Chaine Family's Busy Week!

Whenever I think of an appropriate title for these things, I get the feeling I must be plagiarizing a Richard Scary story! When I scan the post after publishing, I almost expect to see a drawing of Sgt. Murphy standing on a big pile of cars with a tuba instead of a whistle...

But last week really was busy! honest!
On Tuesday of last week, Papi and Bonne Maman came down for a short visit between work in Toulouse and vacation with friends near Montpellier. They surprised Adrien by picking him up from school in the afternoon and he showed them around his classroom. They have turtles in their class (a 7 year old and a 13 year old....which leads to a combined age similar to that of the students!) and Adrien was very excited to show them to his grandparents. Since there is no school on Wednesdays for the little ones, Adrien got to take advantage of all the extra attention from having 3 grandparents in one spot! Then Thursday morning, the influx of visitors dropped off. Grandma Pam flew back to California after a 1 month visit and Papi and Bonne Maman headed off to Montpellier. And then the house seemed eerily calm....and we realized that we are on our own for this 2 kid-parenting thing! Yikes!

The departure of grandparents also means that Adrien is not getting a constant influx of presents. So far it seems to be ok and he has not been asking if there are any "cadeaux" for him at random times (yes...we have come to random solicitation of presents with the full expectation that one might actually appear!). One of the recent big hits was the white board/ chalk board from Grandma Pam for Adrien to do art on. His first project was to draw Grandma Pam - which was either very unflattering or a fabulous masterpiece in Picaso's style!

 Another hit was a book of short fairy-tale stories (Les Petites Histoires du Pere Castor) that Papi and Bonne Maman thought he might grow into - but it has taken its place as the primary bed-time book....and morning time book....and mid-day and afternoon and... OK...so we're getting a bit sick of Pere Castor and thinking that we might have to actually get him another book as a cadeaux! The stories are fun...but not 3 times a day!

 

With the (relative) calm settling in and the sense of relief that Aliena's nightly fussiness is no longer nightly (we hope to have dodged what was shaping up to be a case of colic!), we have managed to get in a few walks and visits with friends. We sometimes forget how amazingly beautiful it is here and how lucky it has been to end up in a spot where we get to experience a very different world from what we have seen elsewhere - but walks remind us of all of that. Its also the nicest time of year here (and not just because the tourists have left) and we've tried to take in the sun before winter settles in. Over the weekend we managed to sit outside a bit at our friends Susi and Felix's place while the boys (Adrien and Julius) played cars, piano, and dump all the toys on the floor... (and Adrien special!).

The calm also means that I managed to get my camera and the kids in the same room for a short while....

Aliena is still growing fast -- did I mention she already put on over 1kg in barely a month? Aliena is also getting very strong (she holds her head no problem and can support her own substantial weight on her own two legs for a few seconds) and starting to become more interactive, smiley, and cuddly. She has also acquired a taste for fashion...or at least her mommy has for her...