Christmas wrap-up

We had a great time with Eric, Rebekah, and Gus making such a long visit here with us over Christmas. The two-house situation we have here is ideal for keeping everyone comfortable and on schedule. I did miss staying up late, playing cards and talking with the adults, and we had intended to get a babysitter to stay with our sleeping kids so we could go over to Mom's in the evening to do that, but we never did. So adult conversation was perhaps at a premium. But the three cousins played together a LOT and we had lots of fun times chasing after them at one house or another. We traded hosting dinners each night (and by night I mean 5:00-- or maybe 4:30), and had a few outings. In a few years we will be able to sit down longer and talk more! But in the meanwhile, what a superfun time to be together with three beautiful, lively, funny children.

More Christmas zaniness

Snuggling our babies

Cheers!

Aunt Grace's awesome aprons

Christmas day, after naptime, at Gran's, opening her presents to the kids: happy chaos!

Christmas eve, Mama with no-nap Agatha

Christmas eve, with Eric's martinis

Merry Christmas!

I hope to post some photos of food and play soon, once Eric and Rebekah and Mom send me some of their pictures (our camera is still in the shop!). But I did get a few shots of Christmas morning, so here they are. We were a little anxious about whether Henry would like what he got-- this year was the first that Henry really kept a list and had strong ideas about what he wanted. On the one hand, we didn't want to encourage too much materialism; on the other, we wanted him to have fun and be excited with some new toys. As it turned out, he was delighted with his presents and we were so pleased! When he opened his new lego set, he said, "This is just what I wanted! I was going to ask Santa for this, and I didn't, but he brought it anyway!" Music to a parent's ears!

It was a wonderful holiday celebration with Eric, Rebekah, Gus and all of us here in Lancaster. To our loved ones in far-flung places, we send you Christmas joy!

The Devil Made Me Do It

Gran, Eric, Gus, Henry, Agatha and I had a Family Outing to the Mall today, which we usually do at Christmastime. Today we didn't shop, though; just let the kids play, went to look at Santa (although not to talk with him; too weird), and ate lunch. On the way there, in the car, Henry said: "All day, and every single day, my mind goes through my brain and I have the same eleven dreams over and over again." Wow, I said; what are you dreaming about? "I don't know yet; it's going to start tonight. I dream at night time." Are they happy dreams? "No." Are they scary dreams? "Yes." Are you a superhero in your dreams, I asked? "Yes. When there are real alive things in my room, I fight them, so I have to gather my weapons for tonight." Later, over lunch, I was telling my mom and Eric this, and Henry heard me and chimed in. "I have to fight the things in my dreams. You know what weapons I'll need? I'll need a torch, a sword, a shield, and a spear. First I'll burn them with the torch and then I'll spear them." Good plan, we said (Eric also recommended a cheese grater).

We had a good time but at the very end of our visit, Henry wouldn't stay close to me in the very busy parking lot and frightened me by running out too close to several cars. I chewed him out about the rules in parking lots and listening to Mom and then everyone was silent for awhile as we drove home. "Mom, the reason I didn't listen to you was that I was thinking about my dreams and the bad guys were telling me not to do what you said." Really? So the bad guys were telling you not to listen to your mom? "Yes. There are a lot of them. There's the Idiots, and the Lukers [or lucres?], and there's the good guys who are dressed up in monster suits to scare the bad guys..." Well, next time you just tell those bad guys to quiet down so you can hear your mom, I said. "Yes, I can yell at them, because they don't like that-- they like peace and quiet."

Big snowstorm!

Usually I don't pay too much attention to the weather predictions, because the weather is generally mild here. But I'm glad I went to the grocery store and stocked up yesterday, because we got LOTS of snow today-- about a foot, with more predicted tonight. Totally awesome and wonderful to have a big snowstorm on a day that none of us were traveling or needing to go anywhere or do anything. We played outside, made peppermint bark, and ate lasagna for dinner. The Texans enjoyed it, I think!

