The Interpol Fugitive and Me

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

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

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

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.

of bookworms and schoolwork

Noah takes after me, a real book-lover. Only... he isn't interested in reading them, or having one of us read them to him, so this love more resembles that which he would lavish on a bevy of stuffed animals. He feels compelled to move the books around with him wherever he goes, like to the couch so they can watch TV with him.

For the "hazards of growing up bilingual files," we have this entry today:
Noah was helping Frédéric make pizza crust... and suggested they add "fleur" (flower) to the mixture.

Benjamin got his first report card today (report cards in Kindergarten, who knew?). He got a mixture of greens ("skills acquired") and oranges ("skills in the process of being acquired").

And he is still producing nice artwork.