Compare and Contrast

S needed to get the oil changed in the van today so I accompanied him to the oil change place. When he asked how long it would be the attendant told him ‘une bonne heure’, a good hour. So with over an hour to kill we went off to a baby store to see what we were up against.

We found these gorgeous little bedroom sets, crib that converts to a toddler bed, changing table with removable top to become a regular bureau and a matching wardrobe, they seemed well made and they’d only set us back about 2000€!!! For that amount of money the boy should be able to take his furniture to college with him. On the other hand, compare that to the Ikea crib and changing table set for about 200€, at that price we could also splurge for the little table and chairs set that match.

In the stroller/car seat department we found a great stroller with a pram insert for the newborn baby (they use prams a lot here). It also came with all sorts of foul weather coverings, diaper back pack and a baby carrier that snaps into it too with a base for the carrier to snap into the car for an infant car seat. It comes in two color schemes and all this can be ours for the low low price of 549€!!! We’re talking about spending almost $700 for a stroller!!! Ok, stroller and infant car seat, but still…

They also had those fabulous three wheel jogging strollers. I’m kind of partial to them they do look so sporty, and on the bright side they’re not as expensive (by French standards). Sean liked these too and said they were more macho and he could see himself pushing one of those around.

In comparison, we saw a stroller we liked on the Babies R Us web site that is a stroller with the baby car seat that snaps into it and two car seat bases and a diaper bag for $199! We were hoping to get one here to avoid having to give up a suitcase to bring one back with us. We could check it as baggage on the plane. Aside from that one small down side there is the addition disadvantage that when we get it here we’ll have to pay an additional $100 at customs in import taxes. I guess saving $400 is worth the hassle...

As a third option, and it looks like this may be the way we go. There’s an American woman here in Toulouse who is returning to the states and is selling all her baby stuff. She has a couple of strollers for sale that are about 4 or 5 years old, but are what we were looking at today. She’s selling them for 200€. She also has a pack-n-play for sale and a set of baby monitors among many other things. We’ll look at them tomorrow on our way out to pick up Emily and Peter from the airport.

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On a personal compare and contrast note…

I used to always joke, back when I was allowed servings of alcohol and caffeine, that I was careful to balance my stimulant/depressant intake. Enough alcohol to get a nice buzz, balanced with enough caffeine to keep me from falling asleep.

These days the balancing act is a bit different. With all the vitamins and supplements I’m taking, I have to be very careful what I eat. It turns out that pre-natal vitamins contain large quantities of iron and calcium (among other things) these items tend to do unspeakable things to the digestion, especially pregnant digestion that is already not at its best. So I find that I must balance all the goodness of my vitamins with substantial amounts of fiber and water. Timing and quantities are important. If I happen to short myself in the fiber/water department I spend the whole next day feeling like I ate an entire wheel of Wisconsin’s finest cheddar.

Not a pleasant thought I realize but I’m into sharing today.

"In a dream you are never eighty."-Anne Sexton…But close to it?

When I first started working at the Montessori school in California I had, in my group of 12 kids, 2 brothers. We’ll call these two Derek and Dylan.

Now, first of all, Derek and Dylan couldn’t have been picked out of a line-up as brothers even if there were only one other person in it. Derek was 4, tall for his age, blond and blind as a bat without his glasses. Dylan was 2, of short stocky build, had no neck and dark hair. But unbeknownst to me, there was another issue of which I would soon become painfully and embarrassingly aware.

That fateful day stands out starkly and brightly in my memory. I remember it like it was just yesterday………………..

We were out in the courtyard doing a bit of gardening, me and a group of 8 or 10 kids; just enjoying some late summer/early fall weather. Some kids were weeding, some were dead heading the rose bushes and the younger ones were watering the container plants with teeny tiny plastic watering cans. Of course the younger ones were sloshing water mostly on each other and themselves, but we were all having a really good time.

