Karate is contagious!

Our house has become very safe over the last month or so, thanks to these 3 karate kids! Léa and Matty follow in the steps of Killian. Matty with his I-don’t-really-mind attitude is decidedly the most chilled out karate person I know. Léa listens attentively and tried her hardest to look the part. Mmmh, she makes me think of the prayer mantis character in Kung-Fu Panda, with her long dangling body.

But they are all super motivated (Matty in his own way), they love it, they sweat at it (Matt comes at the end of each lesson and tells me “Look Mama, I’m nearly sweating!’). Léa is practicing practicing practicing. She is in the same class as Killian (white, yellow and orange belts are together) and wants to feel that she is good enough.

I love the structure of karate, the discipline it requires, the respect of others and the way the gradings are organized. If you work hard, whether you look good or not, you will move on to the next belt (well, in the early stages at least) which is great for young kids. It helps them to stay motivated and to know that they can do it. No doubt, Killian looks much better than Léa, but to a certain extent, it’s irrelevant.

Here they are, taking their role very seriously! Killian not flinching (apart from the oh-look!-a-butterfly moment), Léa trying to look fierce, and Matt and his cooler-than-cool attitude. Aren’t they cute!!!

The only downside is the washing. Lots of white, white and white!!

The last of his kind

It is done. Matty lost his first tooth. It does feel like the little bit left of my baby is slowly falling away, one tooth at a time.

I had no warning, no time to get ready for it. Killian lost his first tooth months after being 6. Mattéas is only 5 and a few months…

Big hole!!

His cute little teeth, with extra special gaps in between, don’t look very sturdy anyway. So when he came up to me, eating his apple and saying “ma dent is baie sore” (meaning my tooth is very sore; ma dent me fait mal), I wasn’t too surprised to see his tooth dangling front and back and sideways at the slightest touch of his tongue. Moments later, coming back from his shower, proudly wet and naked, holding his tooth in his fingers, he shouted “I lost ma dent!!!” (meaning I lost my tooth).

Proud. Wet. Naked. And toothless.

Bramble Elfglow was Léa’s special fairy – she has now retired. The spirited swashbuckler tells Killian all about his adventures when he fetches his teeth. Matt hoped for Winnie the Pooh to come and deliver a message. But Winnie is far too busy finding Eyeore’s tail to come and collect a tooth. So Bernard the bear, who is a friend of Winnie the Pooh and lives in the same forest as him, came to take the tooth.

As I re-read my letter, I giggle at two things:

☝One, at my lack of inspiration at 10 in the evening. My kids have the habit of losing their teeth on a wednesday at 5 o’clock when we have Bible Study until late. Inevitably, it sends me into frantic panic to find the paper, print the picture and search my brain for something meaningful to write (such as ‘don’t fight with your brother!’).

Bernard the bear writes a letter.

✌Two, at the incredible things that children believe. That a baby bear would come to their bedroom, stick a letter and a photo of himself in their slipper and that noone would hear a thing? But no worries, we put the alarm on in case thieves want to open a window!

However the delight on their face the next morning is priceless for any mum. His best part of the letter is the fact that the paper is dirty because Bernard’s paws are full of honey! (Coincidentally, it is the same aged paper that was used by last year’s pirates that left a letter into one of Killian’s books!!).

So Matty is the last one of his kind. Grown-up teeth are leading the way into big-boy-hood. One tooth at a time.

Teaching opportunities – when to grab them, when not to…

Let's talk about circumcision!

 

 

It is 5 o’clock. Shower time for the kids.

The conversation goes like this.

 

 

Killian: Why does Jesse’s penis stay open like that (demonstration) and mine doesn’t?

Ahaaaaah. Teaching moment. I see circumcision explained. Sign of the old covenant. Sign of the new covenant. Baptism. Promises of the Lord. I see a great moment where we all gather on my bed and the kids listen to my words, nodding in agreement and wonder.

