Evan at the Christmas market

Yesterday we had a very fun afternoon at a Christmas market here in Lyon. Evan had his first ride on a Carousel...

Mark and I were the only two adults on the merry-go-round, and I think we were smiling more and having more fun than any of the kids (including Evan, who kept a dead-pan face the entire time)! Evan bounced on Mark's knee during the entire ride, so combined with the up-and-down of the carousel horse, he had a fun ride. He definitely required bouncing, though, because it was too tame for him without it!

I must say....Christmas is twice the magic when you have a little one to share it with!

There was an exhibit at the market of characters from various children's stories. They had a cast of mannequines there, dressed up as various characters. There was a distinct difference in how the characters were portrayed, though. In America, the male characters would have been muscular and have a heroic posture, and the female characters would have had an appearance of kindly innocence. That's not what we saw yesterday!

First, we have Spiderman, with really bad posture and anything but super-human strength.

Next, let me present the tall, leggy, and lost Alice-in-Wonderland.

Here we have the sassy and not-so-little Red Riding Hood.

And finally, my favorite, here is a sexy Snow White, who is seducing the dwarves with her apple...

Mark and I walked home with a great big "HUH???" in our minds...

One final photo...Mark and I noticed the following billboard yesterday and thought it was hilarious:

They sure didn't let Evan have a passport photo like this!

Evan's first Thanksgiving...

...can be seen on Kari's blog!

http://jkmassonfrance.blogspot.com/2009/11/le-thanksgiving.html

...and more phtoos here:

Thanks to Kari and Jonathan for hosting such a great meal! Some of those recipes will go down in history, I know it. I can't wait to make Kari's sweet potato recipe for all you Baxters/Butlers! Mark and I were sad going home, knowing this would be our last Thanksgiving with our expat "family." There is no other community like it, and I think that will be the thing I miss the most about France. Thanksgiving is extra special, living in a foreign country, because people have to come together and create it for themselves. That's the perfect petri dish for thankfulness!

We're deep into our moving plans, but I still have a ton of blogworthy stuff to post. Be back soon!

A whole new level of mess...

Evan and I sat down to have lunch this afternoon. I prepared some squash for him, and he spit it out faster than anything else I've seen (I was quite surprised he could spit something out with such agility, actually). I wanted to enjoy my lunch, but I knew I would have no hope of that unless I found something else for Evan to munch on too. Otherwise, Evan would loudly tell me all about his displeasure. So, I took one bite out of the perfectly ripe, juicy pear I was saving for dessert, and then handed it to Evan, thinking he would only nibble a bit. Oh dear, was I wrong!!...

The pear was so ripe, that it was perfectly sweet and perfectly squishable at the same time. This was a magic combination for Evan!

He loved squishing the pear his hands, putting his hands in his mouth, and then spreading the rest all over his high chair.

Evan's wearing both squash and pear.

Content

Round two...

...fascinating...

Where did it go?

Over the edge...

...and onto the floor (barely missing the file with important documents that silly Mommy put there).

After a half hour of scrubbing the floor and furniture and a change of clothes for Evan, life was back to normal (whatever that is)!!

Evidently Evan...

Evan has been growing by leaps and bounds, even though I've been behind in blogging. Last week Mark and I weighed him on our scale at home, and he was 1/5th of a pound shy of 22 pounds! Yes, our 7-month old bouncing bundle of boy is nearly 22 pounds! He's making very good progress on crawling too. He lunges forward and reaches far with his hands, often resting on his hands and knees for a few seconds. When on his tummy, he pushes with his hands, which causes him to go backwards. These things, in combination with rolling, can usually get him where he wants to go (and quite far from the starting point). I'm scratching my head, wondering how our house can be baby proof when we're trying to move! Argh!

Here are a few exerpts of Evan's adventures...

Here is Evan wearing an outfit from his Grandma and Grandpa Baxter. The tag says "12 months" on it. Most of Evan's clothing now is 12-18 months, with the odd 9-months here and there.

The hat his cousin Jenna made for him still fits (barely)!

