Bonjour!

For those of you looking to see what Dahlia is up to, you'll have to wait a week. Right now you only get an update on Diane's world travels - Dahlia and Dan didn't come on this trip. :-( After about 14 hours traveling, including a stop over in Frankfurt, Germany, I arrived yesterday to a rain soaked Nice, France. Luckily the rain was on and off, so I got a little bit of exploring and a call home in before it started raining again - then I got to settle down for a nice long nap.

Today the sun came out and it reached a balmy 12 degrees C - really that is balmy compared to the -2 degrees C in D.C. So I set out into the old town to get a small breakfast. There is a street market every day that Dan would LOVE to have near him. For those who know, picture Hay Market, but with the best top quality products at around the same price. Besides the produce, there were spices, tapenades, barrels of olives, fresh bread, cheese, honey... lots of yummy yummy things. I grabbed a baguette, some cheese and an orange for 2 euros and headed back to my hotel room.



After my trip to the market, I stayed in my hotel room for most of the day - working on papers and job applications. After all I am here for work. But don't feel too bad for me. The view from the verandah (or bed) makes it much easier to work peacefully. I can't see the town (which is fine by me) but I can see the beautiful turquoise and sapphire of the Med. (I can actually see more than shown in the picture... but this was a more interesting picture.)



I did promise Dan I would take part of the day off, so I walked down to the port and found a lighthouse for my Dad.



I must say I don't know what all the fuss is about. Nice is quite nice but it wouldn't be my top vacation spot. The beach is well... rocky, dark grey and small. Not my ideal seaside spot. But the people, the market, and the peaceful Med make it a really nice place. If there weren't so may tourists (and French... he hee), I wouldn't mind living here. We'll see what the rest of the week brings - besides lots of work. :-) The opening plenary talks and reception is this evening... gotta go get ready. Au voir.

Fun with Food

Tonight Mommy and I made a big ol' mess while Daddy worked late. Since I kept grabbing the empty juice glasses and tried to drink out of them, Mommy decided to give me my own - before I broke (another) one). It took a couple of tries to get it; and when Daddy called I lost focus and spilled all over me... but I did pretty good after that.

I also tried eating my cereal snacks with my spoon (used to beat on pots to make lots of noise!). I failed with the cereal thing. Mommy got me yogurt instead. I have to say that I totally rocked it!

But I eventually got bored and realized that I could be much more efficient with the trusty old fingers.



Oooh... thats kinda scary.

Bouncy bouncy baby

So we haven't been up to too much recently, just hanging out and getting into trouble. We just wanted to post some pix and say hi!



I finally got my second upper tooth in... can you see it?



Mommy & Daddy have helped me goof around.



But I've done plenty myself. I decided that my toys didn't REALLY need to be INSIDE of my green toy bin.



The clothes don't need to go ON the hangers. There are much better things to do with hangers.



My favorite thing has been bouncing! I like to go bouncy bouncy on Mommy or Daddy's knees.



I like to make funny sounds as I bounce all over the place.

Merry Merry

I didn't end up helping to decorate the tree. I did help de-decorate it. There was a line where the ornaments suddenly disappeared. Gee... I wonder who took them... he hee.



So after I took all the bows off of the gifts, I got to play with actual gifts. I had fun climbing up and down this box. I got stuck on top a couple of times, but eventually I got down.



I got a new hat from one of Mommy's cousins. I think the hat was actually for Mommy but it looked much cuter on me.



Auntie Ea got me an Adidas warm up outfit. I also got to steal Daddy's old cell phone - he got a new one for Christmas (a free gift from Verizon). Together, the cell phone and the warm up outfit made me look like we still lived south of Boston. Yep... I joined the Boston (Irish or Italian) Mob.



One thing you gotta learn if you're going to be Irish, or Italian for that matter - football, european style. Daddy got me a midget sized soccer ball. I like to run around the house yelling "ball, ball" and chase my very own soccer ball. We tried playing outside but it was a bit cold & windy outside and the grass was long. I sat down in protest of the poor soccer conditions.



The last thing I have to share about Christmas is actually a present to the Poehls family. In honor of my first Christmas where I can actually do something, I learned a Poehls family tradition - eating the black olive. Auntie Kristy, are you proud?

O - bama!

Grandma Lily came to visit for Christmas. The weekend after Christmas it was sunny and warm (50s) so we took a trip into the city to check out the preparations for the new president. I don't know what all the fuss is about, but grandma was really really happy.



We took lots of pictures in front of the capitol building.


Daddy played with me to try to save me from Mommy and the camera. It was a beautiful sunset.