They grow up so fast

Seriously. 

That is one phrase that I hear so much that I wish I had a euro for every time I’ve heard it. 

Kinnerly is potty training and she has done so well that she just runs into the potty all by herself about every 10 minutes and takes off her undies and sits on the toilet like she is a pro. I hope it lasts. I think it will!

She did very well yesterday until we went to a play date. But, I forgive her for that because they had a dog that was smaller than a kitten and every time she saw it running around she tilted her head sideways and said “aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh! soooooo ceeeuuuuttteeee!” in the littliest whiny voice every. I just gave up and put her in a diaper. No big deal. I figure she has been so good for 2 days, I will let her have a diaper for the evening. 

On the other hand, I had to finally tell Brannan that our dog, Leia, died when we were in Arizona and that she isn’t at the “doggy doctor” anymore. I just keep putting it off more and more and I am glad that I was wearing sunglasses this morning as I was trying to explain to him what happened to her. I, of course, sugar coated it – okay, probably CAKED it in sugar, but I used the words “she died” and that was really hard for me to do. Even for me. He doesn’t really have any sort of concept of death, but he says the word all the time, which is so sad to me, but I guess that is just how kids are. Especially in this day and age of movies and video games and other kids and whatnot. 

They really are growing up too fast though. 

I swear, after I came back from my trip to Florida, it seemed like Kinnerly was speaking a thousand more words than I left her with. She has been going to the zipline parks and doing all the “big kid” adventures when she is supposed to be 3 to do them! Brannan has been back-talking to me like no tomorrow too – which I am not very happy with, but we are working out consequences for his actions right now. 

Plus, my heart swells whenever someone speaks to him in French and he totally understands and answers back to them – in FRENCH! 

He is reading now – sounding out words more and more. I hear him sounding out street signs in the car when he thinks I’m not listening. 

Kinnerly has an imagination unlike her brother’s. She pretends to serve food to her babies, pretends to play with imaginary kids and can amuse herself unlike Brannan ever did. They are two different kids, that is for sure. 

Every day I tell Brannan’s teachers that I am scared for him to go to the next grade. They tell me not to worry, that he is more than prepared and will do very good – I just want these days to last longer…

May 20

Yes… no… is it really May 20? 

I simply can NOT believe it!

We have been in France for TWO YEARS!

I’m sorry I had to shout that, but I have been pronouncing it quite loudly to quite a few people lately. 

I’ve been apologizing for not knowing more French (something that the French NEVER do – apologize), and I’ve been lamenting that I don’t know MORE FRENCH (which is just my lazy fault), and have been scared of consequences that may arise from being here for so long (driving license – no!) and really, just not believing the whole situation. 

We had another glorious (but quick) visit from Auntie this past weekend. The kids were not on their best behavior unfortunately – of course – why is it always like that when we have peeps over? But, I have to admit, Saturday was one of the most rainy days that we have seen in a LONG LONG time. It literally poured down rain from the skies the whole day. Personally, I love the rain and would be very happy in front of the tele watching movies, but that is hard to do with a 5 and a 2 year old! 

Luckily we had a nice Friday night dinner out in Valbonne!

Complete with the Cafe Gourmande!

We had a big Saturday in-house with movies and tea parties and snacks and rests.

Sunday we ventured out to Frejus for a bit of the market and some seaside lunch. 

The weekend was quick but fun. 

Kinnerly was asking for her Auntie this morning – asking where she went off to…

I had to tell her that she went off to another adventure of her own, but we would see her very, very soon.

Thank you sister – for another wonderful weekend!

xxx

Easter 2013

We went to Verbier, Switzerland last weekend for the Easter weekend. It was fantastic. I wish we were there for a whole week. I want to go back next winter and experience a real winter holiday there. It was just too fast – I couldn’t believe it!

We left very early on Friday morning so we could enjoy the day there. It didn’t take us long to get there, probably only about 5 hours – maybe a little more with a few stops here and there. 

It was super fun and now it seems like a lifetime ago.

The first day we got there was a little foggy and wet so we spent most of the time on the bunny hill teaching Kinnerly how to stand up on her skis.

