This last week sickness descended upon the Petersen-Maillard household. Gaël started with a runny nose, which quickly devolved into all of us hacking and coughing and generally being miserable. Without medicine(our well stocked American cabinet is in Seattle) we tried to tough it out for a few days before looking for some over the counter stuff. Off the shelf/over the counter medicine here tends to be far less potent so we just had to tough it out. (I for one am not tough when it comes to sickness. I am fascinated by the phenomenon that you never ever, ever, EVER think about your nose in day to day life, but as soon as you are sick its impossible to think about anything else. You can't go to sleep because one side of your nose prevents you from breathing and as soon as you turn - the other side prevents you. All you empty nosed people out there be thankful. Be thankful right now.)

Other than the sickness, we have both had a fairly quiet week. Work seems to have buried both of us. We seem to be settling into a bit of a routine, one that devolves into madness, but a routine none the less. Baby crying, wake up, bottle, baguette, tram, nanny, metro, bike, work, baguette, work, bike, metro, nanny, tram, what's in the fridge?, bottle, bed. Note that the bottle references is for Gaël and only rarely for us. The days end up going pretty quick.

It should probably overwhelm us, but we sedate ourselves with butter and bread. Everything is ok with that first bite of butter and baguette. (Also the pasteries, but Céline isn't that into pasteries, so I am not that into pasteries if you follow. But this week, ok definitely tomorrow, somebody is going to get the most ridiculous carmel/cookie creation(nested parentheses! search for "Religieuse caramel beurre salé"). Me. That someone is me. I know you subscribe Céline.)

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Ok quick updates.

Céline just took another all day exam for the agregation and is busy studying. I think I covered it all above. Her back slowly heals.

Gaël is crazy. He is soooo cute, but he is crazy. Completly cherub faced, but he may be possessed. He just flies around the house. At this point it's just pulling on everything he can. "Oh I already destroyed your ikea lamp? Looks like there are still some shreds that I can rip off". "Hey that DVD player looks cool - you know where it would look even better? On the ground". "Wonder what will happen if I pull the high on this chair? Oh it's on the ground. Let's try with the next one". He took the habit of pulling hair and the other day he reached back for Céline's and actually grabbed his own. He yelped so loud and I have to admit I didn't feel so bad(I know he's only 10 months old, but I believe that it was karmic).

Hes also teething, so we actually feel pretty bad(doesn't mean the lamp thing is forgiven). 

Last week I asked for some tips and apparently some of the emails got swollowed into the ether. If I didn't reply send me an email directly. Hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving. Remember - your noses are clear.

Catch ya on the flip side,

DJ