Week by week 47

(May 16-22). This was a fun week. Johnny decided that he no longer wants help doing anything. He wants to do it all himself. Including eating. And he really does try use a spoon but then ends up giving up in favor of actually getting the food into his mouth.Close up. Not sure why but this picture makes me laugh.
Irritated because I wanted him to say "up" before I would pick him up. I know I shouldn't compare but James was talking a few real words by this age and Johnny just isn't (besides dada and mama). I know he can make the sounds because he is constantly babbling so I was just being stubborn. I gave in a picked him up anyway.
See. Then we took some pictures together. This look of Johnny's says, "Mom, are you sure you are qualified to take care of me?" I think he wonders that sometimes.
Just trying to figure me out.
This week we played a lot with friends since it was our last week before out Utah vacation. James wanted to wear my necklace but since he lost one of my necklaces last week while we were in Germany I made him his own necklace with ribbon and noodles. You can't tell but he is being happily chased by his good friend Elias in this picture.
We were killing time while waiting for a friend to join us to go to the farm.
Playing "futbal" with Elias.
Watching my kids makes me remember being a kid. All the playing and having fun. Oh, the good old days.
Our friend arrived and we headed out to "La Gavotte" which is a real farm about a 15 min. walk from my house. They let the animals just roam around and the kids wander among them. Johnny looking at the bunnies.
James with the little goats. This was before he was "bumped" by a goat so he was happy.
Still happy and watching the goats. Notice the huge pile of mud and poop and who-knows-what-else?
This place has so many animals. Notice the alpacas just chilling with the horses. And then James got bumped into the mixture of mud and crud behind him. He cried, I laughed and cleaned him up a bit but you can see on his pants that he was covered. I washed those pants 3 times on super hot because--Yuck!! At least he was happy again (in front of the bunny cages).
Johnny in the pony field having a taste of hay.
More billy goats.
Our friends Tabitha (the mom) and Debora (the child) said Day Bore Ahh. This is one of my first true Swiss friends (well she is French and Swiss). She is such a super person and very kind to me and has shown me lots of things here in Geneva.
Pig. Yep! They just wander around snorting and rolling in the mud and hay. They are not too little either but they seem used to all the people and the kids mauling them. And there are a whole lot of different birds. Exotic chickens and turkeys and roosters.
James looking at some of the birds.
Pheasants too.
A pony. They do pony rides here for not too much money but my kids will have to wait till they are older or until Brian comes with us.
La Gavotte as we were leaving.
As we were leaving we had to walk along side a big sludge pond that was making a lot of noise. Look closely. Do you see the frogs? There were hundreds and the kids really enjoyed looking for them.
My friends that came with us. Caroline and Tabitha. Caroline is from Paris! So, I have officially made it when I can go on an outing with only French speaking friends. I'm pretty proud of my progress in French despite not being able to take any French classes. I'm not saying that I'm perfect but I can definitely have a real conversation and understand most things (except at church when they are reading from the bible because that is crazy ancient French).
The day before we left for Utah we went to another park with animals but this one didn't have them just wandering around. This little lamb tried to eat John-Luke's coat.
After playing at the park for a while we decided to have lunch at the restaurant of the tennis club across the street from my house. It was so much fun. Good friends. Mimi (from Ethiopa), Caroline (from Paris) and Harmony (from Cali) and all our kids. It was outside and the kids just ran around the garden and played and then came to munch and all us ladies got to talk for a bit. I totally need to do this again soon before the weather turns too ugly.
It was a nice farewell lunch before heading to Utah since that trip ended up turning from a month-long trip into more than 7 weeks by the time we made it home. Details to come.