les vacances scolaires

Today is the last day of the winter school break, the last day of two weeks off of school for Jacques. I admit that before the first Monday of break hit, I was apprehensive about finding enough fun, interesting, get-out-of-the-house activities to keep those two weeks flying by -- for the both of us -- while keeping baby boy-making exhaustion at bay. I'm really proud and happy to say that not only did we fill the (mostly) sunny days with excursions and dates with friends and lots of lazy days painting or blowing bubbles on the terrace and collecting "swords" along the canal trail or playing mama and baby hippo/tiger/cat/car/alligator/etc., I also discovered parts and places of Toulouse that are splendid and special to this city.

Living in a different part of town seems to have awoken me to the many different spaces there are for children to play, create, learn, explore, attend puppet shows, practice gymnastics. Jacques definitely has his preference for action and doing ("Pourquoi on doit rester longtemps ici ?" he asks me in the middle of a show with two mime sailors. I was asking myself the same question.) versus sitting and listening. Obstacle course and trampoline at the kid gym? Awesome. Looking at geods behind glass at the Natural History Museum? Fatiguant (his words -- I loved the Museum and can't wait to go back to wander the botanical gardens and re-ogle the geods.)