Creative endeavor for the day

The fact that we know we will soon be leaving Dijon has made me feel suddenly a little attached and nostalgic...figures...huh!!!

LML and I took a walk today to see a film and I took some photos on the way back.

This is the alley we normally take to the historic central area of Dijon. Our path winds its way in and out of ruelles (allies) mostly cobbled and mostly pedestrian, always lovely and quiet and always lots to look at. This particular alley leads past the famous owl carved on the side of Notre Dame, not visible but just to the left. It was vandalized some years ago and is now video monitored 24 hours a day.
The owl, which as legend or history has it, was gently stroked by Napoleon on his way past and which is rumoured to give the modern stroker great luck as well.

Lily was cavorting around the front of the church while I was trying to photograph the gargoyles suspended on the front. Notice how all the sculpture at the top of the arch ways has been chipped off by angry peasants during the french revolution.



The rows of gargoyles are fantastically tortured looking creatures, maimed and looking in great agony, and there are many more than I was able to capture in this shot. I can only imagine the energy and effort put into the design and creation of these frightening images, undoubtedly the average souls reward in hell for errant deeds.



This is the main square in Dijon, Francois Rude with its bronze statue and fountain and the ever turning carousel.



Lily hamming it up on the way home.

Scientific Eye Candy

Lily and I had some business in Paris on Friday, so we took the train in early and decided to stay and make a day of it.

We went to the Cite des Sciences, Paris’s ENOURMOUS science centre, cited in what used to be the cities old slaughterhouse lands.

It is an enormous structure (7 hectares) about 14 acres and on 4 levels, flanked by a reflective Geo-dome theatre and criss-crossed by futuristic pathways that seem suspended in air.
























Its industrial architecture is reminiscent of the Pompidou museum but it has a more urban ultra modern feel, and it is situated in an equally large park peppered with more activities for families and children than we had time to explore.

We lunched
























We watched movies





















And we explored.

It was great to just hang out and have some quality time with little miss Lily.

The museum itself explores traditional areas of science but also has some interesting galleries devoted to images which in turn are linked to an exhibition all about light, as well as a fascinating exhibit devoted to extraterrestrial life. According to several prominent scientists, the immense size of our universe and the sheer number of planets that possess the building blocks of life indicates that extraterrestrial life is most probable.

I LOVE that.

Two alternative intergalactic worlds have been constructed in a virtual reality animation with postulations regarding climate, and local flora and fauna. The animation is projected from the ceiling onto an immense waist height platform which we could move around and touch the images to manipulate the display. Very cool; scientific eye candy. We, needless to say, were there for quite a while.
























Plus Lily got to say hi to her FAVORITE guy…(besides her Daddy that is)….E.T.

Finally

The children have been accepted at the International School of Hannover Region after MUCH telephoning and more than a little wrangling on my part.
Because of course anyone who knows me knows I give up after the first try and I am NOT AT ALL PUSHY…

*ahem*

It seems that though our kids academic status did not pose a problem, the school was pretty much chock a block full to capacity…which did not bode to well. The program at the International School is quite rich as compared to most other local schools. The children will study Music, Art, have Phys Ed, (anyone over there griping about your kids education realize that YOU HAVE IT GOOD) and another language. They do something cool called “Unit Study” which essentially is take one subject and learn everything about it applying all areas of study. I liked the idea. I must confess the school at first glance was a little too glossy for me as I tend to prefer things a little bit more basic with a bit more of a mixed bag regarding the student body. But hey even though it is my life’s quest; it’s never perfect!!!

There is also a Montessori School in Hannover and the kids were able to go there as well, but the only draw back to that was that the school is only in German, as well as the fact that the school is VERY small and VERY new. From a stimulation and sensory perspective it would have been the perfect place for Lily, but for Riel?? We had to ask ourselves how much we wanted Riel to struggle to play catch up in German when we knew it is not likely a language he will continue to use.

So in the end after much angst…since we never REALLY felt like we had enough information to make a good decision and since one never really knows how the kids will fit in we decided that the more robust curriculum in a more established school in English might be the best bet, for now and even though we love the tenents of Montessori.

My little compromise for myself (and the kids) is to try to get my hands on some Montessori Method books and try to do some of the sensorial work at home.

I feel a great sense of relief at having made that decision as pretty much the rest of our life in Germany hinges on the geographic location of the school since Hannover is a bit gridlocked and G*d forbid we end up in the wrong spot. So now we can make some decisions regarding housing. We will rent as we have been doing in Dijon, as buying is a difficult proposition not knowing the area or the real estate market well enough not to get caught.

