Chez Mui Richard

Where did the summer go? We got back from France and the weeks have just flown by. Thanks to Daddy for putting together the new playhouse for the kids – one at Grandmas and one at home. Mission accomplished!

Uncle Savio came down for a visit. And we’ve been enjoying what’s left of the beautiful weather while we can.

And even when it’s not nice outdoors, the kids still find plenty of ways to entertain themselves:

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Another beautiful day for lunch with the whole family! So happy we got to see everyone!

More pictures from our daily routine while on vacation…

And Sebastien is constantly trying to put the white gravel rocks in his mouth and so he gives me this look like “who me?” on the left of the picture below and then when I give him the “mom stare” in return, he gives me this bright smile because that’s the kind of troublemaker my son is. Thinks he can charm his way out of everything. We’ll see about that.

Selfies with my sweet Sebi!

Chloe and Sebastien’s first time peach picking!

This is the car ride to the airport – we left at the normal time that the kids take their morning nap. Poor Chloe fell asleep 5 minutes before we pulled into the car rental return area.

Some really nice kid-friendly areas in the airports in France – wish they had this everywhere!

Killing time on the plane and during our layover in Paris… the kids in general were so well-behaved, both in transit and while visiting family. I’m so proud of them, they really are such good kids.

The stewardess on the return flight from Paris tried to tell me she wasn’t going to install the bassinet for Sebastien as he was too big. WHAT? That is why I reserved a bassinet seat – stop. Chloe slept most of the flight (and watched the old Disney Jungle Book in French in her cool kid headphones, she was so cute, wish I had taken a picture) while Sebastien only got two hours or so as he was not entirely comfortable with his long legs bent. But we finally got home and the poor kids were absolutely exhausted on the car ride home. Thank you to all the family in France for a wonderful trip! See you soon!

More days of fun in the sun in Avignon! (yes I realize that all rhymed)

Chloe and Sebi are in love with the playhouse. Seriously I have to figure out how to buy one secondhand because I looked them up and they’re some ridiculous amount of money for a bunch of plastic. I also have this crazy idea that I might be able to fit one of those plastic playhouses with a slide coming out of it off our garden deck… stay tuned… I’m determined now to make it work! =0)

This is a shorter version of the original film due to size limitations but you’ll get the drift. Laurent and I tried our best not to crack up laughing watching the kids the entire time, enjoy!

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The grocery stores in France are awesome – not because they’re any larger than the ones we have in the USA – but because they have KIDDIE WAGONS! How cool is THAT!?!?! Chloe had a ball pushing the cart around saying “let’s go grocery shopping”. Then she just randomly started putting things into the cart and that was just funny.

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We also visited Grandpa and he seemed happy to see the kiddies. Chloe was very friendly and sweet with him which was very nice as well.

And check out my new favorite pictures of the kids. Just randomly happened – they lined up perfectly as if to pose and I got a handful of great pictures that I love that were just in the moment…

And more random pictures of the kids as we enjoy our time in France…

Having fun with bubbles with Auntie Dominique (which somehow Chloe was able to pronounce).

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Helene taking pictures of the kids in the playhouse… and yes, that’s Chloe’s hand in front of her brother’s face… sigh…

It was too windy today to go in the pool despite being super sunny and so Chloe was dancing with her Minnie bathing suit instead… whatever, it made her happy, lol.

And a demonstration of my very noisy kids… sigh… thankfully they don’t choose to do this all the time.

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Only a few more days left in France!

We’re so excited for our trip to France so that everyone can meet Sebastien. Much better planning this time and we’ve dropped off both kids to the grandparents so that Mommy can sanely (if that is possible) pack away the entire house. I honestly cannot wait until my kids learn to pack for themselves – that and laundry are definitely high on the list of to-dos. My packing list is ridiculously long – I’m more worried about the fact that the door-to-door travel time is 20+ hours due to a connecting flight and a car ride so I’m packing LOTS of bribe food for my kids in the event they don’t sleep. I think I did pretty good – 2 checked luggages, 2 carry ons, 2 personal items, 2 car seats, 2 kids and 2 adults and HERE WE GO!

Also very good planning aspect of the kids staying at grandparents is that they get as normal of a sleeping schedule prior to the long travel ahead. Enjoy your last peaceful nap kids…

On our way to the airport, Chloe decided to show me her new singing skills from her time at Grandpa’s watching all the Sound of Music she wants.

