End-of-year Randomness

So, they finally got some snow in Denver.

31 is a prime number. But, then, so are 1, 2, 3, and 5.

We bought bread from the grocery store yesterday. It wasn't pre-sliced American bread. It was French bread, it just came in a plastic bag, with a list of ingredients. Since the list was there, I read it. First ingredient? Flour. Pretty normal. But, then there was a perenthesis, and they had to give you a list of ingredients found in their flour!!!!! The same was true of the salt and something else. I think I'll be getting out my organic flour and baking bread today, thank you very much. You know, the flour where the only ingredient is...well...flour.

Tassia decided to remind us what nights with a newborn are like. She's slept in our room for the last 3 nights because she refuses to sleep in hers. She made me laugh really hard at lunch, though, by singing "A nap, a nap" to the tune of the Pink Panther.

We were invited to a New Year's Eve party tonight, but we declined. Figured there was a chance we might be busy.

Alina might actually understand the concept of sounding words out after all.

Think I'll go organize the baby's room...

Deck the Halls

Here's our family wishing you a Merry Christmas! (I couldn't decide between the 2 videos, so you get them both.)

Christmas 2010

Thanks, Alina!

Thomas's mom gave me great advice about how to get my bread out of the pan it was stuck in.  It worked great!  I turned to Alina and said:   ME:  Elle en sait des choses, ta Mina!  (Your Mina sure knows a lot!)   ALINA: (barely looking up from the cookie she was decorating)  Plus que toi.  (More than you.)

Seasonal

This blog has no pretentions of being a culinary blog. There are way too many kiddie picture for that. But, I wanted to share something that I've been thinking about recently, as we head into winter:

Seasonal vegetables.

I'm realizing that here, there are a whole array of vegetables that can continue to grow in winter, plus a whole other category of vegetables that keep well and so, even if they're harvested in the fall, they last all winter. I'm already thinking about how to plan our vegetable garden this next year so that it will continue to yield some over the late fall and winter. Here, off the top of my head, is a list of seasonal vegetables:

Endives (never seen those in Colorado)
Leeks (ditto)
Potatoes
Carrots
Turnips
Spinach
Cabbage
Celery (don't get a craving for celery sticks in the summer here, because it will go unfulfilled)
Pumpkin (have 5 liters of pumpkin soup in my freezer!)

Anyway, there are more, but I'm trying to plan meals around these sorts of things right now, instead of always buying lettuce and tomatoes. Tonight, we ate:

Winter Salad (invented by yours truly)
Half a red cabbage
5 grated carrots
2 large apples
walnuts
Salt, pepper, vinegar, and oil (be sure to put enough vinegar)

Serve with a baked potato. Yummy!!!!

Poor Kid?

Yesterday afternoon, we finally found the boxes containing Christmas tree and ornaments, and could therefore set up our Christmas tree. Needless to say, I had 2 little girls who were a bit excited. At dinner, Alina suddenly got really grumpy. Despite the fact that I was feeding her pasta, she ate almost nothing, and said her tummy hurt. This is a common complaint for her, but usally a trip to the restroom does the trick, so we didn't think too much of it. Getting ready for bed, she seemed fine. Then, suddenly, she said her tummy hurt, started crying, and then said her throat hurt. At this point, I was thoroughly confused. Tummy? Throat? What?

I asked if she wanted a drink of water. She said yes. On the way to the bathroom, she promptly got sick all over the floor. Ah, now it all makes sense. Alina has never in her life had the stomach flu, and has only thrown up once before, when she bumped her head really hard (that was a scary experience for another post). So, she couldn't describe to me, "Mama, I'm going to be sick," because she doesn't have the experience.

We put her to bed with a rice cake and some apple juice. She repeated the experience about an hour later. I was all set to spend all night getting up every couple of hours to clean up puke. However, everyone slept through the night (minus a couple of bathroom breaks), and everyone seems fine this morning.

???????

Christmas Party (finally!)

Well, it happened at last. We finally got to have a church Christmas party that was something like what I've imagined every year for the last 3 years. As you may recall, 2 years ago, we planned our church Christmas party at our house, ours being the only kids habitually in church. Despite many invitations, only one mom and her little boy showed up. Last year, the church had grown, there were other kids and parents coming to church, other church members were pitching in with the planning, we had great momentum...and there was a huge (for here) snowstorm, and we had to cancel.

Well, this year, we finally had a real Christmas party. There were 8 kids, including 3 kids from 2 different unchurched families. They all seemed to have a good time, as did the adults. The Christmas story was clearly presented, and there was good chatting and fellowship afterwards. Of course, there are always people that we would have liked to see come that didn't. But I think we can honestly say that they missed out on a good time. Here is a picture of our girls and half of their grandparents:

Here are they are again with two other kids from church: (Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture with all of the kids who were there. Maybe next year!)

