When Is A Baby No Longer A Baby?

As most of you have noticed I haven't been around too much lately. If I haven't visited your blog lately, please don't feel neglected or snubbed. At best I may post and visit other blogs once a week, if that!

Anyway, I just felt the need to express my sudden realization that our daughter has entered the true phase of toddlerhood and has exited the "baby" phase. She didn't even ask if I was ready either!

Yesterday, she turned 16 months old.

Where did the past 4 months go? It seems like her birthday party was just a few weeks ago.

I have witnessed her emerging independence as she doesn't want to hold my hand, wants "down" within seconds after I pick her up, and actually said today not just "no" but "No, Daddy" (which I secretly think is quite funny since she said it to him and not me- I am usually the bad guy:)

Ahhh, where did my little baby go?

I hope you all have a great weekend. Amelia's Nana and Papa are coming to visit for the weekend, and we can't wait to see them!

French Lesson: Teaching Baby le français

How many of you wish that you had been exposed to a foreign language as a young child/toddler rather than learn Spanish, French, sign language for the first time when you were in middle school, high school, or even as late as college?

Many of you either have young children or precious little grand children. Even if you are not fluent in a foreign language it doens't hurt to teach them a little of what you know.

I would like to share with you a few common French words/phrases that I use on a daily basis when talking to our 14 month old daughter.

*Note that the pronunciation guides that I give are not based on the International Phonetic Alphabet!

la chambre de bébé

To tell your baby to "go night-night"

say
Fais dodo= "go night-night"

Prounounced - [fay doh-doh]

Milk, a word babies love to hear

However, this word is difficult for a baby/toddler to pronounce- a baby must be able to use m, l, k, sounds to say the word MILK.

The French word for milk is le lait, which is simpler than it's English equivalent-milk, but the French have an even easier baby word for le lait:

lolo = milk in French "baby talk"
Pronounced = [loh-loh]

Amelia with her favorite rattle at 8 months

Every morning after we are finished with breakfast, I pick Amelia up and say "Jouons!"

Jouons! = Let's Play!

Pronounced [zjoo-ohn] - The S is silent

Here is another word that I have really been trying to emphasize lately. Around 13 months Amelia began to say "No." or "No!" quite well. After reading about this new phase, I learned that not only is this word familiar to them (after hearing Mommy say, "No! Don't touch the DVD player!" "No! Don't spit out your food!" countless times a day), the word "No" is also much easier to pronounce.

Well, I've found that Amelia is quite adept at using a W sound, so we've been working on:

Oui!= Yes!

Perhaps, oui will take the place of no!

_{Image Resources: #1 Jacadi #2. Jacadi #3. Flickr- solarider #4. A la parisienne}

Dressing Baby: White Innocence & Gray Elegance

I just wanted to share a quick post over a quick creative project I did this weekend. I also haven't shared any recent pictures of our baby girl, and Mommy has to brag a little!

I bought this very simple cotton dress for nearly nothing knowing that it would be a great blank canvas for me to embellish. I have been making my own millinery flowers to accessorize my wardrobe and decided that this gray velvet and silk flower would be the perfect adornment for this crisp, cotton dress.

Dove gray velvet and silk millinery flower made by A la parisienne

Notice the natural fraying around the edges of the silk petals~ the more I wear this flower (or the more Amelia wears it:) it becomes softer and more tattered creating a timeworn accesory. I love the juxtaposition of crisp, clean fabrics adorned with vintage accesories.

Does anyone know the name of this yellow toy? It looks somewhat like a Lego and it comes with various sized, shaped, colored pieces that interconnect. My daughter loves these and we only have a few pieces to the set. I know that they aren't new as I haven't seen them since my childhood.

Oh, my little sweetheart is growing up so fast. Everyday she surprises me as I witness her discover new pleasures (toddling around the house holding a crumpled piece of paper in one hand and a block in the other) and hear her say new words (outside, bread, down...).

It is such a joy to participate in her life everyday as her "Mom-ma."

Reflection - Un reflet, le bébé et sa mamam se regardent

Okay, so I am a little addicted to I Heart Faces. I guess now I should at least learn the heart symbol short cut... Anyway, this week's theme was reflection. We could use any surface from which to capture a reflection - a window, mirror, water surface, sunglasses, shiny floor- you get the picture. We only have two days to prepare for each week's contest, so what else would a decorating fanatic use for this theme? Bien sûr, a mirror (yeah, the scrolly gold mirror stayed on the wall wear it belongs!) If you could have only seen her playing atop this mirror! It was quite a chore keeping her from eating this Dandelion as I was shooting the pictures alone! Actually a few pics following this one, I captured the Dandelion nearly in her mouth! Don't worry, I made sure these weren't poisonous!I may add another picture to this post of me in a reflection for the Adult catergory; however, I only have until tomorrow night! We'll see!

