Babyhood

We recently had a nice outing to Nénuphar, the children’s book and toy shop in Fontainebleau where a professional story-teller comes once a month. We had arranged to meet Sarah, Nina and Flynn too. It was the first time Pauline had been and all the children really enjoyed it, especially as the story-teller encourages them to participate with appropriate noises and sound effects. We would have liked to have had lunch together afterwards, but it was too wet and cold for a picnic and both Sarah and I were too broke to buy lunch , so we all went home. Also I was very tired, after another bad night with Pauline getting up. She’s been getting up about every second night.

Next day I had my 3 hour walk with Patricia and dog Zoltan and we went for miles, our legs were really well stretched. I’d had a good sleep, so was looking forward to Women’s Group in the evening. Imagine my disappointment when I arrived at Kathleen’s house to find her bathing her children and discovered that they had changed the meeting day back to Wednesday, so I’d missed it. I had left the previous session early and no-one thought to tell me of the change in plans. I was cross, but went home and watched a good film (Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet) and had an early night.

On Saturday morning I took Kevin for a bike ride to the Petit Chemin. Pauline didn’t want to come but preferred to stay home with Daddy. We picked a huge bag of lovely apples from the abandoned garden. In the afternoon I took them shopping at Fontainebleau because I’d heard that some shops were giving away free tickets for a ride on a steam train running between our village, Fontainebleau and Paris to celebrate Fontainebleau station’s 150 year anniversary. Well the train was running alright, but nobody was giving away free tickets! It’s a shame, I’d planned to take photos of the children on the train and send them to Grandpa. Still, it was a good outing and I took them to the Casino cafeteria for goûter, so they enjoyed an ice-cream and a play.

It rained on Sunday morning so we didn’t go on the weekly Short Legs Hike. In the afternoon Kevin and I went to feed the ducks on the Loing. Walking home he asked me “What was my name when I was a baby?” . I said “Kevin Robert C. ” and he said “What was your name when you were a baby?”, then “What was your mummy’s name when she was a baby?” It stopped there!

Monday was supposed to be a nice, relaxing day because P. was on a two-day training course and so wouldn’t be home for lunch. However, Malorie rang and invited me over for coffee to see the baby, so I rushed to the shops to buy some ingredients and made her a chicken and courgette casserole, mashed potatoes and a grape, yoghurt, cream and caramel dessert as a present. After feeding the kids and taking them back to school I had just an hour to stay at Malorie’s. Little Fabien was very clever, he woke up just as I arrived and I was able to give him his bottle. He’s gorgeous, and although small, he doesn’t look premature or ill in anyway, has perfectly developed features and lots of energy in his wee kicking legs. It was lovely to hold such a tiny baby, without being nagged for cartoons on tv, sweets, or having to tell him to stop hitting his sister!

Patricia wasn’t available for our dog walk on Tuesday morning so I took my bike out and rode alongside the river towards Veneux and Thomery for an hour. It was a new route for me, and the weather was lovely and sunny. There are some beautiful riverside houses and mansions there and all the trees are turning orange and yellow now, so it was spectacular. Was saddle sore the next day though!