Bpa

ALINA: (arranging letters on the refrigerator) Mama, what does this say?

ME: Um...(giving it a go) Bpa. It's kind of a tough one. Usually we wouldn't put those sounds together.

ALINA: Oh. (after a pause) But it's the sound we make when we throw up.

Guess I can't argue with that.

Snowy Fun

We don't get snow that often, so we had to make the best of it! Actually, Alina was impossible to live with between the time we opened the shutters and she saw the snow and when we were finally ready to go out in it! As it was, we had a great time until she threw snow at her sister, and made her cry. Then when I explained to Alina that I had to take Tassia inside because she didn't want to stay outside...and then Alina started crying! It may be emblematic of a family who sees more seaside than snow that the first thing Alina did was pick up a bucket and make a snow castle. The snowman came later, at my prompting.

From the Mouth of Babes

ME: (Muttering to myself in the kitchen) Is it possible to put too much sage in sage stuffing?   TASSIA: (Very convincingly) Ahhhh, nope!   We're planning our Thanksgiving celebration for tomorrow.  Here's hoping the freezing rain doesn't keep our guests away!

New House Tour

Sorry if this takes awhile to load. Hopefully you'll think it's worth it. If you don't care about seeing our new house, then don't bother opening it! We won't be offended (much).

New Rhythm

I don't really have so much to say in this post. I guess I just feel the need to connect and feel like someone out there is listening. Now that I'm not teaching anymore, not exhausted anymore, and most of the major moving is done (there are still boxes, and I promise, you will see pictures soon!), we're kind of settling into a nice little routine.

Morning agenda: Dressed, breakfast, reading. Reading?, you might ask. Yes, reading. I'm figuring that, whatever we may decide later about homeschooling or not, French schools are not going to be teaching my kids to read English, so I might as well do it myself. For now, we've made word cards with simple words that Alina has learned to recognize. Today, with her cards, we spelled out, "Papa sat on Tassia" and "Pongo sat on the chair." I must admit that, at this point, "sat" is the only verb in our reading vocabulary. I've ordered geared-for-parents reading curriculum, and Alina is counting the days until I've said it should be arriving. The rest of the morning, we often go out and run various errands, visit Thomas's parents, or go to the park. It often rains in the afternoon, so we try and take advantage of the morning if it's not raining.

After lunch, Tassia takes a nap, and so Alina and I are pretty much stuck at home until somewhere between 4 and 5 pm when the little sister wakes up. The highlight of naptime is that Mama plays the vioin for 30 minutes and, recent addition, Alina plays the violin. We had started violin awhile ago and sort of gave up because of perceived lack of interest and progress on Alina's part, and lack of time on mine. However, the other day, Alina got her vioin and said, "Mama, I want to play a scale like you." So, we've been working on an A scale with Suzuki rhythm 1, and I've realized that she really had learned and even retained most of what I had been trying to teach her before, and that she might actually play an A scale that resembles something sometime in the near future. Naptime is also when we've been able to read the first 2 books in the Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan, Pattertwig, and the rest are now regular visitors to our house.

After Tassia wakes up, we have snack time, then, if it's not raining, we usually try to take advantage of the last few rays of sunlight and enjoy our swingset. If it is raining, we try to find some other activity. Alina invariably suggests baking cookies or cupcakes. We may all be eating a lot of desserts this winter. Then, it's back in for a bit of time, and then dinner, and then to bed!

Somewhere in there, the laundry gets done, the dishes get washed, and a certain number of other tedious but necessary chores get done. Or not.

We're baaaaaack!

After a move and a tumultuous couple of weeks, including being without telephone and internet, we're happy to let you know that yes, we are in fact still alive. The number of full boxes in the house is decreasing, although not as rapidly as in the first few days. The girls seem to have taken to the new house without too much trouble (the swingset probably helped!) and Thomas and I are exhausted but holding in there. I promise to soon post some pictures of us and the new house...the camera must still be in a box somewhere. Maybe the same one as the kitchen clock.

Packing Update

I'm writing this post through a fog of fatigue. I finished up my final day of teaching on Wednesday. That's a big relief! My replacement seems really nice, and she observed me teaching the entire week, so she's met all of my students. I also informed my boss of my intention to take an additional leave of absence after the end of my maternity leave. The duration of that is yet to be determined, but I feel good at the thought of taking some extra time for myself, the girls, and the new baby. Oh, I'm sure Thomas will benefit as well.

