Lazy Days

We have been enjoying some lazy days with both of the children. Etienne has been having fun playing with Alain since he is home from work again this week.

Elodie is eating a lot but, so far, she has been very nice and allowing me at least 3 hour stretches of sleep at night. Let's hope it stays that way (or gets even better!!) Over the last couple days, she has been spending more time with her eyes open, looking around in awe. She still looks like a newborn to me but everyone says that she looks just like Etienne.

Grandma Breiling is coming to visit on Friday (Alain's birthday) and will stay with us until the New Year. We are very excited!!!

More news and photos to come after Alain's birthday...

Quizz

What is this ???


a. An ugly piece of plastic that hides my beautiful smiles,
b. The first toy I inherited from my big brother Etienne,
c. The great tool that allows Mommy to sleep or shops when Papa watches me,
d. all of the above.

A 4 minute video !

I've just uploaded a great video on Elodie's website. It's a compilation of the footage we took at the hospital. Ok, it's quite big (10 megs) but it's worth waiting a couple minutes to download...

If you're wondering why I chose this music, it's simply because it was playing on the radio when drove to the hospital last Thursday night, and Stephanie and I kept humming it for the next 48 hours !

Marraine/Godmother

Elle, c'est Constance et elle a accepté d'être ma marraine !
C'est la babysitter (et l'amie) préférée d'Etienne et je suis sure qu'elle sera également parfaite pour s'occuper d'une petite fille comme moi !

spitting image ?

On the left Etienne 3 days old
On the right, Elodie 4 days old

you make your own opinion...

Claire Mary Frances

This morning I went to the Mairie to pick up Elodie's birth certificate. As you can see she has 3 middle names !!!

CLAIRE like her grandmother's grandmother
CLAIRE like her other grandmother's sister
MARY like everyone in her Papa's family
MARY FRANCES like her grandmother
FRANCES almost like the country where she was born

It's going to require a lot of writing everytime we go through customs ;-)

The missing 2 centimeters...

Oops... With the excitement of the delivery I misunderstood when the midwife measured my daughter and I told everyone she was 46 cm long, instead of 48 !!!
She's small but not tiny ;-)

For those of you not familiar with the metric system, she's 19 inches tall.

We're Home!

We arrrived home from the hospital today! It is nice to be home with both of the kids!! We are enjoying watching as Etienne is discovering his little sister.

I had my first opportunity to see the pictures from the birth and the last few days and am very impressed with Alain's work!!!

I enjoyed reading all of the congratulatory e-mails/blog contributions from our friends and family. Thanks for your kind words!

Check back later for tales of Etienne's further discovery of his little sister.....

ATN and LOD

You might not believe us, but before yesterday Stephanie and I had not realized that Elodie could be spelled with 3 simple letters just like Etienne.
Congratulations to Brian B (my brother-in-law) and Stephanie D (my cousin) who noticed right away !

Anyway we were delighted to find out... One more thing our children have in common (many among you seem to think they already look alike).

Who can suggest other 3 letter names for our next baby ???

Alleluia, Elodie is born !

It happened this morning at 6:20 am, Paris time. Thanks to the epidural, the labor was not too difficult for Mommy who really happy to avoid another C-section.
For more details, visit http://www.deraynal.com/elodie/photos/Birth/

Stephanie and Elodie are currently enjoying a well deserved sleep, together, skin against skin. They were so cute when I left !

Etienne has seen the pictures on the computer and now recognizes Elodie perfectly. I'm not sure he understands what it means to have a"petite soeur". I'm looking forward to their first meeting in a couple of hours !!!

first contractions !

Last night around 2:00 am Stephanie started having contractions ! They have not stopped since...
Hopefully Stephanie's labor for Elodie will be faster than the one for Etienne (3 days+).
We're planning to go to the hospital at some point this afternoon.

White Blossom

When you ask google the origins of the name "Elodie", here's what you get :

• Du grec elodiê, "fleur des champs", ou du latin alodis, "terre libre"


• Derived from the Gothic elements ali "other, foreign" and od "riches, wealth"


• Elodie a French form of a Spanish name meaning 'foreign riches'


• The name Elodie is of Greek origin. Its meaning is, "marshy, white blossom".

I think I'll simply remember the last one. It's perfect for a little girl !

Merci FrenchYooy !

Not many people will notice but Elodie's website rely on AJAX, a powerfull technology mixing JavaScript and XML. This makes it so easy to update and change its look and feel.
I would like to thank Yohann (aka FrenchYooy) for teaching me everything he knows about AJAX and encouraging me to use it for my new website !
Have a look at his website...