
It was a nice full day, made smoother by my 'yes you can' mentality. We (the kids) slept in relatively late (I got up early and got some work done), it was a gorgeous morning and we hit the road around noon....stopping for Nutella crepes (nice way to kick start your day--2% nuts and 98% sugar on a very thin pancake. Yum.) Romeo started in about wanting orange juice, which they didn't have, and here's where the 'YES you can' mentality began. He pointed to the Orangina soda. Sure thing, Orangina it is...distant cousin to orange juice, same color if you close one eye and squint. Sure, why not.
Then we headed to Jardin des Plantes, which is a gorgeous park with 1000's of "plants"--hence the name. It also has the museum of natural history and the world's oldest zoo, La Ménagerie. It really is a beautiful park, so I forced the kids to stroll for quite awhile without a specific destination, and we finally ended up at one end of the park near the zoo and opted for zoo (vs. natural history museum which we'll do another day). It was quaint, pretty small really (doesn't hold a candle to a really good zoo), but holds the title of world's oldest zoo, and all the animals are right up close to you, so that made it fun for the kids. I could have popped right over the fence to pet the Wallaby--I didn't--but I could have. Again, French sensibilities...no big fences, no regulated fence height (they seemed WAY to low to be regulated). If your kid is stupid enough to try and pet the porcupine, have at it.
The orangutans were my favorite....this gal in the picture was just hanging out, looking casual but I have a feeling she had a plan hatching to bust out of that place, she had this look in her eye that just said, "watch out oldest zoo in the world, I'm scouting your weaknesses". She's going Ocean's 11 with her orangutan posse any day now-they won't know what hit them.
We hit yet another carousel (no one is ever on these things mind you, only the occasional tourist). YES you can, sure, more tickets for the carousel please.
On the way out of the park we walked up the street and fell into the Grande Mosquée de Paris. Which was a happenstance find, but what an amazing place. I don't think we were technically allowed to tour it, but as the guy was kicking me out, Ava spoke to him in French and he basically said "well, because of her (Ava), I'll let you all in.
Ava then found her own "Paris purse" at an open air market we walked by. They were closing up shop and when Ava pointed out the bag and acted as if her life depended on the purchase, the guy gave it to her for 18 euro. At least it was cheap. YES you can, sure, why not.
We hit a sorbet stand--where we each had the most delightful sorbet ('mommy can I have 2 scoops"?? YES you can, sure, why not. I only got one scoop of my melon sorbet--but could have eaten two.
I snapped a shot of the metro escalator, which dove down almost 3 flights--it was steep, and was definitely in a nightmare I once had. I barely made it up without a panic attack. If I ever make a horror movie, it'll have that escalator in it.
On the way home we walked by the equivalent of an American dollar store and a flea market rolled in together -- all in one big store. It had every kind of "thing" imaginable--none actually for 1 euro, but cheap nonetheless. Romeo begged for a car, so we went in, bought a junky car for 5 euros because my motto, 'Yes, you can' was really working for me thus far.
The girls had "tea" with our landlord's wife, who was very chic in her super cool apartment--she looked younger than me and has 2 boys in their mid-20's. We all went down there but Romeo quickly pulled a 5 p.m. whine-fest and I got out of there before it was too late. The girls stayed and spoke French with the natives and confirmed that you could hear EVERY footstep from our apartment (which is exactly one floor up).
Dinner...well, I was hoping it would be at a cute little bistro, but the girls protested and claimed they really, REALLY wanted Chipotle again (yes, you heard me right....bean burritos at Chipotle). So 4 burritos, 1 beer and 45 euros lighter, they were fed and I had a soft warm fuzzy feeling from my Negro Modela--and a sad feeling at spending so much money on beans and Mexican beer.
All in all, not such a bad day...relatively smooth, no huge meltdowns, and we got to see a the glint in the eye of a mischievous orangutan. That's pretty cool right there.
I also realized, that despite Ava being a royal pain in my butt for much of the time, that kid has a load of street smarts. I could drop her in the middle of the city right now and she'd be able to navigate her way home, or figure out the work around. When we were split on where to eat for dinner she said, "well, the girls and I will go to the Chipotle and we'll meet you at home". As if I was going to leave a 6, 9 & 11 year old solo in a super busy area of a foreign city. "And mom, I know my way home but if I get lost, I'll use the McDonald's Wifi and figure the way home on my itouch". Seriously, the McDonald's wifi. I spent a lot of time complaining about the energy that she manages to deplete me of, but I have to give it to her, the kid gets things done. It's much more annoying when she's asking me for the 200th time for a Paris Puppy, but it's also refreshing when, after buying a horrible candy of sugar dust in a plastic tube (a very weak moment in my YES YOU CAN day) she marched into the super packed bakery we had just come out of, and managed to get the scissors she needed to open that packet of cancer enhancing sugar dust. She took care of business. No worrying that she was bugging someone, no embarassment, no "can you do it for me"--she just took care of the problem. I will say this, at the end of the day, that skill is probably going to get her farther than anything else. That's my kid reflection for the day. That said, she'll also probably single handedly be responsible for my major investment in botox to paralyze my stress face.
Signed, ME {lv}