Blake and Deborah in Europe: Gonfaron - Life With Two-Year Olds

The weather during our two week stay here has gradually transitioned from cold and wet to warm and sunny. Today, Saturday, is the best day yet. One could even sunbathe. I asked our host John which of the extremes was more typical and he said “both.” The improved climatic conditions have allowed us to take some nice walks during the day, sometimes pushing the twins along in their stroller. If they protest about getting into or out of their stroller, or anything else for that matter, Deborah is not above using bribes to get them to comply. Lollipops work pretty well, even though the girls haven't really been fully introduced to c-a-n-d-y (we do a lot of spelling around here). We don't break out the adult desserts until after the little ones have gone up to bed.

Celeste definitely has the bigger appetite compared with Camille, but they both actually like broccoli, salad, bananas, clementines, kiwis, any kind of bean, and even their medicine. Strange children. But getting them to leave their “Dora the Explorer” video to go have their lunch always results in at least one of them having their daily Dora Meltdown. This eventually subsides as their schizophrenic two-year old personalities swing to the other extreme.

A couple of nights ago John and Jill went out for the evening leaving the twins in Deborah's good hands. This led to an amusing bedtime duel as Deborah tried to get Camille into her diaper, despite Camille's best efforts to avoid that fate by squirming like a worm and racing butt naked around the bedroom. Eventually Deborah prevailed, albeit with help from Simon and me (yes, it took three of us), and capped off the little ones' evening with a round of storytelling.