We have seen lots of houses and apartments, and I must confess it is a bit discouraging (like everywhere else I guess) first the process of understanding what is available for what money and where. There is a little too much burgundy tile and icky 70’s shag around for my liking…

I will be glad to know when we will actually box up and go and where we will all be laying our heads. Finally.

More Stars

I few months ago we decided (that would be unilaterally ME) that we needed to implement some sort of system to allow for discussion and encouragement of the tasks that we face around here on a daily basis.

So we implemented the "Star" system. You can check it out on a previous post here.

It has been fabulously successful and I must confess my kids have mastered most of the things on the list so well, with all the positive reinforcement, we have pretty much outgrown it. My kids have been bugging me to revamp the list of things that can be done well to earn stars because they loved it so much. One or two stars get rewarded for each thing during the day done well and can be traded up for all sorts of good things.

Both the kids and I loved the fact that at the end of the day we got to connect in a really nice way. I loved the fact that no matter how cruddy the day had been I was able to help them end on a good note and give some positive feedback about all the stuff well done. It provided a great opportunity for us all to feel as though we were making some progress mastering the things that typically had become sore spots.

Riel and I sat down and chatted about what else we could add to the list in a more general way and this is what we came up with going forward.

I think it looks pretty good.

I am looking forward to talking to them about some of these topics in a concrete way.

Star List #2

CONSIDERATION= Showing kindness and thinking of others
Unsolicited act of kindness like sharing
Showing empathy by comforting
Letting other’s go first
Helping others

RESPECT= Showing others we value them
Listening attentively by focusing our attention
Letting others know we hear and understand with eye contact
Letting others know we hear and understand by responding
Letting others do the things they need to do by giving space

Dignity=Letting other’s know we value ourselves
Talking about our feelings
Making sure we use appropriate words to be understood
Keeping a positive attitude
Not arguing

Manners=Showing we respect others by using polite behaviour
Saying please and thank you
Using cutlery properly
Allowing others to speak
Keeping our elbows off the table

Responsibility=Taking care of ourselves
Getting up on our own, Getting dressed on our own, Making our own beds
Figuring out what we need and asking for what we need
After an activity putting what we used, the things away
Organizing our things for the next activity-thinking ahead
Taking care of our own stuff

BEING PART OF THE TEAM=helping out
Making a meal
Helping with a meal
Cleaning a bathroom
Setting the table
Clearing the table
Offering to help

Aren't you glad you don't live at our house!!!

Good to be Home...

I am here this weekend after all...what with a combination of Lily being sick again , a snowstorm and being just plain pooped from house hunting non stop...it just seemed just too good to cancel my ticket and stay at home. So I did.

On my way home from Hanover on Tuesday, Dijon and the area experienced an uncharacteristic snowfall...which typically brings the city to a standstill.

The train home from Paris took 5 hours instead of 1 1/2 due to the snow which was a little exasperating especially since I ran out of book after an hour or so. So instead of arriving home at 9 ish the train pulled in at midnight.

Dijon was shrouded in a beautiful cloak of midnight light and a lacy haze of snow, and the streets were so greasy with ice and snow and the line up for cabs was at least an hour long, so I decided to bundle up and walk. I always LOVE being out in crazy inclement weather, usually because I am the only one out there. It was hard going in the unploughed streets dragging my bag through the thick snow but I could not resist stopping to take some photos.

The Palais Des Ducs de Bourgogne shrouded in snow.

When I arrived Home TBG had a nice cosy fire to curl up by and a warm drink....Ahhhh...good to be home.

Today at dinner we had a lovely pork shoulder cooked with herbs and steeped in it's own juices.

It was DELICIOUS.

Even better since it had been cooked by TBG. Gosh I LOVE that...

Riel as of late has taken quite an interest in the affairs of the kitchen.

The dialogue went something like this...

Me:Honey that is SO yummy...how ever did you cook it?

TBG: Mmmm... (mouth full) Don't remember... (he never does...)

Me: I mean what did you put in it... It is SO good...(sipping wine)

Riel : (listening intently...)

TBG with a full mouth: Can of beer....

Riel (chimes in quickly with a very quizzical look on his face):

BUT DAD...How do you get a Camembert in there...??

!! LOL

Time to leave France...No??

Trying to get a profile photo posted...

Spring Flowers

Oooh... the daffodils have just broken the surface here...I heard them go POP!!! out.

Here is a craft we did yesterday in honor of the flowers to come...

I LOVE spring...

Scone?

Lily is going through what shall we say is a "Sensitive" food period...it has been going on for a while now and ooooh, as patient as I am, I am beginning to loose it...the patience that is.

