Mother Nature

After the earthquake early last week (5.9) as many people already know, we ended the week with the Hurricane Irene!
So we prepared the best we could for it: food supplies for a couple of days, flash lights ready, cell phone charged, cars filled up in gas, bath tub filled with water. We also slept in the basement in case one of the huge trees around us had the idea of falling onto our house!
The hurricane lost a little bit of its strength before hitting us but was still powerful enough to make tremendous damages. Proofs are these pictures of our neighborhood (which is not even the worst!)...
Luckily - and we do feel very lucky - we have no damage to our house to report except branches all over the back yard. A lot of people had a lot more serious damages to face.
Good luck to all the victims on their recovery.

Changes

Alright, I have to admit that since Théo was born - and even during the pregnancy - this blog became more or less THEO's blog. Today, you will then learn that Théo is now crawling like a champ, that he's discovering new flavors (pears, bananas, green beans, avocado...) and also that he is starting to talk to us with his "bababababa" and his "mum-mum-mum-mum-mum".

But today I am taking back the blog. It's already been a couple of weeks since Rachel went back to work with a few tears in her eyes as it was and still is a bit hard to leave our baby behind at home after having stayed with him 24/7 for 7 months! Therefore, we managed the best we could for these past weeks until Mamie-Jo arrived to take care of Théo while we're at work. She'll be helping us out until the end of the school year! Thank you Tata Sara, Tata Lette, Nany and Bonne-Maman for coming to babysit. But at the same time, who wouldn't want to babysit such a cutie!
And if today's subject is not only about Théo, it's also because we wanted to share with you the other exciting big news that is happening in our life: we are moving! Yes, our time in Summit is coming to an end. We are moving out of this town where Rachel and I built our lovely nest and lived so many good memories during these past six and a half years ; Théo's birth being the best of them. Though, we won't go very far as we will unpack all of our things in Cranford, only a few miles away and where Théo will enjoy growing up. Get set, ready, pack...

Dual Citizenship

Yesterday I went to the French Consulate in the City to declare Théo's birth. So I got to the train station and waited for the 7:11am train, among all these workers wearing ties and suits waiting for the same train everyday almost like robots, all looking the same, waiting to be packed in one of the wagons.
Once at Penn Station, I walked all the way up to 74th street, where the French Embassy is located. Hoping that I didn't forget anything, I gave them everything I had brought. Luckily, everything was there and so they registered Théo on the French Records. A round trip to Manhattan cost $18.50 now, and so I would have been upset if I was missing anything and would have had to come back another day, especially knowing that it was only $9.75 a few years ago!
But all was in order now and I could go home happy without rushing. Though, I thought I could maybe catch the next train and so I decided to start running...wow I forgot what it feels like! But this time, in less than 15 minutes I was back at the train station. Sweating but happy I got back there fast but I got also mad when I realized I just missed the train by only 3 minutes...and that the next one would not leave before an hour...shit!
Whatever! With Théo's birth certificate in hand, and his name added to our "livret de famille", he his now officially a French-American little guy, and I'm happy!

Photo Shoot

Today we went for our 20 week and sadly last ultrasound (already!). Good thing that it was today because tomorrow it's snow time and all appointments have been canceled!
Beverly came with us to share the special moment. It was the other mom's turn after maman Janus came for the 12 week one.
It was hard to keep our eyes closed when we could have found out the sex but we did, and now everybody has to wait until D-day, 20 more weeks from now!
Everything is still going smoothly (of course when you know who's the father). The belly is becoming rounder and rounder and Rachel feels the baby more and more. As for me, for the first time I felt a little something yesterday evening. Maybe it was the baby's way to say "watch out, I'll be here soon".

New Addition

After having kept the secret for a little while to make sure we would have time to tell everyone, it is now official, the Janus clan will expand as Rachel and I are expecting a happy event scheduled for June 27th! Yeap, Rachel is pregnant for a little more than 4 months now. Actually, she even felt the baby for the first time yesterday...on the other hand I will have to be a little more patient and wait a few more weeks to be able to feel it too.

We'll try to post updates of the pregnancy regularly. Next step is in two weeks from today with the next and last ultrasound (20 weeks) before the delivery. After which we will have to be very patient and wait for the day of birth to see the baby again.
We might lose some room in our apartment but we will gain so much more in our hearts and we can't wait to see our little one come into our world.
Santé!

Back in Business

So I'm back after another long, very long month break. Not that our life is boring but because I had a lot work at my job and especially because as some already know, Rachel contracted Bell's Palsy, which is a paralysis of half of the face. Now, because we reacted immediately, it is almost all gone and it's easier to talk about it but yes, for a few weeks, it was not very fun and we were not sure what it would turned into.
So with all this almost behind us now, we can start to think about happier times and take advantages of the summer, beginning with 4th of July weekend where we're going to our friends Barbara and Massimo's place in Delaware. Should be fun.
About the good news also, our friends Astrid and Sebastien moved to Canada to start a new life and new adventures. Knowing that only 6 hours drive separate us now, it gives me hopes that we will be able to see them more often and since we are on the same time will allow us to communicate more easily as well. So without being a little egoist, I'm really happy they moved so close to us.
We are actually going to try to see them next week if everything goes as planned for them!
I knew somewhat that one day I will have a country house in Canada :o)

Green Card - Part 2

Finally! Next time I would have to go through costums, I won't have to stay and wait at least 30 minutes before they clear and release me after I prooved to Mr. Donut that I was still a resident (yeap, that happened twice already!)
My new green card just got here in today's mail so now I'm good for another 10 years! Wouhou!

Translation

It's been a little while that I wanted to add an english translation to my blog to allow people on this side of the ocean who don't speak french to read it.

So from now on, if you take a peak on the left sidebar menu, there is a link to direct you to the english version of the blog. Well, now I also have to type my posts twice - first in French and then in English) but it might even help me to improve a little more...hopefully!
And, you can even go back and forth between the two and maybe YOU can learn some French too!

Just Married...Again!

After 3 years of "we'll go tomorrow", "it's too cold to go to the city", or "alright we'll take care of it Monday...for real" I finally went to the French Consulate and we are now pronounced husband and wife under the French Authorities. You may kiss the bride. Yeah!

It required an early wake up though to catch the 7h27 train to the Big Apple in order to show up at the opening of the Consulate and be done with all that paperwork. Oh yeah, I forgot to say that of course we had to go to and ask to different facilities in order to get all different kind of document!s Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificate,...well actually I guess it wasn't that much...maybe we were just lazy!
So now we should probably receive the "Livret de Famille" within 15 days. It's a little book where you report the members of a family from the moment 2 people get married. Of course so far only Rachel's name and my name figure on it. It's funny to think that I have one of these. To me it's really something I relate to my parents with their and our names (the brothers and sister) on their book. So it's gonna be a little weird to have my own but I have to say that it's a little bit exciting too!

In brief, it was a good way to end the last days of winter and cheers to spring!