Upside Down

Hi everybody!
I know that "Upside Down" is a song by both Donna Summer and Yo La Tengo / Daniel Johnston, but I really am talking about the art of being upside down. My parents learned about the idea of babies liking being upside down from Sam and his parents Jean and Trey. They allegedly have a picture of Sam being upside down at the age of 4 months, and I think their goal was to turn me upside down before I was 4 months old. But I don't know if there are pictures...
I have a lot of memories of my parents putting me upside down, usually with them holding onto my ankles and calves. And even though I quite enjoy it (just like the crazy fast baby swings - yet another future blog post), I don't know what the big deal is. If we all could walk on our hands, then we could all be upside down!
Here are some pictures of my parents putting me upside down when we were in France in April. They were really obsessed with getting pictures of me being upside down when we were there. Can we just say the word... Whackjob???

Here I am in Lacoste, in Provence. Lacoste is famous for having a college connected with the Savannah design school of Savannah, Georgia! They're famous for also being associated with the Marquis de Sade. Oh the irony...

Here we are in Goult, at the cafe near the house we rented.

None of the other patrons seemed disturbed that I was upside down... but then again, I quite liked it.

Here I am upside down in the main parking lot of Goult, which is also quite near the house (even closer than the cafe).

Lastly here I am at the Cafe Breizh, a Breton crepe-specialty cafe in Paris, in or near Le Marais. You may notice by the wedding bands that in this picture, it's Mommy putting me upside down!
So one huge side benefit of my love of being upside down is that Daddy now tries to be upside down more than ever in his Pilates class; in fact I heard that today (10/5/10), he was upside during Pilates and was very happy! I would be very happy to hold Daddy upside down every day - I could hold him upside down for hours, when I'm not sleeping, eating, or taking a nap.
I can also tell you that DOJ even went on some crazy roller coaster at that State Fair in Massachusetts on Labor Day so that he and Michael Melcher could be upside down. I'm telling you, my parents are Whackjobs! Hey, that's a fun word...
Hmmm, I wonder if Ruby likes to be upside down...
Love,
Julien the Baby

Provence pictures

Hi everyone!

I'm so far behind with blogging... and I know that we say that all the time here. Here are some pictures from our trip in Provence - as Rick Steves says, it's the vacation from the vacation, ha ha. Provence is quite laid back but with the many places to visit and explore, there are still ways to keep busy. We had a fabulous time here!

We stayed in the small town of GOULT, in the heart of the Luberon part of Provence; my parents rented a house from an American expat. Each day was a fun adventure! Goult is a hill town of its own, but there are also a lot of other fun hill towns in this area.

Saturday April 17: the view from Bonnieux, a nearby town where we had amazing Provencale pizza for supper!


Tuesday April 20: sitting on the visitor train in Arles, a port city that has a Roman amphitheatre (coliseum).


Goult - that's where we stayed!


Friday April 23: in the heart of L'Etang! Woah.


Friday April 23, Evening: A view from the windmill in Goult. It was hard to believe that we would depart on the following day. The only drawback to staying in Provence is that we're not in Paris... we loved both Paris and Provence. And I think that if we had gone anywhere else... we'd also love it!

My parents were married in Toscana (Italia), and they said that a lot of the towns in Provence reminded them of being in Toscana. I've never been to Italia so I can't make the same comparison!

Love,
Julien the Baby