Samuel and the cats

Samuel has developed a new interest.

When he is on the floor in the living room and the cats come into the room. Samuel immediately begins to chase the cats.  He has yet to catch one of them but he does not give up. He has chased them into the dining room and into the hallway.

Our Sunday morning ritual is to have croissant, pain au chocolate and hot chocolate while reading the Sunday Times.  Another tradition is that we let the cats lick the crumbs from our plates when we are finished.  They now refuse to enter the living room to eat the crumbs due to fear of what Samuel will do to them.

This morning Molson sat in the entrance to the living room and refused to enter until we picked Samuel up and held him in our arms.

Sometimes it is good and sometimes it is not so good....

For the most part this has been a good week in Paris.

Samuel had his first swim lesson, which was more fun for Julia and I than for Samuel but we expect him to adjust over time.

Samuel started at the halte garderie this week.  He was on a very shortened schedule.  We both spent an hour with him on Monday.  On Wednesday I took him in for an hour and stayed with him and on Thursday I took him in for an hour where I stayed for the first 30 minutes then left him in their custody for the final 30 minutes.  Overall our impressions have been favorable.  Marivanne (spelling?) is the woman who is in charge of the babies and she is very good with Samuel and all the babies.  When we first arrive she picks up Samuel and hugs him and kisses him and holds him for a minute or two before placing him on the ground.  She then gets down with him on the ground plays with him and gives him toys.  Very nice.

This coming week I will drop him off for two hours on Tuesday and if all goes well we will begin his regular 4 hours on Tuesday/Thursday.

We went to the Louvre for the first time this morning.  We are now Ami's d'Louvre(friends of the Louvre).  Essentially it is a yearly membership where for a fee of 60 euros we have free access for a year to permanent exhibitions with reduced fees for special exhibits. This is a positive because everyone that has told me about this said that applying was similar to dealing with the french bureaucracy.  I was told to expect to have to return with further documentation at least once.  To my surprise I was not even asked for the documentation I brought with me. and we were successful in applying for and receiving our Ami d'Louvre card.

We then had a very civilized moment on the Paris metro.  After the Louvre we went to the Musee D'Orsay area to buy some chocolates.  Even though that was exciting it was not the highlight.  As we were exiting the metro we were ascending a narrow flight of stairs.  There was a man in front of us and a women in front of him.  As the women in front exited through the narrow door at the top of the stairs she held the door for the man in front of us, who then proceeded to hold the door for us and we held the door for the woman behind us.  A very nice Parissienne moment that makes me think there is still hope for this civilization.

Samuel's first swim lesson

It is difficult to see but Samuel is wearing a suit.

Samuel had his first swimming lesson on Saturday morning.  The most difficult part of the day was getting Julia out of bed and to the pool by 0900 on a Saturday.

Samuel seemed a bit reluctant at his first introduction to the water.  Our only concern was that he seemed a bit cold, shivering in the beginning but as he warmed up, his enthusiasm grew. The only nervous moments came the two times he happened to swallow water.  Then he cried and fussed for a few minutes.  As you can see from the pictures we have a ways to go before he learns to kick.  He kept his feet in the fetal position most of the morning but it was only his first exposure.

He has classes every Saturday morning until June 13th.  So if you come for a  visit between now and June you can see Samuel in the pool