More Samuel

This is a picture taken of Samuel as he woke up this Tuesday(10/28).  Somehow he had managed to take his favorite toy and lay it across his back.  Yes, he is always that happy when he wakes up in the morning.  One morning this week his diaper leaked profusely and his sleep sack was soaked and he was lying on a soaked sheet. When I went to get him out of his crib, he was still smiling and happy.

Everyone, even our pediatrician, says that we will eventually pay for his overly happy personality but we are enjoying it while we can.

Samuel's personality may change today(1/11) as today is the first day of his new diet.  Today Samuel will begin eating solids(we hope). We will start him with a few teaspoons of rice cereal and then move on to pureed vegetables.  Will report back later with pictures and an account of the adventure.

Been gone for far too long.....

First things first.

Samuel had his 6 month check-up on October 28th.  All is well.  He weighed in at 7.3 Kg and with a length of 67.5 cm.  Converted he is 16.1 lbs. and 26.1 inches.  His length is still 50% but his weight has fallen to the 25%. Our doctor is not worried as he is eating well and often.  We think because he is such an active baby that he burns a lot of calories.  He doesn't sleep much which also contributes to his burning of calories.

s. This is a picture of Samuel taken today(10/31) which shows him laying next to his 6 month handprints.  I love my conniving, deceitful go behind my back wife.  The plate is a gift to me from Julia and Samuel that she spent last Saturday morning arranging.  Of course, I knew nothing about it.

Halloween did not meet expectations.  The trick-or-treat we were supposed to attend today was severely affected by the weather.  It has been raining for 2 days with the high temperatures hovering around 5-7c (40-43f).  It was just too cold and wet to take him out for trick or treating especially considering the parc was a 20 minute drive, in good weather conditions.

Samuel did have a halloween experience on the 29th.  A group on the west side of Paris had a mall intimate(20 kids!) halloween party.  Samuel and I attended and again Samuel was the youngest in attendance.  The 4 parents(me and 3 moms) with young kids sat in a corner while the moms with bigger kids made halloween bags and went trick or treating through the apartment.  Quite hilarious actually to see the kids knocking on bedroom and bathroom doors asking for candy.

I must remember it is all about the relationship

Getting things done in Paris is all about building relationships. All the books say so, so it must be true.

Of course, no one remembers me but they do remember Samuel.  I refer to him as my get out of jail free card as I can say and do just about anything and as long as Samuel is with me my bad behavior will be tolerated.

For the last two days I have gone to our local butcher and the first day I was greeted rather coldly, today I was greeted with a smile.  Of course, it may have helped that I purchased a lot more today.

I have also been shopping at the outdoor market at the Place de Marche and I have been utilizing a single produce vendor.  Today the vendor talked to me in English and I tried to respond in french.  He asked where I was from and he told me he was from Egypt.  He also tried to educate me on how to order produce.  I hope I remember for my next visit.

Guy Fawkes in Paris

We will be able to celebrate Guy Fawkes day this year.  There is an English speaking sports club southwest of Paris that has an annual barbecue and bonfire to celebrate Guy Fawkes day.  They invite members from the message mothers support group that we belong to attend.  We will not only be able to celebrate the day it will also provide us with an opportunity to make new friends.

Preacher update

I was doing laundry on Thursday.  As Samuel and I went out twice during the day it was a day long endeavour to complete the laundry.  

While Julia and I were sitting down for dinner I thought that I had not seen Preacher since early in the morning but since she has a tendency to find a hiding place and not be seen for hours I was not overly concerned.

As I was folding and putting away the final load at 11PM I opened my sock drawer and Preacher came scrambling out.  I almost had a heart attack as this black ball of fur came flying out of my sock drawer without a sound.  I should have known something was wrong when I was fixing dinner as I kept hearing noises from the bedroom which sounded like someone walking on the floor.  Since I saw no one or thing in the bedroom I was convinced that we had a ghost.  Of course, it was Preacher trying to open the sock drawer.  I had to re-arrange my sock drawer this morning as Preacher had scrambled all of my socks into one unrecognizable pile.

Bad cat, very bad cat.

Samuel update

First, no teeth yet.  Based on the amount of drool Samuel is producing teeth cannot be far away.

