Over the past few weeks/month or so, we finally received an offer on our condo; I started back at work; Beau started a new job; Sylvie started school (at my school), and Henri started daycare.  On top of that, we've been dealing with some major sleep disruptions from some bedtime and middle-of-the-night tantrums from Sylvie (fortunately those seem to have quelled), naptime disruptions from work being done on the outside of our building, and having to lug the kids from house showing, to open house, to house showing in hopes of finding our next home...without any luck.  We've lost in bidding wars on two houses, and any other decent houses that have come on the market are immediately snatched up.  

So either we'll have to move into a temporary rental and just wait until the spring to resume our house search, or magically find something in the next week, which seems unlikely.  It's frustrating. 

On a positive note, Sylvie has transitioned into the toddler program at Cambridge Montessori pretty well.  She's had some separation anxiety at drop-off, but once Beau or I leave, she pulls herself together and seems to enjoy all the actvities. Here are some pictures that her teacher, Jana, took last week. Of course, the first thing Sylvie gravitated to in the classroom was the baby and taking care of "Baby Dianna" has become part of her daily routine.

Sylvie and some her classmates taking care of the gerbils, Chace and Harriet.

Here are a few pictures from this past weekend, when we went to a family festival at Danehy Park in Cambridge.

Henri loves his thumb!

It's hard to see in this picture, but the sky was filled with kites!

Checking out the fire trucks.

The big bouncy that Sylvie almost went on.

Face painting!

It has been nearly a month since we went home to Chicago, and I am just now putting up pictures.  We stayed with my mom the first night, then ended up mistakenly leaving our camera battery there so we have no pictures of the rest of our time, except for a few that we took with my sister's phone (since neither Beau nor I had phones at the time that were functional).

Granny and Henri

Of course, Sylvie finds a "baby" immediately upon arriving.

This trip home was quite a treat for us, too, since my brother Sam was also in town for L.A.  It was his first time ever meeting Sylvie and Henri.

A fun Saturday morning at the playground with the cousins.

 

 

While we were there, we were also able to make it to my brother-in-law, John's 40th birthday party.  Here we are, at the party.

Beau and Sam at the bar.

Our photo booth photo shoot

 Of course, no celebratory evening would be complete without John doing his Elvis.

And some random pics from around our house...

Happy eating.

Beau even passed down his eyebrow raising abilities.

A Henna design, courtesy of Kaniz to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr.