The second Noël (for Simon)

Christmas was great. Marc managed 3 church services - in different churches - in 24 hours, I got to 2 and Simon just came to the Christmas morning one with us. That's the main thing I appreciate about being in England for Christmas, so many Carol Services, the Midnight Service and always church on Christmas morning. I love to be able to sing my celebrating!

Simon was the only person in the household to have a stocking this year. His aunty Ali helped him with getting into it, but he is getting the hang of unwrapping presents ... pity he won't get much more practice before next December 19th ;o)

Dad went to the prison as usual on Christmas morning, but they let him out in time to have lunch with us, Mum, Ali and Grandpa. It's great to have four generations of the family here, especially since Grandpa and Simon get on so well together!

I think Simon wondered what on earth the grown-ups were doing in the afternoon, with all that torn wrapping paper flying around, but he was in his element. Mum and Dad gave him a push-along (or ride-on) Thomas The Tank Engine, which is just right for him at this age. He still needs a bit of help to walk anywhere, and having Thomas gives other people a rest!

On Boxing Day my aunt, uncle and cousins arrived, for Christmas II ... more colourful toys for Simon, and more chocolate for his parents!

And now everyone has left, including my parents who are having a couple of days away together, so it's just the three of us again.

Simon is beginning to say more recognisable words. For a long time he has said, "Mumumumum!" for "mummy (milk)" and he is now very definitely saying "Baba!" for "Papa!" And when Grandmum takes him to see the grandmother clock which belonged to Simon's great-great-grandfather, and says, "Tick tock!", Simon replies, "Tuh! Tuh!"

He is also slowly becoming more cuddly, and will occasionally even put his arms round our necks and squeeze! Not for long though, as he needs to make sure he fits as much exploring into his day as possible!

A few photos from Simon's first birthday

Week-end nancéien III

We went to church on Sunday morning, and it really did feel as if we’d never been away. I’m afraid it might be the last time it’ll feel like that, but I was glad to feel so in touch with everyone and at home there. I was very touched by a gift from the Sunday School children, who pray for us – and particularly Simon – every week, and who had prepared a beautifully decorated box for Simon with a calendar, hand-knitted mittens, socks, a picture, a sun visor for Africa and a “caterpillar” with photos of all the children on it. They were very excited to see Simon and to be able to present him with the different presents.

In the afternoon we went to the joint Christmas presentation with our sister church. It was a choral piece called “Voici Noël”, with the participation of our church’s drama group. Nice to see everyone, but by then Simon was quite tired, and to be surrounded by so many people was a bit overwhelming.

We also had a wonderful surprise during the weekend. As we drove into Nancy on Friday night, I said to Marc, “It’s as if we’re making a pilgrimage back to Simon’s birthplace just before his first birthday! Maybe we won’t go as far as actually going to the maternity hospital though!”

…
But then the fourth child of some friends of ours was born on Saturday, and I went to visit mother and baby on Sunday, so I did get to walk past the room Simon and I had shared, and looked through the windows into the nursery where I’d bathed him! And it was a special treat to be able to meet little Matthieu, less than a day old. He was almost exactly the same weight and size as Simon had been, and although it’s a total cliché, it’s true – I really can’t believe that Simon was once that small!! It was good to see Claire-Lise too, and I had more time to chat with her than I’d had to talk with a lot of people at church.

Week-end nancéien II

We stayed with friends of ours who have a little boy six weeks older than Simon. It was good to spend time with them, and fun to see Simon and Benoît together. From the front they don’t look much alike, but from behind you could just see two little blonde heads, and they could have been twins! Benoît is already walking though, which gave him a distinct advantage over Simon when it came to taking toys away from each other or poking fingers in eyes! They seemed to be both fascinated by each other and a bit freaked out!

On Saturday we spent some time with our pastor in the morning and ate with a family from our church in the evening.

Simon marvelling at the Christmas tree lights:

Week-end nancéien I

Though most of our two weeks in France will have been spent at Marc’s parents’, in Jouy-le-Moutier, near Paris, we spent the last weekend in Nancy (where we used to live). It was a busy weekend, with as much packed in as possible!

