My niece, Léa Madeline (it’s pronounced LAY-ah, just like the Princess), who will be three this September, has finally started to really talk, in both French and English. My sister-in-law, Priscille, speaks to her almost exclusively in French, while my brother, Sam, uses only English (well, very little French, and with a really horrendous accent). You can ask her, “Quest-ce va tu desire pour dessert?” and she will answer unabashedly, “Glace!” “Vanille ou chocolat?” “Chocolat!” Right answer, every time (that’s chocolate ice cream to those who don’t parlez). She can count, “One, two, threefourfive!” and then, “Un, deux, troisquatrecinq!” She is simply enchanting, I cannot stop drinking her in. My mother says that this is what it was like when I was her age. I positively fawn over her. I ask her, “Bisou?” and she plants one right on my lips. I cannot believe how amazing she is, and I’m not even her mother. She does high-fives, and says “Ta-da!” when she’s done something particularly cool, and throws her hands up over her head and exclaims, “Cowboys!” (my brother is a HUGE fan, don’t even start with me.) So here are two pictures of her, and her mother and father (you can totally see from where she gets her looks), and the two birthday cards she drew for me. Can you see the face on each? Priscille helped with the letters, but otherwise, it was all Léa.
We went for dinner at Hanada Hibachi in Mohegan Lake to celebrate my birthday. It was Léa’s first hibachi dinner, and she was appropriately impressed with the chef’s antics. He completely played to her.
Today is Elisa’s (twelfth? thirteenth? I don’t remember which, I’m a bad aunt) birthday. We got her a nice pair of 5mm pearl earrings from Whitehall. She loved them.