New sounds

For a long time, since she first said "ba" for "ball" back in early September, Agatha has only said the first sound of words. It's kind of funny and unusual-- for banana, instead of "nana" (Henry's first word) or "nini" (how Gus said it) she says "ba." She says the first sound of many words-- but generally only the first sound. It gets a bit difficult to figure out what she's referring to. In the high chair, hungry and pointing to something and saying emphatically, "Pa! Pa! Pa!"-- does she mean pear? peanut butter? pie? But today she really mastered the complete word, "hop," including the "p" sound at the end. She's crazy about "One fish, two fish" right now, and the verse about "all I like to do is hop from fingertop to fingertop" has inspired her latest accomplishment. This evening we got out "Hop on Pop" to celebrate, and that was certainly a hit!

Stats

We took the darling and talented Agatha to the doctor today for her 15-month check-up, and she is in blooming health. She is 30 inches tall (75%), weighs 22 lbs 14 oz (25%) and has a massive head: 19 inches (97%!!). She and Gus are going to have to have a melon-off when he arrives later this week. They don't measure feet, but hers are probably in the 5%-- she's still wearing her 6-12 month size shoes, and doesn't really fit in to the smallest size of real shoes yet. It must be hard to walk with such small feet and such a big old head!

Christmas cookies

We made a small batch of sugar cookies the other day at Henry's request, and I was surprised how fun it was. I was wary, because Henry has become a sugar fiend-- normal kid behavior, but weird for us because he was never much interested or obsessed with sweets before. But lately there have been tantrums over treats and I have felt miserable about how it was turning my efforts to do something nice and special into a power struggle and making me into the Bad Guy. Anyway: I was wary. But he was moderate and measured and we all had fun. And he did a beautiful, careful job decorating his cookies, too. That also surprised me. Agatha didn't care too much for the frosted, finished cookies but she ate a lot of dough!

Forts

These photos are from playing in a pillow fort the other day. We had a pile of balloons left over from a baby shower we hosted, and Henry set up a pillow fort with a cache of balloons as ammo. At first he tried to keep Agatha away, but when I reminded him about Santa watching him, he thought a moment and then pulled the blocking pillow aside and said, "Come on in, Agatha!" It might have been the first time the children were on the same team, laughing and playing a game "against" me. I kept popping up and surprising them and pelting them with balloons and they were both screaming with laughter. Sweet, sweet, sweet!

More commonly, Henry is outside in his fort with the boys. Tonight he came home from school and went straight out to their yard. I only saw him when he came in on quests for various materials: "Mom! I need a pillow and a blanket!" or "Is there a light I can have and not give back?" Or, "Mom! Can I PLEASE go to the blue dumpster with Carter?" This is their latest adventure: they run around the corner to the house that's being renovated and liberate building materials for their forts.

I went out to check on them around dusk and one boy was in a cardboard box outfitted with an LED light high up on a stair landing, the other boy was in the tree doing his homework in the descending twilight and Henry's head was just visible as he sat in his newest "fort" between two overturned kayaks and the neighbor's picket fence. When he came in looking for something and it was past dark, I was trying to entice him to sit and eat his peanut noodles, but he said, "Can you hold my plate for me while I climb over the fence?" He has learned the hard way that it is hard to climb over while carrying a plate of food. So I did. He ran ahead of me, saying to the boys next door, "I just got a bungee cord. And I'm going to eat my dinner in my fort!" One of them said, "Cool!"

A few minutes later he came in and announced that he was setting up for his party and it would start in four minutes. We went out and he had bowls of dried fruits and nuts and candied papaya set out on their little table, carefully lit with a flashlight tied in a tree branch above.

Another Christmas comparison

Because I think these two are so cute...Michael and Agatha at the tree farm, last year and this year. Note that Michael is wearing the same hat and coat! In fact he looks pretty much identical. The weather was certainly different, though!

Ta-da!

This video is from November 29-- by now she's gained a lot of speed and pretty much delights herself by walking all day long. (Ignore my annoying voice.)

