Of course with our one girl child gone this year I have become used to being the only female around this house but this week we added a boy to the household.
A few months ago in a moment of
Not that I am not this time, but in combination we also have a home stay with very very veeery little english comprehension or vocab. Someone has taught him to say " I am not a fan" about anything he doesn't like (or when he has no idea what I am saying). Thank goodness David's french that has been virtually unused since Grade 7 has quickly returned and he is being amazing about helping the communication between us all.
There have been some hilarious moments along the way. "Who is you cathedral?" took us a while to unwind. When Allan left the table briefly and said "I'll be back" the french kid immediately did a Schwarzenegger "I'll be back"...very funny. He really want to "Up my engleesh" ... and is trying pretty hard.
For the most part though there is a lot of silence and long halting attempts at communicating.
Undeterred I was determined to show him lots of the places their official tour does not cover this week.
On Saturday I walked him around Terra Nova Natural Park blathering on about risky play and the mountains being in the north, nature preschool, the sharing farm growing food for the food bank.
He just kept saying "Yeeees" in his French accentand nodding. A lot of nodding.
Then we watched David play in a cup soccer game. The very last game of his soccer career. It was a great game, a great battle against a team in a higher division and age group and a very respectable 1-0 loss at the end. Soccer has been such a big part of our lives for so long...a decade in fact...and this is it. This last season has been a gong show and quite disrespectful to this team of boys and they ground down David until he had just had enough. I'm grateful for all the years, for great coaches and team mates and learning and growing. It was a bitter sweet moment when he came off just before the end of the game. I am proud of the player he has become.
And then we headed over to BCIT to see the other boy, Allan, coaching several teams at the wrap up VEX Robotics tournament of the season. It's been a while since I was at a robotics event but it all came flooding back - all those boys!
We went out for dinner last night and educated our french boy on how to use chopsticks...#fail. Allan and I had a lovely walk home as a beautiful sunset unfolded before us. I fell in to bed.
Only to wake at 5:30am today. UGH.
Up to make waffles and bacon and chop strawberries for a breakfast of champions before we headed north again this time to Deep Cove with 10 000 others. Parking was a zoo but we finally hit the trail to Quarry Rock.
Oh My Word. SO many people, so many stairs, so many dogs. My latent fear of falling down stairs was not at all helped by flights and flights of stairs many with no handrails! Eek. I was glad to get there and enjoy the view once the crowd parted until I thought about the return trip which thankfully turned out to be easier and faster than I expected.
We had lunch, loaded up honey donuts, took the scenic route home via Lions Gate, Stanley Park, Spanish Banks...while our guest read his book in the back seat. I tried to keep up my tour guide patter but honestly I was pretty hot and tired.
Allan was holed up at home all day with Spanner and two final papers for two courses anxiously awaiting his Honey....Honey donut ;)
Dinner is done, the younger boys are at Starbucks which the French Kids are in awe of and Allan has finally left his desk finally and we are watching the Juno's on TV with a beer.
A weekend of being a Mom, a mom of two boys, of juggling boys activities and appetites.
I'm pooped but it was fun. Now for 7 more days of trying to find things Jeremie IS a fan of!
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