Retournee.
You may have noticed that I took a wee hiatus. My dear mother was visiting from Switzerland–not to see me, you understand, but rather to hold a certain baby for the first time. She brought a metric ton of baby clothes purchased on her recent vacation in France. She can just drive there for the weekend, you know. To France. The only place I can drive for the weekend is Iowa, or Wisconsin, or maybe a Dakota. There are insufficient wine caves in the Dakotas.
Anyway, she came bearing tiny sweaters and sundresses and I must say, French babies must be exceptionally well-dressed, because these baby clothes were much more attractive than anything I have seen stateside. But then I suppose French babies spend a lot of time in chic cafes smoking miniaturized Gauloises, so they need a more sophisticated wardrobe than their American contemporaries.
It was a lovely week. I went out to eat, in restaurants. My mother brought me little glasses of champagne while I fed Simone. Milk Lady got to take a bath and Nani got to hold the baby.
I mentioned to my mother that I know of a nice couple looking for an au pair–no pay, more of an internship–but she was uninterested. And so Switzerland gets her back, which hardly seems fair. They had their chance, and they HIT HER WITH A CAR.
I got a present too. Guess what it was?
48 Comments
What a delight it’s been to read about Simone and her progress. Glad to hear that you got some much-needed family time.
And congrats on the present! You’re an great photographer, and Simone is a wonderful subject - cooperative (well, at least from what you’ve posted) and adorable.
Sigh. You totally deserve a camera like that. And so do I! DAMN IT! Can someone please email my husband?!
The cutest baby Ev-Ar? Wait, already had that. A new camera so that you can snap pictures of her every move and upload them to Flickr so that Nani can see her day to day changes any time she wants?
Ooh! Ooh! I know! A camera! Do I get a gold star?
Simone certainly does look fetching in all those chic French clothes…but then she looks fetching all the time. And I agree with you, Switzerald has been much less than hospitable to your mother. They should give her back. Even though driving to France for a weekend is pretty cool.
BEAUTIFUL CAMERA . . . er, um, ONESIE! ONESIE! HOLY HELL! SO CUTE! I like how Europeans use colors in different ways (you know, like using something other than white with pink, or say for instance being really bold and using BLUE in girl’s clothing) and have different patterns other than kittens and dumptrucks. Makes me wonder what went wrong design-wise stateside.
I have that camera and lOVE it!
Too bad you couldn’t convince the au pair ,, erhm, mom to stay. Simone is looking dashing as always! (just like her mom)
She is so beautiful! Glad she had a fun week with Grandma, and I’m uber jealous of cute French clothes!
Happy to see you back posting!
Beautiful, beautiful pictures. Oh, the clothes! Oh, the camera! I’m so glad you had some nice time with your mom.
Yea to all the cute clothes and wonderful pictures!
I LOVE PICTURES!
(I missed your posts!)
Hooray for the gift! It looks like it’s already serving it’s purpose well (I’m assuming it was gifted soley for the purpose of taking beautiful baby pics).
Baby clothes from Frances…how wonderful! So why can’t they make wonderful baby clothes on this side of the ocean?!?! (or at least sell them here for a sum that I could afford)
I may have mentioned this before, but I kinda want to snuggle that baby.
I am absurdly happy you got a new camera and glad to hear your mom was in town, however briefly.
I can’t tell. What kind of camera is that? I’m in the market, is why I ask. Though I’m sure we’ll just end up with some cheapie Elph. It’s nice to dream.
You got your camera! The baby is great as always but new cameras are always fun.
i am so very happy she got to come and, i take it, has made a complete recovery from the accident. also, your baby is stunning. truly gorgeous and looking so very strong. yayyyy.
She’s soooooooooooooooo beautiful! =) I’m glad you had a great week with your Mom. Enjoy your new camera!
I love the new camera! Does your mother want to adopt me? I hear adult adoption is all the rage and I could use a new camera and a mother in Switzerland.
More importantly, Simone is getting so big! And she is all head and cheeks and I just want to squeeze her!
Simone looks so great! She is really getting big. I’m glad you had a good time during your mom’s visit.
Too cute!
I want to say nice things here, but damnit that is the exact camera that I want.
Great camera. Is your mom willing to adopt me???? Maybe buy my boys french clothes and a kick ass camera????
pssst…dpam.com
but you don’t really need that info when you have a om with exquisite taste, not to mention your model…but why wouldn’t we mention her? Tres adorable!
Oh how quickly they grow - Simone is GORGEOUS!
She’s so beautiful :) I’m glad her grandma got to visit.
Ah, isn’t getting to have a shower the best thing?!
And Simone? Is looking very gorgeous.
