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Each year on May 15th I like to share something about my Dad. Here's a little snippet from his early days at General Electric., where he worked for 36 years.There was apparently a "suggestion box" at GE, and people could earn prize money based on their suggestions and how much those suggestions would/could save the company down the line. Dad came up with an idea to perfect the way they were testing something at the plant and eliminate a whole production step. He got a check for 620 bucks. In 1952, that was a LOT of money. It was also the most money that anyone had ever been awarded for any prize .In the article above, they note other winners in 1952, of amounts of 100 dollars. 620 sure must have seemed like winning the lottery! The text also states that "Alexander hopes to use part of the money to continue his education in electronics, he aspires to an Electrical Engineering degree". I just found out last night that GE wanted to pay for him to get that degree. He in fact started taking classes, but he "couldn't hack it". It was too passive for him, sitting there being the student, he probably didn't like not being able to run the show. Go figure.
Part of GE's effort to encourage his ascension in the ranks was to put him in a Dale Carnegie public speaking course. Wasted money. No need for that class, where the outcome was slightly difference than the other classes - in between the encyclopedias next to our family piano was a small gold-plated cup on a little marble stand - First Prize. Rumor has it his speech that won was "inappropriate" in the sense it was "off-topic". But still won!
Above: another publicity photo in one of the GE magazines a few years later in 1958, showing Dad running the show at a GE Engineering party that GE paid for and Dad hosted (I bet Mom had something to do with it too). I think he looks young in that photo, but the stretch of his arm, the way he holds up the bucket just so at the right angle, his crooked elbow - is the same as the man I dearly knew decades later.
This last scanned clip above is just part of the text that goes along with the photo. Notice they mark the "tobacco chewing of the boiler". I think they considered him a bit "off-topic", but certainly interesting.
So what happened to that 620 dollar check? Family legend has it that they bought a new crib, and Mom's Singer sewing machine, which is still alive and well. 9 years later, we wish he was too.

Ascension! & a balloon!

Ascension means a 4-day weekend for Thomas, feels like a mini-vacation. Lovely, despite a lot of translation work. Before it began on Wednesday afternoon, we went to Loup's 4th bday party, and thus begins the long string of everybody turning 4.
Above: Estelle below left, in the Ben & Jerry's tye-dye, ripping open her back from the "fishing game" with prizes. Note Eliott's concentration mastering the fishing rod. Below: Ah, desserts and champagne. On a Wednesday at 4 p.m. Love France.
Diabetic? Don't look:
Marie looking at me thinking the same thing I am: bathtime will be nasty tonight.
This is Louise, 7 weeks Léna's senior, yet just a little puff of a girl. Léna is like a fat shriner next to her.
Eliott's grandparents visiting from Holland. Who speak perfect English, like their daughter. Oma (grandmother in Dutch) is the youngest of 10. We were INSTANT friends. INSTANT. Léna liked having adoptive grandparents there.
Once again, we'd like to state it for the record: no lice. Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty....
Out of this chubby's way:
Here's fun with a balloon, with Estelle and Thomas in the background playing with Estelle's imaginary classmates whom you can hear Thomas "scolding".

Happy Fête Estelle!

Today (11th) is Estelle's "fête", or her saint's day, like mine was April 8th. Last night we made brownies with stars to take to school for her gouter (snack) to "celebrate", since she never gets to have her bday at school.
We had a lot of visitors this past wkend: Thomas cousin once-removed from Calvinet, Emilie, & her BF Chris, back from a week in Corsica, spent the night again on their way home.

They brought me "Pain des Morts", which is a Bonifician specialty and which I remember so vividly from my trip to that spot on the southernmost tip of Corsica, 7 years ago!

It was just a good as I remembered, Thomas agreed!

Estelle feeds Léna.
Sunday at lunch no sooner was Emilie out the door than we hosted my friend Chantal and her husband Michel, who live in Amiens but have a retirement spot nearby. They brought gifts and Estelle got some ready readers!
Meanwhile.....
And Saturday morning before all this company, I had to teach a lesson so Thomas took the girls to the beach at Villefranche:


Don't be to jealous - later that afternoon it poured all the way into the night!

