What a way to celebrate turning 5!

A trip to California!

Angelina's 5th birthday turned into a birthday vacation:

Day 1:
Pool time with Hannah and Martina (cousin Matthew arrived later)


Horseback riding with Hannah


Day 2:
More pool time, followed by grunion hunting....for those who have never heard of grunion or why one would "hunt" them, they are little sardine like fish. They come ashore to lay eggs and for a few months of the year, you can catch them. But only with your bare hands. No nets, no hooks. And they come during the night. So at 9pm off she went with Papa, Uncle Chris, Nanny and her cousins to the beach to catch some grunion. She loved it.



Day 3: off to Big Bear Lake and Uncle Bruce and Aunt "Doretta's" cabin...
Day 4: Turn 5!!! Complete with Dragon cake


And a ride on the "taco" on the lake. At first she didn't want to ride the tube when we went out with Uncle Bruce. Later, when Uncle Chris arrived and took the kids out again without Frédéric and I, they convinced her to try. And in customary fashion, she didn't want to get off.


Day 5: 4th of July with friends

Day 6: Learning to rock climb with cousin Justin. She loves the climbing wall at the park, so Justin, an avid rock climber and home from college for the summer, offered to take her to his climbing gym. Martina, Hannah, and Matthew came too. Camille did as well but having had surgery that day to remove a rod from her arm, she avoided the climbing. Of course, at first Angelina was afraid to try. Then she did and there was no stopping her.


And more pool time



Day 7: Off to Pismo Beach! Wanting a little "family" holiday, we headed up the coast to Pismo Beach. Beautiful!

Day 8: Searching for shells, crabs, and clams in Pismo Dunes

Day 9: hiking the sand dunes south of Pismo, followed by blackberry, raspberry, and strawberry picking near Lake Cachuma.

Day 10: More fun in the pool....


And then home.

for more pictures, click HERE. Pay particular attention to the water slide photos.

Holiday Recap

Finally getting around to uploading some pictures. If you haven't received our holiday card, it's because I never got around to sending them, and here's why... Frédéric had his annual meeting in San Francisco, and another meeting in Switzerland, so we decided to make it a round the world (or at least two continents and one ocean) trip and join him.


We all flew to So Cal together, then he flew up to SF while Angelina, Lenaïc and I stayed with the family for a week. Lots of outings with cousins: beach, Christmas play, Hannah's horse show, walk to see the over-the-top Christmas lights on Thoroughbred in Rancho Cucamonga, picking out and decorating a Christmas tree for Uncle Chris and family, decorating Aunt Loretta and Uncle Bruce's tree, ice skating, playing with cousins....ending on Sat with a family birthday party for Lenaïc, which special guests of honor: Chip and Trisha (Chip is my old diving coach whom I've known since I was 6!). (For pictures see HERE)

Lenaïc was a little grouchy at his birthday party, and a few hours later I learned why. When we woke him at 3:30am to leave for the airport for our 6am flight, he had a temp of 102.7F! Fortunately, a little tylenol brought it down and no more fever after that - Phew!

Then the LOOOOOONG flight to Geneva. Stop in Denver, Stop in Washington Dulles, then overnight flight to Geneva. Apparently, Lenaïc didn't get the memo that overnight flights = sleep. he was feeling fine so not fussy, but so not interested in sleeping. We'd beeen lucky as Angelina has always been a really good (read sleeps a lot) flier. Lenaïc, on the other hand, must have thought this was the party flight. Lucky for us, the flight attendants loved him and were happy to have him join them in the galley and played games with him for a few hours while the rest of the plane slept. Unfortunately, not me. Still, I can't complain too much as he hardly cried.


After a visit with Granpapa, we headed off to Bern so Frederic could work while I played with the kids. We took a lot of walks, and Angelina had an art class at the Paul Klee Museum which was very cool! Then back to L'Abergement for sledding, ice skating, visiting cousins and friends, Christmas parties, New Year Parties, and more! For more pictures, see HERE

Ice Skating!

It was a holiday of winter sports: Sledding and Ice Skating (no skiing just yet). Trying to figure out what to do on a cold and rainy Friday afternoon in California, cousin Kyle came up with the great idea to go ice skating! Angelina had never been but I'd been wanting to take her.
Along came Hannah, Camille, and Martina (Kyle decided it was no fun with all girls). Nanny came along to watch Lenaïc while I skated and showed off my Dorothy Hamill-era spirals (and became dizzy...there's a reason I didn't last long in figure skating).