First of all, we had arranged to visit a friend of ours, Cathy, who moved from Nancy to Châlons-en-Champagne last year. Châlons is in between Paris and Nancy, and we were meeting Cathy for lunch. We got slightly lost as we arrived in Châlons, and as I was asking a very helpful passer-by for directions, Marc noticed that the engine was overheating. We eventually found Cathy, and drove into town for lunch, and we realised that there was something seriously wrong with the car. I would say what was wrong, but not being a car expert, I don’t know the technical words in English ;o)

Anyway, we still had a good time with Cathy, and Simon behaved very well in the restaurant, eating his chips (and leaving his beans!) as if he was used to eating out every day!

Afterwards Cathy went back to work, and we went to the Peugeot garage we’d noticed at the bottom of her road. They checked out the car, and said that they could fix it, and had the necessary spare part. So we waited in the car showroom, where there was a so-called “children’s corner”, which actually just meant a plastic fort stuck in the middle of the gleaming (and very hard!) floor tiles. I’m not sure they’d ever heard of safety regulations! We let Simon play on it, but made sure we kept hold of him! He tried out the slide and loved it – peals of excited laughter rang around the showroom, and the women on reception turned to see what was going on.

By the time the car was repaired, an hour later, Simon had completely worn himself out, and fell asleep as soon as we set off again, abandoning the usually obligatory thumb-suck and softie cuddle!

More in the next gripping episode…

TCKs

Despite being on holiday, I have been revising my Hebrew and doing some reading to prepare my Pastoral Studies assignment. I’m going to be writing about bringing up children in another culture, and I’m reading a book called “Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds”. The “third culture” in question is the non-geographically identified culture of those who have grown up between their parents’ culture and another culture in which they have lived. Children who have this kind of experience reap many benefits but can find that they end up not feeling they really belong anywhere. It’s the responsibility of their parents to give them as stable a home life as possible, in spite of moving back and forth across continents, and to help them develop into independent adults.

One thing that stood out to me was when the authors said that a problem for Third Culture Kids is that they feel they have no say in the movements of their family. I noticed this because when Marc was talking with missionaries from SIM in Bénin they said that SIM takes the children’s opinions into consideration, and a missionary family can’t go back out onto the field after Home Assignment (time back in the home country) if any of their children over 12 don’t want them to! To me that seems very healthy – I hope I’ll still be saying that in 11 years time!
Of course, the situation will be even more complicated for us because Simon won’t just have one “passport culture” but two!

o'er this world's tempestuous sea

I would have thought that the best place for me would be somewhere in between France and England. Well, no! When we arrived at Dover on Thursday for the ferry, we were warned that they hadn’t yet received permission to take the boat out. We were allowed to go, but it was “rock ‘n’ roll” as the French would say! We weren’t supposed to get out of our seats during the crossing, but two or three minutes out of port I got up and ran to take refuge in the toilets. I spent the crossing saying to myself, “You managed 9 months, and this is only one hour!”

Anyway, it is good to be in France with Marc’s family. Simon is very bunged up with cold, and gets tired easily, but he seems pleased to see everyone again.

more discoveries

In the last week or so, Simon has learnt to clap his hands, to open and shut doors, to click his tongue, and he is getting more and more steady on his feet. He also discovered today that he loves Sunmaid raisins - a gift from the ANCC Father Christmas (aka Furtive Pattah Man, or William Ford, Hilary's Hebrew lecturer).

It is getting more and more difficult to take photos of Simon since he's always on the move! (But I have got one taken today when he was firmly strapped into his buggy!)

follow the imaginary road...

The path we take when we go on pretend walks ;o)

a day in the life of ...

... us!

Though it may be a bit late, since we’re almost at the end of term, I thought it might be interesting to give an idea of a typical day for us here at college.

6.30 Our alarm goes off. We get up, have our showers and personal Bible/prayer times.
7.20 We get Simon up and I feed him in our bed – usually he’s been awake for a while, chatting away to his toys in his cot. Marc changes Simon’s nappy then prepares breakfast while I give him the rest of his feed.
8.00 Breakfast then getting ourselves ready to go out.
8.40 Tutor group (often a devotional or prayer time), which Simon attends with us.
9.15 We take Simon to nursery and often stop for a quick chat with his key worker, Victoria.
9.25 First lecture of the day – three days a week this term it’s been Development Studies.
10.25 Coffee break.
10.50 Second lecture – I sometimes have Hebrew but on the days I’m free I usually go home to hang out washing.
11.50 End of second lecture – I go to the nursery to feed Simon.
12.00 Third lecture – three days a week this term Marc has had Social Anthropology.
1.00 Lunchtime. We get one free cooked lunch a week, and the other days we take sandwiches to the dining hall so that we can feel part of things.

