A few photies that I need to get off the camera

I'm writing this now because Allie is sick today. He made it through 'school' this morning then promptly came home and lay on the couch. He's watching "Wiggles" again. Toby the insane should be getting his daily run right now, but is instead fixed to the telly. He's getting too big to physically manipulate now, so we're stuck with the current situation. Mr Antsy bugging Mr Sicky. I think Allie's illness is a culmination of being in classes every morning now. We have him in a preschool that's 2 mins walk from the house, two mornings a week, then he goes to the creche at Walter's work two mornings a week, then he has a 'circus class' for 4.5 hours on a Friday morning. He seems to like it all, especially the circus class. They really do learn circus stuff... as much as a young kid can. They do all kinds of other things too, but the main theme is circus. There's also another (gasp) AlIsTair in that class, from the UK no less. The cheek of it! The teachers have trouble with both of their names all the time. I think Allie may sound a bit too much like 'allez' too, so that's rather confusing. His French seems to be improving too :) Actually, a couple of days ago we got his enrollement comfirmation in the local 'ecole enfantine'. In 3 months, #1son will be going to school. Albeit for only 5 mornings a week. We have to go to our first parents evening in mid june! There are 5 girls and 8 boys in his class, and our French teacher knew most of them, or of them. Very exciting (sniffsniff).

What with the improvement of the weather, we've been oot n aboot a bit, with some mixed results. I thought I'd try to meet Kim halfway at the Bern zoo. I'd been there, could find my way back, knew what to expect. Vero and her kids came to see the zoo and hang out with us on the train. We made it to Bern, met Kim and proceeded to get the bus to the zoo. Unfortunately, we had to go all the way around the big station to get to the correct bus stop. We finally found the right bus and went in the wrong direction! Lucky for us, just as I realised it was the wrong way, Kim saw a nice park, so we stopped and had a play instead. All the way to Bern for the park. There. I've come clean. I did fleetingly consider not telling Walter and mumbling something about the cute animals. To add insult to all the rest, I didn't even take any good photies of the cutest kids en Suisse all together. Next time, and there WILL be a next time.

This photo was taken at a place called "La Courte Echelle", which means "the short ladder"... It has a soft room (shown below), car room, doll area, general play area and reading area. On Friday afternoons it's used by the International Club for their playgroup. Allie's gotten very friendly with a couple of Irish/Swiss boys, a German/Italian girl and a New Zealand/Canadian boy. Toby runs around like a Wild Thing! The kids are running from a 'monster' below.


OK, it's a picture of the wee men, but I couldn't resist. They're sitting still, beside each other, smiling and not fighting. I predict the next photo op. like that will occur in ~4 months!


I'm not very knowledgeable about butterflies, but the blue ones are stuck in my mind. In the 70s a blue British butterfly became extinct. I can remember seeing them at my grandparents, then not seeing them a few years later. They seem to be going strong here.


The boys were practicing fishing. They sat still for quite a while with sticks hanging in the water! Toby isn't remotely bothered about being next to the water, or scampering around the rocks.



The big thing with the wee boys is the 'trotinette', also known as Razor scooters in the US. Every child in this village has one. They go to the park, school, round and round in circles on them. Allie and Toby have taken to them too, which makes going to the park ten times as fast. They bomb along saying bonjour to all the other kids, giving them knowing looks! I'm in the market for a pair of quad roller skates to keep up with them. Any recommendations?