We signed to purchase our new house on Friday. Yay! At that point, we felt pretty good about how packing was going. Tonight, we are stressed. Tomorrow we'll probably be panicked. And yet, one way or another, everything will make it into the new house by Monday evening. We have no choice.

Our consolation is that the couple moving their family out of our new house and into our old one seemed on Friday to be in about the same shape as we were.

So, thanks to everyone for thinking of us through the whole house-hunting and purchasing process. We'd appreciate some more of that through the moving out (and in!) process.

Once we're in the new house, we've been told it will take a good 10 days or so until we'll have functioning telephone and internet, and that we'll probably not be able to keep our same phone number. So, don't be worried if we're a bit harder to get ahold of. We'll try and keep everyone posted as soon as that becomes possible!

Stealing the Show

Who says history doesn't repeat itself? I relived what must have been my own traumatic fourth birthday experience (I've suppressed the actual memory, of course!) as Tassia chose this day, of all days, to decide that she can actually finally walk on her own!

Alina's 4!

Today we celebrated Alina's 4th birthday with balloons, cake, and presents. She has been telling me for weeks that she wanted a chocolate birthday cake with green frosting, shaped like a four. With such explicit instructions, there was nothing left for me to do but to get to work. Of course, she changed her mind at the last minute, said she didn't want it to be shaped like a 4, then that she wouldn't eat any anyway, then that she would stay in her room while we were eating it. There were some tears involved. All this is pretty typical Alina behavior right now. She changes her mind every 5 minutes, then gets upset if you can't keep up with her desires. She did manage to blow all the candles out in one go: I included this one because it's also a decent belly shot, in case anyone is wondering:

Tassia also enjoyed the balloons!

and Alina gots lots of presents. Actually, you can score one for Mama, because when the party had died down and she was playing outside, she told me, "Guess what my favorite present it? My fly trap!" I honestly don't remember where she heard about plants that eat flies, but ever since, she's been daydreaming about owning one. So, that was my present to her. In the time it's been hiding, waiting to be given as a gift, it caught two flies. It's kind of gross, actually, but she is delighted! She put it on the buffet and sat and watched it for awhile to see if she could see it actually catch something!

Her interest in fly traps is part of a larger interest in science. She is fascinated by anything having to do with anatomy, can tell you where her patella and humerus are located, and easily show point out your lungs and heart on an anatomy picture. She drew a picture of me the other day. When I had to ask, "Alina, what is that?" she responded, "Your bladder." OK... She is also getting better at writing in all capitals, starting to understand the link between letters and the sounds they make, and occasionally adds and subtracts numbers.

One of her favorite activities is cutting paper into small pieces, rolling and gluing them into even smaller bundles, and then presenting them as gifts. She shares many adventures with Chessy, her stuffed cat and Snuggle lots of Snuggles, her stuffed dog. She loves to sit in my lap and get kisses, especially when I'm trying to change her sister's diaper. She loves to give the baby kisses, too, and raspberries, and gets pretty excited when she can actually feel it move. She decided on the way home from church that she wants it to be a sister, after all (see, changing her mind) so it's probably just as well we don't know what it is.

All in all, she's fun, affectionate, and incredibly smart (I know, I know, I'm her mom... but I swear it's true!) and we can't wait to experience more of the 4-year-old Alina!

Turnovers

The goal for this next week (among other things) is to eat as much as possible out of the freezer, fridge, and cellar. Taking stock of those places yesterday, I discovered: 5 kilos of flour, frozen hamburger, a can of green beans, and a bit of cheese. Does this suggest anything to anyone? I made meat turnovers, my favorite childhood meal. Actually, I should say "we" made meat turnovers, as the girls helped me. When time came to roll out the dough, I gave each girl a small bit of dough and her own rolling pin. Alina actually rolled hers out without too much help. Tassia obviously needed more assistance, but mostly she needed convincing not to eat the dough! When time came to stuff them, Alina helped me put the beans and cheese in hers. She then closed it up all by herself, and put it on the pan to bake. In the meantime, Tassia had eaten all the stuffing out of hers, so we had to start the stuffing process all over. When lunchtime came, each girl then got to eat her very own turnover! There was also a designated turnover for Aslan, who has been staying over at our house the last few days. Ever since Alina actually started getting interested in this crazy book I've been reading her about 4 kids and a wardrobe.