In the afternoons there are various things going on. On Thursdays I have Hebrew from 2 till 3, which unfortunately clashes with a coffee party. On Tuesdays we often have “Café francophone”. Sometimes there are practical courses – this term Marc had five weeks of Car Maintenance – or practical work to be done (we have one afternoon every five weeks, and I work in the Library).

What always happens is that Simon has an afternoon nap – from about 3 till 4.30 – so one of us has to be at home with him at that point.

Simon feeds again after his nap, then every other day we give him a bath at 5ish, I cook at about 5.30, and we eat at 6. Simon has his last feed at 7, and goes to bed at 7.30. He’s still wonderful – we rarely hear anything from him again before 6.30am, so we have the whole evening free for study. Marc tends to work at home on the living room table, but there isn’t enough room for both of us, and I don’t study so well at home, so I usually go to the Library. At 9.30pm hot chocolate is served in the main house, which I often go to so that I can catch up with people (and satisfy my extravert side!). I get home between 10 and 10.30 and we go to bed early.

It’s a rhythm that I enjoy, and we are definitely blessed by living on campus and being so close to everything!

hard slog (kind of)

Well, our assignments were handed in before the deadline - woohoo! - but I'm still up to my neck in revision for Monday's Hebrew exam. So for now, here are a couple of recent photos of Simon...

Deadlines!

If blog posts are less frequent at the moment, it's because our Term 1 assignments are due in on Wednesday of next week! But I thought I would do a quick post explaining what I am writing my assignments on.

This term is slightly odd in that we don't have any purely Biblical modules. I therefore have assignments to write for Development Studies and Jewish Studies. My Development Studies assignment is a discussion of the poverty trap model proposed by Robert Chambers. For Jewish Studies I'm writing about the role of women in Judaism. I'm kind of writing them in parallel - I'm certainly not likely to confuse them!

I'm also revising for my Advanced Hebrew exam. In the Mock Exam on Monday I got a higher mark than I expected, but a much lower mark than I'd like to get in the final exam! At least I now know what I need to revise ... everything, actually!

I'd better get back to my work, but just a bit of Simon news - he's now learnt to wave at people and to clap his hands!

Our British car...

... yes, our car has finally got British nationality - yay! - and is at last with us. (A big thanks to my Mum and Dad who lent us their Micra in the meantime!)

Our car with its British plates:

International Night

I am a little late writing this post, but ten days ago we had "International Night" here at college. Students and staff dressed in national costumes of their own countries or of countries that they had been to, and after a meal cooked by students of many different origins, we were entertained by songs, dances and a clown from around the world. There was also (to introduce others to the English sense of humour) a spoof quiz show called "Mock the College", which pitted the wits of "Liberation Theologian" against those of "Reformation Theologian".

A few photos (more to be found on Flickr):

lightening the load

I had been wondering how we would be able to take as many books out to West Africa as we would like to, given that there are many books that would be helpful to us in our work and yet they weigh so much. Today part of that problem was solved! A publisher came to sell damaged books at cut prices here in college - they can't sell them to shops and students are happy to be able to get them at a cheaper price so everyone is happy! I didn't think there would be much point in looking, as we are trying to get rid of books not buy more, but then Marc came up to me saying, "They've got the Bible Speaks Today New Testament series on CD-rom - do we want it?" Wow!! My favourite series of commentaries for the price you'd usually pay for about 4 of them, and weighing soooo much less!

And then someone (Peter actually!) pointed out that there was also a study CD-rom with things like the New Bible Commentary and New Bible Dictionary on it ... and we couldn't resist! What a blessing! I nearly skipped home afterwards!

sentimental parenty stuff

We’ve noticed – as have others – that Simon has changed a lot since being here. Of course, it isn’t all down to being here, it’s also the natural development he is going through as he gets older. For example, a couple of days ago I watched him make himself laugh for the first time. He had been laughing at other things for a long time, but after giving him his vitamins the other evening, I gave him the spoon, and after waving it about a bit, he tried to put it in my mouth. When that worked, he thought it was hilarious, and laughed a long, gurgling laugh.

