Our
Children (photos through 2007)
We have six children, two of hers, two of his and two joint efforts (see
Blending). They outnumber the
parents, and know it. They preoccupy us and worry us and thrill us and warm
us pretty much every day. There is always movement around us and in
our home. Life without them would be
unimaginably dull and self-centered. Life without them would be so sad. They fill this photograph album, and will
surely fill the journal as it advances.
The most recent photos of the children can be accessed through the journal
pages: 2008, 2009,
2010.
One day we
hope that all of this will be a record that is meaningful for them of a time
when they were too busy being children and growing up to notice what was going
on around them.
But there are relatively few photographs of them all together: too much
movement, too many things going on for each.
We collected a few for this page.
The photo on the left was taken at San Francisco
International Airport in April of 1999, the last time that we dropped Nick and Tom off
to return to Paris for longer than their summer vacation. (See History)
Airports don't feel so bad
any more.
With four of the children having one parent living in France, we
still spend a fair bit of time en route. Nick and Daphné
are standing up behind the stroller, Alban, all smiles,
is getting scrutinized by baby Alex in the stroller and Charlie
is sticking his tongue out while Tom laughs his
approval.
On the right above, Valentine's Day 2006, and all in valentine's colors. Well
close. Charlie has on his Thierry Henry Arsenal shirt, which is more bordeaux than red. Nick was not home, although he had temporarily moved back in
at the time. Tom was smiling despite his braces: good for you, kiddo!
Here is another one from that evening.
On the left, ordering crepes at the Brest tall ships festival in the summer of
1996. We were based at La Grée and St
Malo for the vacation.
Next, in Santa Cruz, at
home for Alban's
birthday
party in September 2000. Daphné and Nick were in
their orthodontic phase, but smiling anyway.
Below from summer 2000 is a shot of one of their then favorite play spaces, the
hot tub on our deck at home.
Not all of our photos are very good in terms of quality or composition, but
some of the poorer quality ones are great shots of the people in them. Here
below is one of those, which they took of themselves on the deck using our digital movie camera during
the summer of 2003. How lovable can you get!
They do not remain children for ever, of course, although they will always be
our children.
By the summer of
2007, the older four had all graduated from high school.
Two graduations pages are here and
here. The older became
teenagers very quickly, it seems. And in many ways
remain teenagers! They have done a little moving out
of the family home, and almost as much moving back in! Ah, the
carousel of time.
