I'll begin this where we left off in the last... cleaning up puke.
Nicholas was indeed just stressed from the previous day, and didn't have any more episodes of "big burps" as he so accurately described it. The washing machine worked great for the soiled towels, but when I put in a larger load of clothes later in the afternoon the dry cycle left everything very very wrinkled. There's going to be a bit of a learning curve I guess.
Around 5:30pm, I took a break from work and we left the apartment to go out and explore a bit. Our main task was to find something for dinner, and also get acquainted a little with the area around us. We walked due East from the apartment and discovered a large square park called Place des Vosges. (http://g.co/maps/vb4cc) We were excited to see that the far side of the park contained play equipment for small children, complete with climbing ropes, sandboxes, and swings. Score! Nicholas played in a sandbox for a few minutes before throwing sand one too many times and got pulled out by Daddy. We decided it was best to find some food first, and re-visit the play area later.
From the park we walked South, back towards the St-Paul metro station where we had arrived a day earlier (http://g.co/maps/5fye7). There is a carousel near the metro entrance Nicholas had seen when we arrived. It has rocket ships for young children to ride in and Nicholas was quite excited at the prospect (http://g.co/maps/4w94e). However, before we reached it he fell asleep in my arms as I carried him (remember, no backpack carrier to use yet). Laura and I optimistically thought he might be out for the night, as it was close to 7:00pm by this time. We decided to pick up a few things for dinner at a supermarche nearby, and headed back to the apartment.
Nicholas was put down as soon as we returned, and Laura and I sat down to munch on a dinner of baguette... we were both too tired to bother cooking the pasta we'd bought. Laura followed Nicholas to bed at around 9:00pm and I sat down to work, figuring everyone would be down for the night...
At approx. 10:00pm Nicholas woke back up from his "nap" and was ready to face the day (night). Nothing exciting transpired from this point on, as Nicholas was repeatedly reminded that he had to play quietly, and I got some more work done while Laura read a book. Laura went back to sleep again at 5:00am and I stayed up with Nicholas until 7:30am when we finally went to sleep. Laura woke up at 12:00 noon, checked the time, and inexplicably decided to go back to sleep rather than wake us all up. As a result, when 5:00pm rolled around and we all finally woke up, she got a dirty look from me for this transgression.
So, we'll now attempt to get Nicholas to go back to sleep around midnight or 1:00am. Even if he wakes up at 4:00 or 5:00am, we'll keep him up from that point on tomorrow, as grumpy as he will be, to try to right the sleeping schedule again. I suppose this was all to be expected given the time difference and messed up travel day getting here.
This evening we all went out for about an hour long walk around. We stopped by the supermarche again for some fruit, cheese and milk, then finally found a real Boulongarie and bought some baguettes and treats for Nicholas (yesterday's baguette was just from a grocery store and not nearly as good). I'm quite pleased with my abilities to converse with people so far, and have had a couple of meaningful interactions since we arrived... all this without breaking out Rosetta Stone again since we have arrived. It makes me confident that we can both go away with a better grasp of the language after 2 months.
We've now just finished our dinner of the best Brie cheese I've ever tasted, grapes, strawberries, baguettes and water. Another thing I've come to realize is that we will both likely loose a lot of weight here in the next 2 months. I had always thought that in the city of cheese, pastries, crepes, etc... that we would be doomed. However, with Nicholas, it is a very different eating experience than it was last time. Because he is so picky with his palette, we "need" to go to the supermarket for meals and get the few items he will eat. I don't doubt we'll have crepes and pastries here and there, but the majority of our eating will be of the healthy variety. Together with all the walking we'll be doing, it is encouraging to think we might shed some pounds during this adventure :-)
Time to get to work.
Love, Brendan Laura & Nicholas
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