Well near the end of the day this gentleman comes out the back door into our little beehive of activity. He was a cross between Colonel Sanders, a cowboy and a hippie. With long white hair down to his shoulders, a Colonel Sanders mustache and beard and a dark blue tie dyed head band. He was wearing a dark blue plaid cowboy shirt complete with mother-of-pearl snaps down the front, jeans with a belt buckle the size of a dinner plate and fabulous cowboy boots with shiny silver toe tips. This man was not as odd looking as it sounds, he had a presence about him and was rather attractive for an old dude.

Anyway, he comes over to me and says ‘Hi, I’m here to get Derek and Dylan.’

‘Oh, ok’ I say as I turn to Derek and say ‘Derek honey can you go dry off your brother and get your stuff together, your grand-pa is here for you’ the words are just out of my mouth when I hear a soft cough behind me and the old dude says, ‘Actually I’m their dad’………………..

Yeah, exactly………………..

Ok so fast forward 20+ years and here’s my dream………………..

I get to the school to pick up my little darling and I approach the new classroom aid who is probably about 15 and so fresh out of school that not just behind her ears is wet. I walk up to her and say ‘Hi, I’m here to pick up Junior Walters’ and she turns to my child and says ‘Junior, get your things together honey, grand-ma’s here for you’………………..

I’m just saying, it could happen and it would just be karma at its best…………………

Oh, and by the way, that man was not really Derek and Dylan’s father. As it turns out, they’re mom told me years later, she had been artificially inseminated. For Derek she had selected donor sperm from a man with a high IQ and for Dylan she had selected donor sperm from an athlete. So I guess karmic-ly speaking my punishment is not fitting. Life is not fair.

Noctuidae Moths

We’re cleaning up after dinner. Bringing dishes and food in from the patio, in the quickly falling darkness. As we finish we stop in the office to chat a bit with the back doors all hanging open. Johan, a co-worker and friend of S’s from South Africa (well, from Hungary now as he’s just been re-assigned) is staying with us for a few days. Johan is standing nearest the door between the office and garage and he pauses mid conversation and cocks his head, ‘Is there something in your garage?’ he asks, listening. We all stop to listen and I can hear something but can’t really make out what the sound is. ‘Well we’ve had dogs wander into the garage before and several times a neighborhood cat or two, maybe one of the cats is back for a visit.’ I suggest not really hearing anything anymore. S and Johan go out into the garage and turn on the light. I hear S say, ‘It’s a giant moth!’ Now we all know how I feel about bugs so I shout out, ‘Well close the door before it comes in here’. They both ignore me and continue to watch the moth in the garage. After a while they come inside and S says, ‘That moth is the size of a hummingbird.’ Still I assume exaggeration and don’t bother to go look; I’ve seen big moths before and don’t really need to see another one. I hate moths, though not as much as I hate spiders; I hate the unpredictable way they thrash around in the air when looking for an exit and how they leave that powdery stuff behind when you smack them. In the night I fleetingly think of the giant moth in the garage and think, ‘I wonder if it was a bat and not a moth.’ In the morning when S gets out of bed to go drive Johan to the airport I sleepily mention my suspicion to S who says ‘No, it’s a moth.’ Yet, still I’m not really alarmed or worried and I’m only mildly curious. So later in the morning after S has returned from the airport and we’ve had breakfast, I ask if the moth is still in the garage, he says yes it’s out there but it’s sleeping. Rolling my eyes I say ‘Ok, show me the moth.’ We go into the garage and he tells me to look up at the ceiling beam, ‘see the tip of its wing hanging down; right there in the middle of the beam? That’s where it is.’ I see the rounded tip of a moth wing hanging down from the other side of the beam and mentally picture the rest of the wing and say ‘I’ve seen bigger.’ I start to walk back into the house and S says, ‘Go look on the other side of the beam.’ I tromp over to the other side of the garage, mentally rolling my eyes the whole way and look up. Seriously the thing did not move but I squealed and jumped back anyway. The thing was the size of a hummingbird and it definitely was a moth. I ran in the house for cover. I then made S take a picture of the hideous mutant and then asked him to be sure the thing left the garage (preferable dead) before he leaves for Brazil on Sunday. Here is a photo of our friend. It was a full 3 inches long. I know 3 inches doesn’t sound like much but get a ruler and see if a 3 inch moth wouldn’t scare the pants of off you!