Progress

Craziness

12.5 hours of teaching per week.
3 nights in a row where I can't eat with my family
3 nights where I have to have dinner ready ahead of time
Boxes to pack
Diapers to change
Bank details to arrange
Movers to call
Big tummy
Photocopies to make for students
Cleaning to do
Stories to read
Kisses to give
Measurements to make at the new house
Bag to take to the Red Cross
Sleep to catch up on
Meetings to attend
Mail to send
Furniture to measure
Landlord to call
Nails to pull out of walls
Plants to pot

We have a...

signing date and moving date for the house! (No, no, not a baby. Not yet. It's too soon! But I bet I got somebody!!!) We'll be signing, Lord willing, on October 22, and moving on October 25. This is a huge relief. Up until this morning, we weren't sure we could be sure of having this date at the notary to sign, and we couldn't reserve a date with the movers until we were 100 percent sure to be able to move on that date. Given that we're moving close to the end of the month, we were afraid the 25th would be all filled up. But, there was still a spot for us. Ouf!

Count: 3 boxes packed, 256 to go!

Born to be Wild

Scary

So, we just signed our lives away, or at least our next 23 years away, to the bank this afternoon.  Now we just have to get ourselves, the people moving out of our house, our soon-to-be-ex-landlords, our real estate agent, the notary, and our moving company all to agree on a moving date.  (We're looking at probably Oct. 25 or 26.)   Anybody enjoy packing boxes?

Some last Brittany picts

Second Trimester

So, here I am.  The second trimester.  It's actually been second trimester for quite some time, but somehow I never "feel" second trimester until awhile into it.  So, what does it mean to feel second trimester?  Well, I no long have the overwhelming desire to lose my lunch when I have to wash diapers.  I've cut down to one daily snack, most days, instead of 3 or 4.  And I actually have energy and motivation to do things.   Of course, the fact that we're envisioning moving helps in the motivation department.  Suddenly, I find myself daydreaming about where we're going to put different pieces of furniture, about how I'm going to arrange the picture frames on the wall.  This is extremely annoying to Thomas.  He just wants to get that paperwork DONE, and then we'll worry about where to put the couch.  The reality of having to actually move all of our stuff is also a strong motivation factor for having it organized to start with.  Anyway, here are some things I've accomplished in the last couple of weeks:   I sorted through all our markers.  The ones on Alina's table in the kitchen.  The ones in the drawer in the kitchen.  The ones in Alina's room.  All the markers that didn't work satisfactorily went into the garbage.  No mercy.  This included anything without a cap.  Oh, all the caps without markers went, too.  Next, Alina and Tassia were both presented with new sets of markers.  Alina was sternly instructed that the markers are to stay together, with marker and appropriate cap always together.  Today, I made them both zippered marker cases.   Alina's room now sports a new barrette holder.  No more barrettes laying around the house, and no more not being able to find them when I'm doing a little girl's hair.  The hair rubber bands are all in a zippered case nearby.   I cleaned out the cellar.  This is not to say that the cellar is actually clean, but there were a certain number of boxes that had basically never been opened since we moved here from Paris.  They pretty much all made their way to the Red Cross.   And, ta-da, for the last 2 weeks, I have ready my Bible every day and practiced my violin almost every day.  Previously, there was very little of either going on.   Of course, next week, I start teaching again, then there's the move, then there's the baby...

Mont St Michel

"Michel" of Mont St Michel

During our stay in Brittany, we actually made a little foray into Normandie, to go to the Mont St Michel. It was only about an hour drive away, and it was something both Thomas and I have wanted to do for awhile. If anyone doesn't know what Mont St Michel looks like, all I can say is look it up, because we have no impressive pictures from far away. But I explained it to Alina in this way, "A fairy castle in the middle of water." It really does look cool from the outside, but we figured any pictures we would take through the bus window wouldn't be as cool as a postcard.

The thing is, it looks so cool from far away, and we had heard so much about it, that we actually found the whole thing a bit disappointing. It was literally crawling with tourists, and it was just sort of this chain of people walking up a bunch of stairs, and then coming back down. The church was neat, I guess, but I've seen neater churches where you could actually sit, or wander around and enjoy them. Anyway, we were glad we went, but I'm not sure it lived up to all the hype.

As you can see from the pictures, it was also pouring down rain part of the time. Fortunately, we were prepared, and with raincoats, it actually wasn't too unpleasant. Tassia decided that she wanted to walk all the time ("walking" for her still meaning holding onto someone's hand). She got pretty upset when we insisted on carrying her. And, she did bite her sister once when she got in her way. Then she fell asleep in her Papa's arms on the way back down.

Stupid Comments

...heard recently (and often):   "Hope this one is a boy!"   "You're sure having them close together.  That's going to be a lot of work!"   "Alina, are you not in school today?"

