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...

Pour les fideles...

qui s'aventurent encore parfois sur le blog, je me suis dit qu'il etait grand temps de refaire une petite entree histoire d'expliquer le manque recent d'infos...D'abord depuis quelques mois j'ai surtout mis les photos sur notre site flickr (flickr.com/photos/famillenicolet). Ca va plus vite et c'est plus simple... d'ou l'absence flagrante de photos. Pour le reste j'ai eu peu de temps pour simplement raconter ou on en est. La vie va juste un peu trop vite! Mais comme Miriam et Gabriel ont les deux leur anniversaire cette semaine je me suis dit que c'etait le moment de redonner un signe de vie...
Miriam a eu deux ans mercredi et nous sommes alles faire son controle des deux ans...Elle mesure 94.6 centimetres (that's 37.3 inches for you guys who still don't believe in the metric system) ce qui la rend plus grande que 99 % des enfants de son age... Elle pese 15 kilos, ce qui la rend plus... lourde on va dire que 94 % des enfants de son age. Donc pas de soucis, elle va tout bien! Et son caractere devient plus trempe chaque jour de sa vie.
Gabriel a 5 ans demain, c'est la premiere fois qu'on lui organise une vraie fete d'anniversaire, avec une vingtaine d'enfants qui vont debarquer chez nous... c'est la premiere fois de ma vie que je me rends compte de l'energie que mes parents ont depensee pour tous ces anniversaires qu'ils ont organises pour nous chaque annee. C'est vraiment un peu stressant en fait mais je pense qu'on va survivre!
2008 devrait aussi etre l'annee de notre depart vers l'ouest (a defaut d'etre l'annee de notre retour en Suisse...)... les nouvelles viendront en temps voulu! J'essaierai de mettre des photos de l'anniversaire de Gabriel et Miriam, ainsi que des quelques jours de neige que nous avons eus la semaine passee tout bientot!

Miriam dessine

J'ai rarement vu Miriam aussi concentrée que dans ce moment. C'est pas la vidéo la plus rigolote du monde, loin de là, mais je trouvais que c'était chou de voir Miriam s'absorber dans une tache particulière. Elle a dessiné avec ses feutres pendant une vingtaine de minutes, et c'était très drôle de voir qu'en comparaison avec Gabriel, elle faisait toujours bien attention de refermer le feutre qu'elle avait utilisé avant d'en prendre un autre. C'est déjà un petit bout de femme très organisé!

and one more...

couldn't resist. You don't have to watch it...

More dancing...

Pick your own title for these...

- Quand la musique est bonne...
- Words fail me...
- You can take the girl out of the disco but you can't take the disco out of the girl

What can I say... it's just a regular tuesday night at the Andersons...

The great outdoors are available again

As temperatures are finally lowering around Atlanta, we can go outside again and not be engulfed in heat and humidity. So today we had a pretty typical day of grocery shopping, some fun at the park and a birthday party for a buddy one year old. All of this happened outside, and it's so nice to be able to do that again. We're really enjoying it... and Miriam's face proves it...! She just loves being outside. And when she's not outside, she loves to test the limits and throw some awesome temper tantrums. It happens a couple of times a day, usually because I'm horribly mean to her (for example, i do not let her run out on the street... oh, the rage this creates. It's almost funny... for a while...) and do not let her be independent enough. I don't remember Gabriel doing that at this age. It seems like it came later. Gabriel is doing really well, adjusting to his life in school, learning letters and numbers. He's quite fun to talk to actually, as you might have experienced on the phone. He's also reached that age when he will give me advice, or comment on things... like driving... it's fun. Do not try to talk on your cellphone while you're in a car with him... why? Because then you can't FOCUS. And it's dangerous. I'll remember that when he starts driving...

Dancing queen...

This is Miriam's absolute favorite dancing song. It's the theme song for the Arthur show on PBS and whenever she hears it she will drop whatever she's doing, and come dance to it in front of the tv. She doesn't really care for the show yet (even though Gabriel really likes it) but she just loves the song. I think the video doesn't quite do justice to her dancing moves, but it's funny anyhow (oh, and you get Brent's singing too...).

Labor day

We are all back in the states since a couple of weeks now and feel like we're back in a good routine. The kids have enjoyed going to day care, and i have been able to do reasonable amount of work in an excellent setting, so that's been very positive. We've had some really good times with our friends too, and have really enjoyed being back home. Today was labor day and we had a great afternoon of baby fun with the Robertson. We did all the good stuff of what I imagine an american labor day to be: hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, guacomole, beer, baseball and lots of outside time. Once we got home, we finished the day with some creative artwork by mami and her little helpers...

Here are some pictures...

Picture update

All the good times in South of France...

Attack!!!

Oh boy... i miss my bed...

Sometimes a good day of visiting Les Baux de Provence will just knock you out...

Oh the good life...

At last some summer weather... on our private terrace, we are enjoying a little apéritif with our cousin Leo. Life is good.

Gabe.

La fine équipe...

Je sais, deux entrées en une journée c'est un peu excessif, mais je ne pouvais pas résister à l'envie de partager ces photos. Je ne peux pas croire à quel point Zelda et les enfants se sont habitués les uns aux autres... Mimi et Gabe adorent jouer avec elle, et Zelda est d'une patience quasi sans limites!

Update and perhaps change of tone

Our mom has decided that it was time that from time to time she held the pen on this blog, and gave real updates concerning the lives of our family. Since she's the boss (as pretty much everyone knows) and since she's the only one here who knows how to turn on the computer, we had no choice but to let her do it. Hence today is her first official entry...

As most of you already know, we left for Switzerland just a week ago. The flight went remarkably well considering the circumstances. Both Miriam and Gabe slept for most of the way there so that was really nice. Gabe got to lay down on two seats and Miriam used my lap as her pillow, which made for a somewhat uncomfortable flight, but i will take this over screaming babies anytime!
We've know pretty much adapted to life back in our other home. Nights are still iffy but less so than at the beginning... Miriam only woke up at 4h30 this time and went back to sleep fairly easily (I didn't... lots of scary thoughts about jobs, dissertation, fellowships were keeping me awake), something she also does at home quite often. I am also trying to get Miriam to only take one long nap nowadays. So far, it seems to work.
We've also enjoyed my parents' yard quite a bit, eventhough the weather has really been less than fantastic. But as the pictures show, Miriam seems to think that the little stones (called gravier in French) are quite fun. We're hoping for swimming pool weather soon.
Other than that, not much news. More teeth are coming in on Mimi's side (bottom two canines for those of you interested in details....) and Gabriel is switching to French quite easily. We're also excited about Federer being on his way for another finale in the French open!

More soon, from me (Val) or the kids!