 

 

 

Kinnerly was not having fun in this picture. Hee hee.

 

Then we made snow angels and that made her happy!

 

 

 

 

We stayed in a “condo” in Verbier Village and it was really nice. It was the most crammed-in, old-school village every with some gorgeous new condos built on the outside. We stayed in an “authentic” old condo – it was cool. This tiny door was right around the corner:

 

 

I was surprised as the ski area is in Switzerland but it is mostly French or English speaking in all the restaurants and stores in the village. It was really cool. I could actually eavesdrop on other conversations and understand what they were saying, we chatted with a couple of other girls at one restaurant and it was totally effortless.

The second day (Sunday, Easter Day) the clouds lifted, the Easter Bunny visited our cottage in the middle of the night (more like I woke up in a panic around 5AM with an EXTREME headache – the altitude, right? Ha ha! and hid some chocolates) and then the boys got ready for a BIG day on the hill. They took the gondolas up to the top and saw some extraordinary powder. It was hard for poor little Brannan to maneuver around with all that powder around him!

 

 

I took Kinnerly for a few runs on the bunny hill until she was done with it all and said she was hungry and “no more ski Mommy!” I’d ask her why she didn’t want to ski and she just replied: “Cause Kiki says so” which is a really common saying these days.

So, I took her into the village and we had a little lunch.

 

Later that evening, we were invited to an Easter dinner over at my friend Cara’s boyfriend’s condo. They have the most amazing view!

 

 

Oh, ours was not too bad either – this was our view from our cottage:

 

 

 

As you can see there was quite a bit of snow!

 

Anyway, for Easter dinner we had some amazing smoked chicken with a diablo sauce, some tangy coleslaw and baked potatoes with real sour cream! Oh, it was to die for! I think Byron had 3 helpings that night!

The kids devoured a giant chocolate bunny and there were some super beautiful tie-dyed Eggs that Cara found somewhere.

 

And of course, dessert…

 

 

We had fun and amazing conversations, delicious food and a super fun time in Switzerland. I want to go back!

 

More random thoughts

I could really, REALLY use a manicure. And a pedicure. I have no idea when I will be able to get one in the near future. Plus, we are going skiing this coming weekend (which I am very excited about – especially since we are going skiing in Switzerland!) and I just hope my toes don’t start aching in my boots. I guess there are worse things that could happen. 

Kinnerly is talking so much, she still talks about herself in the 3rd person, which is pretty funny, and I love the way that she runs without abandon to my adult girlfriends and gives them the biggest hugs in the world. I know it makes their day. Even if their children don’t embrace me, or her, with such abandon, I can still look at her and how innocent and free she is with her love and it makes me smile. 

I can’t believe that we have been living in France for 2 years now. It just amazes me. 

We are having a super hard time getting the stitches out of Brannan’s finger. It is frustrating and challenging and so many emotions all at one time. I want to feel sorry for him but then I want to tell him to suck it up because it is just a stitch! I’m having a hard time being a sympathetic mama right now about it all as he does this crazy back-and-forth thing EVERY SINGLE DAY telling me he wants them out so then we sit on the couch, I turn on cartoons loud enough to distract the dog, ask for his finger and all of a sudden he turns into the same cowering little boy that was in the ER two weeks ago. I tell you what, that day ripped my heart out and made me furious all at the same time. I had so many emotions that day I felt like I ran an hour on the treadmill after it was all over with. 

It has been raining and raining and raining here on the French Riviera. It is all everyone talks about. But I guess that is how it is everywhere, no? 

I am really looking forward to the next few months. We have so many fun travels planned! We are looking at summer plans too but can’t plan too far ahead due to B’s work schedule. 

I still haven’t figured out how to organize my photos on my MacBook. I need to hire someone to do this for me. I just keep getting changing out my memory cards in my camera hoping that I can squeeze one more picture in. It’s not working too well for me. 

I am finding this whole “school” thing really interesting. There are some amazingly gorgeous people that show up every day looking perfect. I feel so blah compared to all of these people. God forbid I should show up in yoga pants. No freaking way. But now all the pants I have are too big for me and I’m not sure what is worse – baggy saggy pants or yoga pants. I can’t wait for summer when I can wear shorts and dresses. Except I hate the heat. 