He is also understanding our words and actions more and more. On Friday I arrived at the college nursery to feed him at midday, and when he saw me he smiled and started crawling towards me. Then he got sidetracked, crawled off to the right and started pulling toys from a shelf. So I said, “Ok, Simon, if you aren’t interested, I’ll go away again!” and started walking back towards the door. His little face crumpled, and he started to wail … I felt awful!! I really hadn’t thought he would understand!

There are two corners in our living room where he isn’t allowed to play. One has a pile of shopping bags in it (officially they live in the car, they just haven’t got themselves together and moved out there yet) and the other has the computer wires. Yesterday, Simon was crawling purposefully over towards the shopping bags, so I said, “Simon!” He stopped and looked up at me. “No!” He looked back at the bags, back at me, and I said, “No, Simon!” again. And he turned round and crawled back in the opposite direction. I’m not stupid enough to think that he will always be so obedient … but I am excited to see him understanding what I’m saying!

relatively busy

The title refers to the fact that we have plenty to do here at college, but also to us having had visits from several family members in the last 10 days! My sister Ali came up last Saturday afternoon with her (and our!) friend Joy, Mum came yesterday afternoon, and my cousin Katherine was here today. It makes a lovely change to be living somewhere where family can visit – and we’d better make the most of it this year, as I’m not aware that we have much family out in West Africa!

Unfortunately I had such a good time with all of them that I completely forgot about taking photos … they’ll just have to come back again!

more on simon

He’s ten months old today, and I thought it was time for a little update on Simon. No height or weight measurements though, as we haven’t got round to working out how the clinic works here yet, but I’m hoping to be able to take him next week.

He has now cut 5 teeth, and with very little grizzling at all. He did seem happier once the two top ones came through, but we also think he’s got more used to being here at college, and instead of just observing everything with his big brown eyes, he will now smile at people and shout out to get their attention! He has his fair share of admirers here, and seems to love being in the social environment of the nursery.

He still likes playing on the floor, but absolutely loves being upright, holding onto furniture and slowly making his way around the room. He hasn’t worked out how to pull himself up or sit himself down again though, but he knows how to make sure his parents know what he wants! He does occasionally go down with a bang, but another advantage of cloth nappies are that they pad his bottom better than disposables would!

He is making more and more extensive range of different sounds, and some do seem to have a kind of meaning or at least correspond to his state of mind. “Mumumumumum” means “I want something”, whereas “bababa” or “dadada” mean “I’m in a good mood”.

He eats a lot of the same things as us, with particular favourites being steamed courgette, chicken and banana. He has unfortunately started pulling his hands through his (luckily still very short) hair during meals, especially if the meal comes just after bathtime!

He is also showing signs of enjoying music, and will often “dance” to music or singing, as this video and this one show.

In the words of one of the nursery workers here, “he’s just such a happy and contented child!”.

the flowers at last

magnanimous in victory

As some of you may know, England beat France in the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup on Saturday. Marc watched the match here in college with a good few English people. In the main college morning meeting this morning, there was a notice commiserating with Marc and the French defeat, and a trumpeter got up and played "La Marseillaise" (the French national anthem) and someone else came and formally presented Marc with a bouquet of flowers (see below ... no, I'll have to put it up later as there is a problem loading photos this evening!). It's this kind of thing that not only brightens up what is essentially a meeting of notices for the week, but also makes us feel welcome and wanted here!

Bible story re-contextualised?!

Just a video link for today:

David, Jonathan and Saul

A video made by one of the tutor groups to re-tell the story of David and Jonathan. You don't need to know the people for it to be funny - but it helps if you know the Bible story (or see I Samuel chapters 18 to 20) and a certain American sitcom. Enjoy!

deadlines!

Marc and I both have our first assignment due in Friday of next week. All new students at ANCC have to do something called "The Acts Assignment" ... which you have probably guessed is about the Book of Acts! It's a good idea, as it helps the new students to get back into essay-writing and see what skills they need to work on, and it also takes mission as its theme, which couldn't be much more appropriate for a missionary training college!

