It's bad

You know it's bad when you go to pick up your daughter from school, and a mom you haven't seen in a couple of days takes one look at you and says, "Oh, you've been sick, haven't you?"

snow

We woke to a dusting of snow today.  To be fair, I guess you could call it a heavy dusting, but it barely made it into the category of "light snowfall."  I had been planning to take a picture of our back yard, and write under it that Alina's school called a snow day so that everyone out there from Colorado could have a good chuckle.  That was my plan, at least, until all 5 of us were slipping and sliding, trying to make it home from the market on foot without anyone getting hurt.  We ended up walking home in the street, because they had salted the streets and that was the only place you COULD walk without risking a fall and a broken leg...or worse.  So, no good chuckle, just thankful for my safe, warm home this evening.

The Penguin

For technical reasons the details of which I will not bore you with, I couldn't post more than 2 pictures at a time, so here are some more Sybille birthday pictures with, as star, THE PENGUIN!!!!!

Sybille's Second

We celebrated Sybille's second birthday this week.  We celebrated first with a King Cake that we took to "Croque-Lune School" as we now refer to the play-room we go once or twice a week.  Except I told everyone it wasn't King Cake, but Sybille cake in honor of Sybille's birthday.  She'll have to deal the rest of her life with being born the day after Epiphany, right?  She had a round of presents the day of, and then we actually baked a real cake, OK, she requested pumpkin bars, on Wednesday when Alina was home from school, and Thomas's parents came over with their presents to help celebrate.
 
Sybille's birthday kind of had a penguin theme this year.  I didn't necessarily plan that, but she has become obsessed with penguins recently, and anything remotely black and white and/or bird-shaped because "bébé bankin".  I made her a stuffed penguin for her birthday, of which I was rather proud.  She has gratified me and my hard work by actually liking it, and she plays with it more than I feared, although not as much as I had hoped.  With pumpkin bars, our cake-decorating possibilities were somewhat limited, but I put a little penguin sliding down a slide on top.  Somehow, the penguin was joined by two crocodiles and a dog, but that was not my doing.
 
Sybille shows some signs of entering into the "terrible twos."  She asserts herself forcibly and vocally.  One of her favorite expressions recently is, "No! Pas Thiathia!"  She is still very meticulous and is bothered when things are not put away as they should be. 
 
I had no illusions about the new penguin de-throning Jack, who is himself developing more of a personality.  Jack often needs his hair combed, his teeth brushed, he may need feeding, and some evenings I have to put a diaper on him after he finishes on the potty chair.  He even needs his hood put up when it's cold, and he actually talked to me the other day.  So, Sybille's imagination is developing fine.
 
She's discovered that she can jump, and does actually manage to get both feet off the floor at the same time.  She still loves dancing, and has an amazing number of recognizeable songs in her singing repertoire.  Among her current favorites are "ooo-o-o-o-o-oooo-o-o-o-o-oooo" (Ie the chorus of Angels We have Heard on High), Do a Dear, and, of course, "Twinkle, Twinkle" with the note names in French.  She's learning how to count, and often counts her clemantine slices: "Doo, one, seven, eight, nine!"
 
And now, she does actually say her own name and can tell people she's two!

fainting

Alina planted a bulb in a pot in school, and has been excitedly watching it grow here at home.  She even got out a ruler and measured it the other day.  Today, she said, "Maman, Mina a dit que ma jacinthe va bientôt s'évanouir." 
 
For those of you who missed that, she said, "Mama, Mina said that my flower will soon faint."   (The word for "faint" and one of the words that could appropriately describe a flower blooming are only differentiated by one letter, hence one sound.)

Why the FBI

doesn't hire 3-year-olds:

TASSIA: (at the dinner table, loud enough for everyone to hear) Il ne faut rien dire que Sybille va avoir un bébé pingouin!

Yes, Tassia, please don't say anything about how Sybille will have a baby penguin for her birthday.

Le Père Noël

Today, at the grocery store, I was busily loading my groceries onto the conveyer belt, and Tassia was talking to the checker as she was ringing up my groceries.  I couldn't hear what they were saying, but suddenly, the checker started laughing and turned to the checker next to her, "Did you hear what she just said?  I wasn't expecting that!" and then the other checker started laughing, too.  "Alors, qu'est-ce qu'elle vous racont, là?" I asked. ("So, what did she just tell you?").  "Je lui ai demandé si le Père Noël est passé... ("I just asked her if Santa Claus came...")  I didn't need to hear the rest to know what had happened.  I don't know about in the States, but here, adults spend their month of December asking kids about Santa Claus.  I don't know how many French kids actually really believe in Santa Claus, but I know the adults we have met are totally unprepared for Tassia's impish little grin and her impish little laugh and her, "Mais
le Père Noël n'existe pas!"  ("But Santa Claus doesn't exist!")  You should see their faces!  You'd almost think THEY were the ones who believed in Santa Claus and my little almost-four-year-old had ruined it for THEM!