End of Vacation

Finally, the Spring Holidays are over! While the Thomas and Matthew were really bright and cheery the first week, the second they went back to being the little monsters that they really are. Thomas has been in a grouchy mood ever since Christine's parents got here on Good Friday. I think they are the kind of people that are only tolerable in small doses. After five days with them, I was just dying for them to leave. I feel like I understand Christine a little more now. I feel bad for agreeing with her mom (when we first met), that Christine didn't have the best parenting skills. It is now obvious to me why. Her parents were even worse! It seems to me that Christine is trying to not be like her parents, but the apple never falls too far from the tree. I now realize that it's not that she's a bad parent, she just does what works for her... which is nothing. I don't blame her; these kids are such a handful. It's too bad I totally fell in love with them the first week of vacation, and now I don't know what I did wrong to make them hate me again or how to fix it and I just feel totally awful and out of control and Nigel keeps saying I need to watch them better and I'm doing the best I can but when one kid says Gabrielle will you help me pull out some of this crab grass and the other kid says I'm going to get some sand from the sand box and then all of a sudden daddy's truck is roaring round the bend and they're running off after it through the brush that is too low for me to go under... If you're going to raise kids on 15 hectares of land, you need to give them a little more freedom. Dogs too. I hope the kids ease up on me a little bit otherwise the next month is still going to be hell, with a piece of heaven here and there. I've tried looking up things to get them to stop acting like this (hitting, kicking, etc). But at this stage (ages 4 and 5), it's gone on way too long, and I'd really need a united effort and thorough understanding from Christine and Nigel (which I don't have). They are just too used to getting what they want if they put up a fuss. And Christine always says  not to let them do that, but she doesn't offer any solutions other than hitting them back (which I absolutely refuse to do because not only do I not want to hurt them but it just reaffirms their behavior by letting them know it is OK to hit someone when they do something you don't like). If I do figure out a solution in the next month I'll be sure to make a huge deal about it. However, chances of that happening are slim to none. Discipline is a process not an event.

Anyways, it looks like the end of vacation is the end of a lot of things and the start of even more. Three au pairs have been/are being sent home right now including Kathy, who left last week right after our totally fabulous weekend. I miss her. But Luisa is finally back from Germany! (I'm so happy to have her here), the semester is almost over with my online classes. And Ricky will be here in a month! I'm starting a new exercise regimen (running on the boardwalk/swimming in the sea) and I'm tracking what I'm eating with this diet analysis thing from my Nutrition class.  Time is going by so quickly and I've got so many plans in the works. Next weekend we are finally going to Grasse to make perfume. No matter what, it has to happen next weekend because the two weekends after that are the Cannes Film Festival! and then I've only got one weekend left to plan still but I'm thinking it will just be a party weekend since it will be my last one and then I'm off to Barcelona, Paris, Venice, Rome, Florence, Pisa, and Monaco! Also, now that Vacation is over I'll have more time to write again! Hoorah!

Also, woke up this morning to the news of bin Laden being dead. Christine gave me a high five. It was an awkward moment. But after nearly ten years, I suppose some sort of celebratory gesture is required. Funny thing, when the "special report" came on, the kids thought it was the weather. It just reminded me of how when I woke up on 9/11 all I wanted to do was see the weather for today and I didn't understand the significance of the bombings until much later. I kind of feel the same way now, but I suppose it's hard to foresee the real effect that something will have on the world or your life until after it's already over.