We feel quite blessed that we studied Acts in our church's ITEA group (a group which met together to do theological studies) three years ago, and then studied it again in our church Bible studies last year. Reading through it again for the assignment was like spending time with an old friend! On the other hand, it does put pressure on us a bit, as we really ought to do well in it.

I also have my first lot of Advanced Hebrew translation exercises to hand in on Thursday, so I'm pretty busy at the moment. Not too busy to enjoy our surroundings though! We went for another family walk this morning.

This is the view from our front door at 8.30am:

some news!

I don’t know where to start telling you about our new life here at All Nations! I was a bit afraid that after all those months as a Stay-At-Home-Mum I was going to find it hard to get back into the swing of things … but I’m realising that actually I was very busy as a SAHM … so it’s just a case of adjusting to doing different things. I need to find the balance between my study, my “wife-and-motherly duties” ;o) and getting a bit of rest in there too. But I’m not too worried about that, and I love being here. The people are great, the classes are very interesting, and the library is full of books I want to read!

Our flat here is lovely, just the right size for us and looking very homey now. It’s on the edge of the woods, which is something I appreciate – great for afternoon walks!

Simon is getting on well with his mornings in crèche. He’s fine about being left and has taken a shine to Victoria, his key worker (about the only person besides us who he will stretch his arms out to!). He’s only just starting to get the hang of sleeping there though, so has a looong sleep in the afternoon – perfect for parents who have reading to do and assignments to write!

Tomorrow we’ll be visiting our Church Placement church for the first time. We met the vicar on Thursday and got on very well with him.

the promised photos

still here...

... and apparently this is my 100th post! But it is just a quick one to say that we have arrived at college (All Nations Christian College) safely, our flat is lovely, we've been very well welcomed, and we are very busy!! I will be back soon with photos and more news!

down on the farm...

... it be onion harvestin' time! Or rather it been, come and gone. But for a couple of days the male members of the household were fascinated by the to-ing and fro-ing of all the different farm vehicles going through all the various stages of harvesting the big field behind Mum and Dad's house. Tractors pulling great loads of red onions went up and down the lane in front of the house, and we decided not to hang any washing out for the duration!

Mum says I was shocked when she said she was going to glean after they'd finished. I just wasn't aware that we were living in ancient Israel ... but then even if we had been, and they'd deliberately left extra for widows, orphans and the poor, I'm not quite sure which category Mum could pretend she fitted into ;o) Anyway, we did manage to pick a few onions off the track, and a few that were left at the side of the field. There's a limit to how many red onions you can realistically use before they go off!

Ah, country life!

Simon's social life!

We think it’s a good thing that Simon had the picnic with the other boys at the end of August, that he went to crèche at church yesterday, and that he had another playdate today with another baby from my forum. He hasn’t spent much time with other children, and seems quite surprised/intrigued/freaked-out by them! Imogen is quite active and was very curious about Simon, and he got a bit upset but eventually enjoyed “chatting” with her!

A few photos:

importing our car...

… or “Perseverance, Patience and lots of time on the Internet and telephone”

We knew we’d need a car for the year at Bible college, and thought that the simplest solution was to keep our French car and import it into the UK. I made a quick phonecall and was told “oh yes, you won’t have to pay import tax on your car” … so I thought it would all be easy. Hah!!

To import a Peugeot 206 – more than two years old and over 60,000km – into the UK, you have to go through the following process. First the car has to pass the Mutual Recognition Scheme. Oh, but before you can apply, you have to have a European Certificate of Conformity – you can write off to Peugeot for this – and your car has to be altered to comply with UK regulations. Which means it has to have headlights dipping the right way … which means changing the whole headlight blocks … and a speedometer indicating not only km/h but mph. Our local garage changed the headlights today … but found that where they had thought they could replace the dashboard with a right hand drive dashboard, it’s actually the wrong shape. So they told me “sorry, we can’t help you”.

I had found a “dashboard specialist” on the internet, so phoned him. He said “oh yes, I used to do that but I don’t any more” (aargh!) but he did give me the number of someone else based in Southampton who might be able to do it. So I phoned that company and they said that they can do it! And will come to the house!! And have another job in MK44 the same day (“clin d’oeil de Dieu” – a wink from God, as the French might say!).

