Early rise and great show

Would I choose to get up at 4:45am? No. Was I excited when Maman woke me up at the said time? Amazingly, yes; and you know why? That's because we were heading to the Festival of Balloons, a mere 20 minutes from home.
We got there at 5:30am, just in time to see the first balloon being blown with air: cold air first and warm air second; wow, you should see the flames shooting up high! Impressive.
It was quite a show I must say and my parents are letting you know that the pictures don't give credit to the ballet of balloons up in the blue, super blue sky of this morning ( yes, it was today!). But we still invite you to share the moment.
And if you wonder why Maman had the time to load the pics, sort them, arrange them, find music, make the movie, export it, upload it and all? That's because I am on a nap marathon, finishing my 3rd hour! Yes, Maman, you can thank me later.

I certainly learned a lot of new things today and this is maybe why, as we were playing in the yard later on I said to Maman:
- What does "blind" mean?
- Well it's somebody who cannot see.
( this was followed by a few more questions and...)
- Maman, what do the other words mean?
- What words?
- All the ones that are in my head.

Enjoy!

A father's day week-end

This was another great week-end. We had family visiting and it was fun to play with Ashley and Brenna: we had sort of a baseball game going in the backyard, a cool story time with Papa and a funny breakfast conversation. I thought I was funny but my cousin Ashley is even sillier... hear her talk about wagging her tail!
It was Father's day too and Maman and I decided that Papa would love to have 15 yards of mulch delivered just for him. Maman and I helped him a little bit but it took him the whole week-end to make the pile disappear. Luckily on Sunday, I found some ripe strawberries in our yard and I made a delicious pie for Papa... and for me too of course!
I have a cool Papa! He is a little crazy too: after shoveling mulch and pushing wheelbarrows all week-end, he still did a race tonight to celebrate the first day of Summer which, by the way, was as warm as a first day of Spring. Brrrr.
Enjoy the video!

I am a big boy now...

In a little over 40 days, I will turn 3! I must be growing right? Don't be fooled by the fact that I am 35" tall and still wearing some 18 months old pants; there are other obvious signs that growing is going on:

- Take the high chair: it's gone. Man I was sad to let it go. It was my table quarters for over 2 years and I felt like the ruler of the universe in it. Sure, the new sitting arrangements are good too but it comes with way too many rules. I mean, do you know about M.O.P.? I bet you don't. It's the first acronym I am learning (after TGV that is): it means "Mouth Over Plate"; it can also become M.O.T. ( mouth over the table). All I can say is, I am trying but the parents are hard to satisfy.

- Now, what about my crib? That thing had been my pad for even before I can remember. Apparently, that had to go too. I am telling you, this growing thing means letting go of a lot of the stuff you are attached to and, since I am pretty much attached to routines, it has made me do some crazy little dances. All is good now and after falling only once from the big bed, I dig it. You can see that on the slide show.

- The biggest growth has to be my brain though. Not saying it's for the best as it looks like my figuring out that I can have a lot more say in what's going on, has not been met by tons of approval by the parents. They will certainly credit me later for keeping them in shape and for keeping their brain active. Look, I can fire a thousand "why" questions each day and still, they answer.

Well, there it is. Growing up is fun and I cannot wait to be an adult: I am keeping a list of all the fun things that are around me right now but that my parents say or for adults only. I have the feeling, some days, that I am being tricked so I am keeping my eyes open; although I have yet to see a kid drive a car.

Week-end In Yachats

Since I came back from France, the weather has been very interesting in these parts of the World. Let's say that in the past 20 days, it has rained a little bit or more likely a LOT every single day. The grass is certainly green but one has to be sneaking the mowing part in between showers...
We were not hoping too much that the weather would be dry for our 3 day trip to the Pacific Coast and, indeed, it rained but never when we were out and about! We even got to enjoy briefly what should be a daily dose of warm sunshine this close to Summer.