Christmas tree farm

Right off the bat, I have to confess: we dropped our camera in the snow at the tree farm and now it's not working.  Yes, our NEW camera!  Now that the bummer news is out of the way, here are pictures from our expedition to get our Christmas tree on Saturday.  It was our first snowfall of the year, which was very fun but also wet and chilly.  This was our fourth year of going to this little tree farm, where Farmer Jim (it says that on his hat) drives us out to the field in a wagon to pick out our tree.  It's very small and low-key; perfect for us.  

tree farm, 2006

Henry, age 14 months

tree farm, 2007

Henry age 2, with Rudolph and best buddy Frances

tree farm, 2008

Henry age 3 and Agatha 3 months, asleep under blanket

tree farm, 2009

Henry age 4 and Agatha 15 months

Mermaid, hey

   We don't always manage to have family dinner, but we generally try.  One of the luxuries of our flexible work schedule is that we can eat as early as necessary.  It used to be 5:30 pm, but even that seemed too late, so I've taken to having dinner ready as early as 4:30 pm.  On his long days, Henry gets home around 4 (he gets out of school at 2:50, plays football {!} for as long as the weather allows, and then comes home with our neighbors-- all this is HIS choice; I constantly volunteer to pick him up at school earlier!) and is starving and exhausted, so on those days especially I try to have something ready to eat.  Monday we all sat down to a dinner of cauliflower soup and biscuits, and everyone was hungry at the same time-- but not too hungry-- and ready to sit down-- but not too tired.  The sweet spot.
   For some reason, Henry decided to milk the moment.  He bade us all join hands, and then he said very solemnly, "now I will sing a song."  And he began, "Mermaid, mermaid, hey, mermaid mermaid, hey, hey, mermaid, hey..."   This turned out to be a looooong song.  Michael glanced at me, then glanced at his rapidly cooling soup.  Eventually the song ended and we started to eat.  "Now," Henry said, "you have to say one thing you're thankful for."  I started to say something about my health and he interrupted: "NOT the same thing you said at Thanksgiving dinner!  It has to be a different thing, and just ONE thing, no more.  Understand?"  
  I asked him what he did at school that day.  "I forget," he answered.  "What did you do at school, Mama?"  I started telling him about the various things I did at home (I don't have office time on Mondays) and he cut me off.  "I just want to hear about school.  Daddy, what did you do today?"  Obediently, Michael began telling Henry about researching book proposals on the Yale University Press website.  We all slurped our soup.

The Boy

Yesterday was again warm and beautiful-- we've had the loveliest November-- and Henry again spent most of it outdoors.  He has a new fort, which has a slanted wooden roof, brick walls, a seat (overturned sand pail), trash can (old baking tin), a bowl for his food (he likes to take his dried fruits and nuts out there to eat), games, and a pile of rubber bands for shooting.  And a gun rack, of course!  Jokes about "Lord of the Flies" come easily, but seriously, he is busy creating his own, self-sufficient world out in nature.  


A year ago I was all upset with his talk about superheroes and guns, but I've come to a new appreciation of the essential, primal boy-ness of Henry, and I want to protect and celebrate it.  When he's loud and fast and raucous around my friends who are parents of quiet, studious boys-- much less of girls wearing princess dresses-- I am often a little embarrassed and try to shush him.  There is something fundamentally anti-social, I think, about boyness.  He does need to learn how to behave in and navigate institutions in order to get along in the world.  But, as my friend Scott (parent of a boy) said last night, there is another world as well, the world of nature and danger and tough moral choices and tests of mettle, and he is also learning to thrive in that world.  Guns and shooting and superheroes are very, very important to him, and I realized that I was dishonoring something fundamental in him when I was dismissing those as unworthy concerns.  He is consumed with understanding and mastering powerful forces, and that's just what he should be doing to become a responsible, ethical man of integrity.  