Mother's Day in America

One of the drawbacks of being the youngest is that you never get to see your Mom in action raising somebody else. You are too busy being the kid getting raised. In the past few weeks I have found myself yearning to go back in time to the late 50's and early 60's and be a fly on the wall.
What was the routine every day, did she dress everyone in order? How did she pack all those lunches? Did she know ahead of time each day what her meals would be, and have everything in? She didn't even have a driver's license, so I know there was no running to the store for ingredients or this/that to accompany a meal.
I keep wondering about it. Why didn't I pay more attention? I could have been learning and banked up some strategies and tips for now. Too bad I had to be almost 40 before I started to wonder about this stuff. Did she really have everything ready at the same time, hot, and on the table, for 13 people at once, meal after meal, day after day, year after year, or is my memory just rose-colored? Didn't anybody made a documentary of her? Why wasn't National Geographic there filming her as some kind of institutional miracle? Were my older sisters like scullery maids behind her helping? There must be a catch!
What I really want to know is, did she have to plan it all out every day or did she just attack tasks in random order. When did she start the laundry? How many loads did she try to do every day. How did she wash all those diapers? When did she wash the sheets on the beds? Once a week? Once every 2 weeks? What if someone starting throwing up? How did she feed twins, and feed everybody else?
Did she know every second what was coming up next on her list of Things To Do? And how did she squeeze in those 4 pies every week? WHAT? 4 pies? She really did make pies every week.
I want to know, I want to know honestly; I'm craving a Reality Show of my Mom.
She sure as hell wasn't watching Desperate Housewives, though I wonder if she never felt like one. No cleaning lady. No nights out at the theater. No sisters coming to stay for a week after she had a baby. And she certainly wasn't affording herself the leisure of typing a stupid blog every day.
Like a CEO of a large entreprise, she must have had a plan. Didn't she? I keep trying to figure out a way to make everything run more smoothly, to not find myself with nothing in the fridge on Thursday nights, to not have piles of laundry. I only have 2 kids! What the hell is the matter with me? My husband even cooks the meals half the time. I was known to be clever at one point in my life. Get organized, Julie! Think ahead. Plan it out! Why can't I get this show on the road for pete's sake!
I would KILL to turn back the clock 40 years and shadow her for several days, watch, and learn from the master.
Here's to the mother of all mothers, on Mother's Day.

May Day Fun

Saturday was May Day, and we went to the festival for an hour in the morning. Things were just getting rolling. There were many things cultural relating to Nice and Nissart (language of Nice), but also fun things for kids:


Try not to look at the state of Estelle's socks after a few runs around this thingy:
Below was a stage for performances. In the background you can just see the colored ribbons of the tall Maypole.This group was playing Gourdes. Like real gourdes, from a garden. Wacky. They sounded like kazoos. Some of the gourdes were turned into little hand drums, like the lady on the far left.
It was a sunny morning. We had got up very early to see Thomas' cousin Emilie off on the ferry to Corsica. She and her BF had driven from Calvinet the night before.
Here's a little video of one the music acts who was warming up. Also a bit of tourism narration from me for the big park we were in. Love that trumpet player.

Feeding Time

Fridays are fun, just me and Léna.
Learning to eat, and a tour of some things I bought at the market:

Happy Birthday Léna!

On the eve of her 1st birthday, we took Léna to get her hair cut. It was a special kids' salon. Look at the cool race car stool!

Play Station consoles embedded into a castle. This is the one and only place like this in Nice, and it happens to be across from Estelle's school.
Things were a little sad toward the end, but in general it went well.

Today, the real birthday day, started with a one-year check-up at Dr. Wentzy's.
Thomas took today off so we could all spend the day together (remember no school for Estelle on Wednesdays.)
Results: 11kg850g and 80 cm. This is a little over 26 pounds and 31 1/2 inches. After lunch and naps, we went for a little birthday "gouter" in Parc Paradisio, in nearby Cimiez, the rather chic part of Nice, at the foot of Queen Victoria's palace from the turn of the century. Here's Queen Victoria herself. Or someone.
The parc is "new" in that up until 3 years ago, it was the private grounds of the Nice Conservatoire, which has since moved up the boulevard. Now it is a public park, largely unknown for the moment, thus lovely.
We are at the base of an ampitheatre, presumably was for outdoor concerts when it was the conservatoire.
Note Eliott is already shoeless. And so it Thomas!
Noah and his bubbles:
Léna enjoying her new sunglasses, a gift from Noah and Inés (who we somehow don't have a photo of, she's also 1 yr old):
Bubble war:
Later on Estelle's friends Eva and Loup (that means "wolf" in French) arrived, with Eva's sister Louise who recently turned 1 too. I was not good about taking photos so missing shots.
Estelle checks out Léna's gifts:
Back at the ranch, we surveyed Léna loot! Great stuff!
Then we had more gifts to open after dinner: cards and packages from America!
Thanks Martha for the Madeline book!
Tata Agnés calls to wish Léna a Joyeuse Anniversaire!
No, that's not the actual PRESENT. It's just the WRAPPING. Even random people in my life know about "your sister, the one who sends you those works of art":Enjoying her mini-cupcake:

Happy baby:
Estelle wants to show off her lice-free hair:
A great day, very very warm - over 80 degrees. As compared to today in Vermont - 16 inches of snow and a snow day! Crazy. Here's a little video of the last gift we opened which sang to us: