Displaced American

Nap War

2012-01-21T18:11:00.004Z

The only thing of any interest going on here lately is the Nap War. This involves my putting Noah in his room in an attempt to get him to rest (dare I say nap), and to have a couple of hours of peace and quiet to get some work done.

Noah does not see this time the same way that I do. He believes it is a time to (1) shove his mattress off of his bed, onto the floor, (2) act out elaborate and high volume dramas with his plethora of stuffed animals, (3) throw all of his blankets and sheets onto the floor, accompanied by a scattering of stuffed animals (those not being used in the performance, I guess), (4) see whether it is possible to jump hard enough on the floor to crash through the floor to my office (as yet unsuccessful, but he does not give up hope).

Naptime is anything but restful these days.

A couple of days ago, I made him a happy face chart with only two "sleep rules" on it. (Benjamin's had five or six; kid doesn't know how good he has it.) 1. Stay in bed. 2. Be quiet. Not so hard, right? Apparently VERY hard if you are 3 and a half. We talk about the chart, we talk about getting happy faces for following the rules, we talk about getting candy rewards for following the rules, we talk about the present he gets when he gets fills up a row of seven happy faces.

(I asked him what he thought the present should be. He said, "Pants." I said, "Pants? You want to go to the store and buy new pants?" He replied, "No, not pants from the store, pants from the house, but that are bigger." Um. Alrighty then. Frédéric says this is why he isn't motivated to follow the rules. But he chose his own present!)

All that talking is to no avail, as he remembers the rules for approximately three minutes after he goes to bed.

Today he went through his checklist above. I resorted to removing the stuffed animals from his room so he wouldn't have anyone to talk to. He found a few that I missed and started again. I removed those. He pushed his bed across the room. (Is there a way to attach his bed to the wall? Or his mattress to his bed? Or preferably both?)

The stuffed animals are all banished until he can manage to follow his two naptime rules successfully. Benjamin "helped" by stacking them all in a pile.

On the bright side, when I put him to bed at 6 pm on a non-nap day, he falls asleep about a minute and a half after I close his door, even without his two favorite stuffed animals.

I wouldn't say that makes the nap wars worth it, nor fighting with him all afternoon over his overtired behavior, but at least it brings relief a little bit earlier at the end of the day.

Bits and Pieces

2012-01-16T20:00:00.004Z

Nothing very exciting to report here lately - we need more visitors!

* * * * *

We saw Frédéric's aunt on Saturday, with his cousins. His aunt is visiting from Reunion Island.

* * * * *

Tonight at swimming lessons, Benjamin swam the entire length of the pool without stopping, and with no flotation aids.

* * * * *

And earlier, Frédéric was listening to Benjamin read his homework. He stopped him, and said, "You should put your finger here, underneath instead of above the line. I don't know how you can even read it since you're covering half the word."
Benjamin replied, "No, I'm not."
Frédéric insisted, "Yes, look," and imitated Benjamin's finger-reading style.
Benjamin told him, "You just have big hands."

* * * * *

And tomorrow is Coffee Day - I'm going to visit with one mom tomorrow morning, and another one in the afternoon! Good thing I have flexible working hours, huh?

Bonne année !

2012-01-07T18:56:00.003Z

Happy New Year, kiss kiss, best wishes, and good health to you! That is how we start the new year over here. Kisses all around (those cheek-touching-air-kiss-noises things), and giving everyone your best wishes for the new year. This happens the first time you see someone in the new year, any time until the end of January. (However, you have to keep track of who you have already seen so you don't offend them by wishing them happy new year twice, similar to the affront of saying "bonjour" twice in the same day to the same person.)

We rang in the new year with our friends who were staying with us (minus kids, who all got to go to bed around normal bedtime). We let Frédéric ring in the Polish New Year at 11 pm French time, so he could get to bed. The rest of us stayed up til midnight, wished each other happy new year, and headed off to our beds about six minutes later.

I wouldn't call this a New Year's resolution or anything, but let's just say that the social butterfly that was so latent I didn't even know it was there is finally starting to emerge, thanks mainly to an outgoing neighbor. The mom who stayed for Benjamin's entire birthday party made good on her vague coffee invitation and called to issue a more specific invitation last week... we showed up at 2:30 pm, and didn't leave until 9 pm!

(My excuse for this is as follows: around 5:30 we started making our move to leave; they asked us to stay for dinner. No, no, we said. Well, drinks, they countered. Ok, Frédéric agreed. But then... the husband had to go take care of his mule -- we didn't know what this meant, secret code for something? Is a "mule" some word that is not what it appears to be? -- and didn't come back for almost two hours! (Turns out a mule is just a mule; he had to go muck out the stall.) So we ended up having an "apéro dinatoire" (drinks & snacks in lieu of dinner) when he came back, and that is how coffee lasted until 9 pm... That is my story and I am sticking to it.)

And yet we don't seem to have overstayed our welcome, because she invited herself over to our house for coffee yesterday morning. We moved into "tutoiement" (calling someone the informal you, "tu" instead of the formal you, "vous") the day of the birthday party - major progress as far as being friendly with someone goes.

I took it as an indication that I ought to make more of an effort as well, so I steeled myself to ask another mom over for coffee this weekend with her family. Her daughters are both in Benjamin's class (1st & 2nd grade), and Frédéric and her husband used to be coworkers. We've been running into each other at school drop-off and pick-up for two years now, so it's probably about time we move things along a bit.

The first coffee mom has only lived in our village for a year but already knows significantly more people than we do. Must make life easier if you're outgoing, but at least I'm reaping some of the benefits of her outgoing-ness. Maybe 2012 is the year we'll start to know our neighbors!

The Yule Log

2011-12-31T19:24:00.004Z

I completely forgot to show off Frédéric's Yule Log. He made it for us for Christmas dinner, as is his tradition. Yum! No snow on the ground this year for Christmas, but at least we got some on the yule log.

Noah couldn't wait to dig in!

And a sign that my children are French in their tastes... both adore foie gras, and Noah prefers to scrape it off his toast and eat it with a spoon, pure and unadulterated.

Pierrefonds

2011-12-30T12:59:00.004Z

Some "internet friends" came to visit us this weekend with their 2 daughters, who are close to Benjamin's and Noah's ages. This was our first time to meet them "in real life," but we are all getting along great and having a fun time.

Yesterday, we took them to Pierrefonds to see the castle.

Well, the actual castle is a tad larger than that. We lucked out weather-wise; the heavy rain didn't start to fall until after we arrived home.

There was a Monduit lead workshop exhibit in part of the castle. The Monduit workshops are where the Statue of Liberty was made.

Early Christmas

2011-12-25T12:30:00.001Z

As happens once every few years, Frédéric had both Christmas Even and Christmas Day off work this year. So it could have been a "normal" Christmas for us. But on December 22nd this year, I started wondering why we had to wait til the 24th to open presents, since it was just going to be the four of us here at home, and all the presents were ready and waiting.

So we stopped waiting for the 24th, and had early Christmas. The boys were thrilled.

They got pretty good at their "Cheese!" faces.

Benjamin opened this present and remembered that we had bought the same for his cousin Alex. He was very pleased to get one of his own... and since then, we have wondered what ever possessed us to buy him a toy with which he could build a catapult... we can't even blame that on obnoxious aunts or uncles. Though I suppose Ryan and Christine can!

Frédéric got to build most of Noah's Meccano set by himself, but Noah loves to play with the finished product.

And here we are, building the catapult!

Chantilly

2011-12-21T12:12:00.003Z

This week, we went to visit Linda, a lady we met at Pierrefonds back in August when my parents were visiting. She works with a mission group in Chantilly.

After a delicious lunch, we went to the Chantilly stables, but found to our dismay that both the stables and the castle were closed on Tuesdays. So we admired the castle from the outside.

We also visited the Chantilly church.

They had a nice crèche set up inside. You'll see that the manger is empty; baby Jesus only shows up on Christmas.

Happy 6th Birthday to Benjamin!

2011-12-18T21:40:00.000Z

We celebrated Benjamin's 6th birthday Saturday. Normally we celebrate in the US, with our family there, but since we returned to France before December this year, it was just *too* early for that. So we decided to allow Benjamin to invite some of his school friends over to celebrate with him.

He was a little disappointed that we had to limit his list to only kids whose parents we knew at least by sight, but we ended up inviting four kids from school, and Frédéric's friend's two kids, so with our two there were eight altogether, which was a good number.

We were kind of amazed that some of the parents just dropped their kids off, since we don't know any of them all that well. One mom did stay, though, and she was the one who did the face-painting at the school party. She offered to paint the kids' faces, and we gladly accepted.

Benjamin was enraptured with all of his presents, which included a solar system floor puzzle, Bakugans, Gormitis, and a puzzle-game called Tipover.

If that is not enraptured, I don't know what is.

After months of telling us he wanted an Astérix and Obélix cake, at the last minute (as in, just before I would have had to order Astérix and Obélix pans online), Benjamin decided he wanted a soccer ball cake instead. Fortunately, we were still in the US, so we hied ourselves to Michael's to buy a soccer ball pan. And Frédéric made this amazing cake (feel free to admire my contribution, the beautiful lettering, as well):

Benjamin was sorely disappointed that we had the kids sing happy birthday to him in French rather than in English.

But he got over it in time to blow out the candles.

Despite some of the parents' unwillingness to stay for the party, we did entice one set of them in for coffee after the party, so it wasn't a total failure as far as getting to know some of the parents a little bit better.

School Christmas Party

2011-12-17T21:32:00.004Z

Friday was the boys' Christmas party at school. We graciously allowed Noah to attend in the afternoon so he wouldn't miss the party. (Wasn't that generous of us? And totally selfless.)

Since we (and by we, I mean Frédéric) made Benjamin's school birthday cake the same day, he got to share it with all three schools - kids ranging in age from preschool up through 5th grade, and all 70 or so of them sang happy birthday to him.

One of the moms did some face painting. Noah made an adorable little cat:

And one of the dads made balloon creations for the kids:

Christmas #1: in the Village

2011-12-12T20:00:00.005Z

As happens every year, the village "comité des fêtes" threw a Christmas party for the kids and the elderly of our village.

We suddenly knew a lot more people this year than in years past, thanks to the boys going to school. That made things much more comfortable.

The kids got a giant plate of snacks and a drink, the adults got coffee and pastries or clementines, and the elderly guests got champagne with their snacks.

Then on to the skit. This year it was about a little girl whose mother didn't have time to sing Christmas carols with her, so the audience helped her out with the words (and we discovered why French people are so enthralled to hear our church sing a cappella... confidently and in tune), and with the help of a little elf, she gave her mother a magical gift that made her realize she should spend more time with her daughter. The kids sang Jingle Bells ("Vive le Vent") with her at the end, very à propos since Benjamin had just had to learn it for school that week.

But then.... the moment they had all been waiting for... the arrival of the Père Noël!

Benjamin got a new Meccano set.

And Noah got a box of games.

Both were pleased with their presents (at least, they were once we explained to Benjamin that you can't have too many Meccano sets; the more you have, the bigger things you can build, right?!) - and we were pleased that we had some semblance of conversations with other people instead of sitting around like pieces of furniture like we usually do!

The Circus

2011-12-10T19:41:00.000Z

So right about now I'm eating my words about not going to the circus again, because we went last weekend. It was, as last time we went, part of Air France's Christmas present to the kids. This was a different circus than last time, though, and we had a much better time. Parking was not as nightmarish as the other one, and we were in front of the circle, but the performers did a better job remembering they were performing in a circle, too, and didn't exclude the audience on the sides.

I think European clowns look quite a bit different than American clowns.

I did not know they still did human cannonballs, but they do.

We told the boys that if they continued in gymnastics, they could do this some day. (He was going up and down the stairs on his hands.) They said, "No."

They both enjoyed it, though even the circus was not enough to keep Noah entranced. Benjamin wasn't scared of the camels this time.

How will his teacher like this one?

2011-12-09T11:13:00.003Z

First graders do a lot of poetry memorization here. Every week or two, Benjamin comes home with a new poem he has to learn and then recite in class. This week, in the spirit of Christmas, he brought home a poem about Santa Claus.

It was supposed to start something like this:

nid de cigogne

But when Benjamin recites it, he says this:

lit de cigares

Personally, I think his way is much funnier.

Too Old for Jet Lag

2011-12-06T12:35:00.000Z

Yes, I am. Or too Work-at-Home, perhaps. This is day 7, and I am still exhausted. The boys have school, so they're adjusting more easily, and Frédéric basically lives in permanent jet lag because of his work schedule, so it's not really any different for him.

