So, Ben and Ellen, what did you guys do this weekend? And where did you get those amzing looking pastries?


Paris. Yes, I know. Paris, again. No, we don't get tired of it, although perhaps you might be tired of hearing about it.

I was recently sitting at home moaning about the fact that I'm getting to the point in my pregnancy that I really shouldn't travel very far and I'm bored and I'm not working and woe is me and I miss Paris already and I'll never get to go back, etc etc. And Ben, wonderful human being that he is, made last minute reservations at a Paris hotel and we went for one last weekend adventure before Otis comes.

We left Saturday morning and got back Sunday evening and had a really nice, relaxing time. We didn't do anything terribly exciting, just did some shopping and lots of walking, dinner at a nice little restaurant.

Ben did experience his first macaron, from the famous Pierre Hermé, where we had to wait in a line going out the door in order to buy our macarons and the pastries pictured above.


And we walked along the Seine at night, and it was very pretty.



And then we discovered a little carnival in the Tuileries and rode the ferris wheel (one of the only things a very pregnant girl can do at a carnival).


And for all you baby bump watchers, a picture of me and Otis at 34 weeks in one of my favorite areas of Paris.


If you're tired now of hearing about how we've gone to Paris yet again, don't worry. This should be the last time for a while. As for us, we'll be hanging out in the Netherlands, dreaming of the day we can go back with Otis and start teaching him how to order his own crêpes.

Summer has (allegedly) arrived!

According to the calendar, it's officially the season of sunshine and ice cream! I, however, am not entirely convinced. You see, it's still not really warm here. When we moved here, people kept saying, "Oh but it gets really hot and sticky in the summer". We looked at them suspiciously and waited for the hot weather. It never came. It got nice and sunny and pleasantly warm, but never HOT. We were assured that last year was abnormal. Suuuuure. This year we're still waiting and wearing sweatshirts when we take the dogs on walks. Maybe now that it's "official", the weather will get the memo and adjust itself accordingly. In fact, it was relatively pleasant at times this weekend, but I'm almost afraid to talk about it out of fear that I'll jinx it and tomorrow it will snow or something.

There has, however, been evidence of the impending ice cream season.
Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

Exhibit D:


Our market has been FULL of beautiful, wonderful, fresh summer fruits and vegetables and we have been buying bags and bags full of produce. We've been eating more pineapple, strawberries, sweet corn, asparagus, zucchini, and tomatoes than you can imagine and we're loving it. And the raspberries up there actually came from a friend's backyard! For free! It's like heaven! Or summer!

In honor of all the marvelous produce, I'm leaving you with the recipe for a delicious light potatoey salad with marinated tomatoes that we had for dinner last night.

Ensalada Rusa with Marinated Tomatoes from Clean Eating Magazine


2 Yukon Gold potatoes
2 large carrots
1/2 large sweet potato
2 eggs
6 oz tuna, packed in water
1/2 cup diced white or yellow onion
1/2 cup diced sweet red bell pepper
1 cup peas

1/4 cup plain low fat yogurt
1/2 cup low fat sour cream
zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/8 tsp sea salt
freshly cracked pepper,to taste

Put potatoes, carrots, sweet potato and eggs with shell in a medium pot. Cover with water and place over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, and then let boil for 10 to 15 minutes, or until vegetables are soft but not mushy. Drain and rinse with cold water Remove skins and dice vegetables. Remove shells from eggs and cut in half to remove yolks. Dice whites and discard yolks.

In a large bowl, combine potatoes, carrots, sweet potato, eggs, tuna, onion, red pepper and peas.

In a separate bowl, whisk together yogurt, sour cream lemon zest, mustard, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper. Add yogurt mixture to vegetables. Stir gently to caot. Serve with marinated tomatoes on top.

Marinated tomatoes

2 Roma tomatoes, diced (I used about 2 cups mini Roma tomatoes slice in half)
3 tbsp sherry wine vinegar
1/8 tsp sea salt
freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Mix tomatoes and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper and chill for at least 20 minutes before topping salad.

Enjoy!

A baby related post, in honor of Father's Day!

Our most recent picture of Otis at 32 weeks. It's not much, but you can see his big head which is measuring just a tiny bit bigger than 32 weeks. Not abnormally so, though. According to the doctor he's just a happy, healthy, potentially chubby baby.


And me at 32 weeks. Happy and health and round, too.


And finally, Ben and Sophie la Girafe, our favorite nursery resident.


Happy Father's Day! Or Vaderdag! Or Fête des Pères!

Long time, no blog, I know. It's partially because we've been busy, partially because I just didn't feel like it. But we're still here! And we've had a lot going on.

The most exciting thing we've done lately was make yet ANOTHER trip to Paris. My friend Stephanie was making a trip through Europe to visit family and managed to schedule in two days in Paris to meet up with me and sit around eating croissants. So I got to see her and Alex, her son, for a couple days.
Steph and Alex

It was a good time. We ate many croissants and baguettes, we took Alex to several Parisian playgrounds and carousels, we encouraged him to chase pigeons all over Paris.

The best part, though, was that Ben came on the day she was leaving and took care of Alex for a couple hours so Steph and I could go to a very fancy patisserie and then wander Montmartre a little bit and have a grown up lunch.
Steph and me

Macarons at Sacre Coeur


And then Stephanie left, and Ben stayed, and we did all our typical things. Wandering, eating, hanging out.

Sitting on the steps at Sacre Coeur. The couple behind us was on a first or second date, maybe, and the guy was a Canadian and was showing of his knowledge of maple syrup. I'm not even kidding. And the girl claimed to be from Ireland, but had no accent. Well, she had an American accent, annyway, and the Canadian guy didn't catch on to this and kept asking her questions about Ireland. It was pretty funny.

A picnic on the Seine


And the one redeeming quality of our 7th floor walk-up hotel room, the view. Although, Ben did have to (literally) hang out the window to take these pictures. So he says; I chose not to watch.


And my favorite, early mornings at Sacre Coeur. I love eating croissants while looking over Paris, before it's overrun by les touristes.

It was wonderful and I was sad to come home because I know it's going to be a while before we get to go back.

The other big event in the past few weeks was my baby shower, which was last weekend. My friend Carol threw it for me, and it was a lot of fun. We decorated onesies and ate cake (and opened presents, of course), and that was all fun. The best part, though, was that she surprised me by having my friends that are scattered all over the U.S. send presents, decorate onesies, or make scrapbook pages. AND, she got my parents to be at the shower via webcam. That was really really neat. I felt pretty special that day, and blessed to have so many people excited to celebrate Baby Otis.

Me, Otis (30 weeks along), the beautiful cake and favors

We decorated onesies instead of playing the typical shower games

Opening presents...

while talking to...

My parents!



Other than that, we've just been hanging out. It's alternating between sunny summer weather and icky gray typical drizzle here. On the cold days we park ourselves on the couch and watch whatever American tv shows we can find, or dvds (Thank God for Netflix), and on the sunny days, you'll often find us outside enjoying the weather while we can.