carcassonne in the distance.

Here is what the streets looked like inside the city. They were narrow with stone cobbled streets (everything was made of stone!) which pretty much nearly killed our stroller. I loved the lanterns on the sides of buildings and the shutters on the windows.

My goal while in Carcassonne was to eat cassoulet, classic "peasant cuisine" in this region. It is a rich, slow-cooked dish with white beans and meat of different types (usually pork, sausage, duck and sometimes mutton). All of the restaurants in La Cite were a bit touristy but all offered cassoulet which didn't help us narrow down the options. We finally settled on a place that had a high chair (woohoo!) and lots of fun medieval decor. Graham started with French onion soup and I had a goat cheese salad. Next came Graham's main dish of sausage links with fries and my cassoulet. Graham received surprisingly few pieces of meat so we ended up cutting it into pieces and tossing it in the cassoulet and sharing. It was definitely not the most amazing thing I've ever eaten but was quite homey, a real comfort food. Isla really enjoyed her first white beans and loved the sausage too. We had a red Minervois wine to drink and I had coffee ice cream for dessert and Graham, bread pudding.

After dinner, we took a quick walk down to the "New City" to try to catch a better glimpse of the old city in its entirety. We were hoping to see it all lit up, as we'd heard it looked really cool at night. But unfortunately, it doesn't seem that night ever falls in France as it was nearing 10 PM when we took this picture below and look how light it is! Isla was obviously already done for (she refused to sleep against Graham's chest and WANTED to lay like this) so we headed back to our hotel for the night.

We were able to Skype home (FOR FREE!) on Graham's I-Pod touch and so talked with my mom for a bit then hit the sack. Our bed was awesome and so would have been our night of sleep if it hadn't been for the hallway party halfway through the night...

47 Weeks

It's been such a busy week! Isla decided to move in with her Crozier grandparent's since her parents never seemed to be around and so spent Wednesday, Thursday morning and Friday over there (we are so thankful to have family to hang our with her when we are working/in meetings!)

As it turns out, she has not completely given up vegetables! I was really worried one night and so determinedly cooked her a delicious dinner to disprove my fear. She gobbled the chunks of tofu (her first!) and the roasted broccoli and mushroom medley right up. I was SO proud. (Is it weird that I am most proud of my child's food repertoire?) 

On a liquid note, we are starting the weaning process. It's really been a team effort but mostly initiated by Isla. She has shown decreasing interest in nursing over the past few months and so we have gradually been reducing her number of feedings, not necessarily intentionally. Today I only nursed her 3 times we probably could have made it with only 2 if I had wanted. My goal is to continue nursing her until she's a year at which point I will happily surrender my services to those of Smith Brother's Dairy.

Other activities this week included attending a wedding (it wasn't until the day before that it occurred to me "What am I thinking bringing a loud, mobile child to a wedding?" but she did GREAT!), and went raspberry and blueberry picking.

Isla is always entertaining me. Sometimes I'll be cooking in the kitchen and she'll crawl up to my feet and lunge forward to suck on my toes. Or yesterday, she kept walking into the sliding glass door. Head first. And it's not even clean! I let her do it repeatedly and tried knocking on it to teach her that there was a window there but to no avail. Or there was the evening this week where she decided to become bulimic at dinner and literally stuck her finger into the back of her throat to gag herself for 10 minutes straight. She would sort of giggle to herself before shoving her finger back in for another gag. Oh brother! Today though she was on her best behavior at dinner time. I was scooping her food onto her spoon and then she took the spoon from me and put it in her mouth. I told her "Good job Isla!" and so she started clapping for herself. From that point on, there was applause after each bite.

We continue to (sometimes literally) wrestle with her emerging strong will. Getting her dressed or into her stroller or car seat has turned into a huge battle. And even when we try to set her down in the sitting position on the floor, she refuses to bend and arches herself backwards, throwing her head toward the floor.

Isla is a consistent as a clock when it comes to nighttime sleep. She goes down pretty much without fuss and then wakes at 5 AM on the dot. She then goes back down until about 7:30 AM. Naps are still helter skelter though. She goes down in the morning at 9 AM and then has been starting to sleep for closer to an hour which is awesome. But there are still 2-3 days a week where the AM nap only lasts 30 minutes and then I've been letting her cry for the remaining 30. Afternoon naps are harder because I'm not always home at a consistent time so it's probably my own fault that we can't seem to get a pattern established. Rarely does she nap longer than 20 minutes and then she usually spends a LONG time crying in her crib but never does fall back asleep...makes me feel like a horrible mama.

On an exciting note, I think Isla is finally starting to form some words. "Bah Bah" for bye bye, "baa" for bath and of course "num num" and "Da da." I think she may have even said "Mom" this week! It's about time! :)

I love spending time with my baby girl--this is such a fun age! It's really hard for me to leave her but I'll never get enough of her giddy excitement whenever I return.