It could be because I keep giving in to the extraordinarily strong gravitational pull of my bed, and napping when I'm "not supposed to." Or because my dear, sweet husband gets up and gets the kids off to school and lets me sleep in til 11 am (!! have not done that since... high school? college?).

Either way... today, I stand victorious, having arisen at 9 am, and not having napped all day long. Well, stand may not be quite the right word, I'm a little drowsy here at 7:40 pm. More like I slump victorious over my desk.

Slump might be optimistic, though; sort of gives the impression I might be able to perk up. I think if I'm awake enough to drag myself off to my bed before too long, I'll be doing well.

Maybe it is not the work-at-homeness, though, maybe it is the having-to-deal-with-kids-while-utterly-jet-lagged. Maybe I should declare a moratorium on overseas travel until I can come home to a nanny who can take over until I am fully recovered.

At any rate... hoping today's triumph over The Nap is leading me in the right direction, and that in a few days I'll feel slightly more normal again... (just in time for the kids' Christmas break, right... oh dear.)

All good things come to an end

2011-12-01T19:24:00.000Z

As did our trip home. Fortunately, the good things lasted a little bit longer thanks to the absolutely marvelous Delta gate agent in Detroit who wangled an upgrade for us for our trip home, so we had more room than we would have had in coach. My favorite part - no one's head leaning back in front of my face for me to dry shampoo or pick nits out of, thanks to the hard shell seats in Premium Voyageur class.

Noah even slept for almost the entire flight!

We haven't had to fly coach internationally for the last four years... we are going to weep the day we have to travel back with the commoners again! In the meantime, if any airline representatives are reading this... THIS is what coach SHOULD be like! Maybe I should appeal to PETA, they are against caged animals, right? What is worse than 300+ humans caged-up for 7+ hours?

Old Friend Bookends

2011-11-29T19:15:00.000Z

In a classic comedy of errors, our plans to get together with Amanda (my best friend since 5th grade) and her husband Chris were thwarted and delayed, but we finally worked things out just before we had to fly back to France. It was our year to go to Memphis, but I just wasn't feeling one more leg of the road trip smushed into our scant two and a half weeks, so they were kind enough to come see us in St Louis this year.

Four people is the bare minimum you need for the Game of Things, but as you can see, it's enough to get the hilarity ball rolling.

Happy Birthday, Xenia!

2011-11-28T19:08:00.000Z

Our niece Xenia's second birthday fell during our Thanksgiving trip, so we celebrated Sunday, after we returned to St Louis.

Afterwards, the boys were very please to have an early Christmas with gifts from aunts and uncles.

Back to St Louis

2011-11-27T18:43:00.000Z

Saturday morning we rejoiced (again, as we have every year since college or so) in the fact that we no longer have to get up at the crack of dawn with my parents to drive back to St Louis. We did set our alarm to get up, but we packed up our things, had a leisurely breakfast, said goodbye to everyone, and only dashed into the car to take off when the downpour didn't want to hold off any longer.

It rained pretty much the whole way back to St Louis.

In between rainshowers, I got a few from-the-car pictures of what the French would call "deep America." (Which loosely translates to "provincial," with the same possible but not necessarily obligatory negative connotations.)

We drove over Lake Texoma.

I meant to print some of these off and show them to Benjamin's class.

But, jet lag. I think that shall be my new excuse for everything.

I could always print them next year, and pretend they were from next year's trip.

One of these days, we will have to stop and check out one of the myriad flea markets.

We wanted to buy this truck and bring it back, but it would have put us over our luggage allowance.

More Madill

2011-11-26T05:25:00.001Z

Despite the lousy weather (the weathermen had promised us all high 60s and sun, but we wound up with chilly gray skies instead, booo), we made my little brother take some family pictures for us down at the playground.

And Uncle Vance taught the boys how to play washers.

And of course, we continued our traditional games with the Game of Things, Quiddler, Five Crowns, Say Anything, and Phase 10.

The two and a half days we spend down seem to go by much faster these days than when we were kids. Wish we could slow them down!

Madill, Oklahoma

2011-11-24T05:08:00.000Z

On Wednesday afternoon, we headed for our Mecca of Thanksgiving: Madill, Oklahoma. For the past thirtyish years, our family has rented out a camp for our family reunion at Thanksgiving, and the tradition continues on. We now have four generations attending since all the grandkids are having kids!

I continued to play with the camera on the way down.

Sadly, I don't have any of the fish story pictures, but here is the fish story... Frédéric, the boys, their cousin Alex, and my grandad went to the (now greatly depleted) pond to go fishing. Frédéric caught an 8-pound catfish, but only had a 10-pound line. He and the fish fought it out for a while, until he managed to get it up near his feet. My grandad reached in to try to pull the fish up, but the fish pulled back and my grandad fell in the pond. At this point, the boys decided fishing was not for them anymore! Now, if you ask Noah how big the fish that got away was, he stretches out his arms as wide as he can. If you ask Benjamin, he tells you it was "21."

Noah tried his skill at hurling sticks into the pond. He and Uncle Curtis looked in awe at the one he got to land straight up.

(Thanks to Heather for this picture of me walking with Caitlyn and Noah down at the pond.)

Adorable niece Xenia looks on as her brother and cousin play washers.

Tulsa, Oklahoma

2011-11-23T04:52:00.000Z

Tuesday, we headed down to Tulsa to visit with my paternal grandparents. The road down was very scenic. Frédéric makes fun of me for taking pictures out of a moving car, but I don't care.

We thought Noah and Caitlyn were gardening out in my grandparents' yard, but they told us they were making pizza.

While in Tulsa, Jordan and I squeezed in a quick coffee visit with Wendi, a college friend. My older brother Ryan and his family came through in time for dinner, so we all went out together.

great-grandparents and great-grandkids!

Bentonville, Arkansas

2011-11-22T04:38:00.000Z

We followed Jordan and Kacey through the fog to Bentonville on Monday, where we spent the night with friends.

There, the kids continued the game-playing with Uno Moo.

And air hockey.

And we played a game of Smart ~~Ass~~ Aleck with our friends. (I ought to get some commission here for these game mentions, no?)

I also got to visit with Kerry, who was my downstairs neighbor 14 years ago when I did my study abroad program in Montpellier. For our "it's a small world" or perhaps "six degrees of separation" segment of the blog, we found that my little brother knows her husband's cousin.

Hanging out with my 2 favorite 3-year-olds

Columbia, Missouri

2011-11-21T04:30:00.001Z

Now that our trip is almost over, I guess I should update the blog on what we've been doing!

We started our Thanksgiving travels with a visit to my brother and his family in Columbia, Missouri. We missed out on a visit with friends there since their kids were sick, but we had a nice couple of days anyway, and the boys enjoyed playing with their cousin, Caitlyn.

Benjamin also appreciated his initiation to the Wii.

And we got started on our Thanksgiving game-playing with the Game of Things... which we started playing about 14 years ago, long before the Hasbro version came out, and now we regret not patenting our idea!

Let the Thanksgiving Tour begin!

2011-11-19T15:27:00.002Z

We made it to the US last Friday, 23 hours after we left our house. I'm still not sure how a 9-hour plane trip + a 1.5-hour plane trip = 23 hours of travel, but it does. It could have been a bit shorter, but the Delta gate agent wanted to seat the four of us in four completely separate seats... which wouldn't have been a big problem for us, but might have been for the people seated next to our monst... uh, kids. Actually, on our second attempt, they pulled the same nonsense again, but we accepted because we were afraid if we refused, they wouldn't find seats for us on the last flight of the day. As it turned out, on that flight, there were enough people coming in late from a connecting flight that we had time to trade seats with other people.

(In France, we tend to say, "It's an airplane, not a train," meaning that you need to arrive an hour or two early to board a flight. That doesn't appear to be the case in the US, where you can board a flight 5 minutes before take-off. Extremely surprising post-9/11, but there it is.)

Frédéric thought he was clever, making me sit by Noah on the Atlanta-St Louis leg of the flight... but Noah pulled one over on him by sleeping the entire time, while Benjamin took over whining duty.

We have spent our week visiting friends and family in St Louis and doing our annual shopping.

Today we leave for Columbia, Missouri to visit my little brother and his family. Monday they and we will go to Bentonville, Arkansas, then Tulsa, then southern Oklahoma for Thanksgiving, the highlight of our trip every year.

Grocery Shopping with Noah

2011-11-09T14:53:00.002Z

A couple of weeks ago, Frédéric and Noah were getting ready to go to the store.

Noah: Wait Daddy! I need my list!
Frédéric: Ok, let's write your list. What is on your list?
Noah: Chocolate.
Frédéric: Ok. What else?
Noah: Vinegar.

Frédéric: Uh... ok. And what kind of fruit do you want?
Noah: Candy!
Frédéric: Candy?
Noah: M&Ms.
Frédéric: Ok, M&Ms, but what kind of fruit? Bananas, apples...
Noah: Bananas. And apples too.

Benjamin, interjecting: And I want those orange thing. Clementines.
F: Ok. What else, Noah?
Benjamin, to Noah: And not things that cost too much!
Noah: Ice cream.
Benjamin: Ice cream costs a lot!

Noah: Ok, that is good, I have my list. Cucumbers. We will buy cucumbers because I like them.

Yes, I am sure my future daughters-in-law will thank me for raising men who know how to grocery shop.

* * * * *

In other news, we are almost ready to leave for the US for Thanksgiving! That is, we are all packed, but there is no guarantee there will be space on the flight for us. Ah, the joys of traveling standby.

And some more Toussaint visiting!

2011-11-04T10:21:00.005Z

After some schedule-juggling and matching, we found that the only time to get together with the Monnoyeur family before our trip was immediately after the Dubort family left. So the Monnoyeurs came over Sunday evening, and spent Sunday and Monday nights with us.

The nice weather lasted through Monday, so we took the kids out for a bit. Our neighbor across the street gave the girls a couple of roses, one of which contained a tiny snail, to their great joy (but not that of my boys, who wouldn't touch it).

They named it Isabelle (despite its hermaphodity) and sang songs to it. Then they brought the roses, complete with snail, inside the house, where they stayed until the girls took them home, accompanied by the tiny snail.

We took a walk back through the beet fields, and found a mountain of beets waiting to be picked up.

Played some more ping pong...

And let the kids do a Halloween candy hunt in the yard just before it got too dark. They waited patiently by the door until the candy was hidden.

The boys and I visited a couple of houses with them on Tuesday - they are looking for a vacation home out this way and we hope they will find one, the closer, the better!

Noah was NOT happy to see them leave. He was ready to ditch Frédéric and me and go home with them, and sobbed when we told him he couldn't. "I want to go with them, because me likes them!" he cried. Through his tears, he waved goodbye and sniffled, "See you Sunday!"

More Toussaint visiting

2011-11-01T09:53:00.000Z

Saturday evening, Frédéric's childhood friends Eric and Natacha Dubort and their kids, Alexandre and Matthieu, came over to spend the night. Alexandre and Benjamin got a kick out of seeing elementary school class pictures where their dads were their age.

We were fortunate to have gorgeous weather, so we got to try out the neighborhood ping pong table for the first time in the five years we've lived here.

The spectators were enthralled.

The boys played up on top of the hill:

and played battle tops.

Everyone got in on the ping pong action.

And there was a game of Puppet Ping Pong, too.

Eric just got transferred to southwestern France, near Spain, so next time we get together, we may have to take the airplane and make a whole vacation of it.

Toussaint Vaction = Catching up on Visiting

2011-10-29T09:17:00.001Z

The boys were on school vacation for a week and a half for La Toussaint (All Saints' Day). Our "vacation" turned very busy towards the end, when we caught up on the visiting we didn't have time for this summer.

Friday we drove two hours, south of Paris, to spend the day with Frédéric's aunt and uncle. We usually try to visit them in the summer, but they and we were so busy this year that our summer visit was the end of October.

The boys' cousin Nina was there, too, and the three of them ran around like whirling dervishes when they weren't eating.

The boys learned how to blow up balloons (oh, joy).

See? Dervishes. Couldn't even be still for a picture.

This picture is nothing short of miraculous, with all three kids facing the camera at the same time and smiling. Please appreciate it for the amazing art that it is.

With the crazy traffic around Paris, it took us almost three hours to get back home, which goes a long way towards explaining why this particular visit usually happens once a year.

