Ma Vie Quotidienne (My Everyday Life)

Today the kids went to school! Therefore I have a several hours to myself, some of which I will use to write to you, fine readers! Yesterday was my one week anniversary of my arrival here as well as Caroline’s birthday! Other than that the day was not epic. None of this week has been, but it’s given me a chance to see and understand daily life. And here are some of the more interesting things:

First, I have really pulled off some magic with Zoe. For the first time in her life she is excited about English. She said to her Dad the other day “J’adore parler anglais avec Christy” (I love speaking English with Christy). Alain and I looked at each other like “OMG!!” As cute as she is though she can be quite the typical 8 year old. I observed this week in everyday life all 8 year olds behave the same way. They show you EVERYTHING they can do. “Chreestee, regarde (look/watch)” (ßx50, everyday) and then do or something totally and completely un- extraordinary. For example touching your chin to your shoulder or a stuffed animal arranged in a basket. While, in my mind I’m saying “Yea, literally everyone in the world can do that, it’s not important! Why did you show me??”, in the real world I’m acting very impressed and tell her how cool/pretty/creative/fill-in-the blank-here. Also, I was reminded yesterday of the both cute and funny but possibly awkward tendency to make noises at play. We were playing with some Play Mobile toys. Zoe had a vet shop and Eliott had cars and helicopters and a garage. Now, Eliott is excellent at noises, as I’ve come to know, all boys are. Maybe car noises are easier or maybe I think they are more normal, however, when Zoe started in on her dog whimpering and cat mewing… well, it was very strange. Not only did she just make the noise, but she added emotion into each one. The mom dog and the baby dog were split up (my fake person wanted to buy the puppy. I didn’t know I was breaking up a family!!) and the whimpering was loud and pained. Had she not been totally engrossed in her playtime she would have seen me stop and stare at her thinking “whhaaaaat?”

We’ve had some good times just hanging out. Yesterday we had a picnic in the house. I saw something out of the window and I said “oh look at those things”. It turns out they were semi-unfamiliar with the word ”things”. “Choses? Things? That. There (I point),” I try to explain when Eliott says “Thing one and Thing Two?” I had brought them a couple of Dr. Seuss Books one of which was The Cat in the Hat. I laughed at his connection. I pointed and each of them and labeled them Thing One and Thing Two and called myself the Cat in the Hat. After that we had a good time saying who was Thing one and two and the cat along with red, blue, old, beautiful, not beautiful, and other types of fish (i.e. 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish). We went to the park after that for some playtime. On the way home they gave me a lesson in how to say the R sound in French. I was comically awful. More towards town (where other people could hear) they were both walking down the street saying “Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” while I tried to mimic it in between laughs. Unsuccessfully mimic, I might add.

Another part of daily life that I find different is the butter. We don’t use margarine in this house. It is “doux (soft)” butter, but I would BEG to differ. Also, the kids like butter on their sandwiches. When I made sandwiches I watched to see if they were unhappy with the chunks of it scattered throughout the bread (as I couldn’t spread it properly because it was not doux), but they seemed unfazed.
Finally, in the yard they have lots of fruit trees. Alain said to take the apples and plums and what-not whenever I wanted—if it wasn’t good, I can just throw it into the bushes. They are fabulous and I pick and try them often. Delicious.
So that’s all I have for you today, folks! From now on expect a post once a week usually on Monday (so I have the weekends to write!).

P.S. Damien, how's the title? Correct?