What a way to celebrate turning 5!

A trip to California!

Angelina's 5th birthday turned into a birthday vacation:

Day 1:
Pool time with Hannah and Martina (cousin Matthew arrived later)


Horseback riding with Hannah


Day 2:
More pool time, followed by grunion hunting....for those who have never heard of grunion or why one would "hunt" them, they are little sardine like fish. They come ashore to lay eggs and for a few months of the year, you can catch them. But only with your bare hands. No nets, no hooks. And they come during the night. So at 9pm off she went with Papa, Uncle Chris, Nanny and her cousins to the beach to catch some grunion. She loved it.



Day 3: off to Big Bear Lake and Uncle Bruce and Aunt "Doretta's" cabin...
Day 4: Turn 5!!! Complete with Dragon cake


And a ride on the "taco" on the lake. At first she didn't want to ride the tube when we went out with Uncle Bruce. Later, when Uncle Chris arrived and took the kids out again without Frédéric and I, they convinced her to try. And in customary fashion, she didn't want to get off.


Day 5: 4th of July with friends

Day 6: Learning to rock climb with cousin Justin. She loves the climbing wall at the park, so Justin, an avid rock climber and home from college for the summer, offered to take her to his climbing gym. Martina, Hannah, and Matthew came too. Camille did as well but having had surgery that day to remove a rod from her arm, she avoided the climbing. Of course, at first Angelina was afraid to try. Then she did and there was no stopping her.


And more pool time



Day 7: Off to Pismo Beach! Wanting a little "family" holiday, we headed up the coast to Pismo Beach. Beautiful!

Day 8: Searching for shells, crabs, and clams in Pismo Dunes

Day 9: hiking the sand dunes south of Pismo, followed by blackberry, raspberry, and strawberry picking near Lake Cachuma.

Day 10: More fun in the pool....


And then home.

for more pictures, click HERE. Pay particular attention to the water slide photos.

California Dreaming

Now I finally have some pictures to post, more on our trip. click HERE

I finished work on July 30. The next day Angelina, Lenaïc and I flew to CA. Yes, me alone with two kids. Other people do it, surely I could too? Well, fortunately, both kids are pretty good fliers and it wasn't that difficult (not that I want to do it again anytime soon).

What followed was two weeks of non-stop parties: Uncle Chris and Aunt Debbie's pool with the big slide and trampoline, Aunt Loretta and Uncle Bruce's pool, Aunt Loretta's "cabin" in Big Bear (can you call it a cabin if it's bigger than your house?), Nanny's house, Corona del Mar Beach, Santa Barbara, Hiking up Mt Baldy, daily swimming lessons, and lots and lots of cousin-time.

If it looks like Angelina spent all her time in her bathing suit, that's because she did. She took a little breack for Lenaïc's baptism to wear a dress, but brought along her goggles to the church just in case (more on the baptism in another post). She lived in her bathing suit, not unlike we did as kids every summer.

The best part? Playing with cousins, aunts and uncles, and Nanny and Opa every day for more than 2 weeks. Alas, now she associates cousins with a pool, as when she skyped with Maël and Gilles upon returning home she asked "do they have a pool?"



There are more pics from Big Bear on facebook, I'll try to post a link here soon, so check back.

California and Airplanes

First Stop: Martina, Hannah and Matthew's house (aka, Uncle Chris and Aunt Debbie's house). Matthew and Uncle Chris were out at the UCLA football game, but that was ok. More time for the girls to play. From trampoline to dress up to dance....how much more fun can you have?




Then it was off to Aunt Loretta and Uncle Bruce's house for all the rest of the family. Despite being dead tired, she was raring to go. She just HAD to wear her new "pretty dress" that we'd bought that day. And seeing Opa? That was the highlight. She wouldn't get too close, and she wouldn't sit on his lap, but she kept walking around telling everyone "There's Opa!"

Next Day was the Annual Tamale Making Party. Nanny starts bright and early, which was no problem since we were on Texas time. Fortunately, cousin Hannah spent the night so Angelina was happily occupied while we helped Mom set up. While we made tamales, all Angelina cared about was her cousins.



