This is supposed to be weekly?

Another 3 weeks gone by, and I've just gotten myself to click the "new post" button. Partly because we've been busy, partly because we've had friends or family over for 3 of the past 4 weekends, and partly because Dylan and I finally caught on to how bedtime kept pushing further and further back. Tonight's bedtime is 8pm, sharp. Bam.

Back up to how I said "in case there's no update for a little while" because of French friends and Gin & Ryan. Yes, that weekend we had our French friends, the Denizards, in for 4 days of their month-long US tour. (More on that in a minute.) Then I turned 30 with Ginny & Ryan over to visit from Thursday to Sunday. And then it was our 6th anniversary / Labor Day weekend. And then we had Nana & Pappy over to visit this past weekend.

It was lovely hosting Valérie, Xavier, Alice et Basile! They arrived on a Saturday afternoon and stayed through Wednesday morning. We ran it like a B&B&D, sorta, with their planning their days for themselves but coming back for dinner all together. And, as expected, there was very little French on Saturday, a teensy bit more Sunday, and Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday followed suit until we were perfectly comfortable again. Then they left! Of course. It was fun to get to speak French again and expose Paul to it, too, beyond just books. In fact, he and Basile hit it off great!

Quick turn around! The next day, Ginny & Ryan arrived for a long weekend and my first "birthday weekend". Leave it to my sister to plan a whole weekend for me! It was full and fun! I can certainly say that I welcomed thirty with a bang. We started with dinner at Pascal's Manale. Friday saw the. best. happy hour. ever at Broussard's with $3 delicious mussels & fries and then gourmet cupcakes at home. And champagne. There was champagne with practically everything! Saturday was a bit more low-keyed: slip-n-slide in the back yard! Pete was with us, too, for everything thus far. Then on Sunday, we had brunch at the little place around the corner. Full. On. And awesome =) Thank y'all soo much!

Then there was this little sitting monkey while we were all backyard-hanging:

The next weekend was our 6th anniversary and the first one to fall on a Saturday again, like 6 years prior. It was certainly funny to think about what we were doing at such&such a time then as compared to now. Dylan started it with his delish blueberry pancakes, and then we headed off to the Aquarium! The Family Pass was Mom & Dad's pressie to us - so, so awesome, as it gives us access to Audubon Zoo, the Aquarium of the Americas, and the bird and bug place, too! Then that evening, we got to be dinner guests at Aunt Cyndi & Uncle Ben's, where we've stayed over many, many times but almost never just come over to visit for a few hours. It was lovely and delicious!

Lastly, this past weekend brought us Nana & Pappy with Gus & Ben, much to the delight of Paul & Ada! We met Pete & Serena for dinner on Friday night, stopped for beignets for dessert, of course, spent a long time playing in City Park on Saturday, and finally walked to dinner on the Point. And this happened:

The rest of the time not spent weekend-ing with lots of people in and out has been full of pottying for Paul and sitting up for Adeline, yay on both accounts! And I've been making mom-friends, yes! Ada's also been getting more and more real food. She's up to a fruit for breakfast, a veggie for lunch, and a grain/carb for dinner. By "a fruit/veggie" I mean about 6 or 7 tiny bites of banana or a strawberry or fork-mashed sweet potato - she loved the baked potatoes! Also, Paul's learning to pick out and name the letters needed for "Paul" "Ada" "Mama" & "Papa". Neat!

And this one's just a random day's evening nap, and I love it: