July 4, 2009: Ask Grandpa

The girls are at the age where they have tons of questions about tons of things. Grace and Mia's questions are not so challenging yet - they are more just a practice in patience because they ask the same question over and over and over again. Sometimes they are actually very funny. For instance, the girls are very used to seeing me strip their beds and carry sheets and blankets into the kitchen to place in the washing machine. This is because from time to time someone wets their bed. So the other day when Gaga came upstairs from the guestroom carrying an armful of sheets and Mia asked if Gaga had wet her bed, that was funny. She just assumed that Gaga had wet her bed - why else would she be putting her sheets in the washing machine?

Ella, on the other hand, asks very difficult questions. Questions that maybe I once knew the answer to, but now have no clue. Questions like, "Where does the water in the faucet come from?" and "What happens when you get bit by a mosquito, why is it all itchy?" And when Ella has those questions, I say, "Ask Grandpa." I have always told her that Grandpa knows everything. He was a science teacher for 40 plus years and I told her that science teachers know everything about the world. So Grandpa is officially her hero because he is a genius. Whenever we Skype with Grandpa, she has about 4 questions saved up to ask him. And currently, since Grandpa is here visiting, she can fire those questions at him non-stop. Such was the case when we visited Honfleur last Saturday. The girls were very excited to show Grandma and Grandpa the butterfly zoo (Naturospace) and ask all kinds of questions. What is this flower? What is that butterfly? Why do they get all crispy in those packages?





After the Naturospace, we found a great park to walk around. It had wide-open fields of trees and flowers and it was along the water. We spent about 30 minutes running around there and then we all got the hunger pains. After driving to the local popular park, my mom and I went to find sandwiches while the Andrew, my dad and the girls when to play. When my mom and I returned, we found the girls trampsing around in a shallow pool soaking wet while Andrew and my dad looked on in total amusement. Never mind that we didn't have any towels, changes of clothes or bug spray for the highly populated mosquitos....men, huh?

So, with 3,000 swollen mosquito bites between the 7 of us and many with wet undies, we set for home around 3:00 p.m. That night Andrew and I were given the opportunity to go out on a date which was totally awesome. It was great to catch up and just chill out for a few hours!

Next Blog: Watch for a visit to a local Chateau.