Eliot tuckered out after a busy day learning French at Happy Feet

Eliot's day care is called Happy Feet. The teachers are French-speaking and speak French to Eliot all day long. He is starting to pick up words - many they tell me - including bonjour and the French word for Pooh's friend Eeyore. Today they told me he said ratatouille! He did kind of repeat it to us this evening (on the way home from picking up the keys to our new apartment!).

Other words Eliot is saying include mana (banana), big, ohmea (oatmeal), beeee (bean), pich (peach), Jadie (one of our cats). His favorites are probably ouhk (horse) and bebe (baby). He will at times say ouhk out of the blue and we know he is thinking about horses.

He knows where certain playgrounds are and grows indignant if we pass them without stopping. He also knows where the horses, goats, rabbits, and birds are at Park Roodebeek and will all of a sudden announce "hop hop" when we are by the goats and go running off to see the rabbits. Everytime we pass a particular spot near a favorite park where we once saw a boxer retrieving a ball by jumping over a wall (no kidding) he says "bow wow." He remembers that over a week ago we saw a dog at that particular spot.

I took this picture tonight after Eliot pulled one of the pillows off the couch, ran and got his paci and blankie, and plopped down. Must have been a rough day trying to pronounce "ratatouille".

We finally let him play in the fountain...

It's been hot here, so I thought it was the perfect time to bring Eliot to the fountain he's been hankering to splash around in. (See "A Walk Around the Neighborhood" post.) We set out for the fountain; Eliot insisted on taking along three toys. I love his focused walk clutching his toys. He actually stopped halfway there to play with his train on the sidewalk but moved on after some encouragement.
Here he is playing with his train on a bench by the fountain.
So, he never actually went in the fountain. The water was pretty cold. But he did get a huge kick out of Chris's idea to put the toys in the fountain and watch them catapult out. It made for a fun evening.

Domburg

Our last stop was in Domburg, where we promised Eliot he could play on the beach for a while. He liked exploring the craters other kids had built. He also was drawn to the water and eventually we let him have at it in his onesie. He liked when waves hit his tummy.
Landscape is reminiscent of Cape Cod.

Eliot and I on a lookout point above Domburg. Eliot did not really want to pose for photos.... but the view of the town is nice.

Veere

Our next stop on our tour of Zeeland was Veere. The guidebook said it was a great place for strolling and indeed it was. We strolled, and strolled, while Eliot slept. Hence, no photos of Eliot in Veere. Veere is on a great bike route around Zeeland, so there were many families biking, some with dogs in baskets or trailers. Kids are often in the seats just behind or infront of the parents. I remember sitting on a seat behind my dad, but now I think Americans prefer bike trailers for safety reasons. The seats are less cumbersome, though, and the kids are often chatting with their parents, something that's hard to do when they're behind in a trailer.

The sheep on the right obligingly looked straight at the camera. The windmill is someone's home and it's right in the sheep field, so they must own the livestock (?). Bucolic and pleasant. The windmill is just outside town.
Nice harbor, too, with many families on their boats or heading out.

Eliot in Middleburg

There were a few good photos of Eliot in Middleburg so I decided to give them their own post (I'm limited to four photos per post). Here is Eliot window shopping at a toy store.
Here is Eliot playing thoughtfully with a toy outside a restaurant (that we did not eat at). Eliot fans will recognize the look of concentration. He played with this toy for about 15 min. I'm sure if I got one for our home he would only play with it for about 5....
Someone played that trick with a fountain where you put dish detergent in to make it bubbly. At first, Eliot did not want to touch the suds but soon enough was enthusiastically asking us to pull more out from the fountain so he could play with it.
Here are Eliot and I towards the end of our visit to Middleburg.

Middleburg, Netherlands

On Sunday we visited Zeeland, a peninsula in the southwest of Holland. It's about 1.5 hours from us. Our first stop was the main town, Middleburg. It was very nice if somewhat empty.
This is the "Abbey" with a few churches and museums. Not much time for either with a busy Eliot, but it was great to be outside on such a beautiful day.

Parc Malou

This is another great park. It is located in a pretty big green space with some great ponds. Eliot called the swans there "big ducks," which is one of the first few occasions he has used two words together.
This park offers some refreshments for kids (ice cream) and parents (beer,wine,cocktails) after 1 PM.











The ubiquitous sand box. Getting a lot of use out of these sand toys.....

Bruxelles Les Bains

I had read a while ago about how in the summer a part of the banks of the Seine in Paris were converted to a beach. I was therefore quite excited when I learned that Brussels copied this great idea for the canal in town. Last Friday Eliot and I braved a 30 min metro ride (he was great the whole time!) to visit Bruxelles Les Bains. I think if he were 8 or so it would have been great. The sand boxes in the playgrounds here offer more space, but nonetheless we parked ourselves on a patch of sand and played some. Then we walked about and observed people playing beach sports and eating. There was not much kid-friendly food but a lot of cocktails and beer. The best part was a drum ensemble that walked along the "beach" followed by kids (and a few adults) dancing freely.

Parc Roodebeek

If I have a favorite spot in Brussels yet, this is it. Parc Roodebeek offers an animalerie! There are goats, horses, rabbits, parakeets (about 20 in one big enclosure), rabbits, guineau (sp?) pigs, and other enclosures with exotic birds, including my favorite ducks here. Eliot gets very excited whenever we approach the park and he can spend long stretches of time wandering around the cages. There are often school groups here and he gets a kick out of watching (and interacting with) the older kids. There is also a playground but it has lots of equipment for big kids so I prefer others. Luckily, he is often so happy with the animals, he forgets the existence of the playground.






This is the house of the person who once owned these grounds before she left them to the community. Her home is now a museum and a hang out for many pigeons. It is right next to all the animals.

Our trip to Normandy

My posts for our trip to Normandy span two web pages. If you're interested in them all, click the "older posts" link at the bottom of the page or navigate by post name on the right under "Blog Archive" A slideshow of photos from the trip is linked to at the top right under "Photos from Normandy."

Amiens - last stop on Normandy tour

On our way home we stopped in Amiens to see the floating gardens and cathedral. It turned out the best way to see the gardens was in a punting boat. After riding in the car for a few hours, I didn't think Eliot would really be in the mood for a boat ride, so we took a foot path for a ways to see what we could. A few houses were very pretty and all had these bridges with gates over the canal. Behind the houses was the waterway where the tour boats travel. After our walk we took Eliot to romp in a city park that was very pleasant. He enjoyed hanging out with Amiens locals at a playground.

Cathedral from the floating gardens trail.
Cathedral up close.

We really enjoyed our trip. Eliot is a good traveller and did not mind sleeping in a strange place or being in so many new environments. Have to plan the next trip.....

Honfleur

We drove through Honfleur after visiting Trouville as Eliot napped. It was indeed very picturesque as the guidebook promised.

Bridge after Honfleur. The guidebook said it was more flashy than functional. We thought it looked pretty neat.

Trouville

We wanted to give Eliot some more beach time so we stopped in Trouville, a holiday spot. It was a very pleasant town.
Eliot really likes his sand toy that I bought for him. He put sand in and out of the bucket and accompanied me on a short walk to look for shells. It was chilly on the beach, although you would not know it from the dress of the locals (see next photo).

Eliot, with walking stick, heads to the water. He got his toes a little wet but in general seems to shy away from the waves.

For more cute Eliot at the beach photos, click on the slideshow at the right hand side, top of the blog for the Normandy photo album. You'll be treated to a bunch of photos from the trip. If they don't move fast enough for you, just hit the right arrow.