Angelina took to it right away and couldn't wait to go again once we got to Switzerland. There's a wonderful lake, Lac de Joux> where we went ice skating 3 years ago and Angelina learned to walk. But it was just too cold, so we decided to stay a little closer to home and go to an indoor rink. We went twice, first with the Gloor Family and a few days later with the Allegrini cousins. By the 3rd time, she was doing really well! Still needing help with the cone, but a lot more confident.




Lenaïc was satisfied to ice skate while in Papa's arms.

A Whole New World to Explore

A quick 4 day trip to Nanny's house and how many cupboards can a little boy empty?





There was also the drawer with the DVDs/videos, but I missed that picture.

Of course, as we know this is usual behaviour at home:


More CA pics to come.

California Dreaming

Now I finally have some pictures to post, more on our trip. click HERE

I finished work on July 30. The next day Angelina, Lenaïc and I flew to CA. Yes, me alone with two kids. Other people do it, surely I could too? Well, fortunately, both kids are pretty good fliers and it wasn't that difficult (not that I want to do it again anytime soon).

What followed was two weeks of non-stop parties: Uncle Chris and Aunt Debbie's pool with the big slide and trampoline, Aunt Loretta and Uncle Bruce's pool, Aunt Loretta's "cabin" in Big Bear (can you call it a cabin if it's bigger than your house?), Nanny's house, Corona del Mar Beach, Santa Barbara, Hiking up Mt Baldy, daily swimming lessons, and lots and lots of cousin-time.

If it looks like Angelina spent all her time in her bathing suit, that's because she did. She took a little breack for Lenaïc's baptism to wear a dress, but brought along her goggles to the church just in case (more on the baptism in another post). She lived in her bathing suit, not unlike we did as kids every summer.

The best part? Playing with cousins, aunts and uncles, and Nanny and Opa every day for more than 2 weeks. Alas, now she associates cousins with a pool, as when she skyped with Maël and Gilles upon returning home she asked "do they have a pool?"



There are more pics from Big Bear on facebook, I'll try to post a link here soon, so check back.

A college reunion!

And lucky for me I went to college in a gorgeous place: Santa Barbara. I can't believe I haven't been back in about 15 years or so. Now I've visited again, I wonder why I ever left. University ON the beach. Who could ask for more?

Thanks to facebook I've reconnected with some old college friends. One, Hyun, I credit for getting me through my first year at UCSB. See, he was the only one on our floor with a computer in 1987. Many a night my roomate Jen and I sat up in Hyun's room writing papers on a PC with a dot matrix printer.

Hyun still lives in SB with a wonderful wife and two of the cutest kids ever. He's also a great photographer. You need to check back for the rest of the photos (they're too big, so I need to do some work to manipulate them so I can post them, though they are on facebook already). But here are a few:






2.5 weeks in California = a lot to tell. So check back for more stories and pictures.

California and Airplanes

First Stop: Martina, Hannah and Matthew's house (aka, Uncle Chris and Aunt Debbie's house). Matthew and Uncle Chris were out at the UCLA football game, but that was ok. More time for the girls to play. From trampoline to dress up to dance....how much more fun can you have?




Then it was off to Aunt Loretta and Uncle Bruce's house for all the rest of the family. Despite being dead tired, she was raring to go. She just HAD to wear her new "pretty dress" that we'd bought that day. And seeing Opa? That was the highlight. She wouldn't get too close, and she wouldn't sit on his lap, but she kept walking around telling everyone "There's Opa!"

Next Day was the Annual Tamale Making Party. Nanny starts bright and early, which was no problem since we were on Texas time. Fortunately, cousin Hannah spent the night so Angelina was happily occupied while we helped Mom set up. While we made tamales, all Angelina cared about was her cousins.



You've never seen a kid so happy! (see videos below) 3 girls and 3 boys to entertain her and abide her every wish.....there are advantages to being 5 years younger than the youngest cousin. She was the STAR!






She's now a football player. Particularly funny as she had no clue that she was significantly smaller than the other kids, she jumped in to tackle (more like a rugby scrum) with the biggest of them.





And tease? Yes, she can beat Matthew at his own game. He teased her by holding the ball just out of reach. So when she got the ball, she did the same to him.




All day playing with cousins, what could be better?







Having a new grandma! She has Nanny, but she doesn't realize that Nanny = Grandma, while her friends have two grandmas. She calls them Grandma, but Felice often reminds her "that's MY Grandma." So, apparently Angelina decided to adopt her own - Cousin Gloria. Gloria walked in and immediately Angelina said "There's Grandma." I said "No, that's Gloria." No. Grandma. We went back and forth and I gave up. So all day she called Gloria Grandma. As Gloria has no grandkids, she was quite happy to adopt one. But it wasn't just that day. She's been talking about "grandma Gloria" since we got back. I even her heard telling Wiley and Felice all about HER Grandma Gloria.

