Another day, another beach...

We had quite a nice week-end around here. The weather was absolutely fantastic, crisp and sunny, with leaves starting to turn. I just like it. Today, we went down to the beach at Redondo/DesMoines and had a great time. I forgot the camera so no pictures to testify but it was fun. Gabriel got soaking wet: apparently he is like his mom in that matter and cannot keep himself away from the water if he sees any. I mean the water could not have been much warmer than 12 or 15 celsius i imagine but Gabe could have cared less. He was wet from his head to his toe. Miriam was much more careful. She enjoyed playing with the tide, but kept herself mostly dry and had a lot of fun playing in the sand. It was just a glorious afternoon.
Tomorrow we're going back to our routine... but it was nice to have such a relaxing week-end.
Oh and Miriam and I made a plum pie.

Enjoying a day with Miriam

... and Gabriel latter on. I usually watch Miriam on Tuesdays and we try to do something fun or at least to get out of the house. Last week did not work so well but today was a really nice day. After doing our Tuesday chores, we met with Ama Eileen, had cappucinos at home (Miriam loves ordering a cappucino, it's basically foam and chocolate powder but she feels like it's the real thing) and then went to the beach at Dash Point for a little bit of trike riding. I just love going out there. It's always pretty, there's always something fun to see (today a seal and a jelly fish) and it's just a very relaxing place. I guess it's the effect of the Pacific on me. It calms me. After that we had lunch at a Teriaky place close to our house and got home just in time for Miriam to take her nap. I had two very quiet hours to myself, which i used to do some more chores, watch some tv and read a little bit. After Miriam's nap, it was time to go get Gabe at school. He seemed to have had a good day. We got home and he played his star wars game for a bit while Miriam and I got some painting done...she had so much fun, and was so concentrated I didn't think i could make her stop... Once both were done with their activities, we took one last trip to the park that's really close to our house. We go there often between 5 and 6 pm. It seems that it's a good way to bring the evening to a close. And it is kind of fun to see the people there...we always see one guy walking his black lab and the kids get all excited because the dog reminds them of Zelda and Athos. Fortunately, the guy is really nice and always lets the kids pet his dog. After that, we got home, did dinner and all this and now i just have to put Gabe in bed and then hopefully i can enjoy a quiet evening with Brent who's already back from his meeting.

Welcome to the Pacific Northwest!

In my mind, this is a typical day around Seattle... We got up this morning for Gabe's soccer game. It was pouring down rain, but that didn't stop anybody. It's like the rain didn't really exist (and it was not just a light little drizzle, it was real rain). The kids played the game, Gabe scored 4 goals and his team won the game (not that anybody is counting... : ) Afterwards, we got home to get dry and have a bite to eat and then we left again to take Gabriel to the Puyallup Fair. We had gone with Miriam but Gabriel had not gone yet. More rain, more people not caring at all. We spent about two hours and half outside in the rain, going on the rides, playing little fair games and getting happily wet until we decided we had quite enough and got home. We got to dry ourselves again (Gabe was in his third outfit of the day and thought that was weird....). The reward of all that wetness however is that we got to sit in the living room, watch a movie, have popcorn and hot tea. For me, those are just the best autumn days there are (even though i know it's not quite fall yet). We just needed a fire in the fireplace and it would have been perfect. A nice day really. Perhaps growing up in Switzerland prepared me nicely for this kind of atmosphere.

