Notre petit monde francais

Bonjour a tous!

I am happy to report that our attempts at creating a francophone community for Chou-chou to grow up in here in Portland are working out rather nicely. We were finally able to attend the playgroup for French "speaking" babies last Saturday and were excited to meet the other babies, all roughly the same age as Chou-chou. Well, they're all within a year of each other, which seems like a big deal now but won't down the road. The other parents are mainly French teachers, but our friends Caroline and Clint came along, too, with their bilingual daughter Hannah. I was amazed at one of the high school teacher's fluency in French, and am excited to be a part of the group for my own speaking ability's sake! Teacher-ese and Mother-ese don't do much to expand my vocabulary in French, unfortunately (although I do have a whole slew of baby vocab:)). The above-mentioned HS teacher was the initial organizer and has held all get togethers in her home so far, which has been great because she's also a musician and has compiled a bunch of comptines for the kids to sing (or us to sing to them at this point). So Chou-chou, Jarod and I went last Saturday, and then Chou-chou and I went yesterday, too. I was so happy to hear that most of the others don't plan on sending their kids to the private immersion schools because of cost, and that everyone hopes for a public immersion option down the road. My wheels are turning...!!! Anyway, I'm so happy for Chou-chou to have some "friends" that hear French from one of their parents full-time. So far the interactions have been limited to stealing sippy cups and grabbing each other's faces, but it's only a matter of time. And all the parents are so great! Tomorrow we'll be heading down to the big Bastille Day festival in the Pearl, and look forward to meeting up with the other Frenchy families. Maybe we'll attract some more! Tomorrow is also Chou-chou's 10-month-a-birthday!