Picture this: someone sleeping with their hands resting behind their head. Not that interesting. Picture it again, but THIS time picture a little boy of almost 3 years sleeping this way. Picture it yet again, but THIS time picture a baby of 7 months doing it. Cute right? Bastien tends to sleep like this, but with one leg bent and the other resting across it. Today as we were eating supper Sylvain fell asleep in his high chair. When Adeline lowered the back rest he woke up for a second, but fell back asleep. Then I looked over and he has his hands behind is head. This is the second time I’ve seen him do this. It doesn’t last long, but it sure is cute.
Today I’ve done something I’ve never done before (gasp!); two posts in one day! This is me trying to catch up from last weekend. You know what I thought of yesterday that I could have done? I could have created a pre-written post to be published on the days I was gone. Of course, they wouldn’t have been about what happened that day, but then I wouldn’t have missed a day and my June calendar wouldn’t have two days that are black instead of the wonderful green colour which means there’s a post on that day. I might just have to implement that this summer….
What else happened today? Hmmm. Adeline took Sylvain to Little Gym. Bastien woke up, had some breakfast, wanted to save the rest for later, and then played in my room while the cleaning woman was doing her thing. We listened to his Henri Des CD with book. And he started wrecking his toy sword. He had already started munching on it this weekend, but now he’s ripping parts of it apart. That sword has been through a lot and is quite sturdy. Then he wanted to go back to bed. When he came down he wanted to eat the rest of his cereal. With that – not quite – being accomplished he played for a while. After lunch he wanted to watch a movie. He chose Peter Pan, the same movie he watched yesterday. Right now he’s in a pirate phase. He loves pirates; pirate ships, teenie-tiny pirates being eaten by cats (don’t ask, I have no idea), this weekend it was pirate this and pirate that. Now, normally he goes for a nap after lunch so I said he could start it, but he would have to go for his nap before he could finish it. He agreed. 35 minutes or so into the movie and turned it off and said “nap time”. Of course he cried and I had to remind him of our agreement. Finally I got him upstairs. He knew that he would be able to finish it when he woke up. About 15 minutes later he comes downstairs saying he wants to finish the movie now. No way buddy, you need to sleep more! So up he went. After Adeline had gotten back from taking her car to the shop she took a nap as well.
And so once Bastien was awake we finished the movie and then I went to pick up Sylvain. We came home and I played with the boys until Greg got home and we ate supper shortly after. Then Sylvain fell asleep and now we’ve come full circle. Today was another great day for Bastien and I. I got lots of hugs, a few kisses, and a couple of “je t’aime’s”. Progress is being made!
This afternoon during nap time, I was emailing back and forth with an administrator from a help desk that deals with Visa issues (among other things I’m sure). When I got my passport back from Montréal back in December, I looked at it and started freaking out because it expires June 25. Having never needed a Visa before I didn’t know what was going on. I called the consulate and they kindly informed me that I would get the second half once over here. So time has gone by and I wasn’t sure what I needed to do. I’ve been in contact with a few people and finally now someone who has answered my question and then some. Mr. Van Hoof has been very helpful and responded in a very timely fashion. Much more time than the consulate in Montréal! He also has a sense of humor which was fun to read. Any who, apparently how it works is the Visa for 6 months allows you time to get a residency permit (which according to Mr. Van Hoof, in regards to my file, all my papers are in order with the required permits). Since I had left it a little long it getting this sorted out I said in my initial email that I was sorry for being irresponsible and a bother. This was part of his reply: So as far as I can tell you have no reason to feel as if you are a bother or have been irresponsible nor are any apologies in order. If the file is accurate and you have a valid work permit and residence permit we should rather be thanking you for having dutifully followed all necessary regulations. Well if that didn’t just make my day.
I replied back with a thank you and an explanation that I was afraid of making a grand mistake having never been out of North America before. About 20 minutes later I got this reply:
Dear Miss Brenneman,
Holly Abroad 