Ten years

Ten years of marriage for Seb and I. Wow. What a milestone.
On the anniversary day, Seb worked late and came home at 8pm. After the kids were in bed, we had an 'after work' drink. We opened a bottle of champagne and chilled out.
I asked my husband if he remembered where we had our honeymoon. He actually forgot the name of the place. So we started looking up internet to look for the name. I know that it was a resort in Port Dickson, Malaysia but I don't remember the name of the resort either. It was Avillion Port Dickson resort. We spent 3 days there. It was really a mini honeymoon compared to my many Singaporean friends who did 3 weeks of europe tour.
Seb replied that my good life in France more than compensate for that short honeymoon. As usual, my husband is right. I am happy with my life here though there are always little ups and downs.
The next day, Seb came home with a lovely bouquet of flowers to mark our anniversary. A little late but better than never. I just love to have flowers at home. Hoping for more good years to come.

Handsome

This is Handsome. Our new family addition. He is a Viszla and is 2 months old.

We were supposed to get him right after our Rome trip. But since the trip was cancelled, Seb went to pick him up on saturday. Seb did not cancel his leave so he could be at home to take care of our needs.

After 2 days, Handsome is adjusting well. He is an active puppy. He naps a lot in between his play time. He has 3 meals a day and drinks a lot; resulting in wet accidents at home. We tried to put him out as often as possible but sometimes, we just missed the timing.

I am getting better after the fall but still can't bend over to clean up the mess. So Seb is doing all the cleaning up. 

As for the cat dog relationship, hm... Bao Bei was not eating from her cat bowl because Handsome touched it. We had to put away Bao Bei's bowl on the table and gave it to her when she was in the kitchen. Handsome went to Bao Bei twice and got slapped by her. He is scare of her. The both of them are on their guard when they meet.

 The kids are happy to have a puppy. When Handsome got excited and jumped on the boys, they shouted for help. I told A1 that Handsome was going to continue to grow to be a big dog. A1 said he did not want a big dog. With proper education, this dog will be a great pal for the boys. Our family is complete. Or maybe not, I would like to have some pet fish. Well, one thing at a time.....

Rome can wait

Seb and I were to suppose to spend 4 romantic days in Rome starting today. With my domestic accident, the trip is cancelled. I was able to cancel the hotel booking with no cost. As for the air tickets, I bought travel insurance so I was able to get back almost all the money. Not that the tickets cost a lot since we were flying with the budget airline, EasyJet. Since my car accident in Singapore 3 years ago, I came to realise that travel insurance is important. I would always include travel insurance in our holiday budget.

Picking up from my last post, I did not wait until monday for my x-ray. I realised I could not drive in my state and my lower back was still hurting lots. So on sunday, Seb drove me to the hospital while his mother came to take care of the boys. Fortunately, we arrived at the Emergency just before the peak so I was received by the doctor after waiting for an hour. I did an x-ray and was told that my sactrum was fractured. Nothing much to do except bed rest and to sit on cushion. Pain killers were given.

Five days have passed and I am getting better though slowly. I am disappointed over the cancelled trip. It was meant to mark our 10th wedding anniversary. Many kind friends told me that Rome can wait. Indeed. With this accident, the whole household was relying on Seb. He has proven himself that he could be a full time working 'mother' taking care of the kids, me and the housework. His load will be heavier as we are welcoming a new family member tomorrow. One with four legs. Will update more with photos.

Be careful. Don't fall.

I slipped and fell down the stairs yesterday morning. Yeah, the downside of living in a house. I was coming down with a basket of dirty linens. The two boys heard me coming down and started to run towards me from the living room. At the last four steps, I slipped and fell. Seb heard the loud noise and quickly run to me and picked me up. I was in so much pain that I did not notice my boys. They saw everything. Seb carried me to the sofa and I just lied down and waited for the pain to subside a little.

We explained to the boys that 'maman had bobo.', 'maman fell down the stairs.' and 'you must be careful and hold on while coming down.' A1 kept asking 'Pourquoi you fall down?', 'Pourquoi you did not hold the rail?', 'Pourquoi you carry the laundry basket?'. Sigh. In the end, my answer came to something like this 'Because I love you, that's why I was washing your clothes.'

I spent the whole day in bed, lying down on my side as my tailbone was hurting me too much. Thank God, Seb was working from home yesterday so he kept a watch over the boys. I decided to see the doctor as I was still in much pain after a few hours. The doctor could only give me painkillers and a letter to do an X-ray on my coccyx. Even if a bone is fractured, there is nothing much to do except bed rest.  My appointment for X-ray is on monday.

The kids are behaving well. They know that their mother is not well. As I laid in bed, A1 brought me books and toys to comfort me. A2 came now and then and asked 'Maman, encore bobo?' (Mama, again pain?) They loved to jump on our bed and Seb and I had to told them to stop as the movement of the mattress hurt my back.

Today, I could stand and walk but sitting down was still too painful. I sat for half an hour to read books to the boys and then retired to my bed. I told the boys I needed to rest and that they had to play by themselves. They entertained themselves in their rooms and then started 'cooking'. A2 shouted 'à table' (Direct translation is 'To the table' but it meant 'meal time'.) and offered me his crunch up paper. A1 came along too with his. There were various plastic food; egg, cabbage, piece of tart, mushroom etc... My sweet boys.

Now when I used the stairs, A1 would go 'Be careful. Don't fall.' It made me laugh because for once, we had a reverse role. My 3.5 year old boy telling me to be careful.

School work

It is the Toussaint (All Saints') school holidays. A1 has no school and A2 has no daycare for 2 weeks.
On the last day of school, Seb went to fetch A1. His teacher handed Seb a big folder and an A4 size notebook. In the big folder were worksheets that A1 did in school.

In the notebook were photos of activities A1 did in school. Each month, the kids bake a cake to celebrate their classmates birthday. We saw photos taken from the Sept and Oct birthday celebrations. Once, I was told to bring two leeks to school. Now I could see why. I saw photos of all kind of autumn vegetables. The students cut up the vegetables and made a soup. They then tasted the soup. They also tried autumn fruits and different apples. A1 noted in his book that he liked green apples. Finally we know what our boy was doing during his time at school.

Extract from the notebook: A page showing Souricette, the class's mascot.
She follows us everywhere. She is very timid so she speaks in the ear of the teacher or the children. She is our friend and also that of Crokinou who is a little old, sometimes she will come sleep with one of us and after, we will tell what we have done.

Souricette spends each weekend with a student and the student is supposed to tell the class on monday what they have done togather over the weekend. For the 3 year old kids, it would be the teacher prompting and the student answering. We are waiting patiently for Souricette to spend a weekend with us.

We also got to view all sorts of paintings and colouring and handicraft done by A1. He used coton pads to dot a witch that had chicken poxs. He had fingers painting, hand painting, cork painting etc... There were songs about the week, poems about colors and shapes etc...

School seems like lots of fun.

The teacher left a note telling the parents to help the child fill up a page in the notebook describing a day the child spent during the school holidays.

With the rainy and cold weather, the boys stayed at home on most days. I took them to Paris to visit a friend on wed. Yesterday, being Toussaint, was a public holiday, Seb had wanted to take a walk in the forest but with the wet weather, we went to the indoor park/playground Woupi instead. I will wait until the end of the holidays to ask A1 which day in the past two weeks he wanted to tell his classmates.