Then when the modifications have been done, you pay to put in an application to the Mutual Recognition Scheme, who will (hopefully) send you a certificate saying your car meets British regulations. And you must get your insurance sorted out at the same time … because you have to have insurance to be able to apply to the DVLA for British registration … but once you have insurance you only have two weeks to get registered (sigh!).

Of course it also costs to apply to the DVLA. They register the car and sort out your road tax for you.

Oh, and I forgot to say that there is the MOT to pass before applying to the DVLA, which the garage is doing for us tomorrow morning.

So yeah, really simple.

Still, Marc says that we wouldn’t have been able to sell the car in France, as it’s very hard to sell second hand if you aren’t part exchanging for a new car. So we wouldn’t have been able to afford to buy an equivalent car here. And we are really blessed that a friend of the family gave my parents a little Micra last year, so I’ve been added to the insurance and we have wheels until our car is registered, taxed and insured!

getting ready

When we arrived back in England, there was an information pack from ANCC (our Bible college) waiting for us. Reading through the different pages, I felt both excited and a little daunted. On one hand, I can’t wait to get there, meet people and start learning … on the other hand, even when we’re on holiday and being cooked for, looking after Simon seems to take up most of my day. That said, we received a reading list to prepare for college – Ruth and Rob or Dad had several on the books on it, which is a blessing – and I did manage to read a book in a week. It was “Knowing Jesus Through The Old Testament”, by Christopher J. H. Wright, which I found extremely interesting. Marc is now reading it and I’ve got started on “Clash of Worlds” by David Burnett.

Simon is well and happy, and still impressing people with his charm and good behaviour! His backwards crawling is coming on wonderfully ;o)

love it or hate it?

It's official! Simon loves Marmite!

internet picnic!

Yesterday something very exciting happened! I met some virtual friends (virtual in the sense of being made over the Internet, not in the sense of almost being friends ;o)

Since early on in my pregnancy, I’ve been part of an Internet forum birth board for mums whose babies were due in December 2006. At first I just used to read the posts – which reassured me that my worries were quite normal and that various physical niggles were common to pregnant women. Gradually I found I had things I wanted to add to the discussions … and sometime after Simon was born – once he was sleeping better and I was feeling vaguely human again – I really got stuck into the birth board community. I honestly think it’s helped me to be far more laidback about parenting than I could have been. Instead of panicking about tiny things that then blow up in my head and keep me awake at night, I can simply post a question on the board and either one of the mums with older children, or another mum who’s had the same problem as me, will put my mind at rest. And we can laugh at ourselves too, which is always a good way of getting things in perspective!

And I do feel that despite never meeting, those of us who do post frequently on the board have built up trust between us, and we know that if any of us can do anything for the others, we will.

Those who live near each other have met up and become face-to-face friends, and there was a Big Meet at Alton Towers last month, that I missed because of being back in France. Then yesterday we had a Bedford mini-meet, which was me, Marc and Simon meeting up with a Bedford mum and her baby, and an Essex mum and her baby (plus my mum, Ali and the Bedford mum’s sister!). We had a picnic together in Bedford Park. It was fun to meet the other mums, and really quite moving to meet the babies who I’ve seen growing up through their photos on the board! They aren’t really old enough to play together yet, but it was cute to see them interacting a bit.

happy memories of our family holiday in france

celebrations

Last Saturday was my 31st birthday, yesterday was our 3rd wedding anniversary, and tomorrow it will be Marc's dad's 60th birthday! So lots of celebrating has been going on here in Jouy-le-Moutier!

On my birthday we went for a walk at La Terrasse de St Germain-en-Laye, looking out over a rather hazy view of Paris.

Then yesterday evening Marc and I left the grandparents to babysit and went out for a meal at a restaurant! I enjoyed getting dressed up and then being able to spend an evening out somewhere where we could eat good food and talk! It was fun to look back over the last 3 years of marriage and last 6 years of knowing each other!!

a bit of news

We had a relaxing week in Cardington, returned to France yesterday, and are getting started on another couple of relaxing weeks at Marc's parents'. What a challenge ;o) I think we need it after the move ... and we'd better make the most of it, as our year at ANCC will probably be a very full one!

