Bon Weekend

One of my favorite phrases used around here is"Bon weekend!" Just as I have learned that several French phrases and words have crept into the English language (a la mode, soiree, voila...) English words have found their way into Belgium. There are actually a lot of billboards and signs in English here and almost every radio station plays English music. The DJs apparently have a very short play list and we end up hearing the same songs over and over. Because of these radio stations and their play lists, our children already know what it is like to be in a club. Most of the stations play club music complete with explicit lyrics all of the time. Our children are not going to be sheltered here.

Back to the "bon weekend" part. We did have a tres bon weekend...We went into Brussels Friday evening for a Mexican American meal complete with refried beans. It was pretty good food, but remember our standards have dropped since we haven't lived in Texas for a while now. It wasn't as good as the price tag...75 Euros...Yikes! Apparently Pablo (if that is his real name) pays a lot to bring refried beans and semi-decent tortillas into the country. He also does not seem to feel that chips and salsa should be complimentary. Suffice it to say, Pablo's won't be a place we frequent.

On Saturday, we took advantage of a break in the rain and took the train down to Brussels again. There is a huge carnival downtown that has been set up about 2 weeks and it will be here until for at least 2 more. The kids had a great time eating junk food for dinner and riding the rides. It was a lot of fun. No carnival in Brussels would be complete without blaring club music with explicit lyrics. We saw a bachelor party Belgium style. We have pictures to help explain that one, but the groom was dressed like a bride and people were paying him money to smash eggs on his head. His t-shirt explained everything in French. We had a great time and everyone was very good on the train ride home considering it was the 9:20 train.

Hannah was as daring as ever. She was determined to ride a roller coaster type ride that scared Nathan just by looking at it. When he backed out after getting close enough, she wasn't having it. She threw a fit so we bought her a ticket to ride with Mommy. We stood there and watched the ride before us---it was 6 minutes long!---and she just waited patiently until it was our turn. She had a smile on her face the entire time and again it was 6 minutes long! We also had to remind her not to lean on the door of the very fancy ferris wheel we were riding on. She is definitely going to give us grey hair.

Hannah also made us laugh on the ride home from the restaurant on Friday. We were driving along when she piped up from the backseat, "Guess what, Daddy!" "I don't like to sleep in my bed, anyway!" We don't know where that came from in the middle of the evening, but apparently she had something on her mind and needed to get it out. Yesterday I was putting away my favorite parenting book that Hannah had been looking through earlier. She had torn a page out (probably not on purpose, she just likes to look at books and can occasionally get carried away while turning pages), but the page was the first part of the chapter called, "Nighttime Parenting: How to get your baby to sleep". We laughed at the irony...

She must have thought that chapter was irrelevant to us anyway.