Noah the French Teacher

Noah started at the Ecole Maternelle in the next village over on September 4th.  He had done a couple 'orientation' months in May & June before the summer to learn the rythm of the school.  So, now he is in the deuxieme '2nd' class. 

So school started on a Tuesday and on Wednesdays all schools between the ages of 3 - 15 are closed.  So, the French like to re-live the agony of the 1st day of school twice.  Once on Tuesday and once on Thursday.  Tuesday was difficult and Noah (along with alot of his classmates) was very upset but on Thursday he was a champ and went right into his room.  And now he is a pro, not even stopping to give 'bisous' (kisses) to his dad :-(

So, the 1st week we were asking him the name of his teacher and his new friends.  He did not know anyone's name yet.  We made it his 'homework' to find out and remember what everyone's names were and finally the following Tuesday he remembered.  During dinner we were asking Noah about his school day and the teachers name.  Finally he said 'Anne Frédérique' - OK, now we are getting somewhere, a week later.  So we said, ahhhh......'Anne Frédérique.'  He laughed at us and said, 'No, not Anne blablahblahblah, Anne Fré-dér-rique Papa!'  So, we repeated it again slowly, 'Anne Fré-dér-rique'.  Then again he said 'No, not Anne blahblahblah', Anne Fré-der-rique......'

We tried to also learn the name of his friends, Mateo, Mathias & Antoine......and we had the same lessons....'Ma-te-o, Maman!' and 'Ma-thi-as, Papa'.  We thought that was what we were saying :-(

We finally explained to Noah that we are from a different country where we only spoke English and it is difficult for us to speak French with the 'cool' accent that he has learned.  Not sure it got through to him but we will keep on practicing......Anne Fré-dér-rique........

Noah reading to Auréléa

I caught Noah reading Thomas the Train to Auréléa on Sunday morning.  He was pretty adorable and she seemed to really enjoy it.

C:RaniMOV017 from kurt cerny on Vimeo.

Auréléa & Noah's Photo Shoot

We decided to get some pictures done of Auréléa & Noah before she grew too big.  We found a photographer outside of Paris called 'Nuage en bouteille' (Cloud in a bottle), doesn't that sound nice?  They were a couple with a few children of their own and we worked with them for almost 4 hours, yikes!  During this time we were able to capture Auréléa in a few different moods - naptime, wide awake, hungry time and smiley time.  Noah was a trooper through the whole thing and we got some good shots of him too.  Here are a few good ones for your sampling.

Lookin' good Noah!

Naptime...zzzzzzz

Cou cou everyone!

Cutie pie!

OK - Are we done yet?

Auréléa starts laughing

Auréléa started laughing over the weekend and she really enjoys bee noises. 

Aurelea laughing June 24 from kurt cerny on Vimeo.

More Pictures of Auréléa

Auréléa (oh ray lay ah)

I guess we didn't think about how hard it would be for everyone to pronounce her name! Don't worry we have to keep correcting ourselves, too. So, I guess it won't hurt to add the phonetic next to her name for a couple more days. Ha ha. Here are a few recent pictures.

Big brother came to visit last evening.

He was really cute with her. He spoke in a real quiet tone and was very gentle.





Look at that crazy hair!

Noah Meets Auréléa from kurt cerny on Vimeo.

Auréléa Eve Cerny

Le Choix de Roi

March 22, 2012

Le Choix de Roi (the choice of the king) is a French term used when you have two children of the opposite sex. (I think it will make a great boat name one day, as well.)

Auréléa (oh ray lay ah) Eve Cerny was born at 15:46. Although over two weeks early (by American calculations) and over 3 weeks early by the estimates here, she still weighed in at 3.7 kilos (8.2 lbs.) and 51 cm (20 inches).

It is pretty crazy how similar Noah and her are. Check out this posting from over 3 years ago!

The Big Day

March 22, 2012

As this pregnancy has progressed, Noah and I were getting more and more used to being awakened by observations of Rani's current state. Always sympathetic, we would commiserate with the heartburn, back aches, sleepless nights, and shrunken bladder. It got to the point that Noah was getting sympathy pains in the morning, often complaining because the baby was kicking him too hard (while in his belly) while he was trying to sleep.

On this morning, I was asked, for the hundredth time, if I thought that her contractions were real or not. I made the mistake of going with my stock answer of, "don't worry, they are just those braxton thingies". Since we had 17 more minutes until our alarms were to go off, we rolled back over and went back to sleep.

Rani woke with a start, exclaiming, "Nope, these ones are real!" So, I stumbled out of bed to get Noah going. When I told him the news, he yawned and said calmly, "How exciting..., can I hold her?" Taking Noah's lead, we slowly got into our morning routine of showers, breakfast, etc. Of course this included packing our bags since we were totally unprepared for this event.

We were keeping our normal steady pace, when Noah and I started hearing primal animal screams coming from upstairs. Noah, thinking this was one of our wacky games, started trying to communicate back. Every 4 mins. there was a healthy dose of, "ooohhhaaahhhhaa!" from Rani and then a, "oohooh ahh ahh?" response from Noah. The increased decibels of these "conversations" finally spurred me into action.

Five minutes later, we were racing (under the speed limit, Oma) down the road to Noah's creche. Noah encouraged us on by yelling at any motorists who got in our way. A few times we heard, "Regarde bus, we are gonna fly over you if you don't move!"

After dumping Noah and his baggage off at daycare, we got to the hospital over 75 minutes after leaving the house. (Mind you we chose this clinic while living in our old house, a half hour closer.) The non-chalant attitude continued once we got to the hospital. As Rani was obviously withholding her urges, the sage femme calmly told us to wait in the waiting room as all the birthing rooms were full. Although muffled, Rani's contractions clearly scared all of the other expectant mothers in the waiting room, for when the sage femme returned and asked who was next, they all pointed in Rani's direction.

From here on out, it was smooth sailing. It turns out Rani was already at 5 cm by the time they checked her in. After a quick epidural, the Rani we all know and love returned. I will spare all of the details, but after a pretty routine labor, our little Auréléa was born. There are no words to describe it, so I won't even try, but it was truly amazing. Rani was incredible and our little girl was so beautiful.

Joyeux Pacques! Happy Easter!!

2011

We are really missing our families this holiday! But it is over 80 degrees, sunny, and beautiful! Our rose bushes have just started blooming, too!

Anyway, Rani really got into the holiday spirit this year and we planned a small easter egg hunt for Noah. She found these great plastic eggs that call out to Noah while he is hunting. "Je suis cache" (I am hiding), "Je suis la" (I am there), and "Cou Cou" (peekaboo) echoed throughout the garden as Noah stepped out the door! He was hesitant at first, but he soon got the idea of finding the hidden eggs and gifts. Grab a coffee or tea, take a seat, and check out the Easter Egg Hunt video (over 10 minutes long).

(Sorry for the quality, too long for upload)

Birthday Boy

December 3, 2010

Noah makes it to the ripe age of 2!! We are very proud of our accomplishment of making it this far! We are starting to get the hang of this parenting thing.

Found these in the attic!

Playing in the tub from kurt cerny on Vimeo.

Nonah and Kiki playing in Les Jardin des Touleries from kurt cerny on Vimeo.

Going to the pool! from kurt cerny on Vimeo.

Singing Bear from kurt cerny on Vimeo.