Grosse fatigue

Quelle journée vraiment... je suis bien contente qu'elle se termine. Elle a commencé par une maman très gentille qui m'a informée que Gabriel avait envoyé son poing dans la figure de son fils, qui pour couronner le tout porte des lunettes... C'était un accident mais bon quand même c'est pas vraiment le début de journée rêvée. Ensuite Miriam et moi avons dû faire un tas de corvées: prendre la poussière, passer l'aspi et surtout aller changer l'huile de ma voiture. Au garage on m'a annoncé que ma voiture avait un gros problème, ce qui est apparemment courant pour les Chevy Malibu d'après 2000 qui ont environ 70'000 miles (défaut de fabrication, il y a même des procès contre GM) et après recherches sur internet j'ai l'impression qu'elle ne va plus faire long feu. Alors dans l'absolu ça me dérange pas trop de changer de voitures; ça fait un moment qu'on se dit qu'on aurait besoin de quelque chose d'un peu plus grand et plus pratique, mais là le timing est vraiment mal choisi. Alors je ne sais pas trop quoi faire, pour l'instant j'ai surtout peur de conduire ma voiture et de me retrouver coincée au bord de la route en panne avec les deux enfants.
Malgré ça, je suis quand même encore allé à la poste avec Miriam et là c'est elle qui a craqué. Elle arrêtait pas de me fausser compagnie, et ensuite elle a juste décidé de se coucher par terre et de ne plus bouger, mais elle ne voulait quand même pas que je la porte à la voiture. Quelle crouille cette fille!
Plus tard dans l'après-midi l'école a téléphoné pour m'annoncer que Gabriel - toujours le même - était allé se rouler dans la boue (il a réussi à trouver 10 cm carrés de boue alors qu'il n'a plus plu depuis quasiment trois semaines) et qu'il fallait que je vienne lui apporter des habits de rechange et des souliers de rechange parce qu'il était tout yucky. Et bien sûr c'était ses nouvelles chaussures! Après ça je me sentais juste ratiboisée et j'avais l'impression que Miriam en faisait des tonnes pour me faire sortir de mes gonds. Quand j'y repense - et maintenant que les deux sont au lit - c'était bien sûr pas si grave et on a quand même passé de très bons moments dehors dans le jardin à jouer à la balle. Mais je sais pas j'avais juste pas la pêche aujourd'hui. Vivement le boulot demain que je me repose de mes deux monstres... : )

A better day!

Definitely a better day today! We had Gabriel's first soccer game this morning. He did very well, even scored a goal right after he made it on the field, but they still lost... (9-2 to be precise, but they say it's not important!). Gabe had fun and felt like he did well, which he did so that was all that mattered. And I really enjoyed watching. Micro-soccer is funny: the kids run in all directions somewhat randomly, and they might stop to pick up a flower, but it's still sort of serious. And the parents really get into it. I mean you really want your team to win : )
After that, Gabe was rewarded by lunch at McDo (yuck... but what can you do... he got to pick).
We got home and went out later again for some bike riding at Ruston, yet another beach a little bit further away from house. The kids rode their bikes, we had ice cream, we threw rocks in the water, the weather was nice and we just had a very good time. It's just so nice to be able to do these things and just enjoy what nature has to offer so close to our home... I really enjoy that. Now, we're just unwinding at home, before it's time for dinner.
Ruston also has a lot of restaurants on the waterfront. I'm planning to take Brent there next friday when we get to go out (another perk of living closer to family: we have babysitters available). All in all it was a very relaxing day, perhaps more for me than for Brent who still needs to write his sermon...

How to not do an open house at school

Oh the pitfalls of motherhood. This is mainly going to be complaining. Sorry. Today was open house at school, and of course, Brent had a meeting, so I had to go with both kids by myself. Pizza at 6pm and then around 6h30pm, parents were invited to go visit the classrooms. I don't know why i'm so lousy at this, but i just find it impossible to keep track of both my kids at these events. There were tons of people there and if i had Gabe under control, I had no idea of where Miriam was and vice verça. On top of it, I wanted to talk to the teachers and find out how class was running, just so that I would have a better idea of what Gabe is doing and how his day is organized. Try to do that with two kids running around. Finally I talked to a teacher for a while and then went to find Gabe and Miriam. They had run off to the furthest end of the playground (of course completely out of my sight) and had no intention of trying to hear me let alone listen to me. By that time, I was just ready to go home, which is exactly the moment that Gabriel chose to run hundreds of meters away from me. When i caught up with him and started arguing with him about leaving, he just kept talking back at me. When he started crying, i was about ready to just leave him there at school and never see him again. So we made it home, i was fulminating by that time and Gabriel was very upset with me... we eventually both calmed down and had ice cream and a quite civil conversation. But still, it bothers me that i can't handle these situations. And i was thinking that i was getting better at it... : ) I think i'll change the title of this blog to "The adventures of a lame mom"...

