Took Frunty to the doctor yesterday and he was great...not scarred from earlier "poke" as he calls it. We are all feeling better though not 100%. With school starting up again on Monday, I wonder when the next round of colds/flus/sinusitis/rashes etc. will start up. Daddy is trying to train Peauteau in the car seat in the living room right now. The minute you put the straps on, he starts complaining and struggles to get free, arching his back. He still screams everytime we are in the car. For some reason, he did not scream in Gramma's car. We are a little frustrated because we have a super nice car, are in the heart of Europe, and are kind of homebound with colds and screaming baby! Oh woe is me!!!!!! We are getting really really itchy!

Found a home for J the other day and are really happy about that. Today she made dumplings and we enjoyed a great lunch together. We will miss her. I wish we had a bigger home so that she could stay and Daddy agreed. Oh well, we will see get to see J when she picks up J from school. Frunty may have lunch at school once a week so that I have enough time to take Peauteau to the Little Gym but have not looked into it yet. Frunty says he wants to try eating lunch with his friend, S. We shall see what happens and it is worth a try. Back to the car seat training! Cheerio!

Going to the doctor has always been so fun for Frunty and whether it is an appointment for him or for one of us, he has had an amusing time. The doctors/dentist, as mentioned before, are really kind to him. But today we went to Medecis for a blood test and although the woman was very kind, the appointment was no fun. Having blood taken was scarey and Frunty was very brave. Afterwards, he was given a speculoos cookie. During the most difficult part, I told Frunty that sometimes Grampa has to have blood taken during a check-up and he was instantly calmed. We are trying to get to the bottom of Frunty's skin problems and have to go again on Friday. We hope that he will look forward to going as he has in the past and that today has not scarred him too much!!

Peauteau is fast asleep in his stroller...first time. On Monday, I carried him in the snuggly and just about broke my back and still have a strained neck today. That is it for carrying him so long unfortunately. It was a good run but now he will have to get used to the stroller. Peauteau is a big boy now and all bundled up, he must be close to 20 pounds though we haven't weighed him lately. Soon we'll be visiting the doctor for a check-up for him. And as I write this, Daddy is at a Chinese doctor perhaps having some acupuncture for his sinusitis. It feels like we go to some doctor at least once a week.

Last night, J from China moved in and we are looking for a permanent home for her. So never a dull moment around here. We enjoyed a very nice dinner at the doctors upstairs although not feeling well with our colds but determined not to cancel again. We had hoped to meet friends in Rome this coming weekend but unfortunately will not be able to do so...once we all get our health on track, we can think of adventures again!

Happy New Year! We were happy to celebrate last night with our friends from New Zealand who are traveling around Europe right now and spent 4 days in Brussels. We enjoyed a Japanese dinner of miso soup, rice crackers, sushi, sashimi, Asian chicken, broccoli and soba noodles and for dessert, a New York Dense Chocolate Cake I made with berries on top and powdered sugar making it all look very festive. L and I enjoyed a spa-like experience, doing our own feet, which was the closest thing I could think of to an "onsen" experience. L and I lived close to each other in Japan hence the whole Japanese theme! Today we just took it easy after a late night last night and watched Dodge Ball with L while A went touring around Leuven. We would have taken them touring but A was the only one who was gung-ho enough to zip off.

We hope you all have an incredible 2006 with great health and happiness!

We just finished Christmas Eve dinner, opened presents, and now the kids are snug alspeep in their beds. Or, at least The Younger is asleep. We had a seafood bonaza and before we forget what we ate, I thought I would write it down for posterity. Frunty and the daddy went to Cora to shop for these critters and Frunty did most of the choosing. He is especially excited to get oysters and watch them being shucked. We had shrimp in our pasta, as well as jumbo shrimp dipped in various sauces. Oysters from the Bay of Quiberon in Brittany, two types of clams and the Common Northen Whelk. If you're not sure what this is, other common names are: in French the bulot; in "Belgian", the escargot de Bruxelles. And if you're still not sure, it's the buccinum undatum (Linnaeus,1758) of the family buccinidae. The two clams we had were the amande and the venus. All of it was yummy but maybe a little salty. No problem, the bubbly Blanc de Blanc we had was a nice accompaniment. Merry Christmas everyone!

Frunty had an extra special time at school today and enjoyed telling us about it afterwards. Something to do with a black rabbit (which was soft) being pulled out of a hat and there were birds and money went in one person's ear and out the other. He was so excited, it was hard to catch everything but you get the gist and so did we!!!!! A magacian, yes, you guessed it, visited the school and Frunty just loved it and told Gramma all about it and asked for Grampa to phone when he got home from skating, which he did. Frunty really wants Grampa to come over and play trains and says this about every two days. We have to tell him that soon it will happen.