He likes clacking blocks together, but even more, he likes playing with the container!

A new winter coat

So cute in his overalls!

Superman pajamas!!

Evan was born on the exact same day as this beautiful baby girl (about 8 hours later, in fact). I am friends with her mother, and we would have never predicted that we would have our babies on the same day. Evan met her for the first time yesterday, and as soon as he was in close proximity to her, he immediately started trying to take off her socks (something he does multiple times a day with his own socks).

Evan looks like Santa Claus with his white "beard" (only dressed in blue).

Photo taken just today with our friend Xavier. The last time Xavier saw Evan can be seen if you click here. Xavier was impressed with how much Evan had grown since the last time they saw each other!

In other news, we bought our plane tickets back to the USA recently. We fly out of France on January 10th. That will be exactly 2 years and 1 day since the day we landed here.

Up next, Michelle and Dan's adventures in Lyon!!

Germany

At the end of September, we flew over to Stuttgart, Germany to visit some good friends. We had a wonderful time!

We were greeted with a glass of my (now) new favorite beverage---carbonated water mixed with apple juice. So refreshing. Evan loved swinging in this swing, and we passed a couple of hours catching up with Valerie and Denis. (Photo taken by Valerie)

The next day we went into town. This is part of the old center of Stuttgart.


A family photo in front of the New Castle.


Evan smiles at Valerie...

Valerie smiles at Evan... I met Valerie during my junior year of high school. She was an exchange student who came all the way to Glenns Ferry, Idaho (of all places on this planet!) to live for a year. She gave Glenns Ferry a much-needed dose of the outside world, and Glenns Ferry gave her a second home in return. It was an incredible treat to see her in the context of her own original home, and I like Germany and Valerie all the more because of it!

Evan bounces on castle cobblestones.

The next day we went to the super sleek and modern Mercedes Museum.

There were SO MANY awesome cars there (enough for 20 blog posts!). These are just a couple of my favorite.


Yes, it was one of the cars used in the movie.

I loved how this car drove. Very smooth handling... :)


Next we went to Oktoberfest! Here we are in front of one of the beer tents.

We took turns going inside to see what was going on. When I was in, half of the people in the tent were on tables dancing to the song YMCA!

The next day we went to the old town of Esslingen.

We loved this church.


In the choir stalls we found a face carved into each of the armrests.


Valerie snapped this shot of us trying to entertain our little boy.

In the town square with Val. I'm ashamed to say that we somehow left without getting any photos with Denis (Val's husband). Scandalous (please give him our apologies, Val)!



Evan discovers the fun of bouncing in fall leaves.

We met Tiffany, Patrick, and Nicola the next day. They were our next door neighbors in Altadena. We had such a great time with them, commiserating over the joys and heartaches of living in a foreign country, and reminiscing about our time as neighbors (we have some pretty funny stories). Tiffany cooked a delicious dinner for us too (thanks, you guys!!!).

When Tiffany was holding Evan (photo above), we gazed out at this perfectly situated church.

We remember when Nicola was born (just before our 1st wedding anniversary), so it was quite a moment to see him holding Evan!



On our last day, Val gave us a tour of her university. Years ago, when she visited us in California, she gave us t-shirts with this building printed on them. It was quite fulfilling to see the actual building! It overlooks a beautiful botanical park.

Thanks, Val, for making us feel so welcome and for taking us everywhere. You were an awesome host!

Just a taste...

I'm working on a long post about our time in Germany last month. Here's a taste of what's to come (hopefully tomorrow)...

Yesterday we received a the following congratulatory greetings (thank you Jeff and Sharon---you totally made our weekend!!!!). I thought it posting it on here would be a perfect way to announce our next destination...

Coincidentally, Evan has recently honed his clapping-feet skills. He can clap them together exactly, and he produces great clapping sounds. I often say around him, "Evan, if you were an American Indian, then your name would be Clapping Feet!"

I've been MIA on this blog, but more is coming soon!