Milieu de semaine

Déjà la deuxième semaine d'école... et on a l'impression que c'était presque toujours comme ça! La routine s'est vite mise en place, avec le foot le lundi et le mercredi. Le premier match sera ce samedi, on espère qu'il n'y aura pas d'événements traumatisants, mais pour l'instant j'ai l'impression que Gabriel prend ça avec une assez bonne attitude. Tant qu'il s'amuse et qu'il touche la balle, il n'a pas l'air de se faire trop de soucis avec le reste.
L'école aussi se passe bien, c'est assez difficile de vraiment savoir comment les choses se déroulent en détail mais je me dis que tant que je ne suis pas convoquée dans le bureau du directeur, c'est que tout va bien! Il semble même qu'il y aie eu une très légère amélioration du côté de Miriam à la crèche. Elle hurle toujours autant quand je la laisse mais elle semblait un peu de meilleure humeur quand je l'ai retrouvée. Elle m'a dit qu'elle n'aimait toujours pas la crèche, mais que Flopsy avait passé une bonne journée avec elle. Donc je me dis que c'est un petit progrès.
De mon côté la remise au travail se passe plutôt bien, j'ai même l'impression de m'être assez bien remise dans la thèse à présent. Il faut juste continuer ce rythme et tout devrait se mettre en place. Brent travaille beaucoup, comme tous les pasteurs que je connais de près... il est en séance ce soir, et nous reprenons nos habitudes à trois avec les enfants. Mais on s'entend bien, je crois que pour les enfants (enfin surtout pour Gabriel) le fait d'aller à l'école simplifie beaucoup nos relations...
Pas grand'chose de neuf à dire mais je me suis dit que c'était bien de garder les bonnes habitudes. Péry revient souvent dans nos conversations... Avec Gabriel nous avons mis en place un petit code pour parler de nos humeurs: vert est la couleur normale quand tout va assez bien, orange c'est qu'on comment à s'énerver et rouge et noir sont le sommet du blues (un peu comme sur les autoroutes). Gabriel a encore ajouté bleu, qui est la couleur de quand on est vraiment très très heureux. Lui-même a dit que d'être dans la couleur bleue n'arrivait que quand on était à Hawaii... ou Reuchenette. Ensuite il a ajouté Issirac-la très vieille maison et Pike Place Market. On a été les deux d'accord pour dire que la solution la plus simple pour être dans le bleu dans un futur proche était de retourner au Fish Market à Pike Place... Mais on voit en tout cas que Reuchenette a une place tout spéciale dans sa vie. Miriam de son côté demande fréquemment quand elle peut retourner promener avec Apa, car sa réserve de Choupa est épuisée... Vous pouvez d'ores et déjà mettre les Pachoups sur votre liste de Noël!

Fin de week-end à la plage...

Après un week-end très agréable et durant lequel nous avons encore bien profité du beau temps, nous avons terminé dimanche à la plage de Dash Point, tout près de la maison. Je pourrais rester des heures dans ce coin, juste assise dans le sable, à regarder les enfants s'amuser et les vagues se jeter sur la plage. J'adore vraiment avoir la possibilité de faire ça. Et même si on ne peut pas se baigner (aujourd'hui il y a deux gars qui se sont jetés depuis le ponton dans l'eau et ont nagé jusqu'à la plage...mais il fait vraiment froid...! Et depuis que j'ai vu un phoque venir sur la plage, ça me stresserait un peu de m'aventurer dans l'eau...) c'est quand même très agréable d'avoir les pieds dans l'eau et de profiter d'une belle fin de journée au bord de l'eau.
Emsuite repas al fresco et voilà... demain la "routine" reccommence...

