V is for.......

I am beginning to appreciate French culture more every day.  After the birth of the twins we decided that we did not want another children and decided that the best option to ensure this was for me to have a vasectomy.  After our "scare" of a few weeks ago this became a priority.

Julia enthusiastically put it upon herself to make this happen.  Her enthusiasm immediately turned into despair as she discovered that the word vasectomy does not exist in the French medical vocabulary.  Apparently the French male is especially chauvinistic and birth control in this country is the sole responsibility of the female.  One urologist she spoke to said "A man would not be a man if he did that to himself."

Fortunately, for all five of us, we were able to find through friend a doctor in St Germain-en-laye that performs vasectomies.  Next Wednesday(29th) is the day.  Of course the French are not quite up to the medical standards of the US and I will have to have a general anesthetic rather than a local and be in recovey in the hospital for 4-5 hours after.  In the US it is an office procedure that the patient walks out of the office 30 minutes after the incision.  

A tale of two days.......

Yesterday(Tuesday 21st) I fed Samuel his dinner at 1830.  His favorite food is mac and cheese.  He has not yet taken to eating vegetables.  So we had the idea of buying macaroni made of vegetables.  Good idea, right?  Well, for the first time Samuel refused to eat his mac and cheese.  Half of the macaroni is green shaded not the normal yellow color.  He refused to eat any of the green macaroni.  If he was able to separate the yellow macaroni from the green he would eat it but the green macaroni never got close to his mouth.  I also gave him a vegetable medley(peas, green beans carrots, potatoes) in addition to the mac and cheese.  The good news is that he picked the carrots out of the vegetables and ate those.  A light finally came on and we thought lets buy vegetables that aren't green and see if he will eat non-green vegetables.  So we will be going to the fruitier to buy whatever non-green vegetables they have in stock in the hope that Samuel will eat them.  Anyone have any advice as to how to break a toddler of a green food phobia?

The evening was better.  Julia had gone shopping earlier in the day and bought two slices of chateaubriand.  So I was outside grilling the meat and corn on the cob when the moon rose over the river and shone through the cherry trees in our backyard.  Very beautiful, serene and calming.  The memories of the fight over dinner quickly faded into the grey recesses of my mind.