The second Noël (for Simon)

Christmas was great. Marc managed 3 church services - in different churches - in 24 hours, I got to 2 and Simon just came to the Christmas morning one with us. That's the main thing I appreciate about being in England for Christmas, so many Carol Services, the Midnight Service and always church on Christmas morning. I love to be able to sing my celebrating!

Simon was the only person in the household to have a stocking this year. His aunty Ali helped him with getting into it, but he is getting the hang of unwrapping presents ... pity he won't get much more practice before next December 19th ;o)

Dad went to the prison as usual on Christmas morning, but they let him out in time to have lunch with us, Mum, Ali and Grandpa. It's great to have four generations of the family here, especially since Grandpa and Simon get on so well together!

I think Simon wondered what on earth the grown-ups were doing in the afternoon, with all that torn wrapping paper flying around, but he was in his element. Mum and Dad gave him a push-along (or ride-on) Thomas The Tank Engine, which is just right for him at this age. He still needs a bit of help to walk anywhere, and having Thomas gives other people a rest!

On Boxing Day my aunt, uncle and cousins arrived, for Christmas II ... more colourful toys for Simon, and more chocolate for his parents!

And now everyone has left, including my parents who are having a couple of days away together, so it's just the three of us again.

Simon is beginning to say more recognisable words. For a long time he has said, "Mumumumum!" for "mummy (milk)" and he is now very definitely saying "Baba!" for "Papa!" And when Grandmum takes him to see the grandmother clock which belonged to Simon's great-great-grandfather, and says, "Tick tock!", Simon replies, "Tuh! Tuh!"

He is also slowly becoming more cuddly, and will occasionally even put his arms round our necks and squeeze! Not for long though, as he needs to make sure he fits as much exploring into his day as possible!

A few photos from Simon's first birthday

Week-end nancéien III

We went to church on Sunday morning, and it really did feel as if we’d never been away. I’m afraid it might be the last time it’ll feel like that, but I was glad to feel so in touch with everyone and at home there. I was very touched by a gift from the Sunday School children, who pray for us – and particularly Simon – every week, and who had prepared a beautifully decorated box for Simon with a calendar, hand-knitted mittens, socks, a picture, a sun visor for Africa and a “caterpillar” with photos of all the children on it. They were very excited to see Simon and to be able to present him with the different presents.

In the afternoon we went to the joint Christmas presentation with our sister church. It was a choral piece called “Voici Noël”, with the participation of our church’s drama group. Nice to see everyone, but by then Simon was quite tired, and to be surrounded by so many people was a bit overwhelming.

We also had a wonderful surprise during the weekend. As we drove into Nancy on Friday night, I said to Marc, “It’s as if we’re making a pilgrimage back to Simon’s birthplace just before his first birthday! Maybe we won’t go as far as actually going to the maternity hospital though!”

…
But then the fourth child of some friends of ours was born on Saturday, and I went to visit mother and baby on Sunday, so I did get to walk past the room Simon and I had shared, and looked through the windows into the nursery where I’d bathed him! And it was a special treat to be able to meet little Matthieu, less than a day old. He was almost exactly the same weight and size as Simon had been, and although it’s a total cliché, it’s true – I really can’t believe that Simon was once that small!! It was good to see Claire-Lise too, and I had more time to chat with her than I’d had to talk with a lot of people at church.

Week-end nancéien II

We stayed with friends of ours who have a little boy six weeks older than Simon. It was good to spend time with them, and fun to see Simon and Benoît together. From the front they don’t look much alike, but from behind you could just see two little blonde heads, and they could have been twins! Benoît is already walking though, which gave him a distinct advantage over Simon when it came to taking toys away from each other or poking fingers in eyes! They seemed to be both fascinated by each other and a bit freaked out!

On Saturday we spent some time with our pastor in the morning and ate with a family from our church in the evening.

Simon marvelling at the Christmas tree lights:

Week-end nancéien I

Though most of our two weeks in France will have been spent at Marc’s parents’, in Jouy-le-Moutier, near Paris, we spent the last weekend in Nancy (where we used to live). It was a busy weekend, with as much packed in as possible!

First of all, we had arranged to visit a friend of ours, Cathy, who moved from Nancy to Châlons-en-Champagne last year. Châlons is in between Paris and Nancy, and we were meeting Cathy for lunch. We got slightly lost as we arrived in Châlons, and as I was asking a very helpful passer-by for directions, Marc noticed that the engine was overheating. We eventually found Cathy, and drove into town for lunch, and we realised that there was something seriously wrong with the car. I would say what was wrong, but not being a car expert, I don’t know the technical words in English ;o)

Anyway, we still had a good time with Cathy, and Simon behaved very well in the restaurant, eating his chips (and leaving his beans!) as if he was used to eating out every day!

Afterwards Cathy went back to work, and we went to the Peugeot garage we’d noticed at the bottom of her road. They checked out the car, and said that they could fix it, and had the necessary spare part. So we waited in the car showroom, where there was a so-called “children’s corner”, which actually just meant a plastic fort stuck in the middle of the gleaming (and very hard!) floor tiles. I’m not sure they’d ever heard of safety regulations! We let Simon play on it, but made sure we kept hold of him! He tried out the slide and loved it – peals of excited laughter rang around the showroom, and the women on reception turned to see what was going on.

By the time the car was repaired, an hour later, Simon had completely worn himself out, and fell asleep as soon as we set off again, abandoning the usually obligatory thumb-suck and softie cuddle!

More in the next gripping episode…

TCKs

Despite being on holiday, I have been revising my Hebrew and doing some reading to prepare my Pastoral Studies assignment. I’m going to be writing about bringing up children in another culture, and I’m reading a book called “Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds”. The “third culture” in question is the non-geographically identified culture of those who have grown up between their parents’ culture and another culture in which they have lived. Children who have this kind of experience reap many benefits but can find that they end up not feeling they really belong anywhere. It’s the responsibility of their parents to give them as stable a home life as possible, in spite of moving back and forth across continents, and to help them develop into independent adults.

One thing that stood out to me was when the authors said that a problem for Third Culture Kids is that they feel they have no say in the movements of their family. I noticed this because when Marc was talking with missionaries from SIM in Bénin they said that SIM takes the children’s opinions into consideration, and a missionary family can’t go back out onto the field after Home Assignment (time back in the home country) if any of their children over 12 don’t want them to! To me that seems very healthy – I hope I’ll still be saying that in 11 years time!
Of course, the situation will be even more complicated for us because Simon won’t just have one “passport culture” but two!

o'er this world's tempestuous sea

I would have thought that the best place for me would be somewhere in between France and England. Well, no! When we arrived at Dover on Thursday for the ferry, we were warned that they hadn’t yet received permission to take the boat out. We were allowed to go, but it was “rock ‘n’ roll” as the French would say! We weren’t supposed to get out of our seats during the crossing, but two or three minutes out of port I got up and ran to take refuge in the toilets. I spent the crossing saying to myself, “You managed 9 months, and this is only one hour!”

Anyway, it is good to be in France with Marc’s family. Simon is very bunged up with cold, and gets tired easily, but he seems pleased to see everyone again.

more discoveries

In the last week or so, Simon has learnt to clap his hands, to open and shut doors, to click his tongue, and he is getting more and more steady on his feet. He also discovered today that he loves Sunmaid raisins - a gift from the ANCC Father Christmas (aka Furtive Pattah Man, or William Ford, Hilary's Hebrew lecturer).

It is getting more and more difficult to take photos of Simon since he's always on the move! (But I have got one taken today when he was firmly strapped into his buggy!)

follow the imaginary road...

The path we take when we go on pretend walks ;o)