Digging deep

Can we stay!? Can we stay!?  Beautiful day in Barcelona!

What's that I hear?  Nothing!  Silence!  Luke has returned to school and Theo is at Halte Garderie.  Calm and order are back, at least for a few hours.  We had an extra lazy, lounging around, Wii playing, pajama wearing school vacation.  It was a nice break but the unwashed dishes and unvacuumed floors were screaming for some attention too.  The cleaning lady returned and she seems almost relieved and content to be back to the routine.  That lady being moi.

It has been a while since I have posted.  I wrote a post last week entitled "the day that blew up in my face."  It was a juicy one, and involved a meltdown and poo in unrelated incidents.  I decided to let it be because I don't want this blog to be consumed with negative experiences because Paris is just different than home.  And that makes life harder.

During our first month or so after arriving in October of 2010, it was all new and exciting.  While Alex worked I took the kids to every monument and park I could manage.  Luke's bike has been to the top of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe!  Then slowly the creek of magical Paris experiences started to run dry.  The romantic Paris I had envisioned was replaced by the reality of living in a small space staying at home with two young children.  And I feeling very GUILTY for complaining about living in Paris!!

This is why we don't have any family photos.  And I look like a hot mess.

So...although I want to keep it real and talk about living as an American mom in Paris, I have to have a positive outlook.  Life is not what happens to you, it's about what you DO with what happens to you.

I never understood the fried egg gummy.

The hubs is away on business for the week in Milan and Madrid.  I'm happy to say he has fallen head over heals for Italy and their culture.  A trip to Rome is in our near future.  It's hands down my favorite European city.

Can you find the parrot?  Parrots in Barcelona make me happy.  Although they would probably drive me crazy if I lived there.

My favorite part of the Barcelona soccer stadium tour, the tunnel the players take out onto the field.

I'll end on a funny yet disturbing anecdote from last night.  The kids and I are hanging out playing when Theo picks up a marker and very elegantly pretends to smoke it like a cigarette.  He puts the marker to his lips and then pretends to blow smoke out with his tiny pursed lips.  WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?  File this one under, "you know you live in Paris when..."


A la prochaine!!