A little bit more Halloween

2011-10-28T08:28:00.000Z

In preparing for the Halloween show-and-tell and Benjamin's school, I read that the Irish used to carve turnips; pumpkins didn't come into vogue until Halloween made it across the ocean to America.

I didn't manage it in time for the school presentation, but Frédéric didn't think I could do it, so I had to attempt to prove him wrong.

The grocery store only had teeny turnips, but I did manage it:

The hardest part was massacring the tea light to make it small enough to fit inside.

Noah's jack o'lantern... which I kind of think looks like him:

Benjamin's jack o'lantern:

And all three together:

And here is my confession: I'm sort of glad they don't do Halloween here, because that means I don't have to figure out costumes!

Gymnastics: Year Two

2011-10-25T19:02:00.001Z

We signed both boys up for gymnastics again this year. We were going to limit to one sport each, but Benjamin was pretty disappointed seeing Noah get to do gymnastics while he had to just watch, so we gave in and let them both sign up. It is amazing the progress they can make so quickly. It seems like they are able to do more things just from one classtime to the next.

Snake-crawling on the round things.

Tarzan-swinging.

Trying to learn to do flips in the rings - need a little help with this one still.

Walking on the balance beam while twirling a baton.

Or just holding the baton.

Swinging on the bar.

Doing rabbit jumps.

Waiting for warm-ups.

More swinging on the bar.

And cooling down on the parachute at the end.

Early Halloween

2011-10-22T11:52:00.004Z

Benjamin's teacher asked me to come talk to the kids about Halloween, since I'm the token American. I agreed (still don't know how to say "no" to anyone, plus I feel like we need to "prove" that we aren't just blowing off school even though we are taking the boys out for 10 days to go to the US in November). We had to do it this week, since now the kids are on "All Saints' Day Vacation" until November 3rd.

So Thursday, the boys helped me prepare by carving their pumpkins. (Or whatever the heck kind of squashes these are, some translation sites say "chestnut flavored pumpkin.") I went to two different grocery stores and the vegetable market, and didn't find anything better than these. Anyway, they were pretty small, but we managed.

Then yesterday, I dressed up as a witch to go talk to his class. I told them a little bit about the origins of Halloween, and we talked about costumes, and decorations, and games. I showed them some pictures of pumpkin patches, kids dressed up in costumes, and carved jack o'lanterns. Then I read them a Halloween story a friend sent us last year.

And then we got to the best part - pumpkin cookies!

Benjamin did NOT like my witch's hat. It had black and white hair attached to it, which he insisted I cut off, and he thought that was a *little* better. I painted my fingernails blue, and he did NOT care for that either.

But he did finally warm up to the hat:

And he was very pleased about me coming to his school... the evening before, we had this conversation in the car:

Benjamin: I am very lucky, because my mommy knows ALL about Halloween. The other kids are not lucky. I am lucky times a thousand.
Me: Well, maybe their mommies know about other things I don't know about.
Benjamin, thinking: Christmas? Do you know about Christmas?
Me: Well, yes...
Benjamin: You know EVERYthing!

Ahhhh I am going to savor that one for a long time! Maybe I should print it up and frame it, and just point it out to him when he gets to be a teenager.

Swimming Lessons

2011-10-20T11:47:00.003Z

Benjamin has three more swimming lessons left; after that, he either goes on to more lessons, or can join the swim team. Here he is a couple of lessons ago:

Who says the French have no sense of humor?

2011-10-13T19:09:00.003Z

Oh, that's right, usually I say that. Well, the workers who are patching up our roads after whatever work they've been doing on the water system have hereby proved me wrong. See for yourself:

I trust that those of you who have been here will get the joke without explanation.

For those who haven't had the pleasure yet, let me just tell you that this, the main road through our village, *is* a two-way street, but is only wide enough for one car. So just what the heck are we merging into? How is it even possible?

See? French joke.

Happy Anniversary to us!

2011-10-08T12:19:00.000Z

Frédéric and I celebrate 11 years of wedded bliss today! And much like that day we were married 11 years ago, this day is much nippier than we expected. So we celebrated by starting up the wood-burning stove with the first fire of the season.

Frédéric also celebrated by going to work, and I also celebrated by taking the boys to gymnastics. Maybe in another nine or so years we can actually go out on our anniversary. In the meantime, here is to many more happy years ahead of us.

Indian Summer

2011-10-07T15:03:00.004Z

Well - I didn't get any pictures of Indian summer, but it was nice for the few days that it lasted. Perfect for some more yard clean-up, I think I filled up 20-30 bags of hedge clippings, weeds, and branches, and Frédéric hauled them off to the dump. All that clean-up makes a nice, large space for the vegetable garden next year.

Fall (winter?!) showed up this morning, with that nip in the air that almost bit my nose off when I poked it out the front door to check whether we needed jackets today. (We didn't, we needed coats!)

With fall comes my very first seasonal decorating foray ever, enabled by our local store that sells other stores' leftover odds and ends, where we found five jack-o-lantern tealights for 50 cents, and this fall wreath for 75 cents. It said "Wilkommen" on the banner, but not being German-speakers, we changed it to "happy fall!" instead.

Benjamin wants to make some decorations for his room, too, so we'll see what he comes up with. He seems to know quite a lot about Halloween, and I'm not really sure how since we don't talk about it, or celebrate it here other than by carving jack-o-lanterns.

School vacation is coming up for both boys in a couple of weeks. Whom do I write to in order to get Thanksgiving break at Thanksgiving, instead of at All Saints' Day? Who made up this crazy school vacation calendar, anyway?

Happy Birthday to Me

2011-09-30T15:01:00.000Z

For my birthday, Frédéric and his two kitchen elves made me a lovely cake. Benjamin picked out the heart-shaped pan at the store "because it will be the prettiest!" and he and Noah agreed on the frosting colors. Benjamin came up with the inscription all by himself.

And yes, it did taste as good as it looked!

end of September

2011-09-28T19:27:00.004Z

Last Friday, the American lady that we met at the Pierrefonds castle when my parents were here came for lunch. She went with me to pick up the boys from school, and take Benjamin back after lunch, and we had a nice walk around the village.

Noah helped Frédéric prepare the homegrown, homemade raspberry syrup to go on the cheesecake I made for dessert that day.

After some major resistance from Benjamin to backwards somersaults at gymnastics Saturday, we broke the old, flattened baby mattress out as an improvised tumbling mat so the boys could practice their somersaults at home. (Are we crazy, or what? That's rhetorical.)

I tried to get them to stand and look cute together before they started tumbling, but, well.

Thank goodness for a faster camera than we used to have.

Here they were all tired out from gymnastics, and were "resting." Or so they told me.

Both boys had an all-day field trip to the forest yesterday. We're still paying for that with Noah - he is definitely not ready for all-day school yet! The highlight of the field trip for Noah seems to have been the picnic lunch and peeing in the forest.

Benjamin must have listened well to the Tourist Office forest guide, because today he showed me a booklet they gave the kids, and explained it all to me.

Frédéric was off work yesterday, so we had the whole day to ourselves! And... spent it doing yard work. Sigh. Frédéric chopped at the hedge, weeds and ivy that had overtaken the back corner of our yard, and I helped him bag it all up to take to the dump. Fourteen yard waste bags later, we are closer to done than when we started... This should make room for a nice, large vegetable garden next year.

Now, if we could just dismantle the garden shed, and the cinderblock shed, and put a shed where the cinderblock one is, so we could see that whole corner from the house... well, let's just say that to-do list is not likely to be the "all-done" list any time soon!

Now the school year has really begun

2011-09-20T19:48:00.004Z

You know school has really begun when... the first illness hits. Frédéric & I have been fighting off the first cold of the year this week, thanks to Noah bringing it home to us from preschool. Somehow he was barely sick at all, but it has knocked us out.

Noah loves school. He can't figure out why some of the little kids cry at school. He likes to do his "work" while Benjamin does his homework (so much for the teacher "not being allowed" to give the kids homework-- that didn't last long).

He was very proud of having written "NOAH" here:

And sports have started for both boys. We did give in on the gymnastics thing, so both do gymnastics once a week (pictures of that sooner or later, I'm sure), and Benjamin has swimming lessons once a week through school, and twice a week in the evenings.

The whole pool experience in France is a little weird... men & boys have to wear Speedos, for one thing... for another, swim caps are strongly encouraged, though not actually required at this pool. Also, the swimming instructor is not in the pool with them, and to even go watch the kids swim, you have to wade through about six inches of water (presumably also treated with some disinfectant or other).

Benjamin loves his swimming lessons, and is perfectly at ease in the water.

And the most exciting of all, the work on the bridge in our village is finally done!! We can now go through the village instead of taking the long way around through the forest, which will cut several minutes off our driving time. Yay!

Proud to be an American

2011-09-14T13:21:00.001Z

This afternoon, Noah was making his Transformer talk to me. In French.
I asked the Transformer why he was speaking French.
It said, "Because" (in English, hmm).

Then I asked Noah whether he spoke English or French.

N: I speak English and French.
Me: Really?! Both? Why?
N: Because < mumble > American.
Me: What? Who's American?
N: Me! I'm in-ter-est-ing!

Weekend Busy-ness

2011-09-11T17:43:00.005Z

In all the "excitement" of back to school, I forgot to mention that we got to see friends Roby & Bernadette last Monday. They live in Guadeloupe, and rarely get to visit France, so we hadn't seen Bernadette in 6 years, and Roby in 11 1/2 years - since we were in Guadeloupe in 2000.

Friday...
We learned the new school set-up. The "maternelles" - 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds, and kindergartener (yes, singular) - will be with Simon, the maître, who has been Benjamin's (and Noah's) teacher up until now.

The CP & CE1 (1st & 2nd grade) will be with Laetitia, the maîtresse, who had the 2nd through 5th graders up until now.

And the CE2, CM1 & CM2 (3rd, 4th, & 5th graders) will have the new teacher. This is her first real class after a couple of years of long-term substitute teaching, so it may be an adjustment for all of them, but Laetitia, who is also the director, thought this would be better for the 5th graders who will be going to middle school next year and will do well to have some adjustments now, before having to make so many more when they get to middle school.

We are pretty happy with this arrangement, though it does seem like it will make 1st grade more of a graduation into "big kids' world," being with the 2nd graders instead of the little ones. Benjamin sort of knows his new teacher already, and we hope the transition will go smoothly for all.

Apparently they aren't "allowed" to give homework in 1st grade, so that is a relief. We'll see how true that is as the year goes on!

Saturday...
Gymnastics started for Noah. Benjamin preferred to do swimming this year, but started to regret his choice when he was at the gym, watching Noah. And I'm wavering in our "one activity per year" idea...

Our friends from church and their kids came over in the afternoon, and spent the night. It was almost 80° out, so the kids got to play in the pool "one last time" before fall.

Sunday...
We had house church with our friends after breakfast, let the kids ride bikes for a little while, then visited a couple of flea markets in the rain (drastic weather change overnight!), and showed them a few houses for sale in the area in the hopes that they'll buy a country home out our way one of these days.

Cute kids at a rainy flea market! But no one bought them, so we had to bring them home again.

NOW the school year can begin

2011-09-08T18:14:00.004Z

Our morning started off a little crazy over here when Frédéric checked Benjamin's backpack at five minutes til time to leave for school, and realized his correspondance notebook was in there. That is how the teacher sends us information home. To our surprise, he found a note saying swimming class started *today*. So we rushed the boys back upstairs to get them ready, ran around looking for towels and swim caps - only to come back down, re-read, and realize that only the 1st graders got to go due to the overcrowding situation. Augh!

So Noah had to change again, and we had to explain to him why he didn't get to go (after we just told him he was going). On the bright side, Noah got to stay at school the full three hours instead of just one, since the first graders were out of the classroom.

The teacher hadn't had any news yet from the Académie, but told Frédéric the name of the teachers' union website, which I then proceeded to watch closely all day long, refreshing often... and I was finally rewarded this afternoon, when THIS made our day a whole lot better!

(click to enlarge)

That means... we get our third class!! The teacher and teacher/director will be discussing tonight how to split up the grades, and let us know tomorrow, and the new class divisions should start on Monday.

I don't know WHY the Inspector had to wait until three days into the school year to make this decision, but at least we got the answer we wanted!

(Now to pray that the teacher they hire is a good one...!)

Drama-Filled Rentrée 2011

2011-09-06T14:43:00.004Z

Because what fun would back to school be without a little drama?

