"Hello? Hello Ernie?"
Simon's first big boy haircut! Mom cut it - not too shabby!!
And so it begins... or "The Thinker"
"Father and Son" (Fred doesn't see the resemblance!)
"Chocolate Grimace"
At the Australian High Commission Easter Party
"What the heck... bunny ears?! How old do you think I am?!"
Le week end dernier j'ai eu quartier libre de Kendra pour passer le week end a Pélé, une ile au nord d Efate. Quelques amis y allaient des le samedi matin et je les rejoins le samedi en fin d apres midi. Aussitot arrivé, aussitot a l eau pour une petite peche. J y vais seul, Yohan et Eddy ont nagé tout l apres midi et sont crevés.
Les conditions sont bonnes, marées hautes, fin de journée et beau temps. Je dois nager sur au moins 200 m avant d arriver au tombant. La marée continue a montée et je me creve. Finalement le bleu apparait devant : 10m de fond, corai et sable. Les poissons sont au rendez vous. Beaucoup de perroquets, je vois meme une tortue. Je lutte contre le courant. Je tire un perroquet, raté. Le temps de rechargé, la marée me fait dériver. Je ne veux pas me faire emener trop loin de peur d avoir du mal pour revenir au bord.
Depuis 2 ou 3 coulées, un gros poisson argenté, 80 cm, grosses levres et visage en triangle, vient me voir. Il est entre 2 eaux, je le croyais tout seul mais je verrai plus tard des bancs de 5 ou 6 de ses congénères. Il est tirrable, mais faut pas merder. Hors de question qu il m emmene le fusil et je ne pourrait pas me battre avec lui. Le courant me creve et la journée a été longue. Je descend et me pose a 4 ou 5 m. Il se rapproche et me fixe. Il faut le tirer dans la tête. La fleche et partie, juste derriere la branchie, il est bien pris. je remonte en le tirant. Putain il est gros, as fleche fait toute petite et j ai peur que l extremité qui le bloque se casse. La marée me ramene sur le recif avec 1 m d 'eau. Le poisson essaie de se mettre dans un trou. Je le tire en arriere. Finalement il flotte presque.
Mais cette sacree marée et fort et je me bats pour ramener la bouée. Je suis tres mal équipé. J ai juste un bout de cable électrique que j essaie d enfoncer dans sa branchie pour le faire ressortir par la bouche. Il pisse le sang et je me mefie des requins. La corde de la bouée se coince dans un recif, quel bordel. Le poisson donne un coup de queue et se coince avec la feche, qui se tord !! Je le recupere l'attrappe avec ma main ganté, mais ce faisant, je le pousse et il sort de la fleche, l extremité s etait rabaissée, pas de chance. j essaie de le repiquer avec la fleche, il est tres ml en point et bouge a peine. Finalement il a du se sentir libre et renage vers le tombant. Je le regarde disparaitre et... je vois un petit requin. Ne me demandez pas lequel je n ai pas cherche a avoir ses papiers d identité. Je me battais depuis 15 min avec lui, entre le sang, l agitation de l eau et mes precedentes plongées, pas étonnant de voir un requin apparaitre.
Je rentre bredouille a la plage. La fleche tordue, la corde de la bouée emmélée, ce n etait pas beau a voir. Ce poisson n etait pas une carrague, ca n avait pas le meme museau et ceui ci semblait moins rapide. Apres discussion et verification c etait peut etre un mequois ou un ludjan. Il est comme celui de la photo mais il n avait pas d extremites jaunes.
J ai pu me remettre a l eau le lendemain au meme endroit et plus loin pres de kakula (une petite ile en face) a partir du bateau d un gars de l ile. J ai revu 2 requins dont un de pres de 2m avec une raie mora qui le suivait. Je tire un perroquet et en remontant la fleche elle se brise. Je l avais remise droite mais j ai du l affaibir. Décidemment je ne chope rien mais ca fait des bons coups d adrenaline.
Simon at 20 months is a joy... and a mystery. He has officially entered toddlerhood and with it comes rapid language acquisition, avid exploration, almost daily bangs and bruises and... his first tantrum! Yeah!
