Today was a really busy day. In the morning, Pit and I went to a skin doctor at Edith Cavell hospital. He was super chouette, Dr. Cantella, from Sicily and we enjoyed our time there blowing bubbles in the waiting room. Pit is starting to get it down pat. We took the tram there and back and it was a new, super duper one so easy to get on and off with wide doors and on street level, great for strollers.

At noon we picked up Frunt's and friend, Leo, and brought them home for a quick lunch followed by trip to Town Hall where they had to practise their performance to get ready for tomorrow's spectacle. They did great and Frunty particularly gets into the dance really well. He seems to enjoy it and does not seem to be shy at all, considering he is on a stage with bright lights shining on him. Good for all the kids.

Afterwards I took the three of them to the club and put them in the play zone while I passed out in the sauna, steam room and light therapy room. One hour of bliss. Then I picked them up and we all went swimming. Kids did great although I got attacked a lot by the three of them...splashed mostly! Straight homeby 6 pm for spaghetti dinner and this time had enough meat to feed a lion!

I figured some things outs while in the light therapy room about how I replace the wooden strawberries for the Haribo candies for the game, Le Verger. It seems so obvious now but did not at the time. Funny how visualization does seem to work.

Gotta go. Hope everyone reading is as tired but as happy as I am.

Sometimes I walk with tiny two legs, either to walk the dog or to bring two legs to or from school. Along the way, there are low bushes and flowers and sometimes tiny two legs will stop and adamantly say "smell, smell" and then proceed to put his tiny nose to the flowers and inhale deeply. He especially does this now that the lavender is in bloom. Very adorable.

Tonight while Frunty was brushing his teeth, Pit opened up a jar of cream. He poked his finger in the jar and I thought he was going to put some on his face like he has done in the past. But instead, he went over to Frunts, bent down and smeared the cream on the back of his knees. Frunty has eczema and obviously, Pit has noticed. What I notice about Pit is how he often tries to take care of others. When I have some boo boos on my feet (eczema), Pit will really study them and then try to apply cream. He looks at the boo boos and I feel like I am being inspected by a doctor. It is a weird feeling because Pit is so tiny, just having turned two, but started doing this at least six months ago. I don't care what he becomes but I do find it interesting and wonder what the future holds.

Mami and Papi just left from Charleroi. We enjoyed their week long visit and thought the loft they rented downtown was great as it encouraged us to do activities downtown too. Yesterday we took them to a farm "pedagogique" for kids out in the countryside and enjoyed a bbq. Today we spent the entire day at the club. First we put the kids in the "playzone" so we could all exercise and then we all went swimming and took turns in the sauna, light therapy sauna and steam room. I held Pit for two hours while he slept and that was relaxing too. I hope Mami and Papi enjoyed their visit as much as we did.

It was fun for Frunty to show them how well he is swimming now and Pit showed how he swims with water wings. Frunty and I have figured out how to make washing his hair fun by wearing goggles so the soap and water don't go in his eyes! No more tears! Pit won't wear the goggles so we have to wash his hair really quickly and listen to a bit of screaming until I can wipe his eyes with a towel. Daddy worked from home today and when we arrived at 5 pm, the lamb roast was almost done. Daddy made a really delicious dinner for us which we enjoyed with Frunty's friend, Leo, whom we were babysitting while his folks move house. He just wanted to eat lamb!

We will miss Mami and Papi. That is the way it goes when you live abroad.

The two kids are like bear cubs with lots of playing, play fighting, frolicking around...especially before bed. The other day we went to Caroline's to play with Sophie and her and we were all playing Le Verger when my two decided to take a little break and do some wrestling. It was really adorable, the two of them on the carpet, rolling around a little bit and you can really picture polar bear cubs playing with one another. In this way, they have contact with one another, snuggling, kissing, hugging etc. and after a day of being apart, reconnect with each other. It is very sweet.

Frunty goes to bed pretty well on his own now most nights with very little complaint. Pit on the other hand is quite furious and does some screaming. Usually we have to go in and help him settle down. We have not been consistent and so he gets used to snuggling and falling asleep with us and then when he has to do it on his own, isn't pleased to say the least and who can blame him? Some nights it is just not possible so we tell him we will keep the door open and he has to stay in bed and that seems to work with little fuss.

Frunty's school year is winding down and at the beginning of the month his class performed for the Fancy Fair along with the other classes. Frunty really did very well, performing an African dance with a lot of gusto. The day before we got him a little character to put in his pocket so that during the dance, he could squeeze it for comfort but he said he did not need the character. We got it anyway for him and during the show, he brought it out of his pocket to show us. It was really cute.

