Biddulph Boys Update

The boys are growing like weeds, especially Simon. He is fond of eating and drooling and (now that his acid reflux is subsiding) he is a happy baby most of the time. Due to his appetite, Simon is a chunky guy and Em loves that his legs have chubby rolls. He loves to kick, pull hair, bite on his toes, make loud raspberry noises, and laugh at his older brother. In spite of his “tree frog” hands and feet (so sweaty!… between that and the drooling, he must lose a ½ liter of water per day), we have decided he is definitely a keeper.

James is nutty, as usual. He likes being a big brother most of the time. We are trying to break him of the habit of steam-rolling his baby brother. He tries to tell us he is “giving hugs” but we aren’t buying it and neither is Simon. Fortunately Simon is pretty patient and resilient to James’ physical expressions of brotherly adoration.

James talks all the time… even in his sleep. (Em was up feeding Simon a few nights ago and heard James laughing… “Ha,ha, ha. Funny mama! Oh gosh!”) Em can understand about 50% of what James says (which is better than her French comprehension, so that’s saying something). The words get clearer every day, so we’re pretty sure that he will be able to communicate well with Ben and Anders by the time of the reunion. Anyway, they’re all fluent in “Thomas” so we’re not too worried.

(James with his "Happy Mother's Day" flower)

The move is coming up quickly and we are daunted by all that we have to get done by mid-July. (Having kids in tow this time around makes everything even more complicated than usual!) However, we are very much looking forward to our 6 weeks of home-leave… the light at the end of the tunnel.

Hooray Visitors!

We had 2 sets of visitors in April/May, so we spent a fair amount of time traveling. Ange (Emily's sister) and Scott came to see us and we took a road trip to France. We visited Reims Cathedral, where all of the French kings were coronated. Then we proceeded to explore historic homes of French aristocracy in the Loire Valley. The chateaux were lovely, but our favorite place to visit was Amboise, France. The picturesque little town is where Leonardo DaVinci spent the last few years of his life. The manor where he stayed was lovely and had a spacious garden where we tried out some of his inventions.

On our last day, we traveled to Chartres cathedral and attended part of mass... then it was on to Giverny to visit Monet's gardens. Of course, we dragged Ange and Scott to the usual Belgian sites as well. We had a great time with them and are glad they are such laid-back travelers. We had to slow the pace a bit to accommodate the kids, but we visited a lot of cool places.

Our other visitors in May were our good friends, the Thains, who used to live in Belgium. They stopped by to see us for a couple of days and we were so, so glad! We were also glad that (having already seen the sites) Ellen and Jerry were content to just lay low and eat yummy food (especially English cheese) while we rested from our travels in France.