Alceste

I started learning French in fifth grade with the Madame Miller and her high-heeled sneakers. Our main text book was "Petit Nicolas" - a little blue cloth-bound book containing the adventures of le petit Nicolas and his friends written by Goscinny and illustrated by Sempe. The series started in March 1959, so this month marks its 50th anniversary, which is being feted in France.

Nicolas' best friend was Alceste, whose main passtime was eating. In the English translation, republished beginning in 2005 by Phaedon Press, Alceste has morphed into Alec.

Like Alceste, our Alec likes croissants, but he seems to like his papa (le grand Nicolas') ollalieberry pie even better. Here he is digging in on Pie Day '09.


Unlike Alceste, Alec's main passtime isn't eating, in fact, he is pretty skinny. Perhaps because he eats his bananas with a fork...


This weekend we also had a surprise visit from Uncle Dan - who got all of Alec's attention. Here Alec showed him that his lego pyramid was like the pyramid in his book.


Last week, he did a similar stunt with the tiger on Auntie Rai's tshirt and the tigrrrr in one of his favorite books.