Grayson Graduates

Last week Grayson and the other children from La Farandoline "graduated." Sadly, this great little school is closing its doors. Apparently, despite the success of the school in our commune, the schools in other communes were not doing quite as well. So it was a bittersweet day for the teachers, children, and Moms.

Rosy and Marie-France - Grayson's teachers

Ooh - Grayson received a puzzle as his graduation gift!

Grayson received the prize for dancing

Singing - la la la la

Grayson speaks French - no kidding!

Grayson is a little sports nut, so after weeks of holding him back from rushing onto the basketball courts at the park to "play" with the teenagers (he thinks he's a big kid), we bought him a kiddie-sized basketball and hoop. He loves his "basky-ball," he even insisted on sleeping with it in his bed the first two nights. But about an hour after he got it we did a double-take when he started calling it a "ballon," which is the French word for ball. We have never used this word at home, so he obviously picked it up at school or from The Little Gym, where the kids often play with "les ballons." It's so cute, he now calls his balls "ballons" half the time and "balls" the other half. And he has a really great French/Belgian accent (it's pronounced "balo" with a nasal sounding "o").

He also has started to say "manger" (pronounced "mon-jay") which means "eat" when he's hungry and rifling through the pantry or the fridge. Go Grayson! Allé, Allé!

Belgian grocery bags.

The little GB grocery store down the street from me recently started charging for bags (0.10 euro for the small grocery bags that are typical in the U.S., 0.30 euro for a much larger, heavy-duty bag with handles that can be re-used). Guess what I noticed? Most people (including me) are buying the re-usable bags, and then bringing them (or their own bags) with them when they shop. Brilliant - instead of telling you why NOT using throwaway plastic bags are good for the environment and trying to appeal to your sense of duty to the earth, they've tapped into your bottom line. Brilliant. And it's not just the grocery stores. When I bought some DVDs at the FNAC (similar to Best Buy), I payed 0.10 euro for my bag - next time I'll just throw the DVDs in my stroller bag. Just wait - this is sure to hit the U.S. eventually!

Our New Addition ;)

Isn't she pretty? It's our new car - yes - A CAR! After almost 8 months without one, this is an extremely exciting day :) It's a Volkswagon Polo, and it's small enough to fit through the extremely narrow drive back to our parking area, but big enough to fit Me, Tony, Grayson, and maybe 2 pieces of luggage and a stroller (if they're small).

"Where's the car Grayson?" . . . "There it is!"

And notice who's wearing (red Superman) underpants? We're on day 4 of wearing just underpants during the day, and he's doing great! Do I dare say he's potty-trained? Not yet, let's give it another couple of days just to make sure :)

Cute 2-year-olds and Crepes

Are these not the cutest 2-year-olds ever?

Grayson and his friends Castalie and Valentina had a playdate in our "backyard" (sure, it's supposed to be a place for parking cars, but we think it works just fine as a play area). Valentina is from Bolivia, and she and her Mom speak Spanish to each other. Then there's Castalie, from France, who speaks French with her Mom. And then, of course, Grayson and I - the English speakers. It makes for an interesting time. While none of the kids speak each other's language, it really doesn't matter at this age (although we are betting that by next year they'll all be speaking French to each other, since they'll all be in French-speaking schools). Us Moms speak both English and French together (I struggle to keep up with the French).

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you, you you?

That's a line from one of our favorite Raffi songs, which we sang all the way to the Antwerp Zoo last week.

Riding the horsies!

How do you get your 2-year-old to go to Paris for a day of shopping? Promise him a ride on the horsies.

My latest obsession . . . crepes!

Ever since I ate crepes in Paris with Grayson a few weeks ago, I have been obsessed. First, I went to the crepe stand at the Wednesday market in our neighborhood. Nope - not as good. They had nutella, but no bananas. And they didn't fold them right! And there was no cheese and ham option! Next, while in Paris for a day of shopping, I looked everywhere - but there were NOOOO creperies! Tony's theory is that they don't sell crepes (an inexpensive lunch option) in the high-rent retail district. He must be right.

Then, Tony noticed a creperie near his office. He brought some home for dinner, but again, not as good. The "savory" crepe had a funny herb added to the crepe, and the ham and bechamel was not nearly as good as ham and Emmentaler cheese. And again, there was nutella but no bananas! The Belgians may know how to make the best waffles, but they are lagging behind the French when it comes to crepes.

So . . . I searched the web for a recipe and am going to attempt to make crepes at home! The recipe looks easy enough, so here goes! (here is a link to the recipe I'm using: http://frenchfood.about.com/od/frenchcuisinebasics/r/basiccrepe.htm)

Ok - so this is so easy - really easy - and I'm not just saying that. Only a couple of ingredients, only one bowl needed, and easy to cook and flip. And . . . fabulous! Just look - I made banana & nutella, and ham & Emmentaler - just like in Paris (and almost as good - if only there was a view of the Eiffel Tower).

My stack of crepes - ready for storage in the fridge

YUMMY!

Our school search

After an extremely lengthy process, we've enrolled Grayson in school for next year. The Belgian public schools are excellent, but they do it differently here. Here, you can pick your school - any school - so you're on your own to research, visit, and decide (provided there's space available, which often isn't the case). After visiting six schools, speaking with the directors of several others, and reading about even more, we've chosen a public Catholic school that's not too far from our home. The other issue was that at age 2 1/2, when kids start school, the day is just as long as for the big kids (9:00 - 3:30, except Wednesday when school gets out at Noon), and I'm just not ready for that. Fortunately, all of the schools except one permit the youngest children to attend half days, and the school we've chosen will even let Grayson start out just a couple of days a week.