You've never seen a kid so happy! (see videos below) 3 girls and 3 boys to entertain her and abide her every wish.....there are advantages to being 5 years younger than the youngest cousin. She was the STAR!






She's now a football player. Particularly funny as she had no clue that she was significantly smaller than the other kids, she jumped in to tackle (more like a rugby scrum) with the biggest of them.





And tease? Yes, she can beat Matthew at his own game. He teased her by holding the ball just out of reach. So when she got the ball, she did the same to him.




All day playing with cousins, what could be better?







Having a new grandma! She has Nanny, but she doesn't realize that Nanny = Grandma, while her friends have two grandmas. She calls them Grandma, but Felice often reminds her "that's MY Grandma." So, apparently Angelina decided to adopt her own - Cousin Gloria. Gloria walked in and immediately Angelina said "There's Grandma." I said "No, that's Gloria." No. Grandma. We went back and forth and I gave up. So all day she called Gloria Grandma. As Gloria has no grandkids, she was quite happy to adopt one. But it wasn't just that day. She's been talking about "grandma Gloria" since we got back. I even her heard telling Wiley and Felice all about HER Grandma Gloria.

Alas, the time came to say goodbye. Angelina does not do well with goodbyes. While we'd see some of them the next day, Hannah, Martina, and Matthew all had school/practice so this was our last time with them. She didn't want to say goodbye, got rather grouchy and stomped away. Same when Gloria left :(


On Monday she saw a picture from her baptism with a bunch of cousins and said with wonder and excitement "Look mommy! All my cousins!" She is sooooooo excited to have cousins!!! She wouldn't let go of that picture all morning.




Since everyone was in school Monday, and since Angelina had been asking to go to the beach, we headed off to Little Corona Del Mar for the tide pools with Nanny. There wasn't much sea life in them this time, but it was a gorgeous (tho not super warm) day and playing in the sand and sea was more than worth it.





Then off to Aunt Denise and Uncle Kurt's for another dinner. This time a little more subdued (I think she knew more goodbyes were inevitable). Still, she had fun playing with Kyle and Camille while we checked out the old toys Denise had saved from our collective childhood....many were passed down from Tim, so at least 50 years old!




We had a final breakfast with Opa, just Frédéric, Angelina, and I, which was wonderful. The whole point of the trip, afterall, was to see and spend time with Dad. All the parties are fun, but it's also nice to have some one-on-one time too. She enjoyed entertaining Opa who clearly enjoyed entertaining her. Of course, Angelina went into her now familiar grouchy not talking mode when it was time to say goodbye. Though frustrating, in a way it's sweet. It's her way of coping with being sad to leave.

Then it was another airplane trip and back home! Followed the next morning with "Mommy, I want to go to California." And daily since with "Mommy, I want to see Hannah/Martina/Matthew/Kyle/Camille/Nanny/Opa" Even Uncle Chris got a mention (sorry Ryan and Justin, you have to play football with her to get a notice).

For the whole collection of photos, including a few from Halloween, see California Nov 2009

Fun with Cousins

More pictures and stories to come....

A weekend in California with the cousins, Angelina had a BLAST. The crash video was taken first. She was a bit shocked initially, but that lasted all of a few seconds, as you can see from the next video.

A visit from Nanny

pictures to come

Nanny (my mom) is here now taking care of Angelina. Our daycare provider was on vacation and with Frederic traveling so much lately, I asked her to stay an extra week. Angelina is having a blast. I am not so sure about Nanny though. That said, at 75 she has more energy to chase around Angelina than I do.

All I hear from Angelina is "nanny! Look at me!" "Nanny! Nanny! Nanny!"

I am glad she's having so much fun. It's a great visit for Angelina. Though she's spent time with Nanny before, she was younger and doesn't remember much. I am very sure she will remember Nanny very well after this visit. She certainly remembers all her Swiss relatives after our June visit.

Now, if I could just find some time to take pictures....