It usually starts out as some quiet whining, then escalates to something a bit louder and more difficult to ignore. About midway through the meal after she has succeeded in garnering everyone at the tables attention she starts telling me that she is "full" even though she has eaten almost nothing on her plate and is still carrying around the "before-dinner-when-I-was-still-grumpy-and-hungry-look" on her face. I have tried ignoring it, I know it is stage that WILL PASS...but arghh!!

Today after exactly the same routine and with her plate (on which there was origionally only a teeny tiny portion) still more than half full I decided to let it go and ...well, not worry about it. When I offered her a tiny piece of freshly baked scone she immediately gobbled it up, promptly asked for another with Jam.

!!!

I am loathe to admit that I am being manipulated by my children as I prefer to think of it as them expressing their needs in a child's way...(any way they can and who can blame them) but I must confess I think I am being dangled a bit and ...and well... I guess she got me, (right where she wants me) again...

The Big Day!!

Hey!!

Look what happened when Santa came down the chimney!!!

Evidence!!!!

Whoa!!! (as heard from upstairs while we are still snoozing upstairs...)

Look at ALL this stuff!!

(I promised myself I would keep it down to a dull roar..but as usual it always seems to get away from me...)



Lily opening up a gift with enclosed Barbie doll clothes from Mommie's old things...

made for me by MY mom...

(we won't even go into how long ago THAT was...)

Preparation for the big day

Doing a little last minute shopping at the Dijon markets for the big feed...*er*... um meal

Food is pretty important here like at home...extra hours...

My favourite veggie stall...

Figures afer 2 1/2 years of coming almost every week...

They finally figured out we are regulars and offered me a discount card...



Kiddie cake...

The night before Christmas...

I know it is a little after the fact...better late than never...no?

The children preparing Santa and the reindeer's snack...

let's see, some apple and carrots and....

I guess there will be some cookies and a touch of milk.

Oh yeah, classic,

there is the milk, cookies and a nicely peeled carrot.

Reading Santa is coming to town... It looks pretty intense no?

HEY!!!! ....

Who's that?

Skating

The kidlets skating at the open air rink just a few hundred metres from our house.

Lily's first time on skates. She started out with cheese cutters and one of thise kiddie-contraptions that helps them stand up. One moment when we were not watching she decided to skate across the rink to get another one that she liked the looks of a bit better...

HEY!!....I thought you couldn't skate...(you three year old you!)as she zoomed around...!!

Riel is like Crash Charley, lots of speed and copious enthusiasm but no abilty to stop. He goes all out and then just slams into the boards to stop himslef...

Whatever works for ya!!

Christmas in France with the children

A trip to Strasbourg to the christmas market was lots of fun, here the children watch the Giant Manege Noel, while we wandered the city's different Marche de Noel which sold anything for kids candy to decorations to regional foods to crafts.

Strasbourg in close to the border of Gwermany, is about a 3 hour drive from Dijon, and is famous for its Christmas Markets.



Then as it darkened we wandered the streets searching for the perfect gifts, admiring the lights, sipping hot mulled wine and looking for a little nibble.
It was Magical.



One of the Markets we visited was a Romanian craft market and we were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of some regional dancers with enourmous bells tied around waists singing and parading around. Lily was not too sure of them...



This is a shot of the Christmas Train in Dijon, as we also have a Marche de Noel here.

Buche Noel

WE are just buzzing with Christmas preparations over here I tell you. I am teaching Riel to cook and we made a Buche Noel together last week, even did chocolate leaves...

check it out,

It was Yummy!!!

5 Euro Baby

Whew...sorry it has been sooo long...

So the tooth finally came out, only took about a week, and happened a bit by accident.



During roller-blading class at school he fell face first onto a jump and guess what...yep...it fell out right then and there. I think the poor child was a little traumatized by the abruptness of it all...Good news is the tooth was found and the tooth fairy paid up a whole 5 Euros for that baby.


Like Beth said the first one is worth more and I think I can go with that.

Our little guy is growing up!!

Urgent: Tooth Fairy needed

“Hey Mom!!”

“I have WIGGLY tooth!!”

He rushes over to me; immediately I give it the wiggle test and sure enough it is moving a LITTLE tiny bit.

Riel had been asking me for a while when it was going to happen to him as one of his best buddies has been all toothless and whistley-like for a while now.

After that came a barrage of questions like what happens next and does it hurt, how do the new teeth arrive and what do we do with the old ones and so on.

