Big Surprises

summer rolled on

march, usually signaling the end being nigh, was quite the opposite: summer had arrived!

and so had nannie.

some time before christmas nannie couteleau emailed me and said -i'd like to come over to visit for calix' bday, but i'd like it to be a surprise...

and so for the whole summer i was charged with a secret!

i'm hopeless at keeping secrets. i had to tell somebody! and so, i told everybody. everybody that is, except pascal and calix. then it became the job of everyone else to guard the secret!!!

one by one i told all our friends. i told all the people at calix' playcentre. i told my midwife. the woman at the supermarket knew. the cat knew.

several times i nearly let the cat out of the bag...

but swiftly managed to recover by changing the subject.

pascal's suspicions were never aroused.

nannie arrived on calix' birthday.

calix and i went to playcentre and pascal (who wasn't working that day) stayed home to cut the lawn.

granny (who is equally useless at keeping secrets) had been charged with the important role of getting nannie from the airport.

she arrived at the house

- i have something in the car for calix, can you help me bring it in? she asked pascal.

and so nannie arrived in the rara republic in time for a party with lots of chocolate cake!

with happy birthday sung in 4 languages.

and suddenly calix embarked on the business of being 2.

xx

mama b