Sprouts springing up!

Here is the invite!



It was fun!!! Too bad you did not make it!





Subtext:
No we do not give booze to the kids yet. The photographer had to free his hands.

Subtext 2:
A certain amount of effort was given in the cake making exercise by the maternal element of the family unit (but unfortunately the photographer missed a global shot of these oeuvres d'art).
An orange and green dinosaur was created thanks to a good old cake mold (and admittedly some cake mix). In addition, despite a couple of failed attempt at the creation of small engines and wagons (yes, cake mix are hard to do), rescued by the creative use of colored glazing and candies, a small train was prepared, and enjoyed by the small crew of invitees. Cake mix with colored (edible) sparkles created a certain type of effect ensuring no parents would consider taking a piece away from their kids.

Subtext 3:
Each of our boys had another birthday celebration in their respective school on the following Wednesday. Since then, Noam is convinced that he is now 5 years old. His teacher said so. We need to go talk to her tomorrow morning to correct this situation.

yoga-ed!

Over several years now, yoga has been a steady element in my life. When I started practicing, thirteen years ago, in Vancouver, I discovered something that really allowed my mind to be free of worries, for the time of the practice, at least. While at first it was something I did for my own benefit, I eventually started to teach, initially informally to friends and acquaintances, for the pleasure and for the lack of other alternatives. (Think Ziguinchor or Brazaville, where the local yoga school was not yet opened).
In Washington, I fell in love with post-natal yoga. A great way to take myself out of the house and move with my little one. I did it as much as I could, met wonderful people and teachers, and went on doing a training. When I landed in Beijing, I started teaching at Yoga Yard Mommy and Me yoga.
Then last fall, when a special Yoga Teacher Training came to Beijing, I registered, thinking it would be a fun way to officialize my skills. Which turned out to be fun indeed, but also quite serious. Our teacher, Matthew Cohen, was quite interestingly fusing yoga with martial arts - qi gong and tai chi - in what he called SEA (Sacred Energy Arts). It was compelling, challenging and enlightening. And not to mention, frustrating and demanding at times, too.
There I have met amazing people, and I have learned about myself in a different way. I am glad I completed this training, and I hope to make use of what I have learned in the yoga studio as well as in my daily life.

After completing 4 modules and 222 hours of training, countless hours of practice and a great number of observation classes,  I can now say that I am a real yoga teacher, a Yoga Alliance registered one! At last!

At last, school!!!

We arrived from Canada a few days after mid august, and yet school was only starting at the beginning of september. A long long long wait for little boys who are excited to start school and meet their new friends.
This year we took the decision to change Noam from a private Chinese kindergarten (5 min walk from our place) to the French School. Language was the main reason behind this change, wanting to provide him with an environment that would provide better support for language that is difficult to learn and master. We also figured that since both my husband and I believe English can be learned and master much more easily, and also can be learned about anywhere in the world, we would put emphasis on the other languages. Hebrew is a bit more difficult as most things related to Hebrew here are related to religion, which we are not really interested for our kids now. The "new" school is not too far from our place, in Sanlitun and Noam must ride a bus. He is now really proud to get in every morning, and wave at us from inside. He looks so small in it!
On his first day at school, he met his new friends (22 of them), and took note of his new surrounding. A big change from Eton school: there are about 400 students in the Maternelle campus this year, and everyone meets outside to play during breaks. Then the meals are taken at La Cantine, which is cute with its round yellow arches. But it also quite busy every lunchtime, with so many kids.
We met his teachers yesterday, and they both confirmed that Noam is doing great, integrating well and making new friends easily. Indeed Noam has two teachers, as he is in a special bilingual French/Chinese class. So in one given day, Noam is speaking French with Marie, and the next, he speaks Chinese with Hei Laoshi. It is really exciting, even our ayi noted that Noam has gained in vocabulary in the course of two weeks! This a group that was created three years ago by two teachers that are found of language integration, and of the chinese culture. We are fortunate that we have such passionate teachers for him.
 





Emmanuel, on his side, is integrating Noam's old kindergarten Eton School for a few hours every morning. Since his birth, he has seen his big brother emerge from this school every afternoon, so when we went to accompany him for his first day, he knew what was there for him, and was really happy to go in. He was eager to explore his classroom, and to discover all sorts of new "toys". But he is not yet used to say goodbye when we drop him off. Yet when ayi fetches him at lunch time, he wants to stay longer to play!


Here Emmanuel's his first day, getting his dad to tell a story.

Flying home

Many times I have had the feeling of being perceived as a "hero" when I mention that I fly alone with my two kids. In fact, I am afraid that if I brag about how easy our return from Canada was, the next flight will be simply ho-ri-ble... So I will not mention the fact that they slept almost at take off and that we did not spill anything on each other. Considering that we did not have a window in our "window-seat", and that we sat 3 on 2 seats, it is not so bad...

The real challenge for me remains the jet-lag. Alone I can beat it more easily, trying to adjust my sleep in the plane depending on my arrival hour (if arriving in the day, sleeping in the plane, if arriving in the night, awake in the flight). It already has some limitation (what if you take more than 24 hours to get there, or if you have problematic fellow passengers). Usually, when I am flying with the kids, I can't sleep. (And probably my direct neigborgs too.) Mama bear reflex or simple discomfort, not sure. But it makes my own recovery from it all much more painful since, upon arrival, everyone else wakes up again and again at odd hours for a few days in a row (I need to sleep, even if not much!) At times (and specially this last time), it brought me back to when I was breastfeeding Emmanuel right after his birth, when he had jaundice. Or it also reminds of when I was in architecture school. Yes, it was that intense.
But I have to admit that apart from these jet lagged happy hours in the middle of the night upon landing, the boys are pretty good travelers. They have a passport to prove it, of course. But beyond that, they are excited by the idea of taking a plane, they love plane-spotting in the airport, and they also love the airplane food - well, I should say, they are excited at getting the meal tray (at least, even if most of the food stays on it).
Beyond that, when I look at it more globally, they seem to inherently accept differences.  And from Tel Aviv to Quebec to Beijing, there are extreme differences in the way people look, dress and talk. I am still wondering how this whole experience of "world citizenship" will shape them, how they will define their own identity. We will keep working at opening their eyes on the world at large, and hopefully they will be able to shape their lives at a similar scale.