Kinnerly is cleaning up all her toys and said “all tidied up now!” I love how the kids have adopted UK words and French words. Although people still laugh at how they say “water” and “diaper”. 

Brannan is learning how to sound out words now and I’ll catch him in the car trying to do it every now and then but it is so hard for the poor little guy because he is seeing French words and trying to sound out with English phonics. At least he can get the “stop” correct. 

Why is it that the “stop” signs say “stop” and not “arret” in France?

I could go on and on but I have to go and get Brannan at school and sell tickets for the Easter Raffle! Whee!

And they are ready to go skiing for Easter weekend! In Switzerland!

i-what?

This morning Kinnerly asked “play brothers phone?” as I’m sitting here reading through all of my usual blogs. 

I say “sure, go ahead” and then cue the usual moaning and groaning from Brannan. 

“But, she is going to ruin it! She might break it!” 

I say “don’t worry, she has played it before, it will be fine.”

So, she walk/hops over to the couch with the iPhone in hand, swipes it open, sees a bunch of letters and numbers, not the normal screen and says “oh no, what happened?” 

Brannan looks at it and says “oh, it’s ok Keek, I was just checking the weather this morning. Here, I’ll fix it.” 

What? He’s 5! And checking the weather! 

A bit of our Sunday

10AM

11AM

 

Noon

 

1PM

2PM

 

3PM

 

4PM

 

5PM

 

And then we ate dinner and had a bath and talked on FaceTime with Grandma and Pappy and Auntie Chris and then we went to bed – although I forgot to document those parts. Sheesh. I’m going to try harder next time. I actually set my timer most of the day. It was a pretty lazy Sunday since it was raining/snowing all day – but a nice one regardless. 

Holidays

So, where we are, another holiday. Brannan has the next two weeks off school. I’m happy and sad about the break. He has been a real terror to wake up in the mornings. We have had mornings when he is rushed into the car without breakfast and with wet eyes. He has had nights of tantrums and no dinner. I know he is ok though. I know he isn’t starving. It is a battle of wills, me and him. I think it was the fact that I was starting to get stressed out without their Dad around. I think they could feel it too. I was commenting to a friend the other day about how hard it is to be the “mother and the father” when your spouse is away. Because mothers are often the more easy-going of the parenting couple. Mothers allow dessert even if they didn’t finish every last one of their vegetables, mothers sometimes allow a movie after school or a treat before dinner. But, when the other half isn’t around, it can be hard to be the easy going one as well as the tough one.

I think I was getting tired.

I started this post a week ago. I didn’t have time to finish it – I don’t know what happened. I probably got distracted or tired. Oh, now I remember – I was typing on the iPad and it was just taking to darn long and I was already in my bed and the pull of the comfy covers was too much for me.

A week has passed and Daddy has returned. The kids are happy-go-lucky as always, but ever-so disciplined as well. Although we did have one tiny meltdown on Friday as Brannan really wanted to watch a movie (gah, another one! This wet weather is exhausting!) and we said he had to do a little “studying” before he could watch one. It was some simple math addition but he just kept complaining and saying how hard it was before he just broke down into tears from the whole thing. All while Daddy was on a conference call in the office. Of course.

So, we are staying around home for the holidays. I went to a travel agent last week to see if there were any last minute cancellations at the local ski stations, but there wasn’t of course. Also, there is this whole French thing that you can’t just rent a condo for a long weekend. It is always a week. Always. It is not possible to rent for a long weekend.

I told someone the other day that the phrase “It is not possible” should be the motto of France. It is a common retort. One that I’ve heard quite a few times.

Anyway, we hope to do some skiing next weekend. Today we woke up to a nice little blanket of snow on the ground. Also, when conditions get this bad, it isn’t a good idea to drive up to the ski stations. It is best to let the roads melt again in a day or two and then head up. So, we made banana bread this morning, had a nice noontime walk and now it is naptime and movies again. It has been relaxing.

We also made some vacation plans that I am really excited about. Two trips back to the states before July and one to possibly Corsica or Croatia or Transylvania (haven’t booked that one yet)! Hooray!