M and his parents arrived by train just after 4 on Saturday. There was a church barbecue planned for a local park, which happens to be very near the station, from 5, so Bob dropped K, L, A and me off there and then he and J went to collect M and his Maman and Papa and bring them along to the barbecue. Both Papa and I had checked weather forecasts and thoguht them promising enough to make a barbecue seem a reasonable proposition but in fact it was incredibly cold and windy and although M had a warm coat with him Maman had worn a very chic but rather thin twinset which left her shivering and blue lipped but resolutely determined to laugh about it and compare it to their holiday home in Normandy where the weather is very similar. Maman has very little English, so I spoke French for her benefit, while Bob stuck to English and Papa switched happily between French and English. I told M that I could speak French just for the first 24 hours and then my knowledge of French would mysteriously disappear. He seemed to find this funny 🙂 The children had a whale of a time playing together, despite the cold weather, while Maman interrogated me about all manner of things from diet to educational philosophy. I’m assuming I passed, as they left on Sunday without M…
I don’t think I’d say our families are very alike on the surface, but I get the feeling our hearts are in the same place, somehow, so I guess Jacques did a good job on the matchings. M seemed to fit in very well straightaway not only with J but also with K and L, while A has already started to look for him if he is not in the room and to ask him to do things for her. I’ve been so busy thinking how hard she will find it without J when he goes to France that a strong degree of attachment to M and the problems that might cause when he goes again hadn’t occurred to me; we’ll have to deal with that one when it happens 😕
On Sunday the children were all up and chatting well before the adults. I presided over a busy breakfast (and found that M knows and loves porridge 🙂 ) with J, K, L and M (A still asleep) and had time to clear away before Papa appeared, followed a while after by Maman and only then by Bob, who claimed to have been almost pushed out of bed by A as she expanded her (sleeping) territory 😆 After breakfast we somehow ended up playing in the field and before we knew it it was too late to bother trying to get to church so we opted for a walk instead, set some potatoes to bake and headed off to the playground, loch and riverside walk. The children all played together on the climbing frames while Maman and Papa went for longer walk, I think partly to leave M to settle in by himself a bit, then J and I came back to the house to put lunch together, followed by the others a while later. Again time seemed to pass very quickly and lunch was barely over, cups of tea drunk and stories read (A adopted Maman as her own personal story reader, particularly of the lovely French picture book M gave her as a present) before it was time to bid farewell. Bob took parents to the station, a tear or ten in Maman’s eye which she managed to hide very well, but M apparently quite happy.
After they had gone we made and played with a big batch of playdough, which appeared to be a new thing for M, then the boys went outside to play, which led to tears from K as M was a little rougher than he had expected. I reminded K that M is used to being one of the youngest rather than the oldest and that makes a difference, and also that his perception of rough is affected by how tired he is, but by now J was also getting a bit silly and rough so we decided a change of pace was in order and suggested a few minutes on the piano, which seemed to help settle things down a bit. Then J, M, K and L played a couple of easy games (honey pot – no language needed) and K did a jigsaw which so engrossed him that when the girls went for a bath he missed his slot at bathtime and then missed Scrapheap Challenge too – an almost unheard-of occurrence! Tea, bedtime stories and an early night, no tears, no problems… wondering if it’s all being a little too easy!
