Un Jour avec les Petits

The family I'm staying with has a lot of children. Five, to be exact, plus three if you include me and the other foreign kids. With five kids already you might wonder why the parents would want to house more, except that with a number like that how could a few additions change anything? The two youngest in the family are lovingly referred to as "les Petits", a phrase I'd probably translate as "youngsters" or "little ones". The little ones include a five-and-a-half-year-old boy and his four-year-old sister; both of whom are completely and irresistibly adorable. Unfortunately though, my schedule doesn't align very well with that of the little ones. I wake up as they are leaving for school and usually don't come home until after they have already been put to bed. This is too bad, not only because I don't see much of them, but also because in order to reach the family's washing machine one must traverse the children's bedroom. Every time I thought of doing my laundry, the children were either asleep or their mother (who'd promised to show me just the right process) was not home. After a couple days of "how about tonight?"s and "definitely tomorrow"s I was in dire need of some clean clothes. I told Mme deHorsey, and she agreed to let me miss out on the group activities for a day so I could match my schedule to that of the little ones. The plan was a success.
I got back from work as they were eating their after-school snack and set up the washing machine while they each took a bath. For whatever reason the kids didn't have school the next day and so they convinced me to spend the evening staying up with them and waiting for the load to finish. We started by drawing in marker, and I have consequently perfected my sketch of the infamous "grand monstre vert" (basically a green blob with yellow eyes and purple hair). Dinner was delicious and afterwards I let the little ones advise me on which dessert to choose (mousse in a pudding cup. They have good taste). We practiced our geography with a Where's Waldo like book of Northern Europe. And finally, their mother read a story about the beauty of nature and the power of the individual. The little ones went to bed, likely without having understood either of these morals, and I took out the fresh laundry before headng up to bed as well. It was a long and productive day for me and les Petits. I can only hope that Mme deHorsey and the other girls had as much fun.

-Bethany