We had a fun filled week-end though and my friend Juliette and I were as happy as clams in a bowl. We had many adventures in the backyard of our vacation residence, on the beach, in a very cool forest and on a hike to a lighthouse.
Well, see for yourselves!

What a month!

I am back!
And you thought you were finally done watching lengthy videos; well, get ready, because from April 20 to today, it has been pretty busy.
Our trip to France was really great and my head is spinning just thinking about all the things I did and all the people I met. We were barely back that we then went to Bend to cheer Papa during his Pole Pedal Paddle race- by the way, his team won the overall team race; not bad for 45 and over!-
Anyway, Maman and I have been trying to deal with the jet-lag this week and she has been working like crazy to put our fresh memories in videos... 5 of them total so it might take you a while to go through them, but, as always, they are also for us to enjoy.
But before we begin the video roll, I have to give you a little explanation as to why my head looks somehow weird on some pics. It turns out that I was having too much fun and met quite strongly with a very hard wall. It's better after a month, but it is still not quite back to normal. I guess I can brag that my first big bump was in France. For the visual, see the pic below and don't hesitate to click on it if you want to really say "ouch".


Now, let's begin the tour. Oh, by the way, a week before flying to France, I decided to be potty trained day and night and I am now wearing underwear all day and waking up Maman during the night so I can go potty - I wonder what those dark circles are under her eyes?- In this first video, I invite you to St Brieuc where I stayed with Papi and Mamie and had a lot of fun riding my bike ( that I brought with me), playing, reading, eating, trying my tennis skills and goofing around with Papi.



While I was in St Brieuc, thanks to a very sunny first week, I spent a lot of time at the beach with my cousins and had all sorts of fun trying to do exactly what Malo, 7 year old, was doing. I tend to like older kids better and Maman is a little worried that I might do about just anything they try, like climbing big rocks!
The beach is mainly for getting sand all over you, for splashing and falling in the water...I also went fishing: Oh boy, that was fun.



After a week of fun at the beach, it was time to explore the countryside and I am so lucky that Tonton Daniel and Tati Annie have a farm. Feeding the donkeys, getting fresh eggs, seeing the pigs were all great but my best experience ever was riding the tractor. A real TRACTOR! I was ready to move in the farm after that plus, I had a very good time with Tonton Daniel too!



I had many other experiences like being on Jean-Pierre's boat, riding Simon's motocross, finding a 7 year old French girlfriend named Gabrielle and having plenty of silly fun time with Louna in her very cool backyard. There were other places we went but Maman was so busy talking sometimes that she forgot her camera. Take a look...



So we came back late evening on Wednesday the 12th and we packed our bags and left for Bend on Friday after Maman spent all Thursday cooking since we were going to share house and food with 14 people. It was hot and sunny and I got to play with my 8 year old American girlfriend, Keely. Her brother is great too because he let me borrow his very cool trucks. I also got to tackle their big sister!
The best part of Bend, aside from the trucks, was my first canoe ride with Papa, right on mirror pond which was at the foot of the house we were staying in. Very nice: the house and the ride. I even stayed still for the whole ride.



Well, it is finally the end. I hope you enjoyed it... with moderation.
Until my next adventure at the beach at the end of the month,
Your friend
Noah René
PS: I have now officially entered the "why?" phase after 6 months of "what is this?". Now that I have the two going, Maman seems to get more and more thirsty. Too much talking maybe?

Counting: the visual

Papa's first question to Maman after listening to the " 32 and counting" video was to ask if the sound file was edited: could it be that I had just been saying the words one by one and, with the magic of editing, made it sound like I was counting ?
It was just enough skepticism to get Maman to bring the video camera out and give Papa the visual proof.
Enjoy!

32 months and counting...

32 months, that's how old I am and I am attempting to count that high. I seem to have a great start until 10 in both languages but then, as you will hear, I am a little bit creative.
I have been busy this past month and I can now add " washing car" to my list of chores and gardening, which both end up with a full bath for me too.
Enjoy the sound file and the pictures!