46 Weeks

Man, can she ham it up or what? All I can say, is this girl is BUSY! Things I've learned this week:

-chairs tipped onto their sides can not be trusted as baby gates

-never leave your child alone with paper towels

-temper tantrums can happen even in 10 1/2-month-olds

-children learn that they should make horrible faces and fake gag at vegetables at a very young age

-I am not ready for a week-long, hubby-only getaway just yet
-my child would make a great assistant if the task at hand involves emptying the contents out of bags or containers

-children vanish in an instant if your back is turned.

-God created my fingers solely as supporters for a not-quite-walking baby. Nothing else. Absolutely nothing else. End of story.

-I actually DID contribute some of my genes to our child! Graham may have given her 99% of her good looks, but you have me to thank for her budding STRONG-willed personality.

-Isla loves raspberries. And kiddie pools. And the washing machine makes for super cheap entertainment.

Isla certainly keeps us guessing! Over the past week, she has really been exerting her independence. She knows what she wants and she will fight hard to get it. It's been quite the eye opener to see my formerly mild-mannered girl turn into such a busy, willful human being. She no longer holds still for diaper changes. She arches her back and flips and squirms and tries to make her way off the changing table. She also puts up a pretty good fight when it's time to get in the car seat. Isla is started to test her boundaries at mealtimes and has learned to fling her sippie onto the floor after taking a drink. She also likes to mash her food and try and toss it away if she doesn't want it. Graham and I need to discuss our corrective actions much sooner than we'd planned! The other night she was really tired and she got upset that we didn't let her grab our fingers and "walk her" around the room. She literally threw herself onto her back and started kicking her feet in protest. Graham and I just looked at each other in bewilderment.

Despite these new developments, she remains an adorable, generally happy, fun-to-be-around kiddo. She has a way of making you grin ear to ear. She is really starting to understand a lot and associate certain words with different actions. I'll ask her if she wants to go "bye bye" and she'll wave. Or if I say "hooray," she claps. When I ask if she wants to eat, she'll say "num num" and lick her lips etc. She's doing a little better with naps on/off although there is still a lot of crying going on over here. She's learning to go back to sleep again after the first 20 minutes which is progress!

I look around at my messy house with all the shredded paper towels and my "unpacked" work bag and I couldn't be happier. And I don't think I could love this little girl more!

Day 7 - Exploring the Dordogne

What a rough night! Our bed was NOT at all comfortable. I could feel the springs poking into my back and the pillows were extremely hard, not to mention square which left me with a bad kink in my neck. I think there was a miscommunication at some point in our booking process and the owners ended up giving us a triple room with a double bed and a twin bed. I'm pretty sure they thought Isla would sleep in the twin because they didn't provide us the baby bed we thought we we getting. I guess the twin was "the baby bed". Anyway, I ended up sleeping in the twin bed for the last couple hours of the night as it was slightly more comfortable. We improvised for Isla and she had pretty comfy sleeping quarters if I do say so myself.

Isla woke at 6:30 AM and so we got ready and stumbled in the dining room (building pictured below). Breakfast was buffet-style and our options included fresh fruit, croissant, bread, chocolate and regular corn flakes, hot milk (were we supposed to put hot milk on our cold cereal?), coffee, tea, jambon, cheese, homemade grape and apple ciders and fresh-squeezed orange and grapefruit juice. Sure enough, our embroidered pouch with walnut liquor-stained napkins awaited us on the buffet line. We were definitely the youngest guests there. I think the next youngest might have been 72. Everyone loved Isla though and stopped by our table at every meal to talk to her in French.

We hit the road for a day of exploration. I had Graham pull over so I could capture this shot a couple minutes down the road from the farm where we were staying. Beautiful countryside!!

We stopped at the Eglise de Carsac. It was under construction but the setting was gorgeous! It reminded me a lot of Tuscany. I guess we didn't really take any pictures of it, only video. If we'd packed a picnic, I certainly would have eaten it here.

As we drove on, we rounded the bend a caught a glimpse of this castle (Montfort) off in the distance, with the river flowing beneath it. Behind the wall I'm sitting on is a sheer cliff so Graham was freaking out and made me get up as soon as the picture was snapped.

We didn't really have a set itinerary for the day which was nice. We decided to drive up to the hilltop town of Domme and grab a bite of lunch. We walked the streets and bit and did some window shopping before buying a croque monsieur, some cheesy bread with ham (sort of pizza-like) and settling down for a picnic in the park as we admired this view of the Dordogne River and surrounding countryside:

There was a musician in the park serenading us with Irish music. It felt a little out of place, but hey, it was live music! We had spotted a fun ice cream shop during our browsing and Graham promised me a treat after lunch. But when we got up to leave, we saw the shop had closed it's doors for a 2 hour lunch break. The nerve! Graham knew what was good for him and assured me ice cream at a later point in the day and we headed back into the valley to seek out a canoe rental.

Canoe rentals had been a great topic of debate for us. According to our guidebook, one of the highlight activities of the Dordogne was to rent a canoe and explore the riverside villages via boat. Graham was REALLY looking forward to this part of the trip (so was I) but I was feeling a little leary about Isla and how we would manage her in a tippy canoe. We finally agreed that, if we could find a life jacket small enough to fit her, then we'd go ahead and brave the river. Unfortunately, the decision was easily made for us when we were told children under 5 were not allowed to ride in the rental boats. We were pretty bummed but had no other option.  