A supermodel in the making! Glad you are both doing so well, and Grandma finally got her hands on the baby. My mother postively grabbed my son out of his bed on her second visit, having been hampered by the incubator on the first!
Just a note for the European mothers of little girls - I got that very sundress from H&M in the Netherlands, so it’s probably available elsewhere. And although the photos don’t show it, there are ultra-sweet frilly pink pants to go under it!
But, alas, I was buying it as a present. Don’t think my little boy would really appreciate it!
Nice hearing from you and seeing little Simone looking so great. For what it’s worth, I find the best kids clothes online — can get lots of great things in the US (including European brands) but mainly in boutiques and there are ALOT with online sites. Happy Shopping!
Nikons do prod some serious buttock. I keep finding new buttons and dials to fox me every time I pick ours up, and Hubby is absolutely Desperate to impart his knowledge of how they function. Thing is, there never seems a good time to discuss photography with a baby about. Much easier to point and click.
Simone looks fabulous. Très chic indeed!
I love the idea of the French baby gangs hanging out in cafes, chain-smoking and arguing about existentialism while wearing leather jackets and too-tight pants.
No personal experience, but I’m pretty sure that American babies are never that cool.
So glad that your mother has recovered enough from her tryst with an automobile in order to make it back to the States for a bit.
Gorgeous pics!
Look at that yummy little chunkster! She looks wonderful and beautiful.
Very cool! Simone is cuter every day, and very well-dressed, I might add!! She’s looking spoiled already. Wonderful!
Great to hear from you again! Simone is adorable. but i’m curious, you said you could drive to Iowa or a ‘Dakota’. Where is it you live? I’m in N’west IA!
Ooh, a camera! Nice one and the pix of Simone are gorgeous.
So glad that your Mom came to visit. Whoohoo you got your camera!!
Simone looks wonderful and just so precious.
I think I love the “baby of the week” pic from this week best of all.
P.S. Wisconsin is almost as nice as France. Almost!
How nice to have mom/gramma nearby for a week. Simone is stunningly beautiful! I just want to kiss the top of that sweet head! She is gorgeous. Lucky too, now that she has an awesome wardrobe. That helps - clothes are pricey nowadays!
So glad she’s doing so well. She is just adorable, and I love her huge eyes. She is so alert! Taking it all in. :)
The baby looks adorable. And your shade of lipstick in the picture with the camera in it–ooh la la! Fancy.
How funny. One of my best friends is from Spain and has sent my daughters some of the most gorgeous clothes I’ve ever seen. And of course Spanish baby clothes always include a great pair of matching shoes. They are shoe people and that is why I love them so.
And I got that same camera this weekend! I looooove it. It takes gorgeous pictures.
On a disparate note, my mom never takes the baby so I can take a bath. Then again, she tends to assume a lot of things that were true for me at age 10 are still true. So she probably thinks I’d rather have a pair of rainbow leg warmers than a bath any day.
I’m so glad to read about you at home with Simone. Your blogging about your time in the NICU helped me through our (much shorter, but still difficult) stay there. It was so wonderful to read about you coming home and experiencing some of those same feelings too.
I had hand-me-down French baby clothes and they were incredibly gorgeous. (Well, my children did; they were too small for me, which was unfortunate because see above re: gorgeous.)
How gorgeous are those pictures! What a lovely Mommy/Nani even if she didn’t want to be your au pair lol. Many years ago when my boys were little I used to buy knitting patterns from France as they were so much more sophisticated than the English baby/toddler ones available then. Sigh . . . how quickly the time passes. Still, now I’m hoping to get grandchildren so I can do it all again.
there’s been a time or two I’ve looked at the petit bateau clothes I bought for my son on eBay and wished they made them in my size.
Yippee! I was almost going into Simone withdrawl. So good to see her scrumptious little face and to hear that she had some Nani time. Precious. BTW - sweet camera! Digital scrapbooking here you come.
A baby that cute obviously requires a great camera! Especially in the wee couture.
Now that my sister is married to a Frenchman we have seasonal batches of Du Pareil au Meme shipped over - not sure what we will do when my daugher outgrows their sizes. Might have to bite the bullet and go to Paris ourselves….
I agree.. I want a cool camera like that. Does your mom feel any desire to adopt some extra 30-year old children?
Those are great clothes! It definitely seems like European babies are better dressed. They probably don’t care at this point though.
Alexa - I had taken a break from blogs for a few weeks and am delighted to see that you and Simone are doing so well. She is just PRECIOUS and I can;t get over how healthy she looks after her worrisome beginnings. You are doing great.
She looks so wee and gorgeous. All hail visiting mothers and wonderful new cameras.
Yay.
Adorable! So glad all is well. She deserves all those baby clothes! Great pics.