We take the trotinettes everywhere now. Today we took a jaunt to 'la Coop' for provisions. Toby has the really irritating habit of trying to hang back and just standing there when one wants him to get moving. We played for a while going up and down a ramp before going home, and it went on a little longer than I had planned. He was getting rather tired and hungry. The upshot of the whole situation was that he stood in the street screaming at me. It's very hard to move Mr. Big as a 5 Year Old, so I just went and sat on the fountain and waited. During the next 4 minutes one old lady told me off- "Your child is too noisy", one woman told Toby off- "Why are you hurting your mother" and another woman went into her house, tried to get him to go in too (she knew I was there), then brought out a stuffed toy for him! People here aren't afraid of getting involved when your child acts up. One day, quite a while ago, Allie wouldn't come in the house, and stood on the porch screaming. A woman actually came up the stairs and started talking to him. When I came out she ignored me until I told her we were OK and she could go now.... Maybe it's more the norm. in smaller, closely knit places. I should also say that no-one's been mean, it's just weird after coming from a place where not much interaction happens between other people and your children. I mean, they could be child molesters, right?
On other topics:
Walter wanted to watch the rugby while dinner was on. What better way to do it than a nic-nic (in Toby's words, or pique-nique in Allie's!) with pizza on a blanket, in the living room:
There are apparently a lot of zoos here. Not necessarily the ones with exotic animals. There's one just 10 mins away that our neighbours took us to,in an area that no-one speaks any French in! We could ride our bikes there. It was a lovely place, complete with peacocks, monkeys, giant albino snake and a cage with what seemed like a 100 cats. They were all asleep too.
Fiona and Anne by the monkey cage.
There was a giant slide that the boys really enjoyed. Toby went with Fiona quite a few times.
In the middle of it all was a nice little park.
The boys rode on a very old looking carousel.
The zoo is beside a canal that feeds to Lac de Neuch. There seems to be some art on it, including the 'transformer' below. Hehehe.
More lake fun!
On Monday, we're off to Bonny Snotland for 10 days of rain fun with the MacDonald G'parents.
6 comments:
Great pics! The transformer is hilarious. But no pics of the zoo cats?
I was thinking I should have taken some for you :) Ususally when you see a lot of cats, they're not in the nicest of environments but these cats were very well taken care of. They all had their own shelf and most were spilling off while asleep as most cats do ;)
That's interesting about the village moms taking Toby to task. It's a little jarring, but I cn see where if you're used to it, it could come in handy. I like that one of them asked Toby why he was being mean to his mom.
I think in America, you always wonder a bit if you're going to be reported to CPS or something. Remember that time someone called the cops on me when Wini was throwing a tantrum about leaving the park? It came to nothing, but you feel like you're being judged when your kid is acting up.
P.S.: I have the picture of Toby on the horse (with Allie and Walter in the background) as my desktop. :)
Hey Ho, where was that carosel when i was young. i absolutely feel deprived, anna will too when she sees it. ssl
We'll take you to it!!!!
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