First of all (though not - strictly speaking - first, since they came after the rest of these pictures were taken), a few images from the surprise and happy visit we were paid by Jonathan, Jason & Donna. Jonathan is currently living and studying just over the border, in Karlsruhe, and his parents came for a whirlwind tour of the area. The weather was wild, the conversation was fast-paced and good and long, and the hours sped by. I was so glad to see them - though they made me miss Jean and Jeremy and their little ones even more than I usually do - and that's saying more than something.
The first is a triumphal picture, after the Most Stubborn Cork in the World was successfully wrenched out in a spectacular father-and-son effort. The second is from our evening chez Kobus (a.k.a, ye aulde L'ami Fritz... snif! snif! The new location is quite nice, though, and certainly more spacious). And the third is from the Salon de thé Grand'Rue, where we had a leisurely lunch on the second day of their visit (Jonathan had left for Karlsruhe after dinner the night before). This second picture is an example of one of the reasons I love my boys so much. They make me laugh and laugh...
...and laugh and laugh. Three of the next four pictures are almost entirely thanks to their Aunt Ellen, though she was a squillion miles away when they were taken. See... one day, Jean-Philippe was wearing the Lucky Lab t-shirt that she'd picked out for him (for Xmas, I think), upon which there is a caped, flying Lab. I saw the boys eyeing the t-shirt in their way, and waited them out, to see what it was that they were thinking. And it was worth it. "Mommy! Look! My! Ennen! Cat! Flying! Like dog! Like Dally t-shirt dog!" I looked. I saw: Tomi holding the apron Ellen had sent him for Xmas onto the back of the cat she'd given him as a welcome gift, when we arrived in Portland last May. He asked me to put it on the cat, so it could "Really! Fly!" Later, when the apron had fallen off for the three hundredth time, I asked if he didn't think one of their old bibs would work better, and he agreed, but on one condition: that I let him use the apron as a cape for himself. And so! Another obsession was born:
It's worth mentioning that the picture of Leo on the terrace was taken quite ealry in the morning. He got up, scurried over to their coat hanger, and began wiggling into his coat. When I asked him what he was doing, he responded, "My go outside! Play with sticks!" (I've mentioned this obsession in other blog posts...) Tomi, meanwhile, was "flying around" naked, except for his cape. He was forbidden to go out in the chill of the morning in such a state of (un)dress, so he thought about it and decided that it was just as good to stay on this side of the door and watch Leo wave sticks around...I really like Jean-Philippe's "stolen shots," sometimes even when I'm caught in them (another recent one can be seen in the blog from Gampa & Gamma's most recent visit, of Leo running along the field). here are a couple from the street scene we stumbled upon on St. Paddy's Day:
And here are a couple from their latest obsession, which follows two film-obsessions of theirs, for Princess Mononoke and Robin Hood. One day, they began making crosses out of wood - leading, of course, to our imagining another kind of obsession, first. It took until they began "stalking" something and whispering "Ashikaka!"* for us to realise that this was a bow and arrow. They later started whispering things like, "Mommy! Dally! Shhh! Demon over there! My! Get! Demon!" and pointing us in the right direction, then "shooting" their "arrow" in that direction. On the day that they added Robin Hood to their list of characters, I happened to find a bit of string, and got what two little boys we know and love would call a "Great! Idea!" (If either of those words were to be found among their English words, yet...)
* "Ashikaka" is the boys' rendition of the name Ashitaka, who is the hero of Princess Mononoke. Anne-Sophie and Harald will especially appreciate this one, methinks...
