Halfway

However did my visit get to be halfway over?  A week from today I fly to Atlanta, where Tom will pick me up on our way to Florida.  I am not halfway done being a grandmother for this visit; I guess I'd better get busy tomorrow.  More coloring, cuddling and conversing are definitely in order!

I continue to be amazed at how well Juliet speaks English, how broad her vocabulary is, and how easily she switches from French to English, and back again.  She's a very sweet and loving girl but she also loves to manipulate you into getting her own way.  Sometimes you'll tell her to do something and she'll just stare at you, daring you to make her do it.  At times Jeanne has to get really mad at her in order to get her to do what needs to be done (brush her teeth, go to the bathroom, put on pajamas, etc.), when it doesn't fit into Juliet's agenda.  This is very, very difficult for Grandma.  Grandma does not want to get mad, she does not want to yell and most of all she does not want to curry disfavor with Juliet.  This means that Grandma is not a proper French grandma, she is a spoiling, inferior, coddling, weak-kneed, horrible, American grandma.  Yes, she is, but she's trying to get better for Juliet's sake.

James, on the other hand, is guileless.  He doesn't have an "agenda", unless you consider comfort an agenda.  If he doesn't have a messy diaper, isn't overly tired or hungry, he's fine.  So I can spoil and coddle him without feeling guilty.  Of course this is starting to change in small ways.  He's "pre-teething" right now; he doesn't have any actual teeth coming in but his gums are sore so he likes to be constantly gnawing on something:  a toy, clothing, a blanket, your finger, etc.  He's also "pre-crawling", so he's frustrated a lot of the time, because he's going backwards from the object he wants to get to.  Jeanne says this is typical of babies learning to crawl:  they go backwards first.  James is busy mastering this first phase.  Sometimes he gets so frustrated he makes little fists and his body just shakes.  So I imagine it won't be long before he does have his own agenda that will include eating stuff he finds on the floor, getting into his sister's things and trying to go where he shouldn't.  And then I suppose Grandma will have to practice being a disciplinarian again.  Oh, bother!