Last night (Thursday) we were tired and we decided to eat diner on the couch so we could watch the season finale of project runway and still get to bed early.  While we were eating Samuel was in his bouncy seat next between the couch and the table.  On the corner of the table were the papers from the days mail.  Samuel was a contortionist in his efforts to reach above him to his left to grab the papers.  He became very frustrated as he was unable to accomplish this on his own.  When Julia gave him one sheet of paper he gave us a huge smile and he began to crumple the paper and throw it around his head.  Why did we spend so much money on toys when he gets so much enjoyment from a solitary piece of paper?

Today he has spent quite a bit of time on his activity mat.  The activity mat is a soft mat with two arches that intersect above the mat.  From these arches, toys dangle that he can grab and play with.  There are holes in the arches that the toys loop through.  Today he has taken one of the toys off the arch 3 times.  He is advancing far too fast for me.

I cannot believe that in 6 days he will be 6 months old.

-Dave

Life of a working Mum

There is something very bittersweet about being a working Mum. Last night, as soon as Samuel saw me walk through the door, he turned towards me, stopped fussing and started laughing. It is very reassuring to know that maybe he misses me (ok... well maybe just his food source!) as much as I miss him during the day. It must be hard for Dave to be ignored when I walk into the room - but then I am sure that during the day Samuel smiles and laughs at him probably even more. I just hope that I don't miss too much of Samuel's development while I am at work. Last night we saw him reach out for the first time for something other than his favorite toy. It was just a piece of paper on the side of the table, but he was contorting himself in his bouncy seat and reaching out to try to get hold of it. When I moved it a bit closer to him, he grabbed it and was so pleased with himself that he was laughing and waving the paper around... before scrunching it up and twisting it into unrecognizable shapes (note to ourselves: we're in trouble... things may no longer be safe around our growing boy!). [Edit: I just noticed when I posted this that Dave posted an update on Samuel today also - see below :-)]

Work itself is going fine. It's getting very busy as I've now learned enough about the role and the business to have a clear idea of what I want to do - and there is a lot to do. It will be a demanding job as the business is not in great shape and while there are a lot of tangible things I can do, most of these require the help of a lot of other people - and I will need to both get their support to new ways of working and help to change the overall culture. The hardest thing is to find the time to do everything that I want to do. I want to spend all the time I can with my son. I want to have time to enjoy my life with Dave. I want to invest the time in my work to get great results... because the best results also help take care of my family. But there is never enough time in a day to do all of these things, and sleep certainly suffers as it is the lowest priority.

It is quite a shock to move from a US work culture to a French one - even if they are part of the same multi-national company. France seems more formal and more hierarchy-conscious than what I was used to in the US. On the one hand that means they are better-dressed (!) - on the other this means that there is much less of a sense of 'team' and of 'fun' / good-humoured casual banter when we work together. They are also very intellectual... very focused on understanding the detail of things, enjoy having a debate about it (in great detail), and want to have everything perfect before moving forward. It does not seem to come naturally to them to confront the harsh reality of things, figure out the top few things we need to do to improve it, and get on with doing something about it ASAP. I have to figure out how to get to a good mix of adapting myself to the culture here but also adapt the culture to one that I believe is most productive.

I've already been to Geneva a couple of times for work. It's hard to leave Dave and Samuel, but it also makes me realize how lucky we are that we are able to have one of us be a stay at home parent. My functional boss is a woman who is just recently getting divorced and she clearly has some significant struggles to manage the care needs for her elementary-school aged children. I am still managing to breast-feed Samuel - and take the time during the day to pump while at work. The great thing is that I am able to do it hands-free... so I can work at my laptop at the same time! It isn't easy though - I sometimes have to walk out of meetings or try to fit it in quickly between things. It's also quite unusual in France to have someone breastfeeding for so long (only 53% of French women do, and most of them stop after 3 months) - so they probably think I'm quite strange! I have to admit that while I will miss feeding Samuel it will definitely make life a bit easier at work.

It has been fun seeing all of my old friends from Europe again at work. At these meetings in Geneva I keep bumping in to people that I haven't seen in years - many of whom I got to know in different countries. It will also be great to start to see more of our friends again - now that we have moved in and the hotel is open for business! Bookings are coming in... so we wait to hear from you!