Drama-free part first... two boys, ready and raring to go! (Complete with jackets because it is back to cold here... if we ever had summer - not so sure we did - it is apparently officially over.)

And we had a rainy drive to school.

A rainy, rural drive, even more rural-looking than usual since our village is still closed due to the work on the bridge in the middle of it, so we have to take the back way through the forest and the fields.

Noah sat right down to do a puzzle, he had no problem feeling at home. This is what he has been waiting for, and we had no doubts he would do well.

Benjamin found his spot, too, and is very proud of being a "big" first grader this year.

However... (drama-filled part here):

I'm afraid that yesterday was NOT the day we hoped and longed for over the past three and a half years. Granted, we did get silence at home which was blissful. But the bliss pretty much ended there.

We've had a bit of a population explosion in the villages. As many of you know, the boys attend a one-room schoolhouse which goes from 3-year-old preschool through first grade. There are about 14 kids in the 4-year-old preschool class, which last year was an adjustment when they were in the 3-year-old class, since normal class size here is about 5 or 6. This year, there are also about 13 kids in the 3-year-old class. Add one kindergartener and about 9 first-graders, and we are up to a whopping 37 kids, for one teacher, and one aide.

Entirely too many kids in one room, in other words - and several times worse once you count in the age range.

There are 26 kids in 2nd through 5th grades.

The upper grades' teacher's husband called over the weekend to inform us of the situation and explain that we, the parents, needed to complain to the Inspection Académique and ask them to open a third class - something that is entirely possible from our point of view because we have a renovated schoolhouse in our village (which the Inspection changed from "closed for renovation" to "closed forever" without informing ANYONE, even the mayor of the village), and because there are 20-some jobless teachers in the department.

The inspection refused the request when it came from the teachers, and the teachers consulted their union, who said they are powerless to change anything, only with parental involvement *might* things get changed.

Accordingly, I worked long and hard on my letter... only for my printer to decide it was finally, utterly, and undebatably out of black toner just before I printed the letter. And it refused to print the letter even if I changed it to blue. So I had to hand-write the whole thing out instead.

Imagine my disappointment when I saw that other parents hadn't even bothered to write a letter at all, but signed the photocopied form letters someone else had prepared. Sigh.

Due to the overcrowding, the teacher requested that parents of 3-year-olds pick them up after only an hour if possible. Another great dilemma for us, because I *do* work, but I work from *home*... what to do.

This type of situation is all too common in the villages in France. To look on the "bright" side, we're lucky to be on the side of a refusal to open a new class rather than the Inspection telling us they are closing an entire class.

We hope for a response from the Inspection today, though we have no idea what form the response will take.

Had we known earlier that this would be an issue, we could have just kept Noah home this year (although that would just put the problem off for a year) - but he has his heart set on going to school now...

D-4!

2011-09-01T18:58:00.005Z

I don't know what on earth we will do with 2 1/2 entirely kid-free hours four days a week, but believe me, we will not be the parents wiping away tears when we take Benjamin and Noah to school on Monday...

Benjamin is starting 1st grade ("CP" or "cours préparatoire") and is very proud. Noah is dismayed to be in "petite section" because "je suis grand !" ("I am big!") He will only go mornings since in petite section they take a nap in the afternoon anyway, may as well do that at home.

*I* am a little dismayed at the lack of people other than me they have to speak English with, but with Benjamin coming home from school speaking French for the past two years, there wasn't really any point of keeping Noah out the first year like we did Benjamin. Noah is starting school a grade lower but only three months younger than Benjamin did, and our little live wire needs some social interaction - and Mommy and Daddy need a break!

They will both be in the same classroom, because the lower grades' one-room-schoolhouse setup includes 3-year-old preschool (petite section), 4-year-old preschool (moyenne section), Kindergarten (grande section), and 1st grade (CP). So they both already know the teacher well, Benjamin from his 4-year-old preschool and kindergarten days, and Noah from going to take Benjamin and pick him up every day.

Right now, they're busy getting in the last of their all-day-long playtime. Benjamin made a Duplo city a few days ago that he insisted I take a picture of - complete with train station, of course.

Pictures lie... our days are not like this lately... hence our anxiously awaiting the first day of school for some peace and quiet!

This was my comic relief the other day. Noah came into my office to show my his socks... or rather, MY socks that he picked out of the laundry basket. Frédéric didn't see anything amiss at all. Actually, they weren't all that much too big for him! I guess that is what I get for not putting the laundry away.

We moved our half-buffet into the kitchen as a makeshift island to see whether we will have room for an island when we redo the kitchen or not. So far it is a great success, and serves as a perfect worktable when children beg to help cook.

Good little French children eating their "oeufs à la coque" (soft-boiled eggs that you dip bits of bread in). Do American kids eat this weird stuff? They certainly didn't get this one from me.

Keeping the Road Workers in Business

2011-08-24T18:30:00.002Z

We had a loud rain/hailstorm Monday night, with golf ball-sized hail. It rained and hailed hard for probably two hours, and 15-18 inches of rain fell during that time.

The next day, we had a clear blue sky and decided to try to go out for a walk in the village... right outside the house, we saw the road torn up like this:

Rivers must have run down our streets from the field above. We could still see the paths they left, flattening all the grass in their way.

The "technological risk" of our area, which you're now required to disclose to sell your home, is mudslides. Which is exactly what happened here, just a bit further down from our house.

Just a little further on, we decided to turn around and go back, because there was not a single unmuddied spot in the road for us to cross on, and visions of mud-covered children and piles of laundry did not appeal to us.

Frédéric ventured out to town yesterday, and found part of the road in one of the other villages with a monster pothole... measuring about 3 feet wide, by 30 feet long, and we're not really sure how deep. We hope that the road workers will be able to fix all of this soon, so taking the kids to school in a couple of weeks is not any more of an adventure than it may already be, since they are still working on the bridge in our village, so we have to go the long way around.

Cooking with Noah

2011-08-23T10:13:00.003Z

Noah helped me make a green tomato cake this morning. Our poor tomatoes got sick from all the rain we've had this summer, so this is part of our last-ditch efforts to save the ones that remained.

We were naming the ingredients as we put them in...

Me: "Muscade [nutmeg]. Can you say muscade?"
Noah: "Muscade!"
Me: "Canelle. [cinnamon]"
Noah: "Can-aigle."
Me: "Bicarbonate [baking soda]."
Noah: "Bicaboboranate."

We laboriously went through each syllable, then put two syllables together, and he finally was able to string them all together.

Frederic: "Noah, what is that in English?"
Me: "Noah, say 'baking'..."
Noah: "Baking."
Me: "Soda."
Noah: "Chocolate!"

Well... a good baker always thinks about the important things!

Picnic at La Ferté-Milon

2011-08-20T20:11:00.002Z

We had great (hot!) weather today, so thought we'd venture out to La Ferté-Milon for a picnic along the Ourcq Canal.

Frédéric knew about a new playground they had installed there, so we figured the kids would like that. To our dismay, we found the play areas padlocked when we got there, with an official note from the Mayor's office saying that the play areas were not "réceptionné" (any French readers who want to chime in on what that means, please do, because even French husband couldn't figure it out).

Instead, we walked over to see the water wheel, and then walked in the park between the canals.

Kids checking out the waterwheel

We visited the slightly lesser known "Eiffel Bridge" (yes, designed by the same Gustav as the Eiffel Tower).

Kids (and Frédéric) on the Eiffel Bridge

And then headed up to check out the castle ruins before heading back home to get out of this crazy heat... I know to most of you in the US it will sound like nothing, but 82°F is a big deal when you're used to summers in the high 60°s, with thick cloud cover and rain!

Kids admiring the castle of La Ferté-Milon

We had a lovely bit of quiet time after we got home, then let the kids go in the pool for a while before dinner. Then Tin-Tin, dinner, and bed!

Kids chilling out, watching Tin Tin, after their busy day

my first ever emergency services call

2011-08-19T19:27:00.002Z

(fair warning, a few gory pictures below)

Our friends Chris and Isabelle Burkholder and their two daughters arrived Thursday afternoon to spend the week with us before they fly to the US for a couple of months and then head on to Mauritius.

Thursday afternoon, Frédéric was making dinner for all of us, and went outside to do something, while I was inside talking to Chris, when I heard Frédéric call me and say “It’s urgent!” I stopped mid-sentence and went running, to find his leg spurting blood all over the patio. It was every bit as lovely as it sounds. I ran to bring him a clean washcloth for him to hold on it while he applied pressure to try to stop the bleeding, and then I got to make my very first call to the pompiers (the English translation for that is "firemen" but they are also EMTs/paramedics). Thank goodness for speaking French! Actually, this was my first emergency call ever, as I've never made one in the US.

When I called, I explained to a first person, who told me to have him apply pressure with a clean, dry cloth (he already was), and then transferred me over to the SAMU (emergency) doctor line instead, I explained to a second person there, who told me to have him apply pressure with a clean, dry cloth (he still was), and said she'd let me speak to the SAMU doctor - he picked up and just said he was sending the pompiers and hung up.

During this whole time, Frédéric continued to apply pressure to no avail.

I had told the first person about our house being inaccessible through the village due to bridge construction, but that message didn't get get passed on to the pompiers, so we heard the sirens get closer, and closer... and stop. And finally heard them again, so I stood outside to let them know where we were.

They arrived maybe 10-12 minutes after we called. Frédéric's leg was still spurting out blood like a hose (very literally, if he stopped applying pressure to check on it, it sent a fountain out 2 or 2 1/2 feet away!). So the pompiers bandaged him up and then he won a trip to the hospital to try and really stop the bleeding, and make sure he didn't lose consciousness or anything. I followed in the car, and Chris and Isabelle were kind enough to keep the boys and finish making the half-prepared dinner to feed them while we were gone.

We don’t know what happened exactly. Frédéric was back in the garden, and we guess he scratched his leg on a stick holding up some of the beans or something, but he didn't feel anything. He bled for a while without noticing, leaving a trail of gore behind him, then went into the shed to look for a trowel, saw blood all over the place, and figured he had stepped on a mouse!! He finally figured out HE was the source of all that blood and that is when he went into action putting pressure on it and calling me. The patio looked like a crime scene, as did the shed and the green bean patch.

Scene of the crime, the green bean patch

What *really* happened in the shed?? Hoping CSI doesn't pay us a visit!

At the hospital, I went in the ER to fill out his paperwork, then they sent me out to the waiting room while they checked him out, and then they called me back in to explain what was going on, and how they were trying to stop the bleeding, and let me wait for 45 minutes with him until the doctor could be sure whether the bleeding had stopped and it was ok to let him go home.

Start to finish the whole thing was less than 2.5 hours (including a 20 min drive each way to the hospital and a 45 min wait in the hospital just making sure it had really stopped bleeding), and the EMTs & ER staff were great.

Friday, on the ER doctor's very strong recommendation, we saw a phlebotomist, who checked out the varicose vein, and who is contacting a surgeon for him. So Frédéric will call the surgeon Monday and will have surgery to fix (remove) the vein. Since he stands, walks, and climbs stairs all day long, the ER doctor and phlebotomist decided to keep him off work this week so the hole in his leg can heal up properly.

While at the hospital, I unintentionally made a joke....

The doctor asked if I wanted some water or orange juice.
I said, "No, I'm fine, thanks."
Then she said, "Scotch?"
I said, "No, better not if I have to drive him home."

Everyone was cracking up... I thought *she* was joking, saying maybe I needed something stronger after watching my husband lose all that blood. What I didn't even realize until we got home and Frédéric was telling our friends about my joke, is that she wasn't talking to me at all, she was asking her assistant for tape for the bandage. I think I am going to laugh over that one for a looong time to come.

I also let Frédéric know at the hospital that I was on to him.... what some people won't do to get out of working in the yard, AND to get an evening away from the kids!

Collateral damage on the ash-can

Pause, Continued

2011-08-17T20:00:00.001Z

I made a nice big batch of tomato soup to use up a bunch of our tomatoes - I was going to freeze all of it but the boys begged to have some for dinner that night (!) so we of course happily obliged.

Our neighbors are taking care of other neighbors' garden while they are on vacation, and they have about had their fill of tomatoes, Swiss chard, beets, radishes, zucchini, and so on, so they've started bringing us some of that bounty and we've been enjoying that, especially since our own garden gave up the ghost this year between neglect and too much rain.

The boys kept busy playing while waiting for our friends to arrive ("Is it today?? When are they coming??"). Benjamin made a Lego (Duplo) city and wanted me to take a picture of it for him.