Alas, the time came to say goodbye. Angelina does not do well with goodbyes. While we'd see some of them the next day, Hannah, Martina, and Matthew all had school/practice so this was our last time with them. She didn't want to say goodbye, got rather grouchy and stomped away. Same when Gloria left :(


On Monday she saw a picture from her baptism with a bunch of cousins and said with wonder and excitement "Look mommy! All my cousins!" She is sooooooo excited to have cousins!!! She wouldn't let go of that picture all morning.




Since everyone was in school Monday, and since Angelina had been asking to go to the beach, we headed off to Little Corona Del Mar for the tide pools with Nanny. There wasn't much sea life in them this time, but it was a gorgeous (tho not super warm) day and playing in the sand and sea was more than worth it.





Then off to Aunt Denise and Uncle Kurt's for another dinner. This time a little more subdued (I think she knew more goodbyes were inevitable). Still, she had fun playing with Kyle and Camille while we checked out the old toys Denise had saved from our collective childhood....many were passed down from Tim, so at least 50 years old!




We had a final breakfast with Opa, just Frédéric, Angelina, and I, which was wonderful. The whole point of the trip, afterall, was to see and spend time with Dad. All the parties are fun, but it's also nice to have some one-on-one time too. She enjoyed entertaining Opa who clearly enjoyed entertaining her. Of course, Angelina went into her now familiar grouchy not talking mode when it was time to say goodbye. Though frustrating, in a way it's sweet. It's her way of coping with being sad to leave.

Then it was another airplane trip and back home! Followed the next morning with "Mommy, I want to go to California." And daily since with "Mommy, I want to see Hannah/Martina/Matthew/Kyle/Camille/Nanny/Opa" Even Uncle Chris got a mention (sorry Ryan and Justin, you have to play football with her to get a notice).

For the whole collection of photos, including a few from Halloween, see California Nov 2009

Fun with Cousins

More pictures and stories to come....

A weekend in California with the cousins, Angelina had a BLAST. The crash video was taken first. She was a bit shocked initially, but that lasted all of a few seconds, as you can see from the next video.

Fun with Cousins

We've been visiting CA for Nanny's Birthday. Angelina has been in heaven visiting her cousins.

Angelina's Rohr Uncles and Aunts

and Nanny and Opa

It's a rarity for all of us surviving 7 kids to be in the same place at the same time. This occasion was Nanny's 75th Birthday Party


I think you can tell by this picture that we all have very different styles, even though our husbands all claim we're all alike....

"Chauss-sock"

We're raising Angelina bilingual:Frederic speaks in French and I speak in English.

But sometimes she's mono-lingual and speaks Franglais, like when talking about socks and shoes. She knows the French words: chaussettes and chaussure, and the English versions, but lately she's been saying "chauss-sock" and "chauss-shoe."

We shouldn't let her, but it's too cute.

As for her speaking, she had been behind for some time. At 18 months we (ok, I) were a little concerned that she wasn't speaking at the appropriate level. The early-childhood intervention evaluators, however, found she was only 1-2 months behind so not in need of therapy. A few months later her developmental specialist said the same thing: she understood very well, but was a bit behind. No worries, this is common with a bilingual kid in the early days. Her language development has improved over the last 6 months or so, but it really took off last week.

That's what spending a week with Nanny will do.....the kid is talking non-stop. And clearly too. She skipped over mere words and sentences and went straight to monologues.

4 hour long monologues.

It's still mostly in English, but she does speak more and more French. The wonder is now, should Fredo insist on her speaking in French to him?

As for us, and what prompted this post - there's a blogger Fned doing a 'group' blog post about bilingual families. Given Frederic and I met in the US (at a German Biergarten) and since my language skills are fuddled at best (I was saying "Sawat di Ka" and "Khap khun ka" at Mexican restaurants in San Antonio... (Thai for hello and thank you) and throwing in some odd britishisms and spanish words, we've always spoken in English to each other.

My French? What French? I've tried, but my brain is full of Spanish and occasional Thai - at least that's my excuse. I keep saying once we move I'll immerse myself in it then I'll learn. However, I have learned quite a lot since Angelina was born, since he speaks to her only in French. Of course, the words I learn are not exactly for intellectual conversation: "Arrêt!" "Ça suffi! (don't know the ending for suffi-) ... and anyway, you get the idea. We try to watch cartoons/kids films in French to give us both more exposure, which seems to be working. I can sing "J'suis la carte" and "We did it!" (tho I can't spell the latter - "Çe ganard?")...Fans of Dora will understand.

