Indoor Swimming Pools, Chocolate Bribes and the 21st Century

It’s been just over a week or so since my last posting. I’d love to say that you’ve not missed much but having a job that requires travel each week and a family life that involves three kids under two, if I did say that, then I’d be lying.

The most recent news is that I’ve been out on the tiles...unfortunately not a night on the tiles, but more an afternoon on the tiles of my roof....we’ve had some awful weather in France recently and the hailstorm this afternoon was so heavy that it started to seep through into our living room! As a result I ended up on my roof with a mop and broom shovelling tennis ball sized hail stones for an hour in freezing temperatures with my brother in law. Thankfully things are now all back to normal although Maxime thought having a swimming pool in the middle of the front room was a great idea.

I suspect the most important news of the last 10 days or so was the hospital visit on Thursday. This was the “one week visit” – exactly a week after the little ones had left hospital. Things are essentially fine although Capucine has only put on 20 grams (babies that age should be putting on 20 grams a day). Gaston was fine. I also found out that there is a medical discipline called psychomotricity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychometrician) Basically someone clearly very experienced, (she had grey hair), waxes lyrical about the way a baby waves his leg in the air when you roll him over, or the way in which she sneezes after looking at a black and white spiral which makes your eyes cross. I felt thoroughly reassured. The visit also gave us the opportunity to give the nursing staff three boxes of Swiss chocolate from Zurich...the doctor seemed particularly happy. He even then told us to cancel the vaccination we had planned with the paediatrician in town because if they did it at the hospital, then they would keep the twins overnight meaning that Sandie would get a full night’s sleep and a lie-in. My granny always used to say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach!

On the Maxime front we got thrown a bit when the crèche said they’d like to talk to us about how we think Maxime is adapting to life “in the collectivity”....Sandie saw straight through this and I was instructed to dig deeper and cross examine the head mistress Delphine the next morning. Indeed when I asked for further clarification, Delphine admitted that she was concerned that Maxime can display a certain refusal to accept no for an answer (not sure which parent that comes from), and that he has a tendency to launch the other children across the playground when he is upset, and to give them python like bear hugs when he is in a good mood. Clearly it would be better if used his determination and size to sell sweetcorm on the TV.

The penultimate thing of noteworthiness over the last 10 days is that I have lost my virginity in the Skype sense of the word. I have finally managed to get Skype installed and have made my first few calls. I have had a tour of an apartment in New York and seen snow up in Northumberland in the UK. Maxime has also taken to it like a duck to water (he’s clearly going to be a fully fledged member of the younger generation who I will need to rely on to configure whatever is the equivalent of the today’s iPhone in 30 years time). He regularly asks to see Papy and Mamy on Papa’s computer.

The final revelation of the last 10 days is that this blog has become a useful communication tool in my marriage. Sandie and I are often crossing each other like ships in the night as we prepare and deliver bottles of hot milk in the early hours of the morning (the 4AM shift is particularly difficult). At one stage in the day when we were both awake, in the same room, not dribbling from tiredness or in some form of sleep deprivation induced trance, Sandie said to me she had missed my posting from the day before because she often liked to read it in the middle of the night to keep up to date with what I am doing (I didn’t even know she had the web address!). Anyway, now that I now she’s reading it, just a quick one love.....would you mind picking up a 6 pack of Guinness, some fresh milk and a bag of carrots tomorrow pet? We’re running low on stocks. Thanks.