Saturday

I know that school has only started for a week, but saturday was so wonderful today. We sort of slept in (i mean, it was 7h15 when Miriam got up, and she did not get up during the night...) and then we were just able to lounge at home, without worrying about having to get ready for school/work/daycare. It was 10am and everyone was still in pj's. It's just nice. We watched Federer beat Djokovic and then went to get a pair of black soccer shorts for Gabe (who, as you can see, had his official picture taken today with his team). Had lunch in a nice bakery in Federal Way (great bread and great cookies...). Brent took Gabriel to the soccer picture thing and i stayed home so that Miriam could nap. Later in the afternoon, our neighborhood had their annual BBQ thing... so we all went (Brent only stayed for about an hour, because he had to go write his sermon...). It was nice and fun for the kids to play with the other kids in the neighborhood. I also met a ton of people. But i always have sort of weird feeling about these things... I just feel like i don't quite fit in. I'm not sure if it's because we're new, or if it's because i'm from Switzerland, but i feel like i don't get most of the people there. Althought that's not quite true. I guess I focus a little too much on the "soccer-moms" who scare the hell out of me and i don't pay enough attention to the people that seem more "normal" at least in my perspective. Anyhow, it was fun. And it's fine to be different, at least a little bit. Some of the things that one is supposed to do to be the perfect mom i actually just do not want to do. Anyhow, it was just nice to have an un-rushed day...

The Puyallup Fair

Today was another day of discovery of Northwest joys for me. Brent, Miriam and I (Gabriel was at school) went to the Puyallup fair (it was the first day and the entrance was free). So it's mainly a huge display of various unhealthy food and crazy rides... but they also have cows and horses, chickens, roosters and bunnies. All in all it was a pretty cool couple of hours. Clearly we will have to come back with Gabriel who's really going to enjoy the rides. There is a roller coaster that i'm looking forward to ride with him. Apparently this fair is kind of a big deal around here, so it was fun to see it (pour les Suisses, il faut penser Braderie en environ 3 fois plus grand...).
Gabriel had a really good first week of school. He really likes it and seems to particularly appreciate the fact that there's no homework involved so far. He is also getting to know his classmates, although it's difficult to tell because a five year old way of telling stories is not always very reliable. There's been a very convoluted story involving a fight and a bloody nose, and i still can't determine what really happened. But he seems happy, so that's all that matters. Although I guess we need to worry about dresscode a little more (which makes me laught, seeing that we just moved from Atlanta where they banned low-rider jeans...). We got a phone call from school today from Gabe's substitute teacher telling us that his jeans were riding too low and that when he sat down you could see his butt and could we please put a belt on his jeans... : ) I thought it was pretty funny, but we'll definitely be more careful in the future!

It's been forever...and I'm not sure people still look at the blog...

But I feel like it might be a good thing to get back on the blog. I want to try to keep track of our adventure in the west in a better manner than for the past couple of months. Of course so many things have changed, that I'm not quite sure where to begin. I don't think I can summarize everything that has happened in the past several months, so I'm just going to start where we are today.
Gabriel had his first day of school yesterday, Kindergarten to be precise. He did really well. We live very close to the school (about 500 meters) but I still have to walk with him to school: so the first morning, he got out of the house, turned around, looked at me and said "ok, bye, see you later". When I had to tell him that I actually had to walk to school with him, he looked very disappointed and really seemed to think that I was an over-protective mother. He also wanted to walk home all by himself, which he almost did, until I caught up with him about half way down the path. Anyhow, he seems to love it. And I'm glad he does.
Miriam's transition into daycare wasn't that easy. She's been going for two weeks now and she really is having a hard time. I'm not sure what it is. I don't have complete confidence in her teacher (she's extremely young... i mean 22... that's almost still a kid, right?) but I also do realize that for her it's a huge transition. She has just spent three months hanging out with me and with family, getting to do really fun stuff (the beach, the pool, taking the train, going on walks with grand-parents, hanging out with cousins) and so i think it's particularly hard to get back into more normal things for her. We'll see how it goes, but if it doesn't get better, i am planning to have her go at a in-house daycare in our neighborhood. It seems like the place would fit her needs better.
Speaking of our neighborhood, it's really been a wonderful move for us. I love where our house is located, and I love the house itself. I'm also so excited about discovering this area a little more. The other day we went to the beach which is about five minutes from our house and we got to see a seal... we also went clam-digging with the grand-parents and berry-picking. It's just so nice to be able to do these things and know that it makes really special memories for the kids and for us. I have also been able to get back to work in almost a normal fashion. I still need to really get back to the dissertation but i feel like things are falling into place fairly well. Now if we could only sell our house in Georgia... : )

The picture is from Gabe's first day of school...