Random musings and one year anniversary

It's been a while since I've worked in a big company, and I'm finding that it doesn't matter if it's in the US or Europe or probably anywhere else, people just behave strangely when you put them in a group in one place. The politics, the need for people to put on airs or be someone they're not seems an inevitable by-product of putting more than a couple of people together. It's weird. People are weird. That being said, I'm enjoying myself, but it is an adjustment.

A couple of things I've noticed. A lot of people at my office say good day (bonne journee) or good afternoon (bonne apres-midi) as they exit elevators. I got over my initial cynicism about it, and now I find it kind of nice, especially in the morning. What's weird is though it's an English-speaking company, and many people are Flemish, yet nobody says the equivalent phrase in English or Flemish - what's that about? Are the French Belgies just more polite than the rest of us?

One thing that's kind of sad is when someone says 'bonne journee', and no one on a full elevator says it back, so I try and always say it. I'm sure that they probably scoff at my accent but you know what, F them and their impolite non-bonne-journee-saying asses. Oui, oui!

On another note, it's our one year anniversary in Brussels. In some ways it feels longer, but in others it feels like we just arrived. I wonder if Ethan has any clue about all of this. Doubt it. I hope this will be good for them in the long run. I think it will, but I guess we won't know until they've grown up, at least a bit. Sonia is starting to communicate a lot more, mixing in French and English, and Ethan is talking up a storm. Some of the things he comes out with crack me up. The other night I was running the bath for him and Sonia, and before he got in, he said he needed to go pee, so I said OK, go to the potty downstairs, and a few minutes later when the bath was ready, he still hadn't gone downstairs to the potty, so I said what's up, thought you wanted to go pee, and he said, 'no, that's ok, pee pee and poo poo are sleeping'. I said what? (trying not to crack up) and he said 'pee pee and poo poo are sleeping in his bottom', and that 'they make his bottom big'. I lost it. If you think about it though, using his vocabulary, it's a pretty accurate way of saying he doesn't have to go anymore and probably is what he thinks is actually going on. Reminded me of that show Kids Say the Darndest Things or whatever it's called.

Anyway, it's inspired me to post a couple of throwback photos of my boy from 2 years ago this month to remind me and Sara how much he's grown up in just the past couple of years.