Mid-August Pause

2011-08-15T12:44:00.004Z

We have a few days this week between visitors. My parents left yesterday morning, and our friends arrive Thursday afternoon. So besides resting, I've also been canning, working outside, and soon will be cleaning inside, too.

Though our garden has been largely neglected this year, we have been canning a little bit... 6 jars of tomato sauce, ready-to-use for pasta or pizza, and many, many jars of pickles.

And we are almost done with the non-shed shed! Here is a "before-we-moved-in photo" where you can see the FOUR outbuildings (plus the large, nasty hedge/bush/tree thing which has been chopped down but still needs to be fully removed). With the removal of this non-shed shed, that leaves only two, the one for the yard equipment and the cinderblock one at back right.

In this picture from last week, you can see the mountain of yard waste that my parents helped us clean out. The picture makes that pile look deceptively like a molehill. It has taken thirty-plus bags so far to clear it all out, and many hours of mulching branches and shoveling all manner of clippings, leaves, and grubs.

Here, you can see that Frédéric aggressively chopped down the privet hedge behind the non-shed shed, and as of today, we can see concrete! I might have finished today, except that I ran out of yard waste bags. That means another trip to the dump for Frédéric tomorrow. And a big thank you to Mom & Dad for all your hard work clearing this mess out!

Next step, remove the concrete - it's only thin pieces, not a poured slab - and figure out what we want to do with all that reclaimed yard space!

Mes petits Gaulois

2011-08-14T19:20:00.002Z

Wednesday we went to the French alternative to Disneyland - Parc Astérix. Benjamin is past master of all things Astérix, so had the time of his life. (Click here to see Benjamin pictured with the cauldron and menhir from Astérix, in creator Albert Uderzo's natal town of Fismes). During the Astérix version of the Fairy Tale ride, where you go in a boat and see scenes from different Astérix books, Benjamin acted as our tour guide to the amusement of the people in front of us. He gleefully told us which book each scene was from as we passed them.

A very large Astérix overlooks the park.

My parents, acting as Roman spies, or something like that.

Another Roman spy.

We measured Noah the day before, and he was exactly one meter tall without shoes, so was just barely tall enough for most of the rides. He enjoyed this roller coaster, which went around its small track four times. He did NOT enjoy the higher roller coaster nor the "Mo-Mo the Monster"-type ride (he must take after you, Jordan). He didn't throw up, but he did ask to get off once we were already moving.

Benjamin took a turn acting as village chief, Abraracourcix, in the Gallic village.

Then it was off to meet the heros themselves, Obélix and Astérix. We missed our photo op here because the boys shook hands, then went straight through the door, forgetting to turn around and pose for a picture!

We made it around to the Dolphinarium twenty minutes before the start of the show. The sun was beating down on us (a rare event during my parents' stay!) and it was a cruel form of torture to sit there and fry while looking at the refreshing water in front of us. But we got front row seats for the show.

We found the smaller version of the swings on the other side of the park.

And had a little bit of time to play on the playground before the park closed - here is Noah, my little Gaulois.

One note about the park closing, just in case any higher-up in Parc Astérix happens upon this little blog one day... someone needs to come give them some lessons on tourism and theme parks. The park closed at 7 pm... the rides closed at 7 pm... and so did the bathrooms, restaurants and shops!! The ladies' room near the park entrance was overrun by people of both sexes since it was the only one still open as we made our way out.

I'm also not sure what trains or Moon cars have to do with Astérix; those didn't really seem to fit the theme. But we never had to wait much more than about twenty minutes for any ride, which was a definite plus, and we had a great day. It only took the boys a couple of days to get over their crabbiness from all the extra excitement. They can't wait to go back.

Slave Labor, or, the Truth About Why We Invited My Parents

2011-08-11T11:16:00.000Z

After plying my parents with castles to lull them into a false sense of vacation, we cleverly arranged for our firewood to be delivered during their stay.

And we brilliantly decided it was time to dismantle the non-shed shed in the yard... which involved removing all the yard waste that has been moldering there for oh, about 5 years. Why yes, that is about when we moved in, for those keeping score at home.

Everyone had a job to do, filling bags:

or mulching branches:

The boys got in on the action, too, and told me repeatedly how hard they were working, lest I should think otherwise.

This picture was taken after I quit... right after we found a baby mouse hiding in the compost pile. Now we know where they live when they aren't trying to come live in our house!

Today Frédéric finished chopping down all of those bright green bushy leaves from the hedge that was growing behind the non-shed shed.

Changeable weather and another castle

2011-08-09T16:43:00.005Z

With the rain/sun/rain/sun/cloudy/sun weather we've had lately, we've had plenty of these:

Yesterday morning, my dad and Noah tossed the football around. (Who says we aren't teaching our kids American culture?)

And the boys swept the patio. They love to be helpful as long as it is outside and involves something they want to do.

In the afternoon we decided to brave the capricious weather ("It's sunny, let's go! Oh, it's cloudy again. Maybe the sun will come back? Doesn't look like it. Oh, there it is!") to go to the Pierrefonds castle, which we last visited in 2008.

On the way up, Benjamin found a pine cone which he told me was "for his collection." (I didn't know he had one.) Then he tossed it away. (I guess that is why I didn't know he had one.)

In the space of about ten minutes, we went from this:

to a downpour, to this:

Noah didn't want to go near the dragon until Grandad put his head in the dragon's mouth to show him it was ok... then he decided he could take the risk, too.

The boys posed for plenty of pictures for my Parental Mythology annals.

Le Château de Coucy

2011-08-05T20:28:00.003Z

It's been sort of a guessing game with the weather the whole time my parents have been here. Yesterday, we went to the market in the morning, and then decided to take our chances with the gray sky at the Château de Coucy.

Unfortunately, the castle ruins closed for lunchtime (please don't ask me why or how, as I can't explain).

So we first explored the town ramparts and had our picnic lunch in the park.

Then we returned and waited a little bit longer.

At last we made it in. And we did get some blue skies!

So did the goats. Actually, this time, unlike last time, the goats were outside the castle walls rather than on the walls and in the windows.

Benjamin and Noah both played statues. Although Noah doesn't quite understand the principle of statues... he was a "jumping statue" at one point.

A couple of family pictures...

Noah and the Giant Pickle

2011-08-03T20:20:00.003Z

Have you heard of Veggie Tales's "Dave and the Giant Pickle"? This is Noah and the Giant Pickle. Not quite the same. He thought it was very exciting and had to come show me in my office.

And no, it isn't actually a pickle yet, it is a pickling cucumber, but apparently in France they call those pickles even as they grow on the vine.

And this is Noah's latest funny face, opening his eyes REALLY wide to look at us. Cracks me up every time.

Septmonts bis

2011-07-31T18:22:00.002Z

We visited Septmonts back in March with some friends, and thought that would make another good visit with my parents, since we finally got some semi-sunny weather yesterday.

The boys had a great time running around the grounds. There were only 9 other tourists there while we were, so we had the place almost all to ourselves, and this is one of the few sites in France where you're allowed to walk on the grass.

We climbed up to the top of the tower, and all managed to make it back down as well.

the grandparents are here!

2011-07-28T18:16:00.002+01:00

My parents arrived on Tuesday morning... and we put them straight to work digging the tulip bulbs out of the front yard. Noah asks Grandma often to go "diggering" outside.

The weather has been kind of crummy so far - gray, overcast, chilly - so we hung around the house a lot. We call that "giving them time to get over jet lag" to make it seem more appealing. I'm not sure they are falling for it. Then again, after the crazy heat and humidity of St Louis, you'd think they'd be rejoicing in cold, gray weather, right?

Hide and Seek

2011-07-23T18:35:00.004+01:00

We haven't been going outside much lately since we're getting all the rain those of you in the midwest wish you you were getting. So Hide and Seek has become the latest game of choice, but hiding places are somewhat limited around here.

I find this game very amusing to watch, because Noah, my little Ostrich Boy, goes into the guest room and hides his head under the bed, leaving the rest of his body visible on the floor. If he does manage to hide completely, and someone calls out, "Where are you?" he replies, "Under the bed!" or "In the living room!"

Also, neither boy counts to 10 or 20 when they play. Each counts to 12 or 13.

And Frédéric can talk to them from his hiding place, and they still take an inordinately long time to find him.... because they walk towards his voice, and when he stops talking, they walk back away into a different room, as though he must have moved.

I asked Frédéric if he *had* to look for them when they were hiding... wonder how long they'd stay hidden - how much peace and quiet could we get out of this deal?

* * * * *

The garden is still hanging in there. The snow peas are done, green beans are almost done, zucchini didn't work out this year... the boys and Frédéric harvested some carrots the other day, and if it ever stops raining, we may get tomatoes soon.

* * * * *

Now our summer marathon begins... friends are coming for lunch Monday, my parents arrive Tuesday for three weeks, when they leave, other friends come, and after that we may take an overnight trip with other friends - and then it will be back to school time! (Hooray!)

Noah's Theological Musings

2011-07-21T12:42:00.003+01:00

Noah: If our food is hot, we pray.
Me: We pray because our food is hot?
Noah: Yes.
Me: No, we pray to say thank you to God, because he gives us food.
Noah: Are you God?
Me: What?! No...
Noah: But you give us food.

Note to self: Quit while you're ahead

2011-07-19T09:42:00.001+01:00

Me: Do you know who is coming to see you?
Noah: Grandma and Grandad.
Me: And you are happy?
Noah: Yes, I'm going to give all the hugs to Grandad.
Me: Oh?
Noah: And all the kisses to Grandma.
Me: You're going to give all the hugs to Grandad and all the kisses to Grandma? Why?
Noah: So you will not have some.

School's out for the summer... or is it?

2011-07-07T13:20:00.006+01:00

And: How your child can embarrass you when you're not even there.

Benjamin managed that by bringing home his slippers last Friday, the last day of school. They were brand new in September; I have proof:

After 9 months of school - really only 7 once you take out the vacations - and they don't wear their slippers every day... they came home looking like THIS.

(What on EARTH do they do in school in their slippers that would bring them to this point of utter destruction??)

Frédéric and I were pretty mortified that he'd been using these at school in this condition - his feet were coming out of the bottoms of them! We told him we would have bought him new ones if he had *told* us the shape they were in... we did already buy him new ones for next year. Hoping they will last longer than these did!

As some of you saw on facebook, I bought Benjamin a summer workbook. (One of those things I would never have imagined myself doing.) This one is mainly about writing, as his handwriting seems to have gone downhill over the past few months. He wasn't thrilled to see the book at first, but when he realized it was a "CP" (1st grade) book, he because very excited AND confident he could do it all. He says he wants to show his work to his teacher in September.

That's cursive he's working on - they go pretty quickly here from "ronds et batons" ("circles and sticks" - printing) to "attaché" (cursive), so he's been doing cursive all year in kindergarten. (Click to see larger if you want to ooh and ahh over his amazing work.)

He's already gone through so many pages this week, I told him I'd have to go buy him another one, and he just giggled.

He also likes to play "the game with words" that Mrs Uccello got for him last year:

He is great at the math questions! He kindly leaves the "easy" questions like "What type of animal is Winnie-the-Pooh" for Noah, so he can play, too.

Latest Tidbits from the Mouths of Babes

2011-07-02T18:32:00.000+01:00

Noah, putting on his socks: "Is it the right feet?"
Me: "Socks don't have feet."
Noah, matter of factly: "And no nose, and no mouth, and no eyes, and no hands, and nothing."

* * * * * *

Benjamin: "When I am bigger and I'm a mommy..."
Me, interrupting: "You will never be a mommy. You can be a daddy."
Benjamin: "But! We already have a daddy! We don't need another daddy!"
Me: "But we need another mommy?!? You can be a daddy and have your OWN kids."
Benjamin: "Oh no, that's silly!"

* * * * * *

On our way home from the mountains...
Noah: "I want to go potty outside."
Frédéric, trying to reason with him: "Noah, is candy for animals or for little kids?"
Noah: "Little kids!"
Frédéric: "And who are potties for?"
(yeah, I'm not sure of his logic here either, but go with it)
Noah: "Benjamin!"

A new chore to add to his list

2011-06-29T19:36:00.004+01:00

Benjamin can now take over the writing of the grocery list!

That says "FROMAJE GAUN" (separated by a vertical line so we know they are separate words). He sounded out "fromage jaune" (yellow cheese) by himself and wrote it. Pretty close!

And VERY proud of himself!