Anyway, Daddy says that he loves taking Frunty to school and carrying him for the ten minute walk, partly up hill because

a) he really gets a chance to snuggle with Frunty and talk to him eye to eye
b) he really gets some great exercise by speed walking and holding that kid
c) he loves chatting with the other kids and parents during the 1/2 hour of "accueil" before class begins

The whole school experience started off in a stressful way but now is very fun and for my part, I enjoy getting to school a bit before 12 to chat with other Moms and have been able to improve my French in the process.

Frunty has been calling his brother, by the way, for at least a month a very cute nickname. He calls him, "Peau-Teau". (said very quickly) If you ask him what it means, Frunty will respond, "baby". And Peau-Teau looks at his brother when he calls him that so clearly knows it is him. So from now on, Tiny Two Legs will be referred to as Peau-Teau in this blog and elsewhere, for that matter!

We have decided not to go to Edinburgh for Christmas. The plane tickets were 1 Euro Cent and our new friends offered us their home in Edinburgh. It all sounded so tempting but we need to stay home and rest...I never thought we'd give up a trip opportunity but we are pretty wiped out and will look forward to visiting Edinburgh in the new year as we would really like to see our cousins there! Of course, they are welcome to visit us here too and with 1 cent flights, who can loose?

Last night we had a super fun time at Frunty's school. From 3:30 pm til 7 pm Chant d'Oiseau school hosted their annual Marche de Noel. It was really lovely. We got there at about 5:30 pm which was good since it was less crowded. (We came from our visit to Medecis.) We enjoyed some French Onion soup though not nearly as good as the one Gramma used to make in the special bowls. Alongside that, we drank some excellent Belgian Christmas beer. Frunty had a candy shishkabob with his friends, D and L. They ran around like maniacs and had so much fun. TTL slept til almost the very end. Children came around selling different Christmasy things and we bought an ornament and a cross-stitched Christmas card.

We enjoyed chatting with some friends we've made from France, their children being in Frunty's class. We also have some friends from Ireland and Scotland with whom we enjoyed some more beers. It was very festive. When we first arrived, we found Madame Claire, Frunty's teacher, and gave her a little box of homemade treats. (Frunty helped me make rice krispy snowballs with coconut, decorated gingerbread cookies and he helped Daddy make Hello Dollies.) She seemed very pleased to receive our Christmas gift. She speaks so slowly to us in French which is very thoughtful.

We woke up today to find snow on the rooftops and have enjoyed flurries on and off again all day. With our carols on, it is starting to feel a lot like Christmas! Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season too!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Yes...I know it is not Christmas but tonight, we had the dress rehearsal. We just feel that there is so much pressure on the actual day(s) so we decided to have a Christmas before the actual Christmas to take the pressure off! It all started with a really nice chat with Gramma followed by decorating two gingerbread houses. What fun! Boy, did we stick a lot of crazy things onto our houses. Gummy teeth, a green, sour crocodile and lots of skittles from Nonna. At first, our icing wasn't quite right because we didnt' have cream of tartar so Daddy used lemon juice and the icing rolled off the eaves. After thickening it, the t.reats seemed to stick a whole lot better.

Then Daddy prepared a gourmet, Christmas feast. First we had "green" oysters which are extra special and not the usual garden variety. Who knew that being green was so awesome? We enjoyed a very nice champagne with the oysters plus various smoked salmon, mackerel and trout and an excellent cheese or two. The we moved along to a baby wild boar, mashed potatoes and roasted zucchini and onion. All too good and especially with a wonderful red, though I can't remember the name of this Bordeaux. We also enjoyed two "bouches de Noel", one chocolate and one mocha, for dessert with an Asti. All too decadent! If you think we over ate, think again because we enjoyed portion control which left room for a Limoncello cake pandoro.

Here is the very best part of all...because everything was really perfect, there is no pressure now to have a perfect, Christmas dinner on the actual day. Daddy just handed me a "Karamel Korkant Guld Barre" that he purchased in Copenhagen. I'll enjoy that later. He is just saying that he forgot the "crowning piece" as I look over and see him reaching into the freezer. What is it? He replies, "a little mouth wash to rinse the palate." Still waiting to hear what it is...raspberry sorbet laced with vodka...oh, the fun never stops...gotta go, no time to spare! Now if everything burns on Christmas eve, at least we had this perfect, pre-Christmas meal prepared by Claudio, shopped for by all of us hier soir, and enjoyed by all of us this evening, especially by T.T.L who loved the mashed potatoes and some applesauce!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!