Everyday Mercy: September 2007

Friday, September 21, 2007

September 2007 - Family photos update

Family photos update Sep 2007

(To see the photos click on the picture above or click on the link http://picasaweb.google.fr/everyday1/FamilyPhotosUpdateSep2007)

In France "La Rentrée" is a big thing: literarily "The Return"...school starts, work starts, it's the end of the "grand" holidays during summer. For Etienne "La Rentrée" went well, his first few weeks at school went smoothly, he proudly declared that he didn't cry (a couple of kids still weepily and desperately clung to their parent's legs in front of the classrooms two weeks on); after a few battles he now adds "I didn't fight today" in his daily report when I pick him up from school. He goes only mornings, every weekday except wednesday. His teacher noted that he has a "pretty little" english accent :). His french is progressing in leaps and bounds, and he likes to rattle off french nursery rhymes and songs throughout the day, usually at the top of his voice, apparently encouraged by his classmates. He has dropped his australian accent from his shipmates (which I miss, it was quite cute!), but he still occasionally does the african "er-hey" to indicate his agreement. He still says "lallow" for "yellow" and "holly-copter", and ten months after jumping ship his playmobile figures still do "man overboard!!" and fire drills, and he still talks about the nice preschool on "his" big ship in Africa.

Meanwhile, Elise who started sleeping nights stopped doing so again gradually, and we think it's because she is getting hungry in the middle of the night. The current french paediatric opinion is to keep exclusive breastfeeding till six months old, so that is our target and we look forward to when we can feed her porridge so that she can sleep through the night! Otherwise she is growing well, quite happy and calm in the day, and enjoys the company of her brother. Etienne does get jealous but doesn't take it out on her so far, instead he resorts to telling jokes or doing (what he thinks is) funny stuff to get my attention. He can be quite protective of Elise and gets worried when she cries - he would rock her in her bouncing chair and say, "Elise don't worry, kor-kor (big brother in chinese) is here!" Usually it works as he bounces her so hard she is too surprised to keep crying! So with these two we can't complain of boredom, ha! More updates next round, blessings and keep in touch,

Current landlubbers kae julien étienne and élise :)

Saturday, September 01, 2007

August 2007 - Summer updates, photos and videos

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are a few thousand words' worth :)! Sorry I didn't manage to update the blog sooner, it's been three tornado months, we are deeply grateful to family and friends who helped us out especially kae's parents who stayed the whole three months brave grandparents they are! We are getting over the sleepless nights now as Elise settles into a more manageable rhythm, although the day still flies by :)! Etienne starts school in September, it will be his first year in kindergarten, and he already asks tough questions:

"Where is God?" (after mama's reading of Genesis in his Lion's first bible);

"Where is Elise before?" (when shown photos of him as a baby);

"What is electricity?" (when told to turn off the bedside lamp to save electricity...I told him that's a good question to ask his teacher when he goes to school! Alternatively, go ask papa the engineer heh heh).

Elise is growing fast and is very smiley and chatty (see videos), though I'm sure she cries and fusses as much as other babies especially from 6 weeks on to 3 months and a half with "evening colic" (which means no one knows why they cry but 'colic' sounds interesting.) At 3 months old she weighs 5.5 kg and measures 56 cm (for you baby growth statistics aficionados out there!)

So, for the photos, click on the picture below or go to the link:
http://picasaweb.google.fr/everyday1/FamilyPhotosJulyUpdate?authkey=NC1XYvDaZ1I