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We got to the gate very early and cleared security without many issues. We did have to put the car seats through the luggage x-ray machine – neither I nor Laurent thought they would fit, but they did! And both kids walked through the x-ray machines on their own and I was not harassed for the amount of milk, baby food or yogurt I brought on the plane. Whew! Needless to say, taking everything apart, putting it through the machines and then reassembling it all without losing either kid or entirely blocking up the waiting area was a huge win in my opinion. Sweaty and exhausted, we headed to our gate with 2 hours to kill before boarding. So we let the kids run around as much as they wanted to wear them out for the night flight. Before the cabin lights were dimmed, both were already soundly asleep thankfully (can’t say the same for Mommy and Daddy).

A two-hour layover in France at 7am (i.e. 1am NYC time) means everyone is super tired and so Daddy tries to entertain the kids.

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The second flight is only an hour and it’s a middle of the day flight so while Mommy and Daddy would like everyone to take a nap, that’s not happening. Poor Sebastien is so exhausted with these deep purple circles under his eyes that he literally falls asleep sitting up in his seat. Chloe is wide awake (probably from the sugar in all the animal crackers she’s eating) and enjoying her window seat with Mommy. The biggest surprise I got was how much fun Chloe had with the box of colored pencils the airline gave out to all the kids. I was disappointed at first because they didn’t write very well and I thought she would lose interest but surprisingly she had almost 30 minutes of interrupted fun just taking the pencils out one by one and putting them back in. I think she’s a type A personality and slightly ADD like her Mommy… oh boy. And then there was her singing to herself on the loud shuttle plane which was fun as well.

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After packing our luggage and installing the car setas in the rental car, changing outfits for the kids as they’re a sweaty mess from transit, we’re finally on our way to Aunt Helene’s! So glad we’re finally here! I’m pretty sure the kids are having a blast too!

Sebi can’t help himself and stops to pick up literally every piece of gravel down Helene’s driveway. It takes hours for him to go from the house to the garden ha ha.

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And who doesn’t LOVE their own slide?

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And some bonding time with Sebastien and Daddy.

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More photos and videos to come from our vacation in France…

It’s been so hot and humid these past few days that we’ve spent a lot of time in the pool.

Here’s a quick video of their shenanigans… and yes, I know, I have to put Chloe in dancing class… Grandpa already told me…

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And what else are we enjoying in this hot weather? Ice cream of course!

Chloe posing in a new outfit…

We went out for dinner this past week because it was just too hot to cook and Grandpa wanted to take Chloe home. When given the choice, Chloe chose to go with Grandma instead of Mom (I’ll remember that…). So we only had Sebastien for the night… and what does he do? Of course something he cannot do when Chloe is around – he grabs her blankie and totally smothers himself in it haha!

And Chloe FINALLY can sing along with me to the song I usually hum while cooking her breakfast…

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We’re so busy every weekend going out and enjoying the nice weather! After some technical difficulties, I finally got all of our videos edited and ready to be uploaded to the blog.

Earlier this month, we drove out to Long Island to visit Auntie Tina and her amazing swimming pool. When I tell you the next morning, Chloe woke up and before I even got a “good morning”, she said “pool”. Ha. Sebastien was not a huge fan but neither was Chloe at that age. We’ll have to go back and visit again!

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Can someone please tell my son that he’s not a fashion model? At least not yet? He’s too much I tell you…

No milk mustaches for Chloe but she’s definitely got a carrot-apple juice mustache! Thanks to Aunt Karen for buying us that juicer a few years ago – we’ve put it to good use with the kiddies!

Playing in the sandbox earlier today… and yes, that is Chloe throwing sand around in the air in the background. Twice. Needless to say, someone was put in a time out very quickly…

And then there’s the multiple park visits every day while the weather is nice and the kids can play outside. And so we just keep taking more and more and more pictures…

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Why can’t BOTH my kids look at the camera at the same time? No it’s always only one looking while the other isn’t…

Chloe’s so funny – she sees other kids playing “shop” at this little stand next to the slide and so she imitates what the kids are doing even though I don’t think she has any idea what’s going on…

I don’t know if you recognize the shirt she’s wearing, but she wore it last summer. Take a look at how much Chloe has grown and changed in just one year… it’s happening too fast!