St-Malo

St-Malo, city of buccaneers and pirates (although I don't think we saw any of either!)

Brittany

We were blessed to be able to spend a week in Brittany, in a town called Dinard. We had a great time, as you can see (OK, that's not us in this picture, but you still get the drift, no pun intended):

I personally found it a bit to cold to envision swimming, but we did get our feet wet!

Did I mention that this was the view out the window of the apart where we were staying?

Parents' visit 2010

For anyway who doesn't have this link, and who cares, pictures of my parents' visit can be viewed here. Check out my impeccable pregnant fashion sense, and know that more hair got lopped off before we were done!

Various News

Some quick updates:   We are moving along in the house-purchasing process.  Hopefully, we'll be signing somewhere around the end of October.   Speaking of which, things are going to be fun on moving day(s), as the family that's selling us their house...has decided to rent ours!   Speaking of moving, since we're expecting our 3rd child, it looks like we can have up to 930 euros of our moving expenses reimbursed.  This suddenly makes using a moving company extremely attractive.   Tomorrow, we're leaving on Part II of our vacation.  (Part I being, of course, when my parents were here.)  This was actually unplanned, but Thomas's parents have friends with an apartment in Dinard, in Brittany.  They offered it to us for a week.  For free.  We didn't say no.

Long Silence

It's been awhile since I've posted.  There's a good reason, though.  My parents have been here for the last 3 weeks.  It's been a sweet, relaxing time.  Because of my belly, we didn't do too much in the way of intense sight-seeing, although I'm sure I'll have some pictures to post when things calm down a bit.  There's been lots of story-reading, lots of playing in the yard and swinging at the park.  A couple of short trips to see museums or friends.  Tassia took her first steps, at Grandpa's coaxing, in honor of her 15-month birthday.  (Surely she'll be walking before I have another one to carry, right????)    Grandma and Grandpa leave early tomorrow morning.  They had retired to the studio where they've been sleeping, and a minute later, my mom comes back into the house with a sheepish look on her face.  She handed us the studio key, saying, "We're not sure if it broke off in the lock, or if the piece fell on the ground...)  We have a spare key, but if the key had been broken off in the lock, things would have been extremely problematic.  Fortunately, this was not the case.  Hopefully, this will be the worst obstacle they have to deal with in their travels.    And, oh, yeah, my mom cut my hair tonight...

Home Remedy

Two days ago, the girls and I were in Alina's room.  Alina got out her toy stethascope and informed me, "You need to go to the doctor's to make sure that the baby is OK."  (This is what I tell her whenever I have to go for a blood test or check-up.)  Dr. Alina came over to me and said, "I need your tummy."  I obligingly pulled up my shirt.  She put her little stethascope on my tummy, listened for a minute, and then announced, "He's fine, but he needs some raspberries."  She then put her mouth on my stomach and blew rasperries while I laughed!

House Pictures

For those of you who have asked, here, at long last, are some pictures of the house we're hoping to buy. I say hoping because, even though we have signed some preliminary papers, we're not able to think about finalizing our loan yet. In France, in order to take out a loan, you need loan insurance. We have yet to find the insurer that we need, but we're working on it and would appreciate your prayers.

Without further ado, here we go.

I have no pictures of the outside. The bottom level of the house consists of garage, cellar, and storage area. This sits slightly below street level. The front yard sits slightly above street level. To enter the front door, you have to climb up an incline, take a switchback, and walk up about 6 or 8 stairs. This is one of the biggest disadvantages of this house. We'll probably come and go through the garage a lot. Once inside, you find yourself in the main room, the largest in the house, which consists of a front sitting or dining area (notice fireplace #1):

And an open kitchen. (Sorry this one is kind of dark.)

That takes up roughly the right half of the level. On your left, there's a door which leads into the cozy living room (notice fireplace #2).

Beyond the living room is the stairway, then a doorway leading to the garage, another leading to the wc, and another leading to a bedroom which will possibly become Thomas's office. Climbing the stairs, you see this:

A nice little landing which, if our children are anything like those currently living there, will probably serve as an additional play area. And we'll probably keep the idea of using it as book storage. Here is one of the bedrooms (fireplace #3):

and another bedroom.

There is a third upstairs bedroom, smaller than the other 2, but perfect for 1 child, as well as a bathroom and a storage closet.

Out the kitchen door is a stairway leading into the back yard. It's maybe slightly smaller than our current yard, but not much. Assuming we buy the house, we've negociated and it will come complete with swingset and (working) piano! Now we just have to get everything set!

Thanks for taking today's guided tour and please remember to tip your tour guide at the door.