Americans in Paris

Last week I got to go to Paris (technically Les Mureaux, 30 min away, but we stay in town and drive out) for a week for work. This was the same location I'd been to twice before while working on the ISS and when I left ISS I thought all international travel was also past. Lo and behold, it's not. A lesson to all that the fickle whims of government funding will never cease and international partners may always be potentially beneficial. The project coordination is not a done deal, we are still in the exploratory phase, but I am very much enjoying getting to work with ESA again and even some of the same faces from ATV.

Having driven in Paris before that wasn't a shock to me, but the HOUR it took me to locate the parking garage to our hotel was and I did "good" as other folks took between 2 and 3 hours. This was literally all within a kilometer of the hotel in La Defense and I highly recommend you never drive there as words cannot convey how hard it is. Seriously, don't... ever. I actually made a powerpoint with turn by turn street view pictures (thanks google) to aid folks that were arriving for the second part of the meeting. They still had a hard time but at least didn't spend 1-3 hours circling to find it.

I didn't take a lot of extra time to sightsee and the weekdays were really long working days that left little time in the evening. But I do have some pictures to get off the camera and post up later this a week. Being preggo and having temperatures that never really got above freezing, meant a visit to the Louvre for the first time (indoor & heated, crucial sightseeing criteria in January).

Our "social event", as all bilateral meetings require by custom, was a dinner cruise on the Seine, also a first for me and pretty spectacular. The sights at night from the river were pretty neat and the boat had excellent timing passing the Eiffel Tower right at the top of the hour when it lights up with sparkles. The meal was interesting too. The foie gras appetizer was good, although it is one of those things (like lobster) that I find to be less spectacular in real life than the hype. The main was interesting because we honestly didn't know what we were eating until someone told us the next day (quail compressed into pucks like pate and not in a recognizable bird shape), not bad but also not particularly memorable. The cheese and dessert courses, however, were good. Really, I enjoyed all the food while in Paris including the three course lunches at work (seriously, the NASA cafeteria could learn a thing or two).

All in all, good trip and I'll get the few pics I took up soon.

Holiday Recap

I've been terrible at posting lately, so I'll just have to catch up on the holidays all at once. We had a great month of December and got to take more most of the holidays off from work and really relax without traveling. Thankfully we were told about the Santa at our credit union that is free and were spared the mall line to see Santa. Especially so since Zara is not a fan and had to get the Mommy shield, maybe next year.

As for Christmas morning, Zara had a blast and really did play more with the toys and presents than paper and boxes. Her big present from Santa was a play kitchen and other presents fully stocked it with wooden food and pots and pans. It continues to be a big hit. She also got several fun toys like a ride on suitcase for our next airplane ride, an elephant pillow, duplo blocks, and the Cars DVDs. She's set for awhile.




We also hosted a course for our neighborhood holiday party progressive dinner before the holidays that went great. I made a homemade tomato soup which was super tasty and my neighbor Lisa brought over a chopped salad for our soup/salad course of the italian night theme. In prep for hosting, we actually decorated the house more for the holidays including outdoor lights for the first time which turned out nice. In trying to decorate the living room for year round, we put floating shelves above the mantel with framed pictures I've taken. One shelf only made it a few hours before falling down, breaking one of the frames in the process, and I didn't get a picture in advance. A replacement is up, but I think I need some bigger prints before I call it all done.

We will have to be better at posting especially now that I am about to enter the third trimester and baby #2 is growing well. We had a checkup recently and no concerns, next visit involves the glucose test but I get to do the alternate version again with an egg/toast/water breakfast followed by a Coke for the test. Beats the heck out of the nasty sugar drink alternative.

10 Fingers, 10 Toes

Being additive, technically a second kid means we have fingers/toes 11-20 in work, but all present and accounted for on this bun in the oven. Friday we had our first big ultrasound. The midwife has as they call it "a dinosaur" for a sonogram machine and, while its fine for routine exams, we do go out twice during the pregnancy to an ultrasound specialist for the complete anatomy scan. I gotta say though, it was actually more interesting this time though than with Zara based on what I remember. This kiddo is either a soccer player or a free safety, because they just don't stop moving. I've felt pretty consistent movement for a several weeks now and baby didn't disappoint during the ultrasound. It kept twisting around, kicking, and was even sucking a thumb on and off. The high res ultrasound even picked up the tongue movement while sucking on the thumb. It was both awesome because its our kid and for the purely medical fascination of what we could see. We ended up deciding not to find out whether there will be a little brother or a little sister for Zara, so no news there. A few pictures to close...

Quacky Halloween!

We had a good time trick or treating tonight at all of our neighbors. Zara was actually really looking forward to the costume and happily got dressed so she could go see our neighbors. We prepped her to say trick or treat for the last couple days and before we went out, but the speaker turned off as soon as doors opened. She did still have a good time, just wasn't going to talk in front of everyone. She got scared by one neighbor in a ghost mask, but, other than that long distance trick or treat though, she had a good time. Pictures of our little ducky who enjoyed the costume so much she kept her hood on the whole time much to my surprise.