Pit is still enjoying the Little Gym and does somersaults and lots of swinging and likes the balance beam very well. He does not like running around during the warm-up but instead, let's me run around carrying him. Of course, I get super warm this way! He also does not like the bubble time at the end as much and I think it is because there are a lot of kids crashing into one another. I must say, the L.G has grown in size, with 700 kids a week now, but that means the classes are too big, in my opinion and the quality has gone down a bit. I guess that happens unfortunately and I am therefore reluctant to join next year.

When Daddy travels, I now use his car which he leaves behind for me. That sure helps me out, especially in the rain! My journey time to the L.G for example is 1 hour by bus/tram/walking or 40 minutes by bike. By car, 15 minutes or less so once in awhile, I am grateful for the car as a kind of treat. My favourite way to get to the gym though is by bicycle throught the old Chemin de Fer which is just beautiful, through the forest, with trees creating a canopy above our heads.

I am glad that I finally got my Belgian driver's license as driving Daddy's car is amazing and I deserve the luxury. This may sound boastful but 4 years of no driving, I now deserve a bit of a break as shuttling two kids on and off the metro, pulling the stroller up and down escalators etc. is pretty exhausting. I know that that was better for the environment but driving once a week or so is not too horrific especially if I cut down in other areas like not having as many hot baths!

Daddy is traveling quite a bit still but here this week so I am grateful. Plus, when Daddy is here he is 100% hands-on so it more than makes up for when he is not here. I really appreciate all his help with the kids, everything he does for us...we are really lucky.

Well, I have tried to update you a little more as I did fall quite behind. I will write again using my calendar to remember significant events in the last two months. For all of you that read this, I hope you are doing well and will update us on what you are up to too!

Haven't written in almost two months but have recorded important things on calendar which I will transfer later.

Took Pit to the lab today for blood work and will receive results in about four days regarding whether he has allergies or not. His nasal cavity is almost completely blocked and the doctor is 90% certain that an operation will be necessary. On another note, I took Pit to the club for a swim and he did so well. He decides when he wants to swim and does so in a vertical position. He really gets around the pool quite quicky and spends time with me on the bubble bed. Afterwards we sat with friends outside on the patio and Pit fell asleep in my arms. Heaven. I was the last to leave as I stayed until Pit woke up naturally. I have the luxury to do this and I thank my lucky stars everyday and my husband for making this possible.

Went to travel agent to get quotes for next trip and then picked up Frunts at friend's house as she got him after school for me with her little girl. Stayed to play Le Verger and now they are putting gummies on the cherries like we do! We put Haribo gummies on the cherries. It is so fun and I think once you have done this, it is hard to play the regular way with all the wooden fruit!
Such fun and the way to enjoy their childhood. Must help get children to sleep so Daddy and I can have some down time. I am tired too but very very happy.

Two months have passed since I last updated this blog and so much has happened that I wanted to record in fuller detail but did not. Too busy enjoying the moment. After my last post, Nonna and Nonno arrived for a three week visit and we took the kids to Tunisia while Daddy worked back here in Brussels. He had already planned his holiday for Ireland and we arrived home yesterday.

Updates on the kids are key and I'll keep it as brief as possible for Daddy because he is busy and doesn't always have time to read long paragraphs.

Frunty is really enjoying soccer lately and does some pretty fancy footwork. Because he is an excellent runner, he can cover great distance with the ball and is pretty quick and not afraid to fall on the ground as well. In Ireland, we set up the goal at our cottage and he practised a lot. We are thinking of a soccer camp (which will be in French naturally) sometime in the summer perhaps. The biggest accomplishment in these last two months occured on March 28th when Frunty swam for the very first time underwater and then on top, without water wings at the club pool. He is a beautiful little swimmer and taught himself. It just goes to show me that without pressure, a child will progress when they are ready in an enjoyable way. We are having such fun swim dates at the club.

Pit now knows about thirty words in English and has uttered his first sentence on March 11th. He said, "I gas" and pointed to his bum. Very funny indeed. He says many words in Italian too and counts to three in French when we are at the Little Gym. He loves swimming too with his water wings and enjoys jumping into the pool and the other day, he held onto his tiny, pink, plastic pig the whole time at the pool. At the end, he lost it and we scoured the pool. No luck. But a week later, Frunty found it at the bottom of the pool! Hilarious.