And more of happy Chloe…

And of course, my handsome little man… rocking his sunglasses…

And of course, there’s Chloe’s ever-electric hair when she comes down the slide… these are probably the best pictures I’ve ever gotten to illustrate just how static-y she is…

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I finally gave in and bought Chloe a dress. Yes a dress. I figured since we’re going to visit Laurent’s family in France, she should have something more than the regular tomboy clothes she wears. And she’s kinda cute in it too! And for the record, this dress is an orange-coral color and it is not pink. Just wanted to clarify. And check out Sebi in his topless-cuteness. He got wet in the sprinkler and so we took off his shirt and I quickly snapped this pic.

Chloe is almost 2.5 years old and Sebastien is a little more than 14 months. It’s amazing to see how connected the two kids are. At first, Chloe wasn’t terribly interested in her baby brother, mostly because she was still very much a baby herself. But in the last few months, she’s grown really attached to Sebastien – she can even say his WHOLE name now and she sort of sings it like I do and it’s SO CUTE. I will try to get it on film… but anyway, they’ve become very close. Chloe’s still a little too rough with him but you can tell she really cares about him and you can see how Sebastien watches everything that Chloe says and does. These kids I tell you – they make me laugh. Check out this video:

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And so since the kids are so close, we decided to stop splitting them up. So now Grandma and Grandpa get both kids Sunday and Monday nights which has made for some interesting stories and a few sleepy eyes. I think it’s going to take some getting used to but so far so good!

With Cecile in Colorado and Emilie in upstate New York, it’s tough to get the entire gang together. But on the rare occasions that we do, we like to make sure we take lots of pictures of all the kids together. Over 100+ pictures were taken to get these few but they were well worth the effort!

Everyone loves dim sum, even Sebastien who put on a show for us in his cute hoodie. Check out his many faces and expressions.

Chloe has officially perfected saying “cheese”. If only she would stand still when I take these pictures…and close her mouth…

Getting dressed up for Uncle Ignatius’ 80th birthday party. In all the chaos, we forgot to take a picture with just the kiddies and Uncle Ignatius! But we did get a picture of Chloe sitting very comfortably with Uncle Gabriel who was in town for a visit as well as a group picture.

Here’s a video of what happens when Daddy and Sebastien are home alone. I can only imagine the trouble they get into when I’m really not here.

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Chloe on the big kid swings having a good ol’ time. And Mommy noticing how long her hair is in this picture and how much it looks like a mullet that Mommy decides to give Chloe a hair cut.

Chloe after the hair cut. Note to self. I will not be cutting Chloe’s bangs straight across EVER AGAIN. It’s not cute. At all. What can you do. Now I know. Even Moms make mistakes.

Sebastien on the kiddie swings playing with Daddy.

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Sebastien suddenly got brave and went UP and DOWN all by himself! Yay!

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And on our way back to the house, it’s inevitable that the kids want to climb up and play on the motorcycles. I guess I can’t blame them, they’re going to ride them at some point!

And this video just makes me laugh. Sebastien isn’t going to let Chloe boss him around for very much longer. He’s going to fight back, I can see it already. Oh boy.

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Where did the month of June go? I look back and the last post I added was June 2nd and today is June 26th. June was a blur… here are some pictures and videos to catch up from June.

Daddy’s been making homemade waffles and we’ve been adding a little Nutella on top. I think Chloe likes it, what do you think?

Here’s a video of Chloe mixing just like Daddy mixes his batter.

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This video is the first of many videos of the kids acting out the Sound of Music. I’m not sure what possessed Sebastien to do it but all of a sudden he starts marching to the whistle in the movie and Grandpa can’t help laughing!

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More silly pictures of Chloe. She’s wearing a bandanna like Auntie Queenie.

Why don’t my kids smile when I take their pictures?

This was a video we shot in the car on our way back from the grocery store when we started hearing the kids “talking” to each other. Again, I’m sure one of many to come but it was funny to hear them making noises in response to each other.

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We came back from Nashville with two new matching caps for the kids and it was the perfect sunny weekend to try them out. I like them, I like my kids in them even more!

Check out Sebastien totally relaxing on Daddy and enjoying the swing.

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Chloe and Sebastien running around the “grass” in the park…

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And BEST picture of the day!