So yes, I think we will be buying him the Nerf guns for Christmas, and the set of army men.  (On Thanksgiving, when asked what he was thankful for, he said "My war vehicles."  Friend Scott quipped, "You and General McChrystal!")  Shooting and war is here in the world, and I can't pretend it isn't.  But I can try to let a boy grow himself into a man who knows how to use powerful tools and how to be powerful and just himself.  

Happy Thanksgiving

Henry's Lookout Tower

Henry spent all day today outside, in our neighbors' yard.  Some of the time he was playing with their two boys, Carter and Emerson, ages 10 and 12, who are wonderful to him.  But much of the time he was just out there by himself, whacking things with sticks, carrying out various necessary tasks, firing his cannonball launcher (to do this, you put the big red ball on the ground and then drop a large square of plywood on it to make it bounce and roll away).  This is the lookout tower he built in their yard.  It's tricked out with various comforts: an oval piece of rusty metal ("this is for cleaning my shoes!  or, just one shoe"), a missile launcher (the rake with the big stick in it), the above-described cannonball system.  In these photos he is installing his steps of bricks.  Sometimes I am surprised to realize that he is still just a small, small boy, as I was when I saw him barely able to carry two bricks, or tonight when he was freshly out of the bath and zipping himself into his footie pajamas.  We are so fortunate to have these wonderful neighbors!  Their yard is a boy haven, and they tolerate Henry doing all sorts of things over there.  He climbs over the picket fence a dozen times a day.  By the way, it was about 50 degrees today!  After all day outside in the cool, fresh air, Henry ate a bunch of pumpkin pie and crashed in front of his video at about 6:00 pm.  A pretty perfect day for a small boy.

Rascal

Agatha is really walking, now.  For weeks she's taken a step or two here or there, and last week she took 5 or 6 steps a couple of times, but today she really mostly tried walking and did so for much longer times and distances than ever before.  So hooray!  

Come see my contraptions!

Henry's been a lego fiend for some time, but this week I bought him a tub of regular (tiny) lego blocks unaffiliated with a specific project so that he could build whatever he wanted.  He was a little dubious about this, since he adores following the instructions to build things, but soon warmed to it and today built this battle station for his bad guys.  It includes a separate jail for the good guys, a mobile shooter with a seat and stairs leading up to it so the guys can climb on (upper left), a boat with a steering handle and light (that's the orange thing in the foreground), and a cozy home for the bad guys with beds, a gun rack and a table and chairs.  Michael once used the word "contraptions" to refer to Henry's little helicopter and car, so now when Henry wants us to come up and inspect his work, he says, "Hey, guys, want to come see my contraptions?" 

Fashion

Two rear views of my willful fashionistas, on the porch.  Henry has been choosing his own outfits for some time, and he has a special penchant for stripes and primary colors-- actually all kinds of colors.  Note the stripy hat as well, which a friend made for Agatha (it came out a little big!) but which Henry seized upon with love as his own.  He sleeps in it.  The front of his sweatshirt has a florid Batman on it (hand-me-down!).  The next day, he wore the hat with horizontally striped pants from Aunt Grace AND a striped shirt with lime green in it, accessorized by his lime-green crocs (no socks that day, though).  Agatha was not yet dressed when we went out to wave goodbye to Henry, but she really wanted his yellow slicker-- a beautiful flannel-lined hand-me-down that he refuses to wear.  Notice that she is standing!  On her own!  She'll walk 5 or 6 steps when she wants to, but some days hardly walks at all.  It seems to be a low priority for her, oddly.  She likes to stick close to me at the moment, and is super cuddly, funny, and sweet.  Her sense of humor: trying to put inappropriate items in my mouth.  Hilarious! (to her)  Her latest cute accomplishment: she loves to sing "row, row, row" (leaving the rest of the lyrics to Henry and me).

Star Wars

"Mom, you know what?  A long, long time ago, like 30-100-40 years ago, there was nothing.  No houses, no grounds-- ooooonly sidewalks.  And then the Star Wars guys came down, and they grew up, and they were the first people on the earth."  "Wow. And what did they do?"  "They fought, and had battles. And then the emperor--well, you know what I think happened?  It wasn't just like in the movie.  I think what happened to the emperor was, they broke a window and they threw him out."