A Very Special Day

In addition to celebrating her birthday on our last day in Switzerland, Angelina got to spend extra time with Granpapa. Though she'd visited him nearly every day, and entertained him in his hospital room and later rehabilitation room, this was the first day he went out on a wheelchair outside since entering the hospital more than 3 weeks before.

Of course, she wore him out, but then she usually wears all of us out.




Le famille Allegrini and Ferrari

Making friends with Ton Ton Phillippe

To fully appreciate this, you have to realize that this took 2 weeks to occur. Angelina is super friendly and talks to everyone. With kids, she will take their hand without hesitation, like she's known them forever. With adults, she's friendly - saying hi - but keeps her distance.

Each time we saw Phillippe, he'd try to get Angelina to be friends. She was having none of it. She'd shy away from him (and all adults pretty much, except Granpapa whom she saw weekly on Skype so "knew" better).




The morning we were leaving, Phillippe met us at the airport. Fredo had gone off to return the car so it was just Angelina and I with him at first. Suddenly, they became best friends. She was no longer interested in Papa, she only wanted to hold Ton ton's hand as we strolled through the airport.

Nurse Angelina

GranPapa was in the hospital for his birthday, so we took him a dessert, sang happy birthday and brought a festive atmosphere. Angelina of course, twirled around and sang.

After everyone else had left and we were about to go, he got sick. Probably too much sweet stuff. We didn't manage to get anything to catch it fast enough, so Fredo and I both grabbed a bunch of paper towels and started cleaning him up while we waited for the nurse. Angelina, not missing a beat, went to the bathroom, got more paper towels, brought them over to GranPapa and started helping.

She didn't hesitate, she didn't say "ewwww!" she didn't run scared from the room. Nope, she said "Granpapa's not feeling well. Here's some towels." We finally had to tell her that was enough towels :)

I am rather proud of her. She can be incredibly sympathetic when she wants to be :)







and silly too. She's been having fun dressing up in Granpapa's clothes.





And playing with cousins

Fun with Cousins

Her friends

Every night we have a ritual, or at least it seems that way. Angelina lays down in bed. Then the following conversation ensues:

"Mommy, where's Mouse?"

I go get mouse.

"Mommy, I need Tiger."
I go get tiger.

"Mommy, where's Baby Jaguar?"
I go get baby jaguar.

"Mommy, I need Teddy Bear."

I go get Teddy Bear (which by the way, happens to be mine from c. 1975)

By now I've wizened up, and get Buggy Bug too.

Only now she decides she wants another "friend" she normally doesn't ask for - cow, or rabbit, or something that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

You may ask why don't I always just keep these in bed with her? Well, I do. At least I try to. But there are the mornings she says "Here Mommy, take my friends to the kitchen for me. Please." and hence I dump them in the basket. But sometimes they must sit at the table. Sometimes they sit on the couch. Sometimes they're in odd places. I do try to remember to take them before we get into bed, but I seem to forget too often.

This, from the kid who for the first 1.5 years of her life could care less about any of the gazillion stuffed animals people gave her. Now she has a whole zoo.



And now for the Bad Mommy Confession:

I always swore I would never be one of those parents who park the kid in front of the TV for a babysitter. And for close to two years it wouldn't have worked anyway, as she wasn't at all interested. Well, one day I bought some DVDs (we don't actually have broadcast or cable TV anyway, we just have DVDs). And, well, I confess now to occasionally parking her in front of the TV so I can make dinner, take a shower, have a moment's peace. I do actually do all these things with her much of the time, but there are some times when it doesn't work and I turn to Dora (tho now, she doesn't care about Dora, it's Tasha and Tyrone, the Backyardigans, or Monsters or Calliou).

And for my even bigger confession: we are both really insistent on family meals. Meals are spent at the table. No TV. Well, except when Frederic is out of town or out playing volleyball. See, that's when I usually resort to the TV babysitter to make the dinner. And then, well.......I get lazy. AND she EATS EVERY SINGLE THING (which is a rarity at the table). Now, I've only let her eat in front of the TV a handful of times. This is not a common occurrence, so I'm not that bad of a mommy, right?

Sometimes you do what you have to do....