We made a stop at La Roque-Gageac, a town built on the rock cliffs overlooking the river which boasts to be one of the top three most visited villages in France. I can see why--it was way cute!

We walked along the pedestrian-only streets up the hill, admiring the tropical gardens. Apparently the limestone in the rock creates great soil for tropical foliage like banana trees, palm trees, and other pretty flowering plants.

We found a place that sold ice cream bars as a sub-par substitution for the real thing for me. Graham grabbed a fresh raspberry pastry from the patisserie as a snack-yummy!

The village is literally built right on the rock hillside. I decided I could live in this place covered with ivy. The crazy part is that every winter, the ground floor of all the buildings closest to the river flood. Shops are seasonal for this very reason and pack up and clear out come winter.

We knew we had to get on the river somehow so we decided to pay for a riverboat tour (on boats like those in the movie Chocolat). I'm sure it paled in comparison to floating the river in canoes, but at least we were able to say we took a boat down the Dordogne.

Isla provided live entertainment for our fellow boaters.

She found a French-Canadian friend aboard and the two of them had a good conversation.

Our tour ended with a view of the Chateau de Castelnaud, a 13th-century fortress overlooking the picturesque region.

It was mid-afternoon and we decided we'd played tourist for long enough and opted to head back to the farm for a swim in their pool. When we arrived in our room, we set Isla down, and look what she did! She started to crawl (but only with Mr. Crab as a motivator)! I was honestly hoping she would learn this skill on our trip because, how often does a girl get to say she learned to crawl in France!? (Please see the video for footage of our lovely room. PINK!!!)

Anyway, it's a good thing we decided to make time for swimming when did too because from this point on, we were never able to use the pools (when they had them) at our various accomodations because it was always raining...

The water was not heated so Isla was a little hesistant. We distracted her though and eventually got her in with us and she seemed to enjoy herself....for a bit.

Then came the out-of-nowhere-meltdown. Isla totally lost it as we were laying by the pool, probably because our day consisted of lots of getting in and out of the carseat every 20-30 minutes so she never got a solid nap. We couldn't get her to stop crying, even after attempting to feed her so we loaded her in the stroller and went for a long walk down the country lane leading to our farm. Of course she fell asleep almost instantly. We passed gorgeous fields of wheat, fields of corn (used strictly for feeding the duck for foie gras-the French are horrified that Americans actually eat the stuff!), a coop of foie gras ducks and walnut trees. The setting was so perfect, so remote.

We returned to the farm for another lovely 5 course dinner. We were offered Pinot as our aperitif and I was quite thrilled to have wine as an option over the liquor but I was mistaken and apparently there is a French liquor called "Pinot" which is what I was served. Again, I could only take a couple sips. Of course we also had a bottle of red wine provided to enjoy throughout the meal.

 The soup that evening is still a mystery to us. It had a white broth with little bits of pasta. I have no idea what made the broth white but I thought it was only so-so. Next came our salad of pickled white asparagus, radish and jambon (ham). I opted not to feed the white soup to Isla (since I didn't know what it was) and she was getting squirmy for food at this point so I went ahead and offered her a salt-fest of pickled asparagus and ham. I even gave her some radish--her face was so priceless! I'm quite sure she thought she was going to die. I'm so mean but at least she really liked the ham and asparagus. We also were served a small green salad with walnuts (same as the night before) which made for sweet relief next to the salty options. Our main course was slices of pork loin, served with a dark gravy. It was served along with fried balls of cheese which were to die for and the most amazing ratatouille I have ever tasted. Graham loved it and so did Isla. For our cheese course, we were pleased to learn that we could have a cheese plate instead of the fresh white cheese with jams. I have no idea what kind of cheese we were eating which was pretty much the case on our entire trip. I had a trio of ice creams (walnut, fig and ????) for my dessert along with Maxwell House decaf and Graham had a frozen strawberry "souffle" and tea. We politely declined the digestifs and our waitress teasingly gave us a hard time but I think she understood that we were wimps.

Isla made such a huge mess this meal with the wet ratatouille and the pork with gravy. She performed her annual evening BM (for the THIRD night in a row) and so I had to excuse myself toward the end of the meal to give her a quick change. She got a little bored when she was done eating and so we tried to entertain her with the basket of walnuts that was on the table but she proceeded to chuck them across the dining room. Oops!

I'd stowed three of Isla's books in our suitcase thinking that we could rotate through them for her bedtime stories. I ended up letting her pick her story and for the 6th out of 7 nights in a row, she picked Pat the Bunny. I guess we have a favorite! She did not want to go to bed again and so we had to let her cry for awhile (which is hard when you're all in the same room). Eventually we got her Baby Einsteins playing on Graham's I-Pod and got the room dark enough that she fell into deep enough of a sleep that I could read to Graham before retiring at 11.