L

When I first arrived, L was about 16 months, barely mobile, mute and overweight. Now, she has grown several inches and actually RUNS. She started walking well shortly after I arrived and has made much progress. She is no longer the shape of a basket ball, but she is still quite large for her age (home girl rocks three year old clothes).

More interestingly I have observed, is her speech development. She started out with the easy words like Maman and Papa, but she now has a wider range of L phrases such as "Maman est partiee", "maman est pas la", "papa est partie", "papa est pas la." "Eye!" "Nez!" "Mais Beeee"(thats me) "Bebe fait dodo" "Tiiitiiiiii" "Du l'eau" "Du lait" "Datau!!" (for cake and or cookies) "Nonore est la" (she cant say her name yet). It's both charming and annoying. Now, she can almost successfully communicate when shes hungry (which is always).

When I came back from vacation, after three weeks, she made a ton a progress in her speech. So much progress, that when I heard her on the phone, I couldnt figure out what kid it was. It was the first time I heard her little voice.

It's a pretty amazing to watch her develop. She literally grows every single day. Now, when I say "Arms up!" to get her dressed, she understands and sometimes complies. I sing to her, and I can see her little brain processing the information as she starts mimicking the words along with me. (ABC and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes are her favorites).

Yesterday, G was trimming the hedges with some kind of scary sounding power tool. I went outside to check on the kids, and she saw me, ran over with arms open and clutched her hands around me rocking everytime the trimmer started. You could say I should have brought her inside, but she was also mermerized by the noisy machine, and with me there, it was okay.

Sometimes this job doesnt suck so much.

Refinding my muse

Yes, I will admit that I have been rather lazy about writing in this. Its not that life hasn't been very exciting, and therefore worthy of writing about, its that I've been busy, and by the end of the day, I just dont feel up to thinking and doing anything.

The kids started school on Thursday. Hooray! For this reason, I am currently sitting in my pajamas at 2 in the afternoon. (I got home VERY late last night). I'm in that happy time of year where the kids are in school, and I'm not yet. Fortunately for me, I know a few people that I can socialize with so I can really enjoy having nothing to do between 930 and 4 pm.

Anyway, lets discuss school. So up until the end of June, I was attending a school called Academie de Langue. Or something like that, remember, I still cant spell in French. Anyway, to my dismay, the school closed down at the end of the academic year (they also lied to my face, but thats neither here nor there) and I realized I would have to find another (more expensive) school to attend. So I bit the bullet and took the online test for a school called la Clef, also located in Saint Germain. S, who seems to care a great deal more than I do about whether or not I'm in school, got some information from some friends and we found a school in Versailles. Last Thursday, I discovered theres a direct, and relatively regular bus (!) that goes to Versailles. So on it I hopped and took a little day trip to take a French qualifying exam.

Universite Inter-Ages is actually a University. It was about the same price as la Clef, but there were four classes a week. I took my exam, and placed into A2, not quite the lowest level. But because I cant write if my life depended on it, I need to start at the beginning. Which is okay with me. Anyway, two major problems were that a) they were at 9 am which is difficult for me since I work until 930, and b) they were on Friday. Fridays, for some reason unknown to me, L comes home all day instead of hanging out at the day care. I dont understand why I have to work 12 hours on Fridays, and its my own damn fault for agreeing to it.

Anyway. So I'm back where I started, with la Clef, and I guess I'll see what happens with that. There's supposed to be some sort of follow up testing situation, but I cant remember exactly when that is.

I'm not thrilled about going to school again (in case that wasnt obvious) because I feel like I have no time during the day. I am REALLY good at filling up the space between 10 am and 4. Running, napping, cleaning, whatever. I can do it. But I really should at least try and spend some time learning French.

So, socially speaking, I made a new friend or two, which is great. We also have hung out with this hockey team we met a few times. Up until yesterday, I thought that was exciting. Now, I realize that I have a curse with that sport. Its not even worth mentioning. But I was a good supportive friend for Coco, and consequently got home at 2 am.

The back story of Newsweek (Issue for the weeks of June 28 qnd July 5, 2010) stated the total defense spending for 2008 was 696,268,000,000.00 dollars.

So I assume that on top of paying our soldiers, paying for weapons, and warfare, this also includes the more mundane stuff, such as-healthcare for soldiers, their families, retired soldiers and their dependents, and outsourcing to civilians (which keeps my sister, dad and brother, as well as 50 percent of my friends employed).

But you cant help but ask yourself, we are willing to spend almost 700 billion dollars on our military (12 times more than China, who has triple our population, according to the same article), and we cant even entertain the thought of socializing (properly, I mean, like its done here in France) our healthcare?

Hmmmm.

I think I will punch the next European who tries to tell me what kinds of food/drink I consume in the United States.

Return to France/Vacay recap

After two and a half blissful weeks of English, I am back in O-town.

A short synopsis of my life since July 9, 2010:
Antoine arranged for a weekend in Haute Savoie for us, before I began a grueling two weeks of becoming a full time mom. We headed down to Evian and stayed in his Dads house, which is in the process of being converted to a bed and breakfast. The top floor was a newly restored flat zhich was modern, airy, and beautiful. Saturday we went to Annecy to tour around and go paddle boating, and laid in the grass in a park for quite a while. He dropped me off in a small village t outside of Geneva. As we were driving along, we realised that we had driven past the house. G had said on the phone that we should just "look for a big gate and a lot of trees," we soon found chez de Francais which was in fact Chateau de Francais.

Built during the French Revolution, the castle that we stayed in could sleep at least 30 people. According to what I pieced together and what Antoine asked O, the house is passed down through the daughters, not the sons. This family can trace their tree back to the middle ages.

I stayed in the top floor with all the kids. Fortunately I had my own room, but we all shared a bathroom, so I was woken up several times a night by children loudly tip-toeing through my room.

The bonus was that I had my own kitchen, so I was responsible for making lunch for the kiddies, which sounds like it sucked, but it was nice to have no one meddling.

Midway through the week I got a nice surprise from Antoine-he had cancelled his trip to Romania and would be returning to Haute Savoie to spend another weekend with me!

Vacations

So I've been on vacation for about a month now. First two weeks were technically working, okay not technically, definitely. The last two I've been in the United States! I am writing this post instead of packing and getting my life together. I leave this evening to London then get into Glasgow tomorrow morning, UK time.

I assume I will recommence blogging when I get back on the other side of the Atlantic.

I cant wait to go back to a place where cabs exist at 4 am, and I dont have to take the RER home at 6 am.

It's most of the girls' last weekend in Paris. (Everytime I think about Ailie leaving I get sick)

I go home for my visit in 23 days.

We leave for vacation next Friday.

I'm leaving early to go to a mystery vacation with Antoine.

I will be staying with a count and countess in Geneva.