Two years and a day...

...is exactly how much time we spent in France.

Now that we're back home, it often feels like it was all a dream. But then Mark will meet someone who speaks French, and he'll take off full speed speaking French, or I'll be visiting the (comparitively tiny) cheese section of Trader Joe's, and recognize every single cheese imported from France, and it all comes rushing back. Unpacking our possessions (that we stored in my parents' attic while we were living abroad) was like opening up a time capsule, and it only highlighted the ways in which we're different. We've changed, and the America we left is not the America we came home to.

You can follow our adjustment back to the USA at the new blog I've created:

http://butlersonthebay.blogspot.com

It's good to be home, and it's even better to be with our families again.

So long, France, and thanks for all the french...

We miss you!

2009

So, so much to be grateful for...

January

Febuary

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

...and two weeks from today, Evan will begin to meet the rest of his loving family! Almost home... Happy New Year!

Moving made easy!

Reader comment: "...you guys have done it again! What an ingenious way to streamline your moving and packing all at once!"

(Thank you once again, Bjorcks! You totally understand!)

Evan's first Christmas...

...was filled with moving boxes! This is our third Christmas in a row where we have been moving, and so Christmas has felt more far away than ever this year. Somehow, the Christmas spirit still found us today, though, and we took the time to take the following photo...

We can't wait to be back in the USA soon. The best Christmas present of all will be to introduce Evan to our family!

A few things Evan can do for his first Christmas: crawl (I predicted he would be crawling by Christmas, and he's officially moving forward on hands and knees this week), sit up on his own, pull himself up to a full stand, and talk baby talk. His favorite thing to say today was "mimmimmimmimm..."

We hand over the keys to our apartment on Wednesday, then we're in a hotel for a bit, and we fly out on January 9th. With 3 large duffels, 3 carry-on items, 2 cats, and Evan, Mark, and me, we'll be a traveling circus! Wish us luck!

Evan and the Carousel, the sequel...

What I didn't tell you last time about Evan's first ride on a merry-go-round...

As our friends the Bjorcks (the people who snapped this photo) put it, "...and then, Mark showed Evan a REALLY good time by magically freeing his stallion and taking to the skies!"

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)!!