Fun with Cousins

We've been visiting CA for Nanny's Birthday. Angelina has been in heaven visiting her cousins.

Angelina's Rohr Uncles and Aunts

and Nanny and Opa

It's a rarity for all of us surviving 7 kids to be in the same place at the same time. This occasion was Nanny's 75th Birthday Party


I think you can tell by this picture that we all have very different styles, even though our husbands all claim we're all alike....

Persistence

"Even as infants they are incredibly determined and strong. They push where other kids don't push. They demand more than other kids demand. And they never give up.It is impossible to ignore them or distract them."

Sound familiar? Sound like a certain little someone whose name begins with A?

Tonight my cousin Bob Slicker was in town, a surprise visit. Wonderful visit, although too short. We went out to dinner. Angelina was distracted by the mini ATM machine in the corner - she thought it was a game. Only she couldn't reach. She kept insisting on having the high chair - this from the child who refuses to sit in one. Took me awhile to figure it out: she wanted to use the high chair to climb up to reach the ATM buttons...

I said NO, she went back. I said NO again, she went back. She walked away with me for awhile. As soon as I let my guard down, she sprinted over and tried again. Papa said No. And again and again and again. After lord knows how long, I stood back, just to see what she'd do. I could see her from a distance, but she didn't know I was watching. She tried climbing up. With no one to stop her, she pushed herself further. But she couldn't quite do it. She climbed back down and walked over to the table.

And that was that.

Now, normally I stick to NO means NO. And I never did say Yes, I just ignored her for a few minutes. After all her persistence, she tried it, it didn't work - or maybe it just wasn't fun if Maman wasn't standing there telling her NO.

Persistence can be a good thing. When I was about 12, my diving coach said to me that while another diver might be able to learn a dive in 10 tries, she'd stop at 8, whereas it might take me 20 but I'd go to 25. And that's why I'd always be a better diver. Persistence. I see it in Frederic, as he works on a project. So she gets it from both sides.

Alas, in a 2.5 year old, persistence = challenge and stress for Maman and Papa. So how to harness it? We need to learn when to say Yes, and save the Nos for when it really matters. Teach her that persistence is a good thing when you're trying to reach a goal, but not if that goal is convincing Maman you should have ANOTHER chocolate.

And thanks Bob, for visiting us.


And that picture is the famous "chocolate fridge", also used to store wine, but at 2.5 all she cares about is the dark stuff...when she couldn't open it, she pulled a chair over to stand on so she could reach the keys. She didn't know exactly where they were (hidden behind the picture frame) but she was feeling around everywhere for them.

If you look closely at that picture, you can see she still has a chocolate ball in her mouth as she's trying to get more.

Christmas in San Antonio

Not exactly a white Christmas, unless you count the blinding sun reflecting off the white sidewalks....it was HOT! However, Angelina insisted on wearing her "Snowman" - apparently that's what a hat, scarf, mitten ensemble is called. Our neighbors, Gloria and Fredo, got a set for her and she wouldn't take it off, even if it was 82F (28C).



It was pretty funny seeing her face when she first saw the presents under the tree. She didn't realize they were all for her. She was excited for the first one - a horse on a stick that Papa made and started handing the rest of the presents to us to open. We said "No, these are for YOU!" She hesitated through the first few, but got the hang of it and decided this presents thing was pretty fun after all....


Angelina certainly enjoyed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, even if she didn't have all her cousins to play with. Christmas Eve was spent with friends, including her favourites: Wiley and Felice, and Christmas Day was a Dora Marathon AND a bike ride on the Riverwalk. At one point along the Riverwalk, we had stopped to turn around when one of the boats came past and stopped as well. The guide said something about Angelina and the cameras started flashing. I wish I had a picture - she was sitting on the back of the bike in her helmet and green sun glasses. She didn't pose for a change, instead she just gave her movie star look as the papparazzi snapped away. So though I have no pictures, there are a ton of pictures out there somewhere....