Instead, I get crazy Killian time (a bit like Pumpkin Patch time), laughing his head off and shouting “aaahaaahh, so Jesse is an Israelite!”. Matt is trying to have his penis to stay like that of an Israelite while jumping on my bed and Léa is catching Killian’s jokes, building on them. I catch myself keeping on explaining why we baptise today when I suddenly realize “why am I shouting as I’m talking about the wonderful promises of Jesus!!!!!”. So I kept quiet.

This is what I learnt from this experience.

Tip #1 – Don’t try to have a serious conversation with naked children at 5 o’clock.

Tip #2 – If you’re going to talk about penises, theirs should be covered.

Tip #3 – If you have to shout to cover the background noise, their attention level is not what it should be.

Take it or leave it! Happy teaching!

 

My little Eeyore…

5 years old and all his teeth!!! …well, in french it rhymes, “5 ans et toutes mes dents!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My little boy says that when he grows up he wants to be a teenager. He thinks his daddy’s work is to learn to make more money (partly true!) and his mummy’s work is to learn kids stuff (he means I teach them some stuff, hopefully that is also partly true). Recently I threatened to call him Eeyore because he acts like his life is gloomy. The day was not good enough. The movie was not long enough. The doughnut was not chocolaty enough and the play date was not fun enough. Eeyore.

On his up-days though, he takes intense delight at being as tall as his older brother – not quite an achievement really – and at being heavier than that same brother. The dark side of Star Wars is still dominated by Dol Phyne (Darth Vader) and the best wizard’s name is Harry Patate (seeing that it means ‘potato’ in french, it gives Potter a certain comedy style!). He has a special gift at making jokes at a time when I have no patience for it, like hiding under the bed at (past) bedtime.

I think he finds it hard to be the baby of the family, especially if your brother is Killian, 6 going on 10. I’m sure they consider arguing and fighting as a hobby. They love to irritate each other and cause the other one to be in trouble. I’m convinced it has become a competition. (Please Lou keep on praying for them to be friends!!) But deep down, I know they really need each other.

Matty is my independent son. He’s not scared of the dark and will go to the dark dark daaark bathroom all on his own, Killian and Lea in his trail taking courage as he leads the way . If you want to see a beaming smile, you can give him time on the playstation or on the ipod. He might even be able to help you out if you get stuck. He absolutely hates tomatoe soup, and potatoes in ANY form make him gag. He loves sticker books (thank you Taryn for the gift, it is permanently attached to him!), listening to stories and ME

One of my favourite moments (probably because I am very much wanting another baby… Lou??) is watching him in the shower. He still looks so little with his fat little hands rubbing the water off his face. I enjoy his long love declarations as I put him to bed, his ‘don’t ever ever ever leave me’, ‘stay with me forever’, and his ‘I wish you could sleep here with me’.

Maybe my little 5 year old boy is not so big after all.

Happy Birthday Matty Matt!!!

Becoming a pirate

With this fancy new phone of mine, you can ‘easily’ play around with video footage. I say ‘easily’ in inverted comas  (entre guillemets) because it still takes quite a long time to reach the finished desire product… But worth the nap time wasted on a sunday afternoon!

These 2 videos are nothing in themselves, sibling playing their imaginary games but they are – will be – such treasured memories. How quickly they grow up… Sigh!

The preparation of the game – becoming a pirate – takes time!

Being a pirate and acting like it comes more naturally. Isn’t it about just shouting and kicking and…doing cartwheels and handstands of course!!

I’m glad to say that they returned to ‘normal’ at shower time. By normal I mean they stopped the acrobatics exercises

Matty’s busy schedule

*** Famille en France, c’est tout spécialement pour votre régal!***

In the past few weeks, we had a schedule filled with “Matt and his singing”.

The first video is Matt’s little concert from school for Mother’s Day. I apologise for the silly laugh in the background. It is mine. Matt looks very funny, like a dismembered puppet. He was unvoluntarily hilarious

Matt est celui avec les longues manches vertes sous le tee-shirt jaune.

This video is Matt’s Sunday School (leur programme de l’église), also for Mother’s Day. Less funny but still cute. His face when the little boy next to him spoke in the mic is priceless. You can almost hear him think  ”Yes that voice was yours, scary huh!”

Les vacances…

Before I write about our first day at school, it is fitting to post some of my favourite pictures of the summer holidays.

