I am reaping what I have sowed........

Yesterday morning(Saturday) I heard Samuel walking in the hallway. Suddenly the door to the room flung open and Samuel ran(as much as he can run in his sleepsack) to the edge of the bed and proceeded to crawl into bed with me.  It happened so quickly I did not have time to issue an invitation or to stop him.  This occurred about 0700.

Background-Friday morning Samuel had opened the door to the room and stood in the doorway until I said his name and he walked to the edge of the bed where I grabbed him and pulled him into the bed.  It was 0730 and almost time to get up.

A perfect morning?

It was a dark and snowy night(with apologies to Charles M. Schulz and Snoopy).  It was 0641 and my slumber was suddenly broken by the sound of the slow approach of the inchworm(the inchworm is Samuel's bedtime toy and two of its many attachments are a rattle and a bell).  As I rub the sawdust out of my eyes I realize that Samuel is standing outside the door to the room.  I can hear him breathing.  I hear him sucking on his pacifier(ala Maggie Simpson).  Okay, I promise no more pop culture references.

As I am contemplating whether to get up or let a standing Samuel stand, the door is quietly and slowly pushed open.  Revealing Samuel in the light from the downstairs hallway.  Samuel is wary to enter the room.  This is the first time he has opened the door but he has entered and destroyed the room on many previous occasions.  I slowly raise up on my left elbow.  Samuel sees this and begins to suck harder and faster on his pacifier.  I hold out my arms to Samuel and beckon him forward. "Good morning Samuel.  Do you want a hug?"  He walks to the edge of the bed and places his head on my hip and stretches his arms out wide to encircle my stomach.   I give him a kiss on the top of his fuzzy blonde head.

I then tell him that it is time to go back to bed.  He frowns and lowers the inchworm, without dropping it.  He slowly turns and begins the long trek to his room at the other end of the hall.  When he enters his room he stops, turns and begins to cry.  I get up and go to him.  When I enter his room he is standing with his arms outstretched above his head.  I offer him my right index finger which he tightly grasps in his left hand.  We  begin the short walk to his crib.  He crawls into the crib and I lift his legs and little behind into the crib and stroke his back.

I return to bed wondering why I waited so long to have a child.

-Dave

A bedtime story.....

Put Samuel to bed this evening with the usual routine.  Bath, book and bed starting around 2030 and finishing near 2100.  I then came downstairs to share some time with my wife and was scolded for talking too much while she was working on the computer so I headed upstairs with my book.  As  I neared the bottom of the stairs I could hear the inchworm above me, meaning that Samuel was out of bed.  My quiet but firm request of "Samuel, go to bed", was met with a resounding howl of protest.  As I start up the stairs I spy Samuel standing near the office door.  As I reach the top of the stairs I say again, "Samuel, time for bed" as I walk towards him with my finger extending toward him. He switches the worm to his other arm and grabs my finger and we slowly(as he is wearing his sleepsack and it is the only thing that slows him down when he walks/runs) walk toward his bedroom.  With a soft squeal of protest Samuel crawls through the opening of his crib, I help him swing his legs into the crib while I bend down and give him another good night kiss on the head.

-Dave

An extremely long post........

We are in the process of adapting to Julia being home and not working, well not working much as she takes about 1 phone call per day from work.  With Julia being home, doctors appointments and illness we have yet to be able to establish a routine.

The weekend we bought Samuel's new bed he contracted conjunctivitis and a slight ear infection.  This weekend he contracted gastro and Julia had it on Monday and I am recovering from it now.  Samuel became ill on Saturday evening, he vomited a few times and became lethargic.  Sunday was not any better as he vomited in the morning and we enjoyed a very peaceful day at home with Samuel laying on one of us for the entire day.  On Monday he appeared to be better so we resumed his normal routine of food which turned out to be a mistake.  His normal routine consists of fruit yogurts and petite suisse(A French yogurt children s dessert.) Unfortunately the reintroduction of milk so soon after the gastro causes a recurrence of vomiting on Tuesday morning.  This afforded us the opportunity to meet the British doctor in the nearby village of Croissy.  She seems very nice and has an easy to get to office.  Sometimes I forget the conveinence of life in france.  After Samuel and I left the doctor's office we drove to the Chatou city centre, parked and proceeded to go to the grocery(Super U) for bread and huedebert(small pieces of toast), the fruitier(for apple juice and fruit), the butcher(for diner for Julia and I) and the pharmacy(for Samuel's meds).  All of which are located within a 45 second walk of the parking lot for Super U.  We would have picked up a baguette for lunch but the boulangerie was closed for unknown reasons.


Julia and I had our next to last date night for awhile a few weeks ago.  We went to a 1 star restaurant near the Arc d'triomphe called Le Chiberta.  It was our most expensive meal ever but it was very, very good.  I had more black truffles that night then I had had in my entire life.  The only disappointment was that Julia was not able to partake in the wine portion of the tasting menu.


