Jouer

To meet Solie (next to Eleanore) and Eva (next to Frances),

watch this video:

Do you notice how hard it is for them to say Eleanore? No one can do it. Not even adults. It's funny. Frances is easier but hard, too.

Hi. Today was Wednesday organic market and a cooking class. We made carrot cupcakes but there were also onions and sweet potatoes in it. They were so good.

Then we took Eva and Solie to the park. We made a quick stop at the candy store for caramels and chocolate olives, mmmmmmm, and then ran down to the grass and river and acres of blooming flowers. Frances and I both want to say something about the day.

Frances:

Flowers: I was making little bouquets of little yellow flowers for Eva and Solie and Solie and Eva were making flower chains. They took a flower and held it and then they took another flower and tore the top part off the stem and they stabbed the stem of the first flower through the head of the second flower. And on and on and on.

Solie teaching Frances how to make her flower chain.

Eva is happy. She touches me and she kisses me. And when she was trying to tell me something in French and I couldn't understand, she put her hands on my heart.

Today was a much better day than the day with only Solie.

My mom says, "So you all know, Frances is full of life and joy and vigor when the sun is up, but when that sun goes down, and when her belly is full, she cannot keep her brain running or her eyes open. She would talk more but she's so sound asleep on her feet that she just cannot. We should write this blog in the daytime ... for her."

Eleanore:

Before we went over to the flowers, we played some games.

First we played Lu (we're not sure how to spell it, but it sounds like "LOO"). Lu is tag.

Then we played what we call Uncle Sam but we didn't say all the speehes in English for it. The person who was "it" called out a color in French and then the game continued as it normally does.

The next game we played was "cache-cache." That is just Hide and Seek. We counted to 40 in French (yikes) and we hid in the surrounding Roman Aqueduct. Instead of saying, "here I come," Solie and Eva said, "J'arrive!"

We do "inky-binky-bonkie" to decide who is "it."

They do this (watch the video):

(Eva hiding on a tree trunk)

(Frances hiding in the aqueduct)

(Eva's turn to "seek")

We all ran down the steep grassy hills and up the other sides.

We walked over to the posts and hopped over them. Eva wouldn't stop. When all of us were making flower bouquets and I was making a flower wreathe, she was running through the puddles and muddy grass to do them again.

I really notice that I'm getting more confident with speaking French. Especially around Eva and Solie. Today, when we were waiting for her dad outside our art class (Les Petites Mains), she said, "Salut" on top of the parking rails and I said, "Salut" back and then she said, "Comment ca va?" and it felt very good to know what to say next, and I said, "Ca va bien."

My mom wants to say something quickly, too:

It was, not to be too dramatic, the day I was waiting for.

One:

Eleanore and Frances have friends they really like to be around; they're daring to speak French; in fact, after our time with Eva and Solie, Frances said, "I want to learn more WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" We made arrangements with Eva's dad to play more and when we kissed (three times in the south), Eva nearly cried, truly. Even her dad, who speaks fluent English admitted she was too sad to say goodbye. She loves our girls and they love her. And we will have Eva's family over to dinner soon. Very fun.

Two:

I met a woman on my walk today who stopped me and asked me in French how long it would take her to get to town. I answered and we chatted a moment about whether each other was from Uzes. She finally asked, in French, if I was English or French. HAHAHAHA! I said, American. She immediately started speaking English and said she had NO idea! I spoke PERFECT french! Hilarious.

Three:

when I was waiting for the girls to come out of cooking class, I passed a store and saw a friend, Danielle. I walked in, said, "Salut Danielle," and had a great, friendly conversation with her!

Four:

On our way home we ran into ANOTHER set of friends who invited us over for Pacque (Easter) for an egg hunt. She said she would pick us up. She's GREAT! How fun!!!

No matter where I am, no matter how far away I travel in order to feel the differences in every way, I also need to feel like I belong. It's ironic and it's core to me. I've done it forever...in country after country, in house after house, in town after town.  And one month into Uzes, I'm feeling like we're just beginning to belong. I've got kids who are happy with friends, I've got "friends" I see on the streets, new friends to plan dinner with, trails to run on; the woman who sells me my multiple bags of sprouts on Wednesdays and Saturdays knows my name, the music teacher whom I love has offered up his daughter to teach the girls french in our home after school on Fridays. We've got the sheep-milk man telling us it's time we start making our own yogurt because it's just too expensive for us to keep buying HIS yogurt. The crepe woman knows our names and laughs when we return to pay after leaving without paying!  Just lots of good people-energy.

Eleanore:

I've been going to bed at 2am and around that time for the past couple of nights. So I am very tired. I must go to bed. Good night.