(On a side note, I'm not really sure what type of cheese "yellow cheese" refers to... possibly cheddar... but I'm sure Frédéric, the grocery shopper, will figure it out.)

Noah's first day of school!

2011-06-27T12:13:00.003+01:00

Today was preschool orientation for the new 3-year-olds who will be attending in September. Noah couldn't wait, he's been talking about nothing else for months already.

8 of the 11 newcomers were present, along with a parent or two apiece. Some were clingy and upset, not wanting to let go of their parents, and others felt immediately at home and felt free to do anything their little hearts desired. Noah, of course, tended to be in the second group, and didn't really care whether I stayed or not; he ignored me except to bring me pictures he drew for me. He obeyed the teacher pretty well but wasn't happy at being told to use crayons instead of markers (even though he doesn't use markers at home either, we aren't *that* crazy!). When it was time to stand up and introduce themselves, Noah stood up and told the teacher that he (Noah) was taller than him (the teacher, who was seated). The boy is convinced he is big enough to do anything he wants.

So they started with some free play time inside the school while the bigger kids had recess outside. Then the big kids came inside for introductions, until Noah stood up and said, "I have to go to the bathroom, ok, teacher?" Which effectively ended circle time as the teacher decided to take advantage of it and send everyone.

Then everyone had recess outside for a while (and it was HOT today! Already 86° and after weeks of the 60°s, we are melting!!). When we went back in, the teacher sent the 1st graders to do their work, read a story to all the others, and then (about 10:30) he told us we could take the little ones back home.

Noah was disappointed at being told to leave, he wanted to stay. So I think he will do just fine in September! (And yes, I will too - though it may be strange to have the house to myself every morning, believe me, there will be no tears shed here!!)

School's Almost Over

2011-06-25T19:08:00.003+01:00

And it brought with it the end of year school presentations. The lower grades (3-year-old preschool through 1st grade) learned songs from different countries that they presented to us. Their repertoire included "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," a German song about the big clock, the little clock, and the very little clock, a Spanish song about the cat and the mouse, a Congolese song, and they rounded off their set with a French song called "Bumbaïa" by Les Ogres de Barback (whoever they are).

They made decorations to go along with each song:

They did this interpretative dance (that's what I'm calling it, anyway) to the Spanish cat & mouse song. One of the moms, who has a son in kindergarten, and who babysits a couple of the other kids, told me that the three of them had been "practicing" this at her house but she had no idea it was related to their presentation, she thought they were just being silly.

Near the middle of the video, watch for the kid who takes a dive up towards the front - you get some great parental gasps and a good "ooh là là" hand-shaking gesture from the teacher's aide at back right.

Benjamin was a HUGE ham, bowing after each number and saying "Merci, merci à tous !"

And he had everyone rolling in the Congolese song by singing his 2 lines in a silly voice (watch for him near the end):

Benjamin was disappointed when their part was over and the upper grades (2nd - 5th) presented the play they had written, a reinterpretation of some fairy tales. He told me he wasn't done yet because he hadn't gotten to do the play!

The reception after the presentations had what I imagine is one major difference between French and American school functions; there was a sangria-like drink for the adults. Adds a certain challenge to the evening when you get to watch the kids like hawks to make sure they don't get confused between the kids' version (yes, there was a kids' version also) or fruit juice and the adult beverage.

Noah followed the teacher around like a little puppy dog. He gets to go to preschool orientation Monday, and can't wait! I, on the other hand, found out that I have to go with him, which sort of spoiled my plans for 2 1/2 hours of freedom Monday morning.

Nefarious Noah

2011-06-21T22:05:00.001+01:00

This post is dedicated to those of you who see Noah's angelic little face in photos and don't know the devilish thoughts lurking behind that cherubic visage like we do.

So you remember how we took Noah's crib out long before I was truly ready, because he was kicking it for hours every night and driving me insane?

And how then we had to take his radiator off the wall because he was taking it off himself??

And how we had to take his wardrobe out because he kept taking the knobs off, and then opening and slamming the door repeatedly, to the point that the corner of the wardrobe door left marks on the paneling upstairs? (I don't think I posted on the blog about the door slamming, but rest assured, it happened. The wardrobe was taking up space in my "closet room" until I rearranged some furniture this week to make room for it out on the landing instead.)

His latest exploits involve lights.

You may remember that we found this adorable light for him one time at a secondhand shop.

But he's been wanting to sleep with the light on all night for months. His Ikea Spöka light doesn't work anymore because someone (not sure which of the monsters, none has confessed) somehow destroyed the AC adapter, so it can't recharge anymore.

I don't care for his light being on all night long, it's too bright and in my mind, not conducive to good sleep. I figure if it's darker, he'll sleep longer. That opinion seems to be based in no scientific fact whatsoever when it comes to Noah, yet I can't let go of it.

So we went to Ikea to get another Spöka light for him. He decided he didn't want one, he wanted a star light like this instead. It was cheaper, so who were we to argue?

This light is screwed into the wall, and the cord hangs down and plugs into an outlet.

The first day, Frédéric found Noah with the cord unplugged, and the end of it in his mouth.

The second day, I found him with it wrapped around his neck!

Clearly THAT couldn't be allowed to continue, so Frédéric found some little plastic thingamajigs that have a nail on one side, and we attached the cord to the wall with those, and secured the extra length at the end near the outlet with a rubber band.

The first day, Noah took off the rubber band. I put it back on and warned him not to touch it again.

The second day, he had managed to pull the cord OUT of the plastic dealies without breaking them or pulling them away from the wall.

So we took down the star light, and let him have the airplane light on again.

A few days ago, we decided to attempt the star light again, this time alternating the direction of the plastic things (as the nail is only on one side), and nailing more of them into the baseboard to keep the extra length secured at the bottom.

The first day, he managed to pull it all right out of the plastic doohickeys, alternating directions be darned. Don't ask me how.

Frédéric thought he could modify the lamp to plug directly into his light switch. Since we had a similar moon light that had already been altered, I suggested he try on that one instead of the new star one.

So he did. He insulated the adapter that is inside the light, on the off chance (off chance?! Ha!) that Noah might manage to get his fingers in there, and put a ton of glue on and around the remaining bit of cord, in the hopes that Noah won't managed to pull IT off the wall too.

So far so good, but it's only been a few days.

Please note that Benjamin got a matching star light, and has had no trouble not touching it other than to turn it on or off.

Is it really any wonder I'm about to lose my mind with this child?
72 days til school starts for him!

Father's Day & Rainbows

2011-06-18T20:52:00.004+01:00

Frédéric got his early Father's Day present/card from Benjamin today:
It says "bonne fête papa" (Happy Father's Day). (Is anyone else as impressed as I am by his cursive? It still blows my mind that they start cursive so young here. Could be why so many of them end up with beautiful handwriting.) Frédéric was very pleased with it, and Benjamin was very proud of himself for drawing the hearts himself. And he got to pick the color of paper he wanted to make it. I love that he still loves pink and hasn't been told that it's a "girl color."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Benjamin said the prayer at dinnertime tonight.

"Thank you God for Noah and Daddy and Mommy and Noah and Daddy and Mommy and Benjamin and ketchup. In Jesus' name, Amen."

All the important blessings. And doubly thankful for some of them.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

And we were treated to several bright rainbows during and after today's rainstorms.

Pointers on how to take good rainbow pictures gratefully accepted.

Walks with Noah

2011-06-17T21:33:00.003+01:00

One thing I love about living in our middle-of-nowhere village is being able to walk right up through the fields. There is a road -- well, they call it a "path," but in theory at least, cars can go on it, though they rarely do -- that goes through them to the next village. Noah and I took a walk in the wheat and beet fields, and I brought the camera along.

He starts out ok...

but gets distracted early and often.

Benjamin's school is across these fields. But he wasn't there the day of our walk, he was on a field trip to a park outside of Reims. He didn't come home for lunch since it was a day-long field trip, and he was confused and disappointed in the extreme to only go to school "one time" that day. He didn't quite understand why he didn't get to go back after dinner.

Noah didn't want to pose for me, but I managed a few decent pictures all the same. I think you can see his personality shining through... more on that nefariousness to come soon.

Spring Odds and Ends

2011-06-15T19:23:00.004+01:00

Our spring visiting continued on Monday with another one of Frédéric's cousins and his girlfriend who came over for a lunch of relatively normal proportions, lasting about seven and a half hours. No, we didn't eat for seven and a half hours straight. We also took a walk around the village, and played the game that they brought as a present for Benjamin, and Noah played with the playdoh they gave him.

Frédéric's been trying the Swimming Pool Strategy after Benjamin gets home from school to wear the boys out for bedtime. Success is mitigated so far, but they are enjoying the experiment.

Today I went out to check on them and Noah informed me I needed to take a picture of him, because he had a towel with a "capuche" (hood) - "I'm like a baby! I'm "mignon!" (cute). Of course I obliged him.

Benjamin is like a little fish in the water since he is finishing up his second session of swimming lessons at school.

That is Noah hollering in the background that he is "dry enough" and can go inside now.

In other news, our ceiling fans for the upstairs bedrooms, ordered 6 weeks ago online, *finally* arrived, and Frédéric has installed one of them. Of course... it is mid-June, summer is practically over with temperatures in the 60°s.

I guess Frédéric thinks I haven't posted enough about the garden this year, because he took this picture for me of our first small harvest.

We do indeed have a garden this year, with tomatoes, zucchini, snow peas, green beans, carrots and radishes. And our raspberry bushes and grape vine, and a few wild strawberries that grow along the fence.

Flea Markets and American Festival

2011-06-13T19:48:00.004+01:00

Emiley came to see us this weekend for a Last Visit before she heads back to the US. I dragged her to Benjamin's school Friday afternoon to pick him up and set up a Real French Lunch for her on Saturday.

Sunday morning we headed out early for a flea market at Vauciennes on the way to church. We found Clue and Uno which we plan to leave in the condo for our visitors.

After church and lunch at the airport (because that is what airline employees do on their vacation), Emiley came with us to the 11th annual American Festival in Fismes.

It was our second time at the American Festival, but possibly our last. While Frédéric did manage to get Emiley and me a discounted entrance fee this year with our American passports, I was very underimpressed with the discount. Discount? Why shouldn't an American get in free, especially since you get a free entry with an American car? An American car is worth more than a Real Live American? Hmph!

The people manning the WWII army outpost were very informative, and spoke excellent English. One described to us different objects on display in the medic's tent.

Another one let Benjamin and Noah look through her binoculars, and let Noah try on the Scottish Highlanders uniform hat.

There were plenty of American cars:

And American license plates for sale:

But no Indian village this year, only a lone teepee.

We rounded out our American cultural field trip with a bit of French culture by stopping on the side of the traffic circle in Fismes so Benjamin could take a picture with the magic potion and the menhir from the Astérix comic books. Fismes is the birthplace of Astérix illustrator Albert Uderzo. Astérix is Frédéric's favorite comic book series, and at the moment is Benjamin's as well (though Noah has a preference for Tintin).

And speaking of comic books, did I mention Benjamin is reading? He can sound out words pretty well in French or in English, and recognizes smaller ones like "and" or "the" without having to sound them out. When he and Frédéric read their Astérix comics, Benjamin reads all the noises.

June French Lunch and Flea Market

2011-06-11T21:33:00.003+01:00

Frédéric's cousins came for lunch today. The weather couldn't decide to be cloudy or sunny, but in the end we managed to have our lunch outside, and the kids got to play ice cubes in the swimming pool for a little bit.

After dessert, we all went over to the village of Longpont where they were having a "nocturnal flea market."

We didn't find anything to buy, but the boys and their cousin Nina got to go on the inflatable slide (Noah decided once was enough for him).

And all three kids danced to the loud dance music blasting out of the bumper cars stand.

The Definition of Insanity

2011-06-05T16:10:00.009+01:00

Is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Right?

So... you know how every time we go to the mountains with the boys, we say, "Never again!!"?

Well. We're stupider than you think.

During the 9-hour trip to get to the condo, we had about 45 minutes of peace. Neither boy sleeps much in the car, nor all that well when not in his own bed. Noah especially has a hard time settling down when he knows we are right in the next room - next room? Yeahhh, it is practically the same room; the bunkbeds are in a little alcove.

We stopped for dinner at McDonald's before heading up the mountain. Even McDonald's fits in with the local décor.

We were surprised to see the playground closed due to... snow!

I was hoping to get some new "summer" photos for our condo website, but the snow pretty much put an end to that bright idea. But the boys were thrilled with the unexpected bonus.

