BABY!!!

Today I finally got to meet the baby, little Gaspard. He is so cute and so tiny and looks like a baby model in his chic little pants and his hand knit sweater. Marie's boyfriend was out of town on business (I thought French daddies got paternity leave...) so she came for dinner and a visit with the baby. Turns out she lives two blocks away, less than a 5 minute walk. The baby was sleeping when I first arrived, but he woke up soon to eat. He was so so cute trying to eat and looking for his mom's nipple...the whole process was adorable. Also amusing to watch, since Marie's breasts are currently bigger than the baby's head. Marie is a small person, and according to her, she's completely overflowing with milk. She was really cute and affectionate with the baby, which was nice to see since friendly/affectionate aren't words that one would generally use to describe Marie. Mme. Beguin was telling me the other day how much she enjoys seeing Marie be affectionate with the baby, since Marie is not at all an affectionate person.

After the baby ate dinner, we ate. Mme. Beguin kept making comments about how nice it was to have the family together (slightly awkward for me). She's incredibly excited to be a grand-mother, and her life at the moment revolves completely around the baby. Lucky Marie, to have Grandma there to make clothes and buy clothes and make sheets and towels and embroider everything, and of course to bake something every day for her visitors.

Tonight for dinner we had mackeral that M. Beguin and Laure caught while fishing in Normandy. It was quite tasty, but difficult to eat, since we were served an entire fish (sans head) with skin and bones and whatnot. Luckily for me Mme. Beguin showed me how to cut and eat it properly. For dessert, she made gateau au chocolat (as she called it), but it very much resembled a brownie. When I asked if the french call it a brownie, she told me a brownie was something different. Mme. Beguin left them in the oven too long and they were burned, but still yummy. Would have been amazing without the burn.

When I met the baby, Marie said she remembered I liked babysitting, and it was too early now, but maybe later...yay!