I think this is a mash-up of the Star Wars trilogy and 2001, of which he has (thankfully!) only seen the beginning.  I came in one evening and Henry and Michael were huddled around the computer, watching a movie, and Henry said, "Mom, a gorilla threw a leg bone up into the air and it turned into a spaceship!"  And I thought, that can only be one movie... 
Star Wars is very important right now.  Today I heard Henry sitting on the toilet, contemplating, and reciting all the characters, like a rosary: "Han Solo, Yoda, Lando Calrissian..."  What is it with boys and Star Wars?  I guess it's knights, pirates, space ships, good vs evil, and origin myths all packed into one.  What is surprising to me is that Henry identifies with the bad guys.  He plays at being a stormtrooper (his password to enter the boys' fort in our neighbor's yard is Stormtrooper-Luke-Sky) and is apparently always the bad guy in the schoolyard battles on the playground (Carver and Landis are the good guys, in case you were wondering).  Should I be worried about that?  I always wanted to be Princess Leia, myself-- not that there were many other female options.

Halloween

I'm catching up on my blogging today, so here at last is the Halloween report.  Halloween was an annoying holiday this year.  I waited till the last minute to make Henry's costume to avoid heartache, but I was unsuccessful.  I went to the store and bought the fabric to make the Superman costume on the day of Halloween ("are you sure you want to be Superman?" "yes!"), cut out the cape, and then... tantrum.  I want to be Superman, but I just want to wear the cape.  No, I don't want to wear any costume, I just want to get the candy.  Well, I'm just going to be a pirate.  
So here's Henry, dressed like a pirate, which is pretty much how he dresses every day.  He really resists doing whatever people seem to want him to do, and the more you want it, the more he resists it.  This means that on occasions where grown-ups have a lot of stake in a certain fantasia of childlike wonder coming to life, he's bound to throw a large wrench into the whole apparatus.  I have learned this, but I still get disappointed.  I know it's basically a good thing that he is so ready to question received opinion ("dressing up is fun!") and critique established conventions ("why do I have to dress up?")-- I'm an academic, after all!  But when you are a parent, you have to do all the hard stuff anyway, so it's nice to be able to do a little glamour-parenting once in a while-- holding hands with your little Superman in his homemade costume, walking down a sidewalk littered with fall leaves, waving to the neighbors and hearing his cheery voice, "trick or treat!"  Henry gives us lots of wonderful moments as parents, but they're not the Hallmark-card ones.

Airplane!

Today at the playground, Agatha looked up over my shoulder, into the sky, pointed, and said "Airplane!"  Actually, it was more like "eh-pway!"  But still, it's her first two-syllable word, besides "ta-da!" which her babysitter taught her and which she LOVES to say whenever she does something remarkable.  Actually, the other day Henry brought home a big map of the world (which he had traced and colored himself) and was showing it off, and Agatha said, "ta-da!"  

In this picture on the trike, she climbed up there all by herself.  She's a little bit of a daredevil, and enjoyed hurtling herself down the slide today.

Brilliant son, part 2

Two examples of Henry's math work.  He's now completed the kindergarten math workbooks!  At his parent-teacher conference last week, we also saw his "composition book," in which he had written words like "cockatoo" and "parakeet" and "chrysanthemum."  Those words are copied after reading exercises. 

Sounding it out: this was a picture Henry made for Michael, and at the top he was starting to sound out and write "Daddy,"  and at the bottom, "from."  He also (on another sheet) wrote "CNDL," sounding out Agatha's babysitter's name, Kendall.  

Finally, some examples of his art: he started making these map-like drawings out of nowhere, one after another, a couple of weeks ago.  He still isn't much interested in representational art but he is an avid abstractionist! 

