Meet the Delannoys

28 juin 2010 lundi

It’s like giving birth to five full grown children, already full of energy and personality and quirks, and being suddenly responsible for all of their needs, wants, and whims. Oh, and they speak a different language than you. Imagine my exhaustion. And yet, it’s a fatigue tinged with children’s giggles and nutella . . . so for the moment, all goes well. A quick biography of each of my acquired quintuplets:

Alban, 12:
Thus far, Alban has been having a bit of a crisis of classification. As any speaker of French knows, “you” has not one, but two translations. The more informal “tu” is used to address friends, close relations, immediate family, or people younger than you, “Vous” is reserved for professional relationships, groups of two or more, strangers, or as a term of respect to elders, professionals, professors, etc. “Madame,” being in the third person, can be used as an impersonal, extremely formal term. I’m not sure exactly why, but Alban insists upon vouvoiement (using the “vous” form) with me, unless he unconsciously slips into tutoiement (using the “tu’ form). And imagine my surprise when Alban suddenly called me “Madame” while playing Uno! In the Delannoy family, there is nothing but tutoiement, even between the parents and myself (I asked permission first, of course). I insist that Alban tutoie me, but he has to make that decision for himself, I suppose. Other than his strange classification quirk, Alban has for the most part the characteristics of an oldest child. He likes to pretend that he doesn’t want to do the same things as the younger kids (ie: play Uno, jump into the pool in the evening, etc), even though he secretly does. He wants to become a mechanical engineer or an archeologist one day, and he likes to tease his younger sister by telling her horror stories (which frighten her immensely). He and Gauthier can get, well, brotherly violent, which escalated this afternoon when Alban tried to strangle Gauthier in the pool, being fed up with Gauthier’s splashing. We quickly took care of that situation. He’s a Mario champion, and always wins when we play ping pong. Oh, and he loves Michael Jackson.

(I open a parenthesis here to mention Virgil (11), Alban’s best friend, who has been at the house since sometime early Sunday afternoon. Virgil is an expert piano player, and dreams of becoming professional one day. He promised us a private concert while I’m here. His father is a well known Argentinean artist, and married a French woman . . . and voila, now we have Virgil, his little prodigy. And between playing piano, he listens to Metallica. And sometimes Zeppelin, of which I completely approve.)

Constance, 11:
I think Constance wants a sister that can speak (seeing as Montaine is only 6 months old). Constance latched onto me right away—she always wants to be on my team in poker, play games that I taught her, have me swim with her, sit with me while I send emails, etc. She’s a fan of Justin Bieber (I’ll try to change that, don’t worry) and wishes she were American. Today, she taught me the word for cheerleader, and I could see her being perfect on the sidelines of a football or basketball game—she’s certainly energetic, always smiling, and of course, a bit loud from time to time. She’s terrified of horror stories, and she secretly believes in ghosts, which causes her to never want to sleep/walk/or simply be alone at any time. I let her win sometimes at Egyptian Ratscrew, and she’s a conservative poker player, and Uno’s not her favorite, but she plays all the same (although she refuses to play Connect 4 with Alban, because he always wins.) More than anything, Constance is a little fish—always in the water, always showing me tricks, flipping, jumping, diving. She tries harder than her brothers at learning English—I suppose it’s any adolescent’s dream to be able to taunt her brothers in a language they do not understand.

Gauthier, 9:
Of all the siblings, Gauthier and Constance are probably the closest. Gauthier, like Constance, is always in the water, or making cycles around the pool with his scooter. When with his sister, he isn’t too easily bothered, but Alban gives him a bit of trouble (see the strangling incident mentioned above). I’ve spent most of my time with Gauthier playing Uno or Egyptian Ratscrew—he’s not as interested in poker as his brother is. When we all play Uno together, Gauthier defends my position more than Alban, who insists on playing all of his +4 wild cards for me. He also takes great pleasure in the four colors that the Uno game has taught us all: red, green, blue, and yellow (which for some reason is really hard to remember). Gauthier, like me, loses to Alban in ping pong.

Rodrigue, 7:
With long, black lashes and blueberry blue eyes, Rodrigue is adorable, yet timid. When I came to visit the family a week or so before arriving to settle in and start work, Rodrigue didn’t say half a word to me. Yet when I left, he clutched to his mom’s leg, and looking quite sad and pathetic, he whispered to her that he didn’t want me to leave. He stutters a bit, especially when he gets excited. He likes to be with the big kids, even if he can’t join in their games. When we play Uno, he’s on my team—not that he really understands Uno strategy at all. He seems to have the most fun when he’s alone—I’ve seen him out my bedroom window playing by himself in the courtyard, speaking more to himself than he’ll ever dare say in company. And there’s something to be said for a child who comes in second, and not first, when he plays with toy cars in imaginary races. When playing Mario Super Galaxy 2, Rodrigue is always the little orange star that follows Mario around. He is more than content as that petite étoile orange.

Montaine, 6 months:
When playing games with Montaine sitting nearby, she always steals cards out of my hand with her tiny, clutching fingers. She is at the age where she clutches . . . everything: necklaces, noses, books, cards, toys, fingers. She takes her bath at 37˚C and loves to have her ears cleaned. She won’t take the bottle, and her tiny face stretches into the most delighted smile at the sight of her mom. Cosette, the laundry/cleaning/baby lady takes care of her during the day, unless of course she needs to hang out laundry, or prepare lunch, or do the grocery shopping. Then, it’s up to me to take care of little Montaine, watching her amuse herself in the little world where babies exist.