I love fall.

I mean, I seriously love Fall. I love the "back to work" feeling about it (especially in France, when many companies actually shut down for most of August!), the change in temperature, the changing of the wardrobe, the changing of the menu...

Speaking of the menu, I've seriously got to get a handle on that. I've gained a ridiculous amount of weight that I haven't been able to shake off since Fry was born. Now that he's been out of my body longer than he was in it, I don't really feel like I can use that excuse any more. I just feel really gross. Hopefully, getting back in our routine of a couple of walks a day will help.

Now that Fry is getting more mobile on his own, I think chasing him around is going to help, too. Recently I've started making a half hour pit stop in the park with Fry in the afternoons to let him stretch out his legs a bit, since there isn't too much room for it in our house. I bring the jeans quilt with me (even though it's unfinished, though I have to admit it's pretty sturdy like it is and it's not a bad size, maybe I'll just sew a sheet on the back or something? Anyway...) and a scooter/walking toy that Doc handed down to us. Of course, he's only interested in stuffing as many rocks and leaves in his mouth as possible before I scrape them out, but I suppose that's par for the course. He doesn't seem to be in any hurry to get up and walk any more, either. It's as though he's thinking "hey, we all know I can do it, what's the rush?" I wholeheartedly agree.

One other thing I wanted to mention about Fry - he's really started to get interactive with us, at last! In the last week he's started saying "mamamammamamamammamama......." you get my drift. I'm not sure he's quite got the connection that he's saying my name, but he knows he can get my attention by saying it! He's also started playing what we call "the ball game" with Stéphane. Stéph will roll a ball in his direction and Fry will pick it up and place it in Stéph's outstretched hand! He doesn't make it every time but he just beams at Papa the whole time. Good stuff.

I got another document yesterday to add to my citizenship folder. The last one should be here in the next week. Apparently I'm supposed to send at least our marriage license to a special office in Nantes to be translated (we were married in the States, or this wouldn't be an issue, obviously). The good news is that since it's a government agency, it should only be a couple of euros to have it done. The bad news is I have to ship it off and hope it comes back in a timely manner. I'm going to call them to see if they'll do my other American documents as well, which will save us a pretty penny!