Zen Mama

What a lovely way to break into nursery... feeding rabbits outside, and making your own bread inside. Today, Alexandre started his 1st day at Highgate House School. As is tradition with all 1st timers, the school allowed parents to sit in during the 3 hour morning session. We only lasted 2-1/2 hrs, because Alexandre started to get tired... so next week, we'll probably just have him stay for 2 to 2-1/2 hours, and gradually build up to the full 3-hour session. With rabbits, slides and a garden to play in outdoors, plenty of free play and activities to choose from, he seemed to really enjoy his time there. Next week is the real test, when I leave him there with the teachers and other kids. He seemed to be happy to play independently, with me in sight. Knowing him, he should be fine even without me in sight, as long as he is around other kids and has activities aplenty! He was especially pleased with himself when one of the teachers handed him a paper bag with his freshly baked bread ...

So, Alexandre turned 19 months yesterday on the 24th of May. All they say about toddlers his age running around with no sense of boundaries is true. We've been walking to a park nearby my brother's house, where there are two baseball pitches and lots of green grass. Once he steps down from his stroller, he's like a wind-up toy which keeps running and running and running... He's also started using some new words over the past few days -- While I was buckling him up in his car seat, he said "Keys" when he wanted the car keys in order to push the red panic button which sets the car alarm off. Over dinner the other night, he was so excited to have rice that he kept repeating the word "rice" (with an "SH" sound at the end, over and over again... Tang's family has two Labs, Daley and Kikko, who have become Alexandre's best friends. Especially Daley, the older golden Lab, who's a bit calmer. In return for Alexandre dropping him food fr...

It has now been about 12 days since I officially became a full time, "professional mom"... We kicked off our round-the-world major tour on May 10th, starting off in my hometown of Chicago (well, we're actually staying where my brother lives now, in Des Plaines, which is a suburb of Chi-town, with a population just over 59,000). With my brother and sister, Bertrand and Alexandre, my Aunt Sau Fong, Uncle Kam and Aunt Betsy, we brought some flowers to my Dad's grave on Saturday May 13th. It's hard to believe a whole year has passed since we were last there watching his remains being laid to rest. Bertrand was with us till Sunday, the 14th when he left for London. Between the jet lag and the erratic weather (from 72degrees F one day to 40 degrees and rainy the next), Alexandre and I inevitably came down with the sniffles. We're staying with my brother, who has 10 year old and 15 year old sons, a golden Lab named Daley and a black Lab named Kikko. Alexandre took to...

Here's Alexandre sitting contentedly on the steps at the Musee D'Orsay... one of our only outings in Paris over our Christmas/New Year's holiday aside from visiting family and friends. He was just having fun running along the corridors, surrounded by sculptures and beautiful works of art which he will hopefully one day learn to appreciate!