Frunty is very enthusiastic when we are out and about and is never negative when we say we are leaving for the airport. For other adventures, he is negative at first but warms up to the idea sometimes after a good breakdown. Then on the trip, he is nothing but positive, enthusiastic, curious, adventuresome.

Pit is really a goofy little guy. Very affectionate. Kisses all of us all the time, loves being massaged by us and his brother, makes funny faces, giggles, and usually says, "okay" when we suggest something to him. He is very particular about somethings like what he wants to wear and isn't afraid to say "no" and scrunch up his nose.

Both boys are snuggling in bed together as I write, fast asleep. They sleep together all night and at around 7 am one of us goes in to snuggle in the morning. Often Pit falls asleep again. Frunty still sleeps about 12-13 hours from whenever he goes to bed. He rarely wakes up with a nightmare or for some other reason and doesn't argue as much about going to bed anymore. I think he finally realizes how wonderful sleep is!

Now that the kids are asleep, it's time for some "mommy-time" as Daddy terms it when I can indulge...I'll therefore write about Ireland very soon. Happy Easter everyone!

Today it was easy to get Frunty out of bed even though he hadn't had enough sleep by saying the words, "come look out the window, there's snow!" We woke up to a beautiful, snow covered landscape and were all pretty excited. It happened to be the day of Frunty's trip to the African Museum by tram to Tervueren and Pit and I were invited too.

Daddy took Frunty to school so he could leave with his class. They were supposed to take the bus to the tram stop but due to the snow, there were so many delays that they had to walk all the way to the tram stop. It took them almost two hours, I found out later, to get from the school to the museum. Some people might complain but because they had a beautiful walk through the snowy sidewalks of Chant D'Oiseau, I was happy that the children could enjoy the outdoors instead of staying in the classroom.

I haven't been too crazy about many of the trips by metro but I figured that this trip was safer with the bus/tram combo as it was more or less door to door. But I had already given permission and not known that they couldn't take the bus until it was too late. I just had to pray that all would go well and it did.

I decided to meet them there because I wanted to go ahead with my Thursday French club that I have organized at a nearby cafe. Since I get a "real" francophone to facilitate our group, I don't want to miss a rendez-vous and figured I could catch up with Frunty and his class later. It turns out that I met them at the museum just as they were going so the timing was perfect! I must have been only one or two trams after them.

We enjoyed visiting the museum, looking at all the stuffed animals and seeing the African masks. With carnival coming up, Mme Anne wanted the children to see the masks. (or maybe just get out of the school for a day?) I think she invited DeMille and me so we could see how fun these day trips were because she kept asking if we liked it and finally, asked us for the umpteenth time if we would let Frunty go on the two night, three day trip to the sea with his class in June.

The answer is still, unequivocably, "no". Yes, the day trip was fun in some ways but totally exhausting in others. Yes, it was interesting to see the African museum but frankly, there were a lot of moments when the children stood around waiting for each other to finish in the bathroom or waiting for the tram, or waiting to get our bags so we could go eat lunch etc. etc. you get the idea.

For the record, I am not poo-pooing such trips as long as they are almost 100% safe. We are dealing with 4 or 5 year olds on public transportation, out in the public and at one point, I noticed Laure, a tiny little girl take off out of sight and was able to bring her back to the group. There are just too many opportunities for something bad to occur so I dont' really think it is worth the risk, frankly.

Three days of that would be exhausting given that the nights might be full of children crying for their parents, wetting their beds, whining etc. Yes, I give the worst case scenario but it boils down to the fact that we dont' feel comfortably with Frunty going and he told us he does not want to go. End of story. For Mme Anne to continually pressure us is unnecessary. We are not going to let our little guy to a hotel with a pool by the ocean and to an amusement park for three days. Maybe when he is 13? I dunno. Maybe when it feels right?

Today the same teacher told Daddy that her heart is broken because she thinks that Frunty really wants to go because he said that I had already paid for his trip to the beach. What she doesn't realize is that Frunty's confusing this with his trip coming up with the nonni to the beach. Poor little guy. And let's say he isn't confused. He can be disappointed or sad or angry because he cannot go and his class is going (we don't know how many are in fact going). He can learn to deal with those emotions too and that is a lesson unto itself.

I would say that the topic of this ocean trip with Mme Anne is taking up most of the year and starting to grate on my nerves. The answer was, is, will be "no". Nothing more to discuss. I wish she would get that through her head. As much as we like her and Frunty adores her, enough is enough.