First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. Each child went at a different time and later in the day - Zac at 10h, Balth at 10h30, Verena at 13h30, and Barth at 15h30. Well I took Verena, but I picked Zac up from school. I had a crazy day of running around and I found myself completely exhausted, so I went back to my place to sleep for about 40 minutes. I woke up and jetted out quickly. On the metro I realized that I forgot to get Zac's gouter. That's like the worst thing you can do to a child, much less on his first day of school. I waited outside the school and tried to fight the rest of the mommas and nannies to the front of the gate to get him. He was so excited to see me which made me happy of course. I got a huge hug from him and that's when I broke the news. He said "Connie! How could you?"

Instead of taking the metro, I suggested that we go to the Patisserie to get him a gouter (remember it's pronounced "gootay") and to walk back. He agreed. We walked down the street past the flower shop that had little birdies making some beautiful songs. We stopped to sing with them, but they didn't like us too much. You win some, you lose some.

At the Patisserie, he decided that he wanted a croissant and a piece of gum. I let him pay since he is so good with money. If he's going to be a banker, then he needs to start practicing now. I found myself just laughing at the sight of this little French boy choosing a croissant as his snack of choice. That's when I decided to document this walk home through pictures, just to show you want each day is like.

He chewed his gum first, then realized his dilemma when he had to eat his croissant. He looked at me with these puppy dog eyes as if I would hold his gum. Whatever. I am not his momma, that's not in my job description.

By the way, I cut my hair the other night in the bathroom. I was tired of it. As you can see I am not at my finest in this pic. I will post another later of a coiffed hairdo.

He held his own gum with one hand and his croissant with the other. We began our walk back. Things I see are starting to see normal until I put on my proverbial USA glasses and can't help but laugh. For instance, you would never find boy in the states doing this. They must be good friends. Also, he has a few baguettes in that bag.

So our walk continues and after a block we reach Place de Breteuil which lines up with Ecole Militaire, Champs de Mars, the Eiffel Tower, and Trocadero at one angle and the Dome of Invalides and Pont Alexandre III at another angle



As you can see, those size 7 jeans from GAP are still too big, even after tightening the waist. He said friend at school kept telling him that his bottom was showing. I should probably fix those.

We continued down Avenue de Breteuil, which is actually a property on the French Monopoly. A nice property too, not like the dark purples or light blues. Zac loves to take off running, anywhere and everywhere. I let him go. I've actually made Wednesdays our Race Day. It means that we race everywhere we go. This was my excuse not to run with him yesterday. It was Tuesday, sorry dude.


I saw a few trees with these signs on them. I asked Zac what it was all about and he got sad. He said that the tree would be knocked down because it had a melody. A melody? He gave me the French word "maladie" which is sickness. Poor tree. We saw another one but this time, there was actually a frown face that said "I am sad" on it.

And so our walk finds us next to a playground. There were tons of kids and Zac couldn't resist. I let him go since it was the first day of school. How could I say no? He played and I took pictures. Every time he went down the slide or pole, or he ran, or he bent over I had to laugh. Those poor ole jeans were just too big and I saw his little tooshie everytime.


Tooshie

We got closer to the Dome of Invalides and I saw something very interesting, yet very typical in France. It hardly phased me at first, but again, I put on my USA glasses and laughed. You will see a very nice woman helping her little boy use the restroom on Avenue de Breteuil. Hmmm.

Almost home!