Gardening with Missia'

Bunny Fun

Our First Halloween

You know what's great about America? During fall and winter, we have a holiday on average every 4 weeks. Halloween...Thanksgiving...Christmas... In France, Halloween is not common, and Thanksgiving is not celebrated. But, we decided that, since our girls are American, they should celebrate Halloween. So we did.

In order to be correctly celebrated, Halloween has to be a community thing. Here, if it is observed, it is mostly by families with young children, ie the people doing the receiving of the candy. While we were out this evening, I saw several cases of families or groups of kids knocking on door after door and getting no answer. Because the older generations, those who would otherwise be giving the candy, don't celebrate Halloween. Because it's an importand holidy and therefore a recent addition and they're just not used to celebrating it. We crossed paths with one mom pushing a stroller and accompanying a young witch. She asked, "You having any luck?" I smiled and said, "We're only going to houses where we know the people and where we've warned them ahead of time." We talked to Thomas's parents and grandma and a couple of friends yesterday and asked them if we could stop by with our little princess(es). They said sure. Somehow, we didn't get a picture of the princess in her costume, but you've seen the princess and the costume in a previous post.

Alina made out like a bandit. Her grandparents and great-grandma, either because they didn't quite understand the concept, or because they were purposefully avoiding candy, got her presents. The neighbors who gave us our cat included a few candies, but also another present. And the other neighbors decided that since Alina wouldn't be visiting very many houses, they would single-handedly make her trick-or-treating worthwhile.

Since we were perpetuating American traditions, I made chocolate chip cookies this afternoon. We left a little packet of cookies everywhere we stopped. That's a bit atypical as far as Halloween behavior is concerned, but I felt good about making the whole thing sort of an exchange. Anyway, a good time was had by all. The only downside is that our pumpking somehow ended its short life splattered on the street. We're not sure if it did that itself or if it had some help. Oh, well.

Goin' to the Zoo, zoo, zoo

Alina has discovered my favorite Peter, Paul and Mary album, "Peter, Paul, and Mommy." Her favorite songs are "Goin' to the Zoo" and "Puff, the Magic Dragon" (no, no, it's not about pot). This sparked the following conversation:

ALINA: Me would nike to go to the zoo with Grandma-Grandpa.

ME: Well, the next time they come, we can probably go to the zoo.

ALINA: You would drive. Grandpa would sit by you. Grandma would sit by me and Bébé Tata!

ME: There's just one problem. Where will Papa sit?

ALINA: Him would walk.

Have a nice walk, Thomas...

Tassia's sixth month

Tassia is a funny kid. She has discovered that she can blow raspberries. She will lay on her back, stick out her tongue, and blow so intensely that, not only is her chin and upper lip covered with spit, as you might expect, but she also has spit in her eyelashes and hair. She thinks it's just great when I blow raspberries back. She's started eating applesauce and other mushy fruits. It seems to me that she's much more excited about solid food than Alina was at this age. I made the mistake yesterday of peeling a banana for myself while holding her in my arms. Have you ever seen a six-month-old try to bite a chunk out of a banana? The banana-eating process ended up taking a lot longer and being a lot messier than I had expected. She's started to hold herself up in a sitting position unassisted. She's fascinated by Pongo, and also by her older sister. She is capable of rolling over, but seems to have forgotten that. It's probably been a couple of weeks since she's actually done it. We keep expecting that first tooth any day now. For now, her eyes are still blue, but I expect they will darken. Her hair isn't exactly blonde, but it's pretty light. Which is easier to tell now that there is a bit more of it. She has foiled our hopes of having a baby that takes consistent naps. If anything, she actually sleeps less than Alina. How is that possible? Who knows.

Alina's 3! (II)

Alina is 3. Her favorite color is pink, the color of the new bike she got for her birthday. Ever since receiving said bicycle, she wears her helmet almost non-stop, and bugged me this morning until I let her go out and ride it before church. Her favorite number is 8. On any clock, or on her new watch, she'll be happy to tell you when one of the hands is on the 8. Her aspirations are, when she grows up, to be a star, a swan, Bob the Builder, the blue cat, a mama, and a Mina. She often insists on being called Alina Cat, Alina Butterfly, or Alina Spider. She loves her little sister, and often gives her kisses or affectionate bonks on the head. She is a bit confused, although relieved, that she didn't have to get another Band-Aid on her tooth. She misses her Grandma and Grandpa, and often suggests that we go visit them. Often when her Mama objects to something she wants to do, she says, "Silas likes to do that." Her progress in both French and English is astounding. Sometimes, if I didn't understand what she said in English, she'll repeat it to me in French, and has begun to ask, "How do you say that in French (or English)?" She asks lots of questions about God, notably about how we can't see him right now. Her favorite Bible stories are the bobo-girl and the one where God gets a present. (Go try looking those up in your concordance!) She has a plastic giraffe named Gang-gang-doyoyo. In her tummy, she has her Baby Tata, her Baby Hannah, and her Baby Henri, who don't like to eat crepes and who get tired whenever Alina doesn't want to do something.

She's a beautiful little girl and a great big sister, and we thank God for 3 wonderful years with her so far!

3...and 6 months!

Alina's tent:
A princess, suspenders and all!

Alina's 3!

Random

Thomas refuses to let me call him the Rev-ster.

Today, Alina said, "Pongo can lick his bottom!" to which Thomas replied, "Yes, he can because he's a cat. Can you do that?" Now, everybody reading this knows that the expected reply is no, but is this really the sort of question one wants to ask a three-year-old?

Also today, Alina found a little box in which she had imprisoned a ladybug some time ago. The poor insect has long since made its way to the happy meadow in the sky. When Alina looked at it, Thomas said, "Um, it's...sleeping." To which Alina immediately replied, "It's DEAD!"

Our cat is infested with fleas. I've had cats and dogs all my life and I had never before seen a flea. This is no longer the case.

I was helping Thomas with something, and he was disturbed to realize that I didn't know how to spell sacrament.