Summer is over

Yes, it's September 13th, and at 8:30 this morning, when the sun had been up for over an hour, there was still frost on the hedge. And a lovely husband who shall remain nameless left two skylights open upstairs, so it was freezing inside as well as out this morning.

Noah turned six months old this week, and got to start eating baby cereal. Luckily for him, baby cereal in France is much tastier than baby cereal in the US. (At least it smells better, I can't say I've tasted it myself.)

He hasn't been begging for our food the way Benjamin did at his age, though, so he was much less impressed with the cereal than Benjamin was at the same age.

On day two, things went a little better. I think we'll try peaches next.

His physical therapy sessions will soon come to an end, and his head shape is much nicer now, thanks to the physical therapist. The doctor wants to see him again soon for a weight check, so we are going to try to get him in this coming week.

Benjamin got to play with his Color Wonders fingerpaints today, a gift from Uncle Ryan, Aunt Christine & Alex at Christmas last year.

He had a good time, until Daddy took them away because Benjamin was trying to eat the paint instead of put it on the paper. Fun gift, though, and especially fun for us with no mess to clean up!

In exciting house news (that's sarcasm), our water heater has not been working very well lately. We've noticed over the past few weeks that the water has been less hot than it used to be, and lately it's been getting closer to cold. So we found a plumber to come out today and take a look at it. He said to check first and be sure that the electric company is sending the cheap rates signal to our box (Frederic gets up at 4:45 am and cheap rates end around 6:30 am, so checking that will be his job), and if so, he thinks the heating element is probably covered in calcium deposits and that is preventing it from heating efficiently.

Unfortunately, the previous owners put in a cheap water heater in which you cannot just change the element. So if we have to change the water heater, we'll have to pay more for a better one - but at the same time, we could have it put in the garage and claim that corner back for our kitchen when we redo the kitchen in a few years. More space in the kitchen is a very exciting thought. And we could have hot water in the laundry room, too, which we don't have now. Of course, it does mean more walls to move around... and we're not done with Phase One of all that yet!

The tomato plants are trying to finish up the season, so today I used a lot of them to make tomato sauce to freeze, and tomorrow will use about 2 kilos worth to make some tomato soup to freeze. The rest will probably be frozen as-is, to be used until we have new tomatoes next year.