P.S.

I forget to mention a couple of noteworthy things in my last blog. First, in addition to all of the cooking and cleaning that I had to do here last week, I also went to the Kindergarten Thursday morning for about 3 hours to bake cookies with Pauline's group. Esther had been asked earlier in the week if she would be able to help out, but she couldn't, so she volunteered me instead. At 9 am Thursday morning I rode the bike to the Kindergarten and was there until just before noon. We had already made the cookie dough (the other 2 mothers and I) and we just had to help the kids roll it out and cut shapes with the cookie cutters. Then they brushed the tops of them with cream, decorated them with sprinkles, and we threw them in the oven. One of the poor little girls has a sever allergy to eggs, so we had to be really careful to make sure that she had her gloves on, and that she didn't come into direct contact with the dough or anything else that the dough had touched. But at least she got to participate. I had a great time, too. A lot of the kids in the group already knew who I was (although they all think I'm either Pauline's other mom or Esther's sister or something) and it was fun getting to hang out with them and bake cookies. Plus, one of the other moms that was there helping is Canadian. She speaks to her kids in English, too, and she actually lives on our street. Who knew.

The other thing I forgot to mention is that Amelie injured herself on Thanksgiving. Olaf took her out for a walk that night, and when they got back she was limping and bleeding. She had chased after a cat and managed to tear one of the nails on her right front paw. The nail was still attached, but it was really crooked and you could tell that it was essentially broken off but still connected to the skin on her poor little finger. Esther took her to the vet Friday afternoon so they could remove the claw, and then they put a bandage on her foot and gave her a shoe so she doesn't get it wet and dirty when we take her for walks. On Monday she got a new bandage, and yesterday Olaf and I took her to the vet again to have it looked at. There was still a little piece of the nail that was attached and they had to pull it off. Poor little Amelie was so tough and such a good girl. Then she got another bandage, of course, but that fell off this morning in the snow when I took her for a walk. I thought about walking with her to the vet, but Olaf and I agreed that if it didn't look bad that we would just leave it, since I'm taking her again tomorrow, anyway. I think Amelie is very happy to be rid of the bandage. She's not walking funny anymore, and she can finally do something about her itchy little foot.