Wow, buddy, I can't believe how fast another year has gone by! As I vow every year, I really am going to do my best to post more in the coming year. The end of this year has been nothing short of crazy on top of crazy. Here's a quick rundown of major events of the last 6 months (as last entry was exactly 6 months ago):
July--we decided to sell the house in order to get a bigger/better one. I also decided to take up my friend Mélo's offer to come to France in September, this time taking you along!
August--the house went on the market, we did lots of packing and cleaning, and then packing for our trip to France. We (you and mommy) departed on the 30th.
September and October--you and I spent these two months/8 weeks there together. You were an awesome traveler and learned a bit of French. We had a few bad moments here and there (a detail about this in a moment), but overall, it was a wonderful experience. Apart from frying the microwave lol...again, more details on this to come. We were back home just in time for you to go trick-or-treating--you wore same costume as last year, a policeman (and just as adorable!) Halloween was very chilly this year, but no precipitation. Grandma Judy came over during this time and drove you around. Daddy dressed up as a ghostbuster and mommy dressed as a ghost...from Pac-Man (Pinky)!
November--the house had not sold while you and I were away, so we decided to take it off the market for a week while we did some upgrades. Nana and pa-pa Junior came up to help and did a fantastic job. When it went back on the market, we had tons of people come to look. We had an offer, we accepted it, then the buyer changed his mind. This caused us to lose the house we had chosen to try to buy (it was the 2nd one--ask me if you want more details about this one day). Thankfully, about a week later, another buyer came along and is currently contracted to buy the house (closing) on the 16th of January. Due to all the craziness with the house stuff, we spent Thanksgiving here and had a dinner just for ourselves. You tried uncle Kevin's pumpkin pie and really liked it. You also lost two more bottom teeth this month, about a week apart, making 4 total that you have lost.
December--We found an even better house to buy and are hoping we will be able to close on it the same day our current one is supposed to sell. It's a huge house and you have already picked out your room in it :) We went to Grandma Judy's on the 21st, stayed until the 24th, then headed to Nana Linda's, where we had Christmas day together. We returned home on the 27th. Mommy and daddy celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary 2 days later.
Whew! Hope you're still reading, because I need to include something from today, specifically tonight, now--it has to do with the detail thing I mentioned above during the France part. About a half hour after you went to bed, you came back out of your room and looked a bit upset, ready to cry. You came to me and I asked you what was wrong and you told me it was from when we were in France. "It was the day we had the orange juice and the donut. I said the wrong thing!" and you started sobbing. I reassured you that it is ok, we all make mistakes, and not to worry about it anymore, held you until you were happy again and made sure you were alright.
I am going to guess that you will remember this incident possibly for the rest of your life, so I want to make sure that if anything happens to me, that you know that yes, it was a bad incident, but all is forgiven. In case you don't recall, here is what happened:
We were in Besançon, staying at an Air B&B home with a very nice lady and her 8 year old son, Octave. We had decided to explore Besançon, starting with breakfast in the center of town at a small café/boulangerie. You chose a donut and I had a pastry and orange juice. You had wanted a Coke, too, but I told you no, that Coke is not for breakfast, too expensive, and you need to cut down on it anyway. I offered to share my orange juice with you a couple of times, but you refused every time. You told me you were thirsty, to which I again offered the orange juice or to get you some water. Again, you refused my options. Just before I was about to finish off the oj, I asked you one last time and told you I was going to finish it off if you didn't have any. You pushed it away, so I finished it and waited for you to finish your donut. Once you were done, you asked for the orange juice and I said none was left, I had finished it and now it was time to leave. You yelled NO at me and started in to your "tantrum" mode. In the states, I would have just been embarrassed and would have taken you to the car. But in France, in the middle of a city where we were on foot, this was not an option. I had to drag you out by the arm to get out of the café and kept telling you to keep it down before you attracted attention. Instead, you kept getting louder and eventually started to scream at the top of your lungs. I tried to cover your mouth to muffle the sound, which just made it worse. We fought back and forth as I tried to get us out of the middle of town, but too late. You stormed away from me a few feet ahead and I sat down near where you were, trying to just wait it out and let you get calm, as nothing I was saying was working. Then an older couple came along and the lady, speaking French, tried to help the situation (but failed). After she gave up due to language barrier between you and her, I told you we needed to get out of the middle of town and walk somewhere to discuss this. You were still crying but we did manage to walk to the bridge, away from people, so we could both calm down. As we walked there, I told you the truth, that I was horribly embarrassed and you were breaking my heart. I'd never said such a thing to you before, but I'd also never been this upset at you, either. If I could have, I would have probably gotten on a plane with you right then and headed home. You were beyond my control and I didn't know what to do. I felt like a failure, like I didn't know how to be a mommy, and worried terribly about we were going to get through the rest of the trip if you were going to act like this (up until this point, you had not been this out of control during the trip, nor in quite a long time). As we sat there, under the bridge, both of us crying, you told me that you needed to tell me something about how you felt. "When you said I was breaking your heart, it made me cry more. It made me cry more because I was afraid you wouldn't like me anymore." This made us both cry more, but I held you close and told you that I was sorry, and I would never stop liking you. I explained that I didn't like your behavior, but I still liked, even loved, you. But my heart was even more sad that I had made you feel that way--I didn't tell you that, I think.
And as I write this, I'm still sad that we had this terrible morning and especially that you were sad tonight as you recalled it. I hope we never have another time like that. Being a mommy is hard, sweetie, and I'm not perfect--no mommy is. But I do my best, along with some mistakes, and I love you, always. Remember that--I will always love you, no matter what. Please forgive me for how this 'orange juice and donut' morning went--I am truly sorry. *Big hugs* ~mommy
(I'll tell you happier stories from France in subsequent entries :))
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