My brilliant, complex son

   Still no pictures today, because Michael has the camera in NYC.  But today I want to brag a little about Henry (skip this post if you have a weak stomach).  I spent a little time in Henry's class this morning helping with a special project, decorating pumpkins.  I wasn't planning to be there, because it fell during my precious Agatha-babysitting hours which I try to preserve for scholarly work, but yesterday after school Henry said, "I was disappointed that you weren't there with the other mommies in my class to help with the pumpkins.  But they're doing it again tomorrow, so can you please come tomorrow?" and I was helpless to resist the direct request.  I'm always so impressed when I'm there, and I love to see his class in action. The children are so sweet and goofy and interesting, and they are all so self-sufficient, getting their own snacks and putting work away, and so concentrated on their tasks.  The classroom is bubbly and fun but also quiet and organized.  
    Henry was doing the "teen board."  The last couple of weeks he has been bringing home the most amazing work in math and writing.  It seems like he's just going through an explosion in his abilities all of a sudden.  He said recently: "On the 11th day [of my trip to Paris] I started my composition book."  He is so proud of this: he does work with words, sounding them out, and then he writes them in his composition book.  Last year he would tell me about the big kids and their books, and he is so proud that now he is doing this work.  Yesterday he said: "I can read some words now that I'm 4.  I read 'snap,' 'trick or treat,' and 'Paris.'"  Which is mostly true!  He also told me that he read and wrote at school the words was, no, and yes.  
   The teen board is a Montessori contraption that entails putting numbers up in order from 11-20, hanging the beads underneath to match, and then doing various exercises in a workbook.  He asked me to sit with him for a minute while he worked, and he asked his teacher to read him the instructions, and then he did the work, which involved counting the beads, coloring them the right colors, and writing the numbers next to them.  Other pages ask for him to note whether one quantity is greater or lesser, and so on. 
    His teacher, Eileen, told me they have a hard time keeping up with Henry these days; he's already finished one math workbook and just asked to start another.  She said they don't usually have these materials out until later in the year, and certainly not for second-year students.  She also said that what's amazing about Henry is that he doesn't only concentrate on math; "he's got it all," she said.  Of course, I was so proud.  And I'm so happy he's at a preschool where he can learn and keep learning as much and as fast as he wants to.  Interestingly, Henry never did the pumpkin project.  He was the only kid who declined to do it, even though I was there helping (at his request).  He sat with me and watched the other kids do it, and he told the head teacher, Meghan, that he was too busy with his math.  A contrarian for certain.  
   When I left the class, Henry came with me.  It was very unlike him, but he'd been a little pouty before school and then he protested that he was tired and wanted to come home with me.  He WAS tired; we've all been getting up too early with the time-change.  And I decided to indulge him rather than making a federal case out of it, so I took him along with me to the office.  We had a great time!  He colored and lounged on my office futon while I worked, and then we got a blueberry muffin at the campus cafe, and then he helped me carry and check out a big stack of library books.  I actually got some work done, and I think he really liked being part of my workday, as I had been part of his. 
   He did take a nap this afternoon, and then we went over to Gran's for pizza.  ("I would like cheese pizza, because I had it one day and I found that I liked it," he said.)  On the way home, he ran ahead to open the gate for us.  This gate is about 5 feet high, with a four-foot solid bottom and a trellis on top.  Henry has recently learned that he can jump up and climb over this fence and unlatch it to open it-- he CAN do this, but it is not easy, especially not at the end of a long day.  But he insisted on it.  He kept jumping, grabbing, scrambling, and failing to make it.  But he would not let me help him, or talk him out of it, or go in another door, or bribe him with chocolate ice cream.  He must have tried about 15 times and was yelling, crying in frustration but NOT QUITTING.  I said he could try four more times and then we were just going to have to go in because it was getting too cold and Agatha had to go to bed.  And then, he did it.  He finished climbing over, unlatched the gate, went in and opened the door, and asked for chocolate ice cream. 
   So there you have my tenacious, smart, perfectionist, contrarian, wonderful son in a nutshell.   
    

