Samuel and his shoes

When I picked Samuel up at the HG today he was very excited to see me.  As I was standing at the outside door waiting to be buzzed in he saw me and ran to the inside door and began beating on it with both hands.
After I picked him up and gave him a hug and a kiss I sat him on the bench where the jackets and shoes are stored.  The shoes are stored on a small shelf under the bench.  As I sat Samuel on the bench I said, more to myself than to him, where are your shoes? as they were not in the location where I had left them earlier in the day.  Samuel immediately slid off the bench and dropped to his hands and knees and turned and reached under the bench to the shelf and removed one of his shoes.  He turned and handed the shoe to me and I asked him where his other shoe was?  He turned back to the bench reached under to the shelf and grasped his other shoe and turned and handed it to me.  He then crawled onto the bench so that I could put his shoes on his feet.  He was very happy with himself.

Another trip to the Louvre....

Samuel and I spent the day traveling into the city and visiting the Louvre and shopping for christmas presents.  Door-to-door from out house to the Louvre, walking to the RER station, is just over a hour, but I was lucky as I did not have to wait at either the RER or Metro station for more than 30 seconds for the train.  Samuel was wonderful as usual.  All he did was constantly talk and reach for the artifacts at the musee.

We did just miss the RER to Chatou as I was carrying Samuels pushchair down the stairs when the train pulled away.  Which was a bit of a blessing as I was able to sit Samuel in a chair and feed him while we waited the ten minutes for the next RER.

Upon our return to Chatou we stopped at the Tabac and I had a draft Stella.  It was hard work Carrying Samuel in the baby Bjorn around the louvre for over an hour.  There are a lot of steps and I was parched.

Samuel writes:
hfghftdyf 7m8uu6m ¨Ó¨¨Á©D                                                                                                                      8Y9UUUUUJN .jj

ttfn

Political joke....

Sorry, occasionally I have to be political.

Did you hear that they had to cancel the nativity scene in the nations capital?  They could not find three wise men.

Trip to city centre in the rain....

With today being Tuesday it was our normally scheduled day to take a trip to the city centre to purchase meats, cheeses, fruits and vegetables for the next couple of days.  We also needed to pick up some non-perishable items from the Super-U(grocery store) so we decided to drive.  It was also raining lightly and since Samuel has had a slight case of the sniffles for the last few days it was also best to drive to keep him dry.  Driving was not a good decision or at least leaving as early as we did not not a good decision.

We got in the car at 0931 drove to the end of the street and we turned left and we immediately greeted by taillights.  The traffic was backed up along the quai so far that it almost reached our house.  While we were stopped I debated turing around or trying an alternate route.  Decided on the alternate route and it still took us 20 minutes to drive to the city centre.  Parisians drive in the rain as well as Cincinnatians.It was so bad that an old man on crutches passed us and he arrived at the main street in town before we did.

Learned again today that Samuel is very curious.  This was our first trip to the Super-U where Samuel sat in the baby seat in the cart.  Big mistake.  Usually when we shop Samuel is in the stroller but we had a long list of things to get today so I thought we would need the space of the cart to carry everything.  Well, Samuel has a much better view and longer reach when sitting in a cart as opposed to the stroller.  He also seems to have an affinity for grabbing items that are packaged in breakable packaging rather than those items in soft non-breakable packaging.  Luckily nothing was broken today but I definitely learned my lesson.

A very good Sunday....

I was invited across the street to our neighbors house for a beer.  The neighbors directly across from us are a very nice couple.  He is French and she is African.  Eric has spent quite a bit of time in the US and speaks English very well.  He wife, Evelyn, speaks less English than I do French.  They have 3 boys, the oldest two speak very good english and the youngest is learning english in school.

When I went for the drink I took Samuel with me as Julia was taking a nap.  We took a few of Samuel's toys with us so he would have something to play with and not play with and break their belongings.  After a few courtesies, Eric and I sat on their terrace with Samuel and their youngest son, Lucas, who was tasked with watching Samuel.  Evelyn joined us after a few minutes and Samuel approached her handing her one of his toys and saying something that I did not understand.  They both turned to me and said that Samuel was saying tienne (not sure of spelling) but it is french for hold or take.  I was amazed and a little embarrassed.  I thought it would be a few more years before Samuel was speaking better French than I.

Also a good sports day.  The Denver Broncos(American football) won again are a perfect 4-0 for the season.  Chelsea also beat the Liverpool swimming and diving club 2-0 to regain their rightful spot atop the English premier league.

Yes, a very good day indeed.