Hard to say whether they enjoyed the snowball fights or building a snowman more.

Benjamin demonstrated how we could snowplow, if we only had some skis. He's excited about taking his "snowflake" level ski classes next year.

Walking around the resort, you could almost mistake this one for the beach.

After the snow melted, I did manage a few photos of the new playground for the condo website. The boys and I went there for a couple of hours Thursday so Frédéric could get some work done in the condo.

We also brought the tripod along so we could attempt some decent family photos where you can't tell that we're all on each other's nerves. Now in later years we will be able reminisce about these lovely, fun, family trips that we all enjoyed and during which we were all perfectly behaved. Ah, the good ol' days.

And we did get some things done to the condo, which was the purpose of the trip. We added a curtain for the bunkbed alcove

and made a few other changes and repairs, so it wasn't a total loss. But... dare I say it.... Nah. We all know that we'll come back anyway. Insanity, remember. But wouldn't it be nice if next time, we could find a babysitter for the kids and Frédéric and I could come by ourselves?! In the meantime, we will just keep that "eternal optimist" thing going where we hope next time will be better.

Mother's Day and Memorial Day

2011-05-30T14:28:00.007+01:00

Yesterday was Mother's Day in France. I was treated to "Bonne fête, Maman, je t'aime!"s throughout the day from both boys (thanks to careful coaching from Frédéric), a bracelet Benjamin made for me at school:

and at church, a rose, a card full of hearts and a song.

We tried to race out of church afterward to get to the American cemetery for the Memorial Day ceremony. We managed more of a slow crawl thanks to all the other people on the road (going where? why? It is not a holiday weekend here!) but once we finally made it out of Paris and onto the highway, we were at last able to drive the speed limit. (Have I mentioned lately how much we loathe Paris??)

We arrived several minutes after the ceremony had already begun. We roasted out there with no shade, though not as much as all the uniformed soldiers! And the Red Cross came around handing out bottles of water.

These guys are members of associations in which they dress up like soldiers from different time periods. They do reenactments and participate in this type of ceremony.

These soldiers fired off the salute.

The flag brigade.

Benjamin, practicing to be a soldier.

Wreaths to honor the dead.

There was a good crowd for a cemetery that is pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

They had put an American and a French flag on every grave for Memorial Day.

The American and the French flag fly together.

There are amber waves of grain in France, too.

This little chapel has nothing to do with Memorial Day, but it looks like some place we should go back and take pictures sometime.

My Favorite Time of Day, or, Silence is Golden

2011-05-28T14:23:00.000+01:00

School as Behavior Modification Motivation

2011-05-23T11:14:00.002+01:00

This strategy is working pretty well for Noah at the moment. There is nothing he wants more than to be "big" and go to school. The 3-year-old preschool class is called "petite section" and he is not happy about that, because "I will not be little, I will be big!" I'm working on convincing him that even the kids in "petite section" are big kids, because they go to school.

Actually, it still works for Benjamin to some extent, too. All it takes is a threat to call his teacher and tell him he can't go back to school, and he tends to settle down.

This probably won't still work through the teenage years, will it?

Lately when we've asked Noah to wait for one of us to go outside with him, he goes inside, gets his little chair, and installs himself on the front patio to wait for us.

He fell in love with our friends' new kitten this past weekend. Seeing him sitting there, immobile for long minutes at a time holding the kitten was *almost* enough to make us overcome our dislike of felines. Not to mention his puppy-dog eyes asking Frédéric if we could take the kitten home with us, and wanting to stay with our friends so he wouldn't have to leave the kitten! Thank goodness for Frédéric's allergies to keep us reasonable!

Sweet Summertime

2011-05-20T11:07:00.000+01:00

Last Wednesday, when the temperature hit a high of about 75°F, Frédéric decided it was time to let the boys be ice cubes. He pulled out the pool, but only filled it up enough for them to splash around in.

I was skeptical - our well water is freezing! (Frédéric says, "But it was 62°!") - but his plan worked. Both wore themselves out and went straight to sleep at bedtime!

Becky & Jeff come to visit

2011-05-15T14:54:00.007+01:00

Becky came to visit us back in August 2009, and this time came back with Jeff, at the end of their honeymoon.

Saturday afternoon we went out to visit the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, where more than 6000 World War I soldiers are buried, at Seringes-et-Nesle.

On the way, we unwittingly drove on the race course of the Tour de Picardie bicycle race. The only cyclists we saw were having a pre-race picnic, but we saw a lot people (comparatively, given that it's the middle of nowhere) on the side of the road, waiting to see the cyclists go by.

Entrance to the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery.

Over 6000 World War I soldiers are buried here.

Parental mythology moment. (Even better than a Kodak Moment.)

The memorial.

The map room.

Becky & Jeff.

Benjamin being a soldier.

We tried to visit the Château de Nesles near the cemetery, but it is closed to the public until further notice for safety reasons. So we just took a few pictures of the outside.

Thinking we'd have better luck at the Château de Fère en Tardenois, which we have visited before, we headed that way... only to find the door downstairs marked "Danger" and locked up tight. There were other people up on the castle, but it adjoins a hotel and its gardens, so we suspect rather than being closed for "danger" it may have been closed for a private reception. (Our invitations must have been lost in the mail.)

So we took pictures from afar again.

My 3 cute boys!

Another year older

2011-05-12T14:49:00.000+01:00

Frédéric had a birthday in May. He got a lovely present from a coworker:
(and a very expensive one, at 1.60€ ($2.27) for the can!)

and I made him his favorite strawberry cream cake that we shared with his cousins who came over for lunch the Saturday before his birthday.

Boys are still cute

2011-05-05T14:47:00.000+01:00

I know, it's been a long time since I updated the blog (and yes, mom, I'm fudging the dates), so I'm sure some of you were wondering if the boys were even still cute enough to post. I hereby confirm that they are.

Even if they do both need haircuts.

Child Labor Law Infractions Continue

2011-05-01T14:42:00.000+01:00

They don't get paid, so does it count? At any rate, they still enjoy "working" for now, so we've got them vacuuming the car, sweeping, and washing dishes.

Benjamin prefers to supervise.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T14:37:00.001+01:00

Unfortunately, Frédéric had to work yesterday, so we didn't get to go to church. We did read the Easter story from the boys' children's Bible about five times yesterday, though, because Benjamin was convinced this was just "the egg holiday," and because the first few times I asked him what happened in the story, he came out with a very, very confused version about God giving money to the people (Judas's pieces of silver), or Jesus being mean (hm, pretty sure that was the other people). He's a little closer now in his interpretation... "Jesus came alive again... three times." Ok, we still have a little work to do.

After Frédéric came home, he hid the boys' Easter eggs outside for them. Benjamin had a hard time holding back to let Noah look for the eggs, but he was very quick to give Noah the eggs he found so they'd both have some. (Yes, he is giving in the picture below, not taking.)

Noah was much more interested in his eggs than in bothering to look at me for a nice picture.

Back inside, we counted to make sure the egg distribution was even. Benjamin sat in consternation, unable to remember what came after "ten."

I leave you with this Parental Mythology Picture! Love it!

Heat Wave!

2011-04-23T21:12:00.004+01:00

Ok, so it's only been in the 70°s this week, but it already feels so hot! If it weren't for the fact that our well water is absolutely frigid, we might have broken out the pool already. We are thinking hard about what to do for fans upstairs, since it is already getting much too hot to sleep up there otherwise.

Frédéric's dad came over this week and spent three days working hard in our yard. He and Frédéric managed to get most of the hedge trimmed down (can't WAIT til we can take it out across the front of the yard), and he mowed the lawn for us, too. Frédéric's friend came over one day, too, and between the three of them, they finally got the swingset cemented in - no more worries that the boys will flip it over in their energetic swinging!

The boys earned their keep this week by washing one of the cars.

Frédéric was very proud of his homemade flan.

I'm sure that Alex and Caitlyn will both be pleased to see that the boys now have their own S.O.S. Ouistiti game now so they can practice up for Thanksgiving.

And Benjamin still brings me pretty flowers.

More Noah-isms

2011-04-20T10:06:00.000+01:00

Scarcely a day goes by lately without Noah making us laugh over something. Here are a few of his latest gems...

* * * *

Me: Come here, let me check if you are still Noah. (hug) Oh! You are still Noah!
Noah, with a sly grin: Yes! I'm not Benjamin yet!

* * * *

[rustling noise]
Me: Noah?? What are you doing?
Noah: Getting another cookie!
Me: Nooooo.
Noah: Yes!
Me: No.
Noah: Mais j'ai faim!!
Me: What? (encouraging him to say it again, in English)
Noah: I'm more ... faim!
Me: What is "faim?"
Noah: It means, I eat more!

* * * *

Noah: Mommy, I want some raisins.
Me: Ok, two raisins. Oh, three.
Noah: Why three?
Me: Because I'm generous.
Noah: You're generous?
Me: Yes.
Noah: You're a dinosaur?

* * * *

Noah: I want to see lunch. [Lunch was chili]
Frederic: Ok, look. [picking him up to show him what's in the pot.]
Noah: It's green beans!
Frederic: No, they aren't green.
Noah: It's black green beans!

A Walk in the Village

2011-04-18T22:20:00.006+01:00

Those of you on facebook may have already seen these pictures, but for the benefits of the holdouts (Mom), here is the walk we took in our village today. When Frédéric's sister and her kids came over last week, we discovered a few new paths we didn't know about. We finally went up the one street we had never been up in the almost five years we've lived here. The boys and I went on the same walk today, to take some pictures of our lovely village on this beautiful day (look at that gorgeous blue sky!)... and my ulterior motive was of course to keep the boys from fighting in the house, and to tire them out for bedtime!

These houses are across from the farm.

One of the more decrepit houses in the village, but so cute. And very centrally located!

The village cemetery

One of several village chickens.

Now, this house and its outbuildings are asking for nothing more than a new owner to come fix them up! They are up the street that we had never been up before. I'd love to go peek inside them, and I just love their yard... I can easily imagine a house, a guest house, and an office! Now if only they weren't up that horrid hill.

This is the third cross I know of in our village. Another is in the center of town, across from the World War I monument, and another is technically outside of the village, on a hill near the intersection coming in to our village.

Another abandoned, overgrown-looking home. This one is down the hill from the horrid road. I imagine both roads are rather of the less-traveled variety, though, which might help... still not sure about the hills in icy winter, though.

This is the path we took to go back home... bordered on both sides by stinging nettles. Noah hasn't gotten stung yet, but I'm sure it won't be long, and perhaps then he will start listening to my stinging-nettle-vine warnings more carefully.

This sign wouldn't be frightening at all, if we didn't know that the road it refers to is a two-way road, only wide enough for one car. That puts it in a whole new light.

Blue skies! Green trees! What more could we ask for, I ask you?!

Home, sweet home.

And the boys were nice enough to pose with my sumac so I could show off how tall it's gotten since last year. It grows quickly, but I don't know how long it will take to get as big as the one we lost in the storm a couple of years ago... I'm guessing 20-25 years.

Oh look! Another one for the parental mythology annals!

How We Know I Am Not Really French, and Gardening Fun

2011-04-14T21:14:00.000+01:00

We went to a flea market last weekend, and Benjamin had us dying laughing when he saw a toy ironing board and iron and said, "Mommy, what's that?!?" His delivery was absolutely perfect.

French women iron obsessively, and even buy irons with separate, larger water reservoirs so they can steam for hours upon hours. Clearly I am not French, since we don't even own an ironing board, and my children don't know what an ironing board and iron are for. Actually, irons are used more often in our house for waxing skis than for anything else.

* * * * *

A couple of weeks ago, the weather started turning nicer on a more regular basis - we are LOVING it and going outside as much as we can. The boys are great garden helpers.

Benjamin showed Noah how to plant things in a pot. Benjamin assures me that the sticks he planted WILL grow.

Digging up the garden is hard work!

Time for a little break.

Parental Mythology

2011-04-10T18:45:00.003+01:00

is made of photos such as these. Since I take pictures of them every single time they are nice to each other (a fairly rare occurrence), I will be able, in later years, to tell their children that they were always nice to each other, and back it up with photographic proof.

Check out that monster train track (three loops and another line for the train station). I will be able to tell them how they worked together to make that, and conveniently forget that I helped or that they kept arguing over who was breaking it or who was in the way. They will not need to know how many pictures I had to take to get one of them both looking in my general direction and more or less smiling.

