Guess who's home?

Julia always calls home when she is leaving work so that I can begin preparing dinner.  This means that I am usually in the kitchen when she parks the car.  I can see her park the car from the kitchen window.  Samuel is usually puling my pants down while I am in the kitchen preparing dinner.  After I see Julia park the car I will turn to Samuel and say "Guess who's home?"  He immediately loosens his grip on my pants or whatever toy he happens to be holding, breaks out into a wide 5 tooth grin and runs off in the direction of the front door where he happily greets Julia as soon as she opens the door.  She has learned to be careful when opening the door as Samuel is usually in a position to be hit by the door.

Samuel will soon have 6 teeth.  The fourth tooth on the top is ready to breakthrough the gum at any moment.

Samuel has learned to pull himself up onto the couch without assistance.  He has learned to climb onto the back of the couch to access the controls for the shades.  One of his favorite pastimes is to repeatedly open and close the shades by pressing the remote.

Samuel speaks?

In the last week we think we have heard Samuel say maman, french for mommy and au revoir which is french for goodbye.  But we may just be overly optimistic parents.

Today Samuel and I stopped at the ATM to withdraw some euros.  When we were finished Samuel waved at he ATM and he said Au revoir.  I have not had a drink in more than 15 hours.  I had good nights sleep last night.  I swear to you it sounded as if he said goodbye to the ATM.
-Dave

I can cook....

For those of you that we have given the readers digest 30 minute cookbook you must make the Lamb Chops provencale.  I made those on Sunday and I must say that they were delicious.  One of the best meals that I have cooked.  Part of what made the meal for me was that I purchased everything myself.  I was able to order the lamb chops and have them prepared all while communicating(?) in French.  I also was able to order ground turkey(dinde hachee) for the first time.  This is great progress as all the butcher expects me to order is chorizo, ham, chicken or steak.

Yesterday I made a rotiseirie chicken for the first time.  Not as good as Julia's but very, very good, especially for a first effort.  We had boiled new potatoes smothered in butter and rosemary with the chicken.  Followed by ice cream with strawberries and raspberries freshly picked from the farm on Saturday.  Our life is pretty good!

Today I trying to make my first chicken stock using the bones and skin of the bird.  I was very popular today when I was skinning and peeling the chicken as both cats were in the kitchen attempting to crawl or jump onto the counter to get their claws into the bones and meat.  It smells wonderful but time will tell if the stock is good.

Today the woman that works the register at the butcher called Samuel a "petit ange" or little angel.  My response was "pas toujour" which means not always.  The three of us plan to walk to the butcher on Saturday afternoon so that Julia can order our turkey for thanksgiving.  My french is not nearly good enough, maybe next year?  Julia has promised me that no matter where we are in the world we will celebrate American thanksgiving on the 4th Thursday of November.  It may not always be a perfect menu but it is the being together as a family that day that makes it special

Julia left work early yesterday to pick Samuel up at he HG.  She should soon post what she was told and what she saw.  All good news.

We survived our first drive.....

Samuel and I went out today to Castorama, a french DIY store, Monoprix in Le Vesinet with a final stop at the Chatou city centre.   This is significant as it is the first time that I have driven outside of Chatou during the week.  All of our other drives have either been on the weekend or just to the HG in Chatou, which is less than 1 K from our house.  There were no problems with the drive.  A few times I was uncomfortable with what the person next to me was doing, especially in the traffic circles but that is just a fact of life when driving in Paris and the burbs.

Molson the protector.....

Last night while eating dinner we heard a screech from outside.  At first I thought it was Preacher as it was a high pitched screech.  But she was lying under the table.  Julia and I rushed onto the terrace to see Molson in a faceoff with white spotted neighborhood cat.  As I approached the cats the white one turned and ran with Molson following close behind.  They then headed for a shrub at the end of the terrace.  At Julia's urging I followed as she was worried that Molson would be hurt.  When I reached the end of the terrace I was encased in a large spider web.  Containing a very large spider.  I felt like Frodo in Shelob's lair.  I was able to extricate myself from the web(did I mention that it was dark).  I was able to force Molson from under the shrub and he ran into the front yard with the white cat remaining under the shrub.

Molson has become even more adventerous as he now leaves our enclosed yard.  I was standing at the kitchen sink washing Samuel's bottles the other night when I saw Molson strolling across our street toward our driveway gate which he subsequently crawled under to return to our yard.  Molson also has us trained so that when we have the terrace door closed he just jumps onto the windowsills and we open a window and he enters the house through the window.

Berry picking.......

We found a farm near Versailes that allows vegetable and fruit picking.  We went in anticipation of returning with large amounts of apples and raspberries.  We were not disappointed with the apples but the raspberries had been picked and a number of the vines were dead.  Samuel did not have a good time.  He was very fussy, crying and throwing fits while we were trying to pick our produce.  The farm did have a decent selection of vegetables so we had a nice green salad with dinner last night.  We will definitely go back in the future as it is only a 15 minute drive.  We just need to learn the growing seasons here and when what is at its peak picking time.

We have discovered a new boulangerie.  It is about a 15-20 minute walk but it is worth the effort.  Samuel and I walked(Samuel rode, I pushed) there this morning for our traditional Sunday morning breakfast of pain au chocolat and croissant.

Not much happening as we are just taking it easy, enjoying the nice weather and watching Samuel pull Molson's tail at every opportunity.  I have to question the intelligence of the cat as he allows Samuel to walk/crawl up to him, pull his tail and Molson does nothing except meow loudly.  All he has to do is walk/run away.