Soap Where It?

We are back to two naps today. This one-nap thing really isn't working out for me--he's been sleeping less, obviously, and being more fussy and demanding while he's awake. This morning I finally decided to institute a new policy wherein mommy gets five minutes twice a day to sit down at the computer. The idea was, once he got used to that, I'd gradually extend it. But instead, he fussed for a couple of minutes, then got his fleecy from his crib and curled up and tried to go to sleep on the living room floor. I put him to bed for a morning nap and he slept for almost two hours. I got a long translation done, he felt better, everyone was happy. I don't think he's quite ready for one nap yet, and I'm certainly not. Maybe we'll try it every other day for a while.

In any case, I have a new project: I am working on some of the documentation for an OpenSource project. It sounds like it will make it much easier to use grid and cloud computing technologies--and if you want to know more than that, ask me! Some of you will quit reading if I get more technical than that right now. It's another way to overextend myself, but it's also a cool project and a good way to get some experience in technical writing & editing. Experience is, you know, good if you want to apply for jobs. Speaking of which, joining STC (the Society for Technical Communications) looks like it is shaping up to be one of the best decisions I've made in a long time.

Tristram's new achievements: He talks a lot more. He recognizes the word "boo" in a couple of his books (but before you get excited that he's sight-reading already, remember that a) sight-reading words you've memorized is not the same as actually reading, and b) he's not actually sight-reading yet. He only knows "boo" in context in those books. I even checked by writing "boo" on a piece of paper and asking him what it said. And if you point to the "b" and ask him what it says, he's as likely to say "oo" as "b.") He recognizes circles, and knows what they're called, and thinks it's really fun to point them out. He now says "please" as well as "thank you." That is, he signs "thank you," and he combines a sign we made up for "please" with a "plisss" noise that almost sounds like he is trying to blow a raspberry. He says it very enthusiastically, though! He also has started making short sentences: "I don't do," "Bath all done," "Bye bird," and "Soap where it?" He loves soap now. He likes to pretend to lose it, ask where it is, and then triumphantly hold it up. He has had a couple of crying jags, though, over not being allowed to eat it, even though we let him try it the first time and he thought it was gross. We thought he wouldn't try it again, but no.

We have our move-out date: we turn in keys on June 13. Since we don't fly out till the 15th, we will have to spend a couple of nights in a hotel. For some reason I'm excited as if we were going on vacation, even though it's not a vacation but an extra hassle in moving.

One other note: the latest issue of the Hauts-de-Seine magazine they drop in our box for free has a long article about the fort at Mt. Valerien, next to the farm where we take Tristram to kiss the goats every month. Apparently that hill was a favorite spot for monks and hermits, and one 12th century saint I'd never heard of. Then Napoleon built the main building as a home for the orphans of the Foreign Legionnaires, but it was never used because they didn't solve their water transport issues. Eventually it became a military fort, specializing in communications. Then it was (along with the rest of France, obviously) taken over by the Nazis, and used as a prison for Resistance members--1019 of them were executed there. Today there's a military communications museum and an historical military dovecote, but you can't see those except on the "days of patrimony" because it's still a working military telecommunications base. But with pigeons, too. You can go see the monument to the Resistance, which is on the outside of the walls; they have an urn of ashes from the concentration camps, 16 coffins of people executed there, and a 17th that they are holding open for the last "companion of the Liberation," whatever that means. (Though this sounds like one of the more legitimate claims to hardcore Resistance history, the French tend to get really heavy on the pathos and short on the details when they talk about the Resistance. The plaque at the Arc de Triomphe basically claims that De Gaulle singlehandedly liberated France and defeated the Nazis--oh, and as an afterthought, the Americans and British helped him out a little bit.) We plan to go and see it this weekend, since it will be farm weekend again. This will be our very last farm weekend, too, so we had better make the most of it.