Well, it was bound to happen eventually. The bumps, bruises and scrapes that are all part of the rough-and-tumble of growing up. Tonight, it was fast-moving Juliette vs. non-moving box. First round victory to the box.

Remarkably, this is the first time in 18 months we’ve had to pull out the cartoon band-aids (aside from when Dad had a blister and took one for himself, which resulted in endless teasing from his colleagues. That’s the last time he’ll use a ‘princess’ band-aid, no matter how painful the blister!). Not that we needed to bother — Juliette decided within about 30 seconds that she didn’t want to wear the band-aid, so off it came.

(Don’t worry, grandparents — it’s healing quickly and she’ll be as good-as-new in no time! It’s amazing how quickly young kids heal.)

“And in this corner, wearing the pink trunks, it’s Juliette!”

Someone’s gonna have a shiner!

Juliette has a brand new tricycle! We decided to take it out to the park yesterday to give it a spin.

Now if only we could explain the concept of ‘pedals’ to Juliette, we’d be in good shape. 🙂

Down at the playground, trying out her new trike

We had a surprise visit from Juliette’s Godmother, Gratiane — a quick stop in Basel on a surprise birthday trip to somewhere exotic. It was a special treat, so we let Juliette stay up past her bedtime to say hello.

Up past her bedtime…

Enjoying the sunset with her Godmother

We had another beautiful Sunday this weekend, so we took the opportunity to get together with Juliette’s godfather, Bao, Marjo and their three children, Maxime, Pauline and Olivia. As always, Juliette had great fun with the goats and loved having them nibble leaves out of her hand. We practiced making the goat noises together, and even made a little video for Grandmom. Then we visited the monkeys (it’s always nice to visit family) and stopped for an afternoon ice cream with the peacocks.

After our snack, it was time to visit the deer, wild pigs, donkeys, chickens, and a real favorite: the rabbits!

Hungry goat = happy Juliette!

Mom and Juliette watching the goats play

Goats are Juliette’s favorites. She could spend all afternoon with them.

A friendly deer came up to see us.

Pauline also liked to see the goats.

Watching the action from afar

Everybody gets an ice cream at the zoo. It’s a rule!

Juliette seems to be enjoying her ice cream a lot!

Walking along the big log, with a little help from her godfather.

Juliette and Olivia are becoming great friends.

Playing on the logs.

Deeply concentrated before his jump!

Pauline and Maxime getting ready to jump off the big logs.

The peacock came to say hello. And see if we had any spare crumbs.

Juliette and her godfather, Bao, explore the zoo together.

A very smart-looking peacock.

Pauline, Olivia and Juliette checking out the rabbits.

Juliette was fascinated by the bunnies.

Daisy’s big brother, the lynx.

Just as we were leaving, we got a real show from one of the peacocks.

We took the first day of our “stay-cation” to ignore the normal tasks, like shopping, and instead headed for the hills around the Ermitage and enjoyed the sunny weather. I’m sure that when I look back on this twenty years later, I’ll be happy that I got my priorities right. At least today.

It’s easy to forget what it’s like to be a toddler, discovering the world one thing at a time. Everything you see is, quite literally, awesome. Awesome.

Serious!

Happy camper

Mother and daughter.

Clowning around!

Mom and Juliette are going for a walk.

Do you think Juliette has any idea her little brother is right behind her?

Yay for sunny Saturdays!

Quiet moments on the pond.

Juliette is captivated by the fish.

All smiles.

“Where’s Daddy’s nose?”

Giggles

Dad and the Munchkin

Dad and the Munchkin

That stroller won’t be empty for long!

Last weekend, we were lucky enough to have a professional photographer on-hand to take some beautiful pictures of everyone at the zoo.

This weekend, however, we had to make due on our own.

People sometimes ask why there aren’t more photographs of Dad on Juliette’s website.

Dunno.

Ask his photographer.

“Say cheese!”

The months seem to be flying by now. We’ll hardly blink and Juliette will be 1½. Halves, BTW, matter a great deal at this point.

“OMG! I’m 17 months old!”

Juliette’s doing some pretty serious teething right now. But still…. Cutie Patootie!

Mom is headed down to the South of France for a few days on business, so Dad and Juliette decided to fill the time by visiting the zoo. We arranged to meet up with Juliette’s friend Taline (who slept through most of the visit!) and went to see all the animals.

Juliette particularly liked the baby goats (“baa!”) and the monkeys (“oooh oooh oooh!”) and she practiced making all the animal noises. Salwa was a great teacher. Juliette also liked chasing after the peacocks that strolled freely throughout the zoo. It’s less clear whether this was an equally-positive experience for the peacocks.

The icing on the cake, though, was getting to eat the first popsicle of summer with Dad. Mmmmm.

An afternoon at the zoo with friends

Juliette likes to collect pine cones. So as we walked around the neighborhood today, she took the opportunity to add three more to her collection.

The curator, carefully assembling her display

Juliette’s pine cone collection

Juliette picked her own outfit last night.

Baby chic