Tuesday

Today was a hard day - I love my family but I am getting a bit sick of only having them to vent to, talk to etc...





In the am, I realized we needed some essentials from the far away store and I went to get them - unfortunately I did not bring enough cash and André is the only one with the European credit card so I ended up having to put a bunch of stuff back - very frustrating since this store requires a bus ride.





I texted André to tell him how lonely and sad I was. Then headed home to pick up kids from school. While eating lunch I heard the key in the door - yes it was André! At last, I thought, the part of French life I have been waiting for... the husband who comes home for a long lunch with his family on a day his wife is feeling sad.





Ha! No such luck - he was simply stopping in to change into his running clothes -that's right folks, during these 2 hour lunch breaks people have time to go for a run, take a shower and then eat (or maybe play some games together or do some reading or whatever). He was to run with a bunch of his co-workers. He reminds me to leave the door open for him when I leave and heads out.





Kids finish eating lunch and want to put up some Halloween decorations - I really don't want to (not being in the mood) but decide to suck it up. They are putting up those clingy window things (thanks Grammie!) that are so cool. Unfortunately, Callie puts something in a place Zander doesn't like - he promptly starts screaming at her. I calmly invite Callie to come and decorate somewhere else and she starts to comply when Zander grabs her plasticky thing off the window and rips it up, then rips all the covers off her bed.





I really don't have the strength to deal with this so I simply remove Callie from the room and help her decorate elsewhere. Zander, however, is not done punishing her and goes into her special place and steals one of her treasures. She returns to the room and sees it in his hand and starts screaming for him to return it. He takes off running - heading upstairs for the balcony (to toss it off I suppose where it will never be found again).





This is where I lose it - I chase after him screaming - GIVE IT TO ME NOW! in the kind of voice you never knew could come out of you until you have children. The kind of scream that makes your throat hurt as you type on your blog that night - reminding you how insane you are.





Anyway, Zander (being Zander) completely ignores my repeated screams and keeps heading for the door - I grab him and wrestle the toy away at which point he grabs my braid and tries to pull it out of my head (The kind of pull that makes your neck hurt as you type on your blog that night - reminding you how your children have inherited your insanity).





After a few more minutes of wrestling we both calm down and are now spent. Now I have three traumatized children two of which I need to return to school leaving immediately. Needless to say we were a bit late.





This made me a bit late for my debut at the blue house - the blue house is some type of community center where they have all sorts of activities including a group of people who are trying to learn English. They invited me to talk to them so they could absorb all my wonderful native language. Of course, they wanted me NOT to bring Griffin but, once I explained I have no friends I could leave him with (since any people I would have made friends with speak French and I can't) they agree to let him come with.





It went OK - it was nice to be surrounded by people speaking English (even if it was with really bad accents) for an hour or so - it would have been much better if Griffin hadn't come but he was really good. Unfortunately, André showed up about halfway through - in all my drama of leaving I had forgotten to leave the door open for him and he had no key, and no phone - whoops! Perhaps it was a Freudian slip.





Anyway, I then had to pick up Callie and Zander from school - bring them home, put away my purchases from that morning, make a quick meal for Zander and walk him over to Olivier's house - he is going to an art class with Olivier and Claire (Andre's boss and his daughter for those who need a reminder).





Then we headed for the doctors office to get the decree that Griffin is medically unfit to go to school without a diaper. After waiting for over an hour (some things are the same in US and France) we finally go in to see him and find out we probably need to go see a pediatric GI person to get this special decree - another adventure to look foward to. Got home, give kids eggs and toast for dinner and now to blogging.





Tomorrow is Wednesday - no school and no planned activities or playdates (or toys - no shipment yet) for my munchkins - heaven help us!

Let's hope that this was a day that only happens once in a blue moon. When we were admiring this moon Griffin clearly stated it was BLUE!

Rebecca