Starting the French school

This week Oskar started at the French school. 

They have a soft start with first one hour with the parents on Thursday followed by one hour without the parents on Friday. 

We told Oskar he was changing school and he was quite excited about the idea to go to the big school as we described it to him. He also liked the new uniform. 

He liked even more than we took a double decker bus to get there.

The first hour went well. Oskar played in the classroom pretty much not caring about anything else than the toys. I talked to the teacher, the assistant teacher and the English teacher to clarify a few points as well as get to know them.  The default language for the teacher is French which makes things a bit harder for Wolfram to follow but I did my best to translate. 

Oskar enjoyed the toys so much he didn't want to leave.

The second day was a bit different. When he understood that we would leave him there alone he was not happy. Teacher had to take him from me and we walked away from a crying Oskar. He was the only one really crying and making a scene. We knew it would be difficult but it doesn't make it easier to let go with a smile when your child is crying as if you were abandoning him. This was the third time for me to do so and it wasn't easier. But we were strong and left. 

It took half an hour for Oskar to join the rest of the class. It might have been faster if the teachers had left him alone at the beginning so he would calm down by himself instead of talking to him. But as the teacher said, they need to learn how he functions and what's important is that he played with the rest of the class in the end. 

Monday he will take the bus to school and spend half a day there. I'm curious to see how it goes. 

Until then, I have to fill in all the paperwork. I had forgotten how much French administration likes paperwork. 

Le roi et la reine

A day at the white sand beach

In most resorts, you can get a day pass to access the beach and the pool. Today we made use of this system. Wolfram arranged for passes for the Laguna, the resort where we stayed a few years back. The place has not changed much. We arrived there a bit before 10am, sun was not too hot and in no time everybody was in the lagoon. The day simply passed by with time in the sea, playing in the sand, having a long lunch while Thomas took his nap in the improvised bed from Wolfram, and some ice cream.

It is somehow stressful to do a day trip like that with the kids as it takes some planing and logistics to make sure everybody will have food and drink, changes of clothes, swimsuits, toys for the beach, and so on.

But it's totally worth it.

We are in the car driving back, stuck in traffic. Both kids are sleeping. We will be home late, they will be grumpy when they wake up but it won't matter because we had such a great day. 

A lazy day

While Alice, Ante and Amelia went to explore rice fields and a couple of temples, we decided to take the day easy and simply hang by the pool. We do have access to a pool at home but we never get to do so.

Thus we had a slow easy going day playing with the kids. Wolfram even managed to organize a massage at the villa for each of us. This was a bit unorthodox as massage table was one of the long beds placed in the living area. Once I managed to forget the maid doing the cleaning, the gardener, the pool boy and the kids, I did manage to relax. 

Wolfram catching a frog

Last night there was a frog in the kitchen. 

Tonight there was one in our bathroom which created excitement with Oskar and Amelia. Later there was one in the kitchen. We found out that Aggie is afraid of frogs. She can catch geckos like no one else, but don't show her a frog.

Out of the blue, Wolfram cut a bottle of coke and caught the frog. He made it look so simple. 

So simple, even the third frog which was bigger was not a problem either.

From that moment, every evening became a game of who would catch the most frogs between Wolfram and Ante as those little guys became very frequent visitors. 

I had no idea I had married a frog catcher

This is how I picture Alice in vacation: with a glass of watermelon juice!

First time at the beach

This area of Bali is known for surfing and we somehow overlooked that it meant nice beaches but windy and wavy beaches. The villa is indeed very close to the beach and we walked there in 10min or so at toddler's pace. We arrived to a long dark sand beach with a sign saying "no swimming allowed". The sea was very agitated so we move further to find a better spot. We found a slightly quieter spot with a big less waves but still this was too much for the kids and they preferred playing in the sand or in the small pool that the fathers nicely kept on filling in. Wolfram negotiated a good deal on renting two long beds and an umbrella for half the price as we would only stay half a day. 

We went back to the villa for lunch and enjoyed the pool the rest of the day.