So of course we launch into the whole entire Tooth Fairy thing (and all you experienced parents out there are going to have to help me out here) the tooth under the pillow, fairy finds baby tooth and leaves a little something.

Riel’s eyes are getting wider and wider…

I for one have a few questions…

1) How does the “Tooth Fairy” find a tooth the size of a grain of Kat-kibble under the head of a sleeping child’s pillow in the dark??

2) What is the going rate for the tooth fairy these days?

3) Does the Tooth Fairy wear anything special? (Yes loaded question I know...)

4) What does the Tooth Fairy do with the Kat-kibble after he/she has retrieved it…surely the reappearance of any particular tooth that a parent might happen to be attached to might just blow the Tooth Fairy’s cover….? (No?)

When I mentioned casually that ALL of his teeth would eventually fall out and be replaced his eyes widened in surprise…and a little bit of concern…

“Ohhhhh…”

Then it was all real quiet like.

…………..,

“Can I watch TV Mom?”

“Sure Honey”

Riel climbs the stairs and sits on the top step so he can see the TV and a mirror and proceeds to watch TV and check on his tooth every 60 seconds or so.

“Watchya doing honey?”

“I don’t want to miss it when it falls out…!!”

Silently to self….Oops…forgot that part…

Boxed In

The tedium…the humdrum…it is starting to get grey and chilly here (plus the chocolate is all gone) …*yawn* and it’s not even February yet…

My kids are at school all day today and so far I have had a German lesson, lunch and a nap. Not so good. Sort of gearing up for a crazy weekend as we have some of our friend’s children for two days and TBG comes home today (at least that’s my excuse). Somehow I always feel compunction to have the house compulsively tidy whenever he gets home…sort of like I feel we need to rack up against Sofitel…(*Chuh*)…like he has not seen our place a mess and like it is my job…*ughhh*

Gosh gotta get to the laundry, run some errands-sort out dinner yada-yada-yada…

Whatever

My kids more specifically. Riel is utterly, utterly absorbed right now with making houses out of cardboard boxes. On my last trip to Ikea I came home with a slick office chair which of course included a nifty kid sized carton and the lights I bought also included even niftier doll sized boxes. Quick as a blink Riel had fashioned himself a set of carving knives out of Lego, (really)…with such an imagination the child will never lack for anything that’s for sure, and he instantly set to work carving out openings and fitting little boxes into big ones and constructing all manner of magic access panels and such.

This cardboard box thing has reached epic proportions and has been going on endlessly for about two weeks now. Every time I go into the play room, nay even turn around, he and Lily have built an entire subdivision out of a combination of boxes, the play table, its chairs, a compilation of the dissected elements of both their beds including the foam mattresses and blankets. The room is FULL. He has his quiet time in there all fortressed up, roofed in under some sort of contrived combination of things, having dragged in his comforter and Cleo. One day I walked in to discover him on the floor lying IN the barely big enough box on its side head-first-with-just-his-bum-hanging-out happy as a clam. Very funny.

All well and good. But the mess and subsequent Mommy driven reconstruction bi-daily not too mention the constant distraction from the things-that-must-be-done is driving me INSANE. Every time I turn around it is like a Greenspan building site in there and the child cannot walk past any of it without completely losing his way. I have threatened to pitch the whole kit and caboodle, as it is driving me crazy, but can’t quite bring myself to do it as they are deriving such obvious pleasure from it all.

Yesterday I picked up something downtown that had been ordered and had arrived (god forbid) in a box. Riel was with me and his eyes instantly lit up. He timidly asked the sales clerk if he could have the box.

“Oh yes, yes” she breathed in her French-sales-clerky way…”Ve have many many boxes here, you can always come and pick up as many as you like…

Gingerbread

Sort of a ho hum day today, the children are really tired as the week moves along. They have been fighting, gosh it makes me want to just wrap them up tight in blankets with just their heads sticking out, end the day and just put them to bed for the night…which by the way is what I have done albeit after baths and dinner with their little limbs loose and unfettered…as normal.

Anyway got through all the whining and screaming without loosing my cool…pat on the back for me.

TBG is in Germany until Thursday for the second or third week in a row and I must confess this routine is getting a little tiring.

Lily and I prepared all the dough for our annual ginger bread Christmas activities this year. I hope to do a little house, some big kid shaped cookies for the children to decorate and cookies to eat and gift.
I love doing this every year and it has become a bit of a tradition. I love the smell and the tang of the ginger and the silky feel of the dough. It was fun doing this with Lily though at one point it was getting a little scary with two bowls of unmixed dough, a bowl or two of flour and other ingredients lurking around and a big sink of goopy water, what with her intense desire to have one hand in every pot as it were. Lily had a great time in the mess, watching the mixer do its efficient job, sifting and stirring and washing.