London

As usual, I'm so behind on posting! I've got so much to report about (Germany, visits from close friends, first foods), but first I want to finish posting about our trip to Great Britain.

We spent our last few days in London, generously hosted by Curtis, Maren, and Aella (Curtis and Mark are cousins). They did a fabulous job of showing us the amazing city that is London. Looking back at the photos, I'm still wowed by it! It left us wanting much more!

We loved this sign.

The Museum of Natural History (this place was amazing, I'm still speechless)

Evan and Aella, second cousins

Inside the Natural History Museum

First cousins holding second cousins (while the wives are shopping!)

British taxis are so cool!

Buckingham Palace



Entertaining Evan




Evan likes to take his lunch in spectacular places.

Evan still eating...

Houses of Parlaiment


Big Ben

Yes, Mark is making a real phone call in this phone booth.

Maren was a genius at entertaining Evan!

CJ and Maren babysat Evan for a night (THANKS GUYS!!!!!), so Mark and I had an evening to ourselves. We enjoyed a stroll along the river and a nice dinner out. It was soooooooo wonderful!

...ahhhh.

I haven't posted any current photos of Evan lately, so here are a couple:

This weekend, just after buying Evan his first winter coat (it got cold here very suddenly).

Taken just this morning...he's getting so big!

Up next, Germany!

Wales

We just came back from a wonderful trip to Germany, but I'm still in the middle of blogging about our trip to the UK. Hope you don't mind that I'm usually a month behind...

So, back to Wales. In short, WE LOVED IT! It really is as beautiful as in the movies and in our imaginations. See for yourself...

We visited a tiny town named Aberdaron, located on the tip of the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales. Many centuries ago, Bardsey Island, found just off of the peninsula, was dedicated by the church as a pilgramage site. Three trips to Bardsey was the equilivant of one trip to Rome. Aberdaron was the final town the pilgrams would see before making the treacherous ocean crossing over to the island. This cafe has been serving pilgrams for the last 800 years (it serves great sandwiches, scones, and tea)!

Ancient church in Aberdaron

Welsh is a challenging language!

The beach in Aberdaron

The church graveyard. According to the minister (a very nice man), said that, over the centuries, 1/3 of the graveyard had been washed away by the ocean.

Another old stone church, located just inland from high cliffs above the ocean.

View from the road by the church. You can see Bardsey Island in the distance. Bardsey is also a thought to be a possible location for the Isle of Avalon, named in the King Arthur legend. The remains of an old abbey can still be seen on the island (or so we read in the guidebook).



The Welsh countryside, as seen from the tiny church.

Grazing with an ocean view

The view, as we drove through Snowdonia National Park.

Ruthin, a small town in north central Wales, had some of the best vegetarian food we've ever had. We were quite surprised!

This building, nicknamed the "Eyes of Ruthin," is known for its many gabled windows.

Bell tower of Ruthin's church

Mark and both agree that this photo was taken in Rivendell.

A view into Evan's world...

As all parents know too well, naptime is really a race to get as much done as possible on a time clock (the time clock being that moment when your kid wakes up), only you don't know how long the clock is set for. On this particular occasion, Mark was trying to finish an exciting chapter in his novel. Evan woke up crying during the climax, and Mark went to fetch him from the dark, scary bedroom...

Evan was pretty groggy, so Mark hopped on the chance to read a few more lines...

...but it was no use.

#@!$%%#, Evan is crying and awake from his nap! Be back later...

A milestone...

Evan has been developing this ability gradually over the last few months, and I think we can safely say that he can sit up on his own now! Hooray!

...soon more photos from the UK if I can get a minute!

We might be moving in November...

We might be leaving France earlier than we thought... I will tell the story in more detail when we have our exact moving date (i.e. in the middle of October). For now, I wanted to post the address of our moving blog. I created the blog to show the list and photos of things we are selling or giving away. Most of you won't be helped by this blog, but I wanted to post it for the few of you that live here and might want to see it:

http://mkbutlermovingsale.blogspot.com/

Driving in the UK

Driving on the opposite side of the road was an adjustment that we survived (barely!). The most difficult part was that the steering wheel is also on the opposite side, and we both had a tendency to drift to the left because it changed our usual sense of the dimensions of the car.