What We're Thankful For

Mostly today, we're thankful Kyle, Marisa, and Glen are in Mumbai but safe. I literally burst into tears when I saw Marisa's email saying they were ok (and I presume Prachet and Shweta are nowhere near Mumbai or she would have said so). I spent last night in knots, worrying.

Also made me realize something. The world is a different place when you have a kid. Every horrible event takes on new meaning when you're thinking of the future of your kid, when you travel and "safe" places are not so safe anymore. We didn't go to Prachet and Shweta's wedding, though we seriously considered it (new roof and all got in the way). I'd been so envious of Kyle and Marisa going. Now I just keep thinking "what if?" I've been in some hairy situations (tho none this bad), but with Angelina, well, I shudder when I think about it.

But the gang is safe. And I'm thankful. VERY thankful. And I am so very sorry for those who weren't so lucky. For those who lost loved ones in this senseless act.

So tonight I'm especially thankful I can hug and kiss my wonderful husband and amazing daughter, and go to sleep knowing the people I love are safe.

"Chauss-sock"

We're raising Angelina bilingual:Frederic speaks in French and I speak in English.

But sometimes she's mono-lingual and speaks Franglais, like when talking about socks and shoes. She knows the French words: chaussettes and chaussure, and the English versions, but lately she's been saying "chauss-sock" and "chauss-shoe."

We shouldn't let her, but it's too cute.

As for her speaking, she had been behind for some time. At 18 months we (ok, I) were a little concerned that she wasn't speaking at the appropriate level. The early-childhood intervention evaluators, however, found she was only 1-2 months behind so not in need of therapy. A few months later her developmental specialist said the same thing: she understood very well, but was a bit behind. No worries, this is common with a bilingual kid in the early days. Her language development has improved over the last 6 months or so, but it really took off last week.

That's what spending a week with Nanny will do.....the kid is talking non-stop. And clearly too. She skipped over mere words and sentences and went straight to monologues.

4 hour long monologues.

It's still mostly in English, but she does speak more and more French. The wonder is now, should Fredo insist on her speaking in French to him?

As for us, and what prompted this post - there's a blogger Fned doing a 'group' blog post about bilingual families. Given Frederic and I met in the US (at a German Biergarten) and since my language skills are fuddled at best (I was saying "Sawat di Ka" and "Khap khun ka" at Mexican restaurants in San Antonio... (Thai for hello and thank you) and throwing in some odd britishisms and spanish words, we've always spoken in English to each other.

My French? What French? I've tried, but my brain is full of Spanish and occasional Thai - at least that's my excuse. I keep saying once we move I'll immerse myself in it then I'll learn. However, I have learned quite a lot since Angelina was born, since he speaks to her only in French. Of course, the words I learn are not exactly for intellectual conversation: "Arrêt!" "Ça suffi! (don't know the ending for suffi-) ... and anyway, you get the idea. We try to watch cartoons/kids films in French to give us both more exposure, which seems to be working. I can sing "J'suis la carte" and "We did it!" (tho I can't spell the latter - "Çe ganard?")...Fans of Dora will understand.

Of course, if we move to Germany next year as hoped, that will throw a whole new kink into things. Great for Angelina, who will learn German in school/playground and continue English with Maman and French with Papa. More work for me though! At least I've studied the basics of German before and can read it a bit, so with effort should be able to learn, but that still means I haven't learned French.....

I've just been reading other blogs of couples who started in one language and eventually progressed to another. It's hard for me to imagine ever being fluent enough in any language to speak it as my primary language. Then I see Frederic - he claims he doesn't speak German, but having gone to university in Bern, she speaks it just fine. And I remember his English when I first met him - excellent, but a little off (and very cute) and now he's basically fluent (still with the cute accent). And though my Thai was hardly fluent or even close to it, there were times I could rattle off a price negotiation at the market, so I guess it's possible for French too. And maybe German. And Spanish. And Karen.

I would love to be able to sit with people anywhere in the world and converse in their native tongue. Fortunately, I've experienced enough of the former to know you can always find a way to converse, especially if a gin and tonic (or beer, or wine...) is involved.

I wish I was born a polyglot.

Maybe Angelina will become one.