Time

    Okay, we got a great, tiny new camera and I keep forgetting to bring it anywhere to take pictures of the kids.  We've had some wonderful potential photo ops this weekend, too.  Oh well.  Pictures soon, I promise.
   But I wanted to remark the most startling thing about being away from my children and my regular life for two weeks, during my research trip to Paris: that my experience of TIME was completely different.
 1. First, my schedule was different: I went to bed around midnight and slept till 8:30 or so.  Midnight?  I haven't seen that hour in Lancaster for years, I think.  But restaurants don't even start serving till 8, and you aren't done with dinner till 10:30, and then you have a big lunch and go out for drinks in the early evening, and that's just the way it is.  
  2. My mental calendar, which has a clock constantly ticking in normal life-- school time, snack time, lunch time, naptime-ritual time, naptime waking time, get ready for dinner time, get ready for bed time-- emptied out completely.  My first week my friend Alexis was there with me, off doing her own thing, so the only items on my calendar were when the library opened and when I had arranged to meet Alexis for dinner.  Otherwise, the day stretched before me.  I didn't have to constantly plan ahead, as you do if you're a mom, always having snacks and diapers and calculating how long you can be out before you need to return home.  And I didn't have the pressure of a possible public meltdown if I miscalculated.  If I got hungry while out, I just... ate.  
  3. Flow.  I would be sitting in the library, reading my 18th-century French journals, and I would wonder why I was hungry since I'd just had lunch.  Then I'd look at my watch and see that four hours had passed.  I couldn't believe how the hours flew by while I was in the library.  And on the other hand, I didn't have the pressure of only two hours of office time while the babysitter is here so get cracking and get everything done!  I just stayed at the library all day, till I got tired or ran out of ideas.  Then I went home and had a snack.  My last afternoon of work, I was in a new library and didn't want to explain that I wanted my books held while I took a break, so I just stayed and worked all afternoon.  I worked from 1:30 till 6 without any trouble at all.  I really wanted a coke about 4 pm, but it was no big deal to just keep on reading.  
  4. Fatigue: I only needed about seven hours of sleep in Paris.  I was merely reading 18th-century French for several hours a day, conversing in an unfamiliar language, and walking around briskly for a couple of hours each day.  Piece of cake!  No way did I get anywhere near as worn out as I do on a daily basis in my regular life.  
  5. Finally, it was just so luxurious to have so much time to myself, to do whatever I wanted, when I wanted.  Early in my stay, I went to the Louvre, and I was there for six hours.  It was just the most delicious feeling to be there and think, "I can stay here as long as I want."  If Alexis got tired, we could split and I would just meet her at home.  The museum was open till 10 pm.  I had no restrictions other than my own stamina and interest.  Similarly, our last day Michael and I went to Versailles.  We were there for seven hours, and walked all the way out to Marie Antoinette's little hamlet, to both Trianon palaces, and halfway down the Grand Canal-- and back again.  
  It was really an eye-opening experience.

Here we are, in Paris!

In front of Notre Dame...

And in front of-- well, you know...

And today, at Versailles (that's the palace wayyyy off at the horizon)

As you can see, we've been massively lucky with the weather.  Today we spent 7 hours at Versailles and walked briskly practically the entire time.  We took over 150 pictures to use in our teaching, because the day and the light was so spectacular!  We saw all the far-flung elements we'd never seen before, like the queen's hamlet and the Trianons, and then we walked way out along the canal.  My feet are tired-- oh, so tired.  But it was awesome.  We finished the day there in the Grand Appartments of the king, the Hall of Mirrors and so on.  It doesn't disappoint!  Then we came back to Paris and had a great meal at a neighborhood place.  My main course included an entire box of melted cheese, 4 or 5 roasted potatoes and a huge chunk of ham.  Yikes!  We really need to get back to our chard and brown rice diet!

And so we will, for we return tomorrow.  It's been a wonderful trip, and more successful than I could have hoped.  Everything went so well and I was able to get into and use three different libraries.  My experience of TIME has been radically different here, without the children, and I do plan to post on that soon.  But for now, we'll say à bientôt to Paris, and get busy getting back home to our family.  I can't wait to see them!