Siblings

                                        

When we arrived in France, Lyndee and Cris were very young.  Cris wasn't yet 2 and Lyndee had just turned 3 a few months before.  They were actually very good children, but as I said, we only brought one toy each and our container took way longer than expected.  There was no money to spare with which to buy toys.  Plus, as we didn't own a car, even getting someplace to buy a toy was a problem.  Around the corner from our house was a Librairie.  That is NOT a library, but a small shop that sells paper goods, school supplies, magazines, etc.  They also sold a few small games.

During deputation someone had taught Don to play a French game called Mille Bourne.  He thought he remembered how to play it, but...  Of course, the rules were in French, which neither of us understood enough to figure out.  It is a sort of complicated game!  It had all these mile number cards (you were travelling a distance to get there first) and then there were penalty cards, of which one was a turtle, and there were bonus cards, of which one was a rabbit.  Of course the game was way to complicated for toddlers, so we played "The Rabbit" game.  We would draw cards from the little draw/discard tray. If you got the turtle you lost, but if you got the rabbit you won!  It was a hit!  The kids loved it.  We played the rabbit game until I thought I would never want to see those cards again!
 
Young as they were, they had inherited their parents competitive natures, and one day, things got a bit hot between them.  They started sticking their tongues out and making ugly faces at each other, which, of course was not acceptable behavior.  They were forbidden to do it anymore under penalty of punishment.  Later that day, they were still showing signs of being angry with each other, but there were no mean faces or tongues sticking out. 

We were at the dinner table that evening and all of a sudden they both had their faces sideways to each other, each with a protruding cheek.  The protrusions were wagging violently.  Don and I looked at them, wondering what ailed them.  Then we figured it out!  They couldn't stick their tongues OUT, so they were sticking them out at each other inside their cheeks!  It gave a different meaning to that old expression "tongue in cheek!" 

Lyndee

Cristofer

Have a good day, ya'll!