Le Weekend

Probably much against Etienne's will (because if it were up to him, we would be gone every weekend!), we stayed at home this weekend. But, the problem with staying at home in an apartment without a yard is our precious 2 year old- he gets cabin fever if we don't take him out. After a Friday of grumpiness, I decided to take advantage of the many things Paris quite surprisingly has to offer for children, and take him to the Jardin d'Acclimatation in the Bois de Boulogne- about a 15 minute bus ride away. And, what a pleasant surprise! Since I am always with Louise, Etienne told me to enjoy the afternoon with Gab and he stayed at home with her, so it was a momma and son afternoon.

We started by taking the Petit Train, which was Gab's first mini-train ride. There was even a special car for strollers! Then, we headed into the park, which was like a mini-amusement park (for all you Bartlesville natives, think Kiddy Park!), zoo, botanical garden, and playground all in one. Since we had never showed Gab that he could actually ride in the little cars because once you show him, then from now on he'll ask, he just sat there and watched in amazement all the flashing lights and sounds from the rides. He and I headed to the zoo part, and he loved the birds, and he really loved seeing a 'Blue Bird', which is one of his favorite words. We walked around in the small vegetable patch and then headed to a tea room to grab a crepe. We have a friend who lives near the park, so she joined us after that with their 3 year old daughter, who did want to do some of the rides. Finally, I broke down and let Gab ride the little cars and of course he loved it. After Gab ran around with Clara playing with the fall leaves while I sat and talked with Chantal, I called Etienne who came with Louise to pick us up and we ended up having dinner at our friends' and Gab absolutely loved playing with Adrien and Clara, who are 7 and 3. We didn't get home until 11 pm, but it was such a fun day for everyone.