Our last official date night before the arrival of the twins will be on the 20th when we goto see Don Carlo at the Paris opera.  it is a 4 hour performance and we hope that Julia will be able to sit through the evening in comfort.  Julia's cousin, Fiona, is coming over from England for the weekend to watch Samuel so that we are able to spend the night in Paris and not have to rush back after the performance.


Samuel has finally adapted to the section being taken out of his crib.  In the evening he now goes to sleep almost immediately and does not roam around the upstairs.  In the morning,m if he wakes before us, he will roam the halls with his inchworm bell ringing so that we wake up.  He has yet to discover that he can actually enter our room and wake us up.  That I am sure will come soon.  His nap time is very inconsistent.  We put him in his crib around 1300 but he always gets out and plays(or drops his toys down the stairs) at the top of the stairs so that we know he is there. He usually falls asleep after about one hour but he falls asleep on the floor at the top of the stairs or outside the office door.  He is very cute when he does this as he is flat on his back with his legs flayed in a V shape and his arms stretched out at right angles from his body with the inch worm tightly grasped in one of his arms.


The other day we thought that Samuel said cookie but this would have been odd as neither of us use the word cookie.  After much thought(neither of us have been sleeping well) we determined that Samuel must be saying gouter(pronounced gootay) which is French for taste or snack.   A gouter is what the HG calls the afternoon snack that they give the kids.


Samuel has a girlfriend.  One day when I went to pick Samuel up at the HG I was standing at the inside door and Samuel was in the far corner.  Both the carer and I were calling him.  He ignored both of us.  A little girl, a few months older than Samuel, walked over to him, grabbed his hand and walked him to me at the door.  Very sweet.


One other day when I picked him up they told me that he was starting to get aggressive, pushing and sometime shitting the other kids but that this behavior is perfectly normal.  Which we already know as Samuel is quite aggressive with us, often hitting and throwing items when he does not get his way.   It tests our patience when he does this but we try to be calm and tell him that hitting and throwing is unacceptable behavior.

Samuel is French, Oh no!!!!......Part deux

This morning I was sitting on the couch with Samuel sitting on my lap facing me.  I asked him to give me a kiss and pointed to my right cheek.  He leaned in and gave me a very sweet kiss on the cheek.  He then leaned back, reflected for a moment and then leaned to his right, my left, and proceeded to lean toward me and kiss me on the other cheek.

Samuel is French, Oh no!!!!

Samuel and I took a walk to the boulangerie this morning so that Julia could sleep in.  It was a beautiful morning as the sun was rising and the snow(Yes, it is snowing again in the city where it never snows!) was gently falling.  A very enjoyable but crisp walk.  When we returned I asked Samuel to carry the baguette into the kitchen which he did enthusiastically.  When he returned to the front door I was in the process of removing my coat and shoes, so I handed him the bag containing our croissants and pains au chocolat and asked him to carry those into the kitchen.  Big mistake.

After I had finished taking of my coat and shoes I rounded the corner and spied Samuel standing in the living room with the bag on the living room table and a croissant in his hand.  Samuel had not only taken a croissant out of the bag, he had torn off one end of the croissant and was eating it while trailing crumbs all over the floor.  This is very much the French way of eating a croissant, not the crumbs, but the tearing off of a corner and eating a criossant by pieces is very French.

We need to move soon.

Glory, glory, Samuel slept through the night for the first time since we removed a section of his crib.  The downside is that he is no longer taking 2 hour naps in the afternoon.  For his naps we take him upstairs and leave him alone. He almost immediately crawls out of his crib and walks to the top of the stairs carrying his inchworm(it makes noise when he walks).  He then proceeds to sit there, quietly, sucking on his pacifier, patiently waiting for one of us to come and get him.

One hour later.  Had to go pick up Samuel early from HG.  He picked up conjunctivitis last Sunday and had been feeling better since then.  But the HG called saying that he had had a very runny diaper and was acting very apathetic.  So I went to get him.  When I walked in he looked very tired and pale(but he is half British).  I asked him to come to me and he went to one of the carers and gave her on of his patented leg hugs.  I was only slightly devastated.

Yesterday was family haircut day.  My hair was cut first so that Samuel could see that it is fun to have one's haircut.  When we had had our haircut individually both of us had failed to notice that our coiffure has a small table and chairs with toys for kids to play with.  While I was getting my haircut Julia was sitting with Samuel playing at the table.  When my hair was finished the stylist cut Samuel's hair at the table while he was playing with the toys.  He was very happy while his hair was being cut.

Last Saturday Julia and i went to see Invictus.  We had wanted to see it for awhile.  When Samuel and I were at the city centre shopping on Saturday morning I happened to walk by the city centre movie theatre and noticed that, not only, was it playing Invictus, it was playing in V.O.(version originale).  Which means it is English with french subtitles.  Great to discover that our local theatre plays movies in English.  We had thought that our only option was to travel to the Champs Elyssee to see movies in English.

Very French moment on Thursday(yesterday).  Samuel and I went to the city centre to shop.  One of our stops was at the cheese shop.  A women entered the shop before us.  Fifteen minutes later we were finally able to place our order.  This woman ordered 92 euros of cheese.