Tommy's birthday party

Tommy asked for a pool party for his birthday, and this party ended up being very easy to organize.  But oh my gosh, it was stressful.  I hadn't really considered the responsibility of having 15 kids around a pool when I sent out the invitation.  But Tommy had a great time, and I had a glass of wine when it was all over and felt that I had really earned it, you know?

T has really sweet friends, and for the most part the kids were really well behaved.   This was our first year of a boys only party (except Lizzie, who does not seem to notice at all that she's the only girl), and I do think that the energy level is different with a gang of boys than it is with a group of boys and girls.  We took a lot of pool toys, and almost immediately there was some sort of soccer-ish game going on that involved kicking the ball all the way over the pool (lengthwise) and hitting it against the opposite wall.  I had to shut the game down when a dispute over whether someone had scored arose.  Because of course, nobody knew if it was actually a point because nobody really knew the rules of the brand new game.  Anyway, it was fun and it's over and Tommy was satisfied.  (I really hate planning birthday parties.)

(I made this gif by myself and if you want to make one, too, it's SUPER EASY.)

Nine. Yes, NINE. No, that is not a mistake.

Tommy turned nine on April 11th.  He received mostly Lego gifts, with a few books and a couple of soccer jerseys thrown in for good measure.  He also is getting a basketball hoop because he loves basketball.  (I wish I could show you the videos from his class, but I will first have to remember not to talk when I am filming.  It is much too embarrassing to post on the internet.)

His party will be on April 22nd because I didn't get my act together before we left on our trip.  But he doesn't care; he is just pleased to have another load of gifts to look forward to.  (I considered offering him the money we will pay for the party in exchange for actually having the party, but that sort of misses the point doesn't it?)

The thing about this guy is that he is extraordinarily easy to parent.  He's was born with a generous spirit and a capacity for empathy, and a quick brain.  We all have our flaws, but Tommy's are so insignificant in comparison to his goodness.  During the birthday interview, I asked him what his best quality is, and he said he's a good big brother.  I'm impressed that he has a concept of what a good big brother is, and that he values this about himself.  Anyway, all this to say that at the half-way point of Tommy living with Eli and me, I just couldn't love my kid any more than I do.*

* This week, he left his swimming bag on the bus, lost a sock in the changing room (?), left his brand new Lego guy (that he shouldn't have taken to school in the first place) on the bus, and forgot his water bottle once.  So don't read this post as saying that Tommy never frustrates me because oh my god he certainly does.  It's just that he's mostly amazing.

The cast is off!!

The journey to recovery is officially...half-way.  Today, Lizzie's cast was removed.  We took new X-rays, and the surgeon said he was very happy with her recovery.  But, she is to wear her sling for another two weeks, and can't really use her arm properly until the end of May.  He even said that she shouldn't swim for a couple of weeks.  (It is officially hot here now, so this is a huge bummer.)

After our long slog through the hospital, which took a record three and a half hours this morning, we went to the physio department to make an appointment.  Her appointment is for May 1st.  So I called a private physio and will see her on Monday.  She's a British woman and even though I will pay ten times would I would pay at the hospital, it will only require me to have Lizzie out of school for an hour because I'll actually have an appointment time.  And, I don't know how to measure the price of my own sanity, but it is fairly precious to me.

Today we had a sweet experience.  The nurse who has always done Lizzie's casts saw us in the waiting room (we had been there for an hour and twenty three minutes) and he moved her file to the top of the stack so we were seen fairly soon after.  Then, after the surgeon ordered X-rays, he took us to a different radiology department where we didn't have to wait.  He asked if I wanted some tea after the X-rays, so he told me all about his five children and what they are doing.  It was very sweet.  Then he delivered us back to the surgeon's office ("we must go now, before he takes a break").  He calls Lizzie "Barbie," which she considers to be a compliment.

We came home and Lizzie had a bath so that we could finally wash her left hand (so disgusting) and also begin to scrape the dead skin off her arm and hand.  Revolting, but so satisfying.  She is very reluctant to move her arm, but she can, and she agrees that it doesn't hurt when she does.  Hooray!

We wanted to remember how beautiful her hard cast was after everyone signed it!

This is in the women's waiting room. It's instructions on caring for your cast.

Frankfurt!

Hanh and Eleanor moved to Frankfurt in Germany, so we went to see their new house and new city. We understand why they miss Rome, but we also found a lot that was nice about Frankfurt. They live near a huge, lovely park with a fun playground; they're right near the train (I still don't know what it's called; I just call it the tube); they have a big flat with tennis courts and playgrounds.

The bottom photo is of Eleanor and Lizzie saying goodbye.  Hanh said that Eleanor cried the whole drive to school because she was so sad that Lizzie was leaving.  This is fascinating because Lizzie is not very nice to Eleanor.  And by "not very nice", I mean that she is fairly mean some of the time.  And Eleanor responds to Lizzie's meanness with, "I love you, Lizzie" and "you're so pretty!" On the second day in Paris, I almost left Lizzie on the side of the road, I was so disgusted with her behavior...

Luckily, they had many nice moments and the rest of us got along.  Phew.

This was Eli's dinner. 

We went to a wine bar.  It was run by a French woman, so we had French wine.

He suggested that some of the paintings had been inappropriate, and when I said, "well, it's art", he answered "did you see the one called 'Blonde Nude'?"

I had to put this photo in because Lizzie pointed at a painting of a father getting ready to cut his child's throat with a long knife (Abraham and Isaac), waved her hands at it and said, "Mom, what's goin' on here, in this painting?"  So here I am explaining...

Paris!

We spent spring break in Paris and Frankfurt (which is where Hanh and Eleanor live now). Hanh and Eleanor came to meet us the day after we arrived in Paris.  (I wonder what I would have said to you when I met Hanh in Autumn of 2005 if you told me that ten plus years later we would be in Paris with three children).

Just so everyone is clear:  Paris with 4, 6 and 8 year old children is not the same as grownup Paris.  There is a lot more whining about walking, and the highlights of the trip are things like:

* a guy blowing huge bubbles
* the amazing playgrounds
* extra iPad time while your parents drink wine
* a ferris wheel
* a double-decker carousel
* pastry (okay, that's also part of grownup Paris)
* chasing pigeons
* browsing the Lego section of every store
* getting a fold-up seat on the Metro
* admiring all the dogs
* watching the French version of the coast guard do drills in the Seine, just across from the Notre Dame

But, even though we had one very cold and rainy day, we managed to have a lovely time in Paris and to daydream about living there.  (Although, we would need to dust off our French.  It is pretty horrifying.  Except Hanh's.  Hers is good.)  Here are quite a lot of photos.  I had a hard time choosing.

Here we are in the wine bar with the iPads.

I think these were our daily pushups, in furtherance of Tommy's new years resolution to build upper body strength.
Lizzie does them one handed due to the broken arm.  Eleanor requires assistance.

On the train to Frankfurt!