So now we have a great big bowl of dough all ready to go, waiting for little hands to shape, form, bake and eat.

Oui Oui

My BIG girl made her very own bed this morning and when I went into her room after she had left for school this morning this is what I found.



So sweet!!

This and That

The children’s star system is working brilliantly; we have been doing it for about a month now. The kid’s love it and it has had the desired effect of changing my focus from harping endlessly about all the stuff that is bugging me to chatting more about what we like to see…(it just occurred to me maybe I needed it more then they did!! *cringe*…)
In any case we have had to revamp the rewards section a bit do some tweaking and fine tuning as they were doing so very well it was getting a bit ripe around here with rewards.
I would have to say overall there has been a pretty dramatic improvement on the behavior front and they are now actually dreaming up new “GOOD” things to do to earn stars.
Gotta love it.

On an entirely different front we have had a little trouble in paradise. TBG went up to the caravan a few weekends ago to discover that it had been broken into. Nothing to serious for us but not only had it been broken into but several others as well and one of them even had been set to fire, burning it right to the ground. It seems all that was left was but a charred frame with only the fenders left (not even the tires) causing its two propane canisters to explode turning them into nice tidy little missiles that were discovered several tens of metres away. Apparently the culprits were 3 local boys aged 12-16 who were found at the scene in the middle of the afternoon.

As a parent can you IMAGINE????

Halloween 06

I must confess I am a bit remiss in not posting our Halloween pics. We had our party over a month ago, a joint effort by our Mother's group. It was awesome, we rented a hall, and had the entire thing decorated and ready to go in just over an hour an d half. Each mom took on one responsibility and supplied a game, some food and helped with the set up. It was a blast and everyone had LOTS of fun. Pics as follows.

The Mummy wrapping contest.
























Princess Lily in her papier mache crown























Some Faery Friends!!



















Knight Riel in the papier mache helmet




























What exactly I am doing bellowing with this role of toilet paper in my hand is not clear...but in *ahem* any case....

a good time was had by all!!

"Sheepskin"

Today Riel was at school all day and I kept Lily home for the afternoon. She has been having trouble going to sleep the past few nights and last night for the first time ever she was talking about all the things she felt afraid of. Imagine almost four years old and never a word before about fear?

I sort of felt like my absence in Chicago this last weekend kind of made her feel a bit on shaky ground. Now you see Mommy.....Now you don't kind of thing.

Soooo anyway I decided to keep her with me this afternoon so we could spend a little bit of girlie time together. Well girlie time turned out to be an afternoon at Ikea buying a new office chair for Mommy to try to seduce Mommy's back back up to work in her office again...apparently in so far as unsuccessful as evidenced by semi reclined typist on heating pads on the couch writing blog entries while the kids sleep...*ahem* anywhoo..back to the story...

Lily is so cheerful and so interested in it ALL, we had a great time poking around, touching, feeling and chattering about everything there (plus Mom kinda likes Ikea too...)

At one point we came across a big bin of fluffy sheepskin pelts for bedside carpets to warm early-morning-just-out-of-bed-toes and Lily was very happy to stop and feel how lovely and soft they were.

I explained to her that they were sheepskins.

Lily looked sharply at me with her big chocolate coloured eyes wrinkled into a puzzled expression and said "But Mommy, the sheeps can't put them on ....because there aren't any sheeps around here!!"

LOL

More on Annie

Today Riel is feeling yucky...

He has a fever and the chills, a headache and a yucky tummy.

Poor guy.

I called his teacher to let her know that he would be staying home for the afternoon, and she said that she could see he was tired and not feeling very well.

The she said "Give him a big kiss for me and I hope he feels better soon."

(In french of course...)

She IS so sweet!!

Annie

They were very excited to go back to school after our 10 day break near Halloween.

They looked so sweet all dressed up and ready to go...of course you know how hard it is to get little kids to stand still for a picture...what with all the goofing going on.

Sort of special too; Lily is wearing a kilt that my Mom made me that I wore on my very first day of school ...

One day last week Riel said to me breathily....

"Oh Mom... I can't wait to go back to school..."

"Why Riel, Do you really like it?"

"Yes I do , but I really can't wait to see my teacher Annie... sigh"

Team Bowling the French way...

Team bowling, we went with our friends from New Jersey. The kids had a blast, we played air hockey, ate a yummy lunch and the kids learned how to bowl...Corny but very very fun...Riel won!!