New Neighbours

Sometime around end-February / beginning-March, we began hearing the warbling of a blackbird in our courtyard. For some weeks, he would essentially stay perched on the antenna just across from us. His warbling is so beautiful, it sometimes brings tears to my eyes. It occurred to me, after a few weeks of this beauty, that when he left it would be very hard to get used to his absence. After reading up on blackbirds, though, it seems there is every chance that, once nested in a particular spot, the blackbirds will stay on, year after year. Oh-ho, how I hope this is true! Unless, of course, we ever do move. In which case, I'm going to do everything in my power to get them to accompany us.

Tomi took the picture above a few weeks ago, just after the blackbird had begun to spread his wings a bit. Here he is on the corner rooftop to the front-right of us in the courtyard.

And then, this weekend, before hopping into bed, Leo first spent some time in my arms, watching and listening, and then it was Tomi's turn. And just as I was going to send the tot off to pillowland, what to our wondering eyes? The warbler's mate! And they kissed! I kid you not. One of the most beautiful sights I've seen in ages (besides my boys, of course)...

Family Flea Circus

A few shots of our family flea circus from the past few weeks:

These pictures were taken on one of our first days that seemed to mark the real beginning of spring. Jean-Philippe was watching from the perfect angle as the boys played at the edge of he fountain. And the blue sweater was a hand-me-down from a wonderful friend, and is one of our all-time favourites. It has sadly been slightly too small for a few months, now. But when I got it back out to consider handing it down once again, Tomi snatched it from my hands and hasn't let a day go by without putting on, since. On this day, he found a Turkish knit shirt that my mother-in-law had given me and... it's been a regular feature in our lives ever since, too.

The boys' almost-own creation: demon costumes, more or less à la Mononoke. ("Mommy! You can make some ears? Like this? You can do that? We making demon costumes!") And, an hour or so later, our current X-dresser and Black Spider-Boy on the sunny terrace.

Scenes from the night of our first lice-extraction. I was horrified when we realised what it was, but the parents all reassure me: it's the first of many. You call that reassurance?! I hear you saying. Well, yeah, when they're also saying, "What?! It's your first time?! Lemme tell yeh, we've been through it several times already, ourselves!" and so on. Still... Oh, and no, Tomi isn't fingering anybody. Later, when I was helping Leo brush his teeth, I heard a happy, somewhat surprised little voice behind me say, "Look! It's a crocodile!" and turned to see this (though the picture has been cut, because this is still a blog that's open to the general public...).

And our little dancer. We were inspired to start putting together a "dressing room" of sorts for moments when either or both of them feels like putting together a costume. This was what came out of their first foray into said "room" (which is actually a big bag in one corner of their bedroom, which holds all sorts of things, from princess slippers to bat masks. They also have a "treasure box," which holds the smaller items).

On the 18th of April in '75...

I would have thought it a happy coincidence that Ellen would be born on this day, 200 years after the events in the poem described, regardless. But the fact that all four of us spent our first seven years of school at Longfellow Elementary made it an even better coinky.

In any case...!


As I've already mentioned, I spend some special time thinking about each of my close family members every year on their brithday. On Ellen's birthday this year, Mom added to the fun. She copied all three of us girls into the email she sent the birthday gal, which included stories and three pictures. I had read through the stories and was looking at the last of the three pictures again the next day, when Tomi came up beside me:

Jenny: "You know who that is?"

Tomi: "Yeah, it's Gretchen!"

Jenny: ...that is so cool...

The picture in question is the first one, above. The second one was found while I was looking for one of the two of us together that I'd scanned last year. This one was too perfect a match (look closely at her face...), so the other photo will have to wait another year or so...

One of my favourite memories of the time surrounding Ellen's birth is that of David and me imagining how the birth was going to proceed. One of the best tales we came up with (they were, all of them, mighty bizarre) was the one which started with the very small, very wily and very fast baby-that-would-soon-be-Ellen zooming out of our mom (who was usually on the dining room table when it happened), jumping off the table, running headlong out the front door, jumping into the driver's seat of the Volkswagon van (which was conveniently waiting with her brother and sister in the drive way, keys in the ignition, engine humming, refrigerator and pantry stocked) and gunning it. From there, we went on all kinds of adventures, including but not limited to everywhere we knew in our town, our grandparents' houses and, of course, Turkey. The baby-that-would-soon-be-Ellen was a brilliant adventurer, and we were her willing adventurees.

What we got was no less brilliant: a little sparkler, a happy wee camper, a super good sport - all bundled up and topped with "blondie hair and blue eyes!"

Snip! Snip!

The boys before and after their haircuts - the first of all of their haricuts which didn't leave me feeling (entirely) like the image of me at the end suggests. I actually added that image to give a look at the radical change in hair that I underwent, myself, at the end of March. But it also shows you how I felt on Easter evening, before I turned into a geyser (it was... impressive. To say the least). heh! heh! ..gulp..

The Xmas Bunny

An account of our Easter Bonanza Weekend in the Vosges was begun ages ago, but I've had so little time for anything that's not work/projects and family over the past few weeks, that I've decided to give you these and let it go at that. More pics from the days since Easter should be in short order, though these days... you never do know. Oy-yoy.

The hovel & the boys with their toys

Going up-up-up-up-down-up-up-up-up-up

Good eats and drinks way up thar in the snow-capped mountains

The skies had radically changed for the taxi ride back down
(another story, altogether)

Mémé & Pépé arrive for a long Easter lunch

Noon, evening (see below), next morning

Let it be said that depite a raging stomach flu on my part, and despite our getting little rest at all, we managed to come home the better for it all. The weather was spectacularly romantic, which certainly had something to do with it. And the bug didn't keep me from hiking, either. The air was clean; the Xmas Bunny was generous; and the ceramic-tiled oven kept us warmer than I'd ever have imagined, once we got the hang of it. We're already planning our next long, spring-in-France* weekend...

see above: In the evening, as we were winding down, cleaning up after a light supper, the boys settled down at the table, mostly just to be near us in this strange place. The only radio station we could get in the mountains was a classical station that was playing an operatic version of Genesis, which was really magnificent to listen to. We parents were truly and pleasantly surprised, though, when we realised that the boys were really into it. They'd never really listened to the radio in this manner, and the wonderful orchestral sound effects and booming voices had the boys riveted to their seats. And get this: when the music would change, they would tell us what that was supposed to mean. For instance, when the orchestra sounded the approach of the serpent, the boys told us that things were getting dangerous, and that, "the serpent is bad! He is a devil! ...Mommy, what is a devil?" They know all about demons, thanks to Mononoke, so then there was a chorus of, "He is a DEMON! A DEMON! Daddy! Mommy! The serpent! He is a DEMON!" Though there was some confusion: "He has wormies coming out all over him? He has wormies, too?" "No, this is a different version of things..." Then they hunched down and got to listening hard again. It was really beautiful to witness. I just saw a version of Peter and the Wolf among our CDs that wasn't there before, so methinks their daddy was at least as impressed as I was...

* Spring, in France, is one long series of weeks for which it is advisable to keep an eye on the calendar, because at any given moment there may be yet another holiday. We always hope for the holidays to fall on a Friday or a Monday, for obvious reasons.