Anyway, it was so difficult that we just decided to let Evan do it all...

More from Wales soon!...

Caernarfon, Wales

We rented a car and drove into North Wales for the next step of our adventure. The first destination was the town and castle of Caernarfon. This is a castle of fairytales if there ever was one! It was a step into my childhood imagination...

Evan practices his fancy footwork in the trunk of the car.



The King's Gate (a.k.a. the front door)

Caernarfon at night







I saw several fireplaces like this one. The floor is long gone, but the fireplace on the wall is still hanging on!


Mark tries to keep Evan asleep.


The view from the tower...

In the countryside...

We spent the first few days of our vacation in the countryside near Stoke-on-Trent, staying with Lindsey and John's family. Thank you Linds, John, Margaret, Di, John, and Malcom for such a wonderful time! It's some of the best humor and hospitality we've ever experienced, from the very first moment of waking up on the farm!

Evan asleep on the plane

Father and son; taken at Margaret's house.

Cieran playing with Legos (the same that his dad played with when he was a kid)

John and Evan

Evan meets a cow

John, Cieran, Evan, and Mark outside Shrewsbusy castle
The old and the new

Shrewsbusy had gorgeous gardens!

The castle was made of beautiful red sandstone.

Inside was a military museum where we found a redcoat (like what would have been worn in the Revolutionary War).

Evan did more bouncing than looking in the museum.
The view from the tower

Gorgeous



Walking on cobblestones

The countryside, between thunderstorms, near Margaret's house.

Lindsey and Evan (and Ceinwyn, who is due sometime in October!)

A photo a day, from the UK!

My little Frenchman...turned Englishman!!

Back from the UK, and Evan's first food!

We're back from a magnificent trip to the UK. We had a wonderful time. Our time there mainly consisted of taking care of the world's cutest baby and glancing at Britain, but those glances were amazing, and Evan did great! I took enough photos for a year's worth of blogs, so it will be an endeavor to sort through them and get them on this blog.

Evan had a fun surprise while we were staying in the countryside. We went to visit our friends Lindsey and John and stay with their family. One day we were eating ice cream. John's mom (Margaret) was holding Evan, and she gave him a clean spoon to play with while she ate her ice cream. Evan dropped the spoon, and as Margaret reached to the floor to pick it up, Evan grasped the spoon that was in her bowl of ice cream and brought it to his mouth. We'll never forget the look of shock and happiness on his face! We all paused for a second to see what he would do, and he immediately lunged for the bowl! It was awesome!

I always dreamed that Evan's first food would be something like carrots or bananas, but no, it was ice cream! Lol!!

Here are a few photos taken about a week after that. Mark was eating an ice cream bar...

Stay tuned for more photos of our adventures!

Super smiles...

Mark and I are headed out of town to explore the UK for the next week and a half. Before we take off, I want to leave you with a few Evan smiles...

Tonic Boy!

We were sitting at a cafe this morning when we met a family who had a baby who was just a little bigger than Evan. At the time, Evan was bouncing on my lap. The mother noticed this and asked how old Evan was. We said 4 months, 3 weeks, and she responded in surprise, saying "Il et trés tonique!" ("he is very tonic!). Evan's doctor has said this about Evan as well, and it's definitely true that Evan has been interested in his body from the very first day. He has a very strong and agile body, can hold his own weight on his feet for long periods of time, and will soon be sitting up on his own I think.

When we got home this afternoon, Evan took one of his moves to a whole new level. For a few weeks, he's been jumping off the edge of the couch (Mark taught him this). Today, he added a few steps to his jump. With our help for balance, he's already taking his first steps! You can imagine our pride!!!

Here is some video I caught of the moment. I took it sideways, and once I loaded it into the computer, I didn't know how to edit it to make it right side up. Any advice you may have to right it would be appreciated! For now, I suggest turning your head sideways! Hehe! Enjoy!