Ah, yes. I will look back on these as pure, unvarnished truth in later years, and tell all the other young mothers to "not wish the time away" because "these days are precious" and all those other pieces of trite, unsolicited advice that make you want to tear your hair out when you're in the thick of it. That shall be my reward for all of us making it through these years alive.

April Fish and Not Me

2011-04-04T21:49:00.002+01:00

Like any good little French child, Benjamin did not learn about April Fool's Day in school. He learned about April Fish, which he made in class and tried to sneakily tape on our backs when we weren't looking. These are called "poissons d'avril," which is also the name of an April Fool's Day joke in French.

And Noah has already learned the meaning of French saying, "les absents ont toujours tort." (Those who are absent are always in the wrong.)

I was sweeping the other morning while he was finishing his breakfast. Benjamin was in the living room, watching TV.

Noah: Why are you sweeping?
Me: Because it is dirty. We don't want our house to be dirty.
Noah, indignantly: Who put dirt in my house?! I did not put dirt in my house!
Me: We all did.
Noah: *I* did not!
Me: Well, your shoes did.
Noah: I think it was Bee-jamin did put dirt on the floor.

Fair-weather Frenchman

2011-04-02T20:42:00.002Z

Noah is at that funny age now, it seems.... we talk sometimes about being French and American, and speaking French and English.

This was our conversation on the way home from taking Benjamin to school the other day:

Me: Noah, are you French or American?
Noah: I'm American. (pronounced 'uh-mur-kin')
Me: No, you're French AND American.
Noah: I'm not French!
Me: You're not French? Why not?
Noah: Because Daddy is at work.
Me: What? So when Daddy is home, you are French?
Noah: Yes.

Let them drink wine.

2011-03-30T06:55:00.003Z

Is there an AA for 3 year olds?

This morning, I was flipping through a grocery home-delivery catalog while the boys were eating breakfast. I got to the Easter candy page, and Benjamin leaned over to say, "For chocolate, I want something big, like this. A fish."

I replied with one of my standard "neither yes nor no" responses, "I bet you do," and turned the page.

Noah, feeling it was his turn to chime in, said, "I want this!"

I was on the page with bottles and bottles and bottles of wine. "You want wine?" I asked him.

"Yes, I want wine," he stated confidently. "I like wine."

Oh dear....

Tulips!

2011-03-28T12:26:00.006Z

I just think our house looks so much prettier with flowers in front of it!
(Ok, it might look prettier with the lawn mowed, too, but one thing at a time. And now that we know where the tulips are, we need to remember to dig them up when they are done, so we can move them elsewhere for next year.) These are our authentic Dutch tulips, that we brought back with us from Amsterdam 5 years ago.

This year's Snail and Slug War is officially on. The opening salvos were fired (chomped?) last night by the Snails and Slugs, who decided to feast on one of my new primroses!You will pay, little pests! I scattered the Blue Pellets of Death all over the retaining wall planters today. (cue evil laughter)Next up: Harvesting the Slug and Snail Cadavers. Mmmm.

It's gardening time!

2011-03-26T15:18:00.007Z

With the gorgeous weather we've had all week, I've been working on weeding the retaining wall planters. And chopping back the forsythia.

And giving the big, overgrown plants haircuts. They go from something like this:

to something like this:

but I suspect I may need to dig them out and start over, I think they are so rootbound that they just look tired and yuck.

Today, we decided it was time to head to the nursery to get some plants for the retaining wall. I had to do it all by myself this year like a big girl since my mom isn't here to help out. We planted some phlox:

Some for the moment sad-looking daisies:

Some of these, which are supposed to cascade, and which are supposed to be frost and snow-resistant:

and a bunch of these flowers I don't know the name of, in various colors:

Frédéric also started preparing the vegetable garden plots.

And cleaning up the remains of last year's forgotten harvest.

And planting his tomatoes and pickles.

And we have plenty of these guys around already to help with our garden.

Singing in the Rain

2011-03-23T15:36:00.000Z

Actually, they don't sing much.

And I think it wasn't even raining at the time.

But boy, do they love their umbrellas!

Who's superstitious? Not us!

Noah is 3!

2011-03-19T19:07:00.004Z

He is very proud of being a big 3-year-old.

We celebrated his birthday Sunday with some of our friends. Sunday wasn't his birthday, but it was supposed to be, if he hadn't decided to arrive a few days earlier than his scheduled c-section date.

He dithered between green, pink, red, and blue, but finally decided on blue for his dump truck cake (thank you, Frédéric, chef extraordinaire!). (Yes, it's more turquoise than blue, but Wilton claimed it was blue, we went with it.)

He gave a fantastic, heartfelt rendition of Happy Birthday to himself while we sang to him...

We kept the gifts low-key (SO tired of all the toy clutter), but he was thrilled with them all.

Especially his umbrella, which he'd been coveting ever since Benjamin got his for his birthday three months earlier.

Château de Septmonts

2011-03-14T18:12:00.000Z

Septmonts is a village about 20 km from ours - as the crow flies, or as the Google map indicates. Turns out, the Google map and the GPS are unaware of a closed road somewhere in there which makes the distance about 10 km and 15 minutes longer.

The village is the home of the Château de Septmonts, one time country home of the Bishops of Soissons. It was built between the 13th and 16th centuries.

One of my online friends, from California, and her family were visiting Europe for Spring Break and were kind enough to take a day to come out and visit us, so we decided to take advantage of their trip to see this castle we hadn't been to yet.

We climbed 170 steps to the top of that tallest tower. Even Noah came all the way up and all the way down by himself, with me holding his hand to try and allay the visions of him bouncing all the way down the stone spiral staircase.

It was very high!

After the castle we made a short stop in Longpont to see the Abbey and make a quick tour of the village before our friends had to catch their train back to Paris.

We hope to visit Septmonts again - when the sun cooperates more!

Boys and Baby Dolls

2011-03-12T09:36:00.001Z

Frédéric, not being an overly macho-type dad, never made much of a fuss when I bought Benjamin a baby doll for his first birthday.

Benjamin used to love to play with his baby doll.

And before Noah came home from the hospital, Benjamin named the baby doll "Noah" and practiced being nice and gentle with it.

Noah, however, is apparently not quite so tender-hearted as his brother, judging by the scene I found this morning.

When I asked him what happened, he told me "Baby got hurt. Needs a band-aid."

Then after he put his tractors and trucks away in the living room as I asked him today, he informed me that he couldn't put the baby away, because "baby doesn't roll."

Bringing down the house

2011-03-10T09:18:00.000Z

Well, the walls. Since a guy contacted us wanting to buy the double doors from our dining room that we had listed for sale on a website, and he wanted the doorframe also, that was the impetus we needed to start taking down the dining room wall. (And "we" of course means "Frédéric".)

We haven't decided yet what to do with the remaining section of wall, at left in the photo. We're leaning towards removing the top half of it (leaving the bottom half for the sofa to be up against so it isn't just in the middle of the entryway), so the question is more to whether to leave it open, or to put some kind of spindles / shelving / something in the top half.

Thinking now about removing the living room wall this summer...

Winter Vacation

2011-03-05T19:57:00.004Z

Frédéric, his mom and the boys headed up for the mountains last Friday. They stopped overnight in Lyon, where they got to have dinner with our friends, the Hendrixes.

Then it was on to La Clusaz, where both boys got to spend a week taking ski lessons.

Fortunately for Noah and for us, they weren't sticklers for the age limit, which was supposed to be 3, and they let him in - but he's only a week shy of it, anyway. He had an hour's worth of classes every day, and loved every minute!

Benjamin did his "ourson" (bear cub) level class. He had two and a half hours of lessons a day, made great progress, and loved it right up until he had to walk back to the apartment.

Frédéric found a sledding hill for us to play at in the afternoons, so we went there Thursday afternoon.

The boys worked on the snow fort they had started Tuesday and went sledding.

They also showed us their newly acquired skiing skills. Noah demonstrates how to put his hands on his knees while skiing, and Benjamin is very proud of his snowplow and turns.

Noah doesn't even seem to mind falling down.

On Friday, Noah was awarded his "piou-piou" (cheep cheep, as in the sound a little bird makes) medal for the week, and Benjamin got his "ourson" medal.

Two proud (if tired) ski champions!

The Interpol Fugitive and Me

2011-02-27T08:38:00.007Z

Sorry for the long blog hiatus. It's not that nothing has been going on, it's just that harboring a fugitive from Interpol is not the most appropriate story for a family blog.

I'm in Germany right now with my friend, the aforementioned fugitive, while she tries to deal with this whole mess, which may someday be made into a made-for-TV Hallmark movie. (Screenwriters applications being accepted now.)

I'll be joining Frédéric, his mom, Benjamin and Noah in the mountains on Wednesday, so you have some skiing pictures to look forward to soon!

Oh, we did go to Paris to renew Benjamin's passport a couple of weeks ago. A very expensive outing, between metro tickets, lunch, and the passport fees, and amazingly difficult to find a sandwich shop - apparently no one in that part of Paris eats; they spend their money on Cartier jewelry instead.

Springtime in February

2011-02-11T18:19:00.004Z

In a lovely contrast to the blizzards that have been sweeping through most of the United States, we've been enjoying balmy 50-60° weather here in France, perfect for bike riding. (And for the safety experts out there, yes, they'll be getting helmets soon. Relax.)

Tonight at dinner, Benjamin had every excuse in the book not to eat his dinner. Exasperated, I said to him, "Benjamin, you asked for pizza, eat your pizza!"

He smiled back at me, and said, "No. I don't want it. I'll give it to my dog."

(As most of you know... we don't have a dog.)

Noah has no self-esteem problems

2011-02-10T20:34:00.002Z

This is his prayer at dinner time:

Dear God,

Thank you for me
and Benjamin
and Noah
and me
and Mommy
and Daddy
and me
and Benjamin
and me.

In Jesus' name,
Amen!

The French Report Card

2011-02-05T13:18:00.003Z

When I told my friend Emiley about Benjamin's report card, she was imagining that a good Frenchman would be graded more on skills like these:

Liking stinky cheese.

Turning nose up at Americans.

Beret wearing.

Even though the Eiffel Tower is ugly, saying it is wonderful and the world is lucky we left it up.

Drinking coffee and eating pastries, while remaining stick thin.

Complaining about parking in the crowded city, yet owning a car when you rarely drive anywhere.

Making Americans beg you to speak English before you start speaking good English to them. Until then, pretending they don't exist.

Displaced American

Nap War

Bits and Pieces

Bonne année !

The Yule Log

Pierrefonds

Early Christmas

Chantilly

Happy 6th Birthday to Benjamin!

School Christmas Party

Christmas #1: in the Village

The Circus

How will his teacher like this one?

Too Old for Jet Lag

All good things come to an end

Old Friend Bookends

Happy Birthday, Xenia!

Back to St Louis

More Madill

Madill, Oklahoma

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Bentonville, Arkansas

Columbia, Missouri

Let the Thanksgiving Tour begin!

Grocery Shopping with Noah

And some more Toussaint visiting!

More Toussaint visiting

Toussaint Vaction = Catching up on Visiting

A little bit more Halloween

Gymnastics: Year Two

Early Halloween

Swimming Lessons

Who says the French have no sense of humor?

Happy Anniversary to us!

Indian Summer

Happy Birthday to Me

end of September

Now the school year has really begun

Proud to be an American

Weekend Busy-ness

NOW the school year can begin

Drama-Filled Rentrée 2011

D-4!

Keeping the Road Workers in Business

Cooking with Noah

Picnic at La Ferté-Milon

my first ever emergency services call

Pause, Continued

Mid-August Pause

Mes petits Gaulois

Slave Labor, or, the Truth About Why We Invited My Parents

Changeable weather and another castle

Le Château de Coucy

Noah and the Giant Pickle

Septmonts bis

the grandparents are here!

Hide and Seek

Noah's Theological Musings

Note to self: Quit while you're ahead

More reading & writing and the Great Tomato Massacre

School's out for the summer... or is it?

Latest Tidbits from the Mouths of Babes

A new chore to add to his list

Noah's first day of school!

School's Almost Over

Nefarious Noah

Father's Day & Rainbows

Walks with Noah

Spring Odds and Ends

Flea Markets and American Festival

June French Lunch and Flea Market

The Definition of Insanity

Mother's Day and Memorial Day

My Favorite Time of Day, or, Silence is Golden

School as Behavior Modification Motivation

Sweet Summertime

Becky & Jeff come to visit

Another year older

Boys are still cute

Child Labor Law Infractions Continue