CARBIGTRUCK & St. Galmier

Younis and I are in central France in a beautiful town called St. Galmier where I lived for a year as a foreign exchange student when I was 17. I haven't been back for years. I'm staying with my host family and we are having such a nice time, especially being away from the hectic big city life of Paris, which I love but quickly discovered can be a challenge with a little one. We are in the country here, surrounded by green rolling hills and right outside is a little river and nice grassy field for Younis to run around, this is about as perfect as it can get with a 2 year old. I love spending time with my host-mother, though sadly my host-father passed away suddenly this past year and I can feel his presence everywhere. I miss him and wish he could've met Younis, I know they would have had so much fun together.

Not only is it a beautiful setting here, but on our first day, what should my host-mother bring out from the closet but a bag full of cars and trucks. Life could not get better for Younis. It's hilarious how he will play and play with his cars and trucks with such focus and then do something else for a while and suddenly shout CARBIGTRUCK really as one word. It's like he just wants to make sure the world does not forget about these important motor vehicles. Since we're in this new environment we're sharing a bed and I stay with him until he falls asleep. I don't know if it's having me nearby but he goes wild before finally crashing. He rolls around the bed, on top of me against the wall and pretty much has a massive release of all his words just shouting one after another and then all of a sudden bang, he's asleep. Imad headed back to Morocco to be with his family. Younis definitely misses Baba. When the phone rings, he says Baba and at other random moments throughout the day. We'll both be excited to see him when we get home on Saturday.

It's so peaceful here, I'll be sad to leave at the end of the week. My host-family here hosted several students from all over the world and my host-mother now volunteers for the exchange organization. This week, she has a Swiss student staying with her because she is in the process of changing host-families. She's a sweet 18 year old; however Younis has taken to calling her, along with a majority of other people he sees, little girl. I encourage him to say her name, but what has stuck now is big little girl. He talks about big little girl eating, big little girl sleeping, it's pretty hilarious and luckily she finds it funny and cute as well.

I don't have access to my computer now so will post more pictures later. I was missing my blog having gone a week without an entry! We're here until Friday then back to Paris for a night and finally back to Morocco on Saturday. Will have lots more to report once we're back of our travels in France.

Paris Pigeons

Today we ventured out to le Jardin du Luxembourg in the still fairly cold weather. Younis had fun chasing the pigeons, a favorite pastime of mine when my family lived in Paris when I was 3. It's in the genes. The water at the fountain in le Jardin was frozen over, poor duckies. While Younis looks pretty happy here, it was post major temper tantrum because he did NOT want to put on his jacket. It's just been one of those days.

We've had a really nice time visiting with family and exploring a little bit of Paris everyday. Yesterday we went to le Centre Pompidou where they have a children's exhibition area. While Younis enjoyed that area, more fun was chasing pigeons and going up up up the escalators.

Parisian Toy Stores

Everything in Paris is so darn cute and delectable, both literally and figuratively. I just went out for a little stroll on my own while Younis and Imad nap. I walked by a toy store that at first was closed, but then opened on my way back home. I couldn't help but go in, everything was so adorable and.....so expensive. Tons of wooden toys, eating ware, art supplies, books, stuffed animals, each item perfect and so cute. Realistically I know once you bring the stuff home, it gets torn up, drawn on, ripped apart or somehow doesn't stay so perfect, but I couldn't resist. I convinced myself that I needed to buy Younis a little ball to kick around in the park, a must buy. I only spent 5 Euros, damage could have been much worse. It just felt good to buy Younis something in the most ridiculously cute toy store. Ahhh, Paris.

Cold!!!! Brrrr....

Yesterday evening we arrived in the very cold city of Paris, well very cold compared to where we've been the past several months. We got in fairly late and went straight to the apartment we're staying in with my parents for the week. Younis was exhausted from a long day with no nap. Luckily, on the airplane we sat behind another boy a little younger than Younis and they became fast friends. He was French speaking, but of course they both speak the language of toddlers. Younis enjoyed sharing his books and teaching him about all the different trucks... excavators, bull dozers, tractors, rollers and BIIIIG trucks. Younis would put his arm around the little boy, tilt his head and call out all the different types of motor vehicles, a budding teacher.

This morning, after putting on all the layers of clothes including Younis' first pair of mittens which he finally agreed to wear after seeing us all with them on, we ventured outside. We were all hit by the cold, but poor Younis looked like he was in shock. We didn't make it too far, especially after Younis ripped off the mittens and started saying cold and doing a little shivering dance. From now on, we'll have more of a strategy before venturing out and a plan of where we're going - and possibly a stroller to borrow from a friend here (thank you ashleigh!).

I love being in Paris. Even if it's cold and we're traveling with a 2-year old. It's beautiful and being half a block from a boulanger/patissier where we had a delicious sandwich on fresh baguette with a mouth watering dessert, one can't complain. Imad and I have decided that we will take full advantage of Parisian foods with no guilt and burn it off with jogs on the beach in Rabat. Mmmmmmmm.

Before heading to France, we spent a couple days in Assilah, a couple hours north of Rabat. It was beautiful and fun to explore another part of Morocco with my parents.

Younis is 2!

Yesterday was Younis' 2nd birthday!!! The most exciting part was having Mamou and Papou (my parents) here along with all his Moroccan family to celebrate Younis turning 2. When they arrived a few days ago, Younis had an initial shy moment when he saw his Seattle grandparents, but very quickly fell back into his routine with them and now asks in the morning before we see them "where Mamou go?" and "where Papou go?" And they have been added to the list of people Younis inquires about on a regular basis.

We started out Younis' big day with a tricycle ride at La Bouregreg, a nice promenade that is part of new development in Rabat. We saw a cute boy playing soccer with a bottle cap with his mom. Younis of course was drawn to them right away. Why are we so obsessed with spending so much money on toys in the states, while some of them are great, sometimes just a simple coke bottle cap will do. Imad and Younis eventually started playing with them then they had to leave and left the cap. We looked over and saw Younis running to catch up with the boy to return the bottle cap... such a sweet moment.

Thank god Younis took a 3 hour nap! I always hope that he'll take a long nap at the right moment and it seems to work about the half the time... this was a great nap day. When Younis woke up he was ready to party and that's what we did. We went over to Imad's parent's house and had a very festive birthday celebration with lots of music and dancing. I think Younis didn't really get that it was his birthday until the candles on the cake were lit and the happy birthday singing began. Then he seemed to realize that this party was about him. It's amazing to watch how quickly kids understand the concept of opening presents. Younis was so happy with his new cars, trucks and books. All in all a great birthday and now our little guy is a big 2 year old. Hard to believe and at the same time, he is such a 2 year old.

Some more fun birthday pictures. Thank you Mamie and Papie for decorating your house and hosting Younis 2nd birthday.

Magic Park

We took Younis and Ghalia to Magic Park yesterday. The pictures speak for themselves. Fun times.