Arts and Craftiness

For the big birthday party, I decided to make cupcakes this year and be very suburban mom-ish. But cupcakes being all the rage, I opted to try and do something a tad more sophisticated than vanilla and chocolate. The first cupcake was a mint chocolate with vanilla icing, nothing too fancy there but still yummy. The other I had started googling for ideas and came across banana cupcakes. Perfect, Zara loves bananas. The recipe I ended up using even called for the bananas to get sliced up and caramelized with brown sugar before cooling and blending into the batter. Um, so like a bananas foster cupcakes, yes please! For these I also topped them with a nutella frosting, something else I'd never heard of before googling but figured that combo would be good. They definitely were good and it was worth the effort.

Being a 2-year old birthday, we needed an activity to keep said small children occupied. We ended up losing a few kids to illness, but still had a respectable little group for Zara to play with. Being a week before Halloween, I decided we'd stick with a Halloween theme this year (not to be repeated every year or Zara will start to dislike her own birthday). I couldn't find any undecorated trick or treat bags so I had to sew up some myself from felt. I made the bags in orange and then we cut out mouths and noses and eyes in black. The kids got to pick out their jack of lantern face and we glued them on. They came out pretty nice and now they all have pretty nifty bags for Monday.

Pumpkin Patch

One of the things we were sure to do while the grandmothers were here was hit up the pumpkin patch for our Halloween goods. It could have been better without the horrible mosquito attack in progress, so we didn't stay too long for pictures. Zara was in love with getting to pull the wagon around and less interested in the pumpkins. But every time she touched the pumpkins, she seemed to go for the warty ones. So we got ourselves a nice big warty one and a couple small ones for Zara and baby for inside the house.

Big Girl Birthday

I've been remiss on the blog lately, not for lack of things to post but lack of time and motivation. A couple weeks ago was my company picnic. Zara had her usual blast on the playground equipment and it was good to see everyone. After initially boycotting the dessert making competition since last year's "winner" was jello shots, I got suckered into making a dessert by a friend since they were short. Without time to make baklava, I tried a new date cake recipe and, surprised the heck out of me, won. At least I didn't make jello shots.

Zara's second birthday was Sunday and both of my parents and John's mom came down for a week to be here for the celebration. Much of that time was spent prepping for the party which involved me making cupcakes and trick or treat bags for an activity (I'll have to take pictures and post that later), along with the usual cleaning and preparing party food. Good thing I had some extra hands around to help. Zara got lots of neat presents from everyone (Thank You!) including some awesome clothes and toys. She was most enamored with the tissue paper, but such is a two year old.


But its not a toddler birthday without the picture of the cake eating. Zara is a rather neat eater, so nothing crazy there. But, for some inexplicable reason she opted for the no hands method of birthday cake eating.


Zara, you are a wonderful surprise every day. Watching you grow and learn, so quickly, has been an amazing experience for us both. You are such a grown up little girl, it's hard to even remember you are only two and its almost like you are skipping straight into being quite the young lady. Never stop smiling, never stop loving. Happy Birthday Sweetheart, Mommy and Daddy Love You!

Back with Splash

The work on the backsplash was completed Wednesday and I really liked the way it has all turned out. Overall, the feel of the kitchen has improved dramatically and is so much nicer than the cheap formica counter-tops and ugly 90s tile from before. Everything is really tied together and we were debating repainting the cabinets but now we think the colors are so nice together it isn't needed. The light fixture comes out later this week and the drywall on the pillars and the ceiling will be fixed just after. One thing that doesn't show in the pictures is that the pass through is now several inches wider and can support stools and a breakfast bar from the living room side in the future. Another minor thing we need to do is stop by the granite place later this week and get the matching tile outlet covers to get those to blend better too.

Phase 2

When we first moved into our house (oh my goodness) more than 2 years ago, we had Phase 1 of the kitchen remodel completed which changed non-useful desk and wall oven into useful cabinet and counter space. So what looked like this...

From New House

became this up until Sunday night. Since this, we also upgraded the dishwasher to stainless and the only appliance left in white was the stove pending Phase 2.

Now, phase 2 of the kitchen is in work which is ultimately where we wanted to go in the first place but didn't want to do with a newborn in the house. Yesterday was new counter-tops installed and wow what a difference just that makes. Today is tile back-splash, tomorrow tile sealing, and then the last step with a different crew will be getting rid of the horrid fluorescent light box and repairing the ceiling behind it plus we have to install the new stove and faucet and stuff. Here is the Monday night picture. I'll update again in the next day or so.

The Darndest Things

I've been remiss posting for awhile since I haven't been getting on the laptop much at home and work started blocking the frame I need to login and post during my off time there. I blame/admire the wonders of smartphones really for both keeping me off the laptop and making the other work blocked websites still totally reachable. Really no point in trying to stop people from checking their fantasy football in the office when almost everyone can just pull it up on their phone sans big brother.

Zara is only a few weeks away from her second birthday and while I know as much as she's grown she's still "small", that hasn't stopped her noggin. She long ago passed us trying to estimate the number of words she knows and frankly she can talk about anything for the most part and makes full sentences without missing a beat. Some incorrect pronoun usage is about the most difficult thing. If someone knows how to explain that she is "me" in the first person and not "you" let me know, but for anyone else "I help you" really means "you help me".

Lately though she has pulled out some real interesting sayings including telling Daddy to open the window "right now" and we've both gotten a "Good job Mommy/Daddy" when we gave her something she wanted. The one I'm still puzzling over though was when she got her sock on wrong and announced "I screwed up." John and I aren't sure if we've said that or someone else did but she gets the context right at least.