Of course, if we move to Germany next year as hoped, that will throw a whole new kink into things. Great for Angelina, who will learn German in school/playground and continue English with Maman and French with Papa. More work for me though! At least I've studied the basics of German before and can read it a bit, so with effort should be able to learn, but that still means I haven't learned French.....

I've just been reading other blogs of couples who started in one language and eventually progressed to another. It's hard for me to imagine ever being fluent enough in any language to speak it as my primary language. Then I see Frederic - he claims he doesn't speak German, but having gone to university in Bern, she speaks it just fine. And I remember his English when I first met him - excellent, but a little off (and very cute) and now he's basically fluent (still with the cute accent). And though my Thai was hardly fluent or even close to it, there were times I could rattle off a price negotiation at the market, so I guess it's possible for French too. And maybe German. And Spanish. And Karen.

I would love to be able to sit with people anywhere in the world and converse in their native tongue. Fortunately, I've experienced enough of the former to know you can always find a way to converse, especially if a gin and tonic (or beer, or wine...) is involved.

I wish I was born a polyglot.

Maybe Angelina will become one.

Happy Birthday Martina!

In the Spring we happened to be in California for Cousin Camille's birthday. This time our visit coincided with cousin Martina's birthday (10!). Angelina could not have had more fun.

See that move at the end, jumping up and landing on her bum? Well, she thinks she can do that anywhere, including on Nanny's living room FLOOR - i.e., concrete slab. Ouch! She kept doing it, I'd tell her to stop, but she'd do it again. I can't believe her back wasn't hurting. Now at least she does it on the bed.

Cousins! Nanny! Opa! Oh My!

Angelina is in HEAVEN! She is having so much fun.

I had to go to San Diego to present a paper at a conference, so took advantage of the time and location and brought Angelina along to visit her cousins. Oh my what fun she is having! Started with a horrendous flight (4 hour delay in Dallas, which meant a boarding time of MIDNIGHT), Angelina acted like it was just another party, as chipper and happy as can be. So really, it was only horrendous for Maman who just wanted to sleep. The other passengers were saying "If she can be so happy, I have no reason to complain!"

Then we spent Saturday with Cousins and More cousins! Well, first, it was get to know "Opa." She was tired when he picked us up and it took awhile for her to warm up to him, but after he'd dropped us off at 1:30 am local time and we finally were going to bed, she saw the door and said "Bye Opa! Have a good day!" And for the next 36 hours, whenever she'd see the door she'd say "Opa?" and look for him.

When we woke up Saturday morning far too early, she heard noises outside the room and said "I'm coming Papa!" I explained it wasn't Papa, he was home in Texas. So she said "I'm coming Opa!" I said no, it was Nanny! "I'm coming Nanny!"

On to the cousins. We met Camille, Kyle, Hannah, Martina, and Matthew at the park, and her entourage began. Let's just say there were arguments over who got to be with Angelina. Everywhere she walked, her cousins followed. She's going to be a little too used to this Princess thing. She charmed them all. Matthew had gotten some balloons for the girls (well, he took them from a birthday party which had already left). Angelina of course let go of her's. Her response? "Bye bye balloon!" as she waved it up into the sky.

She had a blast. Could not have been happier. There are of course her aunts and uncles, who also dote on her, but they just don't seem to have the same special something the cousins have.

But there are the bubbles. Aunt Loretta and Uncle Bruce had the jacuzzi on saturday night, tempting little Angelina (whose Maman did NOT want to go in). When we left, she said "Bye Bye Bubbles." and All. The. Way. Home. "Bye Bye Bubbles." Bubbles. Bye Bye. Bubbles. Bubbles. More Bubbles. I think she just likes to say "bubbles."

*pictures will have to wait til I return
** Her "Daddy" thing is getting funny. She was calling every man in the airport "Daddy!" The looks on their faces when they heard her were priceless.

Little Indian Princess

Angelina had her 3rd trip to California last week. We all attended the wonderful wedding of my cousin Jimmy and his bride Sangita. Of course Angelina had to dress for the occasion. It was hard to get her to stay in one place for a good picture, but you get the idea. She had a blast playing with a bunch of her cousins. And she finally got to meet her cousin Olivia from Ohio (who just sent her two huge boxes of clothes)




The wedding was a beautiful traditional Indian ceremony complete with sanskrit vows. Ok, so really it was non-traditional as it was only about 30-40 minutes long instead of multiple days, but it was gorgeous. We were so happy to see Jimmy (ok, James now, but he'll always be Jimmy to me) get married and especially to such a wonderful person as Sangita. We're very glad to have her in our family.




We also got to see a lot of relatives, including Crazy Oscar!