Mobility

Dreams of a White Christmas

Alina thinks her sister is a reindeer!

It snowed here! This is a pretty unusual occurance, as I may have said last year. Schools are closed, and my lessons are cancelled for tomorrow! The only downside is that we have our church Christmas program on Sunday, and we're pretty encouraged by the people we anticipate being there. If the snow and ice don't keep them away!

Flies

Last night, I was helping Tassia finish her dinner, and Alina was already up from the table. As she was playing in the kitchen, she suddenly looked up to me and said in near-perfect French, "Tous les mouches adorent les cacahuètes." "All flies love peanuts."

I had no idea.

Eating like a Big Girl

A Photographer I am not

The girls were given matching dresses, and I figured this was a good opportunity to take some photos. Armed with my matching subjects, my camera, and a neutral background, this is the best I could come up with...

Anatomy Lesson

Today, we were all 4 sitting around the table eating lunch. It became apparent at one point that Tassia was furnishing a great effort toward the accomplishment of a specific task. As we watched her grunt and turn red, Alina said, "Maybe bébé Tata tryin' to go poop out her nose." And, if that wasn't funny enough, she added after a slight pause, "Like the other day."

We're still trying to figure out what event she was referring to.

All's Quiet

at the Constantini house. OK, Alina is still talking herself to sleep, but hopefully it won't be long now. Recently we've started shooting for 8:00 as the girls' bedtime instead of 9:00. Somehow, when we moved the clocks back, someone forgot to tell 2 little bodies. So instead of dealing with Tassia falling asleep during dinner and then not being tired at bedtime, we've moved both dinner and bedtime up an hour. So far, it seems to work well.

Thomas is gone this evening. He's in Niort doing a conference. The title is, "Obama, a Calvinist in the White House?" The conference is organized by the Reformed Church in Niort, but it's been widely publicized and some of the people who are interested in our church will be there. Hopefully after this evening, there will be even more people interested in our church. Thomas gave them several possible subjects, all having to do with Jean Calvin or Calvinism. This year, of course, is the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth. They chose Obama. I'm not sure what Thomas is going to say, except that Obamas not exactly a Calvinist, but that Calvinism has had an influence on America and its politics.

Before dinner this evening, Alina and I watched, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." It's a bit early, but I was afraid it would be checked out from the library by the time it's actually officially the Christmas season. I must admit I was unprepared for the barrage of questions this sparked. "Mama, why was him mean? Why him take their Christmas tree? Why it needed fixed? Why him take their sleepy things? ("Those were candy canes, sweetie.") Why him put the dog in that red thing? Why that green thing tell me one story?" and to finish, "Me like it when him tell me one story. Dat mean him love me!"

Yes, Alina, the Grinch loves you.