If you have any children or love photography, I highly recommend you visit this blog. It is so full of great ideas and tips, and it is so fun participating. In one week, I met quite a few interesting people out there! Oh, and I didn't win last week's contest, but I am not giving up!

For those of you who share my affinity for Parisian decor, culture, fashion, the French language, and other French lovelies, don't worry. This blog has not morphed into a Mommy blog who wants to show off her baby photos - although I do like to do that de temps en temps. I am in the process of creating a separate blog for all of my photography projects, I Heart Faces contests, and other photos/images of inspiration! So, as soon as it is ready, à la parisienne will me more, well, à la parisienne!

So, I decided to participate in the adult catergory as well. WARNING! This picture is far from pretty or inspiring. It is quite the contrary! Please don't judge me for my sterile photo (or smudged faucet!) Last night before I went to bed, I was brushing my teeth, thinking where can I get a unique picture of my reflection...Yeah, all I had to do was look down! I wonder how many will notice the double reflection. That should count for something!

I've Fallen for Ivory- les chaussures pour le chou-chou

Ivory satin and lace baby slippers

Glam baby boots

Before our little chou chou's (French word for darling- pronounced shoo shoo) tender, plump feet ever begin their pitter patter across the livingroom floor, we caress and kiss them as they are so smooth, pure, sweet. Oft times we choose to dress them in diminuitive shoes merely for pleasure. One lovely thing about little baby shoes is that they are safely cradled, along with baby, in mother's arms thus escaping the dirty floor and rugged play like that of a toddler's shoe.

I am constantly on the prowl for vintage baby shoes for my daughter. They just don't make baby shoes like they used to. Don't get me wrong, I have seen many a pair of new, beautiful baby shoes.
But what is it about vintage baby shoes that allures me? They are usually made of softer fabrics and are also pliable from gentle wear. They also tend to be more dressy, more feminine--perhaps they represent an era of time when we were more formal in our appearance, conversation, behaviors... I also can't help but wonder what the other babies' mothers felt as they passed these shoes on to the next person. Perhaps fleeting sadness. Perhaps lingering reflection.

Dressing Baby: Adding a Personal Touch

If I had to describe my sense of style, I would have to say that I am a non-traditionalist. Red and green Christmas decorations-boring (for me anyway). Bubble gum pink with Disney characters on my kid's clothing-so typical! However, I do love pink on a little girl, especially dusty rose, pale blush, vintage ballerina slipper pink...

I absolutely love romantic fabrics- satin, silk, velvet, linen, and taffeta, and I become giddy if I find a single item of clothing for my daughter that evokes that sense of romantic femininity. Felecia, my sister-in-law (who is an endless source of inspiration for me) gave my daughter this beautiful yet simple ivory, velvet dress. This basic dress was the perfect canvas for me to personalize.

First of all, I am a novice at sewing, and at this point in my life, I have no desire to sew an entire outfit. Thus, if I am going to sew something,, I am just going to sew ONTO something already made. With this basic dress, I created three different dresses. These changes are very simple and were quite effortless since I only allotted 15 minutes for each look, which included the creative process, gathering (finding) materials, and sewing.

I added a dark beige velvet millinery flower and a rhinestone pin to this dress.

This dress just has a double ebony gray ribbon with a small rhinestone button.

The dress at the top has a small ivory buckle with an opalescent pink ribbon.

My reason for sharing these ideas is that I think sometimes we have very closed minds when we shop for clothing be it for ourselves or our families. I refuse to pay an unreasonable amount of money for a pretty dress when I can create one that is unique and exactly the way I want it by just making a few simple changes.

une robe simple de bébé

Since I will be out of town and unable to post any new posts for the next several days, I decided to do a short post over the first dress my daughter ever wore. At birth she was very tiny and it was impossible to find a dress her size and my style for her newborn pictures, so with some resourcefulness and creativity my mother, an awesome seamstress, and I, the designer, whipped this dress up in a couple of hours the night before the photo shoot.

The look of a white linen dress reminds me of the beautiful dress Kirsten Dunst wore in the film Marie Antoinette, where she was walking through the meadows that surrounded her charming hamlets.


This dress is made of an old, antique linen (can you guess what it was originally?). Its simplicity and age have such an heirloom quality. I just love the way white looks on a baby's skin!

This is the matching headband that we made. Yeah, I can't help but add one touch of glamour!