Simon doesn't seem too bothered by all the changes. His tooth continues to grow, he's standing up as much as possible (holding onto things or being held) and today he learnt to go from a sitting position to his hands and knees. He just doesn't know what to do once he's got there and ends up squealing for help!

During the week in England he really got stuck into his food. I think it was probably because his routine had shifted slightly, and so he was awake when we ate and therefore able to eat with others. He seems to appreciate the social side of mealtimes! And he loves having grandparents to smile at, whichever side of the Channel we're on!

Simon standing up with some help from Papa (and his Great-Grandpa and Grandmum in the background).

All done!

The move went smoothly and we are safely in England at my parents’. The rest of our furniture was picked up by a friend-of-a-friend and a charity on Saturday, and so in the afternoon we moved out of our flat and into our friends Alex and Guillaume’s flat, which we were sharing not with them but with another friend, Fidèle! A and G have a little boy six weeks older than Simon, so Simon had a proper cot to sleep in and a little bucket bath to try out.

In the evening my sister Ali and a friend of hers arrived with an English van. They did the whole journey over on Saturday, and drove all the way back again on Monday! What stars!! It was fun to have them staying too, despite the exhaustion on both sides! They were able to stay in Kate’s flat. My sister said, “I love it – everyone living at everyone else’s! That’s church for you!”

On Sunday we went to church for our last service there. Fortunately it didn’t feel like it was, and tiredness seemed to be keeping me from feeling anything much more than relief that soon the move would be over! We ate kebabs with friends at lunchtime, and then Marc and his team of wonderful, willing helpers went and put everything left in the flat into the van. We are so blessed by the church family God has given us in Nancy. Finally, Marc and I spent the evening cleaning what still needed to be cleaned in our flat … it smelt wonderfully of wax after Marc re-did the parquet floor!

On Monday the girls had to leave really early with the van, and we spent the morning tying up loose ends – things like getting the keys to the agency. We tried to leave once, and had to turn back after 5 minutes because Marc had forgotten his telephone and Simon had filled his nappy! We eventually got away about midday, and as we hit the motorway Simon was chewing on my hand and I suddenly – and painfully! – realised that he had cut a tooth!! With no fuss at all!

Another highlight of the journey was the meal we had at a motorway service station. It was great, thanks to baby-led weaning! Simon chewed on a bit of bread for most of our main courses, and then tried a bit of burger and a chip! Ok, so not the most balanced diet, but he had had cucumber and nectarine for breakfast!

To be continued…

yaaaaaawn!

A few thoughts … random order since I’m very tired. I even went to hang out the washing with the peg bag but not the washing!

Our heads were buzzing with everything we need to do when we went to bed last night, so neither of us got to sleep for over two hours. Simon slept very well, though. He seems to realise there is something going on, but it isn’t bothering him too much!

Half our furniture went today, dispersed to various friends from church who are buying it from us. That all went smoothly, thanks to other friends from church who came and helped to carry it! That was a relief, and, as Marc said, at least now we have more space to put our boxes and the things that are still waiting to be packed.

I took Simon to the market for the last time today. The market vendors were sincerely sad that we are leaving, and made me promise to write to them, even going as far as to write out their address for me! I was touched, as I’ve been feeling sad about not seeing them any more, but I didn’t realise they’d be as sentimental as me!

I had already become quite good at getting rid of things – now that I’m so tired I am just chucking everything away merrily!

Oh, I hope we sleep better this evening!!

PS I doubt I'll blog again before we get to the UK ... so Tuesday at the earliest!!

food fings

Simon is continuing to try new foods. Yesterday he tasted avocado for the first time, which was definitely a hit!

Today’s apricot fun…

And a nectarine!

out of eden

I was having a kind of a stressy day last Tuesday, just with the organisation of the practical aspects of the move. But one thing that did make me smile, was to get in from a walk at 3pm and to see our landlord with his faithful sidekick – the painter – hacking away at the jungle that is – was! – our garden. They were just there for an hour or so, but then the next day they turned up bright and early, with girl from the agency, with power tools, and spent the morning in destruction mode. Everything green, sprouting or blooming was cut to the floor then heaped into a huge pile in the wasteground they created. The “before” and “after” shots (see below) are impressively different, but the problem is that they have done nothing for the roots, so as soon as spring comes around again, the jungle will be back with a vengeance. Of course, we won’t be here to witness it!