Simon now understands a large range of both French and English commands, requests and general vocabulary. However, he voluntarily uses French words more often than English words. This has come as a bit of a surprise for me given that English is generally considered to be an easier language to acquire. For example, Simon understands "dog" but when you point to a dog and ask him what it is, he responds with a resounding "chien." He also spends half his day dragging chairs around the house and singing "assi" "assi" "assi" (sit, sit, sit). He chooses to say "manion" (camion) rather than "truck" despite responding "groom groom" when you ask him what a truck says. He also seems to have more of a knack for pronouncing French words as well. He says "oui" and "non" like a little Parisian but says "say" for "yes" (though he does seem to have the NO down pat).
Simon is also constantly on the move. He runs, jumps, swims and throws himself head-first into any physical activity. He has not learned yet to look where he's walking, though, and falls victim to head-bangs and knee-scapes on a seemingly daily basis. He most recent attempt to get us to take him to the Emergency Room was only two days ago when he ran to meet me at the door of a friend's house when I came to pick him up. He leaned on a chair by the door that went sliding across the tiled floor, catapulting him face-first onto the floor where he subsequently put his front tooth THROUGH his lip. Yes. It came out the other side. There was lots of blood, lots of tears but he's recovered remarkably well (notice fat lip in photo below - this is three days after the fact).
At 20 months, Simon is capable of high highs and low lows. Welcome to toddlerhood!! Last weekend, he threw his very first tantrum ever in the local hardware store on a busy Saturday morning. I wouldn't let him push the cart (which incidentally he asks for in Bislama - "Sisi pusem" he chooses to say) because he kept bumping into people and overpriced merchandise. When he realised that his desires were thwarted, he turned red in the face and ran away stomping and screaming. Went I went to pick him up and bring him back, he bit me! Well. I can tell you that that didn't last long. I marched him to a quiet back corner of the store and stood him in a corner until he calmed down and apologised. He'll quickly learn that mama don't play that.
On the plus side, Simon is a lot more independent and loves playing with other children. I take him to a baby French class every Wednesday morning and he's the only child that doesn't run for the door. He voluntarily dances around, sits for story time and draws on the wall board. Fred and I find ourselves able to sit for longer than 30 seconds at kava while Simon plays around us. Simon can ask for much of what he wants now which reduces significant conflict. He goes to bed easily and can tell us when he's ready to lie down.
We're in the process of switching him from formula to milk and from the bottle to a cup. He's given up (but not without a fight) his daytime nap bottle. We'll cut his morning bottle out after Easter and his night bottle by his second birthday. He'll be fully on milk by then so BYE BYE expensive formula!!!! Potty training is still a no-go. He has the vocab, he has the concept, but he still doesn't care if he sits in his own poo for hours on end. Until he begins to get uncomfortable with that, we're not going to try too hard to put him on the potty.
All in all, he's a real joy.
I came home yesterday afternoon to find Simon dressed in an infant hat, underpants, socks and clogs. When I asked Jojo what in the world he was wearing, she said he picked it out himself and insisted on wearing every item. Ha!
Avant notre Nakamal c'était ca:
Pas mal je suis d'accord, mais avec des fuites, sans air et surtout petit. Alors le projet depuis Noel a ete la destruction, qui a pris enviros 2 heures et la reconstruction de OK kamal 2 qui a pris 3 mois...
On le voulait bien sur plus grand et plus haut pour eviter les fuites, en pin de nouvelle zelande (pour ne pas a s embeter a partir en brousse chercher du bois) et centrer autour d'un arbre au fond du jardin. Et ca donne ca:
et ca:
14 places assises uniquement avec les bancs, 2 tables non accessibes aux enfants et au chien, 240 feuilles de natangora de Malicolo, 4 m de rayon et 6 au sommet de toit ! On n en est pas epu fier avec Kendra. Il ne reste plus qu a faire l'électricité : Lumières sur les poteaux et un petit projecteur pour eclairer la charpente de l interieur.
En prime, voici 2 autres photos supplémentaires du plus beau:
Chapeau Magnum
Chapeau Sisi
Our Christmas package from the States finally arrived! Thanks, Grandma and Colonel!
PS longest package ever! usually takes only ten day to get here!
PPS sorry for the red eyes... we don't have a photo editor on our new computer yet
PPS long live posed photos! Simon now knows how to "stand over there and smile."
Before the storm:
A night out with the ladies... and a long recovery the day after.
A cool cucumber
Coffee with friends
After the storm:
Photos of downtown Port Vila 14/2/12
