(Not Quite) Irish Twins

Sisterly love.
Victoire (1 month), Sixtine (18 months)

Happy 1st Birthday Sixtine!

We Love Cloth Diapering!

Our bumGenius stack (it is missing a few that were in the wash)! Show me yours!

What To Do With Your Children This Easter

I am writing this a little late but it may come handy next year or tomorrow for those of you who are looking to keep your children busy on the long weekend. My best friend’s mother is Swiss and always had the loveliest traditions. She invited me over yesterday for a little egg-dying workshop. Sixtine stayed with Nana at home and off I was, excited to see what she had in store for me. She didn’t disappoint.

As seen on the collage, these eggs were decorated with little flowers and herbs that can be found anywhere.

• Decoration: Start your workshop with a little stroll to the nearby park and pick up some flowers and greens of your liking.
• Dye: You can buy red onions, regular onions, blueberries and/or anythingother vegetable or fruit that  will leave a stain. Store onion skins a few weeks prior or buy some and use them for baking (we don’t want to waste, do we!)
• Use a little bowl of water to damp your herbs and flowers so that they will “stick” to the egg.  Apply.
• Tie up with thread.
• Boil it all in a pot containing onion skins (or any other vegetable you decided to work with) for 10 mins.
• Remove thread and flowers/herbs.
• Leave it to dry.
• And voilà !
• This will make pretty boiled eggs which can be eaten within one week.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend ! We sure did !

Win A Cloth Diaper Picture Contest: Check

Operating System Not Found

Have you ever heard of the Push present?  

A push present (also known as a “push gift” or “baby bauble”) is a present a new father gives a new mother when she gives birth to their child. In practice the present may be given before or after the birth, or even in the delivery room. The giving of push presents has supposedly grown in the United States in recent years.

My husband offered me a pink computer a little before the baby’s birth. It died a few days ago. It is only been 6 months and it is dead. I was typing when a sudden, heart-breaking “Operating System Not Found” appeared on the screen. I was very upset but definitely not as upset as I was today when I got a phone call saying that my datas were GONE. FOREVER. 5 months of my baby’s life in pictures is gone. Resumes, and other important documents are gone as well. You might be thinking: “She should have saved them somewhere .” Well, I wanted to and I thought about it often but I didn’t. My data traveller was full. So here we are. I will confess that I cried. And this is still a very sensitive subject. But I am secretely hoping that I will be able to get my datas back someday, somehow.

The Little Things

Having a daughter has taught me to appreciate the little things in life.

What are the little things that parenting has taught you?

Random Short Story: Leftover Chicken for Breakfast Anyone?

The baby was still asleep this morning when my husband left for work. He usually feeds her before going to work if the timing works out which allows me to sleep a little longer since she usually goes back to sleep for a little bit after her bottle. But not this morning. And I think this is the reason why my body clock is messed up today. I was pretty hungry and decided to go fix myself a snack. I checked the microwave clock and saw a 1 and assumed it was passed one so I decided to have some leftover from last night, instead of a piece of banana/nutella bread. As I was eating my meal, I felt kinda sick. It just didn’t feel right to eat that piece of chicken at that time. So I checked the clock again – only to realize it was 10am. Not 1pm. I feel pretty sick right now at the thought of having had chicken for breakfast. And the first thing I thought was: “OMG. I am losing it !”. I think I am going to call my husband to let him know he married a crazy cuckoo.

Learn a New Language: Sign Up For The Language Challenge 180 with Multilingual Living !

How many of you have been wanting to learn a new language or refresh a rusty one but couldn’t find the motivation to do it? I know, I am one of them ! I have decided to sign up for the Language Challenge 180 with Multilingual Living to learn: Spanish, Swedish and refresh my Italian. Why these three? I have that feeling that learning Spanish will be useful to me some day – not sure why but I have to learn it. Swedish because I love the language, the Nordic countries and had a great time uttering a few words when I was there traveling and it sounds like fun ! And last but not least, Italian because it is a beautiful language and I haven’t done anything about it since I graduated from university two years ago. I needed that extra boost to get started !

The challenge starts on March 1st and you can sign up – it is free and the only commitment you make is to yourself so don’t hesitate !

Many of us need some support in the following:

• Learn a new language
• Keep a non-native language strong
• Help our children master our language(s)
• And maybe even our own native language(s) if we aren’t able to use it/them with others!

But we need a plan to go about these (myself included). Therefore, I am so very excited to announce that we have just what you (and I) need!

No, don’t worry, you won’t have to sing Karaoke in a new language or write a three page essay. Your children won’t have to perform their language(s) on camera. All you have to do is give yourself permission to get excited, motivated and inspired (and sign up!).

What I am talking about here is an event we have put together called Language Challenge 180 which will include the following:

1. A step-by-step guide to get you on track with your language(s)
2. A step-by-step guide on how best to expose your children to your language(s)
3. Short weekly emails with tips to keep your& your children’s language mastery on track
4. Support and camaraderie via weekly online conversations and contact
5. Articles written by language experts to help us along
6. Language-learning resource suggestions and links for adults and children
7. And best of all: Prizes, prizes, prizes – yes, we have sponsors who have donated some great prizes!

Why is it called Language Challenge 180? We chose this name because:

• It will last 180 days (well, 6 months which is about 180 days)
• We need to turn things around 180-degrees if we are going to get our language-learning under control!

Read more here: Are You Ready for the Challenge?

So join me in this challenge and let me know which language(s) you are going to work on ! A presto !

” How Do You Become Fluent in 11 Languages? “

A 20-year old British student can speak 11 languages – English, Greek, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Afrikaans, French, Hebrew, Catalan and Italian according to BBC News UK. You can see him do so here: How did this man learn 11 languages?  I am so jealous ! I know it is bad to envy people but I have always dreamed of being polyglot. In his little introduction, he explains how he got to learn them and how learning a specific language can make it easier for you to learn another one (ie. Spanish –> Portuguese, Italian, French).

Talking about speaking foreign languages, I have been wanting to learn a new one: Spanish? Swedish? Chinese?, or even better, refresh a rusty one: Italian? Portuguese? Or German?

I have a pretty good hear for languages and I was thinking of trying Rosetta Stone. I hear it is a great new way of learning languages and “the world’s #1 language-learning software”.

Do you know anything about Rosetta Stone? What are other language-learning materials you’d recommend? Websites? Books?