C’est pour vous, la famille en France!!

C'est dur les vacances!

The browns and the whites!

Without the hands!!

I look cool because I AM cool!

Wild wild west, at Moyo

Hole building with Kate.

Wait for the wave, wait for it...

Overexcited friends, waiting for the wild wild horse to come!

Matt, professional wet sand surfer.

Outside the opera theater, pulling faces, bien sûr!

At the opera, no we don't have jaundice!

Peek-a-booh with Cleoné

About thinking and remembering…

Matty can’t write, which is pretty normal, he’s only 4.

However, the other day, he drew a pretty picture and wrote his name at the bottom, neatly enough for me to see that it was his name. So, as the encouraging mum that I should be, I praise him with words and big ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaaaaahs’ and ask him where he learnt to write his name (which in itself is a dumb question. It’s not like he took special lessons in secret…)

He looks at me for a few seconds and says:

Well, I thinked and I thinked…and I remembered.

Build-A-Bear: the birth of Bella, Robin and Scaredy aka Chocolate

During these long holidays, we took the kids to the Build-A-Bear workshop. It is a shop where you make your own teddy bear from scratch. The kids get to choose the outside of the teddy. They can decide whether they want a sound inside the teddy, like a monkey sound, a laughing sound, a ‘I love you’ message. They can even record their own message. Matty chose a monkey sound – how appropriate. Lea wanted to put her own message but I drew the line just before. I didn’t feel like hearing ‘Hello mama’ 30 times a day, and neither did she! Only a recorded message from a grandma would make sense!

Once the kids decided on the sound, the first step was to go to the fluffy machine (that’s where all the fluff gets put inside). It’s a big meany machine filled with what looks like soft cotton balls. In fact, one feels like just jumping in it! Once the fluffing is done, they each get a little fabric heart that they will put inside their teddy. But before, they have to rub it all over their body, kiss it, make a wish for Teddy’s life ( I wish that teddy will make my bed for me) and make a promise to their bear (I promise I won’t leave you to spend the night outside on the wet grass). They also need to think of a name for their respective teddy: we have Scaredy (because he’s scared), Robin (for Robin Hood) and Bella (meaning beautiful)

The promise

After that, they have to air-shower and brush their bear to remove all the unnecessary fluff.

The air-shower

Then a crisis happened. Lea’s teddy bear needed an operation. Her back was opened and needed to be sowed back into shape. So off to the operation table! The ‘nurse’ told Lea to hold her bear’s hand and reassure the poor thing. I was amazed at how much into it Lea was, really caring for this bear as if it was for real!!

The concerned mum during the operation

Then it’s the most awaited stage – for the children. It’s also the cling-cling-cling (sound of money being spent!) stage for the parents: the dressing-up stage. They get to choose one outfit for their bear. These clothes cost more money than real shoes for my real children… but they are ssoooo cute! No surprise there: Lea chose a wedding dress, Killian chose a warrior outfit and Matty, being Matty, didn’t want anything because ‘his hair is his clothes’.

The dressing-up

Then, because these bears are real (yes they are, don’t you dare disagree!), they need a birth certiificate. To the computers for the Home Affairs stage!

The administrative birth

After the final solemn promise, right hand up, of looking after my bear, and always taking care of him – without forgetting the paying stage, we were eventually done! The kids were very happy and felt a great sense of responsibility. Although they look tired on this picture, be reassured, no, the Build-A-Bear workshop is not an exhausting time. tThe black rings under the eyes have more to do with the late(r) nights. Holiday mood!!!

A few weeks later, the kids still play very much with these teddies. Scaredy is not scaredy anymore (we don’t care what the birth certificate says!), he is now Chocolate because, says Matty, “He knows that I like chocolate!!!”. Bella has been put in many many many outfits, she has many friends, she’s had quite a few play dates and even went to a sow-your-own-shoes party!! Robin is a warrior that likes to play golf in between wars.

A teddy’s got to do what a teddy’s got to do!!!

Soccer Season 4

It was a soccer party, for Matty’s 4th birthday. This is a post with only pics from the party, for those who couldn’t attend due to geographical reasons